Apologies for the late posting and change in format. I wasn’t going to post my AOTY this year as I haven’t been around much, but some completely justified gentle remonstrating and nice comments persuaded me to do it anyway, so here we go!
Albums of the Year
No time (I started a new job in April and the meetings are endless!!) for a full multi-post write up this year I’m afraid, so I’ll just post a quick video. I’m a bit nervous about revealing myself, but as I’ve plastered my idiotic mug all over YT this year (see shameless self-promotional plug below), I suppose it doesn’t make much difference – I’m sure that I just look like the “generic indie bloke” (see Senser episode of shameless self-promotional plug below) you always pictured anyway!
Full list in written words so you don’t have to listen to my droning on:
1 MC Yallah – Yallah Biebe
2 Hey Colossus – In Blood
2b All Structures Align – Cut the Engines
2c Big Break – Angel’s Piss
3 V/Z – Suono Assente
4 Nihiloxica – Source of Denial
5 Man on Man – Provincetown
6 M(h)aol – Attachment Styles
7 Qitsch – No Shame
8a Nakibembe Embaire Group – Nakibembe Embaire Group
8b DJ Finale – Mille Morceau
8c Elvin Brandhi & Lord Spikeheart – Drunken Love
9 Jonny Nash – Point of Entry
10 Goat – Joy in Fear
Spotify playlist with added extras:
Shameless self-promotional plug:
At the start of the year, I woke up with an epiphany; “I know what the world needs” I thought in my heroic internal dialogue, “I know what’s missing out there, what the world needs is three middle-aged white men with a podcast talking confidently about subjects they have very limited knowledge about”. And lo, the Stupid and Contagious Podcast was born.
For the last few months, I have been putting out a weekly podcast with two of my childhood friends (Neil and Dave) that is dedicated to 90s guitar music. We interview musicians from the 90s (chatting to Roddy Bottum from Faith No More was one of the greatest moments of my life!) and talk complete bollocks either side of the interviews. It is a surprising amount of hard work to put together every week, but just about the most rewarding thing I’ve probably ever done.
Links here for anyone who is interested:
Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/stupid-contagious/id1705645715
Acast: https://shows.acast.com/where-were-you-in-o/episodes
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@stupidandcontagiouspodcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xXYSVnQ6NVFd3WGs9dspV
Cheers and Merry Christmas Everyone!
The 'Spill 
Yay! I’ll have to check them out seperately. I’m not on Spotify and certainly have no intention of being after recent developments where they have proved themselves to be FUCKING CUNTS. Sorry, just wanted to get that off my chest! Not aimed at you or anyone who uses it.
On a different note , I’m checking out Big Break first. I can reveal that my top 10 is coming in the next week or so and this time we have no albums in common BUT both our no 2 albums feature tracks called No Face No Case!
Yeah, agree on the Spotify thing. It’s a necessary evil for doing the podcast, so I have normalised it now.
Looking forward to the list as always!
Good for you doing something you love!
Cheers Tinny, it is a real labour of love. It is fun to hang out with my oldest pals on a regular basis for the first time in decades too though…and of course to meet some of my heroes!
Thanks Panthersan! Looking. forward to listening, there’s so much new music at this time of year! Festive greetings to you all.
You too Ali, cheers to you!
Soz for going off on one. Thanks for doing this.
It’s all good, you were quite right of course!! Enjoy the usual unlistenable nonsense!
Glad you found the time to share this. Some interesting stuff here, some of it I’m unlikely to ever listen to again 😉 if I’m completely honest! I liked the math rock-ish sound of All Structures Align and loved DJ Finale, Johnny Nash, Bar Italia, and Billy Woods enough to mark them for further listen. Bendick Giske was utterly intriguing and reminded me a lot of Colin Stetson – I’m a big fan of that circular breathing sax sound. I also listened to your intro podcast yesterday while walking to the shops – good luck with this new venture; niche enough to do well, I’m sure. Cheers Panther! 😻
Thanks so much for listening Sarah! Glad you found some things to enjoy. Bendik Giske is great and always has cool concepts behind what he does. Thanks for listening to the podcast too – it’s early days, but we are slowly building a nice little community around it and getting to interview some cool people. Cheers to you and a very Merry Christmas!
I agree about Lighthouse Family btw; shit.
Happy New Year, Panthersan! Cool presentation. I enjoyed seeing all the album cover art sitting pretty on the chair while you adopted a reverential crouching position. 🙂
I don’t use Spotify but I shall definitely seek out your suggestions this month. I’ve always found your taste very stimulating and way out there, way way way out there….Kepler 452b. lrXXX
Cheers! The awkward crouch was due to an injured knee after I had stupidly fallen off my bike a couple of days before!
Finally got through the list , I’ve checked all of them out and listened to at least a few tracks , and on several occasions the whole thing. I think it’s safe I never liasten to as much Ugandan dance music as I do when I’m checking out your lists.
An interesting selection as ever. One moment it’s chill out music with Johnny Nash, the next it’s music to have nightmares to with Elvin Brandhi & Lord Spikeheart.
It will probably be no surprise that I liked Big Break . Being a stickler for correct definitions of punk sub genres (why I’m so popular at parties) I would say it was hardcore with a bit of egg punk thrown in. I’d never heard of them and I’d never heard of any of the bands that Bandcamp says they were previously members of but that’s how diffuse the punk scene is even in the UK. Computer Phone is my favourite – funny how well punk can be used to express old people’s gripes these days!
My favourite though I think was Quitsch , I liked the whole thing.
Thanks again. My list has been a bit delayed , hopefully in teh next couple of days.
Cheers for listening Wyngate and thanks for introducing me to the concept of “egg punk”!!
Quitsch was a total random find for me, but the whole album just grabbed me – they sound a bit like a male Nots (who made my list a couple of times many years ago!) to my ears. Looking forward to the Wynlist!
Yes , egg punk is a thing these days. Devo seem to be it’s forerunners. I’m guessing egg is short for egghead.
I’ve been listening to the Spotify playlist a lot over the last few days. Tremendous stuff. The Nakibembe Embaire Group are astounding. And I was very taken by the M(h)aol track, which I’ve just shoehorned into a Song Bar nomination for songs featuring conditional phrases. Thanks for doing this – I’m going to be listening more to several of these artists.
Brilliant! Thanks so much for listening unclebenj! Glad you found some stuff to enjoy and thanks for the reminder that I really should make it back to the Song Bar a bit this year!