Our Favorite Albums, 2022: Individual Contributor Lists & Reflections, Part 2
Tone Glow writers reflect on 2022 through albums, songs, and more
Each of our writers was asked to submit a list of their 10 favorite albums from this year. They also had the option to list their 10 favorite songs and to create another list of any 10 things of their choosing. Below, find reflections and individual lists from our contributors, listed in alphabetical order by last name.
Leah B. Levinson
Well I guess there’s not much to say. The year in lists for myself: it’s good to see my friends in one place! Not ranked necessarily, just sequenced by resonance and flow. Happy new year!!
ten well-loved albums
454 - Fast Trax 3 (self-released)
Bladee & Ecco2k - Crest (Year0001)
Alex G - God Save The Animals (Domino)
Beach House - Once Twice Melody (Sub Pop)
Cities Aviv - Man Plays the Horn (self-released)
Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems (Epitaph)
Black Dresses - Forget Your Own Face (self-released)
Klein - Cave in the Wind (self-released)
Huerco S. - Plonk (Incienso)
Lolina - Face the Music (Relaxin)
ten hidden gem albums
Petit Garçon - Let Go of Stress (self-released)
Romance - Once Upon A Time (self-released)
CS + Kreme - Orange (The Trilogy Tapes)
Cel Genesis - Shallow Dream (self-released)
Blut Aus Nord - Lovecraftian Echoes (self-released)
Genital Shame - Lion Piss + Arm Vulnerability (The Garrote)
Insane Angel - Insane Angel Demo Spring 2022 (self-released)
2070 - Shordy (Already Dead)
ulla - foam (3XL)
Jadelain - Pumping a Contrarian Heart (self-released)
ten songs
Ashley Paul - “A Feeling” (self-released)
True Body - “Jade Green” (self-released)
Chronophage - “Summer to Fall” (Post Present Medium)
Cheri Knight - “Tips on Filmmaking” (Freedom to Spend)
Richard Dawson - “The Hermit” (Domino)
Lambchop - “So There” (Merge)
Skogar - “HELVETE” (self-released)
涼井夕映 - “気づく” (Ukiuki Atama)
Katie Dey - “When God Lets My Body Be” (self-released)
Gregory Mann, David Bradley - “Everything Is New To Me” (Netflix Music)
Chloe Liebenthal
(Personal reflection inaudible over the blaring of black midi riffs)
Top 10 Albums of 2022
black midi - Hellfire (Rough Trade)
DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Bewitched! (SPELLS43)
El Mantis - El Mantis (self-released)
Springtime - Night Raver EP (Joyful Noise)
Horse Lords - Comradely Objects (RVNG Intl.)
Enemy Goddess - Haint (Ritual Magnetics)
Boris - W (Sacred Bones)
The Absolute Unit - Vol. 1: August 27, 2022 (self-released)
Mary Halvorson - Amaryllis (Nonesuch)
Chat Pile - God’s Country (The Flenser)
Top Ten Ink Colors 2022
Pilot Iroshizuku Asa-Gao. This bold blue ink is sort of like if perfection existed in bottled form. Its crisp striking hue is easy to read, yet with enough of a purple tinge to keep things exciting. It absolutely does not get better than this.
Colorverse Vortex Motion. A deep black color appropriate for turning in homework, with a green-gold shimmer that keeps you on your toes. Invigorating.
Sailor Tokiwa-Matsu. A lush and moody green that matches one of my favorite pens, a subtle yet intriguing color.
Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu. It’s neon purple! What more could you ask for?
Colorverse Gravity Wave. The first ink color I ever tried, and still a favorite. Its delightful multi-hued effect is whimsical enough to motivate me through the longest of writing sessions. Also, I like Colorverse’s astrophysics-themed branding and the cute little stickers that come in the box.
Monarca Manglar. A late-game favorite from an up-and-coming brand. This cool, swampy green perfectly recalls the color and sense of sedate awe associated with a mangrove tree.
Diamine Robert. I don’t usually write with pink ink, but this decadent magenta with green-gold sheen inspires me to change that.
Troublemaker Milky Ocean. I only got to try a little sample of this but JUST LOOK AT IT. That is the color of wistful memories and ice cream.
Robert Oster Fire Engine Red. An aggressive and eye-popping color perfect for writing corrections.
Sailor 223. While its lovely gray-green hues look beautiful for longer writing samples, it looks way too light when writing tiny little equations such as math homework. Still, its unique color deserves placement on this prestigious list.
Jesse Locke
At some point in 2022, attending shows and playing live took on a nostalgic quality that I’ve never felt in my decades of being involved in music. Maybe it’s because everything is slightly different now, a funhouse mirror version of how these things used to be. It still feels risky to be in a room with a large group of unmasked people, but also feels like a reclamation of the shape of an evening that I can slip into comfortably. The experience now makes me think back on the hundreds of times I’ve done it before, reflecting on all kinds of happy and sad memories, while I wonder if this is still the path that I want to take in life. But when live music is truly transcendent - like the astonishing performances I saw this year from Sparks, Sook-Yin Lee, and Empanadas Ilegales - all anxieties dissolve into the present moment.
I can look back with pride on the album I released for MISZCZYK, featuring Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier, Pylon’s Vanessa Briscoe-Hay, and The Space Lady, among many other amazing collaborators. Interviews with Diamanda Galás, Devours, Ohama, Lavender Country’s Patrick Haggerty (R.I.P.) and the guide to Broadcast I contributed to Bandcamp Daily all reaffirmed why I devote so much time and energy to writing about music. Touring out to Sappyfest and recording a new album with Tough Age, plus playing with my other bands Big Rig, CHANDRA, Shop Cat, Kerkland Jerks (and the T. Rex cover band we formed for Halloween) all provided a happy place when the weight of the world was getting me down. At the risk of sounding mushy, it’s the connections with people that I’ve made through music that matter the most. I’m endlessly thankful to my partner Reagan and my cat Crumbs for being by my side.
10 Albums I Loved in 2022
Oren Ambarchi - Shebang (Drag City)
Eiko Ishibashi - For McCoy (Black Truffle)
Jairus Sharif - Water & Tools (Telephone Explosion)
Alvvays - Blue Rev (Polyvinyl)
Apollo Ghosts - Pink Tiger (You've Changed)
Empanadas Ilegales - Creepy Mambo (Exp. Waves)
Dumb - Pray 4 Tomorrow (Mint)
Wau Wau Collectif - Mariage (Sahel Sounds)
Kikagaku Moyo - Kumoyo Island (Guruguru Brain)
Éliane Radigue and Frédéric Blondy - Occam XXV (Organ Reframed)
5 Reissues I Loved in 2022
Norma Tanega - I'm The Sky: Studio and Demo Recordings, 1964–1971 (Anthology)
Charles Stepney - Step On Step (International Anthem)
Broadcast - Mother Is The Milky Way (Warp)
Les Rallizes Dénudés - The OZ Tapes (Temporal Drift)
The Dance - Soul Force (Sundazed)
Alex Mayle
Top 10 Albums of 2022
Kali Malone - Living Torch (Portraits GRM)
William Parker - Universal Tonality (Centering)
Jürg Frey perf. by Reinier van Houdt - lieues d'ombres (Elsewhere)
La Kut & Doctor Pez - Democracia (PERSEA)
Wadada Leo Smith - String Quartets Nos. 1-12 (TUM)
Linnéa Talp - Arch of Motion (thanatosis)
Narval Orquesta - Botones (Narval)
Kadef Abgi - Diva of Deva Loka (Akuphone)
Susan Geaney - Tape Melt (Fort Evil Fruit)
Isaiah Ceccarelli - Toute clarté m’est obscure (Ambiances Magnétiques)
Top 10 Songs of 2022
La Kut & Doctor Pez - “Íntima” (PERSEA)
Palm - “Parable Lickers” (Saddle Creek)
Horse Lords - “Zero Degree Machine” (Rvng)
Leila Maria - “Oceano” (Biscoito Fino)
Katie Kim - “Gentle Little Bird” (I Actually Like Music)
Flora Purim - “A Flor Da Vida” (Strut)
Motte - “Seeing Into The Minds of Others” (Ba Da Bing!)
Dälek - “Devotion (when I cry the wind disappears)” (Ipecac)
Yonatan Gat - “Slow American Movement - II. Lento” (Stone Tapes)
Sélébéyone - “Liminal” (Pi Recordings)
Top 10 Chocolates I Tried This Year
Soma - 70% Uganda Semuliki Forest
Zotter - 82% Peru Criollo Blend
Michel Cluizel - 99% Noir Infini Blend
Domori - 70% Trinitario Peru
Zotter - 90% Bolivia
Akesson’s - 75% Madagascar Criollo
Zotter - 96% High-End Blend
Zotter - 100% Peru
Raaka - 80% Pure Cacao & Strawberry & Coconut Blend
Zotter - 82% Belize
Samuel McLemore
I spent most of my year being almost pathologically unable to separate modern music from the music business. Every album I attempted to listen to would eventually become poisoned by wandering thoughts of how much the PR agent got paid to write emails hocking it to Pitchfork, or what the gear and studio time they used to produce it cost. Albums with multiple colored vinyl editions disgust me. Touring is a crime, bad for the environment in the way only privileged narcissists can be ignorant to, and bad for the health of the culture—small scenes are crowded out from even existing by midrange touring acts, who are in turn bottlenecked from gaining a bigger audience because of superstar assholes sucking up the air, etc. It’s like a nesting doll of shit. I think the people who advocate for the buying of records or the deletion of streaming services as a solution to the “problems” of music culture are just practicing head-in-the-sand denialism.
It seems almost all aspects of mass music culture are designed to celebrate what I find abhorrent about music, and disguise or even disrupt what I find valuable about it. Thankfully, music can exist outside of what others think. It can be a whole world, free and alone if it wants to be.
Top 5 Albums of 2022
Water Damage - Repeater (12XU)
Flanger Magazine - After The Bend (Students of Decay)
Wormrot - Hiss (Earache)
Faust - Punkt. (Bureau B)
K. Freund - Hunter on the Wing (Last Resort)
Ryo Miyauchi
The future became an especially abstract concept to me in recent times with the pandemic—it made me even more ill-equipped to imagine what I wanted for my life years down the road. During these past years, I gravitated a lot to music that tried to deal with this static state of being, with time not having a beginning or end, just things coming and going.
But in 2022, time seems to be moving forward, in my life and in the worlds of my favorite songs this year. I was inspired by music that was enthusiastic about living for today with the future in mind. Though it hasn’t felt much easier to think about what could be next for me, when I listened to those songs, it made me realize that, deep down, I wanted to be excited about being alive to see what today, tomorrow and maybe the days after would hold for me. “This future is the new era,” one of my favorite J-pop singers proudly sang in one of the best songs of 2022. My favorite songs this year convinced me that there’s so much life on offer, and that's more than what I can ask for from music.
5 Favorite Japanese Albums / 5 Favorite Non-Japanese Albums of 2022
Wednesday Campanella - Neon (Warner Music Japan)
Hikaru Utada - BAD Mode (Sony)
MONDO GROSSO - BIG WORLD (A.S.A.B.)
JYOCHO - Let’s Promise to Be Happy (No Big Deal)
Midnight Grand Orchestra - Overture (Toy’s Factory)
Black Dresses - Forget Your Own Face (Blacksquare Media)
Naked Flames - Miracle in Transit (Dismiss Yourself)
Ripped to Shreds - Jubian (Relapse)
Rauw Alejandro - SATURNO (Sony)
Rachika Nayar - Heaven Come Crashing (NNA Tapes)
10 Favorite Songs of 2022
Hitsujibungaku - “Hikarutoki” (F.C.L.S.)
Ado - “New Genesis” (Universal)
Wednesday Campanella - “Maneki Neko” (Warner Music Japan)
Hikaru Utada - “BAD Mode” (Sony)
MONDO GROSSO ft. Hikari Mitsushima & Ryuichi Sakamoto - “IN THIS WORLD” (A.S.A.B.)
UA - “Binetsu” (Victor)
JYOCHO - “The End of Sorrow” (No Big Deal)
TEMPLIME & Toto Hoshimiya - “skycave” (KBS Studio)
Edward(me) - “Loxonin” (self-released)
Perfume - “Mawarukagami (polygon wave live ver.)” (Universal)
10 Favorite Japanese TV Dramas of 2022
Waru: Hataraku Koto Ga Kakkowarui Nante Dare Ga Itta?
Shizuka-chan To Papa
First Penguin!
Tsukuritai Onna To Tabetai Onna
Mahou No Rinobe
Hatsukoi No Akuma
Tsuma, Shogakusei Ni Naru
Mai Agare!
Silent
Atom No Ko
Jude Noel
Wanted to use this space to shout out all of the folks using their platform to share interesting, international, and innovative music. Big ups to the whole Tone Glow family, No Bells, billdifferen, James Gui, Cat Zhang, hyperpopdaily, Dani Kiyoko’s Soundcloud reposts, Alphonse Pierre’s rap roundup, and anyone else who exposed me to something new this year. I still haven’t really processed the past 12 months. I’ve wanted to write about music professionally since I was 13 years old, and it’s been nothing short of surreal to actually get to do it a decade later. Thanks to everyone who took a chance on my pitches or clicked on something that I wrote. <3
Top 10 Albums of 2022
Horsegirl - Versions of Modern Performance (Matador)
Cash Cobain & Chow Lee - 2 Slizzy 2 Sexy (Self-Released)
Fievel Is Glauque - Flaming Swords (MATH)
Passepied - ukabubaku (Nehan)
DJ Danifox - Dia não mata dia (Príncipe)
The Reds, Pinks and Purples - They Only Wanted Your Soul (Slumberland)
Say Sue Me - The Last Thing Left (Damnably)
Turbo World - My Challenger (Ramp Local)
Moth Cock - Whipped Stream and Other Earthly Delights (Hausu Mountain)
xaviersobased - Who Are You? #34ent (Self-Released)
Favorite Milwaukee Rap Songs
MarijuanaXO & Super Throwed Dave - “4 Da Mob”
Chicken P - “Homer”
Super Throwed Dave - “Striker Red Eye”
SME TaxFree & RRB Duck - “9.17.22 (feat. RealStasher 50k & RRB Mel)”
Mike Mike - “Trapped In”
Mariboy Mula Mar & Oshiee3200 - “30 Rackz”
Certified Trapper - “When I Sneeze”
BallySlatt - “All Love”
SME TaxFree & MarijuanaXO - “Sky Is the Limit”
Gil Sansón
Awful year. It just can’t be denied. Making music as an independent artist with the hopes of generating a decent income is becoming increasingly difficult each passing year. The pandemic, the war, the continuing deterioration of the quality of living in my homeland Venezuela. And yet somehow people keep making music despite the odds and the complacency of listeners who treat music as free aural wallpaper for their average lives. Optimism in the face of a grim reality is part of a mechanism of survival and the process of generating sustainable alternatives to the current models (in short, Bandcamp good, Spotify evil, but much more is needed).
A bad year, personally, too. For the first half of the year I was more or less despondent to my own music, which led to a second half crammed with activity once the crisis of motivation subsided. Another positive aspect of this sorry state of affairs is the solidarity that only the members of a marginalized community can offer. My music writing is basically this, trying to give back to the community that has done so much for me in the past and present.
Closing on a high note, this year I had the honor and privilege of having a piece of music dedicated to me. Anastassis Phillipakopoulos, whose music I greatly admire and with whom I have an ongoing conversation with about the essentials of music, dedicated his most recent piano piece to me. This is priceless to me. Also, I had the pleasure of writing notes for his latest CD on Wandelweiser, with three pieces that show how he became the composer of bare monodies that the world knows today.
In no particular order, here are ten records that impressed me this year. A few fell outside this list of ten, which doesn’t mean anything, really, other than point to the arbitrary nature of this kind of thing. The records that didn’t make the list are as good as any on it, though some I did not include because I knew they would likely get mentioned in other people’s lists.
Top 10 Albums of 2022
black midi - Hellfire (Rough Trade)
Voivod - Synchro Anarchy (Century Media)
Vanessa Rossetto - The Actress (Erstwhile)
Jürg Frey perf. by Apartment House - Borderland Melodies (Another Timbre)
Darkthrone - Astral Fortress (Peaceville)
Diamanda Galás - Broken Gargoyles (Intravenal Sound Operations)
Michiko Ogawa - Junkan (2020) (Marginal Frequency)
Kunsu Shim - LUFT: INNERES (Another Timbre)
Lasse Marhaug/Jérôme Noetinger - Top (Erstwhile)
Quentin Tolimieri - Monochromes (elsewhere)
Eli Schoop
I have a suspicion that all the suffering caused by the pandemic for most people was just delayed a bit for me. My life collapsed like a house of cards multiple times this year and it, quite plainly, sucked ass. I try to have an optimistic demeanor in my daily, so to get emotionally flattened on several occasions was a weird and depressing shock to the system. But I suppose I have done a lot of it myself. It’s hard to come to terms with that, nevertheless, we move.
One of the things that was a silent headache for me over the year was how much shit music was pushed. I already wrote about this but I easily could’ve added 10 more albums to this list—mainstream/critical consensus records were that bad. It’s also unfair to 2022 in music— great music abounded, especially songwise, considering so many previously unknown artists released hitters over the past 12 months. The culture is fucked when so much slop gets pushed, but you’ve already heard it from me, I’m sure.
2022 wasn’t all bad though. I got to see the Tone Glow peeps in person, turned 26, made some more enemies, and interviewed Klein (!!!). At the end of the day, life is good, and the Tone Glow crew always keeps me grounded and curious, a model of what music discovery and community can provide for people. Thank you to all my friends, family, and those online who root for me and fuck with my shit. If I could handle what this year threw at me, 2023’s gonna be a fuckin breeze.
Top 10 Albums of 2022
Cities Aviv - Man Plays The Horn (D.O.T.)
454 - FAST TRAX 3 (4EVER)
black midi - Hellfire (Rough Trade)
Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems (Epitaph)
Speed - Gang Called Speed (Last Ride)
Chief Keef - 4nem (Glo Gang)
Alex G - God Save The Animals (Domino)
M.I.A. - Mata (Island)
Fievel is Glauque - Flaming Swords (Math Interactive)
Ravyn Lenae - Hypnos (Atlantic)
Top 10 Songs of 2022
Thaiboy Digital - I’m Fresh (YEAR0001)
black midi - Welcome To Hell (Rough Trade)
Z-money ft Valee - Risk (self-released)
Steve Lacy - Sunshine (RCA)
Jane Remover - Royal Blue Walls (deadAir)
454 - ZIP CODE (4EVER)
Pink Siifu ft Valee - Griptape!! (self-released)
Serph ft. Zun - Piplup Step (The Pokemon Company)
Babyfather ft. Tirzah - 1471 (WORLD MUSIC)
jaydes - convenience (self-released)
Top 10 Favorite Pics of My Pets
Shy Clara Thompson
This might seem like a painfully obvious truism, but here we go: art is more enriching when you share the experience of appreciating it with someone else. It can be easy to forget this when you spend most of your time rotating your thoughts in solitude as if you're hanging on the detail screen of a PS2 memory card save file, but I sometimes have moments that force me to question my tendency toward self-imposed loneliness.
I burn the midnight oil and wake up late most days, and my girlfriend is an early riser. To give those drab mornings a bit of color until I’m out of bed, she’s taken to playing curated YouTube playlists on the TV for background noise. They’re usually things like “3½ Hours of Winter Nintendo Music” that give her a quick hit of warm nostalgia, but on one listless afternoon I stirred to life and caught the sound of a city pop playlist filling our apartment. I thought it seemed unusual for her—that’s not really the kind of music she’s into—but after incubating under the comforter for a while longer and identifying a few tracks, I understood that her choice was deliberate. She had specifically grabbed a list that contained Tatsuro Yamashita’s “Your Eyes,” a song that I selected as the final track of a carefully curated mix CD that I gave her more than a decade ago.
This shocked me a bit. I recalled feeling disappointed all those years ago that I didn’t get a more enthusiastic reaction from her. I try sometimes to share music with her, but it’s not really her thing the way it’s my thing—which is something I’ve long made my peace with. To see that she kept that gesture in her memory and returned to hear a song I’d long forgotten I showed to her taught me something new about my partner of eleven years; she’s a lot more quietly appreciative than she lets on. I have a habit of viewing these things as an all-or-nothing gambit where I risk embarrassment when I don’t get the response I expect, but making an impression is sometimes a long game. She was just taking her time.
As I put together my list of albums that left the biggest impression on me this year, the influence of other people runs strong in my mind. I listen to America Dream Reserve and think of a friend whose uncharacteristically personal essay about how they came to love private press records helped me grow to love this compilation. I listen to LIL SOFT TENNIS and kegøn and think of another friend whom I spent a night browsing a tangled web of interconnected artists with. I listen to Enji and Popp’s short EP and I can’t help remembering how I excitedly emailed Enji to congratulate her after hearing one of the tracks on a radio show.
I’ll always love to spend most of my time in my own head, but it’s good to remember that making the occasional venture beyond the walled garden is worth the effort—even if it takes a while to bear fruit.
Top 10 Albums of 2022
Amateur Hour - Krökta Tankar och Brända Vanor (Appetite)
Autumn Fair - Autumn Fair (Recital)
Barn Sour - One Trick Pony (Staighre)
David Tholfsen - Walk With Me (The Spoor)
Dewa Alit & Gamelan Salukat - Chasing the Phantom (Black Truffle)
Enji, Popp - 031921 5.24 5.53 (Squama)
kegøn - spike (self-released)
LIL SOFT TENNIS - KiD (self-released)
Olly Wilson - Composer "Portrait" Series #1 (Creel Pone)
Various Artists - America Dream Reserve (Smiling C)
Top 10 Cool Video Games I Played This Year
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (Nintendo Switch)
A Manga That's Scary Once You Understand the Meaning (Nintendo Switch)
Bazaru De Gozaru No Game De Gozaru (NEC PC Engine CD)
Galaxy Fraulein Yuna (NEC PC Engine CD)
Kyuutenkai: Fantastic Pinball (Sony PlayStation)
THE Maid Uniform & Machine Gun (Sony PlayStation2)
Noobow (Nintendo GameBoy)
Pocky & Rocky Reshrined (Nintendo Switch)
Welcome to Pia Carrot!! (NEC PC-FX)
Top 1 Song I Listened to More Than Every Other Song
Sobs - “Air Guitar” (Topshelf Records)
Joseph Trainor
2022 was the craziest year of my life. I toured the US, Canada and for the first time Europe, which I had never been to. Dummy released a single on Sub Pop which will never not be mind-blowing to me. But with all this cool stuff comes the reality of being a touring musician in 2022, which is that there is no safety net if, let’s say, you get COVID, your van breaks down, or a show whiffs. The wild oscillation between highs and lows of being a band who is doing well in a small way was exhausting. I feel so proud of the accomplishments but I am beat. Outside of that, the music business continues to reward MOR music, rich kids, and Spotify boot licking—YAY. I still have faith in music that isn’t trying to gain clout and is just in its own lil world.
Top 10 Albums of 2022
John Also Bennet - Out There In The Middle Of Nowhere (Poole Music)
Influenza Prods - Mémoire (Left Ear)
Star House - Constant Contact (Rotten Apples)
Bitchin Bajas - Bajascillators (Drag City)
The Sheaves - Excess Death Cult Time (Moone Records)
Horse Lords - Comradely Objects (Rvng Intl)
Cole Pulice and Nat Harvie - Strawberry Roam (Aural Canyon)
Hydroplane - Hydroplane (Efficient Space)
Darrell DeVore - A Song Of Civilization Up To Now (Goaty)
The Drin - Engines Sing For the Pale Moon (Drunken Sailors)
Top 10 Other Things
Badlands Cola (audio drama)
You’re With Stupid (book)
Max Burgers in Sweden
Seeing Helen live 2 nights in a row
John From Back Home (audio drama)
My bandmates being Champs
Bad Sisters (TV show)
Gigi, Nora, Penelope, Asher, Isaac, Kai and Dave
Driving through The Alps in the rain
RRR, undoubtedly the most Joyful movie experience I've hard in years
Evan Welsh
I am perhaps too prone to sentimentality, but I believe 2022 has been one of the most impactful years of my life. I have grown and changed for the better more this year than in many of the previous ones combined. In my year-end reflection for Tone Glow last year, I was at a very low point, near broken, but understanding I needed to change. It took me longer than I would have hoped to understand the concept and importance of a continuous process and to reconsider the idea of a conclusion.
As I write this, I do not know what 2023 will look like. I don’t know where I’ll be working. I don’t know who will come into my life or leave it. I don’t know what shifting plates or skinned knees await. But I feel more secure now than at any other point in my life. Secure in my community, secure in my place, secure in myself. I have spent so many years insecure in every one of those fields, wanting to escape my thought and being by whatever means possible.
I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve such luck or love, but I am immensely grateful for its presence. In the last year, I did have to leave behind some things that meant the world to me and readjust relationships, but I was also afforded so many incredible opportunities and met so many people who I can already tell are going to be very important to me for a long time.
Thanks to any and all who’ve given me even a moment of their time—I know how precious that is.
Next year in some place better.
and our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible
—W. S. Merwin
Top 10 Albums of 2022
Silvia Tarozzi & Deborah Walker - Canti di guerra, di lavoro e d'amore (Unseen Worlds)
Mali Obomsawin - Sweet Tooth (Out Of Your Head)
Alex G - God Save the Animals (Domino)
caroline • caroline (Rough Trade)
Billy Woods - Aethiopes (Backwoodz)
Mabe Fratti - Se Ve Desde Aquí (Unheard of Hope)
Perfume Genius - Ugly Season (Matador)
Joe Rainey - Niineta (37d03d)
Daniel Bachman - Almanac Behind (Three Lobed)
Sunik Kim - Raid on the White Tiger Regiment (Notice Recordings)
Top 10 Songs of 2022
Mali Obomsawin - “Waswasint8da” (Out of Your Head)
Lily Talmers - “My Mortal Wound” (Self-released)
Alex G - “Miracles” (Domino)
MIKE - “nuthin i can do is wrng” (10k)
caroline - “Good morning (Red)” (Rough Trade)
Lil Yachty - “Poland” (Quality Control Music)
Alexander Panos - “reasonsnotto” (Self-released)
Park Jiha - “Temporary Inertia” (tak:til)
JYOCHO - “All the Same” (No Big Deal Records)
Jana Rush - “Lonely” (Planet Mu)
Top 20 Live Performances of 2022
Loren Connors & Eiko Ishibashi @ Artists Space
OHYUNG @ Chaos Computer
GLOYD @ The Stone
Boris @ Webster Hall
Mabé Fratti @ Le Guess Who? Festival
caroline @ LPR
Ichiko Aoba @ National Sawdust
Nu Jazz @ Trans-Pecos
DJ Travella @ Le Guess Who? Festival
Algernon Cadwallader @ Brooklyn Monarch
Lucy Liyou @ Ambient Church
Cindy Lee @ Bowery Ballroom
Animal Collective @ Summerstage
Balkans @ Baby’s All Right
JJJJJerome Ellis @ CARA
Allegra Krieger @ SXSW
The Narcotix @ The Broadway
Rachika Nayar @ Public Records
Fred Moten / Brandon Lopez / Gerald Cleaver & Pamela Z @ Issue Project Room
Godspeed You! Black Emperor @ Webster Hall
Jonathan Williger
This is the first year I’ve felt my body getting older and more stubborn. I’m sure it’s been happening for a while now, but this year it has floated into the realm of everyday perception. My typical mode of living is based around constant motion, and I’m most comfortable when I'm ricocheting between this and that. I like to use my body to dance and run and climb. I injured myself twice this year (three times if you count the frustratingly protracted case of COVID I caught at a house party in April) by not listening to my body and intuition, going too hard and too fast. As I was trying to recover it became apparent that I couldn’t just bounce back the way I could even recently.
The music I love the most is slow. It helps me focus and feel grounded. I love music that makes me feel tingly or excited or delirious, but feeling time stop as the slow creep of a drone enfolds me is a special kind of euphoria. I often wonder if my brain calls out for these types of experiences because it so rarely gets them otherwise. As I've felt my body begging for me to slow down just a little bit I have tried to channel these moments where stillness becomes everything. It rarely works, but there’s enough joy in the process to keep going.
Top 10 Albums of 2022
Lucrecia Dalt - ¡Ay! (RVNG)
Oren Ambarchi - Shebang (Drag City)
Robbie Lee & Lea Bertucci - Winds Bells Falls (Telegraph Harp)
ulla - foam (3XL)
John McCowen - Models of Duration (Astral Spirits)
Sarah Davachi - Two Sisters (Late Music)
Anteloper - Pink Dolphins (International Anthem)
Terry Jennings/Charles Curtis - Piece for Cello & Saxophone (Saltern)
Weston Olenki - Old Time Music (Tripticks Tapes)
Jenny Hval - Classic Objects (4AD)
Best Live Music (& DJ Sets) of 2022
Negativland @ Metro Gallery in Baltimore MD on January 8.
Samba Mangueira @ Palacio do Samba in Rio de Janiero, Brazil on February 19
Leila Bordreuil @ Chaos Computer in Brooklyn, NY on March 27
Max D, Sir E.U w/ Tooth Choir & --___---__ @ Rhizome in Washington, DC on April 29
Jessica Pavone String Ensemble @ Rhizome in Washington, DC on May 15
Carlos Saffrount @ No Way Back/Tangent Gallery in Detroit, MI on May 29
Bonnie Raitt @ Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA on June 11
Anteloper @ Rhizome in Washington, DC on June 21
Dead & Company @ Citizen' Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA on July 10
Matchess & claire rousay @ Public Records in Brooklyn, NY on July 22
Alma Laprida, TALsounds & JAB @ Rhizome in Washington, DC on September 5
Kiernan Laveaux @ Sustain-Release in Monticello, NY on September 16
L’Rain @ Songbyrd in Washington, DC on October 2
Bitchin Bajas @ Rhizome in Washington, DC on December 8
Machine Girl @ Black Cat in Washington, DC on December 11
Maxie Younger
Ah, jeez: here we are again. This year has been one of exceptional formlessness for me. Even more so than in the COVID doldrums of 2020, I felt like something of an accessory to my own life, stirring briefly at intervals to correct the steering wheel back onto an ever-narrowing road. The most memorable part of it all was when I got the chance to play my first live show as a solo artist, opening for your arms are my cocoon in Houston in August. I squatted awkwardly behind my laptop, stared at my screen as I dragged sliders and knobs around in my audio workstation, and silently reveled in the energy of the crowd, who were all earnestly committed to having a good time despite my vacuous stage presence. I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can improve upon that for my next show—as I write this, I’m preparing to play in Denton, Texas in two weeks’ time—but I’ll never forget the love, appreciation, and humility that threatened to overwhelm me that night. The communal aspect of music-making has often felt abstracted for me, a consummate bedroom artist; a million Twitch sets, Discord servers, and Twitter posts later, the space I’ve managed to carve out for myself online still feels frustratingly tenuous and inconsequential. That performance—being alive alongside other people, showing them something cool in real time—felt more meaningful than all that prior work put together. Maybe that’s only a knee-jerk reaction to the sheer heuristic novelty of the experience, but either way I hope I can find more opportunities like it in the future.
Listening-wise, my attention flagged through the summer and fall; I spent more time revisiting old favorites, leafing through back catalogues, and goofing around on MMOs than I did seeking out new releases to explore. ASP Doze, a record I’m very happy to have been able to champion here back in April, is still my favorite project of 2022. Even so, the thing that stands out to me the most as I reflect on the year in music is just how much Tone Glow has pushed me to expand the boundaries of my taste and my interest in musical context and history. Something I mentioned to Joshua as I filed my blurb for Lauren Tosswill’s “1, 2” last month was how the enthusiasm he expressed for that album in Tone Glow’s Discord chat encouraged me to give it another chance after I initially bounced off of it. Once I spent some more time with the album, it became one of my favorite releases of the year (it’s not on the list below, but it’s an easy pick for the next tier down). Moments like that remind me how thankful I am to be a part of this wonderful group of writers, artists, thinkers, and friends; I look forward to what I can learn from them all in 2023.
Top 10 Albums of 2022
ASP Doze - ASP Doze (Biome Tapes)
VOICE ACTOR - Sent from my Telephone (STROOM.tv)
Huerco S. - Plonk (Incienso)
Guerrinha - Cidade Grande (confuso editions)
Strategy - Unexplained Sky Burners (peak oil)
Melchior Productions Ltd. - Vulnerabilities (Perlon)
SAUCEMAN - のわすれもの (KOOL SWITCH WORKS)
tal egg - spontaneous laughter (Ukiuki Atama)
DJ In A Dream - Sacrificial Bliss (Falling Star Erotica)
Propan - Loom (GLARC)
Top 10 Songs of 2022
Stereo Out - “Untitled Track 2” (JGAP)
ASP Doze - “yaku” (Biome Tapes)
Romance - “Once Upon A Time” (ECSTATIC)
Heirloom - ““October 3, 2018” (Hymns)
Ruairi O’Brien - “lane 3.mp3” (unreleased)
Melchior Productions Ltd. - “Ascending to our Solitude” (Perlon)
Lolina - “Forget it Left Bank” (Relaxin Records)
Ulla - “foam angel” (3XL)
snarewaves - “Superposition Steppin’” (OMOIDE LABEL)
Carpainter - “Answers” (TREKKIE TRAX)
The Ten Grandest Fancies* of 2022
M.S. Heaven’s Pendulum Cruise Ship, Immersive Fitness Center, and Aquatic Casino, Featuring Live Entertainment from Michael (West Palm Beach, FL)
Library of Wonders atop Mount Fantasia, Overlooking the Lake of Agony and the Forest of Excruciating Death (Los Angeles, CA)
Tomb of Shasta XIV and Unidentified Eunuch (New York City, NY)
Unreleased Constellation “Orion’s Suit and Tie” (De Smet, SD)
Gangrenous Leg of Old Tom Jim (Kansas City, MO)
Shack Housing Gardening Tools, Necrotic Implements, and Chewed-Gum Sculptures (Cheyenne, WY)
World’s Smallest and Most Precious Grain of Sand, Presented in Context Beside its Less Fortunate Brothers and Sisters on Remora Beach, “Home of the Five-Pound Hotdog” (Grand Isle, LA)
The Wind-Chime Reliquary (Durham, NC)
Lady Imelda’s Teacup Palace (Fort Collins, CO)
Peat Bog of Earthly Delights (Pasadena, TX)
*All list items featured have been evaluated per the criteria of the first** viable definition of “fancies” drafted by Grubble et al. in 1863: “Any event or location, such as, extravagant, like, an incredible happening, so much that, yes, indeed, it leaves an impression, ah, verily, upon its observer or participant, in that, frankly, it is both fanciful in scale, conceptual framework, and intended social impact, say—"
**see Squeak, J., & Finch, A. (1878). On the Subject of Fancies, Their History, Their Propagation, and Their Use-Cases in Modern Culture: A Manual of Reference for the Informed Reader, Scholar, or Purveyor of Fanciful Experiences. Trot-Upon-Wye Publicities.
Zhenzhen Yu
This year, I was banned from NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers.
KMRU & Aho Ssan - Limen (Subtext)
Haru Nemuri - SHUNKA RYOUGEN (TO3S)
Let’s Eat Grandma - Two Ribbons (Transgressive)
絕對純潔 (Absolute Purity) - We Fought Over The Moon (Ruby Eyes)
Daniel Avery - Ultra Truth (Phantasy Sound)
Jaron - it’s hard to see color [When You're So Impossibly Far Away*] (Modern Art)
Meat Wave - Malign Hex (Swami)
THUS LOVE - Memorial (Captured Tracks)
the tacks - the tacks (Dust Up!)
ShyGirl - Nymph (Because Music)
Nick Zanca
The afternoon I sat down to write this text and these lists, I approved a test pressing for a record produced alongside a close collaborator, and finally scheduled studio time for a long-put-off personal project that has taken years to write. Upon opening up a blank Google Doc, the act of year-end reflection rendered itself futile and the realization sank in: I’m far more fixated on the year ahead than the one behind.
Speaking candidly, I find myself more immersed in the private portions of creative process than before, almost to the point of avoiding the habitual act of aesthetic hierarchy altogether. The space between the germ of a musical idea and the moment a project is finally sent off to be mastered is not a liminality that has always been approached with personal warmth; now, that asset might be regarded as a close friend. One cannot knock over the tables for having turned.
When did this shift occur? Who’s to say, but I am fairly certain it was sometime this year. Perhaps it came with entering a new decade of life, or gathering pearls of wisdom pulled from the interviews with industry veterans that partly make up the gig I started in the spring. Maybe it’s a symptom of letting old habits die hard; of a return to performance after too much time holed up at home or in the studio; of challenging myself and arriving at a balancing act of self-advocacy and meeting others where they are.
My biggest takeaway from 2022: process is intimacy, and vice-versa. This reciprocity is sacrosanct and hardly ever discussed outside the confines of a conventional Q&A. It is a stage that should not be rushed—one that takes olympic effort to trust—but once earned, you quickly learn to prefer keeping your head down over anticipating a final product’s unveiling, bracing for the impact that comes with the criticism of others.
Below are two unranked lists: one is composed of ten records from 2022 that I immersed myself in when I was able, and the other consists of ten first encounters from the past twelve months that continue to leave a deep impression. Keep up the hard work, get off your screens when you can, and don’t forget that music is people.
Ten Albums
Vanessa Rossetto - The Actress (Erstwhile)
Daniel Rossen - You Belong There (Warp)
Wild Up - Julius Eastman, Vol. 2: Joy Boy (New Amsterdam)
Bill Orcutt - Music For Four Guitars (Palalia)
Jacob Wick - Standards (Full Spectrum)
Ellen Arkbro and Johan Graden - I Get Along Without You Very Well (Thrill Jockey)
Kali Malone - Living Torch (Recollections GRM)
Charles Stepney - Step On Step (International Anthem)
Valerio Tricoli - Say Goodbye To The Wind (Shelter Press)
Moten/Lopéz/Cleaver - Moten/Lopéz/Cleaver (Reading Group)
Ten Discoveries
The musical work The Unanswered Question (Charles Ives, 1908).
The documentary All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, 2022).
Comfortable silence.