Top Ten Albums 2009

And if you don’t have a Spotify account here it is in no particular order:

• Emmy The Great – First Love
• Polly Scattergood – Polly Scattergood
• Bat For Lashes – Two Suns
• Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
• Future Of The Left – Travels With Myself And Another
• The Dead Weather – Horehound
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz
• La Roux – La Roux
• Fever Ray – Fever Ray
• Florence + The Machine – Lungs

The two audio depositories I have used above, Spotify and Last.fm respectively, are signifiers of how my acquisition of music has altered over the last year and will continue to change in the coming years.  An early adoption of mp3  technology in the mid ’90s did not deter me from buying CDs and collecting vinyl in the ’00s. Maybe its that collector mentality that hasn’t allowed the CD and DVD go the way of the TDK SA C-90 (other cassette tapes are available) quite yet. I think the physical versus virtual space, bits versus atoms will be the final death blow to the compact disc for me.

Small amount of my compact discs on shelving

More compact and denser HDD

However, I’m pleased to see a very gradual equilibrium forming between the valuation of digital and traditional formats that is being forged democratically between end consumers and originators, such as Goliaths Radiohead and David IAMX, cutting the middleman label bosses out. Not it has to be said due to any misguided act of spite but because of the old guard’s inability to adapt.

On a more personal note, around this time last year I set four New Year’s resolutions. Two of which I have gone some way to achieving. Sometime in 2011 I shall hopefully have a story published in Accent UK‘s Victoriana anthology. Sooner than that I have provided the art to Mark Clapham‘s story The Beast Within in Accent UK’s 2010 anthology Predators which will be out before Bristol International Comic Expo. As well as this honour, I have also worked on several covers and lettering projects which have been equally as fun. Also, my personal project that was called SolNoir and is now entitled Singualrity has begun to take shape thanks to the fantastic talents of artist Gerald Forton and colourist Danjerzone. 2009 has been a kind year to me but I’m really incredibly excited about 2010 and the next decade.

Listening to: ‘Land Of My Formers’ by Future of the Left

Listening to: ‘DAT Politics Villiger 3′ by DAT Politics