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A mysterious record arrived in the spring, given out by Moodyman himself at the Movement festival barbecue - we were inundated with calls & questions about it but when the record arrived a few months later, we only got a handful of copies and they lasted one evening...whilst it could be argued its an EP, Sinner is a full-length double-pack featuring three new tracks, a live version of "I Got Werk" and both cuts off last year's Pitch Black City Reunion 12-inch. There's only 25 minutes of new music but thats enough to feature in our rundown of the year!!

Montréal-based producer and DJ Priori releases his debut album on NAFF Recordings, the label he co-runs with Ex-Terrestrial. On a Nimbus presented us with 11 tracks of cosmically-inflected house that the label describes as a “trip to the heart of the network…frenetic and weightless, bleepy”. Tweaky synths and deep bloops atop a distinctly spaced-out rhythmic palette.

'Tangerine' is the sound of Shanti Celeste breaking free from the summery house genre that many confine her to. Her debut album weaves seamlessly through up tempo Electro, House and Techno and slower jams like the 85 BPM dancehall/halftime dnb inspired 'Voz (Instrumental)'. The whole thing is tied together by beautiful ambient pieces like 'Natura' and 'Sun Notification' that really open our eyes to the whole world of Shanti Celeste that we have only had a glimpse of up until now.

They did this last year too - sneaking out a sublime, limited edition album on their own US imprint, just a few days before Christmas. No surprises here, this continues where 'Afterimage' concluded - sublime, melodic and melancholic. Detroit-style electro at its most perfect!

Soundbwoy Killah delivered his debut LP this year for the unstoppable Sneaker Social Club and the result is a hazy nostalgic trip through the UK hardcore continuum. His production and engineering skills reached new levels on this album and we look forward to hearing new SBK material in 2020!

Japanese producer Meitei’s album ‘Komachi’ takes inspiration from ‘80s and ‘90s Japanese icons such as Susumu Yokota and features twelve minimalist, jazzy ambient tracks. It’s haunting, delicate and very much recommended by us!

Mad Habitat returns with a serene full-length from Eye Nono. Channeling the more progressive side of American New Age and 80s Public Access soundtracks alongside the rich tradition of Australian ambient music, the record is awash with dreamy melodies and drifting pads. Evoking days spent by the water along the coastline, the album is a beautiful synthesis of the ocean's abundant natural beauty.

Another week, another new Special Request album. The prolific producer Paul Woolford returned late in the year with the album based on the question: “What if Jam & Lewis signed to Metroplex?” (and, yes, Janet Jackson does make a surprise vocal addition here!) Starting off with a new version of Midway's 'Set it Out' (most people know this as Omar S 004!) and ending with the chill out classic 'Floatation' from The Grid. The album covers many styles but has its route in both funk and techno, not unlike Space Dimension Controller's new album.

Recorded in New York, LA and London, Michael returned to the studio with Danger Mouse and Inflo, the same production team from Love & Hate, KIWANUKA finds a new assuredness in Michael’s writing, and takes the basic sonic blueprint of that last record to a dizzying new realm.

Fumiya Tanaka releases his fifth album, the triple-LP Right Moment, on Perlon. The eight-track full-length continues the longstanding partnership between Tanaka, the Japanese techno pioneer, and Perlon, everyone's favourite genre-defining minimal label. Strong club music from a legendary producer.

Australian producer with a stunning debut double vinyl album. His unique aquatic, calming and melodic signature brings us from sci-fi spiritual deep house towards late night +313 groovin' techno, all in a lustrous, dreamy and nu-classical style. Astrally scoped into blissfully timeless appeal.

Afrodeutsche’s DJ style is a synthesis of Drexciyan and Underground Resistance - inspired selections, intercut with a variety of forward thinking UK techno such as Bola and Lego Feet. Her polyrhythmic compositions contained here integrate a wide array of musical genres, including Afrofuturistic electro and techno, classical solo piano and Detroit legacy house; all memorable journeys into deep, abstracted sound.

Konx-om-Pax has made an album that is filled with joy and sunshine, saturated with the classic feel of Berlin Techno. Tom Scholefield has moved on from the dark ambient and brittle rave of the first two Konx-om-Pax albums, which were a reflection of his hometown Glasgow's electronic music scenes. After a recent move to Berlin, the textures of Glasgow's musical strains have fused into an accessible and friendly mix of poppy melodic electronica built from a stricter 'less is more' sound pallete, closer in spirit to the music of his adopted city. Stripped away to just the good bits, 'Ways Of Seeing' is a pleasure to listen to.

Technically this one was released in 2018 as a cassette, but the vinyl release landed in-store for us in 2019, so we’re proudly including it in this years top albums. Twelve delicious house, techno and ambient cuts can be found here!

We have to admit with don't know much about URA but we could all agree there was something very, very special about this album when it dropped as it caught the ears of pretty much every staff member. You can tell a lot of love went into this one. It's a hazy, sultry and densely produced masterpiece and the mystery surrounding its producer only adds to the appeal. We eagerly await a new record, whoever URA are!

Kornél Kovács' second album and dedicated to the 'beautiful, boring city' Kovács credits his "dearest Stockholm people" for making the LP his most collaborative and most personal release, including jazz musician Niclas Skagstedt, Matt Karmil, Rebecca & Fiona and Malin Gabriella Nordin, who did the artwork.

Freddie Gibbs and Madlib's second joint album is another top notch collaboration! The pair combine Gibbs' street rap flow and Madlib's forward thinking beats and invite Killer Mike and Pusha T along for the ride.

Cinematic Orchestra returned this year with “To Believe” - its articulation of the band’s unique sonic language, encompassing not only jazz but the sort of transcendental orchestration combined with the elegant electronics of artists like Ólafur Arnalds and Floating Points, artists they have helped forge a path for, has never been more cohesive and compelling.

Detroit hero Andres returned to his spiritual home - Moodymann’s Mahogani Music - with his first new album since 2011. Twelve rich and soulful house and hip-hop mega-jams sit pretty on this brilliant LP. Pure vibes!

Chunkier, dirtier and harder than their first album (how?!), Paranoid London came through again with an album of no nonsense tough dance floor weapons. You can almost smell the sweaty basement vibes through the music..

This cassette only release from 1989 is a minimal masterpiece practically unheard until now. Arguably a more complete album than last year's 'De Los Cantos' reissue, Originally composed for two short films ‘Final Sin Pausas’ and ‘Bocetos Para Un Sueno’ as a full score the arrangement is a beautiful listening experience spanning through ambient, meditational and cinematic minimalism of real depth, romanticism and sincerity. Iury Lech is a Ukrainian born multidisciplinary artist, whose main focus now is as the curator of ‘Madatac’ a festival based in Madrid focused on new media art, video art and audio visual technologies which has featured the work of Brian Eno amongst many others. During the late 1970’s and 80’s he rose as a pioneer within a moment focussed on electronically generated audio and visual media. Drawing on the ground gained by Minimalist pioneers like Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass - built from repetitive rhythm and sheets of rippling resonance, drone, and ambience, Lech’s work of the period is so striking and beautiful, that it seems shockingly unjust that it was overlooked until now.

Thom Yorke yields his most enjoyable solo record yet with ‘Anima’, shapeshifting back into avant-pop mode. Bridging experimental pop songwriting and electronic dance music dimensions, Yorke and his trusty studio partner Nigel Godrich yet again sneak classy contemporary rhythms and ideas into the diet of traditional songwriting. The nine songs of ‘Anima’ also find Yorke porous to a modern Afro-Latinate phase shift, embracing slinky permutations of dembow tresillo patterns and needle-point electroid 2-step in an ever finer balance of melodic conventions and the inexorable thrills of electronic music

Pavel Milyakov aka Buttechno has had a string of releases coming in quick succession recently yet the standards of production are consistently high and reliably weird, which is how we like it! Following the more-introspective sounding 'La Maison De La Mort' LP on Berceuse Heroique (released under his own name), here we experience the more boombastic and maximal side to his sonic output, with peaktime moments such as 'pkds', 't-919' and 'rokton' melting our heads here in the shop. Yet another inventive release from this young Russian producer.

Special Request's second LP of 2019 is an introspective emotional roller coaster. This is the kind of thing we'd put on after a big night out, soothing and re-energizing but far from dreary.

Ex-Terrestrial first caught our ears with the exceptional 'Paraworld' 12" on the now defunct 1080p label and we've been keenly following his progress ever since, with recent 12"s for Pacific Rhythm and NAFF recent highlights. Needless to say we had high hopes for his second album 'Gamma Infolded' and it certainly doesn't disappoint, spanning Ambient Techno to breakneck-speed IDM, all immaculately produced. One of the most refreshing albums of the year that has already become a firm staff favourite.