Favorites of 2014

In my book, 2014 has got to be the best year for creative new recordings I can remember. Thanks to all of the amazing artists and labels who continue to create such deeply affecting work and make it available to the public.

I'm going to try and let the music speak for itself in this post. As time permits over the next few days, I'm going to add mega-linkage to appropriate artist/label pages for all of these stellar recordings. But for now, here are a few lists of the materials profiled in my "favorites of 2014" podcast. And here's the podcast itself:

Words on Sounds Podcast, Episode 17: Favorites of 2014 by Words On Sounds on Mixcloud

My favorite 25 recordings of 2014:

1. Giant Claw - DARK WEB, Orange Milk/Noumenal Loom
2. Zeek Sheck - JOIN US, Resipiscent Records
3. Cloud Becomes Your Hand - Rocks or Cakes, Northern Spy/Feeding Tube
4. David Rosenboom and William Winant - Zones of Influence, Pogus
5. Nick Storring - Endless Conjecture, Orange Milk
6. Battle Trance - Palace of Wind, NNA Tapes/New Amsterdam Records
7. Charles Barabe - Stigmates, 905 Tapes
8. Kara-Lis coverdale - A 480, Constellation Tatsu
9. Wozzeck - Act 5, Intonema
10. Swoon - Words/No Words, Already Dead Tapes
11. Keith Rankin - The Crane Engine, Knertz
12. Yves Malone - Three Movies, Field Hymns
13. VaVatican - I love you (dora lee), NNA Tapes
14. Regular Music - Vase and Ass, Skrot Up
15. Azure Carter & Alan Sondheim - Avatar Woman, Public Eyesore
16. Blood Rhythms (Arvo Zylo) - Assembly, No Part of It/RRRecords
17. Totenbaum Trager/Project Muet - split cassette, Arachnidiscs Recordings
18. Sontag Shogun - Tale, Palaver Press
19. Noah Creshevsky - The Four Seasons, Tzadik (late 2013)
20. Death Blues - Non-Fiction, Sige records
21. Period - 2, Public Eyesore
22. Pajjama - Karakasa, Orange Milk
23. Horse Lords - Hidden Cities, NNA Tapes
24. Illusion of Safety - Surrender, No Part of It
25. Liz Allbee/Hans Grusel - split LP, Resipiscent Records

My favorite Synth Zoners, 2014

1. Black Hat - Thought of Two, Hausu Moutain

2. Cremator - Clear Air Turbulence, Series Aphonos
3. Jonas Reinhardt - Ganymede, Constellation Tatsu
4. Black Unicorn - Traced Landscapes, Field Hymns
5. ARU - Consumed, self-released
6. Xunholm - Asleep in the Shattered Mirror, Skrot Up
7. Half High - Calling Nina, Eiderdown
8. Panabrite - Pavillion, Immune Recordings
9. Pulse Emitter - Alien Vacation, Expansive
10 Kosmonaut - Future Machines, These Are Not Records

My favorite improvisation-related recordings, 2014

1. Music for Hard Times, City of Cardboard, Public Eyesore
2. Matt Nelson - Lower Bottoms, Tubapede Records
3. Kaplan/Merega/Moffett, Crows and Motives, Underwolf Records
4. Street Priest - More Nasty, Humbler
5. Ballister - The Ballister Monologues, Astral Spirits
6. LaPlante/Dunn/Smith, Ancestral Instrument, NNA Tapes
7. Bennett/Wright - Tangle, Public Eyesore
8. Barker/Dunmall/Dahl - Luddite, New Atlantis Records
9. Jones/Shipp - The Darkseid Recital, AUM Fidelity
10. Keir Neuringer - Ceremonies Out of the Air, New Atlantis

My favorite "Sticks and Strings" records, 2014

1. Many Arms - Suspended Definition, Tzadik
2. U SCO - Treffpunkt, New Atlantis
3. Form and Mess - s/t, Sickroom Records
4. Brandon Seabrook - Sylphid Vitalizers, New Atlantis
5. Jealousy Mountain Duo - No. 3, Blunoise Records
6. Hyrrokkin - Pristine Origin, Sickroom/New Atlantis
7. bob Bucko Jr - Crank Spirit, Personal Archives/5cm Recordings
8. pak - NYJPN, Magaibutsu Limited
9. Zevious - Passing Through the Wall, Cuneiform Records
10. J. Spaceman & Kid Millions - Live at Le Poisson Rouge, Northern Spy

My favorite electroacoustic/acousmatic records, 2014

1. Les - Echo, Skrot Up
2. Trumpet Trumpet Synthesizer - Oh Baby (split w/Horaflora, Weird Ear Records)
3. Macho Blush - Unsick, Crash Symbols
4. Bus Gas - Snake Hymns, Spring Break Tapes
5. Hiyohiyoipseniyo - al ARMA, Nyapster
6. Looks Realistic - VA/A, Beer on the Rug
7. Problems that Fix Themselves - Which is Worse, Already Dead Tapes
8. Massimo Falascone - Variazioni Mumacs, Public Eyesore
9. Mahler Haze - Counterfactual, Personal Archives
10. Stred Sveta - Tlaotlon/Stred Sveta split, Baba Vanga

Band of the year: German Army. German emm effing Army. Viva La GeAr! At the end of the podcast, you'll hear a medley of 2014 GeAr pieces, which includes:

1. Narrative Myth, from s/t Trapdoor Tapes
2. Chickahominy 1 from Millerite Masai, Yerevan Tapes
3. Bayard Taylor, from Pennantia, 905 Tapes
4. TestIndia, form Social Catalyst, Jozik Records
5. Catherine Movoisin, from Socotra Scripture, Horror Fiction Tapes
6. Mumbai, from Tassili Plateau, Field Hymns
7. Semblance, from T'rung, Lighten Up Sounds
8. Fragment, from Barrineans, Lava Church
9. Takotna, from Cargo Circuits, A.C.T.I.O.N
10. Harem Diseases, from Jivaro Witnesses, Burka for Everybody (originally on Holland Village, dub ditch picnic)