Traxx
Tracey feat. Riko Dan - 'Sex Life'
Fcukers - 'Play Me'
Facta - 'BDB'
SSSLIP - 'Brek Stance'
Bodhi - 'Fade'
Bodhi - 'T.O.P.'
yingtuitive - 'braided chords (Tristan Arp Remix)'
Gorgon City - 'Loveless (George FitzGerald Remix)'
78 Degrees - 'The Only One'
Feel very validated that 'Sex Life' has popped up on so many lists, including RA's one for the last 5 years. I'm completely ignorant of how this music exists in the real world and so was pleasantly surprised that this tune had blown up, not least because grime veteran Riko Dan deserves the exposure. Shout to the No Tags podcast mid-year roundup for being the first to bring to my attention. The rest of this list is just oddball club beats of one kind or another that may well have got zero traction outside my own head.
Bop-adjacent moods
Dexter in the Newsagent - Time Flies
James K - Friend
Erika de Casier - Lifetime
Oklou - choke enough
Bit of a trend this year in the alt-pop space for non-maximalist vibes-based records – even Addison Rae (a consensus pick I didn't get into) fades easily into the background. It's as if everyone is hungover from brat. Dexter in the Newsagent's Time Flies is a more unpolished and perhaps uneven album than others working this lane who have received greater plaudits, but it's also rawer and more emotiotionally direct. Plus as a now South London resident I feel a certain geographical affinity with the artist and am willing them to succeed.
Moods
Laurie Torres - Après coup
BambinoDJ - Silent Dispatch
Malibu - Vanities
Steve Hauschildt - Aeropsia
more eaze & claire rousay - no floor
Jonny Nash - Once Was Ours Forever
Disiniblud - s/t
Ariel Kalma & Asa Tone - O
mu tate / Nexcyia / Exzald S - Labège
M. Sage - Tender / Waiting
Midori Hirano & Brueder Selke - Split Scale
Arc Rae - New Moon
Funcionário - horizonte
Almost An Island - Palo Verde
Clairaudience - Letters from Emptiness
U.e. - Hometown Girl
Various - Shadow Garden
I continue to live a stressfull life and mostly listen to ambient music. This stuff is a balm when working and nicely elevates the experience of reading. Laurie Torres does warm, muffled, minimalist piano-led improvisations which are impossible not to like – it's the record I've listened to most this year. BambinoDJ makes cosmic chillout dancehall – very demure but still retaining a slinky groove. Quite a lot of guitar-based work above as well (Jonny Nash, claire rousay, Disiniblud, Clairaudience), suggesting I haven't completely left my indie rock predilections behind.
Beats
Yetsuby - 4EVA
Barker - Stochastic Drift
Djrum - Under Tangled Silence
Binary Algorithms - Reminiscencias
Sabola - Útilykt
Gaiko - s/t
In Transit - s/t
Prayer - Dream of Heaven
Andrea - Living Room
shinetiac - Infiltrating Roku City
Barker and Djrum got their dues, deservedly so. The rest is mostly drum & bass, the greatest music ever invented. I am very fond of the Yetsuby record, which strikes a nice balance between pretty and bolshy.
Guitars
Star 99 - Gaman
Momma - Welcome to my Blue Sky
The Beths - Straight Line Was A Lie
Wednesday - Bleeds
Liquid Mike - Claws
Most years I can count on being swept away by some emo band I have never heard of previously. In 2025 Star 99 got closest with their Los Campesinos!-flavoured take on 90s teen film rock music. The Momma record has the muscle of Hotline TNT but with actual and better songs.
Loved previously but disappointed in 2025
Pool Kids - Easier Said Than Done
Real Lies - We Will Annihilate Our Enemies
Hot Mulligan - The Sound a Body Makes When It's Still
Ben Quad - Wisher
Hotline TNT - Raspberry Moon
yeule - Evangelic Girl is a Gun
Skullcrusher - And Your Song is Like a Circle
Purity Ring - s/t
Don't usually do a list of bummers, but this year it was quite a long list. The Beths just about escaped the pile because I realised 'Mother, Pray for Me' was a bad song in an otherwise good album. I'm seeing Pool Kids live in the new year, so maybe that will make their record click for me.
Not of 2025 but loved in 2025
Merce Lemon - Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild
All Dogs - Kicking Every Day
red sun - 'Boomer'
Shout to the random asides in Endless Scroll podcast episodes that brought these to my attention.
Rereleased / Remastered
Various - Telepathic Fish: Trawling The Early 90s Ambient Underground
Pavement - Hecklers Choice: Big Guns and Heavy Lifters
Never not going to be into some 90s electronic music archival project. I'm Pavement agnostic, and so found having a compilation remastering their greatest hits actually quite welcome.
