David Abravanel is back with an annual tradition: a year in music in review, with less-recognized releases and essentials alike. This isn’t just a list for appearances, though — it’s, as always, personal, a guide to finding meaning and connection and really listening. And it comes in a year when music can be a lifeline.
I won’t mince words about the year – on a global scale, things seemed to be falling apart. I’ve likely been to more protests and rallies in 2025 than since before COVID. But we have each other, and we have empathy, and we do what we can.
I also feel the need to say: don’t feel bad for enjoying art, for enjoying your family and friends. We are more aware than ever before at the horrid state of affairs across different pockets of the world; it helps no one to force yourself into a cynical depression or race to out-doom everyone else. It’s no sin to put on a record, and you’re of no help to anyone else if you purposefully keep yourself morose.
One thing to add for this year – I’m no longer limiting releases listed to a specific number. It’s too difficult to definitively say what’s the best of the year – it often depends on mood, weather, etc. The releases listed are all ones that have hit me in one way or another, whether they were frequent listens or just particularly compelling.
I’ve endeavored to focus more on the lesser-sung albums of the year in this recap (I quite enjoyed the Mark Pritchard/Thom Yorke album, but it’s been written up in sharper detail in a few other places), and included the raw list of the listens that seem to stay with me. I’ve attempted to say a few things about albums that you may not have heard or where I felt I could add something – it doesn’t mean they’re better or worse than others on the list, really!
Lastly, many of the artists I’ve interviewed here this year are on my list – instead of summarizing things, I’ll plug for you all to go back and enjoy features on Fluxion, Emptyset, Wrecked Lightship, Tom Hall, and Clark.
Thank you, Peter, for publishing, editing, and being a true friend; thank you to the artists listed here for sharing your music, and thanks to you for reading and listening.
8004 – 8004 (Kino-Disk)
Kino-Disk is one of the most intriguing labels operating right now, particularly for its commitment to lathe-cut releases, and 8004 fits perfectly into that tactile, time-worn aesthetic. This is immersive, pressure-filled dub techno that immediately calls to mind the Echospace [313] lineage, but it never feels derivative.
The postcard photograph attached to the release – a rainy city afternoon – captures the mood exactly. These tracks feel like half-remembered sounds, drifting in and out of focus, as if they might resolve more clearly if you could move through them three-dimensionally. It’s a vivid sound portrait, full of fog, bass pressure, and memory.
Ambrose Akinmusire – honey from a winter stone (Nonesuch)
Ambrose Akinmusire continues to resist easy categorization. Trumpeter, poet, singer, rapper, composer – he wears all of these roles at once, often within the same piece. honey from a winter stone demands intent listening, unfolding in long excursions that move fluidly between modern classical composition, spoken word, and electronic abstraction.
There are extended tracks, but this is not background music, nor does it offer easy entry points. Instead, it rewards patience, gradually revealing its emotional and conceptual core. Akinmusire remains one of the most compelling voices working today precisely because he refuses to simplify what he has to say.
Autechre – Untilted (Warp)
Maybe it’s simply that I was 19 when it came out, but Untilted has always held a special place for me—one that’s only been reinforced over time. That iconic sleeve from The Designers Republic doesn’t hurt, either: a reminder of the era when Warp releases arrived as complete worlds, visual language included.
Musically, Untilted is where Autechre solidified the sound they’d been carving out across LP5, Confield, and Draft 7.30 – that impossible balance of machine rigor and unsettling, organic motion. What still inspires is how tracks evolve rather than “progress.” Halfway through “Ipacial Section,” melody emerges like a revealing accident, while “Fermium” shifts from insistent percussion into eerie FM drift, as if the machinery itself has changed its mind.
Even now, it sounds like a record that’s not merely complex, but alive.
Bardo Pond – Set and Setting (Matador)
Named after Timothy Leary’s advice for taking acid, Set and Setting functions as a noisy odyssey from Bardo Pond, an underrated band who have always existed in that sweet spot between noise rock and psychedelia. The reissue is a welcome reminder of how strong they are at sustaining a mood until it becomes physical.
This one is best heard in full – ideally with your head slowly nodding, locked into the long-form drift. If you need a jumping-in point, “Again” does the trick, but the real reward comes from letting the album do what it does: blur time, blur edges, and make distortion feel oddly comforting.
Barker – Stochastic Drift (Smalltown Supersound)
Sam Barker has explored lush harmony with minimal percussion, and he’s explored pounding kicks with minimal harmonic movement. Stochastic Drift feels like a summation of everything that makes his work so distinctive.
There are moments of near-pure ambient here that recall his earlier Voltek material – tracks like “The Remembering Self” – alongside pieces driven by acoustic percussion and subtle rhythmic motion. “Cosmic Microwave” spirals optimistically, its model-sounding slaps suggesting something almost pantheistic, while the title track’s use of acoustic percussion is quietly revelatory.
This is pure, sublime music – one of those records that invites repeated full listens in a single sitting.
BOVE – Computerissima (Pyteca+)
Computerissima explores mutations and evolutions of electro and IDM with a sharp ear for texture and space. Menacing glitches and empty digital corridors frequently fracture into moments of unexpected warmth, with relaxed pads opening up like breathing room in tracks such as “Router Rhythm.”
Particularly striking are the evolutions in the latter half of the record, where beeps, organs, and choral elements begin to layer in – most notably on “Sudo.” These moments feel like interfaces opening, revealing something human beneath the circuitry.
Brendon Moeller – Blue Moon (ESP Institute)
Brendon Moeller’s prolific output sometimes means his best work risks being overlooked, crowded out by everything else he’s released that year. Blue Moon deserves close attention.
Sitting beautifully between anxiety and euphoria, the album draws on Spanish guitar motifs and the pad-heavy atmospheres of classic jungle, while maintaining a smooth, almost celestial forward motion. The sub-bass throughout hits like warm air rising from the sea, grounding the record even at its most euphoric moments.
Cardiacs – LSD (Alphabet Business Concern)
LSD stands as one of the most moving releases of the year—not just musically, but historically. Begun by the dearly departed Tim Smith before severe health challenges left him with limited mobility, the album was completed by a large and deeply committed circle of collaborators.
That LSD emerges as such a beautiful triumph is a credit to Smith, his bandmates, family, friends, and fans alike. It is unmistakably Cardiacs: joyful, bewildering, emotionally direct, and structurally fearless. “Heaven Born and Ever Bright” indeed.
Client_03 – Testbed_Assembly (Astrophonica)
Following years of drum & bass mastery, Fracture’s Client_03 project feels like the ultimate statement of his explorations into electro. Testbed_Assembly engages directly with themes of surveillance and control – unfortunately, timely topics – without collapsing into pure dystopia.
What’s rare here is how cold machine funk coexists with warmth and optimism. Buzzy bass beds recall Fracture’s DnB roots, lending humanity to tracks that might otherwise feel austere. Rather than a warning, Testbed_Assembly feels like an exploration of what could still be possible. “Survival Companion Candidate Explorer” is both a brilliant track title and a concise summary of the album’s spirit.
Coco Bryce – Noches Sephardies (Rhythmi Tou Kosmou)
This one carries a strong element of personal appeal. Coco Bryce steps away from rave-centric aesthetics to explore Sephardic Jewish melodies, Indonesian gamelan, Kenyan taarab, and more. The results are deeply felt and stylistically fluid.
Whether it’s the jazzy drum & bass of “Desert Moon Continuum,” the Actress- or Burial-esque murk of “Tiris One,” or the smooth flutes and hand drums of “Hazina,” the album feels guided by curiosity rather than concept. It’s a generous, open-eared record.
Coppé – 30 RPM (I Wish I Had a Brain) (Mango & Sweet Rice)
When Coppé released 20 RPM a decade ago, I described it as the sound of “I do what the fuck I want.” That assessment has aged well.
30 RPM explodes across 22 tracks, capturing Coppé’s full range as a self-described Martian moving freely between trip-hop, glitch, delicate chimes, bustling IDM, weightless ambient, and far more than can reasonably be listed here. After albums of deconstructed jazz standards, lush piano works, futuristic opera, and deeply personal tributes, this feels like both a celebration and a statement. You really do need to hear it.
Cosey Fanni Tutti – 2t2 (CTI)
It’s puzzling that 2t2 passed with relatively little fanfare, given how strong it is, not to mention how it fits with Cosey Fanni Tutti’s impressive output over the past decade.
While intimacy has long been a theme in Tutti’s work, 2t2 carries a vulnerability that aligns closely with Re-Sisters, her exploration of lineage and sexism faced by avant-garde pioneers like Delia Derbyshire and Margery Kempe. The beat-driven first half pulses with inward focus, while the latter half drifts into a timeless void. This is unmistakably the same artist who defined “unsettling” on Throbbing Gristle’s “Hamburger Lady,” still uncompromising and deeply human.
Curtis Roads – Electronic Music 1994–2021 (Elli)
Curtis Roads is rightly regarded as a foundational figure in granular synthesis and microsound, and this expertly curated compilation makes a strong case for returning to the work with fresh ears. There’s a temptation to talk about this material in purely technical terms – historical importance, academic influence – but what stands out most is the sheer variety of musical thinking.
You can hear sound being deconstructed in multiple ways: drones that feel almost physical (“Clang-tint”), a pocket of objects clicking and shimmering (“Touche Pas”), and an insistent gurgle that becomes strangely hypnotic (“Bubble Chamber”). It’s less a retrospective than a reminder: Roads wasn’t simply inventing tools. He was inventing listening.
Cyrnai – Calamity of Beauty (self-release)
Carolyn Fok remains prolific and perpetually underrated. In 2025 she released two very different albums– Calamity of Beauty under her industrial Cyrnai moniker, and another under her own name.
Here, industrial returns to its original purpose: capturing the sounds of pressure, modern life, and systems at work. At the same time, this is unmistakably an Internet-age evolution, informed by Fok’s ongoing Memoir of Sound project. The result feels archival and forward-looking at once.
Dream Sequence feat. Blake Baxter – Endless Reflection (Tresor)
I love that Tresor continues to bring back releases that have otherwise fallen by the wayside. Endless Reflection is a peak moment for soulful techno – music that can go deep romantically (“Luv is Blind”) and go deep sexually (the undeniable highlight “Pump It”) without losing warmth or craft.
There’s also a boldness in the sampling choices. Pulling the closing euphoria from Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life is a nervy move, but it works beautifully on “The LaLa Song,” amplifying the sense of uplift without tipping into kitsch. This reissue feels like a correction to the historical record.
The Durutti Column – The Return of the Durutti Column (London)
Vini Reilly is a singular artist, and this debut – made in collaboration with Martin Hannett’s distinct sense of space and effects – remains starkly unadorned yet heavenly. It’s a record of delayed guitar melodies and delicate emotional weather: grief, shy love, subtle reactions to seasonal change.
The original sandpaper sleeve (available again on the reissue) is one of those legendary packaging gestures: a Situationist nod to Guy Debord, and an ironically abrasive container for music that’s so tender it feels almost private. Few albums capture vulnerability with such restraint, and fewer still make restraint feel so full.
Francesco Paolo Paladino & Dorothy Moskowitz – Monastir (13)
Dorothy Moskowitz – best known as the voice and mind behind the impossibly forward-thinking United States of America – remains as compelling and challenging in her 80s as she ever was. Monastir, a soundtrack to a film starring Edward Ka-Spel, finds her collaborating with Francesco Paolo Paladino on a work that flirts with jazz, ambient, and electronics.
Warm and eerie by turns, the album weaves poetry into a dreamy, hypnotic spell. If there’s anything left to wish for, it’s hearing Moskowitz and Paladino collaborate with Björk.
Gang of Four – Shrinkwrapped (Gill/King)
I’m extremely grateful to see the legacy of the lesser-known Gang of Four presented this well. Originally released in 1995, Shrinkwrapped captured a band, anchored by original members Andy Gill and Jon King, absorbing new influences like industrial music while returning with renewed focus on the personal-political moments of everyday life.
What surprises most is how tender it can be. The guitars are still metal machines when they need to be, but they also feel more vulnerable than ever, making space for something heartfelt without losing the band’s edge. This reissue feels like a long-overdue reframing.
General Magic – Bosko (Editions Mego)
It genuinely surprised me that Bosko didn’t receive more attention. General Magic’s early work helped define the original excitement around glitch – back when it was about exploring what could go wrong in analog and digital systems, rather than rigid grid-based edits.
Here, they return with microtonal and dissonant piano ideas, prankster distortion, and percussion drills that nod toward their late friend Peter Rehberg. It’s wonderful to have these glitch tricksters back, and the cover art’s little character doesn’t hurt either.
Hifi Sean & David McAlmont – TWILIGHT (Plastique)
Following the sun-soaked DAYLIGHT, TWILIGHT arrives as its nocturnal counterpart. Decayed pads and honey-sweet cosmic love lyrics define the mood, with “Driftaway” spending heavy rotation in my listening this year.
“Equinox’s Children” finds Sean asking if someone will “please switch on the moon,” hiding humor inside a silky, jazz-tinged number. It’s intimate, romantic, and quietly radiant.
Immersion – WTF?? (Swim)
Possibly the most accurate album title of 2025. After a series of collaborations, Malka Spigel and Colin Newman return with a record that embraces uncertainty without collapsing into panic.
Instead, WTF?? settles into a comfortable, Krautrock-tinged space, repeatedly questioning art’s role in socio-political contexts. On “Timeline,” Spigel asks, “Is there something new to say?” while Newman admits, “What’s the point of art if you don’t actually say anything?” Rarely has music felt so comforting while provoking such serious reflection.
Jad Atoui – Ghost Sectors (Purplish)
Part of Purplish’s excellent album series, Ghost Sectors scratches a very specific machine-music itch. Every sound here is derived from hard drives, exploring digital memory and the hauntology of obsolete technology.
You simply cannot get these sounds from solid-state media – HDD is vintage now! Essential listening for microsound fans – especially if Matmos or this year’s FAX compilation resonated with you.
KAMM – Let the Light In (Elbow Grease)
Like Cardiacs’ LSD, this is a collaborative labor of love, completed following the passing of Allan Byallo. Finished by Dave Aju, Kenneth Scott, and Marc Smith, Let the Light In radiates sunshine and psychedelic soul.
“It ain’t hoarding if the shit is cool” could be a motto here – music as warmth, memory, and generosity.
Lovesliescrushing – bloweyelashwish (Numero Group)
This album has always felt like voyeurism—so deeply intimate it can feel almost transgressive to listen to. bloweyelashwish is bedroom shoegaze and drone at its most enveloping: icicle-delicate vocals half-buried in distorted washes, guitars becoming weather.
I’m glad Numero Group continues to mine the less-celebrated and often out-of-print corners of shoegaze, because this record deserves to remain available. It’s not merely pretty or hazy—it’s emotionally invasive in the best way.
Marvellous Cain – Gun Talk (Suburban Base)
Essential hardcore jungle / drum & bass, and I’m grateful it’s back in print. This is the kind of release that should simply always be available – part of the DNA, not a collector’s object.
“CB4,” with its Redman sample, still contains what might be my favorite Amen drop of all time. The energy here isn’t nostalgia; it’s fuel.
Mansur Brown – Rihla (Amai)
It may be cliché to judge by cover art, but Rihla immediately drew me in—and the music delivered. Mansur Brown is a virtuoso guitarist, but this album is about feeling as much as technique.
Late-night love, ascending elevators, and beautiful emotional unity define a genre-fluid journey through rock, ambient, R&B, and goth-tinged moments. As with artists like Yves Tumor or Prince, genre bends easily under expressive weight.
Paul St. Hilaire – w/ The Producers (Kynant)
Paul St. Hilaire may have done more than anyone outside of Basic Channel to define dub techno. Here, he flips the Artist Series concept, collaborating with producers like Mala, Shinichi Atobe, Gavsborg, and others.
The result is deeply Paul – perhaps less autobiographical than Beautiful, but filled with gorgeous dub techno and unmistakable presence.
Pete Shelley – Homosapien (Matador)
Pete Shelley – XL (Matador)
After pioneering pop-punk with Buzzcocks, Pete Shelley took a disco-tinged turn and embraced queerness with a directness that still feels bold. The title track of “Homosapien” remains a winking classic – synthetic, sensual, and oddly tender – while “Telephone Operator” from XL is pure hi-NRG propulsion.
Whether you’re coming from disco or punk, don’t sleep on this era. It’s not a detour. It’s Shelley expanding what pop could hold.
Q Lazzarus – Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus (Sacred Bones)
It’s a shame that Diane Luckey (Q Lazzarus) didn’t live to see the release of this compilation or the documentary that accompanied it, but we’re lucky to have so much more of her story and her work.
“Goodbye Horses” remains eternal, but what surprised me most is her range. “Bang Bang” feels like the best song Jane’s Addiction never wrote. “I See Your Eyes” could easily sit beside the alternative new wave of The Psychedelic Furs. “My Mistake” adds a gothic twist to the M1 house template. More than anything, this collection is evidence of deep talent and persistence, music made despite every obstacle.
Rudolf Abramov – Rudolf Abramov (Aquasonic)
Hard to pin down, Rudolf Abramov recalls A.R. Kane meeting Neon Phusion, or late-’80s electronic-rock supergroups like M|A|R|R|S. “Wednesday Waltz” captures that energy perfectly.
Elsewhere, tracks veer toward Foetus-era intensity, with guest Matthew Johnson’s chants on “Trembling Limbs.” A fitting reminder of the eclecticism championed by Optimo, where I first encountered them. RIP JD Twitch.
Seefeel – Pure, Impure (Too Pure)
Seefeel – Quique (Too Pure)
Seefeel returned in 2024 with inspiring new work, and it’s wonderful to have the original gold back in print too. Listening again, you can hear the band’s identity forming in real time: early shoegaze “band” mode, but already with the electronic deconstruction that would take a more dominant role on Succour.
Sarah Peacock’s voice swirls clearer here – less treated and cut up than later releases – a kind of swimming lullaby. These reissues aren’t just archival. They’re a reminder that Seefeel weren’t following a path so much as inventing one.
Shawn Rudiman – Reality in Quotes (Pittsburgh Tracks)
Rudiman suggests that “reality” should always be in quotation marks, and this album makes a strong case. The rusted cover hints at brutalism, but the techno within is full of dreams and mind-trips.
Tracks like “Fastron” and “Sensoric” anchor things with heavy foundations, while “Liquid Metal Machine Music” is both one of the year’s best electro tracks and a perfect title.
Siavash Amini – Caligo (Room40)
Approach with care—especially your volume knob. Caligo opens with distant melody before plunging into screaming noise, then retreating into processed field recordings.
This is 2025’s most challengingly uncomfortable release. It will not hold your hand or fade into the background. You need to listen in isolation and let it take you where it wants.
Silvery Y – In the Depths (Bytes)
A stunning statement from Sicilian artist Laura Caviglia. Traversing ambient, shoegaze, trip-hop, mechanical drums, and goth, In the Depths burns with sincerity.
Prayers, calls to absent loved ones, and declarations like “I’m not alone / I’m not here” make this deeply affecting. Sincerity is hard to pull off—Silvery Y nailed it.
Sieren – Emergence (Friends of Friends)
If the music that fascinates us most is that which we could never imagine making ourselves, Emergence fits the bill.
Warmth and potential corniness balance delicately here, with cinematic minor-key progressions (“Eclipse”) and distorted break excursions (“Arena VX”). A beautiful, risky line walked successfully.
System Error – Nothing (head.phon.rec)
No-input electronics often conjures drones or harsh noise. This album from Bobby Bird – best known as Higher Intelligence Agency – is something else entirely. Nothing turns digital ephemera into warm serenades, with icy glitches and “noise snow” peppered across the surface.
It’s rare to hear an approach this technical feel so gentle, and rare to hear abstraction come across as emotionally direct. A truly unique listen, and not one to miss.
Sylvester – Step II (Fantasy)
Sylvester has thankfully received more of his due in recent years, but revisiting Step II is a reminder of just how complete his artistry was. This is prime Sylvester: the voice, the theatricality, the emotional intelligence.
“You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” with Patrick Cowley rivals “I Feel Love” as the apex of sequenced disco – pure blueprint energy. “Dance (Disco Heat)” continues the cosmic disco architecture, while “Was It Something I Said” brings emotional balladry that proves this isn’t just club physics. This reissue isn’t merely welcome. It’s essential.
The Untouchables – Lost Knowledge (Samurai)
Kings of dark halftime, The Untouchables deliver another pummeling release on Samurai. Minimal, industrial-feeling beats turn drum & bass into something closer to a clanking boiler room than any acoustic past.
There’s humor lurking in the samples, but this is primarily for the heads who like it dark, heavy, and relentless.
Thighpaulsandra – Acid & Ecstasy (Refractor)
A nearly ten-minute prog-pop epic with the immortal hook “and Winston Churchill shot his load / on Princess Margaret’s Mellotron” could only come from Thighpaulsandra.
It’s the best Supertramp song Supertramp never wrote, and a reminder that the Welsh synth maestro never disappoints. Dig in, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Windy & Carl – Antarctica: Bliss Out, Vol. 2 (Darla)
The odd thing here is that it’s the brevity – if that’s the right word – that draws me back again and again. Antarctica is three interconnected drone pieces that stretch out, but not a moment feels wasted or on autopilot. Every minute earns its place.
What you get is a richly rewarding, epic soundscape built from guitar and bass, an essential journey through drone and feedback that feels simultaneously monumental and intimate. It’s music that doesn’t just fill space – it shapes it. And after 40 minutes, you’re ready to listen to it all over again.
Albums
.ISO – Save Screens (Pure Life)
8004 – 8004 (Kino-Disk)
Ambrose Akinmusire – honey from a winter stone (Nonesuch)
Andrea – Living Room (Ilian Tapes)
Andreas Tilliander & Goran Kajfes – In Cmin (Kontra-Musik)
Andrew Pekler – New Environments & Rhythm Studies (Faitiche)
Angel Bat Dawid and Naima Nefertari – Journey to Nabta Playa (Spiritmuse)
Balagan – MESS III (Artlist)
Barker – Stochastic Drift (Smalltown Supersound)
BOVE – Computerissima (Pyteca+)
Boy Commandos – “Comet” (self-release)
Breath – Brahman (Argonauta)
Brendon Moeller – Blue Moon (ESP Institute)
Cardiacs – LSD (Alphabet Business Concern)
Ceephax Acid Crew – Slam Zone (self-release)
Christian Kleine – Inside Outside (self-release)
Christopher Willits – New Moon (Ghostly Intl.)
Clark – Steep Stims (Warp)
Client_03 – Testbed_Assembly (Astrophonica)
Coco Bryce – Noches Sephardies (Rythmi Tou Kosmou)
Coppé – 30rpm (I Wish I Had A Brain) (Mango & Sweet Rice)
Cosey Fanni Tutti – 2t2 (CTI)
Council Estate Electronics – MIRFIELD (Avalanche)
Cyrnai – Calamity of Beauty (self-release)
Dan Bean – Bassduets (Old Technology)
Dan Curtin – The 4 Lights (De:Tuned)
Danny Brown – Stardust (Warp)
De La Soul – Cabin In The Sky (Mass Appeal)
Death in Vegas – Death Mask (Drone)
Deftones – Private Music (Reprise)
DJ Bone – DJ Bone XXXV: The End of Never (Further)
Djrum – Under Tangled Silence (Houndstooth)
Dream Hack / The NRG – Liquid Dreams (Surface Reality)
Drop Nineteens – 1991 (Wharf Cat)
Efdemin – Poly (Ostgut Ton)
Emptyset – Dissever (Thrill Jockey)
Facta – GULP (Wisdom Teeth)
Fluxion – Haze (Vibrant Music)
Francesco Paolo Paladino and Dorothy Moskowitz – Monastir (13)
General Magic – Bosko (Editions Mego)
Ghost Dubs – Extended Damaged Versions (Pressure)
Ghostface Killah – Supreme Clientele 2 (Mass Appeal)
GRDN. – particles, coarse (Wandering Astray)
H.L.M. – Ruines, Béton & Industrie (Le Petit Signal)
HARZ – polychromatic (Empty Space)
Hieroglyphic Being – Dance Music 4 Bad People (Smalltown Supersound)
Hifi Sean & David McAlmont – TWILIGHT (Plastique Recordings)
Highspire – Crushed (Shelflife)
Hydroplane – Zquidvazion (Schematic)
Ictus & Suzanne Vega – Einstein on the Beach (VLEK)
Immersion – WTF?? (Swim)
Iron Curtis – Dial Me In (Hudd Traxx)
Jad Atoui – Ghost Sectors (Purplish)
Jamie Lidell – Places of Unknowing (TODO)
Joanna – Hello Flower (New Feelings)
John Zorn – Through The Looking Glass (Tzadik)
Jordan GCZ – Hope Isn’t A Four Letter Word (Quiet Details)
Juana Molina – DOGA (Sonamos)
Kaliyuga Express – The Wandering Mountain (Riot Season)
KAMM – Let The Light In (Elbow Grease)
Kid Spatula – Joozy (Planet Mu)
Lando – Freex (Face to Face)
Light-Space Modulator – The Rising Wave (AD 93)
Lindstrøm – Sirius Syntoms (Smalltown Supersound)
Major Stars – More Colors of Sound (Drag City)
Mammo – General Patterns (Short Span)
Mansur Brown – Rihla (Amai)
Maria Somerville – Luster (4AD)
Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force – Khadim (Ndagga)
Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke – Tall Tales (Warp)
Mark Stewart – The Fateful Symmetry (Mute)
Miki Berenyi Trio – Tripla (Bella Union)
Milian Mori – Triality (Raster-Media)
Mineral Stunting – Come Rain Come Shine (Drift Ritual)
Mizmor – Mnemonic: Ambient Mosaic (self-release)
Momus – Quietism (Darla)
Nmesh – The Molokai Compendium (Doom Trip)
NZO – Come Alive (DDS)
Ø (Mika Vainio) – Sysivalo (Sähkö)
Open Head – What Is Success (Wharf Cat)
Open Mike Eagle – Neighborhood Gods Unlimited (Auto Reverse)
Paul St. Hilaire – w/ The Producers (Kynant)
Perfume – Nebula Romance: Part II (Polydor)
Pop Will Eat Itself – Delete Everything (self-release)
Posthuman – The Mind is a Heavy Burden (Flatlife)
Raica – The Absence of Being (Quiet Details)
RAVEN – GNOSIS (Incienso)
Romane – Güle Güle (Batov)
Ron Trent – Lift Off (Rush Hour)
rRoxymore – Juggling Dualities (!K7)
Rudolf Abramov – Rudolf Abramov (Aquasonic)
Russell Haswell – Deep Time (Diagonal)
Sa Pa – Ambeesh (Short Span)
Samuel Kerridge – Memoir of Disintegration (Blueprint)
Sandwell District – End Beginnings (Point of Departure)
Shawn Rudiman – Reality in Quotes (Pittsburgh Tracks)
shimura – Colour Field (Petite Victory Collective)
Siavash Amini – Caligo (Room40)
Sieren – Emergence (Friends of Friends)
Silvery Y – In The Depths (Bytes)
Snezhana Reizen – Desert Island (Alienation Index)
Stereolab – Instant Holograms on Metal Film (Duotone / Warp)
Stoner Control – The Bottom of a Hill You Know (Sound Judgment)
Sunbearer – Uyaga (self-release)
Terrace – Branches (De:Tuned)
Thalia Zedek Band – The Boat Outside Your Window (Thrill Jockey)
The Black Dog – Loud Ambient (Dust Science)
The NRG – Warehouse Justice! (The Chill-out Room) (Surface Reality)
The Orb – Buddhist Hipsters (Cooking Vinyl)
The Untouchables – Lost Knowledge (Samurai)
Thighpaulsandra – Acid & Ecstasy (Refractor)
Throbbing Gristle – Live at the Volksbühne, Berlin, New Year’s Eve, 2005 (Mute)
Throwing Muses – Moonlight Concessions (Fire)
Tom Hall – Trip Computer (Sonoptik)
Urban Meditation – The Node Dreamer (Rednetic)
VC-118A – Back to Life (Apnea)
Voices from the Lake – II (Spazio Disponibile)
Wagon Christ – Planet Roll (De:tuned)
William Carlos Whitten / Diana Crash – Telepaths (I Heart Noise)
Wrecked Lightship – Drained Strands (Peak Oil)
Xordox – Terraform (Ectopic Ents)
Ye Gods – May Your Love Shine Brighter Than The Sun (self-release)
Yoni Mayraz – Dogs Bark Babies Cry (PPK)
Yuval Cohen Quartet – Winter Poems (Deutsche Grammophon)
EPs / Singles
Actress – Tranzkript 1 (Modern Obscure)
Adele Dazeem – Metanoia (Sonic Cathedral)
Cosmin TRG – Aquator (self-release)
Chris Liebing & Speedy J – Collabs 3000 – 2025 (Mute)
Dopplereffekt – Metasymmetry (Tresor)
Fred P – Astral Eros Pulse (self-release)
Gez Varley – Electro One (self-release)
Kirk Degiorgio – Elate (Cyphon)
Mark Fell – Nite Closures (National Centre for Mark Fell Studies)
Nicolas Bougaïeff – Prime Funktion (Mute)
Ohrwert – Complect (self-release)
PVAS – Slipstream (Kapsela)
RTR – Squaez (Unknown to the Unknown)
Tam Nisam – Aethernaut (self-release)
Temp-Illusion – BIKH (Paradoxe Club)
The Bug vs. Ghost Dubs – Imploded Versions (Pressure)
Tim Exile – Rebuild (self-release)
Vril – Crystal Cell Energy (Kynant)
Winchester – Liquid Crystal State (Mindwaves-Music)
Reissues
311 – 311 (Volcano)
A Certain Ratio – Live in America (Mute)
Autechre – Quaristice (Warp)
Autechre – Untilted (Warp)
Bandulu – Repercussions (Rawax)
Bardo Pond – Set and Setting (Matador)
Basic Unit – Timeline (Sneaker Social Club)
Chris Liebing & Speedy J – Collabs 3000: Metalism (Mute)
Cardiacs – On Land And In The Sea (Alphabet Business Concern)
Curtis Roads – Electronic Music 1994-2021 (Elli)
De La Soul – The Grind Date (AOI / BMG)
Dream Sequence feat. Blake Baxter – Endless Reflection (Tresor)
Drop Nineteens – Delaware (Wharf Cat)
FAX – Archivo 2001-2009 (Fax)
Gang of Four – Shrinkwrapped (Gill/King)
Ilpo Väisänen – Asuma (Editions Mego)
Intrusion – The Seduction of Silence (echospace)
Jan Jelinek – Kosmischer Pitch (Faitiche)
Justin Berkovi – Charm Hostel (self-release)
Lovesliescrushing – Bloweyelashwish (Numero Group)
Marvellous Cain – Gun Talk (Suburban Base)
MC 900 Ft. Jesus – One Step Ahead of the Spider (NTX)
Mercyland – Mercyland (Propeller)
Mika Vainio – Aste (Sähkö)
Monolake – Gravity (Imbalance Computer Music)
Orbital – Orbital 2 (London)
Patti Smith – Horses (Arista)
Pete Shelley – Homosapien (Domino)
Pete Shelley – XL-1 (Domino)
Prince – Around The World In A Day (NPG)
Q Lazzarus – Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus (Sacred Bones)
Rafael Anton Irisarri – A Fragile Geography (Black Knoll)
Red Snapper – Reeled and Skinned (Warp)
Robert Hood – Internal Empire (Tresor)
Rufige Kru – Terminator EP (Metal Heads)
Seefeel – Pure, Impure (Too Pure)
Seefeel – Quique (Too Pure)
Squarepusher – Stereotype (Warp)
Steve O’Sullivan – Green Trax Vol. 2 (трип)
Sunn0))) – Black One (Southern Lord)
Sylvester – Step II (Fantasy)
System Error – Nothing (hed.phon.rec)
The Durutti Column – Sex and Death (Factory BeNeLux)
The Durutti Column – The Return of the Durutti Column (London)
The Replacements – Let It Be (Rhino)
Throbbing Gristle – The Third Mind Movements (Mute)
Tuxedomoon – Desire (Crammed Discs)
Wilco – A Ghost is Born (Nonesuch)
Windy and Carl – Antarctica: Bliss Out, Vol. 2 (Darla)
Thanks as always to David for these. They’re my favorite New Year’s celebration.