There's no air conditioning in my office. In fact there's no air conditioning anywhere on the fifth floor. There are fans of various sizes and designs that sit on desks and windowsills, but they're ineffective, serving only to dry the skin and create a perpetual humming monotone. This would be an unpleasant enough environment in which to spend the weekdays of any given summer, but this year it's not much different outside. Instead of cleansing beams of sunshine, I step out into a sweltering grey. There is no respite. 1. Miss Kittin - 'Professional Distortion' My job involves telling people with unreasonable complaints and petty grievances that I understand their frustration and I apologise for the inconvenience, but unfortunately cannot help them. SMILE. SHOW. WRITE. SHOUT. Miss Kittin's job involves playing records at clubs full of beautiful people and being a fabulous trendy pop star. SING. TEASE. SHINE. SIGN. Pop stars writing songs about how much their job sucks can be the most irritating thing in the world, but when I listen to 'Professional Distortion', I know how she feels. It's reassuring to know we have some common ground. 2. !!! - 'Shit Schiese Merde Pt 1' Walking towards the Scala, a collection of prostitute trading cards flutters around my feet in the exact formation as a swirl of leaves in autumn. These are the waste products of an area of London usually described in scatological terms. The filth of the city. !!!'s music clatters and sprawls like an aimless walk - or perhaps a purposeful drift - through the city centre. We in the grime right now. 3. Smash TV - 'Queen Of Man' Thursday was the new Friday for a while. I don't know about you, but these days I don't go out much during the week. I can't cope with the hangovers. Still, it was fun while it lasted. 'Queen Of Man' is an urgent song. It's a song for the period of anticipation that immediately precedes a moment of release, whether that means doing your hair in your bedroom on a Saturday, or walking from work to the pub on a Thursday. We do our best to make the nights as special as we can. 4. The Chap - 'Oozing Emotion' "Give me a contract, give me a sign..." Don't get me started on job-hunting. It's a task that turns me into a ball of tension that would scoff at being told to 'relax', or 'chill out', that can only find release in sudden bursts of energy, lightly flavoured with aggression. 'Oozing Emotion' captures exactly this state: it cannot contain itself. 5. PJ Harvey - 'Who The Fuck?' 6. Weird War - 'AK-47' Sometimes you just get so angry. You want to kill your boyfriend. Machine-gun the Daily Mail offices. I understand. Don't listen to the 'moderates' who tell you these feelings are immature, unreasonable or extreme. There is strength in this irrational but utterly righteous moral fury. 7. Pink Grease - 'The Pink G.R.EASE' But of course they say it's healthier to fuck or dance, rather than fight. Not than I'm sure Pink Grease know the difference between these activities. Maybe they're right. We expend energy in search of a release, but sometimes the things we do just make us sweatier, stickier. 8. Ghostface - 'Save Me Dear' On the other hand, some days the girl in the story is the only thing that keeps me sane. 9. M.I.A. - 'Sunshowers' Other days London itself is enough. In the thick of the grime, there are treasures - a rare splash of sunlight on the side of a tower block, a blast of UK garage coming from a passing car - and I remember why I wouldn't trade it for anywhere else. 10. LCD Soundsystem - 'Yeah' And some days nothing but this song will do, a 10-minute spiritual cleansing in acid funk form, twice daily, on the way to and from work. You can call it rinsing, if you like. The phrase "lost in music" may be over-used, but it's never been more true. 11. Au Revoir Simone - 'Through The Backyards Of Our Neighbours' "Won't you tell me please, is this a dream? Spending the night with you..." Past midnight, a cooler breeze comes through the window by my bed, carrying the rich smells of the city with it, but also the scent of trees. I listen to this song last thing at night, and hope Au Revoir Simone will help me dream of open fields and billowing white cotton. There is respite, after all.

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