Tuesday, 17 December 2024

Musical Highlights 2024

 


2024 has once again been a particularly cruel year, what with the appalling suffering and genocide taking  place in Gaza. At times, the news cycle has been simply overwhelming.Thousands are dead, it's heartbreaking, demoralizing and devastating. Musing about the year in music feels hollow. 
However as we consider these tumultuous times, lets be reminded about music’s ability to stir us, allowing us to forge further connections to ourselves and each other. Music reflects society and is often influenced by the political climate. Music can help us to get through the  day and stop us falling completely into a pit of total depression and can help transform the heaviest of days.
However you spend or celebrate this time of year, power to the music and the people that make it. Lets  try and support local music venues and appreciate their intrinsic value.Music and the places where it is performed can be balms that can brings us together as we face the challenges  ahead. Am very  fortunate to  have a wonderful musical venue called the Cellar Bar based in my hometown of Aberteifi/Cardigan, which is always a pleasure  to visit, and well worth a visit  if you  happen  to  be in the neighbourhood.. 
In a year of deep reflection, music stretched and relocated in often unpredictable ways. Bandcamp an artist-focussed platform continues to allow us to support our favorite musicians and labels that enrich our lives and is a good place to discover new music.
In no particular order here are my musical highlights of the year that I have really enjoyed which have managed to  lift  me, give me strength. The continued silence of Radiohead and Nick Cave in the face of ongoing genocide means none of  their music shows up in my list. I urge  people though to support numerous international artists and musicians who have united in support of Palestine, prioritizing their principles over potential career risks. Anyway here's to better days ahead, an end to genocide, and a free Palestine. Happy yule. Winter solstice. Heddwch/Peace :-  

1. Nôl i Annwfn - Mascot Moth 



2. Songs of Loss and Resistance - The Four Fathers  



3.We Love Pedro - The Cellar


https://thecellarcardigan.bandcamp.com/album/we-love-pedro


4.There can be no Spectators - The Apostles


5. Peter Perrett - The Cleansing 


6. John Cale - Poptical Illusion


7.The Cure -  Songs  of  a Lost World


8. Mdou Moctar - Funeral For Justice


9.Gruff  Rhys - Sadness sets  me  free


10. Shovel Dance Collective - The Shovel Dance



11  Mohammad Syfkhan - I Am Kurdish



12.Tristwch y Fenywod -Tristwch y Fenywod




13,Robin Hitchcock - 1967

14, Kneecap - Fine Art

https://kneecap.bandcamp.com/album/fine-art

15.Christy Moore - A Terrible Beauty


16. Nick  Harper -  Earth Day Blue



17.Sendelica- Requiem For Mankind



18.Godspeed You! Black Emperor - "No Title as of 13 February 2024 28.340 Dead"


19.Humble As The Sun – Bob Vylan



20.When I Survive - When I Survive  



21. Free Palestine: A Compilation for Humanitarian Aid [Human Endeavour]



22. Merciless Accelerating Rhythms - Artists United for a Free Palestine - Various Artists

Based on anti-apartheid artist, leader and poet, June Jordan’s poem, “I Must Become A Menace to My Enemies,” dedicated by Jordan to Agostinho Neto, former President of The People’s Republic of Angola, the album’s title “Merciless Accelerating Rhythms” encapsulates a form of political organizing beyond “walking politely on the pavements,” and emphasizes “becom[ing] the action of [our] fate,” acting in a form of “retaliation.”  

“I plan to blossom bloody on an afternoon
surrounded by my comrades singing 
terrible revenge in merciless 
accelerating 
rhythms”



Posted by teifidancer at 18:54
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