OK so I’m going to refrain from adding those annoying [REDACTED] entries into the playlist from now on, after some justifiable ridicule last week. I can, though, unveil one album that I’ve been evasive about for a while: The Arcs’ “Yours, Dreamily,” which is by some distance my favourite Dan Auerbach project since the Dr John album.

Elsewhere I can massively recommend this Phil Cook album, which I would glibly suggest fills a slot as this year’s “Lateness Of Dancers”; glibly because Cook has been a critical part of the Hiss Golden Messenger family these past few years (you can hear him on the new live set, below), besides being one-third of Megafaun and working on a bunch more of my favourite recent albums by Frazey Ford, Matthew E White and the Justin Vernon-fronted Shouting Matches. “Southland Mission” has a lot of Ry Cooder and The Staples Singers about it, and I suspect I’ll be banging on about it all summer.

Also Angel Deradoorian, once of Dirty Projectors, has finally followed up her amazing “Mind Raft” EP from God knows how long ago; and some heroic Twitter activity yesterday, following my request for info about Phish, brought “Down With Disease” to my attention. Fellow Phish neophytes should at least try to tough out the first five minutes or so: after that, it gets surprisingly rewarding.

Yesterday I hit 5,000 followers on Twitter, and the whole Phish escalation was a great example of what a rewarding community it can be. Someone suggested I celebrate by posting a Best Of 2015: Halftime Report, which struck me as an excellent idea. I’ll try and do that early next week. Until then, thanks, as ever, for reading.

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1 Phil Cook – Southland Mission (Thirty Tigers)

2 Chris Connolly – Alameda (Caldo Verde)

3 The Cairo Gang – Goes Missing (God?)

4 Ultimate Painting – Green Lanes (Trouble In Mind)

5 Arthur’s Landing – Second Thoughts (Buddhist Army)

6 Jarvis Cocker – 20 Golden Greats (Red Bull Music Academy)

7 Adrian Younge/Ghostface Killah – Twelve Reasons To Die II (Linear Labs)

8 Beirut – No No No (4AD)

9 Yo La Tengo – Stuff Like That There (Matador)

10 Various Artists – Musique Non Stop: A Tribute To Kraftwerk (EMI)

11 Todd Rundgren/Emil Nikolaisen/Hans-Peter Lindstrøm – Put Your Arms Around Me (Stereolab/The High Llamas Remix) (Smalltown Supersound)

12 The Arcs – Yours, Dreamily, (Nonesuch)

13 Ezra Furman – Perpetual Motion People (Bella Union)

14 Seven Davis Jr – Universes (Ninja Tune)

15 Deradoorian – The Exploding Flower Planet (Anticon)

https://soundcloud.com/anticon/deradoorian-a-beautiful-woman-1

16 The Deslondes – The Deslondes (New West)

Read my Deslondes interview and hear their music here

17 Black Dirt Oak/Jantar – Presage (MIE)

18 Pigeons – The Bower (MIE)

19 Various Artists – Gnaoua: Festival D’Essaouira (No Label)

20 Hiss Golden Messenger – 2015-06-02 Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY (www.nyctaper.com)

21 Laura Cannell – Beneath Swooping Talons (Front And Follow)

22 Phish – Down With Disease (Star Lake 98) (Jemp)