So here is my selection in the order that they came to mind...
Moderat
II
The second album from the Apparat and Modeselktor collaboration and it's rather nice. I was initially put off by the first single Bad Kingdom, but the vocals from Sasha Ring grew on me.
Anyway the third track entitled Versions is my favourite. It's a nice slow builder. I can't find it on youtube but someone's uploaded it to vimeo with clips from the film Bowie's son made, Moon. So watch that as well or don't maybe...
Heterotic
Love and Devotion
This album is the work of Mike Paradinas (μ-ziq) and his partner Lara Rix-Martin. Also the bloke from Gravenhurst does vocals. The first two tracks are my favourites.
They also did a lovely cover of Aphex Twin's Xtal....
Ochre
National Ignition
I discovered Ochre quite a few years ago somehow and love his glitchy lush sounds. I discovered his bandcamp early this year and was pleased to find a new release.
Chris Leary is at the top of his game on this album, it's full snappy beats and swirling ambience. My favourite track is definitely Leaving Arcadia. It builds very nicely before dropping down into a vocal sample.
Bonobo
North Borders
This album dropped in March and is very good stuff. My top track would have to be Know You.
Lone
Airglow Fires
Lone is defnitely one of my top artists. Last years album Galaxy Garden has a lot of play counts on my iTunes, with the track As A Child being the stand out moment for me.
Airglow fires is an ep released earlier this year on R&S and is up to the usual standards.
Gold Panda
Half Of Where You Live
A fantastic release from Gold Panda this year. The stand out track for me is We Work Nights. Checkity check...
µ-Ziq
Chewed Corners
Mike Paradinas has been busy this year, kicking off with Somerset Avenue Tracks which is a 2 CD jobby of old unreleased material. I honestly haven't listened to it very extensively, probably because it requires total attention and isn't the sort of thing you can have playing in the background whilst you re-type your CV. I was excited for this album as it's been a few years since Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique which I believe is a break up album of sorts as the name suggests. It's an album of woozey melancholia that I don't rate too highly. Chewed Corners on the other hand sees Paradinas getting back to his roots and revising his unique sound. It's quality all the the way through but my favourite moment must be the last track which is a bit of a banger...
Milieu
Academy Stripes
Milieu is the handy work of Brian Grainger, who makes music under various aliases that range widely in style. He is also very prolific in his output. I've been into his music for quite a few years now and pick up one or two of his releases when I've got the spare cash. This year Grainger announced that he was bringing out a new Milieu album after being silent under that name for quite a while. It was early summer by the time my copy arrived from the US and served as a brilliant soundtrack for the sunshine. It's full of analog goodness from start to finish but my favourite tracks are Carpet Acid and Set Phasers To Debonair. The whole album can be streamed over at the bandcamp page.
David Lynch
The Big Dream
Lynch brought out Crazy Clown Time in 2011 which is very good despite being a rubbish title for an album. Lynch creates some fantastic weirdness here, it's not his first musical efforts as he worked closely making music for his films from the very beginning on Eraserhead. The soundtrack from which saw a lovely re-release on vinyl in 2012, also this dance mix needs to be heard. This year saw the release of The Big Dream, these tracks are more ballad like than the content of Crazy Clown Time, but the Lynch sound is still there with his whiney lyrics. You can listen to the whole thing on YouTube...
David Bowie
The Next Day
I honestly thought the album cover was a bad joke when I first saw it, but then someone told me it was real... also I don't know why the most boring song on the album, Where Are We Now, was the first single. So I wasn't too hopeful about this album being anything but utter shite, but as it turns out I rather like it! The sound is somewhat reminiscent of the Scary Monsters and Super Creeps album, which is brilliant. Although Bowie is never going to be as good as he was this is still worth a listen. Dirty Boys is probably my favourite track, I also like this remix that came out the other month in time for the inevitable 3 disc deluxe edition...
A Strangely Isolated Place
Uncharted Places
A Strangely Isolated Place is kind of a blog website featuring music of ambient goodness. The name of the site derives from Ulrich Schnauss' second album. The Place Series is a great on going part of the site in which artists from around the world submit a few tracks inspired by a specific place. I have been introduced to a lot of great music through this series, my favourite would have to be Yeter which is sublime. If I knew how/had the patience to make music this is what I would want it to sound like. This summer ASIP put out a compilation album of remixed tracks from The Place Series. The result can be streamed in full on bandcamp. I love the last track, Odd Shapes - Desert Plant (Echaskech remix). I remember sitting at my laptop one hot summer evening trying to stay cool when I first heard it. Fantastic bassline and sampling work.
ENH
Body Of Blue
ENH was a discovery I made via ASIP this summer. I remember very vividly walking to work in Oxford on a beautiful warm morning listening to the first track and getting shivers down my spine. It's a very nice opener, a perfect mix of field recordings and subtle ascending synths. The whole album can be streamed on his bandcamp, there you can also find the release he brought out in August entitled Five Men Stand Under which is also great.
Richard Skelton
Succession
Richard Skelton first came to my attention a few years ago when Landings was receiving a lot of attention. His music has deep ties with the landscape of Northern England where he lives and works. You can really feel the isolation and bleakness in his music from the densely layered roughness of the various stringed instruments and field recordings. Early special editions from Skelton were lovingly hand made, and even included items from the landscape itself such as soil or pine cones. For this latest release Skelton and his partner Autumn Richardson have returned to south-western Cumbria to provide inspiration for Succession as a follow up to Wolf Notes. The result is an somewhat more soft and subtle than previous releases, but nonetheless hauntingly beautiful. It is available digitally on bandcamp along with Echoless, which features unabridged compositions from Succession.
Pantha Du Prince and The Bell Laboratory
Elements Of Light
What do you get when you mix electronic music and bells? Amazing music. Pantha Du Prince is a great producer who for this latest venture teamed up with the Norwegian Bell Laboratory group. It's only a five track album, but Spectral Split is a seventeen minute voyage through layers of bells that drop into catchy beats. The YouTube video below makes it look like they're a great live act as well, I'm sorry I missed them in London. Hey ho.
Media Them
Logical Love
I don't know too much about who is behind Media Them. It's a release that appeared this summer on Brian Grainger's Recycled Plastics record label. It is a album comprised of some of the catchiest, warm and dusty loops I've ever heard. The highlight for me is the track entitled A Good Idea. Stream the whole thing and check out lots of other good stuff here: http://recycledplastics.bandcamp.com/album/logical-love
Tim Hecker
Virgins
After the fantastic Ravedeath, 1972 and the subsequent Dropped Pianos I had high hopes for this album. I have listened to it all the way through maybe two or three times and seem to get lost in it about halfway through, it's a very absorbing and hypnotic experience. I also love the album cover and plan to pick up a copy on vinyl at some point. You can stream the whole thing here...
Boards of Canada
Tomorrow's Harvest
I couldn't do a round up of this years music without including the massively anticipated new BOC album. It's a strange album for me. Having listened to it several times I feel that the album conveys a general feeling of pessimism. The album cover looks like the shadow of a lost city, perhaps destroyed by its inhabitants own carelessness and greed. The track titles point to loss and desolation, for example, Cold Eath, Reach For The Dead, Sick Times, Collapse and Nothing is Real. The album isn't necessarily depressing as a result, but there are dark undertones. As Sandison explains in an interview with The Guardian, "In a way we're really celebrating an idea of collapse rather than resisting it. It's probably quite a bleak album, depending on your perspective." Despite these bleak emotions that I'm not used to associating with BOC, it's up to their usual standard and in time I hope it will age like a fine wine. My favourite track has a lovely feeling of endlessness...
Rafael Anton Irisarri
The Unintentional Sea
Irisarri is one of my favourite artists. His entire body of work is fantastic, he is also behind The Sight Below and Orcas alongside Benoît Pioulard. This release is full of crackly atmospheres and dark and beautiful drones...
Lawrence English
Lonely Woman's Club
If I didn't live in a smallish flat then I would definitely buy an organ. On this release Lawrence English creates two lovely drone pieces on an Elka 30 organ. The material was recorded over the month of July in 2011 whilst nursing his newly arrived daughter between the hours of 11pm and 4am. It's definitely late night listening. Preview here.
Nils Frahm
Spaces
I came across Nils Frahm through his collaborations with Olafur Arnalds (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2wCh3RKd40). This album is a collection of live recordings in different spaces as the title suggests. He creates rich layers of piano and synth that are simply fantastic.
Lusine
The Waiting Room
I nearly forgot this one as it was released back in February. It's top notch Lusine sounds with a number of vocal tracks that work wonderfully.
