Top Singles of 2013
1. Good Throb Culture Vulture 7″
2. Objekt Objekt #3 12″
3. The Courtneys The Courtneys 12″
4. Burial Rival Dealer 12″
5. Keluar Ennoea 12″
6. Buck Biloxi And The Fucks Holodeck Survivor / Not Getting Stabbed 7″
7. Trade Sheworks 005 12″
8. Kerridge From The Shadows That Melt The Flesh 1-4 12″
9. Systems Of Desire Control / Consumption 12″
10. Haus Arafna All I Can Give 7″
11. White Reaper Conspirator / The Cut 7″
12. Demdike Stare Testpressing 002 12″
13. Bandshell Caustic View 12″
14. Gorgon Sound Gorgon Sound EP 2×12″
15. Exit Hippies Part 3 7″
16. Connections Cindy, Jeni And Johnny 7″
17. Cairo Pythian Unity Mitford 12″
18. Beau Wanzer Beau Wanzer 12″
19. Donato Dozzy 200 EP 12″
20. CCR Headcleaner CCR Headcleaner 7″

Honorable Mention:
Cold Cave Black Boots / Meaningful Life 7″
Kremlin Will You Feed Me 7″
Elgato Dunkel Jam 12″
Obliteration War Is Our Destiny 7″
Demdike Stare Testpressing 003 12″

Top Albums of 2013
1. Daughn Gibson Me Moan
2. Steve Gunn Time Off
3. Darkside Psychic
4. Tony Molina Dissed And Dismissed
5. Kerridge A Fallen Empire
6. Pharmakon Abandon
7. Rabih Beaini Albidaya
8. Hoax Hoax
9. Autre Ne Veut Anxiety
10. Iceage You’re Nothing
11. Räjäyttäjät Awlopbopaloopop Alopbam Räjä
12. Emptyset Recur
13. Call Back The Giants The Marianne
14. Quttinirpaaq No Visitors
15. Kyle Hall The Boat Party
16. Heatsick Re-engineering
17. Gary Wrong Group Knights Of Misery
18. Sete Star Sept Visceral Tavern
19. Ron Morelli Spit
20. Constant Mongrel Heavy Breathing

Honorable Mention:
Donato Dozzy Plays Bee Mask
Bad Noids Everything From Soup To Dessert
Counter Intuits Counter Intuits
Satanic Rockers Fu Kung
Morphosis Dismantle

Seems like every year comes and goes in a flash anymore, but goddamn, 2013 came and went! One thing I’ve noticed is that there is a ton of great music being released, maybe now more than ever – I am absolutely certain that there are records I simply never heard in 2013 that probably would’ve made my lists had I heard them. My lists, as always, are my personal favorites of the year, records that I couldn’t stop listening to, laughing with (or sometimes at), dancing/moshing to, discussing and thinking about. I don’t expect anyone else on Earth to feel the exact same way, but isn’t that part of the fun of an exercise as self-important and silly as this, right? Some of these records were made by good friends, most of them made by total strangers, and they all make me glad that I’m paying attention to modern music.

Good Throb Culture Vulture 7″ (Muscle Horse)
Right around this time last year, Good Throb snuck into my world, just as I thought that my brain had been lost forever to monotonous frozen techno. They’re a British punk group who are dripping with contempt for society and its standards, and for a band as sloppy and unhinged as they can be, listening to Good Throb is as exhilarating as the most technically-precise death metal (if not as knuckleheaded). They play their songs as if they created both punk and feminism, forcing the listener to question his or her privilege at one moment and then threatening to shove golf balls up someone’s ass the next. Most of all, they just seem to be naturally great, the sort of band that just has the perfect chemical equation to make punk rock sound as scary, amateur and unhinged as it’s ever been. Good Throb save the queen!

Daughn Gibson Me Moan (Sub Pop)
Alright, so Daughn Gibson is a good pal of mine, but I have to be true to myself, even with dumb lists like these, lest I tell you that I actually loved Vampire Weekend and Kanye West this year in hopes of more click-backs or something (I hope I never fully understand how blog stats actually work). Anyway, I loved All Hell, Daughn’s debut, but Me Moan really busted out even futher into uncharted territory, acting like a 3-D IMAX sequel to the black-and-white art-house original. Every song on this record has at least one big hook, and each of those hooks has lodged itself in my brain either quickly or over time, which is what I want any good pop record to do. But with Me Moan, the devil is in the details, from little lyrical twists I originally misheard, thus altering my take entirely, to ridiculous little production tricks, like the sound of a snapping whip faintly in the background, or a little five-note piano melody that pops up only once before disappearing. I was disappointed that the hype-masters who put Daughn on a pedestal in 2012 didn’t fully embrace this one, but I blame that on the fact that those types are always in search of the next little wave, whereas Me Moan is an ocean unto itself. It’s easy to forget about anyone else when I put on Me Moan though, as Daughn (you can call him by his first name too, he doesn’t mind) paints vivid pictures of lust, longing and the animal in man.

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.