If you were to ask me to make a list of every album that was released this year that I liked, that list would be over 200 albums long. I made a considerable effort this year to try and listen to new bands and new types of music and some of it was well worth the time and some of it wasn't.

There was a lot of it that I really liked, but didn't really get a chance to listen to repeatedly enough. Some of the stuff in this honorable mention list might have made the top 10 if I had a couple more months to properly absorb it. But I don't, so I can't. I would like to make mention of them, though, on the off chance that someone reading this feels like trying some new music. Allow me to make 30 recommendations (not counting what will be my top 10).

These are not ranked in any order. I'll write a bit about each album and probably copy a lot from the artist's LastFM bio to help save time and to help cover the fact that I don't know much about music beyond what I like and don't like.

Just like previous years, I am embedding a single track from each album in the entry so that you can choose to either stream the track right here and now (by pressing the "play" arrow on the left side) or download the mp3 and listen to it whenever you want (by clicking on the "DivShare" link). Or you can do both. I will have mixes with my actual Top 10 post, if you'd rather wait (though not all of these discs will be represented there).


Black To Comm - Alphabet 1968

Sample Track: "Jonathan"

Put simply, this is the second best "dark electronic" album I heard all year, and it almost made my top 10. "Richter creates his music using scratchy shellac and vinyl records, field recordings, a so called “kitchen gamelan,” and more traditional instruments like organs, guitars, pianos and mbiras. The layering and hypnotic repetition of short loops from Psychedelia, Free Jazz, Vaudeville, and various other old recordings reveals alternative melodic dimensions not apparent in the source material."


Elm - Nemcatacoa

Sample Track: "Silver Dust In Moonlight"

Elm is a recent discovery of mine and "Nemcatacoa" is one of those previously mentioned albums that might have made my top 10 if I'd had more time to listen to it repeatedly. "Free folk/drone project Elm, the solo guise of Jon Porras, best known for his adventures as half of the magnificent Barn Owl (without Evan Caminiti). In Jon’s own words: 'Elm is simply a way for me to release the material that I record at home, usually alone and in a dense blanket of fog. For now I’m working with hazy, dreamlike atmospheres, I try to evoke an entire experience with elm, a headspace to lull in, to drift off into. I was also really inspired by the one-man black metal band thing, completely aside from the actual music, the ability for one person to create the experience of an entire band or orchestra was really appealing to me. I want to exploit the capabilities of home recording and home production to evoke a place of mystery, a mark of the unknown.'"


Demdike Stare - Symbiosis

Sample Track: "Jannisary"

Another recent discovery, I was turned onto this band by the author Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, Planetary), when he mentioned the album in his Music I Liked In 2009 post. About the album he says "this was a marvellous thing. World Hauntology, if you like: Middle Eastern musics, lo-fi drone and the hideous Arctic menace of Scando exorcists like Elegi, all whacked together with stark rhythmic instinct and crazed machine intelligence. I get the impression this record went way under the radar this year, and it really shouldn’t have."


Clint Mansell - L'Affaire Farewell OST

Sample Track: "Ambuscade"

Clint Mansell is my favorite soundtrack composer and leaving him off of my top 10 wasn't something I did lightly. Of the 2 soundtracks that he had released on CD, I think this is my favorite. I haven't seen the movie and, in fact, hadn't even heard of the movie until I saw this. This one sounds very contemporary classical and is very, very beautiful.


Balmorhea - All Is Wild, All Is Silent: Remixes

Sample Track: "Harm Boon (Remixed By Rafael Anton Irisarri)"

I still have yet to hear the original All Is Wild, All Is Silent album, but when I saw the list of remixers for this disc, I got wood. As should anyone following "modern classical/ambient/experimental/post rock" music. Names like Peter Broderick, Machinefabriek, Eluvium, Xela, Helios, Library Tapes, Jacaszek and all the others are ones you should familiarize yourself if you enjoy beautiful music. And you should hear this album.


Ryuichi Sakamoto - Out Of Noise

Sample Track: "Hwit"

Ryuichi Sakamoto has been making music since the 70's. Some of it I've liked a lot and some of it I can't stand (particularly some of his 80's stuff). One thing you have to give him credit for, though, is that he isn't afraid to try new things and change his music around. His current output probably falls more into the experimental electronic section of Amoeba, but it hasn't always been that way. This particular album would probably go there as well, but it's not one that I'd consider difficult or terribly challenging to listen to. It's accessible. And it's really, really good, too.


Nadja & Black Boned Angel - Nadja & Black Boned Angel

Sample Track: "I"

A two-track collaborative effort, I'm going to say that this is my favorite Nadja release of the year, of the 11 or so releases. Yep, 11. And that's not even counting the 10 releases by Nadja member Aidan Baker. Trying to describe Nadja's music is very difficult for me because they sound like a combination of many different genres. The best description I've heard called them "ambient doom drone metal". I don't really know much about Black Boned Angel, beyond that the guy from Birchville Cat Motel is a member, they take their name from a Godflesh song and they play a drone-doom type of metal. Anyway, this disc is fucking crushing and awesome.


Le Lendemain - Fires

Sample Track: "Lois"

Another one of those "modern classical/ambient/experimental/post rock" groups. I'll warn you now, you're going to see a lot of that here because I listened to almost anything I could find that was described as such and I loved almost all of it. This particular group is a collaboration between fantastic cello player Danny Norbury and David Wenngren from the band Library Tapes. It's very, very pretty.


Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek - Blank Grey Canvas Sky

Sample Track: "Departure"

I told you there would be a lot of this type of music. Peter Broderick is probably my favorite artist in the "modern classical/ambient/experimental/post rock" genre (if you can call it that). I saw him live earlier this year and it's been love ever since. He plays lots of instruments, but mainly piano and violin. Machinefabriek is more on the electronic/ambient side of the genre (generally) and his music varies depending on which album you're listening to. This particular disc is more ambient, but still gorgeous.


Klimek - Movies Is Magic

Sample Track: "A Lament"

Beautiful, soundtrack-y sounding electronic music. Klimek's music has been described as "violently sad sounding music" and I guess that's pretty apt. This is my first exposure to his work, but I guarantee it won't be the last.


World's End Girlfriend - Air Doll OST

Sample Track: "点在について" (Track 12)

If the movie hasn't been near the top of my list of movies I want to see before I'd heard this score, it certainly would have been afterward. There are certain things you expect from a World's End Girlfriend album and this has them all, including an amazing amount of difficult finding a copy of without paying an arm and a leg. I know I've already used the word a lot, but this music is beautiful. I don't know how big a fanbase he has, but I do know it's pretty fanatical, and with good reason.


The Black Heart Procession - Six

Sample Track: "Forget My Heart"

Ah, Black Heart Procession. They always, always release high quality, fantastic albums but they still never seem to get much recognition. I bet you would have a hard time finding someone who knows their music and doesn't like it. At the same time, though, you almost never see them listed in people's year end top 10's. Including mine. I've been a big fan of these guys since seeing them open for PJ Harvey in 2004 and I've loved everything they've put out, but I don't think they've ever made my top 10. I feel kind of bad. Anyway, BHP do the sad (but not emo) alternative/indie/post punk thing. They go right at home next to Nick Cave and Mark Lanegan on your shelf.


Kreng - L'Autopsie Phénoménale De Dieu

Sample Track: "L'Autopsie Phénoménale De Dieu Side A"

Another haunting and amazing dark electronic disc. I don't know much about the artist (yet), but I believe he is Belgian. This music ranks up there with Lustmord on the creepiness scale, but is much more pleasing to the ears than that. Once again, a beautiful piece of work.


Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem

Sample Track: "The Hidden Stone"

Mount Eerie is kind of a "subtle, lo-fi, and lyrically dense fuzz-folk" type of thing, but not terribly far removed from the "modern classical/ambient/experimental/post rock" genre. I've yet to hear any of the other work by Mount Eerie or The Microphones (the name Phil Elverum's music was previously released under), but I hear they're fairly different. Really excellent stuff, and I wish I'd have gotten into his work sooner.


Shackleton - Three EPs

Sample Track: "There's A Slow Train Coming"

Wikipedia describes the musical genre of dubstep like so: "Musically, dubstep is distinguished by its 2-step rhythm, or use of snare sounds similar to 2step garage and grime, and an emphasis on bass, often producing 'dark' sounds, but just as frequently producing sounds reminiscent of dub reggae or funky US garage." It's a type of music that's fairly new to me. I've been a Burial fan for a while now, but it wasn't until recently that I decided to seek out other music that was in a similar vein. And of the other music in that vein that I have checked out, this was definitely my favorite.


Clark - Totems Flare

Sample Track: "Rainbow Voodoo"

With the apparent disappearance of Aphex Twin, I think I might be willing to say that Chris Clark is my favorite straight up electronic musician still releasing albums today. Totems Flare is probably his most upbeat release to date. Usually, "his music is described as dirty, gritty electronic music, sometimes melodic and rough around the edges," but not so much with this one. One of the best electronic discs of the year, for sure.


Tom Waits - Glitter And Doom Live

Sample Track: "Lucinda / Ain't Goin' Down"

I don't imagine I need to say much about this. Tom Waits live. The entire second disc is just him talking to the crowd. It's massively awesome.


Greymachine - Disconnected

Sample Track: "Wolf At The Door"

Greymachine is the newest of many projects involving Justin K. Broadrick, a musician whose work I enjoy a lot. He was the main man in Godflesh and now releases music under names like Jesu, Final and Ice, among others. For this project, he's brought along Aaron Turner of Isis, Dave Cochrane of Jesu and Dermot Dalton of Jesu. Unlike most of his other projects, though, Greymachine is much more industrial sounding. So sayeth Amazon: "If you're a fan of Godflesh, or have even a fleeting interest in the band, this bud's for you; if you subscribe to The Aural & Visual Art of Aaron Turner this shits a pool party. Disconnected, the album in question, sounds like a serious case of cyberbullying through the mind of an extremely autistic child living in an ever-shifting hadean landscape thronged with mindless militants, dilapidated cityscapes and ephemeral phantoms... so to summarize the summation, Disconnected is haunting and modern sounding... In a good way."


Kenji Kawai - Assault Girls OST

Sample Track: "Preiddeu Annwfn"

Man, do I love me some Kenji Kawai soundtracks that aren't for upbeat anime. His horror movie stuff is definitely my favorite, but his score for Assault Girls, the Mamoru Oshii film that I am still dying waiting to see about women on some alien planet fighting sand monsters, is the best thing I've heard out of him in a while. Moody synth type stuff. I love it.


Russian Circles - Geneva

Sample Track: "Fathom"

I guess they're calling this Post Metal. As in, a combination of post rock and metal. According to Wikipedia, post metal is "broadly characterized by distorted guitar, heavy atmospherics, gradual evolution of song structure, and a minimal emphasis on vocals." If that works for you, it works for me. Anyway, of all the bands currently making this type of music, Russian Circles is probably my favorite and this is probably my favorite album of the three they've released thus far.


Max Richter - Henry May Long OST

Sample Track: "Interior Horses"

Max Richter is an artist I discovered earlier this year when The Lady and I went to see Waltz With Bashir. The soundtrack for that movie was incredible and since then, I've been salivating over every single piece of music Richter's put out. This soundtrack, for a movie I've never heard of, is mostly piano and is insanely beautiful. The only negative thing I have to say about it is that it's way too short at just over half an hour. I want more.


Mordant Music - SyMptoMs

Sample Track: "Pissing In Sinks"

Did you read what I wrote about Shackleton up there? Yeah, this is pretty much the same. I'd say the Shackleton release is better, but not by much. Amazon says: "Some of these 13 tracks could be loosely filed under dubstep, bust most songs here run the gamut between abstract techno and drifting electronic ambience. File somewhere between THE ORB, IDM, and German dubtek."


Hans Zimmer - Sherlock Holmes OST

Sample Track: "Marital Sabotage"

Sherlock Holmes was a movie I enjoyed, but did not love. It was a fun way to spend 90 minutes (or whatever), but the only truly memorable thing about the movie, I thought, was Hans Zimmer's score. Not counting the two collaborations he's done with James Newton Howard for the Batman movies, this is probably my second favorite Zimmer score of all time. Probably.


The Tear Garden - Have A Nice Trip

Sample Track: "Made In China Part 2"

The Tear Garden is cEvin Key from Skinny Puppy and Edward Ka-Spel from The Legendary Pink Dots, with occasional help from others, originally as an outlet for cEvin to do his nicer sounding work that didn't fit inside Skinny Puppy. The music has kind of evolved from "electronic mixed together with psychedelic, experimental, and industrial sounds" and taken on a kind of space rock feel, but it still sounds like cEvin and Edward and it's still awesome.


Pan Sonic & Keiji Haino - Shall I Download A Black Hole And Offer It To You?

Sample Track: "Untitled Track #2"

The day after this came out, I drove the 40+ miles down to Amoeba Records in Hollywood specifically to pick this up. A live team up between these two giants deserves no less. It's an incredible piece of work and I would have given a kidney to have been there. Pan Sonic do their weird, dark electronic type of thing and Haino does his weird vocal and crazy guitar thing. It's a match made in experimental music heaven.


Bloody Panda - Summon

Sample Track: "Saccades II"

I liked Bloody Panda's first album, Pheromone, enough to be excited to get this one, but not enough to run out and buy it immediately. If I'd have heard it before it came out, though, I might have. The band's second effort is much, much more distinct and a whole lot better. This time, Yoshiko O’Hara's chanting and screaming over dark doom metal sounds like a band that's been at this a while. I love it.


Bear McCreary - Battlestar Galactica Season 4 OST

Sample Track: "Kara Remembers"

While I generally prefer the music for the first two seasons which had a little bit less of a rock element in them, I still love Bear's music for this series to death. This release gets a little extra love for being two discs, with the second disc being all of the music from the final episode, which I also loved to death.


Peter Broderick - Music For Falling From Trees

Sample Track: "Patient Observation"

As previously mentioned, Peter Broderick is probably my favorite artist within the "modern classical/ambient/experimental/post rock" genre. He had 6 different releases this year, including the collaboration with Machinefabriek listed above. Of them all, though, this is probably my favorite one. "Music For Falling From Trees" is a 30-minute piece, in seven sections, created for a contemporary dance by London-based choreographer Adrienne Hart. It's very, very beautiful.


Clint Mansell - Moon OST

Sample Track: "We're Not Programs, Gerty, We're People"

Man, I had a hard time leaving this out of my top 10. Even though it wasn't even my favorite release by Mansell this year, I love it, and the movie, very much. The soundtrack is somewhat repetitive, but not really in a bad way. The movie didn't really call for much else and that certainly makes it easier. As Mansell himself said, "There’s obviously a degree of repetition, but I tried to avoid that style being the wrong side of repetition, it’s a very fine line to walk to try and make the repetitiveness creative and not unimaginative." I'd say he succeeded in that admirably.


Telefon Tel Aviv - Immolate Yourself

Sample Track: "Your Mouth"

This was my favorite straight up electronic album of the year. It was a tough fight with the Clark album, but I think I'll give the nod to TTA. "Since 1999 Telefon Tel Aviv had been working to cultivate their sound, based largely in electronic music, but that also showed flourishes of classical, vintage soul, ambient drone, and noise, among other things. The group continues as a mostly solo project of Josh Eustis after Charlie Cooper’s death in January 2009."

Tags: music, top 10 list
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