2012 : Personal Best

Cutting the past 365 days of music down into the highlights has been a tough one, not only because there has been a wealth to pick from, but because despite hearing hundreds upon hundreds of new releases, I've tried to cut it down to a small amount of records that kept me coming back again and again. Some I was lucky enough to work on and so got fully immersed in, and others just found their way onto my record player month after month and will always hold memories of special times.

Usually I have trouble picking a number one, but this year it's been easy. I kind of glossed over them back at the beginning of the summer as I couldn't spare the time to give them the write-up they deserve, but Pond win it fair and square. The Great Escape was a feast of new music (as usual), but catching them by chance for a spectacularly warm midday set in the Republic Of Music courtyard was the luckiest find. I hadn't gotten around to checking the record out, but as soon as they launched into their opening song, it was like seeing a favourite band for the first time; totally uninhibited, loose and loud, blasting away the hangovers of the bleary onlookers as though it was a headline set, rather than a matinee performance to a crowd of twenty. We all caught them again in the evening, and ended up catching them in London the week after, too, and Beard, Wives, Denim and their earlier record Frond were my go-to records for the rest of the year. 

As always, this list will be a bit patchy as memories fade in and out of view, but here's a quick rundown...

Noteworthy Albums:

Pond - Beard, Wives, Denim

Grass Widow - Internal Logic 

Sauna Youth - Dreamlands 

Cold Pumas - Persistent Malaise

Talk Normal - Sunshine

Disappears - Pre Language

The Soft Pack - Strapped

Chain And The Gang - In Cool Blood

Prinzhorn Dance School - Clay Class
Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action at a Distance

Martha Wainwright - Come Home To Mama

Bos Angeles - Taking Out The Trash

Grimes - Visions

Tame Impala - Lonerism

Melody's Echo Chamber - Melody's Echo Chamber

The Men - Open Your Heart

Dinosaur Jr - I Bet On Sky

John Talabot - fIN

Tamaryn - Tender New Signs

Moon Duo - Circles

Slowcoaches - We're So Heavy EP

Stealing Sheep - Into The Diamond Sun

Kindness - World, You Need A Change Of Mind

Noteworthy Songs:

Corin Tucker - Groundhog Day

Novella - Mary's Gun

Mazes - Bodies

Tamaryn - I'm Gone

Deptford Goth - Life After Defo

Areca Grove - Colour Test

MYSTYRYS - Sea-Ice

Keel Her - Riot Grrrl

Lana Del Rey - Video Games

TOY - Left Myself Behind

New Finds:

Pond

Keel Her

Vision Fortune

Throne
Dark Times

Sealings
Milk Music

Parlour

The Soft Walls

Ceremony

Edible Arrangements

Royal Limp

The Best of 2012:

Setting up One Beat Digital PR

The (kind of) return of Bikini Kill, with Bikini Kill Records

John Talabot, The Men, Mudhoney, Bleached, Wild Beasts & more at Primavera Sound

Wanda Jackson at Latitude

Chain And The Gang at the Blind Tiger, Brighton in November

Trip to Berlin to see Maren

Getting FEATURE off the ground

The Sauna Youth & Cold Pumas' tour

Mission of Burma at Birthdays

Psychedelic Psyblings' blog

Patti Schemel at the ICA

Day out in Whitby

Visits to the Daytrotter studio

FINALLY finding Live Through This on vinyl for cheap!

Looking forward to in 2013:

Playing a show with Verity Susman

Mazes' album

The Julie Ruin

Dinosaur Jr live in London

Deerhunter ATP (and seeing The Breeders for the first time!)

More travelling

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