Another pandemic year, another torrent of sonic salvation to help quell maddening frustration and endless anxiety. It’s been said that bad times fuel great music and that does seem to have been a proven theory over the course of 2021. While 2020 was a disorienting miasma of bad news, the novel nature of experiencing a global pandemic at least made music fans feel like uncharted territory was being explored, not to mention that a fairly large chunk of 2020’s musical output was in some part 2019 leftovers that were well in progress before the world came to a sudden halt. 2021 releases however were truly born of the pandemic, in many cases the releases of 2021 were the result of holed up bands and individuals either taking advantage of newly acquired spare time or trying to remain sane through the catharsis of their music. Some of the most captivating results of that time are listed below.

Błoto – Kwasy I Zasady (Astigmatic)
A previous release from this Polish sextet somehow bleeped onto my Bandcamp radar, so when this release with its crude xerox cover art made its way to my list of recommendations I made the fortunate decision to hit the play button and was treated with one of the more intriguing and authentically cool releases my novice jazz ears have heard. This isn’t your grandad’s form of jazz — although it adeptly pays homage to the greats with plenty of throaty sax and rollicking piano — as Kwasy I Zasady cycles from wails of fiery free jazz to ultra-chill trip hop head nodders and expansive grooves and an array of avant garde sounds to prevent them from ever getting dull. For proof, check out the atmospheric tracks “Mitomania” and “Autentyzm” which pull way back from the frenetic heat of scorching jazz like the last half of “Chryja” to a much cooler space where throbbing bass and electronic sci-fi flourishes expand into something like Aphex Twin playing acid jazz versions of Dick Hyman’s Moon Gas album. In fact, most of the album is a laid back and glassy-eyed affair, making it an excellent compliment to the high intensity entries on this list. All of Błoto’s releases are worth checking out and this one, their latest, is the best so far.

Full of Hell – Garden of Burning Apparitions (Relapse)
One of the best aspects of this long-running Maryland/Pennsylvania group is their slippery nature when it comes to genres. The band’s Discogs description describes them as a hardcore punk band that incorporates elements of grindcore and harsh noise, but that really only touches the surface of the types of sonic assault Full of Hell has been unleashing since 2009. While it’s plausible that FOH offers something that could appeal to fans of all those genres, their approach pushes hard against those confines and doesn’t really sit comfortably in any of those genre boxes, blurring the lines with speed and a forceful roar as they push the limits of song structures and sonic density with each new song and each new release. This, their latest release on metal mainstay Relapse records, offers yet another demonstration of the extremes they take in creating their unparalleled take on aggressive music, serving up a din of power electronics, death metal riffs, hardcore raging, grindcore beats and a palpable sense of foreboding doom that few groups can muster. They’ve even managed to figure out a way to add saxophone and bass clarinet on a few tracks in a way that somehow totally makes sense. Plus, this release features one of their catchiest songs yet, “Reeking Tunnels” which shockingly almost has a noise rock vibe to it, albeit, like every other genre they come near, a highly mutated form of noise rock, where the fat, stilted riff is augmented by throat-shredding vocals that sounds like an epic Today is the Day outtake. In the long line of interesting releases and collaborations by this band, Garden of Burning Apparitions might just be their best so far.  

GG King – Remain Intact (Total Punk)
While the early singles remain untouchable and are still my favorite GG King output, the latest album release from Atlanta’s favorite son might be his best long player yet, slathered thick with the anthemic garagepunk glaze that’s made all his releases essential listening. There are the requisite moments of welcome rough and ready songcraft and lo-fi snips per previous albums, but the pace of the “serious” songs have a sprawling quality that pushes the GG King sound into new, epic directions that stay with you and keep it locked on your turntable and/or streaming playlist. For instance, take “Epoch Rock” with its Stooges riff twisted with a southern swagger fading into the lo-fi dungeon synth grime wave “Mephitic Redux” which then punches into the Carbonas-esque banger “Melt On You”. Next, “Cul De Sac” brings a haunting drone riff that builds and recedes with layers of guitar and echoing effects that sets up the closer “Dekalb County Endless” with a version of weirdo punk that devolves into a psychedelic mindwarp before before disintegrating into minimal drum machine beats — and that’s just the A side. Side B kicks out with a lo-fi cowpunk “Intangible Truth” that only surfaces above spooky ’60s sound effects as it launches into the propulsive riff of “Golden Horde Rising” and continues to weave through genres and moods throughout the rest of the album while still feeling uniquely GG King. While the singles may have the hits, GG King albums flow in an epic arc that keep them interesting, with Remain Intact probably being the most fully realized and most essential album yet. 

Hologram – No Longer Human (Iron Lung)
One of the most aggravating, eye-rolling cop-outs you’ll hear in hardcore punk is that it’s a limited art form. If you’ve had any interest in it and have endured decades of so-called enlightened “artists” who’ve “evolved” into more conventional/boring-ass forms of music, you too might be screaming at this wall of ignorance, pointing at contemporary bands like Austin’s Hologram who continue to push the boundaries of hardcore punk well past any self-imposed limitations. While there has definitely been commodified strains of hardcore punk over the 40-some years of its existence, marked periodically by oversaturated style markers when it appears that there are no longer any new ideas being brought to the table, doesn’t it just feel too fucking easy to say it can’t go anywhere else? Ha. The art form isn’t limited numbnuts, YOU ARE. After their 2018 7″ EP was unleashed unto the world (as documented on this very site, ahem), Hologram very clearly made this point obvious with 5 hits of hardcore that tore up and reconstructed 4 decades of hardcore’s history into something wholly different than anything that came before it. After that promising release, this highly-anticipated album length release continues to evolve their sound, as well as hardcore punk, with a savage intensity that rivals anything before it and ups the ante for the hardcore punk of tomorrow. 

Human Trophy – Corpse Dream (Drunken Sailor)
I’m not sure if there’s another name for this already, or if my internal tag of “bummer punk” is something I’ve heard elsewhere, but Human Trophy gets the, uh, trophy for creating the best version of whatever you wanna call the recent trend of bands that are an amalgamation of goth’s less-cheesy elements with the gnarlier edges of death rock to soundtrack the hopelessness of pandemic-weary punks. Contemporaries like Altar of Eden, Cemento, False Brother, et cetera all carry a similar vibe with mid-tempo, depressive guitar dirges that tear a page from the Christian Death bible and relentlessly pound it with mindlessly bleak, detached abandon. Human Trophy’s strength comes from its solo project status and a mix of Big Black-style guitar squall with shimmering Killing Joke-style guitar tones over a drum machine backbone that has a feel unlike any of the others in this new bummer punk quasi subgenre. And despite the straightforward sameness of the songs on this album, whatever alchemy is at work on Corpse Dream fit 2021 so perfectly that it easily became one of the most spun and savored records on my turntable this year. 

Nature Boys – IV – (Dead Broke Rekerds)
If you happen to be an ambitious tastemaker that’s always looking to get the scoop on unknown garage greats before anyone else does, have I got a group for you. Imagine hearing about a midwestern punk trio that’s been cranking out urgent, anthemic, get-under-your-skin gold while being quietly ignored for more than a decade, with a demo tape, two killer 7-inches and FOUR fuckin’ albums worth of material currently being thumbed over in the record store bins of the world. Well tastemaker, here’s a tip for you: the Nature Boys are that group. Plugging away and tearing up stages since at least 2010, Kansas City’s Nature Boys dropped this pandemic surprise LP in late 2021 and once again confirmed that they are — as they have always been — one of the most underrated punk bands to ever ooze out of the midwest. Give this record or any of their other records a few spins and just see if Suzanne Hogan and Danny Fischer’s duel vocals over a volatile minor-key punk churn doesn’t become a virulent new strand of your musical DNA. You’re welcome.

Psico Galera – Le Stanze Della Mente (Beach Impediment)
The Beach Impediment label has established itself as a reliable source for the finest punk in the world, with an astoundingly solid roster of releases in 2021 including Mujeres Podridas, Canal Irreal, Beex, and more. The debut LP from this ripping Italian punk band was one of my favorites, rising to the top of the vinyl pile with a distinct sound built upon warbling guitar leads and vocals buried in odd effects that create an unhinged and unforgettable aural stew. Not only are these ingredients interesting and tasty in and of themselves, but they’re baked together masterfully to ensure that the ingredients aren’t mere novelty, but crucial parts to a greater whole. Nice touches like the intro track, the short instrumental track “Chiodi & Punti”, the vocal harmonizing on “Prima Del Giudizio”, and a slew of demented effects all ensure that the songs never lose their flavor and keep you guessing where these schizophrenic sonic psychos might go next. 

Radiation Risks – Strawberry Quick (Self Released)
After some attention-grabbing tracks on the essential Killed By Meth comps and a couple singles circa 2016–2017, the Radiation Risks camp went quiet, so one would rightly figure that was all there was to document this standout band. Then, low and behold, an album’s worth of boss RR tuneage gets quietly released in 2021, making a mighty wallop of a last word for this Buffalo garage punk powerhouse. One of the aspects of this band that makes them stand apart from the denim hordes is their ability to take some of the riskier instrumentation for a punk band, namely saxophone and synths, and scuzz it up with breakneck speed and relentless aggression. And while you may be thinking, “uh, yeah, Rocket from the Crypt ripped some killer punk sax back ’97”, the Risks make it a driving part of their sound instead of an accent, blaring with an intensity unheard of since the X-Ray Spex bleated out their version of sax-heavy first wave punk in 1977. In fact, it’s almost like the hardcore version of saxxy punk. For example, take a listen to “100 Ways Mazhdu” which sound like something akin to the first Negative Approach EP played at 78rpm with a delirious halo of flies free jazz sax buzz swirling around it. Sound intriguing? It is! On top of that, there are some really clever synth flourishes, which are never overdone, and always 110% focused on kicking up some wild-ass punk and roll. Plus, with excellent song titles like “No Is The Way” and “Rock and Roll Population Control”, you know what sort of quality you’re dealing with here. You can download it now for free at Bandcamp, and while you’re there you can also nab another unreleased ordinance in the form of the Welcome to Bad Boy City EP which was quietly dropped a month later in September. Huh, perhaps 2021 wasn’t such a total shitastrophe after all. 

Raja Kirik – Rampokan (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
In case you aren’t already following the Uganda-based Nyege Nyege Tapes label, I highly recommend checking it out as it’s becoming known for its intriguing roster of modern African sounds, and in this case, modern Indonesian sounds. As with many Nyege Nyege releases, this double album hints at its cultural roots and augments this regional signature with a thoroughly modern approach. The percussive assault of Rampokan echoes of the Java region’s trance-style dance beats and homemade horn groans and moans, then marries them with modern, electro-industrial texture and hard IDM for stunning results. Purely instrumental, Raja Kirik keep things interesting by channelling Hindu-Buddhist music forms from the 11th Century through driving dance music peppered with the best moments of bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, The Young Gods, and Laibach unleashed in the ’80s to concoct a fiery sonic stew emotionally driven by centuries of colonial oppression. Rampokan is atmospheric, startling and thoroughly moving.

Rey Sapienz & The Congo Techno Ensemble – Na Zala Zala (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Like last year’s album from Kenya’s Duma, or the jaw-droppingly wild Sounds of Pamoja compilation from this year, this debut album deftly wriggles free of any specific or well-traveled musical genre. Sure, the word “Techno” from this ensemble’s namesake has some distant echoes of dancehall beats and electronics, this is leagues beyond anything you’ll find in that stylistic box. For starters, the rap flow and polyrhythmic pummel of traditional instruments connect to Rey Sapienz’ Congo roots, while the sci-fi effects and wild production connect to a mutated form of Afrofuturism as seen through the explosion of talent emanating from the Kampala scene, adding a depth and freshness to Na Zala Zala that you won’t find in any techno bins, or most record store bins for that matter. 

ALSO NOTEWORTHY:
Alien Nose Job – Paint It Clear (Feel It)
Cyanide Tooth – Tentative Identity CS (Ever/Never)
Dye – Rules (Dirt Bag)
Facs – Present Tense (Trouble In Mind)
Fashion Pimps & The Glamazons – Jazz 4 Johnny (Feel It)
Rider/Horse – Select Trials (Ever/Never)
Rudimentary Peni – The Great War (Sealed Records)
Science Man – Science Man II (Big Neck)
Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs (Mute)
USA/Mexico – Del Rio (12XU)