January 2025 AOTM

Asian Glow - 11100011

Tracks 9

Runtime 41mins

Favorite Tracks Feel All the Time, Out of Time, Dorothee Thines

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musically 2025 has started off incredibly strong. There were a lot of really interesting releases this month but easily my favorite has been 11100011, the new record from Asian Glow. Blending noise, pop, indie rock, metal, and shoegaze, this album is a twisted maximalist sculpture that transcends the sum of its parts into something so familiar.

The production is massive. It focuses on this huge vocal reverb and wide distant panned drums which somehow makes the sky above you feel so much bigger. The guitars and higher synths are always slipping back and forth between almost crystal clear clarity and this blown out intensity. It feels like it’s about to burst out of any speaker it’s put through.  

My favorite example is on Dorothee Thines. This album is jam packed full of insane synth work but this track just goes all out. Asian Glow mixes short pan flute synth bursts with a lower bit almost Tetris sounding solo and tying it together with drums and glitch effects sounding closer to hyperpop and even hardstyle. It feels crazy and chaotic without ever disorienting the listener, making it incredibly easy to weave all of this back into the album’s often familiar indie rock style melodies.  

All of this is tied together with very even basslines, panned dead center, feeling like it’s coming from the core of your brain. Using a melodic heart where most would use the kick drum or something equally percussive is such a brilliant choice. It lets this album reach crescendo after crescendo without ever losing power or emotional impact.  

I don’t speak Korean so I sadly can’t make much meaningful comment on the lyrics, but the vocals are gorgeous. Multi layered, airy, and gently floating they wash over everything never entirely taking the drivers seat, never taking up too much space in the mix. Just washing everything in glowing light.  

Incredibly approachable without ever losing anything to achieve that, I think this album will be well loved by many. I couldn’t stop coming back to it this month and I think there’s a high chance that I will still be coming back to it by the end of the year. 

 

If you like this album you may also like: Julie - my anti-aircraft friend  

 

Other new albums I really enjoyed this month:  

EEL BLOOD - Scalping Gods for Their Neglect   

Denude - A Murmuration of Capitalist Bees 

Will Mason Quartet - Hemlocks, Peacocks