It’s been another year full of upheaval and uncertainty here at KRAAK, with the departure of more loved ones and the inexorable consequences of worldly happenings exert true heaviness on us and our organization. But, as it stands, this is all a labor of love at the end of the day, and we’ve encountered a lot of it on every end imaginable. So thanks for being there and supporting us! We hope next year will have less of a melodramatic tinge ~ in the meantime, here’s the things we enjoyed this year, release date and timeline notwithstanding:::

DB’S DRY LISTICLE

Music

Het Zweet

Exploring Gong Culture

Marta Carin - Dome Stories

Bravo Tounky - Flash Détente

Division Plastique

Laila Sakini - Like a gun

Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel - White Lines (Don’ Don’t do it)

Live

Kiara Govaert at Radio Zonderdak

Books/magazines

Viscose Journal

Steve Cannon - Groove, Bang and Jive Around

Frank Vande Veire - Het einde van alle straten

Ottessa Moshfegh - My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Val Plumwood, Human vulnerability and the experience of being prey

Connie Palmen - I.M.

Sue Lloyd-Roberts - The War on Women

Sherwin B. Nuland - How We Die

Paul Kalanithi - When Breath Becomes Air

Joan Didion - The Year of Magical Thinking

Ameline Ansu - Van harte gecondoleerd

Nathalie Huygens - Het begon toen het voorbij was

Barend Cochez - CSI

Nina and Sonya Montenegro - Mending life (handbook)

Food

Nick’s home made seitan

Gaute’s home made focaccia

GG’S BLABBING PICKS

Music

Darrell DeVore‘s posthumous tape series on Goaty Tapes, purchased at World of Echo in London and tragically lost the next day in a missing bag drama

Secret Places of Lion - High Gardens, my current go-to for whatever moment

Miradasvacas - En Perpetua, glad we didn’t release it so I could include it here

C.D. Noé - Ornamental Hermits, who is this cat and why do they always end up on my lists

Not technically released yet and also obviously v biased but the new Gaute Granli coming out on Nashazphone is killer

Movies

Manhunter was such a trippy discovery, and for a moment made William Petersen’s face tolerable

Barton Fink, John Turturro forever

Actually did go to the cinema to watch One Battle After Another, found it whatever, but the roller-coaster car chase scene - !

Books

Eve Babitz, I Used To Be Charming, how did it take so long to exit the Didionhole and step into the Babitzverse which is just as incisive but also raw and funny??? Still love Joan but Eve is the girl I’d run with

Natasha Stagg, Sleeveless, somewhere in the realm of the Babitz essays but from fellow millennial perspective, less fun/funny but often cringefully relatable

Mary Gaitskill, Two Girls, Fat and Thin, instant canon, my new Carson McCullers as far as needing to devour her entire output goes

Dwight Garner, The Upstairs Delicatessen, a book about eating and reading and reading and eating ~ if ever a book was after my heart, this is it

Still plowing through Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, approaching it as a Proustian endeavor but with murder

Food

- Sandwiches always ruling my life, this year tomato-mayo-furikake in particular

- Japanese breakfast (rice, miso soup, whatever protein and pickled somethings), which I’ve tried to import but life does take over

- That one nigiri with everything I love on it: plump roe on a cloud of sea urchin, I would’ve cried if it didn’t come our way during that omakase meal

Shows

- Nano Troglo (Nov), everything I could catch aka Jookloyd, Quasai, METABOLISMUS

- In Japan: Tomoe Inoue, Yximalloo, and TV guy whose name I forgot!!

- I don’t include KRAAK-related stuff in this list, but from a personal taste perspective it was a pretty outstanding year :)))

AND SOME KRAAK-RELATED STUFF ANYWAY

- We have some end-of-year Bandcamp promos that are sure to run until probably the end of winter ~ 90% discount on both the KRAAK and KRUT digital discographies! And on the KRAAK end, we’re offering 3 free download codes with every physical purchase until end of January, since deliveries are and will be wonky for a bit

- Quite a bit of newness for our RADIO ROUNDUP!! We had special guests on our latest Kiosk slots, starting with a wild & weird live set by Kiara Govaert ahead of her Basement Djzingles performance followed by the joining of Les Halles and Shorlax in honor of their joining the FOR HERE IS EVERYWHERE bill. And DB hit the Panik studios not once but TWICE for some solo De Neusing, only managed to upload one since we’ll need content next month 💅

- Winter shows are up on the website for you to pen on thine agenda. And yes, that includes KRAAK Fest 🙀 tickets up for grabs and full lineup coming mid-Jan!

- And closing with an announcement! From January onwards, we’re stoked to welcome third member to our KRAAK team with former star intern and perpetual helping hand Eline Cremers <3 it’ll be her voice you’ll hear in your head in our Dutch comms, and you’ll surely be seeing more of her in our feeds