As is the custom on this blog, Dec 31st heralds my personal favourites of the year in various categories, leaving it until the last moment to make sure as much gets caught in the net before we flip to 2026. Despite the horrors we experience through the media daily, 2025 was a bit of a vintage year for me personally with new work and family milestones reached despite the hardships all around us. This year has been hugely productive and I’ve released a few things, designed a lot and contributed to several big projects that I’m super proud of. The Autumn was dominated by the Telepathic Fish compilation, something that out-performed our expectations by some way and rumbled into the winter months, making several end of year lists to our delight.
This is not the last word on the Fish…
Music:
Snapped Ankles – Hard Times Furious Dancing LP (the Leaf Label)
clipping. – Dead Channel Sky LP (Sub Pop)
Paten Locke – Dance On My Grave LP (Full Plate)
Hieroglyphic Being – Dance Music 4 Bad People LP (Smalltown Supersound)
Hieroglyphic Being – RE-SELECTED PSYBIENT JAZZ SOUNDSCAPES VOL. 1+2 (Mathematics)
Move 78 – Game Four LP (self-released)
Marshall Jefferson – Yellow Meditation For The Dance Generation (Joakim’s Horizontal Remix Instrumental) (Utter)
Stereolab – Instant Holograms On Metal Film LP (Warp/Duophonic)
Telefax Productions – Break This House Down 12″ (Classic Music Company)
Coastal County – II LP (Lomas Productions)
Kif Productions – Still Out LP (Sound Records)
Move 78 – In The Age of Data (self-released)
Group Modular – The Tunnel / Lonely Pylon 7″ (Delights)
Jo Johnson – Alterations vol.1 LP (Silver Threads)
Podcasts:
What Went Wrong?
Some Assembly Required
Tales From A Disappearing City
The Bureau of Lost Culture
What Did You Do Yesterday?
Oh God What Now?
Rule of Three
The Adam Buxton Podcast
We Buy Records
The Fanzine Podcast
Gigs / Events / Exhibitions:
Eno and Anne B @ the British Library, London
Mick Jones’ RRPL @ The Farsight Gallery, London
Visiting Neil Rice’s home with friends for a personal light show display
Linder Sterling @ The Hayward, London
Leigh Bowery @ The Tate Modern, London
Strangely Familiar – Photographer’s Gallery, London
The Dream House, East Dulwich, London
Future Language of the Ikonoklast book launch @ Greyhound Pub, Peckham
My 2hr gig turning into 3 hours @ Cabron Bar, Folkestone
The Epic Story of Graffiti, Birmingham
Telepathic Fish launch party @ Arch555, London
The Jonny Halifax Invocation play Ravi Shankar, Mildmay Club, London
Beautify Junkyards @ Waiting Rooms, London
The closing of the Penge street art gallery, London
Barry Kamen @ Graces Mews, London
Obey/Hirst/Invader – Newport Street Gallery, London
Welcome To The Pleasuredome LP Atmos playback @ L-Acoustic studios, London then pub visit with the Universal team + Holly and Ped!
Furrowed residency @ Rose Hill Tavern, Brighton
Factory Floor and Sculpture @ Simple Things festival, Bristol
The Audiovisual Assembly, @ Bath House, Hackney Wick, London
Packaging / Design:
Got to say, I’ve been a bit underwhelmed by a lot of the design I’ve seen this year, not a lot stood out. The fashion seems to be either surrealist photography in an attempt to ape Hypngosis or terrible painting. Typography on front covers is the exception rather than the rule. I thought maybe I’d just not been paying attention but googling a bunch of ‘best covers of 2025’ lists only reinforced my opinion. It’s all subjective though isn’t it? I didn’t see much if any AI in the lists which is good.
Various Artists – Rave Wars: The Acid Awakens 7″ + Star Wars figure (Rave Wars)
Field Lines Cartographer – Apeiron Anxiety LP (Castles In Space)
Drumetrics – DRB 001 4×5″ records in etched box
Kid Koala – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome reissue LP + flexi disc (Ninja Tune)
Krash Slaughta – B-Boy Mastamind 7″ (Krash Slaughta Records)
Sully – Model Collapse etched 12″ (Fabric Live)
Drumetrics – Drumetronome tablet
ES – Planet Beyond – Selected Cuts Vol.1 LP (Ruiger)
Artists:
Kurt Jackson (above)
Ray Tijssen aka 0010×0010
Odeith
Chris Bigg
Oritoor
Toor Pentel
Books / Magazines / Comics:
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Cartoonist – Adrian Tomine (Faber)
UltraMega – James Harren (Image)
Bowling With Corpses – Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)
Robot Tod – Farel Dal (Floating World Comics)
Absolute Martian Manhunter – Camp/Rodriguez (DC)
OK Okapi – Martin Andersen & Chris Bigg
Future Language of the Ikonoklast (Velocity Press)
The Editor’s Cut – David McDonald (Hibernia Books)
Absolute Batman – Snyder/Dragotta/Martin (DC)
Heatwave – John L. Williams (Monoray)
The Absence – Rian Hughes (Unpublished)
A Humument – Tom Phillips (Thames & Hudson) (A late but important discovery)
Granny Takes A Trip – Paul Gorman (White Rabbit)
Bedetruite – Samplerman (LDC)
The Absence – Budgie (White Rabbit)
Face The Music – Paul Stanley
Stephen Stapleton – The Formless Irregular (Timeless)
The Vaughan Oliver Archive (Unit Editions)
Instant Public Art – Ulrich Blanché (Arthistoricum.net) Read here:
Plunderphonics – Matthew Blackwell (Bloomsbury Academic)
Film / TV:
I just have to admit it, I really don’t watch much film or TV and what I see doesn’t do much for me evidently. I did see the Beautiful Losers documentary from 2008 and like it though.
Another year over and what have I done?
Designed the Cobalt 60 LP release for Ollie Teeba & Jonny Cuba
Played at the closing of When Spaceships Appear record shop
Co-compiled and designed the Telepathic Fish compilation, booklet, Float III mixtape and Mindfood 5 fanzine for Fundamental Frequencies
Released the 20th anniversary cassette Raiding the 20th Century Expanded version on Delic Records
Continued my Electrik Collage radio show until April then paused to rethink
Designed the Dan Curtin ‘The 4 Lights’ album for De:tuned
Released the Locked Loop Group 8″ lathe cut zoetrope with Acid Lathe
Designed The Herbaliser Band’s ‘Rehearsal Session’ album
Contributed heavily to the 40th anniversary boxset for Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’.
Collaborated with Al White on the Terrace ‘Branches’ LP design for De:tuned
Logo design and branding for OTA Recordings
Provided guest mixes for Oonops Drops on Brooklyn Radio and the 45 Live show on Dublab
Appeared on the Cheap Digs podcast with Moz, the Tales From A Disappearing City podcast with Controlled Weirdness, the Skinny E Media show with Mark, the Do!!You!!! Breakfast show with Charlie Bones and The Bureau of Lost Culture podcast.
Supported the Orb on a few dates of their UK tour
Held an exhibition of Openmind artwork at the Cabron Bar in Folkestone, then also Upside Down Records, Deptford
Contributed a track on the Rave Wars: The Acid Awakens 7″
Held a release party for the Telepathic Fish album at Arch555 in Brixton with Mixmaster Morris, Matt Black and KiF Productions
Taken charge of both the Orion and Pluto lighting archives Larry Wooden (RIP) and Micky Thompson (RIP) from respectively
Revived & updated my O Is For Orange video mix and provided a new version to Bleep for their September guest mix
Created two hour-long Float IV and V mixes for the guest spots on Dublab and Ransom Note respectively.
Finally finished and printed my collage comic, the All Colour, High Fidelity, Radio Cartoon, after 5 years
Designed two zoetropes for Disclosure’s ‘Caracal’ 10th anniversary reissue
Attended the Bound Art Book Fair in Manchester as a seller and speaker then DJed at YES in the evening
Played the Simple Things festival with Graham Dunning and Puttyrubber at the IMAX in Bristol at the behest of Steve Davis
Appeared at the first AudioVisual Assembly gig, performing O Is For Orange alongside The Light Surgeons, Bitvert, Pat Grimm and David Leister
Designed The Real Tuesday Weld’s Crow at Christmas 3″CD Xmas card
Designed Nate Krafft’s Crimson Arsenal/Man Machine reissue for Musique Pour La Danse
The Telepathic Fish LP earns Juno Daily’s and Rough Trade Compilation of the Year (with an exclusive blue vinyl edition for the latter) as well as mentions in the end of year polls by Bleep (with an exclusive T-shirt), Phonica, Resident, Brooklyn Vegan, HHV, Moonbuilding and the New York Times.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome To The Pleasuredome receives Reissue of the Year in Classic Pop magazine as well as compliments from the band.
Recorded an album’s worth of extended turntablism material with Furrowed for a future release
Designed the first cassette for my Infinite Illectrik label, Extended Turntablism vol.1 by Graham Dunning and myself. More to come in 2026…
RIP:
David Lynch, Micky Thompson (Pluto Electronics), Bill Ham (light show pioneer), Marianne Faithfull, Mike Ratledge, Rutherford Chang, Rick Buckler, Roberta Flack, Gwen McCrea, Gene Hackman, David Johansen, Mark Pawson (UK counterculture legend), Roy Ayers, Doug Lear, free speech in America and the UK, John Peck aka The Mad Peck, WH Smiths, Robert McGinnis, Alan Yentob, Sylvester ‘Sly Stone’ Stewart, Brian Wilson, Lalo Schifrin, Luis Jardim, Peter Shapiro, Ozzy Osbourne, Terence Stamp, JD Twitch (Optimo), Larry Wooden (Orion Lighting), Drew Struzan, Ace Frehley, Diane Keaton, Bunny Bread aka State of Art (Non Stop Artists), Dave Ball, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, Pam Hogg, Frank Gehry, Martin Parr, Rob Reiner, Ken Downie (The Black Dog), Brigitte Bardot, Martin Jones (UK Hip Hop historian and early champion).
Currently there are several projects lining up for 2026, I could do with some more DJ gigs and I want to find time to revive the Electrik Collage radio show and make it better than the version that was on ROVR radio. There will be more cassettes from Infinite Illectrik too including a long-projected compilation and an album from Duplokit. Thanks to everyone who read this old-fashioned blog over the year, it may finally get an upgrade in 2026, I hope you all had a great Xmas if you celebrated and wish you all a prosperous New Year. See you on the other side.
Looking forward to:
Foetus’ final LP, ‘Halt’
An Openmind exhibition in Krakow?
More Infinite Illectrik cassettes
Sophia Satchell-Baeza’s The Sensual Laboratories book, finally?
Cineolascape…?
Andrew Humphreys’ ‘I’d Love To Turn You On’ book
The Rogue Trooper film
