So every year for the past few years myself and a select group of superfriends have done a sort of Best Music Of The Year compilation CD exchange type thing. Basically each member of the group selects their favourite songs from that year and puts them on a CD which they then swap with the rest. It’s a fun way of discovering new music and an excellent excuse to show off how cool and elite your taste is (guess which part I enjoy most?)
Anyway, this year I thought I’d whack the playlist up on this blog; all of my choices are below in the order that they appear on the CD (with the exception of ‘Funky Flex’ by Lil’ Silva which isn’t on YouTube). Enjoy (and feel free to post comments/criticisms or indeed your own end of year lists in the comments):
Darkstar -- Aidy’s Girl’s A Computer
Hyperdub celebrated their fifth anniversary in 2009, marking the milestone with the (excellent) compilation 5. It’s hard to pick a standout from that 2xCD set but certainly one of the more unusual selections is this oddball 8-bit torch song from Darkstar. Fragments of vocodered speech drift over a delightfully naive mariba-led melody, while every so often the song itself seems to fall apart, seemingly overpowered by the ‘Loading’ sound from an old Commodore64 game. Lovely stuff altogether.
The Golden Filter -- Solid Gold
No one could accuse The Golden Filter of being overly adventurous with their sound: the chunky drums, the spiraling analogue arpeggios, the airy female vocals -- it’s all been done before, of course. It’s just this pair do it so very well. The chorus is catchy as hell and the (live sounding) drums inject a sense of urgency to a rhythm track that could have easily come over stiff and robotic. Gorgeous golden-hued video there as well.
Starkey -- Miracles (Jamie Vex’D Remix)
‘Emotional’ is not a word one would usually associate with dubstep music, which is what makes Jamie Vex’D’s soulful reimagining of Starkey’s ‘Miracles’ all the more startling. Stripping the original down to just it’s pitchshifted vocal sample, Vex’d sets about filling the space with all manner of atmospheric whirs and growls, skeletal synth melodies and distorted bass. Epic stuff.
Lil’ Silva -- Funky Flex
Well, this track’s not on YouTube unfortunately, so I’ve posted the A-side of the release, ‘Seasons’. Not that ‘Seasons’ is a bad tune -- like ‘Funky Flex’ it walks a fine line between irresistably catchy and intensely annoying. Oddly reminiscent of Mr. Oizo’s ‘Flatbeat’, ‘Funky Flex’ sports a ringtone-like bleeping melody, booming sub bass, and a nice line in Latin percussion. Good luck trying to track it down though.
myspace | currently unavailable
Hudson Mohawke -- Overnight
What to say about this track? I’ve been playing it more or less non-stop since it was (officially) released back in January 2009. The joyous brass stabs and tumbling drumline, topped off with a naggingly catchy wordless vocal hook -- the level of sonic detail in this (very short) song is simply breathtaking. Still, it’s a shame it sounds like he forgot to finish it!
Joker & Ginz -- Purple City
Arguably the producer of the year here, Joker has been credited with breathing new life into dubstep in 2009, introducing a welcome dash of neon-tinged George Clinton-esque synth-funk to what can sometimes be a depressingly grey sound palette. With so many outstanding productions to his name, it’s tough to choose just one but ‘Purple City’, a co-write with Ginz*, is probably my favourite. Heavy, yet melodic, slow, but danceable -- in many ways it’s the quintessential Joker track -- and not forgetting that lead synth melody. How could you? Once that’s burrowed it’s way into deep your brain it’s not going anywhere soon.
*Poor Ginz! Nobody ever mentions him. Check out his MySpace, he’s a funny chap.
Nosaj Thing -- Light 2
Something a bit moodier now -- Nosaj Thing’s dark, futuristic vision of hip hop. Metallic arpeggiatted synths swirl around an achingly beautiful central melody, while the lazer-heavy beat holds the whole thing together; easily the standout track from a very strong album.
The Juan MacLean -- One Day
2009 has been a fairly low-key year for DFA: the next LCD Soundsystem album isn’t expected until mid 2010 and despite a mildly diverting record from YACHT, there hasn’t been much in the way of their trademark take on glitzy New York disco. All the more opportunity then to focus on The Juan MacLean who delivered their sophomore album The Future Will Come in April. It’s an album that sees MacLean and singer Nancy Whang moving away from the expansive space disco epics (they’re still there, don’t worry -- ‘Happy House‘ is twelve and a half minutes of sheer bliss) and towards more concise, tightly structured bursts of Human League-alike synthpop. The best example of this is ‘One Day’, a track that, with it’s disco strings, piano stabs and call and response vocals already sounds like a classic. And how many songs can you name that feature the word ‘beleagured’?
2000F & J Kamata -- You Don’t Know What Love Is
Another track deserving of the tag of ‘instant classic’ (a phrase, incidentally, that I hate but for which I can’t think of a better alternative), ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’ takes Joker’s brand of bass-heavy P-funk and runs with it, fashioning a smooth, stylish, and strangely sexy, digital slow jam. It’s a beautiful piece of work -- the talkbox vocals, though largely indecipherable, have a sense of yearning to them that’s as affecting as anything on, say, George Benson’s Erotic Moods or even Prince at his most sensual. Definitely music for… well… you know.
Ghost -- The Club
Cheating a bit here as this older track comes from the (excellent) Blackdown-curated retrospective of El-B’s work, The Roots Of El-B. I’ve always loved 2-step garage and El-B is the undisputed master of the form. This track is pure fun from start to finish.
myspace | currently unavailable
Instra:Mental -- Watching You (Original Mix)
Traveling around Asia for six months I didn’t get to hear much in the way of new music but one release I stumbled across a few weeks ago was this one from Instra:Mental. As you may have gathered already I have a bit of a thing for robot love songs and ‘Watching You’ is definitely right up my street. The cold, clinical sounding beats contrast nicely with the warm, and oddly wounded, timbre of the vocals. One to watch for the coming year.
Marek Hemmann -- Gemini
Hemmann’s had a lot of nice tunes this year -- most on the excellent Freude Am Tanzen label -- but the standout for me is ‘Gemini’. Mixing acoustic elements with electronics is always a dicey proposition -- particularly something as resolutely earthy sounding as a flippin’ saxophone sample -- but Hemmann executes it beautifully. By the time the Todd Edwards-esque vocal cut-ups arrive in the final three minutes, I gaurantee you’ll already be dancing -- or at the very least engaged in some sort of toe-tapping, head-nodding, subvocal humming equivalent therof. Plus it’s more than a little reminiscent of this -- one of the best tracks (and videos) of all time.
DZ -- Right About Now Sounds
A straight-up, wobble-bottomed banger now. I featured DZ’S ‘Fireman‘ in my last podcast and was tempted to include it again here but the B-side ‘Right About Now Sounds’ just managed to nudge its way in at the last minute. Unsubtle it may be, but it’s catchier than swine flu and the rolling piano loop is a nice counterpoint to the juddering beats and basslines.
Joy Orbison -- Hyph Mngo
For once the hype was justifed as Joy Orbison’s ‘Hyph Mngo’ really did mark the arrival of a major new talent. Blending a superattenuated Janet Jackson vocal sample and an unashamedly euphoric keyboard pad sounds like a recipe for disaster but the incessant, trance-like repetition and jerky rhythms are almost impossible to resist. The track never really ‘takes off’ in the way we might be conditioned to expect -- not even when the slippery synth lines fade into view -- but it’s ‘Hyph Mngo’s (still no clue how to actually pronouce that title, by the way) restraint that really set it out as something different.
La Roux -- In For The Kill (Skream Remix)
Tune. Of. The. Year.
I mean, this is the one, isn’t it? Ellie Jackson’s wailing vocals may not be to everyone’s taste -- her first release on Kitsune back in 2008 sounded horribly tinny and treble-heavy to my ears -- but she’s matured into (after Lady GaGa) one of the most artistically promising pop stars of the new decade. (Sorry Little Boots. Things were looking good there for a while but I’m sure we can both agree it just hasn’t been working for a long time now. Frankly, I think we should see other people). La Roux’s album, though patchy in places, was an unusually strong debut and each of her brilliant singles heralded a boatload of remixes, from the likes of Nero, Midfield General, Foamo, TEPR, Jackbeats, and Slugabed to name but a few. Perhaps the tune most fiddled with however was ‘In For The Kill’, yielding this mix here -- arguably Skreams best work in years. Stripping everything down to an eerie, high-pitched E-Bow-like synth line and ominous slabs of rumbling bass, this remix is a daring exercise in minimalist atmospherics… until of course <spoiler alert!> you reach the (by now, notorious) twist in the tail. Genuinely, the first time I heard this track played out I squealed with joy at this unexpected (and thrilling) coda -- I distinctly remember on another occasion falling over dancing at this point. Yes, it fades all too soon but that’s simply all the more reason to go back and play it again. Simply put, if there was a better tune this year, then (somehow) I didn’t hear it.
… aaaand that’s the lot. Honourable mentions go to Major Lazer, Simian Mobile Disco, Akira Kiteshi, Grizzly Bear and plenty of others but I’m simply too tired to type any more.
‘Til next year, kids!
