independentmusicmonday:

#IndependentMusicMonday’s Tracks of the Year: 2016 Edition

Every Monday throughout 2016 we have compiled the week’s best new releases. We’ve featured over 1000 tracks, which you can find compiled in our Archive Spotify playlist.

It’s been a real joy rummaging through the new releases from Independent labels throughout this year, and I hope that this best of the year playlist featuring 70 of my favourites gives you a taste of some of what a great year it has been. LISTEN to the IMM tracks of the year playlist on Spotify here.

Track of the Year: ‘Three Sides of Nazareth’ by Nicolas Jaar

A pummelling beat and children chattering and tiger-growlin’ greets you at the start of this almost ten-minute masterpiece. Jaar has seemingly thrown his downbeat hyper-dub trunk off a cliff and whilst diving behind it into the infinite abyss he’s managed to make one of biggest floor-fillers of the year. If anyone was going to soundtrack a Party in the Sky, with lightning flickering at your feet, then you could bet Jaar would do it. Of course, it remains a production masterclass with the slinky, snarling, super-smart, shape-shifting, almost philosophical exercise. It’s a voyage that revels in making your synapses shake as much as your hips, but boy oh boy, if this isn’t one of the songs of the year then you better hurry up and tell me what is better than this utter bliss. “I found my broken bones by the side of the road…”

Tracklisting

Nicolas Jaar - Three Sides of Nazareth

Jean-Michel Blais - Nostos (feat. BUFFLO)
Snow Ghosts - Undertow
School Of Seven Bells - On My Heart
El Perro Del Mar - Breadandbutter
Junior Boys - Over It
Primal Scream - Where The Light Gets In (feat. Sky Ferreira)
Eagulls - Lemontrees
FEWS - The Zoo
Future Of The Left - Animals Beginning With a B
Sløtface - Sponge State
The Kills - Doing It To Death
Kate Jackson - Metropolis
The Duke Spirit - Wounded Wing
Innerspace Orchestra - One Way Glass
Guy Andrews - Paganism
Pet Shop Boys - The Pop Kids - Radio Edit
The Dandy Warhols - STYGGO
Marissa Nadler - Janie in Love
Jesca Hoop - The Lost Sky
Minor Victories - A Hundred Ropes
Nils Frahm - Chant
Julianna Barwick - Same
Fear of Men - Island
ANOHNI - Drone Bomb Me
Animal Collective - FloriDada
Radiohead - Daydreaming
Ulver - Moody Stix
Fiona Brice - Dallas
Hammock - Dissonance
Garbage - Even Though Our Love Is Doomed
Sleigh Bells - Lightning Turns Sawdust Gold
The Avalanches - Frankie Sinatra (Extended Mix)
Soulwax- Heaven Scent (feat. Chloe Sevigny)
Shearwater - Radio Silence
Amber Arcades - Fading Lines
The Raveonettes - This World Is Empty (Without You)
Angel Olsen - Intern
Melanie De Biasio - Blackened Cities
Hilary Woods - Sabbath
Julia Jacklin - Pool Party
Wild Beasts - Big Cat
Femme - Light Me Up
BadBadNotGood - Confessions Pt II (feat. Colin Stetson)
Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam - A 1000 Times
Lost Under Heaven - I&I
Tim Hecker - Castrati Stack
Agnes Obel - Familiar
Jenny Hval - Conceptual Romance
C Duncan - Like You Do
Warpaint - New Song
Black Honey - All My Pride
Eluvium - Fugue State
Dead Light - Blooms
Sharon Van Etten - Not Myself
The Anchoress - Long Year (Acoustic Version)
Hannah Lou Clark - It’s Your Love
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Jesus Alone
Merchandise - Lonesome Sound
Flock of Dimes - Everything Is Happening Today
Daughter - The End
The Blow - Think About Me
Austra - Utopia
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross & Gustavo Santaolalla - Before the Flood
Worriedaboutsatan - This Restless Wing (feat. Vincent Cavanagh)
Lucy Claire- Kawaita Tsuki / The Barren Moon (feat. Yuri Kono) (worriedaboutsatan Remix)
On Dead Waves - Blue Inside
The Moonlandingz - Black Hanz (Radio Mix)
Gruff Rhys - I Love EU
New Order - Singularity - Erol Alkan’s Extended Rework

LISTEN to the IMM tracks of the year playlist on Spotify here.

Posted by playlist curator Sean Adams of Drowned in Sound