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best of wordless (2025)

  • Writer: wordless
    wordless
  • 3 days ago
  • 6 min read

This little project is now ten years old, and five since we shared it and started inviting others in. We now have ten 100-song collaborator mixes, including two new great ones:

 

  • Laura, who’s played in bands almost all her life, curated a wild wordless journey spanning folk, jazz, and classical through electronic, indie, rock, and ambient, with touches of tango, West African classical, and more – reflecting her formal training, years spent abroad, and life as a songwriter. Dive in & read her blog about it here.


  • Sacha, a former journalist, mixed martial artist, and nonprofit founder whose childhood in Southern Arizona was steeped in music, put together a glorious groove-forward mix spanning genres, vibes, and eras but anchored in jazz, blues, soul, and funk. Discover some incredible new wordless artists & read Sacha’s write-up here. 

 

Meanwhile, our main playlist grew steadily in 2025 and now clocks in at over 1,200 songs, or nearly 93 hours of music. (Any song that reaches our main playlist has survived our joint curation, nomination, and veto process, which is about as onerous and boring as it sounds; vetoed songs go here.) And we filter the main playlist into genre sub-mixes: instrumental, electronic, beats, post-rock, and “other” (which just might be our favorite). 


Our annual 100-song, best-of/year-in-review mix, wordless 2025, is a fun one. Here is a bunch of highlights:

  • It was a good year for new music from some of our long-time favorite wordless artists, with new albums from GoGo Penguin (over the last decade, we’ve featured 28 of their songs on our main playlist), Grandbrothers (16 songs), Richard Houghten (15), and Arms and Sleepers (15). We also liked the trickle of singles from an upcoming album by Mammal Hands (16). Delicate Steve, Message to Bears, post-rock legends Mogwai, and all-around legend Brian Eno also released great new music in 2025.


  • It was also a good year for discovering new wordless artists and digging deeper into musicians who were long on our radar. We enjoyed new albums by Yuuf, a pan-European quartet (Denmark, France, Switzerland, UK); French-Moroccan trumpeter daoud; Norwegian trio Orions Belte; British pianist Bill Laurance; and the anonymous, masked enigmas that are Pale Jay and Lambert. In older music but still new to us, we finally discovered South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela and enjoyed Derek Gripper’s meticulous guitar adaptations of Malian legend Toumani Diabaté.

 

  • We added some new wordless tunes by musicians traditionally associated with lyrics, including David Bowie, an instrumental J Dilla cover, Broken Social Scene’s remix of Tortoise, and songs by throwback indie stars Grandaddy and contemporary favorite caroline. We also discovered a lovely instrumental collaboration featuring The National’s Bryce Dessner – who composed the score to Train Dreams, a lovely film based on an even lovelier novella. And we can’t deny enjoying the Tron score by Nine Inch Nails.

  

  • We both spent a lot of time writing this year (notably, DJ finally finished a big writing project!) and many wordless artists accompanied us on that journey: 


  • On the mellow instrumental end, we found Vega Trails and Akusmi to be excellent writing companions. Akusmi’s interesting melodies stem from a special tuning, the “Slendro scale,” inspired by a trip to Indonesia. Vega Trails is actually a project from double-bassist Milo Fitzpatrick, a founder of one of our long-time wordless favorites, Portico Quartet – and features saxophonist Jordan Smart of another favorite, Mammal Hands… guess our taste isn’t evolving that much after all. 

 

  • On the electronic side, Above and Beyond published a downtempo/ambient “Flow State” album which DJ often had on repeat. A&B evolved from a trance pioneer in the late ‘90s to owning the most influential label in the genre: Anjunabeats. If you like working to chill electronic, we highly recommend checking out Anjunadeep and Anjunachill on Soundcloud and YouTube.

 

  • In the afrobeat/funk category: our love for Nigerian pioneer Fela Kuti led us to three New York-based artists carrying his legacy forward – Antibalas (who played in the pit band for the Broadway run of Fela!), EMEFE (who got their start busking in the subway), and the genre-bending o.g. Budos Band. By the way, if you like Fela, don’t miss the 10-part podcast Fear No Man, exploring his impact and legacy.


  • We managed to see a few wordless artists live in 2025: Kaki King, whose recent collaboration with Tamar Eisenman continues their streak of finding world-class instrumentalists and churning out more albums than should be humanly possible; French duo Polo & Pan puts on a maximalist show befitting their big and bouncy albums; and the Westerlies, who featured prominently on our wordless holidays mix a few years back and keep finding ways into our playlist (and hearts) by making a “jazz quartet” surprising, cool, and modern. 


Here it is, and track list below:



Thanks for joining us down this rabbit hole. Happy listening & see you in 2027!


DJ & Greg


PS - For slightly-less-infrequent updates from this wordless project, we now have a very lazy instagram account.



Tracklist: wordless 2025


  1. Speed of Life — David Bowie

  2. The Volcano Song — The Budos Band

  3. Half & Half — Blue Earth Sound

  4. Owl Beach II — Yppah

  5. Els — Vega Trails

  6. Moments (Part 1) — FKJ

  7. B61 — The Westerlies

  8. Metanoia — Skinshape

  9. Vi dom obskyra — 1900

  10. The Mission — FKJ

  11. Alma’s Cove — Yuuf

  12. How Does It Feel — Bill Laurance, Michael League

  13. Oganesson – Broken Social Scene Remix — Tortoise, Broken Social Scene

  14. Outer Sunset — Tycho

  15. Escape — Antibalas

  16. In My Head — Tommy Guerrero

  17. Reine – Phil Anker Remix — il:lo, Phil Anker

  18. Back To Work – Instrumental — RJD2

  19. Kito’s Theme — Ishmael Ensemble

  20. Wait – 2015 Archive — Superpoze

  21. Glimmers — Jasmine Myra

  22. Primos (with Hermanos Gutiérrez) — Adrian Quesada, Hermanos Gutiérrez

  23. Obsession — Superpoze

  24. Dreambend — Kessonoda

  25. This Changes Everything — Nine Inch Nails

  26. Alia’s Abandon — Mammal Hands

  27. Fable — Grandbrothers

  28. Devil’s Respite — Menahan Street Band

  29. Flox Gade — Yttling Jazz, Svaneborg Kardyb

  30. Half Light — Message To Bears

  31. Juniper — Slowly Rolling Camera

  32. Hammer Room — Mogwai

  33. The Calm Before — Poppy Ackroyd

  34. Biblio — Okonski

  35. Nothing Really Blue — Penguin Cafe Orchestra

  36. Aeons – (Tom Day Remix) [Mixed] — Ryan Davis, Tom Day

  37. Good Future — EMEFE

  38. Half Light — Signa, John Mark Nelson

  39. Images – Bassi Fox Remix — Henry Green, Bassi Fox

  40. The Last Days of a Tragic Allegory — Saxon Shore

  41. Whiskey & Horses — Kaki King, Tamar Eisenman

  42. Midnight Rider — Sam Fribush, Ari Teitel, Adam Deitch

  43. A Portrait — Richard Houghten

  44. Stormfuld — Bremer/McCoy

  45. Vanishing Breed — Patrick Lee

  46. The Hut — Waldo’s Gift

  47. And I Love Her — Santo & Johnny

  48. Le belvédère — PAVANE

  49. Lately I’ve Been Wondering — Sean Angus Watson

  50. Quadris De Ouro – Instrumental — Pale Jay

  51. MUSE — Arms and Sleepers

  52. California — The Olympians

  53. Last Donut Of The Night (Bonus Track) — OMA

  54. Umbra — GoGo Penguin

  55. Lakeside — Orions Belte

  56. The Missing Piece — Max Cooper

  57. Goodbye Blue Monday — Alex Benjamin, Phil Cook, Justin Mazer

  58. 1759 (Outro) — Richard Spaven, Sandunes

  59. Stanza — The Apartment

  60. Cogito — Akusmi

  61. If Time Was Kinder — Arms and Sleepers, Sun Glitters

  62. Dark blue — caroline

  63. EL MENZAH — Arms and Sleepers

  64. THE MIGHTY (feat. Ben Marc) — Ashley Henry, Ben Marc

  65. White Crayon — Athletic Progression

  66. Nanã — Polo & Pan

  67. Waterline — Atta Kid

  68. Fallowfield Loops — GoGo Penguin

  69. Lorica Pink — Barry Burns, Kathryn Joseph, Mogwai

  70. Fight On — The Westerlies

  71. Dove — Bill Laurance

  72. Nocturne — Bryce Dessner, Katia Labèque, Marielle Labèque

  73. Supernova — Common Saints

  74. Largo — Vega Trails

  75. Las Olas — The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble

  76. Love Your Grace — Vega Trails

  77. Velvet Roads — Grandbrothers

  78. Grazing In The Grass — Hugh Masekela

  79. spring ii — Felbm

  80. Ducky, Boris and Dart – Instrumental — Grandaddy

  81. summer ii — Felbm

  82. Arpeggios — Felix Rösch

  83. Escape – Hania Rani Remix — Skalpel, Hania Rani

  84. Khanda — Fazer

  85. State of Flux (feat. Manchester Collective) — GoGo Penguin, Manchester Collective

  86. Obsidian — Tagavaka

  87. Hear My Cry — Ezra Collective

  88. Porcelain — Lambert

  89. Lower the Heavens — The Donkeys

  90. For Marmish — Floating Points

  91. Jarabi (Passion) — Derek Gripper

  92. ÓRLA — Tagavaka

  93. In The Morning — Delicate Steve

  94. Chugga-Chugga — Junip

  95. The Eraser — Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah

  96. Sisteron — Kiasmos

  97. Procession — Brian Eno, Beatie Wolfe

  98. Hip Hop Hippies — The Dining Rooms

  99. dijon — daoud

  100. Small Moments — Above & Beyond

 
 
 

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