Another year in the books. Musically it was pretty solid. I attended my 14th Iceland Airwaves music festival. I did my first-ever DJ set. I went record shopping in New York City, Vienna, Bratislava, and Reykjavik. And I brought 277 physical releases into the house, if my Disocgs collection is to be believed (and I suspect the number is, in fact, slightly higher).
But it was more than that. We got to re-connect with friends at Airwaves and danced like no one was watching when Revenge of Calculon played Loft Hostel. I met people through this blog. And the community is what makes it truly fun.
So without further ado, I give you…
Top 5 New Releases In 2025
1. Gæðablóð & Bestaskinn – Útiköttur (Iceland)
2. 1987 – The Egyptian Lover (US)
3. The Pines – Joshua Bonnetta (Canada)
4. Deep Cuts – Cell7 (Iceland)
5. Panic Shack – Panic Shack (Wales)
I usually write this post on Christmas day, but I’ll have all the Top 5 lists already constructed a few days before that. So when I woke up on the morning of December 24 I already knew my pick for album of the year. And then I had lunch, and I still knew my pick. And then after working a half day, that afternoon I decided to play a few 7″ records I brought back from Reykjavik last month. One of these was the split 7″ BP-17. The A side was good.
The B side changed everything.
What they hell was I hearing? Two dallah biscuit… Who the hell is Útiköttur? Wait, they have an full album that came out in October?? And it’s on Spotify???
And that, my friends, is how I became obsessed with Gæðablóð & Bestaskinn for the last 24 hours, playing it repeatedly (and the track “2 Dallah Bi$cuit” a few additional times for good measure). I don’t even know where to begin. A translation of the album description on the artist’s Bandcamp page reads: “The time has come, the much-vaunted pest Útiköttur is finally releasing his debut album. It features the chaotic, funky, Icelandic techno he has been sitting on like a worm on gold for far too long.” And… I mean, there you go. Chaotic. Funky. Techno. Worm on gold (I have no idea what that means). And I can’t get enough. It got the vinyl treatment on Bónus Plötur label but it appears to be already sold out so… I’m going to have to try to track this thing down somehow. However, for you, my friend, all I can recommend is to go to Bandcamp or one of the streaming platforms and go give it a listen. Two dallah biscuit…
The Egyptian Lover‘s 1987 was my most played album on Spotify this year, as well it should be because the master of the 808 sounds as sexy as he ever has. “Let’s Get Down Tonight” is a killer jam that you need to listen to immediately and repeatedly. The Lover has been putting out his own material for a while now – give him a follow on Instagram and you can order signed copies as well as 12″ records with custom one-of-a-kind cover art.
Where do I even start with The Pines? I wrote about it in a prior post, so click the link above for more details. But the gist is Joshua Bonnetta strapped a mic and a recorder to a tree in a New York forest and recorded every single minute of sound for an entire year. He then edited it down to four hour-long CDs, one for each season, and served it all up to us in a wonderful box set. The Pines proved very hard to track down upon release – check out the Top 5 Purchases below for a bit more on that. But I finally managed to get a copy from a guy in Italy, and it’s truly a brilliant (and timely given all the discussion around climate change) ambient album. Just beautiful.
Cell7‘s crowd-funded Deep Cuts is a blend of R&B and hip hop. Soulful and sultry, her delivery drips with confidence as it weaves in and out of the lush soundscape. Panic Shack was a live discovery, having caught their fun, high-energy set at Reyakjavik’s (former…) rock club Gaukurinn. The album is, quite simply, a fun listen. Witty, funny, slightly raunchy, and full of great riffs.
Top 5 “New To Me” Bands / Performers
1. Útiköttur – Iceland
2. Panic Shack – Wales
3. Josuah Bonnetta – Canada
4. Daisuck & Prostitute – Japan
5. Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer – UK
Útiköttur, Panic Shack, and Joshua Bonnetta are mentioned at other places in this post, so I won’t spend any time on them here. I discovered Daisuck & Prostitute thanks to my friends over at Volver Records (see “Top 5 Places To Buy Records” below). I’m a fan of No Wave and their debut 死ぬまで踊りつづけて (1981), which I found at Volver, is a tremendous record. I’ll probably order a copy of their only other album from the 80s at some point as well.
Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer (right) was an Iceland Airwaves discovery. We caught him live twice, once at Lucky Records and later at Loft Hostel where he and his lady friend joined us all after his set as we danced to the funky funk of Revenge of Calculon. Mr. B plays chaphop, which is, well, Victorian-era hip hop accompanied by a banjo ukulele and a ton of fun.
Top 5 Purchases / Acquisitions
1. Era 1 Deluxe Box Set – Mortiis
2. The Pines – Joshua Bonnetta
3. Egypt Egypt / Girls 12″ – The Egyptian Lover
4. Intolerant Red Marches – Alexandra Atnif
5. Space Odyssey Live Cassettes – Various
I’m not entirely sure I have the above in the right order. I say this because if I think to myself, “you can only keep one of these, which would it be?”, then the answer is either #3 or #4. The Egyptian Lover 12″ comes with custom one-of-a-kind artwork by the Lover himself on the jacket front, so each 12″ is a unique piece of art. As for Alexandra Atnif, I’ve been following her career since 2015 when we found one of her cassettes in the “Staff Recommendations” section over at Amoeba Music in Los Angeles. Since then I’ve bought everything she put out and have messaged with her a few times. When I saw she was putting out a new tape and there was an opportunity for a very limited version that has all the various inserts, I plunked down my money to support the effort. Her electronic music, styled as rhythmic brutalism, is relentlessly fantastic.
Popping back to the top of the list, Mortiis is one of the OGs of dungeon synth, and this limited (of 100 copies) box set captures his first four solo albums along with some extras. And as an added bonus this is copy #1. The Pines proved to be difficult to obtain. I pre-ordered via a well-regarded outlet that shall remain nameless and they didn’t get their full order, so I was out of luck. Two other attempts to buy it also resulted in failure before I finally found a guy in Italy who had a copy on Discogs. A friend of mine still has a copy that has been on backorder from a German seller for eight months. This is a tough one to get your hands on.
As for Space Odyssey, Pan Thorarensen records the live performances that take place at his Reykjavik record store/venue Space Odyssey, and many of these come out on limited edition cassettes sold through the shop. There have been somewhere around 85 different performances released and over the years I’ve managed to acquire 45 of them – including a bunch I bought at Airwaves this year. Performances are usually ambient electronica and every one is unique. It’s the perfect recipe for a “random pull” when you’re looking for something chill to play, plus it’s DIY as hell.
Top 5 Live Shows
1. Revenge of Calculon – Loft Hostel, Reykjavik
2. Panic Shack – Gaukurinn, Reykjavik
3. Cyber – Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik
4. String Quartet – St. Anne’s Church, Vienna
5. Fufanu – Smekkleysa, Reykjavik
Most of our live music this year was at Iceland Airwaves. The festival seems to have moved more toward being a showcase event in recent years so there aren’t nearly as many unexpected surprises. But there is still joy to be found if you look.
I didn’t have any particulate expectations for the Revenge of Calculon show at Loft. We’ve seen them probably 10 times live and had already seen them earlier in the festival, and they’re always a good time. But for whatever reason, this show seemed to click. Some tables were moved away from the front of the stage and about six of us started dancing. And when it was clear we weren’t going to stop, well… a few more people joined in. And then a few more. And before you knew it we had a conga line of 20 people snaking through the bar. We left sweaty and tired and with smiles on our faces.
The most unexpected event was seeing a string quartet playing vintage instruments at St. Anne’s Church in Vienna. Mrs. Life in the Vinyl Lane found this event happening while we were in Austria on vacation, and it was an exquisite live performance that covered a range of classical compositions. Honestly I was a little afraid I’d get bored, but I never did. The performers were captivating and the venue perfect for the music. Even this old dog can learn a trick or two.
Top 5 Artists On Spotify
1. Duran Duran
2. The Cure
3. The Smiths
4. The Police
5. U2
So, this is a weird list, most notably for its inclusion of The Police and U2. To be clear – I’ve never purchased any music by either of those bands. Are the good? Yeah, sure. Have I ever cared? No.
The above list is what it is because I spent an inordinate amount of my work-from-home job listening to the 80s New Wave & Alternative playlist. It’s long – currently 37 hours of music. And of course all the above bands are well-represented. I’m sure I went out of my way to specifically play the top three bands on this list at least a few times over the course of the year, but really this one playlist is the progenitor of my Top 5. FWIW, my most played album was The Egyptian Lover’s 1987.
Top 5 Places To Buy Records
1. Volver Records – Mercer Island, Washington
2. Space Odyssey – Reykjavik
3. Academy Record Annex – Brooklyn
4. Das Market – Vienna
5. Moses Records – Vienna
If you follow the blog, or just know me, you know that my favorite place in the world to go record shopping is Reykjavik’s Lucky Records. Ingvar and Gestur and the whole crew have become friends over the years. We’ve been to each others homes, and I probably put at least one of Ingvar’s kids through school with my purchases over the years. Any year that we go to Reykjavik Lucky will probably top this list. So it’s time to retire the GOAT, to grant Lucky the title of Top Record Store Emeritus. It’s time to give some other kids a shot at the top spot.
And this year we have a new entry to the Top 5 list – Volver Records. Located on Mercer Island, just east of downtown Seattle, Volver has become one of my favorite Saturday afternoon stops. The small shop is impeccably curated – there’s a serious intentionality in what they stock, and the guys do a number of overseas buying trips each year to make sure the stock stays fresh and interesting. And they’re all incredibly nice, which is a huge bonus.
Space Odyssey is a must-stop when in Reykjavik. Pan Thorarensen’s record/vintage clothing shop and performance space is filled with amazing electronic music and he’s a charming host, as is the shop dog. Academy Records Annex has that old-school used record store feel – it’s organized, but there’s a lot of stuff. And given that it’s in Brooklyn, you can find just about anything from anywhere in the world in its bins. Das Market is Vienna’s home for electronic music and when I visited I had a great conversation with the owner as he pulled records for me to check out. Last, but certainly not least, is Moses Records, also in Vienna. Another “classic” used record store, it has a lot of inventory and, most importantly for someone from the US, you can find all those European pressing that never see the light of day here in the States.
Top 5 Music Books Read
1. No Wave by Marc Masters (2007)
2. Nonbinary: A Memoir by Genesis P-Orridge (2021)
3. Icelandic Pop: Then, Today, Tomorrow, Next Week by Arnar Eggert Thoroddsen (2025)
4. Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism – The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege by Spencer Sunshine (2024)
5. I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records by Audrey Golden (2024)
By my count I finished ten music-related books this year, which accounted for most of my non-fiction reading. I’ve always been intrigued by the No Wave movement, so this year I broke down and bought a copy of Marc Masters’ 2007 No Wave, a book that quickly went out of print and now sells for a pretty penny. But I have to say, for me it was worth it. It provided context for the all-too-brief movement and includes a ton of great pictures.
While I know Genesis P-Orridge can be an unreliable narrator, I very much enjoyed their memoir Nonbinary. As a Throbbing Gristle fan, I’m always curious to learn more about the motivations of the members, as well as their non-musical art projects. Icelandic Pop is fine addition to the English-language books about the Icelandic music scene. The author is a long-time music writer who knows of what he speaks. Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism isn’t a music book per se, but it does touch on the intersection between the counterculture and fascist movements, including by musicians. And I Thought I Heard You Speak gives a voice to the women who were so integral in Factory Records and whose stories have been mostly excluded from prior label histories.
And that’s all she wrote, folks. It was another great year of music and I can’t wait to see what 2026 has in store for us.