2022 has come & almost gone in a flash, and as the clocks ticks down I’m revelling in reflecting upon the year-in-music that was. I feel like I say this every year (probably because I do), but it really was a great year for music. The list below includes everything I couldn’t get enough of this year while listening in the car, at home, at work and programming live at KFAI.
Be sure to join me on the January 9 installment of Upside Down for a real-time recap of favorites on this list.
Thanks so much for making time to listen to Upside Down and for keeping KFAI near and dear.
Cheers to 2023!
New Releases
Oren Ambarchi: Shebang (Drag City)
Baron Saturday: Eyes Out for a Ride (Mystery Plane)
Bitchin Bajas: Bajascillators (Drag City)
Holt Bodish: Build Yourself a Space (Petty Bunco)
Marceau Bore: Schoon Donker (Un Je-Ne-Sais-Quoi)
Thomas Bush: Preludes (Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox)
Zachary Cale: Skywriting (ORG)
The Casual Dots: Sanguine Truth (Ixor Six)
Carla Dal Forno: Come Around (Kallista)
Chronophage: Chronophage (PPM)
Destroyer: Labyrinthitis (Merge)
Josephine Foster: Godmother (Fire)
Steve Gunn: Nakama EP (Matador)
Freundliche Kreisel: Freundliche Kreisel (Stroom)
The Garbage & The Flowers: Cinnamon Sea (Fire)
Ghost Power: Ghost Power (Duophonic)
A Happy Return: Drashel (Spillage Fete)
Hypnotic Sleep / The Fulmars split 7″ (Kashual Plastik)
Wednesday Knudsen: Soft Focus (Feeding Tube)
Cate Le Bon: Pompeii (Mexican Summer)
The Living Rainbow: Vanishing Lands (Information)
Alex Macfarlane: The Thousand Note Chord (Hobbies Galore)
Astrid Øster Mortensen: Skærgårdslyd (Discreet)
Bill Orcutt: Music for Four Guitars (Palilalia)
Papercuts: Past Life Regression (Slumberland)
Jeff Parker: Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy (Eremite)
Private Sorrow: Under Jaguar Skies (Mystery Plane)
Pumice: Bung Eye (Stabbies)
The Reds, Pinks, and Purples: Still Clouds at Noon (no label)
The Reds, Pinks, and Purples: Summer at Land’s End (Slumberland/Tough Love)
Sad Eyed Beatniks: Claudia’s Ethereal Weaver (Meritorio)
Laila Sakini: Paloma (Modern Love)
Sayozoku: Studio (Tall Grass)
Speedbooth: Yammals (Cost of Living/Spillage Fete)
Robert Stillman: What Does it Mean to be American? (Orindal)
Michael Tanner: Vespers / The Blackening (Objects Forever)
Theoxenia: (Adventures in) Stasis (no label)
Tomutonttu: Hoshi (Joteskii Groteskii)
Various: Two Years of Spring (Are You Before)
JJ Ulius: Vol. II (Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox)
Archival Releases
Various: Alien Parade Japan (Alien Transistor)
The Apostles: Best Forgotten (Horn of Plenty)
Badge: Collected Singles (Lion)
Robbie Basho: Bouquet (Lost Lagoon)
Tia Blake: Folksongs & Ballads (Ici Bientot)
David Blue: Stories (Eremite)
Broadcast: Maida Vale Sessions (Warp)
Broadcast: Microtronics Volume 1 & 2 (Warp)
The Cat’s Miaow: Songs ’94 – ’98 (World of Echo)
Derrell DeVore: A Song of Civilization Up Til Now (Goaty)
Ervin Berlin: Junior’s Got Brain Damage (Total Punk)
Hallelujahs: Eat Meat, Swear an Oath (Black Editions)
Hydroplane: Hydroplane (Efficient Space)
Influenza Prods.: Memoire (Left Ear)
Karin Liungman: “I Denna Magiska Tid…” (Frederiksberg)
Maher Shalal Hash Baz: It’s All Over Now Baby Blue (Archeion)
Fred E. Scott: El Lobo / Journey Within (Two Rooms)
Yasuaki Shimiz: Kiren (Palto Flats)
Charles Stepney: Step on Step (International Anthem)
The Strange Girls: It’s OK To Be Happy (Fördämning Arkiv)
Tall Dwarfs: Unravelled: 1981-2002 (Merge)
The Trypes: Music for Neighbors (Pravda)
Universal Liberation Orchestra: Communion (Freedom to Spend)
Wondrous Fair: Spirals (LCMR)
