There’s not a new day without a free download compilation/sampler/release on the internet anymore, increasingly becoming the tool of the trade. First label compilation by Portland’s Circle into Square is a 13 track sampler with electronic, indie, indietronic stuff and electronic hip-hop. Some better known artists like Boy in Static and Helios are mingled with less known artists. Overall, a good one, liked Helios’ Bohrenisms on Distance, and just realized I’ve never heard Japanese rap when I confronted it on mic.edu’s Surrogate Role Model. Free download.

Our dear friend Grup Ses sent us the new series he’s started called Ses Partisi 01 which is a series dedicated to contemporary alternative music from Turkey. Includes songs from him, Klaustro, Grangulez, Replikas, Hazavuzu, Ekin Fil of Proudpilot and even an older track by yours truly!.

Image nicked from vanessagx

Rachael Dadd’s Table is the second video today that first went to our video tumblr, but then got on the main site, because it’s a masterpiece and we’d be terribly sorry if it was lost in the avalanche that is the net:

“Hand painted animated video for Table, from Rachael Dadd’s mini-album Moth In The Motor. Created by the immensely talented hands of Betsy Dadd – oil paint on glass. Each pressing of the 10″ vinyl release includes a free download of this video, and every sleeve has been hand painted.”

Moth in the Motor is released tomorrow on 10″ vinyl, strictly limited to 300 pressings, hand numbered, with every sleeve hand painted using linocuts made by Rachael herself.

New stuff piling up in our mailbox. First single from Balmorhea’s upcoming third album on Western Vinyl out next month. Owen Pallett remixed by Simon Bookish. Borrowed Eyes who play a blend of Americana, folk, and roots music with a full length coming up soon via Banter, Brooklyn’s Psychobuildings whose first 7” will be released next wednesday on All Hands Electric, and promo single from San Diego based Cuckoo Chaos‘ debut EP on Lefse Records. The winner of the bunch for me, I guess, is Psychobuildings’ happy-go-lucky electropop with the infectious pop-hook. Enjoy.

“how this came to be?
and so easily?
how we wasted all this time,
yours, theirs, ours and mine
we should sell our souls!”

Santanaut Re-entry Module by blackmountain

Scanner Unreleased Christmas Mix 2009 (Scanner Facebook)

+ Asthmatic Kitty Mix (MBVMusic)

+ Tensnake on RA (Resident Advisor)

+ DJ Slow (Discobelle)

+ PLAY.FM Top 50 DJ-Sets 2009 | (play.fm blog)

+ Fufu Stew http://fufustew.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/happy-winter-including-a-special-holiday-triple-threat/

+ Gomma label founder Telonius has a new mix where he explores his musical roots (Juno)

+ Pink Stallone – Navidad Mix (Pink Stallone)

+ Best Coast & Ex-Pocahaunted frontwoman Bethany Cosentino (Thizzfacedisco) (Megaupload)

Found some time to process the remaining bookmarks. Here are the rest of the 2009 posts/threads that are worth mentioning. Lots of gems to hunt for!!

+ The Art of Memory Pre 2010 : alio die & aglaia, peter brötzmann/toshinori kondo /massimo pupillo /paal nilssen-love, celer, andrew chalk, elegi, eleh, robert haigh, jon hassell, supersilent and more. great list (The Art of Memory)

+ King Midas Sound’s Best of 2009 Consumed (King Midas Sound)

+ Top 10 of 2009 : Lists by Peanut Butter Wolf, Ma Dukes, Dam-Funk, J.Rocc, Egon & Mayer (Stones Throw)

+ Other Music’s Best of 2009 : Dirty Projectors, Dam-Funk, Cold Cave, The XX, Real Estate, Matthew Halsall.. (Other Music)

+ 14 Tracks Best of 2009: Atom TM, Tapes, Cooly G, Nite Jewel.. (14 Tracks)

+ Free Jazz Top 10: WHO Trio, Wadada Leo Smith & Jack DeJohnette, Tresspass Trio, Paura, Transit.. (Free Jazz Stef)

+ Headphone Commute’s Upgraded Best of 2009 Lists (Headphone Commute)

+ AMN Best of 2009 : Magma, John Hollenbeck, Carl Maguire.. (Avant Music News)

+ Best of Garage Rock by Mitza Matza of RYM: Meth Teeth, Bassholes, Christmas Island, Dan Melchior, Fontana, Eat Skull (RYM)

+ AccuJazz The Best of 2009 : Alain Toussaint, Steve Lehman Octet, Henry Threadgill, Fly..(AccuJazz)

+ Adgy’s Top 10 albums of 2009 : Ludovico Einaudi, The Flaming Lips, Mono, Soap&Skin (One of God’s Own Prototypes)

+ Destination:Out’s Fave Jazz Jamz of 2009 (Destination:Out)

+ The Silent Ballet : Top 50 Artists of the Decade : 2000-2009 (The Silent Ballet)

+ The Himes 100 : Geoffrey Himes selects for Sonic Boomers. Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Miranda Lambert, Tinariwen, Vijay Iyer Trio.. (Sonic Boomers)

+ AVANT/CHICAGO Best Albums of 2009 : Here we go magic, Fuck Buttons, The Entrance Band..(Flowfeel)

+ The Best of Bleep: Selections by Four Tet, The Field, Thom Yorke (Bleep)

+ Nialler9’s best albums of 2009 (Nialler9)

+ Rose Quartz Top 20 Songs of 2009 (Rose Quartz)

+ Favorite Records 2009: Current93, Eleni Mandell, Sunn O))), Tyondai Braxton (Screen of Distance)

Resting on our soundcloud favelist are three unrelated singles. Siriusmo’s remix to Bodi Bill, Polish electric indie band Thecarisonfire’s debut single and Leftside Wobble’s Curtis Mayfield re-edit. Enjoy.

illustration by engin oztekin

Bodi Bill – Tip Toe Walk (Siriusmo Remix) by inga

The Car Is On Fire – Ombarrops! by thecarisonfire

Curtis – Hell Below (Leftside Wobble Edit) by Leftside Wobble

For my apologies / frame of mind when making the list – check the mentions post:

Some notes : Hate to sound like a white suburban teenager, but the hazy lo-fi sounds of Matt Mondanile & friends has been the soundtrack to this year. Beware! too much of this will make you think that you live in a two storey prefab with American siding, have a bunch of lazy teenagers in trucker caps as friends and make love to sleazy girls at the beach. Which is quite the contrary to what we get in the urban jungle that is Istanbul. Anyway, kudos to everyone who’s managed to make “new age” a proper genre again. This also includes Mark McGuire and his work in Emeralds.

The most sublime musical moments this year were devised by Rune Grammofon’s In the Country, I’m shocked to see it neglected consistently on best of lists. Well, too bad.

Inspiration Information is hands down the hottest series around as I announced before, and two installments make it to the top cut. Akwaaba’s compilation of Carlos Lamartine was spectacular. Although the songs date back to the 70s, Benjamin did an amazing job to hunt and issue them for the first time outside Angola. Hopefully more will follow next year.

On the jazz front Steve Lehman and Vijay Iyer continue their roles as standardbearers of a newbreed of contemporary jazz. Haven’t checked enough Tzadik releases this year, but I’d have to have some form of dementia to miss an Ahleuchatistas album. Top class!

In Britain, King Midas Sound’s propagating of dubstep with trip-hop was a sigh of relief from the wonky dancefloor madness, although it definitely has way too much Tricky. Another release that I was going mental about was the Broadcast / The Focus Group collaboration. Like all good hauntologists I was interested more in The Focus Group than Broadcast. Frankly, found it a little bit underwhelming, but it’s still heads and shoulders above many.

Not quite sure about Thee oh Sees & Masha on the top 20 list, they might be more suitable for the mentions list. I’ve already realized that I forgot to put Masada Quintet, Peter Broderick vs Machinefabriek, Thomas Köner, Zomby, Yusef Lateef’s At Cranbrook and Elsewhere, Kreng etc. on either list, but it’s too late and life isn’t perfect.

Happy New Year. Hope to see you around for another year of great music and dismal writing.

Rest in Peace everyone who passed away this year. We suffered a lot of losses, but none hurt as much as the untimely deaths of Dani Baquet-Long of Celer and Jack Rose. Never forget!

Making a best of list has been considerably harder for 2009. First things first, together with Can we’ve dug an immense amount of vintage Brasilian music, lots of easy listening, old soul/funk/disco gems and the quality on most of these records put 2009 music to shame. Face it, you can’t keep up with João Donato, Yma Sumac, Piero Umiliani, Prince Buster etc.

I haven’t listened to Grizzly Bear, Mumford & Sons, Mos Def, Natural Snow Buildings and lots of other stuff seen on mainstream lists.

Try as I might I couldn’t get into Animal Collective, Ben Frost, Converge, Fuck Buttons, Clark, Zu, Moritz von Oswald Trio, Leyland Kirby (although I appreciate bits of each).

I listened to lots of cassettes, CDRs of lo-fi music, drone, experimental stuff, but frankly most were either half baked, too short to be labeled proper releases, had a few good ones but sucked as albums, or too experimental to end up on a end of year list.

I’ve missed a lot stuff on say, mapsadaisical or milk factory’s list like Black to Comm, Hildur Gudnadottir, Symbiosis Orchestra, Elm etc. I’ve given some a chance, and they’re actually quite good, but it would have been lame to put them on without giving them proper airtime.

So, taking all of these into consideration, here are our mentions in random order. The followup to this post will be the top 20. Bibio and John Zorn has two albums written beside them as none of them have been decisive IMHO.