Friday 12 December 2014

Albums of the Year 2014 - top 3 compilations

As a prelude to my full list of albums I've decided to call out some records in a few different categories that might have slipped under your radar. So here's my favourite three compilation / various artist records of the year. Each one of these is really special, and if you bought all three your music collection would have improved immeasurably.

1. What?! - William Onyeabor / various (Luaka Bop)


One of my favourite purchases on Record Store Day this year, which was subsequently given a full release by Luaka Bop. The album features a rang of cover versions, re-interpretations and remixes of tracks from the 'Who is William Onyeabor?' album, With the artists involved as diverse as Hot Chip (who made my favourite track here), Scientist, The Vaccines and Daphni (a,k,a, Caribou) the record manages to expand the sonic frequency of Onyeabor's music while still retaining the essence of who he is and what he does.

2. The Time and Space Machine presents The Way Out Sound From In - Richard Norris / various (Ample Play records)


A collection of some of the best remixes Richard Norris has produced over the past few years in his Time & Space Machine guise. If you don't recognise his name then you might be more familiar with him as being half of both The Grid and Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve, The standout tracks for me here are his mixes of Jagwar Ma and A Mountain of One, but he also does great stuff to Temples, Warpaint and lots more. (full review here)

3. Bleep: 10 - various (Bleep / Warp)


Bleep is the online store originally set up to sell Warp releases, which soon expanded to sell all manner of great music. They celebrated their 10th birthday this year, and as well as having the obligatory birthday bash (which I reviewed here) they also put out this excellent album of tracks from artists who are have been favourites in the store. Featuring exclusives from Autechre, Fuck Buttons, Lone, Modeselektor, Machinedrum and loads more, if you've ever bought anything on the Warp label then you're pretty much guaranteed to like this (full review here).

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