My Favourite Albums of 2022
Here's a list of ten of my favourite albums from the year just been.
Selected Works is a weekly (usually) newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell, aka Yours Truly. Most weeks, Selected Works consists of a recap of what I’ve been doing lately and some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken + some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes it takes completely different forms.
MY FAVOURITE ALBUMS OF 2022
In a lot of ways, I spent most of 2022 with my head buried in the past. This mostly came down to the majority of work I spent the year doing, which was working on archival podcast/documentary projects, researching for historical DJ mixes and writing reissue liner notes. At the same, however, I like to try and stay tapped into the sounds of here and now. After all, I’ve got this far, so I might as well keep going, right? Here’s an alphabetically ordered list of ten contemporary albums that stuck with me throughout the year.
Amamelia, Bananamelia!
Born from grief, reflection and a return to the 90s Japanese electronic music that fascinated Amamelia while she was learning basic production skills in the mid-2010s, Bananamelia! is a glossy exploration of ambient jungle/drum and bass, vaporwave, vintage video game soundtracks and lounge music. Under the warm glow of a virtual reality sun, she reimagines motifs drawn from her influences into a perfectly-paced journey through an ocean of crisp breaks and silky smooth synths. Read a bit more in my Dazed Q4 column here.
Avantdale Bowling Club, Trees
Five years after the release of Avantdale Bowling Club’s self-titled debut album, ABC frontman Tom Scott (formerly of Homebrew, @Peace, Average Rap Band, etc.) delivers another musical tour de force.
The foundations here are Tom’s longstanding love of hip-hop, jazz, soul and funk, as understood as branches of the same tree. Over the course of ten vividly realised compositions that ride the line between band arrangements and programmed machine beats, Tom and his collaborators sweat it out, rapping and singing like their lives depend on it. Along the way, he takes a closer look at economic inequality, drug law reform, social desperation and the realities of living with regret. The songs on TREES might be concept-driven, but they still bounce, bop and bang.
This is what happens when you stop trying to compartmentalise your life experiences and accept that you can’t have good without bad, and you can’t have bad without good. Yet more masterful work from one of the most consistent New Zealand hip-hop artists of all time.
I originally covered this one for BeeHype’s Best of 2022 list here.
Barbie Bertisch, Prelude
The Buenos Aires and Miami-raised, New York-based bassist, DJ, vocalist and producer Barbie Bertisch comes through with the debut album of a lifetime, Prelude. Over eleven tracks, Bertisch weaves together a vivid tapestry of minimal house, ambient, dream-pop, post-punk and beyond. Released through Love Injection Records, a further expansion of her Love Injection zine and party projects with her partner Paul Raffaele, Prelude is the sort of record that might just make you finally start chasing your long-held dreams. Remarkable.
Debit, The Long Count
Named after the ancient Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, The Long Count is an unsettlingly beautiful fever dream of ceremonial Mayan wind instruments, digitised datasets, machine learning, and sound sculpture reconstructions. Simultaneously reaching into the far-flung past and a technonaturalistic future, it's an intoxicating mélange of historical reflection and speculative futurism. Unnerving, calming, and impossible to ignore.
I originally covered Debit and The Long Count for Mixmag here.
Elle Shimada, Home ≠Location
As she explicitly spells out with the title, Elle Shimada’s first solo album is a concept record about how home doesn’t have to be a location. Rendered through eight stylised tracks that take their cues from lower-tempo beats, house, modern jazz, neo-soul, and jungle, Home ≠Location is tied together by Elle’s elegant melodic sensibilities and lofty, yearning vocals. Featuring a cast of collaborators that includes Nagan Server, Quartz Pistol, Waari and Rara Zulu, Home ≠Location sees Elle finding a home in friends, community and sound. In a testament to her thoughtful and considered approach, Elle has shared stages with Lonnie Liston Smith, Giles Peterson and The Australian Art Orchestra. Consider this one a warm-up – she’s only just getting started.
I originally covered Elle Shimada and Home ≠Location in my Dazed Q3 column here.
Eden Samara, Rough Night
If you’ve got a longing for the feeling of a big vocal house track, Rough Night is an embarrassment of riches. Released through the immaculately curated Local Action label, the eight-track album sees Samara and her primary producer Ryan Pierre working with a cast of talents, including Call Super, Shanti Celeste, TSVI and Loraine James to craft a set of future anthems that balance euphoria with melancholy with perfect poise. Prior to relocating to London in 2019, Samara grew up in Nelson, British Columbia and spent some time living in Toronto. It’s been a long road to Rough Night, but the highs she reaches here make it all worthwhile.
I originally covered Eden Samara and Rough Night in my Dazed Q4 column here.
Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals, King Cobra
This album floored me over and continues to floor me over. I really hope big things are in store for these guys. They’re out of this world but also thoroughly in it. Over seventeen perfectly formed tracks Baltimore hip-hop iconoclasts Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals map out a gritty, humorous, honest and very much pulp-noir vision of life - not just as they see it, but as it could be. They’re cruising down your block on DMT, and they’re the post-apocalyptic version of Run DMC.
When it’s all said and done, and we look back on this era through the rear-view mirror, these are the people we’ll remember as being on the right side of history. Immaculate open-eared production that draws from soundtrack composition, folk, boogie, traditional rap and industrial + fearlessly out-the-gate (and deeply humanistic) raps. What’s not to like, right? If I had the budget, I’d be trying to make a movie with Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals.
jitwam, Third
Over ten celebratory tracks, Jitwam weaves a rich tapestry of disco-funk, bossa nova, psychedelic folk, dusty soul, house, jazz, and Bollywood, finding common ground between ostensibly disparate cultural signifiers. Featuring guest appearances from Melanie Charles and Akhtari, Third is a joyful and uplifting statement of intent from an artist experiencing a profound creative rebirth.
I originally covered Jitwam and Third for Mixmag here.
Matthieu Beck, Here Alone
This is nice. London-based Frenchman Matthieu Beck delivers an exquisite collection of drum machine sophisti-pop for Hamburg, Germany’s consistently remarkable Growing Bin Records. From the opening notes of ‘Island’, Here Alone is like walking in sunshine. Thing is, you’re not actually walking. You’re watching a grainy Super8 home video of yourself walking in the sunshine. You’re there, but you’re not. It’s kinda like that.
Mogwaa, Del Mar
The always tasteful - and very stylish - Seoul-based South Korean producer, instrumentalist, DJ, digger, etc, Mogwaa turns in Del Mar, a collection of six slick club-tempo tracks drenched in glossy synthesiser bliss. Themed around the sea and islands (hence the name, d'oh), Del Mar sees him turning his hand to various iterations of the Balearic beat, Italio disco, ambient house, and digital dub, all in a luxurious (almost utopian?) retrofuturist mode.
The Zenmenn & John Moods, Hidden Gem
Over the course of six perfectly-formed lazy Sunday groovers that feel served straight out of the late 70s playbook, John Moods and The Zenmenn confirm that the chemistry they first displayed on 'Homage To A Friend' in 2021 was no one-off moment. From the opening notes of 'Out Of My Mind' (which appears to feature an anonymous female vocalist), glittering guitars, steady grooves and strutting bass notes lay the foundations for a set of songs that evoke the feeling of spending a sunny afternoon on the beach. At the same time, still, crystal ocean waters stretch out into infinity. Add in a touch of Hawaiian-style slide-guitar intertwined with yearning vocals, and the magic just happens, and happens; and happens.
I originally wrote about The Zenmenn & John Moods and Hidden Gem for Test Pressing here.
And for those that could have made the top ten, but didn’t… Here’s a few honorable mentions.
Eiko Ishibashi, Drive My Car OST
WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING:
I haven’t been doing much by going to the beach and catching up with friends, but the Test Pressing Best of 2022 list is live on the site now. We were all asked to name several singles and an album. You can read through the whole extravaganza here.
FIN.