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Time for my annual round-up of what’s been flicking my switches music-wise this year. I’m kicking off with a track on heavy rotation at the start of the year, the Overmono remix of I Have a Love - a party banger from a time when no-one could party. A new Mogwai album is always cause for celebration, the track Dry Fantasy my pick from the chart-topping ‘As The Love Continues’. In March I watched Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series, memorable in many ways not least for the most powerful dance sequence i’ve seen represented on film, to The Revolutionaires Kunta Kinte Dub. Lockdown restrictions started to ease by April but this track by Emma Kupa still felt appropriate for the times, No Easy Way Out. A change of pace in springtime, Carrot Cake by Pan Amsterdam and then this, first enjoyed in the car on a long trip to Scotland. Ever Imagined if you blended Oasis, Real Estate and Fleet foxes together? Wonder no longer - Sunstack Jones’s ‘Where You Gonna Go’.

Next a trio of songs loosely categorised as spoken-word, female fronted art pop. The Doll by audiobooks is oddly upbeat despite the sinister vocals, Chaise Longue by Wet Leg was all over the place like a cheap suit this Summer but never outstayed it’s welcome. At the forefront of the genre, Dry Cleaning released their fine debut album this Summer and their track More Big Birds is a belter. I stopped listening to music radio early in the year (favouring R4) but made a point of downloading Tom Ravenscroft’s Friday night 6music show and I have his ears to thank for many of the following tracks. I first heard Rediniho’s So Good Together lying an a beach in Palma, a perfect slice of pure Summer sun. The new wave of UK Jazz gathered momentum this year and my standout is Tuba maestro Theon Cross’s We Go Again. Back home, I have a strong memory of Sainsburys car park in the rain, there to buy some wine but delaying the purchase to take note of Kareem Ali’s Black Space Jazz.

By the Autumn I was listing almost exclusively to electronica, I love the skittering feel of 1,000,000 X Better by Griff. A late Summer holiday to Puglia was soundtracked by much of the above plus a new find, Outside the Outside by Helado Negra. A bit of Spotify trial hunting led me to a Hiro Ama remix of Niklas Pashburgs Anew. In November I saw the play ‘The Beauty Queen of Linane’ twice and in-between watched the Julian Temple film ‘ Crock of Gold' about Shane MacGowan, the greatest songwriter of this, or perhaps (if you’re Irish) any generation. Around the same time I also went to the cinema to watch Freakscene, the dinosaur jr rockumentary. A joyous trip down memory lane but the closing track stayed with me. I managed to hunt it down, an instrumental version of Outta Hand. Cat Power illuminated the early winter with her Pa Pa Power and then I heard this on a long, snowy train journey back from Leeds - my track of the year from South London’s Tirzah.

To finish then, back at the start. I watched the film Sleep by Max Richter in the dog days just after New Year. The film records an open air performance in Los Angeles of his 8 hour piece of the same name to a slumbering audience. Achingly Beautiful, at 242 tracks long this selection barely does it justice. Goodnight, may your Gods go with you.