2024

Wire 15 (12)
Barry Bermange / Delia Derbyshire / The BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Inventions for Radio (Silva Screen)
Masayuki Takayanagi New Direction Unit - Mass Hysterism in Another Situation (Black Editions)
Madison Greenstone - Resonance Studies in Ecstatic Consciousness (Relative Pitch)
Agustin Pereyra Lucena - Agustin Pereyra Lucena (Far Out) +#481
AMM - Last Calls (Matchless)
Liz Helman - The Colour of Water (Flaming Pines)
Misha Faulty - [incoherent imaging] (Multibody)
Ernest Berk - Diversed Tapes (HCR / NMC)
The Sea Trio - Live in Munich and Bonn (Confront)
Patricia Brennan Septet - Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic)
Jeff Mills - The Eyewitness (Axis) +#487
Rrose x Polygonia - Dermatology (Eaux)
Alan Lamb - Night Passage (Room40)
Elephant9 with Terje Rypdal - Catching Fire (Rune Grammofon) +#489
Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja (Nuclear Blast)

record of the year
Patricia Brennan Septet - Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic)

#490

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja (Nuclear Blast)

[T]he seven tracks that form Muuntautuja boldly hint that Ornassi Pazuzu are on the brink of forging a new form of metal. — Edwin Pouncey

#489

Alan Lamb - Night Passage (Room40)

Night Passage (...) stands out as not only the pinnacle of Lamb’s work, but as a pinnacle in the field of field recording itself. – Spenser Tomson

#488

Rrose x Polygonia - Dermatology (Eaux)

It’s precise and dense, with meticulous sound design. — Yewande Adeniran

#487

Patricia Brennan Septet - Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic)

The album represents a huge leap forward, firmly establishing Brennan as a fiercely original talent on the New York scene. — Peter Margasak

#486

The Sea Trio - Live in Munich and Bonn (Confront)

The three men distill different generational and aesthetic information into set-long, completely free improvisation. — Bill Meyer

#485

Ernest Berk - Diversed Tapes (HCR / NMC)

[W]hat transmits from his music is unflagging excitement at the distinctive soundworld he was opening up, and fascination with the possibilities offered by this new medium. — Julian Cowley

#484

Misha Faulty - [incoherent imaging] (Multibody)

[T]here’s also evidence of a steely sense of control here: the twisting, cutting and splicing of sound feels like a way of reclaiming agency in the face of a world unfit for need. — Louis Pattison

#483

Liz Helman - The Colour of Water (Flaming Pines)

Through electronic processing, she makes the clicks, chitters and hums of London glow through cathedral scaled buzz and drone. — Daryl Worthington

#482

AMM - Last Calls (Matchless)

Things rise, gingerly, and fall, a struggle to not struggle playing out in real time, capturing vulnerabilities rarely displayed so openly in improvised music. — Peter Margasak

#481

Madison Greenstone - Resonance Studies in Ecstatic Consciousness (Relative Pitch)

At times, it sounds like they’re chewing the mouthpiece, producing harmonica-like effects and a keening buzz. — Stewart Smith

#479/480-2

Masayuki Takayanagi New Direction Unit - Mass Hysterism in Another Situation (Black Editions)

The guitarists jettison notes, chords and the last rudiments of jazz technique, instead fashioning endlessly changing shapes of feedback that manifest and disintegrate with the music’s writhing maelstrom. — Bill Meyer

#479/480-1

Barry Bermange / Delia Derbyshire / The BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Inventions for Radio (Silva Screen)

One of the true titans of modern sound creating some of her finest work. An act of sonic recovery approximately a billion times better than a so-called new Beatles song. Absolutely essential. — Neil Kulkarni