https://i2.wp.com/newsickmusic.com/w...?fit=400%2C400

Woponese by Jimmy Wopo

Made this as a teenager from Pittsburgh. Already spent time in jail. Fairly straight forward. Over 5M hits on youtube.

Brian Williams aka Lustmord is one of the most consistent high quality musicians of the last 3.5 decades. He’s been doing it for a long time and he’s been doing it right for a long time. He’s a pioneer (arguably THE pioneer) of dark ambient and still among the best.

In 2016 he released



Dark Matter by Lustmord

https://touch333.bandcamp.com/album/dark-matter

5/5 Stars

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Solace Tao of Nature's Flutes by Peter Phippen

No nonsense new age. Basically exactly what you’d expect. Well-done. Very enjoyable if you like this kind of thing, and I personally definitely do. Great for a chillax.

The whole thing is available on youtube.

This next one is one of the records that make me such a believer that 2016 took music to new incredible soaring heights. It’s not just the volume of great music but the ease of access. If the streaming services didn’t exist it would leave us with the tree that nobody heard falling down delimma. It’s a perfect storm situation. In 1927, new access to recording equipment allowed for a huge explosion of bottled up Appalachian talent. But there’s never been a elevation of a new normal like 2016. I mean, the same ****ing thing happened in 2017, it’s so pervasive right now you could chew on one year for at least three. Nobody knows the future but I think we’re in a Goldilocks Zone that won’t last forever. Maybe I’m wrong but the internet, the cooperation, the energy resources, the people being alive with the luxury to actually create- it all seems so fragile and potentially fleeting. This may very well end up being the best time to enjoy the genius of humankind that will ever be. We’re lucky to be alive, at the apex, before we collapse under the weight of our own stupidity. In immediate terms I’m thinking about Trump’s nonchalant tweets about unleashing a nuclear holocaust. We have so much potential. We have so much to lose. We have so much to live for. Micro or macro we always seem dead set on destroying life and beauty.

The search engine says Exo is the only one who’s mentioned this artist before. I don’t know. It’s on several critic’s best of lists. I think InnerSpaceBoy would love it. I do.



Ears by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

Dig:
https://kaitlynaureliasmith.bandcamp.com/album/ears

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I have to revisit that one. It didn't connect with me when I initially checked it out but I think her new one is amazing. I probably didn't give it a fair shake or wasn't in the right mood.

Norman Westberg plays guitar for the Swans and starred in the Richard Kern classic The Right Side of My Brain. In 2016, to very little fanfare, he released a terrific ambient/drone record.



https://normanwestberg1.bandcamp.com/album/mri-2

MRI by Norman Westberg

5/5 Stars

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All Kind Music by Georgia

Music in the 4th World realm. Bamako meets Jakarta on MDMA in outer space.



5/5 Stars

Kind of a gift for Frownland

Too late, I'm already aware of that album's magic. Criminally underrated. I'm gonna go listen to it again.

Did you pick this up through Spotify too?

I probably first discovered it through Wire.