As Christmas approaches we all look back on the things that helped through the previous year, so here at Domino we've compiled our lists of the things we happened to like the most, be it songs, food, gigs, basically whatever made us happy. Enjoy.
Dan Papps - Maximum Dryness
The Makers – ‘Don’t Challenge Me’
High on Fire – ‘Serums of Liao’
Beak> - ‘Mono’
Tame Impala – ‘Why Won’t They Talk To Me?’
Flying Lotus – ‘Getting There’
Actress – ‘Jardin’
The Equatics – ‘Merry Go Round’
Dirty Projectors – ‘Maybe That Was It’
Frank Ocean – ‘Crack Rock’
Love Apple – ‘Guess I Always Knew’
Ryan McCann
Carter Tutti Void - Carter Tutti Void
Love Apple EP (Numero compilation)
Loving On The Flip Side (Now Again compilation)
Lil Ugly Mane - Mista Thug Isolation
Matthew E White - Big Inner
Burial - Kindred EP
Roberto Cacciapaglia - Sei Note In Logica (Reissue)
Laurel Halo - Quarantine
Actress - RIP
Farrah Abraham - My Teenage Dream Ended
Stephen Newell
London 2012

Jesssica pratt (self titled)

Polica – give you the ghost

Ryder Cup Medinah

Tame impala - lonerism

Actress - RIP

Kendrick lamar – good kid, mAAd city
The Muppets (film)

Jumping on the tour de france bandwagon
Julia holter - ekstasis
Lynden
Some songs I quite like from 2012 in no particular order
1. Get Free - Major Lazer (swoon)
2. Two Different Ways (Richard H. Kirk) remix - Factory Floor (fond moments at Simple Things festie)
3. Le Goudron [Bobby Birdman Remix] - YACHT (French and funky!)
4. Grimes - Oblivion (despite it reminding me of the Brookside theme tune it makes me go a bit mad in the head and want to swish about like an idiot - am I supposed to backlash on Grimes now? Ah well... who cares)
5. Pure Bathing Culture - Ivory Coast (it's as if I'm an angry dog and Mick Dundee is waving his forefinger and pinky at me - pacified)
6. Killing Time - Veronica Falls (unadulterated indie indulgence)
7. Young Magic - Sparkly ('wooh')
8. Lower Dens - Brains (strummy strummy jump jump)
9. Solange - Losing You (written and produced by Dev Hynes (Blood Orange) - please everyone check out Coastal Grooves from last year and listen to it 3 times a day before meals.)
10. French Films - Convict (I only heard this at a live show last week - was good fun or was that the free Cuba Libres, eh...)
Jack Shankly
1. Julia Holter - Ekstasis
2. Daughn Gibson - All Hell
3. Angel Olsen - Half Way Home
4. Matthew E White - Big Inner
5. John Talabot - Fin
6. Laurel Halo - Quarantine
7. DIIV - Oshin
8. Woods - Bend Beyond
9. Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland - Black Is Beautiful
10. Jessica Pratt - Jessica Pratt
Pat Riley
1. Turing Machine "What's the Meaning of What" (album)
2. OM "Advaitic Songs" (album)
3. Pupukea, Hawaii (place)
4. Worst Gig Ever (podcast)
5. Hot Chip "In Our Heads" (album)
6. Victoria Haven: Proposed Land Use Action (exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum)
7. Lower Dens "Nootropics" (album)
8. Exchange Alley (restaurant)
9. Flop reunion show August 18th, 2012 at Whiting's house (performance)
10. Brothers of the Sonic Cloth "Fire Burns Dim in the Shadow of the Mountain" (single)
Runners up: Dan Deacon "America" (album), Dina Martina "Ample Wattage" (performance), Oleana (restaurant), Soundtrack to The Man WIth The Iron Fists (Instrumentals) by the RZA (album), Lonnie Holley "Just Before Music"
Kris Grillespie
10. Fennesz - Aun (Touch)
The soundtrack to a film of the same name, Aun is full of Christian Fennesz's mesmerizing, if not a little foreboding textures which would be enough in and of themselves, but the three collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto are the real stars here. "Haru" might well be the most achingly beautiful piano piece Sakamoto has composed since "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence"/ "Brilliant Colors" and Fennesz's ghostly atmospherics are the perfect pairing.
9. Royal Headache - s/t (What's Yr Rupture)
These four young Aussie punks took the crooning adrenalin rush of Danzig-era Misfits and mixed it with the lo-fi Merseybeat 4-track hiss of prime Guided By Voices. New record in early 2013 coming soon... can't wait.
8. The Babies - Our House On The Hill (Woodsist)
Straining but tuneful vocals sung over distorted Telecasters played through Fender Twin amps that are in constant motion crisscrossing the Continental U.S. in a Ford Econoline van. It's your bandmate's turn to drive so he gets to pick the tunes. He scans the left hand of the radio dial for signs of cultural life on a faint college radio station signal because iPods aren't due to be invented for another fifteen years and he can't bear to listen to Surfer Rosa for twentieth time on this tour.
7. Tycho - Dive (Ghostly International)
Released at the very, very tail end of 2011, this lush electronics and rich melodic work on Dive might make it the poppiest album Boards of Canada never made.
6. The Two Bears - Be Strong (Southern Fried)
Joe Goddard and Raf Rundell team up to give us a hug of life. The joie de vivre of Be Strong rolled right into Hot Chip's equally brilliant In Our Heads, which probably would have made my Top 10 if not for my own self-imposed "no work-related albums in my Top 10 rule." (A rule I've only broken once in twenty years)...
5. Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan (Domino)
...and yet, I'm going to break that rule for the second time: the record's arrangements are threadbare, by today's production standards of hypercompressed unwieldy overfrosted Pro Tools wedding cakes. But Swing Lo Magellan shows that none of that is necessary if you've got the songs and ideas to withstand simplicity... "Just From Chevron" makes my heart ache.
4. Todd Terje - It's The Arps EP (Smalltown Supersound)
Brilliant perocolating, slinky disco effervescence in concentrate form. Nearly every sound on this EP came from the classic Arp 2600 synthesizer (also from whence the voice of R2-D2 came).
3. Matthew E. White - Big Inner (Hometapes)
Mr. White has vintage soul music's seductive vibes down pat, but instead of a shallow come-on it feels more like a tender comedown.
2. Sam Flax - Age Waves (Burger Records)
Set your flangers on stun. An acquaintance of mine said that this was "...the record he wished Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti made this year" and that points you in the right direction though the songwriting feels more developed to me if not a little more 80's production referential than Mr. Pink's recent output. The band totally knocked my socks off live when they broke out an urgent cover of this pre-fame gem from the Eurythmics.
1. Four Tet - Pink (Text)
I went so far as to buy the Japan-only CD of this release for $50 and it was worth every damn penny. Not sure anyone is more masterful at riding a groove and gently playing with tension and release with such subtlety and restraint right now.
honorable mention songs of the year:
Tomas Barfod - "November Skies" (Sepalcure Remix)
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Only In My Dreams"
Swearin' - "Here To Hear"
Tanlines - "All Of Me"
Kindness - "Gee Up" (Cosmic Kids Edit)
Sam Flynn
1. Sleep - Dopesmoker (Reissue on Southern Lord)
2. Tame Impala – Lonerism
3. Bill Fay – Life Is People
4. Lower Dens - Nootropics
5. The Cure @ Reading Festival
6. Discovering Optimo - Sleepwalk
7. Working with the lovely people of Domino
8. Shy Kids – Field Trips
9. Breton – Other People’s Problems
10. Sainburys festive sandwich range (‘Boxing Day Sandwich’ in particular)
Marcel Legane
- Chairlift - Something
- Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes
- Rustie's closing set at The Warehouse Project
- Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
- This Town Needs Guns - Cat Fantastic
- Japandroids - The House That Heaven Built
- Frank Ocean - Pyramids
- The Hundred Reasons & Hell Is For Heroes reunion show @ The Forum
- Everything Everything - Kemosabe
- The fried chicken starter @ Bone Daddies Ramen
Laura Calnan
- The Olympic Games
- Tame Impala – Lonerism
- Francois & the Atlas Mountains gig at St. Mary’s Church in Ashford
- Winning Trivial Pursuit for the first time ever.
- Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
- Hot Chip – In Our Heads
- Radio Head, up and down the dial of British radio {book}
- Bombay Bicycle Club at Bournemouth Academy
- Melody’s Echo Chamber {album}
- Working at Domino Records, it’s been emotional, and genuinely life changing, thank you from the depths of my tiny little heart.
Louis Lloyd
1) Coldplay @ Emirates with Bart (and so many other memories...)
2) Geordie Shore: Chaos In Cancun
3) Watch The Throne tour
4) Calvin Harris - 18 Months
5) Field Day and the afterparty and the after-afterparty
6) iTunes Festival (Usher, Lana, JLS and Muse)
7) Not missing a Haim London show
8) The Valleys
9) Rammstein @ The O2
10) Bruno Mars - Locked Out of Heaven
Jeff Pachman
Anais Mitchell – ‘Young Man in America’
Dayna Kurtz - ‘Secret Canon Vol. 1’
Lost Bayou Ramblers – “Mammoth Waltz
Thee Oh Sees – Putrifier II
Ty Segall – Twins
Mount Carmel – Real Women
Beth Orton – Sugaring Season
The Babies – Our House on the Hill
Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas
Dirty Projectors – Swing Low Magellan
Chromatics – Kill for Love
Mark Austin
Album Shields, Grizzly Bear
Album Old Idea, Leonard Cohen
Thing that Happened Discovering America, New Orleans, New York and Nashville
Album Tramp, Sharon Van Etten
Album Locked Down, Dr. John
Thing That Happened Froome and Wiggo taking The Stage and the Yellow Jersey on La Planche des Belle Filles (and taking it all the way to Paris)
Album Big Inner, Matthew E. White (very excited about this in 2013)
Track Ramada Inn, Neil Young + Crazy Horse
Show Springsteen at SXSW
Festival End of The Road (Bella Union’s 15th Anniversary)
Paula Williams
The Skints - Part & Parcel – Album of the year!!
Anti Vigilante - Tempest
Jeramiah Ferrari - The Dubby Rock EP
Jaya The Cat - The New International Sound of Hedonism
Roughneck Riot - This is Our Day
The Skints - sold out gig at The Scala, London
Jaya The Cat, Anti Vigilante, Random Hand, Tyrannosaurus Alan, Claypigeon & Faintest Idea at The Underworld, London
Skindred at Brixton Academy
Incubus at Brixton Academy
The Walking Dead - Season 3 (TV Series)
Duncan Spiers
Karin Park – Restless
Nas – Loco-motive (feat. Large Professor)
Michael Penn – On Your Way
Drake – Crew Love (feat. The Weeknd)
Marina And The Diamonds – Fear And Loathing
Lana Del Rey – Off To The Races
Smash Cast – Never Give All The Heart
Labrinth – Treatment
Kitty Pryde – Okay Cupid
Karin Park – Bending Albert’s Law
Alex Rose
1. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold (Dull Tools)
2. The Babies - Our House On The Hill (Woodsist)
3. Thee Oh Sees - Putrifiers II (In The Red)
4. Dan Deacon - America (Domino)
5. Various Artists: Long Time Gone (Little Axe/Mississippi)
6. Ty Segall - Twins (Drag City)
7. Various Artists: The Nablus Project (http://nablusproject.bandcamp.com/)
8. OBN IIIs - OBN IIIs (Tic Tac Totally)
9. Tronics: Love Backed By Force (What's Yr Rupture?)
10. Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light (Fat Possum/Domino)
Francesca
Hot Chip live at Heaven
Death Grips ‘The Money Store’
Breaking Bad
Manic Street Preachers ‘Generation Terrorists’ 20th anniversary reissue
John Maus live at the Scala
Perfecting the breakfast burrito
Hunx & his Punx live at The Smell
Acquiring a painting by Gidget Gein
The Magic Castle Hotel in Hollywood
The Daily Show during the US election
Matt Sweeney
2012 ELECTRONIC - BAKERS DOZEN
1 Tigerskin – This Place Is Empty Without You
2 Todd Terje – Inspector Norse
3 Luke Abbott – Modern Driveway
4 Machinedrum – DDD
5 letherette – Warstones
6 Four Tet – Pyramid
7 Nathan Fake – Paean
8 Lone – Lying in the Reeds
9 Essay – Morning Mountain (feat. Rhian Sheehan)
10 Errors – Pleasure Palaces
11 Blondes – Lover (Dungeon Acid Remix)
12 Hot Chip – How Do You Do? - Todd Terje remix
13 Daphni – Ahora
Henry Thomas
Bat For Lashes, The Haunted Man
Daphni, Jialong
Death Grips, The Money Store
Deftones, Koi No Yokan
Fushitsusha (live at St. John-at-Hackney)
Grizzly Bear, Shields
Hanne Hukkelberg, Featherbrain
Lorn, Ask The Dust
Melody's Echo Chamber, Melody's Echo Chamber
Sharon Van Etten, Tramp
Steph Seager
Sharon Van Etten. Sharon at the Scala. Sharon at Shepherds Bush Empire. Just Sharon for being Sharon generally. I LOVE YOU SHARON.
The Gaslight Anthem 'Handwritten' and KOKO gig.
Refused at The Forum.
Nas at the 100 Club. Life is Good.
Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, m.A.A.d City
Bear In Heaven, I Love You It’s Cool.
At The Drive In at Brixton Academy.
Dan Deacon at The Scala.
Paris, Reading Festival, New York.
I'm probably not grasping the concept of a top ten but honorary mentions for favourite songs of the year include.... Foals 'Inhaler', Bruno mars 'Locked Out Of Heaven', The Blackout 'Start The Party', Villagers 'The Waves', Carly Rae Jepsen 'Call Me Maybe', Taylor Swift ‘the title is too long but you know the one I mean…’ Deftones ‘Tempest’, Joey Bada$$ ‘Hardknock’, Frightened Rabbit ‘The Woodpile’.