This time last year we said that 2014 was looking to be a big one for Brighton music,  and so it turned out. From Gnarwolves opening Reading to Royal Blood conquering the charts, the region’s musicians were ever-present, supported by a constant stream of great debut albums (The Wytches, AK/DK, Fear Of Men) and the return of several old friends (Fujiya & Miyagi, Blood Red Shoes, Esben And The Witch). When we polled our writers for their favourite tracks of the year, they cast their net a lot wider than the more widely known names above, proving that, whether 2015 builds on Brighton’s recent national successes or not, our music scene is as busy as ever.

1. Gazelle Twin
‘Anti Body’
Like an audio version of Japanese horror flick The Ring, Gazelle Twin’s music holds you in a state of unease by threatening to jump out of your speakers and throttle you at any moment. Heralding her stunning album ‘Unflesh’, ‘Anti Body’ is intense, industrial, cathartic and scary as hell.

2. Spit Shake Sisters
‘Blasphemer’
This frenetic debut single perfectly captures the excitement of the Spit Shake Sisters’ live shows and the beginnings of a more psychedelic direction. Check out the terrifying wig-out in the woods video.

3. Royal Blood
‘Little Monster’
Royal Blood’s Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher unleashed ‘Little Monster’ in February, becoming actual massive Monsters Of Rock themselves by the summer. First person to complain, “But they’re from Rustington!” gets an amp dropped on them.

4. The Meow Meows
‘Friends On Benefits’
Commissioned for a contemporary dance project this politicised and sassy three-minute ska tune was produced by Prince Fatty, finished in a fortnight and accompanied by a striking routine which avoids even a single skank.

5. Bentcousin
‘Dizzy’
The Bentcousin twins produced a perfect summer pop song with the seaside swirl of ‘Dizzy’, guest rapper Rory P tagging along to offer a ride on his chopper bike among other holiday treats.

6. The Soft Walls
‘Never Come Back Again’
Not content with running the Faux Discx label and being in Cold Pumas, Dan Reeves also managed to squeeze out an LP, ‘No Time’, under his Soft Walls moniker this year. Standout track ‘Never Come Back Again’ channels the ghosts of Neu and Suicide with a motorik beat that keeps on giving.

7. Slum Of Legs
‘Begin To Dissolve’
Despite being thwarted in their attempts to hold a séance in the recording studio, the Slum Of Legs sextet nonetheless produced an unnerving, unique 7″ of ghostly voices, sawing Velvets violin and cathartic screaming.

8. Rag N Bone Man
‘Put That Soul On Me’
This year, Rory Graham, the big man with big songs and a soaring voice, supported Bastille at Alexandra Palace and worked with DJ Premier, and looks set for a big 2015. ‘Put That Soul On Me’ is taken from Rag N Bone Man’s free to download album ‘Wolves’.

9. Keel Her
‘Go’
Keel Her’s shows this year ranged from the shambolic to the sublime. Her self-titled debut album is defiantly lo-fi, in a way that evokes the likes of Television Personalities, but indie-pop gems like ‘Go’ hint at bigger things to come.

10. The Hundredth Anniversary
‘It Becomes Us’
The lead track of their ‘Wreckers’ EP (for steadfastly independent label Odd Box, home also to vocalist Eleanor Rudge’s other band Tyrannosaurus Dead), ‘It Becomes Us’ flows and swoops in the slipstream of the finest 80s dreampop.

11. Vincent Vocoder Voice
‘Your Grandchildren Are Already Fucked (The Silence Of Animals)’
The most tuneful track from the band’s June EP ‘Full Heart, Deaf Ears’, this is an angry slab of apocalyptic pessimism set to a call and response vocal line and a blunt-trauma, Sabbath style mega-riff.

12. Dirt Royal
‘Girl In The Shop’
This bouncy Alex Turner meets Paul Weller single preceded mod three-piece Dirt Royal’s ‘This Is Now’ album, pressed on deliciously splattered vinyl by their German label.

13. Time For T
‘Free Hugs’
A gentle waft of 70s soul and folk-pop, with a sweet video where the band use their ‘Free Hugs’ sign to bring warmly welcomed love to the streets of Brighton.

14. Octopuses
‘Cool Story Bro’
Putting their other group Foxes! on hiatus, Adam Bell and Alan Grice formed Octopuses. Their debut single is a scoop of eighties flavoured electro pop, with a video of aquatic-themed, pop telly nostalgia from their Lick yoghurt label bosses. Bonkers all round.

15. Fragile Creatures
‘Fragile Creatures’
The self-titled lead track from this summer’s comeback EP, ‘Fragile Creatures’ was a restrained, piano-led slice of songcraft from a band aiming for the canon of classic English guitar groups.

16. No Uncertain Terms
‘Where Have I Gone’
Rappers Jonjo Lyons and Dusty Tal-Antiq teamed up to form No Uncertain Terms, the stoned soul storytelling of ‘Where Have I Gone’ bringing something a little different to the Brighton hip hop scene.

17. Becky Becky
‘Champagne On Christmas Day’
Woodpecker Wooliams’ Gemma Williams reappeared with Fence Collective associate Peter JD Mason as Becky Becky, their irresistible ‘Champagne On Christmas Day’ EP telling a dark tale of yuletide backstreet abortion to a sumptuous electro beat.

18. Frankie Stew And Harvey Gunn
‘Sometimes’
The stand-out opening track to this year’s debut album ‘The Morning’, ‘Sometimes’ is a heavenly blend of music box melodies, ambient soul and laid back hip hop.

19. Buffo’s Wake
‘Drunk Girls’
The centrepiece of their long-awaited debut album ‘Carniphobia’, ‘Drunk Girls’ saw Brighton gypsy punks Buffo’s Wake laying it on thick with a stomping ode to drunken debauchery.

20. Lutine
‘Sallow Tree’
Taken from their debut ‘White Flowers’ album, ‘Sallow Tree’ found Lutine’s Emma Morton and Heather Minor stripping down their ethereal folk music to the point of wintry stillness.

21-30 (Honorary mentions, unranked): AK/DK – ‘Autoservice’, Dog In The Snow – ‘Factory’, Iyes – ‘Breathe’, Lockah  –‘If Loving U Is Wrong, I Don’t Want To Be Wrong’, The Magic Gang – ‘She Won’t Ghost’, Oh Captain! – ‘Pistols Out’, Tigercub – ‘Centrefold’, Traams – ‘Marbles’, Tyrannosaurus Dead – ‘Post Holiday Dead Song’, Yourgardenday – ‘Something In The Music’.

Words by Ben Bailey, Steve Clements, Stuart Huggett, Jon Southcoasting, Mike Tudor and Gary Rose
Thanks to Carolyn Bristow