This blog post is dedicated to all those who do great music outside London

God, that sounded patronising. Sorry. It’s just that, well, I live and listen in London, mostly, and have done for a good while. London’s on my skin and under my nails and in my lungs and I like it that way. It’s a state of mind as much as it’s that dirty place where everything costs too much, and that state of mind is sharp-eyed and dreamy-headed at the same time - flaneur with a flick-knife - and yes, I like London.

But you know. That doesn’t mean I don’t wanna hear other cities’ states of mind, especially when those states of mind are so distinctive and so not London in any way at all. Take this Benbecula stuff, which is from Edinburgh. It jitters with the lovely impersonality of all the best electronic music, but at the same time it’s got a renegade quality that sets it aside from so much of the stuff that comes through my letterbox from London-based labels and artists.

And then I heard Second Level Crossing by the Dublin-based band Rollers/Sparkers, which is also shot through with a strangeness and a presence I rarely hear in this town. I’m sure none of these artists want to be defined by where they come from, but cities are not just places to live. Even if you live in one reluctantly and spend all your time with the curtains drawn and your headphones on, you can’t escape the history under your feet or the changes underway just down the street. How these things manifest themselves is rarely obvious and shouldn’t even be spoken of for fear of making them un-magical, but they’re there anyway, and that’s why most of my favourite music comes from other cities: Oslo, Berlin, Cologne, Lagos, Osaka, Glasgow, San Francisco. Either that or the countryside, and very little from London at all.

When my narrative and analytical powers return (getting this magazine together has made mincemeat out of them, and me, for the next few days at least) I’ll relate the story of my trip to Dublin. For now, though, I’m surveying the unholy mess that is my ‘office’ and considering the following options: 1) clear it up 2) don’t clear it up, eat some eggs and read a book instead 3) do some work, clearing up is just a distraction 4) get some new shelves, then you wouldn’t have to clear it up so much 5) all of the above, at some point.