Albums of the Year 2017 // Heard

Aaron Dilloway – Switches (Cejero)

Aaron Dilloway – The Gag File (Dais)

Afous d’Afous – Tenere (Sahel Sounds)

Aine O’Dwyer – Gallarais (MIE)

Alice Coltrane – World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda (Luaka Bop)

Amadou Binta Konté & Tidiane Thiam ‎– Waande Kadde (Sahel Sounds/Songs from Home)

Anna Makirere – Tiare Avatea (Little Axe)

Antwon – Sunnyvale Gardens (no label)

Ariel Pink – Dedicated to Bobby Jameson (Mexican Summer)

Ashtray Navigations – Epson’s Bladder Salts (no label)

Ashtray Navigations – Insert Genre Here (no label)

Bardo Pond – Under the Pines (Fire)

Basil Kirchin – Basil Kirchin is My Friend (A Trunk Records Sampler) (Trunk)

Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper (Profound Lore)

Big Brave – Ardor (Southern Lord)

Bill Nace, Chris Corsano & Paul Flaherty – These (Open Mouth)

Bill Orcutt – Bill Orcutt (Palilalia)

Bill Orcutt – Why Four Strings? (Palilalia)

Bones – Failure (TeamSESH)

Boris – Dear (Sargent House)

Brainbombs – Inferno (Skrammel)

Brandon Lopez, Chris Corsano & Sam Yulsman – Holy, Holy (Tombed Visions)

Brockhampton – Saturation II (Question Everything Inc./Empire)

Broken Social Scene – Hug of Thunder (Arts & Crafts)

Bruce Russell – Metallic OK (Glass Redux)

Burial – Pre Dawn/Indoors (Nonplus)

Burial – Rodent (Hyperdub)

Burial – Subtemple/Beachfires (Hyperdub)

Charlemagne Palestine - Arpeggiated Bösendorfer + Falsetto Voice (Alga Marghen)

Charlemagne Palestine & Grumbling Fur Time Machine Orchestra - Omminggg and Schlomminggg (Important)

Chino Amobi – Paradiso (UNO NYC/NON)

Chris Corsano & Rafael Toral – Live in Boston (no label)

Circle – Terminal (Southern Lord)

Clams Casino – Instrumental Mixtape 4 (no label)

Cluster – Konzerte 1972/1977 (Bureau B)

Com Truise – Iteration (Ghostly International)

Converge – The Dusk in Us (Epitaph)

Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile – Lotta Sea Lice (Matador)

Crys Cole & Oren Ambarchi – Hotel Record (Black Truffle)

Dasher – Sodium (Jagjaguwar)

David Greenberger, Glenn Jones & Chris Corsano – An Idea in Everything (Okraina)

Dead Cross – Dead Cross (Ipecac)

Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 1: △△ (Sacred Bones)

Dedekind Cut – The Expanding Domain (no label)

Do Make Say Think – Stubborn Persistent Illusions (Constellation)

Elder – Reflections of a Floating World (Armageddon)

Electric Wizard – Wizard Bloody Wizard (Spinefarm)

Father John Misty – Pure Comedy (Sub Pop)

Fire-Toolz – Drip Mental (Hausu Mountain)

Forest Swords – Compassion (Ninja Tune)

Full of Hell – Trumpeting Ecstasy (Profound Lore)

Future & Young Thug – Super Slimey (Epic/300/Atlantic)

Galcher Lustwerk – Dark Bliss (White Material)

Gas – Narkopop (Kompakt)

Glassjaw – Material Control (AML)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Luciferian Towers (Constellation)

Gokcen Kaynatan – Gokcen Kaynata (Finders Keepers)

Gravetemple – Impassable Fears (Svart)

Hans Zimmer & Benjamin Wallfisch – Blade Runner 2049 (Epic/ASG)

Hermann Nitsch - Orgelkonzert Jesuitenkirche 20.11.2013 (Trost)

Hermeto Pascoal & Grupo Vice Versa – Viajando Com o Som (The Lost ’76 Vice-Versa Studio Session) (Far Out)

His Electro Blue Voice – Mental Hoop (Iron Lung)

James Ferraro – Troll (no label)

Jan Jelinek – Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records (Faitiche)

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – On the Echoing Green (Mexican Summer)

Jeich Ould Badu & Ahmedou Ahmed Lewla – Top WZN (Sahel Sounds)

Jlin – Black Origami (Planet Mu)

Joey Bada$$ - All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ (Pro Era/Cinematic)

Johnny Jewel – Windswept (Italians Do It Better)

Jun Fukamachi – Nicole (’86 Spring and Summer Collection – Instrumental Images) (We Release Whatever the Fuck We Want)

Kamasi Washington – Harmony of Difference (Young Turks)

Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke & Oren Ambarchi - This Dazzling, Genuine ''Difference'' Now Where Shall It Go? (Black Truffle)

Keiji Haino & John Butcher – Light Never Bright Enough (Otoroku)

Kendrick Lamar – DAMN. (Insomniac/Interscope)

King Krule – The Ooz (True Panther/XL)

Konstrukt & Keiji Haino – A Philosophy Warping, Little by Little That Way Lies a Quagmire (Karlrecords)

Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein – Stranger Things 2: A Netflix Original Series Soundtrack (Lakeshore)

Laurel Halo – Dust (Hyperdub)

LCD Soundsystem – American Dream (DFA/Columbia)

Les Filles de Illighadad – Eghass Malan (Sahel Sounds)

Leyland Kirby – We, So Tired of All the Darkness in Our Lives (History Always Favours the Winners)

Lil B – Black Ken (BasedWorld)

Lil Uzi Vert – Luv is Rage 2 (Generation Now/Atlantic)

Lil Yachty – Teenage Emotions (Virgin EMI)

Marcia Bassett & Samara Lubelski – Live, NYC (Feeding Tube)

Maurizio Bianchi – The Second Death (Autumn Archive)

Mdou Moctar – Sousoume Tamachek (Sahel Sounds)

Migos – Culture (300 Entertainment)

Mogwai – Every Country’s Sun (Temporary Residence Limited)

Morteza Hannaneh – Tchashm-E-Del (Collapsing Market)

MV/EE/Flower – Hide Yer Love, Hold Yr Love (Heroine)

MXLX – Kicking Away at the Decrepit Walls Til the Beautiful Sunshine Blisters Thru the Cracks (Kindarad!)

Nazoranai - Beginning to Fall in Line before Me, So Decorously, the Nature of All That Must Be Transformed (W.25^th)

Neil Young – Hitchhiker (Reprise)

Neil Young & Promise of the Real – The Visitor (Reprise)

Omar Souleyman – To Syria, With Love (Mad Decent)

Oneohtrix Point Never – Good Time: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Warp)

Oren Ambarchi – Stacte Karaoke II (Black Truffle)

Oxbow – Thin Black Duke (Hydra Head)

Paul White & Danny Brown – Accelerator (R&S)

Peter Brotzmann & Heather Leigh – Sex Tape (Trost)

Pharmakon – Contact (Sacred Bones)

Protomartyr – Relatives in Descent (Domino)

Prurient – Rainbow Mirror (Profound Lore)

Queens of the Stone Age – Villains (Matador)

Rafael Torel – Moon Field (Room40)

Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement – Ambient Black Magic (Hospital)

Ricardo Villalobos – Empirical House ([a:rpia:r])

Ricardo Villalobos & Einzelkind – Arnorac (Pressure Traxx)

Road Hog – Haul Ass (no label)

Robedoor – New Age Sewage (Hands in the Dark)

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe – Levitation Praxis Pt. 4 (DDS)

Roberto Musci – The Loa of Music (The Complete Sessions) (Soave)

Ryuichi Sakamoto – Async (Milan)

Serge Gainsbourg & Jean-Claude Vannier – Les Chemins de Katmandou (Finders Keepers)

Six Organs of Admittance – Burning the Threshold (Drag City)

Skullflower – Autumn Cannibals (no label)

Skullflower – Dragons Lair Abyss (no label)

Skullflower – The Black Iron That Has Fell From the Stars, To Dwell Within (Bear It or Be It) (Nashazphone)

Skullflower – The Spirals of Great Harm (Cold Spring)

Skullflower – The Wisdom of Venom (no label)

Slowdive – Slowdive (Dead Oceans)

Smegma – Look’n for Ya (Alga Marghen)

Studio OST – Eventide/Ascension (Lustwerk Music)

Sun Ra & His Arkestra – Thunder of the Gods (Modern Harmonic)

Suzanne Ciani – Buchla Concerts 1975 (Finders Keepers)

Swans – Deliquescence (Young God)

Terry Fox – 552 Steps Through 11 Pairs of Strings (Edition Telemark)

Terry Riley & Don Cherry – Terry Riley Don Cherry Duo (B.Free)

The Body & Full of Hell – Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light (Thrill Jockey)

The Bug vs. Earth – Concrete Desert (Ninja Tune)

The Caretaker - Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 2 (History Always Favours the Winners)

The Caretaker - Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 3 (History Always Favours the Winners)

The i.l.y’s – Bodyguard (no label)

The War on Drugs – A Deeper Understanding (Atlantic)

The Yllustrous Forger of Dreams – All My Buttons (no label)

The Yllustrous Forger of Dreams – Solstice (no label)

The Yllustrous Forger of Dreams – The 108 (no label)

The Yllustrous Forger of Dreams – Utter the Weapon (no label)

Thriftworks – The Feather & The Sword (no label)

Thundercat – Drunk (Brainfeeder)

Tonstartssbandht – Sorcerer (Mexican Summer)

Tony Conrad – Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plain (Superior Viaduct)

Total Leatherette – For the Climax of the Night (MILK)

Tradewinds – “Tradewind” the Wavesailing Film (Pacific City Sound Visions)

Trouble – Snake Eyes b/w Mother’s Gone (Sacred Bones)

Tyler, the Creator – Scum Fuck Flower Boy (Columbia)

Tzusing - 東方不敗 (L.I.E.S.)

Unsane – Sterilize (Southern Lord)

Various Artists – 80s Underground Cassette Culture Volume 1 (Contort Yourself)

Various Artists – Abatwa (The Pygmy): Why Did We Stop Growing Tall? (Glitterbeat)

Various Artists ‎– Agrim Agadez: Musique Guitare de la Republique du Niger (Sahel Sounds)

Various Artists – Deutsche Elektronische Musik 3 (Experimental German Rock & Electronic Music 1970-82) (Soul Jazz)

Various Artists – Diggin’ in the Carts: A Collection of Pioneering Japanese Video Game Music (Hyperdub)

Various Artists – Egypt & Lebanon: Cosmic Arabic Disco & Searing Dance Floor Bangers 1974-1985 (Cedarphon)

Various Artists – Even a Tree Can Shed Tears: Japanese Folk & Rock 1969-1973 (Light in the Attic)

Various Artists - Ishq Ke Maare: Sufi Songs from Sindh and Punjab, Pakistan (Sublime Frequencies)

Various Artists – Metaphors: Selected Soundworks from the Cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Sub Rosa)

Various Artists – Miracle Steps: Music from the Fourth World (1983-2017) (Optimo Music)

Various Artists – Pop Makossa: The Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon 1976-1984 (Analog Africa)

Various Artists – Saigon Supersound 1965-75 Volume One (Saigon Supersound)

Various Artists – Sweet as Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa (Ostinato)

Various Artists – Synthesize the Soul: Astro-Atlantic Hypnotica from the Cape Verde Islands 1973-1988 (Ostinato)

Various Artists – The Gamelan of the Walking Warriors: Gamelan Beleganjur and the Music of the Ngaben Funerary Ritual in Bali (Akuphone)

Various Artists – The Photographs of Charles Duvelle: Disques OCORA and Collection PROPHET (Sublime Frequencies)

Various Artists - Trax Test (Excerpts from the Modular Network 1981-1987) (Ecstatic)

Various Artists - Twin Peaks (Limited Event Series Original Soundtrack) (Rhino)

Various Artists - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series) (Rhino)

Various Artists – Vaporwave Christmas Story (Contemporary Tapes)

Various Artists – Where the Mountains Meet the Sky: Folk Music of Ladakh (Sublime Frequencies)

Vince Staples – Big Fish Theory (ARTium/Blacksmith/Def Jam)

William Basinski – A Shadow in Time (2062/Temporary Residence Limited)

Wimeanacas Cambodian Band – Wimeanacas Cambodian Band (Little Axe)

Wolf Eyes – No Hate (no label)

Wolf Eyes – Strange Days II (Lower Floor)

Wolf Eyes – Undertow (Lower Floor Music)

Wolves in the Throne Room – Thrice Woven (Artemisia)

Yung Lean – Stranger (Year0001)

Yves Tumor – Experiencing the Deposit of Faith (no label)