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dietmountaindewbae · 1 year

Text

v. am i that girl that you dream of?

alex turner x reader

word count: 5807

summary: partnering up with (late eycte) Alex to produce your album has risen feelings, would you let that get in between you?

warnings: smut

song recommendation: dream within a dream by elysian fields

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*⋆ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*⋆

After the tour was over, Alex had arranged a meeting with your manager you were the next girl with fresh potential in the music industry, but you were a bit shy to talk with Alex personally, even shyer to record the album with him, but when you met him at a party he was a chatty guy, polite and humble, you thought by his looks he might be someone who could dislike your introverted personality. After the meeting with your manager, he and your co-writer would soon meet at the studio where you worked day and night trying to make the best out of yourself and your album.

"I was on, you were gone by daylight" You sang thru the mic, while a soft guitar played behind you, "I could stay in bed trying to figure you out," Violins, guitars, and a piano, it all made you feel disconnected from everything after the recording stops you saw a figure of a man with big shoulders walking away. You quickly took your headphones off and walked out of the cabin.

"Excellent," James said, "I'll work on the xylophone, and..." He whispered in your ear, "Alex is here don't get nervous you're alright" You nodded your head, and he patted you on your back.

Smoke coming out of his mouth, leaning on the door frame, leg over the other, he watched the sunset behind the Hollywood sign, "Really pretty isn't it?" He asked, and you nodded, "You don't talk much, huh?" You said no with your head.

"Not a very big fan of talking," You said.

"You have a really pretty voice, I could fall asleep listening to it" For a minute you thought he was criticizing your work, probably because it was boring and he could fall asleep while listening to your album because maybe it wasn't good enough. You walked away and went inside the recording cabin, he saw you leaving and walked behind you throwing his cigarette away and stepping on it.

"Hey, James can we pause the xylophone for a bit and keep recording?" You wanted to proof Alex that the time he would spend here helping you, he wouldn't regret it. So you sang the whole song in one take with your eyes closed, giving your best, sometime dancing around, moving your hips, trying to imagine he wasn't here so you could feel less pressure but his eyes were on you the whole time and you could feel it. When you went outside the cabin James clapped and gave you a high five.

"Flawless, you did good there," Alex said, James grabbed his things and began to head out of the studio, he hugged Al goodbye and kissed you on the cheek.

"I expect to hear from both of you soon aye" You waved James goodbye, he had to leave to work on yet another album with another band, so you were only left with Alex now, and that beautiful sunset you admired for a while, lovely shades of yellow and red, with some pink colors here and there, it was magical, wind on your hair, some stars showing on the sky, you were amused by them, next moment when you turned around Al was recording you with his film camera, he smiled, one eye on the mirror the other one closed like a total expert.

"And cut!" He giggled, "This is good material for a small trailer, introducing Am I The Girl That You Dream Of, great song name by the way," He looped his arm around you.

"Oh... thanks I work hard on it" Next moment your phone began to ring, and you rushed to it, "Hello?" Your manager was on the other side of the phone, and she asked if that gig at the bar was still on, it was at 9 so you had to get ready before that to set up everything, but James was gone so you had no one else to help you, you could play your part but you froze, sometimes forgot the chords or the lyrics, "Yeah I'll be there in a few, bye see ya" You hung up, your hand hit your forehead.

"Everything alright?" He asked, putting his camera aside.

"Yeah, is just I got a gig and I need a guitarist" You scratched the back of your head.

"Why? You're good at it"

"I just freeze sometimes, and I guess I'm also used to playing with more people, all eyes on me I just feel loads of pressure" You confessed, eyes down, and he raised your chin.

"Is alright, that used to happen to me, I can do the guitar, is the tambourine good for you?"

"I'll do it" He gave you confidence when he smiled, and you began to tidy up the place, him by your side so you both finished very fast, Al was very organized, and at the same time you both chatted for a while, he told you some stories from when he was recording his first album with the monkeys, and you told him how you felt about this new experience, time went fast and it was almost about to be time.

"We drop by your place or mine?" He asked.

"Um... my place, I haven't showered today, I'm always in a hurry" He chuckled, and walked closer to you, "What? Do I smell?" Fuck.

"Not at all, you smell pretty good to me" You both chuckled, and he opened the door for you, you turned your car on and put on your belt, and he jumped in as well, "Your car smells good too" You laughed, pulling out of the parking load, he turned on the radio, Mazzy Star playing on your stereo.

"You're a ghost on the highway, and I'll love you forever" You sang above Mazzy's voice, "Ghost on the highway, and I'll love you forever" Alex lighted a cig.

"Been a while since I heard that song, mind if I turn it up a bit?"

"Sure, sure" You drove down the streets of LA, down to your apartment, Alex kept looking at your playlist complimenting your music, both of you had a common sense of style and music taste, there was a moment when The Smiths played How Soon Is Now? and you both dug on that tremolo sound on the beginning of the song, both singing your heart out until you got home.

"I won't take long, make yourself at home" You dropped your keys on the kitchen counter, and headed towards your room, it was unbelievable the amount of fun you had with him. When you first saw him he was like a shiny cowboy with that black jacket, and his boots, for a moment you forgot he was a human.

Alex was amazed by the amount of stuff you had in your apartment, you had a huge shelf filled with books and different types of vinyl, posters with zodiac signs, art you painted, and Polaroids framed with your friends, on the top of your kitchen counter there were fake roses tied into the lamps, there was a small corner where he saw your guitars, and a tambourine, your computer had stickers of hearts, and small kisses, and a cactus, he was thinking about your mind, how dreamy it was, it was like you had another meaning for everything. He stared at a picture of you and your mom, sitting on the beach building a sand castle, and you had some funny sunglasses, there was another of you sitting on your sister's lap playing your guitar, he admired all of those pictures in silence, giggling, and smiling, since little he could tell you were extraordinary.

When you hopped out of the shower, you could hear him chuckle, and a soft melody playing as well, what could he be laughing about? You opened your closet quickly taking out some clothes, and when you come out of your room Alex laughed even harder.

"What are you laughing about, Al?" He pointed your head, and you still had your towel on, "Ah, shit" You took it off and laughed.

"You were a really cute girl...still are" He showed you the picture of you and your mom building that sand castle, "Look at you," He gave you the frame, "I'm gonna call you sandy now, like Sponge Bob, or Alice, cause you live in wonderland"

"Ah! Wonderful" You said with sarcasm, "Well I'm almost ready I'll just do my makeup, and we're done" You glanced at your clock, you still had an hour and a half to get ready, in 15 minutes you could do it, so you grabbed your bag and your mirror put it on your kitchen counter and turned on the white light, "There's better light here anyways," You pulled out a chair and began to work, first you grabbed a pair of tweezers to fix your eyebrows a bit, sometimes pulled a piece of flesh on accident, but you tried to get those little hairs out, Alex hissed and sat on the counter table.

"That doesn't hurt for you?" You said no with your head, "You're pulling your skin off" It was a bit red, he was kind of right but a bit of makeup on that area will make it brand new.

"I mean... once you get used to it, is alright"

"Do mine," He said.

"What?"

"Yeah, plug them... just a bit," He said, stopping you for a moment, you went closer to his face, grabbing his chin to get a better look at the places you had to take out the hairs, and he forced his eyes shut scrunching his face.

"If you keep forcing your eyes shut it will hurt more, relax," You said, he still had his eyes closed, and you could see a little scar on his eyebrow that you touched with your thumb, you focused and pulled just one.

"Ouch!" He exclaimed, "Bloody hell! you're a lair!" He groaned and scratched his brow, you exploded in laughter.

"I didn't even pull it out!" You said between laughs.

"Don't even try again, you're gonna pull me whole eyebrow off" He chuckled, and you kept plugging your eyebrows off, humming the song, "I don't even get it, how are you so at peace by doing that, woman?"

"Experience man, just experience" When you finished, you began to lather up your face, Alex watched you in awe as you did it, still humming to the music, it was Leonard Cohen, Chelsea Hotel #2, you were almost ready you didn't do much to your face, just some concealer, blush, a bit of natural color for your eye, a cat eye, mascara, blush, and bold lip so it could all piled up together, next moment when you turned around Al was filming you with his camera.

"Can't help myself, love, you have the face for a movie, you know like one of those little indie films" You laughed and said no with your head, applying lipstick.

"Can you stop for a bit? I'm trying to focus"

"I can't I'm in the middle of making you the next Hollywood star, you will thank me when you see your name on the walk of fame" In a blink of an eye Alex had a red lipstick stain on the corner of his lip, "Yeh didn't!" He gasped with loads of drama.

"Come here cowboy, I'm gonna make you look pretty!" You teased him, and he jumped out of your counter and began to run around your apartment, you had your lipstick on hand running around in circles behind him.

"I'm being chased by this evil woman, she has a dangerous arm she calls "lipstick" she keeps saying she's gonna make me look pretty but-" You were trying to catch him on the couch, but you ended up going on circles all over it, he was falsely going left to right like he was playing some basketball game, trying to fool his rival, "I have my suspicions" You ended up running faster, and hoped on his back, "No! She trapped me!" He yelled.

"Now smile" You sang, you painted clown makeup on his lips while he kept saying no over and over again, "Brava! Beautiful!"

"I've been defeated by the girl in sandals, send help," He said, you both chuckled panting for air, he dropped you on the couch making you giggle.

"Let's get this off you now" You grabbed a makeup wipe from your bag, he grasped your disposable camera from the side table and began to take pictures of himself making the funniest faces ever, sticking his tongue out, smiling wide.

"Come 'ere, let's get some pictures for the momentum" You stuck your tongue out and so did he, you made little horns behind his head, he grabbed your cheeks squished them together, and gave you a kiss on the cheek, you gasped and now it was your turn to fill his face with red kisses, he kept taking more and more pictures, until finally, he stopped, "I think that's a wrap!" He giggled, "Now get this off me" You smacked your lips together.

"Two more, okay?" He said no again, but you pushed him to the couch and straddle him with your legs, he laughed with a defeated smile, and you took a picture, "Amazing!" He stared at you, admiring your smile, he patted your hips and gently sat up, "Another one" He smiled, and this time he put the back of his hand on his forehead, and parted his lips, leaning back, he was so dramatic, "Fantastic", you were about to get up but he sat you back down hugging your waist.

"Two more, it's revenge time, come 'ere" He hugged you close to him, his arms just below your breasts just to take you closer to him, his cheek squished to yours, he took a picture, and another one with you sticking your tongue out and your eyes together, and him smiling like a little kid, and lastly your favorite one of you looking at each other smiling brightly, he put the camera down and stared at you, still chuckling, "I-" Your phone rang making you both jump up, it was your manager.

"Fuck! we gotta go, we have..." You glanced at your clock, " Less than ten minutes!" Alex grabbed your guitar case, the tambourine, and your pedal case, you grabbed your keys and put the makeup wipes in, taking Alex's camera with you, and your phone, and you quickly checked yourself out before you left fixing your lipstick.

"Ready?"

"I look good?" He stared at you up and down, you had a yellow dress patterned with red and maroon roses, black boots with white socks, and half of your hair lazily tied with a red bow.

"Beautiful" He opened the door for you, and you grabbed the guitar case to help him out, both of you rushed to your car and drove to the bar, whipping your lipstick off his face, once you were in, the first thing you did was to look for your manager, she was talking to someone close to the stage, and your manager turned around to look at you, she was visibly furious but when she saw Alex she changed her mood.

"Alex" She sounded so pumped about it, but tried to stay cool giving him a friendly smile and a hug, "It's good to see you around here" Alex hugged her back giving her a light kiss on the cheek, "I see you're gonna play together that'll be excellent"

"Yeah, sorry for being late" She waved it off, smiling at both of you.

"Being a little late is nothing, the show is what matters but don't be late again" She warned you with a serious face, "Good luck now," She directed you to the small stage in the bar, and you stepped forward to the mic, introduced yourself to the people in the bar, they didn't pay much attention to you, your manager had lured you into playing this gig just to get some press, and the image of your fresh new sound for the youth, but the thing was you didn't like this feeling, all the pressure, the expectations, it made you feel repelled. Alex began to play the guitar and you tried to focus on something else while you sang, tried to focus on the melody and the words that came out of your mouth, with a white light focusing on you, you forgot where you were, who you were standing in front of, you were enveloped by the music, almost in a trance, on a dream.

Suddenly the music ended, and the show was over, the people in the bar clapped, and you glanced at Alex and smiled, he applauded you and hugged you from the side, "Thank you, have a lovely night everybody" You stepped down, your manager padded your shoulder.

"You did really good for your first time" You smiled and hugged her, "Well, I gotta go now, see ya" You waved her goodbye, she always had somewhere to go she didn't stay for much just like you expected, you turned and Al had the biggest grin on his lips.

"First time?" His arms crossed, you rolled your eyes and crossed your arms as well, "Drinks are on me" He wrapped his arm around you, and pulled out a chair for you from the countertop, he ordered some margaritas for you and him.

"Yeah, I had the chance before when I send the demos but I kinda bitched out, I wasn't ready, I was gonna open up for a band but it was a huge crowd, and I don't do well with 'em" You confessed.

"For your first time, you were excellent love, really," Your cheeks blushed a little bit at his comment.

"Now tell me something about you" You crossed your arms on the table leaning closer to him, and he sat back and chuckled.

"I used to work in a pub like this on Sheffield, when I was younger, the owner let us play a few gigs in that bar, but now that we're talking 'bout first times, I was shitting meself" You almost spat your drink, a choked laugh coming out of your mouth, "I mean it!, in this pub called The Grapes, there it was...me first time"

"What kind of first time?" You joked, and he came forward laughing, you sipped your margarita and kept listening to him.

"A different time of first time, see.... me and the guys we would spend so much time practicing and all, at first I didn't wanna be the lead singer but, in the end, I had to do it, I guess I was very insecure about me voice, and I didn't know what to do while on stage, do I just stand there like a robot playing the guitar or do I just dance or summat like that"

"You just let go, be free" You giggled about how obvious that answer is, "I know it sounds like a cliché though"

"But it's true, isn't it?" You nodded, "For some people, it's hard though, so this one goes to being free and having fun" He raised his glass in the air, and you did the same.

"And for making an amazing duo" You added, "Cheers"

"That's right, cheers" You smiled and had a sip of your drink, couple of hours later, more margaritas came by, and you found yourself laughing so loudly at everything that Alex said, you couldn't believe how afraid you felt when you first met him on the studio, he's a humble man, with a great sense of humor, you easily centered your whole attention on his voice, how everything he said was almost like a song, the way his tongue rolled the words that came out of his mouth, how he was passionate about everything he would talk to you about, and he liked the pink color of your cheeks, your scarlet red lips, and your eyes that dilate each time you looked at him, you had that look in your eyes that could easily break his heart into a million pieces, you were his dream girl, some kind of girl he thought his eyes would never come across to again, he didn't want to go home after this, he wanted to stay with you.

"I can't believe you and Matt did that!"

"Our folks almost caught us though, but it was a thrill to say so the least" You smiled at him for a bit, until you looked down at your table, your fingertips touching his, and that small rose of your fingers made your cheeks blush, shortly the bartender interrupted that moment.

"Can I get you anything else?" He asked, you glanced at his arm which was inked and filled with tattoos, a septum piercing on his nose, his hair was long and his eyes a deep blue, Al stared at the man jealous because your eyes were on him, he ordered two margaritas again, and the man left, you followed him with your eyes.

"See summat you like?" He snapped you out.

"Now I do" Maybe it was all the margaritas you had that made you say that but it was true, "I'm just intrigued by all of his tattoos, you know? I wanna know what they mean to him, cause for me a naked girl tattooed on his skin is very straightforward"

"Maybe he likes his women like that," He said, you gasped and giggled.

"And you?"

"I like to leave 'em in a little something" He whispered, your cheeks blushed darker you crossed your legs together trying not to smile, "If I'm honest, I don't want this night to be over, why don't we keep it going?"

"Your place or mine?" You said without a doubt.

"Yours obviously" He stood up and gave you his hand, you jumped out of your sit remembering how tall he was, or how small you were.

"You really like my place, don't you?" You packed up your guitar while he unplugged the amps, he smirked and handed you the tambourine.

"Your place is like wonderland, and I would like to visit it again" You giggled closing up your case, he grab it for you and dropped your stuff in the back of your car.

"Before we go, I think we might need to get some stuff from the supermarket to get loaded" Or properly shitfaced.

Speeding down the white halls of the store, you found yourself grasping the shopping cart tightly while Al ran to get tequila and triple sec for more margaritas, both of you were starving and everything you saw you wanted to get, when you finally got to the cash register the old lady with fluffy hair giggled at you, your hair was wild after all of those spins you had in the shopping cart, you smiled at Alex, finally you left the store with four huge bags full of chips, booze, sweets, limes, frozen chicken nuggets, and curly fries.

"What a ride!" Your head was still spinning, you tried to stand up to get out of the card but Al threw you over his shoulder like a potato sack, and spun you around, "Alex!" You begged him in laughter until he put you back on the ground but you fell over laughing so hard it made your stomach hurt.

"Are you alright?" He gave you his hand but you pulled him and he fell to the ground next to you, he looked into your eyes, "You're really beautiful" He said.

"With this hair and everything?"

"With the wild hair and everything" He ran his fingers thru it, "Let's go home, yeah?" You whispered a yes, and he pulled you up from the ground, and you drove home together, singing every song that was on the radio until you got home huddling to your apartment, you threw everything on your counter top, while you went to your room and changed into something more comfortable some denim shorts and a black shirt, when you came back you saw Al making the margaritas singing The Stooges, pouring the mixture in two cups, you grabbed your acoustic guitar and played some random chords, fooling around.

"That sounds really lovely" He put the cup down on your coffee table and he drank from his margarita as you played the same chords over and over again mumbling some words, he grabbed your tambourine and played along with you, and you changed the strumming and began to fingerpick the strings, your eyes set on that picture that Al saw before you played the gig, you remembered how warm the water was that day on the beach, so you used that for inspiration.

"I want to love a boy the way I love the ocean," You thought for a moment about the next words, "Wish I was not afraid of all I have that's broken" And then Alex hummed the melody you began.

"I know I must behave to contain all my emotions"

"But I want to love a boy"

"The way I love the ocean" Both of you chuckled after the song finished, you kept the same fingerpicking.

"We could do summat with that together" He, for the first time looked down at the floor and not your eyes, he looked a bit shy, you put everything back in place and sat down on the couch again.

"What was that?" You asked a bit impressed.

"What?"

"You looking down on the floor?" He chuckled, his cheeks blushing.

"Sorry is just, that I wanted to..." He scratched the back of his head, you noticed he did that whenever he was nervous, he licked his lips and bit the bottom one, you understood what it was, and you also wanted to, very badly, and with the number of margaritas you had you said fuck it all, your hands cupped his cheeks and you pecked his lips very gently, lingering for a bit, his lips parted yours his tongue slipping inside your mouth taking over you, your fingers ran down his hair pulling it, you went further down letting them run down to his chest, you pulled away for a moment and smiled at him brightly.

"Is this what you wanted?" You grinned, he pushed a strand of hair behind your ear, "Or do you want something more, Al?" He pressed his lips on your neck, his hands going down to your hips, you wanted it too, so badly, since his mouth had kissed yours it made you feel those tingles in the pit of your stomach, you were hungry for more.

"Lay down for me" He crawled on top of you, and you kept kissing his lips until your head hit the pillow on your couch, he undid the button of your shorts and helped you shimmy out of them, "Do you remember what I like?"

"I dunno maybe remind me of it" You teased him, he took your shirt off and unclasped your bra with one swift move.

"I like to leave me girl in a little something...but for you, I can make an exception" He left a trail of kisses down to your belly, parting your legs his fingers began to tease you dragging your underwear down, he loved every curve of your body, the roundness of your chest, and your thighs, he couldn't believe he had laid his eyes in such a beautiful girl, dragging down your underwear he pushed your knees up and dug his face between your thighs, he didn't want to use his fingers this time though, he wanted to taste you, his lips sucked your sensitive spot and his tongue licked your walls going in circles on your clit, you were already writhing feeling the need to be touched more, your fingers formed into claws that pulled his hair.

"More, please," His tongue lapped in fast circles that made your legs quiver, "Fuck that's... oh my fucking-" He pushed his tongue inside, and your hand went down but he grabbed your wrist and put it down.

"If you want me to touch you just ask babe, okay? Anything you need" His tenderness made you smile and chuckle, he crawled back up to peck your lips softly, "Tell me what you need" Your hand went down, lightly brushing his hard cock, "That?" His hips bucked forward, and you felt him hard against your thigh.

"Y-Yes" You whispered, you were eager for it, you filled his neck with kisses gently flipping him so you could get on top, you helped him to unbuckle his belt, but it made you giggle how difficult it was for him to get out of those skin tight jeans, "Need a hand?"

"No, I'm... yes I do" Both of you giggled together, and you pushed them down as best as you could to his thighs, "I need to stop wearing those"

"Nah, they fit you very well" You stated.

"I've heard they make me bum look what was the word..." He stared into your eyes, for a good moment trying to find the answer, but you already knew it.

"Juicy?"

"So you've been looking at it!" He made your cheeks turn red, and you felt so guilty but at the same time how could you resist if he keeps dancing like that?

"Once!" His eyebrow raised, your eyes rolled and you chuckled, "Okay, two times... but that's it" He stared at you once more, his eyes were lost in yours for a moment, you bit your lower lip and slowly let it go, maybe it was bad that you did, "I'm sorry" He grabbed the back of your head, your forehead against his.

"Just shut up and kiss me" And that's what you did, your lips against his, you tasted that bitter and sweet flavor of the margaritas and cigarettes he smoked, but they tasted like heaven on earth, around, between, forward, and back, your lips never got tired, your tongue didn't get enough of his taste, "I'm sorry if I'm hurrying things up I-"

"Shut up Al" He liked it when you called him Al, he loved that spark of cockiness you had, it was so cute to him, he wanted to show you how much he wanted you, he wanted to make you feel so good it was his duty now, he pushed his cock out and rubbed it against your sensitive spot, a moan escaped your lips to his, and when he pushed himself inside you your body shivered, "Alex.." You breathed out, and your hips began to move slowly forward and back, a moan escaped his lips, and he pulled you closer to him, your chest against prest his, you went slow at first but when you felt more confident you began to increase the pase a little bit.

"You feel so good, so tight and warm" He groaned, you gasped when you felt him deeper, touching that spot that made your walls contract, he grinds your hips harder and harder each time, and his breathing got heavier as he felt closer, "You're driving me crazy, doll,"

"Al, I'm close" He moved your hips faster against yours, your tits bouncing and hardening when you felt goosebumps crawling up from your lower back, Al hit the spot once more your eyes rolled back when you felt it, it was so close now.

"Give me everything love" One more thrust, and that was it for you, and as well as him, he pulled out of you just in time, you watched him give his cock a few thugs until he came on your inner thigh, he seemed lost for a moment, his breathing so fast he was panting, he looked up at you and smiled, and when he looked down he immediately went back from his trance, "Wait here, let's get you cleaned up" He kissed your cheek and lightly turned on his back to rest you in the couch, kicking out of his jeans he quickly went to the kitchen and grabbed a few paper towels, he whipped off his release from your thigh and threw it away on the trash bin, when he finally got to you he sat next to you, "How do you feel?"

"Tired," A yawn escaped your lips.

"Bedtime, babe" He carried you bridal style to your room with no struggle, laying down in bed and covering you up with your sheets, he cuddled right next to you, "Sweet dreams, darling" Your head rested on his chest, feeling his calm heartbeat slowly as he got relaxed under your skin.

"Sweet dreams to you too, Al" You pecked his lips one last time before you went to sleep, he smiled and cuddled closer to you.

The next morning you woke up smiling, but it turned around when you didn't feel his arms around you, you flipped the blanket and he wasn't there, you felt he might've regretted last night, maybe it was wrong for you to kiss him in the first place, you walked out of your room more disappointed than ever the door slammed on accident, and that's when you saw him, on his same grey underwear cooking God knows what but it smelled amazing.

He turned on his back and smirked, "Good morning to you too" He looked at you up and down, and you noticed you didn't have anything on, you were completely naked, he went up to hug you and stared at your face for a moment, "What's wrong, babe?"

"I just thought you had... left"

"I would never do that" He caressed your cheek with his thumb, "And for the record, you won't get me to go that easily" A smile crawled to your lips, and he smiled back pecking your lips, you quickly changed the subject to distract both of you for a second.

"What are you making, Al? Smells good" God, he was just like a happy meal, the prettiest, British happy meal ever.

"I'm making eggs, sausage, pancakes, and some beans... and also you're a blessing" You stole one of the sausages that were already cooked and served on a plate.

"Why?" You said with your mouth full.

"Cause you have Heinz beans, and the best pancake mix ever" You broke into laughter, almost choking on your food.

"I can't believe you woke up and did all of this" You turned and also saw fresh coffee in the pot, you poured him and yourself a cup.

"I'm capable of eating this all by myself, when I wake up hungry I just cook everything that I see on the fridge" You truly believed him, like actually, you could expect that from him, but you didn't expect he was also a very tidy man, you could use that on a daily basis.

"Did you have a good night sleep?"

"I dreamed about you," He said with a smile, "Very sweet dreams I'd say" You couldn't believe how this man could make you blush so hard, and just with a few words.

"Wanna tell me about it?"

"How about I show you" He quickly turned everything off and carried you back to bed, both of you giggling.

A/N

Hope you enjoyed! and be prepared for the next chapter ladies and gentlemen…

#alexturnesimages #alex turner one shots #alex turner #alex turner fan fic #tlsp2 #alex turner smut #eycte era #pretty when you cry #dream girl #arcticmonkeys

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jgthirlwell · 1 year

Text

2022 Year In Review

This year once again I invited some friends and colleagues to reflect on 2022

JG Thirlwell

Composer Foetus Xordox Manorexia Steroid Maximus Venture Bros Archer www.foetus.org

2022 was a marathon year. I took on too much work, but somehow got through it. It challenged me. I played some excellent shows in Woodstock, Los Angeles, Orlando and NYC. Reconnected with Soft Cell at the Beacon. Reconnected with Sarah Lipstate. Wrote a ton of new music for Archer and a Venture Bros movie. Taught a class on film scoring at the New School. I still woke up 5am in a panic on too many occasions. And I saw some great concerts.It was difficult to whittle down this list but here are a lot of albums I enjoyed in 2022, in no particular order.

Tyondai Braxton Telekinesis (Nonesuch) Zeal & Ardor Zeal & Ardor (MVKA) Papangu Holoceno (Bandcamp) Extra Life Secular Works Vol 2 (Bandcamp) Carl Stone Wat Dong Moon Lek (Unseen Worlds) / Gall Tones (Unseen Worlds) / We Jazz Reworks Vol 2 (We Jazz Records) Louis Cole Quality Over Opinion (Brainfeeder) Ben Frost 1899 OST (Invada Records) Loraine James Building Something Beautiful For Me (Phantom Limb) Persher Man With The Magic Soap (Thrill Jockey) Anna Meredith Bumps Per Minute (Moshi Moshi) Sault Air (Forever Living Originals) The Smile A Light For Attracting Attention (XL) Shamblemaths Shamblemaths 2 (Apollon Prog) Julia Wolfe Oxygen (Cantelope) Heiner Schmitz’s Symprophonicum Sins & Blessings (Big Band Records) Burial Antidawn EP / Streetlands EP (Hyperdub) Gotho Mindbowling (Controcanti Produzioni) Oliver Coates The Stranger OST Gilla Band Most Normal (Rough Trade Records Ltd) Blanck Mass Ted K OST (Sacred Bones) Arcade Fire WE (Interscope) Yeah Yeah Yeahs Cool It Down (Secretly) Catarine Barbieri Spirit Exit (light-years) Felicia Atkinson Image Language (Shelter Press) Netherlands Kali Corvette (Three One G) Kemper Norton estrenyon (Zona Watusa) Elysian Fields Once Beautiful Twice Removed (Ojet) Simon Hanes Hurricane Salad Two Fingers Red Bass DJ Mix 22 (NoMark) Backxwash His Happiness Shall Come…(Ugly Hag) Bob Vylan The Price of Life (Ghost Theater) John Elmquist’s Hard Art Groop Stars and Bells / Zero Rest Mass / Trip Up reissues (Bandcamp) Dan Deacon Hustle OST (Netflix Music) Bent Knee Frosting (TTTH) Boris Heavy Rocks 2022 (Relapse) Wet Leg Wet Leg (Domino) Author and Punisher Kruller (Relapse)

Honorable mentions Hudson Mohawke Cry Sugar / Rival Consoles Now is / Haunted Horses The Worst Has Finally Happened / Sirom The Liquified Throne of Simplicity (Tak:Til)/ Meshuggah Immutable / Ani Klang Ani Klang / Pimpon Pozdrawiam (Pointless Geometry)

Shows

The Smile at Kings Theater Julia Wolfe Steel Hammer Carnegie Hall The Protomen LPR Tristan Perich St Thomas ChurchSparks Town Hall Anna Meredith Elsewhere Lingua Ignota LPR Royal Blood Terminal 5 Kraftwerk Radio City Hiro Kone Pioneer Works RATM / RTJ MSG Matmos LPR Rammstein MetLife Stadium Yeah Yeah Yeahs Forest Hills Stadium Melvins Irving Plaza Roxy Music MSG Sean Lennon Stone Elysian Fields The Owl The Comet Is Coming Bowery Ballroom Child Abuse TV Eye Fennesz Pioneer Works Helm Elsewhere

Film / TV

The Stranger All Quiet In The Western Front Dont Worry Darling Moonage Daydream The Velvet Underground Elvis Men Northman Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent White Lotus

Books

I read a ton of memoirs this year. Standouts were

Kid Congo Powers Some New Kind Of Kick Danny Sugerman Wonderland Ave

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Kemper Norton

LISTENING

My favourite album of the year was the dayglo psychedelic joy of Panda Bear/ Sonic Boom’s Reset , with honourable mentions for the amazing Aethiopes by billy woods and Alison Cotton’s beautiful The Portrait You Painted of Me. Also, must mention the massive , varied and crucial Rental Yields compilations on Front and Follow /Gated Canal Community in aid of homeless charities in the UK.

GIGS

Didn’t get out much this year but live events I loved this year here in Brighton, UK included the blasted joy of deafkids at The Hope, the final gig of the mighty Slum of Legs at The Green Door Store, and playing alongside Alexander Tucker’s Microcorps and Opal X at The Wire’s 40th anniversary shows at The Rosehill as part of the reanimated Outer Church.

In terms of radio, as well as Elizabeth Alker’s essential breakfast and Unclassified shows on Radio 3 there were loads of great shows on the fantastic Repeater Radio ( many previously on the mighty Neon Hospice) including Afternoon Delight by Ix Tab and the best of Eastern Europe showcased on Slav to the Rhythm by Catherine and Iris.

READING

Apart from the works of nonconformist Cornish poet Jack Clemo and American novelist Pete Dexter ( Deadwood and Paris, Trout ), new discoveries were thin on the ground this year. I read and reread a lot of old favourites ( Ray Bradbury, Cormac McCarthy, Pat Barker , Elmore Leonard ) and finally fell in love with Jane Austen.

WATCHING

My film and TV viewing in 2022 was largely informed / enforced by my 5 year old daughter, and the essential texts we rewatched repeatedly were the lively and proactive Gaby’s Dollhouse, multi-species global explorers the Octonauts , surreal UK gem Sarah and Duck and of course, the inspirational Aussie masterpiece Bluey. I did manage to catch a few films either new or new to me in 2022…

Wake in Fright ( 1971) : another Australian key text ( although less adorable than Bluey ). The horrors of closed environments, toxic masculinity and continuous drinking.

Enys Men (2022) : Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin’s spooky and minimalistic follow-up to his incredible Bait (2019) , a wonderful drama of local economic realities and identities. Would love to score one of his films but unfortunately he does an excellent job of this himself.

Stalker (1979) : As good as everyone said it would be.

EATING

Chorizo with honey Chinese black fungus

DRINKING

Everything by Burning Sky brewery ( Sussex, UK)

CREATING

I managed to churn out two tape releases in 2022 in between all the watching, listening, eating, drinking etc.

Estrenyon was released on tape and download with the Barcelona label zonawatusa and was inspired by historical UFO sightings throughout Cornwall from 1888 to 2021. Rife is the story of a Sussex Spring day and was released via Woodford Halse, who have released loads of great electronic and folky music by the likes of Xylitol and Sairie. On top of that , our first volume of download-only pay-what-you-like winter tunes Montol Melodies is available on our bandcamp until the traditional English old ‘ twelfth night ‘ ( January 12 2023).

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Lee Ranaldo

2022 LIST

I’m terrible at lists like this, and usually don’t keep track towards such a year-end summary. Pardon the self-focus, this is my year-in-review accounting, mostly just remembering to myself.

August in Vienna Leah and I spent the month of August in Vienna, creating a public artwork, sound+image, called Fermata. I discovered the world of small-body, near century-old, German + Austrian guitars. I wrote the main melodic material one one of these tiny, wonderful instruments,. At one point we had 3 of them in the apartment down in the MuseumQuartier. A whole new world of sound to explore. Side trips to Berlin and Prague. (https://tonspur.at/soundworks/lee-ranaldo-leah-singer/?lang=en) Exhibitions in Berlin and Eupen, Chile Media Arts Biennial, Covid Flowers online Exhibitions of my Black Noise record print editions in Berlin, Lost Highway road drawings in Belgium, and watercolor covid-flowers online. In Chile Leah and I created an outdoor sound/art work, Do You Read Me?, in a field of trees surrounding an observatory above Santiago. Sounds were generated from signals collected from deep space by another observatory in the Atacama desert. A sound displacement work.

Medicine Singers in Brasilia, Montreal, NYC Had fruitful wanderings this year with Yonatan Gat, working with indigineous players from the USA, Brasil and Canada. Recording sessions in Montreal at fabulous Hotel2Tango studio, and in a splendid house set on the edge of the city in Brasilia, one of my favorite places. Happy to have been invited along for this most interesting ride.

Touring resumes Mostly in Europe, mostly quite wonderful. After 2 years at home it felt good to stand up in front of audiences again. Lots of solo acoustic shows playing In Virus Times and singing songs, but also interesting collaborations with Yuri Landman; My Cat Is An Alien, Jean-Marc Montera and Sophie Gonthier, and a special ‘Velvets Suite’ with French legend Pascal Comelade in Banyoles, Spain. Also the beginnings of a new collaboration with Chicago guitarist Michael Vallera, in a great new space in NYC for experimental music, 411 Kent (aka Shift). Leah and I premiered the new version of our Contre Jour performance with suspended guitar and films, in A Coruna, Spain and at the Three-Lobed Fest in Durham, North Carolina – which was an amazing three days of music. Also a short NorthEast tour with Jeff Parker in May.

London/Paris/Leah/ Catpower My touring year ended with a month split between Europe and the UK. A friend-lent apartment in Paris as base, with shows and lectures in Nantes, and Brittany. Five shows in the UK, the most I’ve played in some time there, including a free-ranging set with the Pop Group’s Mark Stewart and an eclectic band. Wild night! Leah flew over to celebrate her birthday, with CatPower at Royal Albert Hall (first time there for us both) recreating Bob Dylan’s legendary show there – both acoustic and electric sets – from 1966. What a great night, and our time together, in London, Paris and Brittany, was splendid.

Hurricane Transcriptions This year I played solo keyboard shows for the first time ever – the solo-for-Fender-Rhodes performance of my Hurricane Sandy Transcriptions, first at Karma Gallery in NYC, accompanied by films from LA Artist Mungo Thomson, and also at a Xenakis celebration in Vienna and at the opening of my exhibition of Lost Highway drawings, ‘The Road Is Like The River, Constantly Changing Yet Ever The Same’ – at IKOB Museum in Eupen, Belgium. (ikob.be)

Circuit des Yeux at Green-Wood Cemetery I think my favorite gig of the year was Circuit des Yeux in Green-Wood Cemetery on a rainy night in June. The weather threatened the show all evening, which made this incredible performance – just Haley and Whitney Johnson (Matchess). Just a magical, powerful night.

Godard’s King Lear In late August I committed to introduce Jean-Luc Godard’s King Lear, which I’d never seen, at TriBeCa’s Roxy Cinema, which has been doing terrific programs organized by Illyse Singer. I love Godard’s films, they are an important touchstone for me, and I took this as an opportunity to discover both the film and Shakespeare’s play; my Shakespeare knowledge is terrible, so I boned up on the play. Four days before the screening, the great master died, which cast the whole night in a new light. The film has been described by Richard Brody of the NY’er as ‘one of the best films of all time’ – wow. Burgess Meredith, Molly Ringwald, Norman Mailer, Julie Delpy, Leos Carax, and Godard himself center-stage and the plugged/unplugged oracle Professor Pluggy. What a film. As usual with a Godard film: what a sound mix!. See it in 35mm.

Broken Circle / Spiral Hill I have had a long fascination with the work of Robert Smithson, since discovering the book of his writings in the 70s. In the early 80s on the first few SY tours, I ‘coaxed’ the band into visiting one of his 3 still existing artworks – Broken Circle/Spiral Hill – in the countryside of northern Holland. Back then it was like a treasure hunt trying to find it, in the dark, late on the way to Club Vera in Groningen. In 2020 I visited it for a third time w friend Carlos, in the week before the world shut down. It had been totally restored and ready for it’s moment – just at it’s 50-year mark. In 2022 the site-an old, long-unused quarry – was opened to the public for the first time in ages, across 8 weekends. This year I narrated a podcast for the Holt/Smithson Foundation and the Netherland’s Land Art Contemporary, about Smithson and the work, which went live in November. (brokencircle.nl)

Birdsong Project I worked on this project, as both producer and performer, to raise money to benefit the Audobon Society for the preservation of avian habitats. Over 200 musicians contributed to this 20-LP set, as well as writers, poets and artists. Uplifting and surprising. (https://www.audubon.org/birdsong-project)

James Jackson Toth In the early 2000s I produced an album – James and the Quiet – with Mr. Wooden Wand, who’s music I love. This year a group of friends organized a birthday tribute to James, with 33 of us recording versions of songs from his vast catalog. I recorded ‘Wired to the Sky’, a favorite from the album we made together, recorded in our Viennese apartment in August, which closes this Birthday Blues collection. (https://aquariumdrunkard.com/category/jamesjackson-toth/)

Some Music/Art/Books etc:

Lou Reed – Words + Music, 1971 RCA Demos David Bowie – Divine Symmetry Catherine Christer Hennix – Selected Early Keyboard Works (https://blankformseditions.bandcamp.com/album/selected-early-keyboard-works) Plus Instruments, Februari-April ’81 (first record I was ever on) on Domani Records, NYC. In/Out/In, Sonic Youth. So cool to see this release welcomed so warmly! Cecilia Vicuña, Tate Modern Turbine Hall Venus of Willendorf, Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna Matisse: The Red Studio, Museum of Modern Art, NYC Claude Monet – Joan Mitchell, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris Marco Fusinato, Desastres, Venice Biennale Family Affair, a 20-minute short film included in the Criterion Collection edition of Josh & Benny Safdie’s 2009 Daddy Longlegs, outlining our two families intertwined involvement in the making of the film. The most glorious home movie ever. The Double Life of Bob Dylan: A Restless, Hungry Feeling, Clinton Heylin. First of a 2-part bio of the (other) Bard, making first use of all the new material out from Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center archive. Loved: Olivier Assayas’ Irma Vep mini series. He’d used SY’s ‘Tunic’ in his original 1995 film, and we became friends and occasional collaborators. The new limited series mines the story anew, meta-mixing in his 1995 film and Louis Feuillade’s 1915 original, Les Vampires. The most contemporary piece of ‘television’ I’ve seen in ages, just wonderful, with fantastic cast including a spot-on stand-in portrayal by Vincent Macaigne as the director, Alicia Vikander as Irma Vep, and Lars Eidinger as Gottfried. Also Devon Ross, Carrie Brownstein, many other great performances. Loved it. Still watching: Westworld, Handmaid’s Tale. Hal Willner Memorial, St. Anne’s, April. Miss Hal all the time…

---LR, Winnipeg, December 2022

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Brian Chase

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Brian chose to write about one album that impacted him in 2022

This write-up is in no way meant to be a formal review - I don’t deem myself qualified for that task here - rather, this is meant to share personal enthusiasm and bring an album to light - like, "Have you heard this, it's really really amazing and inspiring and why isn't there more talking about it, and…" As a musician working within a greater community, I am acutely aware of the creative drive to continually uncover new modes, methodologies, practices etc. of expressing our chosen art form - each performance and each album serving as an instance of discovery and offering new perspectives on old conundrums. Whether the genre is rock, jazz, noise, free-improvisation, modern classical etc. the relationship of discourse and dialogue is still the same. At the forefront of this dialogue is John Zorn, as he has been for decades, and a major contribution to the conversation is the 2022 album Incerto - Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, and the Uncertainty Principle. Here, Zorn is the composer and the performing ensemble consists of some of Zorn's tightest in recent years: Brian Marsella on piano, Julian Lage on guitar, Jorge Roeder on bass and Ches Smith on drums. As Zorn says in the liner notes, "Incerto is about possibilities, probabilities, inevitabilities and improbabilities." Formal logic for musical structure is considerably expanded with these compositions and never before have I heard such new forms for improvisation. In these pieces, unexpected juxtapositions and superimpositions abound, as foremost examples of its many distinct features. The syntax of this music is beyond the scope of any previous way that I've conceived of music existing. Not only are harmonic and rhythmic conventions regularly reconstructed - often replaced with adjacent compliments and aggressive contradictions - but entire paradigms of improvisatory behavior are game as well. Shifts in genre/mood/tempo/texture/harmonic character/melodic personality place the improvisor in varying contexts - often in a short amount of time - and each context requires its own set of responses. The whole scope of musical history+trends+possibilities takes on a dynamic relational co-existence, in ways that I've never previously heard or thought possible - like when angular atonal lead lines enter on top of a serene ostinato, or impressionistic chords alternate between stillness and motion, or genre styles and idiomatic references collide, or gravelly density and noise build tension culminating into a placid release. Plus, so much of the composed material is really just so cool. Paramount to it all is the music’s immense depth of feeling. The moods on this album are evocative, romantic and ecstatic as much as they are revolutionary, kaleidoscopic and mystifying. As the music winds through its structural twists and turns, the key that holds it all together is sincerity of spirit - the performance of this music, as well as listening to it, is a literal experience. And within each singular track is the remarkable performance of the individual musicians themselves - each a respective master at the craft. Additionally, the album as a collective whole, being comprised of eleven very different tracks, functions as a macro-structure in itself which expands on the themes present in each individual track. So many new modes of music making are presented here - integrating them into current music making will take a while as more people discover its brilliance and begin to absorb the concepts and ideas it conveys. It is uniquely Zorn and there for us musicians to process and in turn produce that which is uniquely ours. Incerto is a gem in the conversation - we can listen and run with it how we like - but we have to hear it first.

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David T. Little

composer www.davidtlittle.com

MUSIC (new, revisited, & in rotation)

Vile Creature – Glory! Glory! Apathy Took Helm! Burning Witch – Crippled Lucifer tryphème – Aluminia Louis Cole – Quality Over Opinion KANGA – You and I Will Never Die DELANILA – Overloaded Amyl & the Sniffers – Comfort To Me Kae Tempest – Let Them Eat Chaos Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer – Josquin, the Undead: Laments, Deplorations & Dances of Death Run The Jewels – 1, 2, 3, 4 The Cure – Disintegration, Wish, Show, Pornography Tenderheart Bitches – High Kicks George Walker – Piano Sonatas (Steven Beck) Rammstein – Herzeleid, Mutter, Sehnsucht, Untitled (in heavy rotation after the MetLife Stadium show) Living Colour – Vivid Utah Phillips – We Have Fed You All For A Thousand Years Tom Morello – Hold The Line (track, feat. grandson) ACRONYM – Oddities & Trifles: the Very Peculiar Instrumental Music of Giovanni Valentini Late Stravinsky (various) Son Lux – Everything Everywhere All At Once (ost) Harrison Birtwistle – The Moth Requiem Christopher Tin – The Lost Birds Karim Sulayman, Apollo’s Fire – Songs of Orpheus Hermann Nitsch – Symphony No. 9 “The Egyptian” Jay Wadley – Swan Song (ost) Herem – Pulsa diNura Danny Elfman – Big Mess / Bigger. Messier. (Deluxe.) Scott Walker – The Drift

FILMS & SERIES (new & rewatched) Hellraiser (Clive Barker) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman) Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Shin'ya Tsukamoto) Private Life (Tamara Jenkins) Double Take (Johan Grimonprez) After Life (Ricky Gervais) One Big Bag (Every Ocean Hughes) The Village Detective (Bill Morrison) Polia & Blastema (E. Elias Merhige) Sibyl (William Kentridge)

The Copper Queen (Crystal Manich) Wishes (Amy Jenkins) The Once and Future Smash (Sophia Cacciola & Michael J. Epstein) End Zone 2 (August Kane) All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger) Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniels) Russian Doll (multiple directors) Piggy (short) (Carlota Pereda) The Mitchells vs. The Machines (Michael Rianda & Jeff Rowe) WHAT DID JACK DO? (David Lynch) The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion) Pig (Michael Sarnoski) The Green Knight (David Lowery) The Northman (Robert Eggers) Muriel’s Wedding (P.J. Hogan) BoJack Horseman (multiple directors) Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)

BOOKS (some) Body Horror - Anne Elizabeth Moore Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf a ghost in the throat - Doireann Ní Ghríofa Cleanness – Garth Greenwell A Saint from Texas – Edmund White Out Loud – Mark Morris The Gastronomical Me – M.F.K. Fisher Agamemnon – Aeschylus (trans. Robert Fagles)

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Jonnine

HTRK

2022 good vibes - Hackedepicciotto tour photos such #couplegoals, kicking off the HTRK tour in Atlanta was exhilarating! Big hangs with my overseas buds Nathan Corbin and Yasmina Dexter, writing new songs with Nigel and keeping THE dream alive, my puppy Pali growing up into mumma’s good boy, instagram follows @the.holistic.psychologist (self healing) @cracked.bolos (cakes), DJ Sundae, Amir Shoat, ‘Crush’ by Richard Siken (borrow from Nigel) writing bonkers dreams down again, Jonathan Richmond lyrics, tik tok #stayathomegirlfriend, jamming with Brother May in London and playing cafe OTO, second season Euphoria, White Lotus, Heartbreak High, rewatching Curb, Julia Fox’s eye makeup tutorial, films The Weekend and 45 Years by director Andrew Haigh, Charlotte Rampling interviews, fam long drives with Conrad and Pali finding songs for NTS <3 <3 Conrad got me into the Kinks!

Some music i liked Actress — Dummy Corporation (Ninja Tune) Autumn Fair - Autumn Fair DALE CORNISH — Traditional Music of South London (The Death Of Rave) Delphine Dora — A Stream Of Consciousness II (for piano solo) Coby Sey — Conduit (AD 93) CS + Kreme — Orange (The Trilogy Tapes) Harry Howard - Slight Pavilions Various / Kashual Plastik — Field of Progress Jonathan Richman - Jonathan Goes Country Julia Reidy - World in World Kitchen Cynics — Strange Acrobats Liz Durette - A Christmas Gift To You Malvern Brume — Body Traffic (MAL) Taylor E. Burch — The Best of Taylor E. Burch (Downwards) The Incredible String Band — Wee Tam and the Big Huge The Kinks - The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society Thomas Bush — Preludes Warm Currency — Returns (Horn Of Plenty)

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Lawrence English

(Room 40 Records)

This year was the first time I had travelled internationally since 2019. The thing I realised I've truly missed is seeing people. The opportunity to share ideas, to be curious with others and to just be in the world was, well, magical. I think if anything the past few years has reminded me (us?) not to take things for granted…especially each other. This year was also the first time I returned to making solo electronic works. It had been about six years since I had completed Cruel Optimism and, if I am honest, I wasn’t sure if I still had an appetite for making solo electronic works. Approach however proved, to me at least, I can still derive great pleasure from working alone. Unexpectedly, I found the whole process of the album very satisfying, like it was new all over again, not something I always feel.

There’s been a tonne of great input into the system this year. Ergo Proxy totally got me thinking. I was late to the party, but it was a party I am glad I did make it to. Puce Mary made some tapes back in April, both of them were totally ace, filled with an acute sense of heaviness. I very much enjoyed Boy Harsher’s work this year too, outside my usual orbit in some ways, but they are really onto something of late. I caught up with my old and dear friend Kate Crawford, and had a chance to read over he excellent Atlas Of AI book, she is a tower of radiance. Annea Lockwood’s, work occupied a great deal of my thoughts this year, realising her Piano Transplants all at once was quite simply a delight. Adam Curtis’s TraumaZone left an indelible mark in more ways than one. I returned to Vancouver to photograph the crows that started off my homage to Masahisa Fukase, perhaps that tract of work is done? Oh and thanks to a dinner with Atsuo from Boris, and the encouragement of my small humans, we all started down the pathway of the epic saga of Gundam too. I missed that when I was younger, so it’s a long road to catch up on….but I started.

Oh and on a purely personal note I was able to commission a shikishi from Yoshihisa Tagami. Seriously, my 12 year old self was reborn when it arrived. The world is so much bigger, and smaller, than that little human could ever have imagined!

Love to you all and here’s hoping 2023 is full of curious surprises and wonder.

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John Tottenham

author

A LISTLESS LIST

Best Books: Woodcutters Concrete Extinction| Wittgenstein’s Nephew Old Masters

Thomas Bernhard

A Father and his Fate More Women than Men Manservant and Maidservant A Family and a Fortune - Ivy Compton Burnett Hawkwind: Days of the Underground - Joe Banks

Best Songs: Eunice Collins – At the Hotel Gloria Barnes - Old Before My Time Sonia Ross - Every Now and Then Rozetta Johnson - A Woman’s Way Debbie Taylor - I Don’t Wanna Leave You Denise LaSalle - Trapped by a Thing Called Love Barbara Stant - Unsatisfied Woman Ann Alford - If It Ain’t One Thing Big Martha - Your Magic Touch Helene Smith - Sure Thing Best Shows By Octogenarians And Nonagenarians:

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – Zebulon, LA / Bob Dylan - Pantages, LA / Marshall Allen (Arkestra) - Zebulon, LA / Swamp Dogg - Teragram, LA / Doug Kershaw - Zebulon, LA / Sonny Green - Barnyard & La Louisianne, LA / Tommy McClain - Stowaway, LA

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Brian Carpenter

Composer / Ghost Train Orchestra

My favorite recordings of 2022, in no particular order…also the most frequently played albums on my long-running radio show Free Association on WZBC in Boston. As I'm writing this I'm reminded that a lot of great records came out of bands from South London this year, across genres.

The Comet is Coming - CODE Caroline - caroline Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork William Orbit - The Painter Akusmi - Fleeting Future

Electric Youth, David Sylvian, et al - A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto - To the Moon and Back Portico Quartet - Next Stop The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention Zola Jesus - Into the Wild Mary Lattimore and Paul Sukeena - West Kensington Lucrecia Dalt - Ay! Bjork - Fossora Tindersticks - Stars at Noon Original Soundtrack Kamikaze Palm Tree - The Hit Bitchin Bajas - Bajascillators Bill Callahan - YTILAER Thurston Moore - Screen Time Bill Orcutt - Music for Four Guitars Horse Lords - Comradely Objects Curha - Curha III

Sharon Van Etten - We've Been Going About This All Wrong Aldous Harding - Warm Chris Weyes Blood - Hearts Aglow Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You Oneida - Success Brandon Seabrook - In the Swarm Jacob Garchik - Assembly Oren Ambarchi - Shebang The Lord and Petra Haden - Devotional Roedelius & Tim Story - 4 Hands Brian Eno - Foreverandevernomore Steve Reich - Runner Moor Mother - Jazz Codes Makaya McCraven - Dream Another Sun Ra Arkestra - Living Sky Danger Mouse and Black Thought - Identical Deaths A Far Cry - The Blue Hour Nils Frahm - Music for Animals Mary Halvorson - Amaryllis Kronos Quartet, Van-Anh Vanessa Vo, Rinde Eckert - My Lai Attacca Quartet - Caroline Shaw: Evergreen

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DJ Food

Music: Clocolan - Empathy Alpha LP (Redpan) Brian Eno - The Lighthouse (Sonos HD) King Gizzard &The Lizard Wizard - Omnium Gatherum LP (Flightless) Twilight Sequence - Trees in General: and the Larch 12" (Castles In Space) WTCHCRFT - Drugs Here 12" (Balkan Vinyl) Ghost Power - Ghost Power LP (Duophonic Super 45s) Dexorcist - Night Watch 12" (Yellow Machines) The Advisory Circle - Full Circle LP (Ghost Box) Fenella - The Metallic Index (Fire Records) S'Express & Daddy Squad - Music 4 The Mind (DL)

Podcasts: The Bureau of Lost Culture We Buy Records Oh God, What Now?

Gigs / Events: The Orb play U.F.Orb @ The Fox & Firkin, London Staying in a restored Futuro House, Somerset Fogfest @ Iklectik, London Funki Porcini's Lasarium @ Iklectik, London The Trunk Groovy Record Fayre @ Mildmay Club, London

Books / Comics: 99 Balls Pond Road - Jill Drower (Scrudge Books) Radio Spaceman - Mike Mignola & Greg Hinkle (Dark Horse) A-Z of Record Shop Bags - Jonny Trunk (Fuel) Mud Sharks - Dave Barbarossa Good Pop, Bad Pop - Jarvis Cocker (Vintage) House Music - Andy Votel (The Modernist) Defying Gravity - Jordan Mooney w. Cathi Unsworth 69 Exhibition Road - Dorothy Max Prior (Strange Attractor) Judge Dredd - Mike McMahon (Apex Edition) It's Lonely At The Centre Of The Universe - Zoe Thorogood (Image Comics) The Black Locomotive - Rian Hughes (Picador)

Films: Get Back (Disney+) Who Killed The KLF? (Chris Atkins) In The Court of the Crimson King (Toby Aimes)

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