Consider this as a list of records I want you to hear. They are not necessarily the "best" of the year. They are certainly not the "biggest". They may not even end up being the ones I listen to the most (Beck, as usual, is likely to gain that crown, given the high vehicular rotation his albums generally receive). The only criterion is that the number of entries in the list adds up to ten.
"Look Up Sharp", by Carla dal Forno.
"Agora", by Fennesz.
"Inferno", by Robert Forster. Forster has done some of his best work in Berlin. This album was made in Berlin.
"Bobbie's A Girl", by David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights. David Kilgour records don't come around all that often. You have to grab them as they float past.
"Delphine", by Mega Bog. Irrespective of how many times I listen to this record, I always feel that I am hearing it for the first time. Of course, that might just be a symptom of my rapidly collapsing attention span. Um, what were we talking about again?
"Drift Code", by Rustin Man.
"The Ground Our Sky", by Saariselka.
"Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery", by The Comet Is Coming.
"The Age of Immunology", by Vanishing Twin.
"Ode to Joy", by Wilco. Wait. Where are the cymbals?
Category killer
"Drift", by Underworld. This doesn't really fit into the above list; it is not so much an album as a project. "Drift: Series 1", as a box set, is probably more than you need. And the curated "Sampler" doesn't tell enough of the story. Plus, the "Drift: Series 1" version of "Appleshine Continuum" (a tag team between Underworld and The Necks) is a solid 12 minutes shorter than the stand-alone version, and, as you know, when it comes to The Necks bigger is always better. I also feel that "Drift" deserves special mention on account of the element of surprise: who would have thought that in 2019 Underworld would be making music as good as any they have made over their long career? Can they keep it up? I wouldn't bet on it, but I have been wrong before. (Sit down, you at the back.)
Best new old music
"Kankyo Ongaku (Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990)".
"Peel Session", by Boards of Canada.
"Tunes 2011-2019", by Burial. As someone whose preferred mode of listening remains the humble Compact Digital Audio Disc, I am grateful to be able to, finally, put Burial's magisterial run of EPs into the machine. I don't know that I wouldn't have preferred a rigid chronological sequence, but evidently Burial chose the order and I will, of course, defer to him. Maybe it will have the same effect as the regular rehanging of the collection at the National Gallery of Australia: each time a favourite painting moves to a new place, something new is revealed by the change in context.
"Iowa Dream", by Arthur Russell.
"Wichita Lineman", by The Dick Slessig Combo. A year or two ago I first became aware of Acetone, a sadly short-lived nineties LA group, thanks to (as is so often the case) a Light In The Attic compilation. They sounded like everything I ever wanted in a band. Anyway, fast forward to this year, when I found myself smitten by this 42-minute deconstruction of Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman". Turns out that it features Acetone's guitarist, Mark Lightcap. Turns out, too, that Jimmy Webb's genius for songwriting easily holds up under such intense, if loving, scrutiny. (File under, or at least next to, Isaac Hayes's takes on Webb's "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" and, from the pen of an at least equally good tunesmith, "Walk On By".) As Molly would have said, do yourself a favour:
