Albums of The Year 2020

What a year for music! I mean it’s been dreadful for most stuff but I’ve never listened to more great music. The Radio Guesthouse project I’ve been doing with old pal Mark Broadbent has helped of course but I’m carrying on with the albums of the year tradition too. So here’s the 2020 list. If there’s anything you like then please buy it and support the artists. There are links to most of the albums but give them minute or two to load since this page is bloody huge.
I’ve made a titanic 8-hour mix of some of the best stuff which you can hear below.
Yes, 8 hours is long, so I’ve broken it up into eight one-hour sections by genre (sorta kinda).
Start – Electronic, 1 hr –Ambient, 2 hrs – Jazz, 3 hrs – Beats, 4 hrs – Independent, 5 hrs – Rock, 6 hrs – Noise, 7 hrs – Fierce Electronics

1 – Sault – Untitled (Black Is)
1 – Sault – Untitled (Rise)

Not content with releasing two albums in 2019, this mystery UK neo-soul collective upped the work rate in 2020 and released two double albums in the space of 3 months. And, I kid you not, there is not a single duff track on either one of them. Leaping genres with ease, there’s a wickedly loose and relaxed feel to everything that they try. And everything that they try works. Brilliant.

2 – The Heliocentrics – Infinity of Now
2 – The Heliocentrics – Telemetric Sounds

You don’t have to release two albums in a year to get to the top of Dave’s charts, but it clearly helps. The wonderful Heliocentrics rocketed on in their current rich vein of form with these two stunners. Expect the usual heady brew of psychedelic jazz and get on board. an astonishing band at the peak of their powers.

3 – Ghostpoet – I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep

If ever a year was suited to Ghostpoet’s world-weary trip-hop, then it’s this one. And he’s in particularly fine form here. In fact, it’s the best thing he’s done.

4 – Einstrurzende Neubaten – ALLES IN ALLEM

The power tools got disconnected years ago, and these days this band make real songs. And what brilliant songs they are, restrained and deceptively simple, but thoughtful and carefully arranged. This is kind of an object lesson in how to craft songs of genius.

5 – Hey Colossus – Dances  Curses

This lot have been building up to this for some time and now, about 10 or 11 albums into their career, they drop their best yet. It’s a whopping double album that the band claims has no filler. They claim correctly. This is the best independent rock band in Britain, hell the world. An enthralling and endlessly inventive piece of work.

6 – Teleplasmiste – To Kiss Earth Goodbye

I’m so annoyed with myself for not liking this at first. It nearly fell victim to me listening to just too much music perhaps, since it’s a slow grower. But you really should give it a chance because it’s a unique and wonderful piece of work unlike anything else. A Beautiful, ethereal, otherworldly trip. Take it.

7 – Saagara – Saagara

Vaclav Zimpel has walked four listings on this year’s chartwith his various solo and collaborative efforts. And in this standout he teams up with Indian musicians to conjure a warm and enveloping brew of Eastern-tinged psychedelic jazz.

8 – Hum – Inlet

This band, who I’d never heard of, were apparently an active shoegaze outfit in the 90s and have just got back together to release this. I’m glad they did because this is an absolute belter of an atmospheric guitar album. I played the life out of this.

9 – Polypores – Azure

Thank God for all these modular synth wizards who beaver away like mad professors in their studios. Polypores seems to drop an album every week, this was the standout of his work in 2020. It’s a beautifully fluid water-themed piece of ambient electronics. Totally absorbing, totally relaxing, like a warm bath.

10 – Aesop Rock – Spirit World Field Guide

Aesop apparently uses a bigger vocabulary than Shakespeare did. Well there’s more words now aren’t there? Anyway, on this audacious spirit-animal-themed outing he’s at his best. Fascinating words, technical brilliance and superb sound design.

11 – Various – La Locura de Machuca (1975-1980)

I could have done a whole reissue albums of the year list, but life is too short isn’t it? But, there are a few releases that came out in 2020 that just can’t be ignored. This is an absolutely wonderful selection of music from a Colombian record label set up by a guy to explore his love of African music. If any of you think cultural appropriation is a bad thing then bang this beauty on, because it is an absolutely essential marriage of African rhythms and traditional Colombian music. If this doesn’t get your heart pumping, you’re dead.

12 – Run The Jewels – RTJ4

This year really needed some anger, and Killer Mike and El-P and have that in no small measure. Given the horror of the outside world, there has never been a better time for their anti-establishment message. LP’s pummeling arrangements are the perfect backdrop for the pair and their collaborators to put the world to rights with rhymes.

13 – Craven Faults – Enclosures
13 – Craven Faults – Erratics & Unconformities

More modular synth wonders from Craven Faults. These tracks are comparatively simple but build over repetition and time to create something truly transcendent. he’s from West Yorkshire, which is an obvious plus, and his work is informed by post industrial landscapes, moors, all that good stuff. 

14 – Juniore – Un, Deux, Trois

This is just cool, the way the French undeniably are. Chilled out, low-key, super-catchy pop.

15 – Duma – Duma

Crikey! How to describe this? Imagine noise-rock driven by beats instead of guitars, grinding along at like, 300 BPM or something. This Kenyan pair channel something absolutely thrilling and ferocious here. Name a genre after them, and buy them a castle.

16 – Islet – Eyelet

This Scottish outfit makes a kind of expansive, open-eyed indie-pop with jazz leanings. Endlessly inventive and utterly absorbing.

17 – Throwing Muses – Sun Racket

This is one of my all-time favorite bands, so I always greet anything new from them with excitement and some trepidation. No need to be worried here though, this ranks with their best work. Kristin Hersh’s husky growl gets better with age and the songs are as vital as ever.

18 – Raa – Ljungens Lag

This Swedish group is more jazz than anything else, I guess, but they explore all kinds of stuff on this absolutely marvellous piece of work. Vispen is one of the most beautiful songs you’ll ever hear.

19 – June – Silver Demon

Superb electro-pop, touching at times on techno. Kind of like a turbocharged, less morose, Depeche mode

20 – And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – X – The Godless Void and Other Stories 

I like this band best when they are at their proggiest. And, as you can probably tell from the grandiose title, this is most definitely the case here. For me, this is a real return to form and one of their best ever works. 

21 – Camila Fuchs – Kids Talk Sun

Thrilling experimental electronica, full of atmosphere and texture.

22 – Anatolian Weapons – To The Mother Of Gods

This is absolutely marvellous guitar-led Turkish folky psych-rock. I don’t know much about the artists, but this is one of my favorite listens of the year.

23 – Little Barrie – Quartermass Seven

So, if you ever wondered what would happen when you take a genius jazz percussionist and marry up his talent for time signatures and arrangements with the drive of a White Stripes style alt-rock outfit, this is for you. It’s bloody brilliant.

24 – Various – Age In Decline

This is a mouth-watering 20 track gathering of some of the most challenging club music around. Here you’ll find ferocious techno, and pretty much everything else with sharp teeth.

25 – Cold Beat – Mother

This is excellent 80s synth-pop, with a modern coat on.

26 – Adrianne Lenker – Songs / Pheobe Bridgers – Punisher

These two must have had a bet on who could write the saddest song. I’m afraid that it’s a tie. Seriously though, this is super stuff from both of them. Pass me a hanky.

27 – Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin Kynsi

This lot topped my list a few years back, I must have been feeling particularly dystopian at that time. Having said that I still think they’re on to something fabulous with their fusion of howling death metal, off-kilter psych rock, and brooding ambience. Nobody does creeping dread like this lot.

28 – All Them Witches – Nothing as the Ideal

You never know what you going to get with All Them Witches. Sometimes it’s Americana-tinged rock, and sometimes it’s the slouchiest of stoner doom. This one is their most mature and nuanced work yet and reveals more and more on repeated listens. There’s a lot of restraint here, highlighting the songcraft and allowing the kick-arse moments to kick arse.

29 – Faten Kanaan – A Mythology of Circles

Ghostly folk-synth? Spooky library electronica? God knows what you call this but it’s involving and thrillingly strange.

30 – Aototelia – I

Slow-building, atmospheric, electronic psych. This is heady stuff, tipping a nod to ambient and Kosmiche music as much as to psychedelia.

31 – Helicon – This Can Only Lead To Chaos

Scottish psych rock with a poppy tinge, compulsively listenable.

32 – Hiroshi Yoshimura – Green (1986, 2020)

I could have filled this list with reissues since I’ve listened to so many this year, but, instead, I stuck just a few standouts on here. This is one, this is about as good as Japanese minimalism gets and this album is a calming treasure that I’ll be listening to forever and ever.

33 – Isabella – Melody Depleted

This excellent album is far too thoughtful to be classed with the standard club techno that provides it with its basic sound palette. Plenty happening, all good.

34 – Howie Lee – 7 Weapons Series

Who knew so much excellent electronic music was coming from China? Not me, that’s for sure. This is a super fusion of traditional Chinese instruments and ultra-modern beats and textures.

35 – John Foxx & The Maths – Howl

Good old John Foxx gets back to 80s synth-rock basics here to fabulous effect.

36 – Kooba Tercu – Proto Tekno

This group from Athens is creating some of the most inventive music out there. They’re tough to categorize, happy to make a right racket worthy of the best noise-rock, but also showing the weirdness and experimentation of the best post-punk.

37 – Keleketla and Coldcut – Keleketla!

This is fantastic. Coldcut teamed up with this South African group of artists to make pumping, club-ready, beat-driven wonderfulness. Just dance to it.

38 – Kate NV – Room For The Moon

This Russian artist has really latched on to something here, with this collection of difficult to pin down sounds. I’m having trouble describing it, I think you should listen to it, you’ll thank me.

39 – King Buffalo – Dead Star

Mighty, meaty, expansive stoner rock.

40 – Kern, Vol. 5  Mixed by Helena Hauff

Wicked mix of banging techno. Loved it.

41 – Carlton Melton – Where This Leads

This American psych rock outfit have been on my radar for a good few years now. Their improvisational style stands out because of their exceptional reading of each other and flair for atmosphere. This opens with a 17-minute minimalist piece that you will find either brilliant or tedious and you can take it from there.

42 – Khotin – Finds You Well

This woozy chillwave is superbly realized.

43 – Container – Scramblers

Blimey! Container really pulls out the stops here to give us an album of driving, squeaking, belching electronics that makes techno seem staid and boring. 

44 – Pauline Anna Strom – Trans-Millenia Music

This is another reissue, although it sounds really contemporary. Pauline Anna Strom is, apparently, a seminal ambient artist and contemporary of Brian Eno and Laraji. I didn’t know that, and now I’m glad that I do.

45 – Kibrom Birhane – Circles

Splendid EP of he best modern jazz.

46 – Clipping – Visions of Bodies Being Burned

Actor Daveed Diggs’ dark hip-hop project is about 20 times better than it has any right to be. Great flow, inventive beats. Fear!

47 – LF58 – Alterazione

A collection of downtempo, almost ambient electronic explorations that contain enough activity to never fade into the background. Late nights and early mornings were made for this.

48 – Linkwood & Foat – Linkwood & Foat

Greg Foat’s another one, seems like he drops a different collaboration every week. This one takes his jazz chops and spreads them over some classy IDM.

49 – DJ Python – Mas Amable

Hypnotically percussive club floorfillers.Minimalist, but never dull.

50 Elephant Tree – Habits

Splendid proggy stoner metal.

51 – Casual Nun – Resort for Dead Desires

For my money, this lot is a far more interesting noisy psych outfit than the much more lauded  pigs X7. This is splendidly shouty, messy, spirit-stirring stuff.

52 – Coriky – Coriky

This band reunites some but not all of Fugazi. if you loved them (and if you didn’t there’s something wrong with you) then you’ll love this.

53 – Luke Abbott – Translate

Luke Abbott does all kinds of interesting and exciting things with his modular synth. Modern usage of an old tool.

54 – Atticus Ross – Dispatches from Elsewhere (Music from the Elsewhere Society)
54 – Atticus Ross – Dispatches from Elsewhere (Music from the Jejune Institute)

Atticus Ross is a frequent collaborator of Trent Reznor. For this soundtrack outing, he’s working alone and has created two wildly different pieces of work, one heavily influenced by library music and with an endearing 70s vibe. The other is more of a modern take on electronic minimalism. Both are ace. the show’s supposed to be good too. On the list.

55 – Cucina Povera – Tyyni

Mysterious experimental electronic music.

56 – Emma Ruth Rundle, Thou – May Our Chambers Be Full

This partnership was a great idea, Emma Ruth Rundle and her heart-on-sleeve style is a great foil for Thou’s sludgy melodramatics.

57 – Yo La Tengo – We Have Amnesia Sometimes

Five wonderful improvised tracks from, we’re not worthy, Yo La Tengo!

58 – Luminous Bodies – Nah Nah Nah Yeh Yeh Yeh 2020)

I can’t really do a year end list without mentioning the god-like Butthole Surfers at least once. Luminous Bodies clearly take a lot of inspiration from the greatest band Texas ever produced, as well they might. so that means of course that what you have here is a splendidly unhinged, messy, noisy, psych stew.

59 – Mong Tong – Mystery 秘神

Fantastic Chinese dance music. Bouncy, funky, other. 

60 – Nick Cave – Idiot Prayer (Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace)

Is there nothing that this genius can’t do? What a brilliant representation of 2020 it was to make a film of a solo concert in a huge venue. These voice and piano interpretations of some of his greatest songs lend them added weight. Just check out The Mercy Seat and you’ll see what I mean.

61 – Nihiloxica – Kaloli

So it turns out when you pair up African percussionists with Western electronic producers you get something special.

62 – Patricia Kokket – Bizarr

This complex and captivating collection of modern techno takes inspiration from foreign travels and strange places. 

63 – Pearl Jam – Gigaton

I like Pearl jam. I’ve always liked Pearl jam. I think they’re really underrated. Eddie Vedder has a fantastic voice that sets them apart from the rest. They write good songs too, and there’s lots of them on this album. I like it.

64 – Junk Drawer – Ready For The House

Another one that didn’t knock me dead at the start that I kept coming back to. This is excellent indie rock that grows and grows on you.

65 – Bruxa Maria – The Maddening

This is one of the better and more inventive noise rock outfits around. In places they crank it up and go all-out thrash metal, but the best and most menacing stuff happens when they slow it right down as on menacing, anthemic, closer Zaragoza.

66 – C418 – Minecraft – Volume Beta

This is an enormous, sprawling gathering of minimal electronic ambience, to accompany the game. While the sheer size of it is a bit daunting there’s some brilliant stuff on here.

67 – Vinnum Sabbathi – Of Dimensions and Theories

 A double album of sci-fi themed conceptual doom. Apparently it should be played in different sequences to get the full impact. I’ll be honest, I didn’t go that far, but the voice samples fit brilliantly into the spacious arrangements and the calm, storm, calm thing is always a winner innit?

68 – Wire – 10:20

This is a brilliant release of some reworked unreleased stuff. It holds together excellently. Wire. Best post-punk band of all time. Period. And on they roll.

69 – Soft Power – Brink of Extinction

Super modern jazz from Sweden.

70 – Somnus Throne – Somnus Throne

Spendid Sabbathian dooooooom.

71 – SPICE – SPICE

Super spiky post-punk anthems. Full of vim, vigor, and zest. Lovely. If I was 18 I’d jump off of things to this.

72 – Trees Speak – Shadow Forms
72 – Trees Speak – Ohms

Let’s face it, recording music is a better way to spend your time than sitting around moaning. Thankfully Trees Speak is another band who agrees, cranking out two albums worth of enigmatic motorik/kosmiche electronics in 2020. Mysterious and kind of mournful. They are on Soul Jazz.

73 – Uniform – Shame
Proper fierce noise rock this. The lead singer can probably strip paint with his voice. In the car, turned up to 11, perfect. 

74 – Vaclaw Zimpel – Massive Oscillations

He’s everywhere is Vaclaw. Collaborating with a who’s who of great artists and then dropping this mammoth electronic jazz freakout. The title track uses a wicked cycling drone to lull you into an altered state, and it kind of takes off from there.

75 – Stereoboy – Kung Fu

this is just an EP but it shows so much promise that it has to feature on this list. The four tracks on here are slow building and propulsive little gems. Top drawer modern Krautrocky stuff from Portugal.

76 – Sven Wunder – Eastern Flowers (Doğu Çiçekleri)
76 – Sven Wunder – Wabi Sabi

Since this is the second example on the list I’m going to have to take as read that Turkish psychedelic rock is a thing. Well, you live and you learn. Here’s another artist to bring out two albums this year, the first is full of exuberant guitar-led instrumentals. On the second he branches out a little further and playfully throws Chinese influences into the mix.

77 – Cult of Dom Keller – Ascend!

Muddy, soupy, psych stew.

78 – Daniel Avery – Love + Light

More state-of-the-art IDM from Daniel Avery.

79 – Jackie Lynn – Jacqueline

Hayley Fohr gives another outing to her country diva alter ego in this fascinating collection of modern country-influenced music.

80 – Dark Buddha Rising – Mathreyata

Finnish psychedelic doom at its very best.

81 – Free The Robots – DATU –

This US artist dives deep into African rhythms and beats to fashion this compulsively repetitive music.

82 – Fleet Foxes – Shore

I love the vocal harmonies. As usual fleet Foxes deliver some well-crafted songs, meticulously arranged.

83 – Oneness of Juju – African Rhythms 1970-1982

This is another reissue that just had to creep onto the list. This is an exuberant gathering of the seventies work of this essential funk and soul collective. Rump shaking bliss.

84 – The Amorphous Androgynous with Peter Hammil – We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal

If you’re signing up Peter Hammil for a project you’re always going to be strapping into a progressive rocket to the stars. And so we do.

85 – The Bug, Dis Fig – In Blue

Serial collaborator Kevin Martin latches his dub-wise deep base bombs to some spectral, feverish lullabies.

86 – The Dream Syndicate – The Universe Inside

Here’s another reformed ’80s band, I don’t really remember anything that they did back then, but this is a lot of fun. The massive 20-minute lead track is a hypnotic, loping, jazz-out.

87 – Julianna Barwick – Healing Is A Miracle

You know what you’re going to get with Juliana Barwick, this is ethereal, fluffy, floaty stuff.
Unfortunately, I’m going to have to describe it as lovely.

88 – Kairon IRSE! – Polysomn

Fascinating jazzy psychedelic rock.

89 – Lastryko – Tętno Pulsu

Top drawer Polish motorik psych.

90 – Polymoon – Caterpillars of Creation

Super fun and immersive Finnish guitar rock.

91 – Quakers – Supa K Heavy Tremors

Well this is weird. Most tracks check in at under a minute so this is an inventive and rowdy collection of banging, bouncing. hip hop nuggets. A ton of fun.

92 – Richard Norris – Elements 

These are expansive long-form ambient compositions custom-built to massage your brain from the outside.

93 – Rival Consoles – Articulation

Intricate and involving IDM from the ever reliable Rival Consoles.

94 – Sex Blender – The Second Coming

Great name, great music. Driving Ukrainian stoner-psych-kraut goodness.

95 – Shackleton, Vaclaw Zimpel – Primal Forms

Shackleton is making some bloody weird music. So it’s no surprise that old Vaclav Zimpel wanted to hop on for a ride. The result is pretty intense, and very absorbing.

96 – Shit and Shine – Malibu Liquor Store

I’m curious how Shit and Shine manages to make sounds so sticky and seedy. Just listening to this makes me want to shower. 

97 – Six Organs of Admittance – Companion Rises

Ben Chesney has decided to run back on the experimentation and actually make songs and sing and all that. He really does it very well indeed and this is an absorbing listen.

98 – SLIFT – UMMON

This French band make gleefully expansive guitar rock. They bloody love a guitar solo, but thankfully do a damned good job of it.

99 – Slum Of Legs – Slum of Legs

Excellent in-your-face indie, that stands out from the crowd for me because of the, I don’t know what it is, electric cello or something? It sounds great anyway.

100 – Soccer Mommy – Color Theory

Excellent emo-pop.

101 – Soden – Onwards​.​.​. Towards the Tundra

I think that you call this post metal. I mean it gets heavy as hell in places and then spends ages building atmosphere in others. Fortunately, I’ve never been stuck on the tundra but I would imagine it feels a bit like this sounds.

102 – Bully – SUGAREGG

More brash, quirky indie rock from Bully. There’s nobody else doing this sort of music this well right now I reckon.

103 – Car Seat Headrest – Making A Door Less Open

I’ll be honest, I liked what Car Seat Headrest was doing before. I don’t think he really needed to head into flirting with electronic music, since the guitar rock sound he had going was peerless. but the songs are still here and with only a couple of exceptions he pulls this off very well.

104 – Filmmaker – Dimensional
104 – Filmmaker – Royal Dungeon EP

Excellent horror techno.

105 – Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death

I’m not usually too much of a fan of earnest angry indie rock. Idols, for example, do nothing for me. But Fontaines DC are a cut above the rest and there’s some pretty good stuff to be found here.

106 – John Mulhearn – The Pipe Factory

Right, confession time. I think that bagpipes are marvelous. I love a bit of a drone anyway.
So this is an unflinchingly modern collection of bagpipe compositions that will go down well with anybody who likes a bit of drone and some complex tonality.

107 – Lonker See – Hamza

Inventive, straight to the stars, stoner rock.

108 – Memnon Sa – World Serpent

I never checked the backstory of this one but I guess it must be pretty out there. There’s ritual chants and prayers to some kind of weird deity or other. It’s all fun and games until someone gets sacrificed, isn’t it?

109 – Modern Studies – The Weight Of The Sun

Modern studies make meticulously crafted, folky, jazzy, indie pop The male/female vocal harmonies sound great and this is a fine collection of songs.

110 – Narrow Head – 12th House Rock

If you’re of the school of thought that the first three Smashing Pumpkins albums were really brilliant and then everything else should have been binned, then you’ll like this lot. Sure, they’re derivative, and this could almost be a remake of Gish, but hey, it sounds great and I really enjoyed it.

111 – Nothing – The Great Dismal

This is excellent shoegaze.

112 – Par Asito – Singularity

Okay here’s the tracklisting, see if you can guess what kind of music this lot make.
Accretion disc. Relativistic jets. Photonsphere. Event horizon. Singularity.
Say no more.

113 – Paradise Cinema – Paradise Cinema

Another slow-grower that incorporates African rhythms in a really unusual way.

114 – Phase Fatale – Scanning Backwards

What do you call this stuff, I can’t remember? It’s kind of a slowed-down, pared-back dark industrial techno. It’s nasty but ace.

115 – Adult – Perception is as of Deception

More sharp-edged, ice-cold electro from Adult.

116 – This Is The Kit – Off Off On

Yeah, this is really nice indie pop/rock.

117 – Bob Mould – Blue Hearts

Old Bob is angry. Aren’t we all? He’s channelled is anger by smashing out some good old thrashy Husker Du style tunes. Good for him!

118 dgoHn – Undesignated Proximate

Dubby drum and bass, from a land far, far away.