Worryingly, i’ve realised that most of my favourite music from last year was made either by Scandanavians, bands on The Tough Alliances Sincerly Yours label or bands that are named after two lower case letters.
Memory Tapes – Seek Magic

I’ve read a bit about this solo dude from Southern New Jersey. I find his music’s almost like The Cure, New Order and Studio all rolled in to one but actually way more awesome than that sounds. He’s apparently a stay at home Dad who has no drivers license (must be a …

Instead of replying to Nick’s thread with my picks, here’s my top picks accompanied with youtube videos; Since i’ve been away for 20 months, i’ve had to limit record purchases to essential releases. Below are most of those. I’m not sure when i will be converted to MP3 but it hasn’t happened yet..
San Proper – Keep It Raw (Perlon)

Another great year for Perlon, a label worth supporting with record purchasing.. This release has two very solid sounding tracks and I’ve also really enjoyed Margaret Dygas – Invisible Circles release. Unluckily …

Highlights from a weekend that ruled more than any festival i have been to, apart from maybe the first Splore I went to near Miranda..

Ashes scoreboard that was updated everytime i walked past. Not as much arrogance as i was expecting considering it was their first win against Aussie at Lords in 75 years, but i guess that’s just because there’s still 3 to go.
Seeing a pretty sweet farmland part of England (Beccles, Suffolk)
Seeing Jeffrey Lewis play on the Poetry Stage 1230am Saturday night after Grace Jones and Spiritualized. He …

It’s times like this when you need the support of the BMP brothers. None of my close group of friends are overly keen on the idea of going out till 6 in the morning and others who could have been keen were either away for easter or not going to A Critical Mass and the Mulletover gig. No reason not to go though.
I got to Secretsundaze around 12.30, not early enough for the workshop, but seeing as i’m no producer, probably no great loss. I checked out the horsemeat disco …

Room One
10pm-12am Trus’me
12am-1am dOP (live)
1am-3.30 DJ Koze
3.30am-4.45am Modeselektor feat. Pfadfinderei (Live A/V set)
4.45am-6am Appleblim
6am-7am Shackleton (live)
Room Two
10pm-11pm Jozif
11pm-1am Motor City Drum Ensemble
1am-2am Lawrence (Live)
2am-4am Move D
4am-5am Thomas Melchior
We were a little weary of going back to Matter again. This time though we didn’t have to go through the horrible airport terminal that is the O2 and just walked around the waters edge to Matter.  The line wasn’t huge and within a few fairly painless minutes waiting, we were in.
Just in time for dOP. They were fun. We sat down and …

Here goes…

Deerhunter – Weird Era Cont/Microcastle
Back when Atlas Sound came out at the start of the year, i thought my love affair was over with Bradford Cox. Turns out, it wasn’t His solo-ish side project Atlas Sound turned out to be a much needed breath of fresh air from the Deerhunter sound. I still haven’t listened to it nearly enough to warrent it a place in my favourite albums. I think the fact he wrote most of it about being stuck in hospital beds and in his room turned me …

Playing for their fourth and final time in London this year, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds lived up to and exceeded expectations I had grown since purchasing a couple of tickets for my friends birthday when they went on sale back in August… Since then I’ve mostly been listening to Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! and the Boatmans Call. Mostly Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
Bursting on to stage in his swanky tailored suit, Nick and the band punched their way in to Hold On To Yourself before breaking in to Dig, Lazrus Dig’s …

We got to the O2 arena about 11pm after polishing off a Pizza each at Canary Wharf. There was a full on cavity search at the entrance to the Arena!!!! Ok, maybe just bags and pockets, but still unexpected, because this wasn’t even Matter we were entering. The O2 Arena can best be described, to Aucklanders, as a cross between Botany Downs and an Airport terminal and a very weird place for a club! No atmosphere in a massively oversized enclosed space. Once we’d made our way to the other …

I’m in a flat but still haven’t had a chance to review the Innervisions party at Fabric which was over a month ago. Whoops. Ame and Dixon are playing again here on the 30th for another Innervisions night. I’m not the biggest fan of Plastic People and Thursday night…. we’ll see.
Saw these on Faith. They’re recorded off some Spanish radio station live from somewhere. I’m really enjoying the Henrik Schwarz mix. Still haven’t managed to see him live. His mix is here.
Also a mix from Frank of Ame, Dixon and …