Every the staff at Rough Trade's shops compile an annual release of those tunes that have received much in-store love in the year just ending. The result is a handy filter to who's who and what's what in the non-mainstream musical world. There's naturally room here for big leftfield hitters (John Grant, The Knife, Matthew E White, Queens of the Stone Age), but acts who are relatively unheralded shine just as brightly. Dean Blunt's The Redeemer is a great primer for his album of the same name; Parquet Courts make the case for their snotty garage rock; Omar Souleyman's Ya Yumma is a Syrian trance delight; and Daniel Avery's Naïve Response comes with a pleasing tech thump. Something, then, for all the family. roughtrade.com
Download: Dean Blunt, The Redeemer; Omar Souleyman, Ya Yumma; Daniel Avery, Naïve Response