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As with all past ‘Reflection’ year-end mixes, I start with a collection of albums, EPs, and compilations I have enjoyed over the past year. Through the process of compiling a mix, tracks are selected from this extensive collection. This ultimately means many of my favorite tracks and albums are often omitted in this process, due to the organic process of compiling a mix, things don’t fit, or fall by the wayside. There are many albums I had on high rotation missing from this mix, but I have to stop somewhere. As I say every year, this isn’t a definitive ‘best-of’ list, but a selection of *some* of my favorite music from the year in one listenable format. It’s the most enjoyable way for me to boil down the music I’ve loved from the year using these self-imposed restrictions, for you to enjoy and hopefully discover more, and for me to reflect on time and time again - like a photograph that captures the year in music.

I encourage you to use the mix to explore each artist, listen to the album in full, and explore each label (and check the Buy Music Club list at the bottom). If you want to see the majority of music I’ve been supporting this year, head over to my Bandcamp collection. For the ASIP year-end label compilation, see the feature and mix here.

~

Yikes, I crossed the 3-hour mark! Well, that speaks volumes to the amount of great music that was released this year, and I’m already feeling guilty about omissions from this mix. But alas, it needs to stop somewhere, the Holiday’s are coming…

This edition marks the tenth year in succession (2010 was the first mix but I skipped doing this for two years for some reason) and it is an extremely enjoyable exercise I look forward to every year. Revisiting many of the albums I’ve purchased throughout the year, and records from my shelf, then taking the time to absorb more recent releases - the process is cathartic (after the slight anxiety that builds knowing I have a beast of a mix to tackle, and hard decisions to be made).

Looking back at previous Reflection mixes, I am evidently a creature of habit and seem to gravitate to certain artists more than most over the years (we all have our faves), but I also take a lot of time to dig for new artists and approaches to music in this realm, and this year’s edition is probably the most varied in music styles since the Reflection series began. Ambient, field recordings, drone (Power-ambient, even), big saxophones (the flute revival didn’t make it ;-), Japanese left-field pop, deep techno, chugging techno, modern classical, experimental, jungle, breaks, dub and more… as you might imagine, this is a 3hr mix that feels more like a showcase than a DJ mix in the traditional sense, as I’m focusing on creating chapters of different styles, but I hope makes for an attentive listen if you’ve got 3hrs to spare.

Am I going to write about all 42 tracks? Not this time, as I don’t think there’s much I can illustrate other than ‘go listen to that entire album!’ but I will make a few observations on themes that emerged as I was going through this process.

Firstly, the far corners of Bandcamp are very much alive, so for anyone looking for alternatives given all the talk with Bandcamp this year, please don’t hit the escape button and continue to support us- I continued to find so many new labels and artists, some of which are included here such as Liis Ring, Etüüd, ǝɯǝɐ, Azu Tiwaline and not to forget a kick-ass Jungle community throwing out some lovely 90’s infused comps. Bandcamp keeps small labels and artists alive right now (only two of these tracks were physical releases and not on Bandcamp - #19 & #42).

I spent a lot of time listening to music that would work for the two shows I played in Japan earlier this year, and for those who listened back to one of the sets I posted, you may notice a few similar tracks/artists appearing here again which I’ve held in high regard since their release, such as Jo Johnson, Field Lines Cartographer and Endurance. On reflection, there was a lot of deepness for me this year that came from preparing for and inspired by those sets, sitting on the edges of techno with lots of synthesizer/Berlin school projects (as well as a couple of artists I got to see in person whilst over there such as Yolabmi and Endurance).

There were a couple of glaring omissions from this mix (*checks Bandcamp app most played*) which I had on rotation so much this year that I still wanted to mention, such as Imaginary Softwoods, who was behind one of my favorite tracks of the year, ‘Diagrams of the Universe’. Along with Johnny Nash’s Point of Entry - a tranquil guitar-laden affair, both of which never left my turntable for long.

The ever-expanding ASIP roster of artists, both alumni and current, had an extremely busy year evidently (I try to restrict their inclusions in this mix where I can otherwise it could be an entire ASIP promo show… hey that’s an idea…). bvdub released about ~10 masterpieces, as only he can, flaunting all possible peripherals in his deep arsenal (along with rounding out the Earth House Hold project with us of course). ASC was crazy busy with his quality retro Spatial DnB releases (one of them made it in here). For those who enjoyed Alex Albrecht’s debut with us, don’t miss his earlier 2023 release. Deepchild released another great textured follow-up to his ASIP debut for those wanting more. 36 continued some rave-esque ambient no doubt inspired by his 9128 recording a few years back. Markus Guentner began an exciting collab project with Joachim Spieth (and also appeared in several other collaborations). RAI kept things relatively reflective with a few Bandcamp specials and recordings from his live tour. Benoit Pîoulard made a beautiful return to Morr Music, and Christian Kleine rounded out the year with a limited vinyl press. Those needing more from our 2