A lot of bands/producers seemingly in their creative peak around, I thought I'd do an excitable summary; firstly the more established acts:

Foals new album is reportedly a successful continuation of TLF; Wild Beasts have a new album on the way and are kings of all they survey; The xx actually managed to add something to their debut with coexist; Arc by Everything Everything made me warm to them; the Dutch Uncles album is their best yet, Villagers seem to be developing their sound strongly...

The of course you have bands with just a debut so far...

Alt-j showed flashes of genuine songwriting class on An Awesome Wave; Islet's noise is genuinely exhilirating (even though they rub some DiSsers up the wrong way); Zun Zun Egui will run the underground with their chaotic eclecticism; Django Django are an exhilirating singles band (but need more album cohesion next time); Still Corners are masters of smokey atmosphere; Egyptian Hip Hop got overlooked but made wonderfully strange pop on Good Don't Sleep...

Then the bands without an album...

Trophy Wife are slow-building but already masters of yearning pop; Hookworms are both indulgent and fascinating; Look, Stranger have songs sharper and sleeker than almost anyone...

Then of course a healthy list of producers; Burial, James Blake, Holy Other, Gold Panda, Forest Swords, Vondelpark... plus bands I already know I've forgotten (erm... Post War Years, Mitchell Museum). I thought we could have a thread for talking about these bands and suggesting new ones. Compared to 8-10 years ago, its extraordinary