The Score

As far back as the writing of the Bible, a ‘score’ has always meant twenty. I wanted to create a mix that only picked tracks from the 2020s so far, and even though we’re not quite three years into the decade, there was plenty to choose from.

This is far from being a mix of a single genre, there’s plenty of jazz and instrumentals, but also some recent raps, and beats.

One thing that perhaps does unite it as a mix is that it’s moody AF. There’s plenty of brass, brassy vocals, bassy guitars, rereleased moog and more than a sniff of dub.

As sticks for Swans, Shearwater and Angels of Light, the Thor Harris track is interesting for being such a total genre departure. Seemingly a joyful side effect of Covid lockdown. Relatively new discoveries for me are the excellent Ironsides who provide soulful instrumentals with a dollop of Afropop. Similarly the Mort Garson reissues of the early days of moog are so fantastic I had to include one, even though it blew the model a little.

Mike Watt’s (of Minutemen, fIREHOSE, Porno for Pyros, The Stooges, etc) bass on Music for Bus Stops with Psychic Temples is absolutely outrageous, but I also couldn’t wrangle it into any other track, so we’ve got the also excellent organ break here. Four Tet turns in a beauty with guitarist William Tyler, harking back to Keiran H’s Fridge days.

And billy woods and Shabazz Palaces bring some very tasty 2023 raps to the party.

Here’s the tracklist, followed by the year of release: