sunreturn
Again, again — yes, again. We come around, we go around, yet once more.
2025: sets of the year
This was … a very difficult filter. Let’s pretend that I just ran out of room to write, as we transition from the “bests” into the “honorable mentions”. An amazing year for DJs and DJ culture.
NAP – liquidtime 13 – Lava Mistica
I am trying to remember how I started listing to this one — maybe it was after seeing a CCL show, maybe it was some other reference, but this NAP set basically had me saying either “what is going on” or “oh, this is a great record”, for the entire time.
CCL – liquidtime 14 – Sea Of Clouds
… and this one might be even better?!? I need to go over the entire liquidtime archive next year; this set got me through some bad days and made some good days even better.
upsammy – RA 970
More out-there bass, post-drum-and-bass, weight — I’d almost call it weightless, really, if the speakers were not shaking. This one also made a great “home listening experience”; credit to the DJ for getting the levels right.
DJ Voices – Sidestep Lifestyle
Voices plays for Andrew Weatherall — enough said.
Lukas Wigflex – RA 969
I thought I had this pinned down as an electro set — and then the techno shows up, and then then battletech showed up, and the bass got weirder, and parts of the electro came back … and, yeah, a really great thing from our man in Nottingham.
DJ Alfredo – Live at Amnesia 1989 (Part One)
What we talk about when we talk about Balaeric — goes from an edit of Strings Of Life to some chunky thing with a mumbled vocal talking about “feel the music in your butt / get upp”. As all of techno gets older and we appreciate the grand gesture and the archive more and more, we thankfully have things like this to remind us to get the butts moving.
Honors and honorables out to, what a great year:
- Moopie b2b Lena Wilikens @ Lot Radio, don’t tell me that “selectors” are over.
- Ron Trent – RA 996, perfect, lush house music.
- Optimo – 15 Years of Mr. Saturday Night — Optimo, JD, we hardly knew ye, we’ll miss you very much.
- 1morning & Regal86 – RA999, hardgrooooooove.
- Ben UFO – Live @ Sustain Release, 2025, masterful things.
- Mulatu Astatke – NTS, 2025-09-28, East African jazz and dust
- Justin Carter – How I Build A Floor (Live at Mister Sunday, July 20, 2025) — I was there for this one, it was as deep as you want.
- Scott Zacharias – No Way Back 2025, also as deep as you like.
- Peverelist b2b Pinch – Live @ Draaimolen Festival 2025, heavy, rather than deep, but great to see the ‘Ps’ rolling like this.
- Holden & Zimpel – Live at Mutek 2025 — see Albums, but really, deeply wonderful.
BUT
WAIT, HOLD IT
SPECIAL AWARD — RESIDENT ADVISOR
If you’re my age, you probably remember a time in maybe the early 2000s when residentavisor.net and progressive-sounds.com were the places on the internet to read about, well, progressive house and trance — I’m digging through their archives, and RA appears to have as their earliest thing 2001 Danny Howells review, and PS claims to have been running since 1999.
I don’t want to dunk on either of them for their past selves, as I also once overused the word “whilst”; rather I want to shower endless praise on RA for their transformation and ability to change over time. As of this year, it is now cool to say “we had a minimal techno podcast in 2005”, but there was a real chance that RA never made it out of the local minimum (see what I did there?) of prog turned into electrohouse turned into minimal, and that they disintegrated or failed or sold out like so many other internet cultural properties.
It’s easy to say “well, someone else would have done it” — what we’ve seen in the arts is that often no one else does it. Huge credit and huge thanks to everyone; it is a hell of an achievement.
And, I said last year, “What will they do for RA 1000?” — and they nailed it. They’re all great, but I’ll reference you to the Mark Ernestus one.
2025: tracks of the year
Well, this year it certainly is bangers — but maybe “smart bangers”, unlike the huge tunes of a few years ago?
georg-i – Torn in Two [subglow]
The best of the quasi-industrial monsters this year. I said “smart” bangers, and this record is not as “smart” as it could be — the tempo doesn’t even change. We are, only, left with the halftime exploding into the Underworld-esq 3+3+2 pulse, and we’ll just have to be happy with that.
Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes – Get Dancin’ [Chelsea]
Tell me it’s a novelty record, tell me that Sir Monti Rock sounds like he should be in The Producers in the Zero Mostel role, tell me that it is at best a Stevie Wonder ripoff, musically … and I’ll tell you to listen to the piano stabs, to the backing vocals, the horns in the buildup, and to go listen to Tom Moulton’s 1974 Sandpiper mixtape, which had this absolute bop center stage.
Felix – Tiger Stripes [Sleeping Bag Records]
Arthur Russell did not like this very Arthur Russell record, and so credited himself as “Killer Whale” … but thank Nicky Siano, because he did, he got it out, and it’s a great document of post-punk heat.
Impérieux – Fena [Hessle Audio]
Brreeeeeeeoowowwwwwwwwwwoowowww.
The second best of the quasi-industrial monsters of the year — and, frankly, this one sounds better on a big system, like some sort of robotic insectoid giant breaking through the nightclub walls.
Syclops – Pink Sarah NYC Is Back [BubbleTease]
I shazamed this multiple times this year, usually at Mr. Sunday, and then said “Oh I bought this record in January, Maurice Fulton, right” — this is a classy electro-house-minimal throwback that does not try too hard, and is all the better and better and better for it.
Grace Jones – Slave To The Rhythm (Medicine Head Remix) [DMC]
A lot of Grace Jones this year — this one comes from DJ Food’s “Alternate 80s” DJ mix, and is basically a Hybrid / nu-skool mix, long enough to give the record the time it deserves.
Four Tet – Into Dust (Still Falling) [XL]
“Just” another Four Tet sad banger — I sure did go to this one a lot though, when I needed a sad banger.
The honorable mentions to many great jams!
- HiTech – SPANK! — like “Sandwiches”, it’s the tone of voice and the piano riff that make this one.
- Charisse C and Kwamzy – Morning Sun — the platonic idea of a wonderful morning after.
- Junior – Mama Used To Say — boogie heat, via Theo Parrish and, originally, a Steinski mix.
- Weval – DOPAMINE (DJ Edit), another post-electro banggggger.
- Yuji Kawasaki – Springwater — a quintessential Mr. Sunday dancefloor-build / 3:30pm record.
- Minor Science – Mortals — the third best quasi-industrial big tune, but man, it is good.
- Mica Levi – Slob Air, 11 minutes, basically Gorecki.
- Gus Gus – Purple (Sasha vs The Light Remix) — Finally got this on vinyl, maybe this was the nostalgia that I needed.
- Grace Jones – Operattack — the source of the “Annihilating” vocal sample that has been used again and again and again … is in fact a pitched-down Ian McShane!
2025: albums of the year
This year I added the “stats” page to my personal music player at tessellates, which was not that useful, but did help remind me of some records that I played a lot earlier in the year. Tough to not be “data driven”, once one has the data, but hopefully a balance can be found.
Kate Bush – Hounds Of Love
Well, a bit late to this one (I found a CD case in a free box, which ended up being empty, so I just bought the record, gasp) — but what an amazing record, and what an amazing resource of sounds and power. Maybe next year I won’t have a “classic from the 1980s” on this list?
Lea Bertucci – Hold Music
A winter and spring constant — these two tracks were, as suggested, mostly on background, but were a constant joy of details and subtleness when I dug into them.
Holden & Zimpel – The Universe Will Take Care Of You (plus live from Mutek!)
Very few people like James Holden more than me, but this one was not quite sitting at the peak of perfection for me … until I found this live set from Mutek (argh, why did I not go!), which gives the tracks from the album the life-force they need to really hit liftoff.
Kara-Lis Coverdale – From Where You Came / Changes in Air / A Series of Actions in a Sphere of Forever
A big year for Kara — I think Changes in Air just about sneaks it for me, but all of these albums are heartfelt and deep and thoughtful and calming.
Sweet Honey In The Rock – Sweet Honey In The Rock
This was a dig from what I think was DJ Voices’ last set at Nowadays, and then I got the album, and, shock, a dig from Voices is a really wonderful gospel / soul record.
Young American Primitive – Young American Primitive
I clicked into Bandcamp Daily at the wrong time and got sniped by this. Like all people who grew up on Sasha & Digweed, I knew “These Waves” — the rest of the album is maybe not quite that much of a high point, but it reads like an album, which I increasingly want in my old age, and it is a snapshot of when you could sample the Twilight Zone with a straight face … and, sneaky, most of the tracks are really good.
Xylitol – Anemones
High-energy, high-sugar drum & bass — I think from 2024 but you know the rules around here — this one also ties into the 16-bit video game pitched percussion sounds that I’ve been thinking about for at least the last 3 years, as well as general vapourwave “nostalgia”.
Grace Jones – Slave To The Rhythm
Not even really an album — like an EP with all the B-Sides clustered together, some awkward spoken word interludes / interview, a timeless prog house sample on ‘Operattack’, etc. What sells this is that Jones is clearly in on the joke; she knows that this whole thing is a bit of a bit, but she’s there to belt it or dance around it, as needed.
Honorable mentions, the most honorable!
- FKA twigs – EUSEXUA, very hard to keep this off the main list, but I think my nostalgia for this music is not quite right, alas!
- Nídia & Valentina – Estradas, this is just a great record, slightly more legible than some of the Principé magic.
- Jean Bikoko – Ma Cabo Ma Mo, the quest to buy wonderful West African pop records continues.
- Blissi Tebil – Ziglibity – La Continuite; see above.
- gyrofield – Suspension Of Disbelief, a perfect tech/dub/beat EP.
- Felix Hess – Frog Field Recordings — turns out that frogs make basically perfect techno loops.
- Break – Aeoui, a bunch of BIG TUNES that make a surprisingly coherent album listening experience, tm.
- Various Artists – Hypnotised: A Journey Through Trance Music — my youth! (Sort of; some of these records I thought were cheesy when I was 17, and I’m still right).
- Various Artists – Síntesis Moderna – An Alternative Vision Of Argentinean Music — not my youth, but what a shame, this youth seems pretty good.
2025: shows of the year
It gets harder and harder each year to convince people that I don’t just live at Nowadays … but I sort of really do, erk. Two notes in general for the year: there were a higher than usual number of beatmatching errors, from DJs that usually don’t make them, which seemed odd. Also, everyone was makin’ out — if people are decrying that the kids are not having sex, please send them to Cooper Ave, my goodness.
Donato Dozzy @ Nowadays Nonstop
My notes here say, correctly, that “Dozzy did not play one bad record”, which I think is true. An effortless step through contemporary techno, with lots of the minimal revival, but likewise lots of dub and psych influences, with a bit of heavier stuff at the end. Comprehensive and excellent — and a delight to see some pals there!
Ben UFO @ Nowadays Nonstop
Yes yes, again. This was the weekend of Wire Festival and I think some K Bridge parties as well, so the best DJ of his generation was not that busy, and maybe a bit deeper and more Detroit, just a bit? He also dropped “Fena” and shook the room, so maybe it’s just same old Ben as always.
Nidia x DJ Nigga Fox @ Nowadays Nonstop
I could not stay awake for all of this one, as I was coming from a friend’s wedding, but Container was great and loud, Deli Girls apparently had a drum kit set up, somewhere, but our friends from Portugal were amazing — weirdo house beats, some maddening half-time 6/8 things, and spike-heavy loops.
Theo Parrish All Night @ Nowadays
I went to one of these earlier in the year, which was great (and just amazingly busy early), but this one stole it. I think a lot the “loop” that genre-bending DJs go through — house, disco, detroit techno, house, repeat — this time Theo played almost no house music, subbed in jazz and Nina Simone for disco, and despite the room being there, played an empty-room-esq listening party for an hour.
CCL All Night @ Nowadays
If I didn’t think it underrated their achievements, I’d nominate CCL as the new Kwisatz Haderach — this set had multiple start-the-next-record-on-2 to shift basslines over, they played what sounded like two 1970s british blues revival records back to back, etc etc — and I got to hear “Torn In Two” (see tracks) on the Nowadays sound system, a dream!
Powder @ Nowadays Nonstop
No, you just go to Nowadays to dance for 6 hours in the morning — but why not? This set was great and housey and 90s … and then Powder slid in a last half-hour of slinky, weird dark ambient, sleaze-forward dubby techno, and left us all in a daze.
Giles Peterson, Kieren Hebden, Emma-Jean Thackray, Marshall Allan, etc – Jazz Dance @ Xanadu
Peterson has been saying “Jazz Dance at Dingwalls” for something like forty years now — to his credit, I stress, especially when he can bring lineups like this to a roller disco in Bushwick. The whole thing was a wonder, including Marshall Allan at 100, EJT both playing and DJing, and a bunch of nerds watching Four Tet play jazz freakout records … but those of us who knew were cutting it up on the dancefloor.
Honors, honors, we love you all:
- Antal playing boogie and city pop and latin disco at Nowadays, a lovely time.
- The terrifying but compelling ambient room at Wire Festival — great sounds, very hard to get in or out of.
- Donis and Aquite at Mr. Sunday, killer dancers and a Chaka Khan sing-a-long, amazing.
- Akanbi at Nonstop with his own dude on talking drum.
- DJ Clent at Nowadays, endless post-footwork power.
- Jessy Lanza at Public Records, playing more post-step than Pearson Sound, who she was opening for.
- Vladimir Ivkovic / Lena Wilikens at Nowadays, for those who know / want all their records played on 33.
- And a very special thanks to Duane Harriot for playing Toto’s “Africa” at Mr. Sunday, what a jam, what a jam.
2025: concerts of the year
Here we go! I had forgotten / not worried about it being a quarter of the way through the century until about a week ago … so rest assured that you won’t get any nostalgic business here.
JACK Quartet – Helmut Lachenmann String Quartets @ Miller Theatre
I thought that this was going to be poorly attended, and boy was I wrong. It ended up being like some sort of arcane athletic event, with everyone taking the (sometimes inane) microsounds so seriously as to be comic.
Three Lachenmann pieces in one night is a bit much — but there are moments in there that you can’t get anywhere else, both of technical glory and of emotional collapse.
NY Phil – Berg Violin Concerto, Saariaho, Messiaen, Debussy
Well, if you wanted emotional collapse, you came to the right place. Berg’s Concerto is often ultra-romanticized away as an elegy and nothing more, which does not really do it justice — there’s technical wizardry to spare, like in the Lachenmann, and an arc with much more than just tragedy.
(This to say nothing of the Debussy and two short things by Saariaho and Messiaen! This was much more sparse than the Lachenmann, alas for the NY Phil.)
Hollas Longton – Landscape With Train Whistle @ piano+, Harlem
I am of course biased here because I know Hollas, but I ain’t wrong when I say that his work, and this one, have a sense of self that we don’t get much in the small ensemble / post-Wandelweiser world.
Sofia Labropoulou w/ Christian Reiner & Kenji Herbert @ Porgy & Bess, Vienna
Also biased as I know Kenji, but this bit of free improv, on guitar, zither, and free sprech has again stuck with me as an example of just how far you can go out before you need to come back in — Christopher Butterfield would be proud, to say nothing of Kurt Schwitters
Honorable mentions for!
- The NY Phil doing Philip Glass – Symphony No. 11 and Kate Soper – Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus; Kate performed hers, and Phil was there, bless his heart.
- The Vienna Symphony doing the Tannhauser Overture, some other Wagner, and Liszt — in which I realized that the “Bugs Bunny” Tannhauser theme is not actually a love song, another thing I’ve been wrong about since I was about 6.
- Kara-Lis Coverdale at Le Poisson Rouge — Coverdale was great (see Albums for this year), but LPR keeps being an awfully unfriendly venue to listen to music in.
