After the crashing inevitability of last year’s chart, in which a couple of highly-paid fancy dan records toyed condescendingly with the opposition, 2007 was a much tighter affair, all solid defence, and in true cattenacio fashion, a sucker punch winner right at the death.  They’ll be dancing in the streets of Stockholm after this, no doubt.

1. BJ NILSEN, THE SHORT NIGHT (TOUCH):  Not just the pick of the juiciest of vintage years for Touch, but the Premier Cru of 2007 itself.  The record he has long threatened to make, The Short Night is a weather-beaten goosebump-inducing masterpiece.  Read Listen Buy

2. PANDA BEAR, PERSON PITCH (PAW TRACKS): A lush West Coast classic that surpassed even Animal Collective’s own Strawberry Jam – Avey Tare’s work burst with so much invention that it made even them look a bit one dimensional. Read Listen Buy

3. ALVA NOTO, XERROX VOL.1 (RASTER_NOTON):  I find the fact that there are further volumes of this to come rather exciting.  In Carsten Nicolai’s hands, this seemingly-intellectual exercise buzzed with emotional resonance. Read Listen Buy

4. BURIAL, UNTRUE (HYPERDUB): As impossible to ignore as he was to photograph, Burial took his groundbreaking debut down the dancehall to show it a good time for the follow-up.  Masterly.  Read Listen Buy

5. A BROKEN CONSORT, BOX OF BIRCH (SUSTAIN-RELEASE): Given the comments attached to the review of this, I wasn’t the only one who experienced an epiphany upon discovering the sombre work of Richard Skelton. Read Listen Buy

6. THE NECKS, TOWNSVILLE (ReR):  They could improvise themselves out of a locked box, but I wouldn’t advise setting the timer on them.  Everything is done very much at their pace.  Read Buy

7. MACHINEFABRIEK, WELEER (LAMPSE): It isn’t a proper album per se, more a collection of stunning, rarer-than-hens-teeth mis-shapes, but the list would look ridiculous without an appearance by my most-played artist of the year.  Read Listen Buy

8. MURCOF, COSMOS (LEAF): The Wire may not have rated it, but listening to this at times is like being carried to the dark side of the moon on a cosmic wind, and that is about as much as anyone should dare hope for in a record. Read Listen Buy

9. PAN SONIC, KATODIVAIHE (BLAST FIRST): In which Pan Sonic once again turn their native Finland into a nuclear Ground Zero, the shock waves battering against your eardrums like a plague of electronic wasps.  Read Listen Buy

10. ELEGI, SISTEREIS (MIASMAH): It scared the bejeesus out of me, but like a meerkat toying with a scorpion, I kept going back to it.  By year end it was firmly esconsced as my favourite Miasmah release – a high accolade indeed.  Read Listen Buy

11. BEN FROST, THEORY OF MACHINES (BEDROOM COMMUNITY) Read Listen Buy

12. STARS OF THE LID AND THEIR REFINEMENT OF THE DECLINE (KRANKY) Read Listen Buy

13. OREN AMBARCHI, IN THE PENDULUM’S EMBRACE (TOUCH) Read Listen Buy

14. ROBERT WYATT, COMICOPERA (DOMINO)  Read Listen Buy

15. MARHAUG | ASHEIM, GRAND MUTATION (TOUCH)  Read Listen Buy

16. FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER, RHYTHM (RASTER-NOTON)  Read Listen Buy

17. RICHARD YOUNGS, AUTUMN RESPONSES (JAGJAGUWAR)  Read Listen Buy

18. ALOG, AMATEUR (RUNE GRAMMOFON)  Read Listen Buy

19. COLLEEN, LES ONDES SILENCIEUSES (LEAF)  Read Listen Buy

20. SUPERSILENT 8 (RUNE GRAMMOFON)  Read Listen Buy

Also commended to the house:  Fennesz Sakamoto, Cendre (Touch); Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Jinx (Staubgold); PJ Harvey, White Chalk (Island); Signal, Robotron (Raster-Noton); Six Organs Of Admittance, Shelter From The Ash (Drag City); White Rainbow, Prism Of Eternal Now (Kranky); Efterklang, Parades (Leaf); Circle ft Verde, Tower (Last Visible Dog); Animal Collective, Strawberry Jam (Domino); James Blackshaw, The Cloud Of Unknowing (Tompkins Square); Marissa Nadler, Songs III: Bird On The Water (Peacefrog); Susanna, Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos (Rune Grammofon); COH, Strings (Raster-Noton); Marsen Jules, Golden (Genesungswerk); Bjork, Volta (One Little Indian); Gultskra Artikler, Kasha Iz Topora (Miasmah); Ultralyd, Conditions For A Piece of Music (Rune Grammofon); Islaja, Ulual YYY (Fonal); Grails, Burning Off Impurities (); Pjusk, Sart (12k); Growing, Vision Swim (); Lichens, Ohms (Kranky); Roam The Hello Clouds, Near Misses (~scape); Kemialliset Ystaavat, Kemialliset Ystaavat (Fonal); Arve Henriksen, Strjon (Rune Grammofon); Mark Templeton, Standing On A Hummingbird (Apestartje); SOMA/Z’EV, Magistral (Southern Lord); Nina Nastasia and Jim White, You Follow Me (Fat Cat); Mira Calix, Eyes Set To The Sun (Warp); Thurston Moore, Trees Outside The Academy (Ecstatic Peace).

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