Urlaubshits

I thought I’d begin this list with an attempt to sum up 2009 from my own blinkered point of view, but the more I thought about it, the more pointless it seemed. It’s impossible to keep up with everything; I suppose within the narrow spectrum of music I listen to in the name of this blog I’ve seen a slight move away from disco and “balearic pop”, towards house, and “hypnagogic pop”. There are other writers who are better at applying grand narratives to such trivialities as list making, so if you want that I suggest you go and read their stuff instead.

This list is my list. These are the things I liked the best within my own narrow spectrum, a list with my “DJ” hat on. Some are more challenging than others, but they’re all great records, and they owe as much of a debt to pop music as they do to anything experimental. As with last year, I’ve made my Top 10 singles list a Top 10 of 12″ singles, not just tracks. In doing this I try to consider the whole package, including remixes. There’s little worse than paying an exorbitant amount of money for one mediocre and over-hyped track. But similarly there’s also no joy in paying little an EP of filler to get one great track. Maybe this year I haven’t completely succeeded in following these guidelines, but as far as I’m concerned these are 10 records that will give joy to myself and others well beyond this year.

If you want to hear these tracks then come back later today for the Urlaubshits end of year podcast featuring these tracks and a few more which didn’t make the top 10, but I still loved nevertheless.

10) Neurotic Drum Band - Neurotic Erotic Adventure/Robotic Hypnotic Adventure // Wurst

OK, so this is probably my wild card entry: the title track isn’t nearly as good as the supposed B-side, but it’s a brilliant B-side, and if it were that alone I would still put it on the list. “Robotic Hypnotic Adventure” is a hybrid of most of the sub-genres derived from the last 5 years of nu-disco and house - though it is essentially a piano house track. The piano starts off with a delicate touch, contrasting nicely with the crunchy bass, but by the time it reaches the half way point it really takes off, the keys battered to within an inch of their lives. It’s not massively subtle, but there are few other dance tracks I’ve heard this year that offered a more satisfying melodic release than “Robotic Hypnotic Adventure”. In the absence of any original Aeroplane material this year, this filled the gap quite nicely.

9) Black Meteoric Star - Death Tunnel/World Eater // DFA Records

The project of DFA synth-wizard Gavin Russom, Black Meteoric Star recorded material was a long time coming for those who had already seen his live shows, but it didn’t disappoint; made as Russom’s channel for his interest in dance music, the three singles are expansive exercises in the most primeval electronic sounds. There were three Black Meteoric Star 12″ singles released this year, but this was my personal favourite. “Death Tunnel” is mesmerising in its simplicity, but with a visceral power that is completely unlike his previous work with Delia Gonzalez, while “World Eater” is everything that it’s name suggests, a twisting beast of a track with a searing melody with the imagined power of an exploding sun. The Black Meteoric Star project is supposedly at an end, but in 2010 we have the next track from him and Delia Gonzalez, simply titled “#5″ and a new Russom project, The Crystal Ark.

8) Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo // Hotflush Recordings

I was first brought to the attention of this track by the excellent Fact Magazine, who reported on esteemed music writer Simon Reynolds’ reaction to it on his blog, writing that he “would rather be in the middle of a crowd aving it apeshit to this” than “in the midst of headz sagely nodding (off, more like!) to moist ‘n’ milky minimalism such as this “talisman” of a track”. Fact have said it, and I’ll say it again: he’s wrong, not just wrong, but so wrong it made me question whether I can read anything else by him (and everything I’ve read has been quite good) and be able to take what he’s saying seriously. I’m no dubstep expert, but even I can tell you, if I heard this track out, I’d have my hands in the air.

To my ears it doesn’t just sound like dubstep; there are undeniable shades of Detroit in there, especially in the also superb B-side “Wet Look”. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear more of a convergence between house and dubstep over the next few years, and it would be, at least partially, down to Joy Orbison. Let’s get one thing straight, there’s probably no way Urlaubshits will ever turn into a dubstep blog, but a debut this good is hard to ignore.

7) Bottin - No Static // Italians Do It Better

The first record on Italians Do It Better to come from a genuine Italian, “No Static” is a sublime updating of the Italo tropes which Bottin’s labelmates Chromatics have been cribbing from for years, but unlike Chromatics’ ethereal take on disco, “No Static” is more faithful to the dancefloor friendly, robotic Italo of artists such as Charlie, Klein & MBO and Giorgio Moroder. What makes this track so special in my mind however, is the filtered synths which slowly build in the background, which have, dare I say it, an almost French touch to them, recalling the lusher moments of 90s French house. Wisely, the vocals are abstracted and lyricless, spectral cries which prevent the track from veering into the kind of cheesy Italo territory which could cause it veer into the realms of pastiche. It’s a fine line, but Bottin knows how to walk it, and with finesse.

6) DyE - Imperator EP // Tigersushi

I’ve already talked about this EP on the pages of this site, so I won’t repeat myself. But I will say that this record’s position on the list is well deserved for being one of the most self assured debut releases I’ve heard this year. Mixing elements of dubstep, electro and acid house, this is a record which gives me faith that the stale French electro scene is in the hands of a young genius. I don’t know where DyE is going to go musically from this point; but what is demonstrated in this EP is that like his label’s boss Joakim he has the potential to straddle genre divides with ease, appealing to those with more cerebral tastes, and those who want something more instant. DyE satisfies both of those desires in this EP, and also those desires you didn’t know you had.

5) Naum Gabo - Pictur // Thisisnotanexit

If this list were judged solely on the love that had gone into ensuring that a record had even been released, then this entry would win hands down. Representing two years of work by Thisisnotanexit boss Simon A. Carr and Naum Gabo’s Jonnie Wilkes (also of Optimo) to get the release to a state everyone was happy with, it’s frankly a miracle that it has ever seen the light of day, partly due to Tim Goldsworthy’s Loving Hand remix originally clocking in at an unwieldy 23 minutes in length. The solution was for Wilkes to take the best parts of the remix, and edit them into two friendlier and more concise chunks. Despite having appeared on Beats In Space over 18 months ago, it still sounds like nothing else released this year; Edit 1 features a motorik rubberband bassline and weird cosmic underwater ambiance, while Edit 2 is characterised by the kind of low-slung electric bass guitar that would make Maurice Fulton jealous. This would be enough to guarantee the price alone, but the 12″ is completed with a superb remix by Joakim. It’s one of the heaviest things he’s done for a while, being more in the full-on acid vein of 2006’s “Drumtrax” than the cosmic kraut of his recent album Milky Ways.

Thisisnotanexit have been gaining themselves quite a reputation for releasing wonderfully idiosyncratic dance music with a strong commitment to looking forward. In a year which has seen my particular dance music niche dominated by music looking back to classic house for inspiration, Thisisnotanexit have, wisely, stayed true to their mission, and released one of the most essential singles of their short life.

4) House of House - Rushing To Paradise (Walkin’ These Streets) // Whatever We Want Records

It seems difficult to believe this record was released almost a year ago. When I was compiling this list I wasn’t sure whether this track would still hold up; it was released on such a wave of hype and hysteria over its £15 price that I wasn’t sure if it would still have the same effect it did, but you know what, it totally does. It’s still an absolute bliss bomb, ebbing and flowing like a river of liquid codeine. It’s a really slow burner, a modern take on classic house with an analog backdrop, simmering along with the occasional hiss that sounds like a necessary release of pressure. It’s not until half way through its 13 minute length that it really gets going, dropping an irresistible piano riff which is taken away almost immediately, just so it can be built up again and dropped at an even more euphoric level.

The steadfast refusal of the duo to release any official MP3s of this track will probably ensure that it fades into obscurity, only for someone to find a copy in a record store 20 years from now, when they will no doubt have their minds soundly blown open.

3) Tensnake - In The End (I Want You To Cry) // Running Back

2009 has been quite a year for Tensnake, and deservedly so. I have to admit I was surprised when I heard this single, as it felt a lot less restrained than his previous releases, as the blend of italo-disco and deep house which characterised last year’s Keep Believin’ gave way to the pure house of “In The End (I Want You To Cry)” and the sleazy slo-mo disco of “Holding Back (My Love)”. Both of these tracks felt like the perfect meeting point between the obvious 80s influences on Tensnake and his forward-looking sound, made even more apt released on a label called Running Back, a label which prides itself on looking to the history of house and disco as well as the present. The vocal sample used on “In The End” hammers that point home further, as what, in the wrong hands, could have ended up as just another disco edit was transformed into something truly amazing.

2) Azari & III - Reckless (With Your Love) // Permanent Vacation

I had a dream about a month or so ago in which I had found out Azari & III were performing an impromptu gig at my place of work. In the dream, I received a phonecall from a friend; I didn’t pick the phone up, but I knew he was calling to tell me that he was there, and they were playing this song. I did everything I did to make it, but I woke before I had the chance to see them. There aren’t many songs that infect my subconscious like that. Maybe it’s the early 90s synth stabs, the piano straight out of Chicago, the male vocals that sound like they’re a husky female, or the fact that it’s so good I’ve gone through sessions of listening to it 7 times in a row. Or maybe it’s just because it’s one of the best songs of the year bar none. If there were any justice in the world this would have been Christmas number one, not Rage Against The Machine. If it had been released 20 years ago, it almost certainly would have been. Listen to it and tell me I’m wrong.

1) Shit Robot - Simple Things (Work It Out) // DFA Records

It was hard choosing between this and “Reckless”, but in the end, it had to be this record. Why? Song of the year and remix of the year, on one disc. It doesn’t happen often.

It’s rare that dance music can be so lyrically cerebral whilst maintaining an integrity to the dancefloor, but the union of Marcus Lambkin and Ian Svenonius has created something that is both of these things, and brilliantly so. It shouldn’t work, but it does. Spectacularly. At its heart, “Simple Things” is a love song first, and a dance track second. It’s about a relationship gone sour told in occasionally hysterical spoken word by Nation Of Ulysses’ Ian Svenonius, a meditation on the difficulties we face when we find ourselves in that situation. Lyrically it’s nothing special, but somehow the total simplicity and lack of pretension present within them gives the whole thing an innocent quality which, in combination with Svenonius’ mania, and the cheesy muzak piano, gives the whole thing an unfathomable sadness.

But despite it’s leanings towards pained introspection, it’s hard not to finish the track without the feeling that the feelings are transitory; the situation is temporary, the track ending not as most 12″ single cuts should, with an extended outro, but with a sudden stop which reflects not a long and excruciating downward spiral of despair, but an expression of joy, a “fuck you”, ending on a curious high which erases all memory of the pain of the lyrics which preceded it. It is one of those rare things, a break-up song which refuses to end content with it’s own misery, but offers the possible glimpse of a way out of the pain.

And then there’s the Todd Terje remix. He creates a totally different bassline, adds some different piano, strips most of the vocals back apart from Svenonius’ pained cries of agony and ecstasy - he creates a totally different song, but somehow the essence of the song is the same. I think it’s because it captures the same sense of mania and melancholy, its energy constantly pushing onwards and upwards until you think it can go no further, but it does. I honestly didn’t think Todd Terje had it in him to do something like this, but he has absolutely surpassed himself. Both he and Lambkin have got a lot to live up to in 2010.