Jonny's Top 10 Releases of 2012

If there was ever a year to get into electronic music, 2012 was probably that year. As well as Burial and Clubroot showing the world how dubstep should be done, we've had an explosion of talent from Russia in the likes of Night Shift and Clonki  as well as local scenes blossoming in both the east (Borealis, Liar) and west (Kettel, Secede, Chymera) of mainland Europe. In the meantime, Indie music seems to be suffering from an identity crisis in this Hipster-conscious age if Metronomy singles are to be believed, Metal continues to go the way of pop-punk by continuing to stagnate and Pop itself is even embracing the deeper sides of electronic. Folk's done alright, actually, but for the purpose of getting you to listen to electronic we'll ignore that. Ambient, as ever, has enjoyed a fantastic year.

So here it is, my personal top 10 releases of the year.

Album Review: 17f - The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Album Rating: A-

When it comes to inner states of mind, I like to agree with Max Richter’s selection of Kafka: that ‘everyone carries a room about inside them.’ If we run with this view for a while, we can see that the room inside Frederic Merk - the man behind this project - is quite a dreary place indeed. It’s isolated, first and foremost, perhaps with a single chair placed at its centre confronting a wall of naked plasterboard; with light trapped in the narrow beams that squeeze through gaps in the shutters. I’d like to think that next to the chair sat a battered old guitar and a rusty harmonica, too. A musical outlet for whatever clouds his mind.

Artist of the Day: 17f

It wasn't so long ago that Giles Corey followed up on his revered self-titled debut with Deconstructionist, an EP which seemed to stretch just a little bit further into the experimental netherworld than many of his fans were eager to stretch. Gone were the hazy acoustic crones for the 'post-industrialist' (his words) age, and in came the drone. People just weren't ready for it. So in our mini little scramble for a little more of the good stuff - a scramble that has admittedly been calmed somewhat following the GY!BE frenzy - I present 17f. Not Giles Corey mk. 2 by any means, but cut of the same acoustic/ folky/ dark/ psychadelic cloth, and every bit as good.