Welcome to our selection of our favourite albums of 2022. As you might expect, it is the discovery of new, exciting records that makes life rewarding at Phonica, as we open boxes from labels and distributors to find mind-blowing music from all over the world.
Albums are a little easier to choose for a year best-of than singles & tracks, there is some consensus as to what constitutes a 'good' album and there was far more agreement here than in other categories. Here you will find staff favourites, bestsellers and those records we just couldn't get enough of, both in appetite and physically, no doubt, due to still huge delays at the pressing plants...
Sitting at the top of our Best of 2022 round-up, and many others too, is the outstanding Nu Genea "Bar Mediterraneo" which was the very funky and Balearic follow up from their last excellent output "Nuova Napoli", after their slight name change. Another dash into the world of balearic tempo's but also touching into dubby and Arthur Russell-styled vocal experimentations was the debut album from long time Pender Street Steppers member Jack J, a definite highlight of most of the staff this year. Of course, we also need to mention the beautiful album from the Gabriels "Angels & Queens"only got a limited vinyl release in 2022 but will be re-released in the new year. Hip-hop album of the year by a mile was Kendrick Lamar's ground breaking "Mr Morale & The Big Steppers" which undoubtedly became one of the best selling albums thanks to his stunning Glastonbuty perfomance.
Melchior Productions LTD's "Vulnerabilities" was the house music album of the year - spread across so many styles over three 12"'s showing the true diverse range of producer Thomas Melchior , maintaining his rolling minimal and techy patterns that we have come to love so much on Perlon. But up there too as the house album of 2022 is NYC house legend Kerri Chandler's 'Spaces and Places' quadruple album (also available as limited samplers too!). This kept us dancing all year long as we were drip fed the samplers throughout 2022, proving that Kerri is still at the forefront of house. Tom Carruthers' "Programmed World" wa a stunning homage to the sound of Sheffield Bleep n Bass as weell as classic Detroit techno and Soichi Terada's "Asakusa Light" gave us that Breezy japanese style that we have always loved with this veteran producer.
Further down the list, you will find a multitude of artists, styles and genres from pure pop to hip hop, jazz to electronica. We hope this introduces you to some gems from 2022.....
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