My favourite albums of 2021

“If asked, “What are your favourite records this year?” I hum and ha. Yet, ask me my favourite records of 1981 and I could write you a (small) book. “

Hugo Largo – ‘Drum’ (Relativity, 1987)

“We want to be perceived as a band that plays wild rock and roll, maybe even punk music but that happens to play it quietly.” – Tim Sommer (Hugo Largo)

Disco Inferno – ‘Summer’s Last Sound/Love Stepping Out’ (Cheree, 1992)

“For all this talk of Summer and love, there’s a worm in Disco Inferno’s apple that never really ever goes away.”

Harold Budd – ‘The Pavilion Of Dreams’ (Obscure Records, 1978)

“I realized I had minimalized myself out of a career. It had taken 10 years to reduce my language to zero but I loved the process of seeing it occur and not knowing when the end would come.”

The Durutti Column – ‘Without Mercy’ (Factory Records, 1984/Factory Benelux, 2018)

“But wait! A drum machine in a modern classical piece? Only on Factory Records. I’ve never, to this day, heard anything so wrong be so right. “

Heavenly Bodies – ‘Celestial’ (Third Mind Records/C’est La Mort, 1987)

“The ghost of early Dead Can Dance understandably lingers in the tribal percussion and heavily reverbed guitar work and Seaman’s voice is most definitely from the school of Lisa Gerrard, albeit via Alison Shaw.”

Spoonfed Hybrid – ‘Spoonfed Hybrid’ (Guernica, 1993)

“…an album that’s both more varied and sonically untethered than any of their previous incarnations, the noisiness of their previous groups consigned to the corner, allowing a vast space for a plethora of electronic and acoustic instruments to interact, meander and contort…”

Jane And Barton – ‘Jane And Barton’ (Cherry Red, 1983/Optic Nerve Recordings, 2016)

“…if you listen carefully, you can almost hear the sound of a gentle breeze in the rushes as you laze on a soft picnic blanket, staring up into the blissful blue.”

The Wolfgang Press – ‘Queer’ (4AD/Time Warner, 1991/1992)

“The city is weird now, like all cities are weird now—but Queer still thrills; it still makes me want to move.”

Felt – ‘The Splendour Of Fear’ (Cherry Red, 1984)

“…for me, the best album is The Splendour Of Fear. It’s like a complete atmosphere, a complete mood….”- Lawrence, Felt