Lost Tribe Sound's: Top 25 albums of 2016

At least 2016 has been a good year in terms of the music that has been released.  Of course a number of major and large-indie artist releases always hog the spotlight from some excellent albums on the vast majority of these best of lists.  I prefer not to regurgitate the same thing as other lists do. As much as I did get into the releases from Radiohead and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds this year, you won't see them on this list.  I’m sure they are doing just fine for themselves.

The term ‘Best of’ is always so subjective, but these are many of the beautiful albums that have made an impact on me this year.  Some are self-released and truly hidden gems, some have received decent attention, and many are from small well-respected labels that should receive much more attention and credit than they currently do, plus, a couple are albums from the very end of 2015 (from that limbo period in music journalism where many amazing records get lost in the shuffle and never talked about as the next calendar year rolls in.

Each one of these albums I have personally listened to many times over the year, and have supported with my own money.  I definitely hope you find something new and interesting and worth supporting on this list, as they have all made life worth living in 2016 and all of these artists are beyond grateful when you put your money into supporting them for their amazing musical abilities.  I have tried to include the most direct link to support the album, artist, and label.

This is our first official end of year list and these are in no particular order.  You can see a full list of album titles and record label information below the song previews.  Enjoy.

Dead Light - Dead Light (Village Green)

Aaron & Bryce Dessner - Transpecos OST (Milan Records) 

Matt Christensen - Honeymoons (Miasmah)

Hummingbear - Hem (Self-released)

James Murray - Eyes to the Height (Ultimae)

Alder & Ash - Psalms for the Sunder (Self-released)

Gareth Dickson - Orwell Court (12K)

The Caretaker - Everywhere at the end of time (History Always Favors The Winners)

kj - Wake (Own Records)

Inventing Masks - Inventing Masks (Error Broadcast)

Danny Paul Grody - Sketch for Winter VI: Other States (Geographic North)

Douglas Dare - Aforger (Erased Tapes)

Directorsound - Sun Suites For a Rising Moon (ШАΛАШ)

Benoît Pioulard - Stanza III (Self-released)

Sister Grotto - You Don’t Have To Be A House To Be Haunted (Self-released)

Phi Bui - Unnoticed Moments (Eilean Records)

Brighter Later - The Wolves (Own Records)

M. Ostermeier - Tiny Birds (Home Normal)

Guy Gelem - Entirety (White Label Records)

Max Ananyev - Communication (Preserved Sound)

Chris Tenz - Nails Through Bird Feet (Slowwank)

Tape Loop Orchestra - Go Straight To The Light Of All That You Love (Facture)

Padang Food Tigers & Sigbjørn Apeland - Bumblin’ Creed (Northern Spy Records)

The Green Kingdom - Harbor (Dronarivm)

Matt Elliot - The Calm Before (Ici d’Ailleurs)

There you have it!  It would have been easy to throw into this list some LTS titles from this year, as I have spent a good majority of the year listening to them. But then again, they are my babies and I may be just a wee bit bias when considering them.  That said,  I hope you enjoyed this list and find a few things you may not have heard of.  And I hope you'll be kind and support the artists.  Stay well.