I really didn't listen to many full albums this year... Da Mind of Traxman and Bangs and Works vol. 2 were both great though!
2012 was far more defined by mixtapes for me.
LOVED the Champion mix for XLR8R -
http://www.xlr8r.com/podcast/2012/02/champion
The big where he drops Mosquito Man from Lighter VIP was one of the biggest 'jawdrop' moments of the year for me, and when he replicated it at his AMAZING set at Butterz at Cable that was one of my rave highlight of the year, if not ever!
I'm the beardy brare with glasses on the left
I only discovered Beneath's mix for Blackdown this year, so I count it along with his Fact mix as one of the musical peaks of my year:
http://blackdownsoundboy.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/beneath.html
http://www.factmag.com/2012/05/07/fact-mix-328-beneath/
Both were pretty seminal as they led to us booking him for a rave!
Actually Blackdown smacked it as far as introducing new music this year! The Mista Men mix over at his blog soundtracked my exam term, I used it as an alarm clock and it probably stopped me from offing myself:
http://blackdownsoundboy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/meet-mista-men.html
Really enjoyed the Emancipate EP by Narrows when it came out right at the beginning of the year - thought it a very auspicious start!
The single biggest moment for me musically of the year was Marcus Nasty's June 6 Rinse show. I listened to it as a podcast, on decent headphones just after my final exams, and when the bass came on for the Cause & Affect mix of Let's Go Back, I had the biggest musical epiphany I've had since getting in to dance music mid-2009. Apart from footwork, which took me a while to get into, there's not been a single sound which has developed in that time which is so distinct, so appealing, that an entire scene has formed around it.
Since listened to that mix I went on to track down nearly every track on it, branching out through artists' back catalogues, trying to piece together the topography and who's who of Jackin. I've listened to it maybe 50 or more times, and I now rate artists I learned about through there - Lorenzo, Hannah Wants, Tom Shorterz, Nick Hannam - as some of my favourite producers. I went from sustaining my interest in music by a combo of maybe 3-4 new fairly interesting 'UK bass'/funky releases a month + hunting for garage/bassline/grime/funky bangers which passed me by the first time around with my sets being maybe 30% new stuff, 30% stuff from the last couple of years, and 40% old classics, to be constantly suprised and amazed at the amount of great new jackin which comes out every single week, and playing sets which are 80%+ tunes from the last few months.
Lorenzo in particular's had maybe 30 - 40 absolute bangers to his name this year. I can't think of anyone who's come even close.