After sifting through all of the playlists for the year for both the podcast and for the weekly Free Form Freakout show, while also taking into consideration the review and current listening piles, I’ve put together a barebones, blurb-less list of some of my favorite albums, tapes, and reissue & archival releases of the year. Combined, these lists could’ve easily stretched well beyond a hundred titles, as there was no shortage of great new music coming out at a regular clip. In fact, I left off numerous releases that I thought were simply incredible, but I decided to follow my past practice and cap things at a reasonable twenty-five albums, twenty-five tapes, and a dozen reissue & archival releases. Once again, I didn’t include any of the releases that came out on Round Bale Recordings this year, but naturally those were very near and dear to me as well. I encourage you to click through the links provided for each release below and if you discover something you like, please make every effort to support these artists and labels in whatever way you can. There will be one more podcast before the end of the year that will highlight a healthy selection of the titles listed here. After that, it’s onward to 2020 where we’ll be marking 15 years of doing the weekly Free Form Freakout show, 10 years of doing the podcast, and 5 years of running Round Bale, and there are no plans of slowing down. Hope you’ll check-in with us regularly along the way. As always, thanks for looking and listening.

Albums:

Tapes:

• Laura Luna Castillo – Folksonomies (Cudighi)
• Jon Collin – From a Petrified Forest (Garden Portal)
• Marcus Fischer – On Falling (12k)
• Seth Graham – Hint (Mondoj)
• Hands To – Scrine (Notice Recordings)
• The High Sheriffs – High Sheriffs (Garden Portal)
• Frank Hurricane and Hurricanes of Love – Life Is Spiritual (Crash Symbols)
• Amirtha Kidambi & Lea Bertucci – Phase Eclipse (Astral Spirits)
• Peter Kris – Afternoons in the Valley (Histamine)
• Ross Manning – Te T On On Ti Computer (More Mars)
• Naps – Better To Give (Gertrude Tapes)
• Nathan McLaughlin – Ruined By Luxury (Reno Park Press)
• Network Glass – Joker Culture (Ultra Violet Light)
• Matthew Revert – The Honey Dodger (Thalamos)
• Rush To Relax – S/T (Look Back and Laugh)
• Sea Moss – Bidet Dreaming (Crash Symbols)
• Slaylor Moon – Zone of Pure Resistance (Maple Death)
• Soda Lite – Vale & Stone (Inner Islands)
• Alan Sondheim – Short Wave: Anomalous Recordings (1991) (Cor Ardens)
• Speedbooth – S/T (Spillage Fete)
• Spires That in the Sunset Rise – House Ecstatic (Cover Your Blood) (Astral Spirits)
• Blaine Todd – Any Road Is a Good Road (Full Spectrum/Debacle)
• V/A – First Citizens of the Moon (Cor Ardens)
• V/A – Infinite Futures (Full Spectrum)
• Mark Vernon – Ribbons of Rust (Flaming Pines)

Reissues/Archival:

• Martin Bartlett – Anecdotal Electronics: Live Experiments & Other Recordings (Arc Light Editions)
• Paul DeMarinis – Songs Without Throats (Black Truffle)
• The Deontic Miracle – Selections from 100 Models of Hegikan Roku (Blank Form Editions/Empty Editions)
• Roger Doyle – Thalia (Dead-Cert)
• Rip Hayman – Dreams of India & China (Recital)
• Åke Hodell – Verbal Brainwash & Other Works (Fylkingen)
• Amnon Raviv – Mirror (Paradigm Discs)
• Reynols – Minecxio Emanations 1993-2018 (Pica Disk)
• Bernard Parmegiani – Mémoire Magnétique, Vol​ 1. (1966-1990) (Transversales Disques)
• Enrico Piva – Anticlima (Spazio di Hausdorff)
• Arthur Russell – Iowa Dream (Audika)
• Daniel Schmidt and the Berkeley Gamelan – Abies Firma (Recital)