life days |
My name's Pete; I'm the 7 billionth voice on Earth. This is a collection of every song I've loved in 2010, in the order that I discovered (and obsessed over) them. That, and a few things that me and one or two friends find unbelievably hilarious. |
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Vaguely festive meme!
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forty-four
DJ Fresh – Gold Dust
This is an updated version of a DJ Fresh track from 2008, and blimey, the new VIP blows the old version clear out of the water. Right from the start of this track it works at building up an epic synth, which is finished – perfectly – when the drum & bass beat drops in, while the new vocals of Ce’cile carry the whole thing all the way through. Massive tune; it’s been a good year for drum & bass.
Oh and check that video out. Fresh’s getting a reputation for awesome videos.
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forty-three
Jesse Rose – Well Now
Welcome to a genre called Fidget. How brilliantly silly is that? It’s definitely up there with Skwee.
It’s a pretty descriptive genre name, as it turns out. This track thoroughly makes you want to fidget. Actually it makes you want to stomp down a road; its so jolly to the extreme that the only thing I’ve ever heard like it is Mr Scruff’s Blackpool Roll.
The best, most honest description for both those tracks is stomping music. Listen to them, I think you’ll agree. So, I’m instating a new genre title, in honour of this music, because fidget doesn’t quite cut it. This is stomp.
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forty-two
Swedish House Mafia – One (The Prototype Mix)
Swedish House Mafia’s a huge name this year; last week tickets to see them live sold out in a day. On the same note, One, their first single, was astronomically big this summer. All things are as they should be, then, for a supergroup made up of Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso.
But the guy who did this remix is called Kev Willow; he’s underground and he’s unsigned. And he’s also 19. But just listen to what he can do! The sheer quality of this remix makes it to dubstep what the original is to house. It’s absolutely huge.
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forty-one
Enter Shikari – The Jester
A few years ago I saw Enter Shikari at the Reading Festival, and caught an instrumental track that sounded like it should’ve been produced in an arcade. On drugs.
The crowd went mental, and when I got home, I had a hunt around for it. Not really being a Shikari fan usually though, I only listened to the first few seconds of a lot of tracks, and never found it amongst them. I gave up, and I put this on – in my searching, I’d noticed it sticking out from the others; it seemed to be more of a self-aware piss-take than most of their stuff. Since then, I’ve realised I was looking at Enter Shikari in a very narrow light, but the most important thing at the time was that halfway through listening to it, it dropped away and turned into the arcade madness.
Almost exactly two minutes in, everything changes. A bouncing creature of a beat starts careering about, and everything builds. See what I saw when I first heard this track: the sides of a huge great mosh pit parting, and moving further and further away from each other as the track climbs. Feel the tension, imagine being in the wall. And then, as it drops into the really glorious rave, imagine that mosh pit collapsing as those two walls of people charge at each other, and everything goes mad.
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I do declare. It’s been aaaages since there was a funny. So here’s a top-quality one!
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forty
Fake Blood – I Think I Like It
Masterful housey electro. This is a track that looked like it was going to really kick off, and almost seemed to. But then it stalled a bit, and only ever reached #59 in the UK singles chart.
And that’s a damn shame, because this track’s excellent. Nice one, Fake Blood; particularly fine work on the use of the cowbell.
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thirty-nine
The Upsetters – Return of Django
There’s not that much that needs to be said about this track – other than ‘ahhh, that’s the name of that song.’ Brilliant, iconic and it’ll be stuck in your head for days; it was in mine.
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thirty-eight
Mark Ronson & The Business Intl - Bang Bang Bang (feat. Q-Tip & MNDR)
So, for all that I said Janelle Monáe was unlike anything else recently - well, this is unlike anything I’ve heard. Ever.
Bang Bang Bang was the first major single from an album about which Mark Ronson promised ‘no covers, no horns’ - the new direction seems to have worked out for him. The synthey little riff instantly catches you, and rolls you along through an excellent song. It’s like one of those books you can’t put down; I couldn’t stop playing it.
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thirty-seven
Janelle Monáe - Tightrope (feat. Big Boi)
And so to an artist who featured on B.o.B’s excellent album: Janelle Monáe. Actually, for this one, make sure the track starts before you read on. Hit that play button, and wait for the music to begin; it’s just after the guy with the ball.
Ok, so you noticed how it’s instantly the funkiest thing in 2010? It’s excellent stuff, with a great beat whose double bass and brass sections absolutely refuse to sit still. Big Boi brings his flair to the mix, and perfectly compliments Janelle in her effortless cool.
But it’s Janelle’s voice that makes the track unlike anything else on the radio, or a lot of elsewhere. There hasn’t been anything like Tightrope this year, or for a few years. Damnit she’s got style.
