Albums Of The Year | 2016

Label

New LP’s

Title

Sacred Bones

Jenny Hval

Blood Bitch

We had an inkling we’d like this LP a lot, last year’s Apocalypse, Girl was waaaay up on our list. Hval is pushing pop music right down the avant-rabbit hole. She’s fierce, un-comparable, gentle and engaging. Best record to come out this year.    Listen/Buy

Innovative Leisure

Badbadnotgood

IV

Just extremely listable. Jazz, but clearly rooted in punk. It’s in the delivery, see, they walk it like a punk band. Took me a few listens, mind.

Listen/Buy

Western Vinyl

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

Ears

KAS has been busy this year, but this LP was a bit of a shock for me. It passed me by initially, and it took a timely order from a tasteful customer (Thanks Paul!) to make me pay attention. Part Terry Riley, Part The Knife, this LP slithers around like a kaleidoscopic snake. Absolutely enthralling from start to finish. Listen/Buy

Domino

Blood Orange

Freetown Sound

Well. WELL. I was the sole fan of Cupid Deluxe at HS HQ. Sticking it on garnered tuts and huffs amongst the nay-saying miserablists I’m stood with all day. WELL. Didn’t I have the last laugh? Dev Hynes’ journey through 80’s pop and avant performance culture filtered by a Lou Reed-esque narrative is simply getting better and better. His nods are firmly looking at Arthur Russell, Michael Jackson, Prince, and let me tell you, it’s fine with me. Listen/Buy

Sonic Cathedral

Xam Duo

Xam Duo

Expanding to a duo has only served Xam, now Xam Duo well. Tripped out, pastoral modular sermons and brass offerings that recall Eno’s early 80’s work. Brilliant, pure and simple. Listen/Buy

Night School

Happy Meals

Fruit Juice

I’m still waiting for a full length after the incredible Apero EP, but this has served as a delicious stop-gap in the mean time. 70’s Parisian chanteuse meets New York disco thump in possibly the most beautifully packaged release this year. Night School Rules OK. Listen/Buy

VHF

Æthenor

Hazel

From the cover, and from the line up, I was expecting a near aesthetic follow-up to Terrestrials by Sunn0)) and Ulver. What we got was an effervescent free jazz meditation simply looking at Doom metal rather than ever actually touching it. Listen/Buy

Warp

Mark Pritchard

Under The Sun

This is a really accessible album, Pritchard has tastefully examined modern electronica, techno, acid-folk and pop without losing focus. In fact he’s mastered that all-too rare talent of actually pulling it all together with a convincing cohesion, leaving his contemporaries in the dust. Listen/Buy

Dead Oceans

Julianna Barwick

Will

The ‘white witch of ambient music’ returns with more ethereal compositions that sit somewhere between minimalism and pop form. Beautiful and haunting. Listen/Buy

Leaf

The Comet Is Coming

Channel The Spirits

There’s definitely a ‘slew’ of a certain type of band at the moment. Badbadnotgood, Melt Yourself Down, Guerrilla Toss etc. The Comet Is Coming are a group of humans that rock a frenetic, but true jazz. This record fizzes with tribal, afro-futurist prog sentiment that in all honesty, shouldn't work on such an energetic level, but they’re taking cues from Mahavishnu Orchestra as well as Cinematic Orchestra and well, it just works. Listen/Buy

Fire

Virginia Wing

Forward Constant Motion

Western Vinyl

Botany

Deepak Verbera

Brownswood

Shabaka And The Ancestors

Wisdom Of Elders

Hot Salvation / TAAE

Za!

Loloismo

Modern Love

Andy Stott

Too Many Voices

Warp

Danny Brown

Atrocity Exhibition

Ninja Tune

Hieroglyphic Being

The DIsco’s Of Imhotep

Ghost Box

Pye Corner Audio

Stasis

RVNG INTL

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith | Suzanne Ciani

Sunergy

Erased Tapes

Rival Consoles

Night Melody

Strut

Idris Ackamor And The Pyramids

We Be All Africans

DFA

Factory Floor

25 25

Warp

Aphex Twin

Cheetah

Ninja Tune

Space Dimension Controller

Orange Melamine

Trunk

Jonny Trunk

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

In My Room

Trentemøller

Fixion

Soul Jazz

Africans With Mainframes

KMT

Blast First Petite

Bloodsport

Axe Laid to The Root

Leaf

Jherek Bischoff

Cistern

El Paraiso

Videodrones

Mondo Ferox

Kranky

MJ Guider

Precious Systems

Polyvinyl

Xiu Xiu

Twin Peaks

Rough Trade

Anohni

Hopelessness

Blackest Ever Black

Raime

Tooth

Matador

Savages

Adore Life

Hot Salvation / TAAE

Cowtown

Paranormal Romance

Labrador

Radio Dept

Running Out Of Love

Night School

Ela Orleans

Circles Of Upper Hell

Island

PJ Harvey

The Hope Six Demolition Project

Hot Salvation

Sans Pareil

The Future Ooze

Loma Vista

Iggy Pop

Post Pop Depression

Faux Discx

Trust Punks

Double Blind

Guruguru Brain

Minami Deutsch

Minami Deutsch

Rice Is Nice

Sarah Mary Chadwick

Roses Always Die

Rocket

Goat

Requiem

130701 Records

Ian William Craig

Centres

Injazero

C Diab

No Perfect Wave

On-U Sound

Nissenenmondai

NA

Jagjaguwar

Angel Olsen

My Woman

Matador

Steve Gunn

Eyes On The Lines

Tri-Angle

Katie Gately

Colour

Planet Mu

Ital Tek

Hollowed

Jagjaguwar

Preoccupations

Preoccupations

Harvest

Death Grips

Bottomless Pit

Bad Seed LTD

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds

Skeleton Tree

XL

Radiohead

A Moon Shaped Pool

Parlophone

Bat For Lashes

The Bride

LM Dupli-Cation

Thor and Friends

Thor and Friends

Blackest Ever Black

Carla Dal Forno

You Know What It’s Like

Thrill Jockey

Helen Money

Become Zero

Partisan

Eagulls

Ullages

La Vida Es Un Mus

Anxiety

Anxiety

Thrill Jocky

The Body

No One Deserves Happiness

Sacred Bones

Exploded View

Exploded View

Ninja Tune

Sarathy Korwar

Day To Day

Kids Of The Lughole

Nachthexen

Nachthexen 7”

El Paraiso

Causa Sui

Return To Sky

Compilations

On-U Sound

Various

Adrian Sherwood: At The Controls Vol 2

I’ve been addicted to the output of On-U Sound this year, from the just excellent reissues of Missing Brazilians, Singers and Players and African Headcharge, to the new collab with Nisennenmondai. This new comp collects some absolute gems of Adrian Sherwood’s production career, from the deep cuts of Lee Perry or Dub Syndicate, to the early Industrial throw of Ministry, there’s a thick, apocalyptic overtone that colours all his work. In times like these, this hasn't sounded fresher in decades. Listen/Buy

Trunk

Various

Britxotica Goes East!

Mr Trunk saw fit to build on the first surprise instant-classic Britxotica! comp with this more Persian flavoured curation. Includes the certified cheeky-banger Climb Up The Wall by Yana. Viva Britxotica! Listen/Buy

Analog Africa

Various

Space Echo (The Mystery behind the Cosmic Sound of the Cabo Verde finally revealed)

Hand me my late-pass, Space Echo is my embarrassingly untimely introduction to Analog Africa. Don't worry, I’m up to speed now! This comp landed like a bomb on my deck, from the laid back chill of Bana’s Pontin Pontin to Mino De Mana by Quirico De Canto, my absolute favourite track in my DJ set this year, hands down. Listen/Buy

Efficient Space

Various

Sky Girl

Dark Entries

Various

Household Shocks

Soul Jazz

Various

Venezuela 70 : Cosmic Visions Of A Latin American Earth

Now Again

Various

Wake Up You! The Rise And Fall Of Nigerian Rock 1972-77 Vol 2

Beating Heart

Various

Malawi Originals Records By Hugh Tracy

Soul Jazz

Various

PUNK 45: Chaos In The City Of Angels and Devils (Punk in LA 77-81)

Soul Jazz

Various

New York Noise (Dance Music From The New York Underground 77-82)

Optimo Music

Various

Cease and Desist

Soul Jazz

Various

Boombox (Early Independent Hip Hop, Electro and Disco Rap 1979-82)

Trunk

Various

Tropical Brixotica!

Reissues

Strut

Sunburst

Ave Africa

An obscure, short lived band from Tanzania, thankfully Strut gathered their output on to this excellent double LP. Part afro-fuzz rock, influenced by Santana, part Fela Kuti soul-jazz. What is clear form this LP is the bands obvious love for western rock and Hendrix; there are way licks scattered over this polyrhythmic set liberally and masterfully. SO Brilliant! Listen/Buy

Important

Coil

Ape Of Naples

The post-Tom Waits industrialism of Tattooed Man, The futuristic synth pop of Heaven’s Blade, and the cinematic minimal electronica of Teenage Lightning 2005, Ape Of Naples was a latter-period masterwork from the legendary Coil, and a well overdue re-release, and merely highlighting how much we miss musicians of this calibre in 2016. Listen/Buy

Now Again

Worlds Experience Orchestra

The Beginning Of A New Birth | As Time Flows On

This one was a shock. I’m certainly in my ‘discovery phase’ with regards to Jazz. I’m loving works by Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, Pharaoh Sanders and so on. This LP that we were lucky to get in the store is from a little known band from Boston, Mass in 1975. Track ‘The Prayer’ will take anything from Organic Music Society on and give it a run for it’s money let me tell you. Totally blissful cosmic free jazz of the highest order. Listen/Buy

Palace Of Lights

K Leimer

Closed System Potentials

Modern Classics

This Heat

Deceit

Finders Keepers

Suzanne Ciani

Buchla Concerts 1975

Light In The Attic

Betty Davis

The Colombia Years 1968-69

Milan

Ryuichi Sakamoto

Mr Christmas Mr Lawrence

Death Waltz

Angelo Badalamenti

Twin Peaks

Temporary Residence

William Basinski

92982’

Acute Recordings

The Lines

Hull Down

Mr Bongo

Pedro Santos

Krishnanda

Superior Viaduct

Steve Reich

Four Organs

Superior Viaduct

Tony Conrad | Faust

Outside The Dream Syndicate

Superior Viaduct

Suicide

Suicide

Metal Face

KMD

Bl_ck B_st_rds

Metal Face

MF Doom

Operation Doomsday

Knitting Factory

Fela Kuti

Entire reissue series.

Strut

Sun Ra

Singles

Finders Keepers

Bixio, Frizzi and Tempera

Magnetic Systems