Animal Collective—Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
The new Animal Collective is really good, enough to make me sit at Ticketmaster with my hand over the button to get tickets that sold out near-instantly (Grouper‘s opening, too). I don’t understand the hype—what is it about this band that makes the press and people on NPR interested in electronic, mildly experimental music? Did ambient just need Beach Boys vocals to get that recognition? Another baffling element: the claim that this record makes electronics and samples seem “organic.” This is one of the most inorganic recordings I’ve ever heard, which is, in my opinion, a kind of strength. Organic is Alio Die recording the sound of mushrooms decomposing a tree trunk in Italy. This album is about as organic as its cover art (which looks like more of an optical illusion on the internet than in real life—surely an important message about the former, right?). Anyway, this has been a terrific album to swim laps to, and it’s something Mom might like. It peters out a little bit at the end, but I love it.

Deerhunter—Cryptograms, etc. (Kranky)
I basically bought all of the Deerhunter stuff on Kranky and I am obsessed. I haven’t been this excited with a new “rock band” in like forever; probably since the future sound of Bristol in the early 90s, of which this is tangentially, sonically related. You can trace a direct path from Flying Saucer Attack and AMP to here, walls of blissful noise with pop songs somewhere inside. Basically I think they’re incredible, and it’s rare that you find a pop-oriented outfit that does ambient tracks so well (i.e. “Tape Hiss Orchid” from Cryptograms). Side projects Atlas Sound (on my best of ’08 list) and Lotus Plaza are very fine as well.

Fleet Foxes—s/t (Sub Pop)
In my continuing trend to be faintly “relevant” by reading Entertainment Weekly and watching Lost (I’m totally hooked), I stumbled across Fleet Foxes almost everywhere. When some of you had it on your best of ’08 lists, I figured I’d give it a try. I have played this CD so much since I got it back in December. What wonderful music, it’s like folk-flavored candy (Ricola?). I don’t know if I’m sold on the current spate of bearded folk masters, but this one was a winner for me.

Mountains—Choral (Thrill Jockey)
Mountains came out with their best album thus far, and they are now on Thrill Jockey. I bought the double-vinyl because it has extra tracks and instantly regretted it as I’m always getting up and flipping over the platters to hear more. Four sides of vinyl is not enough for this music; they could have filled six and remained as potent. I’m not sure that this is a contender for best ambient album of the year, but it’s top-five worthy, for sure.

Atom™—Leidgut (Raster-Noton)
Finally Uwe gets his act together and releases a solid album, and on Raster-Noton, too. This one is undoubtedly an acquired taste (like most on Raster), but if you like Kraftwerk’s Radioactivity, especially the vocoder parts and Franz Schubert fixation, this is the post-electronic album for you. A robot vocalist and radio static orchestra perform polka hits. The packaging is, as ever, brilliantly clever.

Yagya—Rigning (Sending Orbs)
Finally, a new Yagya album. Though it doesn’t achieve the sublime heights of Rhythm of Snow (admittedly an almost impossible act to follow for me), it’s very nice stuff. The melodies are a little tamer, but the atmospheres are strong and totally three-dimensional. This is probably the fullest recording Yagya’s done so far and it made for perfect brunch music last Sunday morning. There’s a clear reason this guy takes two or three years between albums, there’s terrific care taken here.

The Church—Shriek–Music from the Soundtrack (Unorthodox Records)
I never thought I’d find a Church record lousy, but in this case, I just do. This is the soundtrack to a movie of a book (they screened the movie during the last concert tour, so I’ve seen it) so it isn’t exactly a Church album per se, so I guess it can be excused. I have not read the book, but I can say with certainty that the lines they use in the recording probably read better on the page than they do spoken aloud with nebulous musical enhancement. There are a few almost-Church tunes inside here somewhere, but, in the immortal words of Garfield the cat: inside all of this horse meat, I’ve yet to find the pony. The new album sounds incredible (drops next month, I think), but this is half-baked stuff.

Sleepy Town Manufacture & Unit 21—No Traces (Infraction)
Another incredible ambient release on Infraction, and certainly a contender for 2009′s best. Sleepy Town Manufacture (also known as Beautumn) takes Unit 21′s LP collection and cobbles together a Tarkovsky-esque trip through the Zone. If you liked last year’s Parks album, imagine that mixed with samples from 1950s stereo-test records and obscure soundtracks. This whole record is a tour de force, from the ample packaging to the bonus disc.

Also really fine:
Black Moth Super Rainbow—”Don’t You Want to Be in a Cult” picture 12″ (Mexican Summer)
Grouper / City Center split 7″ (definitely look for this one) (no label)
Pop Ambient 2009 (finally) (Kompakt)
Richard Pinhas & Merzbow (!)—Keio Line (Cuneiform Records)
Of—Rocks Will Open (Digitalis) (another fine tectonic ambient release by Loren Chasse)
Night Control—Death Control (Kill Shaman) (interesting avant-pop, sometimes has a Suicide feel)