Where was I in 92? Earning a living for the first time in my life, and thus both shacked up in an apartment in Partick with more weed than Cheech or Chong, and making regular forays to Edinburgh to ‘access the shapes’ in front of the speaker stack at ‘Pure’. Yes, 92 was a vintage year.

I’m fully aware that pounding deeper back into the 90s put me at risk of sounding like a ravetastic hasbeen – however, despite best efforts, it seems I’m powerless to stop myself from being dragged back there. M.I.A. asked me (directly, natch) the question very nicely last year on Kala’s ‘XR2′, and Zomby once again pestered me on this year’s Werk debut of the same name. What goes around, comes around, and sure as fate, it slaps you in the face with a dayglo brick.

Zomby’s ‘Where Were U in 92?’ is an unadulterated, 100% more hypercolour than hypercolour, Italo-piano stabbing plummet back to those halycon days; almost impossible to consume without experiencing a rush of adrenalised nostaligia to the head. This Dazed & Confused mixtape gives you just the right ‘92 hit that you need to make the appalling spectacle of Chrissmukkah all the more bearable. Insert into ears and dance like an atheistic lunatic this Xmas day.

Zomby – Where Were U in 92? Mixtape | mp3

Amongst the forthcoming onslaught of end-of-year lists (and after the blizzard of throaty rock magazine lists that have already appeared on Stereogum), I’m hoping for a few new categories, some new thoughts, new foundation principles. I might even start a few on my own, such as ‘Best Label That I Didn’t Think I Knew Very Well Until I Realised I Owned Most Of Their Back Catalogue’. This award, this week, goes to Werk Discs.

Way back in the midst of whenever, I spent a lot of time writing about Sweden’s Stacs Of Stamina, and even more time beating listeners over the head with them on the Fat Planet radio show. Their 2005 Werk album ‘Tivoli’ (feat. Earz and TTC) is still a masterstroke, and the pinnacle, of the came-and-went made-up genre of Eurocrunk. Werk also threw out the delicious ‘Grim Dubs’ series, featuring Atki2 and his alias Monkey Steak, the glorious digi-dub album ‘Foundation Bit’ from Disrupt, Lukid’s ‘Now EP’ featuring a clattering, wonky refix from Hudson Mohawke and the ravetastic retrovisionary recent drop from Zomby, ‘Where Were U In 92?’. Stellar, each and all, I’m breathless just typing the list. And after all that, there’s the not-insignificant matter of the new release from label boss Darren Cunningham, aka Actress, titled ‘Hazyville’.

But it’s to London kid Lukid we (re)turn, celebrating the release of his second album ‘Foma’ – promoted with a smart mix for FACT magazine and the admission that he’s been “listening to these [album] tracks for so long now that I don’t know if they are good or not anymore”. If this mix is anything to go by, they’re a smart bet for the next Award I decide to make up.

Lukid – FACTMix | Sendspace Download

1. Samoyed – Fuck
2. Autechre – Drane
3. Actress – Redit 124
4. Fluent – Crazy
5. Ssuave – Scotty’s Pikachu Beat
6. James Pants – She’s Out of My Life (Dub)
7. Jana Hunter – The New Sane Scramble
8. Agape – Rejoice
9. Orchestre PolyRhythmo De Cotonou Dahomey – Minsato Le, Mi Dayihome
10. Panda Bear – Young Prayer
11. Lukid – Untitled
12. Theo Parrish – Love Triumphant
13. Fuzz Face – Brainswapper
14. Dabrye – Get Dirty (Instrumental)
15. Dorian Concept – Chocolate Milk

16. Lukid – Chord