Joker - Tron
The screeching synth-led melodic interplays, colourful bass and grime signatures made this an instant classic in dubstep circles upon its release in April. It seems to be getting bigger and bigger as the year goes on and ensures that the Bristol scene keeps its hold on the underground of UK bass culture.
Best Coast - Boyfriend
Reverb soaked noise-pop that does what all great indie songs should do, tell a simple tale of (as yet) unrequited love and obsession, of idealistic relationships and simple chords. Bethany's voice is as golden as always and the lo-fi production adds to the whole charm.
Penguin Prison - The Worse It Gets
The past couple of years have been dominated by female synth-pop stars, the likes of La Roux, Little Boots, Ellie Goulding et al leaving the guys trailing in their wake. New Yorker Penguin Prison may be the one to reverse this trend considering he appears to tread a line mostly consisting of prime era Prince on this record. It is the kind of song that sometimes leaves you slightly embarrassed when you find yourself singing along, yet you soon realise just what a ridiculous notion that is. Classic pop cannot, and never should be embarrassing.
Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand (O-God Edit)
Armand Van Helden & A-Trak's ode to Barbra was the hit if the Winter Music Conference this year, and became the ubiquitous house hit of the summer. Built around a Boney M sample, the legal wrangling of which led to the release being delayed by months. O-God's cheeky bootleg edit was the only version around for a while and I'd played it so much by the time the original turned up in decent studio quality it sounded just too slow. As infectious and silly as a great throwaway summer hit should be this was catchy enough to stay around all year.
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
Whenever I listen to Vampire Weekend I wish they'd leave the intellectual yearnings and Paul Simon obsessions aside a little more and make more spiky records like this. Like'A-Punk' before it, the token urgency shown on this jumped out far more than everything else on the album.
Hot Chip ft. Bonnie Prince Billy - I Feel Bonnie
The best moment from 'One Life Stand', 'I Feel Better' was improved even further with this new version featuring cult American folk artist Bonnie Prince Billy. Warm analogue bass carries the song through its entire seven minutes and the broken tone of the new vocal sits perfectly with the falsettos and distorted backing vocals of the Hot Chip original. The fade out and reprise at around five and a half minutes still gives me goosebumps everytime.
Hyper Crush - AYO
A beast of a track produced by none other than Diplo, this is a booty shaker of the highest regard. Flitting between a squealing motif, militant drums and almost dubstep breaks. An absolute banger for the club, this was one of the best party starters around this year.
Kanye West ft. Pusha T - Runaway
I think Rolling Stone put this best:- "it takes a special kind of twisted, genius to raise the white flag of surrender while raising the middle finger." Whatever you think of Kanye there can be no doubt that the man is a talent like no other. This nine minute epic sees him opening his heart and laying down his insecurities, the ego stripped bare for a while. For an artist as big and self-important as Kanye to release a track like this is an achievement in itself. The twinkling, crying piano and sparse, yet thunderous drums, Kanye's fragile singing voice and Pusha T's rap pulling it all together make for one of the most dramatic moments in music this year.
Robyn - Dancing On My Own
When this was first released I took an instant dislike to it, dismissing it as over-produced. The problem was that I hadn't actually listened to it properly. Filled with heartbreak and emotion, this is a tale of attempting to save face in public even though your insides are being ripped apart. Its a tribute to the achingly sad disco anthems from the likes of Donna Summer & Sylvester and a reminder that there is always room for a little despondency on the dancefloor.
Cee-Lo Green - Fuck You
Probably the one track of this year that you can guarantee to have generation-spanning longevity. The instrumentation is steeped in classic 1960s pop, a throw back to all those great Motown and Stax moments. There are times when the "fuck you" refrain borders on novelty but Cee-Lo's master stroke was to craft a song so effortless, so timeless that the indignation to the girl whom ditched him almost becomes a celebratory moment. We live in such an uncensored society now that the illicit word is used in everyday conversation, its power only holds when it is pushed upon us by songs, or films, or in print. Maybe this is part of the power of this track, that Cee-Lo uses it on our level, he is throwing it away in the same manner each of us do every day. (Incidentally all of this means that the radio edit that replaces the "fuck" with "forget" is one of the most pointless recordings ever made).
Showing posts with label Best Coast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Best Coast. Show all posts
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Monday, 20 December 2010
SONGS OF 2010 - NUMBERS 51-60
Kid Cudi, Best Coast & Rostam Batmanglij - All Summer
The other track released this year under the Converse banner, this does exactly what it is said to. A true summer anthem, Cudi's rap blends perfectly into the lo-fi harmonies of the Best Coast singer Bethany's lament with the guitar line held in trademark fashion by Vampire Weekend's superbly names Rostram Batmanglij.
Audiobot - Noize, Bass & Disco
If there were three things that made house beats shout in 2010 it was noise, bass and disco. It goes without saying that this track by Audiobot that jumped seamlessly between the three was a work of art that enabled many a jump between sub-genres in the imaginative set.
Nero - Innocence
The BBC have named Nero in their shortlist for their annual sound of 2011 poll which is somewhat delayed in their reaction to an artist that has been one of the success stories of this year, yet alone next. Churning out remix after remix of pop hits, Nero hit the spot with this production that held the huge atmospherics until it became absolutely necessary to hit that massive massive drop.
Oh Land - Sun Of A Gun
Following in the strong recent tradition of solo female Scandinavian artists, Oh Land is one of the best bets for chart domination in the next year. This single will be re-released before next summer, and will be a huge hit - that much a can guarantee. The quirky, breathy vocal juxtaposes beautifully with the urgency in the beat leaving you constantly on the edge of your seat as you listen.
The Count & Sinden ft. Mystery Jets - After Dark
As already mentioned in a previous post, Blaine's voice is becoming one of the definitive sounds of leftfieeld British pop. Leaving aside his band for this one with super-producers Herve (aka The Count) and Sinden his voices rides astride an almost tropical beat, creating a dizzyingly melodic dancefloor hit.
Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work (The Twelves Remix)
Constantly turning everything they put their hand to into disco-tinged foot-tapping gold, The Twelves work on this took the undeniable sense of rhythm and super-smooth melodies of Two Door Cinema Club's indie hit and turned it from a song (like most of their work) that was a little too urgent and self-conscious into something with such a laid-back groove that it was irresistible.
Zeds Dead - Rude Boy (Union Remix)
Union are another duo whose stock is rising as fast as Ireland's is falling. They have played with absolutely everyone this year (recently playing to nearly 100,000 people in a week as tour support to Faithless) and run student nights at Fabric, named one of the top 10 nights in the country in Mixmag this month. This is the first track that has broke them in the production stakes, twisting Zeds Dead's absolute smash dub beat to the point of exasperation until with a mere minute and a half left they explode into a D&B beat out of absolutely nowhere in a move that is absolutely certain to raise the roof of any club anywhere.
Breakage ft. Erin - Justified
As much as dubstep excites me time and time again with new ways of making you throw your hands in the air, get to the floor and throw yourself into shapes that you never thought were possible outside of Olympic gymnasiums sometimes I can't help but want it to turn more to the direction taken by the Bristol sound of the mid-90s led by the likes of Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. The thing that these artists understood more than the current generation do is the importance of the vocal in setting the atmosphere, the importance of space and subtlety within music and how to structure a song rather than a 'track'. This track from Breakage's brilliant album understood those principles.
Cassius - I Love U So
For a song released on Ed Banger records, a song by one of the pioneers of the French electro/filter house sound to be so sparse, so laid back was a shock. Cassius seem to have taken the road long travelled by their countrymen Air and this would sit perfectly on their incredible 'Virgin Suicides' soundtrack. An absolute masterpiece that holds simplicity at its core, I've got a feeling that if I was writing this list six months down the line this would appear much higher in the rankings.
Dada Life - Unleash The Fucking Dada (At Dawn We Rage's Unleash The Fucking Fury Edit)
Dada Life have been bubbling away in the background all year with a string of releases and remixes that have been almost, but never quite there. As described once it got to October they unleashed the promise and At Dawn We Rage got involved on the edit to create a hypnotic tech-laden mix of epic proportions.
The other track released this year under the Converse banner, this does exactly what it is said to. A true summer anthem, Cudi's rap blends perfectly into the lo-fi harmonies of the Best Coast singer Bethany's lament with the guitar line held in trademark fashion by Vampire Weekend's superbly names Rostram Batmanglij.
Audiobot - Noize, Bass & Disco
If there were three things that made house beats shout in 2010 it was noise, bass and disco. It goes without saying that this track by Audiobot that jumped seamlessly between the three was a work of art that enabled many a jump between sub-genres in the imaginative set.
Nero - Innocence
The BBC have named Nero in their shortlist for their annual sound of 2011 poll which is somewhat delayed in their reaction to an artist that has been one of the success stories of this year, yet alone next. Churning out remix after remix of pop hits, Nero hit the spot with this production that held the huge atmospherics until it became absolutely necessary to hit that massive massive drop.
Oh Land - Sun Of A Gun
Following in the strong recent tradition of solo female Scandinavian artists, Oh Land is one of the best bets for chart domination in the next year. This single will be re-released before next summer, and will be a huge hit - that much a can guarantee. The quirky, breathy vocal juxtaposes beautifully with the urgency in the beat leaving you constantly on the edge of your seat as you listen.
The Count & Sinden ft. Mystery Jets - After Dark
As already mentioned in a previous post, Blaine's voice is becoming one of the definitive sounds of leftfieeld British pop. Leaving aside his band for this one with super-producers Herve (aka The Count) and Sinden his voices rides astride an almost tropical beat, creating a dizzyingly melodic dancefloor hit.
Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work (The Twelves Remix)
Constantly turning everything they put their hand to into disco-tinged foot-tapping gold, The Twelves work on this took the undeniable sense of rhythm and super-smooth melodies of Two Door Cinema Club's indie hit and turned it from a song (like most of their work) that was a little too urgent and self-conscious into something with such a laid-back groove that it was irresistible.
Zeds Dead - Rude Boy (Union Remix)
Union are another duo whose stock is rising as fast as Ireland's is falling. They have played with absolutely everyone this year (recently playing to nearly 100,000 people in a week as tour support to Faithless) and run student nights at Fabric, named one of the top 10 nights in the country in Mixmag this month. This is the first track that has broke them in the production stakes, twisting Zeds Dead's absolute smash dub beat to the point of exasperation until with a mere minute and a half left they explode into a D&B beat out of absolutely nowhere in a move that is absolutely certain to raise the roof of any club anywhere.
Breakage ft. Erin - Justified
As much as dubstep excites me time and time again with new ways of making you throw your hands in the air, get to the floor and throw yourself into shapes that you never thought were possible outside of Olympic gymnasiums sometimes I can't help but want it to turn more to the direction taken by the Bristol sound of the mid-90s led by the likes of Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. The thing that these artists understood more than the current generation do is the importance of the vocal in setting the atmosphere, the importance of space and subtlety within music and how to structure a song rather than a 'track'. This track from Breakage's brilliant album understood those principles.
Cassius - I Love U So
For a song released on Ed Banger records, a song by one of the pioneers of the French electro/filter house sound to be so sparse, so laid back was a shock. Cassius seem to have taken the road long travelled by their countrymen Air and this would sit perfectly on their incredible 'Virgin Suicides' soundtrack. An absolute masterpiece that holds simplicity at its core, I've got a feeling that if I was writing this list six months down the line this would appear much higher in the rankings.
Dada Life - Unleash The Fucking Dada (At Dawn We Rage's Unleash The Fucking Fury Edit)
Dada Life have been bubbling away in the background all year with a string of releases and remixes that have been almost, but never quite there. As described once it got to October they unleashed the promise and At Dawn We Rage got involved on the edit to create a hypnotic tech-laden mix of epic proportions.
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