tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18649531677273175012024-03-13T01:19:31.928+00:00The Hardcore and The Gentle<br>
<i>"Wild, interesting effort to interest millenials who don't read or watch established media. Global success"</i> - Rupert Murdoch*
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*this is a genuine quote**
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**just not about us
Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-49053222105224503592013-12-25T21:24:00.000+00:002013-12-25T21:28:31.329+00:00The Top Tracks of 2013<br />
When it comes to cataloguing the best tracks of 2013, there's a fairly large, sequin-covered elephant in the room.<br />
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I remember when Daft Punk's 'Get Lucky' was first released, I listened to it as if the 'repeat' button was going out of fashion. So slick was Nile Rodgers' disco-flecked guitar riff, so carefree Pharrell's hedonistic lyrics, so, err, whatever it was Daft Punk actually did on the track, it was as perfect a summer pop song as anyone could ask for.<br />
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Then, of course, it got overplayed. Very overplayed. And annoying. Very annoying. The reaction to the track's appearance swiftly faded from, "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, it's that new Daft Punk track!" through to, "Oh, uh, it's that Daft Punk track. Cool. I'll continue to browse this shop without paying it much further attention, but at the same time not fuming inwardly while I flick through this limited selection of deodorants", then finally to the inevitable, "I would rather pour the entirety of this cheap high-street chain bar's stock of vodka through my eyeballs than spend any further seconds listening to this fucking Daft Punk tune again. I'm going to take up smoking purely so that I can go outside to have a cigarette to escape Pharrell Williams' sickly boyish crooning, and perhaps when my departure from this mortal coil is accelerated through smoking-related diseases I'll finally be able to escape it once and for all".<br />
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So basically what I'm trying to say is: 'Get Lucky' - very good song, too overplayed, so not on the list. Here are 31* excellent tracks from the past 12 months that are.<br />
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(*I assembled the list of tracks on Spotify, which told me that, after much tinkering, I had edited it down to 30. When it came to putting pen to blog-paper, however, it turned out there were actually 31 tracks, due to Spotify being a steaming heap of the proverbial. By this point I had lost all will to trim any further, so I now present to you the rather clunky quantity of 31 songs)<br />
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<b><i>T H E T O P 3 1 T R A C K S O F T H E Y E A R</i></b></div>
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<b>31. Factory Floor - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YkjMeKZcA8" target="_blank">'Fall Back'</a></b><br />
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The punk-techno experimentalists finally made good on years of solid singles and a mind-melting live show with their self-titled debut this year, with 'Fall Back' as hypnotically absorbing as anything they've released to date.<br />
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<b>30. Disclosure - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS2hspTsTl8" target="_blank">'Help Me Lose My Mind'</a></b></div>
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Disclosure were one of the year's biggest success stories, managing to craft a brand of fun dance music that appealed to both Joe Public and critics alike. While their emphasis was largely on bouncy garage-tinged house, the closing track on debut album 'Settle' - 'Help Me Lose My Mind', a collaboration with London Grammar - took a superbly withdrawn post-night look at youth's relationship with dance music.</div>
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<b>29. Goldie - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9r-pCk3FqE" target="_blank">'Single Petal Of A Rose'</a></b><br />
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Goldie's back! In pog form! OK, that second bit may be not only untrue but will probably be lost on anyone other than the most fervent of Simpsons anoraks, but 2013 saw jungle legend Goldie compile his influential body of work in to a 'Best of...' bundle, which also saw the inclusion of new track 'Single Petal of a Rose'. While a more mellow, soulful affair than some of his earlier work, the song wouldn't have seemed out of place on his masterful 1995 album, 'Timeless'.<br />
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<b>28. Syclops - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-5Saka3vBU" target="_blank">'Jump Bugs'</a></b></div>
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Maurice Fulton is one of house music's most criminally underrated talents, possibly because he flits around so often under different production aliases that his birth name becomes forgotten. This year he returned to his Syclops moniker for one of 2013's strongest electronic albums - 'A Blink of an Eye' - with 'Jump Bugs' proving to be a particularly irresistibly buoyant cut of flickering funk.</div>
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<b>27. The Mole - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U06xlMznvwY" target="_blank">'Lockdown Party (DJ Sprinkles' Crossfaderama)'</a></b><br />
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Anyone foolhardy enough to keep a loyal eye on this blog will know from my <a href="http://jackinthejukebox.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/nme-of-taste.html" target="_blank">'favourite albums of all time'</a> post that Terre Thaemlitz aka DJ Sprinkles' stock is very high around these parts, and she was responsible for one of the greatest slow-burning hits of the year with her reworking of The Mole's 'Lockdown Party'. It won't take too many minutes of listening to glean why the remix is dubbed a 'Crossfaderama', as Sprinkles deploys a novel production approach to craft an intimate spotlight on the year's most alluring audio party.<br />
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<b>26. Letherette - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_-uvPkv5F0" target="_blank">'Cold Clam'</a></b></div>
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Another firm favourite of this blog, Wolverhampton duo Letherette released their self-titled debut album this year through Ninja Tune, with one of its tracks always destined to find itself appearing on this list. As it was, 'Cold Clam' proved to be the highlight from the record, a stellar example of the kind of organically warm instrumental hip hop the pair trade in.</div>
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<b>25. Jam City - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMI_GK2bthE" target="_blank">'Worst Illusion'</a></b><br />
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Jam City has often proved a more interesting proposition that many of his Night Slugs labelmates, largely thanks to his habit of going on well-constructed ambles towards the leftfield with his production style. On 'Worst Illusion' his wandering eye remains unrestrained, but a more frenetic energy to much of his other output makes the track one of his most hedonistic to date.<br />
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<b>24. Mssingno - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HJaxFqXDbg" target="_blank">'Xe2'</a></b></div>
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Essentially hinging around a sample of R Kelly exhibiting his decidedly dubious sexual predatory instincts, London producer Mssingno tweaked these snippets (from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPr4F8dplFg" target="_blank">'I'm A Flirt'</a>) to sound almost strangely moving, and draped them over a backdrop of synths and a deceptively rudimentary marimba line.</div>
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<b>23. Axel Boman - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuBtuzOuk7M" target="_blank">'Hello'</a></b><br />
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The Swedish House Mafia have probably had as damaging an impact on the reputation of Swedish house as the real mafia had on the island of Sicily, but through the likes of Axel Boman the Scandinavian land is capable of demonstrating that restraint, delicacy and soul are all still part of their national vocabulary.<br />
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<b>22. James Blake - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlOmdyH_7Os" target="_blank">'Life Round Here'</a></b></div>
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A good year for Jimmy B, in which he won the Mercury Music Prize for his sophomore album 'Overgrown', despite being initially announced as 'James Blunt' during the ceremony by compere Lauren Laverne. For me this was the highlight of what proved to be a far stronger record than his debut, and there's even a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S6U_krabrk" target="_blank">version of the track</a> featuring rhymer of the moment Chance The Rapper if you're that way inclined (I'm not).</div>
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<b>21. Florian Kupfer - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHJ8R0k1VYM" target="_blank">'Feelin'</a></b><br />
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Florian Kupfer's 'Feelin' kicks off a mid-section of this list which is fairly loaded with the kind of scuzzy, unpolished house music that I (along with many others) have been listening to a fair amount this year. Arguably led by Ron Morelli's Long Island Electrical Systems (L.I.E.S.) label - on which 'Feelin' was released - the movement dubbed 'outsider house' in some tongue-in-cheek quarters has gone some way to dragging house music off its over-earnest watertight perch during the past couple of years, with Kupfer's track a prime example of the raw yet emotive characteristics favoured by himself and his peers.<br />
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<b>20. Jimpster - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NXV2TG809E" target="_blank">'These Times (Dixon's Retouch)'</a></b></div>
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In all honesty, 'These Times' is one of those slightly cheesy, self-important forays into introspection that dance music producers only have the balls / sense to tag on to the end of their full-length albums,as if acknowledging that it's realistically more filler, less thriller, and lo and behold the original bookends Jimpster's solid 2013 LP 'Porchlight & Rocking Chairs'. Dixon doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel with his remix, stretching the track's vocals over 9 minutes of steady progressive house. Do I care about either of these potential pit-falls? No, I do not.</div>
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<b>19. Marquis Hawkes - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q5plQGnY-Y" target="_blank">'Get Yo Ass Off My Grass'</a></b><br />
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Marquis Hawkes proved to be one of my favourite men of the year, turning out <a href="https://soundcloud.com/marquis-hawkes/sets/podcasts" target="_blank">a string of excellent mixes</a> on top of some enormously enjoyable original material. 'Get Yo Ass Off My Grass' was brilliantly jocular in its sassiness, with a distinctly silly vocal sample looped over a potent, elasticated pounder of a beat.<br />
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<b>18. Nightmares On Wax - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2JjObJY_ZM" target="_blank">'Be, I Do'</a></b></div>
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The Warp Records veteran returned this year with another fine entry into his impressive discography, with one of the several highlights from the aptly titled 'Feelin' Good' album being this gently lurching, sun-kissed effort.</div>
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<b>17. Delroy Edwards - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBwUSKjjqG0" target="_blank">'White Owl'</a></b><br />
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Another man for whom 2013 smiled kindly upon, Delroy Edwards proved to be one of outsider house's most intriguing figures, releasing consistently excellent material that skitted across several different styles. 'White Owl' - another L.I.E.S. release - is hyperactive balls-to-the-wall basement techno at its most unrelenting, but the energy that Edwards has piled into the track is amongst the most seductive of the year.<br />
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<b>16. Four Tet - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqm4FbrD1iQ" target="_blank">'Aerial'</a></b></div>
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Already awarded the much-envied honour of my <a href="http://jackinthejukebox.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-top-albums-of-2013.html" target="_blank">ninth favourite album of the year</a>, Four Tet slinks in to the top tracks list as well with my personal highlight from the record, 'Aerial'. Similar to the album's equally fiery 'Kool FM', 'Aerial' is a mash of incoherent MC mutters and clattering percussion, held up by a foggy haze of bass that all combine as if Berlin's famous techno mecca Berghain had been rebuilt in Bow E3.</div>
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<b>15. Anthony Naples - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_KQGIJzYHI" target="_blank">'Moscato A'</a></b><br />
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More of that outsider house bizniz now, from what may be considered the poster boy of the movement, New York's Anthony Naples. Naples has released banger after banger over the past two years, and it was a tough job deciding which of his glorious roughshod productions stood above the rest. The dreamily hazy 'Moscato A' won out, serving as prime testimony to how a track can mould fundamental repetitiveness into a jubilant rolling journey.<br />
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<b>14. Rezzett - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTFQXa8Lj44" target="_blank">'Fire Bomb'</a></b></div>
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Another case of techno getting lost in a foggy haze here, with the strong temptation being to describe Rezzett's 'Fire Bomb' as the quintessential 'Ronseal' track - aka, it does exactly what it says on the tin. One of the most unwelcome changes of 2013 was YouTube's overhaul of its comments section, but back in the time when user's notes were still in any sort of relevant order a brief exchange between commentators on the track's video (a strangely captivating watch in itself) summed up its bewildering intensity perfectly: the simple question - "what is this?!"; the simple answer - "Fire Bomb".</div>
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<b>13. Gobby - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbtjw4h2HDw" target="_blank">'Taajeloc 22'</a></b><br />
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American producer Gobby is one of electronic music's most curiously schizophrenic figures, with his output ranging from over-hyperactive juke and hardcore to more fuzzy, decaffeinated jams, of which the confoundingly named 'Taajeloc 22' is the latter. The track's title smacks of Aphex Twin, and while Richard D. James is unlikely to have ever made anything so neon-coloured, Gobby displays the kind of eccentricity in his production work that the great recluse would approve of.<br />
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<b>12. Blue Hawaii - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfsw3_karH8" target="_blank">'Try To Be'</a></b></div>
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Plucked from this blog's <a href="http://jackinthejukebox.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-top-albums-of-2013.html" target="_blank">number two album of the year</a>, 'Try To Be' is a beautifully understated wistful ballad, covering resignation, self-doubt, hope and determination all in one movement. Addressing the sense of lack of identity and purpose in life, the track's central refrain of "may as well just be me" is by itself one of the most exquisite moments of the year, displaying a vulnerability and a softness through simple melody.</div>
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<b>11. Agoria - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkkVIwbJgH4" target="_blank">'Scala'</a></b><br />
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There'll always be a loving place for tracks at the more epic end of the deep house scale that tease out a build-up over the course of a few minutes, before hitting the listener slap bang in the middle of the forehead with an uncomplicated but euphorically destructive piano line. 'Scala' was this year's that, deploying a basic riff that could probably be played on one hand by even an elementary ivory-tickler, but with such uplifting effect that you can almost hear the roar of an eager crowd and the blaring of rave sirens as it kicks in.<br />
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<b>10. Tropic Of Cancer - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxwAUWvpnxE" target="_blank">'Children Of A Lesser God'</a></b></div>
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Tropic of Cancer's lo-fi noirish shoegazing harks back to the new wave movement of the 1980s, and succeeds in making even a wash of hazy feedback sound morose. 'Children of a Lesser God' is a loping, patiently droning affair, layering shimmers of soaring synths with an unrelentingly oppressive kick drum, forlorn guitar flickers and foggily echoing vocals that barely pierce the surface of the track's density. Omit a few words from the song's title and you could have some fun convincing a religious parent that it's a long-lost Christmas ditty - just watch their faces as they try and scoff mince pies and play Cluedo with this as a soundtrack.</div>
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<b>9. Terekke - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Qmi34ouCQ" target="_blank">'Bank 3'</a></b><br />
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One last blast of what we're giddily calling outsider house and then I'll leave it be for this year. The opening track from his mightily impressive EP on L.I.E.S. which was presumably named after falling asleep on his keyboard - 'YYYYYYYYYY' - 'Bank 3' is a sublime trip across various indistinctly-marked peaks and troughs, riding across a steadily pulsing drum kick and wide-eyed bass line. Scatters of indistinguishable vocals are injected at intervals, making you think you've got something to sing along to when in reality you're just emitting a kind of mumbled slur.<br />
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<b>8. Werkha feat. Bryony Jarman-Pinto - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXoTgCIeiSE" target="_blank">'Sidesteppin'</a></b></div>
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In an age where anything we could possibly desire - including music - is usually instantly available at our fingertips, it actually felt like quite a relief when I wasn't able to get my hands on 'Sidesteppin' for several months after first hearing it on Gilles Peterson's Radio 6 show. Frustrating, sure, but also a relief - if somehow that's possible. With only replays of the transmission and a brief snippet on Werkha's Soundcloud (and even that disappeared before long) to keep my appetite sated, I found myself appreciating it all the more when his collaboration with vocalist Bryony Jarman-Pinto finally surfaced in its complete form on the latest of Peterson's 'Brownswood Bubblers' compilations. The track's breezy and carefree attitude proved apt in the hot summer months when I first heard it, but yet still seems warm and comforting upon revisiting it in December. </div>
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<b>7. Dawn Richard - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ntmX0tSfMo" target="_blank">'Return Of A Queen'</a></b><br />
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When inking Dawn Richard's 'Goldenheart' in to <a href="http://jackinthejukebox.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-top-albums-of-2013.html" target="_blank">third place in my albums round-up</a>, I pledged that the record's second track 'Return of a Queen' would be riding high should I ever get round to writing this tracks post. Always, or at least sometimes, a man of my word, here it lands at #7 as an electronically twinkling tale of determination and perseverance. Richard's history is one that's riddled with let-downs and false starts, having previously gained glimpses of success through appearing on American reality show 'Making The Band' back in 2005 and forming girl group Danity Kane, only for the outfit to disband a few years later. 'Return of a Queen' perfectly encapsulates many of the themes present on what is only her debut solo record, displaying a lyrical resilience and toughness that is offset by the dream-like production work. Really very good indeed.<br />
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<b>6. Piu Piu - <a href="http://piupiu.bandcamp.com/track/baller" target="_blank">'Baller'</a> [Free Download]</b></div>
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While I'm far from a pop snob - I double-checked while compiling this list to see if any of Taylor Swift's particularly excellent singles had dropped this year, which (in my eyes) they hadn't - I do often mourn the fact that the likes of Blue Hawaii, Werkha and this track don't bag the wider exposure that their more heavily marketed maximalised cousins do, as to my mind they tick many of the boxes that would appeal to the record-buying public. French chanteuse Piu Piu went down the route increasingly chosen by artists working without big budget backing and released her <a href="http://piupiu.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">debut mixtape for free via Bandcamp</a> earlier this year, studded with many gems of which 'Baller' was the pick of the bunch. Piu Piu's compatriots French Fries and Bambounou provide a swaggering codeine-laced beat, which the singer's angelic voice offsets with a deceptively saccharine take-down of the grandstanding male's abilities.</div>
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<b>5. Bonobo - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF34N4gJAKE" target="_blank">'Cirrus'</a></b><br />
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Bonobo's follow-up to 2010's excellent 'Black Sands' didn't prove to be quite as enduring overall, but there was one track resting within 'The North Border' that will surely continue to charm and entrance for years. 'Cirrus' doesn't so much sparkle as beam down its own celestial light on to the listener's brain, with the slightly forlorn quality to the track's elegant chimes suggesting that whatever forest filled with sun-specked glades and crystal clear pools you've found yourself lost in, you may never quite manage to escape. If this is soundtracking your fruitless drifting, though, why would you even want to?<br />
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<b>4. Todd Terje - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEhge2_L9tI" target="_blank">'Strandbar (Disko)'</a></b></div>
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Pity Todd Terje. No man can churn out such undeniable belters two years in a row as he's done with 'Strandbar' and last year's 'Inspector Norse' without entering 2014 with a degree of trepidation about repeating the feat. 'Inspector Norse' was absolutely <i>everywhere</i> in 2012, and while 'Strandbar' didn't achieve quite the same level of ubiquity those that doubt its comparative potency should do so at their peril. Over a career of consistently on-point re-edits and original productions Terje has demonstrated the keenest of knacks for finding a groove that can't fail but make people dance, and while both versions of 'Strandbar' - a 'disko' and 'samba' mix - are overflowing with rhythm, it's the former incarnation that is easily the most captivating. Its standalone status as probably the year's most uplifting jam was underlined when I witnessed A Love From Outer Space (Andrew Weatherall and close collaborator Sean Johnston) reach the end of the final set of Friday night in Bestival's Bollywood Tent earlier this year. With the house lights flickering on to mark the close of play, the music wound to an end for a moment, the crowd began to whoop and cheer their approval before the duo dropped the needle on one last tune - 'Strandbar's sprightly piano riff was to be lodged in my head for the rest of the festival.</div>
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<b>3. Moko - <a href="https://soundcloud.com/thismoko/homesick" target="_blank">'Homesick'</a> [Free Download]</b><br />
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Having lamented in my Piu Piu blurb the fact that certain entries in this list aren't scaling the heights of the pop world, Moko is one artist that not only really should, but probably will be deservedly massive by this time next year. Having so far flirted with mainstream attention through her vocal contribution on recent Chase & Status single <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91V0Cqx9TzM" target="_blank">'Count On Me'</a>, it's Moko's solo work that's truly exciting, and she released her excellent debut 'Black EP' through the dance production pair's own MTA Records earlier this year. As far as this blog is concerned, however, it's a track that may ultimately never become more than the Soundcloud free download that it appeared as in spring that's the highlight of her catalogue so far. 'Homesick' conjures up all the right memories of mid-'90s trip-hop but with a modern-day silvery gleam that washes over the singer's lovelorn lament to create a slick, shimmering pearl of a song. With fellow New Cross residents Imposters providing production for this and her other solo work so far, Moko seems to have cultivated a match made in heaven which - if there's any justice in the world - should see her stock soar in 2014.<br />
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<b>2. Sophie - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVc3Z-bG6Eo" target="_blank">'Bipp'</a></b></div>
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Despite the name, Sophie is a man, not a woman. "Bipp", however, is probably the word that most honestly describes the penultimate entry in this list, as really how <i>do</i> you describe it? It sits completely aside from anything else, like the misfit protagonist of some American high school movie who occupies a table solely by themselves in the canteen at lunch. However this is not a misfit at odds with the rest of the world, it's one so drenched in its own flamboyant idiosyncrasy that it cares not for any of the cliques or conventions that surround it, and instead forges its own unique existence with such carefree abandon that the rest of its peers can't help but look on with mouths wide open. The irony of this all is that the lyrics of the song revel in close contact and intimacy - "whatever you feel inside, I can make you feel better" - and whether it's sex, drugs or something else that Sophie's peddling, it proves nigh-on impossible to resist. </div>
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<b>1. William Onyeabor - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27nCc2eiERM" target="_blank">'Good Name'</a></b><br />
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So, this blog's #1 top track of 2013 is... a 10-minute Nigerian funk song recorded sometime in the 1970s! That's right, finger on the pulse as per bloody usual. No, while William Onyeabor's 'Good Name' really does date from sometime in the late '70s or early '80s, I've decided that, through virtue of it only receiving a full release on these shores through David Byrne's Luaka Bop label this year, it qualifies for this list. With all this in mind, I'd excuse you for donning your cynicism cap and thinking, "a retro Nigerian sprawling funk odyssey at No. 1, eh? Reeks of try-hard hipster posturing to me", and to be honest I'd have initially been inclined to agree. While I'm not adverse to a spot of world music - see, if you will, my placing of <a href="http://jackinthejukebox.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-top-albums-of-2013.html" target="_blank">Omar Souleyman's latest effort at #4</a> in the album round-up as further proof of my credentials - I have a fairly deep distrust of those who devote large swathes of their attention to the more far-flung sounds of our planet. Why are you so fixed on Eritrean acid jazz? What's wrong with Western music? Should I be shopping you to MI5?<br />
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William Onyeabor's music, however, could be from anywhere and any decade and still be nothing other than joyously brilliant. The man's ability to formulate effortlessly crisp dance music (in the most fundamental sense of the term, not a flashing strobe or 'hands in the air' moment in sight) has proved to be quietly influential since he first recorded it over 30 years ago, as evidenced by my discovery while researching it that modern-day favourite Daphni (the dancefloor-ready alias of Dan Snaith aka Caribou) sampled Onyeabor on the brilliant <a href="http://www.whosampled.com/sample/114113/Daphni-Ye-Ye-William-Onyeabor-When-the-Going-Is-Smooth-%26-Good/" target="_blank">'Ye Ye'</a>. 'Good Name' is pure buoyant energy from start to finish, and as if that wasn't enough, the lyrical message of staying true to yourself at all costs is a charming detour from much of what modern electronic dance music espouses. Go forth and boogie.<br />
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<b>If you like, you can listen to all these tracks (the ones that are on YouTube at least, which is most of them) through this handy playlist that I've compiled:</b> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL01Gsqa2Sl4aJTSfehrMXlJR3Oz24rSsw">http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL01Gsqa2Sl4aJTSfehrMXlJR3Oz24rSsw</a><br />
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enjoy.</div>
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Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-159421763657536692013-12-19T12:57:00.000+00:002013-12-25T20:23:30.475+00:00The Top Albums of 2013<br />
The Internet is arguably the world's most vast, most unnavigable ocean. There's so much online content out there in such a fluid, inconsistent state that the mind would boggle a thousand times before it was able to comprehend even a fraction of just how boundless the world wide web is.<br />
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With such immensity comes the problem of deciphering what it is within this great digital mass that's really worth devoting your precious attention to. For instance, there are literally hundreds of amusing spoof news sites, Miley Cyrus parody videos and Buzzfeed lists of the cutest pugs available for you to peruse at the drop of a hat, but, if you spent your time consuming every single instance of these that the Internet has to offer, you would find yourself sitting at your computer for weeks on end in piss-encrusted boxer shorts because you just couldn't tear yourself away from a baby pug wearing a beret for long enough to visit the toilet.<br />
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There's a similar problem when it comes to experiencing music through the Internet. There's just so, so much of it uploaded with such frequency to YouTube, Soundcloud, <strike>MySpace</strike> and Bandcamp that only a fool would attempt to keep even vaguely on top of every musical happening around the world at any one given moment. That, dear reader, is where the End Of Year list comes in to its own. Sifting through all the music released in 2013 to leave only the finest, most enduring output of the past 12 months, consolidated in to handy list-form and presented to the audience with a few lines of supporting text, the End Of Year list is one of society's unsung heroes. Where's the tax break for the End Of Year list, Mr. Cameron? Where's their parade? A good End Of Year list is truly a thing of beauty, to be marvelled at and cherished - a monument to human achievement, signifying the lengths that man will go through to cast appreciation upon the culture that surrounds him. A good End Of Year list is in itself a work of art.<br />
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The problem is that, if you've read this far, I'm afraid to say you're currently wearing the proverbial piss-encrusted boxer shorts. I update this blog so laughably infrequently that it carries pretty much no relevance, and any End Of Year round-up I publish is little other than a further waste of Blogspot's server resources. I mean, I haven't even published an End Of Year list in two years - do you honestly think reading this one will be worth your time? What are you even still doing here? Did you not <i>see</i> Buzzfeed's list of <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/holiday-baking-fails" target="_blank">'17 Hilariously Tragic Holiday Baking Fails'</a>?! They're hilariously tragic! Those people can't bake for toffee! Go, see for yourself!<br />
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If you do still insist on drawing your daily dose of hilarious tragedy from these pages rather than those of an international media hub, then please, as I detail my top ten favourite records of this year, let us meekly accept the futility of the situation and just hope we make it to the bottom of the list without anyone getting hurt.<br />
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In which case: are you sitting as comfortably as someone who's been wearing the same piss-encrusted boxer shorts for the past three weeks can be? Then I'll begin.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">10. Daniel Avery - 'Drone Logic'</span></b><br />
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<i>Listen: '<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V3SY7TTRBk" target="_blank">Water Jump'</a></i></div>
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Daniel Avery is a man whose name would probably be familiar to anyone who's interacted with a club in London over the past decade, whether through attending it, seeing a flyer or poster for a night there or lurking outside to throw red paint at its owner for having skinned your cat and turned it in to a snazzy scarf after running it over the month before. Anyone not so au fait with the capital's nightlife would be excused for being alien to his presence, as while he has built up a strong reputation over his career so far, it has predominantly been for being a DJ, and predominantly for DJing in London clubs. His steps in to production, though, prove that often some of the best electronic music is made by those that are record selectors first and foremost, as he demonstrates a winning knowledge of grooves, lifts and drops over the course of his debut album 'Drone Logic'. Flecked with acidic splashes and junglist breaks, it is a record that proves ensconcing from start to finish, with the smart dancefloor sensibilities that you'd expect from a resident at Fabric coupled with obvious production skill, no doubt finely honed during all those years of keeping dancefloors pulsing.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">9. Four Tet - 'Beautiful Rewind'</span></b><br />
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqm4FbrD1iQ" target="_blank">'Aerial'</a></i></div>
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That a Four Tet album will be immaculately packed with enticingly offbeat flourishes and a romantic sense of adventure is never in question. What is more up in the air is just what the resultant record will sound like. Originally a purveyor of lush folktronica, over the past years Kieran Hebden has been delving in to the realms of glistening, transcendent techno, with an eye much more firmly on the dancefloor than his initial gently loping offerings. His DJ sets can often be the best indicator of just where the man's head's at during any given moment - anyone that's caught him recently will have noticed his love affair with grime showing through, and it is this same passion that informs much of 'Beautiful Rewind'. While many of the tracks are not of the ilk for an MC to readily hop on during a late night Rinse FM session, there are constant nods to the electricity of the UK's most singular genre of this millennium - bursts of incomprehensible spitting pepper even the more tranquil corners of the album, while the likes of the heaving 'Kool FM' and 'Aerial' are clearer homages to the rugged underbelly of British club music, packaging 'hype' in the most serene, most Four Tet of ways.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">8. Parquet Courts - 'Light Up Gold'</span></b><br />
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<i>Listen: '<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_X6FaHq9jQ" target="_blank">Stoned and Starving'</a></i></div>
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The only 'straightforward' guitar album to make the list this year, and I almost didn't include it because I thought it was released in 2012... but it wasn't! There's no more to that anecdote, it's over and was as mundane as you thought. Hailing from Brooklyn, Parquet Courts make the kind of punky garage rock that can often succumb to the same fate as many DIY creations, and limply fall apart through poor construction. 'Light Up Gold', though, oozes with fine guitar riffs and song-writing, and for a record that's 15 tracks in length impressively never sags or drags. It's punk without the overly shambolic workmanship, with songs bursting in sub-two minute frenzies when they need to (see 'Light Up Gold II'), and stretching in to longer, more considered form when appropriate - 'Stoned and Starving' is a brilliantly churning five minutes of humdrum frustration. What 2012 in my mind's loss is most definitely 2013 in reality's gain.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">7. TREE - 'Sunday School II: When Church Lets Out'</span></b><br />
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCI3iavCBkM" target="_blank">'The King'</a></i></div>
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I have fairly little patience when it comes to hip hop mixtapes - if I can refer you for one moment to my own words slightly further up this page, they are one of the biggest culprits for online over-saturation, leaving it nigh on impossible for those of us who just don't care enough to keep up with what's worth investing time in and what's not. More often than not I'll find myself listening to five minutes of a rapper telling me that he's going to stick his dick in my bitch over a background of generic trap beats and audio idents from whatever ridiculously named mixtape site I've signed up to in order to download the tape, before realising that I'm bored and putting on some Kate Bush while trying to work out why it's almost impossible to unsubscribe from the aforementioned mixtape site's mailing list that I've now found myself on. So it's always quite a treat when a good quality mixtape presents itself, and a good quality mixtape is what TREE's 'Sunday School II: When Church Lets Out' is. This may not come as a surprise given the nature of the rest of this paragraph, but I know absolutely fuck all about TREE other than I like his music, hence why most of the space I'd allotted myself to write about it is taken up with me whinging that hip hop websites now send me too many emails.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">6. Donato Dozzy - 'Plays Bee Mask'</span></b><br />
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLpmp4r3KUw" target="_blank">'Vaporware 05'</a></i></div>
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Even though I myself am someone that regularly listens to what would be described as more serious, textured music, for some reason I still wrinkle my nose whenever the term "headphone music" is bandied about. I guess a part of me still wishes that everything sounded as fucking amazing as 'Hybrid Theory' did through my computer's tinny speakers when I was 13, but I sometimes think that if a record really can't be appreciated outside of two cups placed directly over your ears then surely it can't be all that amazing really now can it. The thing is, though, I'm an idiot and don't know what I'm talking about, and anyone that pays any attention to what I have to say is probably an even bigger idiot. For I would strongly prescribe a pair of whatever decent quality ear-pieces you can lay your hands on for listening to Donato Dozzy's 'Plays Bee Mask', a record that's so ball-shrivellingly delicate that to lose any of its exquisite intricacies to outside noise would feel almost criminal. The constitution of the album is a strange one, as the whole existence of the record stems from the peddler of experimental oddities that is Bee Mask sending his track 'Vaporware' to cult Italian techno producer Donato Dozzy for remixing. Dozzy apparently felt that it'd be an insult to Bee Mask to rework his track a paltry once, so instead crafted for him seven different versions which were then assembled here to form one of the most entrancing and hypnotic releases of the year.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">5. Forest Swords - 'Engravings'</span></b><br />
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5JEd4KWW5M" target="_blank">'Ljoss'</a></i></div>
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While there are undoubtedly still those that think electronic music can be any less emotional than its more lyric-based cousin, these are the same people who would have you believe that Keith Lemon's legendary status is rivalled only by that of their own penis, and in fact in years to come revisionists will look back upon my mockery of them in a manner akin to how we perceive curators of Victorian freak shows now, as my snarky cynicism is held up as an example of baiting the weak and helpless of our time. Anyway, while that day remains yet to dawn allow me to guide you through my menagerie of cultureless abominations as we point and laugh at them to the soundtrack of Forest Swords' 'Engravings', which contains more emotion in one distorted pluck of the Manchester producer's guitar than occupies any of the whining ballads that fill Miley Cyrus' misleadingly named 'Bangerz' album. With only the faintest scattered hints of the human voice, the songs on 'Engravings' are enough to bring any grown man to his knees, shivering and sobbing through the excruciatingly restrained power with which the record aches.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">4. Omar Souleyman - 'Wenu Wenu'</span></b><br />
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqg702HcnBs" target="_blank">'Wenu Wenu'</a></i></div>
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I don't know about you, but I can't think of anywhere in the world more at the forefont of human endeavour right now than Syria. Oh, err, right - <i>that</i> stuff. OK, so while Syria may not exactly be the new Magaluf at the moment, one positive thing to have emerged from the region is without a doubt Omar Souleyman. While your favourite ahead of the curve blogs were <a href="http://jackinthejukebox.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Omar%20Souleyman" target="_blank">bigging him up</a> years ago, Mr Souleyman gained greater exposure in 2013 through collaborating with a man that he's now beaten in the coveted rankings of this very list, Four Tet, with the resultant record signed to the largest label of his career so far, Domino. I'm not going to lie to you - an Omar Souleyman album is an Omar Souleyman album. If 'Wenu Wenu' had been pretty much any other entry in his past discography it would probably still be occupying this #4 spot, as Souleyman makes music that is just so universally joyous to listen (and, more importantly, dance) to. His unique brand of psychedelic Middle Eastern acidic craftwork proves time and again to be bewitching and impossible to resist, appealing to the more primitive sides of human nature that will tease a dancer out of even the staunchest of kill-joys.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">3. Dawn Richard - 'Goldenheart'</span></b><br />
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ntmX0tSfMo" target="_blank">'Return of a Queen'</a></i></div>
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Probably the biggest criticism I'd level at most R&B albums is that they too often descend in to excess. The tracklists and running times could generally do with some trimming, the production usually leans towards the overblown and the lyrics can be so cheesy that, if they could, Wallace & Gromit would try to land their ramshackle spacecraft on them. In a way, Dawn Richards' 'Goldenheart' is no exception. However, in this instance the slightly rambling album length is welcome, the production majestic in its grandiosity and the lyrics drip with genuine passion, rather than Wensleydale. R&B is ultimately about marrying an infectious melody with potent vocals, and 'Goldenheart' has such unions in abundance. If I ever follow through with the 'Top Tracks of 2013' that I intend to write on top of this post, you'll find the album's second track 'Return of a Queen' riding very high - it's a stunning demonstration of wistful anguish and unwavering determination delivered with impassioned, raw emotion, and lays the foundation for many themes that will recur across the record. Writing this a couple of days after Beyonce dropped her surprise self-titled album, I'm uncertain that even after a few more listens to that undeniably excellent effort whether it'd dislodge 'Goldenheart' as my top R&B album of the year. Not that I'm purposefully limiting myself to just one, of course - that might be racist. And I'm not racist, some of my best friends are black. Actually, they're not - does that make me racist? Probably. I am probably just a massive racist.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">2. Blue Hawaii - 'Untogether'</span></b><br />
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfsw3_karH8" target="_blank">'Try To Be'</a></i></div>
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You! You there! Try finding a more gorgeously plaintive track from this year than 'Try To Be' by Blue Hawaii, that's linked to above. You can't, can you? You big dick. If I was to continue to express in words the utter contempt that I feel for you, the reader, then I'd go on to mock you for not only having failed to top 'Try To Be' in the head-tingling beauty stakes, but also for not being able to find an album that so perfectly marries such poetry with a keen rhythmic drive through much of its duration, as is demonstrated on the 'In Two / In Two II' double-header, or that ties all these themes together with an exquisite delicacy that will have your ears tip-toeing across it as if on eggshells for fear of breaking anything. What in more boring hands may be a fairly pleasant but ultimately insignificant ride, Blue Hawaii have washed their dreamlike ruminations with seductively engrossing production work, meaning that while your brain is reflecting contemplatively back to memories of that cat you had that died when you were 11, your feet are tapping away like 1920s telegram operatives. And let me tell you something - release 'Untogether' mid-way through that decade and your Great Depression can go whistle. [Author's note: I realise that the album in reality has been released during a time of similar economic turmoil and has of course made no significant difference, but just let me have my pretentious poetic license OK?]<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">1. Tricky - 'False Idols'</span></b><br />
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyEfBXXzX24" target="_blank">'Is That Your Life'</a></i></div>
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Contrary to popular opinion, my nerve is not incapable of wavering. Often when I form an opinion on music, it's rarely a case of 'that's the end of that', all's done and dusted for my thoughts and assertions to be carted off to my brain's Big Room of Immutable Conclusions. I generally can't help but subconsciously seek assurances about my reasoning from popular outlets, as if to try and gain external justification for my thinking. It's for this reason that over the years, I've often developed self-doubt when I've liked or disliked something but my peers and the media don't seem to share my view. I remember feeling genuinely worried when coming to the conclusion that The Kooks were shit, yet at the same time most around me were lapping up their nauseating brand of wipe-clean indie pop with gleeful abandon. I'm not just trying to rewrite history to align with current popular opinion by the way, I genuinely always thought The Kooks were shit. I have similar restless nights about Drake now as well - is Drake not just, y'know, shit? But everyone likes him! Should it be his 'Nothing Was The Same' album occupying this top spot right now? I must be doing something wrong.<br />
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It's this sense of critical insecurity that I must confess made me take a reflective moment before finalising my top choice for favourite album of the year. For Tricky's 'False Idols' has received little by way of similar esteem for which I hold it. I should probably point out at this stage, that I'm no Tricky fanboy. I'd given the producer's most highly acclaimed album, his debut 'Maxinquaye', little more than a few cursory listens since it first entered my music library a few years ago, and I'm largely unfamiliar with the rest of his work. So no, I have no kind of rose-tinted reverence of the Bristol artist, in a way that made me try slightly too hard to enjoy Bjork's - incidentally an ex-girlfriend of Tricky - last offering 'Biophilia', before accepting that it was merely a good album compared to her other exceptional work.<br />
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So I found myself approaching 'False Idols' with fairly indifferent ears, however those same lugholes quickly became hooked after the first listen. There's a deliciously menacing presence that underlies the whole record, and whether it seeps through in the slicker funk-driven likes of 'Is That Your Life' or the sweeping 'Nothing's Changed', it maintains an aura of uneasiness and poised threat that makes for an engrossing listen. The vocals of Tricky and an array of female vocalists weave smokily together in a way not dissimilar to The xx, and each track on the album proves to be compelling in its own distinct way. I'm probably wrong, and that album of Miley Cyrus covers that Drake recorded with The Kooks is probably infinitely better, but for me, 'False Idols' was my album of 2013.<br />
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enjoy.</div>
Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-53261656057294049262013-10-23T20:33:00.002+01:002013-10-24T00:56:46.167+01:00NME of the Taste<br />
It's an irony that won't scoop me many gongs at the Originality Awards for pointing out, but possibly the least 'express' means of discovering new music is through the New Musical Express. Granted, as a weekly print publication they're always going to be fighting a losing battle against the all-seeing, all-knowing Internet in terms of delivering content at speed to their readership, but a quick browse through the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NME_covers#2013" target="_blank">magazine's recent cover stars</a> demonstrates that it's not exactly living up to the first two thirds of its name, either.<br />
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So far in 2013, Liam Gallagher (twice), Johnny Marr (twice), David Bowie (thrice), Nirvana, The Who, The Stone Roses, Nine Inch Nails and Paul McCartney have all taken their turns to leer out from the shelves of your local newsagent's music section. While admittedly some of these had new records / gigs / haircuts to promote, none of the hat-trick of front-pages featuring the Artist Formerly Known as Ziggy Stardust succeeded in featuring any actual interview content once you've handed over your £2.40 and peered inside, and with a Gallagher brother having appeared on a total of ten covers since the start of 2011 (note: Oasis disbanded in 2009; Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds have released just one album since; Beady Eye are shit) the NME seems to be running dry on inspiration. But is it the magazine's fault?<br />
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As is always the case when bloggers pose questions to themselves during an article, the answer is both yes and no. The problem for the NME is that the browsers of the WH Smiths magazine aisle who would have any interest in parting with their disposable income are those who would stare blankly at a picture of Disclosure before plumping for the reliably nostalgic coziness of <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mojo+magazine&espv=210&es_sm=91&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=sfhnUoS0NOSG0AWBlIGQDw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1309&bih=657" target="_blank">MOJO</a> instead. The audience that <i>will </i>be interested in the latest exploits of the brotherly dance duo, or of the sisterly trio of American new arrivals Haim, will be the kids that have grown up comfortably enough with the Internet to be able to access all their music fixes from their laptops, speedily and for free, and what's more it's unlikely that they'll be doing so from NME's messy eye-sore of a <a href="http://www.nme.com/" target="_blank">website</a>.<br />
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I feel I'm hating a little on NME here so far. Perhaps with a touch of rejuvenation and rebranding, they could be back dominating the world of music journalism, with lines of school-kids waiting impatiently outside their local retailers every Wednesday morning to pick up a copy of the latest edition to rifle through keenly in double Geography a few hours later. Well hey now, whaddya know? The NME <i>has</i> just <a href="http://mediatel.co.uk/newsline/2013/10/08/nme-to-relaunch-brand/" target="_blank">relaunched itself</a>, along with a promise to expand the magazine's Radar section, which focuses on new and up-and-coming acts. So, who's on the first cover in this new dawn for cutting-edge music exploration? Oh, it's David Bowie again. Never mind though, the following week saw a celebration of '<a href="http://asittingovation.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/nme-young-britannia.jpg" target="_blank">Young Britannia'</a>, an ensemble cover featuring new British artists as commendably diverse as Erol Alkan-affiliated producer Daniel Avery, scuzzball Welsh rockers Joanna Gruesome and electro-pop babe Charli XCX, alongside more established UK names as Jake Bugg and Katy B. Things, then, definitely seem to be looking up.<br />
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However, just as any makeshift team of footballing nuns who can't afford a proper ball will tell you, old habits are hard to kick. This week's issue sees the NME flaunt its restraining order and make a bee-line straight back to Memory Lane (electronic tag around ankle still in tact - it just seemed to work well with the vintage Doc Martens), as they counted down the 500 greatest albums of all time. Spoiler: The Smiths' 'The Queen Is Dead' <a href="http://www.nme.com/news/the-smiths/73363" target="_blank">won</a>. A more than fair choice, in this commentator's personal opinion, and entirely befitting of the publication's aesthetic.<br />
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A rather more unsavoury fall-out from the list is the accompanying 'staff lists' on the <a href="http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/nme-staff-pick-their-top-10-greatest-albums-of-all-time?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=500method" target="_blank"><b>NME website blog</b></a>. I'll quickly hold my hands up and say that the use of "unsavoury" in that past sentence is rather strong and unjustified - it's not as if the NME have daubed a big willy on their local mosque, or pissed on someone's kids on Christmas morning. Probably more accurately, the staff lists are just down-right wearisome. Each is a Top Ten from various staff members, and each reads like a blindfolded individual has put ten pins in a generic 'Greatest Albums of All Time' list, removed their visual impairment and thought, "oh yeah, that'll do". The majority of entries are mind-numbingly conservative - you've got to wonder whether anyone who lists 'Dark Side of the Moon', 'Revolver' (AND 'Rubber Soul'), 'The Velvet Underground & Nico' and 'Blood on the Tracks' in their favourite albums of all time has either never listened to a record that hasn't featured in a late-night Channel 4 countdown, or misunderstood the task and thought they had to predict the most likely final rankings. Honestly, is 'Dark Side of the Moon' actually <i>anyone's</i> 'favourite' album? No, no it's not. David Gilmour's, perhaps, but even then only at a stretch.<br />
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Several lists (without showing too much dedication to the cause by researching each release date, I'd guess at least two or three out of eleven lists) contain no albums that were released in the past twenty years, and there are only a small number of albums over the course of the page that were released in the past decade (this ratio is boosted by Laura Snapes, who decides to populate five out of her ten slots with albums by The National). Does this matter? Well, no, obviously on the worldwide scale of 'Things That Matter' it ranks just behind, "hmm, this milk's expiry date was yesterday, but it smells alright, I guess". What it demonstrates, though, is that NME might need to look a bit deeper than the design of their logo to discover why they're not quite as on the pulse as they once were - which, unfortunately, was when most of the albums on their list were released.<br />
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What's that dear reader? You want me to demonstrate how much cooler than the NME I am by listing my own Top Ten favourite albums of all time and pointing out the difference in how less mainstream and obvious they are in a thoroughly narcissistic and self-congratulatory manner? Ohhh, you guysss...</div>
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Having studied the NME staff lists, I did begin to wonder what would populate my own Top Ten. There were some more immediately obvious candidates, but as I was trawling through the recesses of my mind I realised that perhaps the classics are considered the classics for a reason, and that I'd judged the NME staffers a bit too harshly. Then I remembered: DARK SIDE OF THE FUCKING MOON. </div>
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The list I've ultimately come up with is, of course, very subject to change, and will probably do so in the very near future. It's certainly not the list I would've conjured up ten, five, or probably even a couple of years ago. As the magazine's writers did with theirs, I've arranged it in to a rough descending order, kicking off with some untouchably brilliant Icelandic introspection and rounding off with a bonafide classic that our friends at NME would be proud of, taking in socio-politically aware East Coast rap, socio-politically aware expansive deep house, and socio-politically aware tongue-in-cheek UK garage along the way. I've linked to a key track from each as well, so get stuck in.</div>
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Just one quick final note - as always, I'm fully aware that I'm just writing this blog post to pretty much myself, but in the unlikely scenario that anyone else happens to a) stumble upon this article and b) bothers to read all the way through to here and fancies popping their own Top Ten list in the comments, then they'll be warmly welcomed.</div>
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<b>My Own Top Ten Favourite Albums</b></div>
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1. Björk - Vespertine </div>
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdSiYa6hX1w" target="_blank">It's Not Up To You</a></i></div>
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2. Nas - Illmatic</div>
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKjj4hk0pV4" target="_blank">N.Y. State of Mind</a></i></div>
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3. DJ Sprinkles - Midtown 120 Blues</div>
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JXiYTrueFw" target="_blank">The Occasional Feel-Good</a></i></div>
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4. Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas</div>
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXlJRe0ZDTE" target="_blank">Heaven or Las Vegas</a></i></div>
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5. The Streets - Original Pirate Material</div>
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42j-ZhAwyZA" target="_blank">Weak Become Heroes</a></i></div>
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6. The Smiths - Meat Is Murder</div>
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JU8XCXwv2A" target="_blank">Rusholme Ruffians</a></i></div>
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7. Björk - Debut</div>
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5Dc1LEn4AM" target="_blank">Big Time Sensuality</a> (<< from where this blog derives its name!)</i></div>
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8. Burial - Untrue</div>
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlEkvbRmfrA" target="_blank">Archangel</a></i></div>
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9. Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill</div>
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dati9LoBBMc" target="_blank">Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping</a></i></div>
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10. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours</div>
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<i>Listen: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrZRURcb1cM" target="_blank">Dreams</a></i></div>
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enjoy.</div>
<br />Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-61337861428440486202013-08-16T02:45:00.000+01:002013-08-16T02:45:42.376+01:00(What's So Crazy 'Bout) Peace, Love And One Direction<br />
If you've ever sat through an evening of amateur comedy, you'll be well acquainted with the Acme 'Observational Gag Format' of: "Right, so I've been thinking a lot about [subject] lately... have you ever noticed how [subject] always does [whatever it is subject does]? What's that all about!"<br />
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Some comedians have made enormously successful careers out of doing just this, however most of the time the deliverer will be a slightly haggard-looking man in a pub's part-time comedy annex, part-time storage room, nursing a beer belly that suggests he's spent a large amount of time in similar taverns watching amateur comedy before incorrectly drawing the conclusion that he could in fact do this himself. Often the subjects of his observational scything will be everyday matters that we, the audience, are all familiar with, which he'll then proceed to deconstruct before our very eyes before probably saying 'penis' and slouching off stage. One particularly unsuccessful attempt at uniting an assembled crowd with thigh-slapping hilarity and shrieks of, "YES! YES! That's EXACTLY what that's like!" that I witnessed was a stand-up start with the question, "so, who here smokes weed?", and, upon being met with blank stares - the queue to the Amsterdam McDonalds this was not - proceeded to descend in to a defensive ramble about why the stand-up smoked weed, with little comic effect.<br />
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Anyway, Channel 4's 'Crazy About One Direction' documentary is essentially this joke format, with teenage girls the subject in this instance. In a similar way to the sociological forecasting that <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/white-britons-will-be-minority-before-2070-says-professor-8600262.html" target="_blank">within 60 years white Britons while cease to be the majority ethnic group in the UK</a>, so we are faced with the very real prospect that the number of teenage One Direction fanatics outpouring their love for the former X Factor runners-up through online forums will soon pale in comparison to the amount of grown adults taking smug swipes at their obsessive behaviour from their supposedly more mature corner of the internet. Following 'Crazy About One Direction's screening, Twitter parted like the Red Sea - on one half the aforementioned fandom, perhaps understandably a bit cheesed off at how their kind had been portrayed by C4, while the other half consisted of older folk, scoffing at how idiotic these kids are. I know I've completely misused the Red Sea allegory there, so as slight recompense I should add that the group passing untouched through the nautical corridor are One Direction themselves, who, along with their marketing team, will not be losing one moment of sleep over the documentary, which the placing of adverts for the group's forthcoming film during the breaks was testament to.<br />
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A similar inter-generational spat had previously erupted after GQ revealed that the boy band were to grace the cover of their latest issue, a piece of promotional coverage - akin to C4's documentary - that 1D's fan-base seemed to take issue with. Death threats were rapidly dispatched to the GQ editorial staff - by sticking menacingly anonymous cut-out newspaper letters to a sheet of paper and being stuffed in to an untraceable letterbox? No, you big plum, by Twitter of course. GQ then <a href="http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/entertainment/articles/2013-07/30/one-direction-gq-covers-most-terrifying-responses" target="_blank">collected some of the most outrageous of these reactions</a> and rewarded their advertisers' continued loyalty by posting them in a click-bait article online, spawning a flurry of extra page hits and yet more warmongering in its comments section.<br />
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After a brief scroll through these messages, it becomes clear that the ultra-defensive fans aren't the real cretins here - it's the fully-formed, ballot-casting, rental car-hiring, income tax-paying adults that take time out from their daily lives to argue with and mock their adolescent online cohabitants for the opinions that they peddle, probably with precious little to do during school holidays with the prospect of GCSEs looming large. My computer usage during my formative years was mostly devoted to playing Football Manager and wanking (to porn, I hasten to add, not Football Manager), not checking my Nectar points online and adding high-flying strangers to my network on LinkedIn. Whilst some of my peers may have spent their time slightly more productively - if we've somehow found ourselves in an unholy world where 'winning back-to-back trebles with Atletico Madrid' is considered unproductive - this was fairly typical teenage boy behaviour, just as obsessing over boy bands is typical teenage girl behaviour. Always has been, and always will be. Why some of the older generation feel the need to take issue with this is bemusing - would the same gaggle of eager finger-waggers feel a similar obligation to sneeringly correct a six year-old's claims that if you eat enough pizza you'll turn in to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle? (Less out-dated children's references are available for Premium Members only)<br />
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Admittedly, based on the documentary some of the One Direction fans' behaviour is rather bizarre, occasionally bordering on mildly terrifying, but unless puberty has changed since my day (and under this Coalition mess of a government it may well have done, amiright) these girls will reach a more rational plane of thought in a few years, probably around the time One Direction are usurped by the next gaggle of good-looking, adequately-voiced young men. I suspect anyway that part of the ire directed against 1D fans stems from a jealousy of the band themselves, and seeing as there's little your man at his keyboard can do about the group's international success and fame, they feel they can play some part in derailing their efforts by giving both barrels to those that must be braincell deficient enough to support and defend them. I for one don't enjoy One Direction's music, but nor do I let this or their stratospheric status bother me. Would I want to live like Harry Styles, travelling around the world in luxury, bedding a string of beautiful women (...and Caroline Flack) and raking in millions from record sales and merchandise? Yes, I most definitely would. Does shagging Taylor Swift win you La Liga 'Manager of the Year' three-times on the trot though, Harry? No, it doesn't Harry. It doesn't.<br />
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Given that One Direction originally shot to fame after finishing third on the X Factor a few years back - always a slightly baffling fact considering the second and first-placed contestants have enjoyed nowhere near the same adoration from the voting public - and I think I saw an advert the other day saying it's approaching the show's tenth anniversary edition, I thought I'd do a very brief run-down of the best songs to have emerged from UK talent shows. For the sake of this not descending in to a list of my favourite Girls Aloud songs, I'm restricting the tracks to the singles that are given to the winning acts upon victory. So, in order, here are the best reality pop songs of the past decade or so:<br />
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5. Joe McElderry - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2qnQrou9no" target="_blank">The Climb</a> [<i>X Factor</i>, 2009] - DISCLAIMER: this song is, of course, not good, however it turns out that barely any of the winners' singles are so this is here simply for the commendable fact that without its existence, Rage Against The Machine would never have reached Christmas #1<br />
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4. Leona Lewis - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxbX-z5-QHs" target="_blank">A Moment Like This</a> [<i>X Factor</i>, 2006]<br />
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3. Hear'Say - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCnysjgAVBg" target="_blank">Pure & Simple</a> [<i>Popstars</i>, 2001]<br />
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2. Will Young - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc-sq7cJGho" target="_blank">Evergreen</a> [<i>Pop Idol</i>, 2002]<br />
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1. Girls Aloud - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9Wv4SCBiTE" target="_blank">Sound of the Underground</a> [<i>Popstars: The Rivals</i>, 2002]<br />
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enjoy.</div>
<br />Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-91481593640638602772012-07-11T13:14:00.001+01:002012-07-11T13:16:14.050+01:00Favourite LPs #3 - Samantha Greenberg<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>No Doubt - <i>Tragic Kingdom</i> (1995)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>By Samantha Greenberg</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The world is harsh when you're 15. You hate everyone and no one likes you. You're emotional and erratic. The pop-ska anthems of No Doubt's first album are certainly tailor-made for you. You listen to "Don't Speak" when you're crying and alone. You belt out "Just a Girl" and "Excuse Me Mr." in the car with your friends. You sang "Sixteen" and "Sunday Morning" in front of the mirror. Or at least I did.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">True story, for about a year, my cell phone answering machine message was the chorus from "Spiderwebs": </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Sorry I'm not home right now</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I'm walking into spiderwebs</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>So leave a message</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>And I'll call you back."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was angsty but not depressed. Pop-y but not saccharine. Girly but not weak. I got the album when it came out and I was all of 6 years old. I don't know what my father, who introduced me to David Bowie and The Who, was thinking when he let me get that CD. He loves me that much, I guess. Tragic Kingdom was my music. It was my taste - not something that my dad taught me to like or my friends suggested. It's an album that, from start to finish, is completely unskippable. Not one song falls short. The sound may be repetitive but the energy (and horns) keep it from feeling stale. To this day, it remains highly played on my iTunes account. I may reach for it less and less but I'm always happy when a Tragic Kingdom song comes on shuffle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know it's not the best musically or lyrically or conceptually. But our favorite albums aren't always based on logic - they come from memories and emotions and time. For what I wanted, for what it gave me, Tragic Kingdom is the best.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Track list:</span>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZktNItwexo" target="_blank">Spiderwebs</a></span>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Excuse Me Mr.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Just A Girl</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Happy Now?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Different People</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Hey You</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. The Climb</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. Sixteen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiBX-ESFDF0" target="_blank">Sunday Morning</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR3Vdo5etCQ" target="_blank">Don't Speak</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11. You Can Do It</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">12. World Go 'Round</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">13. End It On This</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">14. Tragic Kingdom</span><br />
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<i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">Wanna write about your own favourite record? Just holla, yo.</i></div>
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<i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><br /></i></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-90230095240080113092012-07-10T11:36:00.001+01:002012-07-10T12:21:39.256+01:00Favourite LPs #2 - Nathan Crouch<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Weezer - <i>Weezer</i> (or, <i>The Blue Album</i>) (1994)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>By Nathan Crouch</i></span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jOkCWfTKb00/T_sDW9wR2II/AAAAAAAAAFo/wMpZLpNHyVM/s1600/weezer-blue-album.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jOkCWfTKb00/T_sDW9wR2II/AAAAAAAAAFo/wMpZLpNHyVM/s320/weezer-blue-album.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can’t write about Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ without talking about ‘grunge’. You can’t discuss King Crimson without saying ‘prog’. No overview of either Oasis or Blur could ever be complete without reference to the journalist-fuelled battle for ‘Britpop’ glory that dominated their early history, despite how different they were, and how little either cared for the crown. Some albums are so synonymous with a certain sound that it becomes impossible to write a retrospective review without taking this into account. This can prove frustrating for the artists themselves, as almost all of these musical buzzwords are the pigeon-holing brainchildren of journalists, and a lot of the time these buzzwords place far more focus on the look of a band than its sound.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unfortunately for Weezer, this proved to be the case, for when their debut album emerged in 1994, the pigeonhole parade took one look at the cover and cast them as ‘Nerd Rock’ until their dying days. Within their sound may be contained the gain-heavy power chord freak outs of Pixies, the sweetly acoustic serenading of Cat Stevens, and a fair few (simplified) solos stolen from the glory days of Glen Danzig, but despite all of this, they wore glasses. Not only in public, but on stage, and in music videos. In addition, not a single one of their songs was about drug addiction – no winking references to spoons, no reports on visits to Dr Greenthumb, not even a passing mention of anything ‘brown’. Indeed, it seems that when lead singer Rivers Cuomo chimes about how much he enjoys hanging out ‘In The Garage’, it’s less for its hot-boxing potential and more about an irony-free desire for Dungeons and Dragons and X-Men comics. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wherein lies Weezer’s main appeal on their debut ten-track pop masterpiece: as with all great music, it’s incredibly honest. All the best musicians find the best ways to convey where they come from, be it Compton, Trench Town, Outer Space (google ‘Sun Ra’), or in this case, Suburban Nowheresville, Connecticut. No band who puts a couplet like ‘Come sit next to me, pour yourself some tea’ in the opening song of their first album could be aiming for street-cred, and it would almost be embarrassing to sing along to on the bus with your headphones were it not for the magic of Weezer: they sang infectiously catchy songs that make you not care about how lame you may look dancing to them, because you’re having too much fun. They would often recall the crooning pop numbers of Buddy Holly, with a modern post-Pixies adherence to loud-quiet-loud that gels perfectly - take the distortion out of ‘Holiday’ and you’ve got the sound of a hit 50’s 7 inch. From Holly to glam rock, at its best the Weezer sound is a compendium of every music that teenagers at various points enjoyed putting on in their bedrooms and turning up loud for the pure joy of rocking out, free of inhibition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What differs ‘The Blue Album’ from the later, suckier work of Weezer on albums like ‘Make Believe’ is the subtle blend of angst and insecurity that infuses ostensibly happy numbers like ‘In The Garage’, and conversely the notes of hope and optimism that run through more miserable titles like ‘The World Has Turned and Left Me Here’. Latter-era Weezer are a little too content to wear their emotions on their sleeves, picking one feeling per song from the emotional spectrum and sticking to it, but the Weezer of yore had a wonderful way of making sad songs sound happy, and vice versa.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thus, the success of ‘The Blue Album’ is a simple formula: ten perfectly crafted pop songs, from bouncy 3/4 opener ‘My Name Is Jonas ‘ to the dreamy walking bassline that fuels closing 8 minute wonder ‘Only In Dreams’, that encapsulate the main advantage of being a nerd: the ability to enjoy cheesy nerd things without giving a shit. And that’s pretty cool. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Interesting side-note: The influence of this album has stretched far and wide, to bands as bizarrely un-weezer-ish as Deftones and Biffy Clyro, who have both covered tracks from this album – it is certainly worth seeking out the latter’s rendition of ‘Buddy Holly’ as an example of artistic license gone magnificently insane. Remember that episode of ‘Family Guy’ where Peter turns a production of ‘The King and I’ into a war epic about robots from Space? This is the audio equivalent of that: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Track list:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdefe7l7_Zc" target="_blank">My Name Is Jonas</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. No One Else</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. The World Has Turned And Left Me Here</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemivUKb4f4" target="_blank">Buddy Holly</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Undone - The Sweater Song</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Surf Wax America</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Say It Ain't So</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. In The Garage</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. Holiday</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4spkVX8z-vs" target="_blank">Only In Dreams</a></span></div>
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<i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Wanna write about your own favourite record? Just holla, yo.</span></i><br />
<i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-64827430389002191132012-07-09T11:28:00.001+01:002012-07-10T12:32:22.873+01:00Favourite LPs #1 - Alex Bate<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>At the Drive-In – <i>Relationship of Command </i>(2000)</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>By Alex Bate</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">I bought this album after seeing At the Drive-In deliver a blistering version of One Armed Scissor on Jools Holland, then whizz a chair past Robbie Williams’ head when they finished. This performance summed up the feel of the album exactly, a startling combination of noise and energy leaning occasionally towards the unhinged/bat-shit mental.</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">Opener Arcarsenal slowly builds up before exploding into life, and is followed by one post-hardcore monster after another. Listening to songs like Cosmonaut and Sleepwalk Capsules feel like being driven the wrong way down a motorway, whilst Enfilade and Quarantined are brilliantly edgy slow-burners.</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">The energy of the songs is backed up by lyrics ranging from the baffling (“Lazarus threw the party, Lazarus threw the fight,” “this syringe will take a lifetime, it’s filled with bait and tackle”) to the powerful – particularly Invalid Litter Dept.’s account of the Ciudad Juarez drug murders. All of this is delivered in Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s inimitable yelp, although Iggy Pop gives a good attempt to mimic it when he turns up on Rolodex Propaganda.</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">When At the Drive-In broke up after this, their next bands they formed showed what each individual brought to the band, with Bixler-Zavala’s The Mars Volta producing staggeringly creative but frustratingly inconsistent music, whilst Jim Ward’s Sparta were solidly competent almost to the point of boring. However on Relationship of Command they each take their respective Lennon and McCartney roles, with Ward helping to shape Bixler-Zavala’s creativity into something resembling coherent song structures. What this leaves you with is one of the greatest punk records ever written.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Track list</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">:</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">1. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LbiriJAeXo&feature=related" target="_blank">Arcarsenal</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">2. Pattern Against User</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">3. One Armed Scissor</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">4. Sleepwalk Capsules</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">5. Invalid Litter Dept.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">6. Mannequin Republic</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">7. Enfilade</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">8. Rolodex Propaganda</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">9. Quarantined</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">10. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRH5KQ7PPbA" target="_blank">Cosmonaut</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">11. Non-Zero Possibility</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">12. Catacombs</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>Wanna write about your own favourite record? Just holla, yo.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></span></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-44283504098892010772011-01-14T04:13:00.001+00:002011-01-14T14:08:58.451+00:00Long Players<div style="text-align: center;"><object data="http://www.imageloop.com/swf/looopSlider2.swf" height="325" style="height: 325px; width: 400px;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400"><param name="movie" value="http://www.imageloop.com/swf/looopSlider2.swf"/><param name="quality" value="high"/><param name="scale" value="noscale"/><param name="salign" value="l"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><param name="flashvars" value="id=75cf39af-1b6e-1e88-bf6d-12313b030221&c=01,01,02,01"/></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">2010 was not a particularly great year for albums. I realised this when I was trying to compile my Top 10 list, and realised that, with a handful of exceptions, nothing really made me sit up and take notice. Further evidence of the LP's annus horribilis came when various journals released their own End Of Year lists: FACT Magazine's top spot belonged to Forest Swords' 'Dagger Paths', which is a great record but is by all accounts an EP rather than a full-length album. Pitchfork even decided that all three of James Blake's EPs from the year could be rolled in to one and dumped in eighth place, as if no-one would notice that they sounded completely different from each other and weren't one complete record. And, of course, Kanye West dominated the higher reaches of almost every list that popped up. The entire music critic world went in to complete meltdown when 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' became a beautiful dark twisted reality right at the end of '10: while Pitchfork and FACT - amongst others - were excitedly slapping their maximum number of stars on the record, it was less well received in other quarters, with The Guardian dubbing it an, "uninteresting echo chamber that maintains the steady downwards trajectory of West's albums", while some viewed it as overindulgent and pretentious.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">While I would firmly spurn the haters on this one, Yeezy doesn't feature in my final selection of favourite albums from the past year. Here are 10 records that do:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">10. <b>Baths</b> - <i>Cerulean</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">::: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHvWURUzj3Q">Aminals</a> :::</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">'Cerulean' sounds somewhat like an extended collection of the abstract hip-hop tracks that pepper Bibio's 'Ambivalence Avenue' - and seeing as that album was numero uno in this list last year, that's definitely no bad thing. The basis of Will Wiesenfeld aka Baths' music is akin to that of beat-makers such as Flying Lotus and Teebs, but - as with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TewD2AWqNxY">Bibio's hip-hop outings</a> - his songs contain a more intimately human quality to them than some of his peers. This is helped by the fact that, unlike many manufacturers of beats and bass, Wiesenfeld contributes his own vocals at points on the record, adding to the warm, personal feel of the album. Could 'Cerulean' be to the world of abstract hip-hop what 'In Rainbows' is to the rest of Radiohead's back catalogue - namely, the first appearance of a romantic record? If it is, it'll of course require it's own genre name. Heart-Hop? Lovestep? Rom-Hip-Nol? Maybe not...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">9. <b>Four Tet</b> - <i>There Is Love In You</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">::: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYXdeFm2jfc">Sing [YouTube]</a> :::</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">In times gone by, folk would express their incredulity or shock with phrases such as, "Ye Gads!", or, "Gordon Bennett!", or, "Shit!". Nowadays, it's hard to tell if a person is surprised unless they exclaim, "Oh no he didn't!", with the "didn't" of course pronounced as "dih-ent". Sideways movement of one's fingers in front of one's face is a suitable replacement when communicating with the deaf. I bring this up because, back in January of last year, this was the only suitable way to greet the news that Four Tet, with a glittering career that spanned back to the late '90s, had just released what was probably his best album yet. 'There Is Love In You' arrived like the culmination of the increasing prevalence of house and techno in Kieran Hebden's work, as hinted at with 2008's 'Ringer EP' and his pulsating collaborations with Burial in 2009. Despite seeming a world away from the 'folktronica' of early releases, Four Tet had steadily been making the transition to more beat-driven work rather than making any sudden departures, so the only real surprise on this LP is that, after over a decade of releasing material, he's still churning out brilliant, innovative music. Oh no he dih-ent!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">8. <b>Grimes</b> - <i>Halfaxa [available for <b><a href="http://www.arbutusrecords.com/index.php?p=downloads&sp=ABT014">free download</a></b>]</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">::: <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?d68wp805fmj5g2t">Devon</a> :::</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">If I was to make an album, I'd probably record myself reading <i>Treasure Island </i>to a cat as it slinked around our neighbourhood, intermittently playing blasts of Rihanna's 'Only Girl (In The World)' on my phone when I felt that the track needed an injection of oomph. After I'd finished recording, I'd probably copy it on to no more than 20 CD-Rs and give them away free to friends and family, and then assume that this would suffice as their present whenever their birthdays next came along. I wouldn't be making any money out of the venture, but neither would my album be considered to be one of the year's finest releases. This, I'm sure, is only the beginning of the differences between me and Canadian experimentalist Grimes. Whereas she also released her début album for the grand total of zilch, hers happened to be brilliant, whereas mine will be under-appreciated in my own lifetime, to say the least. 'Halfaxa' is a collection of delightfully twisted 'n' psychedelic yet cute 'n' dreamy songs, full of infectious vocals and toe-tapping beats. Think Bjork smoking weed with The Cure at an abandoned '80s discotheque. But, like, in Narnia.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">7. <b>Lone</b> - <i>Emerald Fantasy Tracks</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">::: <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?5dbvo8ce2jqalum">Moon Beam Harp</a> :::</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Although admittedly it hasn't made the Number 1 spot, when I listen to this album there seems very little point in any other music ever made. This is a record that's perfect for pretty much any situation. It's an ideal pre-, mid-, and post-rave soundtrack. It's great for a countryside cycle. It's great for an inner-city stroll. Why not listen to 'Emerald Fantasy Tracks' while shopping for groceries in your local supermarket? Why not indeed. The heart of this album pumps out blood in the form of classic old skool rave riffs, but this is not necessarily music to don your hi-vis jacket and flail your arms in the air for seven hours non-stop to. Lone has taken the kind of acid piano stabs that filled fields in '92 and given them a deep rinse, creating a string of songs that are subdued but still euphoric. It's blissfully easy to submerse yourself in the album, letting it bathe you in gloriously ecstatic sunshine. Or, if you're on an inner-city stroll, heavenly-scented smog.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">6. <b>Daughters</b> - <i>Daughters</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">::: <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?wg9buabg59mtifu">Our Queens (One Is Many, Many Are One)</a> :::</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">One of the most famous catchphrases to emerge from Monty Python's Flying Circus is the immortal line, "and now for something completely different", used to introduce a scene that was radically unrelated to what had preceded it. To give you an idea of the propriety of the phrase for this situation, let us briefly study the Last.fm tags for Lone, and the tags for Daughters. Lone: 'chill', 'deep', 'ambient', 'idm'. Daughters: 'grindcore', 'hardcore', 'mathcore', 'noisecore'. As you might be able to tell, this is music that will not only rudely awaken you from that Lone-induced hazy trance you'd slipped in to, but it'll then force you at screwdriver-point to run a double marathon through torrents of mud and sludge, only to inform you once you've finished that it hates people who run muddy sludgy double marathons, before stabbing you in the eyes with the screwdriver. I know very little about hardcore punk / 'noisecore', and can't entirely remember how I stumbled upon this album in the first place. Each song is a ball of contained, calculated raw energy, channelled through an experimental-yet-coherent blast. It's the most savagely uncompromising album I've heard all year, and all the more enjoyable for it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">5. <b>Oriol</b> - <i>Night And Day</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">::: <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?cgbb390le44u175">Joy FM</a> :::</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>I can assure you that, if you haven't already experienced it, that track there will be one of the funkiest things you've heard in a while.</b> While last year's albums list had Dam-Funk's 'Toeachizown' on groove duty, this year sees Oriol representing all things sleek and sexy. Being myself a product of the pretty but as a whole musically uninspired university town of Cambridge, I was first drawn to Oriol when I found out he was a resident of the 'Bridge, and was signed to Planet Mu. In terms of musical exports, the drum'n'bass holy trinity of Logistics, Nu:Tone and Commix loom heavily over the town, so I was interested to sample this different flavour being stirred up in the city. While Planet Mu sometimes has a tendency for fairly inaccessible bleeps and groans, Oriol's music is nothing of the sort: smooth, chilled-out sultry vibes, bursting forth from the 1980s like a swarm of synth-playing cherubs. A record similar to 'Emerald Fantasy Tracks' in it's ability to soothe and induce warm, comforting rapture, 'Night And Day' should really rank alongside great Cambridge achievements such as the discovery of DNA (I was gonna try and work in some clever little play on 'Night And Day' having the same initials as DNA, but felt that it might be a bit pointless and long-winded, a bit like this caveat that I'm now dragging out way longer than is literary acceptable).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">4. <b>Guido</b> - <i>Anidea</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">::: <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?s3z88hljeyf8ncj">Way U Make Me Feel</a> :::</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Having boasted two of the most impressive singles of 2009 with 'Orchestral Lab / Way U Make Me Feel' and 'Beautiful Complication / Chakra', Guido was already, as they say, shit hot. With his début album in 2010 - on Bristol label Punch Drunk, as with the singles - also transpiring to be brilliant, Guido currently boasts an impressive 100% success rate: three records released, three masterpieces. While 'Anidea' does include three tracks from the 2009 singles, the rest of the album has been fleshed out wonderfully, with fresh tracks like 'Cat In The Window', 'Mad Sax', and the title track all further demonstrating Guido's production prowess. However, there's one master-stroke on this record that trumps everything else. When it was released in '09, 'Way U Make Me Feel' was already a great track, but at the time was an instrumental. For the album cut, however, the vocal talents of Yolanda (<i>not</i> of '...Be Cool' / We No Speak Americano fame) were employed, and the result (available for d/l above) should really be considered one of the greatest R&B/soul songs of at least the past few years. As many producers from dubstep roots have been doing recently, Guido is transcending the mother genre and experimenting with other styles. However, few other producers follow the same line that Guido does, meaning that 'Anidea' is a truly unique and exciting album.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">3. <b>Scuba</b> - <i>Triangulation</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">::: <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?i0p5ees0fnmm6d6">Tracers</a> :::</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">When I first heard this record when it came out in March, I immediately felt that this would be the best album of the year. As it turns out, thinking that after only quarter of the year was a bit premature and it's eventually been squeezed down in to third place, but 'Triangulation' is still an album of undeniable quality. Pushing in a more techno-infused direction than his 2008 album 'A Mutual Antipathy', Scuba conjures up a world of urban metallic machinery on his tracks, with the mood often bewitchingly repressive. The production is meticulous, each track haunted by a swirl of musical antimatter that seeps in to the song and then proceeds to squeeze itself back outwards through every minuscule gap, emitting snatches of crackling noise at timely intervals. While generally quite a reclusive album, there are still offerings that could easily command a dancefloor's attention, such as the romping 'On Deck', the Untold-esque 'You Got Me', or the slightly more expansive 'Tracers'. 'Triangulation' is very much an album that belongs to 2010, encapsulating the leaps and bounds that dubstep has gone in recent years.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">2. <b>Robyn</b> - <i>Body Talk</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">::: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlAV2-eawaQ">Dancehall Queen [YouTube]</a> :::</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Robyn is somewhat of a glorious oddity in the world of pop. She released three studio albums between 1995 and 2002 before finally finding proper mainstream recognition in 2005, when tracks like 'With Every Heartbeat' heralded the arrival of one of pop music's all-time great albums, the self-titled 'Robyn'. She then waits five years to release her follow-up, and when she does, it's not one record, it's three. 'Body Talk Part 1' marked Robyn's return in June, followed a few months later by 'Part 2', culminating in November with the release of 'Body Talk', which draws on tracks from the previous releases as well as adding on a few more to form a full album. And oh my sweet Jesus Jones, what an album it is. Robyn has a talent for making music that any of her American counterparts would eat an entire dress of raw meat to be able to recreate; penning most of her own lyrics, her production team-mate on 'Body Talk' is fellow Swede Klas Ahlund, who crafts the kind of wonderful electro-pop that must make David Guetta smack himself repeatedly in the face with a garden trowel through insane jealousy whenever he hears it. The album has some big singles: the incredible 'Dancing On My Own', the entrancing 'Indestructible', and 'Hang With Me', which at points sounds somewhat like 'Handle Me' from 'Robyn', but both are great songs so no gripes there. Then there are the songs that comprise the rest of 'Body Talk': the pulsating self-conscious/rebellious 'Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do'; the Back To The Future-referencing 'Time Machine'; the horribly cruel 'Call Your Girlfriend'; the bonafide dance anthem that is 'We Dance To The Beat'; the collabs with Royksopp and Snoop Dogg; and 'Dancehall Queen' that I've linked to above, which is arguably one of the best dancehall songs in recent memory - and it's from <i>Sweden</i>. Those are just a selection of highlights, but there's not a dud moment on 'Body Talk'. If it's gonna take Robyn another five years to release her next album, so long as it's as world-beating as her previous two outings then I'll be happy to wait.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">1. <b>Eleven Tigers</b> - <i>Clouds Are Mountains</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">::: <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?h7fzq6xb0x3q8g9">Songs for You</a> :::</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Since I started writing this blog last year and compiled my Top 10 favourite albums at the end of 2009, I started keeping an eye out in 2010 for records that I could seize upon for this year's list. Having fallen in love with last year's list-topper, Bibio's 'Ambivalence Avenue', I was eager and excited to discover an album of similar calibre this year. So it was with disappointment and frustration that the winter months slipped by, then Spring turned to Summer, and eventually Summer began to shrink in to the final throes of 2010 - and I was still without any album that conjured up any kind of real interest. I started to reflect back on albums such as Flying Lotus' 'Cosmogramma', Pantha du Prince's 'Black Noise', Ikonika's 'Contact, Love, Want, Have', and thought, "OK, I know these are good, but they don't really arouse a whole lot of emotion from me - is this what I'm gonna have to settle for? Is 2010 just gonna have to be written off as a fallow year in terms of truly outstanding LPs? Where's my effing Bibio, bitch?!"</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Then one day in October I was idly indulging in my favourite past-time of scouring the web for potentially good music when, through a fortuitous chain of clicks on Last.fm, I happened across this Lithuanian guy called Eleven Tigers who'd moved to London a few years ago and been inspired by Burial, and had a shoutbox full of gushing praise for his album, 'Clouds Are Mountains'. One user was particularly enthusiastic, and I followed a link to his blog post he'd written about the LP where he further lauded it, so I decided to track the album down to check it out for myself. It has 14 tracks and is just shy of an hour long. After less than six minutes, spanning just over two and a half tracks, I knew that this was without doubt the most incredible thing I'd hear all year.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Since I obtained the album, there are few occasions when I've started listening to it and haven't ended up listening to the whole thing. Sometimes this'll involve me lying in bed just gazing at my iTunes library while it plays, while the clock plods along to times like four in the morning, ignoring my need to be asleep around then. What sets 'Clouds Are Mountains' apart from other albums I've heard in 2010, and what makes it so spell-bindingly hard to leave, is that the majority of the record is segued in to one continuous run. Individually, the tracks are brilliant. However, when they're seamlessly flowing through your ears they become really quite magical. The style of music is a kind of dubby techno, which as a genre can be hypnotic enough at the best of times, but when it's so expertly produced as the tracks here are, it feels like a crime to tear oneself away from it. It's a largely instrumental record, but while vocal samples may be sparse they are so spot on when they do appear that they really brush proceedings with a haunting, yearning beauty. As a musical creation it couldn't be much more different from Bibio's gentle folk-leanings, but it is nonetheless a more than worthy successor to the Number One spot.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Honourable mentions: </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><ul><li style="text-align: left;">Actress - Splazsh</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Darkstar - North</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Earl Sweatshirt - <a href="http://oddfuture.tumblr.com/post/486144881/earl-sweatshirt-earl">EARL</a> ('nother freebie]</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Jimmy Edgar - XXX</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">John Roberts - Glass Eights</li>
</ul><br />
<div lang="en" style="width: 400px;" xml:lang="en"></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-2065165458306949032010-12-10T01:07:00.006+00:002011-01-06T16:35:48.479+00:00Monty Don<a href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100805105925AA0dmYD">Is there a rapist in Linkin Park?</a>, asked worried Yahoo Answers member Zack Garrison earlier this year. While they may be his favourite band, he made it clear that, should Chester Bennington or one of his companions prove to be a sex criminal, Zack could not condone such behaviour. Although there is almost definitely <i>at least </i>one rapist in Linkin Park, poor little Zack was getting himself confused with one of the year's biggest viral videos, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzNhaLUT520&feature=related">Antoine Dodson being interviewed about an intruder who had snuck in to his sister's bed the previous night</a> - in Lincoln Park. The clip quickly began filling inboxes and Facebook walls the world over, and it wasn't long before this followed hot on it's tracks:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hMtZfW2z9dw?fs=1&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hMtZfW2z9dw?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The song became possibly even bigger than the original clip, and was even packaged up and released as a genuine single (oh go on then, have a <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?p3cp654pbuuvyg5">download</a>). While usually a staunch cynic when it comes to such gimmicks - I find the rest of the 'auto-tune the news' videos gratingly unfunny - I was rather smitten with the 'Bed Intruder Song', and it became one of those songs where I'd find myself reaching for the 'play again' button as soon as it had run it's course.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">And here, eventually, is where we've reached the point of that intro. While 'Bed Intruder Song' - perhaps shockingly - doesn't feature at all on my list of favourite songs of the year, the tracks that comprise the top 10 have, on more than one occasion, been hastily scrambled back to the start so that I can listen to them two, three, four times on repeat. While some eyebrows may be raised over the course of this final section of the list, you can be assured that it's my sense of enjoyment for these tracks that prevails over any kind of deep critical dissection of the songs themselves - a fact that should be made abundantly clear when you see what enters in tenth place. That, of course, is not to say that these songs are anything short of masterpieces in their own right.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Finally, before I begin the final push towards the end, I'd like to say that it really would be lovely to hear what you have to think. I know the majority of you don't have the free time or will-power to trawl, as I have, through all the songs you've heard this year and then arrange them in order of preference, but if there are a few stand-out tracks that you feel have been highlights then do let me know, as I always enjoy discovering new sounds. Drop a comment at the bottom of the page, send me a message on Facebook, post me a sheet of papyrus inked with your own blood - I'm not fussed how you do it, it'd be greatly appreciated no matter what.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyway, as the Sex Pistols once almost said: </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS, HERE'S SOME BAJAN R&B</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br />
</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">10. <b>Rihanna</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e82VE8UtW8A">Rude Boy</a></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"giddy up, giddy up, giddy up babe"</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">While I'm generally a fan of much of Rihanna's work, this has surely got to be the best song of her career to date. A departure from anything else she's done, 'Rude Boy' took a splash of dancehall, a drop of ragga, and a pinch of M.I.A. to conjure up one of the summer's biggest anthems. You could turn no more than two corners at this year's Notting Hill carnival without hearing the sassy lyrics blaring out of some float or soundsystem. It's been embraced and remixed by all corners of the music world, and you'd be just as likely to hear Rihanna's teasing challenge oozing out of the speakers of a drum 'n' bass night as you would on a Saturday night Oceana dancefloor. The video - 'inspired', let's say, by M.I.A.'s promo for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1SJKF_sQrw">'Boyz'</a> - is captivating to say the least, and reaffirms the song's status as a real temperature-raiser. 'Rude Boy' is one of those rare gems in pop music that's a refreshment rather than an imitation, and a moment that Rihanna may never top.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">9. <b>Tensnake</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?v2waehjx6c8jfgy">Coma Cat</a></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"can I get, can I get-get?"</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">When a track becomes such an anthem as Tensnake's 'Coma Cat' has, it's no surprise to see attempts at criticism springing up from various quarters. Suddenly, every snide music critic became a fan of obscure '80s funk jam <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zAke1nL8Ug">'What I Like'</a>, pointing out that the infectious bassline from Tensnake's banger was in fact just lifted from the Anthony And The Camp semi-hit. Such comparisons and critiques are completely pointless: the fact of the matter is that 'Coma Cat' is a brilliant song in it's own right, regardless of what's been fed in to it to make it so. One of the greatest talents electronic music producers possess is the ability to pluck just the right sample out of music's murky vaults, and turn it in to a thing of modern-day beauty. From the wailing call to prayer that opens the track, to the simply effective vocal sample that peppers the track, to the gorgeous, ecstasy-inducing chimes of the melody, this is a tune that cannot fail to affect the listener in some way. And that 'way' is usually a sense of euphoric, unbridled joy.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">8. <b>Swindle</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?6dmkzwaa1xima5p">Airmiles</a></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"bom-bom-bom-bom bom-ba-dom-bom"</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">There's little point these days in trying to define many of the tracks that emerge around the edges of the worlds of dubstep, funky and grime, as some producers treat pigeon-holes as if they're actually just spaces to put pigeons in. While 'Airmiles' definitely falls in to the minuscule midpoint that a Venn diagram of musical genres would create for it, there's at least one way to describe it: savage as fuck. Leading in with a misleadingly contemplative and calm synth opening, it doesn't take long for the underfed pittbull terrier that lies at the heart of the track to break free from it's leash. A ragged rave riff comes hurtling in, swiftly followed by some domineering beats to leave no-one in any doubt that this track don't take no shit from no man. You'll either be left cowering behind your couch, or jumping around like a loon. Or you could combine the two, and create a kind of eccentric new dance. Yeah, do that.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">7. <b>Aloe Blacc</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR6oYX1D-0w">I Need A Dollar</a></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"I had some good old buddies, names is whiskey and wine"</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm yet to meet anyone who actually first discovered this fantastic neo-soul treat through watching US show <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_9aaotk3PU">'How To Make It In America'</a>, but apparently that's how it found its fame. The song is a throwback to Depression-era blues, and is poignantly befitting of these times of current financial woe. Telling the story of a young man's struggle to find and secure employment - possibly based around Aloe Blacc's own troubles, if I remember correctly - the track is an observational narrative of the difficulties and pitfalls that face America's underprivileged. As with all the best blues tracks, this troubled tale is set against a soulfully groovy backdrop, with the hints of hip-hop that you might expect to find on a record released on Stones Throw. 'I Need A Dollar' is a kind of fable for current times, highlighting the struggles that arise in the world's most advanced Capitalist society. The fact that it does this in gloriously swinging fashion does it no harm, either.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">6. <b>James Blake</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?8bgmt9x5hnayzwz">CMYK</a></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"look I found her red coat"</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">Kelis may have already found approval <a href="http://jackinthejukebox.blogspot.com/2010/12/alan-titchmarsh.html">earlier in this list</a> for her electro make-over in 2010, but it's her work from way back in 1999 that's to thank for one of this year's most brilliant and iconic moments. Plucking a sample from the ex-Mrs Nas' early hit <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3JFwd1bk4Q">'Caught Out There'</a> (the one that goes "I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW!"), fast-rising producer James Blake has tweaked it to perfection to create an irresistible vocal hook that has kept lovers of bass music addicted since it's release. Opening in entrancing style, 'CMYK' eases in to existence with a set of halcyon keyboard strokes that sound like they should be used as sound effects for raindrops in an animated Beatrix Potter cartoon, rather than forming the start of an innovative dubstep instant-classic. Then, with the track still as sparse as Vince Cable's Christmas card collection, Blake ushers in Kelis' "look I found her *damn* red coat" snippet, before gradually elevating proceedings with a hazy set of synths, and then - W-W-W-WOMPH. With crashing bass thuds a lot more subtle and calculated (and better) than the kind found in much of the terrible, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gb3faOzvBk&feature=related">Nero-style</a> dubstep, James Blake burns a lasting CMYK imprint on the listener's brain. It's a shame that he seems to be heading in a bit of a naff new direction - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOT2-OTebx0">'Limit To Your Love'</a> is decent and all that, but at the end of the day it's just a man covering <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36SwnItlU4M&feature=related">a Feist tune</a>, but a bit stripped-back. 'CMYK' is a lot more exciting.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">5. <b>Gyptian</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju954ji7V8E">Hold Yuh</a></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"gyal you give me the tightest hold me eva seen in my life"</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">Long before it was officially released on these shores as 'Hold You' (rather than 'Yuh'), I first discovered this track by reading an article dedicated to it in the Guardian. I know that my choice of newspaper may now leave my credibility in tatters as far as judging dancehall/reggae is concerned, but seeing the author exalt 'Hold Yuh' to the ranks of such modern reggae classics as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GZlJGERbvE">'Welcome To Jamrock'</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFnwBtLrIYI">'No Letting Go'</a> piqued my interest. Described as a "slowburn hit", I prepared myself to not be blown away upon first listen - and I wasn't. In fact, it took a few listens for the understated genius of this track to sink in. But when I eventually 'got it', woah - I adored it. While my ears are a bit too Caucasian and Guardian-reading to actually decipher many of the lyrics, it's the manner in which they're sung - brimming with soul and passion - that makes the impact. The enchanting piano pattern could just as easily belong to an early rave anthem if sped up a bit and plonked on some house beats, but as it is it's bewitchingly simplistic, holding the whole tune together with effortless class. The lack of any major other accompaniment, save for some restrained bass and percussion, ensures that 'Hold Yuh' is a dancefloor classic that's actually fairly hard to dance to.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">4. <b>Letherette</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?k4vvmwog9bycq1b">In July Focus</a></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>".............."</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">While there are obviously words being sung, they're tantalisingly indecipherable in Letherette's sublime 'In July Focus'. Or at least they are for me, do feel free to have a crack at them yourselves. I find it hard to write about this song without descending in to gushing, sickly-sweet clichéd superlatives, but it really is just <i>that</i> blissfully disarming. The primary description that comes to mind when I try to detail the nature of the vocals is that they're like a chorus of golden angels whispering sweet nothings in my ear, which is hardly the kind of inventive language that's going to land me the job of Music Editor at The Independent on Sunday. But seeing as I'm not actually applying for that job at this present moment in time, I may as well persist with my shiny happy descriptions. This sounds like the kind of music that Bambi would produce had he not descended in to a life of drugs and crime after his mum died, and instead chosen to make instrumental hip-hop. In case you're still wondering, yes, I was talking about Bambi the animated Disney deer there, not some obscure rapper from Queens that I'm expecting everyone to have heard of or anything like that. Just get off my back, OK? And hurry up and give me that Indie on Sunday job, I needs the scrilla aiight?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">3. <b>Midnight Magic</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?2h1jok0qf2itafx">Beam Me Up (Jacques Renault Remix)</a></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"beam me up, beam me up, beam me up, beam me uptown"</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Permanent Vacation should really give themselves a jolly good pat on the back. They're the label responsible for 'Coma Cat', Azari & III's 2009 belter <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6T3I_Zskfs">'Reckless With Your Love'</a>, and this, possibly my favourite so far from their gloriously chic catalogue. While reports that in hidden Fijian bunkers teams of narcotics peddlers are busy compressing this song in to ecstasy tablet form are still unconfirmed, you'll definitely need some pretty potent sleeping aid to bring you down after the uncontainable euphoria of this re-rub of Midnight Magic's 'Beam Me Up' enters your bloodstream. If you've read everything up to here in this post you'll probably be weary of my incessant superlatives by now (these are my utmost favourite songs of the year, after all), but nigh on <b>everything</b> about this track is brilliant. If I had to pick the most brilliant part, I might say that the piano riff, which dances steadily and irresistibly along throughout, was the most brilliant. Or I might say that the soulful rapture of the vocals, soaring to heady crescendos before floating "back downtown", were the most brilliant. Or maybe the most brilliant bit is the trumpet part in the latter half of the track, reaffirming the song's status as a bona fide disco-house sensation. Nah, it's too hard to choose - it's just brilliant from start to finish.</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">2. <b>The Hundred In The Hands</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?xia4rgk4wo33973">Dressed In Dresden</a></i></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"you be bombed Berlin, and I'll play Stalingrad"</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">I've listened to a hell of a lot of music over the past year, so it takes something really quite special to make it in to this Top 10, let alone at number 2. There's also always the danger with lists such as these of falling in to the trap of favouring the more recent releases, as they're fresher in the mind. However, 'Dressed In Dresden' is a song that I first heard right at the end of 2009, and its appeal over the past twelve months hasn't waned in the slightest. Featured on the '2010 From Warp Records' promo that the label released as a kind of sampler for the year ahead, this was a song that very much had me at "hello", if "hello" translates in to musical terms as "a tight, catchy guitar riff". My full-on indie-loving ways may now be a thing of the past, but here was guitar music that got me really excited. Of course, it's not just your bog-standard indie fare here - with only two members of the band, there's evidently some electronic trickery at play to create such a layered sound. On top of the pulsating, techno-y drum beat there are a number of fluttering polyrhythms that bound around the track under the jagged guitar and WW2 references of the lyrics, which themselves are engagingly cryptic but strikingly ardent nonetheless. This initial offering from THITH was pleasingly followed by a solid album around the middle of the year, but while the new tracks did nothing to disappoint, 'Dressed In Dresden' still blitzes them all - if you'll pardon the pun.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">1. <b>oOoOO </b>- <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?9c0m9yd3ad2j566">NoSummr4U</a></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"maybe, we can fall in love"</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's been quite an interesting year for pop music. Dubstep has "gone pop", courtesy of Magnetic Man, Katy B, et al (unfortunately that 'et al' is just used in the regular sense, and isn't an abbreviation of <a href="http://www.myspace.com/hyetalmusic">Hyetal</a>, who's great but is some way off making an imprint on the mainstream). Pop has been gifted arguably one of its defining albums of all time this year, in the form of Kanye's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy', while the current Queen of Pop, Lady Gaga, has smashed all number of different records over the past twelve months. There's a strong prospect that not <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2psO_o3jL1M">one</a>, but <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/20101207_cage.shtml">two</a> tracks of complete silence will have featured in the UK Top 40 by the time the clocks tick over into 2011, and this year saw The Beatles launch an assault on the charts for the first time in 40 years thanks to their eventual deal with iTunes.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">"Yeah, what's ya point?" I hear you murmur, wearily. Well, the point is that 2010 has also seen pop music start to be dragged down from its glitzy perch in to the murky depths of the underground. R&B in particular has found its glamorous mansions being pillaged by eager dubstep and garage producers - we need look no further than number 6 in this list to spot evidence of such antics. But now seems as good a time as ever for the admission that I'd been trying to prolong as much as possible: I don't actually know how the hell you say the name of the artist responsible for my favourite song of the past year - oOoOO. I've read somewhere that it's simply pronounced 'Oh'. Let's go with that. Known outside of his ridiculously unconsumer-friendly moniker as Christopher Dexter Greenspan (but even then that's not his real name), this is an artist who has invariably been shoved under the 'witch-house' label to describe his music. Even if you're aware of what the term means, ignore it. I'm not a fan of the constant genre-bashing that goes on - "you can't call that <i>dubstep!</i>"; "how is <i>this</i> techno?!" - as often it's quite nice and useful to be able to group various pieces of music under one umbrella term, but oOoOO's is a style of music that's best defined by the man himself, rather than by others who are insistent on witch-housing him. Labelling his music, "pop music for the unconscious", and stating an affinity closer to Britney and Christina than with any other witch-house dwellers, this is a man who clearly has a love for the mainstream.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">'NoSummr4U' is a stupefying song. Squirming in to existence with a dank smothering of synths and brooding kick drums, it sets out its stall as the most distortedly despondent 'pop' you're ever likely to hear. A series of tumbling arpeggios shoot from the gloom, brushing it with flashes of illumination like distant fireworks in an industrial wasteland. Then the vocals: take me, take me to the water, summertime, summertime, maybe, we can fall in love. Perhaps a little flat when read in print, but when they're seeping out of your headphones, in one instant haunting, in another comforting and silky, you can quite easily forget where you are. As further lyrics emerge, the end sound of "I listen to the rain outside" reverberates ad infinitum back in to the shadows from whence it sprung, as if consigned to a life of perpetual resignation. This is a running theme of oOoOO's work: with a deep love for that which fills commercial radio, his music is a mournful, reflected take on pop music, like an echo that's destined to always linger in the shadowy depths of the cave rather than leap directly from the source.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">As this is getting rather lengthy and I've essentially just been paraphrasing myself for the past few lines (from a review I wrote of his 'oOoOO EP', which doesn't even feature this track), I'll wrap things up there. If you've read the entirety of this post in one sitting, then by God you deserve the several bottles of wine that I'm gonna buy you through sheer amazement. If you've ploughed through it all in several bite-size chunks then that is still no less of an impressive feat, and I really am extremely grateful and appreciative to anyone who's bothered reading everything on this page. The sane ones among you will probably have scrolled straight to the bottom to see what was number one, probably contorted your face in to a mixture of bemusement and disinterest, and then got outta here sharpish. In which case you're probably no longer reading this, so it's suffice to say that I went down on all your mothers last night.<br />
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Once my hand has recovered from the extreme cramp and agony that it will find itself in once I've finally put this post to bed, I'll compose another entry in a bit about my Top 10 Favourite Albums of the year. So that's something to look forward to, eh?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">bye.</div></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-43095616833750092412010-12-08T19:45:00.001+00:002010-12-08T19:51:14.504+00:00Percy Thrower<br><br />
20. <b>KiNK - </b><i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?h686h7ztprdwcdi">Existence</a></i><br />
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Combining deep house with the spirit of early '90s rave, this was both a euphoric, point-your-fingers-to-the-sky banger and a considered slow-burner in equal measure. After a steady, tightly produced intro, the acid rain clouds that are gathering overhead suddenly burst, unleashing a downpour of old-skool piano riffs to leave you with a big grin on your sopping wet face.<br />
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19. <b>Zola Jesus</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?pqx4wmeoz3g827m">Night</a></i><br />
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A leading figure in the rising gothic ambient movement that's reared it's mascaraed head in 2010, Zola Jesus released an experimental collaborative EP with LA Vampires as well as solo album 'Stridulum II' this year, and it's from the latter that this towering, atmospheric number comes from. Starting as it means to go on - i.e. ominously - a scattering of whispered voices pave the way for Zola's majestic, Siouxsie Sioux-esque voice to tread alongside the unforgiving and powerful beating of the drum that drives the track, creating a strong contender for 'anti-anthem of the year'.<br />
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18. <b>Pantha du Prince</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?vwhtbwjp10hekab">Stick To My Side (Four Tet version)</a></i><br />
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Reading like a list of the most highly talented but potentially conversationally awkward dinner guests that one could invite round for some Christmas turkey, Pantha du Prince, Noah Lennox (aka Animal Collective's Panda Bear) and Four Tet combine to make a track that easily lives up to its production credits. Taking the already excellent original from the heart of Pantha du Prince's 'Black Noise' album, Four Tet leaves the vocals more or less in tact but injects some of his trademark warm, chiming techno to give the song a bit of a mood lift, and to my mind pushing the song to an even higher level.<br />
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17. <b>Girl Unit</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?lus86xmnc4tpkfl">Wut</a></i><br />
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'Wut' is like a more brazen, in-your-face version of Joy Orbison's 'Hyph Mngo', which I can assure you is in no way an insult. Featuring the same sense of wistful euphoria as Joy Orbison's masterpiece, this became a staple of many-a DJ set across the land, often serving well as an end-of-night closer. The Night Slugs label released a bountiful amount of quality material this year, and Girl Unit's seven-minute epic is a fine pinnacle of their 2010 catalogue.<br />
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16. <b>Darkstar</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?tfwel92prenpgc9">Gold</a></i><br />
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As has become the norm amongst heralded dubstep producers recently, here was Darkstar's turn to cover one of The Human League's obscure early '80s B-sides. Er wait, what? In fact, 2010 was a year in which Darkstar did very little by the book, switching from the beat-driven dubstep style of early tracks such as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAic4yklSEA">'Need You'</a> to, well, mellow synth-pop. After a bit of confusion it became obvious that it worked, as this exquisite cover of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAkDWfYiy_Y">'You Remind Me Of Gold'</a> proved.<br />
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15. <b>Deadboy</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?3m39ra14nrm58ah">If U Want Me</a></i><br />
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Deadboy strode on to the scene in impressive fashion towards the end of 2009 with his 'U Cheated' EP, and his love for a R&B vocal and a funky bassline showed no sign of dwindling as we moved in to a fresh decade. This lusciously captivating delight filled mixes and sets for months, and further fuelled Numbers' ability to consider themselves as one of the year's top labels.<br />
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14. <b>Fritz Kalkbrenner</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?204e6jdkn49d332">Facing The Sun</a></i><br />
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Brother of legendary German techno producer Paul Kalkbrenner (of, amongst a wealth of other things, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213019/">'Berlin Calling'</a> fame), Fritz took further steps towards his own solo career this year with the release of his début LP, which was led by this blissful brain-warmer. While the guitar is an often overlooked instrument in the worlds of house and techno, the delicate riff on 'Facing The Sun' is really rather gorgeous, especially when layered with the poignant beauty of the vocals. The production on the track is deep and organic, resulting in one of the most enchanting treats that you could bestow upon your ears this year.<br />
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13. <b>D Double E</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?kr4563fp32nan22">Street Fighter Riddim</a></i><br />
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To my thoroughly unqualified and amateur grime mind, this was this year's 'Next Hype'. I think by that I mean 'Street Fighter Riddim' was one of those tunes that transcended the confines of the grime community, and made a name for itself in the wider world. A bit like P Money's brilliant <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRgHynqFMKk">'1 Up'</a> last year, the lyrical theme here is retro console games, but the real appeal of this tune is in the production, namely the brutal bass stabs that pepper the track behind D Double E's snarled spitting.<br />
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12. <b>Débruit</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?eed7lxii69ttao1">Nigeria What?</a></i><br />
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Let's face it, an EP that comes complete with 3D specs to observe <a href="http://www.audiobounty.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Debruit-Spatio-Temporel-EP-550x550.jpg">the cover art</a> properly is either gonna be brilliant, or shit. Delightfully, the entirety of Débruit's internationally-flavoured 'Spatio Temporel EP' was great, but the particular highlight was the disarming closer, 'Nigeria What?', which expertly fused squelching bass bubbles with a sub-Saharan riff and hot vocal snaps. 3D glasses may have been required for the artwork, but the music itself belonged to a whole other dimension.<br />
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11. <b>Flying Lotus</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?cum5dv8gog1wb5r">Do The Astral Plane</a></i><br />
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I don't think I'll ever find an intro to a song that makes me as happy as the gentle, abstract scatting that ushers in 'Do The Astral Plane'. The most danceable track on his latest 'Cosmogramma' album, and possibly the most danceable of his career to date, Flying Lotus deploys a joyfully simplistic tune which has become perfect 'call and response' fodder for the close of his live shows. Featuring his typically micro-managed production, 'Do The Astral Plane' is like it's own little world, where hip-hop, jazz and string samples coexist happily together in permanently sun-soaked fields. This song is probably what would emit from your computer speakers if you typed 'bliss' in to that programme that speaks what you write.Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-61741717239451142402010-12-07T15:51:00.002+00:002011-01-06T16:47:12.682+00:00Toby Buckland<div style="text-align: left;"><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/W7c3wRzUUjs?fs=1&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/W7c3wRzUUjs?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object></div><br />
Already established as the production brains behind The xx and with a rapidly growing reputation as a master disc spinner, Jamie 'xx' Smith has created a remix record for Gil Scott-Heron's 2010 'I'm New Here' album (entitled, in remixed form, 'We're New Here'), due for release in February. I'm not sure what kind of rubbery gold he's crafted the beat to the above track from, but I <i>am</i> sure that it's already likely to feature highly in next year's favourite songs list.<br />
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Returning to this year's list, though, and it would appear that 'The Man' is doing his very best to curb the snowballing influence of this blog. Having already frozen both my financial and physical assets (my hands are currently being stored in cryogenic tanks in northern Kyrgyzstan, meaning that I'm having to write this using a Twiglet that I've taped to my tongue), I received an e-mail the other day from the blogging site informing me that my previous post had been taken down due to a copyright claim. When I investigated further, some of the download links to the higher profile artists had been deleted. I've replaced those with links to YouTube and re-upped the post, but - in an attempt to boost exposure for lesser-known producers by offering a solitary track as a sampler - I'll try and maintain download links for as many tracks as possible. Hopefully if you enjoy a song that you download from here you might buy the EP/LP it's from, or pay money to go and see that particular band/DJ live, and most of the songs that'd get me in to trouble will be ones that you'd probably know/own already anyway.<br />
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So with that in mind as we continue the Top 50 songs countdown, the more commercially heavyweight songs that feature on the list will just link to YouTube videos, as I'm presuming that download links would just get taken down anyway before too long.<br />
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30. <b>Rudi Zygadlo</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ypf60rk88pn924a">Resealable Friendship</a></i><br />
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One man's love for all things horse tranquilliser, squeezed in to a shivering and shuddering synthetic ode.<br />
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29. <b>Tinie Tempah </b>- <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzvGKas5RsU">Pass Out</a></i><br />
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Tinie Tempah's triumphant début single was one of those great pop music moments where everything just fitted together perfectly - the charmingly naff lyrics, the rolling swagger of the bassline, and, of course, that glorious drum 'n' bass finale.<br />
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28. <b>xxxy</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?11xlej38bbeaid5">This Much</a></i><br />
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From the ever-increasingly difficult to define genre that spans dubstep, garage, 2-step and techno, this expansive, heartfelt offering from Manchester's xxxy is as much a treat for the mind as it is for the feet.<br />
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27. <b>Crystal Castles</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjMt0bMVljI">Baptism</a></i><br />
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While Crystal Castles' follow-up album didn't exactly explore any new territory, neither did it fail to live up to the high expectations surrounding it, and 'Baptism' is as good as anything in their back catalogue.<br />
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26. <b>Kele</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdQioZHYpvQ&feature=related">Tenderoni</a></i><br />
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Bloc Party's front-man decided to further explore his dance leanings with his first solo record, and this is as euphorically great as the world of pop has reached in the past few years.<br />
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25. <b>Daedelus</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?nqbgjhml59b89y1">You've Heard</a></i><br />
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A rollicking, triumphant offering from the Ninja Tune/Brainfeeder stalwart's split EP with Teebs, as part of the LA Series set of releases.<br />
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24. <b>Submerse</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?4t42v2nlldkbib8">Hold It Down</a></i><br />
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A sublime slice of forward-thinking garage, combining an exquisite backdrop of strings with a brilliant R&B-tinged vocal (I think I read somewhere it samples <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandy_Norwood">Brandy</a>). This is UK bass music at its deepest, emotional best.<br />
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23. <b>Katy B</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNhPYj-5rIY">Katy On A Mission</a></i><br />
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</i><br />
Benga's decision to haul his track 'Man On A Mission' out of the archives and combine with established Rinse FM sweetheart Katy B to create this crossover gem goes some way to atone for much of the tat that he's been pumping out as part of Magnetic Man. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2vWQFHP3D0">'I Need Air'</a> may have paved the way for "dubstep" (I Need Air ain't dubstep, love) to stumble in to the mainstream, but 'Katy On A Mission' has been the real success story this year.<br />
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22. <b>Gonjasufi</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_N63b2Tk-A">Ancestors</a></i><br />
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The highlight from his Gaslamp Killer-produced 'A Sufi and A Killer' album, this combines Gonjasufi's softly abstract twang poured over GLK's beat-laden world of haze. I think a doobie-spliff or two might have been passed around whilst they were making this.<br />
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21. <b>Addison Groove</b> - <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?de3dwe0n6j5t6au">Footcrab</a></i><br />
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Insane-Insane-Insane-Insane. Footcrab-Footcrab-Footcrab-Footcrab. Makes perfect sense, no? Well maybe not on paper, but when you listen to established dubstep producer Headhunter's first release under his Addison Groove alias you'll find that, even though almost no other song like it has ever existed, 'Footcrab' just makes a whole lotta sense. Taking inspiration and characteristics from the juke scene in Chicago, Addison Groove has created one of the most fascinatingly unprecedented tunes of, well, the past decade. An instant, genre-defining classic akin to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa_PDKKc2_A">'Hyph Mngo'</a> or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyxKZTQm6ik">'Aidys Girl's A Computer'</a>, this is a moment of individual brilliance that will stand alone for quite some time.Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-39225460562123228012010-12-03T13:22:00.008+00:002010-12-07T03:10:28.964+00:00Geoff Hamilton<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">2010 has been another solid year for musical output, with some really exciting and forward-thinking stuff coming from across all genres. However, in amongst these shiny gems and mouth-watering offerings, the year has produced another, almost even more remarkable phenomenon: I think I might have discovered the worst song I've ever heard.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">While, for obvious reasons, a lot less attention is directed towards the stinkers than the highlights when it comes to end of year round-ups, I feel that this song represents something other than 'just a bad song' - I truly believe that 2010 has spawned the utmost worst thing ever committed to record. For me, this song stands head and shoulders above anything that has preceded it, and it'll take a Herculean effort from future generations to surpass its borderline-audacious atrocity. You may be thinking to yourself: what is this song that is seemingly even more of an abhorrent sound than eavesdropping in on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gHGqy5o0VQ">Paul Henry</a> and <a href="http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/09/09/alg_terry-jones.jpg">Rev. Terry Jones</a> eagerly comparing recipes for how to make burgers out of babies with cleft palates whilst tossing each other off at an average speed of 23mph? Duck Sauce's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkQRVeRdyWs">'Barbara Streisand'</a> was certainly bad, but was <i>so</i> uncontrollably stupid that it became one of the year's most infectious anthems. In any other year, Alexandra Burke's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7fBsCOp25A">'Start Without You'</a> would've been rubbing its hands as eagerly as Ricky Hatton in the back room of a Bogota pie shop, as it would normally be a shoe-in for the title of 'Worst Track of the Year'. However at least Burke's effort had a shred of infuriating catchiness to it, no matter how much you may want to slice out your eardrums with some unreasonably salty Kettle Chips whenever you heard it. No, this is a song that had literally nothing - NOTHING - going for it. It is, of course, <b>The Saturdays - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_-UiAwEgbQ">'Missing You'</a></b>. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Here was a song that seemed to almost revel in its own terribleness. Unlike many of the worst songs that have been unleashed on the world, 'Missing You' is too slow to be catchy, and the plodding nature of the track simply draws even more attention to the undeniably dreadful lyrics, singing, production, whatever - name any aspect of a song, and here was the perfect example of how not to do it. The initial vocal refrain - the video suggests it comes courtesy of Frankie, who is the worst singer of the bunch anyway but in truth it's auto-tuned beyond any kind of personal identification - is laughably </span>appalling, and I seem to remember that when I first heard it wafting out of the radio I snorted in such strong contempt that I almost lost several weeks' worth of snot as a result. Rarely does a song exist to serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever, but this one is a categorical exception to that rule. If it's lyrical theme could be described as anything other than diabolical, it would probably be 'sombre', which, combined with its slow tempo, would make it somewhat of a buzz-kill if dropped in a club. Not even a bona fide moron would listen to this song reflectively during a quiet moment of their own time and feel that their own emotions were mirrored in the song, rendering it both publicly and intimately pointless. Every night before I go to sleep I take five minutes to kneel at the foot of my bed, shut my eyes and clasp my hands together, and transmit unbridled gratitude to any celestial beings that may be out there for the blessing that up until now this song has never come on whilst I've had a cheese grater in my hands, as if such incidents were ever to align then I would be left with no choice but to shred my face in to a bloody, cheddar-tinged pulp.<br />
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Anyway, time to saunter down to the other end of the quality spectrum - here are numbers 40 - 31 of my Top 50 countdown:<br />
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40. <b>Lady GaGa</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crYDOdZ2LC4">Alejandro</a></i><br />
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The obligatory GaGa entry. There may be some of you who'll question whether this is in fact a move for the better along the quality spectrum, but to those people I say: Fuck you, and stop sending me pictures of your faeces.<br />
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39. <b>DJ Zinc feat. Ms Dynamite</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvfFZvf8ePw">Wile Out</a></i><br />
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Never fear, I'll yank my waggling tongue off the Radio1 daytime playlist's clitoris soon enough, but this crossover UK Funky hit became a tune that deservedly gained appreciation from all quarters. Now, how did those lyrics go again...?<br />
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38. <b>Illum Sphere</b> - <i><a href="http://www27.zippyshare.com/v/53103039/file.html">Titan</a></i><br />
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For me, this was the highlight from an excellent year that the Manchester producer enjoyed. For him, the highlight was probably being booked by me to play in Sheffield. I mean, I <i>could </i>be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not.<br />
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37. <b>DJ Rashad</b> - <i><a href="http://www14.zippyshare.com/v/41360485/file.html">Who Da Coldest</a></i><br />
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It should be common knowledge by now that adding an element of 'acid' to any type of music makes it infinitely better. Acid house, acid jazz - now here's acid juke, courtesy of one of Planet Mu's multiple signings from the genre, DJ Rashad.<br />
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36. <b>Kavsrave</b> - <i><a href="http://www38.zippyshare.com/v/20348826/file.html">PClart</a></i><br />
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Just one of the many gems that the Glaswegian imprint Numbers - probably label of the year, along with Night Slugs - bestowed upon the world in 2010.<br />
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35. <b>Yeasayer</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0BHLPlidI4">Ambling Alp</a></i><br />
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Psychedelically twee indie from the New York outfit's second album.<br />
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34. <b>Joe</b> - <i><a href="http://www14.zippyshare.com/v/31938620/file.html">Claptrap</a></i><br />
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Introducing the notion of a 'clap-along classic', courtesy of one of 2010's most interesting tracks. Or, alternatively, as an old Yorkshireman exclaimed when it burst out of my phone to indicate the arrival of a new message: "That's a stupid noise".<br />
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33. <b>Giggs</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIUL10qOeR8">Look What The Cat Dragged In</a></i><br />
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While I'm not a consistent fan of everything that the slow-paced Londoner does, the swaggering production and calculated lyrics on this one make it fairly hard to resist.<br />
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32. <b>Balam Acab</b> - <i><a href="http://www59.zippyshare.com/v/64863700/file.html">Regret Making Mistakes</a></i><br />
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The first appearance in the list of the musical style that would invariably be classified as 'drag' or 'witch-house', this track is off the very first EP that the newly formed Tri Angle label released, and it's really very good, combining an oppressive, unrelenting background with hauntingly harmonic vocals. Bloody gaw-jus it is.<br />
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31. <b>Ikonika</b> - <i><a href="http://www58.zippyshare.com/v/81247946/file.html">Idiot</a></i><br />
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A woman who rarely puts a foot wrong, Ikonika released her début LP on Hyperdub early this year, with this typically frantic and bleepy (as we say in the music reviewing world) offering paving the way as lead single.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><b>SEE YAZ NEXT TIME, PIP PIP!!!!!!!!!!</b></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-69623352297318630462010-12-02T00:40:00.007+00:002010-12-07T13:00:06.529+00:00Alan Titchmarsh<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">As befits the sloppy and lazy nature of this particular smudge on the face of the world wide web, rather than going to the trouble of thinking of my own words and writing with my own fingers as to why this blog has remained post-less for several months, I've chosen to plunder a <a href="http://sorry.coryarcangel.com/">website</a> dedicated to "sorry I haven't posted in a while" entries that other bloggers have used. After skimming through a few, these are the entries that I feel best represent The Hardcore & The Gentle's absence:</span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px;">Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile. I just feel nobody reads this and my life hasn’t really been too interesting for awhile…."</span></span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Sorry I haven’t posted.. and no I haven’t weighed myself since my last post.. I’ve been just way too busy."</span></i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Okay ya’ll sorry I haven’t posted anything lately, buhuttt….</span></i></span><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I’VE BEEN WORKING ON MY QUEEN MUSICAL!!!! Entitled, The Rhapsody."</span></i></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I know that m<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;">any of you have felt confused, angry, upset, and even - in certain cases - indifferently underwhelmed by the lack of posts that this blog's been churning out, but fear not friends: The Hardcore and The Gentle is <u style="font-weight: bold;">back</u>. Of course, much has been said about this blog in the past six months. Some have dubbed it 'the forefather of WikiLeaks', a trailblazer amongst websites that publish widely unpopular content that startlingly makes its way into the public domain for others to read. Elsewhere, a Snappy Snaps employee from the Hampstead Heath area described reading The Hardcore and The Gentle as, "an even more dismaying and sickening experience than staring deep in to the depraved red eyes of George Michael as he comes careering towards you through a blizzard of broken glass and blown-up sample school photos". Other sound bites relating to TH&TG from 2010 include Vince Cable labelling it (or should that be 'cabelling it'? *titter*), "irrelevant"; the Pope hinting that, under certain circumstances, it could be a necessary evil; and the entire panel of X Factor judges branding it, "unconditionally brilliant".</span></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">So now that you're pretty much up to date with the various perceptions of this blog since it went AWOL, let me begin to ease you in to another<i> </i>retrospective look back at the year. As anyone who keeps up with the mainstream British media will know, 2010 started way back in January. Then it was February, then March, and before we knew it, April had arrived. May came hot on its tail, June was no slouch either, and, while things looked sketchy at points, July, August and September followed, although to this day no-one's quite sure in what order. October came next, although some chose to skip straight to November - more fool them, I say. And now we've arrived in December. And it's at this point of the year that I'm going to stop listing months and embark on listing songs instead - my top 50 favourite songs from 2010, to be precise. While last-minute claims by Panorama concerning irregular betting patterns surrounding the Top 50 list threatened to destabilise both this and future posts, David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham have spent the last 48 hours fervently sucking my balls in an effort to defuse the situation, when they really should have been running a fucking country, serving as an emergency rescue helicopter pilot, and not cheating on their wife instead.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But all is good now, so I'll leave you with entries 50 - 41 (with a download link for each thrown in for good measure) of my Top 50 Favourite Songs of 2010, while I go off to rub some Nivea Ball Moisturiser on to my now heavily chafing balls. Voila:</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">50. <b>Foals</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaVE4WVlsDQ">Spanish Sahara</a></i></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In which the Oxford math-rockers slide from the frantic ADHD of their earlier work to the svelte, measured style that fills their Mercury-nominated second album, 'Total Life Forever' - to impressive effect.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">49. <b>Jaga Jazzist</b> - <i><a href="http://www19.zippyshare.com/v/13111220/file.html">One-Armed Bandit</a></i></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The title track from Norwegian experimental jazz outfit Jaga Jazzist's latest album, with enough layers and changing patterns to make it the Norwegian experimental jazz equivalent of 'Paranoid Android' or 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">48. <b>Teengirl Fantasy</b> - <i><a href="http://www56.zippyshare.com/v/15945870/file.html">Cheaters</a></i></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A modern-day moral sermon, in deep, groovy electronic form.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">47. <b>DJ Nate</b> - <i><a href="http://www37.zippyshare.com/v/72622193/file.html">Footwurk Homicide</a></i></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This list includes a handful of tracks from a couple of 2010's burgeoning genres, and this represents the first appearance of Chicago's 'juke' music in the Top 50. Now is not the time nor place to discuss the rise of juke, but basically it's generally not actually that good, despite what many websites may claim to the contrary. However there are some gems, with this swaggering effort by youngster DJ Nate definitely being one of them.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">46. <b>Kelis</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8D9xCBcfzw">Acapella</a></i></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Kelis made the transition this year from sassy, milkshake-slurping R&B vixen to sultry, David Guetta-befriending electro queen. I for one liked it. However, David Guetta is a massive cunt. That is all.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">45. <b>FunkinEven</b> - <i><a href="http://www22.zippyshare.com/v/76458752/file.html">Heart Pound</a></i></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">With The Hardcore and The Gentle darling Floating Points not really doing much this year, it was left to others on the Eglo imprint to dazzle. FunkinEven had a stellar 2010, with this slightly Detroit-esque belter my particular fave.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">44. <b>Aeroplane</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN-Ew1RWA7o&feature=related">We Can't Fly</a></i></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Aeroplane divided in two and released a patchy début album in October, but this cut of disco-house heaven was a great example of what's earned them such high praise in the past.</span></span></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">43. <b>MMM</b> - <i><a href="http://www14.zippyshare.com/v/89197665/file.html">Nous Sommes MMM</a></i></span></span></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">One of the subtlest yet most devastating bangers to ravage dancefloors this year, the French duo's track was a deadly tool for any and every techno DJ the world over.</span></span></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">42. <b>DJ Roc</b> - <i><a href="http://www21.zippyshare.com/v/9277000/file.html">King of the Circle</a></i></span></span></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Mo' juke fo' y'all! This one starts off all film noir, before easing in to juke's characteristic high tempo beats and sampled vocal snatches.</span></span></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">41. <b>Bag Raiders</b> - <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W57Db9npOHU">Snake Charmer</a></i></span></span></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I'm always a shucker for a jaunty and infectious little tune, and with this tune being as jaunty and infectious as they come it's just left to some solid electro beats and dissipated percussion to make this one a real shoulder-shaker.</span></span></span></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-27408005504076169372010-05-18T03:29:00.003+01:002010-05-18T11:02:09.165+01:00Some shizzle from two thousand and tizzle<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A lot has changed since the last blog post on here. The UK public have rejected The Strangler's maxim that there's "never a frown with Gordon Brown", leaving the country in the hands of men like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5ar6oqMUns">this</a>. Iceland and Greece, two countries that had previously been considered the height of cool, have proved themselves to be nothing more than ash-spouting, money-grabbing twatsacks, hell-bent on squatting over Europe and taking a big steaming dump, thereby stinking out the whole continent with the pong of dried fish and tzatziki-laced faeces. And the world was rocked by the injustice suffered by a young man who, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/even-tho-u-stabbed-ma-nan-ur-still-da-1-4-me/119093601436097?ref=ts">despite allegedly committing nanacide</a>, was still a much loved member of the community and would forever remain the subject of affection for one particular lucky lady. The world was rocked even further when it gradually, and then definitively, transpired to be a hoax, but the whole affair raised the important discussion of when it is and isn't justified to stab your girlfriend's nan, a moral dilemma which we can only hope is something that future generations will think long and hard about. Tehehehe, long and hard.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Anyway, there's also been plenty of bootylicious music released since the last post, so in one of the many moments of madness I experienced during my recent fortnight-long crystal meth binge I decided to bundle together some musical highlights from the year so far, and slap them on here for you to observe with little interest. Having laden myself with the stupid and generally irrelevant blog title of 'The Hardcore & The Gentle', I thought I'd attempt to make the most of a bad situation by dividing the tracks I'd collated in to 'Hardcore' and 'Gentle' categories. For the sake of making this pathetic attempt at descriptive shoe-horning work, the 'hardcore' tracks are generally faster, more dancefloor-orientated beasts, while the 'gentle' are more chillin' little numbers. Ya dig? Let it be known that this is neither a well-thought out nor comprehensive and thorough selection, but if you've been reading this blog for any longer than a minute then you'll already have realised that's just business as usual. Oh, and for any long-term fans of my online file-hosting habits, I've now switched from Mediafire to Zippyshare to upload the songs, as Mediafire is a gigantic piece of shit and was probably invented by a man with a Greek dad and an Icelandic mother. It should still be easy as peasy to download the songs, if for some reason you wanted to do that.</span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i><u>HARDCORE</u></i></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>F</b> - <a href="http://www24.zippyshare.com/v/93432148/file.html">Energy Distortion</a> - needless to say it can be a tough task finding tracks on Google by a producer known simply as F, but as the techno-dubsteppy skittering of Energy Distortion proves, the hunt is very much worthwhile.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>Deadboy</b> - <a href="http://www28.zippyshare.com/v/81710007/file.html">If U Want Me</a> - Deadboy's U Cheated achieved the much-coveted sixth spot in my countdown of favourite songs in 2009, and he's followed it up with another excellent R'n'B-tinged dancefloor stormer. The man certainly knows how to conjure up a funky bassline and catchy vocal hook, and If U Want Me has already become a staple tune for any mix with even an ounce of self-respect.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>Scratcha DVA</b> - <a href="http://www26.zippyshare.com/v/50620411/file.html">Ganja</a> - this tune uses a similar 'Clangers on pills' sound effect that Mujava used on one of the millennium's greatest dance tracks so far, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l5-zQlgoEE">Township Funk</a>, and if listening to Ganja doesn't make you wanna wobble your legs and wave your arms around like a funky octopus, then you're not quite right in the 'ead mate.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>Kyle Hall</b> - <a href="http://www2.zippyshare.com/v/20723855/file.html">Must See</a> - after dipping his toes in to the dubstep paddling pool with his Kaychunk / You Know What I Feel EP on Hyperdub, the young Detroit prodigy returns to the familiar realm of jazzy house on his latest release. Plus, all of his previous releases are now <a href="http://bleep.com/index.php?page=artist_details&artistid=14814">available to buy on Bleep</a>, which would not be a bad investment at all if you've got a few spare bob lying around.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>Omar Souleyman</b> - <a href="http://www1.zippyshare.com/v/67540697/file.html">Ala Il Hanash Madgouga</a> - Syrian psychedelic folkster Omar Souleyman has returned with another album packed full of frantic craziness with a delightful Middle Eastern flavour, perfect for white British boys such as myself to sit at home listening to while pretending that the majority of people from the originating region don't hate our guts.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>Ceephax Acid Crew</b> - <a href="http://www41.zippyshare.com/v/77412238/file.html">Castilian</a> - if Arabia does ever grow tired of white British boys such as myself leeching off their psychedelic exports, then fortunately we'll always have United Acid Emirates, the latest album from Squarepusher's brother, Ceephax Acid Crew (funny names they have in that family, eh?). As usual it's chock-a-block with bleepy goodness, with a pH level so low it'd turn litmus paper the colour of Lenin's tongue. Cor, what a bloody brilliant string of references that was.</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>MMM</b> - <a href="http://www2.zippyshare.com/v/64075639/file.html">Nous Sommes MMM</a> - for those of you who, like Girls Aloud, don't speak French, the title of this song translates as "we are MMM". I think it's probably called that because it's produced by MMM. Therefore it's MMM making the track, and they're pointing out that fact to you through the song title. In French. Who says this blog isn't informative or culturally relevant?</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>Actress</b> - <a href="http://www9.zippyshare.com/v/37095868/file.html">Always Human</a> - Actress' last album, Hazyville, was pretty brilliant, and his follow-up, Splazsh - released on Damon Albarn's label Honest Jon's - is of a similar pedigree. Muffled, moody dub-techno flows throughout the record, affirming Actress' status as one of the top innovators on the British scene at the moment.</span></span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i><u>gentle</u></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><b>Emeralds</b> - <a href="http://www38.zippyshare.com/v/83746766/file.html">Candy Shoppe</a> - guess which one of the following descriptions refers to this song by American trio Emeralds, and which one refers to the song of a similar name by American one-man shit factory 50 Cent: 1.) an exquisitely crafted track of floating beauty, this is musical creation at it's most intelligent; 2.) typically posturing nonsense from one of the music world's most unnecessary and unwanted acts. Actually, there can be no <i>right </i>answers when 50 Cent's concerned, only woe and misfortune. So don't bother answering that question.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><b>Randy Barracuda</b> - <a href="http://www17.zippyshare.com/v/6512498/file.html">Streisand Effect</a> - while the song and artist name probably aren't purposefully linked here, I imagine that if you called up a veterinarian in a moment of concern for your overly-horny pet fish, their response would be, "You've got a randy barracuda? Has it been watching 'Hello, Dolly!'? It has? Ah right then, it's just suffering from the Streisand Effect. Just put it in a cold bath for half an hour and play it Fergie's music videos on repeat - that should do the trick" ~ [half an hour later] ~ "Your barracuda's just slit it's wrists in the cold bath? Ahh shit..."</li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><b>Ramadanman</b> - <a href="http://www33.zippyshare.com/v/38310025/file.html">I Beg You</a> - in which Ramadanman takes a phrase popular with both doomed medieval prisoners and modern-day young people from London and bases a song around it, using his characteristic pulsing drum patterns and a haunting vocal sample.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><b>The Crystal Ark</b> - <a href="http://www11.zippyshare.com/v/82167281/file.html">The City Never Sleeps</a> - Gavin Russom follows up his awesome acid house project Black Meteoric Star by moving in to the guise of The Crystal Ark, with this track a deep, sprawling tribute to South American music. A twelve-minute masterpiece.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><b>Holy Fuck</b> - <a href="http://www7.zippyshare.com/v/16006775/file.html">Red Lights</a> - the only way to express how continually brilliant Holy Fuck are is by simply exclaiming the group's name in sheer wonderment, as this track - along with the rest of their new album, Latin - is friggin' ace. With their last album, 2007's LP, being one of my top favourites from that year, combined with completely wowing me when I saw them live a couple of years ago, the Canadian outfit can do no wrong in my eyes, and fortunately the strength of their new record won't be changing that opinion anytime soon.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><b>Scuba</b> - <a href="http://www10.zippyshare.com/v/35421816/file.html">You Got Me</a> - a few of the tracks listed so far feature on some of my favourite albums of the year, but Scuba's Triangulation is possibly currently sitting at the top of that pile. The album is class from start to finish, and I could've chosen any number of songs from it to demonstrate it's greatness.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><b>Mark E</b> - <a href="http://www45.zippyshare.com/v/42481577/file.html">Slave 1</a> - while not strictly from 2010 (as the album title 'Mark E: Works 2005-2009' would strongly imply), the compilation was only released this year so it blatantly still counts. This is the kind of deep house that Haagen-Dazs should be turning in to an ice-cream flavour, as it is absolutely delicious. They probably won't though, they never listen to my ice-cream flavour suggestions. All I've got for my attempts at helping is a draw-full of 'cease and desist' orders, and regular home visits from a psychotherapist.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><b>jj</b> - <a href="http://www38.zippyshare.com/v/35246430/file.html">Into The Light</a> - this isn't actually the best song from Swedish group jj's newest album, which in turn isn't quite as good as their last album, but if you can show me a better example of a song fusing melodic synths and floating vocals with snippets of Italian football commentary describing Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring a goal (or at least, that's what one would presume is happening), then by all means I would <i>love</i> to hear it. Oh, what's that? You can't find a better example? WELL FUCK OFF THEN.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><b>Toro y Moi</b> - <a href="http://www13.zippyshare.com/v/40085834/file.html">Lissoms</a> - "lo-fi", "chillwave", and "glitch-hop" are all words that are bandied about a lot these days, often with the person using the words not really knowing what they're talking about, but this lo-fi piece of glitch-hoppy chillwave is really, erm.... really good. Yeah.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><b>Flying Lotus</b> - <a href="http://www17.zippyshare.com/v/9805194/file.html">Do The Astral Plane</a> - the United Nations recently passed a motion making it illegal to say a bad word about Flying Lotus (the punishment for any dissident being to swear an oath to a block of wood with a smiley face crudely painted on, acknowledging that even it has superior musical knowledge to the FlyLo hater), which would be problematic and dictatorial if it weren't for the fact that it's very hard to say a bad word about Flying Lotus in the first place. I'm still undecided as to whether Steven Ellison's latest offering, Cosmogramma, is his best to date, but one thing's for certain - it's certainly very good. Or at least, that's what Reinhard - my crudely painted wooden superior - has told me.</li>
</ul><div style="text-align: center;"><b>BYE BYE !!!!!!!!!!!!</b></div></div></span>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-64659875939726639812010-03-30T19:05:00.006+01:002010-03-30T19:31:33.251+01:00Guess who's back with some brand new tat?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Even a leper with sub-par numeracy skills could count on one hand the number of days since the last The Hardcore and The Gentle post that I </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">haven't</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> been pestered by a pleading cohort of distraught readers, desperate to know when the next post will be hitting their cyber-doormats. Well, without meaning to stick my tongue too far down the fully waxed blog hole of The Rt Hon. Dan Boadan, I read his excellent new blog post earlier today (</span></span><a href="http://bit.ly/9VZL2R"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://bit.ly/9VZL2R</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">) and was inspired to get back on to the blogging circuit myself. Plus it's too rainy for hopscotch, so a lad's gotta entertain himself somehow.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In an inglorious return to <a href="http://jackinthejukebox.blogspot.com/2009/08/we-love-program.html">the early days of this blog</a>, I'm not actually sure exactly <b>what</b> I'll be writing here, but I'm fairly sure that I'll be writing it nonetheless. One thing's for certain though: whatever it is, it'll be rambling tat. Rather than carry on reading this, you may instead find an iota more interest in an interview I did with veritable bad-ass Detroit dweller <a href="http://www.myspace.com/kylehalldetroit">Kyle Hall</a> which is now online, but which I will refrain from linking to here because last time I did something like that it resulted in all kinds of grief, not least the misjudged creation of a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=262931741407&ref=ts">Facebook group for this blog</a>. The interview is basically just more rambling, but this time it's me channelling the rambling rather than perpetrating it myself. Google "Kyle Hall Sound Revolt" if you enjoy a) Detroit-style house/deep house, b) interviews, AND c) me (it's gotta be all or nothing I'm afraid, there's no room around here for interview-loving deep house fans who <i>don't</i> have a shrine to me in their kitchen).</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Always one to fart in the face of well thought-out and coherent blogging, I will now proceed to fill up the next half a page of your sorry little lives with possibly my laziest and worst quality bit of blogging to date - and regular readers will know that that's really saying something. A while ago, like many other people wot write on the internet, I knocked up a blog post about things that I'm looking forward to in 2010. That was near the start of February, already pushing the boundaries of acceptable timing for 'Beginning of the Year' lists. It's now almost April. I'm not entirely sure why I never got round to publishing that post, but in the spirit of recycling and unimaginativeness I've now decided to crop two of the entries from the list - one now horribly outdated, the other horribly pointless in the first place - and will post them in this blog entry. I'm not even gonna update them. Not one bit. I'm literally just gonna copy and paste from the un-posted post and leave you to wallow in the resultant misery, hopefully cursing the day that you ever laid eyes on this blog.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">To mock you even further, I'll change the two extracts in to different coloured text, meaning that the most eye-catching parts of the page will in fact be the most atrociously lacklustre. Oh, and the reason why these two sections have been chosen over the rest of the list is that I felt some parts of them were amusing - so please prepare yourself to enter the biggest laughter-vacuum known to man for the next handful of moments.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">I'm writing this two days after </span><a href="http://www.bestival.net/html/news/1690"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">the first acts for this year's Bestival</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> - easily the best festival on the face of the planet, bar none - have just been unleashed on the world, and it's already looking to be yet another excellent few days on the Isle of Wight. At this point you may wish to find a quick crossword (no cryptics, please) or easy-to-medium level sudoku to partially fill in, as all that this poor excuse for a blog has to offer for the next few seconds of your life is a list of acts that have caught my immediate fancy from the line-up, which will of course be of less interest and benefit to anyone than a lecture by Ian Wright on how to correctly attach a mackintosh to a dog. If you don't happen to have a newspaper or puzzle book to hand, then why not distract yourself with a flick through </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8459005.stm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">this BBC News gallery of pictures of pot holes</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">, which should also prove sufficiently more interesting than what I have to say. Anyway, from the first acts announced, I'm eagerly looking forward to: LCD Soundsystem, Flying Lotus, The Gaslamp Killer, Vitalic, Chilly Gonzales, Nathan Fake, Dixon, Joy Orbison, SBTRKT, Untold, and, of course, ROLF MOTHERFUCKING HARRIS. And when I say that Bestival is the best festival, I'm not just saying it's "the best" as someone might say "OMG Creamfields is THE BEST FESTIVAL, it always has all the biggest DJs" or "OMG Reading is THE BEST FESTIVAL, it's a great opportunity to get really pissed and watch The Enemy whilst surrounded by 14 year olds" - Bestival is the best because it has a really great and diverse line-up, with just the right amount of top names so that in most cases you'll be able to see everyone you'd wanna see (unlike somewhere such as Glasto, where there'd be more clashes than a West Ham vs Millwall fans' Monopoly marathon), plus there's been a huge amount of effort put in to the little details so as to give the festival a brilliant atmosphere, plus it has the fancy dress theme which adds further fun and quirkiness to proceedings. Now all that's needed is for the mysterious female artist that </span><a href="http://twitter.com/RobdaBank/status/8689517320"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Rob Da Bank is being coy about</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> to turn out to be Bjork, and for the weather to be a repeat of 2009's glorious sunshine, and hey presto - I'll be in festival Valhalla. And although she'll probably be slowly rotating on a spit in one of Hell's finest ovens by then, it'd also be pretty cool if Lady Gaga was the mysterious female. Just no way near as cool as if it were Bjork. Actually, yeah - fuck off back to Hell Lady Gaga, you whore-foreheaded hussy.</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For that last part about Lady Gaga, I'm making a reference to <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MORdN16n53o/S23k245nGtI/AAAAAAAAABc/rqZcUELA6hM/s640/wbcladygaga.jpg">this news release</a> from the good folks at Westboro Baptist Church, which I'd posted earlier in the post. Except I didn't post it. If you know what I mean. Anyway, I think it's fairly safe to say that that extract wasn't as good as I'd remembered it, so we'll move swiftly onwards and downwards to this one:</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Electrik Red</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Not that anyone, including myself, wanted my thoughts on this particular matter, but Electrik Red are my tip to be the next American pop group to make it big in the UK. Having released their début album in the U.S.A. last year to critical acclaim, the likelihood is that they'll follow the typical pattern of attempting to break the British market sometime this year, and to my mind they've certainly got the goods to do so. Although I'm not exactly the most devoted fan of sassy, female-empowering R&B, Electrik Red have got some great beats and tunes, and the lyrics are akin to those of Destiny's Child, leaving me feeling like a natural born woman. They have an arsenal of tunes that are easily head and shoulders above the majority of dreadful pop and R&B that currently resides in the UK chart - here might be a good point to nominate Jay-Z & Mr. Hudson's 'Forever Young' as an early forerunner for biggest heap of (barely) musical shit of 2010. Jeez that song sucks.</span></span></span></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"><br />
</span></span></span></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Electrik Red - </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdVfq4FT-P4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">W.F.U.</span></a></span></span></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Electrik Red - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWVvk1KrivM"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Freaky Freaky</span></a></span></span></div></div></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And that was also thoroughly not worth the effort of holding down CTRL + C, CTRL + V. I do apologise, hopefully the normal level of only <i>slightly</i> shit blogging will resume soon, and, if you're really unlucky, on a more regular basis.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u>Songs I'm Currently Loving</u></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u><br />
</u></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I have a little system of collating the songs that I whack in this section, whereby any song that makes me go "oooh" when it comes on in my music library gets copied in to a little folder in a dark and dusty corner of my hard-drive, where it sits until I get round to writing a new blog post and upload the songs in the folder on to Mediafire. As it's been donkeys years since the last post, a fairly hefty pile of tunes which, according to myself, I'm "currently loving" has accumulated in said dark and dusty corner, and as is often the case with any song or small child, it doesn't take long before one stops loving it. I've trimmed the collection a bit, so you're now left with a bunch of songs that "I am or have previously been loving". To give you an idea of what was once loved but has now been trimmed, let's just say that '3 Words' by Cheryl Cole feat. Will.i.am was recently reported skulking round the dark and dusty corner. Hmm...</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Gonjasufi - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?hdkm0mdmtzm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ancestors</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - Gonjasufi's album came out a little while ago, with production credits going to The Gaslamp Killer, hence the album title 'A Sufi and A Killer'. It's very good.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ikonika - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?z1lmmy5wwgz"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Idiot</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - Ikonika's album is out soon. It's very good. 'Idiot' is probably my favourite track of hers to date, and for those of you who who live in the Sheffield area and possess a functioning set of eyes, my review of her album 'Contact, Love, Want, Have' should be in the forthcoming April edition of </span><a href="http://nowthensheffield.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Now Then</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Actress - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?2hizwauohkm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Crushed</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - Actress' new album, 'Splazsh', is out soon. It should be very good. His first album 'Hazyville' is a gem, with 'Crushed' being a particular delight.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hot City - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?4jjwjnwzn4o"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">No More</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - Hot City are hot shit(ty) at the moment, having released many-a killer tune already and with a brand of bouncy house/techno that makes me utterly gutted ("Utterly Gutterly"?) to have missed them when they hit Sheffield a few weeks ago.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Nathan Fake - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?zjxyjwqz0gx"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bored of House</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - someone I </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">did </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">manage to catch in the City of Steel recently was Nathan Fake, one of the residents of the 'Blog Favourites' section on the right-hand side of this blog. His sound has changed somewhat since he first burst on to the scene, and while he continues to impress on his releases my favourite of his records is probably still the 'Watlington Street EP' from which this track cometh.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">José James - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?2lcx5hxnkhe"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Blackmagic (Joy Orbison Remix)</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - someone who no-one will be catching in Sheffield any time soon is Joy Orbison, thanks to Metropolis & Wax:On's undying uselessness. Having been on the original line-up for their next event, he's now mysteriously disappeared and has been replaced with Emalkay, which is like someone chopping off your penis and replacing it with an adder. And when I equate Joy Orbison with a penis I mean he's a source of warm pleasure, rather than a knob. Or, in my case, a massive knob. WHEEEY!</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Omar-S - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?gumymnt4nom"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Strider's World</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - the man largely responsible for elevating the aforementioned Kyle Hall in the world, Omar-S has never been too bad at the ol' song making himself, with this track from a while back being the very embodiment of the word "dope".</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Nat King Cole - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?wjjztzw2mhz"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Lush Life (feat. Cee-Lo)</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - I recently had the good fortune to stumble across an album of hip-hop reimaginations of Nat King Cole by a range of top producers, and this is a particular beaut. The album's called 'Re: Generations', well worth tracking down.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Freeway & Jake One - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mwmwjx2ttje"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Know What I Mean</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - hip-hop albums can be very hit and miss, but in the case of Freeway & Jake One's 'The Stimulus Package', it's most definitely a hit, with this song a prime example.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Laughing Windows - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?azd0wwf4g2j">Beta Test</a> - if you scroll down the comments on the MySpace for The Laughing Windows, you'll find one that says simply "<b><i>BRUTAL SHIT!</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">", left by none other than perennial bad-ass motherfucker, The Gaslamp Killer. And that's really all that needs saying.</span></b></span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Broken Haze - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?3iurthyauut">Block</a> - The Hardcore and The Gentle's favourite member of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canidae">Canidae family</a>, the mighty Terror Wolf, recently pointed me in the direction of a natty free album from Jus Like Music and Apple Juice Break, which can be downloaded here: <a href="http://juslikemusicrecords.bandcamp.com/">http://juslikemusicrecords.bandcamp.com/</a>. It features a host of good but unfamiliar names from the worlds of dubstep, hip-hop and general electronica, with this track by Broken Haze providing some excellent whomps and glitches. And while he's being mentioned, make sure to check out a recent mix from the one and only Terror Wolf here: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/download/73596754e3f019f2/">http://www.zshare.net/download/73596754e3f019f2/</a></span></b></span></span></li>
</ul></div></span>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-17816765390229895432010-01-18T12:46:00.001+00:002010-01-20T19:17:43.236+00:00Al bums<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To be perfectly honest I would've expected a far less puerile and immature title for this post on my favourite albums of the year, but it just goes to show what a dreadful state this country's in today. Absolutely disgusting - I make myself physically sick. Sometimes I just stand in my bathroom staring in to the mirror and thinking "You, sir, are a foul git". This blog is even the number one most common aid used by bulimics to induce large vomiting fits (recently over-taking listening to audiobooks of Piers Morgan reading Peaches Geldof's memoirs), such is the repulsive nature of the writing style and "humour" it contains. But until I learn to grow up and start thinking of genuinely amusing post titles, I'll just have to sit here and type out my list of the top ten albums of 2009, pausing after each entry to spew my guts out on to my computer through sheer revulsion at what I've just written. So, once I've finished scooping bits of regurgitated broccoli out from under my Caps Lock key that have found their way there as a result of re-reading this introduction, please feel free to carry on perusing through this blog and sneer/marvel/snarvel at my favourite long playing records of the year - just remember to keep a bucket to hand.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">10. </span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Dorian Concept</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">When Planets Explode</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">If truth be told, When Planets Explode isn't exactly an album that I could put on any time of day and think, "Wow, yeah, this is </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">so</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"> the tenth best album I've heard in 2009". When I'm not in the mood it can even start to sound a bit like </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iZBWLs8owE"><span style="font-size: small;">Jones' music in Nathan Barley</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">, as my brain struggles to make sense of it all. But when I am in a suitably glitch-hoppy state of mind, I find that nothing hits the spot quite like a bit of Austrian quirky beat-making c/o Dorian Concept. If anyone reading this is temporarily suffering from enough of a sanity deficiency to actually take interest in my words and decides to track this album down, I'll take advantage of your weakened sense of judgement by chucking a drink-based metaphor at you - treat this record like a pint of Guinness. Don't grab it and down it as soon as it's been poured, that'll leave you with a foul taste in your mouth. Instead, give it time to settle, nurse it, sip it, and then at the end you'll have enjoyed it a lot more. No harm in buying a couple of packets of pork scratchings as well to offset the taste, y'know... just in case.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dorian Concept - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?m3lnyygqjmb"><span style="font-size: small;">Color Sexist</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Further listening: Hudson Mohawke - Butter</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">9. </span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Fuck Buttons</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Tarot Sport</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Phew, glad we're back in to much more accessible music territory here.......NAHT. If you're sat or crouching at your computer thinking "who the fuck buttons are Fuck Buttons?", they're two men from London who take Super Hans' maxim in Peep Show that what is needed in music is a powerful sense of dread, then making the aforementioned powerful sense of dread seem otherworldly and actually quite uplifting in a dready kinda way, before bundling the whole lot in to an epic-o-meter and cranking the 'epic' up to 11. Acid dealers were probably creaming themselves when this one came out.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fuck Buttons - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?x2tmzmuwnqz"><span style="font-size: small;">Olympians</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">8. </span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Dam-Funk</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Toeachizown</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dam-Funk should actually be written with a little circumflex accent over the 'a', but I don't know how to do those on keyboards and whenever I try to copy stuff in to here the formatting gets messed up all over the shop, and I'm not adept enough at the finer side of this blogging bizniz to sort it out properly. But enough about my blog formatting woes - the Toeachizown LP is a collection of the 5 Toeachizown EPs that the L.A. electro-funkster released in the past year or so. If Prince and George Clinton had made a film in the 80's about their vision of how life would be if we all lived in space by now, this album would pretty much be the soundtrack. It's slick, it's sultry, it's soulful, it's funky - would it be </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">completely</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"> lame and cringeworthy to finish that sentence with "- it's Dam-Funk"? It would, wouldn't it? Good. It's slick, it's sultry, it's soulful, it's funky - it's Dam-Funk.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dam-Funk - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?knm2ykez125"><span style="font-size: small;">Let's Take Off (Far Away)</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">7. </span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Fever Ray</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Fever Ray</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fever Ray's début album sounds very much how you'd expect an album by The Knife to sound if you took away the more dance-fuelled half of the group, and were left with the unique vocals of the other half. Which is exactly what this album is, as a matter of fact. The pulse on this record is slower than is often found on productions by The Knife, with Fever Ray's rhythms and beats tending to take a supporting rather than leading role in the songs, leaving it to Karin Dreijer Andersson's exquisite voice and lyrics to take prominence. The album is mournful in parts and hopeful in others, and beautiful all the way through.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fever Ray - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?cmrzzhmnut1"><span style="font-size: small;">Keep The Streets Empty For Me</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">6. </span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Few Nolder</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">New Folder</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Directly beneath Fever Ray in both my iTunes and this list is Few Nolder, a Lithuanian techno producer who is probably one of the greatest people alive on the planet at the moment, a statement that may or may not be due to the fact that he somehow picked up on my inclusion of his track 'Chika' in my top 10 songs of 2009, which resulted in him posting this blog on his Facebook fan page, leading to an influx of visitors from Lithuania. </span><span style="font-size: small;">So, a</span><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">čiū labai, Few Nolder! New Folder is a refreshing techno record, an album that declines to comply with standard techno etiquette (techniquette?) and is instead clearly crafted in Few Nolder's own specific style. Often such a description would really mean "it's shit, there's a reason why people follow conventions", but this album is honestly really impressive, and of course contains the best musical moment of any song in 2009, the melody in 'Chika'. Long live the Lithuanians.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">Few Nolder - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?zgyvyozx2vq"><span style="font-size: small;">No Mo</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> (Chika can be found on previous blog posts)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">Further listening: Rone - Spanish Breakfast</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">5. </span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Moderat</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Moderat</span></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">This album was a latecomer to my 2009 ears - it was released in April, but it wasn't until the staff of the wonderful Polish website that I fairly inexplicably write for (I'm just generally a big deal in Eastern Europe) started waxing lyrical about Moderat during discussion for our </span><span style="font-size: small;">end-of-year round-up</span><span style="font-size: small;"> that I felt I needed to get myself moderatted. I'm sure that literally 0% of you had been worrying how successful the link up between eclectic electronic Berliners Modeselektor and experimental techno producer Apparat would turn out, but I can now assure you that it's been a very successful partnership indeed. Both Modeselektor and Apparat are mighty fine creators of music in their own right, and while there was obvious potential for their unison to flop, they doggedly stuck with the project (it actually started in 2002, so seven years is a mighty long time to wait for a début album - what happened to German efficiecy?) and this record is a really great fusion of techno, dubstep, glitch and idm. Apparently their live show was absolutely the greatest thing ever as well, so if it ever pops up near you then lock on dat shit, ja?</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">Moderat - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?tnyqao44ykm"><span style="font-size: small;">Seamonkey</span></a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">4. </span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Nosaj Thing</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Drift</span></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hailing from the same school of thought as Flying Lotus, Daedelus and the rest of the L.A. Low End Theory gang, comes Nosaj Thing. Following up the exquisite track </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQOViWlIQoc"><span style="font-size: small;">Aquarium</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">, his first LP 'Drift' is "glitch-hop" at it's absolute finest. I still don't quite like the term "glitch-hop", which is why I feel the need to humiliate it by putting it in inverted commas. The album is more ambient than the work of Mr Lotus and Daedelus, yet the record is still well stocked in the beats department. It has a floating, delicate and haunting feel throughout, making the album title highly appropriate - every track is captivating, the production skill is immense, Nosaj is a frickin' genius.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nosaj Thing - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?izyjn5cxmww"><span style="font-size: small;">Light 2</span></a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">3. </span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Clark</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Totems Flare</span></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">Gentlemen, we're no longer in ambient country. Totems Flare is an absolutely nuts firecracker of an album, evoking the image of someone trying to re-wire a computer using a drum stick in the midst of an acid-apocalypse while being attacked by a wild beast. Or if it doesn't evoke that image for you, then you're blatantly proper weird, innit. Some of the tracks are so chaotic that I'm having to break my habit of re-listening to the albums while I write about them, because my brain is just getting too melted. This is all in a good way, of course. Clark has long been a mad professor in the music world, and it'll come as no surprise (or, to many of you, interest) that Warp Records is responsible for unleashing Totems Flare upon the world, carrying on their fine and long tradition of experiMENTAL releases. Totems Flare has a very powerful energy to it which can often sound very raw and primal, but the album is actually very expertly produced and there's an excellent balance between grit and melody throughout the record. To use a bit of a hackneyed phrase, Totems Flare is 'controlled chaos'.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">Clark - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?13tr2wd5wmz"><span style="font-size: small;">Rainbow Voodoo</span></a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">2. </span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Martyn</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Great Lengths</span></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">I've ranted a bit about certain types of dubstep before, but for the very few of you out there who </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">haven't </span></i><span style="font-size: small;">been steadfastly piecing together all my blog posts in to a form of religious manuscript, I'll quickly recap my qualms. When dubstep first hit, it was great. Wobble wobble wobble, whom whom whom, bass bass bass. All well and good. But this was a good few years ago now, and although classic tracks from the likes of Caspa and Rusko are still classics, there's been an infuriating lack of imagination from many producers ever since. Get a little sample of a song or film/TV show, chop it up, throw in some slow off-beat drum patterns and then crank the LFO up and make the bass as wobbly and slamming as possible. The result is a type of music that gets boring very quickly, and unsettling only slightly slower. "Dubstep remixes" are now simply a song played in it's normal manner, but with a ham-fisted punch of whomping bass underneath. Both Caspa and Rusko have been maintaining a distinct level of crapness for a long time now, yet for some reason they seem to be the benchmark for many budding bass-merchants. So to counter this sea of dubstep trash, it's probably about time I got round to actually talking about Martyn. For me, Martyn has been the most innovative producer of 2009. Taking dubstep as a loose basis, he's crafted an album that transcends any kind of previously existent genre, and although other producers had been starting to move in a similar direction at around the same time, Great Lengths is a masterful talisman of the emerging dubstep/techno/minimal sub-genre. It's clear that a lot of effort and soul has been put in to the making of the album, something which is so grossly lacking in the sadly probably more widely popular style of dubstep that I've been blathering on about in this section. If you want to listen to good dubstep, do yourself a favour and listen to Martyn, Untold, Pangaea, Guido - don't listen to Caspa and Rusko. OK? Good.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">Martyn - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?vtg0nym4jyn">These Words (feat. dBridge)</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">Further Listening: 2562 - Unbalance</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">1. <b>Bibio</b> - <i>Ambivalence Avenue</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whilst I was compiling this list, I was often scratching my head over which albums stood out above the rest I'd acquired last year, and in which order to arrange them. However, there was absolutely no ambivalence (groan) when it came to picking Bibio as number one. Sorry folks, but that had to be done really didn't it? Seriously though, Bibio's record was easily my favourite of 2009, and oddly enough it was actually his <b>second</b> album of the year - and even then it wasn't his last. Having released his third studio album, Vignetting The Compost, in February to a lukewarm reception (at this stage I hadn't even heard of the lad), Bibio decided to take his musical career in a new direction, and left Mush Records to hook up with Warp. I've only listened to bits of his first three albums after I heard Ambivalence Avenue, but I can tell you that they're all fairly uninteresting, not-particularly-bad-yet-not-particularly-good creations, and as it's transpired his move to Warp has probably been the best decision of Bibio's life. Strongly influenced by Boards of Canada, Bibio's typical style is electronic folk (folktronica, if you will), a sound which is at the core of Ambivalence Avenue but far from dominates it. Upon his move to Warp, Bibio opened himself up to a variety of new influences, and this is immediately and emphatically obvious as the olde English folky opening track 'Ambivalence Avenue' drops in to the glorious funk of 'Jealous of Roses', an audacious move that completely blows the album wide open. From then on there's wonky hip-hop on 'Fire Ant' and 'Sugarette', the blues-y 'Cry! Baby!", and elegant folk ballads in the form of 'Haikuesque (When She Laughs)' and 'The Palm of Your Wave'. And this isn't just experimentation for experimenting's sake - each track feels perfectly at home on the record, and despite the variety of genres influencing it the album flows remarkably well. I'm aware that Fuck Buttons and Clark are hardly going to be to many people's tastes, and the albums by Martyn and Few Nolder might not appeal to anyone not previously vaguely interested in dubstep or techno, but I truly believe that if you hunt down Ambivalence Avenue and give it a listen then you'll be a fan. There's still enough of Bibio's folk-pop leanings present to give the album a gorgeous quality that should be accessible to pretty much everyone, even the most hardened of Soulja Boy, Cascada or Meshuggah fans. Of all the albums in this list this has the most obvious 'real' instrument presence (namely Bibio's guitar), but combines this with various electronic elements to create a unique sound. A really brilliant album.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bibio - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mymj4yzyrh2">Jealous of Roses</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">Further listening: Bibio - The Apple and The Tooth (a follow up to Ambivalence Avenue, containing remixes of tracks from AA as well as a few new songs)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">So that's that - about 3 weeks after I first started writing this post, I've finally finished my run down of my top 10 favourite albums. I reckon we should celebrate with a bloody great classic track and a bloody great special edition of songs I'm currently loving, don't you?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Classic Track:</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don't really know much about Arthur Russell, other than he died young and I like the songs by him that I've got, so instead of trawling Wikipedia to make it seem like I do I'll just get on with it and cough up the track. This is a lovely down-tempo song with an enchanting backing of cello (I think) and bongos behind Arthur's beautiful vocals. Very blissful.</span></span><br />
<ul><li><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arthur Russell - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?bwv3hetzqnn">This Is How We Walk On The Moon</a></span></li>
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Songs I'm Currently Loving: World Music Special</b></span></span></span><br />
</div><div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tinariwen - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mm44d0zmznx">Lulla</a> - political blues rock by a band from the Sahara Desert - ticks all my boxes, dunno about you.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amadou & Mariam - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?yt5wjdmzzfz">Sebeke</a> - already legendary duo from Mali, who were easily the best support act on the day I went to Blur's reunion in Hyde Park (Florence & The Machine were pretty good, Vampire Weekend were dull as mud). This track is actually the last on the album and features a hidden song in it after a period of silence, meaning that the whole thing is about 11 minutes long, which I apologise for. It's a banger, though.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pedro Laza y Sus Pelayeros - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?xljc0yu1omc">Navidad Negra</a> - old skool Colombian jazz here, perfect for a summer's day in the garden in a deckchair with a glass of cool home-made lemonade.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">Omar Souleyman - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mjwjjlanoyn">Shift Al Mani</a> - if you haven't heard of Omar Souleyman already, you pretty much definitely need him in your life. Just when you thought the world of Syrian psychedelic folk couldn't get any better (come on, you were all thinking it), along comes Omar and gives the ever-popular genre a booster shot of greatness.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">N.O.H.A. - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ndjwuo4homy">Balkan Hot-Step</a> - otherwise known as the opening song on Rob Da Bank's (peace be upon him) excellent Fabric 24 mix, this is Balkan at it's most ecstatic, and I'm still dreaming of the day when this is dropped in a set while I'm present.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bangs - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mnzeyynz0dz">Take U To Da Movies</a> - YOUR BOY BANGS! Bangs is a self-proclaimed "Superstar Hip Hop Artist!" (from <a href="http://www.bangs8.com/">his website</a>), and is easily the jewel in the crown of the Sudanese rap world, and these days that's really saying something isn't it. Other highlights include <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq0TqqVyeaw">My Special Girl</a>, and all of Bangs' other YouTube videos.</span></span></li>
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peace etc, yeah?</span></span><br />
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</div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-38952327079111387912009-12-21T03:08:00.002+00:002009-12-21T03:33:09.435+00:00The Final Countdown<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Da-na-na-naaaa, da-na-na-na-naaaa....</span></b></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yes yes indeed, with lesser competitions such as the X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing and BBC3's Young Butcher of the Year already falling by the wayside, it's time for the most hotly talked about contest of the year to slam it's final axe stroke in to the craggy mountain of music that's been piling up this year, and haul ourselves over the apex to reflect upon the marvels on offer.</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm already busy at work in the lab, conducting devious genetic experiments so that I can offer myself a shoulder to sob on as I begin to realise the gems that I've missed off the list. There are two that I'm thoroughly kicking myself over, which I missed off for various careless reasons but would have easily been bothering the top 10 - 1. </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?zdlndnkyd24"><span style="font-size: small;">Memories</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> by Pangaea, a track that the wider population (or at least, the demographic of the population who listen to down-beat soulful dubstep) had been enjoying for the best part of half a year before Muggins McPhee here latched on to it, and 2. the hugely fun and danceable </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?toylhowym3y"><span style="font-size: small;">Why Don't You</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> by Gramophonedzie, a song that I love greatly but for some reason thought was from several years ago.</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And THEN there are the various tracks that Chris, Tom and Richard listed in response to my appeal for your own favourite songs lists (suggestions still warmly encouraged by the way!), so mad props to the aforementioned badmen, their lists can be found in the comments section of the previous post and are all well worth a listen.</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Despite these exceptions, this top 10 is a good reflection of what I've been enjoying on a whole other level of enjoyment this year. Each one is the kind of song which lures me into putting it on again straight after it's finished, because I just can't get enough of its goodness. You may well take one listen/look at the list and emit a big fat WTF (c'mon guys, how could I NOT include Fight For This Love??), but I'd like to think that if you welcome these tunes on to your hearth and in to your hearts then we'll soon be reading from the same hymn sheet.</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unlike the YouTube links of ye olde sections of this countdown, all the ten songs have got download options, as a Christmas present from me to you. You can even download the whole lot in one fell swoop by clicking </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=90fb2ea23927ce115a3d773badf21430971951c5a546aca1416b94653a3044fd"><span style="font-size: small;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">, and choosing 'Select All' from the options at the top and then clicking 'Bulk-download Selected'. That should work. I think.</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">10. </span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Florence & The Machine</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?hyozywlmmmq"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)</span></a></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Although I'm not a wholly devoted F&tM fan, they've been really good whenever I've seen them live and there are a few tracks of theirs that I greatly enjoy. This, the second track off 'Lungs', is my favourite. A stirring, vocally wonderful song, full of mythical and mystical imagery, Rabbit Heart is a cryptic battle cry that will have you throwing your hands up in the air and saying "Lord I just don't care" much more emphatically than certain other Florence tracks that have just been released YET AGAIN.</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A voice that's instantly recognisable from her work as one half of The Knife, Karin Dreijer Andersson flew solo this year under the name Fever Ray with the release of her bloody excellent album, also entitled Fever Ray. Chock-a-block with great songs, Seven is the pick of the bunch in my eyes. The lyrical content is superbly simple and mundane - "we talk about love, we talk about dishwasher tablets", "I ride my bike up, I ride my bike down" - but there's an ever present sense of nostalgia and longing in the song, which could readily relate to romance, or death, or both. Seven has also been remixed well by Martyn, and less so by Crookers - or should I say, Crookers have cut up the vocals and plopped them on top of the same beat they use for every song.</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The future's bright - the future's purple. Apparently Joker 'hears' purple when he makes his music, which means that his sound is now referred to as 'Purple Wow', he makes songs with purple in the title, he wears a lot of purple etc. So, dubstep's answer to Prince then? Well Digidesign is certainly sultry and sexy enough to tick at least some of *unpronounceable symbol*'s boxes, with a luuuurvely synth pattern that will have any dance floor 'bom-bomming' along when dropped. You'll know what I mean when you listen to it. Hopefully. Digidesign was released on a 12" with 2000F's You Don't Know What Love Is (#12 in this list), which surely makes it the sexiest EP of the year, possibly ever. If most dubstep doesn't convince you, GO AND FIND THAT EP, it's an absolute delight.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">7. <b>Few Nolder</b> - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?13nn3gmzmy1">Chika</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This track from oddly named Lithuanian producer Few Nolder contains one of the cutest and most infectious tunes I've heard in a long time. The track is minimalistic techno, without actually being minimal techno - it provokes a feeling much more euphoric than your bog standard minimal, and even has hints of dancehall throughout. When the quivering little tune finally drops after the build up, it never fails to leave me with a smile on my face.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">6. <b>Deadboy</b> - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?nymnah1kwwj">U Cheated</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the year that saw UK urban music getting increasingly funkier, this is probably the finest example to date of the 2-step revival. A great R&B-esque vocal hook that injects a soulful mood in to the track, combined with tropical drum patterns and a funkier-than-thou bassline all make U Cheated one of the great songs to have emerged from the UK underground this year. Lovely stuff.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">5. <b>Dance Area</b> - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?xdwyzemtm2o">AA 24/7 (Diplo Remix)</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I was pretty surprised when I was compiling this list to find that this song was only released this year (admittedly the original was released at the end of 2008, with the remix dropping in January), as it seems that Diplo's high-powered reworking of Dance Area's infectiously child-like AA 24/7 has been slaying dance floors for an eternity now. I believe the story behind the original goes thus: someone (quite likely to be Erol Alkan) recorded the bathroom attendant of London's The End club, Austin Boston, doing the 'rap' that features in this song on an iPhone, then Dance Area (also quite likely to be Erol Alkan) used it to form AA 24/7, a tune that was then widely played in clubs around the planet (largely by Erol Alkan). Diplo's remix crunks the track up in to a huge electro banger, even greater than the original. Never have the words 'DO IT' been such a trigger for mayhem.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">4. <b>Dusty Kid</b> - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?tgzwdzqj2wm">Nemur (Wall of Guitars)</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I probably shouldn't like this song as much as I do. Two things in particular should really point to it being utterly naff - the 'European singing emotionally in English' vocals, and, er, the pan pipes. Yep, that's right - pan pipes. An instrument which has sensibly been left out of the majority of songs since the likes of E-Rotic's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L_65CCIxYw">Max Don't Have Sex With Your Ex</a> walked the earth. But I feel that Nemur has managed to emerge triumphant, despite giving itself these two notable handicaps. The constantly pulsing beep throughout the track is what first attracted me towards it when I heard Dusty Kid use the song to close his set at Fabric in the summer, and when I went home and tracked down his album Nemur grew and grew on me. The lyrics are certainly a bit pants and don't make a whole lot of sense, but the singer (I'd guess Dusty Kid himself) sings them with a good level of feeling, and combined with the gentle guitar strumming it makes for a very sweet little track. Even the pan pipes are A-OK in my book, adding an earthy sound to the song. Could Europop vocals and pan pipes be THE sound of 2010? This excited blogger certainly hopes so.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">3. <b>Crystal Fighters</b> - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ewyd5mmkwnj">Xtatic Truth (Xtra Loud Mix)</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Given the ever dwindling quality of the Kitsuné Maison CD series, this track was a real delight to find nestled on the seventh edition of the French label's compilations. This song is truly remarkable - it starts off with a kind of traditional folk guitar melody, before the ecstasy starts to kick in, hard. First with the hushed vocals reassuring us that "there's nothing left here to worry about", and then with the soaring rush of synths that come thundering in, inducing a genuine sense of rave love. If the government were to take a dab of MDMA and put this song on whilst coming up, they'd soon be on their BlackBerrys busy sending texts to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8334774.stm">Prof. David Nutt</a> along the lines of: "David, man.... i love you. ur just such a fucking sound guy. soz about sacking u and all that, u were totally right all along man. i'm in fucking outerspace right now nutty, there's like totally nothing left to worry about. we should go to fabric sometime yeah? i fucking love you david, peace out xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">2. <b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Gui Boratto</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mnm1z4iwl4f"><span style="font-size: x-large;">No Turning Back</span></a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">No sooner have we finished with one entrancingly euphoric beast of a song, but another one pops up. No Turning Back is somewhat like the 'Green Mile' of the music world - it's not the subtlest when it comes to piling on the emotion, but the end result is a thing of beauty nonetheless. The melody rises optimistically with synthetic distortion before mournfully sinking back down with a feeling of inevitable despondency, with this sense of melancholic futility reflected in lyrics such as "I can show you the way but I know that you'll never be there". However the track still maintains a euphoric atmosphere, in the kind of way that you can imagine it closing a set in a club and you'd leave feeling thoroughly contented and at peace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">1. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">J</span><span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">oe McElderry - The Climb</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Florence & The Machine</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?yjnhjnn4nnb"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Drumming Song (Boy 8-Bit Remix)</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, here we are. This, ladies and gentlefolk, is my favourite song of 2009. And what better song to top the list than this outstanding reworking of an already excellent song - Joe's voice compliments the lyrics of Hannah Montana's original perfectly, and he really makes the song his own in - oh wait, I'm confusing myself again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">No, my favourite song of the year has actually been the superb Boy 8-Bit remix of Drumming Song, a track which showcases both Florence Welch's vocal prowess and David Morris' masterful production skills, both of which have been a regular fixture on my stereo throughout the year. Boy 8-Bit slices out the finest vocal cuts of the original - which although good in its own right will plod along painfully slowly when listened to in the aftermath of the remix - and forges them in to an exhilarating force that seizes and drags you in to the world of Florence's inner emotional conscience, with Boy 8-Bit's commanding drums holding you firmly fixed in place as the drumming noise inside her head gets louder and LOUDER. It's that bit, at the heart of the track, that really pushes this track from great to truly amazing - the loop of "it fills my head up and gets louder, and louder" steadily grows in volume and strength until it's one of the most gripping things you'll ever encounter in any song. With each repetition it builds in fortitude - if it had continued any longer then it'd probably have been classed as a realistic threat to the nation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Boy 8-Bit's had a great year, with other highlights including the Baltic Pine EP and a remix of La Roux's Quicksand, but for me this his finest work, and the finest work of the year FULL STOP.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So there we are, that's the end of my Top 50 Favourite Songs of 09 list. All that's left to say is that I hope you agree with at least some of my choices, as well as <b>WELL BLOODY DONE TO RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE AND MR AND MRS MORTER</b>, definitely one of my favourite music-based days of all time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And I've just realised I uploaded some songs the other day which haven't been used yet, so here's a quick Classic Track + Songs I'm Currently Loving...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b style="text-decoration: underline;">Classic Track:</b> J Dilla - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?jjzntzjzzuz">Workinonit</a> - this blog would have a lot less musical content on it if it wasn't for the influence that J Dilla has had on artists in the Flying Lotus mould, he was a true master of innovative hip-hop who tragically died of blood disease in 2006. Genuinely up there with the biggest in terms of losses to music, but his legacy looks set to be manifested long in to the future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Songs I'm Currently Loving:</b></span></span><br />
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<ul><li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rustie - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?4ud2jzdgnqz">Inside Pikachu's Cunt</a> - it's immediately obvious why it would be an abomination if I didn't post this song, fortunately it's also a very enjoyable listen.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Inside Out Boy & Vogel - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?2rgztzmmmzz">Cazzo!</a> - what do catchy electro bleeps and the operatic stylings of Andrea Bocelli have in common? Answer: they both feature on this track by Inside Out Boy & Vogel, which is one of two tracks from their newest EP which, in keeping with the festive spirit, they are gift-wrapping for free download: <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?myhem4j4vvo">Cazzo! / Adrenochrome EP</a>. Adrenochrome is equally great, this time deploying a Fear and Loathing sample on top of a sinisterly creeping beat that could easily soundtrack one of Hunter S. Thompson's more spookier trips.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Movado - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?dgzfmdwilyn">Neva Believe You</a> - soulful Caribbean vocals? Check. Downbeat dancehall riddim? Check. 90's-rave-sounding piano riff? Check. Lazy 'end of blog' unimaginative use of a check list to replace writing a proper summary of the song? Check.</span></li>
</ul><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">An End of Year albums list has been compiled, but probably won't be along til the start of 2010. So if the magic of Christmas is waning for you, then that'll be something to keep your heart pumping and eyes eagerly wide open as you lie in bed at night. Merry Christmas one and all, I hope you all get what you want in your stockings. All I got last year was feet.</span><br />
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</div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-10036610841393848472009-12-08T14:55:00.000+00:002009-12-08T14:55:42.360+00:00Quick Request<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Howdy all, before I launch my top 10 songs and albums of the year I have a quick appeal to make. Although it's interesting to look back on the year and compile my own favourites lists, I'm also dead keen on reading other people's take on the year's music. In the past few days I've been flitting around the interweb soaking up various End Of Year lists, and in doing so have had my eyes opened to a few excellent songs and albums that had previously passed me by. That's why I think it would be rather dandy if you yourselves could have a pop at drawing up your own top 10 songs and/or albums lists and posting them on here, so that we can all pour our musical favourites in to one big tub, and splash about in it gayly like children in a paddling pool.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I'm already thinking of songs which really shudda been on my Top 50 list - Memories by Pangaea, Loader by Shadow Dancer, Olympians/Surf Solar by Fuck Buttons, something by Moderat, I'm sure several more will pop in to my head before too long - and hopefully by the time I've finished listening to your suggestions I'll be kicking myself even more!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So gwan, have a wee think back over the year and then chuck your thoughts at the comment box below. Every musical persuasion under the sun is more than welcome, in fact styles that might not be the normal stamping ground of this blog are eagerly encouraged. And if you fancy letting me know how rubbish/average/awesome my list has been, or if you care to hazard a guess at my own top 10, then go for it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Tuck in, children, tuck in.</span></span>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-59763093159626285812009-12-06T12:09:00.013+00:002009-12-06T18:06:26.443+00:00Countdown, 19 - 11<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We're on the penultimate stretch of my countdown of my favourite songs of the year, and to reward each of these tracks for making it so far in the list, each one will be treated to a short description explaining why it ranks so highly. The twist is that each description will be written in the style of someone else, which I'm pretty sure is a terrible idea but will be done nonetheless.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">19. </span><b><span style="font-size: small;">La Roux</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOYufRHQSms"><span style="font-size: small;">Bulletproof</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">(in the style of Caspa & Rusko)</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"> - 2009 was a great year for La Roux ("IT'S ME BELT, TURKISH"). Their début album spawned a string of hit singles ("CHILL WINSTON") and was a strong contender for this year's Mercury Prize ("ARSE TICKLER'S FAGGOT FAN CLUB").</span></span><br />
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<div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">18. </span><b><span style="font-size: small;">Floating Points</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8uHoBA-E7I"><span style="font-size: small;">Vacuum Boogie</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">(in the style of Noel Fielding)</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"> - Hey, yeah, I went to a vacuum boogie once, it was held underwater and there was a bouncy castle made of scampi. I brought a Henry vacuum cleaner as my date, I stuck some long hair made of a raccoon's fur on it and pretended it was called Henrietta, we had a WILD night. I accidentally spilled some syrup made of Spandau Ballet's back catalogue all over her towards the end though, she stormed off and hooked up with a hoover called Douglas.</span></span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">17. </span><b><span style="font-size: small;">Dorian Concept</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.boomkat.com/jukebox/jbFramed02.cfm?tracks=197648:163540&type=music"><span style="font-size: small;">The Fucking Formula</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">(in the style of Malcolm Tucker from 'The Thick Of It')</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"> - The fucking formula is one of the fucking best tunes of the whole fucking year, now listen to the fucking thing or FUCK THE FUCK OFF.</span></span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">16. </span><b><span style="font-size: small;">jj</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCPLn4R9Vdo"><span style="font-size: small;">Things Will Never Be The Same Again</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">(in the style of Kanye West's blog)</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"> - THIS SONG IS DA BOMB YO!!! JJ, MJ, OJ, S'ALL GOOD IN '09 YO! NONE AS GOOD AS YO BOY KANYE THOUGH, I'M JUST REAL YO!! NOW HERE'S A RANDOM PIC OF A PARISIAN WOMAN'S DRESS THAT I LIKE YO!</span></span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">15. </span><b><span style="font-size: small;">Floating Points</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqjwzgbLbpE"><span style="font-size: small;">Love Me Like This (Nonsense Dub)</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">(in the style of Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift at MTV VMA's)</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"> - YO LOVE ME LIKE THIS (ORIGINAL VERSION), I'M REAL HAPPY FOR YOU AND I'MMA LET YOU FINISH, BUT THE NONSENSE DUB WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST TRACKS OF '09.... OF '09!!</span></span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">14. </span><b><span style="font-size: small;">Vitalic</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_3zDe98B8I"><span style="font-size: small;">Second Lives</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">(in the style of </span><a href="http://jackinthejukebox.blogspot.com/2009/11/harry-along-now-youngster.html"><span style="font-size: small;">Matthew Friedberger</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">)</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"> - "Oh hi, I'm Vitalic, please listen to my song about Second Life" - FUCK YOU!! What is this, some kind of anthem for on-line virtual worlds? Are the beats made on a three-dimensional modelling tool? Vitalic's just trying to align himself with what people consider cool, and everybody knows there's nothing cooler than devoting your entire existence to an internet persona rather than your actual real life. Or being Matthew Friedberger. Vitalic is such a bogus arse.</span></span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">13. </span><b><span style="font-size: small;">Tempa T</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ6G7qwjom4"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Next Hype</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> (also probably the best video of the year) - </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">(in the style of </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8311499.stm"><span style="font-size: small;">Jan Moir</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">)</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"> - Is it just me who finds the circumstances around this song very troubling? Here we have yet another young man who, because he is black, was always destined to record an angry and violent rap song, just like so many of his kind have done before him. Now, I'm a civil rights champion and often black up myself of an evening so I am well aware of the problems faced by young black adults these days, but even I am disturbed by the sheer amount of pars that occur throughout the course of this song. Why is it that this young man feels compelled to rap about violent acts, when his contemporaries such as Giddy Rascal can achieve success purely by singing about playing conkers? I find Tempz's lifestyle to be full of sleaze, and I think this song is a real blow to the myth that black people can create songs of equal worth as normal people. What an absolute par.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">12. </span><b><span style="font-size: small;">2000F & J Kamata</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_ffPVq4aUU"><span style="font-size: small;">You Don't Know What Love Is</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">(in the style of Joker's Twitter)</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"> - LOOOL I WOZ ON DIS EP 2!!!! DUTTY TOOOON!</span></span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">11. </span><b><span style="font-size: small;">Clark</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMS3gqc7eRs"><span style="font-size: small;">Growls Garden</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">(in the style of </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W45DRy7M1no"><span style="font-size: small;">Brian Collins</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">)</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"> - This is a tune from..... Clark. From Clark's. From Clark's album Totems Flare. Oh yes. Clark, who comes from...................... It, umm, starts off slow and.....umm, slowbot, deadboat..... downbeat. Hmm. The vocals are in! It's building up to a hefty bass drop! Here comes the bass....... and boom goes the dynamite.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Classic Track</span></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Continuing this series of classic tracks, we shuffle genres yet again and this time we've arrived at industrial goth metal. Ever the shy and uncontroversial one, Marilyn Manson likes to let his music do the talking and back in the day produced some real killer tunes. This one in particular is a bona fide rock classic, with everything oozing sinister menace - the rhythmic drumming, the crunching guitar riff, and the snarling vocals of MM (any fact fans? All the original members of his band created their stage names by taking the first name of a famous female sex symbol, and adding the surname of a serial killer, hence Twiggy Ramirez, Olivia Newton Bundy etc).</span></span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Marilyn Manson - </span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?tmhkwmzujzz">The Beautiful People</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Songs I'm Currently Loving</b></span></span><br />
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<ul><li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Robyn - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?yan3o52k5yl"><span style="font-size: small;">Be Mine</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - I might well be the world's biggest chump - </span><b><span style="font-size: small;">WHY THE HELL HAVEN'T I HEARD THIS SONG BEFORE?!? </span></b><span style="font-size: small;">It's so good that, having turned off my laptop and gone to bed, I've now got up and turned my comp on again just so that I can listen to it some more. But seriously, why did it take this long for me to hear this song? I presume it must've been played quite heavily on the radio a while ago when Robyn was all the rage? Maybe I was too busy pretending that pop music was below me for it to have registered on my radar, but now I'm making up for lost time and hereby declare this song as up with there with the finest pop tracks of at least the past decade.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Gang Gang Dance - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ytzgmzgmmnz"><span style="font-size: small;">Princes</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - contrary to popular opinion, Tinchy Stryder has actually featured on at least one good record in his life, and this is it.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">King Midas Sound - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?inlmzqzujy2"><span style="font-size: small;">One Ting (Dabrye Remix)</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - King Midas Sound released their début album within the past few weeks, so what better way to hail it's arrival than to post a song which isn't actually on it? This remix by Flying Lotus' buddy Dabrye spruces up the ethereal dub of the original with some hip-hop beats to create more of a toe-tapper, but both versions are great and the album is well worth a listen.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pangaea - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?zdlndnkyd24"><span style="font-size: small;">Memories</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - some more moody bass stylings here, but this one has a bassline and drum pattern that will really keep your head bopping until you've completely run out of bop juice.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Simian Mobile Disco - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?i00tymqnhmw"><span style="font-size: small;">Hustler (from Spank Rock's Fabriclive Mix)</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - never really a fan of uploading/downloading tracks from mixes to be honest, but I've now reached the point of my musical menstrual cycle whereby I go through a phase of listening to Rick Ross' </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-HzchUZFVI"><span style="font-size: small;">Hustlin'</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> a lot, which always inevitably leads me to also visit this delightful bit of mashing up which features on Spank Rock's Fabriclive 33 CD. It combines Hustler by SMD and Hustlin', you see. Do you see? Do you see what they've done there?</span></span></li>
</ul></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-22032582476497146942009-12-03T01:06:00.000+00:002009-12-03T13:08:29.216+00:00End of Year Countdown: 29 - 20<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><div><span style="font-size: small;">Here's the next instalment of my Top 50 Favourite Songs of the Year. Listen to them, love them, but don't MAKE love to them. Or if you do, remember to wear a skin before going in.</span><br />
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</span><br />
</div></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">29. Boys Noize & Erol Alkan - </span></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AMFPWGAhdA"><span style="font-size: small;">Waves</span></a><br />
<div><span style="font-size: small;">28. Nosaj Thing - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNV3oYIkepU"><span style="font-size: small;">Fog</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">27. The Field - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEVoppSvQtM"><span style="font-size: small;">Leave It</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">26. Darkstar - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAic4yklSEA"><span style="font-size: small;">Need You</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">25. Dizzee Rascal & Armand Van Helden - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci40ae8BlcE"><span style="font-size: small;">Bonkers</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">24. Bibio - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NJfNUVoKSU"><span style="font-size: small;">The Palm of Your Wave</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">23. La Roux - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ1Mi77nogQ"><span style="font-size: small;">In For The Kill</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">22. Major Lazer - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emig_w4vk9A"><span style="font-size: small;">Pon De Floor</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">21. Birdy Nam Nam - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_ICcz6kXP0"><span style="font-size: small;">The Parachute Ending</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">20. Bibio - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqCziCoQKkc"><span style="font-size: small;">Jealous of Roses</span></a><br />
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</div><div><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Classic Track(s)</b></span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">To celebrate the start of December, this post will feature a spectacular triple bill of classic tracks, one for each of the major religious festivals that this final month of the year contains - Hanukkah, Al-Hijira (Islamic New Year), and, of course, Yule, the Pagan celebration of the Winter Solstice. Anyone who doesn't think these three are the most important religious dates in December is a skin-head racist and anti-multiculturalist, and is probably already balls deep in Nick Griffin's podgy anus.</span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">Anyway, this </span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">ménage à </span></span><em style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">trois of legendary songs isn't just a random group of tunes that drank a bit too much at Tiger Tiger last night, and having eyed each other up across the dance floor decided to all pile in to a taxi together and head back to a sordid Holiday Inn room to engage in an orgy of vintage musical fornication. No, these tracks are linked both stylistically and geographically, as they represent the work of The Belleville Three - Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May, who, due to their productions that emerged from Belleville, Detroit since the early 1980's, are often labelled the founding fathers of techno. The three high school buddies drew on influences ranging from George Clinton to Prince to Kraftwerk, and set about establishing Detroit as the birthplace of modern-day techno, a legacy it has continued ever since with such techno giants as Carl Craig, Jeff Mills and Richie Hawtin (who clearly saw more potential in the American city's scene than in his own home town of Banbury, Oxfordshire) all establishing their reputations there.</span></span></em><br />
</div><div><ul><li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cybotron (Juan Atkins) - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mddmyzvttha"><span style="font-size: small;">Clear</span></a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">Derrick May - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?w1ygzhmt5to"><span style="font-size: small;">Strings of Life</span></a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">Inner City (Kevin Saunderson) - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mzyfyw00imd"><span style="font-size: small;">Good Life</span></a></span></li>
</ul><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium; text-decoration: underline;"><b>Songs I'm Currently Loving: Female Tekover</b></span></span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">So apparently women are making music these days. While your natural reaction is probably </span><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/geelsley/kjhlkgfdxrtytyhbn.gif"><span style="font-size: small;">this</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">, I've tried to make the most of a bad situation and have compiled a selection of some of the finest tracks around at the moment to have been crafted by dainty little hands that should have been doing the washing up instead. If you wish to read more of my educated opinions on the state of the nation then the News Of The World will be serializing my forthcoming book "Uh-Oh, </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">H</span></i><i><span style="font-size: small;">ere C</span></i><span style="font-size: small;">omes Trouble" over the festive period, in which I impatiently tut at everything that's even marginally changed since 1816. The full publication will be released on December 21st, with a RRP of 17 groats.</span></span><br />
</div><div><ul><li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cooly G - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?1zchxextezz"><span style="font-size: small;">Narst</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - a slightly sinister piece of dancehall/UK Funky/dubstep from the consistently excellent Brixton lass Cooly G, who's already establishing herself as one of the finest producers of the genre.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ikonika - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?friydwnkkd2"><span style="font-size: small;">Sahara Michael</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - Ikonika is rising fast in the dubstep world, easily surpassing many of the shaved-headed blokes who are still churning out unimaginative bass thuds. She's released a number of quality EPs, and whenever her album comes along it's sure to stake it's place amongst the ranks of Hyperdub classics.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dinky - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?gz5ko3zzvot"><span style="font-size: small;">Westoid</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - it's a little known fact that female producers at the moment don't JUST produce UK urban music, some of them come from Chile and make very lovely jazzy minimal techno too. Dinky's music sounds like the result of Ricardo Villalobos performing a sex change operation on Moodymann, and it will be a very sad world indeed if that ever stops being a good thing.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tokimonsta - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?nwmyniifnom"><span style="font-size: small;">So Sick</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - hailing from LA, Tokimonsta is Brainfeeder's most notable (possibly only) laydee creator of beats, and a fine creator she is at that. She's also </span><a href="http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/16/l_9097bbf0a6164a8bb6c114a78fb75989.jpg"><span style="font-size: small;">pretty damn hot</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shuanise - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?zejzqnmt3tz"><span style="font-size: small;">Baggage For Sale</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - an artist on Floating Points and Alex Nut's excellent Eglo Records, Shuanise makes chilled out jazz-hop which is perfect for both a sunny summer's day in a paddock* with a glass of cool lemonade, or a cosy rainy day indoors with some boardgames and Hama beads.</span></span></li>
</ul><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">*99% guaranteed that's the only time you'll read the word 'paddock' in any form of blog for a long while.</span></span><br />
</div><div><ul><li><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bjork - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?5j2mtnnvuwt"><span style="font-size: small;">Big Time Sensuality</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> - could easily crop up in the Classic Track section any day of the week, but seeing as the (wonderful wonderful wonderful) Icelandic songstress has appeared there already I thought I'd take advantage of this feminine Songs I'm Currently Loving to throw in the song which spawned the name of this very blog.</span></span></li>
</ul><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">Listening to the songs in this post has left me in a very good mood, I hope they'll have a similarly uplifting effect on you. And as I stated in the previous post, I'd love to hear your thoughts on my countdown, the classic tracks, the Songs I'm Currently Loving, or any other unreserved praise you have for this blog, so why not imprint your mark upon the world wide web by leaving a comment below? It's a quick and painless process, and is a far better use of time than not leaving a comment.</span></span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">The next post will either be the penultimate set of songs in the countdown (19 - 11), or my Top 10 Favourite Albums of the Year, so that's an exciting cliffhanger for you there isn't it.</span></span><br />
</div></div></div></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-79405420735860677412009-11-30T14:18:00.002+00:002009-12-22T13:14:33.160+00:00Never Mind The Boris, Here's More Counting Down<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><div>After the songs listed as 50 - 40 in my Top 50 Favourite Songs of the Year were announced in the previous post and immediately saw sales of said songs rocket (Chris Moyles got so excited that he played Shackleton's Moon Over Joseph's Burial seven times back-to-back during his show on Friday), I felt that I'd try and press on with the rest of the list as quickly as possible, if only to snap Moylesy out of his atmospheric dub trance.<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>So here are 10 more aural masturbation aids for you to erotically rub against your eardrums, just remember to give them a wipe after you've had your way with them:<br />
</div><div><br />
</div></span><span style="font-size: small;">39. Sub Focus - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ1RNv8YYtU"><span style="font-size: small;">Rock It</span></a><br />
<div><span style="font-size: small;">38. Mount Kimbie - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG7SC5FP8hU"><span style="font-size: small;">Sketch On Glass</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">37. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V65GVn1b2k0"><span style="font-size: small;">Zero (Erol Alkan Remix)</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">36. Dusty Kid - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8kFmGplJKc"><span style="font-size: small;">Here Comes The Techno</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">35. Slagsmalsklubben - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPS_bnSsbeE"><span style="font-size: small;">Brutal Weapons</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">34. Mount Kimbie - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnWN2gZ6se0&feature=related"><span style="font-size: small;">50 Mile View</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">33. Bullion - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw4yimenwd4"><span style="font-size: small;">Young Heartache</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">32. Lazy Jay - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpq2g4_nMlk"><span style="font-size: small;">Float My Boat</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">31. The Ian Carey Project - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUa15Mly3_s"><span style="font-size: small;">Get Shaky</span></a><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">30. Joy Orbison - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa_PDKKc2_A"><span style="font-size: small;">Hyph Mngo</span></a><br />
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</span><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">Seeing as this is just a titchy little post so far, I'll take this opportunity to encourage you to leave your thoughts - whether they be good, bad, or just plain ugly - on my choices of songs for the Top 50 Favourite Songs of the Year (or anything else in this blog for that matter), by using the comments section below. I think it's quite easy to do, and I don't believe you have to sign up for a Blogger account either. So, why not give it a go eh kids?! I think there's the option of posting anonymously, so you can spare yourself some blushes by not having to reveal that you're a reader of this blog, which I'm fully aware has been the cause of many marital splits and coup d'etats in the past.</span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-size: medium; text-decoration: underline;"><b>Classic Track</b></span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">The second in this new and already widely revered 'Classic Track' section takes us hurtling back to the mid-90's, and to one of hip-hop's all-time classic chilled out anthems. A gentle piano melody loops in the background while New York's finest lay down some tough truths about the dependence on and continual struggle for money in the city - Cash Rules Everything Around Me, it's:</span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">Wu-Tang Clan - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?yiotdcyw2en">C.R.E.A.M.</a></span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-size: medium; text-decoration: underline;"><b>Songs I'm Currently Loving</b></span><br />
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</div><div><ul><li><span style="font-size: small;">Boris Dlugosch - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?gnr2k22dzzw">Bangkok (Dub)</a> - I'm thoroughly atheist when it comes to believing the hype about Boris Dlugosch's Bangkok (original version <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-dyTa_IW7E">here</a>). I've read people waxing lyrical about it, anointing it as THE track of 2009. My ears picked it up twice during the course of Annie Mac Presents at the Warehouse Project, and I can imagine pretty much every electro club the length and breadth of Britain/the World is rinsing a bit of Boris pretty heavily these days. Well, <b>I THINK IT'S A BIT BORING</b>. It's certainly a pretty catchy tune, but I just feel it lacks that extra bit of punch - when the hook drops, it drops a bit flat and limp, and the whole song sounds like it's the wind-down to itself, as if the real dance floor-smashing element of the track has actually occurred before the track's begun and now we're just left with the shadowy outro. It's basically a less emphatic version of Pon de Floor, from which it seems to steal both a similar sounding hook, and at one point an almost identical drum pattern. And I know it's primarily intended for dancing to in a club, but if you listen to the full original mix just through home speakers or headphones it gets bloody tedious after not too long at all. I'm still waiting to find a remix of it that really adds some oomph to the track, but for the time being this 'ere dub version from the EP is actually a superior cut to the original if you ask me.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Four Tet - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?wuwjznxzm5m">Love Cry (Joy Orbison Remix)</a> - Four Tet's latest track Love Cry makes it's second appearance on the trot on The Hardcore and The Gentle, this time having been rubbed down with a hot towel by Joy Orbison, a producer who's really at the top of his game at the moment. This remix focuses attention on the lush vocals from the track, and makes for equally (if not more) pleasurable listening than FT's original.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Ellie Goulding - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ynqmxdyfyd0">Under The Sheets (Jakwob Remix)</a> - a track in a similar mould to the likes of Emalkay's When I Look At You (but less overplayed) or the Joker remix of SMD's Cruel Intentions (but without the irritating lead-singer of The Gossip on vocal duties), Jakwob has here sliced up Ellie Goulding's vocals for his second top notch remix of one of her tracks, and given them some whomping bass for company.</span></li>
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</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">That concludes this particular post, the next tracks in the Year's Best Songs countdown will appear soon enough, as will the list of my Top 10 Favourite Albums of 2009. Oooh I do spoil you something rotten, don't I?</span><br />
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</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">(remember, don't be afraid to leave a comment!)</span><br />
</div></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-7060865797863070062009-11-25T21:32:00.023+00:002009-11-26T14:13:29.982+00:00County Down, part 1<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">When I was a child, I went on a family holiday to Switzerland. While we were there we took a wee day trip to the Large Hadron Collider, to see if we could spot the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Higgs boson</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> for ourselves. However, DISASTER STRUCK. I, convinced that I'd just spotted the Higgs boson bombing past, rushed to the edge of the machine to take a closer look, but in my excited haste I failed to notice a crate of low-fat Dairylea Dunkers that had been set down just beside the collider -I tripped, and was sent tumbling in to the collider.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I cannot recall much of what occurred once I was inside. All I'm aware of is that what I had perceived to be the Higgs boson was in fact Higgs' bassoon, which Higgs was carrying on his way to wind band practice just further down the collider. From then on, my memories are nothing more than blurry, incomplete shapes and whirls, until I suddenly snapped back in to full consciousness to see my family and </span><a href="http://www.tourdates.co.uk/resources/GetImage-DN-3315-1.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dr Fox</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> anxiously peering down at me. Heaven knows how long I was in there until I was fished out, but I appeared to have emerged unscathed.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Or, at least, it appeared that way at first. After I'd been comforted and given a steaming hot mug of cocoa and a low-fat Dairylea Dunker, Dr Fox took me to one side, out of ear shot of the rest of the group. He explained to me that his experiments with the LHC were not quite what the public were being led to believe. Instead of trying to recreate the Big Bang, he whimpered, he had in fact been using the machine to try and recreate </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brovas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Big Brovaz</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, who at the time had been the height of musical innovation until their tragic volcano-based demise. He explained that if he could just unleash another R&B/hip-hop collective on the world with the talent and vision of Big Bro, then he might finally be able to convince Simon Cowell to revive Pop Idol and give him a slot as a judge again. The good doctor explained that he wasn't sure what, if any, side effects I would feel from my brush with the collider, but that he would personally ensure that I was looked after properly for the rest of my life, and given all the funding and resources I needed to ensure that this experience wouldn't hinder me, and I would be able to build a successful career in the future.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Of course, just like all the others who had received the same pledge from Dr Fox or any other talent show judge, my prospects were soon to implode. I was haunted by my ordeal in the collider: I couldn't sleep properly, I got jittery whenever I heard the sound of a bassoon, and I massively went off low-fat Dairylea Dunkers. Like, MASSIVELY. But the most significant effect of my experience was the most mind-blowing of all: </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I could now see in to the musical future. </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I knew as early as 2002 that Take That would reform and that Robbie Williams would fall from stardom, only to return years later with a comeback that everyone heralded as magnificent but in truth wasn't particularly impressive. I had a vision in 1997 that over-the-top europop synths would make passionate love with the scrag-end of the hip-hop world and their offspring would rule the planet, and lo and behold in 2009 the love-children of the affair, Taio Cruz and Tinchy Stryder, stormed the charts. At this very moment, I know that the winner of this year's X Factor (who I can't reveal on here due to legal restrictions) will go on to land the Christmas number one, do fuck all for the next 7-8 months then return to prominence briefly with a series of heavily American-influenced hits interspersed with weak cover versions.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Why am I telling you this? you might ask, probably about 70 lines ago. Well, I've used my superpower of being able to gaze in to the future of music and have decided that there won't be a sufficient amount of stingin' toons released between now and the end of the year to stop me from entering the initial stages of an End Of Year countdown. The top ten has actually already been drafted but will be left for a later date, partly due to the recent emergence of a tune that is making a strong argument to be catapulted to the top end of the list (said tune is to be found in Song's I'm Currently Loving).</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So for now, let me present to you the songs that I have listed as 50 - 40 on the list of My Favourite Songs of the Year, and the rest will be portioned out in the coming days and weeks. There's a mixed bag there, so if you pick one out you don't like then just try and swap it with someone else, and for heaven's sake don't just put it back in the mix once your grubby fingers have been all over it. Learn some manners, you filthpot.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">- - - <i>I'm providing YouTube links for these as far as is possible, if you wish to own the track then either buy it as I can guarantee that it's propah good, use some form of YouTube song downloading tool, or it could already be on this blog so check tha side list of artists yeah?</i> - - -</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">50. Jesse Rose - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faH3m6fIlgw"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Well Now</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">49. Lady GaGa - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngf5Oo_XrjI"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Poker Face</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">48. Sticky K - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ErkgZWUlvc"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Bandari Funk</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">47. Shitao - </span><a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Shitao/_/We"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">46. Shackleton - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRqcLGLa9wA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Moon Over Joseph's Burial</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">45. Zombie Nation - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNfm9kAcJEE"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Worth It pt.1</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">44. Burial & Four Tet - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czl6-4lrr6Q"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Moth</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">43. Martyn - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbnbIQm00VY"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Elden St.</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">42. Luke Vibert - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb1fZtAa_xA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We Hear You</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">41. Rye Rye feat. M.I.A. - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSb_TSGGF_c"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Bang</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">40. Joy Orbison - </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmxyL--7WWE"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Wet Look</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So there we go, I hope that's wet your appetite for the even more heavyweight tunes yet to come. Before we get to the customary Songs I'm Currently Loving, in my infinite wisdom I've decided to add even more length to this already lengthy-enough post through the introduction of a new little segment. From now on, the downloading section of each post will also include a 'Classic Track'; that's to say, an absolute gem of musical brilliance that you should own by law, so if you don't already have it then download it fast and avoid a 7 year jail term.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The début Classic Track is a stunning combination of one of the finest voices ever committed to record, enigmatic and beautifully romantic lyrics, and set against a driving yet hypnotically soothing techno backdrop. So please, stop what you're doing, lay yourself down somewhere, and immerse yourself in:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Bjork - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mcyvyzcjmid"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hyperballad</span></a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" text-decoration: underline;font-size:medium;"><b>Songs I'm Currently Loving:</b></span></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Gemmy - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?jz3u2mmmmt5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">BT Tower</span></a><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Gemmy combines the best bits of both the past and future of dubstep, with a throbbing filth-fest of a bassline fused with the more atmospheric side of the genre that's becoming increasingly healthier</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">DatsiK - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ktay2qwzd2i"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Southpaw</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - more dutty thumps and squelches c/o Datsik, here sampling Wu Tang Clan to create a propah nawty banger of a tune</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tricky - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?nmz3h4zdxdy"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Slow</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - I recently discovered the 'Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew' album and am currently enjoying it greatly, hunt it down if you haven't heard it already.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Shinichi Osawa - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ywtguyyy0gq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Maximum Joy (Van She Remix)</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - Another bad-ass album that's recently wandered in to my life is Southern Fried & Tested vol. 2, a compilation released by Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim's Southern Fried Records. Got some real treats on there, including the next song as well.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Touché - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ddm1wjk21jm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Vampires</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - even if you don't think you've heard anything by DJ Touché (one half of The Black Ghosts) before, you have. Here you go: </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iODdvJGpfIA&feature=related"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iODdvJGpfIA&feature=related</span></a></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Pom Pom - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?gznjwywczrv">Untitled</a> - I am currently in love with Pom Pom, and this is currently my particular favourite of his hoards of untitled tracks.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Slagsmalsklubben - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?4ztzgjnxg0y">Brutal Weapons</a> - one of the few saving graces on the new Kitsuné Maison compilation. Band name is Swedish for 'Fight Club', FYI.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Four Tet - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?zhiwmzynynz">Love Cry</a> - a lovely bit of new Four Tet, which is a precursor to a new album which should be out early 2010 me believes.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ill Mana feat. P-Money - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?zjlmi0iuduu">What Did He Say (Remix)</a> - currently my favourite example of the newly crowned 'Greatest Genre In The World' - Bassline (of course)</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Deadboy - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?nymnah1kwwj">U Cheated</a> - This is the song which has thrown my previously nicely settled 'Top 10 Favourite Songs of the Year' in to disarray, as it only got released a few days ago but is already infecting my brain at every given opportunity. Definitely one of the biggest tunes of the year, I only wish it could have revealed itself sooner and saved me the hassle of having to shoe-horn it in on the upper platforms of my End Of Year list.</span></li></ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Bye.</span></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-27030107498644480112009-11-22T22:09:00.004+00:002009-11-23T00:24:31.273+00:00In a cupboard with The Field<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Occasionally the rest of the world wide web gets jealous of the brilliance emanating from The Hardcore and The Gentle and starts to throw a bit of a wobbly. So, for the sake of keeping the internet balanced in a state of satisfied contentment and maintaining international cyber-security, every now and then I contribute my wise words to other outlets, particularly the fine electronic music site Sound Revolt, which you should all bookmark straight away.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To read an interview I conducted the other week with The Hardcore and The Gentle's permanent object of affection, <b><a href="http://www.myspace.com/thefieldsthlm">The Field</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">, which has now been posted on Sound Revolt, all you gotta do is:</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><b><a href="http://www.soundrevolt.com/in-a-cupboard-with-the-field-interviews57.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">CLICK HERE</span></a></b></span></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-45719847345323999282009-11-21T01:19:00.010+00:002009-11-21T02:50:50.294+00:00Harry along now youngster<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This is just a quick wee post because a) I haven't written anything in a little while, but mainly b) I read something muchos lol-ita the other day and feel obliged to spread the chuckles to those that haven't already chuckled at it already.</span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Fiery Furnaces are an American band that primarily consist of siblings Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger, and who - now somewhat regrettably - I rather like. My regret is induced by Matthew Friedberger rather bizarrely mouthing off about Radiohead's touching and respectful tribute to Harry Patch, who had been Britain's last remaining World War 1 veteran until he passed away in July earlier this year. Thom Yorke, moved by a 2005 interview with Patch on Radio 4, recorded the song 'Harry Patch (In Memory Of)' and it's </span></span></span><a href="http://download.waste.uk.com/Store/did.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: none;">available to download on Radiohead's website</span></b></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, with all proceeds going to the The Royal British Legion.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sounds like a thoroughly worthy cause, non? PAH, WORTHY AS FUCK! Let Matthew Friedberger cut through all the crap and tell it like it really is:</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"'Oh, please listen to our new song about Harry Patch'. Fuck you! You brand yourself by brazenly and arbitrarily associating yourself with things that you know people consider cool. That is bogus. That's a put-on. That's a branding technique, and Radiohead</span></span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> have their brand that they're popular and intelligent, so they have a song about Harry Patch."</span></span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><br /></span></span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Yeah! Fuck you Radiohead, you DICKS. Thom Yorke's clearly spotted the fact that all the kids on the street were rocking Harry Patch ringtones and baseball caps, and Tweeting about how cool it would be to be the oldest man in the UK, and third oldest man in Europe, and he's only gone and exploited Harry Patch's status as a hipster's wet dream to release a bloody TRIBUTE SONG. And what's that? What's he done with all the profits? Only gone and DONATED THEM ALL TO THE BRITISH BLOODY LEGION! I know! What a blood-sucking opportunist!</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But, err - hang on. Although Harry Patch will now forever be far, far cooler than Matthew Friedburgerandchips, I wouldn't have thought that anyone could be accused of bandwagoning or deploying self-promotive branding techniques by paying homage to a man who may easily be considered a hero, but less easily a figure of cool. So, Matthew Friedburgeranddietcola, what the bloomin' heck are you on about? Me thinks a follow-up but possibly even more confusing statement is needed!</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Lucida Grande', Arial, Verdana;font-size:11px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Like most creative musicians, Matt </span></span></b></span><span class="misspell" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Friedberger</span></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> is not a fan of </span></span></b></span><span class="misspell" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Radiohead</span></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and most of their chart busters. Of course, Matt and all the Fiery Furnaces family are great fans of all </span></span></b></span><span class="misspell" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tommys </span></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">living or dead, so much so that lots of the Fiery Furnaces' work is, because of the pun, dedicated to imitating the Who's </span></span></b></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tommy</span></span></b></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span></b></span><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"></p><p color="initial" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Back in the fall of 1996 or whenever that interview was conducted, the interviewer asked what Matt thought of the </span></span></b></span><span class="misspell" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Radiohead</span></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> song celebrating a WWI veteran. Matt naturally thought it would be interesting to pretend that they wrote a song about the celebrated American composer of a similar sounding name, hence his joking in the interview about </span></span></b></span><span class="misspell" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Radiohead </span></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">composing a song with something like 48 notes to an octave. It was easy and amusing to imagine </span></span></b></span><span class="misspell" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Radiohead's</span></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> attempt to colonize that relatively arcane bit of our musical </span></span></b></span><span class="misspell" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">lifeworld</span></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. This is what they used to call, in some bohemian and advertising circles, 'riffing' or fooling around.</span></span></b></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Matt has not heard the </span></span></b></span><span class="misspell" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Radiohead</span></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> song about Harry Patch, but if he did, he is sure he wouldn't like it. No doubt </span></span></b></span><span class="misspell" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Radiohead</span></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and their fans can ignore his opinion of this matter and continue with their triumphant artistic interventions. Matt would have much preferred to insult Beck but he is too afraid of </span></span></b></span><span class="misspell" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Scientologists</span></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">."</span></span></b></span></p></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The celebrated American composer of a similar sounding name is </span></span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Partch"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Harry Partch</b></span></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - click on that Wikipedia link and pretty much the first thing you'll read is "Not to be confused with Harry Patch". So it's now clear that Matthew Refriedbeans obviously doesn't like Radiohead, but made a fairly understandable mistake (especially as he's American, so the importance of the last British Tommy wouldn't be so pertinent) and confused Patch for Partch. And, to be fair, it would be a tad pretentious to out of the blue record a tribute to an experimental composer. But Matthew Kentuckyfriedchicken doesn't want us to think of him as a generally well-meaning bloke who, like all of us, is susceptible to mistakes. No - he wants us to think of him as a twat. He wants us to think of him as the kind of man who "naturally" finds it INTERESTING to pretend that other bands have written songs which they in fact haven't written. If someone told him that JLS had written a song about the pre-Industrial Revolution method of fabric production, he'd probably jump with glee and spend 4 days solid locked in his room acting out every possible consequence of such an action, Synecdoche New York-style.<br /><br /><br />Then, for no discernible reason whatsoever, he ends his head-scratching statement with a dig at Beck. Matthew Fridayschildisfullofgrace and Beck may have some deep-rooted blood feud which I'm not aware of, but to the casual observer it appears that the Fiery Furnaces man has decided to use the 'Random Target Generator' which once featured in an episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, whereby a button is pressed and a name of a celebrity is generated completely at random to be the subject of mockery and scorn.</span></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As I don't actually like the Beck track and cannae be arsed to wait ages for my slow internet to upload the song on to Mediafire, BUT I feel like it's appropriate to try and rub Matthew Friedberger's face in it as much as possible, if you wish you can download 'Harry Partch' from </span></span></span><a href="http://www.gloriousnoise.com/mp3s/2009/beck_harry_partch.php"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: none;">this blog</span></b></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I'm now off to ridicule (*generating*) Paolo Nutini for recording a song about (*generating*) Ipswich Town midfielder Grant Leadbitter.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Bye.</span></span></span></p></span></div>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864953167727317501.post-58698631052591508542009-11-05T22:26:00.014+00:002009-11-06T02:59:06.623+00:00I Just Called To Say I Loath You<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""></span></b><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: normal;font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I've recently been inundated with literally hundreds of e-mails from The Hardcore and The Gentle fans imploring me to explain my reasoning behind each nefarious character included in the newly added 'The Unloved' list on the right-hand side of this blog. As befits the ingenuity and creative mindedness of the average THaTG reader, all of the e-mails have been wittily disguised as offers to watch Asian school girls get anally assaulted by horses live on webcam, or Nigerian business men imploring me to transfer money in to their bank accounts with the promise that my investment will quadruple within the space of two seconds. But I know who these "Nigerian business men" are. They're frauds. I know full well that they're really you lot, my enraptured fanbase, and that the request to transfer money in to bank accounts is really a thinly veiled plea for me to transfer some of my wise, wise words in to your yearning brains. Well, as has been recently pointed out in various media outlets, my generosity and good-will is comparable to that of Jesus Christ himself, and I like to think that I treat my disciples well. So, here you go guys: this is YOUR post.</span></span></span></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: normal;font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span><ol><li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Michael Bay</span></span></span></b></li></ol><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">T</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">here's not a huge amount more that I can add in criticism of The Worst Film Director Ever To Have Lived (known to his mum as Michael Bay) that hasn't already been perfectly poeticized in Team America's lol-tastic </span></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pM8PrqY5Rg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Pearl Harbour"</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> song. Michael Bay is just a dick who thinks that the only way one of his piss-poor screenplays can be made in to a film is by hurling several hundred million dollars at it in the form of grossly over-indulgent CGI and special effects, while also having an uncanny knack of choosing exactly the worst actors possible for the roles. Pretty much all of his films can fall pretty comfortably under the label 'over-expensive pieces of shit': Armageddon, Pearl Harbour, The Island, Transformers (and probably Transformers 2, the original didn't have me scrambling for tickets to the follow-up). And Bad Boys and Bad Boys 2 aren't exactly gonna be jostling for place at the top of any 'Greatest Films Ever Made' lists. Oh, and Megan Fox doesn't like him, and at risk of infuriating my very anti-Fox girlfriend: that makes him a Grade A douchebag. FUCK YOU MICHAEL BAY.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">2. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Bill O'Reilly</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A selection of the entries under "Bill O'Reilly" on Urban Dictionary should cover this section nicely:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;">"</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;">Completely ignorant white male who thinks he knows everything. Almost comical diction when is he cutting liberal commentators off and sweet-talking the conservatives."</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;">"Another word for crap, turd, shit etc...</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><div class="example" style="font-style: italic; margin-top: 5pt; margin-bottom: 5pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;"> </span></span></span></div></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;"><br /></span></span></span></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;">I stepped in some Bill O'Reilly."</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">"</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">Pompous news anchor with a staggering ego. Claims to be neutral, unbiased, and "looking out" for the everyday American, but commits more logical fallacies per broadcast than any other. Also spends more time plugging merchandise, books, and website memberships on air than any other. Has been caught in multiple lies, fabrications, and exaggerations, and is prone to patronizing his guests as well as all of his viewers (whether or not they realize it). A joke of a journalist rivaled only by Geraldo Rivera, the "debate" content of his show is really a series of cat fights resulting in mic-cutting and arrogance."</span></span></span></span></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">"2. To cram a large dildo up your ass while having phone sex.</span></span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><div class="example" style="font-style: italic; margin-top: 5pt; margin-bottom: 5pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;"><br /></span></span></span></div></span><div style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">"Honey can you repeat that? I wanna do a "bill o'reilly" for the full effect.""</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">3. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">David Pleat</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GARVdUq6tuI"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: none;">Painfully dreadful football commentator</span></span></span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> 4. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Bob Geldof</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Putting a pretty napkin over a piece of shit doesn't stop it from being a piece of shit. All the charity campaigning in the world can't remove the fact that Bob Geldof is an unpleasant, self-righteous cocktug, who is crap at making music and naming children. To be fair though, he was responsible for probably the greatest gig the world has ever witnessed. No, not Live Aid. His 2006 show in Italy, where only 45 people turned up to see him play at a venue with a 12,000 person capacity, prompting Bob to throw a hissy fit and call off the concert. The fans were probably left gutted not to have the chance to see such Boomtown Rats minor hits as I Don't Like Mondays and, um.... err.....</span></span></div><div style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">5</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Kanye West</span></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Far, far too up himself, but even his extravagant claims of being the most intelligent rapper in the world and the voice of a generation hadn't fully turned me against him. No, this was reserved for until I actually saw him live in concert at Sheffield Arena, in which he descended in to a long rambling semi-rapped monologue of how ill-treated celebrities were by the press, as I helplessly stood by and watched my £35 spent on a ticket slosh away in to inane egotistical twaddle. Also, I have never to this day actually known who on earth Taylor Swift is, apart from a shocked looking figure in a silver dress forlornly clutching a statue of a spaceman while being told she's not as good as Beyonce, but I'm definitely on her side in the great MTV Awards fiasco. Up yours Kanye, you motherfucking gay fish.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> 6. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Terry Taylor</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">See </span><a href="http://jackinthejukebox.blogspot.com/2009/10/random-album-review-4.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Random Album Review #4</span></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Songs I'm Currently Loving:</b></span></span></span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> have a suspicion that Mediafire's (praise be upon it) recent makeover now means that you can download all these stingin' toons in one fell swoop by clicking on </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=90fb2ea23927ce115a3d773badf214308bde9dda337176eeb99f3f1679ee9294"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">this link</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and then doing some stuff, I'm not entirely sure how to do it because I don't download my own songs. Anyway, from now on I'll endeavour to include the whole folder link as well as the individual links, as I appreciate that downloading songs individually wastes precious time that could be spent navigating the hell away from this blog to the safety of some incestuous raccoon porn.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b></b></span></span></div><div><div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dorian Concept - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?jjmqdztdeim"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Trilingual Dance Sexperience</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - relatively new track from DorCon which leaves the mouth watering for a follow up to the majorly mega When Planets Explode.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hard House Banton - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?dwloiq1nznn"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Zulu Form</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - I genuinely hate the term "UK Funky". It just seems like a pointless tag that's been made-up for a style of music that I swear has been around in various forms for ages and has never needed to be called something stupid like "UK Funky" before. Could it not at least be UK Funkstep or UK Funky Munky Dance or something? All it is at the moment is the name of a place followed by an adjective, much like "Tranmere Juicy", which you might not have heard of because I've just invented it. So you can be safe in the knowledge that if you don't see hipsters starting to go to Tranmere Juicy nights in the near future, then there isn't an ounce of justice in the world.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Silkie & Harry Craze - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ohnlzmwzfjc"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Favela</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - speaking of which, here's a nice 'n' Funky track from two UK producers, just for all you Tranmere Juicy-heads out there.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rhythm On The Loose - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ai5khntznwg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Break of Dawn</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - this is some vintage house from the early 90's, and it's MINT mate, fookin' MINT. If you've ever been surprised to see a suitcase by the door then this song is basically telling your life story; you should probably consider legal action.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Acid Girls - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?3aynmmmm4zk"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Lightworks (Harvard Bass Remix)</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - I honestly have no idea why, but this song always makes me think that if it were a person then it'd be the man in the white suit with the ridiculous strut from the </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5j47--4HYk"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dreadlock Holiday</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> video. I have literally no clue as to why my brain decides to bestow this personification upon me. It's a banger of an electro tune though, it's earned it's strut.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">1000 Names - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mu0nyodzzmt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Pum</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - these ace glitch-hoppers may want us to believe that they have 1000 names, but the best song title they can come up with is "Pum"?? I don't know about you, but I don't buy their audacious claims, not one bit.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Shitao - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?5zomzw5k5iw"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - this is a beautiful abstract hip-hop track from the rather un-beautifully named French producer Shitao. For damage limitation sake I'm still trying to decide whether it's better to pronounce his name more like "Shit how?", or "Shit 'ouse". This is probably (well, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">hopefully</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">) the only occasion in life when you'll find yourself lapping up We from a Shit 'ouse, so enjoy it.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Maluca - </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ngwtmrzfgob"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">El Tigeraso</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - this track is pretty damn ludicrous, but is all the better for it. Definitely enjoyable, but not the sort of track that you'd wanna be walked in on whilst wildly flailing your hands in the air to it sitting at your computer in your dressing gown, trust me. No, really: TRUST ME.</span></li></ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In addition to this fine array of tracks to greedily cram down your ear'oles, it'd be well worth your while to check out this latest mix by fast-rising DJ/producer </span><a href="http://www.myspace.com/danboadan"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dan Boadan</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, as it's bloody good: </span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mououynyfxn"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">October 09 Mix</span></a></div></div></div></div></span>Duke Boxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750898088334095456noreply@blogger.com0