So that’s Christmas out of the way, only New Year to go, then onto 2022. Lots to look forward to; more Covid-19, general political idiocy, rising food and electricity prices and a World Cup being held in fucking Qatar. Still, I’m past the point of giving a toss, sweating the details and things I cannot change, bring it on.

And while we’re on the subject of being hostile and disparaging, I just want to say a huge fuck off to WordPress and their editor, which is completely broken. I know I pay £70 odd quid a year to get adds removed from the site for the sake of the sixty-eight souls who have the mis-fortune to stumble upon it every year, but it would be nice if the user interface wasn’t completely fucking shite. That would help.

Rant over. Yes, music. You’ll notice that Bunny Is A Rider by Caroline Polachek isn’t in this list because I loathe it with every molecule in my possession. The Auto-Tune (when oh when will this trend end!?), the annoying whistle, the baggy chorus. I’ll not dwell on the lament that this passes, in terms of popularity, as the zenith of pop music these days. Comparatively it makes Material Girl by Madonna sound as sophisticated as Vivaldi or Bach. Forty years ago Don’t You Want Me by The Human League was number one. This period of generic, stale tastes we’re living through is not progress. Trap has a lot to answer for.

Anyway, enough of me being a middle-aged man bore (starts weeping uncontrollably at the realisation), this is a list of ten songs I quite enjoyed. Quite a lot of stuff here is sans lyrics, or have a minimal amount. I’ve been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen recently (well more than usual), so I can only posit that my incisive wordplay quota has been salubriously satiated, and instrumental music becomes more enticing in lieu of or sounds better in comparison than all other kinds of music.

Bandcamp and Soundcloud links supplied here, because YouTube are taking the absolute fucking piss with the frequency of the adverts now. It won’t make one iota of a difference but I’m taking a stand. I realise some of this is by choice of those supplying the content. Still, it’s the platform offering them the option to insert mid-video adverts, but even if you exclude them, the multiple ads YouTube run, irrespective of content, before and after each video is getting out of hand. And providing direct links may help support these people with a few quid when and where you can. Catch you on the flipside homies.

Bodytronixx – Waitin’

From the EP ‘LGHTR KRU: Nite Mode Vol. 1’

Currency Audio – Riverside

From the EP ‘Humanism’

DijahSB – Overtime

From the single ‘Overtime’

Gnod – Inner Z

From the album ‘Easy To Build, Hard To Destroy’

Loft – Wish It Would Rain (Massive Vibe Moment)

From the single ‘Wish It Would Rain’

Remotif – Gondwana At Noon

From the EP ‘Gondwana AT Noon’

Skee Mask – Fourth

From the album ‘Pool’

Sunburned Hand Of The Man – Pick A Day To Die

From the album ‘Pick A Day To Die’

System Olympia – Lousy

From the album ‘Always On Time’

The Umlauts – Boiler Suits & Combat Boots

From the EP ‘Ü EP’