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Quietus Charts

Quietus Reissues Etc. Of The Year 2022 (In Association With Norman Records)
The Quietus , December 8th, 2022 09:07

These are our favourite reissues, compilations, live albums, mixes, OSTs and etceteras of the last 12 months, as voted for by tQ staff, columnists and core writers

Picture by Lisa Cradduck

In 2022, I noticed that 'old' and 'new' ceased to become that relevant as ways of categorising the music I enjoy – it was only when dividing my favourites of the year into albums of the year and reissues etc. that I really made the distinction at all. Perhaps this is down to the fact that for the latter half of the year I took temporary charge of The Quietus as acting editor while John Doran was away on a writing sabbatical. Spending more time on editing than writing for the first time in my career, I found myself diving sheerly by circumstance into genres, scenes, styles and stories that would not otherwise have come my way.

I found that my favourite section of the site to edit was our Reissue Of The Week. The essays in this slot do not just explore the story of an old record, but broaden the scope of the conversation that surrounds it to reach out both backwards and forwards. Recent examples show how Manic Street Preachers' Know Your Enemy draws lines from Albrecht Dürer's 1514 engraving Melencolia I to the sampledelia of The Avalanches, or how DJ soFa's Elsewhere Vol VXIII collection acts as a glorious multi-temporal mess of cross-cultural connection. It is proof that old music need not be an artefact, that work which arose from earlier times can live and breathe with the same energy today. It's probably no coincidence that among my favourite new albums was Richard Dawson's The Ruby Cord, which completed his trilogy of records set respectively in the past, present and future, and also revealed that the boundaries between the three might be blurred – a cycle, more than a linear movement.

One of the best live performances I saw this year was by Sarathy Korwar, whose new project KALAK is a palindrome of the Hindi and Urdu 'kal', which means both yesterday and tomorrow. To grossly oversimplify, his work explores that non-linear view of time prevalent in Indian and wider South Asian culture, and expresses it onstage by combining traditional and modern sounds into an intense whirl of jazz. At the sound's heart is the relentless cyclical 'Kalak rhythm', as Korwar has dubbed it. He has also created a striking circular symbol to represent it, envisaged as a notation method more suited to a percussionist less inclined to view things linearly.

Another act that has stuck with me throughout 2022 are the folk group Shovel Dance Collective, who play traditional folk songs but present them as extremely relevant – whether by giving them a political edge by platforming the narratives of queer people and people of colour, a tendency towards avant-garde instrumentation, or simply by performing them with intense emotional gusto. As guitarist and vocalist Mataio Austin Dean told us in an interview last month: "I think this idea that you have to see the progressive and traditional as opposites is wrong." It's for that reason that I found the reissue of The Watersons' 1965 folksong collection Frost And Fire (among those listed below) to be as relevant to my everyday life as anything released in the last 12 months.

The list below is in some ways a celebration of that fact, rather than just a rundown of overpriced collectors items and cast-offs to make up the numbers. Every one of the reissues, live albums, compilations, mixes and more that we've selected this year has as much life as the records in our Albums Of The Year chart. Speaking of which, in his introduction to that list last week, Luke Turner made the point that if we are to continue bringing you such rundowns, we need your help to do so. Without banging on about it too much more, it's a point I'd like to reiterate here. Sign up now and get an avalanche of genuinely phenomenal exclusive perks – essays, podcasts, playlists, music you can't hear anywhere else and more. Find out what you get here, and get your first month completely free by signing up here. If you're not able or not inclined right now, we hope at the very least you discover something you love as much as we do among the 100 extraordinary picks below. Time may not be linear, but without the help of you, dear readers, ours would have been up a long time ago.
Patrick Clarke, December 2022

This chart was compiled by John Doran and built by Patrick Clarke and Christian Eede. It was voted for by Robert Barry, Charlie Brigden, Bernie Brooks, Jasa Buzinel, Patrick Clarke, John Doran, Christian Eede, Richard Foster, Noel Gardner, Sean Kitching, Jakub Knera, Anthea Leyland, Jennifer Lucy Allan, Peter Margasak, David McKenna, JR Moores, Mariam Rezaei, and Daryl Worthington

100. Venom –
In Nomine Satanas
(Sanctuary)
This is arguably the Venom box to end all Venom boxes, in that it contains pretty much everything that the original, groundbreaking, highly influential, deterritorializing, destabilising first incarnation of the group produced that you would ever want – and then some. So, we're talking two essential albums, Welcome To Hell and Black Metal, plus the mixed-bag of At War With Satan, plus titles released after they had been leapfrogged by Metallica and Slayer and started to doubt themselves, namely, Possessed and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik; along with the two legendary demos and a DVD of their (self-booked) headline show at the Hammersmith Apollo in 1984.
John Doran

99. Ben Lovett –
Hellraiser OST
(Lakeshore)
Ben Lovett updates the gothic sound of the original Hellraiser, pushing it into a transgressive vibe that melds orchestral and industrial, with a supremely grimy feel. Sleaze and seduction are intrinsically connected, and it edges you all the way, eventually simmering to a satisfying climax.
Charlie Brigden

98. crash830 –
floor
(Lillerne Tapes)
crash830 is the alias of Brooklyn-based artist Ben Bondy, an affiliate of the 3XL crew who count the likes of Exael, Special Guest DJ, Ulla Straus and Perila among their ranks. This record, captured during a live performance late last year at New York venue Baby’s All Right, is a reverb-drenched, lo-fi journey through shoegaze guitars which hits its peak on the gorgeous penultimate cut 'rast'.
Christian Eede

97. Kristin Oppenheim –
Voices Fill My Head: Collected Sound Works 1993-1999
(INFO)
Released to coincide with an exhibition at London's Greengrassi gallery, this collection of Oppenheim's mid-'90s sound art is a revelation. With the simplest of materials – a short, repeated phrase or two, repeated over and over again by two or more voices drifting in and out of sync – the Brooklyn-based artist weaves hypnotic patterns with a remarkable emotional heft.
Robert Barry

96. Various Artists –
Pierre Barouh And The Saravah Sound
(WEWANTSOUNDS)
Pierre Barouh's writing partnership with Francis Lai on the soundtrack to Claude Lelouch's Un Homme Et Une Femme led directly to the creation of hugely influential French label and publisher Saravah, home to Brigitte Fontaine and Areski, Jacques Higelin, jazzers, prog rockers, contemporary composers and 'world music' before the term existed. WEWANTSOUNDS' compilation provides an excellent introduction that should inspire further digging.
David McKenna

95. Georg Gräwe Quintet –
Pink Pong
(Corbett Vs. Dempsey)
Under Georg Gräwe's direction, trumpeter Horst Grabosch, saxophonist Harald Dau, drummer Achim Krämer, and bassist Hans Schneider operate with stunning unity and purpose, with explosive improvisations erupting from surprisingly pithy post-bop vehicles, as the band occupies the leader's compositions with an ensemble-oriented drive. Both of these albums have already been available as digital downloads via the great Destination-Out , which administers the FMP catalogue online. But sometimes it takes a physical object to slap some sense into oneself.
Peter Margasak

94. Virgin Prunes –
…If I Die, I Die
(BMG)
A 40th birthday reissue issued almost to the day, this remastered and bonus material'd-up package puts the mind-frazzling debut album by Dublin's Virgin Prunes back on vinyl and into a contemporary context where it more than stands up. …If I Die, I Die could be called post-punk or gothic rock in a shorthand sense but ventures way beyond those boundaries; if more bands didn’t follow them, you suspect it was for a lack of flair, fortitude or both. Its second disc comprises various early mixes, demos and 12-inch edits, plus an early-'00s remix of the band's best-known song 'Baby Turns Blue' by Colin Newman, the album's producer.
Noel Gardner

93. Various Artists –
Jon Savage's 1977-1979 - Symbols Clashing Everywhere
(Ace)
I've had an infuriating earworm for about 37 years now. Every so often I start hearing John Foxx barking the chorus to 'Young Savage' except the words he uses are: "Jon Savage! Jon Savage!" For many years Gary Numan was accused of being nothing more than a Bowie rip-off. It was a weak observation, Numan getting much of his initial inspiration from Foxx, who admittedly did bring a bit of Bowie (and a bit of Ferry) to the post-punk party. Both Tubeway Army and Ultravox feature on this 100% recommended compilation from Jon Savage! Jon Savage! Lots of people talk a good game when it comes to the links between disco, reggae, punk, dub and so on, but few can locate the exact intersections with such laser sharp precision.
John Doran

92. Jim O'Rourke And Mats Gustafsson –
Xylophonen Virtuosen
(Trost)
On this album, the virtuosity of Jim O'Rourke and Mats Gustafsson is found in the sharing of small, intricate and tempered gestures. The hour-long album flies by, filled with space and thought. The meeting of these two luminaries of the international experimental music scene, is both exciting and profoundly grounding, and of course it is. It's bloody Mats Gustafsson and Jim O'Rourke.
Mariam Rezaei

91. XAM Duo –
XAM Duo RMX
(Sonic Cathedral)
I typically don't care about remix albums, and if you ask me, 10-inches are a cursed format, so trust when I say this baby is the stuff, the real deal, because generally speaking, I'd avoid this kind of thing like the plague. An addendum of sorts to XAM Duo's slim-but-stupendous second outing, XAM Duo II, XAM Duo RMX unsurprisingly finds James Holden, The Early Years, and Richard Pike putting their spin on choice selections from II. What is surprising is that all three of these offerings are as worthwhile and creatively potent as the sax-and-synth outfit's outstanding originals. Even more surprising is that – far from a toss off – Holden's eleven-and-a-half-minute remix of 'Cold Stones' is among his absolute best work. That's saying something, and if it doesn't make this slab essential, I don't know what does.
Bernie Brooks

90. Toumba –
Untitled 909 117
(N/A)
One of my favourite newcomers of the year, the Jordianian supertalent Toumba takes us on an uncannily hard-hitting, bass-worshipping, and expectation-defying musical journey on this mix for the Untitled 909 blog. It veers between low-slung slow burners and hyperspeed, genre-crossing blends with no let-up in energy.
Jaša Bužinel
89. Peach –
Campout Mix Series
(N/A)
Some of my happiest moments dancing with friends in 2022 were soundtracked by Canada-born, London-based DJ Peach. With a knack for combining hidden house gems from the '90s with turbo party music very much of the now, sets at festivals like Houghton, Dimensions and Body Movements were all dispatched over the summer with ease. It was amid the period of those festivals in August that she played at US queer techno weekender Honcho Campout, from which this set recording is lifted. Journeying through euphoric prog house, hardgroove techno, a Missy Elliott edit and much more, and coming out the other end with an encore play of Eliza Rose's smash single 'B.O.T.A. (Baddest Of Them All)', the mix takes me back to all those aforementioned moments under the sun.
Christian Eede
88. Howard Shore –
Crimes Of The Future OST
(Howe)
Howard Shore's score for the latest David Cronenberg body-horror opus is intensely creepy and insidious, but also intelligent. It constantly feels like it's evolving, like it's trying to break the surface and reveal something new and revolutionary, like Cronenberg himself, really.
Charlie Brigden

87. Aunt Sally –
Aunt Sally
(Mesh-Key)
Hitomi Moritani, today known for her ongoing solo project in experimental electronica as Phew, was involved with cult label Vanity only on one occasion with her avant garde post punk outfit Aunt Sally, releasing the self-titled Aunt Sally in 1979. Despite the label's cultivated obscurity her release had a striking presence, her vocals cutting through dissonance to deliver a cunning pastiche in no wave minimalism. A piece in Rock Magazine in September 1980 introduced the curious escapism of her lyrics, set against a dark urban setting of vagabonds and faceless crowds – "I want to pursue dreams, even if its an illusion... the sounds of Aunt Sally are probably more suited to me now than Brian Eno."
Miranda Remington

86. Jerry Hunt –
Ground: Five Mechanic Convention Streams
(Blank Forms)
Blank Forms continues to prove itself as one of the most important archival labels on the planet with this wild and ritualistic record by the late Jerry Hunt. Sounding at times like eavesdropping on some hermetic ritual, other times like someone rummaging in a drawer, Hunt's music is consistently joyous, always taking you by surprise.
Robert Barry

85. Ihor Tsymbrovsky –
Come, Angel
(Kontakt Audio / Infinite Fog)
The first thing that attracts attention on this release is the grain of Ihor Tsymbrovsky's voice. Sometimes he resembles Arthur Russell, Marc Almond or Jónsi from Sigur Rós. When the cassette was released, one of the journalists called him "Farinelli from Lviv." The musician accompanies himself on the piano with a smear of reverb added, which creates a slightly artificial, but also unreal, atmosphere. The eight chamber pieces have a long, progressive form. One lasts only three minutes, the others are much longer, around six to eight minutes. Tsymbrovsky sings his own lyrics on two tracks while the rest is Ukrainian poetry: futurist Mykhailo Semenko's writings from the 1930s, and poems by Mykola Vorobyov, one of the leaders of the artistic underground of the 1970s and the founder of the Kyiv School Of Poetry.
Jakub Knera

84. Various Artists –
no pare, sigue sigue
(TraTraTrax)
Colombia's TraTraTrax label has been assembling an impressive discography of hip-shaking Latin club music since its inaugural release in 2020, and was responsible for one of summer 2022's biggest dance floor hits in Nick León's 'Xtasis'. Rounding off the label's year, no pare, sigue sigue takes in big room 'Raptor house' energy from Venezuela’s DJ Babatr, propulsive, high-tempo rhythms courtesy of Bitter Babe, and dystopian dembow from Ecuadorian pairing PVSSY x Entrañas, among much more. For an insight into the various interconnected Latin club music scenes currently thriving across North, Central and South America, which have given us some of the year's best dance floor-focused music, this compilation is essential listening.
Christian Eede

83. White Hills –
The Revenge Of Heads On Fire
(Heads On Fire)
Most anniversary reissues settle for dumping a bunch of unreleased tracks at the end of the original record, like paper legs stapled onto the bottom of the Mona Lisa. Taking greater care for far more satisfying results, White Hills weaved their six "lost" cuts throughout remixed and remastered songs from the original release of Heads On Fire, providing a full sense of the vision they'd had for it in the first place. It's the Apocalypse Now Redux of hard-rocking space-psych.
JR Moores

82. All In One –
All in One
(Bella Union)
Not much is known about All In One, one of a plethora of unsigned groups in the late 1960s who produced self-funded, extremely limited private presses of their material to be sold after shows and given away to friends and family. Undoubtedly, that obscurity is part of the record's appeal as it receives its first proper reissue via Bella Union, but the music, too – spectral folk rock that is often magnetic in its sparseness – only adds to the intrigue that swirls around this long-lost gem.
Patrick Clarke

81. 2ManyDJs –
As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt.2
(PIAS)
20 years ago this mix blew the roof off the indie scene, setting the path for Justice and the Ed Banger Records crew, LCD Soundsystem and the DFA mob, and – closer to home – Erol Alkan and friends, to push the guitar-obsessed genre ever forward into the rave. You might say that the spark that Andrew Weatherall and Hugo Nicholson lit with Scremadelica really grew to flame at this point. It also opened my ears to a whole new world, as someone with a long-held antipathy to "all that guitar nonsense" when I bought it for a New Year's Eve party at my first shared house in London. Then 22 and still in my clubbing honeymoon, now 42 and more of an occasional raver, it seems like a good time to look back. Especially as 2ManyDJs are doing the same by releasing a revamped edition, that sees it made available on streaming platforms for the first time ever.
Manu Ekanayake

80. Threshold HouseBoys Choir –
Form Grows Rampant
(Mental Groove)
Form Grows Rampant is a visually arresting piece of film, one whose inception emerged simultaneously with the music, but we can't help but ponder what intentions lay behind the gaze. This would be an unfair concern in and of itself, but in light of prior work like the indefensible video to Coil's 'Love's Secret Domain', it becomes a more understandable query. If you're going to make it a habit of flirting with this topic of sexualised youth, then it's not uncharitable for the viewer to have such anxieties. I don't think it's enough to go: "Ambiguity yeah? You're meant to feel uncomfortable yeah? Sleazy loved to shock, he was always a taboo buster!"
Eden Tizard

79. The Leaf Library –
Library Music: Volume One
(Where It’s At Is Where You Are)
I bang on and on about Yo La Tengo, but that's OK, because they are, of course, the perfect indie rock band. They embody patience, gentleness, and restless-yet-humble experimentation to such a degree that, to me anyway, these virtues have become positively Yo La Tengo-nian. The Leaf Library's new collection of singles and one-offs, Library Music: Volume One, makes it clear that the group has long held these very same traits to heart as over the years they've crafted a diverse, beautiful, and humane body of work that might even give YLT a run for its money. This comp works as both a great point of entry for new fans of the band and as a testament to their enduring excellence. Let's hope they stick around long enough to give us volumes two and three and four and on and on.
Bernie Brooks

78. Suzi Analogue –
Infinite Zones
(Disciples)
In the past, Suzi Analogue has aptly referred to her series of Zonez mixtapes that ran from 2016 to 2019 as a "mood board," a space where her work could be presented in its most vivid, relentlessly forward-thinking form – the sound raw, unfiltered and intense. This compilation captures a number of the series' finest tracks, showcasing both the breadth of Analogue's scope, and a host of killer feature spots from hip hop's experimental outer reaches.
Patrick Clarke

77. Various Artists –
NH V/A Vol. 4
(Nervous Horizon)
The fourth instalment in East London label Nervous Horizon's V/A series places a particular focus on low-BPM club music. Exploring dembow, dancehall and precision-engineered sound design, tracks from key label artists such as TSVI, Wallwork and Ehua, as well as newcomers to the imprint like Aquarian, Josi Devil and Ultima Esuna, serve as a firm reminder that you don't need high tempos to keep peak-time dancefloors moving. And if you still think you do, further standout contributions from DJ Plead and Nyege Nyege Tapes affiliate Chrisman have you covered on that front anyway.
Christian Eede

76. Frank Black & The Catholics –
The Complete Studio Albums
(Demon)
For the curious, there is much to enjoy in Frank Black & The Catholics' Complete Studio Albums. The band hit their stride on 1999's Pistolero, with no small part played by the recruitment of guitar wiz Rich Gilbert. Indeed, songs like 'So Hard To Make Things Out' feel written as an excuse to release his expressive Crazy Horse-style wig-outs. That's not to say he lost his knack for oddball songsmithery. 'I Love Your Brain' honours the cerebral over the physical nature of attraction. Well, sort of. "I wanna sleep with your brain!", he cries. If Thompson were to slyly slip the spiky 'I Switched You' into the setlist of the reunited Pixies, it would take any audience's breath away.
JR Moores

75. Stereolab –
Pulse Of The Early Brain
(Warp)
Opener 'Simple Headphone Mind', a song which Stereolab and Nurse With Wound collaborated on, is a counter to the idea that listening to Stereolab has to be an intellectual challenge. 'Simple Headphone Mind' is a song made out of 100 percent pure cashmere, the result of Stereolab sorting out a basic track and passing it on to Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound to do with it what he wished. Continuing the slickness of Emperor Tomato Ketchup released a year prior, the stereo image here is pretty fucking incredible and has to be listened to on headphones to be really appreciated – rather than acting as a sonic onslaught, it's seductively infiltrating the space around your head. If you shut your eyes, it's hard to pinpoint where you are in this song: bird tweets collapse into slurring analogue synths, before finally reaching its sluggish conclusion, the repetition of the ominous, yet bizarrely relaxing phrase "MILKY WHITE" as though you're coming out of the end of a very long tunnel and seeing daylight for the first time. Who can really say. Stereolab and Nurse With Wound aren't going to spell it out for you.
Lottie Brazier

74. Cheval De Frise –
Cheval De Frise
(Computer Students)
The self-titled debut from Cheval De Frise, originally released in 2000, gets a beautiful deluxe reissue with some quite splendid extra posters/artwork. The duo featured Vincent Beysselance and Thomas Bonvalet – who now records as L’Ocelle Mare – on guitar. While rooted in American post-hardcore, Cheval De Frise feel distinctive at least in part due to Bonvalet's use of an amplified classical guitar – he switches into distortion but frequently we hear his nimbleness with the clean nylon string sound, the clear strumming and knotty-but-bright arpeggios – but Beysselance matches him for control, fluidity and invention.
David mcKenna

73. Cecil Taylor Unit –
The Complete, Legendary, Live Return Concert
(Oblivion)
In 1968, at the height of his powers and riding on the acclaim of two classic Blue Note albums, pianist Cecil Taylor withdrew from public performance, turning his energies to education. He returned to the stage in 1973, performing with his old trio with alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons and drummer Andrew Cyrille, now joined by bassist Sirone. A shorter quartet piece and a piano solo from that Town Hall concert in New York were released as Spring To Two-Blue-J's in 1974, but the 80-minute core of the evening had gone unreleased until his beautifully recorded set surfaced digitally this year. Taylor didn't lose a step, performing with galvanic intensity and focus, an early example of pushing his music full-blast.
Peter Margasak

72. Tomasz Stańko Quintet –
Wooden Music I
(Astigmatic)
This live session by Tomasz Stańko Quintet is a remarkable discovery made in the archives of Bremen Radio half a century after The Polish trumpeter's first serious band formed. His quintet consisted of excellent musicians and toured abroad more often than in Poland. They started playing 'wooden music' in the early 1970s, which means that all the members, apart from the leader, have only been playing wooden instruments. They create crazy improvisations and impulsive solos culminating in the passionate playing of Zbigniew Seifert on electrified violin, and Bronisław Suchanek on double bass. The 'woodiness' is especially noticeable when they both play on strings using their fingers or bows which give them unlimited possibilities, resulting in exhaustive and addictive improvisations.
Jakub Knera

71. Hamish & Toby –
RA.851
(N/A)
This contribution to Resident Advisor's long-running podcast series by UK DJs Hamish & Toby – responsible for the bookings at Dimensions Festival and London club The Pickle Factory respectively – was recorded, in their words, at "a pleasingly raw warehouse in South Philly" back in May of this year. A demanding listen at four hours, it takes you through what you might expect to hear during a full-length club set from the duo as they trace connecting dots between tech-house, UK garage, breaks and various other groove-laden club sounds old and new, but mostly unidentifiable. Telling RA it's their favourite set recording that they've shared from over the years, they added that "i​t's about as locked in as we've ever been, and the tunes go all over the map, which is very much our bag." Definitely worthy of setting aside some time to lock in with them.
Christian Eede
70. Various Artists –
Artificial Intelligence
(Warp)
The Artificial Intelligence series on Warp took ambient music to a completely new dimension over the course of eight albums, released between 1992 and 1994. The sleeve image from the original AI compilation that kicked it all off featured a robot sat in an armchair blowing smoke rings with headphones on, and the album's subtitle, 'Electronic Listening Music From Warp', gave a crystal-clear image of where the label felt this album would be best enjoyed. This was post-rave music made more for the mind than the body (or "techno untethered from the dance floor," according to Joe Muggs, writing in The Wire in 2013). The compilation laid down the blueprint for ambient techno, and was remarkable for showcasing the early works of a group of artists who would go on to define electronic music for years to come – Autechre, Black Dog Productions, Aphex Twin (as Polygon Window), B12, Speedy J, Richie Hawtin (as F.U.S.E.) and many others. The six artists mentioned also released albums as part of the series, all of which are incredible.
Joe Clay

69. Nick León –
RA.833
(N/A)
This highly energetic showcase of novel Latin American club aesthetics by Miami club ambassador Nick León is one of the freshest mixes of the year, featuring everything from his signature futuristic dembow techno mutations and Villalobos-style tribal house to hard drum stomping and eclectic dancefloor riddims with a Latinx flavour.
Jaša Bužinel
68. Tenniscoats –
Tan-Tan Therapy
(Morr Music)
Fifteen years after its original release, the newly remastered Tan-Tan Therapy sounds as strange and enchanting as ever. A suite of lullabies from the end of the world with tender, Satie-esque interludes, the whole thing as fragile and exquisite as a fabergé egg.
Robert Barry

67. Richard Thompson –
Grizzly Man OST
(No Quarter)
In Grizzly Man, much of what Richard Thompson has learned and created comes to the fore with a kind of weatherbeaten ease. At times, it feels almost like a Western soundtrack, one where the music of these islands meets the vast North American skies. For all his meticulous notes and explorations, Thompson has a superlative sense of space, knowing what to leave out as well as include. The music is evocative not only of the landscape but Treadwell's psyche, a deceptively gentle river on the surface, hiding currents, whirls and debris that shadow the surface periodically. There is a homely feeling throughout, punctuated by sudden jarring trespass. Though his guitar style is all his own, it's not a million miles from the atmospherics of Ry Cooder's Paris, Texas or Neil Young's Dead Man score. By improvising to a screening of the film, intentionally or not, Thompson embodies the only effective response we can have with nature, which is simply to respond to it, with due care and respect, otherwise we risk being consumed, individually or collectively, whether bear attacks or climate change.
Darran Anderson

66. Suicide –
Surrender
(Mute)
We take it as read today that Suicide is to the 1970s what the Velvet Underground is to the 1960s, that is to say the NYC sonic exemplar of choice. But this perception wasn't always the case. Contemporaneously the pair were despised: most unable to accept synthesised 'rock'. What was initially thought to be incomprehensible was revealed, in time, to be basically quite traditional. Suicide's musical roots in 1950s doo-wop are easy to trace. The band's unique trick was to combine Elvis-like crooning with drone influences from the likes of La Monte Young and John Cale. Martin Rev's Farfisa organ stabs borrow pop nous from the likes of ? and The Mysterians. Paradoxically, these antediluvian pilferings made Suicide the sound of the future. This compilation proves Suicide were ahead of the pack. And it is also true to say they were very much in tune with the American art scene of the period. Suicide might even be regarded as late Pop Art, younger brothers in spirit to Andy Warhol.
John Quin

65. Monster Magnet –
Test Patterns Vol.1
(God Unknown)
Not exactly one for the "people" who "wanna hear songs," Test Patterns: Vol. 1 contains two versions of Monster Magnet's singular opus. One is that which first took up the second side of the 1989 demo cassette Forget About Life, I'm High On Dope. The other is new remix of the same cut, overseen by McBain. We don't know what the plan is for further volumes of what is presumably the Test Patterns series but you'd think those late-'80s demo tapes would be worth issuing officially in full. (For the time being, you can hear the uploads on YouTube.) Although it is of course based around the same repeated, lunging riff, the demo 'Tab' provided on Test Patterns: Vol. 1 has a different feel to the later rendition. It was recorded as a trio who sound like they're playing in a poorly lit basement owned by a typically amoral landlord who refuses to deal with the rising damp, dry rot and infestations of insects the size of those from Starship Troopers. The players may also have been trying to distract themselves from such desolation by being out of their minds on illegal recreationals.
JR Moores

64. Sunburned Hand Of The Man –
Headdress
(Three Lobed)
2002 found Sunburned Hand Of The Man operating with little care for the era's multitude of scenes and circuits, ploughing ahead with an intense psychedelic voyage that was entirely their own. 20 years later, the sound they create on Headdress is still as idiosyncratic as ever, a wig-out of the very highest order.
Patrick Clarke

63. Richard Pinhas –
Iceland
(Bureau B)
For his first solo expedition after the split of underground heroes Heldon, Richard Pinhas reined in the guitars and delivered this chilly, but at times also fantastically lush, masterpiece. 'The Last Kings Of Thule' revolves around a crunching machine rhythm but the three parts of 'Iceland' and 'Greenland' are widescreen synth fantasias to rival Vangelis or Tangerine Dream.
David McKenna

62. Brötzmann/Van Hove/Bennink –
Jazz in Der Kammer Nr. 71 (Deutsches Theater/Berlin/GDR/04/11/1974)
(Strut / Black Fire)
Though recorded almost 50 years ago, this live set still rages with as much relentless and chaotic force as it did then – a glorious, tumbling mess of percussion from Han Bennink, piano from Fred Van Hove, and an extraordinarily lively display on saxophone and clarinet from Brötzmann himself. It's challenging music, certainly, but approach it open-hearted and you'll be rewarded with a recording that more than anything else resounds with a sense of joy.
Patrick Clarke

61. Shin Otowa –
わすれがたみ
(Eye Vybe)
Shin Otowa (real name Elia Taniguchi)'s わすれがたみ was recorded in 1974, with Les Rallizes Dénudés bassist Makoto Kubota credited on "guitar, arrangement, and big help." The album is a collection of shimmering, hazy folk ballads. Beginning with Shin Otowa's voice unaccompanied, subsequent tracks fill out into richer arrangements, adding ocarina, banjo and mandolin to the acoustic guitar led songs. I can't speak Japanese, but the tone of these recordings doesn't need translating, doused in an endlessly captivating, haunting intimacy. Something of a polymath, after recording わすれがたみ Taniguchi moved to Ibiza. He became an architect, designing buildings and plazas which can still be seen in Tokyo, alongside writing books of poetry, art theory and more.
Daryl Worthington

60. John M. Bennett –
A Flattened Face Fogs Through
(Editions Basilic)
Poetry is a versatile old dog. It can serve as solace, as cheer, as a bawdy glimpse into adult life. It can rattle our preconceptions and warm our hearts, gift us a home in a barren land, and bore our undercrackers right off. And, sometimes, it can rewire our brains. Through incongruent word-twists synaptic lightning links unsuspecting neurons across previously untravelled brainscapes. With prose that tumbles like raindrops from a shook tree, John M. Bennett does this with at least two plombs on A Flattened Face Fogs Through. So, be warned, this is a space for those who don't like having their hands held.
Jon Buckland

59. Diskonnected –
Truancy Volume 294
(N/A)
Diskonnected is one of the main heads behind Taiwan-based record label and mix series Smoke Machine, as well as the annual techno festival Organik. On this mix for the blog Truants, he wanted to "showcase [his] musical development over the previous two years" amid the extended COVID-19 shutdown that had taken place in his native country, he said. Having gone deeper into digging unheard and forgotten gems from the '90s, and subsequently purchasing various records, via Discogs during the downtime, this set gave him an opportunity to share some of his discoveries. Loaded with patient, fluid blends, it's a mix that lets the track selection do much of the talking as the DJ rolls through starry Detroit techno, early '90s house cuts and deep 4x4 rollers.
Christian Eede
58. Various Artists –
End Of The Road Presents: Between The Music
(End Of The Road)
As the title suggests, this compilation initially sold at this past summer's End Of The Road festival is a collection of some of the songs that founder Simon Taffe likes to play over the PA during the changeover between acts on the main stage. This is not, however, simply a record of 'songs Taffe likes' – it is clear that there's nuanced curation behind the double LP package, whether it's in the way Captain Beefheart's 'Observatory Crest' sweeps into Link Wray's 'Fallin' Rain' to evoke that not unpleasant festival morning melancholy, or the blissfully soulful closing run of Sam Cooke's 'Jesus Gave Me Water' into Paul Robeson's 'Lazy Bones', through The Cryin Shames' 'Please Stay' that conjures that feeling of contentment to be found only in a distant field. Playing it while nursing a comedown when I returned home the Monday after this that year's event, it felt like I could feel beams of Saturday afternoon sunshine returning over the horizon.
Patrick Clarke

57. Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou –
Jerusalem
(Mississippi)
All hail a new album of previously unreleased album of recordings by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. There's never been quite enough Emahoy, and notably, this album trails one arriving next year that will be a whole album of her singing. As well as hearing her voice here, Jerusalem also contains home recordings and hard to find tracks from her 1972 album Hymn Of Jerusalem. Some of the pieces here open up a style with less spiritual weight than the well-loved tracks from releases like Spielt Eigen Kompositionen but it remains incredibly distinctive – she moves around the keys with a skipping gait that is all her own, and which is complimented by the way her compositions tend to pause-and-tumble... pause-and-tumble. She makes some of the most beautiful music ever made.
Jennifer Lucy Allan

56. Dadawah –
Peace & Love: Wadadasow
(Antarctica Starts Here)
This epochal psychedelic dub record by Jamaican vocalist and drummer Ras Michael and his band of veteran studio musicians Dadawah, which reflects on spiritual enlightenment, rastafarianism, Biblical themes, Black unity and social struggle, is an unparalleled '70s classic. A shining example of dub post-production ingenuity, it boasts an ethereal sound grounded by ceremonial Rasta nyabinghi drums, sublime rock and blues-indebted guitar riffs intertwining with hazy piano licks and polyphonous devotional chants.
Jaša Bužinel

55. Oxbow & Peter Brötzmann –
An Eternal Reminder Of Not Today
(Trost Records / Sleeping Giant Glossolalia)
One thing you learn flogging records is, some albums sell themselves. All you've gotta do is put them out on the shelf. Maybe the artist behind it has a certain broad, obvious appeal, or conversely, maybe they don't. And maybe that's a good thing. These records are niche prospects, but are, crucially, by artists who've found their niche – and their comparatively small but dedicated fanbase. These are records that, while maybe not printed up in the hundreds of thousands – or even in the thousands – nevertheless sell. The fans emerge from the woodwork, feelers twitching. Long-running San Francisco noise-blues malcontents Oxbow are one of those niche acts. Octogenarian saviour of skronk, hero of honk, jazz saxophonist-slash-clarinetist Peter Brötzmann is another. So, I suppose it goes without saying that An Eternal Reminder Of Not Today: Live At Moers – an extraordinary document of a fruitful collision between Oxbow and Brötzmann at the Moers Festival in 2018 – is probably one of those LPs that sells itself.
Bernie Brooks

54. Oliver Coates –
The Stranger OST
(Lakeshore)
Two days ago, I mentioned Oliver Coates' score for The Stranger and my partner said:"Oh god, I was by myself working in the archives stacks listening to that record and it was freaking me out! Someone walked down the hall and I was so keyed-up that she scared me half to death!" Ominous, mournful, and elegant, Coates' minimal, intensely atmospheric accompaniment to the year's most haunting film is powerful enough to transform even the most mundane workplace into something like the grim underpass that inspired it. Masterful stuff.
Bernie Brooks

53. Masayuki Takayanagi –
Station 70: Call in Question / Live Independence
(Black Editions)
Station '70: Call In Question / Live Independence collects two manic live sessions from the titular year previously issued on CD by P.S.F.. This new edition collects that music with one bonus track on three slabs of high-quality vinyl, packaged in a sturdy box. The furious din the guitarist kicks up with drummer Sabu Toyozumi and bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa — and, on one track, saxophonist Mototeru Takagi — remains astonishing, unveiling not only unparalleled freedom, but a reserve energy that can match anything. This new iteration includes one scalding previously unreleased gem from the original sessions.
Peter Margasak

52. La Novià –
Rain Be For Rain Bo
(Standard In-Fi)
La Nóvia's head-spinning Rain Be For Rain Bo is a "mega-mash-up mixtape" that sees two members of the collective, Guilhem Lacroux and Yann Gourdon, pulling together a side's worth of outtakes and live recordings each, from various formations including La Baracande, Jéricho and Violineuses, into seamless mixes, the disparate sections forming a single, ecstatic stream, like the memories of different performances and occasions bleeding into each other.
David McKenna

51. Forbidden Overture –
Turned On
(Dark Entries)
Following its feted 2015 vinyl compilation of Patrick Cowley's gay porn soundtracks, Muscle Up, Dark Entries once again taken a trip to the sleazy side for this new LP. This time the label's focus turns to the pioneering Man Parrish, and his hypnotic, steamy soundtrack to 1982 bathhouse fantasy Turned On.
Patrick Clarke

50. Lou Reed –
Words & Music, May 1965
(Light In The Attic)
Words & Music, May 1965 has the bittersweet taste of what feels like endless possibilities but which we know now, viewing from the other side of history, is always inevitably finite. These songs hint at how clumsy, depraved and glorious life and art can get. And yet they sound so young on these demos. You are hearing Lou Reed before he became Lou Reed, and John Cale before he became John Cale. You are hearing them before they did us the blessing of opening Pandora's Box.
Darran Anderson

49. Pat Thomas –
New Jazz Jungle: Remembering
(Feedback Moves)
Legendary pianist, DJ and composer Pat Thomas originally dropped this wild jungle album in 1997 before Feedback Moves' reissue this year introduced it to a wider audience with a firs-time vinyl pressing. Lightyears ahead of the tasteful jazz-inflected drum & bass of the era, Remembering: New Jazz Jungle is a riot of free jazz, Webernian tone rows, Amen breaks and Sun Ra samples. Why is this album not in your life yet?
Mariam Rezaei

48. Jacks –
Vacant World
(Mesh-Key)
Jacks have described themselves as "outsiders from the folk-rock jamboree" of the 1960s, but that sounds like a far more light entertainment prospect than they ever were. Vacant World is a radical, existential shot of psychedelic dirge and despair that prefigured so much that came later. It was high time it got a full reissue, as there's nothing rawer than the opener, 'Marianne', on which long-haired singer Yoshio Hayakawa tells of being possessed by the siren Marianne who drags him into the murky depths. "Nihilist doom folk in advance of the third Velvet Underground album," said Julian Cope. Essential!
Jennifer Lucy Allan

47. Anthony Naples + DJ Python –
Air Texture VIII
(Air Texture)
On their contribution to the Air Texture compilation series, Anthony Naples and DJ Python place the focus on the scene that has sprung up around venues like Nowadays, Bossa Nova Civic Club and Elsewhere in their home city of New York. Their two low-slung, low-tempo collaborations, 'Entouré' and 'Final Speaking', are both highlights, as is the chugging, groovy techno of Aurora Halal and DJ G.'s link-up, 'Off The Top'. Moving away from New York, Parris' 'springtime flows in three ways' is one of his brightest moments on record to date, and Bitter Babe and Nick León fly the flag for Miami's burgeoning scene of percussive club music technicians with 'Ecotone'.
Christian Eede

46. Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 –
Strangers From The Universe
(Bulbous Monocle)
In the 1980s and '90s, before Silicon Valley found the cybernetic sea legs it will soon use to crush us under its feet, you could still be a poor person and make art in San Francisco. As such, it had a vibrant and dedicated freak scene. The 1960s Haight-Ashbury dream may have died a brutal, stumbling death, and the city was downtrodden, but it also had a crackling energy, broad social tolerance, and very affordable rents. Think Fellers Union Local 282 were able to follow a bizarre, uncommercial muse in what has since become one of the most economically uninhabitable cities in the United States.
Dustin Krcatovich

45. Aska Matsumiya & Ryuichi Sakamoto –
After Yang
(Milan)
Aska Matsumiya's science fiction score After Yang opens with a genre-defying delicate solo piano theme that not only instantly conjures images of time and space but also fragile elements making up the inside of an automaton. In this case, it's the title character of Yang, a robotic child. The intricacy of Matsumiya's score is interrupted early by a strange game show theme that sounds like a 1995 Playstation game; however, some stunning and serene cues restore it with a run of wondrous coruscating synths that have an almost religious heft and joy to them. Darker and more abstract pieces are introduced with a focus on exploration and the innate questioning we as a species possess – there's a cue called 'Butterflies', remarkably free of structure and signposting. And as strings and piano are focused upon, Ryuichi Sakamoto's glorious classical composition 'Memory Bank' is unveiled, with Matsumiya reprising the opening theme as a bookend, the perfect finale narratively and aesthetically.
Charlie Brigden

44. Simple Minds –
New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
(Virgin)
T​​hese tapes – especially the shows of late 1982 – reveal a band that know they're in a magical place. It can be heard in the reworking of their earlier work, the machine press thuds of 'The American' and 'Sweat In Bullet' becoming stretched and funky, playful and cavalier. It can also be heard in the way Jim Kerr adlibs and emotes throughout the tour: we note that "Life goes…. So fucking fast!" on 'Hunter And The Hunted' at the Leicester de Montfort Hall show, as if Kerr senses but can't fully comprehend the sheer power of the whole. These things are sometimes uncool for sure, but the band speak in tongues and take their audience with them, oblivious to everything but capturing that moment.
Richard Foster

43. Dinosaur Jr. –
Beyond
(Baked Goods)
This 15th anniversary reissue invites us to look back at what was not only Dinosaur Jr.'s first album in a decade, but their first to feature the original lineup of the band's golden late-'80s era. If not quite reaching the peaks of that first phase, it came pretty damn close, and set the stage for one of alternative music's most impressive second winds.
Patrick Clarke

42. ZULI –
Dekmantel Podcast 409
(N/A)
ZULI's contribution to Dekmantel's podcast series charts a head-spinning path through hard-hitting percussion, twisted dancehall-esque rhythms, metal and gabber-influenced club music, noise, weightless grime and plenty other idiosyncratic electronic sounds. It proves his DJ sets are every bit as creative and enthralling as his records for labels like UIQ and Haunter.
Christian Eede
41. Terry Jennings, Charles Curtis –
Piece For Cello And Saxophone
(Saltern)
This is t​​he first-ever release of an 84-minute-long drone work by TEM-affiliate Terry Jennings, composed in 1960, arranged in just intonation by La Monte Young, and performed by legendary cellist Charles Curtis in 2016. There are very few recordings of Jennings' work out there, and what there is, is for piano, so this would be an important release even if it wasn't completely brilliant. While Jennings' piano work resembles Denis Johnson's compositions, this piece feels more like an extension of the recordings Saltern released of cellist Charles Curtis' work. In terms of its place in minimalism, this piece is not like TEM, nor is it as caustic as Conrad. Also, there is no saxophone on it, despite the title. It is, however, a shifting sand dune of strings in slow motion, anchored by a tanpura-like drone and clearly influenced by Indian classical music.
Jennifer Lucy Allan

40. Various Artists –
'80s Underground Cassette Culture: Volume 2
(Contort Yourself)
Focusing on razor-edged techno pop, bleepy drum machine minimalism and homemade synth experiments, '80s Underground Cassette Culture: Volume 2 takes a global view of the '80s tape underground. Die Achse's 'Under The Church' is a jangly dirge something like The Velvet Underground playing through Echo & The Bunnymen's effects rig. M Rendell's 'CV In''s fragmenting beats are a handmade prefiguring of AI composition. Sluik and Years On Earth's tracks are machine-cranked diatribes, a pair of bedroom Schopenhauers facing the sheer weight of being.
Daryl Worthington

39. The Beatles –
Revolver: Special Edition
(Apple)
​​Revolver transcends boomer nostalgia because the rush of joyous, creative energy that surges through even it's darkest moments still sounds like tomorrow; ageless, deathless. Because it's still an escape route from pop and rock's orthodoxies, hatched while the latter was still forming. Because it dreams of a world where 'everyone of us has all we need', Revolver remains a radical masterpiece of 'smoking hot newness'.
Matthew Lindsay

38. Ferkat Al Ard –
Oghneya
(Habibi Funk)
Originally released as Ferkat Al Ard's debut in 1978, Oghneya is more than just a mashup of Arabic and Brazilian music – melodies and rhythms from each duck and weave around each other like butterflies. It all stems from a meeting in 1974 between one young Lebanese musician, Issam Hajali, and a trio of Brazilians who were playing in a number of bands across the city, Alex, Pelé, and Rose. Alex, a guitarist, would have a profound influence on Hajali, who told Gabrielle Messeder in her essential essay on Lebanese-Brazilian music Brazilian Encounters: Beirut's "Golden Age," Ziad Rahbani And Lebanese Bossa Nova: "The first time I looked to his fingers, it was, unusual positions, you know? I won't forget in my life. [laughing] The G, it's not a G, it's G with [...] fucked up with something!" It would have a huge impact on his own playing.
Patrick Clarke

37. Hermeto Pascoal –
Planetário Da Gávea
(Far Out)
Switch off all communication devices, treat yourself to a couple of hours with central heating turned on, or a cheeky extra log on the fire, lie down on the couch, and slip into an extended reverie courtesy of Brazilian cosmic polymath Hermeto Pascoal and pals, O Grupo, at a Rio de Janeiro planetarium in 1981. This 'coming out' party of psychedelic electric samba, fire-hearted jazz funk and avant Brazilian fusion is the joyful sound of musicians finally getting to play live to an audience after months of locked down practice.
John Doran

36. Nate Scheible –
Farifax
(Warm Winters Ltd.)
Built from an ad hoc, accidental encounter with a lost love-story, Nate Scheible's Fairfax attains the weight of tragedy, of an epic, and remains a testament to the human spirit that's impossible to resist, an album that crafts a story bereft of sentiment but a story that's overflowing with heart and hope. A story that is so needed right now, a story that arms the soul. An essential, miraculous release.
Neil Kulkarni

35. Iannis Xenakis –
Electroacoustic Works (1922-2001)
(Karlrecords)
This 5xCD/LP box set celebrates the 100th anniversary of the visionary architect-turned-composer Iannis Xenakis, with newly mixed and mastered tracks. A complete collection of Xenakis' electroacoustic works, it includes the ground-breaking 'Polytopes Persepolis' and 'Polytopes de Cluny'. Heavy-hitters 'Mycenae-Alpha' and 'Voyage Absolu Des Unari Vers Andromède' are stunning examples of Xenakis' genre-bending playfulness with synthesis, noise and spatialism.
Mariam Rezaei

34. Derek Bailey –
Domestic Jungle
(scatter)
In the early '90s, Derek Bailey would sit at home in Hackney, London and practice guitar by playing along to pirate jungle stations. He found the pace of much free jazz at the time lugubrious, so the 150 BPM – then brand new – pulse of drum & bass was ideal for exciting solo sessions. Most of the tracks on this compilation were home dubbed on shonky equipment and posted out to pals, with the two 'Lower Clapton Nocturne' tracks eventually finding their way onto a David Toop compilation, Guitars On Mars, in 1997. The idea of Bailey's wild improv meeting jungle breaks was eventually formalised with the release of the disappointing (if still ear-boggling) Guitar, Drums & Bass EP with DJ Ninj, where the pair all but fail to connect. The real excitement generated by this idea can still be felt in these scrappy, lo-fi home recordings, however.
John Doran

33. Baxter Dury –
Mr. Maserati: The Best Of Baxter Dury 2001-2021
(Heavenly)
Take stock of Baxter Dury's career as a musician two decades in, as this immensely enjoyable collection invites you to do, and what's striking is just how unique his music sounds. Not only has he achieved that rare thing among popstar progeny and stepped far out from his father's shadow, but he's stepped away from all of his contemporaries too. There is no one else who makes music with the same dark wit, the same self-skewering masculinity, and the same wonky emotive punch that Dury does.
Patrick Clarke

32. Various Artists –
Heavenly Remixes 3 & 4 (Andrew Weatherall Volume 1 & 2)
(Heavenly)
​​Heavenly Remixes 3 & 4 charts Andrew Weatherall's long bounteous relationship with the Heavenly label. The DJ had many projects, collaborations and alter-egos, but there is a real sense that this music comes from the source, a wellspring that expanded into a vast fertile delta of music as his career went on. The earliest mixes are really early; the Sly & Lovechild track, for instance, was on the very first Heavenly release in 1990. As such, they bear unmistakable fingerprints of that time. The noble sentiment of the opening track (with the lyrics "All I want the world to see, togetherness and unity") nevertheless underlines the wisdom of Weatherall's observation that "Ecstasy is a great drug but it's also very dangerous because you find yourself on the dance floor, punching the air to 'Lady In Red' by Chris de Burgh."
Darran Anderson

31. Chemical Brothers –
Dig Your Own Hole
(EMI)
Tracks like 'Block Rockin' Beats' might have been commercial successes, but the repetitions have their roots in the avant-garde. 'It Doesn't Matter', for instance, is audaciously mechanical to the point where that phrase, repeated over and over, changes its meaning as it is duplicated within the mind of the listener. Steve Reich and Alvin Lucier were manipulating voice loops in the mid-to-late-'60s to create similar disorientation. On the demo, now available with this 25th anniversary edition, that simple phrase is brought to the fore and is more incessant than on the album version, creating a trance-like sensation that's at times easy to zone out from, but can become jarring once you notice it again. An added dimension – or even the joke – is the subversion of the meaning of the phrase (as in, if 'it doesn’t matter', then why do you keep saying it?) At times it sounds like a malfunctioning Kraftwerk stuck in an eternal dystopian loop, and it's a shame that that uncompromising approach wasn't maintained on the final version, because it would have created a fascinating divisiveness. It should be mentioned too that some of the other demos available with the 25th anniversary edition add a raw sonic frisson to the tracks, the dirty rendition of 'Elektrobank', in particular, making the extras well worth checking out.
Jeremy Allen

30. BORSIGWERKE –
The Complete Recordings Of Alexander Von Borsig
(Mauerstadtmusik)
From making music down in the Kassetten Kombinat Studion basement, where he came into contact with his first four-track recorder, Alexander Hacke's career has always been leftfield and intriguing outside of his day job as bassist in Einstürzende Neubauten. He's scored a number of lauded motion pictures, collaborated with everyone from Crime and The City Solution to David Yow from the Jesus Lizard, put out a German country album in the mid-'90s and, as a teenage runaway in the early '80s, recorded with his first girlfriend, Christiane Vera Felscherinow, notorious author of the autobiographical Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo.
Jeremy Allen

29. OKI –
Tonkori In The Moonlight
(Mais Um Discos)
Ainu are a historically marginalised indigenous group from areas around the Sea of Okhotsk such as Hokkaido in Japan. OKI only discovered he was Ainu aged 18, as his mother had hidden his biological father's identity from him. He was a big fan of reggae at the time, and so applied reggae's Babylon promise to his own hidden Ainu heritage, and went looking for his roots in Hokkaido, eventually picking up the tonkori, an Ainu five stringed harp. This is a collection of his tracks pulled from the '90s and '00s, which includes the notable presence of Ainu musician Umeko Ando. This should-be-legendary singer and tonkori player, for me, has the same spirit as Elizabeth Cotten. Although obviously from a very different tradition, she has an instantly recognisable timbre and cadence to her singing style that marks her out a mile, with overlaid trilling ornamentations. OKI's thing is not to make traditional Ainu music but to mix it with other elements.
Jennifer Lucy Allan

28. Batu –
Live At Waterworks Festival 2021
(N/A)
Recorded in September 2021, at the debut edition of London day festival Waterworks, but only shared online in September of this year, this two-hour recording is a neat summation of why Batu is one of the UK's most in-demand DJs right now. Gliding through a first hour of high-energy juke, footwork, Baile funk and even a soca-adjacent tune about coronavirus, it's a dizzying journey that I can assure you was a lot of fun to dance to amid the first summer back from extended COVID-19 lockdowns. As the tempo slows via a beatless palate cleanser courtesy of Lyra Pramuk at the recording's midpoint, the set is complete with a gloriously fun run-through of various strains of Latin club music, industrial and UK techno, and speed garage, complete with copious amounts of mixer cuts and a few cheeky reloads.
Christian Eede
27. Various Artists –
Síntomas De Techno: Ondas Electrónicas Subterráneas Desde Perú (1985-1991)
(Buh)
​​Síntomas De Techno: Ondas Electrónicas Subterráneas Desde Perú (1985-1991), curated and compiled by Buh Records founder Luis Alvarado, brings together tracks from underground electronic groups and solo artists operating in Lima in the late '80s and early '90s. It ranges from melodic, if minimal, electro pop to more abstract industrial territory. Through it, we get a Casio keyboard-powered document of the time and place which widens the narrative of electronic music beyond North America and Western Europe. It doesn't tell us what it was like to live in Peru in the '80s and '90s, but does give us a lens into a vibrant, fertile time of exploration, where artists seized newly available technology and tested the limits of what they could say with it. Grabbing opportunities to innovate in even the most challenging of contexts.
Daryl Worthington

26. Diamanda Galás –
The Divine Punishment (2022 Remaster)
(Intravenal Sound Operations)
Over the course of five decades, Diamanda Galás has charted a remarkable course through culture with a single-mindedness that few artists possess. Artist, activist, musician, singer, interpreter, and inhabitor of the great songbook of the world, her work has always sided with the downtrodden. This is perhaps best seen in her celebrated Masque Of The Red Death trilogy, which kicked off with 1986's The Divine Punishment and confronted the AIDS epidemic. Across the three records, Galás put herself forward as the underground tribune of the oppressed.
Luke Turner

25. The Watersons –
Frost And Fire: A Calendar Of Ritual And Magical Songs
(Topic)
Frost And Fire's tracklisting begins in January with 'Here We Come A-Wassailing', a song found by the Roud Index of folk songs to have more than 127 "instances" around the UK. A.L Lloyd adds in the liner notes that this tune has similar versions "scattered across Europe as far as the Balkans," reminding the casual fan that traditional songs are not fixed, but like rocks in the sea, in motion across continents, battered and borne to new places, slowly being reshaped, yet surviving. Many of these songs come with earthy lyrics. In their version, The Watersons call for bud and blossom to "bloom and bear," not so that people may not starve, but "so we may have plenty of cider all next year."
Jude Rogers

24. Ride –
4 EPs
(Wichita)
There's a sticky sense of fun and daring here that later Ride releases, with all their art and sense of scale, don’t possess. 'Chelsea Girl' charges out of the blocks like a foal let out in a field on a spring day. Throughout, the track feels like it can’t keep up with itself, and the lyrics betray a similarly feckless, teenage impatience: "You must have something / what it is I just don't know." What does it mean? (What does it matter?) Following the predictable but fabulously cocky guitar squall to end the track, we get 'Drive Blind', which is still a monster and one of their best; the ice-cold riff sitting uncomfortably atop a glutinous guitar growl and an insistent, fill-heavy rhythm. 'Drive Blind' really does sound like a souped-up Ford Escort charging round dark country lanes in search of a party with the passengers holding their arse cheeks tight in fear.
Richard Foster

23. Voïvod –
Forgotten In Space
(Noise)
Voïvod are perhaps the key missing piece of the jigsaw in the already scant discourse surrounding heavy metal as a vital modernist (rather than just progressive) artform in the 1980s, and this knockout box set captures them in full take-off, groundbreaking mode. Starting with their ragged and adrenalised second LP (here on fetching red and black splatter vinyl) Rrröööaaarrr, the story of these Canadian pioneers really gets going with the follow-up Killing Technology, where prog structures and non-standard chord patterns (not to mention vocoders) are forced onto the thrash template. As good as these LPs are, it's on Dimension Hatröss where the last of the juvenilia (screeching vocals, gnarly lyrics, crazy drum fills) is ditched in favour of an exquisitely realised whole of future metal which, in 2022, sounds better than ever. In fact, with the benefit of hindsight you can start tracing all sorts of notional links to names such as Jesus Lizard, The Locust, Cardiacs, NOMEANSNO, John Zorn, Rites Of Spring, Part Chimp and Pink Floyd, as well as contemporaries such as Celtic Frost. And none of this is altered one iota by the inclusion of the Motörhead-style cover of the Batman theme.
John Doran

22. Branko Mataja –
Over Fields And Mountains
(Numero Group)
Born in Yugoslavia (now Serbia) in the 1920s, Branko Mataja spent World War II in Germany and moved to the United States after, where he repaired guitars until he constructed his own. In the 1970s and 1980s, he recorded two albums of songs-lament for his homeland, and Over Fields And Mountains consists of tracks selected from these two albums. This is a melancholic study of the electric guitar in the spirit of spaghetti westerns with a slightly psychedelic tinge. He uses pick-ups, spinning a melodic wail like Omar Khorshid, but also Robert Fripp-like effects superimposed on the instrument. The album is lyrical and subtle, and it still sounds current now.
Jakub Knera

21. Coil –
Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil
(Dais)
No disrespect to Wax Trax's brilliant Love's Secret Domain reissue at all as it's a very well-executed reissue of a cornerstone Coil album, but, for us at tQ towers at least, the real revelation from planet Coil this year was this late period obscurity, reissued by Dais. First released in 2000, it stands in contrast to much of the band's other material of that time, centring around raw drones and ragged filter sweeps blasted from Thighpaulsandra's Serge modular – tracks like 'Beige' could easily pass for Pan Sonic or KTL – with hollow-boned Louisiana jazz rhythms from Peter Christopherson and heavily processed Jhon Balance intonations placing it in an altogether darker space somewhere between Time Machines and Musick To Play In The Dark. Closer 'Tunnel Of Goats', which is as long as Slayer's Reign In Blood, is like Shit And Shine in their lysergic sludge pomp and may cause permanent confusion to your brain's default mode network. You have our full warning.
John Doran

20. Albert Ayler –
Revelations: The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings
(INA / Elemental)
Recorded at two high-profile concerts given on July 25th and 27th 1970 at the Fondation Maeght, a prestigious cultural institution in southern France, the music contained on the multi-disc set Revelations represents the crowning triumph of saxophonist Albert Ayler's career as a live performer. Playing in a specially constructed geodesic dome (a year ahead of Don Cherry's famous residency in a similar structure at Stockholm's Museum of Modern Art), Ayler captivates over a thousand French youngsters, for whom he embodies a kind of shamanic sorcerer. The audience roar their approval of every tune. Familiar themes from Ayler's canon are welcomed like greatest hits with delirious enthusiasm. Encores are demanded with boisterous clapping and stamping.
Daniel Spicer

19. Cosey Fanni Tutti –
Delia Derbyshire: The Myths And The Legendary Tapes
(Conspiracy International)
On the soundtrack to Caroline Catz's film of the same name, Cosey Fanni Tutti offers up a haunting suite of sinuous electronic tones that seem to drift in and out of the fabric of the real, like so many half-remembered fragments of a dream. Its release came during a year in which the artist also released a book, Re-Sisters, devoted to identifying and exploring the parallels between the lives and work of Delia Derbyshire, 14th century writer and mystic Margery Kempe, and Cosey herself.

18. Celtic Frost –
Danse Macabre
(BMG)
BMG's lovingly curated and luxurious Celtic Frost box set, Danse Macabre, is rammed to its massive metal gills – seven gorgeous sounding remastered LPs/EPs on fancy schmancy vinyl, one 7-inch, one cassette [Grave Hill Bunker Rehearsals], a 40-page hardback 12-inchx12-inch book with lots of cool photos and a short oral history of Celtic Frost Mark I, a "Necromaniac Union" enamel badge, a large two-sided poster, a snazzy Heptagram figurine USB stick with everything on MP3 plus extra tracks and a patch for your battle jacket – gives you pretty much everything the band produced during their mercurial 1984 to 1987 age of innovation.
John Doran

17. Sonic Youth –
In/Out/In
(Three Lobed)
Curated by the ever-reliable Three Lobed Recordings, the material on In/Out/In is not what could strictly be called "previously unreleased." That said, there will be plenty of listeners out there who don't already own it, or at least not all of it, and certainly not in a physical format. 'In & Out' and 'Out & In' were first disinterred in 2011, as part of Three Lobed's limited boxed set, Not The Spaces You Know, But Between Them, alongside offerings from Sun City Girls, Steve Gunn, Mouthus, Comets On Fire, D. Charles Speer, Wooden Wand, Eternal Tapestry, and Bardo Pond. As can be gauged from that kind of company, neither Sonic Youth track sounded very much like, "Dirty Boots, Baby, Dirty Boots."
JR Moores

16. Manic Street Preachers –
Know Your Enemy
(Columbia)
Know Your Enemy's ​​songs are like the dispersed objects of the jaded angel, all of them characterful individually but, taken as a whole, they amount not to an answer but a puzzle – cryptic, frustrating, enticing. One way to try and solve a puzzle is to rearrange the pieces and the perspective. Over 20 years after the album's original release, the band have decided to do just that. Rather than whittle it down and find the great lost album hiding within the Sandinista!-esque splurge, the band have added tracks, largely from B-sides, with commendable belligerence. They do, however, attempt to make sense of what was previously chaotic, separating the songs into one relatively gentle and plaintive record, Door To The River, and the much heavier Solidarity. More than the rewriting of history it seems at first, there is a welcome sense in this reissue of a band trying to work out what the fuck they thought they were doing.
Darran Anderson

15. William Doyle –
Slowly Arranged 2016-2019
(Tough Love)
This expansive box set from William Doyle is an exercise in perspective. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a project gathered and made over some three years, throughout the course of listening to this mammoth collection one senses Doyle's changing focus in each project's wax and wane. Comprising three separate exercises – Dream Derealised, Lightnesses and Near Future Residences – the music is, to boil it down to its thinnest broth, ambient music, but viewed variously through different lenses. Towering, impenetrable walls of shimmering synth pads bookend crackling noise carpets, weirdo vocal processing experiments poke through scattered, abstract musique concrète, and skeletal sketches contrast dense, compacted soundscapes.
Will Ainsley

14. Various Artists –
Saturno 2000: La Rebejada De Los Sonideros 1962-1983
(Analog Africa)
This compilation from the ever-reliable Analog Africa is a total delight, exploring the work of Mexican sound system operators, known as sonideros, who slowed down the beat of cumbia to create something new called 'rebajada' (which is Spanish for 'to reduce or lower'). The playfulness and breadth within those confines is joyous. The springy and infectious electronics of Junior Y Su Equipo border at times on chiptune. Manzanita's vocals on 'La Cuenta Sinverguenza' are frankly gorgeous. 'La Danza Del Mono' is irresistibly psychedelic, and 'Capricho Egipico' is an engrossingly wonky cod-Middle Eastern groove. The title track is a sublime cut of weaving big band brilliance.
Patrick Clarke

13. Various Artists –
Thorn Valley
(World Of Echo)
The artists on Thorn Valley are nodes in a loose net of taste. There's no obvious aesthetic to bind them, a difficulty overcome through sensitive sequencing. The first few songs share a quotidian charm, 'Droste''s sleepy synths prodding like pangs of optimism beneath the surface of a seasonal affective hump. On 'Deep River', Dutch duo Goldblum overlay a yawning loop with half-vocals and breakbeats which have run in the wash. Along with the following TRjj track, it's apiece with the impish experimental pop spirit of Arthur Russell (from whom World Of Echo takes its name) and more recently of the vaporous Blunt/Copeland dynasty.
Alec Holt

12. Gazelle Twin –
The Entire City
(Anti-Ghost Moon Ray)
Inspired by a Max Ernst painting of the same title, there's a seriousness and serenity to The Entire City that's less evident on later releases. Composed before Gazelle Twin found her "inner rage," the record is utterly ethereal, containing panning synth-scapes and piercing, reverb-laden vocals. There's a transcendental simplicity to songs like 'I Am Shell I Am Bon', where each roving chord carries impossibly heavy gravitas or the sinisterly stark acapella of 'Bell Tower'.
Hannah Pezzack

11. Alice Coltrane –
Ptah, The El Daoud
(Verve)
There's little doubt that Ptah, The El Daoud – Alice Coltrane's modal, post bop, spiritual jazz LP named for an Egyptian god and originally released in 1970 – is an essential album. And I don't mean essential in the sense of the word which is sprayed about indiscriminately by some online music stores, indie record shops, specialist magazines and reissue labels, who arguably use it as bait to middle-aged record collectors who are now so deep into a warren of interconnected rabbit holes they'll never find their way out to sunlight ever again, but in the sense that every home should own a copy. While it may not be as immediately aurally imprinting and spiritually mesmerising as the follow up LP Journey In Satchidananda, this is where you hear Coltrane at the height of her powers as a composer/band leader, knocking out joyful tunes, laying down great keys and wild harp, and coaxing amazing performances from Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson like it's no big deal; the record's sheer ease being one of a multitude of virtues. How Third Man managed to mess up the sleeve repro so badly is anyone's guess and it's in this chart solely on the basis of its sorely needed and brilliantly executed remaster from tape.
John Doran

10. Eiko Ishibashi –
Drive My Car OST
(Newhere Music)
Highways are a never-ending cycle of cars whirring by, driving back and forth on an endless loop. Japanese multi-instrumentalist and composer Eiko Ishibashi's score for Drive My Car, an adaptation of acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami's short story 'Men Without Women', illuminates this cycle through rich melodies that patiently return and change over time. Film, television and theatre scoring have long been parts of Ishibashi's practice, coexisting with her solo work that's often improvisatory and electronics-based. She brings those experiences to Drive My Car, letting car door slams seep into heart-wrenching strings and eerie electronics. The score draws on a range of sounds, colouring recurring motifs with a blend of smooth, jazzy instrumentals, place-setting found sounds, romantic strings, and lush electronics.

The album's tracks cycle through different versions of 'Drive My Car' and 'We'll live through the long, long days, and through the long nights', finding strength in subtle changes of tiny details. The first time we hear the sweeping melody of 'Drive My Car', made of swingy rhythms and an ascending melody, the feeling is that of childlike wonder. But upon a later return with 'Drive My Car (The truth, no matter what it is, isn't that frightening)', after poignant ups and downs and stirring strings have coloured the once-optimistic soundtrack, there's a greater sense of knowing. This time, the piano is laid bare, rolling chords with deeper emphasis and melancholy. In these simple yet profound transformations, Ishibashi creates a narrative within the theme and variations, tracing a musical path that stands on its own.
Vanessa Ague

9. Alvin Curran –
Drumming Up Trouble
(Black Truffle)
Alvin Curran is known for many things, but block rockin' beats generally isn't one of them. In his roughly six decades in creative music, he has been party to a wealth of heady improv, exploratory synth work, dense collage, and more besides, but Bohannon he ain't. Drumming Up Trouble won't help Curran find purchase in any corner of the dance music world. But as the title implies, it is his first album-length foray into the drum (both acoustic and machine-oriented) as primary vector. It's a wild ride, sometimes chaotic to the point of being comical, sometimes patient, and still other times veering somewhat close to a mutant form of body music.

The pieces on Drumming Up Trouble could be said to be among Curran's more accessible works. However, its perversion of the comforting heartbeat, the familiar and the known, marks it as something more brambly upon closer inspection. Either way, being largely uncharacteristic of Curran's approach, Drumming Up Trouble would be a weird place to start for the unfamiliar. For initiates to his varied and extensive catalogue, however, it makes for a fascinating detour.
Dustin Krcatovich

8. Eris Drew –
Boiler Room x Dekmantel Festival 2022
(N/A)
Perhaps my enjoyment of this mix since it was first made available online has been heavily influenced by actually being there among the throng of jubilant dancers absolutely going for it at the Boiler Room stage during this year's Dekmantel festival as Eris Drew played. It's also a perfect one-hour summary, though, of just why she is widely viewed as one of the world's best and most respected DJs, especially when it comes to piecing together technically flawless and high-energy all-vinyl sets.

Throwing down a selection of raucously fun house music – from forgotten Midwest rave oldies to fresh sounds from the UK underground – this Boiler Room set is an impeccable display of track selection and DJ skill that leaves plenty room for Eris' signature energy-building scratching and chops of old FX records. Run through moments like the drop of Lemon 8's 1996 hard house smasher 'The Bells Of Revolution' at the eight-minute mark; the stream-rolling transition into Kama Sutra's 1995 banger 'Kamasutra Express' (complete with added train FX) at the 35-minute point; and the cut into Smokey Bubblin' B's delightfully bouncy 'Poison' 10 minutes later, and try not to get completely sucked into Eris' intoxicatingly joyous sound world.
Christian Eede

7. Count Ossie & Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari –
Grounation
(Soul Jazz)
A sense of history is crucial to Grounation, but this album remains – particularly in this gratifyingly deluxe new incarnation – thrillingly on the edge of positing a future as well. Its vividness is still down to its collective will to find a new way to be Jamaican, not just recovering lost connections but forging new ones too. It's vital I think, in any appraisal of Grounation to see it not as some kind of instinctive outpouring of a unified Jamaican culture, but rather to relish it as a record of just what a syncretic, non-coherent space cutting-edge Caribbean culture was at the time, fired by US Black Power and the Black arts movement, as much as dreams and idealisations of a shared African cultural memory.

Because of Count Ossie's links with the history of Jamaican music, and because of Rastafarianism's increasing importance to Jamaican music and politics after independence in 1962, Grounation could be seen as an 'authentic' statement of spirituality, an expression of Jamaican 'soul', 'spirit', 'roots' (insert meaningless chimerical term of your own choice). I would argue, however, that it moves us precisely because of its confection, its inauthenticity, its act of imagination applied to colonial and post-colonial history rather than just its pure expression and reflection of the rage and resistance inherent in Jamaican thought at the time. Grounation's roots are in that most postmodern of faiths – Rastafarianism ¬¬ – which from its prophetic birth pangs in the proselytisation of Marcus Garvey is a definitively collaged faith – built from a blend of non-Christian pan-African separatist ideals, ancient Gnosticism, 20th century socialist politics and post-modern cultural curiosity.
Richard Foster

6. Max Tundra –
Mastered By Guy At The Exchange
(Domino)
Had you purchased Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be at the time of its release in 2000, you likely had a set of assumptions about its creator based on the limited information available – the aesthetics of electronic music at the time, the sounds on the record and the moody, abstract artwork it was contained in. What listeners to Mastered By Guy At The Exchange in 2002 did not expect, what perhaps took them by surprise, was the geeky, white-boy vocal that opened the album. Punters were expecting Squarepusher, and were greeted with a sweet, clarion vocal and nursery rhyme melody that sounded, well, like something off a Belle And Sebastian record. Ben Jacobs, AKA Max Tundra, had outed himself for what he was – a friendly, T-shirt wearing geek with a penchant for ending DJ sets with an eight minute version of 'Goodbye, Farewell' from The Sound Of Music – and this would cast him in a genre of one. Electronic audiences could not fully embrace him, whilst an indie landscape at its most conservative – giddy over New York garage rock revivalists – simply ignored him. Entry into the actually existing pop world was a non-starter.

"The first time round I wanted to invent eleven new types of music," outlined Jacobs at the time, "this time round I decided to alter twelve existing types of music." What this achieves is an album where Jacobs applies his maximalist Amiga methodology to pop, R&B, soul, power pop and prog, creating an entirely singular record in the process.
Fergal Kinney

5. Edan –
Beauty And The Beat
(Lewis)
Inspiration was never an issue for Edan, but fruition took its time. His debut, Primitive Plus, seems to belong to a past life. We get dick jokes aplenty, flatulent outbursts, and a whole lot of rapping about rapping. "Never say a rhyme that's less than hooping," he spat on 'One Man Arsenal', "intelligent all the girls I'm scooping." By his own admission a juvenile record. 2005's Beauty And The Beat is something else entirely, a true 'what if?' album – what if Prince Paul was hauled up in the lab with The Radiophonic Workshop? The album is a prismatic treasure trove, 34 minutes of carnivorous pillaging that sets him apart from psych rock revivalists; the paisley-clad obsessives on the hunt for that white whale vintage fuzz tone.

Beauty And The Beat made a small dent in the UK independent and R&B charts. It has been 17 years since its release. Edan is yet to release another solo album. He has, however, toured the world extensively with the great Paten Locke – who sadly passed away in 2019. These were joyous shows, full of goofy oddball eccentricity; '60s wigs, kazoos, acoustic guitars, and even a theremin. He dropped the 2009 mixtape Echo Party, made beats for Your Old Droog, and, in 2018, dropped the collaborative mini album Humble Pi with Homeboy Sandman. But no. A full-length follow up we have not seen. The greedy part of me wants more. Much, much more. But there we are. Edan seems content, and we do have as close to a perfect record as you could want.
Eden Tizard

4. Various Artists –
Elsewhere XVIII
(Rocket Recordings)
It has been impossibly difficult, ever since Jon Hassell introduced ideas around 'Fourth World' music, to encounter sounds from 'elsewhere' without the condescension of Western (European or American) thinking about 'that' music. Musicians from outside of the traditional loci of Western sound are seemingly cast as being unable to do anything but opaquely 'reflect' their background and roots. I would argue, in 2022, that it's precisely not those people rooted in a static or steady tradition tied to place who we should be listening to – rather it’s those liminal artists existing between worlds, both geographic and temporal, who are most closely mapping out our current confusions and desires.

As curator of this compilation, DJ soFa's intent may have been to forge connections, but what I find utterly compelling about Elsewhere XVIII is how, as a travelogue, it's scattered, diffuse, gloriously confusing. If there is connection here, it's connecting with those disconnected, both from us and each other. In our broken world, nothing could feel more right, nothing could be less 'healing' and more miraculously eye-opening. Elsewhere VXIII is a wonder, not a comfort, properly unsettling to your established musical consciousness, as close as you might get in 2022 to overthrowing those categories of cultural othering that are so difficult to step out of in the West.
Neil Kulkarni

3. Broadcast –
Maida Vale Sessions
(Warp)
These recordings for radio allow us to hear the music organically and without embellishment. On Maida Vale Sessions, Trish Keenan's oblique storytelling becomes crystal clear. Not that her narratives were occulted on record but here they truly flourish in the light. Keenan's affinity for Gertrude Stein goes beyond just the title of 'Tender Buttons'. Stein's abstract stream of consciousness apparently informed Trish Keenan's own writing, from its fractured nature to the shattered syntax. She was interested in the dissociative power of automatic writing, the sense that it created a second identity. "Suddenly you’re not yourself, as though you’ve created another you, "she said in a The Wire interview in October 2009.

As well as alternate versions of many revered Broadcast songs, Maida Vale Sessions also contains rarities such as the funereal 'Forget Every Time' (which was only ever captured for posterity in the 1996 session included here) and a typically glitchy, overtly cool cover of Nico's 'Sixty Forty'. Elsewhere, the subtle tweaks on live incarnations of much loved songs like 'Come On Let's Go', 'The Book Lovers' and 'Echoes Answer' genuinely elicit the feeling of hearing these esoteric treasures for the first time all over again.
Hayley Scott

2. Laddio Bolocko –
'97-'99
(Castle Face)
Formed by guitarist Drew St. Ivany, bass player Ben Armstrong and drummer Blake Fleming, and later joined by Marcus DeGrazia on horns, Laddio Bolocko spent much of their existence, from 1996 to 2000, in near hermetic isolation in their rehearsal space in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, and later in an abandoned ski lodge in Elka Park in the Catskills. St. Ivany and Armstrong (who would later form Psychic Paramount) met Fleming when their band Chalk 22 supported his math/jazz rock outfit Dazzling Killmen. Fleming, who founded Dazzling Killmen at the age of 15, played on early The Mars Volta demos and later formed Electric Turn To Me. Laddio Bolocko, however, represented a pinnacle of achievement for all musicians involved, as well as being that rare thing from a critic's perspective – a band that could be most easily described as sounding like Can and This Heat who made music that was actually deserving of such an epithet.

One of the minds blown by Laddio Bolocko's intense live show was John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees and boss of the label behind this reissue of their work, Castle Face Records. Dwyer caught the band after the booker at the Bottom Of The Hill venue in San Francisco called him to suggest he attend their gig that night, because the previous night they had been 'so mesmerising, so strong" that they had offered them the next night also. Dwyer wrote: "I had my ass and ears handed to me that evening… I remember a sax as big as me, drums that were physically hanging on by a thread, and twin electric strings that reeled sinister sprites over my head in outwardly circular patterns. Aggressive, far-out fractals burned in my brain. I had never seen anything like this band, and never have again."
Sean Kitching

1. Valentina Goncharova –
Ocean
(Hidden Harmony)
This monumental recording, created behind the Iron Curtain in the perestroika era, combines minimalism, drone music and improvisation based on electrified violins and amplified household objects, showcasing a Ukrainian violinist's extraordinary creativity. There are moments where Valentina Goncharova shows her improvisational skills. Take 'Wind And Stream' – the ephemeral, least electronic piece on the record – which relies on the spontaneous energy of the violin. In 'Sirens', you can hear shreds of vocals recorded directly via the pickups of the instrument, without a microphone. The same is true for the monumental closing piece 'Ohm'. Their heavily fuzzy sound recalls the sound of a flute.

Ocean sometimes reminds me of the philosophy of Pauline Oliveros or Eliane Radigue, not only because of the title. The music refers to nature; it can be treated as a description of the process of transformation of the world – from primitive forms to the beginnings of culture, the formation of complex relationships or complementary opposites (embody the primary principles of Yin and Yang in the punctual and subtle 'Golden Ball' to the drone monumental 'Sirens').
Jakub Knera

The Quietus Reissues Etc Of The Year 2022

  • 1: Valentina Goncharova – Ocean
  • 2: Laddio Bolocko – '97-'99
  • 3: Broadcast – Maida Vale Sessions
  • 4: Various Artists – Elsewhere XVIII
  • 5: Edan – Beauty And The Beat
  • 6: Max Tundra – Mastered By Guy At The Exchange
  • 7: Count Ossie & Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari – Grounation
  • 8: Eris Drew – Boiler Room x Dekmantel Festival 2022
  • 9: Alvin Curran – Drumming Up Trouble
  • 10: Eiko Ishibashi – Drive My Car OST
  • 11: Alice Coltrane – Ptah, The El Daoud
  • 12: Gazelle Twin – The Entire City
  • 13: Various Artists – Thorn Valley
  • 14: Various Artists – Saturno 2000: La Rebajada De Los Sonideros 1962-1983
  • 15: William Doyle – Slowly Arranged 2016-1019
  • 16: Manic Street Preachers – Know Your Enemy
  • 17: Sonic Youth – In/Out/In
  • 18: Celtic Frost – Danse Macabre
  • 19: Cosey Fanni Tutti – Delia Derbyshire: The Myths And The Legendary Tapes
  • 20: Albert Ayler – Revelations: The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings
  • 21: Coil – Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil
  • 22: Branko Mataja – Over Fields And Mountains
  • 23: Voïvod – Forgotten In Space
  • 24: Ride – 4 EPs
  • 25: The Watersons – Frost And Fire: A Calendar Of Ritual And Magical Songs
  • 26: Diamanda Galas – The Divine Punishment (2022 Remaster)
  • 27: Various Artists – Síntomas De Techno: Ondas Electrónicas Subterráneas Desde Perú (1985-1991)
  • 28: Batu – Live At Waterworks Festival 2021
  • 29: OKI – Tonkori In The Moonlight
  • 30: BORSIGWERKE – The Complete Recordings Of Alexander Von Borsig
  • 31: Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole
  • 32: Various Artists – Heavenly Remixes 3 & 4 (Andrew Weatherall Volume 1 & 2)
  • 33: Baxter Dury – Mr. Maserati: The Best Of Baxter Dury 2001-2021
  • 34: Derek Bailey – Domestic Jungle
  • 35: Iannis Xenakis – Electroacoustic Works (1922-2001)
  • 36: Nate Scheible – Fairfax
  • 37: Hermeto Pascoal – Planet​á​rio da G​á​vea
  • 38: Ferkat Al Ard – Oghneya
  • 39: The Beatles – Revolver: Special Edition
  • 40: Various Artists – '80s Underground Cassette Culture: Volume 2
  • 41: Terry Jennings, Charles Curtis – Piece For Cello And Saxophone
  • 42: ZULI – Dekmantel Podcast 409
  • 43: Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond
  • 44: Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
  • 45: Aska Matsumiya And Ryuichi Sakamoto – After Yang
  • 46: Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 – Strangers From The Universe
  • 47: Anthony Naples + DJ Python – Air Texture VIII
  • 48: Jacks – Vacant World
  • 49: Pat Thomas – New Jazz Jungle: Remembering
  • 50: Lou Reed – Words & Music, May 1965
  • 51: Forbidden Overture – Turned On
  • 52: La Novià – Rain Be For Rain Bo
  • 53: Masayuki Takayanagi – Station 70: Call in Question / Live Independence
  • 54: Oliver Coates – The Stranger OST
  • 55: Oxbow & Peter Brötzmann – An Eternal Reminder Of Not Today
  • 56: Dadawah – Peace & Love: Wadadasow
  • 57: Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru – Jerusalem
  • 58: Various Artists – End Of The Road Presents: Between The Music
  • 60: Diskonnected – Truancy Volume 294
  • 60: John M. Bennett – A Flattened Face Fogs Through
  • 61: Shin Otowa – わすれがたみ
  • 62: Brötzmann/Van Hove/Bennink – Jazz in Der Kammer Nr. 71 Deutsches Theater/Berlin/GDR/04/11/1974
  • 63: Richard Pinhas – Iceland
  • 64: Sunburned Hand of the Man – Headdress
  • 65: Monster Magnet – Tab
  • 66: Suicide – Surrender
  • 67: Richard Thompson – Grizzly Man OST
  • 68: Tenniscoats – Tan-Tan Therapy
  • 69: Nick León – RA.833
  • 70: Various Artists – Artificial Intelligence
  • 71: Hamish & Toby – RA.851
  • 72: Tomasz Stańko Quintet – Wooden Music I
  • 73: Cecil Taylor Unit – The Complete, Legendary, Live Return Concert
  • 74: Cheval De Frise – Cheval De Frise
  • 75: Stereolab – Pulse Of The Early Brain
  • 76: Frank Black & The Catholics – The Complete Studio Albums
  • 77: Various Artists – NH V/A Vol. 4
  • 78: Suzi Analogue – Infinite Zonez
  • 79: The Leaf Library – Library Music: Volume One
  • 80: Threshold HouseBoys Choir – Form Grows Rampant
  • 81: 2ManyDJs – As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt.2
  • 82: All In One – All In One
  • 83: White Hills – The Revenge Of Heads On Fire
  • 84: Various Artists – no pare, sigue sigue
  • 85: Ihor Tsymbrovsky – Come, Angel
  • 86: Jerry Hunt – Ground: Five Mechanic Convention Streams
  • 87: Aunt Sally – Aunt Sally
  • 88: Howard Shore – Crimes Of The Future OST
  • 89: Peach – Campout Mix Series
  • 90: Toumba – Untitled 909 117
  • 91: XAM Duo – XAM Duo RMX
  • 92: Jim O'Rourke And Mats Gustafsson – Xylophonen Virtuosen
  • 93: Various Artists – Jon Savage's 1977-1979 - Symbols Clashing Everywhere
  • 94: Virgin Prunes – …If I Die, I Die
  • 95: Georg Gräwe Quintet – Pink Pong
  • 96: Various Artists – Pierre Barouh And The Saravah Sound
  • 97: Kristin Oppenheim – Voices Fill My Head: Collected Sound Works 1993-1999
  • 98: crash830 – floor
  • 99: Ben Lovett – Hellraiser OST
  • 100: Venom – In Nomine Satanas