SYLVIA SHALE’S BEST OF 2025
10. Felicity J Lord – FJL [STROOM]
Asylum pop charts
no meds today kitten-pups
top 40 lead water hits
file under: what the absolute fuck
9. Time Is Away – Lake [self-released mixtape]
A lake in the Alps
cowbells in the valley dew
sleepy folk, mist, glow
file under: mixtape series collage
8. Babyfloating – Babysmoking
[CDr self-release]
Alaska splooge
grunge tuber Düsseldorf for
PJ Harvey pelt
file under: slow sexy German grunge
7. U.e. (Ulla) – Other Girl [28912]
Ta ambient jazz
bedroom purple quaalude glow
Grouper like a mouse
file under: ambient bedroom pillow wetter
6. Hugo Randulv – Drunkna l Ljus
[Discreet Music]
‘Drown in Light’ blue chap
a cello sings in flooded fields
thin feedback for night
file under: Scandi drone fizzlers
5. Alpha Maid – Is this a queue [AD 93]
This heat in London
south of the river guitar
24 track loop
file under: CURL Collective post-punk
4. Dania – Listless [Somewhere Press]
Jean Cocteau’s opium
Cocteau Gemini Twins' bag
606 biscuits
file under: Oz shoegaze
3. Robert Lax – Living in the Present [TAL]
Ok lapping poet
the birds, the sea, your voice
a leap soundly alone
file under: Modernist poetry & environmental recordings
2. A Happy Return – Hamewith [Spillage Fete]
Clyde Valley ferrics
hauntingly haunted houses
distorted choirs
file under: London to Glasgow lo-fi family tape loop lobs n’ lobsters
1. emer – Fog [Short Span]
Powder plump hillocks
snowmelt valley dew drippers
dial in side-chain
file under:: art techno dub, shoegaze vox
THE CHOPPING-BLOCK: No. 27-11
27. Bearer – Praxis [ANA]
Dub phlegm tree rotters
tooth-ache guitar pingers play
to gems in coal tar
file under: disgruntled dub
26. Lippard Arkbro Lindwall – How do I know if my cat likes me? [Blank Forms]
Purgatorial hum
mundane life gone murmurs
organ purr voices
file under: waiting room drone n’ poetry
25. Atef Swaitste – Palestinian Psychedelic Bedouin Dabka Archive [Majazz Project / Palestinian Sound Archive]
shaqa'iq an-Nu'man
sing the Bedouin wedding
1970s Galilee
file under: best artwork, pony ride through the poppy fields from the river to the sea
24. Miradasvacas – En Perpetua
[South of North]
Scraped metal monk
cold Madrid street pluckers
give us a euro
file under: dark thick song clouds (or are these improvisations?)
23. Kara-Liz Coverdale – From Where You Came / Changes in Air
[Smalltown Supersound]
Her trilogy year
these two birds of paradise
seasons of tech pass
file under: drone ambient rainbow benders
22. Rai Tateishi – Presence [NAKID]
Haiku flute tongues
between Charles’ Henry Peach
the magic light bends
file under: flute articulations, fingees & some spit
21. Razen – Mirages [KRAAK]
Steppe grass allergens
Muslimgauze blow northern winds
stop for kvas, sip sip
file under: overly steeped tea leaves of dark ambient
20. Hilary Woods – Night CRIÚ [Sacred Bones]
Westerly sea belt
finally the horns of elk lore
Bridget’s Cross aflame
file under: singer-songwriter, Twin Peaks in Eire
19. Luke Cowan – Six Places [Sad Cow]
Elevator jazz
next floor is the trodden fields
use brushes no snare
file under: Purgatorial pastoral jazz
18. Lukid - Underloop [Death Is Not The End]
Pastoral sexbot
tongue my vag with/without prompt
text-to-speech wet sponge
file under: Y2K IDM to Actress
17. WINO-E [Wah Wah Wino]
Come ye wild laddies
ladles of Irish bog juice
pink technoid nodders
file under: out on the lash, Dublin bay techno blop
16. Piotr Kurek – Songs and Bodies [Unsound]
Krakow to Chi-town
Gastr del windy white sails
cut sausage, fat beads
file under: 90s post-rock libel
15. Various Artists – Music from the Mountain People of Vietnam [Sublime Frequencies]
Magic mystic mist
two temples ooze light & song
harmony hospice
file under: title says it all
14. Jemima – Even the Dog Knows
[All Night Flight]
Detuned guitar halo
or broken tape deck motor
learn how to suffer
file under: lo-fi Low Company ghosts
13. Debit – Desaceleradas [Modern Love]
Nuevo Leon
slow moon desert copper goo
cumbia dream DJ screw
file under: Monterey chopped n’ screwed cumbia
12. Chris Connelly – White Phosphorus (Chris Connelly Plays Throbbing Gristle) [Dirter]
“Keep your panties in
I've got a lil biscuit tin
white panties, Y-front”
file under: must have if dating a goth / shout out to my old Reckless Records boss
11. The Necks – Disquiet [Northern Spy]
In a Silent Place
come-hither La Monte & thee
heather of concrete
file under: New/old millennium improvisations