Electronic:
-Aphex Twin - Collapse EP
(The Collapse EP is the best Aphex Twin release since his return from hiatus. In some ways it's a return to an earlier/classic Aphex Twin sound - but in other ways it feels like a journey new territory.)
Autechre - NTS Sessions (This should probably be in the top 10 - but I have not fully digested this 8 hours album yet. The nearly one hour long closing track on here is one of the most gorgeous things they have ever composed)
Skee mask (techno / dub / breakbeats / ambient - sort of reminiscent of early 90s IDM at times)
Against All Logic - 2012-2017 (Nicolas Jaar making more fun-oriented & accessible house music)
Yves Tumor - Safe in the Hands of Love
Helena Hauff - Hyper-Intelligent Genetically Enriched Cyborg (noisey techno)
Rabit - Toe in the Bardo Pond
Rabit - Toe in the Bardo Pond
Demdike Stare - passion (haunted dancehall vibes)
Jon Hopkins - Singularity
Jlin - Autobiography
SOPHIE - OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES
Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of
Eartheater - Irisiri
Mr. Fingers - Cerebral Hemispheres (jazzy house vibes)
DJ Koze - Knock Knock
Isabella - Whistle
Lotic - Power
iglooghost - Steel Mogu & Clear Tamei
Laurel Halo - Raw Silk Uncut Wood
Pariah - Here From Where We Are
Mouse on Mars - Dimensional People
Foodman - Aru Otoko No Densetsu
Folk / Singer-Songwriter
Snail Mail - Lush (one of the best new singer-songerwriters in indie-rock)John Prine - Tree of Forgiveness
(the closer on here is one of my favorite tracks of the year)
Adrian Lenker - Abysskiss
boygenius - boygenius EP
Jeff Tweedy - WARM
Sam Moss - Neon
Laminated Animals - Fossil Rock (weirdo lo-fi comedy singer-songwriter with psychedelic orchestration, all recorded with a lap-top microphone)
Windowsill & Ashtray (Windowsill & Ashtray are avant-Comedy duo originating from Hong Kong)
Big Thief - wide winged bird (field recordings manipulated by James Krivchenia)
Soccer Mommy
Mark Kozelek - Mark Kozelek (best release of Mark's this year)
Amen Dunes - Freedom
Lucy Dacus - Historian
Mount Eerie - Now Only
Sun Kil Moon - This is My Dinner (almost feels more like a podcast with these narratives - I can’t imagine Mark getting any more stream of conscious / journelesque & meta…but that’s what I said after his last record…and this one is definitely much further in that direction)
Small Axe - Ultimate Reality
Ruby Luna - Heirloom
Rock:
Coaches - A Bright Crumb of Steel (indie rock with anthematic guitars, sludgy grooves, gorgeous shoegazey textures, emotive songwriting, & catchy hooks)Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch (their best since the Fragile - more experimental & skeletal to the point where it almost sounds unfinished at times)
Big Eater - Unconditional Love (Bachman’s voice is beautiful, raw, and sorta whispery & his songwriting is equally beautiful, vulnerable and naked)
Yo La Tengo - There’s a Riot Going on (this is not a reimagining of the Sly & the Family stone album of the same name...more ambient and even more vibey than their usual work)
Moonface - This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet (Moonface’s swan song is filled with minimalist patterns, plenty of marimba, a little bit of smooth sax and some of Spencer’s best lyrics yet)
Sandro Perry - In Another Life (the 24 minute title track on here is one of my favorite songs of the year)
Julia Holter - Aviary
Gurulla Toss - Twisted Crystal
Dear Nora - Skulls Example
Low - Double Negative
Ohmme - Parts
Sea & Cake - Anyday
Mitski- Be the Cowboy
Giraffes? Giraffes! - Memory Lame (fun math-rock)
METAL:
Behemoth - I Loved You at Your Darkest (Satanic black metal)Of the Sun - Time Death (ritualistic tribal earth-metal)
Sleep - The Sciences (Stoner Metal)
Sumac - Love in Shadow
DeafHeaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love (nowhere near as good as "Sunbather" - but it's worth it for "Glint" and some other moments on here)
Modern Classical / “Serious Music” / Experimental / Ambient:
Laurie Anderson & the Kronos Quartet - Landfall (hands down, the dreamiest album of the year)Jan Jelinek - Zwischen (sound collages which primarily uses the moments between the spoken words as source material - such as pauses for breath and hesitations in which the interviewees utter non-semantic sound particles).
James Krivchenia - No Comment (sound from soldier cams is manipulated to create an emotive, textural, world of sound).
Tigue - Strange Paradise (groovy minimalist post-rocky vibes)
Steve Roach - Molecules of Motion
moviegoer - A Way Alone (beautiful ambient vibes)
Aqueduct Ensemble - Improvisations on an Apricot
Daniel Bachman - The Morning Star
Brad Mehldau - After Bach
Tim Hecker - Konoyo
Steve Reich - Pulse / Quartet
Clairice Jensen - For This From That Will Be Filled (droney minimalist modern classical work)
Philip Glass: The Hours / Distant Figure
Jazz:
Ambrose Akinmusire - Origami Harvest (a cross section of spoken word, jazz, and modern classical)
Charles Lloyd & the Marvels & Lucinda Williams - Vanished Gardens
John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble
Henry Threadgill & 14 or 15 Kestra: AGG - Dirt & More Dirt
Cecile McLorin Salvant - The Window
Makaya McCaven - Universal Beings
Myra Melford's Snowy Egret - The Other Side of Air
Jason Linder - The Buffering Cocoon
GoGo Pengiun - A Hundrum Star (sort of like D&B being performed by a piano trio)
The Nels Cline 4 - Currents, Constellations
Joshua Redman - Still Dreaming
Andrew Cryille - Lebrobra
Hip-Hop
Pusha-T - Daytona (Some of the best Kanye beats ever)Black Thought - Stream of Thought (Volumes 1 & 2)
(if Black Thoughts freestyle from last year didn't convince you he's still one of the best - these 2 EPs will)
Roc Marciano - RR2: The Bitter Dose
Roc Marciano - Behold a Dark Horse
nonane - room 25
Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar (alternative hip-hop)
“World”
Sidi Toure - Toublero (Mali)Angelique Kidjo - Remain in Light (an afro-beat reimagining of the Talking Heads album)
Ammar 808 - Maghreb United (Tunisia)
Orquesta Akokan - Orquesta Akokan (musica tropical)
R&B / Funk
Georgia Anne Muldrow - Overload
serpentwithfeet - soil
St. Paul & the Broken Bones - Young Sick Camelia
Vulfpeck - Hill Climber
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