Bit of a sweeping statement perhaps but bear with me - I can't think of a time when it's been more exciting to be a music fan. Everything seems to be in such a brilliant state of flux at the moment, borrowing/stealing/taking influence from so many different places that it's coming out in a whole host of bizarre and brilliant ways.

Sure, if you want to look at the state of just indie/rock it'd probably be pretty easy to conclude the form's pretty stale, but there's a crazy amount of music around the fringes that's really inspired. Hell, if you want to get pretty purist about it, both the XX and Wild Beasts are making really interesting guitar music at the moment. Plus you've got something like Ariel Pink's latest album, which totally destroys 99% of mainstream indie and rock bands, both in terms of pop suss and in terms of sonic experimentation/interest.

But outside of the whole guitar-based thing as well, it feels like things have never been so diverse. Perhaps it's the result of the internet making the crossover of scenes, ideas and influences so much easier, but it feels more and more like everything's coalescing into a whole range of strange and exciting new shapes.

Off the top of my head, we've had incredible albums from Gonjasufi, FlyLo, the whole LA Brianfeeder crowd (Samiyam/Nosaj Thing/Lorn/Tokimonsta, etc), Peverelist, Mount Kimbie, FaltyDL, Actress, Guido, Oneohtrix Point Never, Emeralds, James Ferraro/Skaters, Forest Swords, Shackleton, DJ Sprinkles, Scuba, Erykah Badu, Madlib, Ariel Pink, Ben Frost, Nico Muhly and the whole Bedroom Community thaang, Moritz Von Oswald Trio and - as ever - the entire Hardwax community, Animal Collective, Hudson Mohawke the whole exploding scene around dubstep/grime/funky, and that's just off the cuff (there's loads more).

And that's not even counting the number of things released outside of the album format - I can't even begin to imagine where James Blake's gonna go next but I'm willing to bet it'll be even better than the stuff he's done already.

There's even some great pop kinda stuff making (or starting to make) waves in the (comparative) mainstream, in the shape of the XX, Mount Kimbie, Joker and Joy Orbison.

There seems to be such a rush of music worth hearing finding its way out there at the moment that I'm struggling to keep up.

DiScuss.