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.

“Tito’s Way” was introduced by some otherworldly sonorous clang which looked to have been created by Maclean’s theremin, which he manipulated with all the gusto of a stadium rock star shredding away at his guitar, whilst the live drumming and percussive breakdown is crisp and tight. Due to some problems with the sound, Nancy Whang’s vocals had been until this point somewhat muted, but it was during their rendition of “The Station” that her trademark shouty vocals really came to the fore. Wearing a one piece blue trouser-dress, her positive screech was a marvellous contrast to the thick bass and bleeps of a track which really came to life in a live context.

“You Can’t Have It Both Ways” (which is featured below for listening) is one of The Juan Maclean’s earliest tracks (dating back from the days of the DFA Compilation #1), but live it was one of the night’s highlights, and felt as fresh as any of the new material, Maclean jumping from keyboard to bassline synthesiser to give us the kind of acid jam that his recent material and performances (particularly in his Love Acid guise) have become almost legendary for.

“One Day” was perhaps one of the relative disappointments of the evening; the euphoric piano sounds not sounding quite sharp enough to be suitably felt over the rest of the instrumentation. But this is segued straight into “Give Me Every Little Thing”, and audible cheers are heard; when the bass kicks in it offers one of the most satisfying drops of the night. This is swiftly followed by the acid drenched “No Time”, another disappointment as the bass is perhaps too thick for its own good, drowning out almost everything else. But all these relatively minor problems could be forgiven for what was about to come.

“This is called Road To Nowhere” said Maclean, as he introduced the final song of their set. But there was no cover of the Talking Heads classic, rather, the bassline that everyone had been waiting for. It’s hard to describe in words just how transcendent The Juan Maclean’s live version of “Happy House” was. When the piano kicked in, the crowd were whipped into a frenzy, which combined with the blinding strobes and Maclean’s live percussion added some real kineticism to the performance. Oddly however, after only about six minutes the song had already reached it’s “Launch me into space” denouement, and seemed like the band were ready to wind down. But Maclean begins working the acid on his TB-303, and it’s clear that things have only just begun. For another ten minutes the track morphs out of all recognition; it reaches what seems like its climax and the piano riff is dropped again, with a cosmic melody laid over the top; the performance is slowed right almost to a stop, then the tempo is brought back up and it stops before it all begins again. The Talking Heads reference makes a perverse kind of sense, as it feels at times like the track is never going to end; but the frenzied crowd are by this point positively rabid, and one can’t help but feel that they probably could have danced themselves deaf until dawn and wouldn’t have cared. Not bad for a Sunday night in a museum.

Listen:> The Juan Maclean – You Can’t Have It Both Ways

Download audio file (The Juan Maclean – You Can’t Have It Both Ways.mp3)

The Future Will Come is out now on DFA Records

Buy it from Juno

The performance was as strange as anyone could have expected from one half of The Knife; the huge stage, though literally packed with musicians playing the myriad of sounds that comprise Fever Ray’s vast palette, was for the entirety of the hour long set, bathed in almost complete darkness, to the point where it was often impossible to discern where Andersson herself was even standing. It occasionally felt that she was taking her famous reluctance to show her face in any way to ridiculous extremes, perhaps engaging in some kind of man behind the curtain charade to play games with the audience’s expectation of her. There were however, brilliant concessions made to lighting. Apart from the typical lasers and strobes, the real spectacle came from some very ordinary looking lampshades. These offered no real illumination of the stage, but their orange hues served as a visual counterpoint to the organic elements of her music, as well as the themes of domesticity present in the lyrics. But far from offering any kind of home comforts, they flickered on and off, sometimes dimming, all with the feel of being trapped in a haunted house, perhaps an allusion to the way she felt when writing the album, especially present in the lyrics of standout track “Concrete Walls”: “I live between concrete walls/ In my arms she was so warm/ Oh how I try/ I leave the TV on/ And the radio.” During the live performance of this track the lamps were utilised to great effect, with the lamps flashing on and off in response to the snare drum, managing to bring an incredible sense of scale to proceedings that no laser light show ever could.

There were some complaints, most notably the Royal Festival Hall’s complete inability to cope with any kind of amplified sound. The low end was so great that it literally caused a light to be shaken free of it’s fittings, something which resulted in an irritating vibrations in time with every beat. Also, “Dry and Dusty” (one of my personal highlights of the album) fell completely flat due to Andersson changing the key and as a consequence it just didn’t hit the sublime heights of the album version. These however are small complaints which did nothing to detract from what was utterly absorbing. And as someone who has felt a bit short changed when seeing The Knife perform live, the comparitively large scoale of Fever Ray’s performance was a welcome relief.

As the show progressed it felt like Andersson was coming out of her shell somewhat; but a red light which illuminated her from behind revealed another layer of mystique, showing her to be wearing a vast headdress and cloak, it’s antlers cutting a vaguely demonic figure in the crimson gloom. But far from being part of some elaborate pantomime, the theatrics never feel anything less than an intrinsic part of Fever Ray’s music, and the character that Andersson becomes is something that cannot be fully grasped by listening to the record alone. The performance ended with the album closer “Coconut”, a track which owes more to dubstep that the Euro-techno influences of The Knife’s previous album. As the song ended, and the bass pulsed in time with the slowly narrowing lasers, I don’t think there were many who weren’t left astounded by what they had seen.

Download:> Fever Ray – Coconut

Download audio file (Fever Ray – Coconut.mp3)

Fever Ray is out now on Rabid Records

Buy it from Juno

It never fails to amaze me the kind of things I get sent – I genuinely think that these people just have some kind of spidering software that trawls the Hype Machine for blogs to add to their vast mailing lists. If any of these people actually bothered to read any of the stuff on this site then they would know that I have a vague theme going on – maybe I sometimes deviate, but I’m not generally going to comment on bmore-electro-jackin-fidget house. Not necessarily because I don’t recognise its right to life, but because I don’t know anything about it. I have precious little enough time as it is to listen to the music I want to listen to, keep on top of the mountain of new releases, make mixes and update this site as often as I would like to. Furthermore, I have very little interest in posting stuff that I know has already been posted, or will end up being posted a hundred times by other blogs. I would much rather share music that people probably won’t have heard before – that surely should be the point of MP3 blogging.

Sometimes though I get sent stuff that I do like, and would like to write something about, but the way I approach my blog means that I often think about what I’m going to write about a week or so in advance, through listening to an album or single a good few times before approaching the writing. So I’ve come up with an idea for a new semi-regular feature, and you’re looking at it. What I’m going to do, every so often, is compile some stuff that I have been given permission to share that I think is interesting, or just plain fun to listen to, and just  Anything that does get shared in this way will no doubt end up being at least two weeks behind everyone else has posted it, but then that doesn’t really bother me.

Metronomy – A Thing For Me (Blackout Crew Remix)

Download audio file (Metronomy – A Thing for Me (Blackout Crew Remix).mp3)

When I received this I had just been engaging in a conversation with a friend about the “donk” phenomenon, and discussed when we were going to make our pilgrimage to Wigan Pier, the spiritual home of “bounce”. If this means nothing to you, then I mentioned the Blackout Crew last month in this article, in relation to their single “Put A Donk On It”. If you want further explanation, then I point you to this article on the donk scene in Vice, it makes a grim but compelling read.

I heard that Blackout Crew had remixed Metronomy a few months ago, and found the notion laughable, as if Metronomy must have comissioned them to take this on as part of some huge joke at the expense of donk’s finest ambassadors, but the result is actually surprisingly good. It’s not a million miles away from the remixes that were being produced two years ago at the height of nu-rave, and if you don’t believe me then just search out the “Third Eye Mafia Re-fit” of Klaxons’ “Atlantis To Interzone”; if this Blackout Crew remix had been released two years ago, I seriously doubt anyone would have batted on eyelid. And at least the Blackout Crew aren’t just playing some kind of ironic joke with their music.

Post War Years – Flames Like Tinder

Download audio file (Post War Years – Flames Like Tinder.mp3)

I was really excited to receive this, mainly because I am lucky enough to know Post War Years personally, and always look forward to hearing new stuff from them to see what they’re going to do next. And if you’re wondering, it wasn’t them who sent it to me, it was in fact a PR company who probably have no idea I know them. Therefore I feel no conflict of interest in plugging them here, though mainly I don’t feel bad about it because I think they’re really good. If you haven’t heard them before, then take the gentlemanly vocal delivery of The Chap, the melancholy pop soul of Hot Chip, add them to some really punchy rhythms, sharp guitars, a few cosmic synths and occasional trumpet samples, and you’re probably only about half way to understanding what they sound like.

Anyway, this is the B-side from their upcoming 7″ on Chess Club, the A-side being a song called “Whole World On Its Head” which you can listen to at their MySpace page. They also have a blog which I really like reading too, which is here.

Groove Armada – Drop The Tough (The Twelves B-LIVE Remix)

Download audio file (drop12s.mp3)

Just the name Groove Armada is enough to flood my synapses with unpleasant memories of late 90s big beat, and I have to say I was incredibly sceptical that this was going to be any good. But in a canny piece of marketing Bacardi have gotten recent blog darlings The Twelves to remix this track, just so that the kids who can’t remember Groove Armada will have something to latch onto. It’s fairly cynical, but the results are really quite awesome.

I knew very little about The Twelves before this, apart from the fact that they are literally all over The Hype Machine, but after listening to this remix, it becomes apparent why. They take that pop synth thing that Cut Copy do so well, throw in a bit of Alan Braxe, some disco guitar, funk bass, which, together with an infectious vocal hook create some brilliant pop music. Much better, it must be said, than most of the pop we are currently being told is going to save our civilisation.

YouTube musical phenomenon of 2008: Blackout Crew – Put A Donk On It

If anyone ever wondered what the Kersal Massive did when they grew up, then look no further than the Blackout Crew, a gruesome bunch of “musicians” who are almost singlehandedly responsible for spreading the genre known as “scouse house” across Britian. The titular “donk” is seems to be an onomatopoeic word, derived from the sound made by the bouncy synth stabs which characterise the sound of “donk house”. Allegedly, the “donk” itself is never synthesized, only sampled, and then transposed to achieve the desired note. Or maybe it just arrives in the post, like at the beginning of the completely nonsensical video.

And if you think it’s all harmless fun remember that the laugh that you hear at 1:02 is the same laugh you’ll hear just before he decides whether or not to kick your head in outside your local Wetherspoons.

Top record I loved but really shouldn’t: Fake Blood – Mars

I hate this kind of stuff, I really do. I’ve been continually scarred by going to clubs playing this trash too many times, and hopefully I’ve finally learned my lesson. But this tune just has a kind of something that I can’t really put my finger on. One thing it did perfectly was to capture the essence of old school rave in a way that none of the so called “nu-rave” acts ever did, but combining that essence with a gurning bass that tears your face off.

A lot has been made of Fake Blood and his secret identity. Back when nobody really knew who he was he seemed slightly exciting. When everyone found out the he was someone who used to be in late 90s big-beat act The Wiseguys, it didn’t seem quite so exciting.

Lazy lying journalist scum award: The Sun

Back when Burial was nominated for the Mercury prize, The Sun took it upon themselves to try unmask him, declaring that he was “the chart equivalent of graffitti artist Banksy”. The Sun wrote that producers in “the frame” included Aphex Twin and Fatboy Slim. I don’t know what “source” The Sun got this information from, but I’m guessing it was probably some teenager’s MySpace page, the go to source for any Murdoch owned rag when researching any news story. It would have been nice for Burial to have his anonymity, but nobody can really begrudge him unmasking himself when the press are alleging your real identity is Norman Cook.

Remixers of the year: Aeroplane

Aeroplane did 9 remixes in 2008 (10 if you include the unreleased Cut Copy remix), and each and every one of them was superb. My personal favourites are their remixes of David Rubato’s “Circuit”, Low Motion Disco’s “Love Love Love”, and Das Pop’s “Fool For Love”. Seek them out and you won’t be disappointed.

Runners-up: Hercules and Love Affair, The Loving Hand

Almost as prolific as Aeroplane, Hercules and Love Affair had remixes on three of my top ten records of 2008. The best by far was the “Herchouse Mix” of Chaz Jankel’s “Get Myself Together”, which was an old school house and acid tinged masterpiece. And I couldn’t forget to mention Tim Goldsworthy’s Loving Hand remixes, which continue to inspire awe in all those who hear them. His mixes of Lykke Li’s “Little Bit” and Maserati’s “The World Outside” are well worth listening to, and demonstrate two very different sides to his output, one being a lush house reworking which brings out the best in Lykke Li’s vocals, the other being a glitchy piece of technodisco.

Label of the Year: Permanent Vacation

If this had been any other year then it would have been DFA without any doubt. From it’s impressive beginnings in 2006 when it re-released Antena’s Camino Del Sol, along with a host of reworkings by luminaries such as Todd Terje, Joakim and Chromatics, to 2007 when it released Kathy Diamond’s debut album Miss Diamond To You, Permanent Vacation have been establishing themselves as a name to be reckoned with. But 2008 saw them go into overdrive, releasing something almost every month of class and sophistication, defying genre and pushing balearica and nu-disco further forwards than anyone else. In a year that has been overcrowded with disco edits, it was a breath of fresh air to see a label taking risks and giving such priority to new producers.

Runners up: DFA Records, Thisisnotanexit

DFA gave us some of the best singles this year – Blind and Happy House, but there were many other gems to be discovered, and their Death From Abroad imprint and partnership with Rong expose the world to more great stuff. And Thisisnotanexit took risks and gave us something a bit different. Detachments, Spectral Empire, Brain Machine, and remixes from great new talent King of Town and Moscow.

Although these tracks are numbered, choosing the order was tough, but it should be noted that everything I have written about on this blog in the past year is a winner.

And if you want to listen to these releases, then look no further than the Urlaubshits Quintessential Mix of 2008.

10) DJ Mujava – Township Funk (Warp)

Probably the track on this list most guaranteed to make anyone dance, “Township Funk” had the most virulently catchy melody. But the strength of the melody was just as much down to the sonic quality of the melody itself, its springy vibrato adding to its dancability, especially contrasted against the absolutely devastating sub-bass.

________________________________________________________________________

9) Aeroplane (feat. Kathy Diamond) – Whispers (Eskimo Recordings)

There’s a reason I’m not doing a list of the best remixes of 2008 – and its because if I did, I genuinely don’t think I’d be able to guarantee that Aeroplane wouldn’t completely dominate it. Well, maybe that’s not strictly true, but it feels like it is. They’ve done so many remixes this year, I’ve lost count of them, and it’s easy to forget that they actually released a single of their own back in February. It seems consistently incredible that Aeroplane have the gall to do what they do and get away with it, and “Whispers” is one of those tracks, which, despite being almost unbelievably overblown, succeeds because, like their Belgian countrymen Soulwax, they know how to tap into that musical pleasure centre that everyone has somewhere in their brain. The lyrics to “Whispers” are bitter, but this song is sweet as the sticky treacle textures that Aeroplane create around Kathy Diamond’s vocals, and is as sublime a track as their incredible reworks of Friendly Fires and Grace Jones.

_________________________________________________________________________

8) Tensnake – Keep Believin’ (Endless Flight)

Tensnake really is one of those producers that just doesn’t get enough love as far as I’m concerned. He’ll probably be more known for his remixes of Junior Boys and Sally Shapiro, but this EP was the highlight of his original material. The title track and “Congolal” are sublime 6am balearic workouts, but the clean Italo funk of “Tavira” is the real killer, a mournful piece of dubby cosmic disco which borrows elements of modern deep house without ever straying into the dangerously boring territory that the genre can fall into.

_________________________________________________________________________

7) Runaway – Brooklyn Club Jam (DFA/Rekids)

What makes this track work is undoubtedly its simplicity. The drums have a cavernous quality to them, which, in combination with the echoing piano riff, had a purity which created the year’s most cleansing dance track. Runaway give the same kind of sparseness and delicate timbre to house music as Metro Area give to disco, and it’s hard not to to say “Brooklyn Club Jam” will have the same kind of clout as “Miura” five years from now. I think “Brooklyn Club Jam” may well be one of those timeless tracks that will have hands in the air for many years to come.

___________________________________________________________________________

6) Detachments – Fear No Fear (Thisisnotanexit)

It’s always nice to hear a band that don’t actually sound like everyone else. In the year when disco pastiche was often the order of the day, Detachments‘ combination of punk funk and industrial music was a refreshingly dark alternative. They’ve already got Trevor Jackson and Andrew Weatherall producing their upcoming album. And Thisisnotanexit didn’t diasppoint with their choice of remixers – I was initially attracted by the Naum Gabo remix, which makes the vocals a lot louder and augments them with thick disco synths, but it was the epic 13 minute Moscow remix which really impressed, a psychedelic acid house beast which more than made up for Gavin Russom’s Black Meteoric Star 12″ failing to materialise.

_____________________________________________________________________________

5) Hercules and Love Affair – Blind (DFA)

There isn’t really anything to say about this track that hasn’t been said. It’s on a lot of year end lists for a reason – its possibly the defining song for the latest epochal shift in dance music. I couln’t really get into the album like a lot of people obviously did (down to the fact that I much preferred the acid influenced Classique #2 and Roar released in 2007), but this song is incredible. Getting Frankie Knuckles to remix the track was inspired, but I feel that the Serge Santiago remix doesn’t get enough attention. His rework strips everything away apart from Antony’s vocal and rebuilds it as a 10 minute long tech house banger. It shouldn’t work, but it really does, mainly because Antony’s vocals on Blind are the vocal performance of the year.

_____________________________________________________________________________

4) Discodeine – Joystick (Dark & Lovely)

Managing to be both pop music and atonal all at once, Joystick starts off with an 80’s electro melody which gradually collapses as it gives way to the sonic beating it is given. Its curious shape is weighted heavily towards the beginning, and tapers off from half way through until the end, but without ever losing energy. This track is a joy to mix, making any track that follows it practically explode. Discodeine’s unique combination of disco, house and techno will not be to everyone’s taste, but Joystick is hard not to love. They have a new EP coming out in January, entitled Tom Select, it’s already on my must buy list for the new year.

____________________________________________________________________________

3) The Juan Maclean – Happy House (DFA)

I doubt there was a more euphoric moment in dance music this year than the moment the piano riff in this track drops. And the riff may be taken from Dubtribe Sound System’s “Do It Now”, but this track has The Juan Maclean written all over it. Managing to pack in disco, house and acid house into its 12 plus minutes, Happy House is blistering dance music. And it’s always going to be unenviable remixing a song this good, but it has to be said, that on this 12″, Prince Language and Lee Douglas do an amazing job. If The Juan Maclean doesn’t own 2009 with The Future Will Come, then I see that as conclusive proof that there is no God.

____________________________________________________________________________

2) Babytalk – Chance (Stickydisc Recordings)

Surprisingly, in a year when DFA has brought us more stellar releases than ever before, the best release from the DFA stable wasn’t actually released on DFA, but Stickydisc Recordings, label of Eric Broucek, a man who, as sound engineer for the DFA studios and a former member of The Juan Maclean’s touring band, has had his name on many DFA 12″ singles over the last few years. As Babytalk, he has made the most sublime piece of disco house of 2008. Chance is a dubbed out mid-tempo number with a plethora of abstract vintage synth sounds that compliment its wobbly melody perfectly, but it’s the disembodied vocals that really make it special, adding a spectral element that are more reminiscent of Black Devil Disco Club’s modern Italo than anything previously released on DFA. But where Black Devil Disco Club is obviously Italo inspired, Babytalk’s material is a lot more difficult to pin down. It’s not simply an American take on Italo disco like Chromatics or Glass Candy – Chance is something much more abstract. When I first heard this on Beats In Space I was convinced it was something much older, but the fact that it is not made me first of all amazed, and second, very happy, because it means that there will be more.

____________________________________________________________________________

1) Bostro Pesopeo – Falls EP (Permanent Vacation)

It’s rare that music this experimental is ever actually so completely visceral. There seems no way that sampling Gregorian chanting, a tuba, some honky tonk piano and a man sneezing, should cause anything except unbridled laughter or utter confusion. Everytime I hear “Falls” however, right at the halfway point where the track is stripped down to nothing, and the drop comes in the form of a sneeze, followed by the sound of breaking glass, I get shivers right down the back of my spine. It was the B-side, “Communiquis” that I heard first, in Aeroplane’s Resident Advisor mix back in the summer – it was the kind of track that took a while to filter through, but once it had, I was sure that the rest would be special. Nothing, however, prepared me for “Falls” – nothing released this year sounds anything like it, and this is my record of the year by a very, very long way.

____________________________________________________________________________

Bear in mind that this list should not be taken as the best – I haven’t listened to everything released this year, and these are simply my favourites from what I have heard. I am only including albums released this year, so Glass Candy’s Beatbox is not included, despite appearing on various other lists. Otherwise, this would be very high up.

10) Osborne – Osborne (Spectral Sound)

In the year that people asked “What Happened?” to techno, Osborne’s eponymous album for Ghostly’s sister imprint Spectral Sound reminds us of a time when techno was a state of mind rather than just another genre. An album that could so easily have been an exercise in pastiche, taking in almost all forms of house music in its hour plus running time absolutely oozes heart, and a genuine love for classic dance music. In an age where it seems a lot of young producers don’t really know the first thing about house’s origins, Osborne’s love letter to classic dance music is not just refreshing, it’s soul enriching.

________________________________________________________________________

9) Hatchback – Colors Of The Sun (Lo Recordings)

From start to finish this album is pure radiophonic sun-drenched beauty; a pure haze of synthesised bliss. If you need some light in these dreary times, this album will provide. Colors Of The Sun is filled with compositions that twist and turn, with chord progressions and melodies that never feel obvious. The emotions that this album evokes are not ones that are easy to describe, primarily because the moods are ever changing throughout. A synaesthesic marvel.

________________________________________________________________________

8) Gang Gang Dance -  Saint Dymphna (Warp)

A cavalcade of percussive jams and synthesised sound effects, this album manages to be the most effortlessly joyful listen of the year without succumbing to neon overload. I once saw Gang Gang Dance live on a somewhat lost night out, and was so utterly inspired by what I saw I was sure that they would one day make a new form of dance music, and this album could be the beginning.

________________________________________________________________________

7) Metronomy – Nights Out (Because)

Metronomy kind of passed me by until I heard “Heartbreaker” this summer, but Nights Out is the kind of album I want to gorge myself on repeatedly. The musical equivalent of eating a whole bag of Haribo in one go, Nights Out is by turns sweet, sour, and utterly addictive.

________________________________________________________________________

6) Kelley Polar – I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling (Environ)

This album may be too much for some people to handle, but is never any more cheesy than almost all of the lyrics on labelmate Morgan Geist’s solo album. An absolute triumph of OTT pop music which melds classical references in the lyrics with disco strings and the most theatrical vocal performance of the year.  And “Entropy Reigns” is one of the songs of the year, period.

________________________________________________________________________

5) Syclops – I’ve Got My Eye On You (DFA)

Much better than the relatively disappointing (in my opinion) Hercules and Love Affair, Maurice Fulton’s man behind the curtain affair for DFA melds jazz and house, and transforms them into strange and wonderful new forms. Abrasive, squealing acid plays off against light, airy atmospherics, creating an album that is as engrossing to listen to on headphones as to dance to in a club.

________________________________________________________________________

4) Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours (Modular)

In all honesty I was ready to be disappointed by this album – last year’s “Hearts On Fire” was so good that I didn’t see how the rest could live up to the high standard set by that track; but with the help of producer Tim Goldsworthy, Cut/Copy have created the “indie-dance” album. An album with all the euphoria that dance music is capable of mustering, together with a hazy psychedelic fuzz that envelops the listener into a warm bubble that you just don’t want to leave.

________________________________________________________________________

3) Lindstrom – Where You Go I Go Too (Smalltown Supersound)

The first track of this three track album is almost 30 minutes long, and not one of those minutes ever feels wasted. The album on this list that uses the form of the album to its fullest potential, using the opening 30 minutes of hypnotic rhythms and textures to induce a deep state of listening, racing almost imperceptably through “Grand Ideas” to “The Long Way Home”, a closing track which takes it’s time before hitting you with the melody the album has been spending almost 50 minutes building up to.

________________________________________________________________________

2) Quiet Village – Silent Movie (!K7)

I joked with my friends two years back that when the new rave fad had passed the inevitable trend to be given the “nu” treatment would probably be that of “chillout”, the late 90s blanket term given to any form of music meant to invoke a state of relaxation. Chillout is the kind of word that makes my skin crawl, so I am eternally grateful that Quiet Village’s Silent Movie has passed the NME by, otherwise we probably would have been forced to swallow a year’s worth of copycat shite. Of course Silent Movie is not a chillout album, nor balearic, nor disco – its the music between lost AM radio stations 30 years gone by – a music that exists in the transient space between nightmares and nostalgia, an album made even made more unbelievable by the fact that one half of Quiet Village is none other than Radioslave’s Matt Edwards.

________________________________________________________________________

1) M83 – Saturdays = Youth (Mute)

This album is just stunning. If you haven’t heard it, then do; its ethereal beauty will seep into your every pore, nourishing your soul. Unlike M83’s previous Before The Dawn Heals Us, this album manages to be sweet without ever being cloying; it’s grandiosity much more contained than its predecessor. Like Quiet Village’s Silent Movie, Saturdays = Youth aims for a kind of abstract nostalgia, (in this case 80s film soundtracks) and hits unimaginable heights.

________________________________________________________________________

My reason for doing this is simple – I thought I should put my money where my mouth was, as I often say “I could do better than that” when listening to the hundreds of entries that clog up such competitions. This, of course, and the substantial cash prize. This is something I have been considering for a while, but it was only a few weeks ago that the correct opportunity presented itself – the opportunity to remix “Ulysses”, the upcoming single from Franz Ferdinand’s third album. I really liked Franz Ferdinand back in the day, and although my tastes may have changed, I still have great love and respect for their material. Finally, this was the chance to enter a remix competition that would actually inspire me. My experience however, has been, to put it bluntly, utterly miserable.

I’m not going to debate the issue of whether contestants should be required to pay for the stems – personally I have no problem with paying a nominal fee – after all, you are still dealing with copyrighted material. Just because it is split into many pieces doesn’t mean that the ownership issue can be sidestepped. If an artist wants to charge for multitrack versions, then it is their right to do so, as long as the price is reasonable. I’m also not going to write a piece trashing my opposition. Although I may laugh (i.e. have laughed) at a trance remix of Franz Ferdinand, there are obviously a lot of people who are into trance music; but to them, I suppose my remix must sound like the Chucklevision theme tune. I can moan all I like about the hundred derivative Justice sound alikes, but to the vast numbers of people who want to hear that sound again and again, those will be getting their vote. These factors are a given. What I’m really pissed off about is the way these competitions, and specifically Beatport remix competitions, are operated.

This particular competition seems fair in the way that it has defined submissions and voting periods. There is no way for anyone to gain a clear lead until the voting starts. However, when the competition does reach the voting stage there is always something that unfairly tips everything towards the people at the top. The first thing I see when I go to the main page for the remix competition is the current leader. There are three pages of entries – probably about a hundred on each. I get bored after scrolling through five. I can also see the number of votes each entry has received. Aren’t conventional democratic processes conducted with a degree of secrecy? Furthermore, the lack of possibility for randomisation within the entries just keeps the poor unfortunates with no votes at the bottom.

Possibly the most disturbing aspect, however, is that the competition seems ludicrously easy to cheat on. One entrant, who I will not name, (simply browse through the comments on the top few entrants to find out who) has openly admitted to cheating within the comments pages of his entry. Last weekend, the number of votes for his entry leaped up to sixty votes, with comments being left minutes after each other, all from new accounts. The entrant did express remorse for his actions, and claimed that he had undone the fraudulent votes, and had asked for Beatport to remove him from the competition. However, this entry still remains in the running. This begs the question: is anybody actually running this competition? Is it even a competition at all?

The answer, (to the second question at least) is probably not. Of course there will be a winner, and their remix will be released, and success may follow, but the real winner is the record company, who own each and every remix and can use the best runners-up as free promotional tools to send to blogs throughout the world. As these remixes aren’t going to be commercially released anyway, there’s no risk of money being lost, and, as us poor entrants paid for the stems, we are literally paying Domino to market Franz Ferdinand. Of course these people will get their names flashed around a bit, which all goes towards to progressing your career, but none of this really fosters creativity. Reading through some of the comments it seems that the attitude towards remixing is often one of commercial viability rather than genuine experimentation. It paints a somewhat cynical picture of how a lot of aspiring producers view their creative process. I have heard remixes in this competition that have very few votes and are ten times more interesting than most at the top, but because the top remixes are more commercial, they are seen as better.

Even if I were to be lucky enough to be at the top, your remix will probably just attract the abuse of Beatport forum trolls who have little better to do with their time than belittle you in an attempt to shatter your already cracked confidence. Though a brilliant one-liner left by one user which read: “Justice called, they want their plug in back”, a comment which resides in those of the current leader, did leave me with a rather satisfying feeling of schadenfreude.

Even if I don’t win, which in all likelihood I probably won’t, I can at least take solace in the fact that I have had some genuinely encouraging comments from complete strangers (or, at least those that didn’t want me to vote for them). And this is perhaps the biggest surprise; if you take a step back, and stop viewing the whole thing as a competition, then remix competitions can be genuinely productive experiences. So a word of advice to anyone who is considering entering a remix competition – don’t do it if you want to win. Do it because you want to practice your production skills on some professional audio tracks, and because you need deadlines to work with to get anything finished. If you don’t go in with this attitude, you will find the experience little more than completely demoralising.

But even still, the prospect of a prize means that I must shamelessly prostrate myself in front of you for your support. I currently have 42 votes, and four days left to go. The leader has 151. That’s quite respectable, all things considered. It puts me in 22nd place out of hundreds. If you want to vote for me, you have until the end of Tuesday 9th December. You have to register with the site, log in, then “spin” my track in order to vote for it. You can find my entry here:

Download audio file (Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses (Urlaubshits’ Metamorphosis – Remix Competition Entry).mp3)

http://www.beatportal.com/remix/detail/ulysses-urlaubshits-metamorphosis/

Since Urlaubshits’ arrival on the Hype Machine a few months ago, things have been rosy – more visibility means more readers and more contacts – but the added visibility has made me consider my practice all the more. Blogging can become kind of addictive when you live for the traffic – a dangerous road to go down, especially when your standards begin to slip. Part of the reason behind the recent site redesign was to give things a bit more of a coherent framework, as I had felt that the lack of structure inherent in the traditional blog format was leading to posts being somewhere between informed and informal, an insipid middle ground that is a nightmare for a writer.

Producer and DJ Ewan Pearson talked about blogging recently in his column for Germany’s Groove magazine, (also here at his website) and made the argument that if bloggers were so good at writing then they shouldn’t need to post tracks to entice their readers, as the aim should be to describe the music well enough to make people want to go out and search for it. This is a view I completely agree with, but as a pragmatist, I have to accept that if I were to go down this route, I probably wouldn’t have any readers. The fact is that most bloggers are nobodies, and even the ones that are somebody are still several degrees below the people that really matter. The Hype Machine offers a way for bloggers to find their audiences. The MP3 is a carrot at the end of a stick, but in many cases if it weren’t for that carrot most people would have difficulty finding their readership. I think the issue should be whether the blogger is offering a single carrot, or a whole bag of carrots. Bloggers should be seriously asking themselves “why am I doing this?”. If it’s because you love writing, then write about the music. If writing isn’t your thing, then at least put some thought into what you’re posting rather than just uploading a 25 track megapost to increase your Hype Machine traffic. I have no problem with people using blogs to promote their own endeavors – it’s part of a democratization of music culture that previously could only have been dreamed of ten years ago, but the blog/artist relationship has to be symbiotic, not parasitic, otherwise we risk sucking the lifeblood out of our whole raison d’etre.

All blogs of course have a disclaimer, which is there because it makes us bloggers feel a bit better about ourselves, but that disclaimer is all too often a hollow gesture. That disclaimer is something of a white elephant for bloggers. It sits there, but is rarely ever questioned or discussed, and it often sits in place of any kind of real policy. MP3s are proclaimed as being for sampling purposes, but when the supposed sample is a 320kb MP3, where is the incentive to buy another version? The Hype Machine make it clear that to be included on their site, a blog “advocates responsible use of copyrighted material, includes buy links in the posts, does not post unauthorized works.” This is of course nonsense, as the majority of blogs on the internet posts unauthorized works (although “unauthorized works” is a rather ambiguous term), and there are certainly many blogs out there that do not use copyrighted material in a responsible manner. Explore the “Hottest Blogs” on the front page of the Hype Machine, and you will quite often find that these blogs have their place through sheer volume of tracks posted, or through the posting of the highest quality versions of the latest tracks. Is this really all that responsible?

This question of responsibility has been rattling around my brain for some months now. I have been struggling to work out how I can strike the right balance between being responsible, and not completely losing the passing trade from the Hype Machine that, whether I like it or not, I rely on to a degree. What I’ve come up with, I’m going to be completely up front about. Inspired by another Ewan Pearson Groove column, (picked up and expanded here to great effect by Philip Sherburne), in which he declares himself “The Supreme Overlord of Dance Decrees”, I have decided to come up with my own supreme decrees of blogging:

1) No MP3s of singles less than one year old will be posted for download without the express permission of the artist. These will be offered as streams only.
2) Uploading of new material is limited to single track mixes, which I will provide monthly, barring unforeseen circumstances.
3) Hosting of single track MP3 downloads will be limited to tracks from albums only, and only one track per post may be uploaded.
4) When posting these said album tracks, I will aim to post the track that I feel offers the most critical interest, rather than simply the track that I suspect may get me the most hits.
5) No MP3 download shall exceed 128kb in quality, without express permission.
6) I will never add unnecessarily MP3s to the end of blog items simply to increase my Hype Machine traffic.
7) No posting of Soulwax remixes.
8) No posting of unofficial remixes of Justice tracks.
9) No posting of tracks from leaked LCD Soundsystem albums.
10) No more “bloghouse”.

You can make of this what you will. I am in no way saying that all blogs should follow these decrees, as they are for myself, but it would be nice if bloggers were a little more conscientious about what they posted, and were maybe a little more transparent about their practices.

It may seem like MP3 blogging is something that is now widely condoned by the record industry. In some cases it is, but in a lot of cases it isn’t. Us bloggers don’t really have anyone to answer to apart from ourselves. It’s up to us to keep ourselves in check, and lead by our own example.

What do you think? Is my manifesto an improvement? Is is more ethical? Am I talking out of my rear end? Are there any bloggers out there who want to respond? Let me know. The gloves are officially off…