#TheTwen2ie5. Day 42. #9. *11 points* Amber Mark: What It Is (2021 🇺🇸) It's a little early in the day for irresistibly sultry r&b, but there you have it. At 26.3 millions, the most streamed song that, so far, I'm the only one to pick. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXaP...

Wow. Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985) is a cinematic masterpiece. At turns surreal and realistic, beautifully staged and shot throughout, and oh, harrowing. *Not* a pleasant film.

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 41. #10. *11 points* Latvian Radio Choir, Sigvards Kļava: Aletheia (2024 🇱🇻) (composed by Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, 2022) Big, intense, evocative, all done with voices. At just under 4000, my least streamed pick. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1oJ...

I can't fathom why the phrase "6–7" is even remotely funny. "40–45" however makes me snort with laughter. youtu.be/eR1ycEQsuvg?...

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 40. #11. The Necks: Causeway (2025 🇦🇺) Pull up a chair: this takes its time. At 26 min the longest of my picks; the shortest on its 4 track, 3h9m album. The oldest artist on my list (discography begins 1989); the newest track: 12 Aug '25. www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_tT...

Read: Lissa Evans's Small Bomb at Dimperley (2024). Colossally charming, funny, moving book set in post-war England. A feel-good book for readers who don't go for feel-good books.

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 39. #12. The Soft Pink Truth: Sunwash (2022 🇺🇸) A bandname whose awfulness rivals that of Jockstrap – but it's a great dubby ambient/electronic workout from one half of Matmos. www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfy7...

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 38. #13. Jane Paknia, Hagop Tchaparian: Alice in Orchidverse (2024 🇺🇸, 🇬🇧) And we're back on the dancefloor. www.youtube.com/watch?v=prg5...

1. Placing these two graphs side by side shows why we have a prisons crisis. They can also be seen as a kind of Authoritarianism Index, showing the trend in state attitudes. On the left is the Crime Survey for England and Wales. On the right is the UK prison population. 🧵1/8

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 37. #14. The Tubs: Wretched Lie (2023 🇬🇧) This sounds straight out of the mid 80s British folky jangly scene, and it's a TUNE. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zh0...

Your weekly slowly hibernating bit of outside.

Alright so the orange president still isn't in jail, but at least some pub quiz cheaters have been stopped. Let's take that win.

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 36. #15. Kelly Lee Owens: Dreamstate (2024 🇬🇧) A relentless, chugging anthem. KLO's second of two slots on my list. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcyr...

A panel from the most overrated comic ever. Also one of the best comics ever.

Was really struck by what a lovely inspiring exercise this is, like a primary school version of Mary Oliver’s Instructions for living a life Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it

When I was on @looksunfamiliar.bsky.social I chose this sequence from a 1979 Sesame Street episode - probably the first time I ever heard Philip Glass was this exclusive piece he wrote for this animated sequence, Geometry of Circles. It's never appeared anywhere else. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWw...

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 35. #16. Grace Ives: Shelly (2022 🇺🇸) HERE'S A RIFF. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQWO...

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 34. #17. The Staves: Satisfied (2021 🇬🇧) Pour this into my ears. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWwK...

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 33. #18. Sofi Tukker, Tuck’s Dad: Larry Bird (2022 🇺🇸) Not really my thing, but I just cannot sit still to this one. Also: nice and short! www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbOP...

Read: Sam Leith: The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading (2024). Wonderfully alive history of children's (and adjacent) books. A big fat brick I could almost have read in one sitting.

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 32. #19. Floating Points: Birth4000 (2024 🇬🇧) Yesterday's producer is back and does the bare minimum, very efficiently. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWLp...

In The Guardian's listicle of stuff they gave 0 stars is a "play" that my wife* and I attended 17 years ago. We often chuckle at how absolutely terrible it was. We walked out. www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/j...

I'm quite disappointed. I found the Rude filter and switched it off this morning, but still I only get urbane, funny, interesting, fascinating tweets in my timeline.

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 31. #20. Hikaru Utada: Somewhere Near Marseilles (2022 🇯🇵/🇺🇸) Nice to see this house banger picking up momentum. The producer will be back on my list very soon. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FL7...

Well done Zohran! And of course the real victor of the day - typography.

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 30. #21. Magdalena Bay: Hysterial Us (2021 🇺🇸) An irresistible piece of sugary pop, endlessly hummable. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwjs...

Rooks and crows overhead, tits in the trees. A light rain.

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 29. #22. Yeah Yeah Yeah feat. Perfume Genius: Spitting Off the Edge of the World (2022 🇺🇸) Some nice and slow rock music. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckM_...

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 28. #23. SAULT: Wildfires (2020 🇬🇧) Ah, Lockdown 2020, when SAULT was an unknown bunch of people who put out great song after great song. They will appear on this countdown again. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRC4...

#TheTwen2ie5. Day 27. #24. Carmel Smickersgill: Questioning (2022 🇬🇧) Pretty, playful electronica in the vein of Art of Noise. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MCR...

Now back to our regularly scheduled #TheTwen2ie5. Day 26. #25. Fyfe, Iskra Strings, Kelly Lee Owens: Spirographs (2022 🇬🇧) Soaring piece balanced between breakbeat and ambient, somewhat reminiscent of the 90s in its construction. Owens will be back later. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNpp...

Halloween Haunted House

Birds but they get spookier each time. 🎃👻 Enter if you dare...🚪

October reading [✓] Favourite: all good, but McKee a bit longwinded, Smith a mixed bag, Morrison great (but not as great as in other books), so I guess new-to-me James whose classic ghost stories were pretty much perfect.

#TheTwen2ie5 HM5 Gavin Bryars, The Crossing, Donald Nally: A Native Hill (2021 🇺🇸) Voting for the whole 68 minutes long work or this beautiful bit from it. Either way I'll be the only one nominating ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZNr...

Read: M.R. James: The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral (1904,11,25). A collection of six ghost stories. I'm not the biggest horror fan, but tonigh's All Hallows' Eve, and I had never read James. I really liked the understated eeriness of these short stories. This won't be my last M.R.

Can't overstate how fucked up it is that unraveling what is arguably the greatest achievement in the history of humanity is now a motivating issue of one of the two dominant parties in the U.S.

#TheTwen2ie5 HM4 Poor creature: An Draighneán Donn (2025 🇮🇪) Again with the Irish folk. This time with a haunting, droning, MBV-ish quality. www.youtube.com/watch?v=omkX...

Okay, I have a frightening tweet prepared for All Hallows' Eve. You are warned.

Still some lovely yellows out there, desperately hanging on.

#TheTwen2ie5 HM3 Alanna Thornburgh: Mick na mBréag (2025 🇮🇪) Gorgeous irish harp, v. lovely debut album this year. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNT9...

Gearing up for the spooky season.

"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"

#TheTwen2ie5 HM2 Lia Kohl: Airport Fridge, Self Checkout (2024 🇺🇸) A slooow start and then a mini techno workout. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDzT...

#TheTwen2ie5 HM1 Commander Spoon, Miss Angel: Flock: Episode 4 (2022 🇧🇪) Belgian jazz hip hop. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMoA...

Finally Connections acknowledges its theft.

Recently there was a 'What's social media ever done for you?' thing. Well, my Lord Peter Wimsey collection is now *complete* thanks to Bluesky doing lovely, helpful retweets, finding lovely, helpful people willing to part with the missing books. The world isn't all bad.

#TheTwen2ie5 Day 25. #26. Oren Ambarchi: III (2022 🇦🇺) (from Shebang) Who doesn't enjoy a bit of driving motorik-like Australian jazz?! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1E9...