Wonderfully warm and sad ambient music. A bit of modern classical combined with static, electronic drones. I am the guy on the album cover when I listen to this.
Nostalgic and triumphant post-rock so good it spawned an entire genre of lesser copycats. The military-style drumming doesn't get enough credit for how creative and influential it was.
Slow, wandering Afrobeat with gorgeous horns and Fela Kuti's trademark vocals and politically charged lyrics.
The warmest, sweetest jangle/twee pop ever. The whole C86/Sarah Records music scene is one I absolutely adore and this big compilation of its best band is such a good representation of the sound.
Freddie Gibbs's magnetic personality and delivery combined with Madlib's smooth production is a perfect match. Best gangster rap at least since the '90s, surely.
Ensemble post-rock for the apocalypse.
Beautifully arranged ambient/instrumental folk covers of American Civil War-era folk songs. When I first started living on my own I'd play this album on repeat because it was so comforting.
Dense, savage, brilliant screamo with progressive instrumentation, genuine funk influence, and an organ.
Legendary Ethiopian jazz. Smooth, organ-heavy, hypnotic. Branches into a proto form of instrumental hip-hop on ocassion. This recording was nearly lost forever but was just managed to be saved, cleaned up, and released.
Hammock's trilogy of Mysterium, Universalis, and Silencia is probably my favorite ambient music. Sweeping, warm, lush, full of life and health and peace. Silencia is my most listened-to of the three and possibly my most listened-to album of all time, despite its coming out only in 2019. I listen to it so much and so often it's already embedded itself into my DNA.