Bjørk Vespertine (One Little Indian)
Cannibal Ox The Cold Vein (Def Jux)
Fennesz Endless Summer (Mego)
Charley Patton Various Screamin' and Hollerin' The Blues: The Worlds Of Charley Patton (Revenant)
Le Tigre Feminist Sweepstakes (Chicks On Speed)
John Coltrane The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording (Impulse!)
John Cale New York in the 1960s: Sun Blindness Music (Table Of The Elements)
Missy Elliot Miss E... So Addictive (East West)
Herbert Bodily Functions (Studio !K7/soundslike)
No-Neck Blues Band Sticks And Stones May Break My Bones But Names Will Never Hurt Me (Revenant/SoundAtone)
Saul Williams Amethyst Rock Star (American)
Jay-Z The Blueprint (Roc-a-fella)
Shuggie Otis Inspiration Information (Luaka Bop)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds No More Shall We Part (Mute)
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Ease Down The Road (Domino)
Electrelane Rock It To The Moon (Let's Rock!)
Miles Davis Live At the Fillmore East 7 March 1970: It's About That Time (Columbia Legacy)
Radiohead Amnesiac (Parlophone)
Low Things We Lost In The Fire (Tugboat)
NERD In Search Of... (Virgin)
John Oswald 69 Plunderphonics 96 (Seeland)
Spring Heel Jack/The Blues Series Continuum Masses (Thirsty Ear)
Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso Ufo La Novia (Eclipse)
The Velvet Underground The Bootleg Series Vol 1: The Quine Tapes (Universal)
The Necks Aether (Fish Of Milk)
Taku Sugimoto Italia (A Bruit Secret)
Tortoise Standards (Warp/Thrill Jockey)
Toshimaru Nakamura & Sachiko M Do (Erstwhile)
Matmos A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure (Matador)
Jackie O Motherfucker Liberation (Road Cone)
Fushitsusha Origin's Hesitation (PSF)
Mercury Rev All Is Dream (V2)
Nam June Paik Works 1958-79 (Sub Rosa)
Pulp We Love Life (Island)
David S Ware Corridors & Parallels (AUM Fidelity)
Glass Cage Glass Cage (Paratactile)
Roots Manuva Run Come Save Me (Big Dada)
Buck 65 Man Overboard (Anticon)
Cyclo Cyclo (Raster-Noton)
John Butcher/Derek Bailey/Rhodri Davies Vortices & Angels (Emanem)
Blectum From Blechdom Haus De Snaus (tigerBeat6)
DJ/Rupture Gold Teeth Thief (Negrophonic)
Morton Feldman String Quartet (II) (hat[now]ART)
Aesop Rock Labor Days (Def Jux)
Spontaneous Music Ensemble Challenge 1966-67 (Emanem)
His Name Is Alive Someday My Blues Will Cover The Earth (4AD)
Jemeel Moondoc Revolt Of The Negro Lawn Jockeys (Eremite)
Supersilent 5 (Rune Grammofon)
Sylvia Hallett White Fog (Emanem)
Various Artists Solid Steel Presents DJ Food & DK Now, Listen! (Ninja Tune)

Jackie-O Motherfucker Liberation (Road Cone)
Low Things We Lost In The Fire (Tugboat)
Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson & Sigur Rós Angels Of The Universe (Krunk)
Electrelane Rock It To The Moon (Let's Rock!)
Set Fire To Flames Sings Reign Rebuilder (130701)
Tortoise Standards (Warp)
Mercury Rev All Is Dream (V2)
Bing Selfish Dizzy With Success (Alcohol)
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Ease Down The Road (Domino)
No-Neck Blues Band Sticks And Stones May Break My Bones But Names Will Never Hurt Me (Revenant/Sound Atone)
Bardo Pond Dilate (Matador)
Stars Of The Lid The Tired Sounds Of... (Kranky)
Papa M Whatever, Mortal (Domino)
Four Tet Pause (Domino)

Various Studio One Roots (Soul Jazz)
Niney The Observer Microphone Attack 1974-78 (Blood And Fire)
The Skatalites Herb Dub Collie Dub (Motion)
Various Now Thing (Mo' Wax)
Rhythm & Sound with Cornell Campbell King In My Empire (Burial Mix)
The Love Grocer A Little Rain Must Fall (DubHead)
Burning Spear Spear Burning (Pressure Sounds)
Various Jack Ruby Presents The Black Foundation (Heartbeat)
King Tubby & Errol Thompson The Black Foundation In Dub (Heartbeat)
Various Darker Than Blue: Soul From Jamdown 1973-77 (Blood And Fire)
Various Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown (Heavenly)
Lee 'Scratch' Perry Born In The Sky: Upsetter At The Controls 1969-75 (Motion)
Lee Perry Divine Madness... Definitely (Pressure Sounds)
Various Studio One Soul (Soul Jazz)
Linval Thompson & Friends Rockers From Channel One (Trojan)

Matmos A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure (Matador)
Fennesz Endless Summer (Mego)
Alva.Noto Transform (Mille Plateaux)
Oval Ovalcommers (Thrill Jockey)
Monolake Cinemascope (Monolake)
Mouse On Mars Idiology (Domino)
Pan Sonic AaltoPiiri (Blast First)
Blectum From Blechdom Haus De Snaus (Tigerbeat6)
Herbert Bodily Functions (!K7/soundslike)
Biosphere Substrata/Man With A Movie Camera (Touch)
Ekkehard Ehlers Plays Albert Ayler (Staubgold)
Stephan Mathieu FrequencyLib (Ritornell)
Russell Haswell Live Salvage 1997-2000 (Mego)
Prefuse 73 Vocal Studies And Uprock Narratives (Warp)

The Monks Of The Monastery Of Gyütö, Tibet Voice Of The Tantra (Ocora)
Akikazu Nakamura Shakuhachi Music From Kyushu: Daibosatsu (Nippon Columbia)
Various Origins Of Guitar Music In Southern Congo And Northern Zambia (SWP)
Antibalas Liberation Afro Beat Vol 1 (Ninja Tune)
Julian Kytasty Black Sea Winds (November Music)
Femi Kuti Fight To Win (Wrasse)
Rachid Taha Medina (Ark 21)
Various Bosavi: RainForest Music From Papua New Guinea (Smithsonian Folkways)
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Body And Soul (Real World)
Taraf De HaÏdouks Band Of Gypsies (Nonesuch)
Orlando Cachaito Lopez Cachaito (World Circuit)
Various The Rough Guide To The Music Of Okinawa (World Music Network)
Takashi Hirayasu & Bob Brozman Nankuru Naisa (World Music Network)
Various Rembetika: Songs Of The Greek Underground 1925-47 (Trikont)
Various Doob Doob O'Rama 2: More Film Songs From Bollywood (Normal)

Cannibal Ox The Cold Vein (Def Jux)
Missy Elliot Miss E... So Addictive (East west)
Aesop Rock Labor Days (Def Jux)
Jay-Z The Blueprint (Roc-A-Fella)
Dungeon Family Even In Darkness (Arista)
Ludacris Southern Hospitality (Def Jam)
cLOUDdEAD cLOUdDEAD (Big Dada)
The Coup Party Music (75 Ark)
DJ Krush Zen (Red Ink)
NERD In Search Of... (Virgin)
Edan Mic Manipulator (Lewis Recordings)
Roots Manuva Run Come Save Me (Big Dada)
Bigg Juss Black Mamba Serums (Sub Verse)
Solid Steel Presents DJ Food & DK Now, Listen! (Ninja Tune)
Yesterday's New Quintet Angles Without Edges (Stones Throw)

Strings with Evan Parker Strings With Evan Parker (Emanem)
AMM Tunes Without Measure Or End (Matchless)
Sylvia Hallett White Fog (Emanem)
John Butcher/Derek Bailey/Rhodri Davies Vortices & Angels (Emanem)
Fred Frith Clearing (Tzadik)
Shoji Hano & Derek Bailey Fish (PSF)
Luigi Archetti & Bo Wiget Low Tide Digitalis (Rune Grammofon)
Radu Malfatti/Thomas Lehn/Phil Durrant Dach (Erstwhile)
Joe Morris Singularity (AUM Fidelity)
Bark! Swing (Matchless)
Supersilent 5 (Rune Grammofon)
Music Now Ensemble 1969 Silver Pyramid (Matchless)
Franz Hautzinger Gomberg (Grob)
Tore Elgarøy The Sound Of The Sun (Rune Grammofon)
Masayuki Takayanagi & Kaoru Abe Mass Projection/Gradually Projection (DIW)

John Coltrane The Olatunji Concert (Impulse!)
Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Arkestra It Is Forbidden (Total Energy)
Miles Davis Live At The Fillmore East 7 March 1970: It's About That Time (Columbia Legacy)
David S Ware Corridors And Parallels (AUM Fidelity)
Dave Douglas Witness (RCA Victor)
Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet Flutter (Tzadik)
Peter Brötzmann Fuck De Boere (Atavistic/Unheard Music Series)
Jemeel Moondoc Revolt Of The Negro Lawn Jockeys (Eremite)
George Lewis & The NOW Orchestra The Shadowgraph Series (Spool)
Vandermark 5 Acoustic Machine (Atavistic)
Barry Guy New Orchestra Inscape-Tableaux (Intakt)
Joe McPhee & Hamid Drake Emancipation Proclamation (Okka Disk)
Tim Berne The Shell Game (Thirsty Ear)
Satlah Exodus (Tzadik)
Alan Silva & The Sound Visions Orchestra Visions (Eremite)

Stefano Scodanibbio Six Duos (New Albion)
Ellen Band 90% Post Consumer Sound (XI)
Ingram Marshall Kingdom Come (Nonesuch)
Ian Pace Tracts (NMC)
Morton Feldman String Quartet (II) (Hat[Now]ART)
Garrett List Rwanda 94 (Carbon 7)
Phill Niblock Touch Works For Hurdy Gurdy And Voice (Touch)
John Wall Constructions V-VII (Utterpsalm)
Lucia Dlugoszewski The Music Of... (CRI)
Helmut Lachenmann Mouvement (Kairos)
Chas Smith Nikko Wolverine (Cold Blue)
Kaija Saariaho From The Grammar Of Dreams (Ondine)
George Crumb Zeitgeist/Music For A Summer Evening (Bridge)
Mark Feldman Book Of Tells (Enja Nova)
R Murray Schäfer String Quartets (Atma)

Keiji Haino Abandon All Words (Alien8)
Peter Cusack Your Favourite London Sounds (LMC)
Philip Jeck Vinyl Coda IV (Intermedium)
People Like Us A Fistful Of Knuckles (Caciocavallo)
John Oswald 69 Plunderphonics 96 (Seeland)
Bernhard Günter Crossing The River (Night Music) (Trente Oiseaux)
Henry Flynt Graduation And Other New Country & Blues Music (Ampersand)
Pärson Sound Pärson Sound (Tillindien/Subliminal Sounds)
Current 93 & Nurse With Wound Bright Yellow Moon (United Durtro)
Stephen Vitiello Bright And Dusty Things (New Albion)
Terre Thaemlitz Fagjazz (Comatonse)
Brian Eno & J Peter Schwalm Drawn From Life (Virgin Venture)
Terry Riley You're No Good (Organ Of Corti)
Phonophani Genetic Engineering (Rune Grammofon)
Pierre Bastien Mecanoid (Rephlex)

Afro-Rock - Vol 1 (Kona)
Anti NY (Gomma)
Barry 7's Connectors (Lo Recordings)
Clicks + Cuts 2 (Mille Plateaux)
Electric Ladyland: Clickhop Version 1.0 (Mille Plateaux)
Folks, He Sure Do Pull Some Bow! Vintage Fiddle Music 1927-35 (Old Hat)
The Funky 16 Corners (Stones Throw)
Golden Years Of The Soviet New Jazz Vol 1 (Leo)
Harlem World: The Sound Of The Big Apple Rappin' (Heroes & Villians)
In The Beginning There Was Rhythm (Soul Jazz)
Invalid Object Series (FÄllt)
Love, Peace & Poetry: Japanese Psychedelic Music (Normal)
Mottomo Otomo: Unlimited XIII (Trost)
MW Pour Robert Wyatt (Inpolysons)
Nigeria 70 (Strut)
Nuggets: Luke Vibert's Selection (Lo Recordings)
Philadelphia Roots (Soul Jazz)
Rough Trade Shops: 25 Years (Mute)
Saturday Night Fish Fry (Soul Jazz)
Roots, Rock, Ravers (Transparent)

Jacques Berrocal Parallèles (Alga Marghen)
Dave Burrell Echo (Get Back/BYG Actuel)
William Burroughs Break Through In Grey Room (Sub Rosa)
Cornelius Cardew Four Principles On Ireland (Ampersand)
James Chance & The Contortions White Cannibal (ROIR)
Phil Cohran & The Artistic Heritage Ensemble On The Beach (Aestuarium)
Coil Love's Secret Domain (Threshold House)
Einstürzende Neubauten Strategies Against Architecture III (Mute)
Electric Eels Eyeball Of Hell (Scat)
The Fall Backdrop (Cog Sinister)
Faust BBC Sessions (ReR)
Henry Flynt New American Ethnic Music Vol 1: You Are My Everlovin'/Celestial Power (Recorded)
The Grateful Dead The Golden Road (Rhino)
Jonzun Crew Lost In Space (Tommy Boy)
Fela Kuti Fela Box 3 & 4 (Barclay)
Ennio Morricone & Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura OST (Dagored)
mU-ziq Tango N' Vectif (Planet MU)
Neu! Neu! 75 (EMI/Grönland)
Nurse With Wound Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table Of A Sewing Machine And An Umbrella (United Dairies)
The Ramones The Ramones (Sire)
Phil Ranelin Vibes From The Tribe (Hefty)
Alan Silva & The Celestrial Communication Orchestra Seasons
(Get Back/BYG Actuel)
Wayne Shorter The All Seeing Eye (Blue Note)
Morton Subotnick Electronic Works Vol 1 (Mode)
Cecil Taylor Unit It Is In The Brewing Luminous (hatOLOGY)
This Heat Deceit (These)
23 Skidoo Seven Songs (Ronin)
Vienna Art Orchestra The Minimalism Of Erik Satie (hatOLOGY)
X Los Angeles (Rhino)
Larry Young Lawrence Of Newark (Perception)

The Electorate

This year's charts were compiled from the votes of the following contributors (each contributor's individual record of the year is shown in brackets): Steve Barker (Shuggie Otis Inspiration Information), Clive Bell (Low Things We Lost In The Fire), Chris Blackford (Miklos Rozsa String Quartets), Ben Borthwick (Random_Inc Jerusalem Tales Outside The Framework Of Orthodoxy), Philip Clark (Giorgio Occhipinti Global Music And Circular Thought), Julian Cowley (Stefano Scodanibbio Six Duos), Christoph Cox (Morton Feldman String Quartet (II)), John Cratchley (Spring Heel Jack The Blue Series Continuum Masses), Alan Cummings (Fushitsusha Origin's Hesitation), Phil England (John Oswald 69Plunderphonics 96), Kodwo Eshun (NERD In Search Of...), Sasha Frere-Jones (Destiny's Child Survivor), Natalie Gravenor (A Certain Frank Nothing), Louise Gray (Thalia Zedek Been Here And Gone), Andy Hamilton (Julian Kytasty Black Sea Wind), Jim Haynes (Bernhard Gunter Crossing The River), Richard Henderson (Shuggie Otis Inspiration Information), Tony Herrington (John Coltrane The Olatunji Concert), Ken Hollings (Marumari Supermogadon), Ben House (The Fall Are You Missing Winner), Hua Hsu (Saul Williams Amethyst Rock Star), David Keenan (Acid Mothers Temple La Novia), Rahma Khazam (Phill Niblock Touch Works For Hurdy Gurdy And Voice), Biba Kopf (Bob Dylan Love And Theft), Art Lange (Charley Patton Screamin' & Hollerin' The Blues), Jerome Maunsell (Fennesz Endless Summer), Ruth McNeil (White Stripes White Blood Cells), Will Montgomery (Miles Davis Live At Fillmore East), John Mulvey (Spiritualized Let It Come Down), Anne Hilde Neset (Le Tigre Feminist Sweepstakes), Edwin Pouncey (No-Neck Blues Band Sticks And Stones...), Mosi Reeves (Cannibal Ox The Cold Vein), Simon Reynolds (Pulp We Love Life), Tom Ridge (The Tyde Once), Stephen Robinson (Glass Cage Glass Cage), Peter Shapiro (Cannibal Ox The Cold Vein), Chris Sharp (The Necks Aether), Philip Sherburne (Herbert Bodily Functions), Bill Shoemaker (Barry Guy New Orchestra Inscape Tableaux), Andy Tait (Herbert Bodily Functions), Dave Tompkins (Cannibal Ox The Cold Vein), David Toop (Björk Vespertine), Dan Warburton (Bubbadinos Yup We're Beating A Dead Horse), Ben Watson (Bark! Swing), Jon Weldon (NERD In Search Of...), Rob Young (John Coltrane Olatunji Concert)