Albums of 2022

[dad]

kreng likes music.

respect.

[Ello Sailor]

Fantano ain't got shit on our boy kreng.

(Except Hellfire should be higher. Come on, brah)

[Brett]

probably forgot a few but these are my faves of 2022

all are in alphabetic order

Spoiler: show

Top Tier LPs:
Adam H - Floods
Anteloper - Pink Dolphins
Backxwash - I Lie Here Buried With My Rings And My Dresses
Carmen Villain - Only Love From Now On
Chat Pile - God's Country
Christos Chondropoulos - Relics
Contour - Onwards!
Cyrus Pireh - Visitor
Dawuna - Glass Lit Dream
Emeka Ogboh - 6​°​30​’​33​.​372​”​N 3​°​22​’​0​.​66​”​E
Eric Chenaux - Say Laura
Fatboi Sharif x noface - Preaching In Havana
Infinity Knives with Brian Ennals - King Cobra
Jeff Parker - Mondays At The Enfield Tennis Academy
Lamin Fofana - The Open Boat
Lampen - Lampen
Leila Bordreuil - Not An Elegy
Lucrecia Dalt - ¡Ay!
Medicine Singers - Medicine Singers
Nate Wooley/Columbia Icefield - Ancient Songs Of Burlap Heroes
Oren Ambarchi - Shebang
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin - Ghosted
Oxbow & Peter Brötzmann - An Eternal Reminder Of Not Today / Live At Moers
Pinkcourtesyphone - Shouting At Nuance
Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful
Valentina Goncharova - Ocean - Symphony For Electric Violin And Other Instruments In 10+ Parts
Valentina Magaletti - Rotta
Γιάννης Βεσλεμές - The Well

Great LPs:
Arve Henriksen, Kjetil Husebø - Sequential Stream
Authentically Plastic - Raw Space
Bjork - Fossora
Chris Abrahams - Follower
CoH meets Abul Mogard - CoH meets Abul Mogard
Cowman - slaughter
Damien Jurado - Reggae Film Star
Dans Dans - 6
Duster - Together
Eels - Extreme Witchcraft (See My Engine Gleam)
Esmerine - Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More
Fulu Miziki - N'Djila Wa Mudujimu
God Is War - Predation Perfected
I Like To Sleep - Sleeping Beauty
Ilmiliekki Quartet - Ilmiliekki Quartet
Immanuel Wilkins - The 7th Hand
Jacaszek / Romke Kleefstra / Jan Kleefstra - It Deel I
Jake Xerxes Fussell - Good and Green Again
Jeremy Cunningham, Dustin Laurenzi, Paul Bryan - A Better Ghost
John McCowen - Models of Duration
Joona Toivanen Trio - Both Only
JOYFULTALK - Familiar Science
Keiji Haino + Sumac - Into This Juvenile Apocalypse Our Golden Blood To Pour Let Us Never
Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, Oren Ambarchi - “Caught In The Dilemma Of Being Made To Choose” This Makes The Modesty Which Should Never Been Closed Off Itself Continue To Ask Itself: “Ready Or Not?” = 「選ばされてしまう　はめになる」 このことが　もう閉じることが無かったはずの謙虚さに 「もういいかい」と　自らに問いかけ続けさせる
Kelly Lee Owens - LP.8
Lasse Marhaug - Context (Part 1-7)
Merzbow / Lawrence English - Eternal Stalker
Mister Water Wet - Significant Soil
Mønic - Trawler Tapes
Nadja / Aidan Baker - Nalepa
Perverts In White Shirts - Meaning What Exactly?
Peter Brötzmann / Keiji Haino Duo - The Intellect Given Birth To Here (Eternity) Is Too Young
Porcupine Tree - Closure / Continuation
Runhild Gammelsæter & Lasse Marhaug - Higgs Boson
Saint Abdullah, Eomac - Patience Of A Traitor
Sarah Davachi - Two Sisters
Shaolin Jazz - Byrd Over Staten: A Shaolin Jazz Tribute To Donald Byrd
Shearwater - The Great Awakening
Taylor Deupree - Harbor
Terry Jennings, Charles Curtis - Piece for Cello and Saxophone
The Comet Is Coming - Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam
Vladislav Delay & Eivind Aarset - Singles
William Basinski & Janek Schaefer - ". . . On Reflection"

Good LPs:
Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There
Black Midi - Hellfire
Brandon Seabrook With Cooper-Moore And Gerald Cleaver - In The Swarm
Buñuel - Killers Like Us
Caleb R.K. Williams - Unique Awake Roads
Cut Hands - Sixteen Ways Out
Deathprod - Sow Your Gold In The White Foliated Earth (A Composition For Ensemble Musikfabrik's Harry Parch Instruments)
Eddie Vedder - Earthling
Heroes Are Gang Leaders - LeAutoRoiOgraphy
Joe Rainey - Niineta
John Also Bennett - Out there in the middle of nowhere
Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
Kheth Astron - Flatter Earth
Lori Goldston - High And Low
Shit And Shine - Phase Corrected
The Mystic Revelation of Teppo Repo - Kosmoksen erakko
The pale faced family on the hill with Oliver Coates - The pale faced family on the hill
The Savage Morality - ATROCITY DECAY
The Smile - A Light For Attracting Attention
Vermin Womb - Retaliation

Top Tier EPs:

Crazy Doberman - devils daughter sings her hybrid poem
Fire!, Stephen O'Malley, David Sandström - Requiēs
Primitive Man - Insurmountable
Springtime - The Night Raver EP
Tom Skinner - Voices Of Bishara

Top Tier Archival/Reissues LPs:

"A" Trio - The Binding Third
Alice Coltrane - Ptah, The El Daoud
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Insen
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Revep
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Summvs
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Vrioon
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto with Ensemble Modern - utp_
Cheval De Frise - Cheval De Frise
David Sylvian - Blemish
Dominique Lawalrée - First Meeting (Expanded Edition)
Het Zweet - Het Zweet
Isotope 217° - The Unstable Molecule
Jan Bruyndonckx - Rails And Other Tracks
Jean-Claude Vannier / Jean-Claude Vannier & Serge Gainsbourg - La Bête Noire / Paris N'Existe Pas
Julius Eastman - Two Extended Pieces For Four Pianos
Justice - Planisphere
Léo Kupper - Electronic Works & Voices 1977-87
Masahiko Togashi With Don Cherry & Charlie Haden - Session In Paris, Vol. 1 "Song Of Soil"
Max Roach - We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite
New Life Trio - Visions Of The Third Eye
Richard Ramirez - Memorial
The Khan Jamal Creative Arts Ensemble - Drum Dance To The Motherland
Various - Exploring Gong Culture In Southeast Asia: Massif And Archipelago
非常階段 - 蔵六の奇病

Nice to see all the Constellation representation, Kreng. I thought they had a very strong release schedule this year. Did you ever check out the new Black Ox Orkestar, Everything Returns? It's up there with Chenaux and Esmerine as one of my very favorite records of 2022.

[epilogue]

Been listening to some stuff I missed last year

That Alex G record is pretty great.

[Higgs]

Using up my Red FL tokens, catching up on listening to albums of 2022 all a bit late. I've been otherwise occupied!

Bonny Light Horseman released an album this year and the title track, Exile, is a cracker.

[epilogue]

I need to get into the new BLH album. I thought the last one (2020?) was solid.

[dad]

I need to get into the new BLH album. I thought there last one (2020?) was solid.

yeah, that self-titled album is a good one.

[VinylGuy]

Been enjoying Suki Waterhouse album and EP.

Blessed is a beautiful song.

[Higgs]

I'm still catching up on a few 2022 albums and just checkingh out Wild Pink's "ILYSM" released last year. I like some of the stuff here but I gotta say that I worry that The War on Drugs has created a bit of a problem with a slew of bands taking their template and going with it mercilessly. Not to say there isn't some great stuff created, but man can it get a little samey and boring as well.

Anyway, here's one of the (imo) good ones, Hold my Hand featuring Julien Baker:

[Higgs]

^^ On further listen I was a tad harsh in this instance. I stand by my comments re: the various War on Drugs clones out there but this Wild Pink album is actually a pretty damn enjoyable listen.

[liebzz]

The guys from Goose formed an acoustic trio under the moniker of Orebolo and released a live album called Volume I that largely does Goose/Great Blue tunes. It is pretty damn phenomenal.

Edit- the cover of Ship of Fools at the end is really great.

[Ello Sailor]

Too much music! I don't think I'd ever be happy with an end of year list at this point. But I'd like to walk back my comment about 2022 being on the weaker side. I made that post after listening to Placebo, Silversun Pickups, Muse (lol) and Daniel Johns in quick succession. Not wholly terrible (except for Muse), but at that point it was looking grim for established artists I enjoy/have enjoyed in the past. Pixies and Kendrick were also disappointing.

black midi, Jack White's first, at least three of King Gizzard's releases and Chat Pile would probably be in the conversation for my album of the year. The Warpaint album slaps, too. As does Beach House's. Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Metric were solid but a slight step down.

Too much music! But what a great problem to have.

[Higgs]

The guys from Goose formed an acoustic trio under the moniker of Orebolo and released a live album called Volume I that largely does Goose/Great Blue tunes. It is pretty damn phenomenal.

Edit- the cover of Ship of Fools at the end is really great.

I know nothing of this Goose of which you speak, but I am certainly going to source this Orebolo and give it a listen.

[i got bugs]

The guys from Goose formed an acoustic trio under the moniker of Orebolo and released a live album called Volume I that largely does Goose/Great Blue tunes. It is pretty damn phenomenal.

Edit- the cover of Ship of Fools at the end is really great.

Thanks for this

[VinylGuy]

Too much music! I don't think I'd ever be happy with an end of year list at this point. But I'd like to walk back my comment about 2022 being on the weaker side. I made that post after listening to Placebo, Silversun Pickups, Muse (lol) and Daniel Johns in quick succession. Not wholly terrible (except for Muse), but at that point it was looking grim for established artists I enjoy/have enjoyed in the past. Pixies and Kendrick were also disappointing.

black midi, Jack White's first, at least three of King Gizzard's releases and Chat Pile would probably be in the conversation for my album of the year. The Warpaint album slaps, too. As does Beach House's. Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Metric were solid but a slight step down.

Too much music! But what a great problem to have.

that Warpaint album is truly the best.

[liebzz]

The guys from Goose formed an acoustic trio under the moniker of Orebolo and released a live album called Volume I that largely does Goose/Great Blue tunes. It is pretty damn phenomenal.

Edit- the cover of Ship of Fools at the end is really great.

I know nothing of this Goose of which you speak, but I am certainly going to source this Orebolo and give it a listen.

Goose is a band that has received a lot of hype in the past 18 months. They are generally described as a fusion between indie rock and a jam band. Live, they are exceptional. Rick Mitarotonda is an exceptional guitarist that plays over largely hypnotic grooves. They play originals mostly from their numerous projects but also throw in wild covers that range from The National to A-Ha, Magic Carpet Ride to Nights in White Satin (amazing cover!) and Shama-Lama-Ding-Dong. They I think are pretty well aligned with the Grateful Dead progeny of jam bands, and Mitarotonda has been playing as a guest with Phil Lesh and Bob Weir in the past few months. Goose toured in the Fall with the Trey Anastasio Band and as a result getting tickets to one of their shows is proving next to impossible.

In the studio, they have 3 albums, all with a nice cross section of their sound, though the newest one, Dripfield, I think is their best - even Pitchfork was generally positive on it and they hate jam bands.

A proper journey may be coming soon.

[bodysnatcher]

Their fans wear socks on their arms that looks like goose heads, sooo…

[dad]

The guys from Goose formed an acoustic trio under the moniker of Orebolo and released a live album called Volume I that largely does Goose/Great Blue tunes. It is pretty damn phenomenal.

Edit- the cover of Ship of Fools at the end is really great.

I know nothing of this Goose of which you speak, but I am certainly going to source this Orebolo and give it a listen.

Goose is a band that has received a lot of hype in the past 18 months. They are generally described as a fusion between indie rock and a jam band. Live, they are exceptional. Rick Mitarotonda is an exceptional guitarist that plays over largely hypnotic grooves. They play originals mostly from their numerous projects but also throw in wild covers that range from The National to A-Ha, Magic Carpet Ride to Nights in White Satin (amazing cover!) and Shama-Lama-Ding-Dong. They I think are pretty well aligned with the Grateful Dead progeny of jam bands, and Mitarotonda has been playing as a guest with Phil Lesh and Bob Weir in the past few months. Goose toured in the Fall with the Trey Anastasio Band and as a result getting tickets to one of their shows is proving next to impossible.

In the studio, they have 3 albums, all with a nice cross section of their sound, though the newest one, Dripfield, I think is their best - even Pitchfork was generally positive on it and they hate jam bands.

A proper journey may be coming soon.

I do like their cover of Bloodbuzz Ohio.

[Higgs]

Cheers for the background info there - liebzz wiki!

I couldn't source Volume 1 so instead snagged the live set from Homer NY that the majority of Vol 1 was sourced from. Cool show, great sound.

[Higgs]

Still doing some 2022 catch up. I'd never come across The Cool greenhouse before but checked out their 2022 album Sod's Toastie today. Very much enjoyed it, although it does have that sort of talking vocal thing going that seems a bit popular these days (think Dry Cleaning and even Parquet Courts to a degree). I do enjoy the post punk revival we have going on.

Anyway, here's their nod to Talking Heads Get Deluded. Good Friday afternoon listening.