French music star in talks with Downing Street over move to Tech City hub as France's highest earners rail against tax rises

One of France's most famous music stars Jean Michel Jarre has been in talks with the Downing Street over a possible transfer of business operations to the UK, No 10 has said.

The prime minister's office confirmed Jarre, famous for his brand of electronic music, light-show extravaganzas and record-breaking numbers at his vast outdoor concerts, met with No 10 officials in September to discuss locating within the government-backed Tech City, which offers generous tax incentives to investors.

The announcement comes as France's highest constitutional court rejected the socialist government's attempt to impose a 75% tax on its highest earners.

On the political blog site Order-order, which broke the story on Monday, a Downing Street source was quoted as describing the meeting as a "defection" from France over the higher tax rate. "He's been into No 10 to talk to us about defection – it's like a crappy old spy movie," the source was reported as saying.

Jarre's Paris-based agent did not immediately return a call for comment.

Last year the 64-year-old, Lyon-born musician performed a massive concert in Monaco to celebrate the marriage of Prince Albert. Jarre was previously married to the English actor Charlotte Rampling, with whom he has a son. They divorced in 2002.

In 2005, the musician started Jarre Technologies to develop high-end audio products including the Aerodream One, an 11ft iPod dock, which retails for about £300,000.

David Cameron irked French Socialists in May when he said at the G20 summit he would "roll out the red carpet" and "welcome more French businesses to Britain" if François Hollande raised taxes on the rich. He said by paying British taxes, French firms could help "pay for our health service and schools and everything else".

The Socialist MP Claude Bartolone, now leader of the parliament, said French people who moved to London for less tax always returned to France for medical care and schools because public services "no longer exist" in Britain.

France is in the grip of a debate about tax exile after the actor Gerard Depardieu bought a house across the border in Belgium, prompting the French prime minister, Jean Marc Ayrault, to say: "It's pathetic really. Paying taxes is an act of patriotism and we're asking the rich to make a special effort here for the country."

Depardieu railed against high taxes in an open a letter published in the Journal du Dimanche in December, saying he would give up his French passport and was leaving "because you consider that success, creativity, talent, anything different, are grounds for sanction".

Alain Afflelou, who runs France's biggest spectacles business, announced he was moving to London to expand his business, but added that he would stay resident in France and pay taxes there.

Hollande's flagship super-tax on the mega-rich has dominated the headlines recently after France's highest court rejected it as unconstitutional. The temporary measure would have meant individuals earning more than €1m (£800,000) would be taxed at 75% on income in excess of that. It was thrown out on a technicality, which means it will not come into effect this year. The government has promised to tweak the bill and introduce it in 2014.

The symbolic 75% tax was only a small part of a series of tax measures by Hollande, including new charges on capital gains, an increase in France's unique wealth tax, an increase in inheritance charges and an exit tax for entrepreneurs selling their companies.

While Cameron has cut the UK's top rate of income tax, Hollande has created a 45% tax bracket for annual incomes exceeding €150,000.

A Downing Street spokesman told the Guardian Jarre met with officials and talked specifically about the coalition's Tech City hub, and was seeking opportunities to become "part of the cluster".

Tamlin Magee, news editor of website Tech-Eye, said a move by a French company would be unusual but symbolic. "If this plan goes ahead, it sounds like it will be good PR for Tech City, but I wouldn't put too much stock into this one move. Technology has been an area where the Conservatives are trying to be seen as progressive, and the existing tax loopholes, if you can afford them, virtually serve as an advert."

He said the UK continued to be attractive to technology businesses: "Successful startups were already forming in this area of London, organically, without assistance from the government, however, since, Silicon Valley Bank recently opened its doors and it looks like there will be plenty more investment.

"At the moment, the move is unusual. However, with the amount of French people already living in London, many of them wealthy, it would not be too surprising if they take their businesses with them. Exactly who this would benefit would be up for debate."

In a statement No 10 said: "Jean Michel Jarre visited Downing street to meet with officials about 'Tech City', London's media and technology hub. There are a growing number of businesses and entrepreneurs from across the world who want to be part of the technology cluster in east London and we are keen for that to continue."

French music star in talks with Downing Street over move to Tech City hub as France's highest earners rail against tax rises

One of France's most famous music stars Jean Michel Jarre has been in talks with the Downing Street over a possible transfer of business operations to the UK, No 10 has said.

The prime minister's office confirmed Jarre, famous for his brand of electronic music, light-show extravaganzas and record-breaking numbers at his vast outdoor concerts, met with No 10 officials in September to discuss locating within the government-backed Tech City, which offers generous tax incentives to investors.

The announcement comes as France's highest constitutional court rejected the socialist government's attempt to impose a 75% tax on its highest earners.

On the political blog site Order-order, which broke the story on Monday, a Downing Street source was quoted as describing the meeting as a "defection" from France over the higher tax rate. "He's been into No 10 to talk to us about defection – it's like a crappy old spy movie," the source was reported as saying.

Jarre's Paris-based agent did not immediately return a call for comment.

Last year the 64-year-old, Lyon-born musician performed a massive concert in Monaco to celebrate the marriage of Prince Albert. Jarre was previously married to the English actor Charlotte Rampling, with whom he has a son. They divorced in 2002.

In 2005, the musician started Jarre Technologies to develop high-end audio products including the Aerodream One, an 11ft iPod dock, which retails for about £300,000.

David Cameron irked French Socialists in May when he said at the G20 summit he would "roll out the red carpet" and "welcome more French businesses to Britain" if François Hollande raised taxes on the rich. He said by paying British taxes, French firms could help "pay for our health service and schools and everything else".

The Socialist MP Claude Bartolone, now leader of the parliament, said French people who moved to London for less tax always returned to France for medical care and schools because public services "no longer exist" in Britain.

France is in the grip of a debate about tax exile after the actor Gerard Depardieu bought a house across the border in Belgium, prompting the French prime minister, Jean Marc Ayrault, to say: "It's pathetic really. Paying taxes is an act of patriotism and we're asking the rich to make a special effort here for the country."

Depardieu railed against high taxes in an open a letter published in the Journal du Dimanche in December, saying he would give up his French passport and was leaving "because you consider that success, creativity, talent, anything different, are grounds for sanction".

Alain Afflelou, who runs France's biggest spectacles business, announced he was moving to London to expand his business, but added that he would stay resident in France and pay taxes there.

Hollande's flagship super-tax on the mega-rich has dominated the headlines recently after France's highest court rejected it as unconstitutional. The temporary measure would have meant individuals earning more than €1m (£800,000) would be taxed at 75% on income in excess of that. It was thrown out on a technicality, which means it will not come into effect this year. The government has promised to tweak the bill and introduce it in 2014.

The symbolic 75% tax was only a small part of a series of tax measures by Hollande, including new charges on capital gains, an increase in France's unique wealth tax, an increase in inheritance charges and an exit tax for entrepreneurs selling their companies.

While Cameron has cut the UK's top rate of income tax, Hollande has created a 45% tax bracket for annual incomes exceeding €150,000.

A Downing Street spokesman told the Guardian Jarre met with officials and talked specifically about the coalition's Tech City hub, and was seeking opportunities to become "part of the cluster".

Tamlin Magee, news editor of website Tech-Eye, said a move by a French company would be unusual but symbolic. "If this plan goes ahead, it sounds like it will be good PR for Tech City, but I wouldn't put too much stock into this one move. Technology has been an area where the Conservatives are trying to be seen as progressive, and the existing tax loopholes, if you can afford them, virtually serve as an advert."

He said the UK continued to be attractive to technology businesses: "Successful startups were already forming in this area of London, organically, without assistance from the government, however, since, Silicon Valley Bank recently opened its doors and it looks like there will be plenty more investment.

"At the moment, the move is unusual. However, with the amount of French people already living in London, many of them wealthy, it would not be too surprising if they take their businesses with them. Exactly who this would benefit would be up for debate."

In a statement No 10 said: "Jean Michel Jarre visited Downing street to meet with officials about 'Tech City', London's media and technology hub. There are a growing number of businesses and entrepreneurs from across the world who want to be part of the technology cluster in east London and we are keen for that to continue."

From crimes against fashion to ruining pop stars, Electronic Dance Music has got a lot to answer for

It set American fashion back 20 years

New splinters of dance music have always sparked alternative fashions. EDM has done nothing but legitimise adults wearing crop-tops, belly rings and miniskirts, so that everyone looks like Julia Stiles at a full moon party.

Skrillex sounds like a lovely guy

Everything you read about Skrillex makes him sound like a charming human being. He's humble, understands why some people might not like his cochlea-shattering racket and just wants to make his fans happy. So not only do you have to listen to his woeful womp, you now feel guilty about hating it. Prick.

It ruined perfectly good pop stars

This time two years ago, Nicki Minaj seemed like the most exciting pop star on the planet. She'd out-performed Kanye West on his own song, Monster, and seemed like she was going to take Lady Gaga's art-pop crown and take a dump on it. Then EDM came along and turned her into a vocal puppet for factory-settings production.

It insists on being taken seriously

McFly aren't offended that they're not in Kerrang!, nor do Rizzle Kicks insist their videos are premiered on Grime Daily. Yet EDM producers maintain a tiresome insistence that they're just another branch of the electronic music family rather than glorified Bar mitzvah DJs.

But there's one good thing about it: Florence is better now

Since Calvin Harris replaced her "Machine" with a computer, Florence suddenly makes sense. Throw that harp in the bin, babe.

From crimes against fashion to ruining pop stars, Electronic Dance Music has got a lot to answer for

It set American fashion back 20 years

New splinters of dance music have always sparked alternative fashions. EDM has done nothing but legitimise adults wearing crop-tops, belly rings and miniskirts, so that everyone looks like Julia Stiles at a full moon party.

Skrillex sounds like a lovely guy

Everything you read about Skrillex makes him sound like a charming human being. He's humble, understands why some people might not like his cochlea-shattering racket and just wants to make his fans happy. So not only do you have to listen to his woeful womp, you now feel guilty about hating it. Prick.

It ruined perfectly good pop stars

This time two years ago, Nicki Minaj seemed like the most exciting pop star on the planet. She'd out-performed Kanye West on his own song, Monster, and seemed like she was going to take Lady Gaga's art-pop crown and take a dump on it. Then EDM came along and turned her into a vocal puppet for factory-settings production.

It insists on being taken seriously

McFly aren't offended that they're not in Kerrang!, nor do Rizzle Kicks insist their videos are premiered on Grime Daily. Yet EDM producers maintain a tiresome insistence that they're just another branch of the electronic music family rather than glorified Bar mitzvah DJs.

But there's one good thing about it: Florence is better now

Since Calvin Harris replaced her "Machine" with a computer, Florence suddenly makes sense. Throw that harp in the bin, babe.

One of my favourite books ‘Life of Pi’, based on the 2001 award-winning and best-selling novel by Yann Martel has finally been made into a film … WOOP! … A young man survives a disaster at sea and is hurtled into an epic adventure with another survivor, a fearsome Bengal tiger. It is directed by the acclaimed Ang [...]

The winner of Resident Advisor's 2012 DJ poll empties the contents of his psychic record bag

The track that currently gets the most rewinds
Lee Curtiss: Freaks

Rich Hawtin heard this at the start of the summer and begged us to give it him. He's played it in pretty much every set since then.

The track I wish I'd signed to my label
Tom Demac: Critical Distance Pt 2

I actually had this as a demo and didn't realise until it was too late. The EP has been killing dancefloors all year and it stings a bit every time I play it.

The best track by my favourite new artist
Footprintz: Keys To The Sky

Footprintz are two supercool guys from Montreal, and their sound is somewhere between Depeche Mode and a slightly more cheerful xx.

The track that's been unfairly slept on this year
Everything by Blood Orange

I cannot understand why this guy isn't the biggest thing in popular music right now. He's got the guitar skills of Hendrix and a voice like Prince.

The track I'd play at my auntie's wedding
Gwen Guthrie: Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But The Rent

This record is impossible not to love. It puts a massive smile on my face every time I hear it and reminds me of good times with family and friends.

The track I wish I'd never played
Lily Allen: Not Fair (Lazaro Casanova remix)

I played this during a ten-hour back-to-back set with Loco Dice at a Cocoon after-party. All the Brits in the crowd loved it, but the Germans were like, "Wot is diz?"

The track I always play to rescue a dancefloor
Trouble Men: Get This Party Rockin'

Amazing French house jam from 2000 that does exactly what it says on the tin.

The ideal festival track
E-Dancer: Velocity Funk

Detroit rave-techno classic from Kevin Saunderson. Kills it every time.

The track I'd play to show off my eclectic tastes
Thomas Leer: International

It's an 80s synth-pop gem that seems innocent at first until you realise that he's singing about being a heroin smuggler.

The track I'd play at sunset in Ibiza
Jesse Somfay: Small Pebbled Forest

A Canadian minimal techno classic from 2006. Sounds like angels crying gently on to an electric xylophone.

The track I want played at my funeral
Love Inc: Life's A Gas

So beautiful, and the title is fitting.

Seth plays Shine @ QUBSU / The Stiff Kitten, Belfast, Boxing Day

From sounding like a Knife tribute band, these Icelanders have developed into a soaring group of great scope and scale

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When Iceland quartet Bloodgroup – so-called because three of them are related (one's just a friend) – released their debut album Sticky Situation in 2007 they were dismissed as a sort of the Knife tribute band. Touring the album for two years around Europe and North America, however, caused their sound to grow in scope and scale, and their second album Dry Land was awarded the Icelandic equivalent of the Mercury prize, the Kraumur award. With their third album, Tracing Echoes, due next March next, the band have given a taste of what's to come with the first single, Fall (premiered here). Building from a distant synth pulse, it slowly unfolds with a percussion-heavy beat and sudden drum claps. Perhaps where the band stand apart from their influences is in their big pop melodies – for all the sonic experimentation and strange synth noises that emerge around the two-minute mark, it's the gorgeous rush of the final chorus that makes the song soar.

• Tracing Echoes is out on 12 March via Sugarcane Recordings.

Farmer's markets and folk festivals be damned – Hacker Farm's vision of the British countryside is a far less comfy thing

Electronic musical collectives come no more intriguing than Hacker Farm. Their second album arrives with a cover featuring what looks like a blurred CCTV still of a car abandoned in a field. Inside the CD booklet are more blurred pictures, some crudely Photoshopped to include the Hacker Farm logo – based on that of Hewlett Packard – one featuring a piece of electronic equipment that appears to have been partly fashioned out of a late-1980s carphone. The latter fits with a brief statement on their website, amid YouTube appearing to suggest that, when not making records, Hacker Farm have a sideline in making scrumpy. The statement winningly describes their sound as "carboot electronics … a celebration of the homemade, the salvaged and the hand-soldered. DIY electronics performed on obsolete tech and discarded, post-consumerist debris." A recent feature in The Wire magazine depicted some other examples of what that might encompass: on visiting the trio's HQ – an abandoned horticultural nursery in Somerset that is also home to a miniature pony – their photographer found speakers made from watering cans and rusting milk churns, a synthesiser built out of a jerry can, circuit-bent children's toys, and the Lunchcaster, a guitar made out of a lunchbox.

On the evidence of UHF, the noise all this reclaimed debris makes is deeply disquieting and utterly compelling. Occasionally, it sounds like dance music that's been left out in the open to corrode and rot: the rhythm track of Grinch is somewhere between old-fashioned hardcore and the chattering synthesisers of a Patrick Cowley disco track, but it keeps stopping and jarring and lurching out of time, as if there's something terribly wrong with the equipment; there's a noise that sounds like a split-second of funk guitar coursing through the static and ghostly melodies of Deterritorial Army; the opening of Konrad features a kind of warped, burbling acid line. More often, it slips whatever moorings it has in dance music entirely, and ventures into the unknown. The results evoke the countryside, but not as a bucolic idyll or even a dark, mythic place where an unsettling pagan history lurks beneath the surface (something their Taunton-based associate IX Tab explores to remarkable effect on his album Spindle and the Bregnut Tree). Instead, it paints a picture of country life quite unlike anything else in current music: harsh, mechanised and poverty-stricken, forgotten in an era that tends to concentrate on urban deprivation, facing an uncertain future. The overall tone is grippingly ominous, the rhythm tracks clank and whirr like rusting machinery, buffeted by severe elemental gusts of synthesised noise.

Hacker Farm's ethos of making, as their website puts it, "broken music for a Broken Britain" feels particularly potent given the current media vogue for bunting-strewn, cupcake folksiness. The pastoral world of Hacker Farm is not a cheery, aspirational arcadia of slow food, artisanal craftsmen, organic farmer's markets and festivals organised by Alex James and visited by the prime minister. "We reject your hollow spectacle," offers a dead-eyed voice on One Six Nein, as a weirdly perky eight-bit video game melody is submerged beneath waves of crackling noise. "We reject your so-called culture." Indeed, while it clearly wasn't their intention, Hacker Farm represent a kind of anti-Mumford & Sons, a sharp, electronic rural retort to the tweed-clad, sepia-hued faux-folk hootenanny. What they do is certainly homespun – music made on synthesisers built out of jerry cans and discarded children's toys can't really be anything else – but there's nothing quaint or whimsical about it. The musical results of Hacker Farm's craftsmanship are angry and confrontational, extremely powerful, punkish (something roughly approximate to the riff from the Stooges' I Wanna Be Your Dog crops up during Deterritorial Army) and frequently terrifying: it's a bold or foolish soul indeed who choses to listen to a track like Hinckley Point on headphones in the dark.

UHF isn't, as you may have gathered by this point, the easiest of listens, although it's worth noting that as bleak and eerie and difficult as their sound is, it's also weirdly enveloping and captivating. Once you find a way into their world, you lose yourself in it, and it's harder to find a way out than you might imagine. There's certainly nothing else quite like it out there: UHF is a musical statement as potent, you suspect, as that homebrewed cider of theirs.

Rating: 4/5

Long-running case will help establish the legal limits of sampling, experts believe

The German supreme court has ruled in favour of Kraftwerk in one of the country's most important and longest-running sampling cases. For 12 years, courts have been arguing about two seconds of Kraftwerk's music, borrowed for a hip-hop song in the mid-90s.

The seconds in question were taken from Kraftwerk's 1977 song Metall auf Metall. In 1997, composer-producers Moses Pelham and Martin Haas sampled the track'sclanging beat for Nur Mir, a rap-rock track by the Frankfurt MC Sabrina Setlur. That song reached No 27 in the German charts.

In 2000, Kraftwerk took Pelham and Haas to court. Nur Mir's sample had not been cleared, and the group argued that this constituted copyright infringement. For more than a decade the case bounced between lower and higher courts, until on 13 December the supreme court issued its decision.

This is a crucial case for Germany, where the courts are exploring the limits of fair use in sampling. According to the Economist, the judges said uncleared samples are permissible only "if the same effect could not have been produced by the new artist himself". Accordingly, expert witnesses were asked to smash pieces of metal and demonstrate the sounds on a 1996 Akai sampler. The band's lawyers were apparently able to demonstrate that if Pelham and Haas had wanted to, they could have recorded Nur Mir's beat themselves.

Still, the battle is not quite over. The defendants' lawyer, Udo Kornmeier, said the supreme court decision might be a violation of article five of the German constitution, which governs freedom of expression, including the right for art to be "informed without hindrance from generally accessible sources". Pelham and Haas are considering taking their case even higher, to Germany's constitutional court.

Earlier this month, Kraftwerk announced an eight-night residency at London's Tate Modern, to take place in February. The demand for tickets crashed the museum's web servers.

Open thread: Following DJ Shadow's recent proclamation that he will never sacrifice his integrity after having his set curtailed, are artistic pretensions among the DJ world misplaced?

Following on from the argument over whether video games can be art, the same question is now being leveled at DJing – can playing recorded music for the entertainment of a crowd be called art?

Last weekend DJ Shadow had his set at the Mansion nightclub in Miami abruptly curtailed, the reason given that it was "too future" and too confusing.

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Shadow later tweeted the following:

I don't care if I get kicked out of every rich kid club on the planet. I will never sacrifice my integrity as a DJ...ever #AllBassesCovered

— DJ Shadow (@djshadow) December 16, 2012

Fellow DJ Erol Alkan later offered his support on Twitter:

Respect to @djshadow #2future4u

— erol alkan (@erolalkan) December 18, 2012

or perhaps just too future for that corner of Miami. it's sad what some people expect from Djs these days.part kids entertainer part jukebox

— erol alkan (@erolalkan) December 18, 2012

But isn't "part entertainer part jukebox" a fairly reasonable description of what a DJ does? That was a point made by journalist David Hepworth in a (since deleted) post on his blog. Referring to DJs in general, he said: "You must surely realise that you make your living by putting on records, which is only a tiny bit removed in degree of difficulty from switching on the radio. Furthermore, there must be an implied social aspect to your trade. If you take to the stage to play records then you are entering into a sort of contract. You must accept that your job is to increase the amount of happiness in the room rather than reduce it."

So what exactly are the roles and responsibilities of the DJ? Is the DJ's task to simply entertain the masses – or is the DJ is an artist? How creative is the DJ's role – and is it really that far removed from "switching on the radio"? We'd like to hear what you think.

This week's blog is all about spreading the love

Who are you and what's your blog called?

My name's Mark and I run a blog called Friedmylittlebrain.

Where are you based?

We're based in the UK, with the majority of the writers in London, plus a couple outside the capital, representing Birmingham.

Describe your blog in a sentence

An eclectic mix of choice cuts from the electronic and hip-hop scenes – analogue, digital and vocal goodness.

How long has your blog been going?

Since December 2007

What do you write about?

We have a "post positive" mentality – there's no point spending time and effort to slate something we don't like. The site combines a mix of previews, reviews, interviews and quick video snapshots of the things we love. It's all about spreading the love.

Why should people visit your blog?

There are hundreds of other blogs out there covering the electronic and hip-hop scenes, but Fried, with its positive mentality, is a refreshing read for those who want to know about who Damian tips as the next big thing in drum'n'bass, catch a mix from my favourites on SoundCloud, or chill to the beats that Luis has selected as his top picks.

What's your top song right now?

Tough one, but I've been playing Footsie ft JME, D Double E, Jammer, P Money & Chronik – Spookfest a lot recently.

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What's your favourite music blog aside from your own (and why)?

Since day one, it's been Discobelle. The guys over there are always on point with their posts, and are highly regarded as one of the best blogs around. They've been doing their thing for years, and doing it well.

The band's 'modern wave pop noir' gets gatecrashed by a gigantic slice of bass wobble on this remix

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Initially starting out as a solo project for singer Sarah McIntosh in 2008, the Good Natured became a full band in 2011 after she was joined by her brother Hamish (bass and synths) and drummer George Hinton. Intent on making what they call "modern wave pop noir", the band released the spiky, lustful Skeletons as their debut single. Produced alongside Robyn collaborator Patrik Berger, it got them signed to EMI and they've since spent the best part of a year making their debut album, due next summer. The first taster is 5-HT, which, as I'm sure you don't need me to tell you, is the medical name for serotonin receptors, which control your moods. Produced by pop midas Richard X, the original mixes slowburn electro and 90s drum'n'bass. The Loadstar remix, premiered here, ramps up the dynamic to ridiculous levels. Opening with the same creeping synth riff as the original, it soon explodes into a rib-rattling, bass cacophony for the choruses, creating a serotonin-induced meltdown by the end.

• 5-HT is out on 11 March. You can download the remix for free from the player above.

Following their ‘Qawali Dub‘ release just last month [Nov '12] The Nasha Experience have another EP out today called ‘Black Orchid‘. Ketz, who is no stranger to NASHA Records opens the EP with the title track, ‘Black Orchid’. Armed with an icy guitar-lick that’s one part Pink Floyd, many parts Black Sun Empire, we suddenly [...]

The xx followed up their debut with a critically acclaimed follow up. The secret? Taking a year off to hang out with their friends, says Romy Madley Croft

Read our review of Coexist from our albums of the year roundup

Hi Romy, Coexist was voted No 8 on the Guardian's Albums of 2012. How does that feel?

Oh great, thanks very much!

What's your memory of recording it?

Firstly, we all took a year off after coming back from touring and had a bit of a life – we moved out of our parents' houses and saw our friends and wrote a bit. Then we found a space we liked, put some equipment in there and spent about six months going there every day. It wasn't a fancy studio or soundproofed – it was just a nice space we wanted to be in.

Was it important to actually live a bit before making another album?

It really was, although it wasn't really an option not to. It was what we all craved. We started touring aged 17/18 and the album came out when we were 20 … we hadn't stopped really. We needed some time to take it in, and some new experiences to write about that didn't involve a tour bus.

How did you feel when you finished it?

We actually finished it about five times because Jamie [Smith] produced it and he's definitely a perfectionist! Perfecting the imperfections, I think he calls it. I don't always know what that is, but I'm glad he does it! So there were a lot of fine tunings. We started playing songs live a long time before the album came out, all through the festival season, and it was strange playing to people with blank expressions, trying to sell our music to people all over again. So it was quite a relief when it was finally released.

It's a refinement of your sound rather than a reinvention. Is that fair?

Yeah, I suppose so. We didn't go into making this album thinking we would reinvent our sound, or with a plan at all. We were more relearning how to make music together.

Before anybody had heard it there was talk – because of the stuff you'd been posting on your blog – that it might be a more dance-orientated record …

It's funny because Sunset, Reunion and Swept Away are actually quite upbeat for us. We love playing those ones live, and you can spot house references there, although I guess they're not like a house record Jamie might play in a DJ set. But we've always taken bits of sounds from certain genres – pop, R&B, hip-hop – without sounding like them directly. I think maybe on the next album we might take more of a leap in sound, but this time we just wanted to make music.

How has 2012 been for you?

Incredible. Last Christmas, we were putting Open Eyes online, our first thing in ages. I remember getting that ready at my computer on Christmas Eve and I really didn't know then that we would have another album out and all around the world again. At the time, everything was up in the air – we hadn't even finished the record.

What was the best moment?

I think playing Primavera in Barcelona last May. That was our first time onstage in front of people for a couple of years. It was also great playing live in Australia and seeing people recognise the new songs for the first time. Oh, and we played Leeds and we got our first-ever moshpit! It was hilarious and brilliant. I'd not seen people moshing to Islands and Chained before!

What's your favourite song of 2012?

Probably a song by John Talabot called So Will Be Now. He's been supporting us and it's great because I get to hear it every night.

And your favourite album?

Chromatics' Kill For Love has probably been the record I've listened to the most. I also discovered that they did a version without drums so now that is the thing I listen to when I go to sleep. I'm grateful that they did the songs in a different way.

Claire Boucher is so fixated on her music representing her completely that she starved herself to bring out Visions

Read any of the interviews Claire Boucher gave in the runup to the release of Visions and you'd be tempted to dismiss the construct of Grimes as pseudo hipster nonsense. Here is a former ballerina goth who deliberately tried to induce insanity by recording Visions locked away in the dark of her bedroom, in an apartment block populated by musicians, while fasting, chain-smoking, high and jittering on amphetamines, with no human contact for three weeks. The end result should have been sequestered by 4AD on the grounds of banal self-indulgence. Instead (sorry, cynics) we got this: a masterpiece in gonzo pop that is weird, original and derivative at the same time and, by a distance, the album I returned to most this year.

Much has already been written about the eclectic taste the internet has afforded generations who never experienced the teenage ritual of saving up for, buying and then playing a single album to death. Grimes is the apotheosis of this idea. She once claimed to be "post-internet"; a music fiend who grew up with Napster, able to pick'n'mix between Mariah Carey, Enya, Marilyn Manson and Outkast without the tribal hang-ups typical of youth subcultures dead and gone. And it makes sense. Listen closely to Visions and you can peel back the genres: sure, there's the space station synth. But you can also hear an undercurrent of industrial white noise, pop hooks and hammer-and-tongs techno, streaming through the filter of commercial R&B. Sometimes within the same song.

John Maus said last year: "I think synthesisers and waveforms allow for a sonic complexity that goes beyond the palette we're used to with guitars." With Grimes, they even allow for more soul. Which is curious, because we're conditioned to consider electronic music robotically detached from "real" emotion. Boucher specialises in contradictions, though: her calling card is building danceable euphoria laced with melancholy; she sings about who the hell knows what (and for once, you're never really bothered about what the lyrics mean) but does it with crystal-cut precision.

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Circumambient, arguably her best three and a half minutes in an already prolific career, is a prime example – it's about the breakdown of a relationship, when Boucher chose her career over a boyfriend. It's bewitching, but also borderline unhinged. A soundtrack to lovesick manic insomnia that resonates as hard in a grotty, warehouse party as it does, defeated by sleeplessness, in your own bed.

Visually speaking, Grimes holds another set of trump cards. Grimes was 22 when she made this album and set about engineering her own image: she places that kawaii-like cutesy vocal artifice alongside a hard-edged androgyny in an era where women in pop are, depressingly, expected to barter with their bodies as much as their talent.

Plus, it's not as if Boucher couldn't have taken the tits'n'arse path to pop stardom; she is beautiful – all doe-eyed, skinny-limbed, model-worthy grace – but she takes all that and, brilliantly, makes it irrelevant. Grimes cares about what she unromantically calls "branding": she directs her own videos, styles herself and considers the visual imagery to be as important as the music. Whatever the arguments about her longevity and substance (zero and little insist the naysayers), it's her prodigious talent and scope that mark her out as one of 2012's best. It's one thing to cause a hiccup in the pop matrix, quite another to have it reverb across the broader cultural landscape like Visions does.