A small dark basement filled with smoke, red strobe lights flicker as white noise and distorted rhythms violently make their way from the speakers. Lights fade and we’re sunk in darkness with only the crackling of unidentifiable voices and dark piano tones accompanying us. When the strobe lights start pulsating again in front of the small stage, we make out the other figures in the room: there are people in a seemingly dreamlike trance, others stare bewildered at the stage trying to catch a glimpse of the artist responsible for all this confusion, some are even dancing. When the small group of us attending the Rewire Festival lock eyes through the bursts of light, it is clear that we are having a shared experience, one of joyous awe as Maria w Horn continues her set. Maria w Horn’s latest record ‘Epistasis’ came out later in the year and it never really left my record player; an entirely different beast compared to her live performance (or even last year’s ‘Kontrapoetik’), but even more so, an emotional experience and my record of the year. A lot of my favourite music I listened to in 2019 was aided by having attended live performances: from the visceral experiences of Maria w Horn and Sunn O))) to the sparse and minimal sets of Mohammad Reza Mortazavi and Sarah Davachi. Other records, like Caterina Barbieri’s ‘Ecstatic Computation’ or older releases by Windy & Carl, Roy Montgomery and Paysage d’Hiver just stuck around all year, ever-relient like a best friend, accompanying me (us) on roadtrips, train rides, late-night work sessions or casual listening sessions on the couch. These thirty records were probably the ones I listened to the most in the past year, always on repeat, always there when I needed them. So give them a listen and support the artists, they're awesome. :) Compiled as follows: 01 ~ 10 favourite new records by female artists 11 ~ 23 more recent music I really enjoyed 24 ~ 27 some very welcome vinyl reissues 28 ~ 30 (re)discovering some of these classics HNY x M