Top Singles of 2012
1. Blawan His He She And She 12″
2. Daughn Gibson Lite Me Up 7″
3. Hoax 2nd EP 7″
4. Dawn Of Humans Blurst Of The Birdfish 7″
5. Emptyset Collapse 12″
6. Boddika & Joy Orbison Swims 12″
7. Räjäyttäjät Räjäyttäjät Räjäyttää! 7″
8. TNGHT TNGHT EP 12″
9. Burial Kindred EP 12″
10. Bandshell Dust March 12″
11. Boddika & Joy Orbison Froth / Mercy 12″
12. Neon Blud Discotheque Deathbed 12″
13. Satanic Rockers Eviction / Rat Versus Boredom 7″
14. The Traveller A-100 EP 12″
15. Brown Sugar Tropical Disease 7″
16. Joe MB / Studio Power On 12″
17. Manic Manic 7″
18. Blawan Long Distance Open Water Worker 12″
19. Exit Hippies Part 2 7″
20. Shed The Praetorian 12″

Honorable Mention:
Drosofile Mal / Your Roberts 7″
November Növelet Heart Of Stone 7″
Cold Cave A Little Death To Laugh 7″
War At War For Youth 7″
Barker & Baumecker A Murder Of Crows EP 12″

Top Albums of 2012
1. Merchandise Children Of Desire
2. Mount Carmel Real Women
3. Shackleton Music For The Quiet Hour / The Drawbar Organ EPs
4. Andy Stott Luxury Problems
5. Boston Strangler Primitive
6. Blank Realm Go Easy
7. Constant Mongrel Everything Goes Wrong
8. Petar Dundov Ideas From The Pond
9. Spacin’ Deep Thuds
10. Mountain Cult Mountain Cult
11. Blues Control Valley Tangents
12. Demdike Stare Elemental
13. Raime Quarter Turns Over A Living Line
14. Hank Wood And The Hammerheads Go Home
15. Holy Other Held
16. Crazy Spirit Crazy Spirit
17. Modra The Line For The Men’s Room
18. D-Clone Creation And Destroy
19. Killer Mike R.A.P. Music
20. Frank Ocean Channel Orange

Honorable Mention:
Slices Still Cruising
Creem Creem
Holograms Holograms
FRKSE Guilt Surveillance
Ricardo Villalobos Dependent And Happy

Another year in the record books! Lots of killer music was released this year, and while it wasn’t easy narrowing it down to a mere 25 albums and 25 EPs I enjoyed (which seems like a ridiculous number of records for any one person to actively listen to in a year anyway), these are my picks. Gotta share one caveat, though – my true favorite album of the year is without a doubt Daughn Gibson’s All Hell, but since I released it myself and love it like a child, I figure it would be uncouth to place it on my year-end list. Still, I didn’t listen to any other record as much as All Hell this year, and its songs still haunt me and provoke all sorts of emotions nearly a year later. Here’s to a bountiful 2013!

Blawan His He She And She 12″ (Hinge Finger)
When it came to techno in 2012, no one did it like Blawan. His early EPs were cool-if-expected future-bass excursions not unlike his Hessle Audio / Hotflush contemporaries, but with Long Distance Open Water Worker, Peaches and most stunningly of all, His He She And She, Blawan blew the doors off what dungeon techno could be. The four tracks of His He She And She are as gnarly and raw as any Wolf Eyes CD-r, as catchy as Luomo and as relentless as Sandwell District, blaring the evil vocal hooks and blown-out rhythms like they’re coming from a warning siren, not a stereo. When I listen to this EP, I feel both energized and terrorized, like I am in the middle of a warzone and my only reaction is to dance. Keep the hits coming, Blawan!

Merchandise Children Of Desire (Katorga Works)
After blowing my mind with their (Strange Songs) In The Dark album, Merchandise had a lot to live up to with their follow-up, and did they ever! Everything I loved about Merchandise before is brighter, bolder and bigger than before – the riffs are catchy new-wave bliss, Carson Cox’s vocals are some sort of squat-house Morrissey with a Chet Baker fixation, the lyrics are as melodramatic and overwrought as I could’ve hoped, and the songs themselves stretch time as thought it were just another instrument to play with. There’s bits of Neu!, Arcade Fire and The Cure in there, whether they intended it or not, and there’s really no other band that sounds like Merchandise (although in 2013, I certainly expect many others to start trying). Conflicted with staying punk or embracing the indie machine, Merchandise are ignoring cries of “sell out” while still playing ratty punk basements instead of corporate clubs (at least for now), and it’s been entertaining watching them navigate their new-found world, particularly as they have a fantastic set of songs to take with them. Children Of Desire is a beautiful record that will only continue to unfold its wealth as the hype dissipates and the music stands entirely on its own, just as Merchandise intended.

Top Singles of 2011
1. Andy Stott Passed Me By 2×12″
2. Leather Sterile 7″
3. Andy Stott We Stay Together 2×12″
4. Burial Street Halo 12″
5. The Haxan Cloak Observatory EP 12″
6. Dum Dum Girls He Gets Me High 12″
7. Jon Convex Convexations EP 12″
8. Holy Other With U 12″
9. Darkside Darkside EP 10″
10. Shackleton Fireworks 2×12″
11. Crazy Spirit Remastered Demo 12″
12. Regis In A Syrian Tongue 12″
13. Yves De May Counting Triggers 2×12″
14. Shackleton Deadman 12″
15. Martyn Masks / Viper 12″
16. Holy Balm Hand Over Fire / Strange Water 7″
17. Protect-U World Music 12″
18. Wolfgang Voigt Kafkatrax 1.1 12″
19. Silent Servant Hypnosis in the Modern Age 12″
20. Raime Hennail 12″

Honorable Mention:
Actress Rainy Dub 12″
Innergaze Shadow Disco 12″
The Soft Moon Total Decay EP 12″
Leather Wretch 7″
Hoax Hoax 7″

Top Albums of 2011
1. Iceage New Brigade
2. Morphosis What Have We Learned
3. Royal Headache Royal Headache
4. Kitchen’s Floor Look Forward to Nothing
5. James Blake James Blake
6. Ford & Lopatin Channel Pressure
7. Nicolas Jaar Space Is Only Noise
8. The Field Looping State of Mind
9. Total Control Henge Beat
10. Prurient Bermuda Drain
11. ASAP Rocky LiveLoveA$AP
12. Tin Man Perfume
13. Call Back the Giants The Rising
14. Psychedelic Horseshit Laced
15. Lil Wayne Tha Carter IV
16. Luomo Plus
17. John Maus We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
18. Cold Cave Cherish the Light Years
19. Pinch & Shackleton Pinch & Shackleton
20. The Weeknd House of Balloons

Honorable Mention:
Rank/Xerox Rank/Xerox
Folded Shirt Folded Shirt
Emptyset Demiurge
Antonym Revile
OBN IIIs The One and Only

Lots of great records came out in 2011, and these are my favorites. Gotta hand it to the full-lengths – competition was far stiffer than the singles, if primarily because a lot of great albums came out this year. It was tough choosing the number-one spot for each category (the Morphosis and Royal Headache albums were indispensable, as was Leather’s Sterile 7″), but after some solid contemplation, and a whole lot of reflection, I’ve concluded that Iceage and Andy Stott made the records that impacted me the most this year.

Andy Stott Passed Me By 2×12″ (Modern Love)
Both of Andy Stott’s double 12″ EPs shook me to my core this year, as he stepped away from the familiar patterns of bass-heavy dubstep toward a new sound – something entirely his own. Passed Me By, the first of the two, came out on top, though – there are some truly incomprehensible moments here, and the demonic vocals on “Execution” still freak me out. It’s a slow, gnarly, and often quite evil EP, as if your favorite dub techno records were waterboarded and this is the resulting recording. One October night, I was out on the street, and a teenager came up and threatened me, telling me he had a loaded gun in his pocket. I shrugged it off, and made it to my car unscathed, turning my radio back on, mid-Passed Me By, as I drove away. It was the perfect soundtrack to the realization that I very well could’ve been shot and killed, the mix of fear and adrenaline building up as my brain processed what had just happened. You don’t need to get mugged to enjoy Andy Stott, but his music certainly amplifies that thrilling, frightening sensation.

Iceage New Brigade (Escho / Dais / What’s Your Rupture?)
I know, just what you wanted, another internet music-critic going off about Iceage. I didn’t pay close attention, but what, there was the initial hype, and then the backlash, and then some more hype, and then a re-re-pressing, and then another backlash, and now no one cares? They have probably broken up and already booked their Coachella reunion gig by the time this is published. If you can’t get outside of the indie world’s hype-fueled echo chamber, I’m putting the blame on you, as Iceage’s New Brigade is a truly fantastic debut album. I don’t care if they made it just for me, or if they become the next Green Day, Iceage have managed to meld these disparate influences (youthful snot, gothic melodrama, melodic punk rock, gritty noise) into a sound that couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else. I’ve heard them compared to The Wedding Present, Crisis, Mars and black metal, and while I don’t necessarily support any or all of those, it’s a great band that can pull people in so many directions at once. Plus, songs like “Broken Bone” and “Remember” have been etched indelibly into my brain at this point. They’re young, and very well might break up before another record ever comes together; I have already made peace with that fact, as New Brigade is a more substantial offering than most other bands could ever hope to create.