Here’s my top 10 per year. I’ve loved this decade and I pity the cloth-eared fools in their boomer mindsets who have eschewed it all to say that boring phrase “it was better back in my day”. Fuck that. 2013 and 2017 were particularly awesome.
20101. Yellow Swans - Going Places
2. D-Bridge & Instra:mental - Fabriclive 50
3. Demdike Stare - Liberation Through Hearing
4. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here?
5. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
6. Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal
7. Shackleton - Fabric 55
8. Scuba - Triangulation
9. Konono No 1 - Assume Crash Position
10. Bangs & Works Vol. 1: A Chicago Footwork Compilation
20111. Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
2. Pearson Sound / Ramadanman - Fabriclive 56
3. Martin Stig Andersen - Limbo
4. Colin Stetson - New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges
5. Roly Porter - Aftertime
6. Balam Acab - Wander / Wonder
7. Sandwell District - Sandwell District
8. The Haxan Cloak - The Haxan Cloak
9. Regis - Adolescence
10. Ghostpoet - Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam
20121. Burial - Kindred (EP)
2. Moonrise Kingdom Soundtrack
3. Hotline Miami Soundtrack
4. Pye Corner Audio - Sleep Games
5. Seirom - 1973
6. Scott Walker - Bisch Bosch
7. Belbury Poly - The Belbury Tales
8. Soap&Skin - Narrow
9. Demdike Stare - Elemental
10. Swans - The Seer
2013 - utterly brilliant year. Only two from this year made my top 10 of the decade but the rest of them were considered.
1. Autechre - Exai
2. The Haxan Cloak - Excavation
3. Tim Hecker - Virgins
4. Roly Porter - Life Cycle of a Massive Star
5. Pharmakon - Abandon
6. Jon Hopkins - Immunity
7. Boards of Canada - Tomorrow’s Harvest
8. Ben UFO - Fabriclive 67
9. Forest Swords - Engravings
10. Lustmord - The Word as Power
20141. Swans - To Be Kind
2. The Body - I Shall Die Here
3. Millie & Andrea - Drop the Vowels
4. Mica Levi - Under the Skin
5. Giant Claw - Dark Web
6. Nmesh - Dream Sequins
7. Ben Frost - Aurora
8. The Advisory Circle - From Out Here
9. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2
10. Natural Snow Buildings - The Night Country
20151. Moa Pillar - Humanity
2. Jlin - Dark Energy
3. Holly Herndon - Platform
4. British Murder Boys - British Murder Boys
5. Rabit & Chino Amobi - The Great Game
6. Mumdance - Fabriclive 80
7. AL-90 - КОД-915913
8. Prurient - Frozen Niagara Falls
9. Mbongwana Star - From Kinshasa
10. Boduf Songs - Stench of Exist
20161. Roly Porter - Third Law
2. Autechre - elseq 1-5
3. Moor Mother - Fetish Bones
4. Jóhann Jóhannsson - Arrival
5. Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition
6. Matmos - Ultimate Care II
7. David Bowie - Blackstar
8. Seirom - I Was So Sad
9. Angel-Ho - Red Devil
10. Dälek - Asphalt for Eden
2017 - another brilliant year, almost half from this year made my top 10 of the entire decade.
1. LINGUA IGNOTA - All Bitches Die
2. Chino Amobi - Paradiso
3. Jlin - Black Origami
4. The Future Sound of London - Archived Environmental Views
5. Richard Dawson - Peasant
6. Ama Divers - Shadow Seeking Sun
7. Iglooghost - Neo Wax Bloom
8. Blanck Mass - World Eater
9. Clark - Death Peak
10. Björk - Utopia
20181. Djrum - Portrait With Firewood
2. Current 93 - The Light Is Leaving Us All
3. Khalab - Black Noise
4. SOPHIE - Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides
5. Autechre - NTS Sessions
6. Kink Gong - Dian Long
7. Houndstooth - In Death’s Dream Kingdom
8. Sons of Kemet - Your Queen Is a Reptile
9. Christoph de Babalon - Exquisite Angst
10. Anguish - Anguish
20191. Burial - Tunes 2011 to 2019
This is basically his material from the past 9 years all dumped into one compilation, including
Kindred which is my number one for 2012. With everyone doing these decade retrospectives and a U.K. election happening in less than a week it seems only right Burial comes swinging in at the last moment of the year to remind us of a future that we all dreamed of, soundtracking the anxiety and loneliness of contemporary Britain with his melancholic samples twisted and morphed, slabbed in reverb and vinyl crackle, and arranged into shuffling jungle-inspired beats. The way this compilation flows like a properly curated playlist instead of dumping it all into chronological order has also helped me appreciate all the post-
Kindred material more than I ever did. I was never fussed by any of it, in fact I actively disliked
Rival Dealer, but my opinion of it all has shifted dramatically. I’d now say it’s all pretty genius, maybe not quite on the same level as the influential self-titled debut or the epochal
Untrue but ever since this compilation was released the other day I’ve played it almost non-stop and I’ve realised how much Burial has meant to me for the past decade. That lonely, late night urban sound has never really left me since the dubstep days and I reckon it’s more meaningful than ever. It'd be cheating to say this is my release of the year since it is just re-released material that I already owned but I shouldn’t have put FSOL, British Murder Boys, or Regis in any of my other top 10s either because those are all retrospectives too so with that in mind... fuck it this is my release of the year.
The Quietus’ review of it I think does a better job than my rambling:
thequietus.com/articles/27548-burial-tunes-2011-to-2019-review2. LINGUA IGNOTA - Caligula
3. Black to Comm - Seven Horses for Seven Kings
4. Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra / Krzysztof Penderecki / Beth Gibbons - Symphony No. 4: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, Op. 36
5. SOPHIE - Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides Remix Album (Non Stop)
6. Matmos - Plastic Anniversary
7. Autechre - Warp Tales 89-93
8. FKA twigs - Magdalene
9. Cosey Fanni Tutti - Tutti
10. Uboa - The Origin of My Depression