We've been waiting for new material from Brixton boy Slime since his debut EP 'Increases' dropped last year. 'Increases' was a pastoral 2-step; with beats indicative of skies and spaces rather than skyscrapers and urban claustrophobia. Stand out tracks like 'Caffeine' and 'Gals' were introspective, musically, wrapping themselves around their own beats and rhythms into tightly wound 3 minute opuses.

New track 'Draw In' continues this theme, it's sparser maybe, more inhospitable, less conspicuous in its influence and feels like a definite progression from someone who already had bags of potential.

The obligatory end-of-the-year rigmarole of Sounds of 2012 and Bests of 2011 (let's not even start on the NME's 'cool list') is so ridiculously silly that its hard to work out just which braindead music hating zombies are actually paying them any attention. Not to mention that half of acts usually billed as being the 'sound of the future' sound so ridiculously like sounds of the past that they could've cropped up on Sound Of 2006 polls.

Will anyone actually be listening to any of this in 2013? Current BBC Sound of 2012 poll features A$AP Rocky, who probably comes closest to being our tip for the next year and who we've featured on these pages before, but the overwhelming feeling is a big sigh at the mediocrity of those pushing towards the mainstream or the big pushes these artists are receiving from shady cabals of bigwigs and fatcats or whoever these 'tastemakers' are.

So at least Azelia Banks is kind of fun, even if these beats are years old she's got a smile on her face, just don't tell anyone you actually like it, because by 2013 everyone'll completely forgotten about how 'fresh' she was in December 2011.

Every time I decide I'm going to listen to The Fall I end up travelling down discursive labyrinths of albums, singles, live cuts, etc, spanning their 30 year career, and each time new gems reveal themselves in the muck. And so each new album from Mark E Smith and co just adds another hour of music for me sift through and explore, and they still inspire cult-ish love that I'd be hard pressed to justify to anyone who wasn't already a fan, and the story's been told so many times, that to re-hash to convince you isn't going to work. Also below we're going to post two new tracks, which probably isn't the best place to start if you've never heard the band before (but how could that be possible).

So if you're a fan, revel in the fact that MES is still alive and kicking (violently, probably) and hasn't felt better in his life.