| 1 | Aphex Twin | Syro | "A startlingly accessible, possibly even pop-friendly effort." Entertainment Weekly "The artist has presented an utterly human, mostly nonverbal defense of his aesthetic: atmospheric, occasionally funky and meandering instrumental electronic tones, lovingly crafted, with imaginative internal logics." Los Angeles Times | ||
| 2 | Richard Dawson | Nothing Important | "More than most noise albums, or deliberately confrontational music, this is a record that unsettles and subverts." The Guardian "Namechecks for Peter Beardsley and Peperami show eccentricity, but once you get used to his atonal delivery, Dawson emerges as a talented chronicler of the tiniest, realest details." New Musical Express | ||
| 3 | Swans | To Be Kind | "A two-hour odyssey of similar proportions to The Seer, this is an album that emphasises rather than establishes Swans' reconfirmed position at the top of the experimental rock tree, but that doesn't make it any less of a thrill." Drowned in Sound | ||
| 4 | Scott Walker + Sunn O))) | Soused | "Haunting, jarring, and oddly beautiful, Soused defies the idea of 'easy listening', but its singular vision and harnessing of the avant-garde makes it one of the year's most compelling artistic statements." Boston Globe | ||
| 5 | Actress | Ghettoville | "Although the dystopian vibe does brighten towards the climax, when Cunningham adds soulful vocal samples to his palette of ambient, industrial, techno, avant-electronica, glitch, minimalism and pretty much any other genre he feels like taking apart." The Guardian | ||
| 6 | Sleaford Mods | Divide And Exit | "The resulting album is an intense, visceral experience. It manages to combine the aggression of both punk and hip-hop. RapReviews.com It's essentially angry swearing atop rudimentary bedroom synth sounds. But that would be reckoning without Jason Williamson's supremely entertaining delivery." The Guardian | ||
| 7 | Shabazz Palaces | Lese Majesty | "Hip-hop is constantly being tweaked and nudged in new directions, but rarely is it reconfigured as radically, and thrillingly, as on this second album from Shabazz Palaces." The Observer | ||
| 8 | Run The Jewels | Run The Jewels 2 | "Rage Against the Machine's Zack de la Rocha, Travis Barker, Diane Coffee, the filthy-mouthed Gangsta Boo...they all contribute to the depth of RTJ2 but never outshine the stars of Render and Meline, despite all giving the best performances of their careers in some time." The Line Of Best Fit | ||
| 9 | Kasai Allstars | Beware The Fetish | "Some of the tracks can sound exhaustingly out-of-phase, but such sonic wonkiness works brilliantly on the hypnotic thumb-piano minimalism of "Down And Out," the Afro-funk of "In Praise Of Homeboys" and the Congolese heavy metal of "The Ploughman." Uncut | ||
| 10 | Fatima Al Qadiri | Asiatisch | "Asiatisch sounds better when heard as an experimental grime album and left at that. You certainly don't need to know anything about China to enjoy it." Resident Advisor "For all its conceptual flaws, Asiatisch is both a pleasurable and an intelligent take on sinogrime- proof that its initial wave of productions was brief not for lack of potential." The Quietus | ||
| 11 | Earth | Primitive And Deadly | |||
| 12 | Steve Gunn | Way Out Weather | |||
| 13 | Grouper | Ruins | |||
| 14 | Valerio Tricoli | Miseri Lares | |||
| 15 | Eliane Radigue | Naldjorlak I II III | |||
| 16 | Marc Baron | Hidden Tapes | |||
| 17 | Kevin Drumm & Jason Lescalleet | The Abyss | |||
| 18 | Rhodri Davies | An Air Swept Clean Of All Distance | |||
| 19 | Michael Pisaro | Continuum Unbound | |||
| 20 | AMM | Place sub. v. | |||
| 21 | Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek & Tomas Fujiwara | Thumbscrew | |||
| 22 | Puce Mary | Persona | |||
| 23 | Cooly G | Wait 'Till Night | |||
| 24 | Slogen | Despairs Had Governed Me Too Long | |||
| 25 | Carla Bozulich | Boy | |||
| 26 | Dean Blunt | Black Metal | |||
| 27 | Freddie Gibbs & Madlib | Pinata | |||
| 28 | Annea Lockwood | Ground Of Being | |||
| 29 | Wadada Leo Smith | The Great Lakes Suites | |||
| 30 | Call Super | Suzi Ecto | |||
| 31 | Steve Gunn & Mike Gangloff | Melodies For A Savage Fix | |||
| 32 | Jenny Hval & Susanna | Meshes Of Voice | |||
| 33 | Mattew Shipp | I've Been To Many Places | |||
| 34 | Holly Herndon | Chorus | |||
| 35 | Apartment House | Laurence Crane Chamber Works 1992 2007 | |||
| 36 | Shackleton | Freezing Opening Thawing | |||
| 37 | Klaus Lang | SAIS | |||
| 38 | Bitchin Bajas | Bitchin Bajas | |||
| 39 | Laetitia Sadier | Something Shines | |||
| 40 | Drcarlsonalbion | Gold | |||
| 41 | Helm | The Hollow Organ | |||
| 42 | Joseph Hammer | Roadless Travel | |||
| 43 | Oren Ambarchi | Quixotism | |||
| 44 | Laura Cannell | Quick Sparrows Over The Black Earth | |||
| 45 | Howard Riley | To Be Continued | |||
| 46 | Owen Pallett | In Conflict | |||
| 47 | Ariel Pink | pom pom | |||
| 48 | Akio Suzuji & Aki Onda | ma ta ta bi | |||
| 49 | Pharmakon | Bestial Burden | |||
| 50 | Flying Lotus | You're Dead |