The Predatory Wasp
If you’re interested in under-the-radar ambient, this end of year list from Post Ambient Lux is worth checking out (although the actual best ambient album of the year by OHYUNG is weirdly missing, which does make me question their judgment just a little). Awe Kid’s ambient breakbeat LP Body Logic is one of my favourite finds on there so far, with the lush, shimmering pads and celestial synths of Atavistic Paths a real highlight.
Released with zero fanfare (or at least none that I could find) is this beautiful two-track EP from TWP favourite Corrina Repp in collaboration with Rachel Blumberg as Arch Cape. Produced a while back “as a way to explore working together again after years of playing and conjuring”, they are available on streaming platforms for the first time today.
I’m sure we can all agree Nilüfer Yanya’s Midnight Sun is probably the best song of 2022 (even though Pitchfork only ranked it 17 – idiots!), so it was a nice surprise to get a deluxe version of her album PAINLESS last month that included this acoustic version, which further gently eases us into the relentless bleakness of January, however much we resist.
A lot of posts this month are likely to be based on me scrolling through countless end of year lists and writing variations on “how the fuck did I miss this – it’s amazing!” Today, though, I do have something new for you, taken from Moby’s new ambient album released on 01 January, “made to help anxiety (my own, and hopefully yours, too)”. amb 23-14 is a sparse 9 minute piano piece, with a few gently billowing synths drifting in and out, and seems appropriate for the first post of the year.
He left it late, but for the second year in a row Traumprinz comes through with December music: 16 new, original tracks over the course of a 90 minute set. I already know that this will be one of the pieces of music I return to next year. Thumping, emotional ambient-leaning techno from the undisputed master.
Here it is! The absolutely in no way definitive list of the very best albums of 2022, as decided by me and me alone. This is not a democracy. This list is biased, subjective and missing entire genres (tough luck metal!), however it is – of course – also the best list you’re likely to read.
Year after year I continue to be blown away by the amount of insanely good music released by people I had previously never heard of, and 2022 is no exception. I hope you’ll find something to enjoy.
TPW xx
Lol at everyone who’s already published their end of year list! (TPW’s is coming tomorrow – thanks for asking). SZA’s SOS is one of two albums released last week that will definitely making my list, so my slackness in publishing has turned out to be quite a canny move. Usually if an album pushes over the hour mark it’s a warning sign for some damaging indulgence and self-regard, but there are so many good tracks – Conceited not least among them – that in this case the extended running time is entirely justified.
Pink Siifu and producer Ahwlee return to release new music as their enigmatic hip-hop/neo-soul duo B. Cool-Aid: the first official release in more than 3 years following their last full-length project Syrup back in 2019. It’s very good!
Maryam Said performing as poolblood has shared the latest single from their forthcoming debut album mole. Meditative and sombre, the song deals with “the anxieties of love and learning how to self soothe”, which makes it sound like it has the potential to be quite a angsty slog, but is instead moving, delicate and very lovely indeed.
Raw Poetic and Damu The Fudgemunk collaborated on one of my favourite albums of this year – the massively underrated Laminated Skies – and this is similarly brilliant: robotic funk, hypnotic lyrics and the second single from their forthcoming album Space Beyond the Solar System, which lands this Friday.
https://damuthefudgemunk.bandcamp.com/track/digits-single-mix
The Predatory Wasp 