Do you remember what your resolutions were last year? I can’t remember mine, which I guess means I didn’t keep to them. I had a lot of grand plans for 2024, and whilst it was a year filled with moments I’ll forever be grateful for, it was also a year where I came to terms with my limitations. This year marked 20 years since we started our record label First Word, and back in January I was busy compiling an ambitious list of ways to celebrate this milestone. We did mark the year with some memorable events and releases, but the honest truth is that the majority of my high-minded ideas didn’t come to fruition.
Last year was about remembering that it’s OK to not do everything you hoped you would. Life rarely works that way and obsessing about what wasn’t done can mean you ignore what you did achieve. I’m very grateful to continue to have a career in music, and whilst in an ideal world the balance between the creative and the administrative would be slightly more weighted to the former, I really have little to complain about.
With that in mind, here are a few of my musical highlights from this past 12 months. It’s split into two sections - Stuff I Did and Stuff I Liked. In the words of Prince, ‘Music Is Healing’ and I’m happy to be able to lean on it in times of strife, as well as have it soundtrack my moments of joy.
Here’s hoping for more joy in 2025
With love
Aly aka Gilla x
STUFF I DID
Overjoyed
Just over a year ago I started a club night with my good friend Russ Ryan. Overjoyed was born out of a desire to play soulful music that we loved, ideally to a crowd that loved it too. Fast forward a year and we’ve played at a few of our favourite London clubs, hosted a room at Fabric and in August programmed an afternoon at Carnival with the GI Roadshow Soundsystem. I’d never expected to do something like this - these days I’m a semi-retired DJ and any hopes of doing bigger things with that part of my life had been long forgotten. Carnival itself was even better than I’d ever hoped it would be, and the good news is that we’ll back for round two in 2025. That highlight aside, OJ more generally has reignited my love for DJing - it’s much more fun playing music with friends than on your own, and that simple twist has reclaimed what I loved about it when I first started playing 25 years ago. Of course some gigs are better than others, but being able to play when I want to, rather than when I have to is a privilege I don’t hold lightly.
Daytimers
Aside from Overjoyed I’ve not gigged that much, but I did make my Daytimers debut back in the summer. For those not familiar, Daytimers is a collective dedicated to championing the sounds, stories & voices of South Asian creative communities. The idea of something like this existing when I was coming up was fanciful and it was so inspiring to be in a room where I wasn’t the only brown face in the crowd.
Love & Purpose
Despite racking up over 300 releases on First Word I’d never released something that was creatively driven by me, so putting out Love & Purpose, my compilation championing British Soul music, was a big moment. The imposter syndrome was real so it was heartening that it was well received, plus I got to chat about the record to Gilles Peterson on 6Music. Volume Two is on the way….
20 Years Of First Word
Whilst my grander plans to mark our second decade as an imprint may have not panned out, we did still get the FW family together a couple of times - a smaller gathering in Brighton at the excellent Alphabet and again at our favourite festival We Out Here. The Thursday night in the Brawnswood tent will live long in the memory, and whilst the music was fantastic, it was our artists hanging out and exchanging jokes and encouragement that will stay with me.
I also got to write about our journey in Wax Poetics which was a huge honour. There’s something special about print, and to open up the magazine and see our story was a thrill.
It was a busy year for the label and I’m really proud of the records we released; albums from Quiet Dawn, Allysha Joy, Essa, Takuya Kuroda, Amanda Whiting and Tall Black Guy as well as Love & Purpose and the Nothing Leaves The House Anthology have made for a hectic but rewarding time.
Radio
A big regret of the last couple of years is how little radio I’ve been able to do. I’d like to say I’ll fix that in 2025 but the truth is that it’s unlikely given my other responsibilities and commitments. I did get to host a few episodes of the Bandcamp Weekly, which is always fun to do. Interviewing Crazy P in December was a real privilege, given the recent passing of front-woman Danielle, as was my chat with Jimetta Rose, direct from her hairdresser’s chair. I also got to guest on Rinse FM with Russ and the two of us joined my old friend Marshmello on NTS too.
Back in September First Word was invited to programme a day of broadcasting on Worldwide FM, including hosting the breakfast show live from the Brownswood Basement. Being back in the studio for the first time since the station temporarily shut down in 2022 was a special moment. Certain places have magic in them and BB is one of them.
A Christmas Cwtch
I’ve got a slightly weird obsession with Christmas music and it had always been an ambition to add our own contribution to the oeuvre. I’d first discovered Amanda Whiting through her Vince Guaraldi posts on Instagram so I was very excited back in spring when she asked if I’d be up for releasing a full album of Christmas music. Putting her record on the turntable on Christmas Day was a joyful experience and the best thing is that it will continue to be so for the rest of my days.
My Kids Discovering Their Music
I’ve tried (and largely succeeded) not to push my music tastes on my kids and let them find things on their own. This year has seen them both embrace music in different ways, my daughter now has her headphones permanently glued to her ears and my son has discovered a passion for playing piano (and latterly viola). Next July I’ll be going to Wembley with my daughter and her friend to see Lana Del Ray - it’ll be her first big gig experience and I’m very excited about being able to share that with her.
STUFF I LIKED
SAULT
This time last year I was still processing the brilliance of the SAULT show in London, quite simply the best gig I’ve ever been to in my life. They released ‘Acts Of Faith’, the record that they premiered that night on Christmas Day and despite a quiet year by their prolific standards they still remain the most vital group in music.
Doechii
I’ll be honest in saying I’d not come across Doechii until seeing her set on Colbert last month - I’ve watched this dozens of times since and dug into the album/mixtape too which is equally good. At a time when a lot of rap music (old and new) doesn’t really do much for me this was just what I needed to remind me what drew me to the genre in the first place. Very excited to see what she does next.
Kendrick on Juneteenth
Speaking of rappers that held my attention, Kendrick dominated this year from start to finish. The Pop Out was a proper cultural event, what used to be called a ‘water cooler moment’, which is not an easy feat these days. The multiple reloads of ‘Not Like Us’ made for a victory lap like no other, and was a definitive full stop on the Drake beef (until Drake tried to sue everybody in one of the more pathetic moves that I’ve seen from a big star in a while). As a hip hop fan of a certain vintage I enjoyed the diss tracks, puerile as they may be. The online discourse did get a little OTT - rap beef doesn’t need real-time 500-word think pieces in national newspapers, but I guess that’s the way of things in this new media landscape.
Live Music
Unfortunately I didn’t get to check much live music last year which is something I need to fix in ‘25. We Out Here was the outlier of course and I saw some great performances from Sampha, Jamie Finlay, Aja Monet, Loose Ends, Bel Cobain and Corinne Bailey Rae amongst others. Aside from that my live highlight was the Ezra Collective show at Wembley Arena. Children Of Zeus handled support so I got to experience the other side of a venue of that scale which was an eye opener. Ezra’s show was as excellent as I expected - who knew that a jazz group could command an audience of 12,000 people? A landmark moment in a landmark year for a band that constantly defy the odds.
New Music from Old Favourites
I’m a big believer in the power of the music that you loved when you were a teenager being the most impactful on your tastes as an adult. Those formative bands and gigs shape you in a very particular way. This can have a strange effect of making it hard to hear new music from those artists, as I’m still caught up on the music that made me fall in love with them in the first place. There are some bands that can buck this trend, and two of them released great records as 2024 drew to a close. Whilst The Cure made a record that was reassuringly what you’d want and expect from a Cure record, Saint Etienne’s ‘The Night’ was a more experimental twist on their sound. Both rank amongst my favourites from the year and it’s heartening to see them continue to have the passion to create such high quality music. It’s an odd quirk that both bands originated on the outskirts of South London - I share that suburban upbringing (albeit North of the river) and there is an outsider mood that both bands share in their own specific ways.
24 Good Albums From '24
Didn’t think about this too deeply but here are some records released last year that I enjoyed. (I’ve not including anything that I personally worked on).
Nala Sinephro - Endlessness
Fabiana Palladino - Fabiana Palladino
Jeff Parker - The Way Out Of Easy
MK.Gee - Two Star & The Dream Police
Lex Amor - Forward Ever
Jamie Finlay - Sun Dogs
Rosie Lowe - Lover, Other
Lynda Dawn - 11th Hour
Thee Sacred Souls - Got A Story To Tell
Jimetta Rose - Things Are Getting Better
Michael Kiwanuka - Small Changes
The Cure - Songs Of A Lost World
Thandii - Dream With You / Come As You
Saint Etienne - The Night
Doechi - Alligator Bites Never Heal
Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More
Ganavaya - Daughter Of A Temple
Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
SAULT - Acts Of Faith
Jorga Mesfin - The Kindest One
Mount Kimbie - The Sunset Violet
Daudi Metsiko - The King Of Misery
Pale Jay - Low End Love Songs
Take Three - Music & Time, 1983​-​1985
Hearing Curtis Mayfield at Cafe De Pels
And finally….the most memorable musical moment for me of 2024 was back in October. I was in Amsterdam for a music conference, and it had been a particularly intense few days with 4 different work events/panels as well as dozens of meetings with labels and artists. I was pretty wiped out and on my last night I stopped by my favourite bar in the city for a nightcap. It’s a quiet spot in Jordaan and I’d never really noticed them playing music before. As I sat contemplating my beer ‘Move On Up’ by Curtis Mayfield came on the stereo. Move On Up is obviously a classic but it’s also a key song for me in my personal musical evolution; it was the club-night of the same name that opened up the world of soul music to me when I first arrived in Leeds as a fresh-faced 19 year old. Sitting there listening to it, I was reminded of how music can give you exactly what you want when you need it sometimes - instantly providing feelings of warmth, joy, safety and nostalgia inside those opening snare hits. Last year there was a quote that I think was from Josey Rebelle doing the rounds on social media that stated simply ‘Listen to music that reminds you who the fuck you are’. If you’re looking for a resolution for 2025 that seems as good as any other.