Best of 2013: Staff Lists

As is now customary at this point in our end of year coverage, we like to dispense with the more formal categories and get creative with the top 10 lists, asking our growing team of contributors to contribute their own selections with no boundaries on theme or content. Although these lists don’t have to be musical, we’re unfortunately still waiting for that list of “Top 10 producers’ pets” or “Top 10 tweets of Todd Burns in 2013” (this is number one incidentally), but the lists below are no less imaginative, with the year’s best cassette listening experiences, music to soundtrack interstellar travel and even tropical paganism making up some of the selections on offer. If the usual lists turn you off, there will be undoubtedly be something to pique your interest here.

Josh Hall: “My top 10 most-played tracks of the year (approximately)”

Future Brown ft Tink – “Wanna Party”
Galcher Lustwerk – “I Neva Seen”
Emptyset – “Disperse” (Raster-Noton)
Mix Mup – “After The Job” (Hinge Finger)
Mr Beatnick – “Parallax Scroll” (Don’t Be Afraid)
Boddika & Joy Orbison – “Mercy (Boddika VIP)” (Nonplus)
Kode9 – “OK” (Rinse)
Holden – “The Caterpillar’s Intervention” (Border Community)
Move D – “To The Disco 77” (Electric Minds)
Vatican Shadow – “Contractor Corpses Hung Over The Euphrates River” (Hospital Productions)

Matthew Kent: “20 Records not from this year that I’m really into”

Ground Clearance – Don’t Be Afraid (Out Of Romford 12”) 1992 (Coastal mix… tuff)
Various – Time To Go: The Southern Psychedelic Movement (Flying Nun 2LP) 2012
Jacques Brodier – Filtre De Réalité (Penultimate Press LP) 2012
Seigen Ono – Commes Des Garçons Vol. I & II (Venture LP) 1988/89
Glands of External Secretion – Reverse Athiesm (BUFMS 2LP) 2011
Adam Bohman – Music & Words (Paradigm Discs CD) 1999
Less-Lezz-Mass – EP([GYM 7”) 1982
Asa-Chang & Junray – Jun Ray Sang Chang (Leaf LP) 2002
Bernard C. – Lieu Magique (Illusion Prod. LP) 1985
Villalobos – For Disco Only 2 (For Disco Only 12”) 2005
Takami – ー天使行ーY. De Noir Ⅱ (LLE LP) 1983
Autechre – Amber (Warp LP) 1994 (yeah, I know…)
Eliane Radigue & Charles Curtis – Naldjorlak (Shiiin CD) 2008 (thanks 2 Stephen Bishop)
Geinoh Yamashirogumi – Echoes Of The Earth (Victor LP) 1976
Nocturnal Emissions – In Dub Vol. 1 (Earthly Delights MP3) 2010
Bjørn Torske – Trøbbel (Tellé 2LP) 2001
Nomex – Infiltrate Assimilate Propagate Disseminate (Abverse 12”) 1998 (thanks 2 Shawn O’Sullivan)
Mnemonist Orchestra/Mnemonists – Mnemonist Orchestra/Some Attributes Of A Living System (Dys 2LP) 1979
Various – Norwich: A Fine City (Romans In Britain LP) 1981
Various – Slave Ant Raid (Sound Of Pig C60) 1984

Brendan Arnott: “Ten records that made me spit out my cherry smoothie mid-sip in 2013”

Katie Gately – Self Titled (Public Information)
HNNY – BOY / YOB (Puss)
Samo DJ – TaiPoKau (L.I.E.S BLK)
Delroy Edwards – Untitled (LA Club Resource)
DJ Sprinkles – Queerifications & Ruins (Mule Musiq)
Alex Burkat – Shower Scene (Mister Saturday Night)
Rrose – Waterfall Variations (Eaux)
The Candies / Minako Yoshida – Sono Ki Ni Sadenaide / Tornado (Last Records)
Beautiful Swimmers – Son (Future Times)
DJ Harvey – Sarcastic Study Masters Vol. 2 Mix (re-issue, CDR)

James Manning: Ten tracks to experience at the bottom of the Mariana Trench

Tr nch – Challenger Deep feat. Jacques Picard (Mariana Wax)
Mike Parker – “Mnajdra [Shifted Remix)” (Geophone)
Hakim Murphy “Tender B” (Synapsis)
Miles – “Irreligious” (Modern Love)
Federsen – “Point Reyes” (Fifth Interval)
Steve O’Sullivan – “Stripped (Exos Reconstruction)” (Sushitech)
Terekke – “Amaze” (L.I.E.S.)
Terrence Dixon – “Untitled (A1SFTDX 001)” (Surface)
Oskar Offerman & Edward – “Sunrise (Underwater Dub)” (Thema)
Vril – “CTO” (Giegling)

Oli Warwick: 10 spiritual incantations on the wild frontier of 2013

Albinos – “Black Orchid” (Antinote)
Harmonious Thelonious – “The Grasshopper Was The Witness” (Elmore Judd & Rown Park remix) (Meakusma)
Smell The Flesh – Hail Kongo (Skudge White)
Pev & Kowton – “Vapours” (Livity Sound)
Ras G – “Ancestral Data Bank” (Brainfeeder)
Afrikan Sciences – “Need Want Have” (Deepblak)
Tru West – “DJ Sotofett’s Dype Skoger Remix Parts 1 & 2” (Marmo Music)
Cut Hands – “Eat Them Like Bread” (Downwards)
Africaine 808 – “Cobjas (Jan Schulte Rework)” (Vulkandance)
Desert Sky – “Track 2” (Desert Sky)

Tony Poland: Top Ten Tapes of 2013

Helena Hauff – Obscure Object (Krokodilo Tapes)
Perfume Advert – Tulpa (1080p)
Pender Street Steppers ‎- Life in the Zone (Mood Hut)
Timothy J Fairplay – Good Driving In The Night (Centurians Of Rome)
Tom Of England – One Deck Wonder (The Trilogy Tapes)
Tuff Sherm – Struggle Smell (Reckno)
Frak/ Heatsick ‎- Live At Club 4 Reel, OCCII, Amsterdam (C4 Reels)
Silent Servant – Performance (Sections 1-6) (Downwards America)
Willie Burns – Land Vs Air (Sex Lies Magnetic Tape)
The Siege Of Troy – The Siege Of Troy (Ominira)

Chloe Frieda: Music for Intergalactic Space Travel

Matmos – The Marriage of True Minds (Thrill Jockey)
Frak – Erase (Psychic Malmo)
Pod Blotz – Glass Tears (Clan Destine Records)
Felix Kubin – Zemsta Plutona (Gagarin Records)
Xosar – The Calling (Rush Hour)
Steve Moore – Pangaea Ultima (Spectrum Spools)
Hacker Farm – UHF (Exotic Pylon)
Laurel Halo – Chance of Rain (Hyperdub)
Acteurs – Cloud Generating (Public Information)
Karen Gwyer – Kiki the Wormhole (Opal Tapes)

Scott Wilson: 10 of the year’s most vividly rendered and shamelessly baroque listening experiences

Laurel Halo – “Throw” (Hyperdub)
Oneohtrix Point Never – “Chrome Country” (Warp)
Barnett + Coloccia – “Switch” (Blackest Ever Black)
Stellar OM Source – “Polarity” (RVNG Intl)
Jar Moff – “Tziaitzomanasou” (PAN)
Shape Worship – “Throughways” (Gang of Ducks)
DYNOOO – “Gel Lite” (Astro:Dynamics)
Egyptrixx – “ACCR” (Night Slugs)
Logos – “Surface Area” (Keysound Recordings)
David Kanaga – “Peking Duck Parts 1-4” (Software Recording Co)

Pietro Barbieri-h: 10 electronic records of 2013 that could have been used in the Alien trilogy

Gesloten Cirkel – Hole (Berceuse Heroique)
Rezzett – Rezzett EP (The Trilogy Tapes)
Cliff Lothar – White Savage (Viewlexx)
Michael Ferragosto – Synthdrome At The Disco (Muqique Records)
R Zone 6 – “Rebecca In The Hall” (R Zone)
Itinerant Dubs – Itinerant Dub 1-3 (Itinerant Dub)
Breaker 1 2 – Breakin’ (Forbidden Planet)
Dresvn – Acido 14 (Acido Records)
Tase – Acido 13 (Acido Records)
Charles Cohen – The Middle Distance + Group Motion (Morphine Records)

Matt Anniss: 10 Tropical Pagan Delights

2013 has been the year of new age house, humid grooves and wide-eyed voodoo rhythms; a year when the boundaries between tropical techno, post-industrial paranoia, hallucinogenic Balearica and dreamy experimentalism became increasingly blurred. In other words, 2013 has all been about “tropical pagan” – an uneasy musical alliance between sounds that are in turns bleak, dark, enveloping and blindingly bright.

Beautiful Swimmers – Son (Future Times LP)
A Sagittariun – Dream Ritual (Elastic Dreams LP)
Cloudface – Devonian Garden (Mood Hut 12”)
Tony G – “Simple Dreams” [Young Marco Remix] (Infinite JuJu 12”)
Steve Summers & Bookworms – Confused House Volume 1 (Confused House)
Secret Circuit – Tactile Galactics (Beats in Space Records LP)
Cos/Mes – “Natural Lifespan” [Prins Thomas Remix] (ESP Institute 12”)
The Asphodells – Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust (Rotters Golf Club LP)
Various – Light Sounds Dark (Light Sounds Dark compilation)
Timothy J Fairplay – In Collusion (from Horn Wax 5 12”)

Richard Brophy: A mixture of EPs, LPs and podcasts in no order

DJ Overdose – Bizarro World (Crème Organization)
Samuel Kerridge – Waiting for Love (Downwards)
Ike Release – Dream Sequencer (MOS Deep)
Willie Burns – Another Time Another Place (Sequencias)
Terrence Dixon – Lost At Sea (Surface)
Vita – Infinity (Frustrated Funk)
Intergalactic Gary – Electronique.it Podcast
Squadra Blanco – Night of the Illuminati (Holosynthesis)
Dopplereffekt – Tetrahymena (Leisure System)
Silent Servant – Honey Soundsystem Podcast