t's Favorites of 2011

Like the Village Voice Pazz & Jop list, here at O(h)rtlos our favorite albums of the year doesn’t come out until the following January…and is also considered one of the most complete and authoritative of such exercises.

Before I get into my own meaninglessly long list of musical releases from 2011 that I enjoyed in that same year, organized into untenable categories, I have some incoherent musings on a few aspects of the musical landscape as I experienced it.

Many publications treated James Blake and his eponymous full-length debut as definitional. That album is a decent affair that comes as a slight disappointment after his much more interesting EP’s, and certainly isn’t terribly innovative. Its adoring critical reception is therefore a bit mystifying. My intuitive sense says that this confusing phenomenon is actually related to another: King of Limbs and the muted impact of the first Radiohead album since 1997 that didn’t seem like a big deal. KOL is not a misstep by any means; it contains a number of strong additions to the band’s oeuvre. Part of why it seems insubstantial is surely its stunted track list. Ten to fourteen tracks is what one gets from a Radiohead album; here, eight. It’s hard to say if King of Limbs would feel more canonical with the addition of the songs from the high-quality “Supercollider / The Butcher” single and “The Daily Mail / Staircase”. Yet ultimately I don’t think that a longer King of Limbs would seem much more of an important Radiohead entry; it’s not just the short length that dims the impact of a new Radiohead album, and to begin to see why, one should take a look at the other Radiohead-related material surrounding KOL. There’s the the 8-part (and counting?) remix series in which all sorts of currently important producers ply their craft with the basic materials available. Jamie xx, to my ears a much better exemplar of a now-sound than Blake, takes the exercise to a sort of ritualistic extreme with this 3-part meditation on “Bloom.” Then there’s Thom Yorke’s work with Burial and Four Tet on “Ego / Mirror,” both songs much more vital than anything on the (remember, still excellent) new Radiohead album proper. Much of the praise surrounding James Blake has involved marking him as the poster-boy of a supposed post-dubstep aesthetic. That sound, however, may not represent an evolution of dubstep and its strange commercial explosion of the last few years as much as it signals the final victory of Kid A, which eleven years ago set the template for so much of the forward-looking pop music to come after it. “Post-Dubstep,” to the extent such a thing actually exists, does indeed inherit a 2-step groove, but Kid A is everywhere else in its DNA. The same reason lies behind the false identification of a standard-bearer for post-dubstep (Blake) and the curiously diminished impact of King of Limbs. Pop music has now fully absorbed “Everything in Its Right Place,” “The National Anthem,” “Motion Picture Soundtrack” and “Idioteque;” a new Radiohead album is not the same because at this moment, more than perhaps any other, Radiohead is all around. Some commentators may, in the resulting confusion, identify James Blake as the face of post-dubstep. Yet, as boring as this may be, it’s our old friend Thom.

A running concern of mine throughout the year has been the slate of excellent releases that could be labeled ‘conjectural’ or ‘imaginary world music,’ epitomized by Zun Zun Egui‘s Katang, YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN, and Gang Gang Dance‘s Eye Contact. 2011 also saw an unprecedented number of commercial releases from Tuareg artists, including Bombino, Group Doueh, Terakaft, Toumastin, and the now well-established Tinariwen. Strange coincidence that this outpouring should come in a year that saw the death of Muammar Gaddafi, that peculiar and terrible post-modernist who played such a large role in the Tuareg’s fate. The Tuareg’s desert rock may also be seen as a conjectural world music; if the most dire prediction of the prophets of global warming come to pass, the coming century will see the Sahara leap across the Mediterranean and bring its frightful desiccation as far north as Berlin, and so the syncretistic music of the Tuareg would come to be an appropriate indigenous music for Europe. All of these albums, from the Global North and the Global South, speak in their way of possible futures.

If one were to ignore trends and flights of fancy, however, and focus merely on who it was that brought to our ears the greatest amount of wonderful music, that distinction would clearly go to Peter Broderick, the expatriate Oregonian who had his hand in a dazzling range of works, including his collaboration with Nils Frahm as Oliveray, work with Rauelson, Machinefabriek and the devastatingly lovely Lentemusiek with Laura Arkana, as well as his own Music for Confluence and Music for Grace and Mercy.

Also of special note was the even more prolific Ranvir Bassi, who I may dare say emerged as one of the most idiosyncratic and demanding electronic artists of the year, and threatens to continue in the same manner in the twelve months ahead.

Now here are my favorite twenty albums released in 2011, as near as I can reckon, followed by a long and utterly meaningless list of many worthy others, alternatively in and not in any particular order. My apologies to everyone and everything.

Top 20

 20. Trails & Ways – Temporal + Territorrial

Pitchfork Media has told us that the single greatest song of 2011 was M83′s “Midnight City.” Even if we don’t accept this to be true, it says much of the sharp talent possessed by Trails & Ways that they turned around in almost no time at all with a cover of that same song which far surpassed the original. Less shocking a feat if one had also heard their debut EP, where they were similarly triumphant in handling Miike Snow’s “Animal.” More impressive is how well their originals stand up to their organic re-imaginings of others’ works; both of these brief offerings lead with some of the more wonderfully poetic songs that I, who gives not much emphasis to the lyrical, have heard in some years, while “Chills” ranks as the best song written so far about global warming.

19. Lo-Fi-Fnk – The Last Summer

Like attending a rave hosted by an ice hotel made of sugar water.

18. LAKE – Giving and Receiving

All hail the Evergreen state. K Recs forever.

17. Jonti – Twirligig

A trifle it may seem, but it’s the closest to an original recreation of The Avalanches’ Since I Left You yet attempted.

16. Flash Bang Grenada – 10 Haters

Busdriver’s “Least Favorite Rapper,” the Jhelli Beam track on which Nocando alit, consumed me for much of 2009. Looks like those two were also fans, as they decided to make an album of it. As much as I effused over Das Racist last year, it must be admitted that these gut-busting, neck-breaking cats have been up in that stratosphere for a minute now.

15. Hoquets – Belgotronics

The simplicity of the (self-built) instrumentation kept me from placing this album any higher up the list, but really I’m kidding myself. Likely I’ll remember this long after any of the others, such a wonderful quirky little gift to the world it is. An album dedicated to Belgium we shall never need again.

14. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact

The sound of the house band at Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel in Johnny Mnemonic.

13. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Hysterical

My least favorite aspect of this album is that it has regularly been labeled ‘a return to form.’ With four years since a CYHSY LP (although that period has also seen an Alec Ounsworth album and one from Flashy Python) it might be considered a return, but as one of the (seemingly) few people who considered Some Loud Thunder to be a brilliant album (with perhaps the best production sound not from Brian Eno since Paris 1919) I’m offended by the idea that Clap Your Hands… succeeded here because they ‘returned to their roots’ or some such nonsense. So don’t call it a comeback, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is one of the best indie rock groups of the last decade, and if you’d like quick proof that they haven’t made a single misstep not invented in the minds of a sophmore-slump hungry online music press, skip directly to “The Witness’s Dull Surprise.”

12. Battles – Gloss Drop

11. Plaid – scintilli

10. 13 & God – Own Your Ghost

9. Laura Arkana met Peter Broderick – Lentemusiek

Many commentators seem to have decided upon The Magic Place from Juliana Barwick as the most purely beautiful album of the year. They, of course, are wrong. It’s this one.

8. Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

An album that makes the definitive case for both the saxophone and electric amplification.

7. French Quarter – Desert Wasn’t Welcome

6. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

5. Zun Zun Egui – Katang

4. Eleanor Friedberger – Last Summer

I’ve never been a fan of the Fiery Furnaces, a group that never seemed to hold on to a single music idea long enough to extract anything satisfying from it. The exceedingly coherent Last Summer stands in stark contrast; the ten tracks feel like they are two moments. The first half a single, breathless take on all emotional power contained within all details and differences in the mundane, the second half a single, dizzied reflection on time.

3. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up

2. tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l

1. Skeletons – PEOPLE

People always come around.

And, to continue…

 

Rock or Whatever

Akron/Family – S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT

Algernon Cadwallader – Parrot Flies

The Antlers – Burst Apart

The Baseball Project – Volume 2: High and Inside

Braids – Native Speaker

Chad VanGaalen – Diaper Island

City Center – Redeemer

Cut Off Your Hands – Hollow

Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lenses Alien

Dananananaykroyd – There Is A Way

De Kift – Brik

Deerhoof – Deerhoof vs. Evil

Delicate Steve – Wondervision

The Dodos – No Color

Ducktails – III: Arcade Dynamics

Elk – First Love

Found – factorycraft

Future of the Left – Polymers are Forever

I’lls’ – Thread

Library Voices – Summer Of Lust

Liturgy – Aesthethica

Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness

Man Man – Life Fantastic

Oh No! Yoko – PAU PAU

Roommate – Guilty Rainbow

Parts & Labor – Constant Future

Pete & the Pirates – One Thousand Pictures

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

Radio Wire Empire – Neotenic EP

Rob Crow – He Thinks He’s People

Ringo DeathStarr – Colour Trip

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Departing

Slow Club – Paradise

Slow Loris – Routine Glow

Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde

Soft Powers – Outlandish Scandals

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Mirror Traffic

Surfer Blood – Tarot Classics

Telekinesis – 12 Desperate Straight Lines

Times New Viking – Dancer Equired

Tom Vek – Leisure Seizure

The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient

We Were Promised Jetpacks – In the Pit of the Stomach

Wire – Red Barked Tree

Woods – Sun And Shade

Wye Oak – Civilian

YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN – YT//ST

 

Post-Rock + Jazz + Math Rock

Alog – Unemployed

All Tiny Creatures – Harbors

Amazing Births – Younger Moon

BADBADNOTGOOD – BBNG

Benoît Honoré Pioulard – Plays Thelma

Bohren & Der Club of Gore – Beileid

The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble – Mr. Machine

Coldair – Far South

Collections of Colonies of Bees – GIVING

Giraffes? Giraffes! – Pink Magick

Julian Lynch – Terra

Mark McGuire – Get Lost

Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

Ponytail – Do Whatever You Want All The Time

Sandro Perri – Impossible Spaces

schnAAk – Wake up Colossus

Sea and Cake – The Moonlight Butterfly

Stephan Mathieu – A Static Place

Steve Hauschildt – Tragedy & Geometry

Talkdemonic – Ruins

Tape – Revelationes

Thank You – Golden Worry

 

Garage Rock to Beach Pop

Arrington De Dionyso – Suara Naga

Brilliant Colors – Again and Again

Cloud Nothings – Cloud Nothings

Dum Dum Girls – Only in Dreams

Household – Items

Jerusalem and the Starbaskets – DOST

Still Corners – Creatures of an Hour

Triptides – Psychic Summer

Vivian Girls – Share The Joy

Yuck – Yuck

 

Techno / House / Dubstep

2562 – Fever

Africa Hitech – 93 Million Miles

Anstam – Dispel Dances

Barem – After The Storm

Birdy Nam Nam – Defiant Order

BNJMN – Black Square / Plastic World

Burial – Street Halo

Burial + Four Tet + Thom Yorke – Ego / Mirror

Byetone – Symeta

CHLLNGR – Haven

Cosmin TRG – Simulat

Egyptrixx – Bible Eyes

Elektro Guzzi – Parquet

The Field – Looping State Of Mind

French Fries – Laquisha – Charlotte

Hyetal – Broadcast

John Tejada – Parabolas

Kode9 & The Spaceape – Black Sun

Kuedo – Severant

Machinedrum – Room(s)

Martyn – Ghost People

Mathias Stubo – 1979

Paul Kalkbrenner – Icke Wieder

Perc – Wicker & Steel

Robag Wruhme – Thora Vukk

Sascha Funke – Brave

SBTRKT – SBTRKT

Taragana Pyjarama – Taragana Pyjarama

Zomby – Dedication + Nothing

 

World Bass + Juke + Bounce

Atropolis – Atropolis

Big Freedia – Scion A/V Presents: Big Freedia

Buraka Som Sistema – Komba

Björk – The Crystalline Series (Omar Souleyman Remixes)

Chrissy Murderbot – Women’s Studies

Daniel Haaksman – Rambazamba

DJ Rashad & King AG – Just A Taste

Jay Fay – Jay Fay + Sassofono

Omar Souleyman – Haflat Gharbia

Owiny Sigoma Band – Owiny Sigoma Band

 

Sampledelica + Exotica

People Like Us – Welcome Abroad

Monster Rally – Coral

Seahawks – Another Summer With The Seahawks

 

Tuareg

Bombino – Agadez

Group Doueh – Zayna Jumma

Tinariwen – Tassili

Terakaft – Aratan n Azawad

Tamikrest – Toumastin

 

Experimental Electronic + Home Listening + Glitch

Aeroc – R+B=?

The Advisory Circle – As The Crow Flies

Amon Tobin – ISAM

Atom™ – Atom™ Programmiert Den Scheiß Aus Sich Raus. (Eine Populärwissenschaftliche Stückesammlung)

Alva Noto – Univrs

Buckminster Fuzeboard – Funny Noises

Co La – Daydream Repeater + Fugitive of Leisure

James Ferraro – Far Side Virtual

Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica

patten – GLAQJO XAACSSO

Pye Corner Audio Transcription Services – Black Mill Tapes, vols. 1 + 2

 

Instrumental Hip-Hop / Glitch-Hop / Lazer Bass / Synth-Funk / Glo-fi / Chillwave / Witch House /

Shlohmo – Bad Vibes

DATERAPE – Cold Remains + Empress + Machaevol

Holy Other – With U

Neat Beats – Cosmic Surgery

Rustie – Glass Swords

Krampfhaft – Makin’ Magic

Salva – Complex Housing

Mono/Poly – Manifestations

Mux Mool – Drum EP 2

Moon Bounce – Darn Your Best Frock

Com Truise – Galactic Melt

Teams vs Star Slinger – Teams vs Star Slinger

Alias – Fever Dream

Balam Acab – Wander/Wonder

howse – trakz + undizputed

Young Montana – Limerence

813 – Dusty Bubbles

Ramphastos – FULL MOON

1000names – Before Sunrise EP / Invisible Architect / Machine City

Octopus Jones – SUSHI

Waterbury Yacht Club – Professional Russians

Corduroi – Anything For Now

heRobust – Albumin

Comma – Colortronics

Luisterwaar – Dry/Wet

Oddisee – Odd Seasons

 

Hip-Hop / Rap

Asa Masa – Jou Jou

Beans – End It All

Blu – NoYork

Danny Brown – XXX

Das Racist – Relax

Death Grips – Exmilitary

Ghostpoet – Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam

Kanye West & Jay Z – Watch The Throne

Lakutis – I’m In the Forest

Lars Vaular – Du Betyr Meg

Open Mike Eagle – Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes

Prago Union – V barvách

Tanya Morgan – You & What Army

 

R&B / Soul / Funk

How To Dress Well – Just Once

Frank Ocean – Nostalgia/Ultra

Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – Soul Time!

The Weeknd – House of Balloons + Echoes of Silence

 

Synth-pop / Electro-pop / Tech-pop / Electro-washed Pop / Chillwave

Architecture In Helsinki – Moment Bends

Bodi Bill – What?

Body Language – Social Studies

Cut Copy – Zonoscope

d’Eon + Grimes – Darkbloom

First Rate People – It’s Never Not Happening

Ford & Lopatin – Channel Pressure

Fredrik – Flora

High Places – Original Colors

Kabukiman – You’re Right. Let’s Bail.

Le Corps Mince De Françoise – Love And Nature

Les Filles Et Les Garçons – Les Filles Et Les Garçons EP

Little Dragon – Ritual Union

Neon Indian – Era Extraña

Pink Skull – Psychic Wellfare

Pepepiano – Pepepiano

Planningtorock – W

Rainbow Arabia – Boys And Diamonds

Rioux – Everything You Need Is Right Here

Walls – Coracle

When Saints Go Machine – Konkylie

WhoMadeWho – Knee Deep

 

Folk + Acoustic Pop + Folk Rock + Chamber Pop

Bill Callahan – Apocalypse

Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Wolfroy Goes To Town

Circuit Des Yeux – Portrait

The Daredevil Christopher Wright – The Longsuffering Song EP

The Douglas Firs – Happy As A Windless Flag

Gem Club – Breakers

Golden Ghost – Eudaimonia

Honey Wars – I’d Be Amazed

I Am Oak – Oasem

J Mascis – Several Shades Of Why

Leopold Skin – Mountains of Reverb

Loch Lomond – Little Me Will Start A Storm

Marissa Nadler – Marissa Nadler

Mia Doi Todd – Cosmic Ocean Ship

Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck

Paleo – Fruit of the Spirit

Ryan Driver – Who’s Breathing?

Sóley – We Sink

Vetiver – The Errant Charm

 

Psychedelic Folk + New Primitive + Experimental Acoustic / Instrumental

Nick Jonah Davis – Of Time And Tides

Ryan Teague – Causeway

Danny Paul Grody – In Search of Light

Thurston Moore – Solo Acoustic Volume Five

Charles-Eric Charrier – Oldman

Stranded Horse – Humbling Tides

C Joynes – Congo

Hallock Hill – The Union

James Blackshaw – Holly

Village of Spaces – Alchemy and Trust

Cubs – The Whispering Woods

Ocelote Rojo – Pacarina

 

Modern Classical + Minimal + Ambient + Drone

Area C – Map Of Circular Thought

Cache & Do While – Hidden Houses / Spring Into

The Caretaker – An empty bliss beyond this World

Cleared – Cleared

Ezekiel Honig – Folding In On Itself

Golden Retriever – Emergent Layer + Light Cones

Grouper – A I A : Dream Loss + A I A : Alien Observer

Hauschka – Salon Des Amateurs

Jacaszek – Glimmer

Jóhann Jóhannsson – The Miners’ Hymn

Julianna Barwick – The Magic Place

Keith Freund – Constant Comments

Kenneth Kirschner – Twenty Ten

Lee Noble – No Becoming

Leyland Kirby – Intrigue & Stuff (Vols. 1-3)

Nico Muhly – Seeing is Believing

Nils Frahm – Felt + Wintermusik

Nils Okland & Sigbjorn Apeland – Lysoen – Hommage a Ole Bull

Rauelsson & Peter Broderick – Réplica

Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972

Trouble Books & Mark McGuire – Trouble Books & Mark McGuire

A Winged Victory For The Sullen – A Winged Victory For The Sullen

 

Pop or Whatever

::M∆DE:IN:HEIGHTS:: – APORIA: IN THESE §TREETS

About Group – Start & Complete

Acid House Kings – Music Sounds Better With You

Banjo Or Freakout – Banjo Or Freakout

Beirut – The Rip Tide

Ben Butler & Mousepad – Formed For Fantasy

Bibio – Mind Bokeh

The Bony King of Nowhere – Eleonore

C+C=Maxigross – Singar

Casiokids – Aabenbaringen over aaskammen

Cornershop – Cornershop & The Double ‘o’ Groove Of

De La Montaña – Postmodern Whirled

Dimlite – Grimm Reality

The Dø – Slippery Slope

Dirty Gold – Roar

Einar Stray – Chiaroscuro

Emalkay – Eclipse

Fanfare ciocărlia & Boban i Marko Marković orchestra – Balkan brass battle

Focusbird – Focusbird

Forest Fire – Staring at the X

Foxes in Fiction – Alberto

Future Islands – On The Water

Gable – CuTe HoRSe CuT

Gardens & Villa – Gardens & Villa

The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts

Gruff Rhys – Hotel Shampoo

Herman Dune – Strange Moosic

The Horrors – Skying

James Blake – James Blake

Jean-Claude Vannier – Electro Rapide

Jinja Safari – Locked By Land

Joan of Arc – Life Like

John Vanderslice – White Wilderness

Joose Keskitalo ja Kolmas Maailmanpalo – Maan näkyjä

Joy – Joy

Kakkmaddafakka – Hest

Key Losers – California Lite

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine

King Raam – Songs of the Wolves

La Sera – La Sera

Loney, Dear – Hall Music

Long Long Long – Who The Fuck Said Family Ain’t Family No More

The Luyas – Too Beautiful To Work

Maria Minerva – Cabaret Cixous

Meeting House – The Hands of a Hideous Giant ACT I + II

Megafaun – Megafaun

Michael Jordan Touchdown Pass – Baby Steps

Miracle Fortress – Was I the Wave?

Mwahaha – Mwahaha

Nat Baldwin – People Changes

Oliveray – Wonders

The One AM Radio – Heaven Is Attached By A Slender Thread

Owen – Ghost Town

Panda Bear – Tomboy

Paul Simon – So Beautiful or So What

Pekka Kuusisto & Paula Vesala – Kiestinki

Princesse – Princesse (demo)

Pocketbooks – Carousel

Quilt – Quilt

Raleigh Moncrief – Watered Lawn

Razika – Program 91

Real Estate – Days

Rich Aucoin – We’re All Dying To Live

Sea Oleena – Sleeplessness

Sin Fang – Summer Echoes

Starfucker – Reptilians

Swod – Drei

Tarwater – Inside The Ships

Thao & Mirah – Thao & Mirah

Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts

Toro y Moi – Underneath the Pine

Touchy Mob – Atlantic Back

Trips and Falls – People Have To Be Told

Tuesday Glass – High Wired

Twerps – Twerps

TV Girl – Benny and the Jetts

Twin Sister – In Heaven

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra

VHS Head – Midnight Section

VIRGINS – RGB

Wilco – The Whole Love

Young Galaxy – Shapeshifting

 

Eerie Pre-Post-Mortem Phenomenon

Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx – We’re New Here

 

Compilations

Acid Rumba: Spanish Gypsy Grooves 1969-1976

Autechre – EP’s

Wallahi le Zain

Red Hot + Rio 2

Fania Records 1964-1980: The Original Sound of Latin New York – Quimbara

Turkish Freakout 2: Psych Folk 1970-1978

Museum of Future Sound 3

Poisonous Gases presents: Skweee Cruise

Life Stories: Highlife and Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980

Bangs & Works Vol. 2 – The Best Of Chicago Footwork

Baltik Bass Vol. 1

Jess & Crabbe present Bazzerk: African Digital Dance

Audible Approaches For A Better Place

!Chicas!: Spanish Female Singers 1962/1974

Minute Papillon

Sofrito Tropical Disco

Erik Satie Et Les Nouveaux Jeunes

Brand New Wayo : Funk, Fast Times & Nigerian Boogie Badness 1979-1983

Total 12

SATURATED!

Music For Saharan Cellphones

Factory Dance

En Tepito We Trust

Sufis At the Cinema: – 50 Years of Qawwali and Sufi Song 1958 – 2007

Folclor Vol.1 Presentado por Tropic-All

Ursula Bogner – Sonne = Blackbox

…I Listen to the Wind That Obliterates My Trace

Oz Almog & Shantel – Kosher Nostra Jewish Gangsters Greatest Hits

Thai! Dai?

Luk Thung: Classic & Obscure 78s from the Thai Countryside

Those Shocking Shaking Days

Kourosh Yaghmaei – Back From The Brink

Sorry Bamba – Volume One 1970-1979

And, to continue…

Rock or Whatever

Akron/Family – S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
Algernon Cadwallader – Parrot Flies

The Antlers – Burst Apart
The Baseball Project – Volume 2: High and Inside

Braids – Native Speaker

Chad VanGaalen – Diaper Island

City Center – Redeemer

Cut Off Your Hands – Hollow
Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lenses Alien

Dananananaykroyd – There Is A Way

De Kift – Brik
Deerhoof – Deerhoof vs. Evil

Delicate Steve – Wondervision

The Dodos – No Color

Ducktails – III: Arcade Dynamics
Elk – First Love

Found – factorycraft

Future of the Left – Polymers are Forever

I’lls’ – Thread

Library Voices – Summer Of Lust

Liturgy – Aesthethica

Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness

Man Man – Life Fantastic

Oh No! Yoko – PAU PAU

Roommate – Guilty Rainbow

Parts & Labor – Constant Future

Pete & the Pirates – One Thousand Pictures

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

Radio Wire Empire – Neotenic EP
Rob Crow – He Thinks He’s People

Ringo DeathStarr – Colour Trip

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Departing

Slow Club – Paradise
Slow Loris – Routine Glow
Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde
Soft Powers – Outlandish Scandals

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Mirror Traffic

Surfer Blood – Tarot Classics

Telekinesis – 12 Desperate Straight Lines

Times New Viking – Dancer Equired
Tom Vek – Leisure Seizure

The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient

We Were Promised Jetpacks – In the Pit of the Stomach
Wire – Red Barked Tree
Woods – Sun And Shade
Wye Oak – Civilian
YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN – YT//ST

Post-Rock + Jazz + Math Rock

Alog – Unemployed

All Tiny Creatures – Harbors
Amazing Births – Younger Moon

BADBADNOTGOOD – BBNG

Benoît Honoré Pioulard – Plays Thelma

Bohren & Der Club of Gore – Beileid

The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble – Mr. Machine

Coldair – Far South

Collections of Colonies of Bees – GIVING

Giraffes? Giraffes! – Pink Magick

Julian Lynch – Terra

Mark McGuire – Get Lost
Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

Ponytail – Do Whatever You Want All The Time

Sandro Perri – Impossible Spaces

schnAAk – Wake up Colossus

Sea and Cake – The Moonlight Butterfly

Stephan Mathieu – A Static Place

Steve Hauschildt – Tragedy & Geometry

Talkdemonic – Ruins

Tape – Revelationes

Thank You – Golden Worry

Garage Rock to Beach Pop

Arrington De Dionyso – Suara Naga

Brilliant Colors – Again and Again

Cloud Nothings – Cloud Nothings

Dum Dum Girls – Only in Dreams

Household – Items

Jerusalem and the Starbaskets – DOST

Still Corners – Creatures of an Hour

Triptides – Psychic Summer

Vivian Girls – Share The Joy

Yuck – Yuck

Techno / House / Dubstep

2562 – Fever

Africa Hitech – 93 Million Miles

Anstam – Dispel Dances

Barem – After The Storm

Birdy Nam Nam – Defiant Order

BNJMN – Black Square / Plastic World

Burial – Street Halo
Burial + Four Tet + Thom Yorke – Ego / Mirror

Byetone – Symeta

CHLLNGR – Haven

Cosmin TRG – Simulat

Egyptrixx – Bible Eyes

Elektro Guzzi – Parquet

The Field – Looping State Of Mind

French Fries – Laquisha – Charlotte

Hyetal – Broadcast

John Tejada – Parabolas

Kode9 & The Spaceape – Black Sun
Kuedo – Severant

Kupa – Bit Pairat

Machinedrum – Room(s)

Martyn – Ghost People

Mathias Stubo – 1979

Paul Kalkbrenner – Icke Wieder

Perc – Wicker & Steel

Robag Wruhme – Thora Vukk

Sascha Funke – Brave
SBTRKT – SBTRKT

Taragana Pyjarama – Taragana Pyjarama

Zomby – Dedication + Nothing

World Bass + Juke + Bounce

Atropolis – Atropolis

Big Freedia – Scion A/V Presents: Big Freedia

Buraka Som Sistema – Komba

Björk – The Crystalline Series (Omar Souleyman Remixes)

Chrissy Murderbot – Women’s Studies

Daniel Haaksman – Rambazamba

DJ Rashad & King AG – Just A Taste

Jay Fay – Jay Fay = Sassofono

Omar Souleyman – Haflat Gharbia

Owiny Sigoma Band – Owiny Sigoma Band

Sampledelica + Exotica

People Like Us – Welcome Abroad

Monster Rally – Coral

Seahawks – Another Summer With The Seahawks

Tuareg

Bombino – Agadez

Group Doueh – Zayna Jumma

Tinariwen – Tassili
Terakaft – Aratan n Azawad

Tamikrest – Toumastin

Experimental Electronic + Home Listening + Glitch

Aeroc – R+B=?

The Advisory Circle – As The Crow Flies

Amon Tobin – ISAM

Atom™ – Atom™ Programmiert Den Scheiß Aus Sich Raus. (Eine Populärwissenschaftliche Stückesammlung)

Alva Noto – Univrs

Buckminster Fuzeboard – Funny Noises
Co La – Daydream Repeater + Fugitive of Leisure

James Ferraro – Far Side Virtual

Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica

patten – GLAQJO XAACSSO

Pye Corner Audio Transcription Services – Black Mill Tapes, vols. 1 + 2

Instrumental Hip-Hop / Glitch-Hop / Lazer Bass / Synth-Funk / Glo-fi / Chillwave / Witch House /

Shlohmo – Bad Vibes

DATERAPE – Cold Remains + Empress + Machaevol

Holy Other – With U

Neat Beats – Cosmic Surgery

Rustie – Glass Swords

Krampfhaft – Makin’ Magic
Salva – Complex Housing

Mono/Poly – Manifestations

Mux Mool – Drum EP 2
Moon Bounce – Darn Your Best Frock

Com Truise – Galactic Melt

Teams vs Star Slinger – Teams vs Star Slinger

Alias – Fever Dream

Balam Acab – Wander/Wonder

howse – trakz + undizputed

Young Montana – Limerence

813 – Dusty Bubbles

Ramphastos – FULL MOON
1000names – Before Sunrise EP / Invisible Architect / Machine City

Octopus Jones – SUSHI

Waterbury Yacht Club – Professional Russians

Corduroi – Anything For Now

heRobust – Albumin

Purple Airlines – The Sketch

Comma – Colortronics

Luisterwaar – Dry/Wet

Oddisee – Odd Seasons

Hip-Hop / Rap

Asa Masa – Jou Jou

Beans – End It All

Blu – NoYork

Danny Brown – XXX

Das Racist – Relax

Death Grips – Exmilitary

Ghostpoet – Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam

Kanye West & Jay Z – Watch The Throne

Lakutis – I’m In the Forest
Lars Vaular – Du Betyr Meg

Open Mike Eagle – Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes

Prago Union – V barvách

Tanya Morgan – You & What Army

R&B / Soul / Funk

How To Dress Well – Just Once

Frank Ocean – Nostalgia/Ultra

Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – Soul Time!

The Weeknd – House of Balloons + Echoes of Silence

Synth-pop / Electro-pop / Tech-pop / Electro-washed Pop / Chillwave

Architecture In Helsinki – Moment Bends

Bodi Bill – What?

Body Language – Social Studies

Cut Copy – Zonoscope

d’Eon + Grimes – Darkbloom

First Rate People – It’s Never Not Happening

Ford & Lopatin – Channel Pressure

Fredrik – Flora

High Places – Original Colors

Kabukiman – You’re Right. Let’s Bail.

Le Corps Mince De Françoise – Love And Nature

Les Filles Et Les Garçons – Les Filles Et Les Garçons EP
Little Dragon – Ritual Union

Neon Indian – Era Extraña

Pink Skull – Psychic Wellfare

Pepepiano – Pepepiano

Planningtorock – W
Rainbow Arabia – Boys And Diamonds

Rioux – Everything You Need Is Right Here

Walls – Coracle

When Saints Go Machine – Konkylie

WhoMadeWho – Knee Deep

Folk + Acoustic Pop + Folk Rock + Chamber Pop

Bill Callahan – Apocalypse

Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Wolfroy Goes To Town

Circuit Des Yeux – Portrait

The Daredevil Christopher Wright – The Longsuffering Song EP

The Douglas Firs – Happy As A Windless Flag

Gem Club – Breakers

Golden Ghost – Eudaimonia

Honey Wars – I’d Be Amazed

I Am Oak – Oasem

J Mascis – Several Shades Of Why

Leopold Skin – Mountains of Reverb

Loch Lomond – Little Me Will Start A Storm

Marissa Nadler – Marissa Nadler

Mia Doi Todd – Cosmic Ocean Ship

Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck
Paleo – Fruit of the Spirit

Ryan Driver – Who’s Breathing?

Sóley – We Sink

Vetiver – The Errant Charm

Psychedelic Folk + New Primitive + Experimental Acoustic / Instrumental

Nick Jonah Davis – Of Time And Tides

Ryan Teague – Causeway

Danny Paul Grody – In Search of Light

Thurston Moore – Solo Acoustic Volume Five

Charles-Eric Charrier – Oldman

Stranded Horse – Humbling Tides

C Joynes – Congo

Hallock Hill – The Union

James Blackshaw – Holly

Village of Spaces – Alchemy and Trust

Cubs – The Whispering Woods

Ocelote Rojo – Pacarina

Modern Classical + Minimal + Ambient + Drone

Area C – Map Of Circular Thought

Cache & Do While – Hidden Houses / Spring Into

The Caretaker – An empty bliss beyond this World

Cleared – Cleared

Ezekiel Honig – Folding In On Itself

Golden Retriever – Emergent Layer + Light Cones

Grouper – A I A : Dream Loss + A I A : Alien Observer

Hauschka – Salon Des Amateurs

Jacaszek – Glimmer

Jóhann Jóhannsson – The Miners’ Hymn

Julianna Barwick – The Magic Place

Keith Freund – Constant Comments

Kenneth Kirschner – Twenty Ten

Lee Noble – No Becoming

Leyland Kirby – Intrigue & Stuff (Vols. 1-3)

Nico Muhly – Seeing is Believing

Nils Frahm – Felt + Wintermusik
Nils Okland & Sigbjorn Apeland – Lysoen – Hommage a Ole Bull

Rauelsson & Peter Broderick – Réplica

Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972

Trouble Books & Mark McGuire – Trouble Books & Mark McGuire

A Winged Victory For The Sullen – A Winged Victory For The Sullen

Pop or Whatever

::M∆DE:IN:HEIGHTS:: – APORIA: IN THESE §TREETS
About Group – Start & Complete
Acid House Kings – Music Sounds Better With You

Banjo Or Freakout – Banjo Or Freakout
Beirut – The Rip Tide
Ben Butler & Mousepad – Formed For Fantasy

Bibio – Mind Bokeh

The Bony King of Nowhere – Eleonore

C+C=Maxigross – Singar

Casiokids – Aabenbaringen over aaskammen

Cornershop – Cornershop & The Double ‘o’ Groove Of

De La Montaña – Postmodern Whirled

Dimlite – Grimm Reality

The Dø – Slippery Slope
Dirty Gold – Roar

Einar Stray – Chiaroscuro

Emalkay – Eclipse
Fanfare ciocărlia & Boban i Marko Marković orchestra – Balkan brass battle
Focusbird – Focusbird
Forest Fire – Staring at the X
Foxes in Fiction – Alberto
Future Islands – On The Water
Gable – CuTe HoRSe CuT
Gardens & Villa – Gardens & Villa

The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts
Gruff Rhys – Hotel Shampoo
Herman Düne – Strange Moosic

The Horrors – Skying
James Blake – James Blake
Jean-Claude Vannier – Electro Rapide
Jinja Safari – Locked By Land
Joan of Arc – Life Like
John Vanderslice – White Wilderness

Joose Keskitalo ja Kolmas Maailmanpalo – Maan näkyjä
Joy – Joy

Kakkmaddafakka – Hest
Key Losers – California Lite
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
King Raam – Songs of the Wolves
La Sera – La Sera
Loney, Dear – Hall Music
Long Long Long – Who The Fuck Said Family Ain’t Family No More

The Luyas – Too Beautiful To Work

Maria Minerva – Cabaret Cixous
Meeting House – The Hands of a Hideous Giant ACT I + II
Megafaun – Megafaun

Michael Jordan Touchdown Pass – Baby Steps
Miracle Fortress – Was I the Wave?

Mwahaha – Mwahaha
Nat Baldwin – People Changes
Oliveray – Wonders

The One AM Radio – Heaven Is Attached By A Slender Thread
Owen – Ghost Town
Panda Bear – Tomboy
Paul Simon – So Beautiful or So What
Pekka Kuusisto & Paula Vesala – Kiestinki

Princesse – Princesse (demo)
Pocketbooks – Carousel
Quilt – Quilt
Raleigh Moncrief – Watered Lawn
Razika – Program 91
Real Estate – Days
Rich Aucoin – We’re All Dying To Live
Sea Oleena – Sleeplessness
Sin Fang – Summer Echoes

Starfucker – Reptilians
Swod – Drei
Tarwater – Inside The Ships
Thao & Mirah – Thao & Mirah
Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts
Toro y Moi – Underneath the Pine
Touchy Mob – Atlantic Back

Trips and Falls – People Have To Be Told
Tuesday Glass – High Wired
Twerps – Twerps

TV Girl – Benny and the Jetts
Twin Sister – In Heaven

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra
VHS Head – Midnight Section
VIRGINS – RGB

Wilco – The Whole Love

Young Galaxy – Shapeshifting

Eerie Pre-Post-Mortem Phenomenon

Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx – We’re New Here

Compilations

Acid Rumba: Spanish Gypsy Grooves 1969-1976

Autechre – EP’s
Wallahi le Zain

Red Hot + Rio 2

Fania Records 1964-1980: The Original Sound of Latin New York – Quimbara
Turkish Freakout 2: Psych Folk 1970-1978

Museum of Future Sound 3
Poisonous Gases presents: Skweee Cruise

Life Stories: Highlife and Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980
Bangs & Works Vol. 2 – The Best Of Chicago Footwork
Baltik Bass Vol. 1
Jess & Crabbe present Bazzerk: African Digital Dance

Audible Approaches For A Better Place
!Chicas!: Spanish Female Singers 1962/1974
Minute Papillon

Sofrito Tropical Disco

Erik Satie Et Les Nouveaux Jeunes

Brand New Wayo : Funk, Fast Times & Nigerian Boogie Badness 1979-1983

Total 12

SATURATED!

Music For Saharan Cellphones
Factory Dance
En Tepito We Trust

Sufis At the Cinema: – 50 Years of Qawwali and Sufi Song 1958 – 2007

Folclor Vol.1 Presentado por Tropic-All

Ursula Bogner – Sonne = Blackbox

…I Listen to the Wind That Obliterates My Trace
Oz Almog & Shantel – Kosher Nostra Jewish Gangsters Greatest Hits
Thai! Dai?

Luk Thung: Classic & Obscure 78s from the Thai Countryside

Those Shocking Shaking Days

Kourosh Yaghmaei – Back From The Brink

Sorry Bamba – Volume One 1970-1979