
I absolutely hate rating music. I hate dating it too, but rating… That’s just wrong. I mean, how can you compare the minimalist beauty of Taylor Deupree to the pounding beats of Chris Clark? What’s the scale here? Last year, in Headphone Commute’s Best of 2008, I attempted to tier my favorites into “Absolute Must“, “The Very Best“, and “The Essentials“, and even that, of course, is rating music. This year, I wanted to select my favorite releases from each category – but then I was faced with another dilemma – lumping music into genres is probably even worse than rating it! All this negativity has been clouding over me until in a bout of frustration I came out with the answer!
And so, I present you with 15 lists of 10 favorite releases unified by a unique theme in alphabetical order by artist. That’s 150 albums of the year! You will see that these entries tend to fall within similar styles anyway, but I will avoid pronouncing those out loud. Can you guess the genre behind “Music For Vibrating Your Neighbors’ Dusty China“? The selections are limited to only full length albums. See the bottom of this page for links to EPs, Singles and Mini Albums, as well as Mixes and Compilations of 2009.
Think of these as “playlists” of my favorite albums of the year. Choose your mood, the weather, or the time of day, and you shall find my recommendations for the year. There is probably enough music in here to get you through yet another year! I will reveal the winners of each list with one post at a time, one per day. And yes… They are all winners. They truly are…
The following lists have already been published on
Headphone Commute’s Best of 2009
Music For The Film Behind Closed Eyelids
Ben Frost – By the Throat (
Bedroom Community)
Clint Mansell – Moon (
Black Records)
The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – Here Be Dragons (
Ad Noiseam)
Murcof – La Sangre Iluminada (
Surimi Media)
Nils Frahm – The Bells (
Kning Disk /
Erased Tapes)
Ólafur Arnalds – Dyad 1909 (
Erased Tapes)
Proem – Till There’s No Breath (
Nonresponse)
Scanner – Rockets, Unto The Edges Of Edges (
BineMusic)
Sun O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions (
Southern Lord)
Talbot + Deru – Genus (
Ant-Zen /
Dear Oh Dear)
Music For Bending Light And Stopping Time
Autistici – Complex Tone Test (
KESH)
Celer – Engaged Touches (
Home Normal)
Corey Fuller – Seas Between (
Dragon’s Eye)
Lawrence English – A Colour For Autumn (
12K)
lissom – Nest of Iterations (
Dragon’s Eye)
Pillowdiver – Sleeping Pills (
12K)
Simon Scott – Navigare (
Miasmah)
stephan mathieu + taylor deupree – Transcriptions (
Spekk)
Tim Hecker – An Imaginary Country (
Kranky)
Tomasz Bednarczyk – Let’s Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow (
12K)
Music For Awakened Spirits And Open Minds
Aes Dana – Leylines (
Ultimae)
Bluetech – The Divine Invasion (
Aleph Zero)
Field Rotation – Licht Und Schatten (
Fluid Audio)
Fredrik Öhr – Falling Through The Earth (
Aleph Zero)
H.U.V.A. Network – Ephemeris (
Ultimae)
Jean-Michel – Tons Of Fun (
onpa)
KiloWatts – Undercurrent (
Somnia)
Liquid Stranger – The Intergalactic Slapstick (
interchill)
Shpongle – Ineffable Mysteries From Shpongleland (
Twisted)
Solar Fields – Movements (
Ultimae)
Music For Crawling Through Abandoned Cities
Brock Van Wey – White Clouds Drift On And On (
Echospace [Detroit])
Fluxion – Constant Limber (
Resopal Schallware)
Intrusion – The Seduction of Silence (
Echospace [Detroit])
Luke Hess – Light In The Dark (
Echocord)
Monolake – Silence (
imbalance computer music)
Moritz von Oswald Trio – Vertical Ascent (
Honest Jon’s)
Quantec – Cauldron Subsidence (
Echocord)
Vladislav Delay – Tummaa (
Leaf)
worriedaboutsatan – Arrivals (
Gizeh)
Yagya – Rigning (
Sending Orbs)
Music For Withered Leaves And Lonely Fishtanks
The Archivist – The Keeper Of The Library (
Lacies)
Infinite Scale – Ad Infinitum (
Rednetic)
Kettel – Myam James 2 (
Sending Orbs)
Ochre – Like Dust Of The Balance (
Benbecula)
Phylum Sinter – From Unity to Segmentation (
en:peg digital)
Plastik Joy – 3:03 (
n5MD)
port-royal – Dying In Time (
n5MD)
Rena Jones – Indra’s Web (
Cartesian Binary)
Sankt Otten – Morgen Wieder Lustig (
Hidden Shoal)
Ultre – The Nest and the Skull (
audiobulb)
Music For Kicking Your Brain Back Into The Groove
Ben Klock – One (
Ostgut Tonträger)
The Black Dog – Further Vexations (
Soma Quality)
Claro Intelecto – Warehouse Sessions (
Modern Love)
FEW NOLDER – New Folder (
Planet Mu)
The Field – Yesterday And Today (
Kompakt)
Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport (
Atp Recordings)
Gui Boratto – Take My Breath Away (
Kompakt)
JPLS – The Depths (
M_nus)
Redshape – The Dance Paradox (
Delsin / Present)
Rival Consoles – IO (
Erased Tapes)
See more lists as they become available only on
Headphone Commute’s Best of 2009