Its great to be able to give a shout out to a new South London label from some people I have a lot of respect for. A little like busses, two are coming along at the same time. Emotional Rescue and Emotional Response. I’m starting to get very excited about some of the releases coming up.

Firstly Emotional Rescue which has got the aim of unearthing and reissuing forgotten remastered gems of dance music’s past (with full artist consent it should be added). The first release is a reissue of a funky disco rock slammer which started life on a 7″ test pressing in 1973 by Bob Chance, with a synth freakout added to its relentless fuzzed out grove. the b side feratures a second later version of equal merit. This one has got some serious potential for dancefloor drama. Apparently only 10 copies exist so this full release for the first time has already caused a lot of talk from people who had assumed they’d never find a copy. It’s out now in Juno and other discerning outlets.

There’s a great Suns of Arqa 12″ coming up after that with a very welcome loud pressing of Ananta Snake Dance. Managed to pick this up a month or two back on test pressing and has been getting a lot of play since.

Also excited about this Cosmic Hoffman spaced out krautrock track.

Secondly there’s Emotional Reponse which focuses on the sounds of the present day and the future, already has some excellent releases scheduled from Grackle, Alan Hurst, Timothy J Fairplay and Ulysses.

A couple of highlights, this slow jam by Alan Hurst (aka Steve Summers) from the soundtrack to Nzambi lp:

and further cold war zombi film disco scene hits in the form of Timothy J Fairplay’s upcoming Ep

Considering January is seen as a quiet month for music I’ve still managed to pick up a nice bit of wax over the last few weeks. Some are fresh on the racks, some are yet to hit ‘em and there’s one or two things from last year I’m just catching up on properly, so gonna dip into them over the next few posts…

Magnetic Souls – Lovin’ on the Run

This upcoming 12″ from the Atlanta based Rotating Souls imprint is a lil bit scant on info so far, bar that it comes from Magnetic Soul, again an act I know little about (who ever said we were clued in nerds on this site eh?). It starts with a massive blast of funk on the A cut which builds itself around some stonking 70′s brass, a couple of sultry vocal samples and a proper groove that makes the whole thing sound like it was transported directly from back when. Working in a not dissimilar fashion to an edit this is a sweaty bit of funk. It gets a bit more lowslung on the B side cuts which again utilise some old funk vocals, combined with killer boogie bass-lines and more wonderfully catchy samples. Like the first Rotating Souls 12″ from East Liberty Quarters (I missed the 2nd) everything is unashamedly retro in style but things seem less forced than a lot of nu-disco or modern boogie that insists on uncomfortably shoehorning (sometimes, not always, of course) new styles in. The B2 has a brilliantly subtle cut n paste style to it especially, with a couple of unexpected surprises.

Chris Gray/Moonchildren – Go Away

Gray is someone I only came across last year when a mate pointed in my the direction of his Tried To Be Good album that came out quite some time ago, like everything else he’s done; this is his first release in many years. As this 12″ is on Downbeat you know it’s going to be deeeeep and as ever the quality is second to none. Downbeat has a knack of selecting the most ethereal of house cuts and this is no different. Gray eschews some of the more typical deep house sounds that are boring the shit out of everyone these days, bar the traditional square bass sounds utilised on Go Away and the barmily titled It Was The Fried Chicken That Saved Our Sanity (Because The Ghetto Is Sad). But instead of this leading the tracks it takes 2nd place to the most delicate of melodic intonations and slightly off kilter percussion. Fried Chicken, for all its laid backness manages to create some superb tensions with its synth lines. The quality slightly dips on the closing Sun Of God but it’s still another fine early morning jam. For those looking for deep house with a bit of a difference, look no further.

Pittsburgh Track Authority – Untitled/Monongahela Rainforest

This is the latest release from our own Pipecock’s techno/house 3-way with fellow P-burgers Adam Ratana and Preslov Lefterov;  arriving on their own new Pittsburgh Tracks  imprint (this release is brimming with mindblowing titling) which I gave a brief mention to in my end of year round up, but which is only fully dropping at the moment. It kicks off with Untitled which is their biggest dancefloor cut to date. It comes on like a slightly updated UR/Gerald Mitchell cut, the soaring strings especially are hugely in-debt to those masters of melodic Detroit techno. While this is a style that has often been copied over the last ten years – especially in the earlier part of the last decade – the guys have the sense to not over do it on the instrumentation – a problem so many have with this type of music, insisting on making it way too busy – and what gives it it’s own character is the excellent drumprogramming/bass/percussion.   The flip serves up the much more relaxed Monongahela Rainforest (from no name songs to  near unpronounceable, fair play), which on the face of it is maybe a little too chilled for it’s own good but the engrossing sub on it opens it up impressively and while it may lack the hooks of Untitled or, say, the enticing oddness of Chris Gray’s 12″ it still manages to steer clear of a lot of deep cliches too.

Lost Trax / Connection Machine – Lost Connection

The Scots-founded Tabernacle Records are not ones to rest on the laurels at any time and following quickly in the footsteps of this rather ace The Third Man 12″ from late last year comes the 2nd part of their collaboration with Lost Trax and The Connection Machine, the initial fruits of which were this split mini-album from last year. Lost Trax kicks this one off with some top shelf  electro on 801 with a gnarly bass that leads over crisp hi-hats and a deep, wistful synth line. Dominion is a more hectic, face-paced electro jam, full of intricate programming which dips in and out at times, adding more drama as it goes.

On the flip The Connection Machine goes down a slightly more abstract route and as fun as the Lost Trax material is, is the real show stealer of the release. Klute is a brilliant oppressive slab of electronica, its droning synths and sparse beats creating an eerie, unsettling atmosphere. The release closes on it’s high point, After. It starts off on a lighter if melancholic note, and gently trips along before another heaving synth drops out of nowhere, giving the song a nicely dramatic twist.  The track then steps up a gear with some twisted, efx laden (well, what sounds like) vocals, and a great balancing act is played between the opening musical assonances and the darker elements it picks up along the way. A pretty special piece of music drenched in emotion.

Sunday Times! is an amazing lil party that takes place up the hill on Barrack St in Cork City, here in Ireland. It’s a unique  party where the Djs get to do their thing  from  early in the evening while sat upon a wee bar stool, chopping and changing their musical selections at will, gently easying the crowd into a full on dance off by nights end. I’ve played it a couple of times along with Lerosa and  I’ve rarely had more fun playing music. John and Barry put a lot of effort into making everything right and anyone who’s attended or played really appreciates this.

The mix is more focused on the early evening before it gets too rowdy, not too much mixing, nothing toooo uptempo and so on. So I don’t get berated for not mentioning it, I was informed that the first track had to be on it by Dean from Tr One. I didn’t own the record at the time of playing down there last summer but another friend had bought the 7inch the day before in a flea market and I took it off him to start  my set. So, after a bit of discoging, I put this mix together.

The mix can be found over here on the guys website. T/list is below. Enjoy.

Julee Cruise – Falling
Tangerine Dream – Tangram Set 1
Conrad Schitzler – Auf Dem Schawrzen Kanal
John Daly – Sea Level (Haze Mix)
Pittsburgh Track Authority – Archipalego 6 (Dub)
E.M.A.K – Filmmusik
Kraftwerk – Trans Europe Express
Cosmic Touch – Nothing Ever Changes (inst.)
Ali Renault – Cuffs
The Cats n’ Jammer Kids – Disco Drum (C2C4 specimen)
Dfd – Go Ahead
Tullio De Piscopo – ‘E Fatto ‘E Sorde! E? (Max Essa edit)
Cottam – Cottam 4 A1
Massimo Barsotti D.J. – Whole Lotta Love
Fockewulf 190 – Body Heat (vocal mix)
Sensitive – Driving
Wolfram feat. Haddaway – Thing Called Love (Legowelt rmx)

Image : Amy Plant

Just a quick post to point you in the way of a small interview myself and Dean Feeney from Tr One did with Irish website Thumped.com. The usual topics for us luddites; vinyl n’ hardware plus how we feel about the Irish electronic music scene….

Read it here

The Drum Dance 12″ has now hit Hardwax, Piccadilly and a bunch other places etc, enough spam. Nice one.

Just a quick heads up to say that Drum Dance is hitting stores over the next couple of weeks.  Juno, rubadub, decks.de amongst others are selling it already in Europe while Rush Hour and Clone amongst others are taking orders now.  Crosstalk International are distributing it on the other side of the Atlantic, so hopefully it will be hitting the likes of Gramaphone in Chicago in the next while.

For any of those out east, Jetset, Underground Gallery and Lighthouse Records are stocking it (or upcoming) in Japan and over the next while it should be hitting many other stores, pre-orders from the distro have been pretty healthy! And if you still like to shop local in real shops,  give them a shout for an order.

This Saturday, the 28th, Tr One will be celebrating the release with a gig out in Galway at The Bierhaus, one of the city’s finest drinking establishments, so if yer out the west of Ireland, be sure to drop in. Friday night sees former ISM guest mixer Paudi Ahern playing in the same venue, so it’s shaping up to be a fun weekend.

We’re also doing our first label party in February in Twisted Pepper’s basement, Dublin, with Tr One djing and Lerosa playing live. And, yes, you can gather from that that Lerosa will be the next artist to feature on the label, but not quite as you expect. More info coming very soon on all that…

Thanks for all the support so far too, be it from bloggers, djs, everyone…

It’s going down in Pittsburgh tomorrow nite! This is gonna be a pretty awesome evening, with some of my favorite deejays playing on a killer four corner soundsystem at a venue with a nice sized dancefloor. ISM contributors Frank Glazer aka Count Zer0, Jwan Allen, and myself are joined by special guest and good friend Chris O’Connor aka C02 for 5 hours of tag-team all-vinyl goodness. Big ups to the guys at Humanaut for making this happen. There’s even more big shit on the way from these guys and us in 2012, you’ll definitely be hearing about it here, on my Facebook, and on my Twitter. I predict Pittsburgh is going to be taking it up a notch or two this year, above even the craziness that was 2011. This is the time to get down here if you wanna witness some ill shit!

I’m not usually one to reminisce very much, primarily because I like to keep planning more and more new shit for the future. But this gig in particular makes me very happy, and it makes me think back. House and techno culture in Pittsburgh were primarily based in the 90s rave scene, and all these deejays playing tomorrow night can say that their journeys as deejays begin in or before that time. The days of Hypervinyl Records in Oakland being a central meeting place as well as the spot to get all the best music coming out loom large in that history. To this day a large number of my best friends are people that I met there. This was the heyday of dance music in Pittsburgh, and we were involved in it by playing records, throwing parties, working in record shops, etc.

Then the rave scene crashed and died in the early 00s. Things got very small for house and techno in particular, moving into spaces like Havana, Pub IG, Ray’s Bar and Grill, Level, etc. Hypervinyl closed and was replaced by shops like Milk Records and 720 Records. I can remember us being amongst the maybe 50 people who saw Metro Area deejay in Pittsburgh in 2004, or the 40 or so who saw Brett Dancer play here in 2005. Even the “big” events like Bugz in the Attic or Norm Talley were nowhere near what had once been. Friday night parties at the Warhol Museum were a godsend, bringing in good music and supporting the local deejays. Through this time, we were still playing records, working in record shops, throwing parties, basically living the life. Things REALLY took a dip in the later 00s as the usually consistent Havana closed, record shops began playing a less important role as deejays picked up CDs or laptops, and many of the older crowd moved on in life or moved away from the city. We soldiered on, doing our ever smaller parties at venues like Shadow Lounge and Remedy, the huge stacks of records behind the turntables only increasing in size and diversity. I started ISM partially to stay connected to what was going on outside of the city at that time. Our annual trips to DEMF became an opportunity for us to cram an entire year’s worth of partying into one crazy weekend, because that was the only place we could get to see the kind of music we loved and lived.

Now, things are clearly on the upswing. Parties are bigger, there are lots of new faces in the crowd (most of whom were probably children in the time we started doing our thing!), lots of new people taking up deejaying and promoting more serious music, and it is all happening on its own as opposed to being part of the rave culture. It took a long time to build this into what it is, and a lot of work from a lot of people. Massive props to those who are doing all the work now to make all this happen! But I want to take this time to give it up to those who have stuck with this music through thick and thin, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, etc. So many have fallen by the wayside due to moving away, giving up, dying, or a bunch of other reasons. The number who are still around and deejaying is very small. The number who are still around buying new records constantly and continuing to do it the way we started out is even smaller. We keep searching out the freshest new music because it is what we have done for a long time. We were just teenagers when we started, and now we are adults. It’s been a long, weird journey! But we know no other way of doing things. It isn’t retro for us; we’re not trying to be hip by playing vinyl.

What we’re going to do on Saturday night is a culmination of the decade and a half each of us has spent with dance music. You’ll hear house and techno of course, but also electro, disco, broken beat, and more. We’re bringing out three turntables and two mixers, and we’re going to tagteam all night long. We’ve been playing records together so much and for long enough that we know huge chunks of each others’ considerable record collections. We’re gonna take those records and see what we can make happen with them! Just like we’ve been doing…

Big ups to all those who are still around from back in the day, I’m not naming names because I don’t want to leave anyone out. You know who you are. Big ups to all those new cats getting it done today, again I’m not naming names but your efforts and passion are awesome. The meshing of the two is most important, I hope to see it continue and Pittsburgh will be all the better for it. Together we will all finally see things pop off the way we have always wanted it to!

For those of you in the Bay Area, I’ll be playing alongside Joe Rice and Matt Holland tonight in SF, at UndergroundSF in the lower Haight. Come celebrate the new year with us, and expect to hear a ton of deep cuts spanning many genres!

Can’t really think of a better way to start the new year with the announcement that the 2nd 12″ on Apartment will be dropping at the end of the month. Regular readers should be familiar with Tr One at this stage, who’ve contributed a bunch of guest mixes for us in the past as well as releasing a few great 12″‘s over the last few years. As per the last release I’m gonna pass on any superflous promo blurbs on here, suffice to say we are pretty excited about this! Along with the original, John Heckle delivers his stompin’ debut remix effort and the Jujus gave us a proper dub version to round things off…

Check out the samples below…

Also, here’s a video clip of the guys performing Drum Dance live in Dublin in November ’11

Apartment [one] TR One – Drum Dance

12″ vinyl only.

More info to follow soon…

As with the last couple of years, my end of year post isn’t gonna go down the big lists route, just gonna dip in and out of my year in music. You will see some similarities between myself and Tom’s selections, hardly surprising really. There’s no doubt a few things on his that I haven’t bothered to repeat here, though one of them sure ain’t that KDJ edit of Alexander Robotnick

Home Soil

First off I gotta talk about what’s been going on in Ireland as it’s been a pretty healthy year. A bunch of new labels have sprung up over the last 12 months or so, covering everything from disco to house and techno and bass. I’m pretty proud to be able to include myself on this list, finally getting my Apartment Imprint up and going – the 2nd  release will be coming in January featuring Tr One with Juju & Jordash and John Heckle on remix duties (more of that in the new year) – alongside other new labels; Earwiggle, Signal Code, Fatty Fatty and Maigret Recordings. Most notable  is that Earwiggle have brought about the return of Steve Stoll, one of my favourite techno producers from the 90s with his latest ep.

2 of the more established labels, All City and Lunar Disko, have continued to go from strength to strength over the last 12 months. My picks from those guys have been the sublime Falty DL – Make It Difficult and the spinetingling cosmic disco of Night Theme by Raiders of the Lost ARP. Falty DL especially crafted a thing of true beauty  in a year where it has seemingly become a prequiste in Bass Music to use cut up RnB vocals and be hugely in debt to US Garage and House. Make It Difficult shone head and shoulders above the competition. I’m not one to bother with the compare and contrast much but for Blawans yoke to be No.1 on RA’s top 50 and this to not even get a mention is fucking retarded.

I think my first ever post on here was about the then emerging Irish house producer John Daly. Since then John’s stock has continued to rise even though, for me, his move away from deeper territory saw me lose a bit of interest in some of his music. His latest release on the brilliant Further Records, Sea Level, is a truly exceptional record though. Tom selected the Aerosol Mix in his post but for me it’s about the incredible 20min plus beatless Haze Mix on the a-side.  This kind of stuff has always been John’s forte IMO and here he has crafted one of the releases of the year.

Our adopted bearded old fart from Italy, Lerosa, has continued to do his thang over the last 12 months with his 2nd album dropping, and it was pretty darn great. Ordinary People, the re-working of the earlier single Facade, now with added OliverWho Factory, was my pick. Slipping away from things Irish, Uzuri, the UK label Amanatto came out on also delivered the ace debut single from P.T.A. ingeniously titled The First Four (they’ve got a new 12 out too, with the even more imaginatively title A cut, Untitled), my choice from this was slow mo bruiser Vertical Impact. Uzuri also released the debut cut by Irish deep house duo Slowburn on a compilation 12″ last year and the boys have followed this up this year with their debut full ep on elektrosouls. Should be plenty more in the pipeline from these guys in 2012 too.

Sing It!

The post on LWE’s EoyL about Storm Queen – It Goes On made a good point about the over abundance of vocals in dance music this year, with them mostly being those little snippets that are becoming increasingly grating. But there was a bunch of tracks that had,  y’know, full vocals in them that eclipsed most of that other nonsense. The aformentioned Storm Queen is easily one of the songs of the year, it’s drawn out, teasing intro finally giving away to that perfect chorus with an amazing vocal performance from Damon Scott. 20 years ago this would have been riding on top of the pop charts.

Love is the theme of my other favourite vocal tracks of the year; the ludicrous collision of Sylvester and David Hentschel’s I Can’t Dance that is Tyson’s After You’re Gone, Colonol Abrams’ collaboration with Omar S on Who Wrote The Rules of Love and most notably the barmy 3-way of Haddaway, Wolfram and Legowelt on Wolfers remix of This Thing Called Love. While Omar S’ Here’s Your Trance and Legowelt’s  The Teac Life are getting the love on other lists neither were these artists high points of 2011, IMO. Legowelt’s work also gets my nod for remix of the year too.

Techno

My continued gripe with the state of play in techno over the last couple of years continues unabated with much of it still leaving me really cold. I’ve said it enough on here though, so instead will look at the things I did love over the last 12 months.

One thing no one could have predicted 12 months ago was that one of the sterling techno releases of 2011 would come via a Detroit artist barely heard of in 20 years, but Marty Bond’s Phoenix-esque re-emergence with the near faultless Surkit Chamber-The Melding album under his Reel By Real monikor was a brilliant surprise. Straight up 313 techno for the dancefloor that brimmed with more character and funk than 50 stamped white labels from Berlin combined.

Funnily enough, one of the other stand out techno releases of the year came from a member of Sandwell District – a collective of artists/label that has really helped re-shape techno into it’s current po-faced and drab existence.  Appearing on Blackest Ever Black – a label that actually puts a huge effort into it’s appearance and feel – Regis’ brooding In A Syrian Tongue was a wonderfully dark and multi-layered single. You didn’t need to be on a dancefloor to appreciate it’s many facets but the lead off cut, Blood Witness, was sure to shake the floor.

Rob Hood managed to put out one of his best tracks in quite some time – Baby, Baby - under his Floorplan guise while also putting out what was arguably his worst ever track, a totally pointless edit of Gino Soccio’s Dancer on this 12. It sounds like he threw it together in about 15 seconds. A very odd choice of song to put out.

The techno release of the year has to be the Labryinth double pack that Time To Express released to coincide with the Japanese festival of the same name. With only Mike Parker’s cut coming up short of essential, Peter Van Hoesen, Donato Dozzy and Convextion delivered incredible selections, and I’ve listened to these more than any techno this year. It is also making me yearn for more Convextion material from Gerard Hanson. He seems to be running out of steam a little bit with the E.R.P. monikor (releases I would have deemed essential before the last couple) and going on the stunning Oil On Metal, he’s still got plenty of great techno still hidden away.

A few other notable techno selections:

Surgeon – Radiance.  The intense centrepiece to his Breaking The Frame Lp, the rest of the album was enjoyable but this swamped it. One of his best works ever.

Mark Ernestus meets BBC – Version.  The beatless Version 2 was the pick for me, opening the song up into another level. Perfection.

Lory D – Acidronix – Deranged acid with a grinding synth line that came on like the aural equivalent of someone unexpectedly getting sick on your shoulder in the middle of a dancefloor. But in a good way.

House

House music continued it’s obsession with trying to sound like it was made in Chicago in 1988, but it wasn’t all bad. In terms of the Chi-town bizness, Liverpudlian John Heckle proved that you could nod yer head to this sound while still giving it yer own character. It often sounds like he’s given his drum machines a bit of a kicking before plugging them in, and it’s all the better for it. Out of his 3 12s and and long player on Mathematics it was the raw italo/Chi-town stomp of Voyager (Voyeur) that I fell in love with the most. He got a lot of hype around him, but with cuts like that, it was deserved.

Vakula had a very productive year, and while I didn’t have the urge (or the money) to hunt it all down he offered up the wonderful – and IMO, must have -  Picture Of You during the summer on Dekmental. He approaches house music with a certain psychedelic edge not dissimilar to the Jujus or Reggie Dokes, and it was at its most effective on the slowburning title track of this 12″

Juju and Jordash continue to be perched head and shoulders above most other electronic music makers; Unleash The Golem pt1 has popped up here and there on year end lists already but for me it was all about the panaromic beauty of Avian Oasis, on this downbeat 12; one of their finest moments yet.

Tom also mentioned Willie Burns in his round up and I’m gonna go with Key Horizons from his self titled ep on LIES as my choice from his output. A couple of other repeat offenders from that post include Pittman’s On A Beautiful and Spekter’s Pipebomb.

Out With The New, In With The Old

Time for a quick re-cap of some excellent re-issues. While the flurry of old Chicago stuff continued on from last year, Clone, who’d been doing it for years on the Classics imprint steered clear of it, instead giving us the final instalment of the Unit Moebius Golden Years Trilogy, it’s deep melodic techno being the strongest of the 3-parter. They also kickstarted their expansive Drexciya series with Part 1 of Journey Of The Deep Sea Dweller series. Essential.

Throbbing Gristle saw a bunch of their albums get the remastered/repress bizness with the sparse, cold electronics of Chris & Cosey’s Songs of Love and Lust topping the list for me.

And we can’t forget about Seventh Sign getting a hold of the amazing G Strings – Land Of Dreams and saving us all a couple of hundred euros.

Suicide @ Primavera

I cut back a little bit on buying records this year, deciding instead to give myself a few more breaks from Dublin/Ireland and  I tied in 3 trips with 3 festivals over the course the year. I did a write up about the excellent Free Rotation at the time and most recently I attended All Tomorrow’s Parties in Minehead, the many highlights of which included Sun Ra Arkestra, Caribou, Factory Floor, Battles, Omar Souleyman, Roll The Dice and the arse rattling bass assault of Flying Lotus.

Primavera in Barcelona provided a similarly eclectic line up (which was my one gripe with Free Rotation, it was a bit too one dimensional) with fun performances from Nissenmondai, Emeralds, Einstürzende Neubauten, Big Boi, Twin Shadow, PJ Harvey, Swans and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. The show stoppers were Suicide though, and their performance was easily my gig of the year. The last place you expect to see these 2 battered old punks is on a big outdoor stage in front of thousands but, boy, did it work. They tore through their debut album in typically brutal and unrestrained fashion and the sight of thousands totally losing their shit to their nihilistic noise was off the chain. I’m still rushing just at the thought of it.

On a side note regards hitting the dancefloor I have to give a special mention to the Sunday Times crew in Cork who throw what is, unarguably for me, the best party in Ireland. I’ve become a little bored of clubbing in Dublin even though there is still plenty going on, but there is nothing that is such an unbridled celebration of music as Sunday Times. The all day party lets the Djs do Whatever They Want and it’s a rare treat to watch a crowd go with whatever whims and flights of fancy the djs choose. I enjoyed dancing and djing (while sitting down, naturally) at this more than any other party over the last 12 months.

Kassem Mosse and Tr One provided the 2 best sets I saw in Dublin. Actually, infuriatingly I didn’t see all of Mosse, but what I did was awesome. Tr One played a bunch of live sets throughout the year with the highlight being their final performance in Twisted Pepper in Dublin in November, where the walls were literally shaking from their machine funk assault.

Lerosa – Wave Disco / Gary Odyssey – Bleep43 Podcast

I’m a little bit hazy on what mixes did it for me this year (outside of our own) but 2 I know I’ve had on repeat at different stages include Leo’s guest mix for Sunday Times Soundsystem, a barmy mix of 80s oddities (kudos especially for unearthing that amazing Eurythmics B-Side – Lets Just Close Our Eyes) and new wigouts and the Italo/Euro Disco megamix by the mysterious Gary Odyssey. The Odyssey mix didn’t throw up a huge amount of rare-or-whatever that we watch out for these days when looking at that period of music but it was just SO MUCH FUN.

A few More Bits and Bobs

On an electro tip for the year, Dj Overdose released his 2nd Model Man vinyl, the fantastic Forever Strangers that was as eclectic as it was brilliant. Conforce may have got everyone in a tizzy with his nice but pretty bland techno, but his Versalife electro work contained in the Night Time Activity series far surpassed t’other while UK producer Om Unit delivered a thumping bit of post-Drexciya electro with the excellent The Timps

Tom selected Myrtle Avenue from Floating Points output in 2011 but the low slung funk of Marilyn won out for me.

Moving off the dancefloor Nuel’s Trance Mutation on Further was a top notch cohesive collection of muted electro/acoustic ambience; Oneohtrix Point Never had a patchy return with Replica but it contained some amazing moments too and Swedish duo Roll The Dice also delivered the droning, black cloud of synth-laden krautrock that was In Dust, which is keeping me on my toes as winter closes in on us.

And those 2010 releases that deserve a mention.

I’m excusing myself in not having these in 2010 as they both came out in December:

Krystal Klear – Tried For Love (Hudson Mohawke Remix) This Irish producer’s 12″ on All City was a solid peice of modern boogie but the big winner on it was the Hud Mo remix that took the Galaxy 2 Galaxy template and updated it in a way UR should have done some time ago. A great melding of soulful Detroit techno and stuttering, funky drum programming.

Phochos – Glaciers/Interface Phrase 1. This 2 tracker provided us with Glaciers, a lush ambient cut that was bristling with cold war iceyness and another brilliant piece of remixing by Legowelt on Interface Phrase 1. Here he went down a deeeeep trance/techno route, showing once again that he’s far too many tricks up his sleeve for one person. The fucker.

Ok, that’s it

Big ups to all who have read, contributed and supported us and our endeavours here at ISM over the last 12 months. We we’re a little sparse on posting at times, so it’s cool that you haven’t gone and abandoned us and next year will see more of the same with more music coming out of us via productions/labels and all that jazz too.

Since I am feeling very agitated by damn near every year-end list I’ve seen so far (with Little White Earbuds’ top tracks of 2011 list being by far the least offensive!), and my lack of RA contributions this year meaning I didn’t have to compile a list for them (giving me an easy copy and paste way out), I decided to do up a proper list with plenty of YouTube lynx and a few words about each release. I’m going to just pick my favorite tracks, but in the descriptions I will note if the entire EP, LP, or compilation is worth checking out as well. I will also mention other notable releases by said artists or on said label, as the case may be, when applicable. So basically, this is just a starting list for discovering a vast amount of the wonderful music I spent my 2011 listening to.

Also to make things easier on myself, I am not ranking any of the dope music I had a hand in releasing this year, be it from Noleian Reusse, TM Eye, Hidden Twin, or Pittsburgh Track Authority. It’s been a great year for me in this regard as well, rating my babies would be impossible. Suffice to say I love all of these releases deeply!

Okay, moving on to the actual list… I just picked the best tracks from going through my memory and looking through my discogs collection for releases marked 2011, so it is entirely possible I have somehow forgotten something awesome. I don’t really listen to new music just to listen to new music, so this was all sprinkled in there with everything else I was listening to (be it older things I just picked up, or stuff from deep in my collection). So basically I am apologizing in advance if I forgot your awesome joint! Also, there are a couple records I didn’t get yet that would most likely have made the list if i had them already.

One more thing: while these are ranked, the most interesting thing to me about this year is exactly how close all these really are to each other in terms of quality. There isn’t much drop off, it really came down to almost arbitrarily choosing a position for each record. This is a very personal list, having to do with how I listened to them and how I deejayed with them. So don’t worry about the ranking, just dive right in…

47. Weekend Express “Going to Chicago” Stilove4music

I got a huge stack of records when I was in Chicago back in June, including a bunch of the recently released Stilove4music and Still Music catalogs. When I was playing records on Sunday nite at Danny’s, I started reaching for records I hadn’t really heard yet and threw them in the mix. This one was one of them, and though I was already in Chicago, it still all made sense. Not sure exactly what’s going on here, I hear samples of Jackie Moore’s “This Time Baby” but I don’t think this is a straight edit of it.

46. Adele “Rolling in the Deep (Jamie XX Shuffle)” XL

Really, this one should be WAYYYYY up on this list. I picked it up in the late winter/early spring, before the track really took off on pop radio here. I beat this shit ruthlessly into the ground at the PTA nights at Eclipse, it always got a good reaction. 8+ months later, while I kinda hope I never hear the original ever again, this one still gets me going when I push myself to listen to it.

45. Tang “Bass Synergy” Emphasis

Steven Tang is someone we’ve been watching closely here at ISM for a while, you may remember his awesome mix for us a little while back. This one is a tough melodic techno jam, perfect for stepping the BPM’s and energy back up after sleepytime techno seemed to have taken completely over for a while. On the B side “Syncronism” is a bit deeper and more melodic, and also hits all the right notes.

44. Nebraska “The Cruives” Rush Hour

In lieu of the dope, coherent EPs like he dropped in recent years, 2011 saw Nebraska break us off with his second full-length. I can’t say that I am surprised that it is just as dope as all his previous music. Taking samples of soul, funk, and disco, and adding filters, drum machines, synths, and electric pianos to them, Nebraska records have a warm feeling that many wish they could emulate. This one was the highlight for me, though really the entire album is wonderful!

43. Dijkhuis “Underground Persistence” Night Gallery

It’s given away by the title, but it doesn’t matter: this record owes its ass to Underground Resistance. Taking the characteristic uplifting synths that UR does so well and dropping them over a broken house beat may not be rocket science, but it is a formula that very few can pull off convincingly. Dijkhuis definitely has the melodic sensibility and arrangement skills to make this one really stand out.

42. Marcos Cabral “Freckles” LIES

The first of the LIES records to make my list. Many could have been here, but this one stood out to me so here it goes. A sweet mix of deep, old school analog house and modern sensibility. Read my profile on LIES again if you need to, but understand that you should be checking out every release on this label! One of the most exciting developments for US dance music in 2011.

41. Levon Vincent “Pivotal Moments in Life” Novel Sound

I have to admit, Levon Vincent’s records have generally not appealed to me. It’s not that they’re bad in any way, but for whatever reason they fail to grab me the way they seem to for most people. That all changed with this one. All three cuts are beautiful and distinctive, but this one and its late peak really does everything I could ask for in 2011 deepness. A very special tune.

40. Willie Burns “Waste Your Time” Creme

This year was definitely the year of old school house throwbacks. Way too many of these centered on sounding like mid-80s Mr. Fingers. Willie Burns, an alias of Speculator, kept things interesting by going for the feeling of late 80s and early 90s house music in general instead of aping one sound. Both this and the EP he did for LIES come off sounding like Nu Groove releases, which can never be a bad thing!

39. Scott Ferguson “Forever In Your Debt” Ferrispark

I am definitely a sucked for those deeeeeep jams buried in the B2 position on a record. The two mixes of “Sweet to You” call to mind old KDJ records, but “Forever in Your Debt” is the cut where Scott kills it with his own sound. Soulful and melodic, a perfect late-nite Detroit groove!

38. Tevo Howard “Arena” Tevo Howard Recordings

Tevo has been another favorite of ISM for a while, though there was a sameness pervading many of his records that made it not essential to own them all. The debut on his new Tevo Howard Recordings, however, IS an essential jam. With four tracks with great melodies and different vibes, this is the kind of record that rarely leaves my box. “Arena” happens to be the one that I dropped the most, so here it is.

37. Escort “Chamèleon Chameleon” Escort

Escort have been putting out banging records going back as far as 2006. Their previous work took up the reins of 80s disco styles that had long since stopped existing, but with their new jams (on the new album which also compiles their older 12″ tracks) they have begun mining one of my personal favorite disco sounds: August Darnell’s Kid Creole and the Coconuts-esque big band tropicalia. August Darnell is one of the least copied disco artists simply because his music took great skill to write, arrange, and play. Escort has those chops and then some, adding their own twist to the equation and creating some of the most catchy dance music of recent years.

36. Norm Talley “Pulsate” Thema

Norm is generally known for his slow, deeper than deep house music. Detroit is of course techno city, and on “Pulsate” Norm takes his usual sound palette and makes it tougher and more driving, better suited for spaced out techno sets than late nite house sessions. It ain’t rocket surgery, just a funky ass banging dance record.

35. Rick Wilhite Feat. Billy Love “In The Rain” Still Music

Rick Wilhite’s “Analog Aquarium” album seems to be one of the most slept-on LPs of 2011 based on the fact that basically no one is including it in their year-end lists. For fans of soulful and deep house, it didn’t get better than this in the past 12 months! Running from sample based jams to minimal techno, Rick keeps it interesting and diverse, a tough thing for most dance producers to do over a whole album. The way he treats vocals, especially the improvised-feeling crooning of Billy Love, is probably the most distinctive aspect of this record. This one in particular is so lo-fi and grimey it is almost disgusting. In the best possible way, of course!

34. East Liberty Quarters “Streetlights” ELQ

ELQ are my Pittsburgh homeboys, but with deep boogie jams like “Streetlights”, I would be repping them hardcore no matter where they were from. With many modern boogie artists opting for the heavily compressed (and nauseating) feel, it’s refeshing to hear cats obsessed with making funky memorable music. Out of all the jams they released this year, “Streetlights” is my personal favorite, but any of the cuts on this 7″ or their East Liberty Quarters EP on Rotating Souls could have easily been on this list.

33. Floating Points “Myrtle Avenue” Eglo

Floating Points had a pretty great year in 2011, with his remix for Daedelus and his track “Marilyn” standing out the most, and the late release of the Shadows EP was the highlight of it. “Myrtle Avenue” leads things off, signaling the deepest of all Floating Points jams to come out thus far. This is just wonderful music to listen to any time, but it still has sick bumping grooves to keep it relevant for those deep dancefloors. Ending things on this note makes me really excited to see what he has in store for 2012.

32. Andres “Outta This Earth” Mahogani Andres might be my favorite producer from Detroit, and if you know me, you know exactly how much a statement like that means. On this vinyl release which seems to be at least part of what will be his III album, all four cuts are sick soulful sample based music like you expect. “Outta This Earth” is the dark, cinematic feeling hiphop joint, a standout track in his whole catalog regardless of tempo. Mahogani also dropped the extremely slept on Joy of Sound Productions “Image Fades Away” which touches on that vocal side of Detroit house music.

31. Aybee “11:11″ Deepblak

Aybee is another cat who had a great year in 2011. Relaunching his Deepblak label as a vinyl imprint with the “11:11″ EP, putting out ill music by Afrikan Sciences, Damon Bell, and Prof Delacroix, as well as dropping a sick downtempo EP as o1o for Further Records kept him busy. The title track on 11:11 is what deep tribal techno would sound like if all those terms hadn’t been rendered meaningless by jokers abusing them, and is a sweet hypnotic dancefloor jam.

30. Ron Trent featuring Leroy Burgess “Tell Me” Future Vision

With all the love mid-90s Chicago deep house has been getting recently, I find the lack of hype for Ron Trent’s new material to be rather interesting. Sure, he likes to do 10 minute plus deep synth and drum workouts. Isn’t that what people dig these days anyway?! For me, Ron is one of the masters of mixing organic and synthetic sounds into a cohesive whole. On “Tell Me”, he enlists the great disco soul vocalist Leroy Burgess to help him out, and the results are one of the highlights of the year. Feeling more free form than adhering to a tight song structure, this is futuristic African-American dance music done real right.

29. BMG & Sal P “Credit Card” Interdimensional Transmissions

BMG hooks up with Sal Principato of Liquid Liquid fame for a quirky funk track. Surely this would have been front page news a few years ago when that kind of thing was a little more “hip”, but in 2011 this is still just as useful for those deejays who like to play disco, funk, house, electro, and techno in their sets. For fans of Talking Heads and other early 80s new wave type shit!

28. Recloose “Tecumseh” Rush Hour

This one most certainly did NOT have me at “hello”. In fact, the wigged out synth that dominates the track had me thinking at first that Recloose had lost his mind. Once the vocals and the pads come in, though, you can feel those sweet vibes that are instantly recognizable as Recloose! The EP is rounded out with the shuffled soul of “Electric Sunshine” and the extra funky “Parquet”, giving you a trio of dancefloor gems in differing styles and energy levels. Another one that won’t be leaving the box any time soon!

27. Dego “Love & Hate You” 2000 Black

Dego has been doing ill music for so long, I guess it is easy for some to overlook him at times when his sound is not part of the current trend. I am always on the lookout for the hot shit, so I’m not gonna sleep on him! On this one, he takes what begins as a boogie inspired dancefloor cut and cuts the tempo in half, turning it into a neo-soul jam with a twisted bassline. He does it so effortlessly that it seems as though the song couldn’t have possibly evolved in any other way. The catchy vocal hooks don’t hurt things either!

26. Alexander Robotnick “Problemes D’Amour (Kenny Dixon Jr Mix)” NDATL

I know a bunch of people who feel like the classic “Problems D’Amour” didn’t need to be edited. In most circumstances, this is exactly my line of thinking as well. Why mess with something so perfect?! KDJ is the kind of guy who takes pleasure in proving people like me wrong. The first time I heard this one was way back in 2003 when Kenny dropped it during the 3 Chairs’ ridiculously awesome set. Having no idea at the time what mix it was, I was kept guessing at who might have been behind it. All KDJ did was keep the guitar and synth parts and a bit of the “ah ou ah”, and dubbed things out. Simple, effective, and deadly, especially on the little repetitive edits. NDATL was strong as usual with every release in 2011, but special props must be given to the Assorted Elements EP which features a sick 303 jam from Larry Heard alongside bangers from Theo Parrish and Kai Alce himself.

25. Teengirl Fantasy “Cheaters (Beautiful Swimmers’ Shoulda Known Remix)” Hivern Disc

The Beautiful Swimmers were on fire this year, with this remix dropping right around the time they played one of the most killer deejay sets of 2011 in Pittsburgh. They like to keep things weird and balearic, so they reduced the straightforward vocal house jam into a mid-tempo drums and synth dub workout. Truly odd and captivating in equal amounts. The original and John Talabot’s anthemic remix make this an essential EP! Also of note is the Future Times label, owned in part by Andrew from Beautiful Swimmers, which dropped other killers like Protect-U’s “World Music” and the ESSENTIAL Vibe 2 compilation. Another imprint that blew it up, and that I have high hopes for in 2012.

24. Oktored “How Many Moons” Yosucka

Billed as “moombahton” or “bass music”, to me this is just some slow-ass techno like an old Theo Parrish or Recloose jam. It’s by a new producer from Detroit, and on a new label run by Brian Gillespie. This shit is superfunky synthed out wild shit, and really if you pitch it up it can be fact enough to almost sound like a broken beat track. 909 and Juno 106 definitely didn’t sound this fresh too often in 2011!

23. Fred P “Come This Far (Fred P Reshape)” Soul People Music

This one starts off so simply, just a little drum loop that grooves along slightly restlessly. Soon, sounds begin to emerge from the ether, slowly become louder and louder until the strings start to come in. THE STRINGS. It might take almost six minutes for them to finally reveal themselves fully, but this tune is all about the strings. Dramatic and melancholy, the twinkling piano adds the final touch that cements this one as a future deep house classic. Only for those without ADD, this is best experienced in its full 11 minutes!

22. Scott Grooves “Crash” White Label of the Month

Scott Grooves’ “White Label of the Month” series lasted all of two months, but they were both very dope records. Out of them all, his ode to his “preference for Vinyl” is the best. Riding a simple groove, and featuring just a few chords, this is the kind of old-school 90s house music jam that so many attempted in 2011 but so very few achieved. This one would be a simple killer any time!

21. Specter “Pipe Bomb” Sound Signature

Theo Parrish’s Sound Signature label doesn’t necessarily seem like the right place for a grinding techno jam at first glance. But when you think about releases like “1987″ and Leron Carson’s recent album, and you know that Specter is a vinyl head from Chicago, it all starts to make sense. This is one that is meant to be beaten to death in a set: tracky, minimal, and nasty.

20. José Larralde “Quimey Neuquén (Chancha Vía Circuito Remix)” ZZK

This actually came out in 2010, but I didn’t hear it until I picked up the CD which came out this year in advance of Chancha Via Circuito’s performance here in Pittsburgh. What I found on that CD reminded me of Basic Channel if they had also been obsessed with South American folk music. This one track in particular was truly beautiful, and was well loved by basically every person I played it for. This joint defined my late spring, along with the whole album. Also, Chancha’s remix for Peabody & Sherman was a particularly ill half-time dub jam that can be worked into the deepest of house sets.

19. Big Strick “Maybe 1 Day” 7 Days Entertainment

One of the most elusive elements of classic house and techno (and one that seems to be particularly difficult for a lot of modern producers to mimic) is its simplicity. There really doesn’t have to be a lot going on to be effective, in fact the less elements the better as far as I’m concerned. Big Strick has the experience that allows him to reduce his tunes to a tiny amount of elements and still be captivating. His releases on Fxhe stuck to this formula, but his newer joints on his own 7 Days Entertainment seem to really nail it. “Maybe 1 Day” is the one I prefer, but the entire EP keeps it simple and hypnotic. His newly released “Timeless” EP doesn’t stray from the formula, and is also all the better for it.

18. Disco Nihilist “Coffee and a Worn Paperback” Running Back

This one is a tune I had been waiting a hot minute for it to come out. A favorite of mine since the day Disco Nihilist sent me the mp3, it is another very simple track. Four chords sketch out a melancholy harmony, while jacking drums keep it rhythmically driven. There really isn’t much to be said about this music, you just have to listen to it and let it work on you. Consistently making music as minimal and moving is quite an achievement, props to the Disco Nihilist for keeping it really real.

17. Marcellus Pittman “On A Beautiful” Lifetime Groove

This seems to have been Marcellus’ less popular release this year, with his EP on Seventh Sign getting most of the love. While that one is dope in its own right, this 10″ on Lifetime Groove seems a bit more special to my ears. The A-side jam “On A Beautiful” in particular manages to incorporate the boogie music that he likes to deejay into the house sound he is known for producing in a way that I haven’t heard anyone else come close to. A slightly funked up beat and Moogish bassline serve as rhythm section to synth chords and pads that sound as if an alien band was recording a Kashif instrumental. Serious Detroit soulful house music!

16. Mr. Fingers “Finger Fuck” Rush Hour

While the Chicago house knockoff trend hit full stride this year, I was particularly interested in the release of many jams from the actual heyday of Chicago house in the 80s that had previously only existed on reel to reel. Gene Hunt’s “Chicago Dance Tracks” compilation was my favorite of the bunch, with this Mr. Fingers jam and the Craig Loftis joint “Yes I’m Right” being the highlights of the comp. Also worth noting was the massive Virgo Four box set “Resurrection”, which includes probably many more tracks than you can easily digest in a few years much less one. Good work on the same front was done by the kind folks at Kstarke Records in Chicago with their eponymous label which issued previously unavailable versions of The It’s “Donnie”, Nick Non-Stop’s “Jack My Body”, Adonis’ “No Way Back”, and Phuture’s “Acid Tracks”.

15. ncw “Veil” Apartment

This is another special release for us here at ISM as it was the debut of Kenny’s new Apartment Records label. These tracks are all rude as fuck, another trait that seemed to be in very short supply in 2011. This one has become a staple in my box due to the variety, but “Veil” got banged out the most so it gets the nod here. More simple dancefloor tracks, but twisted up just right to keep the tension rising.

14. Lerosa “In My Mind” Uzuri

Lerosa is a long-time friend of ISM, so we are always proud with each new achievement he reaches. This year saw his first vinyl album release (with his cassette release on Further from a few years back being his very first full length), and it was made even more special with his collaborations with the Olverwho Factory. “In My Mind” did it the most for me this year due to Shonie’s sweet vocals, but the whole album is filled with quality deepness.

13. Omar-S presents Colonel Abrams “Who Wrote the Rules of Love” Fxhe

Most of the talk this year was about Omar-S’ “Here’s Your Trance Now Dance”, which was definitely an anthem for me. But his lower-key move of bringing one of my favorite 80s vocalists onto a track with Amp Fiddler on keys was easily the true standout. Equal parts Omar-S rudeness and Colonel Abrams soul, this tune is absolutely gorgeous, with the Shadow Ray remix on the flip adding a little more synthetic element to the equation. Records like this and deejay sets like the one he played at the Music Institute afterparty DEMF weekend show why Omar-S is one of the true top dogs of the underground.

12. Steve Moore “Zero-Point Field” LIES

The LIES label makes its second appearance here, this time with one of the best techno records of the year. Starting with sparse synth pulses and building into a cinematic climax, this is wonderfully futuristic electronic music of the highest order. I see this one building into a cult classic over time, with slight nods to John Carpenter’s scores giving it as much home listening appeal as the driving beat gives it dancefloor appeal.

11. Kyle Hall “Down!” Wild Oats

With the tracks immediately preceding this one being all about well-crafted house and techno, this one is almost completely the opposite. This is a nasty, banging deejay tool. But it is very effective, one of those immediate party jams right up there with some of the best sample based KDJ, Rick Wilhite, Theo Parrish, and Agent X records. Raw as hell and completely unapologetic, both sides of this are Kyle Hall at his best. This year Wild Oats also dropped the debut record by my man Jay Simon, “Faith”, which should be slept on at your own peril!

10. Reggie Dokes “Haiti” Royal Oak

With so many sick tracks already mentioned, what is needed to gain entry into the top 10? In this case, it is being quite simply the most beautiful house/techno record released this year. Reggie Dokes is in ridiculous form here, sounding like I imagine Derrick May might if he were still on top of his game and producing new music. I couldn’t tell you why this hasn’t received much more attention, being on critical darling Clone’s Royal Oak sublabel, but I guess that’s why I had to write this post. This is what it is all about right here, if you play this one and people don’t dance, the crowd is either dead or they should be!

9. Ital “Culture Clubs” Lovers Rock

It’s kind of weird to pick a track that is NOT on 100% Silk to kind of represent all the goodness that came from that camp this year, but that’s how it had to be. The dance/indie crossover was chronicled earlier in the year (and very early in 100% Silk’s release schedule!) by me for the wonderful Gridface blog, and their output remained interesting at the very least throughout the entire year. But this one landed somewhere right in the middle, and it has been the one I keep going back to. Produced by Mi Ami’s Daniel Martin-McCormick, the pitch-bent chords lend a feeling of melting to a jacking house beat. Simple, weird, and dope as hell. Like early Detroit techno if you listened to it while sipping syrup.

8. John Daly “Sea Level (Aerosol Mix)” Further

It seems unfair to distill Further’s contributions to 2011 to one track. Full disclosure compels me to remind you that they released an EP by my Pittsburgh Track Authority project! But the fact is that we are humbled to be amongst the releases that included the Conrad Schnitzler Live ’72 (RIP) double LP, Nuel’s Trance Mutation LP, and this killer John Daly jam. Here, Mr. Daly builds things slowly from a drum beat up into a climax of pure techno bliss, not unlike some of Omar-S’ best Oasis tracks. This absolutely must be allowed to breathe, and when it does it takes you to another place.

7. Kevin Reynolds “Liasons” Nsyde

Kevin Reynolds has had very few releases, but each has been notable in some way. While this year’s “Favis” may have been too deep for most people, “Liasons” is definitely much more banging and dancefloor ready. Rough beats and jarring synth hits pave the way for the beautiful arpeggios that alter the mood of things quite unexpectedly. Mixing light and dark elements together like a producer who has a million records under his belt, this one might be the jam that sends Kevin into wider recognition. It will be very well deserved when it happens!

6. Jamie 3:26 “Bostich Time” Strobelight Honey

This record is one of those joints that makes the most sense in the hands of a deejay as opposed to on its own. Editing Yello’s “Bostich” into a drummed up frenzy, by the time the vocal loop drops a few times the dancers have already been going nuts and it just turns the intensity up that much higher. The flipside is a dry as fuck acid jam, another deejay tool for those that like to bang it the fuck out. Jamie’s experience as a long time deejay is quite obvious on this record as it is made to be mixed up.

5. Juju & Jordash “Avian Oasis” Downbeat Black

Juju & Jordash had a ridiculous year this year. Between “Unleash The Golem Pt 1″, “Bleached Roots”, and this joint, there was not a track that was less than stellar with their names on it. Throw in their live improvised sets with Move D under the moniker Magic Mountain High, and you have quite a serious body of work. For me though, it was this dense, dark, and moist jam that shows exactly how high a level they’re working on. Using a melodica and a train whistle to create alien dub house music seems like it must be the most natural thing to happen in their world. This sounds like nothing else.

4. Nice Rec “Not Real” Harmony Society

Nice Rec is another Pittsburgh cat, you might be familiar with him from his excellent Boogieman mixes that have been posted here on ISM. He’s also a killer producer, with this jam in particular being his best joint so far. A classic vocal jam that builds into a double time drum workout, this is a ridiculous pairing of classic soul and modern beat music. To think that something like this was made in a dude’s house in my own city makes me feel so proud. The wave of Pittsburgh music is only just now starting.

3. Ricardo Miranda “Future Foundation” Neroli

It frustrates me to no end that this is not on Youtube. Ricardo Miranda’s jam on Rick Wilhite’s Vibes comp from a few years back hipped me to what he was doing, but he really took things to another level here. Starting out with what seems to be a nice but decidedly classic sounding acid jam, suddenly the script is flipped when the beautiful piano comes in. By the time the dubbed out horn lines hit, it’s all over. Like classic acid but better and more beautiful, this tune has a magical effect that seems to hit people who hear it right in their heart. Acid as soul music.

2. Anthony “Shake” Shakir “Meets BBC” Honest Jon’s

Anthony Shake Shakir is known as one of the guys who helped invent techno music in Detroit in the 1980s. What may be less known is that he still puts out absolute killers. This remix for Honest Jon’s series of African artists (which also featured an inspired effort from Mark Ernestus) is one such killer. Party techno as pure as can be, this one starts with infectious percussion before dropping in the simple synth riff. African vocals and filtered and phased drums fill things out as much as they need be, but the track remains fairly skeletal and most importantly funky. Shake’s slept-on broken-beat-esque “Piper” is also a nice return to original material for the man. We’re looking forward to much more.

1. Storm Queen “It Goes On” Environ

It seems almost unfair for everybody else. Storm Queen took the cake last year with “Look Right Through” and they do it again this year. Morgan Geist’s production is at its most minimal and clangy, while Damon Scott’s lyrics and vocals work perfectly in tandem with it. Laying off the true hook until a few minutes in, once it drops it’s all over. I would have bet this followup wouldn’t have bettered their first jam, and I’d have been dead wrong. This is all that’s right about disco, house, and techno in 2011, and as such it gets #1.