09/25 - Bumping Oldies Off My Cellular Phone

Squeezing in one final list of the year. This has nuthin to do about nuthin. Just some joyful irreverent vibes to round off the year.

Kendrick Lamar ft. AZ Chike - peekaboo

Bing-bop-boom-boom-boom-bop-boom

Kendrick can be funny too!

Chance the Rapper ft. MadeinTYO & DaBaby - Hot Shower

Jay-Z ft. UGK - Big Pimpin'

Some reservations about themes and wordage (like with several of the tracks on this list), but that southern bouncy hip hop still gets me in a party mood.

Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire ft. Despot, KOOL A.D., Heems, Danny Brown, El-P - The Last Huzzah!

I like my rap tracks with a Salinger reference and shitloads of meta-commentary. And I always like my rap tracks featuring El-P, Danny Brown and Despot. El-P's verse counting from 1 to 16 is some spectacular Drowning By Numbers stuff!

 

Odd Future - Oldie

Can't believe I hadn't put this on a list before. By now it's an oldie for real! Still sounding fresh as in 2012 though! The giddy sound of a bunch of kids messing around. With the caveat that these kids include three of the most talented and influential voices of the past decade – Tyler, Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt. Every verse has its charm, but then Earl rolls in from Samoa and overshadows everyone with a verse so flabbergasting it has its own youtube video. And then of course, to top it off, Tyler ends with the Odd Future manifesto:

This is for the n**** in the suburbs
And the white kids with n**** friends that say the n-word
And the ones who got called weird, fag, bitch, nerd
'Cause you was into jazz, kitty cats and Steven Spielberg
They say we ain't actin' right
Always try to turn our fuckin' color into black and white
But they'll never change 'em, never understand 'em
Radical's my anthem, turn my fuckin' amps up
So instead of critiquing and bitchin', bein' mad as fuck
Just admit, not only are we talented, we're rad as fuck!

08/25 - Here's The One Resolve That The Time Can Save

Some alternative to all the holiday clichés

Iron & Wine ft. Fiona Apple - All in Good Time

Nice fireplace mood in this duet, me thinks.

Throw your bread to falling birds
Buried friends and wasted words
Something wants to eat us all
Alive

Beak> - Hungry Are We

Getting ready for gargantuan Christmas gorging! Hungryyyyy are weee

Under Byen - Om Vinteren

Finally some real winter cold hit, the night before christmas. I like my degrees minus, this time of year.

Sigur Rós - Glósoli (live)

Intense peacefulness!

 

Together For Palestine - Lullaby

The only holiday song that matters. Have you bought yours? Go on:

https://togetherforpalestine.org/

In the little town of Bethlehem, settlers are desecrating every notion of peace

and in Gaza, there are no silent nights, due to IOF's continuous violations of the ceasefire

But from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free

07/25 - I Wouldn't Want To Be A Part Of Any Club That Would Have Me

OK, I'm gonna squeeze in a couple more Top 5s this year. Bad weather week = dark twisty rap soundtrack:

ScHoolboy Q - Yeern 101

First something to pump your fist to. 

El-P - The Jig Is Up

Then, Groucho Marx reference of the week.

Mach-Hommy ft. KAYTRANADA & 03 Greedo - #RICHAXXHAITIAN

Now some bewildering fast-rap.

Open Mike Eagle - ok but I'm the phone screen

...a bit of everyday symbolic social realism...

This is a little like when RZA's basement flooded and he lost all them discs
It's like that, but like less, less devastating

 

billy woods ft. E L U C I D, Quelle Chris, Denmark Vessey - NYNEX

...and finally we're thrown right back into the dark present and a threatening future. Don't worry. More uplifting stuff on the next list....

True, the future is children, but whatever future you buildin' already look misеrable

06/25 - We'll Be Pirates!

The autumn has passed in a flurry of wagework. All fun, but I've not had time for much else, except some birdwatching. Here is a top five for just chugging along.

Nihiloxica - Asidi

I had an idea of making a Top 5 of all heavy percussion tracks like this, but I chickened out. Others might find it trying after 20+ min... Nevertheless, this Ugandan pummelling is exactly my jam atm.

Shellac - Scrappers

I need to listen to more Shellac. This is such a great tune.

Mabe Fratti - Kravitz

I love the use of a brass section to just play long, held out notes like this.

Gnod - Dream On

Get lost in the groove. Melt away.

Los Hijos del Sol - Cariñito

The Clandestino season started with a wonderful gig by Los Wembler's de Iquitos. They of course have plenty of amazing tunes of their own, which they played. But it was when they did a cover of this chicha classic that the whole audience started singing along, whether they spoke Spanish or not, and since then, I keep humming this melody wherever I go.

05/25 - I Wanna Vocalise My Love To You

OK, so it's clearly not Top 5 year. Lists are trickling out at a glacial pace. All my fans are pining away for another expertly curated quintet of tunes. It's been almost four months since this year's Clandestino festival, and I'm already at work with artist texts for new Clandestino arrangements. But the traditional summary must be posted! Here is a groove-heavy Top 5 of what went down in May. It was glorious.

Jupiter & Okwess - Na Kozonga

Festival Saturday was one of the most relentlessly sweaty evenings I have experienced at Clandestino. By the time this Congolese giant went on stage we had already been dancing a lot to El León Pardo y Los Gaiteros de Punta Icaco. And when he went out into the audience to lead us in a frenzied train of dance it was still just the beginning of the night.

Florence Adooni - Vocalize My Luv

At the end of Florence Adooni's euphoric concert, I was a puddle. Again, horn players out in the audience, callback singalongs and not a single pause in the dancing.

Anto <3 - MC Dinero

In between West African dance tunes, what do you need? Some bratty Colombian clubbing. Meow!

Les Soeurs Doga & Viktor Marek - Mashallah

Friday served up a hug party with twin sisters from Burkina Faso. Such Gs!

Fauna - Ömsa

Swedes can groove as well. So much so that the speakers fall from the wall.

04/25 - Taste The Salt Of Friendship

A high summer top 5, mainly inspired by my UK vacation in July.

Kneecap - Better Way To Live

Thanks to all the idiot zionists of the British establishment for turning me on to the delights of rap in Irish. Free Palestine!

Little Simz - Young

This is what it felt like being in London this time around. Simbi brings turns on the charm and joy, on an otherwise searing album. I speak a lot of French: oui, oui, oui!

Glass Beams - Mahal

My old flatmate Jamie has always been a reliant provider of new musical discoveries. Crashing at his place in Glasgow we watched a Glass Beams live set. Kind of like an East Asian Khruangbin. 

GEL - Mirage

Another Jamie selection, this time a roadtrip highlight in the Aberdeenshire highlands. "Listen for the drop!" he said, and the drop still rules. So simple, yet so effective, every time.

Kae Tempest - Hold Your Own

I went to a stag do, and a few days later Ali officially got married, and sent me this, with the comment "Nuff said". 

Agreed.

Time is an onslaught. Love is a mission.

03/25 - You And I Could See Into The Same Eternity

Spring just ran away from me. But it's been terrific. You'd expect me to post a really upbeat list because of the season, and as an antidote from the former possibly mawkish entry, but no! Spring is also for feeling lovelorn and melancholic!

Adrianne Lenker - Sadness As A Gift

When I first encountered this song on Song Exploder, I didn't immediately get it, but by now I've listened to it hundreds of times, and think it's one of the best songs of recent years. 

Charlotte Gainsbourg - Hey Joe

How great is Charlotte Gainsbourg? For some reason she does not seem to be considered a massive star, but how many others do we have that are both great movie actors and amazing music artists, in two different languages to boot? Whether in a scarring von Trier flick, the gorgeous Les Passagers de la Nuit, or in an ominous cover of a folk classic like here, she's a perennial favourite.

Julia Holter - Sea Calls Me Home

Coming home to the island every evening after work, the aroma of lilacs and a warm sentimentality envelops me. The sea stretches out towards past times and missed comrades. Julia whistles, and I feel at home, at rest, remote.

Monica Zetterlund - Ensam på havet

Surgingly lonesome composition by the always brilliant Stina Nordenstam, sung by one of Sweden's best voices ever. The sirens are calling...

Brian Eno & John Cale - Cordoba

The chorus of Sadness As A Gift kept reminding me of something, and when I realised it was the melody of John Cale's Buffalo Ballet I first intended to put that song on the list. But then that sojourn into John Cale made me go back to one of my all time favourite songs, which I've loved since I discovered it on the brilliant live record Fragments of a Rainy Season as a teenager, and realised it hadn't been on a Top 5 yet, so here goes. I've never analysed what the lyrics are actually about, but to me the song just encapsulates every heartwrenching departure from a friend/lover in my life. 

You start to walk towards the station
I'll walk towards the bus

02/25 - We're Patterns In Repeat

Second list of 2025. It's been ready and waiting for a while, but now I have the time to post it. The wind has abated. Stillness reigns:

Lankum - Hunting the Wren

Winter time is wren time on Kalvsund. They are partially migratory birds, and during summer I hardly see any on the island. But in March they still dart across the path in front of my feet, or sit singing in low shrubberies. Absolutely adorable and wonderful little birds, but for some reason the Irish have got it into their heads that they are to "blame for much woe". As a birdwatcher I almost feel guilty about listening, but it's such an amazing song that I can't tear myself away. (And really, the wren is a stand-in for witches and the song is about the suffering of outcast women.)

Christo Xavier - Poomani Maalika

Another great movie I saw at Gothenburg Film Festival was the Indian folk horror Bramayugam. While it didn't really scare the shit out of me as a horror, it was stunning visually, and especially aurally. The moment when the main character starts singing this, for his demon host, is a spine-tingling moment!

Laura Marling - Patterns

Love that muted acoustic guitar sound! It's the season of new cycles, and this is a perfect song to listen to while looking at flower buds and reawakening bees.

Jessica Pratt - Better Hate

I'm not generally one for faux-vintage revivalist genres, but the fact that this sounds exactly like it could have been recorded in the 1960s does add some magic nostalgia to a superb composition.

Arooj Aftab - Raat Ki Rani

I deem this the most beautiful song on Arooj Aftab's latest album, and it's named after a Pakistani night-blooming jasmine, so it's pretty much a perfect closer to any playlist.

01/25 - Two Heads Are Better Than None

Well, well, well, if it isn't PETTER'S TOP 5, back again for the 12th year in a row! Not as prolifically updated as it once was, but still a steadfast, trustworthy guide to your most eclectic 5-song tasters of the best in music, new and old. I've already delayed for almost two months, so let's kick things off with a bang, shall we?

Brama - S'enraija

Feels only natural to start the year with a hurdy gurdy-driven song from Southern France sung in Occitan, doesn't it? A little warm up with the intro, and then one killer of a riff drop.

Nilüfer Yanya - Like I Say (I runaway)

Maybe my favourite new album of 2024. I've been infatuated with her voice since the eternal Top 5 favourite Melt in 2019, and this new record exercises an almost magnetic force over me. So sensual, so smart, so cool.

Horslips - Dearg Doom

One of the great horror movies I saw as part of Gothenburg Film Festival had this as its credits outro, and I had to stay in the cinema as it played out. Great Irish hit based on the tale of Cú Chulainn, the Hound of Ulster!

Mdou Moctar - Oh France

Anti-colonial shredding with Nigerian guitar god, yes please!

Blood Incantation - The Message [Tablet III]

As might be noticed, it is the time of the year when I catch up on the Best of 2024-lists, and this album is on almost all of them. Rightly so. Epic does not being to describe it. Listen to the whole thing! And to fully appreciate it, listen to it many times and focus on different instruments each time. The drums for example: woah!

Fight the tide of greed, open your heart and believe
Sow peace through deeds