Lumen Tähden -- Kuupuu (Time Lag)

First proper full-length release from Finland's Jonna Karanka, mixing muffled sing-song folk, bubbling electronics and jumbled avant-improv in a lo-fi haze. Beautiful and haunting.

Flaming Tunes -- Gareth Williams and Mary Currie (Life and Living)

A reissue (!) of a small-run cassette from the mid-’80s. Williams was the "non-musician" member of legendary experimental post-punk band This Heat, though he left in the early ’80s to study dance in India. Upon returning, he recorded this rich, evocative work of lo-fi experimental pop. Pianos, clarinets, synths and other discreet instruments dance around drum machines and William's inwardly-calm, ruminative vocals, all fed through the post-This Heat deconstruction machine to form an elegant, moving recording.

Vertical Ascent -- Moritz Von Oswald Trio (Honest Jon's)

Beautifully textured "improvisational" techno from a master of the genre. Vladislav Delay on metal percussion!

Destination Tokyo -- Nisennenmondai (Smalltown Supersound)

First real stateside release from this all-girl trio from Tokyo that play a perfect kind of lolloping no-wave/kraut-rock/disco hybrid that somehow no one has thought of before. Guitar lines like peaked-out lasers, looping hypno-funk basslines somehow devoid of funk, and drums with more high-hat than anyone, ever.

Merriweather Post Pavillion -- Animal Collective

Does any more really need to be said about this, other than I hope that Frankie Knuckles got paid. Quite possibly the best album named after a Frank Gehry auditorium. At least, in 2009.

Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle -- Bill Callahan (Drag City)

Kesämaan Lapset -- Es (Fonal)

Alphabet 1968 -- Black to Comm (Type)

Let's Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow -- Tomasz Bednarczyk (12k)

Natsu no Zenbu -- Ippei Matsui & Aki Tsuyuko (Lekoodo)