here we go then, time for another roundup! fuck spotify wrapped, here's some stuff I really really liked this year:
Cheekface - Middle Spoon (fun indie pop)
Kinski - Stumbledown Terrace (krauty noise rock)
Clipping - Dead Channel Sky (glitchy noise-rap)
Pan American & Michael Grigoni - New World, Lonely Ride (beautiful pastoral acoustic instrumentals)
Pink Floyd - Live At Pompeii (2025 Mix) (legendary live prog)
Surgeon - Shell-Wave (relentless stripped back techno)
Deradoorian - Ready for Heaven (sort of post-punky/ indie stuff)
billy woods - Golliwog (the most intense, brutal rap album of the year)
IE - Reverse Earth (spacey/ dreamy kosmische stuff, really pretty)
Stephen Vitiello with Brendan Canty and Hahn Rowe - Second (jazzy/ kosmische-y instrumentals)
Holden & Zimpel - The Universe Will Take Care of You (improv synth stuff)
Nenjah Nycist x Trust One - I Hope These Gems Stay with You (awesome old skool rap)
The Armed - The Future is Here and Everything Needs to be Destroyed (pure brutality)
Deftones - Private Music (yes lads! big metal, huge riffs)
Valentina Magaletti/ YPY - Kansai Bruises (skittery, jazzy electronic)
Oren Ambarchi - Ghosted III (jazzy/ kosmische-y instrumentals. 'barchi-core)
Neko Case - Neon Grey Midnight Green (intense folksy singer/ songwriter stuff. legendary)
Soulwax - All Systems Are Lying (big electronic prog/ dance)
Steve Hauschildt - Aeropsia (Tangerine Dreamy electronic floatiness)
Lucrecia Dalt - A Danger to Ourselves (South American singer/ songwriter fare)
Carrier - Rhythm Immortal (underwater, slow motion techno)
Clark - Steep Stims (typical Clark [in a good way])
SDEM - At Quadrant Park (Autechre-adjacent electronic business)
Slow Crush - Thirst (loud, heavy shoegaze)
Slime City - National Record of Achievement (nerdy, fun rock a-la Devo, etc)
The Bug vs Ghost Dubs - Implosion (sludgey sub-shredders)
HEALTH - Conflict DLC (bonkers dystopian indsustrial slammers)
Other stuff I liked from this year:
The summer being nice and hot, and not a washout like the last 2
Seeing Autechre twice
Raising over £1k for Cancer Research off sales of Subtle Manoeuvers
Bradford City of Culture stuff
Finally seeing Deftones again, after the last time (2008?) was marred with shite sound
Seeing Sophie smash a headline set with my guys Maybeshewill, after my car broke down on the way to Arctangent (took all day to get there on the train instead)
Finally getting some decent promo pictures done, courtesy of my old mate Jez Sheard
Seeing Villa go from 'oh shit, we're in deep doo-doo here' to 'oh shit, we're actually quite good?'
Reading The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre (seriously, what a book)
