Best of 2012 instrumental mix

Pictured: Toto

Click here to listen

01 Evenings - Golden
02 Snow Palms - Blue Yonder
03 Andrew Bird - Things Behind The Barn
04 Two Bicycles - Voice Clouds
05 Message To Bears - Farewell, Stars
06 Dead Rat Orchestra - Salt Slide
07 Alamaailman Vasarat - Riistomaasiirtäjä
08 Black Prairie - Evil Leaves
09 Mount Eerie - (something)
10 Library Tapes - End of the Summer
11 dalot - haiku 16
12 Indian Wells - In The Streets
13 Errors - The Knock
14 Balmorhea - Artifact
15 Godspeed You! Black Emperor - We Drift Like Worried Fire
16 Memory Tapes - The Black Reel

~90 minutes counting the last two tracks, ~45 without them. Think of it as a 2-part deal if you want, or just skip the long tracks at the end, idgaf. It was a good year for instrumental music. I could have made this go on for hours, easily. I left most of my favorite ambient stuff off since a lot of the same artists are on the Hurricane Sandy Relief compilation posted below, which you should really check out in lieu of any mix I could make.

[2011] Evenings - Lately

Oh hey, this is still here

Oh hey, Evenings released their (his?) first full-length at some point this year and I just noticed.

[2011] Chapelier Fou - Al Abama EP

Holy crap I love everything about this.

[2011] Melodium - Petit Jama

For fans of Múm. No vocals though. It's a tad sugary, at times, but I like that shit.

[2011] M△S▴C△RA - Silver Knight Gothic EP

Entirely instrumental, dark and weird and soothing with a tasty beat. not sure what else to say. witch house ep is witch housey. check out the track below.

I'm really into short records lately, not sure why. Too also, the EP just makes a lot of sense to me as a release format. A lot of musical ideas shouldn't be stretched out over more than 20 to 30-odd minutes, else they get tiresome. But they're still cool ideas and I want to hear them. I probably heard that in an interview somewhere and have just confused it for an original thought.

Shadow of Tonight by MASCARA

[2011] Arctic Whisperings - óvænt lán

For fans of hauschka, sigur ros, and the minecraft volume alpha album (which I simply cannot put down, lately). some minimal stuff, some thick postrock, all points between, all twinkly. I'm gonna buy this. Found it on Musical Coma.

[2010] fr*dl*yb*x instrumental m*x (redux)

Boy Eats Drum Machine

There were so many great instrumental tracks leftover from my first mix and I heard a few more in the last quarter of the year, some of which have been recently blogged here, and I decided to go ahead and make another one. There are only a few bands in common with the first mix. Click the picture to listen.

01. Andr*w B*rd - Make Hay
02. Bl*ck Pra*rie - Full Moon in June
03. dné - Time Is Fabulous
04. Happenstance - Even My Goosebumps Shivered
05. Dalot - Infinite Window
06. Arandel - # 3
07. Asura - Asura III
08. James Stephen Finn - Twelfth Floor
09. Anenon - Damiel
10. Br**n En* - Flint March
11. Arcn Templ - Eighteen Steps Of Evil
12. Boy Eats Drum Machine - Battle Hymn
13. Dorian White - Luxated Hip
14. Balmorhea - Clamor
15. Dirk Geiger - Gewitterregen

[2010] dné - Eating a Wrapper Instead of Candy

I seem to be in the mood for instrumental stuff lately. This has been sitting neglected on my drive for awhile. Either found this on folktronica or siren sound. Put on headphones. Always put on headphones.

[2010] Balmorhea - Candor/Clamor 7"

Sounds like the Balmorhea of their recent full length, "Constellations", but having some sort of proggy Jethro Tull hypnotic seizure.

[2010] Happenstance - Happenstance

Excellent little mostly instrumental EP. Just listen and see for yourself, words won't do it justice. Should not be hard to find; when I google for information about the artist, I get more download links than anything else. Release was apparently limited to 300 copies, good luck finding one.

Happenstance - Even My Goosebumps Shivered

[2010] Evenings - North Dorm EP

just check this shit out, you WON'T be sorry. if you got the instrumental mix, you've already heard "Favorite Maze" but go on and download the EP from the mediafire link provided by the artist on their bandcamp page, cos the rest of it is just as great.

[2010] Instrumental Mix

I don't make any grand, egotistical claims like this is the "best of" instrumental music in the past year. They aren't the best instrumental albums of the year, either. Many of the albums these tracks come from are not themselves entirely instrumental. It is, however, a damn nice mix of some of the best instrumental tracks I've heard this year, and I hope you end up getting into one of these artists because you like their track.

so, download the mix here and enjoy
fradleybox - 2010 Instrumental Mix (link updated with new itunes-friendly version)


Tracklist (artist-album-title):
01 - Boy Eats Drum Machine - 20 Beats - The Rabbit
02 - Fly*ng L*tus - P*ttern+Grid World - Kill Your Co-Workers
03 - T*bacco - Maniac Meat - Nuclear Waste Aerobics
04 - Autechre - M*ve of Ten - y7
05 - Waggers over the Station - Uphekka - Blankets of Oracle Bones
06 - Noveller - Desert Fires - Toothnest (For Chris Habib)
07 - Errors - Come Down with Me - The Erskine Bridge
08 - Balmorhea - Constellations - Bowsprit
09 - Black Prairie - Daytrotter Session - Ostinato Del Caminito
10 - Evenings - North Dorm - Favorite Maze
11 - Flotilla - flotilla - Cathedral
12 - Eluvium - Similies - In Culmination
13 - Mount Eerie - Song Islands Vol. 2 - (wind lyrics)
14 - Ólafur Arnalds - ...And They Have Escaped... - Loftið Verður Skyndilega Kalt

edit: the woman in the lower right hand corner of that image kinda looks like my mom