[Falling Down]

I've not listened to or bought a great deal of new stuff this year so I'm looking forward to everyone's suggestions.  That said, there's loads of amazing music being reissued that has either been hideously rare and only available via collectors or suffered from crappy mastering first time around and now being restored in its full glory so worthy of anyone's precious time.  Perhaps someone else younger and keener on new sounds should kick this off in 2016?

Anyway, onto the few new things from 2015 that are getting repeated playing in the household and on the earphones.

Kamasi Washington: The Epic.  I was bit put off by the hyperbole surrounding this album before its release so approached it with reticence.  Turns out I needn't have worried as it's really, really good.  Washington's been a session player on the LA hip-hop/jazz scene for a long time and this is his first record as a bandleader and frontman.  The success of Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly" where Washington did much of the arrangement and sax plus the Flying Lotus thing from last year paved the way for a full-on return to the great spiritual jazz from 60's and 70's from the a 21st century vantage.  It's massive in scope, instrumentation and length with homage paid to Coltrane (John and Alice), Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis, Minnie Ripperton, Ornette Coleman, Milford Graves, Cecil Taylor and features several children or next generation family members of the above.  Quite a remarkable achievement when this stuff was supposed to be the preserve of chin stroking old duffers.  Try it and give the whole thing a listen in one sitting.  You can blame me if it ignites an interest in free jazz and get moaned at by friends and family.

Sufjan Stevens: Carrie and Lowell.  Very quiet, soothing and melancholy.  A beautiful album and I think his best since Seven Swans.  Inspired by the death of his mother Carrie in unfortunate circumstances, this is an intensely personal record with songs about family, love, loss, despair and joy.  I must have listened to "No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross" hundreds of times.  The line "Fuck me I'm falling apart" is about is about as raw and honest statement you'll hear on a record this year.  Tragic yet life affirming stuff.

Ryley Walker: Primrose Green. I got this on the strength of the absolutely fantastic title song and then on first listening dismissed the rest of the album as derivative of John Martyn, Nick Drake, Tim Buckley and Pentangle but I kept coming back and enjoying every minute as the songs, arrangements, playing and production are just so damn good. I love it.

Sleaford Mods: Key Markets.  Marmite, you either love or hate it.  These two certainly polarise opinion but with Iggy Pop naming it as album of the year and even plinky-plonk Joolz listing their recent performance on Later as one of his all-time faves even the fiercest critics have to admit there's something going on.  This is their best album yet, more rounded, more of the hip-hop and funk coming through the Crass-like basslines with Jason Williamson singing at times in contrast to the barking of Austerity Dogs and Divide and Exit. 

Bardo Pond: RSD Trilogy.  A CD collection of the Philadelphia space rockers' very limited cover version from the last three years' Record Store Day events.  Although not strictly new, unless you were keen enough to queue up for these on the day, they're now available on CD and most streaming platforms.  These are long, heavy psychedelic wigged out versions of Brian Eno's "Here Come the Warm Jets"; Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain", Pharoah Sanders' "The Creator Has a Master Plan", Bryan Ferry's "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" and Albert Ayler's "Music is the Healing Force of the Universe" but it's The Velvet's "Ride Into the Sun" that's the standout - pour a glass of red wine, lie down on the sofa, turn the lights down and volume up.

Joshua Abrams: Magnetoception.  Chicago stalwart Joshua Abrams has had a stellar career playing bass and other instruments for the likes of Will Oldham, Tortoise, The Roots, Savath and Savalas, David Grubbs, Prefuse 73 and loads of other artists.  This is his third solo album and it's a blinder.  He plays a Giumbri, a three stringed bass instrument  played by the Gnawa of North Africa alongside Jeff Parker (Guitar - Tortoise, Isotope 217, Chicago Underground Duo) Hamid Drake (Percussion - Don Cherry, Fred Anderson, William Parker and so on).  This is really hard to place and sits between minimalism, post-rock, jazz and traditional music.  It's beautifully immersive, hypnotic, simple and complex music.  I think it's available for download from Eremite and elsewhere as there's no CD and there were only a few hundred vinyl copies pressed which were a bit pricy.

Golden Gunn: Golden Gunn.  Steve Gunn (my favourite artist to emerge over the last few years) teams up with Hiss Golden Messenger to record some very languid folk-rock tinged with a bit of electronics.  If you told me I was listening to a lost JJ Cale LP from the woozy late 70's I wouldn't have argued.  Proper laid back and if you're planning a US road trip through the desert or the mountains I'd have this on repeat.

King Creosote: Three On This Island.  Kenny Anderson and the KC all-stars are joined by Mull based musicians Sorren McLean and Hannah Fisher for a brilliant, classic KC album of happy-sad, fast-slow pop folk rock perfection.  I love it.. We ventured up to Fife for the tiny Yellae Deuks festival and were treated to a great weekend of Fence collective live music. 

C Joynes - 33 Chatsworth Road.  This ones only a 7" single but just kills me.  Four finger-style instrumentals in a Jack Rose style.  He plays in Sheffield from time to time so worth keeping an eye out for locals.

Tess Parks and Anton Newcombe.  Dreamy shoegaze psychedelic garage rock from the Brian Jonestown Massacre frontman and Canadian chanteuse Tess Parks.  Every song sounds the same but that's part of the charm.

I think that's about it for new music although the Jenny Hval, Julia Holter and new Sunn)))0 seem really great on first listen... There's also new albums from Low, Godspeed... Battles that I've not heard and I'm holding off from Max Richters' Sleep until the full eight hour version is available for download.  Now onto the  reissues...

Maki Asakawa: Maki Asakawa.  No, I'd never heard of her either... This is bloody marvellous. Maki was a Japanese blues & jazz singer and composer born in the 1940's and died recently in 2010.  Honest Jon's have pulled together this amazing compilation of her best songs. A smoky voiced diva singing her own songs and covers of Billie Holliday, Bessie Smith and Nina Simone with an amazing backing lineup over the years ranging from late night bossa nova , avant-funk-jazz and weirder freakouts.  It's really remarkable and my partners' favourite this year, she won't stop playing it. Really beautiful vocals and the music is burning.

Native North America Vol 1: Aboriginal Folk, Rock and Country 1966-1985.  The cool cats at Light in the Attic have pulled the cat out of the bag with this one.  A three volume set of criminally overlooked music from native North America.  "You’ll hear Arctic garage rock from the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, melancholy Yup’ik folk from Alaska, and hushed country blues from the Wagmatcook First Nation reserve in Nova Scotia. You’ll hear echoes of Neil Young, Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, and more among the songs, but injected with Native consciousness, storytelling, poetry, history, and ceremony" - all done in collaboration with the original artists, painstakingly tracked down in far flung places, forgotten towns & reservations to ensure permission & arrange any financial rewards that might result.  This is a real eye opener and the vinyl box set with the book is a treasure.  Worth putting on the Christmas list.  I see it's been rightly nominated for a Grammy so perhaps these talented artists will finally see just rewards decades after their efforts.  There are some sad stories here.

Marc Moulin: The Placebo Years.  I include this not just because I jumped in my seat upon hearing the break from Aim's "Ain't got time to waste" in the opening bars of "Humpty Dumpty" but because the rest of it is ice cold/white hot 70's jazz funk without a whiff of cheese.  Just Brill.

Carsten Meinhart Quartet: To You.  This was a collectors' uber-rare album and the copies that did come up for sale used to trade for tens of thousands of pounds.  It's a spectacular jazz album from Copenhagen in the 60's when American musicians sought refuge and a more welcoming audience in Europe.  Carsten Meinhart was a young but supremely talented saxophonist playing regular jazz nights in Copenhagen.  A local promoter had arranged for Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones (John Coltrane's bassist & drummer) to come over to play and record with the local young guys but it all went tits up through drink and drugs.  The youngsters then recruited a local hot shot drummer and retired to the studio to cut this amazing record.  It's incredibly gutsy and just absolutely burns... The flaming version of "Naima" is worth the LP/CD alone. Awesome music.

John Oswald: Greyfolded.  A full release of John Oswalds "Plunderphonics" version of The Grateful Dead's Darkstar.  It's basically a three hour long edit of the song made up of fragments from live performances hand spliced.  Better than it sounds (unless you hate the Dead in which case it'll be a nightmare).

Noel McGhie and Space Spies. More jazz I'm afraid.. This is a wicked album from the electric period in the 70's with electric piano, horns, and a deep drum groove from the man in the title.  Again as rare as rocking horse shit (I had a bootleg which I thought was OK but now realise it sounds terrible) until this year when the wise guys at Superfly splashed some cash for a remaster and heavy vinyl release.  Really cool, buttery and burning music.

I think that's it.  Get posting your faves...

[Fiend]

Somehow the best track of the year had already happened in January:



Other than that I can't really remember. Oh yeah The Outside Agency dj set at Twisted's Darkside event was awesome.

Edit: This was also a strong contender:



This year has mostly been about an entirely justifiable hardcore/gabber revival for me :D

[JamieG]

Sufjan Stevens: Carrie and Lowell.  Very quiet, soothing and melancholy.  A beautiful album and I think his best since Seven Swans.  Inspired by the death of his mother Carrie in unfortunate circumstances, this is an intensely personal record with songs about family, love, loss, despair and joy.  I must have listened to "No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross" hundreds of times.  The line "Fuck me I'm falling apart" is about is about as raw and honest statement you'll hear on a record this year.  Tragic yet life affirming stuff.

+1 Absolutely brilliant.

Not listened to the most new music this year, but enjoyed.

Youth Lagoon - Savage Hill Ballroom. Melancholy electronic pop. Whispery vocals. Not quite as good as his earlier two albums, but still worth a listen.

Public Service Broadcasting - The Race for Space. Upbeat electronic pop interspersed with spoken work, usually from old radio recordings and infomercials.

Kurt Vile - b'lieve i'm goin down... Layed back guitar rock. Typically quite a lo-fi kind of sound. Very chilled.


Disclaimer: I'm terrible at describing music!

[Wood FT]

always a gold mine this thread, as such I'm always a year behind everyone. My only 2015 one is...

Stephan Bodzin / Power of Ten - A euphoric set of minimal tunes from the bald Bremen beast, Birth being a particular favourite.

 

[andy_e]

Dub/ambient albums of the year, for the one person on the forum interested (me)...

Markus Guentner - Theia - Long-awaited, well received. As the name suggests, this one bubbles up from the depths of time when the whole solar system was a mass of spinning molten balls. Low-pitched rumblings abound, all contained within Markus's unique and mesmerising style.

cv313 - Baring Stars - Dub techno pioneer and amusingly-named Rod Modell records a live show of improvised twiddlings and releases it. Like Theia, it alludes beyond the stars to far outer space, in deep time. Described by Dave Stainthorpe as "music of submarines" which sums it up nicely.

Sherwood & Pinch - Late Night Endless - One of the biggest names in dub and one of the biggest names in dubstep come together to form an album of delightful future dub tinged with their combined vast experiences of dubs from times past.

King Midas Sound & Fennesz - Edition 1 - Two artists I'd not necessarily have ever thought would collaborate but the kings of darkest dankest dub meets the field looper in a wonderful display of dub techno. Iconic dub sounds intermingled with Fennesz' trademark harsh pad sounds.

Leandro Fresco - El Reino Invisible - Just appeared one day and took me by complete surprise. Masterful pop ambient showing the ever-evolving sounds of one of my favourite ambient producers.

Various artists - A Strangely Isolated Place - Europe - Successful ambient blog turned successful ambient record label releases a Places Series special edition. Worth it for Bjorn Rohde's Tour De Pyrenees alone.

That's about it, I've probably missed some off.

[Fiend]

Dub/ambient albums of the year, for the one person on the forum interested (me)...

Markus Guentner - Theia - Long-awaited, well received. As the name suggests, this one bubbles up from the depths of time when the whole solar system was a mass of spinning molten balls. Low-pitched rumblings abound, all contained within Markus's unique and mesmerising style.

I dunno, that actually sounds pretty nice. MP3 / CD purchase available??

You need to be listening to Sleep Research Facility, if you aren't already.

[andy_e]

http://www.astrangelyisolatedplace.com/asipv004-markus-guentner-theia

Yeah, SRF is already on the "must get around to listening to at some point" list.

[cowboyhat]

Ryley Walker: Primrose Green.

I went to see him recently, best gig of this year. The album  however I have subsequently found a bit boring.

Live: brilliant. on record it sounds a like a neutering or strangling of his vibe.

Someone else recommended Kamarsi washington so i'll dive in...

[andy_e]

Fuck's sake, things keep slipping by me this year!

[al]

loved the golden gunn FD - warmed me up on a bleak december morning sleaford mods ace too, east midlands gold

[fried]

Native North America Vol 1: Aboriginal Folk, Rock and Country 1966-1985.  The cool cats at Light in the Attic have pulled the cat out of the bag with this one.  A three volume set of criminally overlooked music from native North America.  "You’ll hear Arctic garage rock from the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, melancholy Yup’ik folk from Alaska, and hushed country blues from the Wagmatcook First Nation reserve in Nova Scotia. You’ll hear echoes of Neil Young, Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, and more among the songs, but injected with Native consciousness, storytelling, poetry, history, and ceremony" - all done in collaboration with the original artists, painstakingly tracked down in far flung places, forgotten towns & reservations to ensure permission & arrange any financial rewards that might result.  This is a real eye opener and the vinyl box set with the book is a treasure.  Worth putting on the Christmas list.  I see it's been rightly nominated for a Grammy so perhaps these talented artists will finally see just rewards decades after their efforts.  There are some sad stories here.

This is excellent, I'll get the vinyl version with the book next year. Thanks for taking the time to compile your list (which I'm still working through...).

I spent the beginning of the year listening to nothing but Sleaford Mods. Best thing I've heard for a long time.

The only thing of note I can remember was discovering Marianne Faithfull's 2005 album Before the Poison, many of the songs written with PJ Harvey and Nick Cave. An absolute gem.

[tomrainbow]

Ha - strange coincidence....I discovered Broken English this year and spent the afternoon writing this:

http://devonrecordclub.com/2015/12/12/marianne-faithfull-broken-english-round-86-toms-selection/

My picks from 2015:

The Apartments - No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal. Heartbreaking, raw emotion. Almost too difficult to listen to.

Meatraffle - Hi-Fi Classics. Like Ian Dury crossed with The Fall when they were good.

Seven Davis Jr - Universes. Space funk rock.

Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness. Not in the same league as Ectasis but still pretty remarkable.

[fried]

Ha - strange coincidence....I discovered Broken English this year and spent the afternoon writing this:

http://devonrecordclub.com/2015/12/12/marianne-faithfull-broken-english-round-86-toms-selection/

Nice write up. Last year's Give My Love to London was very good too.

[Fiend]

Top 3 banging hardcore/gabber sets (download):
Dolphin vs Deathmachine @ Urbfest


The DJ Producer @ Toxic Sickness


Dolphin Darkside Promo mix

Top 3 Boiler Room sets discovered this year:
- fantastically stompy techno
- varied and dark proper dubstep
- diverse industrial dnb madness

Top 1 death metal album:
Autokrator - Autokrator - shockingly bass-heavy brutal industrial death metal.

[SA Chris]

Just been looking through what I've mostly listened to this year, and compared to the annual obscurathon, it's all a bit mundane;

Wolf Alice - My Love is Cool
Foals - What Went Down
Roisin Murphy - Hairless Toys
Chvrches - Every Open Eye
Foo Fighters - St Cecilia EP

[duncan]

Kamasi Washington: The Epic.  I was bit put off by the hyperbole surrounding this album before its release so approached it with reticence.  Turns out I needn't have worried as it's really, really good.  Washington's been a session player on the LA hip-hop/jazz scene for a long time and this is his first record as a bandleader and frontman.  The success of Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly" where Washington did much of the arrangement and sax plus the Flying Lotus thing from last year paved the way for a full-on return to the great spiritual jazz from 60's and 70's from the a 21st century vantage.  It's massive in scope, instrumentation and length with homage paid to Coltrane (John and Alice), Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis, Minnie Ripperton, Ornette Coleman, Milford Graves, Cecil Taylor and features several children or next generation family members of the above.  Quite a remarkable achievement when this stuff was supposed to be the preserve of chin stroking old duffers.  Try it and give the whole thing a listen in one sitting.  You can blame me if it ignites an interest in free jazz and get moaned at by friends and family.

Chin stroking old duffer here! My record of the year. One of the strange times when, all of a sudden, a big chunk of my record collection becomes hip again. A bit like seeing a teenager wearing what appears to be the contents of your 1984 wardrobe.

Keep the recommendations coming.

[lagerstarfish]

my favorite album of the year was The Eccentronic Research Council's dark work "Johnny Rocket, Narcissist & Music Machine... I’m Your Biggest Fan"

Maxine Peake's voice does it for me 

http://www.juno.co.uk/products/the-eccentronic-johnny-rocket-narcissist-music-machine/564190-01/

[Milford Cubicle]

Maribou state - potraits

[cjsheps]

I've been a bit out of it this year, but Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp A Butterfly" gets my vote for album of the year - something really unique and special. Also, I really enjoyed Drake's "If You're Reading This It's Too Late" - a rough-around-the-edges mixtape in the style of his early offerings.

[the_dom]

Kamasi Washington: The Epic.  I was bit put off by the hyperbole surrounding this album before its release so approached it with reticence.  Turns out I needn't have worried as it's really, really good.  Washington's been a session player on the LA hip-hop/jazz scene for a long time and this is his first record as a bandleader and frontman.  The success of Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly" where Washington did much of the arrangement and sax plus the Flying Lotus thing from last year paved the way for a full-on return to the great spiritual jazz from 60's and 70's from the a 21st century vantage.  It's massive in scope, instrumentation and length with homage paid to Coltrane (John and Alice), Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis, Minnie Ripperton, Ornette Coleman, Milford Graves, Cecil Taylor and features several children or next generation family members of the above.  Quite a remarkable achievement when this stuff was supposed to be the preserve of chin stroking old duffers.  Try it and give the whole thing a listen in one sitting.  You can blame me if it ignites an interest in free jazz and get moaned at by friends and family.

Chin stroking old duffer here! My record of the year. One of the strange times when, all of a sudden, a big chunk of my record collection becomes hip again. A bit like seeing a teenager wearing what appears to be the contents of your 1984 wardrobe.

Keep the recommendations coming.

I'll second this - tracked it down based on this thread's recommendation and am thoroughly enjoying it.

[Gus]

Loving the "Best of 2015" vibe, so go psyched to do a top 10 techno highlights. So much good techno around at the moment it's pretty impossible to narrow it down to 10, but I've had a go! Hope you techno heads enjoy it. There's a link at the bottom where you can listen to the tracks:

"Mr. Push" Maksim Dark (Fierce Animal Recordings)
 
"Octopus Modular"  Arnaud Le Texier (Affin)
 
"Close" Fuse (Plus 8 Records)
 
"Data Retrieval" DJ Deep, Roman Poncet (Adventice Tresor Records)
 
"Pressure Lights" Slam, Gary Beck (Toolroom)
 
"Rote 1" Rote (Volte Face & Daniel Avery) (BleeD)
 
"Transporter" Re:Axis Remix- Petter B (Planet Rhythm)
 
"Heart Strings" WHYT NOYZ (Minus)
 
"Wasps Under A Toy Boat" Planetary Assault Systems Remix - Phil Kieran (Cocoon Recordings)
 
"Awake" Julian Jeweil remix - Joseph Capriati (Drumcode)

Link below if you fancy a listen:

[url]https://pro.beatport.com/chart/gusn8rs-best-of-2015-chart/382066/[url]

[fatneck]

Daughter #2 has converted my youngest to Beleiberism and I have to say, the album's not bad...

In other more sensible news, really enjoyed;

The Foals - What Went Down
Half Moon Run - Sun Leads Me On
Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams (obvs) but also his full album cover of Taylor Swift's 1989 is worth a listen
Daniel Twining - Limerance

Top Tip for 2016 is Island Cassettes. There isn't much out there at the moment but here's a sample...

[Muesli]

The Peatbog Faeries 2015 offering 'Blackhouse' has become a firm favourite in the Muesli household

https://soundcloud.com/peatbog-faeries/01-is-this-your-son

[andy popp]

I've been really boring this year.

Sun Kil Moon, "Universal Themes." Patchier than Benji but somehow still has me spellbound much of the time.

Low, "Ones and Sixes." Possible the best album of their 20+ year career - not something that many bands manage.

[Falling Down]

Some really nice music suggestions.  As usual the UKB cultural radar is pin sharp.

TomRainbow, that Julia Holter album is really, really great.  Been listening to it a lot.  Going to buy a CD or Vinyl version.

Andy - I'd not heard the Fennesz/King Midas collaboration.  I really like it.  Did you know Fennesz was a guitarist and those 'pad sounds' are live guitar through oodles of FX? 

The Low, Foals, Roisin Murphy, ERC.. Great stuff.

There were a couple of late entries and one that I'd forgotten about from earlier in the year.

Parallelogram - A collection from Three Lobed Recordings with five split LPs pairing up complementary artists.  hiss golden messenger / michael chapman; six organs of admittance / william tyler; kurt vile / steve gunn; thurston moore & john moloney; caught on tape / [alan] bishop – orcutt - corsano trio; bardo pond / yo la tengo.  It's a lovely collection of alt.music and each one is available separately via DL from the TLR website.

Jim O'Rourke - Simple Songs.  His first LP of songs since the two brilliant albums Insignificance and Eureka.  Like a post-rock Randy Newman or Van Dyke Parks.  Beautiful stuff.

Max Richter's eight-hour Sleep is something else.

I stumbled across a great band from Manchester called GoGo Penguin after hearing a track on Gilles Peterson's show.  Piano, bass and drums like a jazz trio but the music they play is like an acoustic version of electronica/techno.  Lovely music and worth seeking out.