…and one more installment from the Reflections series. There may be more to come, but this is indeed the last set of words from the initial batch. In this edition, we feature Nao Sugimoto of Spekk, a list of favorites from Marc Byrd of Hammock, some thoughts from Ólafur Arnalds, and the thoughts on music [...]

Another quick installment of Reflections. I thought that I was done with them as well, but they keep pouring in, and I think there will be one more to publish, after this one. Here are two underground artists that release music on their on, and via net-labels. Although both of these characters don’t have much [...]

We are now in February, but I’ve got more Reflections coming! I think that looking back at last year, or the evolution of music in general, can be done at any time. Hence, the Reflections section has officially been promoted to an all-time feature. These can come at any time, or any subject. Let the [...]

2009: Everything Everywhere for Everyone at once
Experimental electronic music is a spiked frontier, full of anguished political minds that would be better to be called punk, traditional musicians that have grown tired with their normal style or instruments, bored teenagers that somehow believe that peacocking as a producer might get them chicks, and others that [...]

Two more reflections for you. In the first half of this installment, Bruce Adams, who back in 1993 was one of the co-founders behind Chicago’s Kranky shares his thoughts on music of 2009. Now running his own label, FlingcoSoundSystem, Bruce releases some experimental, dark ambient, avant-garde, and even abstract drone albums. In the second half, [...]

Rob Booth of Electronic Explorations drops his massive list of favorite singles and albums, that deserves a dedicated post in our new Reflections section on Headphone Commute. Rob says:
2009 has been the year of bass, bass and more UK bass… I’ve not really had the chance to concentrate on anything else but dubstep, [...]

Michał Jacaszek [Gusstaff, Miasmah]
Well , my music passions go a bit different way than time and chronology. In the 2009 I was discovering music released in past years, or created many decades ago (like in XIIth century for example). Modern music that got my attention in the 2009 come out from the [...]

Here comes another excellent installment of Reflections on 2009. Today I host thoughts on the year in music from the elusive Rafael Anton Irisarri, a list of favorite releases from the curator of 12k’s Line division, none other than Richard Chartier, and the owner of Home Normal records, Ian Hawgood. I must admit, it’s always [...]

James Vella, aka A Lily, pops in with his reflections on the year. Vella runs his own O Rosa Records, and works for FatCat. He’s also a member of one of my favorite post-rock bands, Yndi Halda, who submitted their list of selected releases of the year below. I’ve also got some reflections from [...]

Today I’ve got another treat for you. John Twells, co-founder of Type Records, and the artist behind the name Xela, shares his thoughts on 2009. Occasionally I chat with John, and his breadth of knowledge across all genres always surprises me. Being the man behind one of my favorite ambient, modern classical and folktronica labels [...]

Hope you’re opening your wallet and catching up to all the goodness from Headphone Commute’s Best of 2009! Meanwhile, as if that’s not enough, I’ve got more reflections for you coming. Today, I’ve got Sylvain Chauveau wondering why he still misses out on all the good dubstep and if it will ever kick in for [...]

I’ve received a warm response from all the artists and labels for their Reflections on 2009. Keith Kenniff, who is known to many of you as Helios, Goldmund and Mint Julep, compiles his top 10 favorite albums of the year. Each entry is accompanied by a unique commentary from Keith himself. This is yet another [...]

There were more than just a few releases this year that jumped to the top of my rotations and will most likely appear in my favorites list at the end of this year. These came from one of my favorite labels, Ad Noiseam. In 2009, this Berlin based label pumped out albums from Cardopusher, Broken [...]

Here are three more reflections for you. These keep coming in, so keep your eyes peeled for many more to be published in the upcoming days. A few of these, as you may have already noticed with Simon Scott, are elaborate enough to be warranted an article on their own. By this point, I realized, [...]

Simon Scott stops by to share his thoughts on music in 2009. It must be a great year for Simon. Late last year he launched his own label, Kesh Recordings, kicking off with a compilation 88 Tapes, featuring some of my favorite ambient and experimental artists. This year, Kesh released albums by Hannu, Saito Koji, [...]

We still have some time until the end of the year, and I’m in no rush to publish my list of favorite releases. Meanwhile, you guys are doing a great job at submitting Your Votes! These will be tabulated and aggregated at the end of the year to present the Reader’s selections. Keep them coming! [...]