dsoaudio.com Awards 2012

For a bunch of personal reasons 2012 was not my most productive year in terms of content generation, meaning there were far fewer music reviews than usual. Interviews were light on the ground too but spanned several generations with a frank chat with Hugh Cornwell in September and an introduction to AlterRed in July. In contrast, our YouTube channel went from strength to strength with more than 62,000 views to date (53,000 of which happened this year) and no less than 202 new clips uploaded in 2012 alone.

The gig-going was maintained at a reasonable level throughout most of the year but (excluding a couple of forays in Japan taking in a Mute club in Tokyo and a Kodo dummer demonstration in Sado-ga-shima) no actual gigs outside the UK this year. Back at home, the UK's first major micromusic/chiptune festival SuperByte saw me back in Manchester for the first time in decades and was well worth the trip. Meanwhile in Bradford Infest entered its 14th year and turned out to be a classic - one of the most rewarding line-ups ever seen. It was, however, just eclipsed by the intimate BASII festival in Basildon where I exprienced two life-changing moments in one event: seeing cult Some Bizarre album act Naked Lunch 30 years after hearing them (it was worth the wait) and my first ever Blancmange gig which, in spite of the absence of Steven Luscombe due to a serious on-going illness, was still one of the most impacting live performances I'd ever seen.

So that's another 12 months been and gone. Time then to announce the 2012 dsoaudio.com Awards.