It’s funny, I initially didn’t think I had listened to nearly enough music to make an end of year list like this due to a lack of time, but once I got started, I realized how crazy that was. While I might not have had the bandwidth to write about all of these releases (yet), most of them at least made appearances on my show, The Record Crates United Mixtape, and all of them left an impact on me and warrant many, many re-listens. So here are some of my favorite releases that I’ve heard this year, in no particular order.

• Rosali – Bite Down (Merge Records)
• Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru – Souvenirs (Mississippi Records)
• Hiram – Yucca Music (Perma Culture Media)
• West of Roan – Queen of Eyes (Spinster)
• Weak Signal – Fine (12XU Records)
• Joseph Allred – Folk Guitar (Feeding Tube Records)
• Yasmin Williams – Acadia (Nonesuch Records)
• The Modern Folk Trio Band – Crater Family (Ramble Records)
• Vague Plot – Crying in 9 (Island House Recordings)
• Taylor K Conrad – Mountain Stars
• Kevin Coleman – Imaginary Conversations (Centripetal Force Records)
• Cara Beth Satalino – Little Green (Worried Songs)
• Elkhorn & Mike Gangloff – Shackamaxon Concert (VHF Records)
• Magic Tuber Stringband – Needlefall (Thrill Jockey Records)
• Angeline Morrison – Ophelia
• Natural Flavors – Now Zoning (Aural Canyon Records)
• Buck Curran – One Evening and Other Folk Songs (Obsolete Recordings)
• Seawind of Battery – East Coast Cosmic Dreamscaper (WarHen Records)
• Elijah McLaughlin & Caleb Willitz – Improvisations / Evening Abstractions (Centripetal Force Records)
• JPhono1 – We All Belong To Something Else
• Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice (Matador Records)
• Shane Parish – Repertoire (Palilalia Records)
• Drew Gardner – Cygnus A (Centripetal Force Records)
• Nick Millevoi – Moon Pulses (Island House Recordings)
• Tidiane Thiam – Africa Yontii (Sahel Sounds)
• Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders – Planet Lidders (Worried Songs)
• Emergency Group – Mind Screen (Big Ego Records)
• Golden Brown.- Kindness (Aural Canyon)
• Channelers – Ringing in an Open Sky (Inner Islands)
• Shovel Dance Collective – The Shovel Dance (American Dreams)
• Dave Harrington, Max Jaffe, Patrick Shiroishi – Speak, Moment (AKP Recordings)
• Elkhorn – Other Worlds (Forced Exposure/Cardinal Fuzz)
• Pantaleimon – Up With The Moon
• Junegrass – Perpetual Stew
• Henry Parker & David Ian Roberts – Chasing Light (Cup and Ring)
• Zachary Cale – Next Year’s Ghost (ORG Music)
• Pat Keen – I Saw a Bug (Island House Recordings)
• SOMA – Burning is Learning (Centripetal Force Records)
• Brigid Mae Power – Songs for You (Watusi Records)
• Black Brunswicker – A Moment of Clarity
• Daisy Rickman – Howl
• Chitinous Mandible – “Age of Creation”
• Howlin Rain – Lost at Sea: Rarities, Outtakes and Other Tales From the Deep (Silver Current Records)
• Plastic Crimewave Syndicate – Tales Of The Golden Skull (Cardinal Fuzz)
• Stick in The Wheel – A Thousand Pokes (From Here Records)
• Antietam – Pitch & Yaw (Motorific Sounds)
• Jake Blanchard – Fermentation (Eiderdown Records/Cardinal Fuzz)
• The Memory Band – Never The Same Way Twice
• Blake Hornsby – A Village of Many Springs (Echodelic Records)
• Amelia Courthouse – Broken Things (SPINSTER)
• Ben Felton – A Lot (Island House Recordings)
• Sean Khan presents the Modern Jazz & Folk Ensemble – s/t (Acid Jazz)
• Yaryu – For Damage (Centripetal Force Records/Cardinal Fuzz)
• Jeff Parker – The Way Out of Easy (International Anthem)
• Universal Light – s/t
• Tarotplane – Improvisations for Echo Guitar (Island House Recordings)
• Julie Beth Napolin – The Void Stands Between Us (Silver Current Records)
• J.M. Hart – As We Know It
• Cassini – The Cassini Promise (Echodelic Records)
• SML – Small Medium Large (International Anthem)
• Katy The Kyng – Selfies of You (Husky Pants Records)
• Ayal Senior – Ora
• Joan Shelley – Mood Ring (No Quarter)
• Adeline Hotel – Whodunnit (Ruination Records)
• AJ Woods – Hawk is Listenin’ (Perpetual Doom Records)
• Lea Thomas – Cosmos Forever (Triple Dolphin Records)
• Jacob Brockway + Bobby Mathieson – Tibet Street Sessions
• Danny Paul Grody Duo – Arc of Night (Three Lobed Recordings)
• Myles Cochran – You Are Here
• Joy Guidry – AMEN (Whited Sepulchre Records)
• J.R. Bohannon & Dave Shuford – Reclined in Haze (Barchan Dune Recordings)
• Zonk – s/t (Island House Recordings)
• Lee Baggett – Waves for a Begull (Perpetual Doom Records)
• Winged Wheel – Big Hotel (12XU Records)
• Friends of the Road – Sunseekin’ Blues (Bud Tapes)
• Powers/Rolin Duo – Clearing (Astral Editions)
• Elkhorn – The Red Valley (VHF Records)
• Water Damage – In E (12XU Records)
• the Man from Atlantis – Spirits Align (Ramble Records)
• Satan Club – Home Recordings (Aural Canyon)
• Anne Malin – Strange Power! (Dear Life Records)
• Bill Orcutt Guitar Quintet – Four Guitars Live (Palilalia Records)
• Upupayāma – Mount Elephant (Fuzz Club Records)
• Oneida – Expensive Air (Joyful Noise Recordings)
• Etran de L’Aïr – 100% Sahara Guitar (Sahel Sounds)
• The Means of Production – s/t (Royal Potato Family)
• Camino Sound – Corridors
• Levi J. Burr – Another Domino Map (Scissor Tail Editions)
• Cosmic Country Revue – Live at PDV 03​/​31​/​23 (Arrowhawk Records)
• Fuubutsushi – Meridians (Cached Media)
• Empanadas iIegales – Creepy Mambo: Rooftop Sessions (We Are Time Records)
• v/a – The Complete Friends of Old Time Music Concert (Smithsonian Folkways)
• Patrick Sansone – Infinity Mirrors (Centripetal Force Recordings)
• Tara Jane O’Neil – Cool Cloud of Okayness (Ordinal Records)
• Itasca – Imitations of War (Paradise of Bachelors)
• Polypores – Infinite Lives (Aural Canyon)
• Swim Ignorant Fire – s/t (Island House Records)
• Otherworlders – Hidden Energy​/​Positive Light (Aural Canyon)
• Mike Gangloff & C Joynes – Tom Winter, Tom Spring (Sonido Polifonico)
• Ava Mendoza – The Circular Train (Palilalia Records)
• Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders – Spacious Minds (2xLP edition) (Centripetal Force/Cardinal Fuzz)
• v/a – Imaginational Anthem vol. XIII : Songs of Bruce Cockburn (Tompkins Square Records)
• Prariewolf – Deep Time (Centripetal Force Records)

What were some of your favorite albums this year? Let us know in the comments.

-KH