Cats With Hats - Hallucinations
https://catswithhats.bandcamp.com/album/hallucinations
Key’s latest release combines modernity with post-modernity to create a unique musical spectacle. The percussive components that barely congeal enough to be considered beats (thus never becoming distracting or annoying) have an old school post-punk feel - like a disjointed Throbbing Gristle that’s been living underwater. Then the textures come in two forms. Early electronic pioneers of the sonic avant garde are recalled. However, those echoes from way back, the sixties or even before, don’t rely on the collage techniques of that era. Instead, like I said the sounds are used as sonic textures. The other form is more closely related to the drone movement of the 21st century. But in the same way he avoids the collage rabbit hole he also avoids the trappings of dark ambient. He borrows from all three of these traditions but ends up with something very much his own. Clearly experimental and avant garde while successfully elbowing into new space. This album hangs comfortably in the company of the 2019 top 20 of the year listed above. It’s brief, distinct, and intensely engaging. Key has become one of the great, and like many of my favorites, almost completely unknown, musical masterminds of this era. It’s ****ing humbling to be his Internet peer on this forum. He’s a great artist.