British Sea Power once wasted elegiac stanzas on a rapport destined to be 'ended on an oily stage'. However, many wonderful musical happenings of a more positive nature have coincidentally occurred over the course of the past twelve months on stages small and large; sticky and pristine; smooth, sweaty, and indeed oily (for which see that of Tivoli de Helling above). Here's the deal: we'll run through our most enjoyable for reasons varied (and in some cases pretty well unknown), and you can reminisce or wish you'd been there in a more composed state of mind or rejoice in the knowledge you were approximately half a world away... We're open to any which reactionary response.
10. Omar Souleyman, Bestival
Charmed from slumber and feeling like a snake stupefied by its own intoxicating venom, it may have been the conga trains, or the disciple-like devotees enrobed in tea towels and floor-length suriyahs interpretatively grooving, or the emergence of the fucking sun but by God, or Allah, or whoever - Omar Souleyman brought some downright invigorating cultish brilliance to the bog.
9. Islet, The Lexington
Few acts the delectable and/or respectable side of Odd Future, Steel Panther, Slipknot, Sunn O))), Chris Cunningham, yadda yadda yadda are capable of petrifying like Cardiffians Islet can petrify. Breed such petrification in a setting as intimate as The Lexington and the quartet come across as inimitably 501-wetting as an interminable Hallowe'en spent confined to a blacked-out enclave inhabited solely by a particularly peeved Emma Daman.
8. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, I'll Be Your Mirror
An eternity of harrowing Sunday services could never be as emotionally punishing as Godspeed You! Black Emperor at midday as the sun thuds away on the glass ceilings of Alexandra Palace. After two hours of soul-pummelling and minimal redemption, antennas elucidate the trajectory of your spirit as it wafts on up to Heaven, divinely unfulfilled and brimming with desolation. Soft and scintillating brutality? Why certainly.
7. Gold Panda, Koko
Similar to Four Tet and Flying Lotus before him, previously unsung (and exclusively instrumental, thus literally) electronica hero Derwin clambered to the bushy pinnacles of bamboo shoots he's unassumingly yet assuredly been scaling for a clutch of years now back in October when he headlined the comparatively ginormous Koko. He alone knows what was witnessed from such great heights although from our lowly vantage point on the venue's icky flooring, Gold Panda came of age. Figuratively, obviously.
6. Zola Jesus, Le Guess Who?
Dreamy and doozy and superficially dark and synthetically devastating, Nika Roza Danilova brought some radiance to a gelid Utrecht during the latest edition of one of this world's greatest unearthed, in no way muddied festivals,
Le Guess Who?
5. BRAIDS, XOYO
Gurgles of synth, guitars that bubbled like the most bulbous of cold sores, and intricate yet oh-so-accessible pop songs plucked from ethereal realms via Calgary were all emitted from a Cowper Street basement when BRAIDS came to London. Fittingly, they went to town on the likes of Peach Wedding and Glass Deers, making everything else garbled down our ears for the next week sound like unintelligible blather and unlistenable gobbledygook.
4. TV On The Radio, Glastonbury
The thought of the 2012 fallow year for the Worthy Farm bash is all sorts of unthinkable, as was the tragic passing of bassist Gerard Smith barely eight weeks before this precise show. Thus for the genre-skipping New Yorkers to hop from the blocks in a manner quite so startling on Glastonbury's Other Stage was not only an allegorical high-five for humanity but also a stirring statement of intent from one of this generation's most progressive and proficient collectives.
3. The Cure, Royal Albert Hall
To hear All Cats Are Grey and the entirety of Three Imaginary Boys scratched and snarled from a Jaguar of the Fender variety was as shriekingly majestic as the Royal Albert Hall itself, The Cure's sole UK Reflections show providing a night of understated grandiosity to fondly gaze back upon for many full moons to come. Exhaustive without ever exhausting, nigh on three hours of retrospection effortlessly bettered
a blustery show of hit-laden introspection at Bestival a few months previously.
2. Portishead, I'll Be Your Mirror
In at number two Portishead not only most craftily curated London's inaugural I'll Be Your Mirror, but also played two arresting headline shows within the crypt-like glasshouse of Ally Pally in as many nights. Third jumped out from its two-dimensional packaging to pack many a skull-crunching, corporeally mutilating punch as the Bristol-lodged trio proved themselves to be worthy of headlining festivals of all shapes, sizes, and varieties worth crawling out from hibernation for.
1. Sufjan Stevens, Royal Festival Hall
Few songwriting talents are as transcendental or terrific as Sufjan Stevens, and the second of two hotter-than-heck shows at the Royal Festival Hall back in May was a night to cherish for a lifetime. Or failing that at least until all memories turn to marbles and tumble out from every sensorial orifice. Megalomaniacal compulsions and mild psychosis aside, Stevens couldn't have been more perfect had his luminous lycra been complimented by a lustrous halo lingering above his helmet hair and a pair of wings significantly more sturdy than those he initially flapped about feverishly during an overwrought and overwhelmingly tensile Seven Swans.
