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Pool Boys
Patterns (self-released)
The best local release of the year finds this all-female indie-pop quartet leveling up as songwriters and performers. Their chiming guitars and honeyed harmonies feel richer and sweeter than ever, and their lyrics cut even deeper as they unpack their anxieties and personal turmoil with exacting detail.
Aphex Twin
Selected Ambient Works Vol. II (Expanded Edition) (Warp)
This classic electronic work was given a long overdue reissue this year, with some added material deepening the impact of this sprawling collection of gorgeous and occasionally challenging mood pieces.
Mope Grooves
Box of Dark Roses (12XU)
The final statement from late underground artist Stevie Pohlman is an appropriately bold one. The Portland artist who died by suicide early this year masterfully threaded together her various musical obsessions—spiky post-punk, jangle pop, and homespun electronica—and sociopolitical fury into a daring sonic quilt.
Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet
Four Guitars Live (Palilalia)
A snapshot of a tour that found four of the finest guitar players working today—Bill Orcutt, Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza, and Shane Parish—as they ripped through an exacting, slashing set of Orcutt’s minimalist post-rock compositions before a thrilled Dutch audience.
Previous Industries
Service Merchandise (Merge)
Three friends from Chicago—rappers Open Mike Eagle, Video Dave, and STILL RIFT—spend 35 minutes pushing and cajoling one another to greater lyrical heights while a sun-baked beat tape rolls in the background. Like being joyously stoned on a slightly choppy pleasure cruise.