Moderate Rock

January is traditionally a slow month for new music. People are still getting over the festive bump, the industry is still creaking back into life, it’s as far as you can get from ‘album of the year’ season. But this month there was plenty to pore over. David Bazan revived Pedro the Lion to memorable effect, Stay Nowhere and Earth Moves both proved their early potential was going to turn into real promise, and Black to Comm released a record that will stay with me, haunting my dreams, all year. Not every thing is shiny and new, somehow I had never stumbled across All The Best Tapes before and if you haven’t either I urge you to dive in to their dayglo intensity.

Most of all, I hope you find something to love.

• TRENT REZNOR & ATTICUS ROSS- ‘The Start of Things’
• TAKING BACK SUNDAY- ‘A Song for Dan’
• PEDRO THE LION- ‘All Seeing Eye’
• COLLECTIONS OF COLONIES OF BEES- ‘HAWAII’
• PERSPECTIVE, A LOVELY HAND TO HOLD- ‘2003’
• STAY NOWHERE– ‘Kill Me’
• PETROL GIRLS- ‘Strike’
• FEVER 333- ‘Burn It’
• BANGLADEAFY- ‘Ribboncutter’
• ALL THE BEST TAPES- ‘I Want to Believe’
• CLARENCE CLARITY- ‘Law of Fives’
• VOWWS (feat. CHINO MORENO)- ‘Structure of Love II (Renholder Remix)’
• THOMAS RAGSDALE– ‘Heretics’
• BLACK TO COMM- ‘Ten Tons of Rain in a Plastic Cup’
• GAVIN MILLER– ‘3 Days (Fourth)’
• JULIA KENT- ‘Crepuscolo’
• PENELOPE TRAPPES- ‘Maeve’
• WINTERLIGHT- ‘Calm Then a Storm’
• ARCHITECTS- ‘Change (In the House of Flies)’
• THE END OF THE OCEAN- ‘Desire’
• THE SUN BURNS BRIGHT- ‘Rapture on a Lonely Shore’
• MONO- ‘After You Comes the Flood’
• EARTH MOVES– ‘IV. Immortal’