With the death of what seemed like a disproportionate amount of highly admired famous people, and a number of disappointing political outcomes, it’s probably fair to say that many people will be glad to see the back of this year, and the ‘curse of 2016’.

Without commenting much on any of that, I’m going to take a look back on the past 12 months from my own perspective. Musically, 2016 has been a great year; a year of re-awakening after a four to five year drought. I’ve built up my home studio, getting back into electronics and falling down the Eurorack hole; written, recorded, and released 3 solo studio albums, plus one EP; properly reformed my band Closet Organ and released our first ever full length album on vinyl; started up my DIY label Cow Tongue Taco Records; and played my first ever live gigs as unexpected bowtie – first in Osaka, and then in Glasgow.

It can be too easy to forget what you’ve managed to achieve over a 12 month period, so I think it’s good to look back and reflect a bit. Here’s some of the highlights:

• January 2016 – Started recording music again, and released the ‘really something‘ EP.
• March 2016 – Released my first full length album since 2012 – ‘drouth‘. Also set up noisepedals.com, which now has over 1,000 followers on Instagram.
• May 2016 – Set up my DIY cassette label, Cow Tongue Taco Records.
• July 2016  – Released the ‘bonkers and disturbing electro’ album ‘defame the dead‘ under the alternative moniker cup fungus.
• August 2016 – Released ‘drouth (reprise)‘, with guest vocals from some awesome fellow musicians.
• September 2016 – Closet Organ release ‘5318008’ on vinyl, cassette, and digital download.
• October 2016 – Closet Organ album launch party, and played my first ever live gig as unexpected bowtie, at the Space Station in Osaka, Japan.
• November 2016  – Released the fifth full length unexpected bowtie album – ‘Tokyo‘.
• December 2016 – Played my first ever Glasgow gig as unexpected bowtie, and finally signed up for an unexpected bowtie Instagram account.

Not to mention upping my video game with a new camera. Here’s a sample from the other night:

Of course, there’s not much use in simply looking back and neglecting what you want to aim for in the future. Aside from writing and recording as much music as I can, I have some specific things I want to make happen:

• Release an unexpected bowtie album composed entirely on a pocket calculator.
• Listen to more music than I did in 2016.
• Release a new Cup Fungus album.
• Play more gigs as unexpected bowtie, both at home and abroad – with the possibility of a mini tour.
• Look into a Closet Organ tour.
• Release a bunch of different artists on the Cow Tongue Taco label.
• Produce a lot more video content for YouTube.

Let’s see how 2017 goes. Happy New Year.