Some music I enjoyed this year…

Yes, one would think I’d have something better to do on Christmas Eve than be sitting in front of my computer compiling lists but sadly I’m working over this year’s festive season – though obviously I’ve not actually got a lot of proper work to do as such, but I still gotta sit here  nevertheless. I may as well do something slightly productive…

So was it a good year for music? Of course it was. Every year there is tonnes of great music released, loads of great shows. Ok, some years may stand out a bit from others, but generally I’m surprised if nearly everyone didn’t fall in love with at least a few pieces of music over the space of a year.  Instead of doing just a simple “Top Ten Singles” or whatever I’m gonna instead list of a bunch of music related things that made my year, be it artists, events, releases, dj mixes, whatever. Some have been mentioned here already,  some not.  Before that I’d like to wish all ISM readers and contributors a happy Christmas from myself.

Tevo Howard

I’ve never really been the sort of buyer to have artists or labels that would be “buy on sight” but  Mr Howard and his Beautiful Granville label was as close as I got this year.  I can’t think of another producer as consistently brilliant this year, who’s every record was as essential as his previous. And like so many of the greats his music was deceptively simple to the point where  you’d be sitting there thinking “How come no one else made this record before??”

Jeff Mills in Detroit

The highlight of my trip to the 313 in May, I’d not seen Mills since 2003  due to a couple of underwhelming performances around then.  Gone was the frenzied, verging-on-chaos of older sets, instead in it’s place was a set of slower paced, deeper selections that was still as intense as anything I’d heard him do before. While not all of it was aimed directly at the dancefloor, when he decided to get funky on the 909 it snapped me out of state of trance the likes of which I’ve rarely experienced before. Witnessing this in a warehouse in fuck-knows-where in Detroit only added to the whole experience.

The Return of Planetary Assault Systems

The “Temporary Suspension” album was excellent if maybe not a stone cold, genre classic but after seeing Luke Slater, one of the finest UK techno producers of the 90’s, lose his was so spectacularly for most of the decade it brought a huge smile to my face to see him return to show the pretenders how to do balls out four to the floor club techno. Also,  his new work impressed me more than any of the Berghain types who hold him in such high regard (the album was released on the OstGut Ton label). Another reason that Slater makes the list is due to his gig with Ancient Methods in Dublin during the DEAF festival in October, which was the most enjoyable techno show I’ve been to in the county in years.  Non stop brilliant techno from everyone involved and the sort of atmosphere that is so hard to come by in gigs these days. It really was a rabid dancefloor.

Clone disappears and then reappears, a million times.

Gerald Donald, Reggie Dokes, Alden Tyrell are just 3 of the more well known names that appeared across Clone’s series of new labels along with some newer names like A Made Up Sound and Steve Summers.  You could argue about the pointlessness of having something like 6 sub labels but it doesn’t matter when some of the music was so amazing. Out of the bunch I bought Dokes’ “Chicago Pimp” and The Hasbeens “You and Me” were two of the best 12″s of the year.

Charlie TTB – The Tawdry Adventures of Prince Valium Dj Mix

Instead of highlighting the mixes we supplied to you folk (just check the mixes link on yer left) I’m gonna link to what was probably my favourite mix of the year, which comes from London’s To The Bone crew member Charlie.  If on first listen you struggle to figure out where some songs start and others finish, don’t worry, you aren’t alone. Tripped out bliss, this was, I dare say, a proper “journey” set.  Perfect.  Grab it here

supermax – ain’t gonna feel
boards of canada – amo bishop roden
yoav b – hot one
sf 100 – untitled
kaito – inside river
mark du mosch – in the clouds
bulgari – space reflecting on the bosporos
risque – thunder & lightning
sevensol & bender – ellen barkin
andy stott – ceramics
photek – kanei
cluster – hollywood
lackluster – buzz
drexciya – davey jones’ locker
rhythim is rhythim – the end

Pepe Bradock – Swimsuit Issue 1789

This is surely not the first end of year round up you’ve read in the last few weeks that has mentioned this record. A superb piece of quirky, lo-fi house music this still had mass appeal. Not only is it on lists but either “Path Of Most Resistance” or “CU @ Minna & Lafayette” turned up on countless mixes across the net  during the year.

A few of those re-issues that put the collectors in a huff

I love digging as much as the next and love having those gems, but I can’t help but feel that it’s probably more important for as many people as is possible to hear this old  music and some superb re-issues this year helped expose some artists older work to a new generation.  A few of my favourites:

Robert Hood – Minimal Nation – What can one say. Techno at it’s most perfect. His Superman/Range 12″ was also one of the best new releases of the year.

Anthony “Shake” Shakir – Arise. He also returned with some brilliant new material and a big Frictional Retrospective is en route and as a precursor to that this is some sublime deep techno bizness.

Arnold Jarvis – Take Some Time Out. Classic NYC deepness. Unlike the Shake 12″ the new remix on this (by Basic Soul Unit) was a bit of a banger too.

Juju & Jordash – J & JJ Lp

We’ve been big fans of these guys at ISM since Tom and the others kicked things off a couple of years ago. Slowly but surely everyone else is starting to take notice.  Multi-layered, original, jacking and at times just plain weird the boys always have  surprises up their sleeves, and their debut full length was no different. The follow up Hired Guns was tasty too.

Dj Jus Ed – Sweetness

To be honest, I can’t even remember how the flip of UQ20 sounds ’cause every time my hands were drawn to this 12″ I had to put Sweetness on.  A song soaked in touching depth and emotion the programming on the snares alone was enough to melt hearts. Ed may not have had the consistency of Tevo over the year but this was an outstanding song.

Fred Ventura @ Magic Waves Festival, London

Nobody really knew if this party could work. A huge collection of back in the day Italo producers and Djs lined up side by side with many of the new school producers they inspired, it was a ballsy move to see if enough people would actually show up. But many did and from many parts of the UK, Ireland and Europe. The highlight of the 2 night spectacle was the performance of one of the more famous Italo figures – in the sense that he had more than one hit song to his name from back when – Fred Ventura. Accompanied by Alden Tyrell he led the crowd through an ecstatic performance of classics such as “Winds of Change” and “Bodyheat“. And what about that version of “Memories” at the end? Crikey.