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1. Part II by Scott Cortez from Twin Radiant Flux (2010). This is a mellow album of movements in drone. As it progresses, layers are added and gently crescendo in rapturous slow motion.










2. Glorious Dawn (ft Carl Sagan & Stephen Hawking) by Colorpulse from Glorious Dawn. I know this is a litte old, but I just randomly found an mp3 of it and I'm totally in love with this glorious hymn to science. Check out more interesting songs by Colorpulse, all free downloads, at his Symphony of Science website.





Here's an old interview Ted Turner had with Sagan:




3. Super Duper Rescue Heads!  by Deerhoof from Deerhoof vs. Evil (2011). The new Deerhoof is the fucking JAM. It's like they've concentrated their powers into one epic, technicolor rainbow blast.











4. Konami by Apparat Organ Quartet from Pólýfónía  (2010). Icelandic krautrock videogame music, what else do you need to know? This song is about a videogame company. I guess they really enjoyed Contra and Castlevania.











5. Swingalong by Belbury Poly from Ghost Box Study Series 03: Welcome to Godalming (2010). This single finds the normally off kilter, kind of goofy-pants Belbury Poly venturing into the sonic realms of labelmates The Advisory Circle, and to nice effect.










6. Circles by The Soft Moon from The Soft Moon (2010). This is another favorite from the tail end of last year. For anyone into the angular stylings of cold/no-wave, post-punk and early Bauhaus, The Soft Moon is a godsend.











7. Unfamiliar Skies by Theologian from The Further I Get From Your Star, The Less Light I Feel On My Face (2010). Heavy, heavy ambient sludge-doom drones, based on Clive Barker's writing.







8. Quattro Stagioni by Cheveu from 1000 (2010). Fucking sick garage/no-wave jams by this vastly improved French group. There's a great cover of Ice Ice Baby on the album.











9. Not in Love (feat. Robert Smith) by Crystal Castles from the Not in Love single (2010).
The best thing Smith has done, easily, in 20 years.












10. Mer by Chelsea Wolfe from Ἀποκάλυψις (2010). Really creepy stuff. Mostly acoustic arrangements with underwater vocals. Like PJ Harvey doing witch.house.












11. Chemistry Lessons by Myelin Sheaths from Get On Your Nerves (2010). Well executed and exciting garage-noise. About science!











12. Rano Pano by Mogwai from Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (2011). This is the 
best Mogwai album in some time. Loaded with balls to the wall rock.











13. Terrace of the Leper King by William Tyler from Behold The Spirit (2010). Yet another
album I hadn't listened to quite enough to tack onto my year end faves list, but definitely one of last year's best. Tyler is obviously heavily influenced by John Fahey, but takes the James Blackshaw approach to composition, producing works that end up sounding more ethereal and raga-like. It's pretty sick what he can do.






14. Tears In the Typing Pool by Broadcast from Tender Buttons (2005). One of my favorite Broadcast songs. It's still hard to believe she's gone.











15. Jai Rama Chandra by Alice Coltrane from Turiya Sings (1982). This album didn't strike me on the first listen, but when it came up on random when some friends were over and it seeped into my subconscious as we were talking, I found myself suddenly overwhelmed by it's beauty. Mrs. Coltrane is basically singing Hindu chants over watery drones and erie keyboards. The production is a little dated, but it adds to the mystical quality of the music.






16. River Like Spine by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma from Love Is A Stream (2010). An easy-going version of The Yellow Swans' approach to destroying your eardrums with blissful noise.












17. Wave Atlas by Marcus Fischer from Monocoastal (2010). Humble, lowercase glitch-ambient guitar tones. Another late favorite from 2010.











18. Filter Chaos Strategy by François D'Eybastens from the Index of Unrelated Events EP (2010). Bizarre experimental noise that shifts and explores interesting places throughout a single song. Looking forward to more by this artist.










19. The First White Man To Touch California Soil by Sic Alps from Napa Asylum (2011).
Oh, man, these guys just get better and better! A less-silly Pavement on quaaludes and 
whiskey.











20. Sur La Planche by La Femme from Le Podium #1 : La Femme (2010). A compelling debut from this French garage band.











21. Last Night At The Jetty by Panda Bear from Last Night At The Jetty (2010). Alright, now I'm getting excited about Panda Bear's new album!













22. Real Life (Acoustic Version) by Tanlines from Volume On (2010). Most of Tanline's first full-length, a collection of their past singles and EPs for the most part, is all bouncy fun with mathy keys and  guitars and Reggae and African-influenced beats. Fun up-beat party music.

This stripped down version of Real Life is the anomaly on the album, which I didn't really dig at first, mostly because of the vocal delivery. But it grew on me after a while and, as simple as the message is, I find it moving and sincere.




23. Falling by Julee Cruise from Floating Into The Night (1990). Recently, we at the ratiofarm revisited David Lynch's television masterpiece Twin Peaks and were reminded of how fucking mind blowing and ground breaking it was/is, especially for the time in which it aired. I was also struck by the music, which I remembered finding cloyingly irritating back in the 90s. I tracked down Julee Cruise's albums from this time period, both of which are fantastic (as well as a collection of all of Agent Cooper's micro-cassette dictations to Diane). It's amazing not only how well these albums have held up, but also how much this music seems to be influencing the witch.house genre currently. Also, certain contemporary clothing stores look like they are pulling their current fashions directly from the Twin Peaks wardrobe.



24. Storm by Gloga from In Loving, We Dissolve (2010). Gentle waves of white noise and distortion.