Category: Music
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š¶ I was reminded of āInstafestā when looking at my archives. Please enjoy my music festival courtesy of my 2024 listening.

š¶ 2024 Music Review
other 2024 reviews here
2024 was the year that I found out that iTunes Match and Apple Music were āeatingā my music by dropping files, replacing with different editions/formats, or failing to sync some material. I already knew that Google did terrible things when going from Google Play Music to Youtube music, but Apple was a surprise to me. I resolved to not let such things happen any more.
I set out to rebuild my library by:
- re-downloading lossless versions of my Bandcamp purchases
- getting the best format download from other places Iād bought digital music
- re-ripping our CDs in lossless format
- backing it all up
- normalizing metadata with MusicBrainz Picard
- running Plex Media Server to share the music
- running Tailscale to make the server available without putting it directly on the web
- running PlexAmp clients for an awesome listening experience
- scrobbling my listening with last.fm
Iām not finished with the project, but I have over 200 artists, 600 albums, and 6000 tracks re-deployed, with much more to come. Because Iām not complete, the listening may not have as much variety as it could have.
Artists:
- Clubroot is my go-to for evening chillout music
- Juno Reactor is a constant fave
- 3-5 are prolific industrial-ish artists that use various project pseudonyms, and I listen to a lot of each
Albums:
- HolyNameās self-titled is sorta doomcore taize and is a great Sunday listen
- Excursions is a collection of early Front Line Assembly side-project work
- Imagineā¦ is a re-release of Juno Reactorās first 5 albums as a compilation
- Celldweller is another project from Circle of Dust (Klayton/Scott) which has probably eclipsed CoD
- A Homeland Denied was a hardcore compilation as benefit for Palestinians
- Trans-Siberian Orchestra broke in for me this year, mostly because of their Christmas music
Tracks:
- 1 and 3 are a couple of those excellent Clubroot grooves
- Hammer & Gavel is a prophetic anthem from a 2-person wall of sound I discovered this year (American Arson)
- HATEFUL is a single from HEALTH and my favorite thing from them so far
- Listen! was one of my ālisten on repeat tracksā this year from Oak Pantheonās excellent 2023 album āThe Absenceā
- Kindred Void (and some other Koan Sound) tracks get honorable mentions
As usual, Industrial, Electronic, Metalcore, Rock, and Metal dominate my listening (with many varied subgenres therein).
We are not surprised my listening is not ānormalā. I also expect this chart is not my normal either due to the project I mentioned at the start of this post. Iām not sure how useful these are, especially with no definitions. Iām sharing them anyway.
Stay tuned to get a copy of my āfavesā playlist, courtesy of Album Whale.
What was your favorite this year? Anything you discovered?
š¶ yet more nonsense from Igorrr and Iām here for it.
š¶ the Shpongle guys made a chill piano & flute album
š¶ One of the joys of re-ripping your CDs is going to back through gems you havenāt listened to in a while.
In the late 90s, Rhys Fulber was creating remixes for Fear Factory.
Itās some of his most interesting work amongst a mountain of diverse projects.
š¶ Incredible new track from Yovel - Scroll. Post. Like. Die..
From the forthcoming album.
š¶ Iāve been going back and checking out some Alice In Chains, and MTV Unplugged is still by far their best album.