Sneaking in at the last possible moment, it’s the No Tags best of 2025 show!
As is our biannual tradition, we’re joined by writer, digger and all-round enthusiast Henry Bruce-Jones to look back on the year in tunes and spotlight some lesser-feted records that you need to hear.
We tried to avoid going over the same releases that we covered on the Best Music of 2025 So Far episode from July, so if you’re wondering where the love is for Smerz, aya, Jim Legxacy or numerous other albums from the first half of the year, we probably talked about them back then. A few other records got so much love everywhere else that we decided to skip them, despite being confirmed fans (sorry, Geese).
Scroll down for a time-stamped rundown of this episode, so if you can’t hear another word about Timothée Chalamet and EsDeeKid, we’ve made it easy to skip ahead. In the dance corner we’ve listed the tracks selected, rather than the releases they come from.
We’ve also added our own personal Best of 2025 lists at the bottom of this newsletter – but we want to hear your highlights as well. Tell us your most loved (and hated) releases, films or trends of the year, and let us know if we missed anything crucial via the comments.
Also, we want to thank everyone who came to our (sold out!) live show at the ICA in December. Huge thanks to our guest speakers, Anjali Prashar-Savoie and Djrum, and to our DJ Finn, the whole team at the ICA (shout out Jacob!) and to all the Taganistas in attendance for showing up, mucking in and being bold enough to raise hands during the audience Q&A. We salute you.
And in case you forgot, our second book is out now.
We’ve been running No Tags for over two years now. We do it around other jobs, we have no corporate backing, no sponsorship and we don’t even run ads on the podcast. If you’d like to show your thanks, it really helps if you leave us a positive review over at Apple Podcasts. You can also like or share this post on Substack, which makes a big difference – and if you really love the pod, you can subscribe to our paid tier for £5 per month.
Finally… happy new year!
Running order
People Making Music In A Room
feeo – Goodness
The Necks – Disquiet
Water From Your Eyes – It’s A Beautiful Place
Kelela – In The Blue Light
Shell Company & Older Brother – Shards
Rat Heart – Dancin’ in the Streets
Blawan – SickElixir
DJ Travella – Twende – Dance Classics
Dijon – Baby
Alex G – Headlights
Dance Corner (33:16)
Slikback – ‘Data’
Beatrice M – ‘Midnight Swim’
Facta – ‘Jets’
K-Lone – ‘Someone Else’
Anthony Naples – ‘Compact’
Efdemin – ‘Signal to Noise’
Car Culture – ‘Nothingburger’
Jump Source – ‘On’ (ft. Martyn Bootyspoon)
Minor Science – ‘Mortals’
Ploy – ‘It’s Later Than You Think’
Hodge – ‘Tom’s Tweaks’
Nikki Nair – ‘Sheeps’
Slikback and Skrillex – ‘Kixa’
Debba – ‘Electrolyte’ (Wordcolour Remix)
Rap Corner (1:09:18)
EsDeeKid – Rebel
Jawnino & Surf Gang – Amnesia
Rooster - Rooster Slipped
Pop Corner (1:31:44)
Lily Allen – West End Girl
Addison Rae – Addison
Underscores – ‘do it’ / ‘music’
No Rules! (1:42:12)
Los Thuthanaka – Los Thuthanaka
Coldsteel – Global Entry
Camille Keller – Lack of G-LIP
ear – The Most Dear and the Future
weed420 – Miren miren guayo… [NTS] / amor de encava / Fotos varies [NTS] / Dedicado a [NTS] / Esto no es un show
d.silvestre – O Que As Mulheres Querem
Oli XL – Lick the Lens / Pt. 1
Jennifer Walton – Daughters
Ambient afters (2:00:03)
Oneohtrix Point Never – Tranquilizer
Klein – Sleep With A Cane
7038634357 – Waterfall Horizon
The World Is But a Place of Survival: Begena Songs from Ethiopia / Elders of the Begena: The Harp of David in Ethiopia
Tom Lea
Music
Ayesha – Blunt Force
Car Culture – Rest Here
Cortisa Star – E.M.O. (EVIL MOTION OVERLOAD)
Dijon - Baby
ear – The Most Dear and the Future
EsDeeKid – Rebel
Geese – Getting Killed
Jawnino & Surf Gang – Amnesia
Jump Source (feat. Martyn Bootyspoon) – On
Kelela – In the Blue Light
llondon actress – Country
Shell Company & Older Brother – Shards
Rat Heart – Dancin’ in the Streets
Smerz – Big city life
Wordcolour – Ratios IV / TiHKAL002 / ‘Electrolyte’ Remix
Films
An Unmarried Woman (Paul Mazursky, 1978)
Pavements (Alex Ross Perry, 2024)
Suzhou River (Lou Ye, 2000)
Weapons (Zach Cregger, 2025)
Wendy & Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, 2008)
Henry Bruce-Jones
Addison Rae – Addison
bambinodj – Silent Dispatch
Barker – Stochastic Drift
Camille Keller – Lack of G-Lip
Car Culture – Rest Here
Coldsteel – Global Entry
ear – Fetish / Serpent Valley / The Most Dear and the Future
feeo – Goodness
Jawnino & Surf Gang – Amnesia
Jim Legxacy – Black British Music
Kelman Duran – SCORPIO FALLING
Klein – Sleep With A Cane
Los Thuthanaka – Los Thuthanaka
NTS – PURE at Cafe Del Mar
oklou – choke enough
Oneohtrix Point Never – Tranquilizer
Rat Heart – Dancin’ In The Streets
Rooster – Rooster Slipped
The World Is But a Place of Survival: Begena Songs from Ethiopia / Elders of the Begena: The Harp of David in Ethiopia
weed420 (in general) – Miren miren guayo… [NTS] / amor de encava / Fotos varies [NTS] / Dedicado a [NTS] / Esto no es un show
Chal Ravens
aya – hexed!
Smerz – Big city life
Water From Your Eyes – It’s A Beautiful Place
The Necks – Disquiet
Kelela – In The Blue Light
Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko – Hildegard
Geese – Getting Killed
Blawan – SickElixir
ex_libris – 001 & 002
Facta – Gulp
Horse Vision – Another Life
Anthony Naples – Scanners
Jawnino & Surf Gang – Amnesia
Davis Galvin – Prism
FKA twigs – eusexua
Marie Davidson – City of Clowns
Efdemin – Poly
Yeule – Evangelic Girl is a Gun
Oli XL – Lick the Lens / Pt. 1
Lily Allen – West End Girl
