I listened to a lot of great albums this year, but I also worked on a lot of great albums via Mammal Sounds. I didn’t fully realise just how many until I started working on this list, and it made me feel so honoured to play a role in helping so many amazing artists release such incredible bodies of work. It also stressed me out a bit because I had to cull it all down to a Top 10 list, but thankfully I am able to include a few Honourable Mentions (which I also capped at 10 but could have easily added a few more).
“megacity1000” by 1tbsp was a big one for me this year, and just knowing how much work went into that one makes it all that much more special, but his other project Golden Vessel also had a fantastic collaborative album with Headaches that was released earlier in the year and I still have that one on repeat. Arky Waters is a name that you all need to keep an eye on and MarMar released a really beautiful ep back in May which still deserves a lot of attention.
Then there was BAYNK, ATRIP, Caribou, Tora, camoufly and bad tuner who released albums that I didn’t work on, but I really loved those ones on a personal level, and they most certainly deserved a spot in my Top 10 list.
Honourable Mentions include a few artists I worked with such as Arky Waters (yes he dropped two eps this year), Maver, Josef Scott, Jai Piccone (of Tora) who released a collaborative ep with 1tbsp, and veggi who had an ep featuring two songs with daste. (who I also manage).
Some other artists in my Honourable Mentions list that I do not work with, but gave a good flogging this year were Boston Bun, Mel Blue, Toro Y Moi, Tove Lo & SG Lewis, and Jamie xx.
There were some others that made my short-list like The Blessed Madonna, Four Tet, Fred Again, Beckah Amani, Anna Lunoe, Charli xcx, SBTRKT, Eli, Mura Masa, salute, Molly Otto, Dugong Jr, Tourist, Club Angel and Harry Hayes which I also recommend checking out AFTER you’ve worked your way through the below list.
Happy Listening!