Quietus Tracks Of The Year 2020

One of the most compelling and uncategorisable groups around, Senyawa preview their forthcoming 2021 album Alkisah with this magnificent track. Echoes of their collaboration with Stephen O’Malley abound in the slow buzzsaw riffs that glide over stentorian chanting, and abstract rattling, like a dishwasher at the end of time.

2020 has been a great year for woozy, lo-fi R&B. With its slurred synth stabs and stuttered breaths, ‘Oh My Love’ sounds as dreamy and slippery as a lovesick eel. Perfect for snuggling up before an evening spent watching heat-warped VHS tapes.

Anyone who’s watched Uncut Gems or Wolves score a home goal in the Premier League over the last year, will likely be familiar with Gigi D’Agostino’s ‘L’Amour Toujours’, from which this gloriously silly DJ Space Heater cut heavily borrows. Mix it up with a cheeky Bernie Sanders speech sample and a banging instrumental that crosses between 2-step UK garage and bassline, and you’ve got yourself a Hoofin’ Massive Tune.

Lifted from the EP of the same name, which Blake described as an “homage to his London club days,” ‘Before’ pairs the reflective subject matter of much of his work from the last few years with a driving, almost euphoric instrumental.

2020 saw D&B veteran Krust return with his first album in 14 years, and on ‘Negative Returns’, he channels producers like dBridge in the cinematic sound design and neon synths that run throughout the track.

From the stoner lounge rock vibe that permeates the track to the delightful vocal interplay between Yves Tumor and Diana Gordon, ‘Kerosene!’ is a swaggering highlight of the Warp-signed artist’s latest album, Heaven To A Tortured Mind, the song reaching colossal heights as it builds to a bracing climax via Gordon’s pained croons and a soaring guitar solo.

Gary, Indiana marked the New Weird Britain-adjacent group’s signing to Fire Talk this year with ‘Nike Of Samothrace’, a track reminiscent of the sort of scuzzy, rhythmic racket being made by the magnificent Special Interest crashing into early Mclusky or Liars, with Valentine Caulfield sing-speaking in her native French over the top.

Built around chopped-up R&B vocal samples, ‘New Jade’ is perhaps the closest yet that Dan Snaith has come to making an all-out chart pop hit. Complete with his distinctive soft vocal, you can imagine the instrumental not sounding out of place with a Taylor Swift vocal during her Red era.

Sometimes the sheer fire it ignites in your speakers is enough to make a release 100% vital. That’s the case with Bunout Boss, the Bokeh Versions-released EP from G Sudden, which features Seekersinternational on production duties. The production duo’s mix of 8-bit bass lines and scattered beats is one of the most distinctive backdrops you’ll hear, and they harness it here to amplify G Sudden’s flow. Even as the lyrics tackle the hard issues of ghetto life and gun violence, tracks like ‘Skin Get Bun’ also contain escape routes from the strife. This is party music, but there’s a fierce defiance to the rowdiness.