Blueprint Productions

Nigel Pearce uses a blueprint photography process to produce original artwork. Check out a promotional video I made for him here:

Blueprint Productions// Records

In return I received a blueprint record artwork with my desert island disc choices listed on the label.

To decide what tracks to choose I used my Top 30 playlist as a starting point but soon realised that despite being my favourites most of them didn’t have any deep meaning or memories attached so I ended up combining them with some more personal choices. Choosing just 8 tracks to represent yourself and your life means leaving out a lot of amazing music. Artists/ genres that didn’t quite make the cut included LCD Soundsystem, The Avalanches, African Highlife, The Beach Boys, New Orleans Funk, Caribou & The Bees. 

 

1. Little Ole Wine Drinker Me - Charlie Walker

I’ve got a soft spot for Country & Western after spending many a car journey as a kid singing along to one of my parents C&W cassettes.

2. Club Tropicana - Wham!

My older sister had a heavy influence on my musical taste as I grew up in 80’s suburbia. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Top of the Pops and Smash Hits! As I got older I fell out of love with the 80’s sound with a few notable exceptions (see also ‘I Can’t Go For That’ by Hall & Oates or ‘Close to Me’ by The Cure).

3. Beardsman Ska - The Skatalites

This represents my love of all things Jamaican; Ska, Reggae, Rocksteady, Dub. The horns on this track are joyous and infectious.

4. I’m Sticking with You - The Velvet Underground

I almost picked ‘Sweet Jane’ by the Velvets (a mainstay of my top 30) but this one seemed a more fitting end to side A. It’s the song that Clare and I performed at our wedding and will always bring back wonderful memories.

5. A Message to You Rudy - The Specials

One of those songs that has always been in my life and I never grow tired of hearing. It’s another Ska track, this time from the English Ska revival that came out of Coventry in the late 1970’s.

6. Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight & The Pips

I’ve always been a soul boy at heart. Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Bobby Womack, Jackie Wilson, Stevie Wonder.. I chose this track over the rest as it has my favourite backing vocals of all time.

7. Sound and Vision - David Bowie

Timless and unlike anything else ever recorded. This is my favourite Bowie track.

8. Stand by Me - Ben E. King

A perfect end to side B. I sang this song (along with You Are My Sunshine) to each of my three children every night before they went to sleep when they were small.

Favourite Films of 2019

It was another fantastic year for film despite the pull of staying in getting stronger all the time with a continued rise in the quality and quantity of TV drama and some notable releases appearing on Netflix very soon after a limited cinema run (The Irishman, Marriage Story).

My favourite film this year was Us, Jordan Peele’s intelligent follow up to Get Out.

Here’s my top 5:

Us

Monos

The Favourite

Amazing Grace

Joker

Favourite Music of 2019

My favourite album of 2019 (and my favourite cover artwork too) was Thom Yorke's Anima, definitely his strongest solo album and up there with the best of Radiohead.

And this is my favourite music video..
All shot from the POV of a LEGO train. Genius!

Anna Meredith// Paramour

Here's a playlist of my fave tracks:

Favourite Films of 2018

As funding for feature films gets harder to come by and more opportunities open up in TV production we have seen a growing number of big name film directors switching format from features to TV series in the last couple of years including Jane Campion, David Fincher, Danny Boyle, Park Chan-wook, Michel Gondry and Stephen Frears.

With all this talent moving across and the money available from Netflix, Amazon Prime et al, it’s no surprise that the quality of TV drama has raised considerably and the level of detail and production values are now on a par with features.

And yet for all the quality available I didn’t watch anything on TV last year that I enjoyed as much as the five films listed below and on many occasions found myself giving up on a series after episode 1.

My favourite film was Steve McQueen’s Widows and I tend to agree with his point of view about film vs TV. When asked by Sight & Sound if he had considered making Widows as a TV series like the original McQueen said, “some of this new TV is so rubbish because they try to squeeze out every drop and keep it going, even when it’s over. They drag you along even when the narrative has finished. Moviemaking is about craft, about storytelling, in the best way, just like the novel, the fairytale. It’s the best form because there is a beginning, a middle and an end. Rather than stretching it out. Even the best TV dramas over several series, usually I think you could stitch them together as one shorter thing.”

Top 5 films of 2018:

Widows (Steve McQueen)

Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski)

Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)

You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsey)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)

Favourite Music of 2018

My favourite album of the year was Neneh Cherry's Broken Politics, her second album to be produced by Kieran Hebden (Four Tet). 4 tracks from that album spearhead a playlist that is this year dominated by female artists, accounting for around two thirds of the tracks.

My favourite music video was the incredibly simple and very charming TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME by The 1975.

Top 30 #5

Everyday - Buddy Holly (1957)
Be My Baby - The Ronettes (1963)
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen (1975)
Sweet Jane - The Velvet Underground (1970)
Goon Gumpas - Aphex Twin (1996)
Optimo - Liquid Liquid (1983)
Beardsman Ska - The Skatalites (1965)
Darlin' - The Beach Boys (1967) 
Gimme Danger - Iggy & the Stooges (1973)
Winter Rose - The Bees (2010)
Odessa - Caribou (2010)
I Want More - Can (1976)
Osalobua Rekpama - Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Melody Maestros (1969)
Since I Left You - The Avalanches (2000)
Sound and Vision - David Bowie (1977)
Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight & the Pips (1973)
Ordinary Joe - Terry Callier (1972)
A Message to You, Rudy - The Specials (1979)
Sitting in the Park - Billy Stewart (1965)
Soul Sister - Allen Toussaint (1972)
You Should've Seen the Other Guy - Nathaniel Rateliff (2010)
Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell (1968)
Oh! Sweet Nuthin' - The Velvet Underground (1970)
Home - LCD Soundsystem (2010)
This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) - Talking Heads (1983)
Out of Time - Blur (2003)
Please Stay - The Cryin' Shames (1966)
Seabird - Alessi Brothers (1977)
Keep Your Dreams - Suicide (1977)
True Love Ways - Buddy Holly (1960)

This is my Top 30 playlist of favourite tracks as it currently stands, with a few standout new entries.. 

I prefer to listen to authentic first generation Ska and Reggae and yet will always have a soft spot for The Specials and their timeless cover of Dandy Livingstone's 1967 Rudy, A Message to You, a track I should probably have included in my list of favourite cover versions.

It's great to finally get a New Orleans artist on the list in the shape of Allen Toussaint's Soul Sister. I've always been a great admirer of the unique sound of 60's/ 70's New Orleans Funk and Rythmn & Blues, the likes of Eddie Bo, The Meters, Betty Harris and, of course, the hugely influential Fats Domino, whose Blueberry Hill very nearly made it this time around.

Graham Coxon's guitar sound undoubtedly contributed a great deal towards the success of Blur and yet my favourite Blur track is Out of Time, the first single not to feature Graham following his departure during the recording sessions for their 2003 album Think Tank.

Without Coxon the band were forced to look for new ways of adapting and expanding their sound. Damon Albarn was working with musicians from Mali for his side project Mali Music and an African influence can be heard throughout the album with some of it (including all the vocal tracks) recorded outside in Marrakech giving it an authentic street music vibe.

Out of Time// Damon Albarn (Featuring the Orchestra of Syrian Musicians)

It seems fitting to bookend the list with Buddy Holly, a remarkable talent who achieved so much in his short recording career before he died in a plane crash at the age of 22. True Love Ways was one of the last songs he recorded and, along with It Doesn't Matter Anymore, showcased a more mature sound that moved away from straightforward Rock 'N' Roll and makes you wonder what could have been.

Favourite Music of 2017

American Teen - Khalid
Dangerous - The xx
Home - Joe Goddard
Since You've Been Gone - The Allergies
No Roots - Alice Merton
Get it Together - Drake
Cuffed - Nick Hakim
Lush - Four Tet
Them Changes - Thundercat
Location - Khalid
Passionfruit - Drake
Uh Uh - Thundercat
SW9 9SL - Four Tet
Outlier - Bonobo
Young, Dumb & Broke - Khalid
Say Something Loving - The xx
Children - Joe Goddard
(How Could Anybody) Feel at Home - Open Mike Eagle
passionfruit - Yaeji
Tonite - LCD Soundsystem
Get on the Floor - The Allergies
Hopeless - Khalid
On Hold - The xx
Daydreaming in the Projects - Open Mike Eagle
LOVE. FEAT. ZACARI - Kendrick Lamar
Drink Dat - Thundercat
Human Heart - Joe Goddard
Angels - Khalid
Test Me - The xx

This years playlist is mainly composed of songs from my 3 favourite albums of the year; Khalid's American Teen (an amazing achievement for a 19 year old!), Thundercat's Drunk and The xx's I See You. I also enjoyed Electric Lines the debut solo album from Joe Goddard (Hot Chip/ 2 Bears) and New Energy, a return to form from Four Tet.

My favourite music video is Ryan Staake's genius video for Young Thug's Wyclef Jean. The shoot didn't quite go to plan, in fact Young Thug never even showed up. Instead what we get are cards that explain how things unraveled intercut with some of the footage Staake did get, based on the bizarre ideas that Thug had initially sent him; models riding kiddie cars, children dressed as cops smashing up police cars etc.

Young Thug// Wyclef Jean

Favourite Films of 2017

There were plenty of outstanding films on offer in 2017. 

Films that almost made it into my Top 5 include Nocturnal Animals, OJ: Made in America, Free Fire, Call Me By My Name and The Disaster Artist.

Top 5 films of 2017:

Raw (Julia Ducournau)

Jackie (Pablo Larraín)

Lady MacBeth (William Oldroyd)

Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)

Baby Driver (Edgar Wright)

Top 5 old films I saw for the first time in 2017:

Fat City (John Huston)

Black Orpheus (Marcel Camus)

Poor Cow (Ken Loach)

Tangerine (Sean Baker)

Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)

Top 30 #4

It's about a year since the last installment of my top 30# so time for an update..

Everyday - Buddy Holly (1957)
Be My Baby - The Ronettes (1963)
Sweet Jane - The Velvet Underground (1970)
Optimo - Liquid Liquid (1983)
Carry On Bring Come - Justin Hinds & the Dominoes (1963)
Baby Please Don't Go - Them (1964)
Gimme Danger - Iggy & the Stooges (1973)
Beardsman Ska - The Skatalites (1965)
Winter Rose - The Bees (2010)
Odesa - Caribou (2010)
I Want More - Can (1976)
Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order (1986)
Radio Head - Talking Heads (1986)
Osalobua Rekpama - Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Melody Maestros (1969)
Since I Left You - The Avalanches (2000)
Rival Dealer - Burial (2013)
Sound and Vision - David Bowie (1977)
Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight & the Pips (1973)
Ordinary Joe - Terry Callier (1972)
You Should've Seen the Other Guy - Nathaniel Rateliff (2010)
Johnny Appleseed - Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros (2001)
Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell (1968)
Oh! Sweet Nuthin' - The Velvet Underground (1970)
Late for the Sky - Jackson Browne (1974)
Genius of Love - Tom Tom Club (1981)
Home - LCD Soundsystem (2010)
This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) - Talking Heads (1983)
Please Stay - The Cryin' Shames (1966)
Seabird - Alessi Brothers (1977)
Keep Your Dreams - Suicide (1977)

As an Editor it makes sense that I find myself drawn to compositions that are concise, economical and fat free. A third of the tracks here clock in at 3 minutes or less, in my mind the optimum length for the perfect song. 

One of the exceptions at the heart of the new list is Burial's sprawling 10 minute epic Rival Dealer, a track that throws the rule book out of the window and defies categorization or genre. Other standout new entries include a track that one band named themselves after and another (Vampire Weekend) based their whole sound on; Radio Head by Talking Heads, the sample-tastic; Since I Left You by The Avalanches and the sublime Wichita Lineman, it's greatness brought into focus by the passing of the legendary Glen Campbell last year.

Favourite Music of 2016

Decks Dark - Radiohead
Metal Bird - Gold Panda

I Exhale - Underworld

The Space Program - A Tribe Called Quest
Because I'm Me - The Avalanches
In My Car - Gold Panda

Dis Generation - A Tribe Called Quest
Subways - The Avalanches
Hold Up - Beyoncé

Tilted - Christine and the Queens
We the People....  - A Tribe Called Quest
Chiba Nights - Gold Panda
Black Man in a White World - Michael Kiwanuka
Love on the Brain - Rihanna
Rings of Saturn - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Ova Nova - Underworld
Ful Stop - Radiohead
Never Ending - Rihanna
Whateva Will Be - A Tribe Called Quest
If I Was a Folkstar - The Avalanches
Present Tense - Radiohead
Nylon Strung - Underworld
I Can't Give Everything Away - David Bowie

For me 2016 was the year of the comeback album with over half of my songs of the year playlist made up of tracks from great records by A Tribe Called Quest (first album since 1998), The Avalanches (..2000), Underworld (..2010) and Radiohead (..2011).

It wasn't a great surprise that it took 16 years for The Avalanches sophomore effort seeing as their 2000 debut Since I Left You was said to contain around 3,500 samples. As with their previous effort Wildflower is bursting with ideas and textures, tracks flowing into one another to create an epic suite of sound, set apart from it's predecessor by a number of tracks featuring guest vocalists. It's my favourite record of the year and also spawned my favourite music video Because I'm Me directed by Greg Brunkalla.

The Avalanches// Beacuse I'm Me

The playlist ends fittingly with a David Bowie track from his final album Blackstar. 2016 will be remembered as the year we lost so many talented musicians and artists.. the legends Bowie, Prince, George Micheal and Leonard Cohen among them.

Favourite Films of 2016

My favourite film of 2016 was Victoria, bravado filmmaking by Sebastian Schiller shot in one complete take during a night in Berlin. It will be interesting to see how Woody Harrelson's upcoming project Lost in London compares. For his debut feature as director Harrelson is planning to take the one take film a step further by transmitting it live to selected cinemas as it's being shot.

Top 5 films of 2016:

Victoria (Sebastian Schiller)

Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven)

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi)

Eight Days a Week (Ron Howard)

American Honey (Andrea Arnold)**

Top 5 old films I saw for the first time in 2016:

Two for the Road (Stanley Donen)

The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie)

Riff-Raff (Ken Loach)

The French Connection (William Friedkin)

Cool Runnings (Jon Turteltaub)


** edit>> I didn't actually see American Honey until 2018 but feel that it is too good not to be included here.

Top 30 #3

Here's where the constantly evolving playlist of my favorite 30 songs, my extended desert island discs, is currently at..

With Me Tonight - The Beach Boys (1967)
Be My Baby - The Ronettes (1963)
Sweet Jane - The Velvet Underground (1970)
Goon Gumpas - Aphex Twin (1996)
Optimo - Liquid Liquid (1983)
Carry On Bring Come - Justin Hinds & the Dominoes (1963)
Baby Please Don't Go - Them (1964)
Love and Death - Ebo Taylor (2010)
Odesa - Caribou (2010)
I Want More - Can (1976)
Before We Begin - Broadcast (2003)
Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order (1986)
Memphis - Chuck Berry (1963)
Osalobua Rekpama - Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Melody Maestros (1969)
Ordinary Joe - Terry Callier (1972)
Sound and Vision - David Bowie (1977)
Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight & the Pips (1973)
Sitting in the Park - Billy Stewart (1965)
You Should've Seen the Other Guy - Nathaniel Rateliff (2010)
You Made Me Forget My Dreams - Belle & Sebastian (1997)
Oh! Sweet Nuthin' - The Velvet Underground (1970)
Late for the Sky - Jackson Browne (1974)
Your Young Voice - King Creosote & Jon Hopkins (2011)
Film - Aphex Twin (1997)
Home - LCD Soundsystem (2010)
This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) - Talking Heads (1983)
Please Stay - The Cryin' Shames (1966)
Dirty Harry - Lalo Schifrin (1971)
Seabird - Alessi Brothers (1977)
Keep Your Dreams - Suicide (1977)

I've taken out some of the tracks that have been there since day one but have suffered from being overplayed (Thunder Road, Young Americans etc.) and broadened my reach to include some joyous Jamaican horns from Justin Hinds and the Dominoes, and some colourful African Highlife - Ebo Taylor from Ghana and Sir Victor Uwaifo from Nigeria.

Along with Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, Joe Meek was another producer who fully exploited the potential of the modern recording studio using unusual and innovative techniques, adding an extra dimension to The Cryin' Shames reverb soaked cover of the Burt Bacharach penned Please Stay - the last Meek produced single to be released before he took his own life after killing his landlady Violet Shenton with a single barreled shotgun.

Other new tracks on the list with a timeless quality include Broadcast's Before We Begin with it's haunting Trish Keenan vocal and Keep Your Dreams by Suicide. Marc Masters recently wrote on Pitchfork of Suicide's debut album; 'There’s something thrilling about how Suicide found their own space between scenes and styles. They overlapped with punk, post-punk, and disco, and are often cited as the godfathers of no wave. Yet no other band in any of those genres sounded like them.'

Cover Versions

There was understandably a great deal of Prince's immense back catalogue played on the radio when his death was announced last month. There was also a fair amount of airtime given to the songs he penned for other people such as The Bangles 'Manic Monday' and of course 'Nothing Compares 2 U', originally written for his side project The Family Band and made famous by Sinéad O'Connor's 1990 cover version, undoubtedly one of the greatest covers of all time.

In no particular order here are 11 of my favourite cover versions that all use the original as a framework to create something new and unique (artists who originally recorded a version of the song in brackets):

All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix (Bob Dylan)
Respect - Aretha Franklin (Otis Redding)
Walk On By - The Stranglers (Dionne Warwick)
Light My Fire - Stevie Wonder (The Doors)
We Can Work it Out - Stevie Wonder (The Beatles)
Higher Ground - Ellen McIllwaine (Stevie Wonder)
I Heard it Through the Grapevine - The Slits (Marvin Gaye) 
Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Saint Etienne (Neil Young)
Always On My Mind - Pet Shop Boys (Elvis Presley)
Valerie - Mark Ronson (feat. Amy Winehouse) (The Zutons)
I'm a Believer - Robert Wyatt (The Monkees)

From Hendrix incendiary version of Dylan's 'All Along the Watchtower' (one of only two covers on my Top 30 playlist, along with Nina Simone's version of the Bee Gees 'To Love Somebody') to Robert Wyatt's transcendent 'I'm a Believer', all the more poignant as it was the first single he released after being paralysed from the waist down after falling from a fourth floor window. All of these versions are very different to the originals but none more so than the feminist spin that Aretha puts on Otis Redding's 'Respect', not to mention the killer backing vocals by her sisters Carolyn and Erma. Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me..

Favourite Music of 2015

And here is my top tracks of 2015 playlist..

Ryderz - Hudson Mohawke
Huarache Lights - Hot Chip
Lean On - Major Lazer (feat. MØ & DJ Snake)
I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times) - Jamie xx (feat. Young Thug & Popcaan)
Butcher Baker Candlestick Maker - Panda Bear
Gimme All Your Love - Alabama Shakes
Magnets - Disclosure (feat. Lorde) [Jon Hopkins Remix]
Need You Now - Hot Chip
Trap Queen - Fetty Wap
Get Free - Major Lazer (feat. Amber Coffman)
Downtown - Majical Cloudz
Future People - Alabama Shakes
Obvs - Jamie xx
Boys Latin - Panda Bear
Guess Who - Alabama Shakes
Loud Places - Jamie xx (feat. Romy)
Where Are Ü Now -  Jack Ü (feat. Justin Bieber)
Tropic of Cancer - Panda Bear
Burning Up - Hot Chip
The Rest is Noise - Jamie xx

Looking for common threads running through these choices one that stands out is the use of some killer samples. From Hudson Mohawke's use of DJ Rogers 'Watch Out for the Riders' in 'Ryderz', respectfully letting the track play out for nearly a full minute before all hell breaks loose over the top, to perfectly positioned nuggets by Jamie xx (The Persuasion's 'Good Times') and Hot Chip (Sinnamon's 'I Need You Now').

I always assumed my album of the year would be a toss up between the two I have played the most; Jamie xx's 'In Color' and Alabama Shakes 'Sound and Color', yet as the year comes to a close I find myself returning to the densely layered beats and propulsive rhythms of the first album I bought in 2015, Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper, more than anything else. With every release under the Panda Bear moniker Noah Lennox has created a striking soundscape into which he weaves his trademark multi-tracked harmony vocals. Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper has a meatier sound than his previous work but also contains his most beautiful moment when the cacophony of drones and beats are replaced with a harp sample from Tchaikovsky's 'The Nutcracker' and Noah's most heartfelt vocal about losing his father as standout track Tropic of Cancer kicks in.

My favourite music video of the year is Tame Impala's 'The Less I Know The Better' by Canada. This has everything you can ask for in a music video. It's entertaining, funny and has a strong narrative that enhances the song.

Tame Impala - 'The Less I Know The Better'
 

Favourite Films of 2015

It's that time of year again..

The five films I've chosen this year are all very different. Topping the list is Alex Garland's debut feature Ex Machina, winner of 4 awards at last weekend's BIFAs.

Here are my top 5 films of 2015:

Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
Amy (Asif Kapadia)
Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
Aaaaaaaah! (Steve Oram)
Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)

..and the best five old films that I saw for the first time in 2015: 

Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff)
Cabaret (Bob Fosse)
Far From the Madding Crowd (John Schlesinger)
Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly)
On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)

And I would like to give an honorable mention to Roar, the 1981 film by Noel Marshall that took him 11 years to complete and featured 150 wild animals. I saw this for the first time screened at a city farm by The Bristol Bad Film Club and it was the most insane film I have ever seen in my life!

Favourite Music of 2014

The majority of new releases I've bought this year have been by artists I know and love, with 12 tracks of the 20 coming from just 3 albums from Caribou, Aphex Twin and The 2 Bears.

Caribou's Our Love stands head and shoulders above the other releases with 5 of it's 10 tracks making the list, without doubt my favourite album of the year.

Special mention should also go to Jon Hopkins Asleep Versions; a reworking of 4 tracks from last years Immunity album with the beats stripped out allowing you to hear the amazing subtlety and detail that goes into his work. The tracks flow seamlessly into one another as a song cycle so difficult to include on my top tracks playlist.

Can't Do Without You - Caribou
minipops 67 [120.2][source field mix] - Aphex Twin
Get Out - The 2 Bears
Second Chance - Caribou
Sexotheque - La Roux
Busy Earnin' - Jungle
4 bit 9d api+e+6 [126.26] - Aphex Twin
Modern Family - The 2 Bears
Silver - Caribou
Circlont6a [141.98][Syrobonkus mix] - Aphex Twin
Ben's My Friend - Sun Kil Moon
Smoking Pixels - Jungle
Lonely Press Play - Damon Albarn
Our Love - Caribou
Lilac - Eno & Hyde
Papat4 [155][Pineal Mix] - Aphex Twin
You & Me - Damon Albarn
Back Home - Caribou
The Night is Young - The 2 Bears
Cells & Bells - Eno & Hyde

Favourite Films of 2014

2014 was a good year for films. Richard Ayoade's The Double tops my list of favourites. I loved the film and thought it was as good, if not better, than his brilliant 2010 debut Submarine but I seem to be in the minority. It divided critics when it was released and hasn't appeared in many end of year polls. Boyhood on the other hand has received unanimous praise, many recognizing the effort Richard Linklater put in to keep the project going over a 12 year period.

Films I missed that I'm hoping to catch this year include Nightcrawler, Interstellar and The Possibilities are Endless.

Here are my top 5 films of 2014:

The Double (Richard Ayoade)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
'71 (Yann Demange)
We Are the Best! (Lukas Moodysson)
20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard)

..and the best five old films that I saw for the first time in 2014:

The Matrix (Andy & Lana Wachowski)
Brazil (Terry Gilliam)
Of Time and the City (Terence Davies)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman)
Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara)

Top 30 #2

I've revisited my favourite songs playlist and there are a fair few changes to the list I published a year ago. 17 of the tracks remain the same, 13 have changed.

Meant For You - The Beach Boys (1968)
Be My Baby - The Ronettes (1963)
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen (1975)
Sweet Jane - The Velvet Underground (1970)
Train in Vain (Stand by Me) - The Clash (1979)
Gimme Danger - Iggy & the Stooges (1973)
Optimo - Liquid Liquid (1983)
Baby Please Don't Go - Them (1964)
I Want More - Can (1976)
Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order (1986)
Everything In It's Right Place - Radiohead (2000)
Everyday - Buddy Holly (1957)
He's a Rebel - The Crystals (1962)
Young Americans - David Bowie (1975)
To Love Somebody - Nina Simone (1969)
All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix (1968)
Danny (Lonely Blue Boy) - Conway Twitty (1959)
Little Red Corvette - Prince (1983)
This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) - Talking Heads (1983)
Sound and Vision - David Bowie (1977)
Shangri La - The Kinks (1969)
Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight & the Pips (1973)
I Just Wasn't Made For These Times - The Beach Boys (1966)
Oh! Sweet Nuthin' - The Velvet Underground (1970)
The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon & Garfunkel (1970)
Late for the Sky - Jackson Browne (1974)
The Big Ship - Brian Eno (1975)
Film - Aphex Twin (1997)
Home - LCD Soundsystem (2010)
Seabird - Alessi Brothers (1977)

I've added a couple of Beach Boys tracks, including the shortest track ever to make it into my top 30. Meant For You clocks in at just 36 seconds and contains one verse and an outro. Small but perfectly formed it works perfectly as a playlist opener.

I Just Wasn't Made for These Times is from what I consider to be Brian Wilson's creative peak; 1966's Pet Sounds, just before his compositions and production techniques got so complex he drove himself crazy recording the, eventually abandoned, follow up Smile. It sums up how Wilson was feeling at the time. He was only 23 when Pet Sounds was recorded, an album that stills sounds way ahead of it's time almost 50 years later. It always amazes me how uplifting he makes the mantra 'sometimes I feel very sad' sound. Sublime melancholia.

Another 60's maverick producer who was ahead of his time makes two appearances on the list. The perfect pop of the Phil Spector produced Be My Baby, performed by The Ronettes and He's a Rebel by The Crystals, showcasing Spector's groundbreaking Wall of Sound production techniques.

I've included a couple of electronic tracks by Aphex Twin and Brian Eno, both of whom I have always felt produce music on such a different plain to everyone else they could be aliens. Their approach and intelligence hasn't dimmed with age either, releasing two of this years best albums - High Life; Eno's collaboration with Underworld's Karl Hyde and Syro; Richard D. James first record as Aphex Twin in over 13 years. I think the addition of these tracks, along with the unclassifiable Liquid Liquid and Everything in it's Right Place by Radiohead has pushed the list in a direction that seems far more representative of my musical taste than last years.

Other new entries that continue the theme of sounding timeless and not conforming to a genre include Prince's Little Red Corvette, Talking Heads This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) and New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle - all very different to anything else released around the same time in the mid 1980's.

You can hear the influence of many of the artists on the list in James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem; the drum sound of Liquid Liquid, the Talking Heads vocals, hints of Bowie, New Order, even Prince. In fact I first discovered closing track Alessi Brothers Seabird a few years back when I stumbled across Murphy performing it live with Hot Chip.

Favourite Music of 2013

And here is my 'best of 2013' playlist, Burial sneaking in right at the end with my standout track of the year Rival Dealer, released on EP two weeks before Xmas.

Retrograde - James Blake
Reflektor - Arcade Fire
Before Your Very Eyes... - Atoms For Peace
Cirrus - Bonobo
Aerial - Four Tet
Get Lucky - Daft Punk
New Slaves - Kanye West
Song for Zula - Phosphorescent
Royals - Lorde
Doin' it Right - Daft Punk
Reverse Running - Atoms For Peace
A Lot of Love - Steve Mason
Sun Harmonics - Jon Hopkins
Step - Vampire Weekend
Oh My Lord - Steve Mason
Hold On, We're Going Home - Drake
No Destruction - Foxygen
Afterlife - Arcade Fire
Stuck Together Pieces - Atoms For Peace
Goldtone - Kurt Vile
Gone Away - Matthew E. White
Come to Me - Steve Mason
Abandon Window - Jon Hopkins
Rival Dealer - Burial
Come Walk With Me - M.I.A

Favourite Films of 2013

So as we kick off 2014 here's a quick roundup of the best films I saw last year, new & old.

As always I didn't get to the cinema nearly as much as I would have liked and there are loads of new releases I haven't yet seen. I'm hoping to catch some of these on DVD/ download this year; The Kings of Summer, Good Vibrations, No, Stoker, The Hunt, Computer Chess, The Great Beauty.

In no particular order (although Gravity was definitely my favourite) these are the five best new films I saw in 2013..

Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron)
A Field in England (Ben Wheatley)
Tabu (Miguel Gomez)
Beware of Mr Baker (Jay Bulger)
The Stone Roses: Made of Stone (Shane Meadows)

And in a year that saw many prominent feature directors turning their hand to the smaller screen I thoroughly enjoyed the TV series Top of The Lake and Southcliffe.

These are the five best old films I saw for the first time..

The Prestige (Christopher Nolan)
Angel Heart (Alan Parker)
Sunshine (Danny Boyle)
Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich)
Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)