CD: Everything Everything – Arc

Fidgety, exasperating second album from 2011 Mercury nominees

Up to this point it’s all gone swimmingly for Manchester-based quartet Everything Everything. Their debut album Man Alive charted high in the summer of 2010, but follow-up Arc is the test of whether they’re in for the long haul. Although the answer is largely in the hands of their strong fan base, the unfocused Arc suggests the band themselves aren’t sure of who they are.

10 Questions for Director Bernard Rose

INTERVIEW: 10 QUESTIONS FOR DIRECTOR BERNARD ROSE The British filmmaker, working in the best American indie tradition, on bringing Tolstoy to California

The British filmmaker, working in the best American indie tradition, on bringing Tolstoy to California

Who ever said making a movie was a glamorous business? Shooting the climactic scene of his most recent film Boxing Day, British-born director Bernard Rose (pictured below right) found himself in the freezing Colorado mountains - so cold you couldn’t even see your breath - with just his two stars, Danny Huston and Matthew Jacobs, and a sound-recordist for company. Rose was his own cameraman, as well as editor, and a major inspiration behind the redemptive musical score.

Reissue CDs: The Best of 2012

REISSUE CDS: THE BEST OF 2012 Can's 'The Lost Tapes', a collection of previously unheard material, shows how it should be done

Can's 'The Lost Tapes', a collection of previously unheard material, shows how it should be done

Can’s The Lost Tapes towers over any of the other reissues theartsdesk has covered this year. Although not strictly a reissue – it collected unheard recordings from tapes which had lain in the band’s archive – it rewrote the story of the seminal German band, offering a new perspective on their creative process and what they had issued. More than any of this, its three discs were a great listen and as essential as any of their albums - Soundtracks, Tago Mago and Future Days.

CD of the Year: Yeti Lane - The Echo Show

French duo make the album which has to heard more than any other

The real test of whether an album stands apart from everything else is not whether it’s well crafted, moves a genre forward, is thrillingly original or is searingly confessional. The list could go on. The measure is whether it invites revisiting. Repeatedly. There’ve been many magnificent releases this year, but The Echo Show by Paris duo Yeti Lane is the one which has to be heard more than any other - again, again and again. This seductive swoon of an album has a rare beauty transcending the styles it’s rooted in.

CD: Jah Wobble & Keith Levene – Yin & Yang

John Lydon’s former Public Image Ltd colleagues belatedly reunite to take up where they left off

It’s been a bumper year for fans of Public Image Ltd. John Lydon took his new version of the band out on the road and issued the This is PiL album. His former PiL colleagues Jah Wobble and Keith Levene reworked the landmark 1979 PiL album Metal Box live, as Metal Box in Dub. Now, the duo have re-cemented their relationship with Yin & Yang, their first new work together since co-writing Gary Clail’s “Beef (How Low Can You Go?)” in 1990.

Efterklang with the Northern Sinfonia/John Grant, Barbican

EFTERKLANG WITH THE NORTHERN SINFONIA, BARBICAN Beguiling orchestral collaboration by Danish mood musicians

Beguiling orchestral collaboration, and a taste of things to come from the 'Queen of Denmark' man

It’s not quite Iggy Pop strutting across the hands of the crowd, but Efterklang’s singer Casper Clausen's departure from the stage reinforces the bond the Danish mood musicians have with their fans. Trying to keep upright while wobbling on the backs of seats, he is held in position by those close by. This isn’t about attracting attention, but a bridging of the gap between artist and audience. Earlier, Clausen and bassist Rasmus Stolberg had retired to the side of the stage to take in the Northern Sinfonia’s performance of their music.

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