BOOKS:
David Rees’ How To Sharpen Pencils,
Penguin’s new edition of Arthur Machen’s White People,
Savage Continent by Keith Lowe,
a deliberately unreliable history of obscure ’90s comedy called You Are Nothing by Robert Wringham,
Julian Cope’s Copendium,
Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics The Untold Story.
TV:
Endeavor (Young Morse) on ITV.
BBC’s Sherlock Holmes,
Call The Midwife,
Hollow Crown,
She Wolves,
Vikings,
Limmy’s Show,
and Upstairs Downstairs.
E4’s Cardinal Burns,
C4’s Grayson Perry’s All In The Best Possible Taste,
Sky’s Touch of Cloth.
LIVE MUSIC:
The Fall at Islington Town Hall,
The Ex at Café Oto,
Howe Gelb and KT Tunstall together and unannounced in a Stoke Newington cafe,
Han Bennink solo at Bishopsgate Festival,
Jane Bom Bane’s harmonium and bespoke hats mash up on the Edinburgh Free Fringe,
Fushitsusha at St John’s Church Hackney.
RECORDS :
Matthew Bourne – Montauk Variations,
Earth – Angels of Darkness Demons of Light II,
Bill Fay – Life Is People,
Giant Giant Sand – Tucson,
Belbury Poly – The Belbury Tales,
The Bohman Brothers – Back On The Streets,
The Woodbine & Ivy Band – s/t,
Rich Hopkins & Luminarios – Buried Treasures,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Psychedelic Pill.
THEATRE :
Dublin Gate’s Watt in the Edinburgh International Festival,
Teatr Biuro Podró?y’s satirical stiltwalking sci-fi space rock opera Planet Lem,
Jeff Achtem’s Beefheartian kids’ puppet show Swamp Juice.
1) Matthew Bourne – Montauk Variations (Leaf)
Alone at the piano, Bourne’s uncharacteristically meditative improvisations used cautiously melodic figures to trace penumbral shadows of memory and regret. Cecil Taylor slips Erik Satie something heavy on the way back from the gents.
2) Earth – Angels Of Darkness, Demons of Light II (Southern Lord) Earth’s rustically tinged folk metal, scratched out of iron at impossible volumes and immobile tempos by the infernal method, attained a new level of dumbstruck, devotional awe.
3) Bill Fay – Life Is People (Dead Oceans) The sainted singer-songwriter descended from the top of his North London pole to deliver his first album proper for forty years, a gravitationally weighty set of holy-minimalist bar room ballads.
4) Giant Giant Sand – Tucson (Fire) The durable Arizona outfit Giant Sand expanded in size to assimilate everything they’ve dabbled with, from cocktail crooning to ambient tex-mex grunge, re-imagining Tucson as a Lynch-Lurman musical.
5) Belbury Poly – The Belbury Tales (Ghost Box) Belbury Poly sound like dispirited psychedelic era survivors, attempting to subvert the soundtrack demands of the seventies television executives now employing them, whilst eating ploughman’s lunches.
6) The Bohman Brothers – Back On The Streets (Peripheral Conserve) This year the kranky spoken word artists enjoyed a silent cameo as pointing men in the art house hit Berberian Sound Studio. But these apparently random recitations of everyday verbal detritus threatened to reorder our very reality.
7) The Woodbine & Ivy Band – s/t (Folk Police) Manchester indie types played British folk standards, and a Wicker Man song, late ’60s Californian style, creating a historically implausible but highly satisfying hybrid.
8) Rich Hopkins & Luminarios – Buried Treasure (Blue Rose) A textbook liberal who rocks like a redneck, Hopkins 28th album feeds small town heartaches, border country crises, and personal anxieties through the filters of Detroit proto-punk, blue collar country, and Crazy Horse-style feedback jams.
9) Witch – We Intend To Cause Havoc! (Now Again) Who even knew ’70s Zambia had its own indigenous hard rock, hairy funk, garage punk band, let alone that they’d left a legacy of four cd’s worth of invigoratingly unvarnished stash.
10)The Azusa Plane – Where The Sands Turn To Gold (Rocket Girl) This vast document compiled the complete works of the late Jason Demilio, who imagined My Bloody Valentine or The Velvet Underground without the pop scaffolding, and all that abstract sonic dressing dragged center-stage, where it could carry whatever emotional weight you cared to place upon it.
TV
Morse Year Zero in ITV’s Endeavor.
BBC’s Sherlock Holmes, Call The Midwife, Hollow Crown, She Wolves, Vikings, and Upstairs Downstairs.
E4’s Cardinal Burns,
C4’s Grayson Perry’s All In The Best Possible Taste,
Sky’s Touch of Cloth;
Books
David Rees’ How To Sharpen Pencils is the book of the century so far,
Penguin’s new edition of Arthur Machen’s White People,
Savage Continent by Keith Lowe,
You Are Nothing which was a deliberately unreliable history of obscure ’90s comedy by Robert Wringham,
Julian Cope’s Copendium,
Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics The Untold Story;
Film
Troll Hunter,
The Artist,
Avengers Assemble,
Looper,
and Andrew Kotting’s comically and calmly meditative Swandown, which I was in for 5 minutes;
Gigs
Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb & pop’s K T Tunstall together and unannounced in a Stoke Newington cafe,
Han Bennink solo at Bishopsgate Festival,
Jane Bom Bane’s harmonium and bespoke hats mash up on the Edinburgh Free Fringe,
Kunt & The Gang’s scatological Depeche Mode grooves on the Free Fringe,
The Caesareans acoustic at a birthday party, Fushitsusha transcending time and space at St John’s Church Hackney,
Patti Smith shaming everyone in Bethnal Green;
Theatre/comedy
Dublin Gate’s Watt in the Edinburgh International Festival,
Teatr Biuro Podró?y’s satirical stiltwalking sci-fi space rock opera Planet Lem,
Jeff Achtem’s Beefheartian kids’ puppet show Swamp Juice.
Bad thing – Paddy Power desecrating the Uffington White Horse.
Good thing – Obama, relatively speaking.
Lee Mack, Mack The Life, 2012
Lee Mack, Mack The Life, 2012
Esme Folley, Actress, cellist, Twitter
Esme Folley, Actress, cellist, Twitter
Neolab, Guardian.co.uk
Neolab, Guardian.co.uk
Bobby Bhoy, Twitter
Bobby Bhoy, Twitter
Patrick Kavanagh, Guardian.co.uk
Patrick Kavanagh, Guardian.co.uk
Lenny Darksphere, Twitter
Lenny Darksphere, Twitter
Chez, Chortle.com
Chez, Chortle.com
Aiden Hearn, Twitter
Aiden Hearn, Twitter
Dominic Cavendish, Telegraph
Dominic Cavendish, Telegraph
Funday’schild, youtube.
Funday’schild, youtube.
Maninabananasuit, Guardian.co.uk
Maninabananasuit, Guardian.co.uk
Rubyshoes, Twitter
Rubyshoes, Twitter
Pudabaya, beexcellenttoeachother.com
Pudabaya, beexcellenttoeachother.com
Neva2busy, dontstartmeoff.com
Neva2busy, dontstartmeoff.com
Pnethor, pne-online.com
Pnethor, pne-online.com
BBC iPlayer edition of discussion of Stewart Lee on A Good Read
BBC iPlayer edition of discussion of Stewart Lee on A Good Read
Tres Ryan, Twitter
Tres Ryan, Twitter
Lents, redandwhitekop.com
Lents, redandwhitekop.com
Sidsings000, Youtube
Sidsings000, Youtube
Etienne, Chortle.com
Etienne, Chortle.com
Yukio Mishima, dontstartmeoff.com
Yukio Mishima, dontstartmeoff.com
Johnny Kitkat, dontstartmeoff.com
Johnny Kitkat, dontstartmeoff.com
Jackmumf, Twitter
Jackmumf, Twitter
General Lurko 36, Guardian.co.uk
General Lurko 36, Guardian.co.uk
Kozzy06, Youtube
Kozzy06, Youtube
John Robins, Comedian
John Robins, Comedian
Anon, BBC Complaints Log
Anon, BBC Complaints Log
Fowkes81, Twitter
Fowkes81, Twitter
Sweeping Curves, Twitter
Sweeping Curves, Twitter
Syhr, breakbeat.co.uk
Syhr, breakbeat.co.uk
Clampdown59, Twitter.
Clampdown59, Twitter.
Al Murray, Comedian
Al Murray, Comedian
Zombie Hamster, Twitter
Zombie Hamster, Twitter
Z-factor, Twitter.
Z-factor, Twitter.
DVDhth's grandparents, Twitter
DVDhth's grandparents, Twitter
Stuart, Chortle
Stuart, Chortle
Rowing Rob, Guardian.co.uk
Rowing Rob, Guardian.co.uk
Anamatronix, Youtube
Anamatronix, Youtube
Mrdavisn01, Twitter
Mrdavisn01, Twitter
Bosco239, youtube
Bosco239, youtube
Contrapuntal, Twitter
Contrapuntal, Twitter
Genghis McKahn, Guardian.co.uk
Genghis McKahn, Guardian.co.uk
Wharto15, Twitter
Wharto15, Twitter
Pudabaya, Twitter
Pudabaya, Twitter
Gwaites, Digitalspy
Gwaites, Digitalspy
Meninblack, Twitter
Meninblack, Twitter
Joskins, Leeds Music Forum
Joskins, Leeds Music Forum
Spanner, dontstartmeoff.com
Spanner, dontstartmeoff.com
World Without End, Twitter
World Without End, Twitter
Nicetime, Guardian.co.uk
Nicetime, Guardian.co.uk
Cojones2, Guardian.co.uk
Cojones2, Guardian.co.uk
Emilyistrendy, Youtube
Emilyistrendy, Youtube
Dick Socrates, Twitter
Dick Socrates, Twitter
Stokeylitfest, Twitter
Stokeylitfest, Twitter
Coxy, Dontstartmeoff.com
Coxy, Dontstartmeoff.com
Aaron, comedy.co.uk
Aaron, comedy.co.uk
Idrie, Youtube
Idrie, Youtube
Jamespearse, Twitter
Jamespearse, Twitter
Tokyofist, Youtube
Tokyofist, Youtube
Visualiser1, Twitter
Visualiser1, Twitter
Danazawa, Youtube
Danazawa, Youtube
Fairy Pingu, Twitter
Fairy Pingu, Twitter
Horatio Melvin, Twitter
Horatio Melvin, Twitter
Borathigh5, Youtube
Borathigh5, Youtube
Deepbass, Guardian.co.uk
Deepbass, Guardian.co.uk
Pirate Crocodile, Twitter
Pirate Crocodile, Twitter
Meanstreetelite, Peoplesrepublicofcork
Meanstreetelite, Peoplesrepublicofcork
Alex Quarmby, Edfringe.com
Alex Quarmby, Edfringe.com
Peter Ould, Youtube
Peter Ould, Youtube
Shane, Beverley, Dailymail.co.uk
Shane, Beverley, Dailymail.co.uk
98rosjon, Twitter
98rosjon, Twitter
James Dellingpole, Daily Telegraph
James Dellingpole, Daily Telegraph
Peter Ould, Twitter
Peter Ould, Twitter
Birmingham Sunday Mercury
Birmingham Sunday Mercury
Joe, Independent.co.uk
Joe, Independent.co.uk
Lucinda Locketts, Twitter
Lucinda Locketts, Twitter
Henry Howard Fun, Twitter
Henry Howard Fun, Twitter
Mearecate, Youtube
Mearecate, Youtube
Alwyn, Digiguide.tv
Alwyn, Digiguide.tv
Secretdeveloper, Youtube
Secretdeveloper, Youtube
Lancethrustworthy, Youtube
Lancethrustworthy, Youtube
Tweeter Kyriakou, Twitter
Tweeter Kyriakou, Twitter
Liam Travitt, Twitter
Liam Travitt, Twitter
Ishamayura Byrd, Twitter
Ishamayura Byrd, Twitter
Tin Frog, Twitter
Tin Frog, Twitter
Gmanthedemon, bbc.co.uk
Gmanthedemon, bbc.co.uk
Slothy Matt, Twitter
Slothy Matt, Twitter
Mpf1947, Youtube
Mpf1947, Youtube
Brendon, Vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk
Brendon, Vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk
Mini-x2, readytogo.net
Mini-x2, readytogo.net
Joycey, readytogo.net
Joycey, readytogo.net
Whoiscuriousgeorge, Youtube
Whoiscuriousgeorge, Youtube
Peter Fears, Twitter
Peter Fears, Twitter
NevW47479, UKTV.co.uk
NevW47479, UKTV.co.uk
Hiewy, Youtube
Hiewy, Youtube
GRTak, finalgear.com
GRTak, finalgear.com
FBC, finalgear.com
FBC, finalgear.com
Keilloh, Twitter
Keilloh, Twitter
Sam Rooney, Youtube
Sam Rooney, Youtube
Frankie Boyle, Comedian
Frankie Boyle, Comedian
Rudeness, Youtube
Rudeness, Youtube
Guest1001, Youtube
Guest1001, Youtube
Richard Herring, Comedian
Richard Herring, Comedian
Shit Crit, Twitter
Shit Crit, Twitter
Len Firewood, Twitter
Len Firewood, Twitter
Robert Gavin, Twitter
Robert Gavin, Twitter
Anonymous, The Northfield Patriot
Anonymous, The Northfield Patriot
Someoneyoudon'tknow, Chortle.com
Someoneyoudon'tknow, Chortle.com
Anon, dontstartmeoff.com
Anon, dontstartmeoff.com
A D Ward, Twitter
A D Ward, Twitter
Tweeterkiryakou, Twitter
Tweeterkiryakou, Twitter
Guest, Dontstartmeoff.com
Guest, Dontstartmeoff.com
12dgdgdgdgdgdg, Youtube
12dgdgdgdgdgdg, Youtube
Dave Wilson, Chortle.com
Dave Wilson, Chortle.com
Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph
Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph
Cabluigi, Guardian.co.uk
Cabluigi, Guardian.co.uk
Foxfoxton, Youtube
Foxfoxton, Youtube
Iain, eatenbymissionaries
Iain, eatenbymissionaries
Carla, St Albans, Dailymail.co.uk
Carla, St Albans, Dailymail.co.uk
Gabrielle, Chortle.com
Gabrielle, Chortle.com
Anon, westhamonline.com
Anon, westhamonline.com
Anonymous, don'tstartmeoff.com
Anonymous, don'tstartmeoff.com
Carcrazychica, Youtube
Carcrazychica, Youtube
Microcuts 22, Twitter
Microcuts 22, Twitter
Leach Juice, Twitter
Leach Juice, Twitter
Cyberbloke, Twitter
Cyberbloke, Twitter
Brighton Argus
Brighton Argus
Karen Laidlaw, Edfringe. com.
Karen Laidlaw, Edfringe. com.
Dahoum, Guardian.co.uk
Dahoum, Guardian.co.uk