My Favorite Releases of 2010
With the prevalence of new netlabel releases as well as streaming services like Bandcamp and SoundCloud, 2010 was a dynamite year to hear new music without breaking the bank. Of course, I still had to get my Boomkat fix and spent a lot of money on new releases throughout the year too.
Last year I thought I had heard a lot of new music when I listed 62 releases. But this year, I heard a few hundred and narrowed it down to my favorite 222. Bananas, I know. So I decided to corral my favorite 12, crown a particular album as the king and let most others sift below. All in alphabetical order.
So here’s the album (actually, the trio of albums) that I returned to more often than any other. Four hours of gorgeous ambient music without a misstep. You can find these releases and more on the lovely BFW Recordings netlabel.
My 2010 Tippity-Top-Top Favorite:
- Bing Satellites – Twilight Sessions Vol 1
- Bing Satellites – Twilight Sessions Vol 2
- Bing Satellites – Twilight Sessions Vol 3
2010 Must-Haves (Top 12):
- Access To Arasaka – void();
- Actress – Splazsh
- Carl Sagan’s Ghost – Especially For Them
- Demdike Stare – Voices of Dust
- Frequent Sync – Coalesce
- Ghost Box Study Series 01-04 (7″s)
- Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – Love Is A Stream
- Loscil – Endless Falls
- Nest – Retold
- Scuba – Triangulation
- The Fun Years – God Was Like, No
- Yellow Swans – Going Places
2010 Well Worth Searching Out (if you feel like diggin’ in):
- Acanthus – Le Frisson Des Vampires
- Access To Arasaka – ==null
- Al Tourettes – Dodgem / Sunken
- Al Tourettes & Appleblim – Lipsmacker
- Alan Howarth – RA.230 Podcast
- Aless – I’mmobile
- Alex B – Moments
- Altar Eagle – Mechanical Gardens
- Altus – Black Trees Among Amber Skies
- Analog Workshop – Emporium of Broken Toys
- ANBB (Alva.Noto & Blixa Bargeld) - Mimikry
- ANBB (Alva.Noto & Blixa Bargeld) – Ret Marut Handshake
- Anworth Kirk – Anworth Kirk
- Architect – Consume Adapt Create
- Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
- ASC – Nothing Is Certain
- Asura – 360
- Asura – Asura
- Asura & Anenon – Silver Trees – Damiel
- Autechre – Move of Ten
- Autechre – Oversteps
- Autre Ne Veut – Autre Ne Veut
- Balam Acab – See Birds EP
- Barn Owl – Ancestral Star
- Benjamin Dauer – Burning Of Wine
- Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot… The Son Of Chico Dusty
- BJ Nilsen – The Invisible City
- Brian Eno – Small Craft On A Milk Sea
- Bvdub – A Silent Reign
- Bvdub / Shifty Science – Same Boat, Different Sea / Love’s Not Fading
- Carbon Based Lifeforms – Interloper
- Carl Sagan’s Ghost – Before I Go
- Carl Sagan’s Ghost – Colonial Spa EP
- Carl Sagan’s Ghost – Music For Home Offices Volume Two
- Charanjit Singh – Synthesizing: Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat
- Chihei Hatakeyama – A Long Journey
- Christopher Rau – Asper Clouds
- Clem Leek – Holly Lane
- Clubroot – II: MMX
- Commix – ReCall To Mind
- Daft Punk – Tron Legacy Soundtrack
- Dakota Suite – The Night Just Keeps Coming In
- Daphne Oram – Oramics
- Darkhalo – Phase Shift
- Darkstar – North
- Date Palms – Of Psalms
- DeepChord Presents Echospace – Liumin
- DeepChord Presents Echospace – Vibrational Studies (In Echospace) – Symbolism In Transition
- Dem Hunger – Caveman Smack
- Demdike Stare – Forest Of Evil
- Demdike Stare – Liberation Through Hearing
- Demdike Stare – Osmosis
- Deru – Say Goodbye To Useless
- Digital Mystikz – Return II Space
- Doyeq – Eyelashes Of Lanterns
- Drexon Field – Barnstead
- Dylan Ettinger – New Age Outlaws
- Eguana – Mantra
- Eleh – Location Momentum
- Eleven Tigers – Clouds Are Mountains
- Ellipse/Saffron Slumber – Translucence
- Eluvium – Static Nocturne
- Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here?
- Excepter – Presidence
- F – Energy Distortion
- Federico Durand – La Siesta del Ciprés
- Fenn O’Berg – In Stereo
- Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
- Former Ghosts – Fleurs
- Frank Bretschneider – EXP
- Free The Robots – Ctrl Alt Delete
- Geoff Mullen – Bongo Closet
- Gonjasufi – A Sufi & A Killer
- Gradient – City Sound Vibrations
- Guideo – Anidea
- Gutta Percha – Tube Overtures
- Heavy Winged – Sunspotted
- Henrik José – The Little Things EP
- High Skies – Sounds of Earth EP
- Higuma – Den Of The Spirits
- Ian Hawgood – Slow Films In Low Light
- Ikonika – Contact, Want, Love, Have
- Imaginary Softwoods – Imaginary Softwoods
- Inch-time – Aurora
- Indignant Senility – Plays Wagner – Part One
- ISAN – Glow In The Dark Safari Set
- Ital Tek – Midnight Colour
- James Stephen Finn – Homecoming
- Jan Jelinek & Masayoshi Fujita – Bird, Lake, Objects
- Jana Winderen – Energy Field
- John Roberts – Glass Eights
- Joker – Tron
- Keith Fullerton Whitman – Disingenuity
- Kid 606 – Songs About F***ing Steve Albini
- Koen Holtkamp – Gravity/Bees
- Kontext – Disassociate
- LA Vampires and Zola Jesus – LA Vampires & Zola Jesus EP
- Language of Landscape – Memories Fade Under A Shallow Autumn Snow
- Late – Phantom Papers EP
- Lil B – Rain In England
- Litmus0001 – Fear In A Gaze Towards An Unknown Horizon
- Loscil – Versions
- Luke Abbott – Holkham Drones
- Lukid – Chord
- Magical Unicellular Music – Aurora
- Marcel Dettmann – Dettmann
- Marcus Fischer – Arctic/Antarctic
- Marcus Fischer – Monocoastal
- Mark Fell – Multistability
- Mark Van Hoen – Where Is The Truth
- Mater Suspiria Vision – Second Coming
- Matrix Metals – Flamingo Breeze
- Matthew Dear – Black City
- Max Richter – Infra
- Mike Shiflet – Llanos
- Modul – Quarterlife Recycle Bin
- Mon0 – Sensaural
- Moon Wiring Club – A Spare Tabby At The Cat’s Wedding
- Moritz Von Oswald Trio – Live In New York
- Moshimoss – Hidden Tapes No. 66
- Motionfield – The Sound Of Snow
- Mount Kimbie – Crooks & Lovers
- Mount Kimbie – Remixes Part 1 & 2
- Mr. Cloudy – Light In My Head
- Nadja – Autopergamene
- NCThompson – Another Quiet Winter
- Neil Young – Le Noise
- Nettless – From Beyond
- Nettless – Phobos and Deimos
- Nos Phillipé – Nos Phillipé
- Ólafur Arnalds – …And They Have Escaped The Weight Of Darkness
- Olan Mill – Pine
- On – Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not
- Oneohtrix Point Never – Returnal
- oOoOO – oOoOO EP
- Optimo – Fabric 52
- Oval – O
- Oval – Oh
- Pale Blue Sky – Shades Of Grey
- Pan Sonic – Gravitoni
- Pan Sonic & Keiji Haino – In The Studio
- Pangaea – Pangaea EP
- Pantha du Prince – Black Noise
- Phillip Wilkerson – Daybook EP
- Phillip Wilkerson – The Way Home
- Pjusk – Sval
- Polygon Ring – Songs From The Season Labs
- Proem – Enough Conflict
- Rafael Anton Irisarri – Reverie
- Rafael Anton Irisarri – The North Bend
- Rangers – Suburban Tours
- Relmic Statute – Morning Tapes
- Rene Hell – Porcelain Opera
- Richard Chartier – A Field For Mixing
- Richard Skelton – Landings
- Rockwell – Reverse Engineering
- Roof Light – Kirkwood Gap
- Roswell Return – Probe
- Roughquest – Play
- RxRy – RxRy
- Sam Prekop – Old Punch Card
- Scott Cortez – Twin Radiant Flux
- Scott Tuma – Dandelion
- Scuba – Sub:Stance
- Seefeel – Faults
- Senking – Pong
- Sepalcure – Love Pressure EP
- Shackleton – Fabric 55
- Shed – The Traveller
- Shlohmo – Shlomoshun Deluxe
- Simon Scott – Traba
- Sog – Abweichung
- Specta Ciera – Accumulation Section
- Specta Ciera – Snowflake Collections 2
- Sun Araw – Off Duty
- Surgeon – Fabric 53
- T++ – Wireless
- Take – Only Mountain
- Taylor Deupree – Shoals
- Teebs – Ardour
- The Alps – Le Voyage
- The Black Dog - Music For Real Airports
- The Inventors of Aircraft – Unknown Language
- The Present Moment – The High Road
- The Sight Below – It All Falls Aparts
- The Soft Moon – The Soft Moon
- Thomas Fehlmann – Gute Luft
- To Rococo Rot – Speculation
- Toro Y Moi – Causers of This
- Umberto - Prophecy of the Black Widow
- Various – Asthesia
- Various - Long Division with Remainders box set
- Various – Myth Of The Near Future Split EP
- Various – Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa
- Velour – The Velvet Collection
- Verülf – Territorial
- VHS Head – Trademark Ribbons Of Gold
- Virgo – Virgo
- Walls – Walls
- Wicked Messenger – Officium Nocturnum
- Winter Drones – Blood In The Coffin
- Wisp – We Miss You
- Woob – Repurpose
- Xasthur – Portal Of Sorrow
- Zola Jesus – Stridulum
- Zombie Zombie – Plays John Carpenter
- Zs – New Slaves
- Zvuku – Half Full
About this entry
You’re currently reading “My Favorite Releases of 2010,” an entry on Nervous Music
- Published:
- December 26, 2010 / 12:54 pm
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- Music
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