As New Years’ Eve darkens and the braver among us hurry to tie up the paperwork on that second mortgage that will enable us to afford a taxi home after midnight tonight, it seems appropriate to reflect on the year.

Watching those Review Of The Year prgrammes that clutter up the TV schedules like discarded Christmas crackers has been a particularly harrowing experience this year as events seemed to lurch from natural distasters to riots to economic meltdown and optimism has become a commodity as rare as a repentant banker.

So dispiriting was the bulk of the news this year that I found myslef watching the Royal Wedding coverage, with it’s endless interviews with dead eyed identikit nuclear family units in plastic Union Jack bowler hats who “got up at 3.30 this morning to come down from Nottingham because it’s a once in a lifetime experience” just to see someone on the news who appreared to cheerful about something. Although I’m still mystified as to why all the men seemed to have taken their jumpers off and tied them louchly around their shoulders as if this wasn’t a universally agreed sign of an unalloyed twat.

In the midst of this tumultuous year there were times when making radio programmes packed to the rafters with noise and confusion seemed somewhat peripheral to say the least, but as I staggered through my 40th year on the planet , music remained one of the only things that could sustain my soul against the vicissitudes of a world where Peter Andre is allowed to be on the telly and, I reasoned if it could sustain me, then there was an outside chance it could do the same for others

This is a list of my favourite LP’s and tracks which started off at about 200 LP’s and 200 tracks but has been whittled down to the following records which made us momentarily forget that Jeremy Clarkson is alive.

Goodnight 2011. it’s been unreal, and if you have trouble getting to sleep don’t forget that 2012 is the year of the Olympiczzzzzzzz…

LP’s
The Fall – “Erstaz GB” (Cherry Red)
Sizzla – “Welcome To The Goodlife” (Kalonji)
J – Rocc – “Some Cold Rock Stuff” (Stones Throw)
Rangers – “Pan-Am Stories” (Not Not Fun)
PJ Harvey – “Let England Shake” (Island)
Balam Acab – “Wander/Wonder: (Tri- Angle)
SSS – “Problems To The Answer” (Earache)
Lydia Lovless – “Indestructable Machine” (Bloodshot)
African Headcharge – “Voodoo Of The Godsent” (On-U-Sound)
Royal Headche – “Royal Headache” (RIP Society)
Pursuit Grooves – “Frantically Hopefull” (Techtonic)
The Keys – “Bitten By Wolves” (Monkey See Monkey Do)
Comet Gain – “Howl Of The Lonley Crowd” (Fortuna Pop)
Group Doueh – “Zayna Jumma” (Sublime Frequencies)
Duane Eddy – “Road Trip” (Mad Monkey)
Skullflower – “Fucked On A Pile Of Corpses” (Cold Spring)
P.S.Eliot – “Sadie” (Salinas)
Little Roy – “Battle For Seattle” (Ark)
Beaverbag – “25 Rock N Roll Greats” (www.sluggisha.com)
Laura Cantrell – “Kitty Wells’ Dresses” (Shoeshine/Spit and Polish)
Weyes Blood and The Dark Juices – “The Outside Room” (Not Not Fun)
Wire – “Red Barked Tree” (Pink Flag)
The Horrors – “Skying” (XL)
Herman Dune – “Strange Moosic” (Fortuna Pop)
Half Man Half Biscuit – “90 Bisodol(Crimmond)” (Probe Plus)
Jeff Mills “2087” (Axis)
Fucked Up – “David Comes To Life” (Matador)
David Thomas Broughton – “Outbreeding” (Brainlove)
Lee Perry – “Rise Again” (MOD Technologies)
Coasting – “You’re Never Going Back” (M’Lady’s)
June Tabor and The Oyster Band – “Ragged Kingdom” (Topic)
Shonen Knife – “Osaka Ramones” (Tomato Head)
The Babies – “The Babies” (Shrimper)
Y Niwl – “Y Niwl” (Alderen Papur)
The Decemberists – “The King Is Dead” (Rough Trade)
The Vivian Girls – “Share The Joy” (Polynynll)
DJ Rashad – “Just A Taste Vol.1” (Ghettophiles)
Bill Orcutt – “How The Thing Sings” (Editions Mego)
The Spartan Dregs – “Forensic R & B” (Damaged Goods)
Mogwai – “Hardcore Wil Never Die But You Will” (Rock Action)
Hype Willams – “One Nation” (Hippos In Tanks)
The Blanche Hudson Weekend – “You Always Loved Violence” (Squirrel)
Slimmah Sound and Lyrical Benji – “Firm In Jah” (Roots Tribe)
Atari Teenage Riot – “Is This Hyperrreal” (Digital Hardcore)

Compilations/ Reissues

V/A –  “Bangs and Works Volume 2” (Planet Mu)
Loudon Wainwright III – “40 Odd Years” (Shout Factory)
V/A – “Before The Fall” (Ace)
Lee Perry – “The Return of Sound System Scratch”(Pressure Sounds)
Lee Perry “Nu-Sound and Version” (On-U Sound)
V/A – “Pakistan – Folk Pop Instrumentals 1966-1976” (Sublime Frequency)
John Fahey – “Your Past Comes Back To Haunt You – The Fonotone Years 1958-1965” (Revenant/Dust To Digital)
The Raincoats – “Odyshape” (WeThree)
V/A – “Ram 100″ (Ram)
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band – ” John Peel’s Nan True’s Hole Beefheart Tapes Volume 2″ (Ozit/Dandelion)
The Fall – “This Nation’s Saving Grace – Expanded Edition” (Beggars Banquet)
V/A “Hardtechno Destroyer Volume 5” (Technosforza)
The Go – “Unreleased 1996-2007” (Burger)
V/A – “The Legendary Studio One Records – Original Classic Recordings 1963-1980” (SoulJazz)
Duke Ellington and His Cotton Club Stompers – “Duke Ellington At The Cotton Club” (Storyville)
V/A – “In The Storm So Long” (Mississippi)
V/A – “FAC.DANCE” (Strut)
Mel Croucher – “Pimania:The Music Of Mel Croucher and Automata UK Ltd.”) (Feeding Tube)
Thin Lizzy – “At The BBC” (Commercial Marketing)
V/A – “Fucked Up Presents David’s Town) (Matador)
V/A – “Funk Against Fascism” (Cult Music)

Singles/EP’s /Tracks
Jamie XX – “Far Nearer” (12″) (Numbers)
Topless Mongos – “Hey, My,My” (7″) (Mammoth Cave Recording Company)
fOUND – “Today We Watch The Wooden Trumpets Burn” (7″) (Chemikal Underground)
DJ Rashad and DJ Manny – “R House” (V/A EP – “Ghettotechnitianz”) (Planet Mu)
Personal and The Pizzas – “Diet, Crime and Delinquency” (7″) (Oops Baby)
Swing Republic – “The Honeydripper
Natalie Storm – “Nuh Watch We” (download) (Island Traffic)
The Decemberists – “Live At Bullmoose” (EP) (Rough Trade)
The Horrors – “Still Life” (Promo CD) (XL)
Kaleidoscope Jukebox – “Dance of The Jitterbug Fairy” (download)
Jerry King – “Examples of Automobile, Tobacco and Baksale Auctions” (7″) (Third Man)
Apache Dropout – “Shot Down” (7″) (Trouble In Mind)
Venetian Snares – “Cubist Reggae EP” (Planet Mu)
No Hope Kids – “Fuzzapocalyse Vs. Mechagodzilla” (EP – No Hope Kids) (Bandcamp)
Miss Omega – “Know My Name Remixes EP” (Studio Rockers)
Scott Brown – “Evolution 100 EP Vols 1-4” (Evolution)
Lady Ali – “New Style” (Boardhouse)
White Ring – “Hey Hey My My” (12″) (Handmade Birds)
The Babies – “Here Comes Trouble” (7″) (Teenage Teardrops)
Jeff The Brotherhood – “Whatever I Want” (7″) (Third Man )
Vivian Girls ‘ “I Heard You Say” (Polyvynil)
V/A – “Guitars from Agadez Vol 4″ (7”) (Sublime Frequency)
Lee Anna – “Sway” (download) (Adde Prodcutions)