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It’s that time of the year again, 2011 is coming to a close and the STHoldings staff members gather together to discuss their Top 3 tracks of the year (not as an easy task as i’m sure you can imagine)…
Here’s last year’s picks as we’re in the mood to reminisce.
So that’s another year almost done and with it come the inevitable top this, top that lists. Here are details of howSTHoldings distributed labels/artists featured in the end of year lists from around the web.
22. Peverelist - Dance Til the Police Come [Hessle Audio]
Jungle-inspired-swinging post-dubstep—or in other words, a Bristol-based genius at the top of his game.
19. Scuba - Adrenalin [Hotflush]
A lot of 2011′s big tracks inspired as much bickering as they did dancefloor mayhem, and Scuba’s only single under his usual moniker was no different. Following in his new, looser, and housier direction, “Adrenalin” is eight minutes of rigid repetition, incessantly catchy basslines and a strobing vocal sample. But the song’s lopsided progression is the important part, because three minutes in it melts away into one of the year’s most decadent breakdowns, several minutes of building synth washes and whooshes that unashamedly ascend to the highest of the gurning trance heavens. The song’s title might imply a certain energy, but we all know there’s a different chemical driving this one.
17. Pangaea - Hex [Hemlock]
Pangaea’s “Hex” was perfectly fine for the first 86 seconds. Pretty swell even. A bit of rhythmic trickery, a nice organic bed for it all to sit on. Then there was this: “Buh buh buh buh buh buh buh buh buh kut buh buh buh buh buh buh buh buh buh kut be booooooooooooy be boooooOOOOOOOoy.” It was at that moment that “Hex” became one of the most exciting songs we’d heard all year. That Kevin McAuley had further tricks up his sleeve later on is icing on the cake of course, but it’s also why we kept coming back to it throughout the year.
10. Unknown Artist - Sicko Cell [Swamp 81]
Be honest: When you finally heard “Sicko Cell” in full, you were a little bit underwhelmed. (If you even bothered to track it down at all.) There’s not much to say about the rhythm. There’s hardly a drop. Even the melody—if you can call the atmospheres a full-fledged melody—don’t inspire much poetry. There is a vocal, though. Perhaps you remember? It’s the one about cocaine powder. The one that drove you mad in a club this year trying to figure out where it was from. The one that Loefah, Oneman and others couldn’t stop playing. The one that landed this tune in our top 10 tracks of the year.
01. Blawan - Getting Me Down [White Label]
The whole story behind “Getting Me Down” is a bit corny really. I went out on New Years Eve—like everyone else does, and I did the whole thing, had a good time, left quite early and came back home and kind of just sat at my computer all night/morning. I had these disco loops I had been working on that I wasn’t really doing much with, and I started messing around with the a cappella and then something just clicked. I did it in about four hours and kind of forgot about it.
This one dropped off the radar for me a little bit, because I actually thought it was one of the weirder things I had written. I never really grasped the catchy vocal properly until I put it into context. A few guys said, “Yeah, I really like that tune,” but nothing more than anything else I sent before. The first person to get anything from me is usually Ben UFO. Ben gave it the first play on Rinse FM, and somebody then ripped it from the radio stream and uploaded it to YouTube—something that seems happen all the time now. That played an integral part of getting the tune in people’s heads really.
I’d been playing the tune out a lot, and it had got an OK reaction. I mean, I had always thought of it as filler for a set anyway. But once the YouTube clip was up, a lot of people in clubs knew what it was, even though it was only three or so weeks after I had finished making it. It’s really strange how things move so fast.
19. Instra:mental - Resolution 653 [NonPlus+]
The problem with Instra:mental? They release too much good music. “Problem” is the wrong word, but such has been the standard of Alex Green and Damon Kirkham’s output these past couple of years it’s become tough to ruminate on each new offering in isolation, fully appreciating the true extent of its merits. They’ve spoilt us, basically—and none more so than on their debut album, Resolution 653. Barely pausing for a fag break across its 13 tracks, the pair coaxed jaw-clenching amounts of warmth and grit out of their machines, coming off like the natural heirs to Drexciya’s electro throne.
20. Various Artists - Mosaic Vol. 1 [Exit]
A lot of the tunes on Mosaic were earmarked as singles for Exit. But it became really clear that I wasn’t going to have the schedule to get everything out, so a compilation seemed like a good idea. In the same way as the [Autonomic] podcast, putting this music together served as a platform for people to get their heads around it. If the tracks are all in dribs and drabs it sort of goes unnoticed. I think compilations and the podcast kind of helped identify this group of artists producing this music. I suppose that’s where the title Autonomic came from. It’s funny that it became a genre name sort of, because that was never the intent.
- dBridge
14. Various Artists - Back & 4th [Hotflush]
I wasn’t directly involved in the process of choosing tracks for Back & 4th, but the goal was to present a gradual evolution of the label’s sound over the last few years. It was also an opportunity to bring in a few newcomers who provided a clear manifestation of that same evolution, with Roska, Boddika, dBridge, and FaltyDL adding their own flavors to the mix. I was also glad that Scuba picked up my own track, “Axis.” It’s the first one I made that I was really satisfied with. My favorite track on the compilation, though, was Boxcutter’s “LOADtime.” He’s always been really inspiring to me, as a veteran producer whose talent and skill really set him apart. – Incyde, Label Manager
10. Various Artists - 116 & Rising [Hessle Audio]
We had the idea for the compilation at the end of 2010 and started putting the wheels in motion soon after that. We approached some people we hadn’t worked with before as well as asking those we had if they were interested in the concept too. Luckily for us, everybody was. In terms of the name, the three of us were on the train coming back from our distributors after talking about the project, thinking of titles. I’d been re-listening to Experience by the Prodigy a week or two earlier and one of the tracks on there is called “Everybody in the Place (155 & Rising).” So 116 & Rising (referring to the BPM of the slowest track in the comp) is a bit of a joke, but at the same time summarises the project and a lot of what we’re about nicely.
- Pangaea
20. NonPlus+
Nonplus+ heads Alex Green and Damon Kirkham simply claim to release what they like—no matter the genre. That’s what everyone says…until the distributor steps in. Luckily for us, Green and Kirkham didn’t get the memo, and spent the year reaffirming their pan-genre approach by putting Actress’ blurry electronica next to Lowtec’s tired house, and Boddika’s breezin’ electro up against the Neil Landstrumm and JD Twitch collab Salsa Apocalypso. Add Instra:mental’s own brutal and beautiful Resolution 653 to the mix, and you have yourself a wonderful and confusing year
19. Idle Hands
Saunter down Stokes Croft in Bristol with some cash in your pocket and you’ll likely end up trawling the racks of Idle Hands. The label of the same name was started up in 2009 while Chris Farrell was still employed a bit further up the street by the erstwhile Rooted Records. Much like the stock in both these stores, the label hasn’t been wedded to any one genre. In 2011 that’s meant an impeccable string of singles from artists like AnD, Kowton, Kevin McPhee, Szare and Outboxx which have run the gamut between charcoal techno and jazzy house.
05. Hotflush
With a hefty label compilation occupying the first quarter of the year and a busy 2010 behind him, it could have been a year of consolidation for Scuba’s Hotflush. Instead, the imprint pushed forward with new talents George FitzGerald, Braille) and old Paul Woolford & Psycatron). Looking over the names that released on Hotflush in retrospect, and things seem obvious. (Err… of course Sepalcure and Sigha go together!) But it speaks to the platform that Scuba has created that artists from house, techno and bass music even think to send him tracks—and that he finds a way to work all of them into his DJ sets.
94. Sepalcure “Pencil Pimp” [Hotflush]
As Sepalcure, Travis Stewart and Praveen Sharma slid in right before the whistle to remind us that electronic music devices can do more than evocatively sputter and fritz. “Pencil Pimp” whirls on a machine-lathed spindle of Chicago footwork, capturing a feeling of curtailed tension and lurking danger with its soulful vocal clips and warm synth pads. There are no gestures of rebellion or subversion, only an argument for well-made music at a time when it might seem besieged. “Pencil Pimp” demonstrates why we feel so comfortable breaking the mold: We know someone will come along who feels passionate enough to cast it again, tempered even stronger. –Brian Howe
86. Blawan “Getting Me Down” [self-released]
Blawan first drew attention with tracks that wielded wild drums like a toddler banging on household objects, but his most powerful moment this year came when he reined in those tendencies for a straightforward house thumper. A lot of the impact in “Getting Me Down” comes fromthat Brandy vocal, squeezed and wedged into a galloping beat that recontextualizes the R&B slow-jam original as a sugary, hyped-up rush that’s dangerously contagious. Released discreetly after months of dubplate domination, the track’s landing was titanic: it was impossible to walk around record stores in London in May without hearing it blaring from speakers, or go to a club night without it being rinsed at least once. For the first half of the year, “Getting Me Down” was an event, and listening back to it at year’s end, it’s easy to see why. So few tracks combined candyfloss rave, UK garage hysteria, and dubby dread (check the growling basslines) into something that sounded so universal yet so subversive, helping to kick off a new impulse in the bass music world that was all about house. –Andrew Ryce
47. Sepalcure ‘Sepalcure’ [Hotflush]
In an interview with The Guardian last month, Hotflush boss Scuba named “Outside”, the closing song from bass music duo Sepalcure’s self-titled debut LP, as the song he would want to open his next DJ set with. It’s a strange choice for a set opener– “Outside” is beatless, essentially four minutes of drone and clipped voices– but then again, not much about Sepalcure makes sense in the constant forward-thinking climate of bass music circa 2011. As an album, it doesn’t really do anything new, and a few of the signifiers that Travis Stewart and Praveen Sharma plunder onSepalcure were, to some, reaching their expiration dates– specifically, the use of pitched vocals that Stewart liberally splayed on his album this year as Machinedrum, Room(s). Part of what makes Sepalcure such a deeply enjoyable listen is how familiar it all is, pogoing between juke-derived textures, IDM’s click-clack machinery, misty pastoral ambience, and house music’s 4/4 insistence while weaving a web of shivering romance that still manages to move bodies. Above all else, Sepalcure offers a necessary reminder that, yeah, change is good, but elegant, refined perfection also has its place. –Larry Fitzmaurice
47: PAUL WOOLFORD & PSYCATRON ‘STOLEN’ (HOTFLUSH)
Almost five years on from ‘Erotic Discourse’, someone, somewhere did 2011 a massive favour and relit the fire under Paul Woolford’s arse, prompting the Leeds veteran to roll back the years and deliver some of his all-time best material. ‘Razor Blade’ and his remix of T. Williams and Terri Walker’s ‘Heartbeat’ were sublime, but this colossal collaboration with Psycatron on Hotflush simply took the biscuit.
40: OLD APPARATUS SIDE A PART 1 (DEEP MEDI)
Old Apparatus’s mysterious debut – 20 minutes of music spread across two untitled sides of vinyl – is something we recommend enjoying as a whole, but there’s no doubt that the first distinct movement of the A-side packs the fiercest punch. It sounds like UK garage gone industrial, its perfectly swung rhythm riven by distortion and an overloaded darkside bassline. The end, it suggests, is very much nigh.
39: TEETH ‘SHAWTY’ (502 RECORDINGS)
Smoked-out drum machine pop from Helsinki’s TEETH that suited 502′s darkroom aesthetic (see also: Jay Weed, Fis-T) to a tee.
24: KAHN ‘LIKE WE USED TO’ (PUNCH DRUNK)
Kahn’s beautifully crafted debut single bowled us over, with its vocals chopped into the syllables of pure energy and longing – “feminine pressure” writ large – and strapped to the most lithe and undeniable dubstep rhythm we heard all year.
20: BLAWAN ‘GETTING ME DOWN’ (WHITE LABEL)
This year, Blawan expanded on the promise of his 2010 debut single ‘Fram’ to become one of the UK’s most in-demand, and refreshingly, heaviest producers, proving that you can still go hard in the paint without resorting to dubstep or electro-house cliches. He showed off his lighter touch, however, on this vinyl only edit of Brandy’s ‘Wanna Be Down’; it’s still his finest track to date.
17: PANGAEA ‘WON’T HURT’ (HESSLE AUDIO)
Pretty much everything Pangaea touches turns to gold, but nothing gleamed so bright in 2011 as ‘Won’t Hurt’ – a rude-as-all-fuck but masterfully honed onslaught of scything synths, choppy drums and outrageous sub-bass.
13: UNKNOWN ARTIST ‘SICKO CELL’ (SWAMP81)
I’m the information… co-caine powder. Say no more.
07: ROCKWELL ‘ARIA’ (CRITICAL AUDIO)
The most atmospheric, emotive and dynamic drum’n’bass track of the year, and an instant classic – wrought out of fierce, fanatically detailed drum programming, ghost-traces of This Mortal Coil’s ‘Song To The Siren’ and impeccably timed, gut-skewering bass stabs.
42: 2562 FEVER (WHEN IN DOUBT)
Fever is a concept album with a very simple but rigorous set of rules – every nuance and texture is half-inched from disco records produced from the mid 70’s to the early 80’s, with producer Dave Huismans’ own birth year of 1979 acting as a temporal pivot. The results don’t sound like disco at all – beyond a certain joyous, celebratory quality – but rather a new kind of dance music; dynamic, shapeshifting and irrepressible.
5. Hotflush
If you’re wondering why we think Hotflush is one of the best labels of the year, then you are not reading XLR8R enough. Let’s start with the obvious reasons: Sepalcure’s debut full-length topped Hotflush’s year off with a stunning display of dense post-dubstep, George FitzGerald dropped two more solid singles of R&B-infused garage, and label head Paul Rose (a.k.a. Scuba) unleashed one of 2011′s biggest tunes, “Adrenalin.” Meanwhile, Praveen Sharma of Sepalcure dropped four tracks of luscious, rolling garage with his A Meaning EP as Braille and Lando Kal stepped outside his usual role as the taller half of Lazer Sword long enough to deliver two of his most impressive solo cuts to date, “Further” and “Time Out.” Big, soulful tunes, consistently top-notch output, and a proven ability to not only shift within the ever-moving bass-music scene, but, more importantly, the power to influence it, made Hotflush a force yet again in 2011. Glenn Jackson
4. SWAMP81
Second acts can be hard to come by in electronic music, particularly in the lightning-quick environs of London’s hardcore continuum, but DMZ co-founder Loefah doesn’t seem to be having much of a problem with it. Since founding the SWAMP81 imprint in 2009, he’s quickly assembled a roster that functions as a sort of all-star team for upfront, low-end-heavy sounds. After serving up massive tunes like Addison Groove’s “Footcrab” and Ramadanman’s “Work Them” in 2010, the vinyl-only label stepped it up even further in 2011, dropping releases from FaltyDL, Zed Bias (both solo and as one-half of the Funkbias collaboration with Funk Butcher), and another single from Addison Groove. SWAMP81 was also home to records from Boddika—establishing him as a solo artist and one of the year’s biggest producers. Perhaps most notably, the label (eventually) released “Sicko Cell,” one of 2011′s most anticipated tunes. (The song may not have quite lived up to the hype, but it did snag the #13 slot on our countdown of the year’s best tracks.) Even as folks begin to wonder about the state of so-called bass music and attempt to figure out exactly where it’s heading, there appears to be no shortage of quality music coming from the SWAMP81 camp. Shawn Reynaldo
47. Boddika “2727″ (SWAMP81)
Even in a year when Instra:mental, the duo he’s been a part of for more than a decade, released a widely acclaimed and sonically adventurous new album, the ascent of Boddika as a solo artist could not be stopped. Tracks like “2727″—with its thunderous drums, acid lines, and unapologetically raw aesthetic—are the reason why. Shawn Reynaldo
46. French Fries ”Champagne” (ClekClekBoom)
Legend has it that Claude VonStroke wanted to sign “Champagne” to his Dirtybird label, but young French producer French Fries politely declined and kept the tune for his own ClekClekBoom imprint. True or not, it’s quite the story, not that this tune, which uses white space as effectively as it employs snappy drums and eerie synths, needed much help finding its way into DJs’ playlists. Shawn Reynaldo
44. Sepalcure ”Pencil Pimp” (Hotflush) Sepalcure seems to compose bass music on the most loose, yet subtle terms, and the pair’s unique perspective on the genre has continued to yield stellar results. Somehow both tribal and smooth in the same breath, “Pencil Pimp” immediately stood out during the course of the duo’s debut LP, mostly due to the sheer weight infused into its post-happy sound—think Mount Kimbie with slightly bigger balls (and maybe some more drugs in the mix). Glenn Jackson
43. Blawan ”Getting Me Down”
Sampling generously from Brandy’s “I Wanna Be Down” is kind of a no-brainer (whether or not you’re willing to admit it, we all loved that song), but Blawan did much more than simply edit Brandy’s half-forgotten hit—he propelled it into the club of some distant planet with monstrous percussion and whatever the hell that reverse low-end sound is. Wherever it comes from, it’s strange, unnerving, and just about perfect. Glenn Jackson
26. Instra:Mental “When I Dip” (NonPlus)
2011 found veteran UK duo Instra:mental completing a very large left turn, essentially abandoning drum & bass for old-school electro, heavy low-end, and lots of 808 drum sounds. Ahead of the acclaimed Resolution 653, the pair dropped “When I Dip,” an undeniable tune that also folds some Southern-style booty bass into the outfit’s new sonic formula. It proved to be quite the effective opening salvo, both for Instra:mental’s re-emergence and Boddika’s big year as a solo artist. Shawn Reynaldo
24. Julio Bashmore “Ribble to Amazon” (3024)
There’s a line somewhere between soulful, UK-style house and anthemic, almost cheesy, bangers that can be dangerous. However, when walked just right, that line is perfect for the dancefloor. Julio Bashmore knows exactly how to walk it, and “Ribble to Amazon” is one of his finest journeys on that limb—the pads are warm, the vocals are just right, and those breakdowns are too good to be true. Glenn Jackson
18. Teeth ”Shawty” (502)
Like many selections on Oneman’s 502 imprint, there’s not a whole lot to “Shawty.” Listening to the song, it quickly becomes apparent just how much space there is in the production, a factor that’s just as important as any of the actual sonic elements being put to use. That said, each of those elements is just about perfect. Utilizing low-slung drum beats, haunting synth melodies, and a sultry vocal sample, Finnish producer Teeth not only put himself on the bass-music map, he also created one of the year’s most memorable tunes. Shawn Reynaldo
13. Unknown ”Sicko Cell” (SWAMP81)
It’s amazing that when “Sicko Cell”—undoubtedly the most hyped tune of the year—was finally released in late July, the world was essentially already over it. In a world where anticipation grows exponentially online and DJs are mastering YouTube rips in order to play the latest tune, especially one created “anonymously” (it’s an open secret that Joy Orbison produced the track) and only passed along to a select few, “Sicko Cell” simply ran out of steam. Nevertheless, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a monster of a club track. With a stripped-down aesthetic and eerie vibe, the song is rather similar to Teeth’s “Shawty,” but the twisted, Burial-esque vocal samples put “Sicko Cell” over the top. Shawn Reynaldo
3. Scuba “Adrenalin” (Hotflush) Scuba made a trance song. (Polite company might refer to it as progressive house, but we’re going to call a spade a spade.) On the heels of “Loss,” which he released earlier in the earlier under his SCB moniker (and already nabbed #41 on this list), it was apparent that Paul Rose was interested in exploring new sound palettes, but something this, well, epic was not really expected. While the notion of one of the most influential and boundary-pushing dubstep producers of the past decade making a tune that Sasha would play (yes, that happened) sounds like some kind of nightmare on the surface, it doesn’t change the fact that “Adrenalin” is not only an excellent track, but also a production that completely resets exactly what it is that Scuba is all about. Containing one grandiose and ethereal breakdown—not to mention a series of smaller ups and downs along the way—”Adrenalin” certainly plays to the dancefloor, particularly dancers looking to lose their shit once the beat comes back in and the song’s chunky bassline takes hold. The synths are washy and warm, the sounds employed are impeccably clean, and yes, the track is absolutely, undeniably a bit cheesy. It’s also eight of the most enjoyable minutes of music we heard all year (more or less on repeat, to be honest), and we can’t wait to hear what Scuba comes up with next. Shawn Reynaldo
James Blake (Hessle Audio / R&S / Hemlock / Brain Math)
Now as we sit on the cusp of the next year, Blake is on the brink of a massive, mainstream crossover. From a bold series of singles reconfiguring R&B’s electronic mainframe, with a sound trapped in a liquid, pop sensibility, this precocious talent is set to plug subversion into the charts of 2011. Following from his role as spearhead of the brilliantly rejuvenated R and S, James now sits on a major label album that could see him as one of the most important voices in 2011…
Roska (Roska Kicks & Snares)
It’s a safe bet that if you’ve visited a club in 2010 you will have heard his name. That instantly recognisable Roska, Roska, Roska! mantra aside, Roska has had a sweltering annum. Issuing a slew of highest-grade singles, Rinse recordings soon gathered some of this abundantly busy producer’s best cuts for a debut album in spring of this year, to rapturous acclaim.
Mount Kimbie “Crooks and Lovers” Hotflush Recordings (HFCD004 / HFLP004)
The arrival of Crooks & Lovers pre-empted an almost guaranteed spot in many blogger’s/journo’s/store’s end-of-year charts this year – and deservedly so. Breathing more life into the current, fertile post-dubstep sound, Mount Kimbie have firmed their reputation as innovator’s of the current musical zeitgeist – lest we forget how instrumental they were in James Blake’s uprising. With the greatest of ease, the duo have joined the dots between fidgety pop, neon R&B rhythm and futuristic dancefloor dynamism. Peerless.
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Scuba “Triangulation” Hotflush Recordings (HFLP003 / HFCD003)
Earth shattering full length release from Hotflush owner Paul Rose/ Scuba, bound to be vaunted as one of the key releases in 2010, of any genre. With good reason, Triangulation so boldly defies the generic tag, so skilfully has Rose mastered a wealth of electronic musics into a forever changing texture-map. A sound that is built on the click and snap of dustep but welded to the rhythmic pulse of Teutonic techno, sultry deep house funktions, rich Kosmische atmospheres and moody garage-industrial gloom. Much like the other significant Brit-Bass-exile in Berlin, Sam Shackleton, Rose has built up a unique tonal palette all of his own, one for the brain and the floor. Spectacular.
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8 Ramadanman “Work Them” Swamp 81 (SWAMP006)
Everything Ramadanman touches at the moment invariably becomes a must have for DJs, be it a remix – his Burial beating Woon effort for example – or original production. His ubiquitous anthem “Work Them”, released on Loefah’s Swamp 81 imprint, was the best of the lot.
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2 James Blake “CMYK” R&S (RS1003)
In a year that has ended with Blake among the nominations for the BBC Sound Of 2011, it was perhaps “CMYK” that offered the truest indication of his potential. A signature for his futuristic vision of R&B further, sampling Kelis and Aaliyah and mangling them beautifully over a melancholy and glitchy beat.
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7 Mount Kimbie “Crooks & Lovers” Hotflush Recordings (HFCD004 / HFLP004)
Released on Scuba’s influential Hotflush imprint, Crooks & Lovers is an aural delight from start to finish. Both Dom and Kai have been at pains to insist their sound is not dubstep per se – and although this is true, it’s equally apparent that they wouldn’t exist in their current form without having the genre as a base from which to explore their own sonic terrain. From the trademark vocal snatches and playful bleeps of “Would Know” to the twangy guitar line and wonderfully chopped vocal melody on “Before I Move Off”, Crooks & Lovers is as fine an exploration of the post-dubstep world as you’re ever likely to hear. The duo create an atmosphere in which every sound matters, with sparse instrumentation, warm pads and typically delicate vocal refrains. There are highlights aplenty, but the melodic flourish of “Carbonated”, which is just so damn warm and fuzzy it’s ridiculous, stands as one of the finer moments – it’s like dubstep meets R&B meets The xx. A lone snare and sombre guitar brings the album to a thoughtful, beatless close with “Between Time”.
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Rockwell “Reverse Engineerring” b/w “Everything (& U)” Darkestral (LARTSEKRAD)
A hugely devisive release but one worthy of praise none the less. Reverse engineering is unlike anything else you will hear in d&b and while it is simply reveresed samples, it shows creativity and originality in abundance and is testamnent to Rockwell’s production prowess. The b side, everything (& u), is a beautiful counterpoint to the a side and goes to prove that the man has many strings to his bow. Aside from the music the design and packaging of the release is also second to none making this a worthy winner.
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Honourable Mention: Seba – Never Let You Go b/w “This Is Our House” Warm Communications
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Album Of The Year – Winner:
Sabre “A Wandering Journal” Critical (CRITLP04 / CRITCD04)
Breathtaking in its scope and cinematic in its execution, this is an album in the true sense of the word which is a rarity in drum & bass. In fact, it really moves beyond being a ‘drum & bass’ album, rather falling more within the broader realms of electronica. A true tour de force.
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Honourable Mention: ASC “Nothing Is Certain” NonPlus+
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Breakthrough Act – Winner:
Ulterior Motive
OK, so they kind of started making a name for themselves at the tail end of 2009 but 2010 has really see them take off and they are certainly now part of the d&b production elite, almost single-handedly bringing about a revical in the tech/neuro style a la Ed Rush & Optical circa the Wormhole era. While getting excitied over the fact that music sounds like it used to 10-12 years ago can be seen as a damning indictement on the state of the music today, if there’s one era that it would have been good to bring back it was this one, so props to the boys from Bournemouth for doing it so well.
Best Label – Winner:
Critical Music
A wonderfully diverse collection music has been released on critical this year from the abstract vibes of rockwell, through the straight up dancefloor of S.P.Y, Bladrunner and Break, to the minimalism of stray and the soulful ‘Redlines’ from Total Science and Riya, it has covered all bases. Whilst many labels claim to be diverse few are, and critical is showing them how it should be done.
45. Elgato: “Tonight / Blue” Hessle Audio (HES015)
Both “Tonight” and “Blue” look to add something new to an area we already know only too well. “Tonight” is the funkiest track of the two, sounding most like Lil’ Silva, Don Daneeka and DVA, although towards the end Elgato adds a luminous detail –as if Joy Orbison helped him out a bit– that frees him of the tyranny of the formula. Much more open and emotional is “Blue”, which uses female vocals, cut-up and passionate, as if they were love sighs. This is one of those 12”s that doesn’t change the rules, but does make your life better. CTH
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44. V.I.V.E.K.: “Feel It” Deep Medi Musik (MEDI029)
“Feel It” sounds like a galactic thriller in Arabia, like Pakistani colonisation of far away planets, like the record Digital Mystikz never recorded for Skull Disco. It doesn’t belong to the present. It’s a dubstep work from a parallel universe, an examples of how the genre would have sounded if, instead of evolving towards pop, ambient or house, it would have evolved towards itself, towards it’s stomach and heart. An incredibly intense experience in four cuts on thick vinyl that take up 45 minutes, more with the bonus CD mix that comes with the record. Records like these fill you up until you overflow. JB
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42. Becoming Real: “Fast Motion” Ramp Recordings (RAMP034)
The aesthetic foundation of Becoming Real’s music (Toby Ridler for those who aren’t keen on his alias) might just make him one of the key acts of 2010. He doesn’t actually invent anything new, but he does redefine the abstract beat with geometrical variations that manage to sound original and daring in the moment. As if it were an English adaptation of the Scandinavian sound skweee, with its rhythmic cubism and feet deep in funk, up to its waist in hip-hop rhythms and with hands dictating original schizoid melodies from a primitive videogame, Becoming Real does everything possible to be the slow, polite and enveloping counterpart of his fellow Englishman and label partner, Zomby. JB
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35. Kowton: “Basic Music Knowledge” Idle Hands (IDLE003)
England was becoming too small for Joe Cowton, and cramped with curiosity he began looking beyond the present nightlife scene to the past. He looked towards Detroit, scrutinising the long notes that could be the basis for a simple line that carried the signature of Kenny Larkin. He looked especially to the cities of Bristol and London, to Kirk DeGiorgio, The Black Dog, linking the hazy post-Burial dubstep with primitive intelligent techno of labels like Irdial with added amendments to his sound. “Basic Music Knowledge” is techno-soul, or a mixture of G-Man and Michael Jackson with an arrhythmic drum pattern that could have been signed to Pangaea, while “Hunger” is the result of the unlikely intercourse between Sleeparchive and Untold. CTH
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28. Sepalcure: “Love Pressure” Hotflush Recordings (HF025)
Joy Orbison ruled last year and 2010 is shaping to be the year were he consolidates his fame and influence. The pneumatic basslines, vocals filled with desirous samples taken from old garage records, breaks covered by dense fog: Sepalcure is a direct consequence of the London wunderkid sound and it would be silly not to acknowledge this bloodline. “Love Pressure EP” casts a House shadow over a dubstep drawing á la Burial and sounds like the appendix of such a recent and irrefutable classic as “Hyph Mngo”. JB
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26. Jamie Woon: “Night Air” Candent Songs (CDNT001)
The good thing about Woon is that his expressive register doesn’t need to go back to blues-rock or sixties singer-songwriters, and that he can base his songwriting on the experiences and sensations of contemporary London, more open to the future, and he doesn’t shy away from technology. His guitar is always connected to an EFX rack, he doesn’t reject electronica in spite of parting from a kind of song that suffers from the weight of history (check out the credits: the track is co-produced by William Bevan – sound familiar?). In any case, and like what happened to “Wayfaring Stranger” a while ago, with “Night Air” Woon does enough to dazzle and offer comfort on a song that demonstrates his potential as a composer and performer. RE
17. Illum Sphere: “Titan EP” 3024 (3024008)
This maxi-single has nothing to do with the fusion of dubstep and liquid techno from the Chain Reaction school, but by replacing the dubstep with abstract hip-hop beats and the deep liquidity by viscosity of muddy pads, it’s as if they were taken from an obscure record of Detroit techno. Therefore, in “Go Killum” the rhythm limps and winds chasing long orbit comets and “Technopolis” offers three minutes of floating calm only disturbed by dry hits as those produced by a person knocking at the door. Wonky is increasingly infiltrating post-Detroit sonic mechanics and it should be welcomed. JB
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11. Shackleton: “Man On A String Part 1 & 2” Woe To The Septic Heart! (SEPTIC1)
The ten hypnotic and terrifying minutes of “Man On A String Part 1 & 2” are the ones that place Shackleton and his new adventure amongst the high points of electronica in 2010. More than a production, it’s a labyrinth outlined with the patience of Daedalus and full of traps. It’s audio in which one loses and finds oneself, ending up confused, dizzy and fascinated by the complexity of the voyage and the route. It’s dark post-dubstep with the rhythmic richness of drum’n’bass with deflated tyres, in which baroque style and nervous tension rule. A work of art that has a competent reverse in the form of “Bastard Spirit”, an outburst of violent techno, icy, that only makes us want more and more. JB
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10. Pariah: “Safehouses EP” R&S Recordings (RS1005)
Pariah, the moniker of young Arthur Cayzer, was originally one of the first to continue the Burial sound. Then “Detroit Falls / Orpheus” (R&S, 2010), his first official release, appeared and things didn’t seem so similar anymore. He had developed towards Detroit techno, expansive and serene like in a flight towards the stars by Kenny Larkin. So Pariah has moved away from Burial and become closer to (for example) Actress, and just so that no-one will ever go on about his influences again –as if that were a bad thing– “Safehouses EP” is a titanic effort to be himself, for once. Pariah, in his own voice. JB Back in stock soon.
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1. James Blake: “Klavierweke” / “CMYK” R&S Recordings (RS1003)
We shouldn’t we take things out of context and exaggerate with statements like “Blake is reinventing music,” because he isn’t reinventing, he’s just adding ingredients that used to work separately until now –but it is undeniable that his efforts to crystallise a palette of textures of academic music in his off-club electronica have finally morphed into a spectacular result. The post-garage location of “CMYK EP” is already history. James Blake has turned his back on the club –he was the one who, in an act of coherence, declared that he would prefer for people to be moved while listening to his productions rather than dancing to them; his ideal dance floor is a slow, introspective one, with the audience on the verge of tears, the opposite of enthusiastic celebration. As a second act of coherence, he has put all of his home-listening obsessions into “Klavierwerke EP”. His progression has been meteoric and his maturity earned in less than a year. For a DJ, this plastic is an invitation to suicide: it can only be played when no one is around, or when everyone has to go. Burial is, of course, an inevitable reference point for James Blake: a title like “I Only Know (What I Know Now)” should be understood as a progression from the paralysing ecstasy of “Shell of Light”, with the adornment of a piano that seems like the introduction to a Chopin nocturne, and voices that could be the old divas of soul and opera –with the static noise made by the needle on the record player– with the pitch going up and down to create that irresistible effect somewhere between angelic voices and psychophony. And all of this in only 16 minutes. What will happen when he decides to release the album? JB
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18. Punch Drunk
Classicist and futuristic at the same time, Punch Drunk is perhaps one of the most productively conflicted labels in the dubstep sphere. While label boss Peverelist’s simple synth riffs are undeniable, his complicated rhythms evoke IDM giants past. And then there’s the unabashedly pop-leaning full-length from Guido rubbing shoulders with the hissing collages of Ekoplekz where the beat is nowhere to be found. There were few labels with two more dissimilar releases this year…which is just one of the reasons we love them.
17. Swamp 81
Love it or hate it, Addison Groove’s “Footcrab” was among the year’s most indelible tunes, a track that once again reaffirmed UK bass music as one of the most malleable and open-minded scenes in the music world. DMZ’s Loefah is already a legend in these circles, but the excellent run of releases in 2010 from artists like Ramadanman, Skream, Kryptic Minds and more on his Swamp 81 imprint only cemented his place as one of its most important figures.
09. NonPlus+
Our first label of the month in 2010 didn’t do much aside from reshape the landscape of drum & bass. Maybe that’s enough. Whether it was pushing the dulcet tones of ASC’s Autonomically-inclined Nothing Is Certain or coaxing skittering IDM from Kassem Mosse, the only constant in NonPlus+’s sound seemed to be warm pads. (And even those sometimes deserted us.) Drum & bass’ appeal used to lie in its ability to constantly surprise. There was no label more consistently able to do so in that sphere in 2010 than this one.
06. Hotflush
Few labels in recent times have been afforded as many pixels as Hotflush, but Scuba’s brainchild continues to deserve such accolades. The DJ/producer brought the prep school dubstep of Mount Kimbie to the wider world as well as his own long-awaited second full-length, but, as always, you can’t help but look to the future. Is a Sepalcure album in the works? Where does Sigha fit into all of this? 2011 can’t come soon enough.
04. Hessle Audio
“Hessle Audio releases electronic music full of sub bass around 140 BPM” is how the label’s description reads on RA at the time of this writing, and it seems about as apt as anything. Ramadanman’s EP, James Blake’s The Bells Sketch, Pearson Sound’s Blanked, Panagea’s EP. Yep. All right around 140 BPM. But it’d be impossible to say that any of it sounded much alike. Indeed, tellingly, the only thing that didn’t seem to be there, Elgato’s house opus Tonight, sounded perfectly at home there too.
03. R&S
Who could’ve guessed this one? When we profiled R&S as our label of the month last year, it was more techno history lesson than anything else, with the vague promise of new talents on the way. But with exceptional 12-inches from James Blake, Untold, Space Dimension Controller and Pariah, it seems like the respected Belgian imprint—with its A&R firmly entrenched in the underground of UK’s bass music scene—is once again one of the most relevant imprints in the world.
78: Fis-T ”Night Hunter” 502 Recordings (502001)
Fis-T arrived from nowhere this year to prove that dubstep wobble, when deployed skillfully, is still one of the most powerful dancefloor tools around. This track hits like a torpedo.
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72: Jamie Woon ”Night Air” Candent (CDNT001)
Mountaintop ballad by someone destined for big things when his album drops next year. Preferable in its rain-splattered early form; once the backing choir turn up it gets a bit dry ice and Phil Collins, but everyone’s partial to a bit of ‘Sussudio’ every now and then.
64: Pearson Sound ”Blanked” Hessle Audio (HES016)
Survey some people with their finger on the pulse about who makes the best dancefloor tunes right now, and we’d wager David Kennedy will appear more than once. ‘Blanked’, released less than a month ago, seemed to mark the accumulation of his work as Ramadanman and Pearson Sound this year – so that’s ‘Work Them’, ‘Glut’, ‘Tempest’, ‘Grab Somebody’, ‘Fall Short’, ‘Don’t Change for Me’ and more – expanding on those meticulous intros and outros, sharp booty-leaning drums and gut-wrenching breakdowns that seem to drown in sub-bass.
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55: Breach ”Fatherless” PTN (PTN004)
Who’d have thought that Ben Westbeech, a man with a reputation for considered, perhaps overly musical house music would pull out one of the most ominous dancefloor stompers of the summer? This single also featured two of 2010′s most overlooked tracks in B-side ‘Man Up’ and the runaway train that was Doc Daneeka’s remix.
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47: Pangaea ‘Sunset Yellow’ Hessle Audio (HES010)
Nauseous, infected music from one of the artists behind the Hessle Audio label, with divas from forgotten raves crammed together into a demonic torch song.
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31: Peverelist ”Better Ways Of Living” Punch Drunk (DRUNK017)
Peverelist’s ever more skilfully honed but reliably rugged output ought to embarrass some of his lazier and less inspired contemporaries. As far as stripped, jungle and techno-inflected dubstep goes, no can hold a candle to this guy; kids picking up ‘Better Ways’ second-hand in 30 years time will be as blown away by it then as we are now.
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26: Guido ”Mad Sax” Punch Drunk (DRUNK016 / DRUNKCD003 / DRUNKCD004)
Guido may often be associated associated with that “purple” synth sound, but the truth is he’s got the whole colour spectrum in his employ. As you might expect, there’s plenty of sax in ‘Mad Sax’, pouring like lava though an enchanted forest of larger-than-life crashing timpani, post-coital vocal moans and echo-drenched keyboard chords. As ever with the young Bristol producer, the influence of video game soundtracks on his work is marked, but believe us when we say that there isn’t a video game in existence mad enough to be soundtracked by ‘Mad Sax’. Though we dare say someone in Japan is working on it as we speak.
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22: Pariah ”Prism”R&S (RS1005)
Pariah gets compared to Burial, but with ‘Prism’ he showed that although his tracks may be – like Burial’s – nostalgic and heartbroken, his true strength lies in the way he combines that rain-splattered aesthetic with some of the punchiest, most devastating drum loops and acid basslines around.
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21: Pinch ‘Croydon House’ Swamp81 (SWAMP007)
One of this year’s most evil and effective club tracks, and for us the first truly vital production to have come out of Pinch’s studio in years. Its rolling subs and crisp claps bring to mind the kind of minimal, rave-friendly grime you simply never hear anymore, whiles its loose congas gesture at UK funky even as they play covert homage to the peerless 2004-6 style of Swamp81 boss Loefah. Absolute murder.
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16: Addison Groove ”Footcrab” Swamp81 (SWAMP005)
Bristol’s Headhunter has been one of dubstep’s most historically consistent artists, with regular releases on Tempa and more. But it wasn’t until 2010, making acid and juke-influenced dancefloor tracks between dubstep tempo and house tempo, that he had his first hit. ‘Footcrab”s incredibly simple – a steady kick, ice cold chords and a cut-up vocal on a constant loop, with an almost mournful breakdown that could be from a different song entirely – and it proved irresistible to DJs as widespread as Ricardo Villalobos and James Zabiela.
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06: James Blake ‘CMYK’ R&S (RS1003)
James Blake has become renowned for having His Own Unique Sound, but what’s really impressive is the diversity with which he’s applied that. On the Bells Sketch EP the London producer made ballroom music for purgatory; on the later Klavierwerke, swingless minimalism that soundtracked sheer fear. In between them came ‘CMYK’, Blake’s most anthemic single to date, full of unashamed Aaliyah and Kelis samples and synths that explode like paint cans thrown against walls. We like anthemic. Anthemic’s good.
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02: Ramadanman ‘Glut’ Hemlock (HEK008)
No one artist made more great tracks than Ramadanman in 2010. Already one of the UK’s prime producers, every single that David Kennedy, who’s in the process of phasing out the Ramadanman name in favour of Pearson Sound, released this year either showed another string to his bow, or expanded and honed what was there already.
We had warped experiments with space and percussion (‘Bleeper’, ‘Tumble’), junglist epics (‘Don’t Change for Me’) and some seriously gorgeous house records (‘Your Words Matter’ and his remix of ‘Night Air’), but the main narrative for Kennedy’s discography in 2010 started when he switched to 808-driven drum sounds – something that people thought Addison Groove would make his own in the UK this year. We know, everyone remembered that 808s were great again in 2010, but no one used them quite like Rama did, particularly on this track, for our money an unfairly underrated cousin of ‘Work Them’ and ‘Blanked’.
What still amazes us about ‘Glut’, as well as its B-side ‘Tempest’ and the rest of David Kennedy’s material from 2010, is as you listen to it, you’re incredibly aware of every move it makes, and why it’s making them – there’s almost no surprises, because it all makes such perfect sense and it’s all so perfectly timed. Like all he’s doing is filling in the obvious gaps with the obvious colours. And yet, when moments like that flash of synths in ‘Glut’s breakdown happen, there’s no possible reaction to give past sheer awe.
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