03 May 2020

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Albums and Singles

Saturday Night is the debut LP by old friends and collaborators Alex Twomey, Matthew Sullivan, and Sean McCann. Recorded over numerous evenings at the artists' homes, and completed just before the birth of Matthew's daughter, Flora. The album became an excuse to spend time with one another as well as perform. As the trio ordered take-out, drank scotch, smoked on patios, laughing off the weight of reality–they stumbled into moments of musical focus. 

This album has a prism of fidelities. High and low resolutions press together as the environment blows through the instruments. The woozy, side-long titular track of hesitant cello and pianos opens the record. Quiet music with blemishes and inebriated pauses, breathing an alleviated air. Phrases with failing propellers, teetering between melodic and apathetic. The true speed of their Saturday nights.

Side two opens with "London On My Mind."  Reflecting the other pole, manic cassette treatments duel over Twomey's placid keyboard, ultimately breaking into a little joke on the piano. "Collection" features guitar by Sullivan, remembered for his thick fog of work under the alias Earn. With Sullivan's return to the instrument, he is joined by Twomey on upright piano and McCann processing the room in real-time. The brief final work, "Bird," recalls the style of the group's private press cassettes, The Bird and Charlotte's Office: poorly-played pleasant-hearted music.

Each edition of the record includes a 20-page photo booklet of stills documenting the recording process. The deluxe edition, limited to 25, includes signed and annotated jackets and an exclusive cassette, One More Saturday Night. In 2019 two practice sessions were filmed by Sullivan on VHS, the audio has been isolated for this cassette. Side One opens with an alternate version of "Saturday Night," recorded outside at night on Twomey's patio, looking in through a glass door at the artists. Crickets and dogs hum over the trio's dampened music. Side Two features a live, 25-minute run through of "London On My Mind," their erratic piece for microcassettes, piano, and synthesizer. This recording was pulled from a video of a little glass clown, sitting motionless in a bouquet of flowers as the cacophony wails through the room.

More information can be found here.

03 May 2020

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Albums and Singles

Billed as a thematic successor to 2017's Toxic City Music, Evan Caminiti's latest release delves even deeper into the fragmented and deconstructionist dub experimentation of its predecessor. In a few important ways, however, Varispeed Hydra is a very different album. For one, it is conceptually inspired by rural sounds and the fragility of the natural environment rather than by dystopian urban environments. More significantly, Caminiti's music subverts traditional dub techno structures in an even more challenging way, often distilling the form down to just a few simple chords expanding and contracting in a disorienting state of suspended animation. Given that pointed lack of hooks, rhythm, or harmonic evolution, Varispeed Hydra is not the easiest Caminiti album to love, but he manages to make the paroxysms of that hyper-limited palette far more compelling than I would have expected.

Dust Editions

I have by no means fully explored Evan Caminiti's extensive and varied discography, but I have certainly heard enough to grasp that he has always been creatively restless and somewhat inscrutable.In fact, Barn Owl alone covered an unusually wide swath of stylistic ground during that project’s six-year run and that was just one of Caminiti's many guises and collaborative projects.Consequently, it was not all that surprising that he eventually delved into dub techno, but it is a bit unexpected that he has stuck with it as long as he has.Given that Caminiti has already proven that he has both a real aptitude for the genre and a very distinctive vision for it, he must believe that there are still unexplored frontiers left to pioneer: Caminiti is not one to keep doing the same thing again and again just because he happens to be good at it.In fact, he takes such a radical approach to dub with Varispeed Hydra that it almost dissolves into "ambient" territory.All of the elements of classic Chain Reaction or Mille Plateaux fare are present in theory (warm pads, burbling synths, deep bass), yet they are all stretched, blurred, and disrupted to the point of floating stasis.Or as the album's description poetically puts it, Varispeed Hydra is akin to "a collection of broken transmissions, terrestrial sounds melting into the abstract and rising again as vaporous spectres."Beyond that newly vaporous approach, the album's underlying ecological concept manifests itself in yet another new feature: buried animal sounds, such as the cheerily chirping birds that lurk behind the fog of the opening "Hand in Flame."There is also a significant change in mood since the bleak and corroded-sounding Toxic City Music, as a lot of these pieces are built from comparatively warm and lush chords (even if they feel frozen in time). 

Given that the backbone of the album is essentially reverberant washes of synth chords in a haze of ghostly guitar swells, crackles, hisses, and submerged field recordings, each of the album's ten pieces feel more like variations on a theme than like discrete entities with their own distinct character.Some are better than others, obviously, but the baseline level of quality is quite solid.In that regard, "Holo," is as representative of the album as any other piece: after a brief introduction of natural sounds (birds and a stream), the piece coheres into a slow pulse of stammering synth chords that quietly gurgle and reverberate without any real sense of evolution or threat of a possible chord change.Instead, all of the activity is textural, as the chords lazily heave and undulate as a host of hisses, shudders, and sharper, more grinding tones organically ebb and flow in their midst.Occasionally a piece like "Morphogenesis" will lock into an erratically heaving yet still recognizably rhythmic pulse, but if any actual kick drums or cymbals exist on this album, they have been abstracted into bloodless shadows.Still, Caminiti proves to be quite a sorcerer at finding new ways to make the same sounds seem fresh and compelling and there are a couple of especially fine pieces near the end of the album.On the first, the brief "Airlock," Caminiti allows his chords to occasionally fade into the background to shift the focus to a unusual groove that sounds like it is made up of a piece of metal, a rustling field of windblown grass, and some gnarled surges of bass tones.Then on "Russian Palm," the chords take on the flickering, trebly feel of a ghostly radio transmission while a more structured and substantial piece gradually takes shape in the depths.It is quite a nice bit of compositional sleight of hand, though Caminiti stops short of quite letting it materialize into a full-on song.

It is that deliberate lack of "songs" that leaves me with some conflicting feelings about Varispeed Hydra, though I suspect the less positive ones are mostly due to my own expectations rather than any shortcomings in execution.Still, I am reminded of a Thomas Bernhard book that I recently read (Correction) in which a character keeps mercilessly editing a manuscript until there is ultimately nothing left.Given that Caminiti spent three years working on this album, it is not hard to see the obvious parallel, but only he knows whether or not this album was ever destined to be more structured and straightforward than it eventually turned out.And, of course, it feels wrong to lament that Caminiti was too original and too aggressive in using the tools of dub techno to completely subvert the structure of dub techno.Consequently, it is best to view the album as pure sound art, as Caminiti took an incredibly difficult road and devoted himself solely to walking the blurry line where form and abstraction bleed together.Viewed in that light, Varispeed Hydra makes a lot more sense and seems like a far more unambiguous success than it does as an "outsider dub" album (albeit a success with the caveat that Hydra is VERY much a headphone album).Experienced at significant volume and with the benefit of focused listening, this album reveals itself to be a seething, sizzling, and multilayered production tour de force and quite an absorbing one at that.While I might feel a bit guilty for wishing that Caminiti would play to his strengths a bit more, I have doubt that he knows exactly what he is doing and I heartily appreciate his willful avoidance of the expected and the familiar.

Samples can be found here.

03 May 2020

Administrator

Albums and Singles

This long-running Chicago slowcore trio has been uncharacteristically silent for the last five years, though vocalist Matt Christensen has been as tirelessly prolific as ever as a solo artist. Given that lengthy hiatus, it is not entirely surprising that the Zelienople that has resurfaced with Hold You Up is a somewhat different beast than the Zelienople of old. Admittedly, the band's usual fragility, languorous pacing, and pervading sense of melancholia have definitely not gone anywhere, but this latest release is considerably more driving and pop-minded than the fare I have grown to expect from the band. That said, I suppose I should put "driving" and "pop" in quotes, as the closest Hold You Up comes to the mainstream is an aesthetic indebtedness to Mark Hollis's solo work. Zelienople are still considerably more monochromatic and minimal than Hollis ever was though, so none of the band's distinctive character has been sacrificed—they have merely gotten a bit better at enhancing their vision with a greater emphasis on hooks and grooves. Needless to say, that evolution suits them well.

Miasmah

If I had to guess, I would say that I have been a casual fan of Zelienople for roughly a decade now, yet this project has only grown more inscrutable to me with each new release.For one, Christensen and drummer Mike Weis seem like exceptionally unlikely candidates for anything remotely resembling a conventional rock band (even though some of Christensen's solo work can be quite structured and melodic).For his part, Weis is now "a focused student of Korean Shaman and Buddhist music, often performing in Zen-based percussive rituals."That said, Zelienople is still quite far from sounding like a conventional rock band, though their more experimental tendencies manifest themselves in some very unusual and almost self-sabotaging ways on Hold You Up.The most dramatic divergence from the expected path lies in the album's production, as it sounds almost like the band is playing at the bottom of a nearby well.As a result, the music sounds weirdly bloodless, spectral, and impressionistic.In some ways, that gives the album kind of a cool hypnagogic feel, yet it also has the unfortunate effect of undercutting some of the band's strengths.While Christensen is both a stellar guitarist and an emotive vocalist, I get the distinct impression that he would vastly prefer to become a ghost or vanish into a fog than front a rock band.Curiously, however, Weis’s ride cymbal seems to exist outside of that elegantly blurred veil, cutting crisply through the reverb-heavy, submerged-sounding music to take an unusually prominent role.

While the non-Zelienople activities of bassist Brian Harding remain a mystery, he plays no less a role than Weis and Christensen, as his melodic, Peter Hook-esque riffing provides most of the album's structure (and gives Christensen license to improvise with as much looseness and spontaneity as he wants).In fact, Zelienople are amusingly akin to a hushed, post-rock Rush: all three members are formidable musicians with their own distinctive styles, each has plenty of space to work, and the end result is greater than the sum of its parts.I found much to love about the contributions of all three members and it is hard to imagine the band working nearly as well with a different line-up.In general, however, the best songs on Hold You Up are the ones where the rhythm section takes the most muscular role, such as the stomping, slow-burning, and propulsively rolling title piece.While it certainly takes its time to get to the vocals, "Hold You Up" is easily the best piece on the album, as every single element comes together seamlessly: the bass-driven groove is quite strong, Weis's cymbal patterns are very cool, the melodic synth hook provides a faint splash of color, and Christensen's ringing chords and arpeggios linger like a hallucinatory vapor trail.Elsewhere, the closing "America" makes excellent use of an oddly timed tom-tom rhythm, while the opening "Safer" is propelled by one of Harding's meatiest and most melodic bass riffs.The somewhat sleepy and meandering "Just An Unkind Time" is a dark horse candidate for an album highlight as well, as its spare arpeggios gradually intertwine with a burbling, groaning, and chirping host of other instruments for a quietly gorgeous and hallucinatory second half.      

As much as admire and appreciate how nuanced and beautifully crafted these songs are, however, I have a difficult time getting past the semi-incorporeal and almost weightless production of the album.I recognize that it was entirely a deliberate decision on the band's part, but it was still a perplexing one: it feels like the actual songs are reduced to a mere trebly haze over the considerably more "real" and physical contributions of the rhythm section.Charitably speaking, that gives Hold You Up a flickering, dreamlike feel that is quite unique to Zelienople.Normally, I am exactly the target demographic for that approach, yet I find myself exasperated at both the distance it creates and the blurring effect it has upon Christensen's guitar work.That said, it is definitely a good thing that I find his playing absorbing and unusual enough to actually wish that there was enough clarity for me to fully hear and appreciate its intricacies.Consequently, I have conflicting feelings about the album, but they are admittedly highly subjective ones.To my ears, Zelienople have crafted a remarkably good album that simply errs too far on the side of quiet subtlety and understatement to fully connect with me.For those more attuned and amenable to the band's hushed and shadowy niche, however, I suspect Hold You Up is easily one of the most focused and masterfully crafted iterations of that aesthetic to date.If someone told me that they thought this album was an absolute masterpiece, I would certainly not think they were crazy, as Hold You Up is a near-perfect example of a very specific sound.I could definitely see this album enjoying impressive longevity with a small but extremely devoted group of fans.

Samples can be found here.

03 May 2020

Administrator

Albums and Singles

It has been roughly three years since Lawrence English last released a proper solo album (2017’s Cruel Optimism), though he has kept himself quite busy with collaborative work since then (most notably as half of HEXA). Nevertheless, I have always been quite fond of his solo work, so I was hoping that he had something ambitious in the pipeline and this latest release hits the mark in that regard. While I am not sure that I would necessarily characterize Lassitude as one of English's major releases, it is at least half brilliant and takes quite a different approach to drone than his usual fare. Part of that uniqueness lies in the fact that English focused entirely upon the pipe organ for this release, but Lassitude is perhaps even more significantly influenced by its inspirations, as one piece is inspired by Éliane Radigue and another by Phill Niblock.

Room40

I suspect Lassitude’s title is intended as droll exploitation of the word's dual meanings, as the timing of the release certainly coincides with an abundance of dispiriting and mentally wearying events throughout the world.However, in a highly localized sense, English seems to also be alluding to how physically exhausting it can be to play a pipe organ: in his description of the album, he notes how sore he was after "holding the bass pedals and manipulating the stops ever so delicately" for the performance of the title piece.The organ in question, currently housed in Brisbane's Old Museum, dates from the 19th century and is presumably a familiar instrument for English, as pipe organs have been audibly surfacing in his work since at least as far back as 2014's Wilderness of Mirrors (and I doubt there are a wealth of other building-sized instrument options in his immediate vicinity).Given the complexity of the instrument, I would not envy anyone trying to master advanced melodic compositions, but the organ's elaborate system of stops allows for nuanced tonal changes that are extremely well-suited to drone-based compositions such as these (or those of Kali Malone).Given that, it is no surprise that both of Lassitude's lengthy compositions are hyper-minimal drone works, though the stylistic difference between the two is admittedly quite dramatic.

According to English, the opening "Saccade (For Éliane Radigue)" was largely inspired by classic Radigue albums like Adnos, Trilogie de la morte, and L'île re-sonante and he makes absolutely no attempt to conceal that influence at all.In fact, "Saccade" is textbook Radigue fare on its face, as it is essentially just a single pulsing, quavering tone that gradually blossoms into a hypnotic swirl of chirping and buzzing oscillations.To his credit, however, English brings some impressively effective innovations to Radigue's signature aesthetic, condensing her characteristically epic time scale into a lean and heavy 20-minute dose of visceral, slow-burning, and hallucinatory drone nirvana.That could very well be unintentional, as not many artists share Radigue's superhuman patience, but English's more distilled and dense incarnation of simmering and throbbing oscillation worship could not possibly have been executed any more beautifully: "Saccade" is harmonically and rhythmically absorbing and intense from start to finish.The pleasures of the Niblock-inspired "Lassitude," on the other hand, are a bit less readily apparent, though that is partially because all of the action takes place in a lower frequency range.That said, the piece is considerably more consonant than predecessor, unfolding mostly as a single deep chord undarkened by ugly harmonies.Consequently, it feels comparably placid and "ambient," though sufficient volume and focused listening reveals seismic, slow-motion transformations continually unfolding in its rumbling depths.    

As an homage to Niblock, "Lassitude" is admittedly solid, but it is no better or no worse than its inspiration and too minimal to allow much (if any) of English's individual character to manifest itself.As such, it is by far the weaker of the two pieces.Unlike "Saccade," however, the title piece was recorded as a single one-take performance (a first for English).Seen in that light, "Lassitude" is quite an impressive feat of control, patience, and nuance.Of course, given that this is an album and not a public performance, I still cannot help but wonder how much better the piece could have been if it had been subjected to English's full compositional, editing, and production powers.Given how beautifully "Saccade" turned out, it is hard to imagine that "Lassitude" would have been anything other than a similarly sublime stunner in those circumstances.Then again, maybe not, as it is difficult to envision much that would not pale in comparison to "Saccade."In fact, it may very well be the single best piece Lawrence has ever recorded: a mesmerizing, billowing dream cloud curdled by endlessly shifting dissonances.

Samples can be found here.

02 May 2020

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Esplendor Geométrico, the influential "industrial" pioneers of pulsating, hypnotic and mechanical rhythms, return with a new album Cinética, after their previous Fluida Mekaniko (2016). Based now in Shanghai and Rome, they have not stopped their live performances all over the world in the last two years (Germany, Spain, Russia, UK, France, Italy, and recently Chile) with great success.

The LP include 8 tracks , 10 in the CD version, recorded between 2018 & 2019. Cinética gives a twist to the line that the group has followed in their last albums, highlighted by a more elaborate sound. A sound less raw, but without losing the essence of E.G.: hypnotic rhythms and innovative industrial music, danceable and tribal sometimes. Certain songs like "Acoplamiento internacional" and "Modulaciones," with eastern and african voices, remember the classic LP Mekano Turbo (1988) that is considered as one of the best albums of E.G. In Cinética there are filtered and natural voices, broken mechanical and industrial rhythms, synthesizers layers, percussion, noise, distortion...

ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2020 and prepares special editions for that year. They have developed a unique style since 1980 that influenced many "industrial" musicians around the world, including the new trends of industrial techno.

More information can be found here.

02 May 2020

Administrator

Albums and Singles

STOCK is a new series of digital transmissions by Kangding Ray on ara.

Musically, the tracks will lean towards psychedelism and introspection, and will be sporadically uploaded, as they are created.
Each track will receive a visual counterpoint based on stock photo previews, treated as a ready-made subversive art form.
Taken out of context, these generic conveyors of relatable feelings can reveal our insecurities, unfold the mechanic behind the construction of desires, and question the vanity economy we’re navigating in.

More information can be found here.

02 May 2020

Administrator

Albums and Singles

For over a decade, Max Ravitz has been obsessively working in his home studio, crafting electronic music under various guises. His primary solo project, Patricia, has been a mainstay in New York's DIY electronic music scene, with releases on labels such as Opal Tapes, Nona, and Ghostly's Spectral Sound imprint.

Ravitz is a life-long musician with a passion for collecting, studying, and using all types of electronic music equipment. This focus on hardware lays the foundation for both his recorded music and live sets — two distinct entities with a similar flavor. He is a process-driven artist who values creative constraint, improvisation and collaboration with others. Over the years, his numerous collaborative projects include Inhalants (with Jahiliyya Fields), Masks (with Arp), DSR.MR (with Cloudface), and Ociya (with Tin Man). Ravitz's love of synthesizers has recently led him from Brooklyn to Asheville, North Carolina, where he has taken on the role of Product Specialist at Moog Music.

Over the course of 10 songs, Maxyboy presents a more varied stylistic approach than past Patricia releases, shifting away from some of the 'lo-fi' sounds he's known for. With clear nods to electro, acid, IDM, and techno, Maxyboy puts on display Ravitz's eclectic range of influence — from collaborators and contemporaries, to classic innovators alike.

Titled after his family’s childhood nickname for him, Maxyboy serves as a window to Ravitz's range of musical interests. "Myokymia," "Downlink" and "Crushed Velvet" highlight Ravitz's penchant for intricate drum programming; while album closer "Ctenophora" hints towards his drumless sensibilities. Ranging from driving and somatic ("Dripping," "Turtle Funk"), to ambient ("Julia Set") to acid ("Dew Point" and "Dr. Oetker's Ristorante"), each song carries an evocative, questioning quality — something any listener can enhance for themselves by closing the eyes and letting the sounds course through. 

More information can be found here.

02 May 2020

Administrator

Albums and Singles

"Pittsburgh's digital collagist {arsonist} unbraids time and decolorizes nature on her debut album Reality Structure. Overpowering blasts of electronic percussion offset lush synthetic beauty on six tracks of perfectly balanced battle between chaos and understanding. The album title plays on the name of a mathematical vector that divides a unit into real and imaginary subspaces. Throughout these pieces, {arsonist} explores subspaces of dreamlike reality and realistic dream states, with alien synth sounds and organic strings cautiously tugging the songs in different, bizarre directions. Otherworldly in a way where you can hear the process of a new world being constructed and decomposing in real time."

-Fred Thomas

Reality Structure explores the mystique common to both the fantastical and bizarre symbolic language of dreams and the precise yet abstract symbolic language of mathematics. May we decompose the vector spaces of our complex mental experiences to find their transcendent, imaginary components.

More information can be found here.

02 May 2020

Administrator

Albums and Singles

A quote from Norman Westberg:

A Walk In The Park - "Not really locked up, but in no hurry to risk being exposed to this virus. I sit at my desk listening to hours of live recordings that were made when people stood and sat in groups. We can still walk in the park listening, just keep a safe distance. Or better yet, stay home, lay down and drift with me. Please consider others when you go outside."

More information can be found here.

02 May 2020

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Thanks again to everyone who participated in the nomination and voting rounds of this year's annual readers poll.

All the best wishes for 2020!

Album of the Year

1. Swans, "Leaving Meaning" (Young God)
   
   "At this point, I suspect Michael Gira could probably sneeze and land a spot near the top of this readers' poll, but I genuinely like this incarnation of Swans quite a lot.  Gira has long been an unwavering beacon of creative integrity and it is clear that he strives to convey something honest, soulful and meaningful with each new release.  That said, I think this album deserves the top spot solely for the line "I am the avatar of your semen and I'm screaming."" - Anthony D’Amico
   
   "I thought this made for an excellent follow-up to the previous run of Swans albums.  Seems like Gira realized the 30+ pounding epics had gotten as extreme as it could, so that overall tweaking of style and guest artists gave it that perfect balance of familiar and new.  Traces of his other projects can easily be heard, but the final product is as fresh as ever." - Creaig Dunton
   
   "Gira has once again triumphed in a new arrangement of Swans. While I, too, am skeptical about the brainwashed readers, it does make sense that Swans is a group that most readers do, indeed, agree on, and rightfully so." - Jon Whitney
   
   
2. Cosey Fanni Tutti, "Tutti" (Conspiracy International)
   
   "I definitely expected this album to be a more radical departure from Carter Tutti than it was, given its use of Gristle-era source material and the character of Cosey's classic previous solo release (1983's Time To Tell).   Instead, it mostly just picks up where exactly where Carter Tutti left off, consisting primarily of driving synthpop instrumentals.  Unsurprisingly, they are often quite good, but this album is more of a likable soundtrack to her recent career retrospective than it is a bold, stand-alone statement. "  - Anthony D'Amico
   
   
3. Carla dal Forno, "Look Up Sharp" (Kallista) 
   
   "Quite likely my own personal favorite of the year, it's a fantastic example of Carla's continued evolution as composer and performer." - Jon Whitney
   
   "During a lengthy period of emotional pain, the ecstatic gloomy thud of Pale Sketcher's "Jesu Pale Sketches Demixed" was my in-car album of choice. "Look Up Sharp" is not bleary or fuzz-drenched, but would have fitted the bill." - Duncan Edwards
   
   
4. Carter Tutti Void, "Triumvirate" (Conspiracy International)
   
   "I am sad to see this collaboration end, as Triumvirate felt like an exciting creative breakthrough that had not yet realized its full potential.  This album almost achieves the perfect balance of propulsive Carter Tutti-style synthpop and gnarled Gristle noise, but this wonderful threesome stopped exasperatingly short of transforming their grooves into fully formed songs.  Still a damn good album though."  -Anthony D’Amico
   
   
5. Caterina Barbieri, "Ecstatic Computation" (Editions Mego)
   
   "At times, her roots in classical guitar seem writ large as shimmering compositions for synthesizer. Schulzeesque." - Duncan Edwards
   
   ""Fantas" absolutely floored me the first time I heard it." -Anthony D'Amico
   
   
6. Fennesz, "Agora" (Touch)
   
   "Stunning. An album that Popol Vuh or Tangerine Dream would have been proud to make. Created on headphones. Perfect to hear through headphones." - Duncan Edwards
   
   
7. Sunn O))), "Life Metal" (Southern Lord)
   
   "I really need someone to sit down with me and patiently explain why this album is great and special and not extremely similar to at least three other Sunn O))) albums." -Anthony D'Amico
   
   "I am not going to be that person, Anthony, but I think this one was strong since it had a bit of the bombast of Monoliths and Dimensions, but the stripped down approach that was more prevalent on Kannon.  Plus Albini's engineering helped give it even more depth.  But I mean, it is still a Sunn O))) record." - Creaig Dunton
   
   
8. Tim Hecker, "Anoyo" (Kranky)
   
   "Tim Hecker's ability to continually reinvent his sound while releasing an unbroken string of great albums borders on the supernatural."  -Anthony D'Amico
   
   
9. Sunn O))), "Pyroclasts" (Southern Lord)
   
   "Considerably better and more imaginative than Life Metal." -Anthony D'Amico
   
   
10. Current 93, "Invocations of Almost" (The Spheres)
11. The Legendary Pink Dots, "Angel in the Detail" (Metropolis)
    
    "One of the stronger song-based LPD albums in recent memory.  The maddeningly brief "Itchycoo Shark" is my favorite song by a landslide, but the entire first side of the album is basically an unbroken parade of fine would-be singles."  -Anthony D’Amico
    
    
12. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Ghosteen" (Ghosteen Ltd / Bad Seed Ltd)
    
    "Loving the parts which remind of Scott Walker. Beyond that, after three listens, it's a bit of a case of your funeral, my trial. Sticking with it though because it may be a real grower. The cover art leaves me speechless."  - Duncan Edwards
    
    
13. Kali Malone, "The Sacrificial Code" (iDEAL)
    
    "Subtly ingenious, elegantly simple, and unapologetically out of step with just about every single trend in contemporary music.  It is extremely heartening to see this album popping up on so many end-of-year lists."  -Anthony D’Amico
    
    "Do not miss "Spectacle of Ritual." It liberates church organ from the traditional bellowing reverb, allowing for a calm intimacy I'd thought impossible. - Duncan Edwards    
    
    
14. HTRK, "Venus in Leo" (Ghostly)
15. Nivhek, "After its own death / Walking in a spiral towards the house" (Yellow Electric)
16. Félicia Atkinson, "The Flower And The Vessel" (Shelter Press)
    
    "Atkinson's last few albums have each featured some amazing songs, but The Flower And The Vessel is absolutely packed with them.  This is easily the finest album of her post-Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier career."  -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
17. Nodding God, "Play Wooden Child" (House of Mythology)
    
    "I am surprised to see that this album placed as high as it did.  This is an absolutely unhinged endurance test from start to finish.  It is an endearing one, of course, but it does not lend itself well to repeat listening.  This is David Tibet and Andrew Liles at their most gleefully and maniacally indulgent." -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
18. Swans, "What Is This?" (Young God)
19. Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto, "Two" (Noton)
20. Loscil, "Equivalents" (Kranky)
21. King Midas Sound, "Solitude" (Cosmo Rhythmatic)
22. The Stargazer's Assistant, "Mirrors & Tides, Shivers & Voids" (Zoharum)
23. Scorn, "Cafe Mor" (Ohm Resistance)
    
    "I was not sure what to expect from a new Scorn album after a nearly decade-long hiatus, as Mick Harris's run of classic albums was very much of its time.  As it turns out, what I could expect was a slow-motion juggernaut of stripped-down, subwoofer-straining dub heaviness.  It almost sounds like Harris remixed the Zonal album to excise absolutely everything that was insufficiently cold and menacing." -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
24. Akira Rabelais, "CXVI" (self-released)
25. Edward Ka-Spel, "The Moon Cracked Over Albion" (Neuteka)
26. Ulver, "Drone Activity" (House of Mythology)
27. Thighpaulsandra, "Practical Electronics" (Editions Mego)
28. Deathprod, "Occulting Disk" (Smalltown Supersound)
    
    "Deathprod's long-awaited return is quite a blackened and slow-burning affair, but it builds to an absolutely visceral and volcanic crescendo." -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
29. UnicaZurn, "Sensudestricto" (Touch)
30. Biosphere, "The Senja Recordings" (Biophone)
31. Black To Comm, "Seven Horses For Seven Kings" (Thrill Jockey)
    
    "This album feels like trying to watch Akira Kurosawa's Ran while being sucked inside a Hieronymus Bosch painting."  -Anthony D'Amico 
    
    
32. Matmos, "Plastic Anniversary" (Thrill Jockey)
33. Sarah Davachi, "Pale Bloom" (W.25th)
    
    "One of Davachi's more unusual and ambitiously diverse albums.  If someone had told me these were all recently unearthed compositions by some rogue classical visionary like Carlo Gesualdo, I would probably would've believed them."  -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
34. Bill Callahan, "Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest" (Drag City)
35. Abul Mogard, "Kimberlin" (Ecstatic)
    
    "I have historically not been terribly keen on either remix albums or film soundtracks, but Abul Mogard has now managed to dazzle me with both."  -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
36. Kim Gordon, "No Home Record" (Matador)
37. Zu, "Terminalia Amazonia" (House of Mythology)
38. Meat Beat Manifesto, "Opaque Couché" (Flexidisc)
39. Black To Comm, "Before After" (Thrill Jockey)
    
    "More freewheeling and abstract than the more focused and intense Seven Horses, but every bit as good.  Maybe even better.  Marc Richter had a hell of a year."  -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
40. Pan•American, "A Son" (Kranky)
41. Earth, "Full Upon Her Burning Lips" (Sargent House)
42. Alessandro Cortini, "Volume Massimo" (Mute)
    
    "Cortini's first stab at translating his synth mastery into something approaching pop music was a bit of a mixed bag, but the more successful moments like "Sabbia" are legitimately wonderful." -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
43. Stephen Mallinder, "Um Dada" (Dais)
    
    "Richard H. Kirk has cranked out albums consistently since Cabaret Voltaire dissolved, but Mal has always been a bit more selective, even when working with others.  On this solo one it retains that clubby, funk feel of 1980s CV, but with the right amount of cut-up and oblique production fitting the album's title." - Creaig Dunton
    
    
44. William Basinski, "On Time Out of Time" (Temporary Residence)
    
    "Basinski in space music mode does not pack the emotional depth of his usual work, but the shorter closing piece on this one-off departure is quite good."  -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
45. Test Dept, "Disturbance" (One Little Indian)
46. A Winged Victory for the Sullen, "The Undivided Five" (Ninja Tune)
47. Boduf Songs, "Abyss Versions" (Orindal)
48. Helm, "Chemical Flowers" (Pan)
    
    "Helm has been a reliably compelling project for quite some time, but Luke Younger's increasingly eclectic palette of influences has taken his work to a whole new level.  In the case of this album, it is the collision of Arabic-sounding strings, skittering electronics, and a heavy, lurching groove on "I Knew You Would Respond" that steals the show."  -Anthony D'Amico   
    
    
49. The Future Sound Of London, "Yage 2019" (self-released)
50. Nurse With Wound / The James Worse Public Address Method, "The Vursiflenze Mismantler" (United Dairies)
    
    "It tempting to say that this album is basically 'The Jabberwocky' chopped & screwed, but it is actually much more complex and varied than its origins in mangled absurdist poetry might suggest.  In fact, a few pieces are legitimately haunting or eerily beautiful.  And others, of course, easily rank among Steven Stapleton's most deranged and cacophonous work.  Quite a bizarre album even by NWW standards." -Anthony D'Amico   
    
    
51. Lee "Scratch" Perry, "Heavy Rain" (On-U Sound)
    
    "This sets a very high bar for all future dub albums by octogenarians."  -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
52. Alva Noto + Anne-James Chaton, "Alphabet" (NOTON)
53. Stephen O'Malley, "Ākasa-Dhātu" (Ideologic Organ)
54. Oren Ambarchi, "Simian Angel" (Editions Mego)
55. Pye Corner Audio, "Hollow Earth" (Ghost Box)
56. HTRK, "Over the Rainbow" (Boomkat Editions)
    
    "Still trying to get my hands on this!" - Jon Whitney
    
    
57. The Art Ensemble of Chicago, "We Are On Edge" (Pi)
58. Carl Stone, "Himalaya" (Unseen Worlds)
59. Ben Frost, "Dark: Cycle 1 (Original Music From The Netflix Series)" (Invada)
60. Ben Frost, "Dark: Cycle 2 (Original Music From The Netflix Series)" (Invada)
61. Celer, "Xièxie" (Two Acorns)
    
    "This was an unusually high-profile release, but it is not substantially better than a lot of other Celer albums (though I am quite fond of its incorporation of field recordings).  Will Long is pretty much in a constant state of releasing great ambient music." -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
62. These New Puritans, "Inside The Rose" (Infectious Music)
63. Alameda 5, "Eurodrome" (Instant Classic)
64. Rafael Anton Irisarri, "Solastalgia" (Room40)
65. Deaf Center, "Low Distance" (Sonic Pieces)
    
    "A headphone trip across a glacial landscape, lonely and timeless, with crackles of hyper-amplified warmth. The piano passages are even "koselig" as they say in Norway." - Duncan Edwards
    
    
66. The Caretaker, "Everywhere, an empty bliss" (History Always Favours the Winners)
    
    "I've been a sucker for his work since getting a copy of Stairway To The Stars on beautiful blue vinyl. This final album is a moving document of decline, with jaunty 78s, needle crackle, on-off synths, silence, even distant remembered yodeling, and the crushingly clear last track with its almost unbearable aching and yearning." - Duncan Edwards  
    
    
67. Lingua Ignota, "Caligula" (Profound Lore)
68. Purple Mountains, "Purple Mountains" (Drag City)
    
    "The sound of a man ready to leave this world. An album as bleak as a terminal illness, as comically painful as puns in a suicide note, and as wry as you'd expect from a fine poet." - Duncan Edwards  
    
    ""Darkness and Cold" still kills me every single time I hear it.  This was a hell of a swansong." -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
69. The Cinematic Orchestra, "To Believe" (Ninja Tune)
70. Xiu Xiu, "Girl with Basket of Fruit" (Polyvinyl)
    
    "Definitely among the most radical of Jamie Stewart’s recent reinventions, but I found it a bit too prickly and frenetic to love as a whole." -Anthony D’Amico
    
    
71. My Disco, "Environment" (Downwards)
72. Earthen Sea, "Grass And Trees" (Kranky)
73. Innercity Ensemble, "IV" (Instant Classic)
74. Telefon Tel Aviv, "Dreams Are Not Enough" (Ghostly)
75. JH1.FS3, "Trials and Tribulations" (Dais)
    
    "This Puce Mary/Liebestod collaboration is every bit as good as Puce Mary."  -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
76. Edward Ka-Spel / Motion Kapture, "Alien Subspace" (Rustblade)
77. Drab Majesty, "Modern Mirror" (Dais)
78. Föllakzoid, "I" (Sacred Bones)
79. Boy Harsher, "Careful" (Nude Club)
80. Craig Leon, "Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon" (RVNG Intl.)
81. The Young Gods, "Data Mirage Tangram" (Two Gentlemen)
82. The Dead C, "Rare Ravers" (Ba Da Bing!)
    
    "This was an absolute monster of an album and it belongs in the top ten.  I don't know what more The Dead C could do to win you people over.  Please stop making me sad."  -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
83. Téléplasmiste, "Science Religion" (Golden Ratio Frequencies)
84. Phew + Oren Ambarchi + Jim O’Rourke, "Patience Soup" (Black Truffle)
85. Zonal, "Wrecked" (Relapse)
    
    "A crushing mindfuck of slow-motion, bass-heavy horror: Moor Mother is quite an inspired foil for the blackened, churning, and blown-out grooves of Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick.  The instrumentals are great too."  -Anthony D'Amico
    
    "Broadrick and Martin hooking back up is going to get my attention no matter what, and the result was a fitting acknowledgement to their legacy as Techno Animal/Sidewinder/Curse of the Golden Vampire.  Moor Mother's vocals fit in perfectly, and having half vocal, half instrumental pieces was an inspired idea." - Creaig Dunton
    
    
86. Lee "Scratch" Perry, "Rainford" (On-U Sound)
87. Maria W Horn, "Epistasis" (Hallow Ground)
    
    "This was quite a bold and unexpected evolution from last year's Kontrapoetik.  Horn still clearly loves black metal and drone, but she proves herself to be remarkably adept at crafting more intricate and melodic fare as well."  -Anthony D'Amico 
    
    
88. Ramleh, "The Great Unlearning" (Nashazphone)
    
    It is hard to top Circular Time, but thankfully Gary Mundy and Anthony DiFranco did not try to.  Further blending "noise" Ramleh with "rock" Ramleh, there are harsh moments, as well as some truly beautiful ones (especially the side-long "Futureworld").  One of my favorites this year." - Creaig Dunton
    
    
89. Benoît Pioulard, "Sylva" (Morr Music)
    
    "Dreamy, gauzy, droney, shimmering soundscapes. Yet the standouts here are "Keep" and "Meristem" two pieces with vocals. "Keep" in particular is reminiscent of early (non-vocal) Bibio and "Soft Wounds" period Songs of Green Pheasant." - Duncan Edwards
    
    
90. Alberich, "Quantized Angel" (Hospital)
91. Vanishing Twin, "The Age Of Immunology" (Fire)
    
    "Much like the Death & Vanilla album, The Age of Immunology scratches roughly the same itch as classic Stereolab.  Vanishing Twin is by far the weirder and more experimental of the two bands though.  "Magician's Success" was easily one of my favorite singles of the year."  -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
92. Dino Spiluttini, "Heaven" (Editions Mego)
93. Eleh, "Living Space" (Touch)
94. Angel Bat Dawid, "The Oracle" (International Anthem)
    
    "A surprisingly gentle and hypnotic chronicle of contemporary black experience. Recorded mainly on cell phone, using gospel structures, improvisation, clarinet, voice and more. The result is a spiritual and political journey of discovery and freedom; meandering, immersive, and harmonious." - Duncan Edwards 
    
    
95. Death and Vanilla, "Are You A Dreamer?" (Fire)
96. Orphyx/JK Flesh, "Light Bringer" (Hospital)
97. Lustmord, "First Reformed" (Vaultworks)
98. Benoît Honoré Pioulard and Sean Curtis Patrick, "Avocationals" (Beacon Sound)
99. Keiji Haino & Sumac, "Even for just the briefest moment..." (Trost)
100. Carl Stone, "Baroo" (Unseen Worlds)

Single of the Year

1. The Legendary Pink Dots, "Hallowe'en Special 2019" (self-released)
2. The Legendary Pink Dots, "Christmas Special 2019" (self-released)
3. Carla dal Forno, "So Much Better" (Kallista)
4. Fovea Hex, "The Salt Garden III" (Janet)
   
   "Another beautiful and haunting release from Clodagh Simonds in these bleak times and probably my favorite single of the year." - Jon Whitney
   
   
5. Andy Stott, "It Should Be Us" (Modern Love)
   
   "Easily one of my favorite Stott releases despite its distinct lack of overt hooks.  Sounds like a ghostly, slow-motion dub version of his usual fare, but that slowed, stripped-down approach suits some of these heavy grooves beautifully.  "Not This Time" is an absolutely killer slab of unstoppable, industrial-grade thump." -Anthony D'Amico
   
   
6. The Legendary Pink Dots, "Junkyard (Version Apocalypse)" (self-released)
7. Meat Beat Manifesto, "Pin Drop / No Design" (Flexidisc)
   
   ""Pin Drop" is a skittering tour de force of rhythmic virtuousity and endearing eclecticism." -Anthony D'Amico
   
   
8. JK Flesh, "In Your Pit" (Pressure)
9. Nodding God, "In a Foreign Landscape" (House of Mythology)
10. Raime, "Planted" (RR)
11. Edward Ka-Spel, "Waves Unchanged" (self-released)
12. Pye Corner Audio, "Dark Phase" (Analogical Force)
13. Scorn, "Feather" (Ohm Resistance)
14. Deathprod, "Dark Transit" (Smalltown Supersound)
15. Benoît Pioulard, "Atra" (Past Inside the Present)
16. Andrea Belfi, "Strata" (Float)
17. Craven Faults, "Springhead Works" (Lowfold Works)
18. Lotto, "Pix" (Instant Classic)
19. Seefeel, "SP/GA 19" (self-released)
20. Four Tet, "Teenage Birdsong" (Text)
21. Lee "Scratch" Perry, "Life of the Plants" (Stones Throw)
22. Jonnine, "Super Natural" (Good Morning Tapes)
23. Sequoyah Murray, "Penalties of Love" (Thrill Jockey)
24. Low, "Fly" (Sub Pop)
25. Essaie Pas, "Earth" (DFA)
26. Puce Mary, Francesco Leali, Heith, Alessandro Branca, "An Exploitative Version of Surrogacy" (Until Riots)
27. Thurston Moore, "Pollination/Leave Me Alone" (Daydream Library)
28. Craven Faults, "Nunroyd Works" (Lowfold Works)
29. Caribou, "Home" (Merge)
30. Four Tet, "Anna Painting" (Text)
31. Claro Intelecto, "Forgotten Wasteland" (Delsin)
32. My Disco, "Environment Remixes" (Downwards)
33. Amp, "Entangled Time" (Sound In Silence)
34. Not Waving, "Tremendous / S.M." (Ecstatic)
35. Lali Puna, "Being Water" (Morr Music)
36. Karl Bartos, "Without A Trace Of Emotion / Vox Humana ‎(7", Single, Gat)" (Electronic Sound)
37. Pharmakustik, "Propulsion" (V I S)
38. Ultramarine, "Meditations" (Les Disques Du Crépuscule)
39. Four Tet, "Dreamer" (Text)
40. Locust, "Green" (Medical)
41. Locust, "Red" (Medical)
42. Celer, "Plays Godflesh" (Avalanche)
43. Celer, "Valdez" (self-released)
44. Modern Nature, "Nature" (Bella Union)
45. Thurston Moore, "Spring Swell /Leave Me Alone" (Daydream Library)
46. Thurston Moore, "Three Graces/Leave Me Alone" (Daydream Library)
47. Blawan, "Many Many Pings" (Ternesc)
48. Erykah Badu & James Poyser, "Tempted" (Yep Roc)
49. Blac Kolor, "Nephi" (Ant-Zen)
50. Komplikations, "No Good News" (Rockstar)

Vault/Reissue of the Year

1. Nurse With Wound, "Homotopy To Marie" (Rotorelief)
2. Current 93, "Nature Unveiled" (The Spheres)
3. Coil, "Live Five" (Retractor)
4. Grouper, "A I A: Alien Observer" (Kranky)
5. Throbbing Gristle, "Part 2: The Endless Not / TG Now" (Mute)
6. Coil, "Live Copenhagen 2002" (Retractor)
7. Dome, "3" (Editions Mego)
8. Stereolab, "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" (Duophonic)
9. Burial, "Tunes 2011 to 2019" (Hyperdub)
10. Grouper, "A I A: Dream Loss" (Kranky)
11. Throbbing Gristle, "A Souvenir of Camber Sands" (Mute)
12. Dome, "1" (Editions Mego)
    
    "All the Dome records were amazing, but I have always preferred this one.  Probably because it shows the traces of Wire's 154 most clearly, but with the more experimental moments taken to the extreme." - Creaig Dunton
    
    
13. Dome, "4: Will You Speak This Word?" (Editions Mego)
14. Stereolab, "Dots and Loops" (Duophonic)
15. The Residents, "Commercial Album" (New Ralph Too)
16. Dome, "2" (Editions Mego)
    
    "And this would be my second favorite.  The avant garde tendencies are even stronger here, but "The Red Tent II" and "Long Lost Life" are very catchy songs in their own right." - Creaig Dunton
    
    
17. Chris Carter, "Archival 1973-1977" (Mute)
18. Mark Stewart + Maffia, "Learning to Cope with Cowardice" (Mute)
19. Cabaret Voltaire, "1974-1976" (Mute)
20. The Legendary Pink Dots, "The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse" (Soleilmoon)
21. Nurse With Wound, "Arcane Reawakening X" (self-released)
22. Psychic TV, "Trip Reset" (Sweet Nothing)
23. The Legendary Pink Dots, "The Golden Age" (Metropolis)
24. Chris Carter, "Small Moon" (Mute)
25. Stereolab, "Mars Audiac Quintet" (Duophonic)
26. Cabaret Voltaire, "Chance Vs. Causality" (Mute)
27. Stereolab, "Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night" (Duophonic)
28. Mika Vainio, "Olento" (Sähkö)
29. Stereolab, "Transient Random Noise-Bursts WIth Announcements" (Duophonic)
30. Eliane Radigue, "Geelriandre/Arthesis" (Important)
31. Fad Gadget, "The Best Of" (Mute)
32. The Legendary Pink Dots, "Malachai (Shadow Weaver Part 2)" (Metropolis)
33. Muslimgauze, "Azzazin" (Staalplaat)
34. Bowery Electric, "Lushlife" (Beggars Banquet)
35. The Residents, "Eskimo" (New Ralph Too)
36. Chris Carter, "Mondo Beat" (Mute)
37. Laurie Spiegel, "The Expanding Universe" (Unseen Worlds)
    
    "Reissued first in 2012. A gem, a landmark. To paraphrase my own review: Fahey meets Bach in a spacecraft powered by computers as big as a fridge." - Duncan Edwards
    
    
38. The Residents, "Not Available" (New Ralph Too)
39. Chris Carter, "Disobedient" (Mute)
40. Laurie Spiegel, "Unseen Worlds" (Unseen Worlds)
41. Steven Stapleton & David Tibet, "Dead Memory" (Dirter)
42. Ryuichi Sakamoto, "Thousand Knives of" (Wewantsounds)
43. Gas, "Pop" (Kompakt)
44. Arthur Russell, "Iowa Dream" (Audika)
45. The Residents, "God In Three Persons" (New Ralph Too)
46. Eliane Radigue, "CHRY-PTUS" (Important)
47. Rema-Rema, "Fond Reflections" (4AD)
48. Stereolab, "Sound-Dust" (Duophonic)
49. Eliane Radigue, "Feedback Works 1969-1970" (Algra Marghen)
    
    "Easily one of the best reissues of this or any year. Drone and throb created 50 years ago. Radigue worked at night when her children were in bed, using tape and an ARP-2500 modular synth. Nothing here is attention-seeking, everything is essential, life-affirming and completely mesmerizing. Genius." - Duncan Edwards 
    
    
50. HIA / Biosphere, "Polar Sequences" (Biophon)

Various Artist Compilation of the Year

1. The Legendary Pink Dots & friends, "40 Angels" (self-released)
   
   "In classic LPD fashion, the release of Angel in the Detail was accompanied by a sprawling and eclectic collection that sneakily contains some near-classic material.  I especially like the demo versions of "Red Flag" and "Sacred Cow," but are probably enough other strong pieces here to assemble a second album nearly as wonderful as Detail.  The catch is just that you have to sift through forty-two songs to find them all." -Anthony D'Amico    
   
   
2. "Touched By Silence - Music for Macmillian Cancer Support" (Touched)
3. "On Corrosion" (Helen Scarsdale Agency)
   
   "Jim Haynes's expertly curated label is one that I have followed for a number of years and I have yet to be disappointed in a release.  This set provides a perfect overview:  ten cassettes (one per artist) show the wide range of sounds he has been putting out.  From the Valium haze of Pinkcourtesyphone to the noisy din of Kleistwahr, everything here is brilliant.  Throw it in a hand-made wooden box with a booklet and postcards and it is easily my favorite compilation of the year." - Creaig Dunton
   
   
4. "Third Noise Principle (Formative North American Electronica 1975-1984" (Cherry Red)
5. "Lullabies For Catatonics: A Journey Through the British Avant-Pop/Art-Rock Scene 1967-74" (Grapefruit)
6. "An Anthology Of Greek Experimental Electronic Music 1966-2016" (Sub Rosa)
7. "Vanity Records: Vanity Box" (Kyou)
8. "25 Compost Records" (Compost)
9. "Buried Alive!! 2: More Demented Teenage Fuzz From Down Under 1964-1968" (Particles)
10. "C'mon! C'mon!: The Roots of Scottish Rock and Pop 1963-1970" (Particles)
11. "New Moon's In The Sky (The British Progressive Pop Sounds Of 1970)" (Grapefruit)
12. "Studio One Showcase" (Studio One)
13. "Vanity Records: Vanity Tapes" (Kyou)
14. "STUMM433" (Mute)
    
    "Enjoy the silence, indeed." - Jon Whitney
    
    
15. "Strain, Crack & Break: Music From The Nurse With Wound List Volume 1 (France)" (Finders Keepers) 
    
    "Perhaps not as challenging, weird, or varied as I anticipated. Although worth it for the retro-pastoral, cinematic charm of the Z.N.R. piece "Solo un Dia" alone." - Duncan Edwards
    
    "I learned long ago that being a huge NWW fan does not necessarily mean that I share Steven Stapleton's taste in music, but there are some very cool obscurities on this France-focused collection that make me eager to hear future volumes.  There are certainly some very difficult and annoying pieces here as well, but the hit-to-miss ratio is very much a favorable one."  -Anthony D'Amico
    
    
16. "Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980 - 1990" (Light in the Attic)
17. "Seitō: In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun" (Akuphone)
18. "Pop Ambient 2020" (Kompakt)
19. "Jambú e Os Míticos Sons Da Amazônia" (Analog Africa)
20. "Pacific Breeze (Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976-1986)" (Light in the Attic)
21. "Institute Of Sonology 1959-1969" (Sub Rosa)
22. "Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu - Somalia 1972​-​1991" (Analog Africa)
23. "Wayfaring Strangers: Acid Nightmares" (Numero Group)
24. "Synthesizer Music On Tape vol. 1" (Harami Tapes)
25. "Nigeria 70 (No Wahala: Highlife, Afro-Funk & Juju 1973-1987)" (Strut)

Boxed Set of the Year

1. Steven Stapleton & David Tibet, "The Threat of Memory" (Dirter)
2. Section 25, "Always Now" (Factory Benelux)
3. Cabaret Voltaire, "Methodology '74 / '78 Attic Tapes;" (Mute)
4. The Residents, "Mole Box" (New Ralph Too)
5. Kyle Bobby Dunn, "From Here to Eternity" (Past Inside the Present)
6. Zoviet France, "Chasse" (Vinyl on Demand)
   
   "I think I would have burst into tears if this had sold out before I managed to get one.  I've been hoping that these albums would get reissued for like twenty years."  -Anthony D'Amico
   
   
7. The Pop Group, "Y" (Mute)
8. Nurse With Wound, "Trippin' Music" (United Dirter)
   
   "If anyone is considering listening to this album on acid, you would be wise to hide the pink album beforehand, as its alternately jabbering and metallic onslaught is more than nerve-jangling enough sober.  That 'Russian Roulette' aspect is part of this album's weird charm though, as the lack of any sequence or song title information makes the first few spins of this triple LP an appealingly unpredictable and disorienting descent into obsessively looping weirdness."  -Anthony D'Amico
   
   
9. A Certain Ratio, "ACR:Box" (Mute)
10. Nurse With Wound, "Objet Politique" (self-released)
11. Jim O'Rourke, "To Magnetize Money and Catch a Roving Eye" (Sonoris)
12. "Touched By Silence - Music for Macmillian Cancer Support" (Touched)
13. Thurston Moore, "Spirit Counsel" (Daydream Library)
14. The Fall, "Live at the Witch Trials" (Cherry Red)
15. Merzbow, "Metalvelodrome" (Urashima)
16. Arve Henriksen, "The Timeless Nowhere" (Rune Grammofon)
17. Duster, "Capsule Losing Contact" (Numero)
18. Michael Rother, "Solo" (Grönland)
19. Gene Clark, "No Other Deluxe" (4AD)
20. Scott Walker, "Live On Air 1968-1969" (London Calling)
21. The Residents, "Alvin Snow AKA Dyin Dog" (Cryptic Corporation)
22. "On Corrosion" (Helen Scarsdale Agency)
23. "Third Noise Principle (Formative North American Electronica 1975-1984" (Cherry Red)
24. The Fall, "1982" (Cherry Red)
25. The 39 Clocks, "Next Dimension Transfer" (Tapete)

Artist of the Year

1. The Legendary Pink Dots
   
   "Celebrating the 40th year in existence by being as productive as they are is no simple task. It's astounding they continue to record and release as much music and continue to tour extensively." - Jon Whitney
   
   
2. Swans
3. Sunn O)))
4. Nurse With Wound
5. Carla dal Forno
6. Edward Ka-Spel
7. Cosey Fanni Tutti
8. HTRK
9. Alva Noto
10. Black To Comm

Label of the Year

1. Mute
2. Editions Mego
3. Kranky
4. Duophonic
5. Important
6. New Ralph Too
7. Thrill Jockey
8. Conspiracy International
9. House of Mythology
10. Young God

New Artist of the Year

Angel Bat Dawid

"I am by no means an expert in Jazz, however the captivating debut album, The Oracle, from Chicago based composer and multi-instrumentalist Angel Bat Dawid has been appropriately receiving high critical acclaim. Although she performs with numerous musicians, the album was assembled from music created entirely by Dawid alone but is by no means minimal. It is rich in swirling melodic layers of clarinet, voice, keyboard, and other instrumentation and the compositions are beyond hypnotic. I look forward to future recordings and hopefully being fortunate enough to catch her live." - Jon Whitney

Lifetime Achievement Recognition

Lee "Scratch" Perry

"It is hard to imagine what the current musical landscape would be like if Lee Perry had not made the fateful decision to move to the city and take a job as a janitor at a recording studio.  Obviously, he played a pivotal role in ska's evolution into reggae and was unquestionably one of the key architects in the birth of dub. Beyond that, however, Perry was the one who convinced Bob Marley to take his work in a more spiritual/political direction and additionally played a crucial role in transforming Marley into an international celebrity (by controversially sending his recordings to Trojan).  If dub and reggae had not blown up in England to influence a generation of open-minded punks and art students, I have no doubt that post-punk and post-industrial music would never have splintered into the many interesting directions that they did.  Unfortunately, Perry's Black Ark heyday came to an end in near-Biblical fashion in the late '70s, but flashes of that old Perry magic have been intermittently surfacing ever since he relocated to Europe.  More importantly, he has become quite an adventurous collaborator in his later years, tirelessly exposing his idiosyncratic vision to new generations and learning new tricks well into his eighties."  -Anthony D'Amico

"One of the early joys of parenting is receiving that first kindergarten report card when their child is described as "works well with others." In addition to the scores of Jamaican legends Perry has been responsible for, he continues to record with the greats, with recent collaborators including David Tibet, Sasha Grey, and of course, Brian Eno. Not only is Lee Perry's historical indisputable, but who else in their 80s released three stunning albums in 2019 and continues to tour the world? Here's to the next 80 years!" - Jon Whitney

Worst Album of the Year

1. Sleater-Kinney, "The Center Won't Hold" (Mom + Pop)
   
   "I have a history of being skeptical about the worst of the year votes, however the general consensus across the boards seems to agree with this assessment." - Jon Whitney
   
   
2. Jan St. Werner, "Glottal Wolpertinger (Fiepblatter Catalogue #6)" (Thrill Jockey)
   
   "I could admittedly do without the spoken introductions to each piece, but this was otherwise a solid and oft-compelling album."  -Anthony D'Amico
   
   
3. Front Line Assembly, "Wake Up the Coma" (Metropolis)
4. KMFDM, "Paradise" (Metropolis)
   
   "The longevity of this band is deeply perplexing."  -Anthony D'Amico
   
   "I like to imagine if En Esch were to come back, KMFDM might actually be entertaining again.  But I am not holding my breath." - Creaig Dunton
   
   
5. Beirut, "Gallipoli" (4AD)
6. Girl Band, "The Talkies" (Rough Trade)
7. Ellen Allien, "Alientronic" (Bpitch Control)
8. Pixies, "Beneat the Eyrie" (Infectious)
9. Kukangendai, "Palm" (Ideologic Organ)
   
   "I'm legitimately surprised to see this here.  I suppose this album is a bit uneven and one-dimensional, but Kukangendai are an extremely tight band with a unique aesthetic.   I have always enjoyed Stephen O'Malley's offbeat curatorial choices for Ideologic Organ and this album does nothing to dampen my enthusiasm." -Anthony D'Amico
   
   
10. M83, "Knife + Heart (Original Soundtrack)" (Mute)