My 2008 best-of list is one of the more eclectic I’ve assembled.  As usual, I owe much to themilkfactory writers and readers for introducing me to some delightful sounds, including Leila, Alexandre Navarro, and Minilogue.  Other factory favorites just missed the top 20 and bear honorable mention, including Ólafur Arnalds, AGF, and B12 and The Black Dog.

2008 was a good year for interesting surprises, from the hard data dots of Ryoji Ikeda to Hauschka’s gentle prepared-piano pieces.  A number of old favorites came through again as well, from Jamie Lidell’s soul-stomping Jim to Jason Pierce’s gorgeous meditations on Spiritualized’s Songs In A&E.  Perhaps the best story comes from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, who many-times-upped Radiohead by releasing The Slip, easily his best record since 1999′s The Fragile, for free, in a multitude of high-quality formats.  Rounding everything out are the playful albums, The Dream seeing the Orb return to silly form, and Supreme Balloon charting Matmos’ lush, synthesized excursions.  In the end, Italian producer Populous and his understated emotional pieces, with Doseone-esque vocals from Short Stories, takes number one.

1.

POPULOUS WITH SHORT STORIES
Drawn In Basic
Morr Music

2.

WIRE
Object 47
Pink Flag

3.

LEILA
Blood, Looms and Blooms
Warp Records

4.

MERCURY REV
Snowflake Midnight
V2 / Yep Rock

5.

KENNY LARKIN
Keys, Strings, Tambourines
Planet-E

6.

HAUSCHKA
Ferndorf
Fat Cat Records/130701

7.

GAISER
Blank Fade
M-nus

8.

AUTECHRE
Quaristice
Warp Records

9.

SPIRITUALIZED
Songs In A&E
Sanctuary Records

10.

THE ORB
The Dream
Liquid Sound Design / Six Degrees

11.

THE MATTHEW HERBERT BIG BAND
There’s Me And There’s You
Studio !K7

12.

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Ambient Not Not Ambient
Audio Dregs

13.

JAMIE LIDELL
Jim
Warp Records

14.

RYOJI IKEDA
Test Pattern
Raster-Noton

15.

MERCURY REV
Strange Attractor
V2 / Yep Rock

16.

MINILOGUE
Animals
Cocoon Recordings

17.

ALEXANDRE NAVARRO
Arcane
SEM

18.

LUOMO
Convivial
Huume Recordings

19.

NINE INCH NAILS
The Slip
The Null Corporation

20.

MATMOS
Supreme Balloon
Matador Records

THE 2008 REVIEW

Robert Rowlands
Max Schaefer
themilkman

Last 5 posts by David Abravanel

• SLACKER: Start A New Life (GodLike & Electric) – March 5th, 2010
• KOUTARO FUKUI: Gently Touching The Conception (SEM Label) – February 4th, 2010
• SND: Atavism (Raster-Noton) – June 15th, 2009
• MAUXUAM: Viceversa (Interchill Records) – April 27th, 2009
• MARK PRITCHARD: ? / The Hologram (Ho Hum Records) – April 14th, 2009