In Strict Tempo, vol. 99: 2025 Reflections & Best Ofs
Another year older, another year wiser, another year of great music. Here's the best of it...
Welcome to this, the last In Strict Tempo of 2025. Whether you’ve been reading since the start, or are a more recent subscriber I’d firstly like to extend my heartfelt thanks for following this Substack. Over 250 of you read it every week, and the open rate looks pretty good, so hopefully you’re enjoying what you read. As always I’m open to feedback, comments or just general discussion at owen@instricttempo.com.
At the start of the year I shared my musical New Year’s resolutions - so now’s as good a time as any to look back on them and see how I did.
I managed to get sell a good few hundred records to a local record shop earlier in the Summer. I wrote about attachment and letting go here. So far, I haven’t missed anything. I subscribed to The Quietus, Hearing Things and renewed my subscription to the Wire. I’ll be doing the same again in 2026, except for Hearing Things which I never found myself reading more than a handful of articles on. As for releasing more music; I kicked off the Ceremony mix series with a mix of my own, and did an hour mix for LDLDN’s NTS Radio show, so I guess that counts. I cancelled my Twitter/X account earlier in this year as it had become a far-right cesspit, and I’ve no time for any of that in my life. I still use Bluesky, but I’m nowhere near as active on there as I was on Twitter.
As for In Strict Tempo - only you can be the judge of whether it’s improved this year. I’d like to think it has, I added the Ceremony mix series, I’ve interviewed artists, which wasn’t something I intended on doing initially, but have been well-received. I also started adding Apple Music playlists after some reader feedback. Growth-wise, I’ve added around 100 subscribers this year, and lost maybe ten or so, which sounds about right to me.
I mentioned there was a couple of offline In Strict Tempo projects in the works, and they still are - things just move slowly when you’re juggling a newsletter and a full-time job and family life. Keep them peeled in the new year, you won’t be dissapointed.
All that’s left for me to say is I wish you all a great festive season, and a happy new year. I’ll be back in early January. Until then, enjoy the holidays!
Best of 2025
No new music reviews this week (even though there’s still some great stuff coming out) but rather a chance to look back at a bakers dozen of records I’ve enjoyed the most this year, new and old, in no particular order…
Wah Wah Wino - WINO-E [Wah Wah Wino]
Heads and tails above almost anything else released this year - pretty much everything the Wino crew has put out has been buy-on-sight gold. This one was a journey from start to end, one minute you’re Room 1 in Corsica, the next holding it down in Clink Street, ending up spinning out somewhere off Tottenham Court Road, having just come out of the ship… absolutely essential.
Carrier - Rhythm Immortal [Modern Love]
When Guy Brewer debuted his Carrier alias with a run of 12”s a year or so ago we all hoped it would lead to this… Landing somewhere on the axis of concrete dub techno and DnB it was some of the most original music these ears had heard in a long time. Short of re-animating Chain Reaction, there was never going to be any better home for it than Modern Love.
Microcorps - Clear Vortex Chamber [Downwards]
Alexander Tucker’s Microcorps project quietly released a previous album on Alter and a bunch of recordings on the Tapeworm a couple years back, but nothing had the seismic impact of Clear Vortex Chamber, which saw Tucker throw out an albums worth of material and start afresh. Experimental techno of the highest order, it never subtracts listenability from interestingness, and keeps you coming back for more with every listen.
Sandwell District - End Beginnings [Point of Departure]
We didn’t see this coming did we? Last year was the turn of British Murder Boys, this year’s Regis side-project saw him reuniting with former friend/foe Function for a stunning tribute to departed member Silent Servant. If, like me, Feed Forward is your GOAT electronic album then you’ll have nothing to fear from this.
TRjj - Music for Desert Reboot [World of Echo]
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve played this. Originally released as a tape during the pandemic it was one of those cassettes that absolutely deserved a wider audience than the medium allowed. It’s cliche, but there really isn’t anything else out there that sounds like this or captures the sheer sense of space that the album artwork suggests it was recorded in.
Conrad Pack - Commandments [Lost Domain]
“I really thought we had found the new dubstep and it was going to be a world-changing genre shift”. When you’re always looking for something new it can be easy to miss what’s right under your nose, and sometimes what that is is just straight up percussive techno.
Surgeon - Shell~Wave [Tresor]
Another one that doesn’t stray too far from the lane Surgeon returned with an album of ‘ard as nails, backs to the wall tekno, the kind of stuff he’s been consistently the best at making since the early 1990’s. Sometimes that’s all there is to it.
Low End Activist - Airdrop II [Peak Oil]
It’s one thing to run one of the best, and busiest labels currently operating, but another thing altogether to release your music on a completely different label. Low End Activist, the brains behind Sneaker Social Club & Bruk set the bar so high in ‘24 with the first Airdrop and full-length Municipal Dreams, it was hard to know how he was gonna top it. Airdrop II (swiftly followed by III) is the sound of London’s 24-7 underbelly, snatched breakbeats emerging through the basslines as you cruise the A406 at 100mph.
Lautern Der Seele - Unterhaltungen mit Larven und Uberresten [World of Echo]
Every now and again you get one of those records that no matter how much you enjoy it, is just impossible to describe. This is one of those. No words, just listen.
The Shadow Ring - Hold Onto ID [Blank Forms Editions]
Mad to think, that whilst Oasis was topping the charts, this was also put out there into the world. Call it what you want, avant-rock/post-post-punk/experimental alternative or however else you want to label it, it’s one of the most intriguing and rewarding British albums of the 1990’s.
The Lo Yo Yo - The Lo Yo Yo [Concentric Circles]
Just absolutely wonderful, this. Originally recorded as a demo tape before their debut album, The Lo Yo Yo was formed from the ashes of Family Fodder, with John Pearce and Mick Hobbs (later of Officer!) adding Carrie Brooks and the vocals of Joey Stack to create one of the best pop groups you’ve never heard of. Do yourself a favour and give this a listen, you won’t regret it.
Mentocome - Mentocome [Amok Age]
Weird German post-industrial Electronics from the early 1990’s? Sign me up. Probably not for everyone this, but those who seek out the less common sounds will find their reward here.
Durutti Column - Return of The Durutti Column [London]
Simply put, one of the best albums ever recorded.
That’s it for this week, and for 2025. Again, thanks for subscribing, reading, sharing and commenting on In Strict Tempo this year.
