The best of 2023 so far in jangle pop, psych pop, dream pop, garage punk/noir, sludge metal, psych prog with The Tubs, Hollow Hand, The Church, Civic, Witch Ripper and more.
2023 has been slow in terms of high profile albums, at least ones I’m interested in that are serious contenders for the year-end Lucky 13. Not to say I haven’t found well over 100 albums I enjoy, but only a few so far that have made a huge impact. Nevertheless, every year is a good year for music, and even with a slow simmering start, I’m sure we’ll inevitably reach full boil.
1. The Tubs – Dead Meat (Trouble In Mind)
As always jangle pop is dismissed as too easygoing to be “important” music. Nothing this enjoyable could ever be meaningful! And yet I can’t be the only one who thinks there was never enough of this style of music in the first place. I’ve always liked a bit of post-punk edge to my jangle, like a Feelies album that never came in the six years between the motorik, slashing Crazy Rhythms in 1980 and the Pete Buck produced pastoral The Good Earth in 1986. More young bands seem to share that desire, like Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, and more recently, Thus Love, influenced by Easterhouse and The Chameleons, and The Tubs, formed by Owen Williams, formerly of noise pop band Joanna Gruesome. The jangle is strong from the first notes of “Illusion Pt. II” and while it all rushes by way to quickly, nine songs in just over 26 minutes, there’s a lot to unpack, with Jam like power pop harmonies, a serrated Wire sharp riff on “Sniveller,” and riffs after relentless riff all the way through the final track, “Wretched Lie.” It definitely leaves me craving more, and adding the Names EP (2021) to the playlist for an additional ten more precious minutes of music.
2. Hollow Hand – Your Own Adventure (Curation)
When I reviewed Hollow Hand’s last album Star Chamber (2018), I made a case that we were in the midst of a psych pop renaissance, with great new albums by The Sonic Dawn, The Honey Pot, The Galileo 7, Papernut Cambridge, The Sand Pebbles, The Beginner’s Mynd, The Citradels, Lucille Furs, The Dials, The Urges, The Butterscotch Cathedral, and singer-songwriters Jacco Gardner, Doug Tuttle, E.L. Heath and Max Kinghorn-Mills, who started as a one-man project under the name Hollow Hand, then assembled a band by his second album, with a solo 4-track tape Willow Garden (2017) released in between. Alas, it’s as if I scared them all off, my feature a flashlight scattering them like raccoons in the night, as we haven’t had new music from hardly any of the above artists. Five years later, we finally get Hollow Hand’s third album, and it was worth the wait. Kinghorn-Mills has honed his songwriting to the point where there isn’t a single track that does have sticky melodies worthy of the Beatles, Byrds or the Trees. A country psych flavor is introduced on tracks like the single “One Last Summer,” and “All My Love” kicks off with an indie folk hook The Shins would envy, then morphs into gently trippy psych. The talented band includes Tim Smith (Midlake, Harp), Spencer Cullum, Ryan Pollie, and Holly Macve, with a warm, intimate mix by Chris Cohen. It’s unlikely there will be a psych pop festival, all the more reason to treasure every note and performance from rare talents like Hollow Hand. | Buy
3. The Church – The Hypnogogue (CommVess)
I have written fairly often about my love for the Sydney band’s fourth album, Heyday (1986), where their intersection of post-punk, psych and jangle pop produced some of their most energetic, memorable songs. They crossed over with a mainstream hit on the next album, and what many haven’t realized was that they never stopped releasing great albums. 42 years into their career, The Hypnogogue looks like yet another highlight, an alluringly ambitious sci-fi/occult concept album set in 2054 with a Ziggy-like character Eros Zeta to employ a machine developed by a North Korean scientist (The Hypnogogue) to pull music from dreams. This delightfully colorful concept pairs well with the band’s flavor of art pop and dream pop they’ve been exploring since the 90s (along with shoegaze, space rock). While it’s a bit sprawling at 64+ minutes, it’s an entertaining ride, accented with some of The Church’s best songs of the past decade. | Buy
4. Civic – Taken by Force (Flightless)
Australia has a long, colorful history of garage punk, which I covered in Between The Cracks: Aussie Garage Punk. Despite the fact that the bands behind two recentish (at the time of writing in 2018) favorite albums, The New Christs and Hits, have been dormant for nearly a decade, there are still dozens of bands keeping the flame, from the critically adored Amy and the Sniffers to The Chats, Cold Meat, Stiff Richards, CLAMMS, Smarts, A. Swayze & The Ghosts and many more. My favorite of the most recent batch are Civic, who are clearly the ones to take up the Saints/Radio Birdman torch, which is pretty literally passed on by original Birdman/New Christ Rob Younger, who produced their second full-length. There’s a new crisp clarity to their previously murky garage punk sound, with some Church-y jangle and surf noir twang. “Trick of the Light” and “Blood Rushes” change up the pace with slower, simmering tempo, establishing a less frantic, melancholy mood. Melodies are also slightly more forward than on their breathless EPs from 2018 and Future Forecast (2021), but with the band riding the forces of destruction like the surfer on the cover, risking being dashed against the rocks. Overall the thunder down under rages unabated, laced with visions of apocalyptic dread and dumpster fires, as all good rock ‘n’ roll should.
5. Witch Ripper – The Fight After the Fall (Magnetic Eye)
Witch Ripper perhaps sells the band short in that it gives the impression the band will sound like any of the literally hundreds of doom sludge bands currently toiling away, flooding the scene with music of widely variable quality. And perhaps that was true of this Seattle band when they formed in 2012 and quickly released a four song demo. But they have developed into something far more impressive over the last decade, fusing a supercharged version of proggy sludge with arena worthy vocal parts that reach for the cheap seats and unashamedly namecheck Muse, Coheed & Cambria, Queen and Bowie, along with Baroness, Torche, High on Fire and Mastodon. On top of that, their second full-length spins a pulp sci-fi yarn of a scientist searching the galaxy to cure his wife who’s in cryostasis. I admire the ambition, and their range of influences have resulted in a worthy artistic statement that is far from cringe-worthy, in comparison to the enjoyable but leaning a bit too obviously on Rush’s Hemispheres, new album from Crown Lands.
6. Skull Practitioners – Negative Stars (In The Red)
From the band’s name, and their NYC address, one might expect a young group of scruffy, depraved noise fiends on all kinds of drugs. This dates me, as I came up in the days of early Pussy Galore, Swans and Live Skull. Instead, these are some outwardly mild-mannered middle aged blokes, including guitarist Jason Victor, whose CV dates back to the mid-90s with Willard Grant Conspiracy, and since 2012, The Dream Syndicate. The trio with Kenneth Levine (bass) and Alex Baker (drums) placed Craigslist ads to find a singer, but it didn’t pan out, so they settled on each singing the songs they wrote after the Death Buy EP (2019). The band can kick up a fierce storm, but they lean more toward melodic than the no wave influences of the aforementioned bands from the 80s NYC noise scene. I’ve seen tracks like the brooding “Intruder” described as a shoegaze/goth/dark punk combo. I just call that garage noir, along the lines of what post-punkers Protomartyr have been exploring, but with more of a chugging Detroit via Australian garage punk flavor. Life has a way of lowering expectations once you’re in your 40s, but I’d say the band is a bit self deprecating with Negative Stars. Had I any to give, they’d deserve at least four.
7. DoctoR DooM – A Shadow Called Danger (Ripple)
Formed in 2011, this band from Midi-Pyrénées, France, DoctoR Doom is one of the first who were clearly influenced, not just by Wishbone Ash and more obscure early 70s proto-metal, psych and prog, but by Swedes Witchcraft and Graveyard. With the former gone off the rails, and the latter dormant for the past five years, they’re a welcome addition to the club. Eight years after their debut This Seed We Have Sown (2015), they’ve graduated from a Pentagram in the basement sound to a more detailed, sophisticated production on their sophomore release, mastered by Kent Stump of Wo Fat. Jean-Laurent Pasquet’s vocals may not be the band’s strength, but they are noticeably improved this time around, his gravelly voice carrying more melody than before. The Thin Lizzy style twin guitars are always welcome on tracks like “Hollow,” and the closer is a bit of a surprise, a cover of G.F. Händel’s “Sarabande,” another dual guitar showcase.
8. Parannoul – After the Magic (Topshelf)
South Korea’s Parannoul has released their fourth album since 2020, elevating shoegaze, dream/noise pop to a new level of gorgeous sound design. There are no particular stand-out tracks for me, partly because the lyrics are in Korean, partly because it follows the post-rock tradition where the tracks are more atmospheric mood pieces. The arrangements with occasional strings and electronic breakbeats have helped set apart the mysterious one-band as creative, talented artist likely to continue forging new paths.
9. Black Helium – UM (Riot Season)
It’s easy to sleep on a heavy stoner psych album because there’s so much of it being produced right now. But London’s Black Helium have stood out since their Primitive Fuck (2018) debut with an unpredictable approach to raw, noisy space rock, drones and psych jams. The multiple twists and turns they take on the sprawling bookends of “Another Heaven” (11:51) and “The Keys to Red Skeletons House (I Open the Door)” (15:46) have kept me engaged with their third album all spring, their loose yet fiery power bringing to mind noise rockers Lightning Bolt, at least in spirit.
10. Mansion – Second Death (Mansion)
I’ve followed Finnish Kartanoists Mansion through their brilliant batch of four EPs starting in 2013, and First Death of the Lutheran (2018), and never for a second did I ever consider them doom metal. You wouldn’t think RYM would be lacking genre labels, but that’s what happens when they don’t adopt my completely appropriate label, psych noir. It capably encompasses the occult, goth and even prog influences. That said, “Sword of God” and “No Funeral” are quite doomy, but still far from what anyone could consider traditional doom metal. Whatever you want to call it, their second full-length is gloriously creepy, mysterious and weird. Someday the band will inspire their own cult.
11. REZN – Solace (REZN)
Chicago’s REZN released three albums of some amazing stoner doom and space rock with Cthulhu inspired album art, but they didn’t take the trajectory on their fourth album like I expected, getting more progressive and heavier. Instead they got even slower, with an Om-like meditative cadence, and more diffuse, with elements of shoegaze and post-rock. They still get heavy, with pounding riffs wrapping up “Possession” and driving the first half of “Stasis.” But as the song title “Faded and Fleeting Suggests,” they’re just a bit closer to dream pop than Ufomammut or Elder, which may not be a completely unique path, but they navigate it with masterful flair, taken one more step in fine-tuning a unique sonic signature.
12. Edena Gardens – Agar (El Paraiso)
Just six months after the release of the debut Edena Gardens album there’s already a follow-up. Denmark’s El Paraiso label features a lot of collaborate projects between musicians from multiple bands. After reading the book on Chicago’s kranky records, I recognized some similarities between the labels. Some of the collaborations are one-offs, but in the case of the trio of Jakob Skøtt (Causa Sui), Nicklas Sørensen (Papir) and Martin Rude (Sun River), they clearly clicked last year when they recorded the gorgeous debut of instrumental psychedelic folk and space rock infused with jazz, ambient, drone and post-rock. The label describes Sørensen’s guitar as “glistering” which is about right, but may be stolen by a toothpaste company. A live album is also coming in a couple weeks. The landscaping may be ongoing, but Edena Gardens has become a place to stay a while. | Buy
13. London Odense Ensemble – Jaiyede Sessions Volume 2 (El Paraiso)
More music pulled from the two day session from last year. This is El Paraiso practicing some restraint, because they likely could have created a six volume collection from this collaboration of psychedelic jazz. And many fans would eat it all up. The supergroup of London’s Tamar Osborn on flute/sax and Al MacSween on keys, 2/3 of Causa Sui plus Martin Rude of Sun River/Edena Gardens have created an endlessly listenable fusion of jazz-rock and psych rock. Recommended for those wishing Traffic had hooked up with Return to Forever. | Buy
Bubbling Under
Eyelids – A Colossal Waste of Light (Jealous Butcher): In the late 00s, John Moen (drums, guitar) and Chris Slusarenko (guitar, bass, keyboards) banged out five albums with Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices) as Boston Spaceships. I’d completely ignored them because, well, I can barely keep up with Pollard’s main band. I still need to give those albums a listen, but first, I had to acquaint myself with the first three albums by their next band, Eyelids, after The Accident Falls (2020), a beautiful rendering of Tim Buckley and Larry Beckett lyrics to power and jangle pop. Like that album, their fifth is produced by R.E.M.’s Pete Buck, and it’s heavier on the jangle. Probably they figure of the kiddos in the likes of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever can revive interest in jangle pop, why not these indie veterans. Why not indeed, essential stuff for jangleheads. Janglephiliacs?
Fire! Orchestra – Echoes (Rune Grammofon): While I don’t keep up with the whole jazz scene, I do have a thing for experimental big band, rooted in my love of Charles Mingus’ most expansive works, and the fifth album from this Stockholm band is a whopper of a triple album. Recorded at Atlantis studio in Stockholm with 43 musicians and mixed by Jim O’Rourke, there’s plenty to sink your teeth into, nearly two hours of music that balances avant-garde free jazz/fusion intensity with some really pleasing compositions. The final track concludes with some jazz poetry in the form of a riddle about a mysterious “last of the late great finger wigglers,” the legendary tenor saxophonist Joe McPhee.
EVNTYD – Eventide (EVNTYD): The debut album from Austin’s Julián Berdegué is a really promising start. His moody post-punk/dream pop hybrid unites him with good, gloomy company in DIIV and Drab Majesty. Not fashionable with the masses at the moment, this will get it’s proper accolades eventually.
The Golden Grass – Life is Much Stranger (Heavy Psych): These Brooklyn heavy psych/hard rockers sound rejuvenated on their fourth album, going for heavier proto-metal approach at times. Boogie rock energy and riffs for days!
Novelty Island – Wallsend Weekend Television (Think Like A Key): Liverpool’s Thomas McConnell embraced his hometown connection with the Beatles and Wings by making a mellotron soundtrack to the documentary The Beatles & Us, but his debut How Are You Coping With This Century? (2021) has influences more far-reaching, from glam to power/psych/prog/art/synthpop. I had the impression that he would be prolific, and I was right. His second album is made up of songs even older than those from the debut, chosen from a batch of eighty (80!). This particular collection has a loose theme about the influence of television, and the tunes are pretty damn delightful. Expect a slew of b-sides.
The Black Watch – Future Strangers (ATOM): In the 2020s it’s not such a rare thing for bands to be on their fifth decade (see The Church above). However, The Black Watch, formed in 1987, have never taken a break more than a few years, and they have maintained an impressively consistent level of quality. Their pocket of comfort is jangle pop/dream pop/psych, but every album has a distinct feel. While in the past they have incorporated elements of post-punk and lush shoegaze, this time around it’s more of a stripped-down, raw indie pop production like what you often hear from New Zealand’s Flying Nun bands, or a less manic The Wedding Present. Come for the sounds, stay for the literate songwriting.
Amplifier – Hologram (Rocksomos): It would be easy to assume Manchester’s Amplifier hail from Germany or Norway, with their preferences for psych prog and space rock, sprinkled with some alt rock and grunge. Formed in 1999, they are not a prolific as Motorpsycho, but they seem to be building up to something grandiose. An epic-length album Gargantuan was originally slated for a 2022 release, but instead they released some kind of teaser, perversely categorized as an EP even though it’s over 36 minutes long. With themes straight out of Philip K. Dick novels, it looks like a full-on album to me. I look forward to see that the main course is meant to be.
Crown Lands – Fearless (Spinefarm): This one is a bit of a guilty pleasure. The Ontario duo Cody Bowles and Kevin Comeau started out owing a lot to the garage rock of The Black Keys and The White Stripes. Gradually they have expanded their scope to hard rock with prog and psych flavors on their self-titled debut in 2020. However, for the White Buffalo EP (2021) and their sophomore album, they’ve gone full-on Rush mode. While they also cite Yes, Floyd and Zep, a tour opening for Greta Van Fleet showed them fully embracing their Rush spirit, blending pretty much all their phases from the mid-70s through the 80s. So serious points need to be docked for lack of originality, but damn, it’s fun stuff. The duo are talented, and certainly know how to make impressive arrangements and sound huge. I have a good feeling they’ll go on to create something special in the future.
Djunah – Femina Furens (Djunah): Donna Diane elevates post-hardcore noise on second album to new poetic heights, addressing trauma with fury and gothic horror.
Golden Hours – Golden Hours (Fuzz Club): Supergroup of Brussels to Berlin-based members of Gang Of Four, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Tricky, and The Fuzztones collaborate on an adventurous project of experimental post-punk and kosmische.
Purling Hiss – Drag on Girard (Drag City): The Philadelphia band has been grinding out noisy garage psych since 2009, and their eighth album owes a lot to Dinosaur Jr. The fact that many of the guitar solos and melodies measure up to J. Mascis’ level is no small thing.
Playlist
- The Tubs – Dead Meat (Trouble In Mind) | UK | Bandcamp
- IE – Junk Body (Moon Glyph) | USA | Bandcamp
- Temples – Exotico (ATO) | UK | Bandcamp
- Civic – Taken by Force (Flightless) | Australia | Bandcamp
- Mojo & the Kitchen Brothers – Mojo’s Heavy Cream (Lay Bare) | Belgium | Bandcamp
- Hollow Hand – Your Own Adventure (Curation) | UK | Bandcamp
- The Church – The Hypnogogue (CommVess) | Australia | Buy
- Mojo & the Kitchen Brothers – Mojo’s Heavy Cream (Lay Bare) | Belgium
- Stoned Jesus – Father Light (Season of Mist) | Ukraine | Bandcamp
- Witch Ripper – The Fight After the Fall (Magnetic Eye) | USA | Bandcamp
- Skull Practitioners – Negative Stars (In The Red) | USA | Bandcamp
- DoctoR Doom – A Shadow Called Danger (Ripple) | France | Bandcamp
- Martin Dupont – Kintsugi (Minimal Wave) | France | Bandcamp
- The Haven Green – Beyond The Shadow Of A Doubt (Mega Dodo) | UK | Bandcamp
- Black Helium – UM (Riot Season) | UK | Bandcamp
- Mansion – Second Death (Mansion) | Finland | Bandcamp
- Korine – Tear (AVANT!) | USA | Bandcamp
- Ist Ist – Protagonists (Kind Violence) | UK | Bandcamp
- REZN – Solace (REZN) | USA | Bandcamp
- Narrow Head – Moments of Clarity (Run For Cover) | USA | Bandcamp
- The Carburetors – Drinking From the Skulls of Our Enemies (Fast Forward) | Norway
- Flyying Colours – You Never Know (Poison City) | Australia | Bandcamp
- Eyelids – A Colossal Waste of Light (Jealous Butcher) | USA | Bandcamp
- VoidCeremony – Threads of Unknowing (20 Buck Spin) | USA | Bandcamp
- Edena Gardens – Agar (El Paraiso) | Denmark | Buy
- Tribunal – The Weight of Remembrance (20 Buck Spin) | Canada | Bandcamp
- Kauan – ATM Revised (Artoffact) | Finland | Bandcamp
- Hello Mary – Hello Mary (Frenchkiss) | USA | Bandcamp
- Air Raid – Fatal Encounter (HR) | Sweden | Bandcamp
- Dust – et cetera, etc EP (Kanine) | Australia | Bandcamp
- Goat Explosion – Threatening Skies (Into Endless Oceans) | Germany | Bandcamp
- Trabants – Lockdown (Pt. II) EP (International Fuzz Society) | USA | Bandcamp
- Crown Lands – Fearless (Spinefarm) | Canada | Bandcamp
- The Murder Capital – Gigi’s Recovery (Human Season) | UK | Bandcamp
- Death And Vanilla – Flicker (Fire) | Sweden | Bandcamp
- M(h)aol – Attachment Styles (TULLE) | UK | Bandcamp
- En Attendant Ana – Principia (Trouble In Mind) | France | Bandcamp
- Liquid Mike – S/T (Kitschy Spirit) | USA | Bandcamp
- Sharp Pins – Turtle Rock (Sharp Pins) | USA | Bandcamp
- Amplifier – Hologram (Rockosmos) | UK | Bandcamp
- William Tyler & The Impossible Truth – Secret Stratosphere (Merge) | USA | Bandcamp
- Rich Ruth – Live at Third Man Records (Third Man) | USA | Bandcamp
- Lankum – False Lankum (Rough Trade) | Ireland | Bandcamp
- HMLTD – The Worm (Lucky Number) | UK | Bandcamp
- GHOSTWOMAN® – Anne, If (Full Time Hobby) | USA | Bandcamp
- Crosslegged – Another Blue (Crosslegged) | USA | Bandcamp
- Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World (Matador) | USA | Bandcamp
- Die Spitz – Teeth EP (Poop Butt) | USA | Bandcamp
- The Psychotic Monks – Pink Colour Surgery (Vicious Circle) | France | Bandcamp
- The Men – New York City (Fuzz Club) | USA | Bandcamp
- Owl – Geomancy (Lummox) | USA | Bandcamp
- Shredded Sun – Each Dot and Each Line (Shredded Sun) | USA | Bandcamp
- H. Hawkline – Milk for Flowers (Heavenly) | UK | Bandcamp
- Elkhorn – On the Whole Universe in All Directions (Centripetal Force) | USA | Bandcamp
- Lord & Sharp – Kiwi (Aural Canyon) | USA | Bandcamp
- Acid King – Beyond Vision (Blues Funeral) | USA | Bandcamp
- Dan Melchior Band – Welcome to Redacted City (Midnight Cruiser) | USA | Bandcamp
- Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth – Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth (Flying Dutchman) | USA | Bandcamp
- Infinite River – Prequel (Birdman) | USA | Bandcamp
- London Odense Ensemble – Jaiyede Sessions Volume 2 (El Paraiso) | UK/Denmark | Buy
- Fire! Orchestra – Echoes (Rune Grammofon) | Sweden | Buy
- Nashville Ambient Ensemble – Light and Space (Centripetal Force) | USA | Bandcamp
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Live at Red Rocks ’22 (Needlejuice) | Australia | Bandcamp
- Enslaved – Heimdal (Nuclear Blast) | Norway | Bandcamp
- Iron Void – IV (Shadow Kingdom) | UK | Bandcamp
- Moonlight Benjamin – Wayo (Ma Case) | Haiti | Bandcamp
- Howard “Youngblood” Bomar – I, Who Have Nothing (Sundazed) | USA | Bandcamp
- Langendorf United – Yeahno Yowouw Land (Sing a Song Fighter) | Sweden | Bandcamp
- Hysterical Love Project – Lashes (Motion Ward) | UK | Bandcamp
- Uriah Heep – Chaos & Colour (Silver Lining) | UK
- Cindy – Why Not Now? (Tough Love) | USA | Bandcamp
- The Whiffs – Scratch ‘N’ Sniff (DIG!) | USA | Bandcamp
- Tee Vee Repairman – What’s on TV (Total Punk) | Australia | Bandcamp
- Polymoon – Chrysalis (Robotor) | Finland | Bandcamp
- Floral Portrait – Floral Portrait (Jason Bronson) | USA | Bandcamp
- Jen Cloher – I Am the River, the River Is Me (Milk!) | Australia | Bandcamp
- Stoned Jesus – Father Light (Season Of Mist) | Ukraine | Bandcamp
- Krano – Lentius Profundius Suavius (Maple Death) | Italy | Bandcamp
- Zulu – A New Tomorrow (Flatspot) | USA | Bandcamp
- The Golden Grass – Life is Much Stranger (Heavy Psych) | USA | Bandcamp
- Algiers – Shook (Matador) | USA | Bandcamp
- The Shits – You’re a Mess (Rocket) | UK | Bandcamp
- Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy (Ninja Tune) | UK | Bandcamp
- EVNTYD – Eventide (EVNTYD) | USA | Bandcamp
- Kaskadeur – Phantom Vibrations (Noisolution) | Germany | Bandcamp
- Novelty Island – Wallsend Weekend Television (Think Like A Key) | UK | Bandcamp
- Gatekeeper – From Western Shores (Cruz del Sur) | Canada | Bandcamp
- Lakecia Benjamin – Phoenix (Whirlwind) | USA | Bandcamp
- Freeroad – Do What You Feel (Dying Victims) | Mexico | Bandcamp
- Screaming Females – Desire Pathway (Don Giovanni) | USA | Bandcamp
- Kosmischer Läufer – The Secret Cosmic Music Of The East German Olympic Program 1972-83: Vol. 5 (Unknown Capability) | Germany | Bandcamp
- Glyders – Maria’s Hunt (Drag City) | USA | Bandcamp
- Mystic 100’s – On a Micro Diet (Listening House) | USA | Bandcamp
- Soft On Crime – New Suite (Eats It) | Ireland | Bandcamp
- Lonnie Holley – Oh Me Oh My (Jagjaguwar) | USA | Bandcamp
- Parannoul – After the Magic (Topshelf) | South Korea | Bandcamp
- Cementin – Worst of Cementin (WV Sorcerer) | China | Bandcamp
- Parannoul – After the Night (Topshelf) | South Korea | Bandcamp
- The New Pornographers – Continue As A Guest (Merge) | Canada | Bandcamp
- The Black Watch – Future Strangers (ATOM) | USA | Bandcamp
