1. SUPERSILENT, IN THE COUNTRY AND SUSANNA AND THE MAGICAL ORCHESTRA : At this Rune Grammofon showcase, Supersilent were unforgiving, unfettered, uncontrollable, unimaginable, ungodly, unyielding, unscripted, unmetered, unfathomable, unmistakeable, unparalleled, unbeatable, and nearly unreviewable.  We were undeserving.   review

2. STEVE REICH : A luminous performance of Music for 18 Musicians capped off a special 70th birthday celebration, with the man himself on piano and marimba.  I took someone along to this who had never heard any of his music before.  My good deed for the year done, I promptly suspended all charitable donations for the remainder of 2006.  review

3. FENNESZ, PHILIP JECK, ROSY PARLANE AND CM VON HAUSSWOLFF : Touch’s 25th birthday was celebrated suitably in a boozer in South London.  For a label with such singular vision, the evening’s four performers took us deep into different crevices along the electronic music cliff face. And I got to buy the new Biosphere record months before release.   review

4. OREN AMBARCHI/MARGARIDA GARCIA, STEPHAN MATHIEU/PAULO RAPOSO, JOHN DUNCAN/ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO :  A night of buzz, drone and various other adjectives unrelated to bees in a most beautiful church setting.  I fell into such a state of blissful reverie that I actually fell asleep, dreaming of flying with birds.  My favourite dream.  review

5. INDOOR EAGLE : An unexpectedly riotous evening ensued when Thurston Moore plugged in to a gig already featuring the combined talents of Chris Corsano, Six Organs Of Admittance’s Ben Chasny, and Sunburned Hand Of The Man’s John Moloney.  So many Hoxtonites spontaneously wet themselves that my shoes were ruined.  Well bum.  review

6. THE BOOKS AND KIM HIORTHOY: Synchronicity and syncopation; The Books weaved charity shop video and audio samples to their rustic electronics with consummate skill .  Every single syllable and minute of multimedia became so entwined with themusic’s rhythms that is hard to imagine how they could ever have existed separately.  review

7. HOMEFIRES III: Vashti Bunyan, Grizzly Bear, Final Fantasy,  The Fence Collective, Isobel Campbell, Adem, and way better than all of that, SOME PEOPLE WHITTLING TABLE LEGS OUT OF WOOD AND MAKING MUSIC OUT OF THE PROCESS.  Also, the chance to sit around on the floor for two days is always greatly appreciated by this aging reviewer too.  review

8. KONONO NO.1 : They nearly blew the roof off the Barbican with their loud, incessant, crazy, buzzy thumb likembe rhythms.  People from the ages of three to eighty-three were witnessed dancing themselves dizzy and giving shout outs to Kinshasa.  Not sure what all this had to do with Steve Reich’s birthday celebrations, but great fun nonetheless.  review

9) KEIJI HAINO AND CHRIS CORSANO : This night had to make the list by virtue of the impressive feat of being probably the loudest thing I have ever heard - Haino was a demon cooking up pure malevolence from theremins, guitars, ritualistic chants, drums, and a giant wall of amps.  It was all so far out it had to be given a separate postcode.  review

10) TINDERSTICKS : The Barbican was almost flooded with an ocean of tears, as hundreds of grown men lost all control of themselves to the likes of “Tiny Tears” and “No More Affairs”.  Tindersticks II is such an emotion-wringer; to hear it played so well - and one suspects possibly for the last time - live nearly reduced me to a dried up husk of a man.  review