You can play my 2013 tracks so far via YouTube or Spotify.

1. Mount Kimbie – Made To Stray
2. Daft Punk – Lose Yourself To Dance
3. John Grant – GMF
4. Kurt Vile – Was All Talk
5. Public Service Broadcasting – ROYGBIV
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Despair
7. Daughter – Youth
8. Suede – It Starts And Ends With You
9. Vampire Weekend – Diane Young
10. Boards Of Canada – Reach For The Dead
11. Haim – Falling
12. David Bowie – Where Are We Now?
13. Wolf Alice – Bros
14. Darwin Deez – You Can’t Be My Girl
15. Disclosure – Latch
16. Local Natives – Wooly Mammoth
17. Villagers – Passing A Message
18. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Mermaids
19. Jessie Ware – Imagine It Was Us
20. Phoenix – Trying To Be Cool
21. Fuck Buttons – The Red Wing
22. Gaz Coombes Presents – One Of These Days
23. Foals – My Number
24. Kelis – Jerk Ribs
25. Queens Of The Stone Age – I Sat By The Ocean

1. I’ve had One Of These Days on constantly this week. This is such a stunning track. Gaz Coombes tracing time hauntingly, the man responsible for the care free soundtrack of my late teens with Supergrass now writing heartbreaking songs about loss eighteen years later.

2. Unexpected new Hot Chip track arrived this week, Dark & Stormy (one of my favourite rum based mixes). Consistently great and one of my favourite bands to see live.

3. For all the hipsters (and I mean the good sort of hipster, which does exist) into electronic music you’ll be as happy as I with the new Fuck Buttons track The Red Wing. Annoyingly clashing with the one band I’m determined to see at Glastonbury this year. Festival clash woes starting already.

4. Disclosure’s debut album Settle was released this week. Every track uplifting and instant. Such a great time for electronic music. So good that Boards of Canada even return next week.

5. My love for Tom Krell (How To Dress Well) grows deeper on Shlohmo’s track Don’t Say No. I didn’t think I could love him anymore after he covered Janet Jackson’s Again at Field Day. I suspect myself and Jo were the only ones in the audience that recognised the cover, or were willing to admit we did.

6. Finally Vampire Weekend released another video for Diane Young. Featuring Dirty Projectors, Santigold and The Walkmen. I especially appreciate naked tambourine playing.

She’s helped me move house on a Monday night straight from work, carrying boxes and boxes of books to the top floor of my building. Shared many a glass of wine and gin. Shared some special gigs. Reminded me I’m well loved during tough times. I remember a particularly low day last July she sat opposite me in a pub in Marylebone. Her expressions a complete mirror of my own, she was genuinely as upset as I was.  To me that’s a dear friend, someone whose very expressions show they’re going through it with you. She’s an amazing person.

So, this mixtape is for her, you can play it on Spotify or YouTube.

Happy Birthday and I’ll see you later so you can blow out the candles on your Eton Mess. ♥

1. Bonobo Feat. Andreya Triana – Stay The Same
2. The Knife – Heartbeats
3. Zulu Winter – You Deserve Better
4. Jessie Ware – Taking In Water
5. Polica – Lay Your Cards Out
6. How To Dress Well – & It Was U
7. Daft Punk – Get Lucky
8. Kindness – Swingin’ Party
9. Chromatics – Kill For Love
10. SBTRKT – Pharaohs

1. My nearest cinema is now The Aubin Cinema in Shoreditch. I got to stretch my legs, sink a beer and nerd out over Star Trek last week. This is independent cinema at its greatest. 3D capabilities, cosy sofa’s and arm chairs draped with cushions and blankets. The attention to detail is above and beyond. They were playing William Shatner’s and Leonard Nimoy’s Spaced Out album as we waited for the film to start. Genius.

2. You have to love London. Friday it was announced that Canalival was cancelled, Saturday everyone turned up and went for  it anyway. To everyone I came into contact with (hipsters, the fuzz, soaked through to the skin drunks with missing shoes and wet iPhones, all the people who came out this morning to help tidy up the carnage) thank you for being hugely entertaining, happy and hysterical!  If you were there you’ll be smiling through the severe hangovers today I am sure.

3. Friday nights are swiftly turning into “bunk off work as early as possible and head to Street Feast” nights. My flat mate rightly summed it up as “like having a food Glastonbury right on our doorstep”. I’ve had hot dogs and jerk chicken followed by tiny Tiramisu and stunning ice-creams. The atmosphere is always incredible. People always have huge smiles on their faces when it comes to food and drink. Real joy to feel part of the happiness at the start of a weekend.

4. Last Sunday morning I sat out on my balcony with lemon tea and toasted crumpets slathered in London Borough of Jam, made in Hackney by Lillie. I picked up the Strawberry and Verbena flavour from Leila’s shop of Cambridge Circus. It’s sweeter than any jam I’ve ever tasted. Wish I was as talented as my mum when it comes to making scones.

5. Within moments of moving I felt an overwhelming urge to cut something asymmetrical into my hair. One feels the pressure standing next to Hipster’s at the bus stop. It so happens I ended up going through with it in a place that can’t be disguised (my fringe which has been the same for twenty years) at a place of friendly brilliance. Rockalily’s on Kingsland Road is creative and not once did I hear any inane hairdresser holiday chat. It wasn’t until I watched Star Trek a few days later that I realise this new look has actually turned me Vulcan. I’m embracing it.

Live Long and Prosper.

1. So I have a huge soft spot for Baz Luhrmann films. I’ve heard people niggling at his adaptation of The Great Gatsby, someone saying they walked out after ten minutes, but I loved it. The party scenes were visually breathtaking, made me feel like I am missing glittery ticker tape in life. The casting was perfect for the characters, Mulligan and DiCaprio as Daisy and Gatsby especially. It stuck close to the original book by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The soundtrack was perhaps a little too much vanity from Jay-Z.

2. The much talked about Parquet Courts played London’s historic The 100 Club last Sunday. Without getting drawn into the whole “is guitar music dead?” question what I will say is it was great to see a band who didn’t look like a Top Man advert, over groomed and too stiff for movement. There was a kid alone (he really was a kid, around 16) right at the front looking like he’d just discovered the greatest band of all time. Eyes unblinking, mouthing every word, rapt with attention. I love seeing that look on people.

3. I always get sucked into these “great summer read” books (I admit it, I even read Dan Brown). I read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn in about two days, staying up until the early hours to get to the end. It’s surprising and full of twists without over complicating the plot. I predict a film adaption will follow by the end of the year.

4. Field Day was utter brilliance on Saturday. Perfect weather, great company for the day and some real standout performances from the likes of How To Dress Well, Kurt Vile, Animal Collective and Bat for Lashes. I’ll opt to put a track of hers on here because it was the last crystal clear memory I have. Things after that got a bit gin hazy. The best day of 2013 so far, by far.

5. Lastly a new track this week from bare-footed, natty haired Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Better Days.

You can play my mixtape on YouTube.

1.  Star Trek Into Darkness is perhaps not as light as the first installment of J.J. Abrams Star Trek but then the title suggests that anyway so it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Great cast, Benedict as a bastard works brilliantly and some scenes are so genuinely tender that I cried space tears. I saw this at The Aubin in Shoreditch which is now my favourite cinema, blog to follow.

2. Despite this track being uploaded to YouTube three weeks ago it only came to my attention this week thanks to Shaun Keaveny on 6 Music. Jerk Ribs by Kelis has to be a contender for best song title this year.

3. Despite the Lichtenstein: A Retrospective gracing Tate Modern since February I’ve only just managed to visit. I have seen this before (or a very close version of it) at The Guggenheim another lifetime ago. I love his wit and nod to other artists as well as his unique way of expressing what he see’s. Much needed inspiration as I’ve just purchased some acrylics to get back into painting. Oh, and now I want blue hair.

4. I always associate Vampire Weekend with the summer. It’s more their specific sound than a particular memory. So their third album release, Modern Vampires Of The City, is helping me cope with getting the winter coat back out of the cupboard earlier this week. Another solid album from the New Yorker’s.

My suspicions were cemented for me at the weekend when I got a text from my friend Jo (who I am now in eternal debt to) asking me if I’d heard of Dead Man’s Bones.

Turns out, and we may be the last people on the planet to know about this but it’s my new obsession so I’m blogging anyway, Ryan Gosling along with Zach Shields wrote an album of love songs for ghosts, zombies, monsters and werewolves . With a children’s choir. With no experience of playing any instruments. Best concept album that’s come into my life since Metronomy’s The English Riviera.

The videos below are worth watching.

Be still my fluttering ovaries.

1. The first book I read as an East London resident was A Hoxton Childhood by A.S Jasper. An honest and frank account of growing up poor in 1920′s from the voice of an ordinary man. No romanticising the past. It could have been wrote by my Dad from the stories he’s told me and he read the entire book in a matter of hours when I passed it on to him. A beautiful message in the book and interesting to read about the streets that now surround me.

“Be thankful that you were born now and not then. Go forward, but try to be tolerant of your parents along the way”. A.S Jasper.

2. If you ever find yourself in Torbay the only place to have seafood is Simply Fish in Brixham. Menu is dictated by availability from the boats straight in from fishing at a quarter of the price you’d pay in London. Queues rival that of restaurants such as Meat Liquor. My favourite dish is their Tempura Cuttlefish (pictured above). Managed to fit three visits in during my visit home.

3. Janelle Monae is back with Q.U.E.E.N featuring Erykah Badu. Adore everything about this woman and still lament the day I got sidetracked by an ice cream van playing 90′s dance music at Glastonbury and missed her. Makes me want to quiff my hair and deal in monochrome only.

4. Before the Devon adventures and in between moving house I managed to sneak in a couple of trips to Pick Me Up London. Just as inspiring, inventive and batty as it was when I first attended last year. I’d highly recommend signing up to the mailing list so you don’t miss out on it next year.

5. Hot on the heels of (the superior, let’s face it) Daft Punk comes a new track from Basement Jaxx which really minds me of Friends Va Fan Gor Du. Getting my dance on.

Out of the two old dears that nosed their way into my misfortune one comforted me and offered to pray to Saint Anthony while the other shouted at me for “being an idiot. you can’t take your eyes off anything for a second in Hoxton It’s crap!.” I suspect my Dad would have sided with her.

Last year I set myself a to-do list. Life happened and things didn’t pan out despite achieving it in parts. I have three Lido’s left to swim in London and I learnt how to ride a bike (albeit not brilliantly yet. I doubt I’d pass my cycling proficiency). This move sparks a mentality of getting back on track as living here was part of the plan.

Up on the roof.

We sat up on our roof terrace last night with a bottle of wine watching the sun go down and the water returning to glass after a day of long boats passing, plastic bags floating past like lyrics from a Suede song, Laburnum Boat Club plunging in and ragged looking ducks disturbing the canal. I felt the luckiest and calmest I’ve been in a long time despite the bad luck on the first weekend I arrived. 

P.S I predict I fall in the canal by the time the year is up.

P.P.S My first week was soundtracked by Kindness, David Bowie, Daft Punk, Bat for Lashes, Talking Heads, LCD Soundsystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Haim. You can play my mixtape on YouTube here.