2016: albums of the year

December 29, 2016 · by · in

Yep, fuck this year.  Albums:

Roomful of Teeth – Partita for 8 Voices

Caroline Shaw.  What the hell.  I don’t want to say that this piece single-handedly restored my faith in “new music” … but this piece and this recording kind of did.  Astonishing.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – EARS

Thank you Spotify and Fresh Finds for the introduction to Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, who’s music is everything I want from modular synthesis nerdery and has some mean saxophone parts.

Tim Hecker – Love Streams

Hecker moves a bit away from drone and a bit towards bass, noise, and processing, and the result is 16 kinds of excellent.

Honorable mentions to:  Suzanne Ciani – Buchla Concerts 1975; Mary Lattimore – At The Dam; James Holden & Camilo Tirado – Outdoor Museum of Fractals; Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool; Carla del Forno – You Know What It’s Like, and Oliver Coates – Upstepping