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Quietus Charts

Quietus Albums Of The Year 2018, In Association With Norman Records
Luke Turner , December 25th, 2018 15:19

The Quietus albums of the year chart returns, with our favourite 100 records released in our tenth anniversary year. Read the countdown and find out how you can support us in our work bringing you the best new music

‘Best In Show!’ by Lisa Cradduck

2018, in case you missed the memo, marks a decade since The Quietus launched as a digital websheet. As ever, back in January, we probably thought 'what if this is the year that music goes crap?' Thankfully, against a wider climate that just gets ever bleaker, music has rewarded us with the best birthday present it could, for this year's top 100 albums of the year curiously feels like the 'most Quietus' we've ever done. What, exactly, this site is all about remains something of a mystery, even to us after a decade producing it, but that's sort of the point. We're not really fussed by hype and trends or a desperate desire to be focusing on the next hot thing - that sort of thinking is what has got the music media and industry alike into bother again and again. Instead, we focus on the marginal and ignored, the New Weird scenes of the world in a list compiled by the Quietus HQ crew Anna Wood, Christian Eede, Patrick Clarke, John Doran and myself, with help from our various genre columnists.

Indeed, it's fair to say that this list is a counterblast to the algorithmic systems of music discovery that increasingly shape our culture, largely to negative effect. When we started The Quietus way back in 2008, that technology was in its infancy and the threat to the leftfield was arguably a conservative media landscape. In 2018, technology that gives people what it thinks they want doesn't even flicker as it pushes people into bland aesthetic and stylistic corners. The whole joy of modern music, we believe, is that artists as diverse as Yves Tumor, Tropical Fuck Storm, Senyawa, Xenony, SOPHIE, Guttersnipe, Skee Mask and Miss Red make for thrilling bedfellows.

The other crisis posed by our New Tech Overlords and the dictatorship of algorithmic code is, of course, financial. Not only do Spotify and YouTube fail to adequately compensate artists on the margins (do use the Norman Records links to buy the music you find and love), Google and Facebook now absorb 90% of the advertising revenue that used to fund the media that is such a vital part of the cultural ecosystem. We have not escaped this, which means that the end of the 10th year of The Quietus sees us not exultant at a triumphant decade, but relieved that we've made it this far, and concerned that the future for online publishing is far from rosy. Even the price of a (London) pint a month will help us to bring you 1,000 more albums of the year over the next ten years to 2028.

As ever, then, if you can afford to help us carry on bringing you music that continues to amaze, thrill, dazzle and give you the fackin' 'orn like the 100 records below, click below and donate to keep The Quietus alive. Thanks for reading, we hope you find many treasures in this, tQ’s albums of the year 2018.


100. Maryam Saleh, Maurice Louca and Tamer Abu Ghazaleh -
Lekhfa
(Mostakell)
The sheer range of what Maryam Saleh, Maurice Louca and Tamer Abu Ghazaleh are trying to combine on Lekhfa - trad chaabi, mahraganat, Nile Delta psych, classic Egyptian pop, Middle Eastern jazz, smoky trip hop, dubby electro pop - should make it sound like a mad man’s breakfast, but the assured, enticing, head-spinning tunes on offer tell a completely different story. John Doran
99. Simian Mobile Disco -
Murmurations
(Wichita)
Listening to Murmurations, there’s an element of the uncanny valley manifesting at times - the idea that you’re listening to something that’s not actually human, but is trying its hardest to mimic us. Joseph Mumford
98. Anthroprophh -
Omegaville
(Rocket Recordings)
On Omegaville, Anthroprophh keep pushing and pushing, laying on one oppressive and opaque layer after another, and delving further and deeper into their only semi-imagined dystopia. There is another of those pauses before ‘I’, a track on which they intensify their assault once more with a colossal roar, the precursor to the outer reaches. Patrick Clarke
97. Hailu Mergia -
Lala Belu
(Awesome Tapes From Africa)
Lala Belu is at its best when you can sense its creator’s joy at returning to what he does best. Nowhere is this more palpable than on heart-in-mouth closing track ‘Yefikir Engurguro’, a solo coda that sounds like heavy tears of happiness falling on the keys of a piano. Josh Gray
96. Gwenno -
Le Kov
(Heavenly)
In a time when cultural identities are being bludgeoned into an amorphous monolith, too often defined only in contrast to an equally nebulous otherness, Le Kov invites us to reclaim our diversities, revitalise our imaginations. Past, present and future intersect. Danijela Bočev
95. David Terry -
Sorrow
(Opal Tapes)
‘Slowly, Slowly, Up Into The Rain We Fell’ is a 25-minute instrumental piece in which keyboards blurrily harmonise, like a choir in the next village over, and quasi-percussive clanks arrive and depart. ‘Crummock Water’, the aforementioned C90 side-filler, is the most intense of the trio, spiralling keys building to a peak at around 15 minutes and drums featuring for the first time. Noel Gardner
94. BROCKHAMPTON -
iridescence
(Question Everything)
BROCKHAMPTON are a musical prospect for the times we live in, and you can take that statement in the spirit it was delivered in. Rocked by abuse allegations and the departure of the ‘talented one’, the once cocksure self-proclaimed “best boy band since One Direction” have since revealed themselves to be angst-beset Radiohead fans (‘Tape’ samples ‘Videotape’ and the guiding sonic influence on the album was, apparently, Kid A). But should we be surprised when a band led by a musician called Kevin Abstract end up appearing much less neatly and clearly defined than they originally appeared? Either way ignore the terrible gospel choir-featuring ‘San Marcos’ and what you have here for the main part is a clutch of brilliant songs. John Doran
93. Creep Show -
Mr Dynamite
(Bella Union)
Mr Dynamite combines something genuinely sinister with a sense of fun, and far from being a whimsical side project for its members, it can be regarded as a landmark release for all of them. Barnaby Smith
92. Richard Skelton -
Front Variations I & II
(Aeolian Editions)
As news of our ongoing ecological collapse becomes ever more intensely bleak, Richard Skelton continues to fragment and minimalise his music, on this still potent album exploring drones made from sine waves and the frequencies of threatened glaciers.
91. Nonpareils -
Scented Pictures
(Mute)
Scented Pictures is an album of two distinct moods, the more Madlib-beats-and-weird-noises side (high mark ‘Ditchglass, They Think’) gradually giving way to calmer waters. The switch comes on the relentless and potent ‘Invisible Jets’, which sounds like his former group’s pop screamer ‘Mess On A Mission’ being put through a turbine somewhere in the bowels of a dank and gigantic dam. Luke Turner
90. Capitol K -
Goatherder
(Faith In Industry)
Robinson has created a sound world that feels palpably healing. This is an LP that feels very much needed. An evocation to dance: not into oblivion, but forward to the light. Harry Sword
89. Drew McDowall -
The Third Helix
(Dais)
After a series of Hidden Reverse-aligned reissues on Dais - ELpH vs Coil’s Worship The Glitch; Black Light District’s A Thousand Lights in a Darkened Room and Coil’s Time Machines - cosmic synthesist Drew McDowall is back to releasing original material. On listening to The Third Helix it becomes clear that the former Coil and PTV member has lost none of his ability to create intensely disorientating and bliss-inducing soundscapes. John Doran
88. Dizzy Fae -
Free Form
(Self-released)
An eclectic, shimmering record of beautiful, smooth and most of all powerful soul and R&B. Dizzy Fae's debut is supreme.
87. Bliss Signal -
Bliss Signal
(True Panther Sounds)
Bliss Signal holds much in its heart for fans of either genre; swelling crescendos of sound build tension and sorrow in equal measure during ‘N16 Drift,’ echoing the best of dark ambient electronica while ‘Floodlight’ is an unusually bright song filtered through an atmospheric black metal beginning. The album is experimentation at its finest and a successful venture for the creative minds behind it. Cheryl Carter
86. AMOR -
Sinking Into A Miracle
(Night School)
The latest project from restless experimentalist Richard Youngs, Amor's Sinking Into A Miracle is a wistful and necessarily optimistic dance record, one that does a more than worthy job at appropriating the heady spirits of classic New York dance parties such as The Loft and Paradise Garage, while injecting it's slow-building grooves with distinctly Glaswegian DIY funk. John Thorp
85. Ian William Craig -
Thresholder
(130701)
The original impetus for the record came out of sessions for some commission work and was inspired by concepts of quantum physics, black holes and space. Ian William Craig
84. Jerusalem In My Heart -
Daqa’iq Tudaiq
(Constellation)
Radwan Ghazi Moumneh paddles his craft out even further from the shore, this time with the aid of a 15-piece Egyptian orchestra and Sam Shalabi of Land Of Kush and Dwarfs Of East Agouza. They reimagine the standard ‘Ya Garat Al Wadi’ blissfully as the more currently resonant ‘Wa Ta'atalat Loughat Al Kalam’ or ‘The Language Of Speech Has Broken Down’. John Doran
83. Gaika -
Basic Volume
(Warp)
In a way, it’s an album about “taking back control” – but rather than being about sovereignty, this is taking back control for us. Indeed, lyrically it teems with references to seizing hold of the narrative, calling the marginalised to arms – “every ghetto youth must take back him crown / just ride if you’re down, this fight is right now”, and, “I wanna see you in rebellion”. Tara Joshi
82. Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet -
Landfall
(Nonesuch)
Landfall is not so facile as to treat the terrible storm as a simple metaphor. Sandy is more real than that. Rather, Anderson’s words, and the sometimes surging, sometimes steady music from which they intermittently surface, find in Sandy the means to explore what is taken from us, how we experience it, how we understand it – or do not. David Bennun
81. Lotic -
Power
(Tri Angle)
This is an album about political and personal power, although there are no slogans or pontifications. The most explicitly political track, ‘Distribution Of Care’, has no lyrics at all - just four minutes of tense strings and rolling beats. But the key to the power in Power is in Lotic’s acceptance of what they can and cannot control, specifically in their journey of transformation and gender fluidity. Bob Cluness
80. Xenony -
Polish Space Program
(Hessle Audio)
Things start in a familiar yet very satisfying post-krautrock muscular Moog workout along the lines of Zombie Zombie or Emperor Machine before blasting off into lesser occupied space. A strong melodic instinct married with the booming synths of Gary Numan’s Pleasure Principle and, more recently, the modular ecstasy of James Holden And The Animal Spirits animate tracks such as ‘Sun’ which, in other hands, could be lifeless electronic experiments. John Doran
79. Warmduscher -
Whale City
(The Leaf Label)
A playground for the people that have stepped above and beyond their comfort zone. Warmduscher’s Clams Baker
78. JPEGMAFIA -
Veteran
(EQT Recordings)
His latest album, Veteran - a play on the 28-year-old having been in the music game for a while, but also a reference to his four years serving in the US air force - struck a chord with a jarring world, cathartic in its dissonance, its lithe sexuality, and its visceral, vital undercurrent of frantic rage and a kind of jaded indifference. Tara Joshi
77. East Man -
Red, White And Zero
(Planet Mu)
The list of MCs includes Darkos Strife, Kwam, Saint P, Irah, Killa P and more, and Gilroy’s contribution highlights the class tensions and intricacies that take place in London on a daily basis, giving the album thematic weight and focus. In many ways, the album is a celebration of that working class spirit which Hart and his contributors represent, an achievement of that sector of society that get the least love and attention by the powers that be.. Yemi Abiade
76. Lucrecia Dalt -
Anticlines
(RVNG Intl.)
Dalt’s native Latin rhythms mix with contemporary, minimal synth vignettes and industrial clutter. This is an immersive listen, full of eerie familiarity and suspended body horror; a quasi-mystical sense of oneness gives Anticlines cohesion and a sense of spiritual comfort, and somehow reminds of of the vast indifferent universe as we descend into environmental disaster. Danijela Bočev
75. Vanishing Twin -
Magic And Machines
(Blank Editions)
Magic And Machines was recorded for Blank Editions’ Blank Tape series, in which bands tape themselves while in free improv/R&D territory. This 30-minute, spectral jam was recorded live in one take at a night-time session at a mill in Sudbury, Suffolk and is evidence of a band who are finely tuned into their environment, one another and the multiple avenues open to the modern pop group. John Doran
74. Miss Red -
K.O.
(Pressure)
Miss Red, aka Sharon Stern, is an astonishing vocal presence. Her flow is dextrous and fiery, brilliantly confrontational. She’s highly literate in her genre, nodding to familiar dancehall inflections while making no bones about her status as a white female Israeli. Born to Polish and Israeli-Moroccan parents in xxx, her self-awareness and personal experience of conflict drive her words throughout K.O.. The righteous fury that permeates each track is rooted in very real issues. Luke Cartledge
73. Melting Hand -
Faces Of Earth
(Hominid Sounds)
For a band whose first album didn’t sound like it was scrimping, sonically speaking, on pretty much anything, Melting Hand’s second album is remarkable for packing in more of everything. More members, for one thing, and more vocals from more heads who dropped in for useful guest spots; more speed (as in velocity), at times, but also more apparent consideration in these five songs’ arrangements, rather than smoke-belching free-associative heavy-psych jam sessions all in the red all the time and get knotted if you don’t like, alright? Noel Gardner
72. Primitive Knot -
Thee Opener Of The Way
(Aurora Borealis)
From up in the Pennine hinterlands, Primitive Knot continue to blend black metal, noise and esoteric lo-fi in increasingly hectic, heavy ways. Luke Turner
71. ZULI -
Terminal
(UIQ)
His debut full-length on Lee Gamble's UIQ label marries swampy basslines with slinky vocal delivery courtesy of rappers like Abyusif. Gut-wrenching trap flirtations meet delicate, alien melodic arrangements. In ‘Bump’, a highlight of the album, distorted synths flutter amidst sub tremors and rapid-fire vocals. Mollie Zhang
70. Jake Muir -
Lady’s Mantle
(sferic)
On Lady’s Mantle, LA-based Jake Muir weaves delicate ambient loops from heavily manipulated surf-rock samples. Smudged synths repeat over and over on tracks such as opener ‘High Tide’ and ‘Yaupon’, forming neat earworms, while distant samples - people speaking, waves crashing, birdsong - unfurl, buried deep in the mix. Christian Eede
69. Helena Hauff -
Qualm
(Ninja Tune)
Qualm sounds like it's trying to crack the matrix: deliciously squelchy, subtly creeping with unease, slicing and thwacking break beats boasting gun-metal precision, an ominous nuclear-green fogginess, like you're listening through night vision glasses. Kate Hutchinson
68. The Armed -
Only Love
(No Rest Until Ruin)
The Armed from Detroit, MI, have introduced new rupturing new dynamics into the realm of what might loosely be termed hardcore, managing to be both more melodic, more noisy and more inventive than nearly anyone else doing the rounds at the moment.
67. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs -
King Of Cowards
(Rocket)
King Of Cowards opens with a simmer, a descending bass riff bubbling away until it boils over into an intergalactic launch of searing noise, and you’re reminded that this is a band of quite tremendous power. Baty’s vocals are more colossal than ever, surfing the monolithic wave with an almighty howl. The rest of the Pigs are on agile form, switching momentum from cosmic rushes to almighty, crushing descents without hesitation. Patrick Clarke
66. Rezzett -
Rezzett
(The Trilogy Tapes)
Rezzett come good on years of 12” releases via The Trilogy Tapes with a debut LP of tape hiss-filled jungle, breaks, techno and hazy ambient music. Christian Eede
65. Manni Dee -
The Residue
(Tresor)
A deeply atmospheric listen that captures many of the anxieties and oppressive atmospheres of existing in metropolitan Britain in 2018. The two minute interlude 'Vicarious Living' has a melancholy akin to wandering home after a rave, looking up at a tower of luxury flats and seeing some wholesome City couple sat having a nude granola breakfast as you wander home to your overpriced room, with its black mold and grotesque memories of personal inadequacy. Luke Turner
64. The Body -
I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer
(Thrill Jockey)
Despite shedding metal’s generic trappings almost completely, The Body have created some of the heaviest and most intense music we’ve heard this year, a devastating multi-faceted gut-punch of a record that asks you to come face to face your most primordial, deep-seated fears, acknowledge and accept your failings and emerge from the experience a stronger person. Kez Whelan
63. AJA -
AJA
(Opal Tapes)
She’s the antithesis of the macho tropes that have for years surrounded noise music. Falling somewhere under the umbrella of ‘New Weird Britain’, her live shows symptomatic of it. Built upon the idea of audience immersion, AJA beckons you to share the extreme emotion her performances convey and the strangeness that surrounds it. Aimee Armstrong

62. Synth Sisters -
Euphoria (WAV)
(EM)
‘She Sang’ centres around serene drones, while ‘Euphoria’’s synth patterns wouldn’t sound out of place working alongside a chugging krautrock groove (‘Time Is Flowing There’, later in the album, explores this element of their sound fully). ‘Different Story’ is full of machine zaps and harp-like chirps, and closer ‘I Am Here’ is a whirl of piano and psychedelic pads that could continue for hours without its grasp fading. Christian Eede
61. Nine Inch Nails -
Bad Witch
(The Null Corporation)
They’ve ended up hitting on something that is simultaneously genuinely belligerent in the power of its snot nosed assault, while being leagues more sophisticated than anything any of the remaining big hitters from the imperial period of American alternative rock are even attempting in 2018. John Doran
60. Big Joanie -
Sistahs
(Daydream Library)
As well as the wider statement its very existence makes, Sistahs is an exploration of individual experience. Lyrically introspective, the songs are often one-sided conversations, processing moments of change and frustration, bratty retaliation and loss. Less a political call to arms and more a “black punks have always been here” reclamation of space, musically Sistahs draws from an eclectic palette that includes 60s girl groups, jangle pop, lo-fi indie and punk. Melissa Steiner
59. Cucina Povera -
Hilja
(Night School)
Hilja is an album that takes time to reveal itself, at first appearing inaccessible, strange or disorganised. Given space though, and without the expectation of constant stimulation, Cucina Povera has put together a collection that rewards you for listening carefully to the wonderful sounds that live among the silence. Richard Fontenoy
58. Darren Hayman -
Thankful Villages
(Audio Antihero)
The Thankful Villages that Hayman has spent the last few years visiting, recording songs about, and shooting films in, are the places in the UK in which all the servicemen returned from the conflict alive. Remarkably, there are only 54 (at last count) out of 60,000 settlements which lost young men. So instead of a musical parade of songs about the war, Hayman has chosen instead to create thoughtful meditations on rural life, change, and lost ways of being. "We are not spending half an hour saluting our troops," he says. "There’s the war - the subject on the surface - but what’s underneath is what I’m really writing about." Luke Turner
57. тпсб -
Sekundenschlaf
(Blackest Ever Black)
Making their debut on Blackest Ever Black, the story behind тпсб is a confused one. Past material was said to have been recovered from a Russian hard drive purchased off eBay, but now the work of the project, Blackest Ever Black says, simply has an ”unclear authorship”. What is clear though is the fuzzy, almost lo-fi excellence that lies within Sekundenschlaf. Christian Eede
56. Bas Jan -
Yes I Jan
(Lost Map)
It’s rarely easy to parse just one feeling from these songs, there’s usually two or three or more, spinning in circles and overlapping. Like: Isn’t life disappointing? Or maybe you’re what’s disappointing. Isn’t life stressful? But also fun and wonderful, so full of possibilities! Let’s have a dance and a cuddle and a good fuck, and isn’t the sky beautiful tonight? Anna Wood
55. Ben Vince -
Assimilation
(Where To Now?)
Overseeing a cast of collaborators that includes Micachu, Rupert Clervaux and Cam Deas, Ben Vince pulls proceedings together on Assimilation via his stunning saxophone arrangements. It's a set-up which sees him thrive off the contributions of his co-conspirators, from the sleazy skronk of opener ‘Alive & Ready’, which features the shapeshifting vocals of Merlin Nova, to the more minimal, lithe territory of the Micachu-featuring ‘What I Can See’ which pairs little more than Vince’s sax, Mica Levi’s low register vocal and a healthy dose of reverb. Christian Eede
54. Cardi B -
Invasion Of Privacy
(Atlantic)
Invasion of Privacy finds a rapper in her prime, cleverly shaping her own stardom and - hopefully - carving out a path that continues to usher female MCs into the mainstream. Shamelessly sexual, caustically comic and with breathtaking flow, Cardi B stands proud as one of trap’s finest. Tara Joshi
53. Goat Girl -
Goat Girl
(Rough Trade)
This is a young album, an antidote to all the articles about house prices, feckless millennials or smashed avocados on sourdough. This is just a document of being young and uncertain and trying not to be a wanker and trying to have a good time in a city which makes all of those things extremely difficult. Anna Wood
52. Eartheater -
Irisiri
(PAN)
Irisiri is an album that explores the concepts of femininity, technology and the how many non-conforming bodies end up falling between the cracks in the seemingly implacable poles of gender, sex and the human. All her songs display seemingly disparate contrasts of surrealist wordplay, with organic, fragile tones and cold, machinist grind, as she pieces and stitches them into idiosyncratic little monsters that at times bewilders, but ultimately beguiles you with their curiosity and playfulness. Bob Cluness
51. Pig Destroyer -
Head Cage
(Relapse)
Pig Destroyer never really bought in to the globally minded ‘anti’ politics of grindcore’s originators. Instead they sought out a horrifying perspective on the dangers of the male psyche. But writing that “semen tastes like gunmetal”, and about “twinkling bits of glass stuck in her face”, gets old… Head Cage moves them into the middle of the 21st century culture wars. Dan Franklin

50. Deena Abdelwahed -
Khonnar
(InFiné Music)
The lyrics, which are mostly sung in Tunisian Arabic, see Abdelwahed exploring subjects of inequality in her native casting a critical eye over the police state and gender inequality. 'Tawa' combines traditional instrumentation with club-ready drum machines while 'Fdiha' is a heavy-hitting chugger that calls to mind some of the output of the Night Slugs camp. This ear for building dancefloor-focused grooves continues through much of Khonnar as Abdelwahed pushes against the notion that socially-conscious statements are best held at arm's length from such conventions. Christian Eede
49. Alison Cotton -
All Is Quiet At The Ancient Theatre
(Bloxham Tapes)
Alison Cotton’s album is a highly memorable suite evoking other times and places with a deftness and a lightness of touch. She is an excellent and restrained songwriter, confidently combining instrumental and vocal music to create a recording that delivers much and promises more to come. Tom Bolton
48. Alexander Tucker -
Don't Look Away
(Thrill Jockey)
Don’t Look Away is a supremely confident album from a songwriter who has found his place and knows his music. It completes a trilogy which is essential listening for anyone who wants to hear why the psychedelic lineage of the past 50 years is fresh and alive. Tom Bolton
47. Bruce -
Sonder Somatic
(Hessle Audio)
Bristol-based Larry McCarthy, better known as Bruce, comes good on years of standout 12” releases on Sonder Somatic. Highlight ‘What’ sees him reach for peak-time dancefloors as a stretched-out vocal sample fuses with gallopins drums, the combination barely letting up intensity across its five-minute run. Elsewhere, ‘Cacao’ drives forward with a menacing bassline that wouldn’t sound out of place on an A Made Up Sound record while tracks like ‘Meek’ and ‘Torn’ see McCarthy exploring lower tempos. Christian Eede
46. Kali Uchis -
Isolation
(Self-Released)
Though Uchis’ signature swagger is sustained throughout, she unveils another layer to this character in the rest of this album: one fraught with heartbreak, seclusion and self-doubt. Lead single ‘Tyrant’ touches romantic distrust, while ‘Gotta Get Up’ describes being too depressed to get out of bed. The lyrics of ‘In My Dreams’ come across like self-talk she doesn’t quite believe, as she describes a world without insecurities or drug-rattled family problems. Veronica Irwin
45. The Caretaker -
Everywhere At The End Of Time Stage V
(Hallow Ground)
”The later stages of the project are not going to be that nice,” Leyland James Kirby warned us, two years ago, when he was starting Everywhere At The End Of Time. And it’s true: the work began as crackling loops and samples of, basically, the music from the end of The Shining. It had a spooksome 78rpm echo and a lingering impression of Jack Torrance, but it was warmly melancholy rather than terrifying. Now it’s terrifying. The project tracks the descent of Kirby’s Caretaker persona into dementia, and this is the penultimate part (the final one is released in March). It’s fair to mention the analogy with our descent into Brexit, especially as UK citizen Kirby now lives in Poland, but you don’t need global political parallels to add extra frissons or bonus despair to tracks like ‘Sudden Time Regression Into Isolation’ or ‘Advanced Plaque Entanglements’. Say hello to the abyss; it’s confusing and less beautiful than we were hoping it would be. Anna Wood
44. Guttersnipe -
My Mother The Vent
(Upset The Rhythm)
A blizzard of sound and energy, Guttersnipe are in every sense a 21st century band. Unleashed from the always fruitful Leeds underground scene in 2015, these two noise rock miscreants have forged one of the most exciting and exhilarating duo bands currently at work today. Comprised of Urocerus Gigas (guitar, vocals, synth) and Tipula Confusa (drums, vocals, drum synth), Guttersnipe are a bilious concoction of technical prowess and visceral expression, a continual eruption of diametrical forces: Gigas’ flamboyant neo-shredding guitar work is in thrilling contrast to Confusa’s catalytic, whip-cracking drums. Kevin McCaighy
43. Tirzah -
Devotion
(Domino)
Hazy keyboards and smooth, sweet vocals appreciate a relationship’s easy, small but mighty moments. It sounds like squinting at the beating sun until those pretty, squiggly lines veil your vision, summer sweat hugging your bare arms. Anna Cafolla

42. 700 Bliss -
Spa 700
(Halcyon Veil)
DJ Haram's serrated productions deftly complement Moor Mother's unique flow, their sharp edges and concussive beats made somehow more brutal by melodic, sometimes delicate touches fostered by Haram's keen ear for detail. Bernie Brooks and Kristen Gallerneaux

41. Blocks & Escher -
Something Blue
(Metalheadz)
In a year that saw Metalheadz re-assert itself as a reliable source for D&B in its various forms, Blocks & Escher’s debut album stood out from everything else. Something Blue folds in the jazz influences of late ‘90s neurofunk on opener ‘Vigil’, while album highlight ‘Sea’ recalls the pairing of Goldie and Diane Charlemagne on the former’s Timeless thanks to Jennifer Hall’s gliding vocal. Closer ‘Something Borrowed, Something Blue’ tugs at the heartstrings with its majestic, soaring synths and techstep-indebted drum breaks. Christian Eede

40. GNOD -
Chapel Perilous
(Rocket Recordings)
The album is sequenced like a pulverising futuristic space-rock version of Reign In Blood: bookended by overbearing monolithic structures that initially cast shadows over the relatively hard-to-penetrate middle section. It’s great to finally hear ‘Donovan’s Daughters’ in a home setting. While it still slaps hard - and oh, sweet lord Jesus and all of your apostles, that drop - Raikes Parade’s masterful dub creates abyss-deep currents of echo and sky-scraping vapour trails of reverb. John Doran

39. Szun Waves -
New Hymn To Freedom
(The Leaf Label)
There’s also a constant tension between order and chaos on the record, particularly on the track ‘High Szun’, which remains in some kind of perilous balance - it feels like it might unravel at any point, its warbling sax and synth lines suddenly taking flight and disappearing behind the clouds. Adam Quarshie

38. Yves Tumor -
Safe In The Hands Of Love
(Warp)
The lyrics in the percussive, string-sample lead ‘Noid’ invoke the fear and trauma induced by police brutality as he sings of fearing for his life, being scared to go outside and experiencing PTSD and depression. It all comes accompanied with Yves Tumor’s most (only?) hook-laden chorus to date as he calls “911, 911, 911 / Can’t trust them.” ‘Licking An Orchid’ is a heartrending, toxically romantic duet with vocalist with James Kay, all to the tune of hollowed out psych-pop and R&B. Eoin Murray

37. Laura Cannell & André Bosman -
Reckonings
(Brawl)
Reckonings is a set of pieces made during short visits to the church, no more than half an hour each time, to improvise and record. They reflect the different seasons in which they were played, from the light pattering of sunlit notes on ‘Golden Lanes At Dusk’ to the troubled, wintery drone of ‘Reckonings’. For an album that lasts just over 30 minutes in total, Reckonings encompasses a remarkable range of music. Tom Bolton

36. Gabe Gurnsey -
Physical
(Phantasy Sound)
There’s something compellingly awry with the songs that are more explicitly sexy. On ‘Heavy Rubber’, for example, and on ‘I Get’, where the more you hear the repeated hook lyric - “the feeling I get when I’m with you” the more you wonder, actually, what the feeling is. The more you might think of mouths too dry for blowjobs, cocks that can’t deliver what their chang-ed up owner promises, or just of wanting to curl up gently under a duvet in the dark. Anna Wood

35. Skee Mask -
Compro
(Ilian Tape)
Compro, Skee Mask's second album, sees the producer push out beyond the breakbeat and techno-driven experimentations of his debut LP, folding in a wider variety of tempos in the process. Ambient cuts such as opener 'Cerroverb' and 'VLI', which are usually relegated to secondary status on numerous 'dance music' LPs, offer a vital counterpoint to the breakbeat science of jungle tracks such as 'Soundboy Ext.' and 'Kozmic Flush'. Melody has long been one of the producer's strong points - both as Skee Mask and in his SCNTST moniker - and Compro sees him continue to excel. Christian Eede

34. Mouse On Mars -
Dimension People
(Thrill Jockey)
You can hear from the 145bpm machine-gun-regular opening hits of ‘Dimensional People Part I’ - it’s actually the heavily manipulated sound of a robot hitting a woodblock - that this is an album that is conversant with footwork. (NB: this is not a juke album in the same way that Mouse On Mars have never made a drum & bass LP or acid house LP, per se.) But this is the background theme and tempo that binds the album into a unified whole. John Doran

33. Aidan Moffat and RM Hubbert -
Here Lies The Body
(Rock Action)
Hubbert’s flamenco-punk guitar is as expressive as ever – variously invoking nylon-strung restlessness, ardour, agitation and grief – while Moffat’s doctrine vis-a-vis the vagaries of lives lived and wished-for, and ageing, and lust, remains unsurpassed. He offers us acute insights on middle-age (“And now it takes so long to even look alright”), and the rules of attraction (“She’s a bombshell in leggings / A goddess in jeggings”), and perhaps the greatest-ever analogy for diminishing sexual prowess (“The ride’s all weathered”). Everything’s getting older. Nicole Meighan

32. Laibach -
The Sound Of Music
(Mute)
To get to grips with the myriad grotesque and nightmarish situations that face us in this strange and uncomfortable era requires strange and uncomfortable art made by those who have empathy and understanding. We need more like Laibach, not fewer. Playful, poignant, sublime and ridiculous, in The Sound Of Music Laibach continue to hold up a mirror to a divided world. Luke Turner

31. Jenny Hval -
The Long Sleep
(Sacred Bones)
This album demonstrates an urge to express rather than capture, explore rather than explain; she uses words to tell us how inadequate words are, music to tell us how inadequate music is. It is light and substantial, full of death and full of hope, happy and sad; Hval is not fooled by binaries, basically, and the result is elegantly subversive. It is gimlet-eyed and hopeful. Anna Wood

30. The Yossarians -
Ambition Will Eat Itself
(Repton)
This record is 17 minutes long, and within that time The Yossarians offer a richness, depth and intensity that it’d take many of their contemporaries a whole career to achieve. The last of its five tracks, ‘As In Life As In Chess, As In Chess As In Sex’, is under four minutes long, and spends the first half of that time drifting through a hazy, drone, chimes and flourishes of Eastern scales drifting in and out of the mist. The explosion that this builds up to, however, is titanic. Patrick Clarke

29. Todd Barton -
Multum In Parvo
(Blue Tapes)
I’ve listened to Multum In Parvo a dozen times or more and I’ve never heard the same album twice, because I change and my mood changes but also because incidental noises in my body and my surroundings – from sighs to car horns to distant giggles – all seem to be on very friendly terms with Todd Barton and his Buchla. Anna Wood

28. SOPHIE -
Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides
(Transgressive)
Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides is SOPHIE’s latest stride towards whatever frenetic musical techno-future it is that she envisions, and the latest demonstration of her language: a vernacular of pounding kicks, human voices processed into oblivion, uncomfortable squishing noises, revving engines and clattering metal. This language irrefutably excels in creating jarring juxtapositions; equally irrefutable is the relish SOPHIE takes in setting them up. Jamie Ryder

27. Planningtorock -
Powerhouse
(DFA)
Powerhouse is Jam Rostron’s fourth album but in some ways it feels like a debut: there is a stepping out and a sense of ‘here I am’ which is related to their transition over the past couple of years, and also to their autobiographical depiction of family on the record. The title track, a softly soaring ballad-lullaby, is about Jam’s mum, Janet; second single, ‘Beulah Loves Dancing’, is an almost ridiculously joyful and bouncing ode to their sister. Anna Wood

26. Eric Chenaux -
Slowly Paradise
(Constellation)
This is a remarkable record - it is wildly experimental and as comforting as a soft embrace. The most interesting art almost always has a sense of duality, and Slowly Paradise is no different; where it radically differs is in the lack of combat between those opposing forces. Chenaux’s love for Sade, for example, in no way contradicts or confuses his love for Derek Bailey. Eden Tizard

25. Erland Cooper -
Solan Goose
(Phases)
It's a record of simple beauty, exploring the place where electronic and classical music can co-habit, and inspired by Cooper's childhood home of Orkney and birdwatching expeditions with his father. Via strings, piano and ambient guitar, Solan Goose, pulses with Orcadian spirit. Magnificently barren seascapes, Norse mythology, Neolithic history and the poetry of George Mackay Brown gush forth from the songs, each titled after a bird of Orkney. John Freeman

24. Gábor Lázár -
Unfold
(The Death Of Rave)
'Squeeze' melds a screwface-inducing bassline with a beat that wouldn't have sounded out of place on a classic Ruff Sqwad mixtape, while closer 'Overall' comes across like a skewed take on the UK techno of labels like Livity Sound and Timedance with its starry synths and swung drums. Unfold is Lázár's most complete work to date pushing his glitch-ridden experimentations into considerably more 4x4 territory than before. Christian Eede

23. Grouper -
Grid Of Points
(Kranky)
The record is quiet, even for Grouper’s standards, and it runs little over 22 minutes. Everything’s held back, and it creates mesmeric payoffs in microscopic instrumental introductions - like the recording artefacts on ‘Driving’.Harris is as elusive as her music, and gives few interviews. You follow her airy vocals through deserted landscapes with no guide aside from the track titles and occasional discernible lyrics. Mundanities, like roaming through a parking lot, driving and even breathing, are made eerie. Aimee Armstrong

22. Senyawa -
Sujud
(Sublime Frequencies)
Opening with an invocation where the power in Suryadis’ thunderous chords, played on a new guitar hand-built for the album, is matched by Shabara’s mantra such that they magically merge. It prepares the room for the dramatic liturgy to follow, starting with the subtler, although no less penetrating, title track. The plucked and bowed folk strings on ‘Sujud’ combine with Shabara’s deep-throated commandments to build a devotional fervour worthy of its title, which translates as ‘Prostration’. Russell Cuzner

21. Panopticon -
The Scars Of Man On The Once Nameless Wilderness
(Nordvis)
Holy fuck, this is good! Kez Whelan

20. Julia Holter -
Aviary
(Domino)
Holter has described Aviary as “the cacophony of the mind in a melting world”, and it’s easy to feel that mania in its erratic structures and fleeting absurdity. But very often those segments bloom into long and sustained areas of beauty. The thing is, neither the harmony nor the ugliness is given more prominence – they are both valid states and one will always lead to the other. This cyclical nature is inevitable, and analogous with our own existence; everything is impermanent, and this is the only constant. As Holter puts it at the start of ‘I Shall Love 2’: “That is all, that is all / There is nothing else.” William Doyle

19. Blawan -
Wet Will Always Dry
(Ternesc)
Throughout the album you feel that the punchy directness of each track leaves more than enough room for you to get lost in the intricacies of the sound design and construction. On ‘Tasser’ or ‘Kalosi’, modular lines and tones that are the singing voice of machine intelligence; their syncopated crunches and harmonic shrills are in perfect tune with the deep bass and low-end booms and pulses. Wet Will Always Dry reaches a primordial inhuman sublime on ‘North’ – the album’s high point, where Roberts’ modular systems writhe and squirm, an entanglement of ever-unfolding tendrils and assemblages spewing out error bleeps, uncanny fluctuations and degenerated waveforms. Bob Cluness

18. Hawthonn -
Red Goddess (Of This Men Shall Know Nothing)
(Ba Da Bing!)
Red Goddess (Of This Men Shall Know Nothing) is the Leeds duo's finest works to date, a five-track, 45-minute meditation on the symbolism of the herb mugwort and "the psychic flux of the menstrual cycle." From the opening pagan hymnal 'A Mighty Revelation' (in which Layla Legard's voice, one of the finest elements here, intones a wavering refrain) this is a deeply consuming listen. Let it into your ears and the modern world is stripped away. Luke Turner

17. Chris Carter -
CCCL Volume One
(Mute)
This music strikes me as yet more evidence of an enviable heads-down industriousness and, in fact, what is most surprising is not exactly how modern or old but how a-temporal most of these tracks sound tonally, given that it is a (mainly) analogue project. If there is a narrative to this record, it’s more of a personal one given that Peter Christopherson died just a few months into the project’s time span. The pair, recently reunited by TG/X-TG, had been discussing Carter’s circuit-building experiments when Christopherson passed, causing the project to be shelved for some time. Carter has since talked about the album in terms of coping with his grief. John Doran

16. Tropical Fuck Storm -
A Laughing Death In Meatspace
(Mistletone)
A Laughing Death In Meatspace, their debut album, was recorded quickly and it sounds like it, in the best possible way. The band only performed their first gigs in September of last year, and Liddiard scrambled to write songs before their shows. There’s an unhinged and feral energy that pulses through these nine songs and goes beyond the considerable demented racket that the Drones are able to conjure at their finest: it’s less full-frontal sonic assault and more auditory guerrilla warfare, full of surprising textures and scrappy tones. Chad Parkhill

15. Pusha T -
Daytona
(G.O.O.D. Music)
Pusha’s style includes heady rap chunks (the lyrics are consequential, line-to-line, with sudden narrative shifts and tons of wordplay), with some of the easiest lyrics being slow-burners at the least. But at about 21 minutes, this album keeps from being a daunting listen. And Kanye’s production is consistently top-notch and purposeful, matching Pusha’s focused-yet-colour-stuffed verses and highlighting his ambiguous persona with dark or strange tones paired with fluffless beats, all with a focus on samples. Anthony Henderson

14. Marie Davidson -
Working Class Woman
(Ninja Tune)
Working Class Woman follows on exactly two years from her last LP, Adieux au Dancefloor, and comes about after a period of heavy touring which saw her travelling with few breaks for almost two years. Much of the album was written on the road and tested live during that time as part of a show dubbed ‘Bullshit Threshold’, and the result is her best record yet. Lead single ‘So Right’ pairs Italo disco with more downbeat influences while album highlight ‘Work It’ is a hypnotic meshing of jacking drum machine grooves and Davidson’s commanding vocals that nod to her unrelenting touring schedule (“You know how I get away with everything? I work all the fucking time”). Christian Eede

13. Daughters -
You Won’t Get What You Want
(Ipecac)
You Won't Get What You Want is an intimidating listen, full of shrieking glass, dented metal and lyrical brooding... the commanding, half-spoken vocal performances [make singer Lex Marshall] sound like an evil Jonathan Richman. Jamie Ryder

12. Hen Ogledd -
Mogic
(Weird World)
Mogic suggests that the daunting advance of technology is actually no threat to the age-old and the traditional, and might easily be incorporated into it (in this they have something in common with Simon Emmerson’s Imagined Village). That said, the record ends on a sombre note with a superb, ghostly track from Pilkington. ‘Ethelreda’ (named after the Anglo-Saxon saint from East Anglia), a slow, minimal, reverb-drenched piece, laments the fragmented way relationships are conducted amid screens and data – “I stitch together tiny snippets / Small things that you do / Patterns of you” – before ending with the repeated mantra of “I don't feel anything.” Barnaby Smith

11. Janelle Monae -
Dirty Computer
(Bad Boy)
It’s not just Prince’s nihilism that Monáe embodies on Dirty Computer - she’s also made a record that’s overtly and proudly sexual, as evident from the opening verse of ‘Crazy, Classic, Life’ - “Young, black, wild and free / Naked in a limousine / And I just wanna party hard / Sex in a swimming pool.” That’s not to say that Monáe never explored sex and love in her previous work, but it’s been a more sanitised version - one more in line with being an android, I suppose. On Dirty Computer, she’s flesh and blood with carnal needs. Grace Barber-Plentie

10. Årabrot -
Who Do You Love
(Pelagic)
Nernes has spoken about how it can take months or years for him to ascertain what his own songs are ‘about’, but he says that many of his creative allies have pointed out the inescapable influence of his newfound fatherhood on these tracks. They were mixed while he and Park were expecting their child. On The Gospel Årabrot drew on the personal more deeply than ever before to express the turmoil of a war against one’s own body. On ‘Sons And Daughters’ and ‘Pygmalion’ they have done so again, but this time in the aftermath of that explosion, finding a deep well of vulnerability at the outset of something new entirely. If the album’s title asks Who Do You Love, perhaps in these two songs we find its answer. Patrick Clarke

9. Audiobooks -
Now! (In A Minute)
(Heavenly Recordings)
There is nothing as completely feral as the Gothenburg EP’s ‘Kars’ and ‘Beefy Danny’, but in ‘Grandma Jimmy’ and ‘Call Of Duty Free’ there are two staggeringly immersive pieces of perplexing, thrilling storytelling – in the wild eccentric synths as much as in Ling’s winding narrative. The more usual approach would be to position these twin peaks apart from each other, to bookend the album or intensify its momentum at points when it might sag, but here the two are spaced just one track apart – either side of the freewheeling ‘Dance Your Life Away’ – around the record’s middle. The result is that as an album, Now! (In A Minute) has this bonkers middle section, before and after which the rest of the record contrasts even more starkly – a juxtaposition within a record of juxtapositions. Patrick Clarke

8. Low -
Double Negative
(Sub Pop)
It’s both surprising and refreshing that a band 25 years and 12 albums into their career would be bold enough to wilfully obscure their songwriting with such brazen production; credit to producer BJ Burton for helping to shape that environment. While this pairing successfully widened Low’s sonic remit on their last album, Ones And Sixes, their collective decision to really push beyond that is an utter joy to listen to, even with the darkness that runs through its core. Bands and producers working together don’t usually come up with such wild solutions. William Doyle

7. Sons of Kemet -
Your Queen Is A Reptile
(Impulse!)
The record is a sonic meeting place where communities from across time can gather, plan, console. It’s the creek by the woods at midnight, the rave, the church, the political basement. The naming of the tracks offers more than just passive remembrance: it’s deliberate veneration. Each queen represents a different mode of resistance - this is music to move to, in dance and in action. Teju Adeleye

6. ILL -
We Are Ill
(Box Records)
We Are ILL is all abrasive guitars, chunky wedges of grumbling bass and off-kilter organ synths. They can pretty much out-scream any edgelord ‘extreme’ noise acts, but they also have actual songs that you can thrash around to with wanton abandon. ILL are great fun to listen and dance to - witness ‘Stuck in a Loop’, as the wrecked and crushing bass belies a stompy beat and sparkle pop harmonics, or ‘Bus Stop’, which despite the rackety noise and shouted lyrics is buoyant and full of catchy hooks. Bob Cluness

5. Objekt -
Cocoon Crush
(PAN)
A methodical attention to detail can be heard across Cocoon Crush, which comes four years on from debut full-length Flatland. What’s most striking about this new record though - and certainly more so than its predecessor - is how such an approach doesn’t come at the expense of a certain element of human emotion, as could so easily be the case. Sure, you could marvel for days at the sound design on the ASMR-esque ‘Rest Yr Troubles Over Me’ (with its ominous incorporation of tolling bells, tinnitus tones, creeping footsteps and more) or the jittery off-grid percussion bursts of ‘Dazzle Anew’, and believe me I have. At the heart of Cocoon Crush though is a zest for rich melodies as Hertz takes a slight left-turn from the more synthetic traits of Flatland. Christian Eede

4. Suede -
The Blue Hour
(Warner)
With the highly unusual theme of exploring the deathly grimness and dangers of the countryside to which Anderson has recently moved, The Blue Hour is a record quite unlike any other. Suede remain one of the most distinctive bands that this country has produced in the past few decades, something that unfortunately counts against them. It often seems that having such a distinctive sound - in terms of aesthetic, vocals, and sonic palette - can be a disadvantage when the power of the algorithms against which Suede have rebelled seems to be heralding in an era of beige indifference, shaped primarily by the global hegemony of US popular and celebrity culture. Along the flattened-badgers and soggy-tissue strewn highways and lay-bys of rural England, Suede conjure up a thrillingly twisted antidote. Luke Turner

3. Insecure Men -
Insecure Men
(Fat Possum)
True-life horror is rarely so completely entwined with pop music as it is on this album. When you listen to The Carpenters it is there, some gaping sadness just beneath, just like when you listen to Joe Meek you can feel some glint of the dreadful goings-on at 304 Holloway Road. Insecure Men has that, all over; something is inherently and brilliantly amiss. It is consoling, almost. Anna Wood

2. Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids -
An Angel Fell
(Strut)
Despite the heavy subject matter, the album feels optimistic and imbued with a belief in the potential for humanity’s transformation. An Angel Fell ends with the shimmering, dreamlike ‘Sunset’, a celebratory and transcendent piece which seems to point towards a renewed respect and appreciation of nature as being part of our salvation. Ultimately, this is what the album promises: redemption and collective healing are within our grasp, if only we look outward and inward to be reminded of our true place in the cosmos. Adam Quarshie

1. Gazelle Twin -
Pastoral
(Anti-Ghost Moon Ray)
Pastoral is a disquieting listen, especially for those who think we can harness any ideas of ‘the nation’ for a progressive good. Those ideas are instead the basis of a Brexit-accelerated reactionary turn that believes Middle England is under threat and must be protected (and kept white) at all costs. Gazelle Twin shows us that any romantic idea of England is a poisoned chalice, at best, and Pastoral’s jester is the fool who skips along with us towards a looming dark age. Bob Cluness





The Quietus Albums Of The Year 2018

  • 1: Gazelle Twin - Pastoral
  • 2: Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids - An Angel Fell
  • 3: Insecure Men - Insecure Men
  • 4: Suede - The Blue Hour
  • 5: Objekt - Cocoon Crush
  • 6: ILL - We Are Ill
  • 7: Sons of Kemet - Your Queen Is A Reptile
  • 8: Low - Double Negative
  • 9: Audiobooks - Now! (In A Minute)
  • 10: Årabrot - Who Do You Love
  • 11: Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer
  • 12: Hen Ogledd - Mogic
  • 13: Daughters - You Won’t Get What You Want
  • 14: Marie Davidson - Working Class Woman
  • 15: Pusha T - Daytona
  • 16: Tropical Fuck Storm - A Laughing Death In Meatspace
  • 17: Chris Carter - CCCL Volume One
  • 18: Hawthonn - Red Goddess (Of This Men Shall Know Nothing)
  • 19: Blawan - Wet Will Always Dry
  • 20: Julia Holter - Aviary
  • 21: Panopticon - The Scars Of Man On The Once Nameless Wilderness
  • 22: Senyawa - Sujud
  • 23: Grouper - Grid Of Points
  • 24: Gábor Lázár - Unfold
  • 25: Erland Cooper - Solan Goose
  • 26: Eric Chenaux - Slowly Paradise
  • 27: Planningtorock - Powerhouse
  • 28: SOPHIE - Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides
  • 29: Todd Barton - Multum In Parvo
  • 30: The Yossarians - Ambition Will Eat Itself
  • 31: Jenny Hval - The Long Sleep
  • 32: Laibach - The Sound Of Music
  • 33: Aidan Moffat and RM Hubbert - Here Lies The Body
  • 34: Mouse On Mars - Dimensional People
  • 35: Skee Mask - Compro
  • 36: Gabe Gurnsey - Physical
  • 37: Laura Cannell - Reckoning
  • 38: Yves Tumor - Safe In The Hands Of Love
  • 39: Szun Waves - New Hymn To Freedom
  • 40: GNOD - Chapel Perilous
  • 41: Blocks & Escher - Something Blue
  • 42: 700 Bliss - Spa 700
  • 43: Tirzah - Devotion
  • 44: Guttersnipe - My Mother The Vent
  • 45: The Caretaker - Everywhere At The End Of Time V
  • 46: Kali Uchis - Isolation
  • 47: Bruce - Sonder Somatic
  • 48: Alexander Tucker - Don't Look Away
  • 49: Alison Cotton - All Is Quiet At The Ancient Theatre
  • 50: Deena Abdelwahed - Khonnar
  • 51: Pig Destroyer - Head Cage
  • 52: Eartheater - Irisiri
  • 53: Goat Girl - Goat Girl
  • 54: Cardi B - Invasion Of Privacy
  • 55: Ben Vince - Assimilation
  • 56: Bas Jan - Yes I Jan
  • 57: тпсб - Sekundenschlaf
  • 58: Darren Hayman - Thankful Villages Vol III
  • 59: Cucina Povera - Hilja
  • 60: Big Joanie - Sistah
  • 61: Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch
  • 62: Synth Sisters - Euphoria (WAV)
  • 63: AJA - AJA
  • 64: The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But Can’t Any Longer
  • 65: Manni Dee - The Residue
  • 66: Rezzett - Rezzett
  • 67: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - King Of Cowards
  • 68: The Armed - Only Love
  • 69: Helena Hauff - Qualm
  • 70: Jake Muir - Lady’s Mantle
  • 71: ZULI - Terminal
  • 72: Primitive Knot - Thee Opener Of The Way
  • 73: Melting Hand - Faces Of Earth
  • 74: Miss Red - K.O.
  • 75: Vanishing Twin - Magic And Machines
  • 76: Lucrecia Dalt - Anticlines
  • 77: East Man - Red, White And Zero
  • 78: JPEGMAFIA - Veteran
  • 79: Warmduscher - Whale City
  • 80: Xenony - Polish Space Program
  • 81: Lotic - Power
  • 82: Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet - Landfall
  • 83: Gaika - Basic Volume
  • 84: Jerusalem In My Heart - Daqa’iq Tudaiq
  • 85: Ian William Craig - Thresholder
  • 86: AMOR - Sinking Into A Miracle
  • 87: Bliss Signal - Bliss Signal
  • 88: Dizzy Fae - Free Form
  • 89: Drew McDowall - The Third Helix
  • 90: Capitol K - Goatherder
  • 91: Nonpareils - Scented Pictures
  • 92: Richard Skelton - Front Variations I & II
  • 93: Creep Show - Mr Dynamite
  • 94; BROCKHAMPTON - iridescence
  • 95: David Terry - Sorrow
  • 96: Gwenno - Le Kov
  • 97: Hailu Mergia - Lala Belu
  • 98: Anthroprophh - Omegaville
  • 99: Simian Mobile Disco - Murmurations
  • 100: Maryam Saleh, Maurice Louca and Tamer Abu Ghazaleh - Lekhfa