It’s 2013’s mid-point, and you’ve hopefully already read our First and Second Quarter Reports, which collect FACT’s favourite albums of 2013’s first two quarters.
What follows are individual lists from FACT’s full-time staff and regular contributors, ranking their favourite 10 albums of the year so far. Some of the obvious big hitters – Kanye’s Yeezus, Inc.’s No World and Gucci Mane [above]’s Trap House III – crop up in several lists, while more surprising consensus picks come in the form of Rome Fortune’s Beautiful Pimp, RP Boo’s Legacy and Omar-S’s Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself. Main surprise though, surely: not a single vote for MBV.
Check our team’s favourite tracks of 2013 so far here.
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Lauren Martin
01. Thundercat [above]– Apocalypse (Brainfeeder)
02. Optimo – Optimo Present The Underground Sound of Glasgow (Optimo)
03. Gucci Mane – Trap House 3 (Mixtape)
04. James Holden – The Inheritors (Border Community)
05. Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest (Warp)
06. Big KR.I.T. – King Remembered In Time (Mixtape)
07. Deafheaven – Sunbather (Deathwish)
08. Rainbow Arabia – FM Sushi (Time No Place/Kompakt)
09. Chance The Rapper – Acid Rap (Mixtape)
10. Rome Fortune – Beautiful Pimp (Mixtape)
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Maya Kalev
11 really great albums people might have missed
Mammane Sani – Musique Électronique Du Niger (Sahel Sounds)
Acteurs – Acteurs (Public Information)
Justin Walter – Lullabies and Nightmares (Kranky)
Dva Damas [above] – Nightshade (Downwards America)
Colleen – The Weighting Of The Heart (Second Language)
Prostitutes – Crushed Interior (Digitalis)
Galcher Lustwerk – 100% Galcher Mix for Blowing Up The Workshop (Blowing Up The Workshop. It may be a mix but it’s 100% Galcher and it’s fucking excellent and I have rinsed it hard since it came out. It definitely counts)
Troller – Troller (Holodeck, reissue but I only discovered it this year because I’m slow)
Dark Matters Too – Tales Of Enlightenment (Light Sounds Dark)
Daniel Menche – Marriage of Metals (Editions Mego)
Eluvium – Nightmare Ending (Temporary Residence)
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 3/14)
Joe Moynihan
1. E.M.M.A. – Blue Gardens
2. Lil Jabba – Scales
3. Various – Keysound Present: This Is How We Roll
4. Jon Hopkins – Immunity
5. Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest
6. Hav Lyfe – Hav Lyfe
7. Tree – Sunday School 2
8. Mumdance [above] – Twists and Turns
9. The Haxan Cloak – Excavation
10. Various – Kuchiburu Network 3
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 4/14)
Chris Kelly
1. Kanye West – Yeezus (Def Jam)
2. Autre Ne Veut – Anxiety (Software)
3. Chance the Rapper – Acid Rap (self-released)
4. Kevin Gates – The Luca Brasi Story (self-released)
5. Inc. – No World (4AD)
6. Baths – Obsidian (Anticon)
7. Queens of the Stone Age – …Like Clockwork (Matador)
8. Charli XCX – True Romance (Atlantic)
9. Tyler, the Creator – Wolf (Odd Future Records)
10. Cassie [above] – RockaByeBaby (self-released)
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 5/14)
Laurent Fintoni
Shigeto – No Better Time Than Now (Ghostly)
Sweatson Klank – You, Me, Temporary (Project Mooncircle)
Yosi Horikawa – Vapor (First Word)
Yatha Bhuta Jazz Combo – Yatha Bhuta Jazz Combo (All City)
Young Echo – Nexus (Ramp)
Quasimoto [above] – Yessir Whatever (Stones Throw)
Airhead – For Years (R&S)
Heliocentrics – 13 Degrees of Reality (Now Again}
Snow Ghosts – Snow Ghosts (Houndstooth}
Boundary – Boundary (Boundary Music}
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John Twells
Rome Fortune – Beautiful Pimp (No Label)
Colleen [above] – The Weighing of the Heart (Second Language)
Kanye West – Yeezus (Def Jam)
Gucci Mane – Trap House III (No Label)
Autechre – Exai (Warp)
Young Thug – 1017 Thug (No Label)
Kevin Gates – The Luca Brasi Story (No Label)
Omar-S – Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself (FXHE)
The Devil – Harbinger (No Label)
Tree – Sunday School 2 (No Label)
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 7/14)
Joseph Morpurgo
01. Dean Blunt – The Redeemer
02. Kanye West – Yeezus
03. Jai Paul – leaked demos
04. Omar-S – Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself
05. Mr Muthafuckin eXquire [above] – Kismet
06. MGUN – The Near Future EP
07. DJ Clap – Best Night Ever
08. Syclops – A Blink Of An Eye
09. Tree – Sunday School II: When Church Lets Out
10. Zs – Grain
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Chal Ravens
Dean Blunt – The Redeemer
James Holden – The Inheritors
These New Puritans – Field of Reeds
The Knife – Shaking The Habitual
RP Boo – Legacy
Pantha du Prince and The Bell Laboratory – Elements of Light
DJ Koze – Amygdala
Pinkunoizu [above] – Second Amendment
Atoms for Peace – Amok
The Haxan Cloak – Excavation
(Bonus Pick: J. Cole – Born Sinner)
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 9/14)
Tom Lea
01. Kanye West – Yeezus
02. Dean Blunt – The Redeemer
03. Lil Jabba – Scales
04. Omar-S – Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself
05. Slackk – Failed Gods EP
06. Bone Squad [above] – Bone Squad EP
07. A big folder of DJ Akeera tracks
08. Inc. – No World
09. Jai Paul leak
10. Mumdance – Twists & Turns
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Angus Finlayson
Grouper – The Man Who Died In His Boat
Darkstar – News From Nowhere
Inc. – No World
Ben UFO [above] – Fabriclive 67
Dutch Uncles – Out of Touch in the Wild
Holden – The Inheritors
John Wizards – John Wizards
RP Boo – Legacy
James Blake – Overgrown
Atoms For Peace – Amok
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 11/14)
Brad Rose
01. TM404 – s/t (Kontra Music)
02. Rome Fortune [above] – Beautiful Pimp
03. Paul Jebanasam – Rites (Subtext)
04. Gucci Mane – Trap House 3
05. Ceephax – Cro Magnox (WeMe)
06. Kanye West – Yeezus
07. Josh Mason – The Symbiont (Sunshine Ltd)
08. Tree – Sunday School II
09. Cream Juice – Man Feelings (Orange Milk)
10. Nicholas Bullen – Component Fixations (Type)
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 12/14)
Steve Shaw
1. Three Chairs – Demi Gods (Mahogani Music)
2. Theo Parrish – Dance of the Medusa (Sound Signature)
3. Marc Schreiber – Crossarc Chute (Entr’acte)
4. Ital – Workshop 18 (Workshop)
5. The Siege Of Troy – The Siege Of Troy (Ominira)
6. Shelley Parker – Sleeper Line (Entr’acte)
7. Laurel Halo [above] – Behind The Green Door (Hyperdub)
8. Pure X – Crawling Up The Stairs (Merok)
9. Ford Foster – Function Trax (Opal Tapes)
10. RP Boo – Legacy (Planet Mu)
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 13/14)
Arron Merat
01. East India Youth – Hostel
02. VA – King Bullard Version: Songs of the BOS Label
03. Quasimoto – Yessir Whatever
04. These New Puritans [above] – Field of Reeds
05. David Bowie – The Next Day
06. Outfit – Performance
07. Hookworms – Pearl Mystics
08. Mick Harvey – Four (Acts of Love)
09. Dirty Beaches – Drifters/Love Is the Devil
10. Tricky – False Idols
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 14/14)
