Across the course of 2012, it's been barely possible to go longer than a week without another exciting and worthy reissue jostling to dent our collective attention (and bank balance). The year in new releases has been defined by what Luke Turner described as a "glorious muddle" - a range of great music that's cut across boundaries of genre and style, leading to a more varied twelve months' worth of listening than ever before. Scanning down our list of archival reissues, live albums, free-to-download mixes, compilations and odds and ends, the same is certainly true here: our list features everything from reissued drone and doom to early computer music and classic grime instrumentals, Ghanaian cosmic funk and cumbia to industrial and punishing techno.
As ever, this isn't an attempt to be comprehensive or objective. Rather, it's a subjective list of the music myself, Luke Turner and John Doran have been enjoying both in-office and in our personal listening time. There's also a fair scattering of the stuff we've been out dancing to, care of some scorching mixes from the likes of Karenn, Daphni, Pangaea and Levon Vincent. Even more so than with new music, it's easy to accidentally miss reissues, mixes and the like, so there will doubtless be things we've omitted - please do let us know your favourites in the comments section below.
Running alongside the gloriously scrambled sense of genre and style in 2012's new music is a similarly jumbled-up sense of time. In his Wreath Lecture this week, Ryan Diduck argued that new artists in the last couple of years have been obsessively re-examining the past in order to find routes out of musical stagnation: "By going over history again, faster and faster, cultural movements are again time-stretching back out, new ideas are taking shape, and the key is reiterative movement," he said.
Indeed, it's been possible to see the relationship between past and current music very directly this year, thanks to reissues like Laurie Spiegel's The Expanding Universe, a classic of early computer music, eches of which can be heard in a great deal of modern electronic and synth music released in 2012, or Ruff Sqwad's White Label Classics, which (as well as containing some stunning tracks) served as a timely reminder that there is still hugely futuristic music being produced in the grime scene. Similarly, at the same time as releasing a new wave of darkened, post-punk infused British electronic music, labels like Blackest Ever Black and Desire have been digging backwards to reissue the lost classics that inspired their current rosters - and far from feeling retro, the music of artists like Ike Yard/Black Rain's Stuart Argabright now feels prescient, a sign of things to come (much) later down the line. Crucially, rather than eclipsing a lot of 2012's new music, these relationships between old and new have felt complementary, providing context, history and a support structure around which to frame what's going on now. And then, of course, there Can's peerless The Lost Tapes, which even some 40 years down the line sounds like nothing else out there.
75. Andrzej Korzynski - Secret Enigma
74. Michael Nyman - Michael Nyman
73. Soul Cal – Funky Disco & Modern Soul (1971 – 1982)
72. The Beat – I Just Can’t Stop It
71. Suzanne Ciani – Lixiviation
Read our interview with Suzanne Ciani here
70. The Body – The Body
Read our interview with The Body here
69. Various Artists - Qat, Coffee and Qambus: Raw 45s From Yemen
68. The Quietus Mix 65 - Simian Mobile Disco
67. David Sylvian - A Victim of Stars
Read our review of A Victim Of Stars here
66. The Human League – Dare
65. Various Artists - Luk Thung: Classic & Obscure 78s From The Thai Countryside
64. Manic Street Preachers – Generation Terrorists
Read our review of Generation Terrorists here
63. Witch – We Intend To Cause Havoc
Read our review of We Intend To Cause Havoc here
62. Helmet - Meantime
61. The Cure – Pornography
60. Joy Orbison – Mix for Resident Advisor
59. Thirteenth Floor Elevators - Music Of The Spheres Box Set
58. Mogwai - A Wrenched Virile Lore
Read our review of A Wrenched Virile Lore here
57. Various Artists – Cumbia Cumbia
56. Atomic Forest – Obsession
55. Edzayawa - Projection One
54. Paperclip People - The Secret Tapes of Dr Eich
53. Various Artists - Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984
Read our review of Personal Space here
52. John Carpenter & Alan Howarth – Escape From New York OST
51. Various Artists – Andrew Weatherall: Masterpiece
50. The Heads - Relaxing With The Heads
49. Smith & Mighty - The Three Stripe Collection: 1985-1990
48. Peter Zummo & Arthur Russell - Zummo With An X
Read our interview with Peter Zummo here
47. Ride - Going Blank Again
Read our feature on Going Blank Again here and our review here
46. Various Artists - Voguing & The House Ballroom Scene Of New York City 1976-96
45. Various Artists – Cliff Martinez Presents Drive OST
44. Various Artists – Trevor Jackson Presents Metal Dance
Read our review of Metal Dance here
43. Regis - Adolescence: Complete Works
Read our review of Adolescence here
42. My Bloody Valentine – EPs 1988–1991
Read our interview with Kevin Shields here and our MBV reissues review here
41. Bo Ningen - Live At St. Leonard's Church
Read our interview with Bo Ningen here
40. The Clarke and Ware Experiment – House Of Illustrious Box Set
39. ROB - Make It Fast, Make It Slow
38. High On Fire – The Art Of Self Defense
Read our interview with High On Fire here
37. Sonic Youth – Smart Bar: Chicago 1985
36. Minny Pops - Standstill to Motion: Live at the Melkweg, 19-03-1981
Read our review of Standstill To Motion here
35. Front 242 - Front By Front
34. Electronic Explorations - Electronic Explorations Compilation
Read our interview with EE's Rob Booth here
33. Boban I Marko Markovic Orkestar – Golden Horns
32. Various Artists - Shangaan Shake
Read our review of Shangaan Shake here
31. Daphni – Jiaolong Album Launch Party Mix
Read our interview with Daphni here
30. Jacques Brodier - Filtre De Réalité
Read our review of Filtre De Réalité here
29. Surgeon - This Is The Place Where The Intellect Gets Annihilated (Mix)
28. Cornershop – Urban Turban
Read our review of Urban Turbanhere and Tjinder Singh's Baker's Dozen here
27. Gareth Williams & Mary Currie - Flaming Tunes
Read our review of Flaming Tunes here
26. Pangaea - Mix For Resident Advisor
Read our interview with Pangaea here
25. Suede - Live At The Royal Albert Hall
24. Annette Peacock – I Am The One
23. Various Artists - Disco Discharge. Disco Exotica
22. Trans Am – Red Line
21. Iain Sinclair - Stone Tape Shuffle
20. Karenn - Live At The Boiler Room
"The meat in this sandwich was Blawan and Pariah's Karenn project, using a heap of gear to play what was apparently only their sixth or seventh gig. Anyone who has loved Blawan's killer 'Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage?' 12" will know this is a man who loves a fierce, simple hook - this set, which you can now watch and listen to via the embed above, was like being the dismembered bits of a horse hanging in a French butchers during an earthquake - violent, cauterising and impossible to refuse the imperative to twitch and move. It'll put the shitters up your Friday and no mistake." Luke Turner
19. Porter Ricks – Biokinetics
"Originally released in 1996 through Basic Channel-affiliated label Chain Reaction, this reissue by Type is the first time Thomas Köner and Andy Mellwig's seminal dub techno album has been widely available since its initial run. It's aged like a fine wine, its depth charged percussion and exquisite sound design pouring from the speakers like seawater." Rory Gibb
18. Morphosis - Live at Panoramabar (Mnml Ssgs Mx Fnl)
"An absolute masterclass in slowly unfurling, psychedelic dancefloor tension from Rabih Beaini. A recording of his recent opening set at Berlin's famous Panoramabar, it begins with an hour of near-beatless electronics and slowly creaks into life, before spending two hours diving deep into trippy techno territory. A reminder that the best DJing is adventurous and daring enough to confront dancers with sounds they might not expect." Rory Gibb
Listen to Live at Panoramabar here
17. Cleaners From Venus – Midnight Cleaners
"Recorded largely by Newell on his own, now using a drum machine and more synthesizers, Midnight Cleaners is a masterpiece. It opens with the gorgeous instrumental 'This Rainy Decade', then Martin’s love of jangly guitars shines through with 'Time In Vain' and 'Only A Shadow', the latter recently covered by MGMT. The quality of the songwriting is impressive throughout, with the beautiful 'Corridor Of Dreams' and Martin’s magnum opus, 'Wivenhoe Bells II' being particular highlights. In 1986, Giles Smith would join the band (before embarking on his more well-known career as a journalist) and Martin would once again be thrown into the mechanism of the music industry. Smith ended up singing the songs on The Cleaners 1988 German tour as Martin stayed home, protesting that he would make more money during those weeks keeping his job as a gardener." Aug Stone
Read our Martin Newell feature here
16. Wire - On The Box: 1979
"The thing that's really struck me, and the reason for the re-release, is that people know about the Rockpalast thing and have seen it on YouTube, but don't know that they can buy it. There's no mega corporations involved, it's our own label. 'Heartbeat' from it gets some interesting reactions on the YouTube page. There are people saying 'he's singing like a hobbit'. I've also seen 'these guys were really influenced by Joy Division' and 'these guys were really influenced by Primal Scream'. [laughs] YouTube is full of crap. I think a lot of people don't realise it was recorded in the 70s." Colin Newman
Read our On The Box feature here
15. Ike Yard - Ike Yard
"At the same time, we had this new technology and so looking back we were really forging our own version of techno, but we never wanted to use those straight beats. It became our hallmark, our rhythms, it's been said, were always off-kilter. We were just doing our own beats, and we were never going to do anything like what we'd heard - for example disco music, which I had a big emotional reaction to. I could enjoy disco music as party music, but as culture, either moving forwards into the future or even in the present, I couldn't really get with it. So we were very careful to try to just do our own thing." Stuart Argabright
Read our interview with Ike Yard's Stuart Argabright here
14. Levon Vincent - Fabric 63
"Vincent's records pull the sonic signatures of his adopted home of Berlin into the sensual orbit of New York house in a way few could hope to imitate. The results are as likely to be ugly as they are beautiful: uncanny, scorched timbres fall into odd configurations, gesturing towards dystopic techno without renouncing that seductive NY bump. Structures tend to be built around rupture, surprise and disorientation, sucking you into parallel worlds before spitting you back out on the crest of an enormous kick drum - a far cry from the reliably four-square tension-and-release patterns of many of his contemporaries." Angus Finlayson
Read our interview with Levon Vincent here
13. Laibach - Monumental Retro-Avant-Garde: Live at the Tate Modern
"The timing of Laibach's presence in the turbine hall of the Tate Modern is therefore fortuitous. With the decline of Western pop as a financial force and the end of Hollywood's romantic era, it's arguable that it has been replaced by the collection of high-concept art. Just on the other side of the walkway that divides this cavernous space, in a squat black bunker, sits the diamond-encrusted bauble that is Damien Hirst's skull. As the shadow cast by Laibach singer Milan Fras rises stories high up the southern wall of the turbine hall, you half wish that it'd reach backwards and grab the skull for an 'alas poor Yorick'." Luke Turner
Read our review of Laibach live at the Tate Modern here
12. Chris Watson & Robert Macfarlane - The Sea-Road
"What Chris and I have wished to capture in this collaboration are those aspects of the journey that were experienced in the event as mood, tone or texture, and whose residues are with me still. I have wanted to evoke the abiding wonder of sailing that old boat up that ancient sea-road into that vast and lonely ocean, with Jupiter bright in the sky and a glowing wake of phosphorescence unfurling behind us." Robert Macfarlane
Read more on The Sea-Road here
11. Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats – Blood Lust
"Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats make gloriously twisted rock & roll, doused with flashes of psychedelic colour and imbued with elephantine groove. Crackling with imperfections, referencing the dark slant of 60s and 70s counterculture - and very much the product of a fascination with vintage analogue gear – last year's Blood Lust LP was a glorious and idiosyncratic collection that quickly garnered rabid cult status amongst the worldwide doom fraternity." Harry Sword
Read our Uncle Acid & the deadbeats Interview here
10. The Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage - Live At The Grimm Museum Vol. 1
"The piece's warm, extended brassy tones act initially as a primer to help the listener settle into an experiencing of harmony without melody, through which rich details emerge, like a microscope zooming into sound to find each note teeming with life. These natural resonances create a sense of moving smoothly at a constant slow speed, like being carefully lowered into a bottomless abyss, the base of which begins to display fractal properties as you sink ever-deeper. Out of this awe-inspiring environment voices emerge. Unadorned by vibrato, their near-perfect pitches gild the drone with organic and ritualistic qualities." Russell Cuzner
Read our review of Live At The Grimm Museum here
9. Tortoise – Millions Now Living Will Never Die
"Tortoise didn't so much form as coalesce, gradually accumulating members who were frustrated with the limits of their previous, guitar-centric bands (which include Tar Babies, Eleventh Dream Day, Poster Children, Bastro and Slint). The germ of the band was the duo of Herndon and bassist Doug McCombs, 'a fantasy of being this rhythm section like Sly & Robbie that could operate alone or work with other groups, and was more about creating super-minimal interludes than actual songs.' Signalling their post-rock intentions, Tortoise was initially formulated as a guitar-free zone." Simon Reynolds
Read Tortoise on Tortoise here
8. Laurie Spiegel - The Expanding Universe
"In an old self-interview included alongside the voluminous liner notes, Spiegel writes, 'I don't think it's a coincidence that there seems to be a relatively high percentage of women and other composers who the media might discriminate against working in electronic media.' This is an illuminating answer to a phenomenon that isn't examined enough. The network of women working with electronic equipment were slipping away from an unresponsive world that had marginalised them. Machines and all their undiscovered pleasures allowed a new, otherworldly music to develop. They provided an escape from the restrictions of songs, words and scenes. Experimentation and invention took their place." Charlie Fox
Read our review of The Expanding Universe here
7. Sleep - Dopesmoker
"Ok, so you have to get up twice to change the side/record, which is massively at odds with the state you lull into when listening to it, but Dopesmoker is one of the most important and unique records of the 20th century; it's time capsule stuff, a masterpiece of fearless and righteous dedication to art – a historic document that deserves to be forever saved for posterity." Toby Cook
Read Toby Cook's round up of the year in metal here
6. William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops Box Set
"Avant garde music may not be for everyone but in some cases – this one in particular - it could and should be. This is not a reflection on the perceived simplicity of this music or the wilful elitism of other pieces of avant garde art or the general public's ability or willingness to understand or appreciate 'difficult' music, so much as the resonance The Disintegration Loops has, and the universality of the narrative it has accreted. You don't need to be a patron of the arts to 'get' this music, and you don't have to be a New Yorker to feel its emotional impact. Without wanting to spell it out, this is music for anyone who has friends and family – for anyone who has history. This is music that speaks directly to what our lives mean in the early 21st Century." John Doran
Read our interview with William Basinski here
5. SunnO))) – ØØ Void
"If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendour of the mighty one." Robert Oppenheimer
Read our meditation on SunnO))) and bass music here
4. Ruff Sqwad - White Label Classics
"Given that the music on White Label Classics represents some of the most emotionally complex and expressive electronic music to have ever emerged from the UK, it's doubly impressive when you consider that Ruff Sqwad were teenagers when they made it. Collecting many of Rapid and Dirty Danger's classic grime instrumentals from the early to middle part of last decade, plus XTC's stunning 'Functions On The Low', it's an astonishing document and a potent reminder to a broad audience of grime's vitality as a genre. Most of these were only available on their original limited white label runs - or as low quality rips on YouTube - so it's also a welcome chance to hear them in their full, Fruity Loopsy, cheap-soft-synth-y glory." Rory Gibb
3. Swans – We Rose From Your Bed With The Sun In Our Head
"Encountering the might, majesty and physicality of the Swans live experience is in one moment transcendental, masochistic, liberating and an act of feeling subjugated to brute force expressed through the bloodying lashes of sound. They are, as the recordings collected on We Rose From Your Bed With The Sun In Our Head show, a 'with us or against' us kind of band, Old Testament in their offering and demanding of zeal and commitment." Luke Turner
Read our review of We Rose From Your Bed With The Sun In Our Head here
2. Black Rain – Now I’m Just A Number: Soundtracks 1994-95
"The seven tracks that make up Now I'm Just A Number: Soundtracks 1994-95 are all traversed by gloomy synths, heavy percussive patterns and a bleak atmosphere of post industrial ennui, and proved to be precocious in their approach to rhythm, texture and mood: despite their age, they sound unnervingly fresh within a modern day context." Joseph Burnett
Read our feature on Black Rain here
1. Can – The Lost Tapes
"From 1968 to 1975, the period covered by The Lost Tapes, synergy between musicians was revered as popular music's basic source of power. This encouraged a certain snobbishness, of course, prioritising technique over content and giving a free pass to a great deal of rot - the loosening of entry requirements for pop, when it happened, was long overdue and quickly rewarded. But this is irrelevant to Can, who were always beyond the showy stuff, working as they were towards a somewhat higher goal. There was rarely room in their music for anything so crass as an extended solo; the explorations here were conducted as a team, each member dependent on the others. The subtlety and grace with which they avoided (or inverted) boredom on all those long trips out there and back is still unrivalled, the fluency and invention of their ensemble playing often uncanny. This much, lots of us know already - The Lost Tapes confirms it, over and over." Taylor Parkes
Read our review of The Lost Tapes here
- Can – The Lost Tapes
- Black Rain – Now I’m Just A Number
- Swans – We Rose From Your Bed With The Sun In Our Head
- Ruff Sqwad - White Label Classics
- SunnO))) – ØØ Void
- William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops Box Set
- Sleep - Dopesmoker
- Laurie Spiegel - The Expanding Universe
- Tortoise – Millions Now Living Will Never Die
- CC Hennix & The Chora(s)san Time Court Mirage - Live At The Grimm Museum
- Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Blood Lust
- Chris Watson & Robert Macfarlane - The Sea-Road
- Laibach - Retro-Monumental Avant-Garde live at the Tate Modern
- Levon Vincent - Fabric 63
- Ike Yard - Ike Yard
- Wire - On The Box
- Cleaners From Venus – Midnight Cleaners
- Morphosis - Live At Panoramabar (Mnml Ssgs Mix)
- Porter Ricks – Biokinetics
- Karenn - Live At The Boiler Room
- Iain Sinclair - Stone Tape Shuffle
- Trans Am – Red Line
- Various Artists - Disco Discharge: Disco Exotica
- Annette Peacock – I Am The One
- Suede - Live At The Royal Albert Hall
- Pangaea - Mix For Resident Advisor
- Gareth Williams & Mary Currie - Flaming Tunes
- Cornershop – Urban Turban
- Surgeon - This Is The Place Where The Intellect Gets Annihilated (Mix)
- Jacques Brodier - Filtre De Relate
- Daphni – Jiaolong Album Launch Party Mix
- Shangaan Shake - Shangaan Electro Remixes
- Boban I Marko Markovic Orkestar – Golden Horns
- Electronic Explorations - Electronic Explorations Compilation
- Front 242 - Front By Front
- Minny Pops - Standstill to Motion: Live at the Melkweg, 19-03-1981
- Sonic Youth – Smart Bar: Chicago 1985
- High On Fire – The Art Of Self Defence
- ROB - Make It Fast, Make It Slow
- The Clarke and Ware Experiment – House Of Illustrious Box Set
- Bo Ningen - Live At St Leonards
- My Bloody Valentine – EPs 81 – 91
- Regis - Complete Works
- Various Artists – Trevor Jackson Presents Metal Dance
- Various Artists – Cliff Martinez Presents The Drive OST
- Various Artists - Voguing
- Ride - Going Blank Again
- Peter Zummo & Arthur Russell - Zummo With An X
- Smith & Mighty - The Three Stripe Collection
- The Heads - Relaxing With The Heads
- Various Artists – Andrew Weatherall: Masterpiece
- John Carpenter and Alan Howarth – Escape From New York OST
- Various Artists - Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984
- Paperclip People - The Secret Tapes of Dr Eich
- Edzayawa - Projection One
- Atomic Forest – Obsession
- Various Artists – Cumbia Cumbia
- Mogwai - A Wrenched Virile Law
- Thirteenth Floor Elevators - Music Of The Spheres Box Set
- Joy O – Resident Advisor Mix
- The Cure – Pornography
- Helmet - Meantime
- Witch – We Intend To Cause Havoc
- Manic Street Preachers – Generation Terrorists
- Various Artists - Luk Thung: Classic & Obscure 78s From The Thai Countryside
- The Human League – Dare
- David Sylvian - A Victim of Stars
- The Quietus Mix 65 - Simian Mobile Disco
- Various Artists - Qat, Coffee and Qambus: Raw 45s From Yemen
- The Body – The Body
- Suzanne Ciani – Lixiviation
- The Beat – I Just Can’t Stop It
- Soul Cal – Funky Disco & Modern Soul (1971 – 1982)
- Michael Nyman - Michael Nyman
- Andrzej Korzynski - Secret Enigma