Every year I make a playlist of tunes to finish up the year and tingle the ear drums for the year to come. [Here is last year’s and here is the year before.] I have some very loose parameters for choosing tunes to include in the playlist, which I lovingly call a mixtape in homage to my 90’s adolescence.

Songs released in the previous year to emphasize fresh sounds
Local musicians and friends
Musicians I saw perform live (sadly, not applicable this year.)
Songs that are off the beaten path
Songs that I was obsessed with
Songs that had some lyrical or sonic significance to the events of the previous year
And, for the first time, this year I included songs or artists that were mentioned on my Patreon account. Because I was working on a research paper on computer musical instruments for grad school this past fall, I wrote a LOT about electronic and experimental music. You’ll notice that influence in this year’s mix.

This year’s playlist was by far the largest I’ve ever made because I had a really difficult time saying no to artists I fell in love with. Or, maybe 2020 was just so intense that I consumed more music than ever before. Either way, I ended up with 37 songs! You can start listening to the playlist, “Happy 2021 Mixtape”, right here.

I recommend you start with the first track and go from there. Although the songs represent a diverse spectrum of styles I made sure to create a flow. Listening to them in order will help you go with the flow :)

In fact, I conceived of the playlist in three acts.

Act I: Mostly Mellow
Act II: Approximately Aggressive
Act III: Outsiders and Outliers

Follow along with the liner notes I’ve prepared or keep the liner notes open in a tab. I’ve included links to every artist so that you can purchase their work to directly support them. I highly encourage you to get a Bandcamp account if you don’t already have one. Bandcamp pays artists 85% of what you pay. As you probably know, you’d have to stream the artist a million times for them to see the same amount of money. Spotify is only a place to become a fan. Bandcamp is a way to follow through. Please, purchase songs and albums of artists you enjoy.

Happy 2020 Mixtape Liner Notes

ACT I: Mostly Mellow Here are some tunes that groove, but never too fast! The emotional content may or may not be mellow perse but the musical flow is chill as fuck.

1. “Patchwork” Laurie Spiegel

from the album “The Expanding Universe” (1980), https://unseenworlds.bandcamp.com/album/the-expanding-universe

2. “Take Me to the Sun” ELSZ

as a single (2020), https://elsz.bandcamp.com/track/take-me-to-the-sun Follow them on IG too: @iamelsz

3. “Andromeda Soup Dumpling” Ramakhandra

Denver band! from the album s/t (2020), https://ramakhandra.bandcamp.com/album/ramakhandra

4. “Anutha1” Koko La

from the album “$UCH_IZ_LIFE” (2020), https://rarebyrd.bandcamp.com/album/uch-iz-life-lp Koko La is one half of Denver group Rare Byrd$

5. “Mist :: Missed” Mourning [A] BLKstar

from the album “The Cycle” (2020), https://mourningablkstar.bandcamp.com/album/the-cycle This band calls themselves a collective and I love that!

6. “Transition East” Angel Bat Dawid

from the EP “Transition East” (2020), https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/transition-east

7. “Te Queria” Lido Pimienta

from the album “Miss Colombia” (2020), https://lidopimienta.bandcamp.com/album/miss-colombia Lido identifies as a Colombian-American. After divorcing a husband who controlled the production of her first album (2010), she learned production and basically made everything in this album happend from writing, to recording to mastering. Woo hoo!

8. “Halo-Halo” Daydream

as a single (2020), https://halo-halo.bandcamp.com/track/daydream Denver band!

9. “Boundless Beings (feat. Akenya)” Nubya Garcia

from the album “Source” (2020), https://nubyagarcia.bandcamp.com/album/source Definitely one of the best jazz albums of 2020.

10. “Build a Nest (feat. Ruby Parker)” Jeff Parker

from the album “Suite for Max Brown” (2020), https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/suite-for-max-brown Out of Chicago, this is also the guitarist in Tortoise (https://youtu.be/EwJf5fw57Yo). Max(ine) Brown is his mom.

11. “Deysa” Morita Vargas

from the album “8” (2020), https://moritavargas.bandcamp.com/album/8-2

12. “Blue Filter” Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society

from the album s/t (2017), https://deliaderbyshireappreciationsociety.bandcamp.com/album/delia-derbyshire-appreciation-society Not lying, this album saved this past fall from being a completely depressing time. Just the opening bars of this piece lift me.

13. “Ever New” Beverly Glenn-Copeland

from the album “Transmissions: the music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland” (2020), https://beverlyglenn-copeland.bandcamp.com/album/transmissions-the-music-of-beverly-glenn-copeland-2 This album is a retrospective of his long career as a composer. He prefers to go by Glenn and 2020 was set to be the first year, after four decades of making music!, that he would earn a living off his music. Sadly his world tour was canceled. Please buy his album if you like it!

ACT II: Approximately Aggressive Hey! It’s the punk set! These tunes are punk adjacent and also straight up punk Sometimes you need to wildly jump up and down, shout, flail, and holler whether it’s about being in love or being fucking pissed off.

14. “Secondary Actor” No Home

from the album “Fucking Hell” (2020), https://nohome.bandcamp.com/album/fucking-hell-2

15. “Estalacticas” Juana Molina

from the album “ANRMAL (live in México)” (2020), https://juanamolina.bandcamp.com/album/anrmal Recorded live in early March of 2020. It’s eerie hearing crowds cheer at a show for what was probably the last time that year.

16. “Futures” Wendy Eisenberg

from the album “Auto” (2020), not on Bandcamp yet. But she released album on BC that isn’t on Spotify - Dehiscense (2020) https://wendyeisenberg.bandcamp.com/album/dehiscence-2020

21. “Red Towel” The Beakers

from the album “Four Steps Towards a Cultural Revolution” (1980; 2004 KRS repress), https://thebeakers.bandcamp.com/album/four-steps-towards-a-cultural-revolution-klp163 Old Seattle band, they were short lived but very influential. One guess as to why the towel is red :)

22. “Forgive Me, Philip” Brontez Purnell

from the EP “White Boy Music” (2020), https://postpresentmedium.bandcamp.com/album/white-boy-music-e-p Purnell was in Gravy Train and The Younger Lovers. Although he’s been making great music for a long time this is his first solo album. It’s well worth reading the liner notes on the Bandcamp page for an excellent explanation for the album’s title. Purnell is a Black man making punk music and using the medium to bend racial frameworks. Just read it yourself!

23. “Hunger For a Way Out” Sweeping Promises

from the album “Hunger For a Way Out” (2020), https://sweepingpromises.bandcamp.com/album/hunger-for-a-way-out

24. “I’m In Heaven” Cyclones

from the compilation “Strum & Thrum: the American Jangle Underground 1983-1987” (2020), https://strumandthrum.bandcamp.com/album/strum-thrum-the-american-jangle-underground-1983-1987 This compilation is great! I recommend listening to the whole thing.

ACT III: Outcasts and Outliers Hey! These songs didn’t fit into the flow for Acts I and II. They’re all outliers. Some of these tunes are totally freakish, made by outcasts, who are often my favorite people in real life.

25. “Isolation” John Lennon

from the album “Plastic Ono Band” (1970, remastered 2010), [not on Bandcamp] This song is an obvious nod to 2020. His prescience for the human condition is most aptly demonstrated with the verse, “I don’t expect you to understand/ after you’ve caused so much pain/ but then again you’re not to blame/ you’re just human, a victim of the insane.” There is a fantastic PBS documentary on this great, somewhat forgotten album: https://www.pbs.org/video/john-lennon-plastic-ono-band-oyqxml/

26. “Touch Me” Yoko Ono

from the album “Plastic Ono Band” (1970, remastered 2016), https://yokoono.bandcamp.com/album/plastic-ono-band This album was made at the same time and John’s with the same personnel. Imagining John in the backing tracks makes Yoko’s experimentations all the more powerful. I like to believe that they were feeding off each other in this moment - pushing each other’s artistry further and further. Beautiful.

27. “Frontier” Holly Herndon

from the album “Proto” (2019), https://hollyherndon.bandcamp.com/album/proto

28. “Pi” Kate Bush

from the album “Aerial” (2005), [not on Bandcamp]. Everybody knows that Bush’s ‘86 “Hounds of Love” is amazing. “Aerial” doesn’t get talked about as much but it is solid start to finish.

29. “Taurus” Saint Saviour

from the album “Tomorrow Again” (2020), https://saint--saviour.bandcamp.com/album/tomorrow-again

30. “L.I.N.E.” Kelly Lee Owens

from the album “Inner Song” (2020), https://kellyleeowens.bandcamp.com/album/inner-song

31. “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” Fiona Apple

from the album “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” (2020), [not on Bandcamp]. Apple is a perfect outsider and she speaks to that in this song.

32. “Too Blue” Leyla McCalla (with lyrics from Langston Hughes)

from the album “Vari-Colored Songs” (2010; 2020 Smithsonian Folkways reissue), https://leylamccalla.bandcamp.com/album/vari-colored-songs-a-tribute-to-langston-hughes

33. “Red Is” Erica Freas

from the album “Young” (2020), https://ericafreas.bandcamp.com/album/young

34. “But There’s Still the Moon” Tasha

from the single “But There’s Still the Moon” (2020), https://tashamusic.bandcamp.com/album/but-theres-still-the-moon

35. “Queen of Swords” Mallory Chipman & the Mystics

from the album “Aquarian” (2020), https://mallorychipmanandthemystics.bandcamp.com/album/aquarian

36. “Three Single Sounds Taken In (Cannon i, ii, iii, iv)” Daphne Oram

from the album “Electronic Sound Patterns” (1962, remastered 2013) [not on Bandcamp]. Oram was extremely important in the early days of computer musical instruments and computer composition. In the original liner notes for this album she wrote, “"Teachers seeking original material have found this new approach exciting and stimulating in their creative work for music, movement and drama. The Sound patterns are intended for children to enjoy and may lead them into movement of dance-like character, or involve them in imaginative situations. People who are interested in sound production may like to know that these sound patterns were created by Daphne Oram at her Electronic Studio in Kent. By using audio generators, many tape recorders, filters, ring modulators and other electronic devices she built up the tone colours, pitched each of the notes separately, gave them duration and dynamics and finally spliced the notes together to obtain the required rhythms and sequences."

37. “Goodbye Year, Goodbye” X

from the album “Alphabetland” (2020).