Nearly in the top 12 of the year

Weeding that list down to 12 was tough. I didn't include any drone music even though it's been a big thing for me this year. But it's difficult stuff to weave onto a mix CD. Chihei Hatakeyama has put out two excellent albums, full of dense and evolving harmonics which provide an incredibly immersive sonic experience when listened to as a whole. In a similar (but darker) style Black to Comm's album Alphabet 1968 was notable for its majestic sweeps of noise and found-sounds, but also featured one of the most beautiful songs of the year in "Hotel Freund" with it's haunting orchestral sample. Another track that missed out for simply practical reasons was Lars Horntveth's (of Jaga Jazzist) Kaleidoscopic, an incredibly ambitious Sibelius-like orchestral work which, at 37 minutes, was just too long to include. One of the true giants of the electronic music scene, AtomTM, put out a fabulous album Leidgut, which again works better as a whole. Dirty Projectors released what I think will turn out to be their best album yet in Bitte Orca - but I only got it last month so am still digesting it and I was truly charmed by the romanticism of the Leisure Society, whose Sleeper album is simply very pretty. And speaking of prettiness - Haruko's Wild Geese is an exquisite example of plaintive acoustic folk loveliness. One of my favourite artists, Broadcast, released their most experimental album to date, a collaboration with Ghost Box's Focus Group and very much in the "hauntological" style. But with two tracks already in the 12 from Ghost Box I felt this sound was already adequately represented. That said, the live show Broadcast did in support of this album was brilliant and bodes really well for next year's full album. Other things have crept onto my radar too late, such as Good Evening by the beguiling Nite Jewel, who may end up featuring on next year's comp. Likewise Dead Man's Bones and Joker's Daughter both of whom's albums are currently on repeat-play on the Griffiths iPod. With these late-comers and a veritable stack of eagerly anticipated releases early in 2010 (Jaga Jazzist, Beach House, Hot Chip AND Final Fantasy all have albums released in January) next year's compilation is almost writing itself!