So another year whistles past in what feels like moments. Sometimes the abundance of incredible new music is the only thing that parses time and taps on the brakes a little. Talented artists are making stunning music in all genres all the time. The sadness of never being able to hear it all is more than set off by the thrill of the hunt and the pleasure of finding something new. Here’s some of what I discovered this year. I’ve listed the best albums in number order, although we all know that’s preposterous. Everything is linked, so give it a minute to load. Then, for intrepid explorers, there’s another list of tons more new music below, which I’d love to write about if it didn’t eat into the time I could spend finding new music. I know it’s a sickness, but it’s a good disease. Enjoy!
1 – Pneumatic Tubes – A Letter from Treetops
This was the first album I earmarked for this list, back at the start of the year, and it’s been on regular repeat since then. “Poignant” is how Mark, my Radio Guesthouse partner in crime, described it, and that’s spot on. Jesse Chandler crafts a peaceful, pastoral landscape with gentle synths overlaid by flute and clarinet. Sure, it’s melancholic, but cathartic too, and always beautiful.
2 – Widowspeak – The Jacket
Widowspeak’s gentle indie/Americana is deceptively deep and nuanced, and this, their sixth album, sees them perfecting their sound. The title track, with Molly Hamilton’s breathy vocals soaring over Robert Earl Thomas’s primal guitar stabs, is a classic. For fans of Mazzy Star, Cowboy junkies, and the Velvets.
3 – Modern Nature – Island of Noise
Not since Talk Talk has a band so appreciated the sheer heft of space and restraint. Here, the results are incandescent. This is jazz-tinged and elegantly orchestrated music. A steady build throughout the whole album culminates in the last track’s repeated refrain, “Do you see it?” Oh yes, I see it.
4 – Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Not everyone gets repetition, but Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin use it here to dazzling affect. The first track’s repeated bass throb underpins a slow evolution that steadily unwraps itself over eight minutes. It’s a chilled but surprisingly funky piece. The rest of the album unfolds in a similarly rewarding fashion. These are musicians at the top of their game, playing off each other instinctively, always in the service of the track.
5 – Loop – Sonancy
Loop were one the most slept-on bands of the 1980s, their groundbreaking psychedelic repetition influenced scores of artists, but they never quite got the credit they deserved (Here’s their finest moment of that era). Now, an eternity later, they return, or at least frontman Robert Hampson does. It’s not like they never went away, though, this album is tighter and more urgent than their early work. They know what they want to do, and they do it. And that glorious, reverb-drenched guitar still radiates like a warm fire.
6 – Other Lands – Archipelagos
This is a deep trip into ambient/ambient techno territory. It’s all about islands and people as islands, that kind of thing. The mix of electronic sounds, drums, and strings works a treat, and then a gentle beat lifts everything. This is elegant music to accompany daydreams.
7 – DJ Python – Club Sentimientos Vol. 2, Ela Minus, DJ Python – Corazón, Luis – 057
DJ Python is one of the best producers working at the moment. His light, bright takes on reggaeton and dembow rhythms are perfect Koh Chang sundown material. He doesn’t work in long format much, releasing countless eps, collaborations, and remixes under various aliases. Here are a few from 2022. His collaboration with Ela Minus, above, was a musical highlight of the year.
8 – The Beths – Expert In A Dying Field
Bravo, to New Zealand, one of the world capitals of stargazing indie pop, for producing another gathering of bright-eyed dreamers. I came to this late but was very glad I did since it is a magnificent collection of knowing but optimistic power-pop for the ages. Great songs, shimmering vocal harmonies, catchy choruses, innit.
9 – Andy Bell – Flicker
Andy Bell, originally of Ride, and latterly of Oasis and its turgid offspring, thankfully saves his best music for his own name (and Glok, his electronic alias). He’s been working with Martin Jenkins (Pye Corner Audio – see below) in recent years, and they bring out the best in each other. Effect-laden guitar underpins the album, which is crammed with world-weary songs that can’t hide a touch of optimism.
10 – Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
listen to the first two tracks, and if they don’t grab you, then I really don’t know, get your ears cleaned or something. The first is as beautiful a slice of melancholy Americana as you’ll ever hear, and the second is a DIY rattletrap stormer. And the rest of the album does an accomplished job of stretching the parameters of the form as far as they’ll go. It’s been a brilliant year for this kind of music, and this lot here are right at the forefront.
11 – Gonora Sounds – Hard Times Never Kill
Nothing makes me grin wider than this kind of music done well, and the gleeful cackle at the start of the first track lets you know what’s coming, which is a top set-of inspired and gleeful African goodness. This Zimbabwean band is assembled around Daniel Gonora, and their music is based on an infectious style of street beat, also known as Gonora sounds.
12 – El Buho – Cenotes
This is an expanded re-release of a 2015 EP by a French producer who uses Central and South American music as the inspiration for his modern electronic compositions. This marriage of modern and traditional is hard to pull off but works a treat here, as dub and IDM sensibilities bring new life to hip-shaking rhythm patterns.
13 – SAULT – Air, AIIR, Earth, 10, 11, (Untitled) God, Today & Tomorrow
Hmmm, so, which one of the seven, (7!), s-e-v-e-n, bloody SEVEN albums SAULT released this year shall I choose? Best to put them all in. We have the airy choral beauty of Air and AIIR, the religious devotionals of God, and a whole lot of super modern R&B that dips liberally into every genre it likes. This band is so far out on its own at the moment, it’s ridiculous. There is no fear of failure and no desire to conform, so of course, they’re knocking it out of the park.
14 – Taxi Kebab – Visions al 2ard
Insistent electronic belters with a middle eastern touch and a delightful air of menace. Great name too.
15 – Soccer Mommy – Sometimes, Forever
This is how you do passionate indie singer/songwriter stuff. Drafting in Daniel Lopatin, aka Oneohtrix Point Never, as producer proves a masterstroke.
16 – Tess Parks – And Those Who Were Seen Dancing
Tess Parks has a wonderful voice, breathy, raspy, detached, and intimate. Previously, her work with Anton Newcombe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre has been great, and her solo stuff good. But she’s really nailed it this time. I’m not sure what’s changed, more experimentation perhaps, or just better songs? Whatever, it’s a winner that I came back to again and again over the year.
17 – Prinz Thomas – 8, 9
These two 2022 albums see Prins Thomas at the top of his game. Nobody does gleaming space disco like this feller. Superb, long-form disco rollers flash past, one after another.
18 – Pye Corner Audio – Let’s Emerge!
I’m really liking recent Pye Corner Audio stuff, and this record perfectly captures the pleasures of the escape from lockdown. This is much lighter and more joyful than much of his previous work. Analog synths quiver majestically, with real emotional heft, and the set builds and builds to the triumphant closer ‘Warmth of the sun’, a transcendent slow-burn builder worthy of a euphoric beach sunrise.
19 – King Buffalo – Regenerator
Their sound is so enormous that it’s hard to believe this band is only a trio. Their majestic take on heavy psych relies on well-crafted songs, excellent musicianship, and the soaring vocals of Sean McVay.
20 – Kibrom Birhane – Here And There
If you’re not a fan of Ethio-Jazz yet, then give this album a play, and you will be. Easily accessible, massively listenable, and groovy as you like; it’s a triumph. ‘Tinish tinish’ is thrillingly spontaneous, trumpets, saxophones and/or some other wicked horns duel across a lockstep rhythm.
21 – Aldous Harding – Warm Chris
Forget your Cate Le Bons, great as she can be, this is the best off-kilter singer-songwriter around right now. A New Zealander who migrated to the UK, Aldous Harding makes delightfully weird music. If you support the multiple worlds interpretation of quantum theory, then it’s a near certainty that Aldous Harding is from another one.
22 – Eades – Delusion Spree
A great recommendation by me old pal Joe Graham, who presents an excellent weekly radio show that’s electrifyingly eclectic (Listen here.) This is Eades first LP after a slew of great EPs. Post-punk is a lazy starting point, but this lot isn’t so easily typecast, and they adventure into jazz, indie rock, and elsewhere to forge their unique sound. Their self-confidence is well-founded, and their music is accessible enough for mass market appeal. Hope they make it big.
23 – Michael Diamond – Third Culture
The best music builds its own world, and this jazz and ambient-inflected take on modern UK club sounds is a case in point. It paints a picture of rain reflecting off big-city streets in the small hours of the morning. Urban, mournful, and slightly sinister.
24 – Kramer – Music For Films Edited By Moths
This is the most un-Kramer that he’s ever sounded, but it still sounds like Kramer. Not very helpful? OK. This is precise, almost classically ambient music from a musician and producer more accustomed to heady psychedelia. But that’s buried deep here too, especially in the wonderful closing track, “Or perhaps you imagined it all.” if the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, were an institution that rewarded consistently questing musical greatness, instead of a place where dinosaurs limp off to die, Kramer would be at its head, on a throne.
25 – Momma – Household Name
Anyone who loves 90s alt-rock should have a listen to this. It’s closer to Smashing Pumpkins and late-period Hole than Mudhoney. So what we get is an excellently crafted set of songs with hooks and choruses to die for, that stands on its own as a really fine rock record.
26 – Time Wharp – Spiro World
Brooklyn based Kaye Loggins produces an enveloping meld of organic and electronic sounds informed by pastoral ambient, jazz, and house music. This is texturally rich and emotive stuff, filled with wonder.
27 – Wet Leg – Wet Leg
Great tunes, hilarious, and downright dirty lyrics. It’s so nice when a band like this makes it big. They’re having a laugh and giving us one too (oo-er!) Cracking stuff.
28 – Soichi Terada – Asakusa Light
Veteran Japanese producer Soichi Terada sounds fresh and full of beans on this bouncing collection of house tracks. Eastern sounds are incorporated effortlessly, adding texture and interest. Listen to “Silent Chord,” above, and if you don’t like that, well, then I just don’t know.
29 – Viagra Boys – Cave World
Sweden’s greatest scumbags Viagra Boys are a gleefully inappropriate post-punk posse who eschew that genre’s po-faced form, instead throwing a rope around humor and leaping on its back. “Punk Rock Loser” is a glorious slacker-rock anthem to rival Beck’s “Loser,” and infectious scuzzy anthems of drink, drugs, theft, and general debauchery abound.
30 – Yard Act – The Overload
Yard Act is a delightfully lippy, gobby, and in-yer-face Leeds band. Their songs are full of political anger, but this is couched in wild stories, dark humour, and great lyrics including this, the line of the year; “In my day, the gear on the street was so weak it could eat your ambition in a matter of weeks just tryna envision the peak, and that’s bleak.” This album has got them loads of attention, and they deserve it. To all those bands currently talking instead of singing lyrics, simply because that seems to be the flavour of the month, this is how you do it proper like.
31 – Pale Blue Eyes – Souvenirs
This shouldn’t have worked, but it really did. Fresh-faced indie dance driven on by (Peter) hooky basslines. We’ve been here before, but not quite like this since they pull in plenty of other influences to make everything sound fresh. This is windows-down summer driving music, and who doesn’t love a bit of that?
32 – Haress – Ghosts
Psych music doesn’t all have to be guns-blazing Hawkindy space rock. This subtle, gossamer-like music is more in the freak folk vein, but make no mistake, this is heady, transportive stuff.
33 – Action & Tension & Space – Tellus
Jazz-tinged instrumental rock from Norway. Explorations of the ether kept earth-bound by a tight krautrocky rhythm section.
34 – Brainwaltzera – ITSAME
The mysterious Brainwaltzera is a top-drawer producer of forward-thinking braindance electronics that doffs its cap to its acid-tinged forebears. Skittering drum-and-bass rhythms underpin spacey synths.
35 – Billy Woods & Preservation – Aethiopes
I don’t listen to much hip-hop these days, so I guess loads must be passing me by. Loved this though. Billy Woods’ laconic drawl sounds just great when it’s smeared over warped and sparse industrial beats.
36 – Bitchin Bajas – Bajascillators
This is more immediate than some of the Bajas earlier work. Bright, simple themes evolve slowly and hypnotically over long track lengths. It’s playful and inventive stuff and sounds like the band had a whale of a time making it.
37 – Carmen Villain – Only Love From Now On
That she’s been remixed by Actress, Parris and Yu Su, shows the close link between Carmen Villain’s ghostly ambient compositions and mainstream dance music. This mysterious music seems deeply attuned to nature. Midnight forest music? Something like that, anyway.
38 – Golden Bug – Piscolabis
This French producer is in a field of his own at the moment. ‘Variation Sur 3 bancs’ featuring The Limiñanas is a prime example of his style; spoken word vocals of Gainsbourgian reserve override a slow but driving motorik beat. ‘Bring the light, featuring Pajaro sunrise, is another highlight, while ‘Colibri’ has an insistent pulse.
39 – Guided By Voices – Crystal Nuns Cathedral
Guided By Voices are hard to deal with. I just get overwhelmed with the volume of their output since they are still rattling on at several albums a year. Their music isn’t immediate, either. You need a few listens for Robert Pollard’s complex earworms to lodge in your brain. But when they do, they’re in for good. He’s a ridiculously gifted songwriter, and some of the best indie rock of the year can be found here. That’s probably also true of the other albums(s?) they released this year too, but I’ve not had the chance to go there, and that’s the problem.
40 – Somali Yacht Club – The Space
Ukraine’s excellently named Somali Yacht Club are in the business of making orchestral, tightly-played, stoner rock. They do a cracking job of it here, so if you like guitars and what have you, you’ll be well pleased with this. And, you know, go on Ukraine.
41 – Spiritualized – Everything Was Beautiful
Jason Pierce must be both pleased and appalled at the success of this album since every review seems to be saying it’s the best thing he’s done since the 90s. It is, though. It’s warmer, more life-affirming, and less risk-taking than his searing, emotionally turbulent, earlier work, but that’s not bad. I mean, you can’t blame the guy for being happy, can you?
42 – Sun’s Signature – Sun’s Signature
Liz Fraser is back. And it’s great. The lady with the best voice ever works with her husband, Damon Reece, to craft a set of reassuringly ethereal and mysterious tracks that are pretty much exactly what I was hoping they would be. It’s just an EP, alas, but let’s hope there’s more to follow soon.
43 – The Soundcarriers – Wilds
How pleasing when a band you didn’t think was coming back, does. And back with a vengeance in this case, since there’s a real sense of urgency to this collection of driving library pop that most of their peers lack. Ace harmonies litter these funky modern takes on sixties and seventies radiophonics.
44 – Ernest Hood – Back to the Woodlands
Ernest Hood was previously known for the obscure but hugely influential ‘Neighbourhood,’ a gentle jazz-inflected suite of tracks packed with everyday sounds recorded close to his home. This made a real contrast to the spacier, more abstract themes of other ambient artists at work in the 1970s. This newly found work is a companion piece based on nature rather than humankind. His gentle string glissades are full of warmth, and his restraint allows everything to stand out.
45 – Belief – Belief
This one harks back to the before, during, and after club goodness of the golden rave days. So there are acid grinders like ‘dreams’ parked next to looser electronic workouts like ‘Art of love.’ It’s confident, immersive, and beautifully sequenced.
46 – Bruxula – Dark Farfisa
Toronto’s Cosmic JD and Jerusa Leao have crafted a dubby soundscape that could be part of some strange ritual. Topped with haunting vocal harmonies, it’s mysterious and insistent, packing enough rhythmic punch to be a guaranteed floor filler at your next pagan rite.
47 – Jeremiah Chiu, Marta Sofia Horner – Recordings from the Aaland Islands
This is a prime example of music moored in location. The artists use field recordings from the titular islands between Sweden and Finland as the backdrop to their lush ambient compositions for strings, organ, and modular synthesizers. Birdsong abounds, and the whole set flows and shimmers with understated grace.
48 – Petbrick – Liminal
There’s some lovely music on this list, but sometimes that’s the last thing you need. Every so often, a bit of aural bleach is required to cleanse the palate. This vigourous set from Perbrick more than serves the purpose. A furious mix of hardcore, Hip Hop and caustic electronics, most effective when it slows to a swaggering crawl, although the blasting bits are good too.
49 – TVAM – High Art Lite
Manchester’s TVAM is a producer making chunky modern pop with the help of vintage synth sounds. This second album stretches the sound in some new directions, from the catchy title track to slow bangers like Double Lucifer.
50 – Deliluh – Fault Lines
Angular, experimental post-punk, post-rock, post-everything. The standout track is ‘Amulet,’ a beast of a slow-builder that grows, grows, and then just drops out, the teases.
51 – UFOMAMMUT – Fenice
Italy’s mighty UFOMAMMUT are no strangers to these lists, having been at the top of their psychedelic doom-metal game for a long time. A personnel change has reinvigorated them, and this complex suite of out-there experimental metal is as elegant and eviscerating as Eve, their previous high point.
52 – Moin – Paste
Taut, rhythmic post-punk shot-through with scattered, often unsettling vocal utterances. Guitar, bass, and drums mesh into tight patterns, leaving little space for air.
53 – Wet Satin – Wet Satin
A super fun collection of tropicalia and lounge-inspired dancefloor psych
OK. If you’ve got this far then you really should have a look at all these, too – any of which might have featured on the list above on another day.
- Thought Bubble – Primal Connection
Classy electro-psych with a post-punk pulse. - 50 Foot Wave – Black Pearl
The wonderful, wonderful Kristen Hersh in yet another late-career highlight.
- Anthene – Hope Remain
Warm ambient melancholia - Akusmi – Fleeting Future
Electronic instrumentals with a Michael Nyman sensibility. - Aleksi Perala – CYCLES
Mellow microtonal musings from the world’s most prolific musician - Amanda Whiting – Little Sunflower
Super-cool mellow jazz - Anatolian Weapons – Selected Acid Tracks
Turkish influenced experimentalists ramped up to exhilarating effect - Andy Bell – I Am A Strange Loop
Some cracking remixes from this year’s album - Aoife Nessa Frances – Protector
Excellent singer-songwriter stuff - Beach House – Once Twice Melody
The AC/DC of dream pop return - Beth Orton – Weather Alive
Fiercely candid comeback from this gifted singer-songwriter - Better Corners – Modern Dance Gold, Vol. 1
Experimental psych/noise deep dives - Black Lizard – Heads
Driving BRMC-esque guitar rock. Tons of fun. - Blacklab – In A Bizarre Dream
Lysergic Japanese metally-psych with a surprising (and excellent) Laetitia Sadier guest spot - Blood Incantation – Timewave Zero
Excellent frosty ambience from these black metal practitioners - Breanna Barbara – Nothin’ But Time
There’s a welcoming 70s/80s pop-rock feel to this rewarding collection - Built to Spill – When The Wind Forgets Your Name
Best in ages from Doug Martsch’s 90’s indie-rock icons - Chris Forsyth – Evolution Here We Come
Rewarding experimental rock improvisations - Cloakroom – Dissolution Wave
Stare at your feet! - Conan – Evidence Of Immortality
Dooooooom - Congotronics International – Where’s The One
This Congolese/International collective continues to create surprising fusion sounds - Dengue Dengue Dengue – Prisma – Pliegues
Excellent trance-like pulsations - dgoHn – Undesignated (Remixes)
Proper fierce drum’n’bass remix treats - dj 2button – Transient Communications
Superior electronics with weird bird sounds - Dream Syndicate – Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions
Their revival continues, with one of the saddest songs ever about not making the big time - Eric Copeland – Spiral Stairs
The Black Dice experimentalist has fun making electro-repeater earworms - Fenella – The Metallic Index
Jane Weaver’s project deals in explorative electronic atmospherics - First Aid Kit – Palomino
More country class from Sweden’s premier harmonically gifted sisters. - Florist – Florist
Absolute top-drawer Americana, peppered with interlude pieces that raise it well above the rest. - Fluxion – Parallel Moves
Accomplished ambient house/techno throbbers - Fret – BECAUSE OF THE WEAK
Ferocious all-caps industrial techno - Ghost Power – Ghost Power
Excellent library/kosmiche inspired electronics, having fun with the form. - Gnod – Hexen Valley
Salford’s psych industrialists make an absolute racket about Hebden Bridge - Goat – Oh Death
Still excellent psych-funk, but increasingly unlikely that they’ll top World Music.
- Guided By Voices – Tremblers And Goggles By Rank
See above. Ace indie – alarmingly prolific. - Gwenno – Tresor
Excellent singer-psychwriter stuff - Hannah Peel, Paraorchestra – The Unfolding
Synths and full orchestra pair up massively - Held By Trees – Solace
Ex Talk Talk alumni prepare a kind of prog Talk Talk album. It works. - Helms Alee – Keep This Be the Way
Genre-stretching experimental metallic psych rock - Holodrum – Holodrum
Ex Hookworms go dance – nicely too - Homeboy Sandman – Anjelitu
Aesop Rock collaborator spits some sharp, witty rhymes of some loose, funky beats. - Hooveriii – A Round of Applause
That’s ‘Hoover three’ in case you’re wondering. Nice spiky post-punk. They’re developing a properly individual sound. - Ibibio Sound Machine – Electricity
African house/funk goodness - Ill Considered – Liminal Space
Excellent, deceptive psychedelic jazz that sounds different on every play. - ILUITEQ – The Light Inside, The Dark Outside
World-swallowing experimental electronic ambience from these gifted Italian experimentalists - Jeigo – Cerulean
Every UK electronic genre is utilized in this inventive set, club-paced but home-friendly. - Just Mustard – Heart Under
Infectious gothy Irish shoegaze - Kelly Lee Owens – LP.8
Love it when an artist gets more and more experimental. Tense electronics, R&B chartism, and questing ambient all appear here, combining brilliantly. - Key Ratio – A Trip To The Present / One Take
Two wicked albums of forward-thinking electronics. Genres? Yep, loads used, but locked into none. Inventive, immersive, massive. - Kids On A Crime Spree – Fall in Love Not in Line
Class modern garage-indie rock - King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard – Omnium Gatherum
More class from Australias prolific pop-psychsters - Kuedo – Infinite Window
Lovely space-synth music. Lounge music for Ming The Merciless. - Lad Ash – Real Lies
An immersive and effective London-themed house concept album that alarmingly reminds me of The Revenge of Norton Folgate.
- Lake Haze – Henosis
Glitchy, melodic electronic oddness - Levon Vincent – Silent Cities
Low BPM late-night city throbs. But ‘Mother Earth’ is like a triumphant bagpipe victory march – I kid you not. - Low End Activist – Hostile Utopia
Wish I had the speakers to do the subterranean bass in this moody urban stuff justice. - Marina Herlop – Pripyat
Stunning manipulated vocals create a unique and deeply other sound-world. - Matthew Halsall – The Temple Within
An introspective, sunny EP from Manchester’s finest jazzer - Melin Melyn – Happy Gathering
A great tip from my mate Steve Cooper. Madcap Welsh experimentalists have lots of fun. - Melt Yourself Down – Pray For Me I Don’t Fit In
Unique, intense jazz-rock. I’d love to see this lot live, reckon they’d crush it. - Midlake – For The Sake Of Bethel Woods
Some great moments on the mighty Midlake’s latest, and most rewarding return. - MWWB – The Harvest
The name change is presumably to escape the doomy connotations of the old Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, and this inventive metal can’t be pinned to anything but itself either. - Neu – Tribute
Some wicked Neu mixes here from the likes of Mogwai, Steven Morris and The National - Oneida – Success
This uncharacteristically brief and accessible Oneida album is a treat. - Oren Ambarchi – Shebang
More casual genius from old Oren (see above) - Panda Bear And Sonic Boom – Reset
Byrds-like psych-pop harmonies from the Animal Collective and Spacement 3 titans - PVA – BLUSH
Fun throwback industrial electro-disco - Rubber Oh – Strange Craft
Excellent spacey psych-pop - S.O.N.S. – The Escape
Dubby gems in an escapist vein from this talented South Korean producer. - Samana – All One Breath
Intense, emotive alternative folk. - Saraty Khorwar, Photay – KALAK
Talented jazz musician and electronic producer combine to impressive effect - Shit And Shine – Phase Corrected
More vile noise from this Texan provocateur - SKRZ – While We Wait
This Icelandic collective, make intense, earnest, and beautiful music - Societe Etrange – Chance
Quite unique instrumental music from this dub-infuenced French collective. - Spaceheads – Rust
I loved this bright EP of funky trumpet and drums from these Manc veterans. - Spoon – Lucifer On The Sofa
Not as uniformly brilliant as their early stuff, but still some great tracks on here. Adrian Sherwood’s dub-remix version is good too. - Tagliabue – Un’ Altra Forma Di Vibrazioni
Inspired by electronic pioneers like Klaus Schultze, this Italian producer reshapes classic sounds for modern listeners. - Tarotplane – Aeonium / Horizontology / Light Self All Others
This prolific American sound artist is one of my discoveries of the year. He is a powerful experimental and ambient voice. - The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees
Abother excellent Brian Jonestown album, what else is there to say? - The Comet Is Coming – Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam
Huge-sounding cosmic jazz - The Future Sound Of London – Rituals e7.001
Nothing to look there. Just TFSOL shaking off more brilliance like it’s dandruff. - The Hardy Tree – Common Grounds
Clever and unique. Plaintive history and location-drenched semi-classical electronic music. from these urban fantasists. - The Mysterines – Reeling
Bold brassy indie noise rock done well - The Smile – A Light For Attracting Attention
This is a pretty good Radiohead album - GIFT – Momentary Presence
Vintage synth-driven poppy goodness - Videodrones – After the Fall
Tasty jazzy instrumental krautrock and library-influenced stuff - Wire – Not About To Die (Studio Demos 1977-1978)
The best post-punk band ever just casually proving they could have released loads more albums like the first one if that’s what they’d wanted. - Young Guv – GUV III / IV
Two excellent breezy albums packed with catchy pop-rock gems - µ-Ziq – Magic Pony Ride
The genius producer and label head Mike Paradinas drops another ace collection of wriggly electronic earworms