2014 seemed like a year in transition. EDM was stuck in limbo between trap and deep house. Frank Ocean dropped half of a song and then retreated back into the shadows. Most of the year’s most acclaimed albums were by relative veterans (Aphex Twin, Sun Kil Moon, Run The Jewels, Swans, St. Vincent), as were its biggest (Taylor Swift, Coldplay). But this year has shown a few promising signs that 2015 will be a pretty great year for music.
1. Mood Hut. Deep house is all over the charts thanks to Disclosure’s massive success in 2014. But Vancouver’s Mood Hut collective has been quietly honing a classicist take on the sound that’s as suited for casual home listening as it is for large-scale raging. The collective’s flagship act Pender Street Steppers released the awesome Life In The Zone in 2013, and crewmember Hashman Deejay released the stunning Sandopolis last year. But most of its most promising acts have yet to issue any widely available albums. 2015 may change that.
2. PC Music. Masterminded by producer A.G. Cook (who may or may not make all the music he releases), this London-based web label specializes in minimal, creepily artificial Top 40-style pop songs, delivered by robotic pop stars with names like QT and Hannah Diamond. Though there’s a whiff of irony about PC’s productions, their songs are as catchy as anything on the radio right now, and it would not surprise me to see one of its anonymous pop products actually make it to the charts. (I nominate Hannah Diamond’s “Every Night” as a candidate.)
3. John Williams. The 82-year-old composer rocked the world nearly 40 years ago with the original Star Wars soundtracks, and he’s stepping up to the conductor’s platform once again for the upcoming sequel trilogy. Hearing his gleeful orchestral music in the trailer for Episode VII was a treat, and now that soundtracks are bigger than ever (Frozen, Guardians of the Galaxy, Mockingjay), it’s not unlikely whatever new music Williams cooks up for Episode VII will be a hit.
4. Father John Misty. J. Tillman has been working the festival circuit for a while as Father John Misty. But his upcoming album I Love You, Honeybear – slated for a February release – may finally treat him to a slice of the critic’s pie he’s so far only tasted with his old band Fleet Foxes. After his first single “Bored In The U.S.A.,” he seems slated to step up to the curmudgeonly-white-guy throne Sun Kil Moon held last year.
5. Disclosure (even more so!) Disclosure’s been big for a while, but they’ve increasingly chosen to stay behind the scenes as producers. Their monopoly on the recent deep house boom means they’re a lot of aging musicians’ first collaboration choice for a late-career reinvention. They’ve already worked with Mary J. Blige on her new London Sessions, and they’re supposedly in the studio with Madonna. Who knows who’s next. Elvis Costello?