2024 Retrospective

I’m coming up to take a breath after a crazy year, and I thought it would be a good time to take a look back at the musical side of 2024!

Starting with what I got up to this year, the two main releases I was involved in were albums by Hey Geronimo and Ghost Mutt. Both labours of love, both mixed by the peerless Brendan Cox, and both albums I’m proud to have been a part of.

‘Zero Sum Game’ was an album that took a long time to get from 95% to 100%, but the advantage of that somewhat-tortured gestation is I can listen to it without hearing anything major that I would have wanted changed. It’s a nice feeling to listen to something you’ve gotten right. When I listen to it the mood is very much ‘Melbourne lockdown 2021’, but I also remember the weekly recording sessions with Pluto and Pete – the kind of camaraderie you only get from working together on a knotty problem for a long period of time. I certainly learned a lot about producing from working on this album, particularly with regards to vocals – I’m currently doing some vocal recording for some upcoming projects and I’m trying to hold myself to the standard we held ourselves to for ZSG. Every line should tell a story in its delivery – the singing should never be perfunctory or rote because it’s in the centre of the musical stage. If the vocals aren’t comfortable being in the spotlight, they need to be better. It was great that we got ourselves together to perform the album live too, even if we had to reschedule the show at short notice because of The Zoo’s untimely closing. Marly Luske and Alchemix came through for us in the clutch once again!

While ZSG was my baby, ‘Anos Migranos’ was my sister Annie’s (via her band Ghost Mutt). I was more peripherally involved in this album, just contributing some synths and advice, but I’m just as proud listening to the final result. The songwriting is clever and the arrangements are expansive and ambitious. It’s pretty amazing to have witnessed how quickly Ghost Mutt turned from a fun hangout with friends into a legitimately good band! I can’t wait to hear what Annie comes up with next. We also got to play this one live, and that was a challenge I particularly enjoyed. It was fun figuring out how to adapt the rhythmic, sequenced synth parts to a live context without using backing tracks – it helps that we had Ben Graham in tow for the show so I could draw on his experience playing live techno. We got a bonus Papperbok show out of the night too, which is always a pleasure!

Another family-related release was my uncle Andrew Dutney's song 'Something To Bear', which is a song I co-wrote with him during lockdown and recorded with him late last year. This song seemed to be excavating meaning as we wrote it, which is something special that songwriting can do. It means a lot to me that we can connect through music and it's not something I take for granted!

Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention the show I played at my wedding this year. We put together a backing band consisting of myself on bass, Ben Mackay on drums, and Nick Wauchope on guitar, and rotated through a cast of singers from Ghost Mutt, Papperbok, The Worriers, Zefereli, Clea, Pluto Jonze, and Hey Geronimo. My now-wife Adele joined us to sing God Only Knows, Burning Down The House, and had a star turn on lead vocals for Pluto’s ‘Eject’. It was such a privilege to join my friends, artists I respect greatly, to play their amazing songs on our special day. Lachlan Kidd from Papperbok set up a seriously pro-sounding stage, and was forward-thinking enough to record the performance. I’m hoping to get it mixed and release it in some form soon.

What’s up next? I’ve got a solo album almost ready to mix, which is the first priority for 2025. I’m going to be working out of my friend James Seymour’s studio next year for a regular evening per week, and I’m hoping that access to a treated room and better speakers will level up my mixing. I can’t wait to share what I’ve been working on! The idea is that it will be a mix of the various projects I’ve put out previously – singer-songwriter, alternative/psych rock, and techno. It’s kind of a ‘capstone’ project for my solo career so far. There’s also the third Papperbok album, which is very nearly tracked! I’m heading up to Brisbane soon to record some piano and the last of the guitars. I also recorded some experimental techno jam sessions with Ben Graham this year that we need to edit into something that can be mixed and released, and I’m hoping to start jamming on a separate set of songs (more alt rock/folk) with Ben and James going forward. I also have some plans to write some shoegaze songs with my wife Adele, inspired by a band called ‘CQ’ that we saw on our honeymoon in Japan. Finally, there is an EP of Edison Doll songs that needs some final tracking and mixing, and two more EPs from collaborations with Brendan Cox and Annie that could well be finished and out next year. Now that I write it all down, it’s really quite a lot… if I get even half of it done I can call 2025 a productive year!

To finish this retrospective up, I thought I’d list the albums that came out this year that really resonated with me. It was a very exciting year for new music! Here are my favourite albums from 2024 in no particular order:

Cutouts (The Smile)

SOS (Nice Biscuit)

GNX (Kendrick Lamar)

All Born Screaming (St Vincent)

No Way To Relax When You Are On Fire (Dora Jar)

Cascade (Floating Points)

Monoclone (Great Sage)

Where’s My Utopia? (Yard Act)

Wild God (Nick Cave)

Diamond Jubilee (Cindy Lee)

Romance (Fontaines D.C.)

If you asked me to pick a favourite album from this year, it would be Dora Jar’s debut ‘No Way To Relax When You Are On Fire’. I’ve been a huge fan of hers for a few years now and the best thing I can say about the album is that I don’t listen to her previous releases much anymore – this is the Dora Jar I want to listen to! I just hope she is able to continue her musical career and continue being the fascinating weirdo she is as long as she can.

But I have to say, Kendrick’s new album ‘GNX’ is a very close second! It’s the most I’ve enjoyed a hip hop album in years and I didn’t think he had this kind of borderline pop album in him. It’s a rare musician who can be both a challenging, powerful artist and a world-class entertainer – Kendrick is on that David Bowie kind of level in my eyes.

Anyway, that’s enough from me for the time being, I’ll get back to trying my best to relax and turn off my ‘doing’ brain. Always a challenge after a productive end to the year!

Much love to everyone,

BB