Best of 2009 (Electronica/Ambient)

1. 

   1. Black to Comm: Alphabet 1968

   Pay little mind to the misdirecting names used here (“Black to Comm” being a blazing old MC5 psych-soul track, and 1968 being the most explosive year of the Sixties). This Black to Comm...read more

2. 

   2. Mokira: Persona

   Can I just tell you? I have had it up to here (here, see?) with the new wave of ambient. It’s all pretty, yes…pretty lazy. It is the one subgenre of music where so-called artists feel m...read more

3. 

   3. Pan American: White Bird Release

   A gorgeously hushed and layered album, the kind of sound that will just make people stop and listen. Many who’ll hear White Bird Release won’t even have heard of Labradford, the trio wi...read more

4. 

   4. Sparklehorse + Fennesz: In the Fishtank

   Sparklehorse always brought a touch of experimentalism to their indie-pop bona fides, so this inspired pairing with Austria’s electronic maestro Christian Fennesz is not as odd as it might seem. ...read more

5. 

   5. Mountains: Choral

   Reading some of the advance press for this duo is hilarious, as writers try to come up with comparisons for music that is too original to admit obvious analogs (though some moments suggest Brian En...read more

6. 

   6. Jon Hopkins: Insides

   Composer, pianist, laptopper, producer, comrade to Eno, Coldplay and others—no wonder Jon Hopkins’s new album sounds afflicted with multiple-personality…well, “disorder̶...read more

7. 

   7. Brock Van Wey: White Clouds Drift On and On

   Brock Van Wey is better known (and more prolific) as a dub techno artist under his pseudonym, Bvdub. His first album under his real name is ambient of the most beautiful sort, awash in vast swells ...read more

8. 

   8. Julianna Barwick: Florine

   Brooklyn’s own Julianna Barwick is someone you’ll want to get to know if you favor dreamy ambience of Brian Eno and even Cocteau Twins derivation. The talented Barwick has an uncommon a...read more

9. 

   9. Tim Hecker: An Imaginary Country

   Montreal electronicist Tim Hecker returns with another set of lush, leaned-into and full-bodied ambient pieces. And when an artist like this titles an album An Imaginary Country, you’ve almos...read more

10. 

    10. v/a: Pop Ambient 2009

    The latest installment of one of the Kompakt label’s signature series should give you that stimulating life-begins-anew feeling. In fact, Pop Ambient 2009 strikes us as one of the finer editi...read more

Tags: ambient , electronic , electronica , experimental , idm , indie , instrumental , pop , post-rock , solo , techno