DJ Koze KNOCK KNOCK (2018)

the 80's is my favorite decade in music, and I wish it was closer, but it's not, there's no second place, it's a race for third.  that said, this is a glorious little mood-piece homage to the 90's, a beat album with wonderful guests, evoking a world where DJ Shadow and Sonic the Hedgehog ruled Saturday night

Carl Phillips WILD IS THE WIND (2018)

rothko and mondrian in one soul, taking turns with the brush

Blakes Mills LOOK (2018)

clarity is not a nullness

Midwife PRAYER HANDS (2018)

Late hour entry for album of the year, though it be but a 27 minute long EP. (Please Please Me was only 32, so it is within the margin of error for me.) Holy smokes is this terrific, like Grouper's older sister, escaped from the commune to make a High Desert guitar album, it sounds like Eastern Oregon, windswept and brutally gorgeous, a response to the joyful Sahara guitar maestros, a rejoinder from a broken Western world.  In a land that was once underwater and brought forth, to be examined, and submerged again.

William Basinski/Lawrence English SELVA OSCURA (2018)

a prayer for serenity answers itself