1991 – Listen To This

22 Favorite Releases of 2021

In the spirit of the season, I wanted to share my favorite releases of the year. Not exhaustive, just some personal highlights. Happy new year!

Previously: 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015

	A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory, 1991 buy
	Beat Happening – Dreamy, 1991 buy / download
	Carlos Maria Trindade & Nuno Canavarro – Mr. Wollogallu, 1991 buy / download
	Dip In The Pool – Aurorae, 1991 buy / download
	Enya – Shepherd Moons, 1991 buy
	Flipper’s Guitar – Doctor Head’s World Tower, 1991 buy / download
	Harold Budd – By The Dawn’s Early Light, 1991 buy / download
	The Hilliard Ensemble – Carlos Gesualdo: Tenebrae, 1991 buy / download
	Jean C. Roché – Rossignols: A Nocturne of Nightingales, 1991 buy / download
	Keisuke Sakurai – Is It Japan ?, 1991 buy / download
	Laurie Spiegel – Unseen Worlds, 1991 buy
	LFO – Frequencies, 1991 buy / download
	Main Source – Breaking Atoms, 1991 buy / download
	Mariah Carey – Emotions, 1991 buy
	Massive Attack – Blue Lines, 1991 buy
	My Bloody Valentine – Loveless, 1991 buy
	Mychael Danna – Sirens, 1991 buy / download
	Nirvana – Nevermind, 1991 buy
	The Orb – The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld, 1991 buy
	Primal Scream – Screamadelica, 1991 buy
	Roberto Mazza – Scoprire Le Orme, 1991 buy / download
	Talk Talk – Laughing Stock, 1991 buy

Roberto Mazza – Scoprire Le Orme, 1991

Lino Vaccina and Vincenzo Zitello collaborator. Bardic harp, oboe, and synth all composed and played by Mazza. I hesitate to call Scoprire Le Orme (roughly “discover the footsteps”) minimal, though it does get thrown around as such–it feels denser and warmer than what I typically associate with Italian minimalism. To me it feels like far eastern baroque; very courtly–my guess would be that Mazza tuned his harp to scales more typically associated with instruments like the koto or even the sitar. There’s a dusty exotica sentimentality that reminds me of Finis Africae. A lot to love here. Hope y’all are having a very harpy winter.

download

Carlos Maria Trindade / Nuno Canavarro – Mr. Wollogallu, 1991

Not really sure how to write about this one. Mr. Wollogallu is pretty slippery and there’s very little information available about it online. It’s split into two sections, with side A made up of songs written by Carlos Maria Trindade and side B of songs written by Nuno Canavarro, both Portuguese musicians, and both of whom contribute instrumentals through both sides. Songs range from the churning, Sakamoto-esque opener “The Truth” (which includes a sample from Network) to fourth-world, densely percussive “Blu Terra” with silvery sparse mood pieces in between, punctuated by spoken word samples. Somebody should make a movie just to have this as the score. Singular, transportive–this feels magical, in the truest sense of the word. Definitely an on-repeat record.

buy / download

LFO – Frequencies, 1991

Arguably one of the most important UK techno LPs ever. Just as happy to be heard in headphones as in a grimy warehouse. Gorgeous, heart-skittering, crunchy sci-fi futurism rendered in perfect detail. Perpetually surprising and joyful throughout. A fully-realized prediction of two decades of electronic dance music. Mark Bell died six months ago and I’ve been thinking about him a lot recently, partially because of the Björk retrospective (he co-produced Homogenic, among many others), but largely because of this record, which is a gift.

buy / download