2013

2013 was the year of the comeback.  Mazzy Star, My Bloody Valentine, Throwing Muses, Boards of Canada, Beck, Cibo Matto, Daft Punk, Kathleen Hanna, Kim Gordon, and countless others I can't remember at this moment all released new music after years of silence.  The pictures above reference the two great shows I saw this year: Speedy Ortiz and Body/Head.  I loved many things this year, but here are 30 records that I'll still be playing next year.



1. Akkord - Akkord (Houndstooth)
2. Autechre - Exai (Warp)
3. Basic House - Oats (Alter)
4. Beyoncé - BEYONCÉ (Capitol)
5. Boards Of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest (Warp)
6. Body/Head - Coming Apart (Matador)
7.The Focus Group - The Elektrik Karousel (Ghost Box)
8. Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet - Photographs (Erstwhile)
9. Inc. - No World (4AD)
10. IVVVO - All Shades White (Opal Tapes)
11. Julia Holter - Loud City Song
12. The Julie Ruin - Run Fast (The Julie Ruin)
13. Kim Free - Nevermind The Blue Skies (LA's Fine)
14. Kit Grill - Mirror Image (Get Me!)
15. Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Matador)
16. Laurel Halo - Chance Of Rain (Hyperdub)
17. The Magik Markers - Surrender To The Fantasy (Drag City)
18. My Bloody Valentine - MBV (MBV)
19. Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven (Warp)
20. Ovlov - Am (Exploding In Sound)
21. Perfume Advert - Tulpa (1080p)
22. Phoenix - Bankrupt (Glassnote)
23. Phono Ghosts - Chrome Position (Skam)
24. Polvo - Siberia (Merge)
25. Special Request - Soul Music (Houndstooth)
26. Speedy Ortiz - Major Arcana (Carpark)
27. Synkro - Acceptance (Apollo)
28. Throwing Muses - Purgatory / Paradise (The Friday Project)
29. Tim Hecker - Virgins (Kranky)
30. Two Inch Astronaut - Bad Brother (Exploding In Sound)

Breaks

1. Forbidden - SPECIAL REQUEST
2. Shadows Breaking Over My Head - THE LEFT BANKE
3. Ar II - BASIC HOUSE
4. Black Refraction - TIM HECKER
5. New Grass - TALK TALK
6. To A Flame - ASTRUD GILBERTO & STANLEY TURRENTINE
7. Disappear - SYNKRO
8. Aerial Boundaries - MICHAEL HEDGES
9. Sand Worm - PERFUME ADVERT
10. The Dance Of Cupid And Psyche - LIAM SINGER
11. We Have Been Here For Too Long - KIM BROWN
12. Freezing - PHILIP GLASS
13. Blackpool Late Eighties - HOLDEN
14. The Cool, Cool River - PAUL SIMON
15. Insight - CUPP CAVE
16. On Your Shore - ENYA
17. Night Flight - LOGOS
18. I'll Be Waiting - ARCHER PREWITT

Area Login

1. Global Lunch - JAMES FERRARO
2. Visiting - WILLIAM ACKERMAN
3. The Sky - OTOMO YOSHIHIDE
4. After Thought - BASSNECTAR
5. Les Traces D'Un Pont - BENJAMIN LEW
6. One Day - SKINNY PUPPY
7. The Lesson - PAUL LANSKY
8. From A Harmonic Algorithm - LAURIE SPIEGEL
9. Unicorn - FOUR TET
10. Pleocene - HARUOMI HOSONO
11. Momo No Hana - YASUAKI SHIMIZU
12. Autumn Breeze - TERJE RYPDAL
13. Involuntary Song #2 - SCOTT JOHNSON
14. Souvenir Glace - TESTPATTERN
15. Circular Breathing - SOFT VERDICT
16. One White Whale - LAURIE ANDERSON
17. Clusters 2 - MEREDITH MONK
18. Chrome Country - ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER
19. In The Blue Distance - MARK ISHAM
20. Timeless - INTERIOR

Rattled By The Rush

1. Ka-Pow! - SPEEDY ORTIZ
2. Safari - THE BREEDERS
3. Sea Song - FARAQUET
4. Natural Disasters - UNWOUND
5. Somebody's Something - GRASS IS GREEN
6. JC - SONIC YOUTH
7. Memory - REPLIKANTS
8. Winona - DROP NINETEENS
9. What A Life - JULIANA HATFIELD
10. In This Life - POLVO
11. Check The Yard - TWO INCH ASTRONAUT
12. No Surprise - FUGAZI
13. Kid's Alright - BETTIE SERVEERT
14. Grounded - PAVEMENT
15. Love Goes Blank - SMART WENT CRAZY
16. Shadow Pugilist - JUNE OF 44
17. Honeycomb - HELIUM
18. So Hard - PILE

Diamond Head

1. Quasars - BEARNS & DEXTER
2. Circular Breathing - SOFT VERDICT
3. Locked Eyes - THREE LEGGED RACE
4. Land Of Mists - RON GEESIN
5. Illiaster - AXOLOTL
6. Synopsis - WILLIAM ACKERMAN
7. The Doppelgänger - MICHAEL ROTHER
8. Epilogue - MAUVE SIDESHOW
9. Diamond Head - PHIL MANZANERA
10. Half Moon Bay - WILLIAM AURA
11. On The Threshold Of Liberty - MARK ISHAM
12. View From My Window - HIROSHI YOSHIMURA
13. Pluto The Planet - MARY LATTIMORE
14. Nachsaison - LILIENTAL

Amethyst Waves

Life In The Clouds

Sleepy Head

Your Hidden Dreams

Oceania

Mesmerise

1. Hope - AOKI TAKAMASA
2. Instrumental #2 - MY BLOODY VALENTINE
3. Hold Me Down - DARKSTAR
4. 5 Years - BJÖRK
5. Jatevee C - AUTECHRE
6. Prologue - YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA
7. Time To Find Me - SEEFEEL
8. New Round - BECK
9. Nuomo - SISTOL
10. Summer Chill - CHAPTERHOUSE

Cloudline

Aoyama

1. Sugar - MY BLOODY VALENTINE
2. 蓮華~アストロ・ニュース - POLARIS
3. Light In Darkness - YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA
4. Automated Mist - BELARISK
5. Mic Check - CORNELIUS
6. ヤマタツ - KAKATO
7. Walky-Talky - HARMONIA
8. Living Lens - MOUNTAINS
9. Apple - CIBO MATTO
10. Cape - REI HARAKAMI
11. Slush Fund - ADR
12. Land Of My Dreams - ANNA DOMINO
13. Tal - TO ROCOCO ROT
14. After All - RYUICHI SAKAMOTO

Splazsh

Nuron

 

Trigal

1. Variações Pindéricas Sobre A Insensatez - JOANA SÁ
2. The North Downs Dimension - BROADCAST
3. Slabulas - SAVATH & SAVALAS
4. Trigal - SANDRO
5. Maybe, Maybe - A-HA
6. Land Of My Dreams - ANNA DOMINO
7. Kes. - AOKI TAKAMASA
8. Quizas, Quizas, Quizas - NAT "KING" COLE
9. Nowhere - CORNELIUS
10. Wiem - EKKEHARD EHLERS & PAUL WIRKUS
11. Carriage Blind - ISABELLE ANTENA
 12. Winterval - SAM WILLIS

Landings

I had the pleasure of seeing a number of outstanding films this past year.  These ten are my favorites.  They are all equally poetic, other-worldly, and thought-provoking.  


1. The Day He Arrives  - Hong Sang-Soo
2. This Is Not A Film - Jafar Panahi & Motjaba Mirtahmasb
3. Barbara - Christian Petzold
4. My Time In Anatolia - Nuri Bilge Ceylan
5. Amour - Michael Haneke
6. Tabu - Miguel Gomes
7. A Simple Life - Ann Hui
8. The Turin Horse - Béla Tarr & Ágnes Hranitzky
9. Holy Motors - Léos Carax
10. Damsels In Distress - Whit Stillman

Opening

Years

My favorite songs of the year.  Not in order of favorite, but as a mix.


1. House - KINDNESS
2. Something Inside - JESSIE WARE
3. NYC: 73-78 (Beck Remix) - PHILIP GLASS
4. N.E.W. - ACTRESS
5. Warble Epics - NATHAN FAKE
6. Other People - BEACH HOUSE
7. Forget (Laurel Halo Remix) - LIANNE LA HAVAS
8. Lover - BLONDES
9. Angels (Four Tet Remix) - THE XX
10. Rideaux Lunaires - GONZALES
11. Hémisphère - PARADIS
12. Frozen/ Cirrus - SAM WILLIS
13. Salt - OREN AMBARCHI
14. Love Nest - CO LA
15. Follow The Leader - SHED
16. Tulips - SCUBA
17. In The Same Room - JULIA HOLTER
18. The Pining Pt 1 - CLARK
19. Work, Live & Sleep In Collapsing Space (Laurel Halo Remix) - KUEDO
20. Nocturnal Drummers - 2562
21. Kid's A Loner - CUPP CAVE
22. Rough Sleeper - BURIAL
23. Close To Me - SOPHIA KNAPP
24. Losing You - SOLANGE
25. If You Love Me - BENZEL & JESSIE WARE

2012

Hands down the greatest reissue of the year is Type's royal treatment of Porter Ricks' timeless Biokinetics.  A record that shook me up more times this year than I can count.  All things told, I spent a good part of the year listening to Seefeel, Aphex Twin and Elis Regina, however these twenty new records are all outstanding.  This was also the year I finally started to appreciate remixes.  Four Tet's ghosting of The xx's Angels completely stripped away what already wasn't there, leaving things swathed in static.  Laurel Halo's work for Lianne La Havas and Kuedo was equally top notch. 


20 Favorite Records, 2012

1. Devotion - Jessie Ware - PMR/Island
2. Quarantine - Laurel Halo - Hyperdub
3. Instrumental Tourist - Tim Hecker & Daniel Lopatin - Software
4. Centipede Hz - Animal Collective - Domino
5. Coexist - The xx - Young Turks
6. Valley Tangents - Blues Control - Drag City
7. Core To The Brave - Richard Youngs - Root Strata
8. Imagine Yourself Here - Zaïmph - Yew
9. Comets Come Alive - Orphan Fairytale - Blackest Rainbow 
10. Ekstasis - Julia Holter - RVNG
11. Winterlude - Sam Willis - Half Machine
12. Solo Piano II - Gonzales - Gentle Threat
13. R.I.P. - Actress - Honest Jon's
14. The Expanding Universe - Laurie Spiegel - Unseen Worlds
15. Green Just As I Could See - Andrea Neumann & Bonnie Jones - Erstwhile
16. Wound Response - Rhodri Davies - Alt Vinyl 
17. Retina Waves - Cupp Cave - Ramp
18. Sequitur - Steve Hauschildt - Kranky
19. Silencio - Laetitia Sadier - Drag City
20. Interstellar - Frankie Rose - Slumberland