1: James Holden – Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities
James Holden’s continuing adventures at the margins of electronic music continue to astound. Here, he reimagines rave from a distance.
2: Jellyskin – In Brine
The Most Fun Album of the Year award is won hands down by Leeds’s Jellyskin. Their addictive blend of electro-krautrock features tracks about what it’s like to be a cephalopod and how cool lifts are. Addictive bangers for weird parties.
3: All Hands Make Light – Darling The Dawn
Anything related to the mighty Godspeed You Black Emperor immediately grabs my attention. This deeply affecting collaboration between singer Ariel Engle and that band’s drone maestro Efrim Menuck, might be the best thing they’ve ever been involved in.
4: a.s.o. – a.s.o
This brilliant debut reminds you of everything you loved about trip-hop without seeming derivative.
5: Föllakzoid – V
Chile’s freakiest psych surgeons double down on everything they’re good at on this fifth album (which comes in at number five, pop pickers). Hypnotic electronic rhythms pummel away mercilessly, accompanied by weird spoken word glossolalia closer to witchcraft than lyrics.
6: Free Love – Inside
Manchester’s Free Love have packed a career’s worth of ideas into this diverse, very fun electronic album that shrugs of genre tags with gay abandon. Club earworms rub shoulders with moody atmospherics.
7: Miss Grit – Follow the Cyborg
An excellent album of kinda electro-indie-pop. Great songs and gleaming production.
8: Modern Nature – No Fixed Point In Space
Perhaps I do this band a disservice by always mentioning Talk Talk, but I can’t help it. They are enough of their own thing not to be imitative but they have taken a similar path to Mark Hollis’s legendary band by dialing back every single piece of unnecessary sound. This is patient, elegantly crafted songwriting of the very top order. It takes a couple of listens to etch itself into your synapses, but once it’s there, it’s there forever.
9: Baby Cool – Earthling On The Road To Self-Love
This album is, well, cool. Light, airy summertime driving music done with impeccable taste and charm.
10: Sparklehorse – Bird Machine
This posthumous release from the marvelous Mark Linkous was so much more than we had any right to expect. Largely completed before his death his brother and previous musical collaborators carefully and respectfully collated it, and the result stands up with his best work. The circumstances of its release further enhance it’s bittersweet charm.
11: µ-Ziq – 1977
Veteran producer Mike Paradinas is restrained but playful on this album of downbeat atmospherics.
12: Clark – Sus Dog
There’s some belters on here, including the driving ‘TownCrank.’ It’s a diverse and inventive collection of IDM.
13: Meemo Comma – Loverboy
Meemo Comma is one of the most restless experimental musicians around. Here, she delves deep into the club sounds of the time to explore a reimagined 1990s.
14: Anthony Naples – orbs
A downtempo treat from one of New York’s finest producers.
15: Craven Faults – Standers
More long-form synth meditations from the singular vision of Craven Faults.
16: Avalon Emerson – & the Charm
An earworm-laden treasure trove of sun-bleached indie pop treats.
17: Acid Arab – ٣ (Trois)
Club-ready thumpers galore with collaborations from a host of musicians from all over the Arab world.
18: Andrea – Due in Color
This inventive artist uses the building blocks of drum and bass to construct widescreen soundscapes.
18: David Holmes – Blind On A Galloping Horse
The first album in 15 years from Northern Ireland’s finest eschews the exploration of his earlier work for a refreshingly direct and personal suite of heartfelt and accomplished songs.
19: Rose City Band – Garden Party
Gentle and warm pastoral rock that’s as comfortable as your favourite slippers.
20: Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay – Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay
The best Americana of the year comes from this collaboration between two gifted musicians. Delightfully steely guitar tones.
21: Melenas – Ahora
An assured and ebullient collection library meets indie-pop earworms from this Spanish band.
22: Black Helium – UM
Excellent murky, sweaty, psych noise.
23: Beirut – Hadsel
Beirut has always made beautiful music. Over recent years he’s seemed to be trying hard to reinvent himself, but thankfully, here he reverts to his tried and tested sound which consists of exceptionally lovely eastern European influenced music. If it ain’t broke…
24: Mong Tong – Tao Fire
This Taiwanese band make delightfully off the wall electronic music heavily influenced by Eastern culture and vintage psychedelia.
25: CO-PILOT – Rotate
A wicked album of weirdo library psych-pop. Catchy, compelling, and off-kilter.
26: Crayola Eyes – Gushing
Psych-pop anthems abound on a belting debut from this exciting Indonesian band.
27: Carlton Melton – Resemble Ensemble/Turn To Earth
These American psych veterans are no slouches, dropping two albums in a year. Both focus on their more subdued side, and the introduction of electronic sounds is a step forward.
28: Bdrmm – I Don’t Know
Excellent 2nd album of shoegazey indie rock
29: Kelela – Raven
Starting with a soul/R&B template Kelela weaves about a million other influences into a heady brew. She has a great voice, and this is a thoroughly modern and wildly inventive album.
30: Rozi Plain – Prize
Rozi Plain writes gentle songs whose subtleties and clever arrangements are slowly revealed on repeated listening. So, a grower.
31: Helicon – God Intentions
Driving krauty psych is the order of the day with these forward-thinking Scots who squeeze an old formula into interesting new shapes.
32: Rrose – Please Touch
Moody and minimalist experimental electronics. Beats pulse, not much happens, and the tension builds in a satisfyingly foreboding way.
33: Isolee – Resort Island
Gleaming production from this German producer makes this a very listenable collection of housey stuff.
34: Marlene Ribeiro – Toquei no Sol
This solo album from a Gnod collaborator couldn’t be more different from their seething grind. This is a dark, quiet, journey through found sounds and low-key, almost cinematic moods. It works excellently as a whole, building to the standout, slightly more opaque tracks.
35: Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
A&W is the track of the year, defo. Just play it, now. And the rest of this latest from the prolific Lana is excellent too.
38: Aesop Rock – Integrated Tech Solutions
Hip-hop’s preeminent wordsmith returns with a sparkling set satirizing corporate gobbledegook.
39: Lankum – False Lankum
Folk music repurposed and reinvented as doomy horror. It’s got wicker man written all over it. In blood.
40: Olivia Rodrigo – Guts
Apparently this is liked by kids and dads alike. Guilty as charged. This mixture of searching ballads and alt-rock bangers did the trick for me.
41: Anthemic Tapes – Anthemic Beliefs
Weirdo post-rave, post-everything downtempo coolness.
42: The Shits – You’re A Mess
Furious, shouty, scuzzy punk. Like a loofah for your ears.
43: The Telescopes – Of Tomorrow
I’m new to this band, but they’ve been around forever. You have to have been, I think, to be able to knock off nonchalant-sounding slow-burn psychedelia like this with casually drawled lyrics that just fit perfectly.
44: En Attendant Ana – Principia
“Wonder” is one of the tracks of the year, and the rest of this bright and breezy album of upbeat indie pop is of a similarly high standard.
45: Kerala Dust – Violet Drive
Here’s a kind of travelogue of mysterious but insistent dance music that’s right up my street.
46: Khotin – Release Spirit
Khotin’s music is fond of the past. He peppers his productions with found sounds and old recordings. This creates a compelling and intimate atmosphere that draws you in.
47: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – The Silver Cord
These Australian nutters are ridiculously prolific, and about half their stuff is great, and half I can’t bear. That was the case this year, their thrash metal album did my head in, but this is brilliant. Seven bright synth-driven tracks are followed my seven vastly extended versions that never outstay their welcome.
48: Matthew Halsall – An Ever Changing View
Manchester’s Matthew Halsall is a brilliant modern jazz musician, and this is a brilliant modern jazz album.
49: Moth Equals – Out of Darkness by Magic
Not sure how I came across this, but I love it. I can’t improve on the Bandcamp writeup as a description; “’Out of darkness, by magic’ is a new collection of 12 electronic tracks, woven into a folk story about a witch, a pair of magic gloves, and an enormous shark with a penchant for eating stars.”
50: Nathan Micay – To The God Named Dream
Nathan Micay has moved from club music to film scores, and this fascinating album drops right inthe middle. There’s plenty of darkness and light here, and it all hangs together really well as a cohesive whole.
51: ILUITEQ – Reflections From The Road
ILUITEQ go from strength to strength, and this album, inspired by the Cormac McCarthy novel (R.I.P. you legend), is as involving and evocative as you could wish for.
52: Oxbow – Love’s Holiday
What a strange band, this Oxbow. I first bought their music in the late 80s, liking it because it was so extreme. This album, while still hardly mainstream, is much more refined and covers a hell of a lot of ground.
53: Pale Blue Eyes – This House
Top drawer indie pop. Bright, sunny, moreish.
54: Decisive Pink – Ticket to Fame
Splendid goofball pop from Angel Deradoorian and Kate NV.
55: Lael Neale – Star Eaters Delight
“I am the river” is a killer, killer tune, and sets the scene perfectly for this accomplished album from an up-and-coming singer songwriter.
56: Róisín Murphy – Hit Parade
Another excellent collection of well-crafted bangers from Ms. Murphy.
57: Shackleton & Zimpel with Siddhartha Belmannu – In The Cell of Dreams
Intricate long-form meditations from two fearless musical explorers.
58: Smote – Genog
A powerful album of psychy folk. While Lankum have deservedly got lots of praise, this is up there too imo.
59: L’Rain – I Killed Your Dog
Soul-psych? I dunno, something like that. However, that’s a bit reductive, since the talented L’Rain jumps from genre to genre with ease. Brief, but overflowing with ideas.
60: Teeth of the Sea – Hive
This is TOTS at their eclectic best, going from orchestral ambience, through techno, into indie pop.
61: The Brian Jonestown Massacre – The Future Is Your Past
Anton Newcombe writes brilliant catchy indie pop with ridiculous ease.
62: V Z – Suono Assente
The brilliant Valentina Magaletti teams up with music producer and multi-instrumentalist Zongamin to make a killer album of dubby post-punk.
63: Vanishing Twin – Afternoon X
And here’s Valentina Magaletti again, this time with Cathy Lucas, making their inimitable blend of outsider art-pop.
64: Colin Stetson – When We Were That What Wept for the Sea
Everyone’s favourite circular-breathing saxophonist makes a moving tribute to his father.
65: Flyying Colours – You Never Know
A cracking collection of poppy shoegaze rock.
66: Dead Sea Apes – Rewilding
Deep, dubby, dingy psych.
67: Estrella del Sol – Figura de Cristal
Breathy vocals shimmer over dreamy, gauzy melodies on this captivating solo debut. Brief, but charming.
68: Flamingods – Head of Pomegranate
Cheery indie pop that falls somewhere in Phantom Band, Super Furry Animals territory.
69: Greg Foat – Dolphin / Greg Foat & Art Themen – Off-Piste / Greg Foat & Ayu Salawu – Interstellar Fantasy
Bewilderingly prolific virtuoso Greg Float graced us with (at least) three albums this year, ranging from vintage synth workouts to sunny jazz.
70: Hey Colussus – In Blood
Another solid entry in the canon of these long-serving alt-rock standard-bearers.
71: Holy Tongue – Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare
Ultra-heavy glacial dub rhythms throb away. Dark, muddy, and compelling.
72: Inkarose – A Love Letter to Water
A delightful collection of water-themed ambient music.
73: Jaimie Branch – Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (world war)
This is sadly a posthumous release from this talented jazz trumpeter.
74: Blondshell – Blondshell
Quality catchy and upfront hook-heavy indie pop.
75: Andy Bell – Tidal Love Numbers
The prolific Mr. Bell lets his muse loose on a set of long-form ambient explorations. Soothing and charming.
76: African Head Charge – A Trip To Bolgatanga
The years pass, but African Head Charge forge on with their lifelong search for the perfect rhythm. A most welcome return from the On-U sound legends.
77: Lia Kohl – The Ceiling Reposes
Ambient music doesn’t have to have nothing happening. Here chimes chime and bells ring in a most unusual, but rewarding fashion. Delightfully strange.
78: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Land of Sleeper
An ace collection of meaty meaty sludge and doom.
79: Mandy, Indiana – I’ve seen a way
An inventive marriage of club electronics and post-punk from this promising new Manc outfit.
80: The Holy Family – Go Zero
I’m actually quite scared of this. Peculiar slo-mo chants sprawl across crawling psychedelia.
81: This Is The Kit – Careful Of Your Keepers
Cerebral indie pop with plenty of hooks and intricate arrangements.
82: Oozing Wound – We Cater To Cowards
People, we are in Jesus Lizard territory, and that’s some high praise right there.
83: The Future Sound of London – Environment 7.003
Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans are the greatest electronic producers of all time; let’s be quite clear about that. Here, they cast out more casual brilliance. This is a moody set not a million miles away from their excellent Blackhill Transmitter album.
84: Pizza Hotline – Level Select
Excellent old-school drum and bass. Gleaming production and great tunes make it more than just a rehash.
85: The Clientele – I Am Not There Anymore
I’m bewildered as to why The Clientele aren’t massive. They write great indie-pop gems in the vein of bands like Elbow, but, you know, better.
86: The Hold Steady – The Price of Progress
The best from The Hold Steady for some time takes on ageing with characteristically brilliant wordsmithery.
87: Polypores – Praedormitium
Analog synth musings to chill to. Elegantly atmospheric.
88: Rezn – Solace
Chewy, slo-mo stoner doooom. Rezn rite ripping riffs.
89: Blur – The Ballad of Darren
This mature and rewarding return is a lesson in how to mature as a band while still making relevant, but most importantly, interesting music.
90: JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown – SCARING THE HOES
This fierce collaboration could kick the teeth out of most noise rock, but never takes itself too seriously.
91: Sam Prekop and John McEntire – Sons Of
Sunny and elegant electronic music in four delightfully long-form installments.
92: Sans Merit – Early Grave
This could have appeared in the 1980s, but that’s not a criticism, since it’s an excellent homage to bands like the The Cure.
93: Strategy – Graffiti In Space
An excellent ambient album that makes great use of throbbing dub techno subsonics.
94: Sufjan Stevens – Javelin
Sufjan returns to singer-songwriter mode to great effect. It’s what he does best and few do it better.
95: The Circling Sun – Spirits
This exuberant modern jazz album comes from a supergroup of New Zealand’s finest jazz luminaries.
96: Wednesday – Rat Saw God
Cracking in yer face shoegaze with a liberal dusting of 90s alt-rock.
97: Water from Your Eyes – Everyone’s Crushed
Excellent experimental post-punk, with faltering stop-start sonics and a flair for sound design. Their willingness to experiment reminds me of Sonic Youth, not so much in the sound, just in the fearlessness.
98: Tzusing – 绿帽 Green Hat
Lunatic skittering and thumping beats. Hard as nails, this.
99: Ulrika Spacek – Compact Trauma
The Spacek have carved out a very distinctive post-punk indie corner for themselves and really don’t sound like anyone but themselves.
100: Winter – What Kind of Blue Are You
An impressive set of moody indie rock with a distinctively cool and wintery feel.
101: Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World
They’ve never made a bad album, and they’re never going to. These indie stalwarts cast out great tunes like it ain’t no thing.
102: Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily – Love In Exile
This spectral ambient album is a masterpiece of restraint, building a great deal with not much.
103: Beqa Ungiadze – სადგური Station
A delightfully bubbly album of warm ambient electronica.