As we begin a new year and I feel like death warmed up after a lovely night in with friends and family (my first non-gig New Year’s Eve for a while now) I’m looking forward to 2012 and the treats it will bring.

This time last year I think I said, “There WILL be a new DJ Food album this year”, and there was, sort of. I completed the trilogy of vinyl EPs that would make up the bulk of the album, finished all the artwork and it was even released early in Japan so at least that was done.

The worldwide release is in just over 3 weeks though, on Jan 23rd, preceded by a launch party at the London Planetarium and followed by my joint exhibition with Henry Flint at the Pure Evil Gallery, January is going to be a very busy month, coupled with the various DJ gigs I have as well.

So that kicks off the year nicely, the album will be out in various different formats and the full dome planetarium show is slowly coming together, something I plan to develop over the year. There should also be a 4th 12″ with remixes, one by 2econd Class Citizen which is excellent, and more which I’ll reveal as they come in.

Solid Steel will continue to develop, after topping the AV podcast charts last year, with a new residency at a London studio from February, more on that as it happens. I want to get back into doing mixes in 2012 too, it’s been very thin on the ground for me the last few years as music and design has taken a bigger role but 2012 is the year to get back to it and get the DJ set re-routed to fit the new record. I also want to take my design work in different areas, pursuing some personal avenues started with the new album artwork and learning more about app-based alternatives. I also want to get an electronic drum kit but that’s something else altogether.

I’ve had a love / hate relationship with ‘modern’ music for the last few years with little new stuff getting me that excited (another reason for less mixes) but I’m genuinely excited about a load of albums due to see the light this year:

DJ Format – Statement of Intent

2econd Class Citizen – The Small Minority

Pepe Deluxé – Queen Of The Wave

Sound Sci – The Formula

Belbury Poly – The Belbury Tales

Demdike Stare – Elemental pt.3 & 4

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds remixed by Amorphous Androgynous

The The – Moonbug Soundtrack

and all the great things Finder’s Keepers, Trunk and Ghost Box will throw at us.

On the film front Ridley Scott‘s Prometheus looks about as good as it can get, The Dark Knight Rises could be decent blockbuster fun and I’m hoping the second go at adapting Judge Dredd for the big screen won’t stink too much. The newly 3D-ified Phantom Menace with still be shit but it will be fun to take the boys to see it for the first time and their first 3D experience. In the comics world I’m very much looking forward to Mike Mignola‘s return to drawing Hellboy (in Hell!) after re-reading the entire graphic novel series in 2011, I’m going to try and do B.P.R.D this year. Jim Mahfood and Mike McMahon‘s first turns on Tank Girl should be good fun, the final League of Extraordinary Gentlemen will be worth a look although the last one wasn’t all that exciting, I wish Moore would stop trying to crowbar every single literary character or reference into it as it’s becoming tedious now.

Anyway, a year full of possibilities as always, let’s not dwell on all the negatives we will inevitably be faced with at some point, the album is done, time to launch it and see if it hits the mark or disappears into the great beyond…

PS: the 2012 image is by Edmund Bagwell, pinched from the Bad Librarianship blog