If you told me at the beginning of this year that I would book more shows, buy more LPs, and overall be way more engaged with music in 2014 than any other year of my life, I wouldn’t have believed you. Though it was a very tumultuous year, thanks to everyone who made it happen.

Full-length Albums:

1. MA Turner, ZOZ Collection twelve-cassette box set (self-released)/ZOZ 12” (Sophomore Lounge)
2. Steve Gunn, Way Out Weather (Paradise of Bachelors)/Steve Gunn & Mike Cooper, FRKWYS Vol. 11: Cantos de Lisboa (RVNG)
3. Elisa Ambrogio, The Immoralist (Drag City)
4. Omid Walizadeh, Modern Persian Speech Sounds (B|ta’arof)
5. Dark Blue, Pure Reality (Jade Tree)
6. Kevin Drumm & Jason Lescalleet, The Abyss (Erstwhile)
7. Aphex Twin, Syro (Warp)
8. Dead Rider, Chills on Glass (Drag City)
9. Chicago Underground Duo, Locus (Northern Spy)
10. The Gotobeds, Poor People Are Revolting (12XU)

Singles, EPs, single tracks:

1. New York Endless, “Strategies” 12” (Golf Channel)
2. Run the Jewels, “Crown”/”Angel Duster” (Mass Appeal)
3. Jason Lescalleet, “Much to My Demise” 12” (Kye)
4. The Juan MacLean, “A Place Called Space”/”The Sun Will Never Set On Our Love” (DFA)
5. The Elsinores, “Dreams of Youth” 12” (Karmic Swamp)
6. Wildhoney, “Seventeen Forever” 7” (Photobooth)
7. Iberia, “ACAB” (Hybris)
8. Prince Rupert’s Drops, “Sesame Seed” (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)
9. Aphex Twin, “XMAS_EVET10 (Thanaton3 Mix)” (Warp)
10. Andy Stott, “Science and Industry” (Modern Love)

Reissues and Compilations:

1. Hailu Mergia and the Walias, Tche Belew (Awesome Tapes from Africa)
2. Harry Pussy, s/t (Pallalia)
3. The Flesheaters, A Minute to Pray… A Second to Die (Superior Viaduct)
4. Breadwinner, Burner (Merge)
5. The Joe McPhee Quartet, Underground Railroad (Bo’Weavil)
6. Ingram Marshall, “Fog Tropes”/”Gradual Requiem” (Arc Light Editions)
7. Loop, A Gilded Eternity (Reactor)
8. Tashi Dorji, s/t (Hermit Hut)
9. V/A, Folk Music of the Sahel Vol. 1 – Niger (Sublime Frequencies)
10. Bo Anders Persson, Love Is Here to Stay (Subliminal Sounds)

Honorable mentions: Nathan Bowles, Nansemond (Paradise of Bachelors); Chris Forsyth & the Solar Motel Band, Intensity Ghost (No Quarter); Alvarius B/Sir Richard Bishop, If You Don’t Like It… Don’t (Three Lobed); Scott Walker + Sunn 0)), Soused (4AD); Graham Lewis, All Over & All Under (Editions Mego); Anjou, s/t (Kranky); Bill Orcutt, VDSQ Vol. 10 (VDSQ); PC Worship, Social Rust (Dull Tools/Northern Spy); Purling Hiss, Weirdon (Drag City); Francis Bebey, Psychedelic Sanza 1982 – 1984 (Born Bad); Horse Lords, Hidden Cities (NNA); Klara Lewis, Ett (Editions Mego); Matt Krefting, Lymph Est (Kye); Mary Lattimore & Jeff Zeigler, Slant of Light (Thrill Jockey); Mohammad, Zo Rèl Do (Antifrost); Watter, This World (Temporary Residence); Ex Hex, Rips (Merge); Watery Love, Decorative Feeding (In the Red); Jac Berrocal, MDLV (Sub Rosa); Sapat, A Posthuman Guide to the Advent Calendar Origins of the Peep Show (Sophomore Lounge); Tinariwen, Emmarr (Anti-); Andy Stott, Faith in Strangers (Modern Love); V/A, Rajasthan Street Music (Sublime Frequencies); V/A, 1970s Algerian Folk and Pop (Sublime Frequencies); V/A, Autonomous Africa EP (Autonomous Africa).

Special thanks both to all the musicians I worked with this year, as well as the audience members from Louisville and elsewhere who attended the shows we put on.

Thanks to The New Vintage, Nachbar, Dreamland, and the Louisville Outskirts Festival.

And here’s the part we like least: saying goodbye to those who left us in 2014. R.I.P.

John Hampton, Brian Roy Goble, Buddy DeFranco, Joe Cocker, Larry Henley, Larry Smith, Wendy Rene, Rock Scully, Millie Kirkham, Rachel Blanton, Manuel de Sica, Graeme Goodall, Bob Montgomery, Ian McLagan, Bobby Keys, Nick Talbot, Chris White, Maggie Boyle, Rick Rosas, Big Bank Hank, Buddy Catlett, Mike Burney, Jimmy Ruffin, Dave Appell, Clive Palmer, Frances Nero, The Spaceape, Paul Revere, Style Scott, Mark Bell, Ikey Owens, James Levesque, Raphael Ravenscroft, Jack Bruce, David Anderle, Hopeton Lewis, Gerald Wilson, Bob Crewe, Cosimo Matassa, John Gustafson, Joe Sample, Peter Gutteridge, Margie Day, Kenny Wheeler, Milton Cardona, Rick Parashar, Uziah Thompson, Frankie Dunlop, John Spinks, Ken Thorne, Charlie Haden, Johnny Winter, Idris Muhammad, Dick Wagner, Donald Davis, Alan Douglas, Gerd Zacher, Jimmy Scott, Horace Silver, Gerry Goffin, Norman Sheffield, our friend Teenie Hodges, Bobby Womack, Paul Horn, Jessica Cleaves, Bobby Gregg, Nash the Slash, André Popp, Ed Gagliardi, Wayne Henderson, Leee Black Childers, Fred Ho, DJ E-Z Rock, Robert Ashley, Scott Asheton, Billy Mundi, Gert Krawinkle, Bob Casale, Wayne Smith, Bernd Noske, Paco de Lucia, Jay Traynor, Phil Everly, Amiri Baraka, Roy Campbell Jr., Bud Spangler, Joe Evans, Arthur Doyle, Johnny Allen, The Mighty Hannibal, and our good friend Letha Rodman Melchior.