New content at the weekend, ok folks?

Meanwhile some news from the Yakuza/ Nova Wreck camp. They've started a label called Nova Wreckords (clever huh?) and the first release is a 5 track CDR EP from Yakuza called "Silent Violent." There are 100 copies each in a hand made sleeve and you get it by mailorder by sending £3.50 to:
Yakuza, 2 Agincourt St, Belfast, BT7 1RB.

And there are actually some gigs in London this weekend:-
Tonight (Fri 4th) Part Chimp + Reynolds, Upstairs at the Garage, it's a Silver Rocket night so I imagine it's £4 or £5 8pm-3am.
Tomorrow (Sat 5th) Britt Daniel (Spoon singer solo set) + Wisdom of Harry + Kimberly Rew (Soft Boy guitarist solo set), the Borderline, £8, 8pm.

The wildly eclectic albums of the year list is published below. Cheers to those of you that voted, although I am a bit surprised that so many had Jay-Z on their lists. Variety really is the spice of life - a good selection, including some stuff that I haven't heard yet, so thanks!

1. The Avalanches - Since I Left You
2. Bjork - Vespertine
3. Radiohead - Amnesiac
4. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
5. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
6. Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein
7. The Strokes - Is This It?
8. Bonnie Prince Billy - Ease Down the Road
9. Fennesz - Endless Summer
10. Pulp - We Love Life
11. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
12. Daft Punk - Discovery
13. Beta Band - Hot Shots II
14. Kings of Convenience - Quiet is the New Loud
15. Simian - Chemistry is what we are
16. Gillian Welch - Time (the Revelator)
17. Squarepusher - Go Plastic
18. Missy Elliot - Miss E... So Addictive
19. Tindersticks - Can Our Love...
20. Mercury Rev - All Is Dream
21. Le Tigre - Feminist Sweepstakes
22. Fugazi - the Argument
23. Stephen Malkmus
24. Sparklehorse - it's a Wonderful Life
25. Low - Things We Lost in the Fire
26. Lift to Experience - the Texas Jerusalem Crossroads
27. Electrelane - Rock it to the Moon
28. Roots Manuva - Run Come Save Me
29. Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions - Bavarian Fruit Bread
30. Ed Harcourt - Here be Monsters

close... Aphex Twin, Bows, Red House Painters, Kristin Hersh, Minotaur Shock, the Dismemberment Plan, Autechre, Smog, Arab Strap.

I've been fiddling with the review of the year I uploaded before Christmas, and I may amend it tomorrow. I promise it's the last list of the season!

Belated happy new year! I must admit that I haven't had internet withdrawal symptoms at all during my twelve days in Northern Ireland, but I'm getting back to normal again. First priority is to get the A-Z and indexes up to date to include the new December content, second priority is to get cracking with the print edition.

A few new things will be added over the next few days - reviews of Belle and Sebastian and the Feline Dream, a generalised albums of the year feature and a composite list of your albums of the year. Ten people have sent in their lists and I've compiled a master list out of those - the winner isn't a surprise, but at least it isn't the White Stripes or the Strokes like every other list around! It might even be finished later on today.

Anyway, I had a fine time in Northern Ireland. I went to see Belle and Sebastian who still play too quietly for my liking. They were in their silly cover version mode, which kind of comes with the season I suppose. 'The Boys are back in town' was an unlikely choice though! I also saw the Feline Dream at last, who were loads better than I expected, really entertaining. Met a few people from the world of the internet at that show, including Nine who I hadn't seen in about five years! She has a new weblog Jinx Removing which I've just spent the afternoon reading.
Didn't do too much after Christmas except generally over indulge myself. We'd hired a car but then Gillian developed a chest infection, and as she didn't feel like drinking, she ended up driving me around everywhere. Naturally this meant we could visit loads more people, and we actually went to four different places on New Year's Eve, which was a good idea at the time, except I had to fly back to London at noon on New Year's Day and go straight to work - I was a bit groggy to say the least. After all these festivities I have seriously considered not drinking during January, but today one of my friends is leaving work so I guess I may be tempted. Naturally I would have hoped to hold out longer than the 2nd of January but these things happen!

in 2001 I
- completely failed to relocate from London to Belfast
- set up slowthrills.com as a domain name, as a precursor for the print edition which will appear early this year.
- didn't travel as much as I wanted, but still got to go to Tunisia in January, Sudan in May and Dublin in October.

in 2002 I
- will publish issue one of Slow Thrills (at least!)
- will write more
- will travel more
- will keep any New Year's Resolutions deliberately vague.