Polls from ’09 and the ’00s….

The end of ’09 also brought the end of the irritatingly unnamed decade of the ’00s. In the two previous years writing on this blog I have not had any sort of rhyme or reason to my year end wrap-up posts, and since I’m already almost a month late I’m not about to start now. Since I have been a contributor at Resident Advisor, I do fill out their year-end (and in this case, decade-end) polls in order to help guarantee good spots for music that might be underrepresented by other contributors. So this year, I’m gonna talk about my choices for those polls here. This will be long, so it will all go behind the cut.

I’ll kick things off here with my picks for top track of ’09:

1 Tevo Howard “Passion Sound (Inner Beauty)” Beautiful Granville Records
2 Alton Miller “Love’s Right Here (Mush Remix)” Balance Alliance
3 Floating Points “Love Me Like This” R2
4 Shake “Indagoo” Morphine Records
5 Disco Nihilist “A2” Love What You Feel
6 Kai Alcé “KZR Gruv” Deep Explorer
7 Wavelength “Funk Dreams” Glydezone Recordings
8 Malik Pittman “If The Earth Could Talk” Unirhythm
9 Reggie Dokes “Chicago Pimp” Clone Loft Series
10 Juju & Jordash “Blue Meanies” Dekmantel
11 Rainer Truby “To Know You” White Label
12 Walter Jones “Living Without Your Love” DFA
13 Specter “Night Hawk” Tetrode Music
14 Lerosa “4th Floor “Real Soon
15 Dynamodyse “Gare Du Nord” We Play House Recordings
16 Jitterbug “Speakers Corner” Uzuri
17 Buscrates 16-Bit Ensemble “Frozen Extremities” The Harmony Society
18 $tinkworx “MKB” W.T. Records
19 Osborne “The Count” Spectral Sound
20 Black Jazz Consortium “Believe” Soul People Music
21 LCD Soundsystem “45:33 (Theo Parrish’s Space Cadet Remix)” DFA
22 Ron Trent “Intoxicate” Future Vision Records
23 Pépé Bradock “Path Of Most Resistance” Atavisme
24 Ibex “360 (Original Mix)” Rush Hour Recordings
25 James Duncan “A” Le Systeme
26 San Soda “Doorsnee” We Play House Recordings
27 Bruce Ivery “A1” Stilove4music
28 Big Strick “A Walk Down Linwood” Fxhe Records
29 Burial + Four Tet “Moth” Index
30 House of House “Rushing To Paradise (Walkin These Streets)” Whatever We Want Records

Because we were limited to 30 selections, I ended up trying to compromise by including all the artists whose music I loved this year, while not over-representing any one artist or label, and some “popular” tracks that I knew would get votes from others may have dropped a few places in order to make more room near the top for the more obscure things. A couple artists really paid the price for this, San Soda and Tevo Howard were ON FIRE all year long, and I could have listed damn near every track they made. Rick Howard also got shafted because all his music was produced by Tevo, with his “Can Your Love Find It’s Way” being one of the year’s highlights for me as well. I tried to make up for some of this in the label poll.

For those who think it might be cheating to chart a record on my own label, let’s put it this way: that’s the record that I liked enough to pay a huge amount of money to own on vinyl. A few year end acquisitions that would have made the list had it not been due in early December: Delano Smith’s “This Heart” on Mixmode, 9dw’s “Stingray” on Catune, and any track from Rick Wilhite’s AWESOME “My Voyage” EP on Stilove4music. You can see how things turned out on RA here.

Now for the top labels of ’09:

1 We Play House Recordings
2 Beautiful Granville Records
3 Balance Alliance
4 Future Vision Records
5 NDATL Muzik
6 Stilove4music
7 Stone’s Throw
8 Soul People Music
9 Ferrispark
10 Fxhe Records

This one was much easier to choose, as these labels all defined consistency in ’09. I had multiple records from each label in my bag at all times. I could play a set of just their releases from this year, and it would sound awesome and varied. Check our RA’s results here.

My picks for the top artist albums of ’09:

1 Ron Trent “Dance Classic” Prescription
2 Juju & Jordash “Juju & Jordash” Dekmantel
3 Andrés “II” Mahogani Music
4 Moritz Von Oswald Trio “Vertical Ascent” Honest Jon’s
5 Brock Van Wey “White Clouds Drift On and On” echospace
6 Leron Carson “Red Lightbulb Theory ’87-’88” Sound Signature
7 Maxwell “BLACKsummers’night” Columbia
8 9DW “9DW” Wax Poetics
9 Dam-Funk “Toeachizown” Stone’s Throw
10 Carlos Niño “High With A Little Help From” Kindred Spirits
11 James Pants “All The Hits” Stone’s Throw
12 Moody “Anotha’ Black Sunday” KDJ
13 Mayer Hawthorne “A Strange Arrangement” Stone’s Throw
14 Robert Hood “Minimal Nation” M-Plant

My only real qualm with this list is that had the second part of Andrés’ “II” album come out this year, it probably would have charted #1. Which makes ’09 pretty remarkable in terms of albums, with FOUR future classic albums (Trent, JJ&J, Andrés, and MVO3) in the house and techno genres. Also, there was no way to mention that it was really the Intrusion dubs that put the Brock Van Wey album on the list. The originals are cool, but those remixes are so good. And any year that “Minimal Nation” comes out in any way, shape, or form, that shit is going right in any top X poll I’m filling out. RA’s results are here.

Moving on to the best of ’00s polls, I’ll start with the best albums since that one is already up on RA:

1 J Dilla “Donuts” Stone’s Throw
2 Thom Yorke “The Eraser” XL
3 Jill Scott “Who Is Jill Scott? – Words & Sounds Vol. 1” Hidden Beach Recordings
4 D’Angelo “Voodoo” Virgin
5 The Other People Place “Lifestyles of the Laptop Café” Warp
6 Andrés “Andrés” Mahogani Music
7 Jay Dee “Welcome 2 Detroit” BBE
8 The Connection Machine “Painless” Down Low
9 Recloose “Cardiology” Planet E
10 Tiombe Lockhart “Bootleg #1” No Label
11 Burial “Untrue” Hyperdub
12 Reggie Dokes “The Afromation” Psychostasia
13 Robert Hood “Wire to Wire” Peacefrog
14 Theo Parrish “Sound Sculptures” Sound Signature
15 Flying Lotus “Los Angeles” Warp
16 Ron Trent “Dance Classic” Prescription
17 Drexciya “Harnessed the Storm” Tresor
18 Radiohead “Kid A” Capitol
19 3 Chairs “3 Chairs” 3 Chairs
20 Omar-S “Just Ask the Lonely” Fxhe
21 Andrés “II” KDJ
22 Brock Van Wey “White Clouds Drift On and On” echospace
23 The Streets “Original Pirate Material” XL
24 Rod Modell “Incense & Black Light” Plop
25 Metro Area “Metro Area” Environ
26 Rhythm & Sound “With the Artists” Asphodel
27 Amp Fiddler “Waltz of the Ghetto Fly” Genuine
28 Moritz Von Oswald Trio “Vertical Ascent” Honest Jon’s
29 Erykah Badu “New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War)” Motown
30 Red Hot Chili Peppers “By The Way” Warner Bros.

For this, I basically went with records I listened to a TON, regardless of genre. I have no clue why “With the Artists” made it while the “Rhythm & Sound” compilation didn’t. If I could go back and add two more records to this list, they would be MJ Cole’s “Sincere” and Wookie’s self-titled album, two highlights of the 2-step period in album format. I’m sure there will be comments (if anyone actually read this far!) about the inclusion of The Streets’ first record, but to me that is like the white British equivalent of De La Soul’s “3 Feet High and Rising” or some shit: hilarious and obviously classic. Also, fuck you if you don’t like that RHCP album. That shit is just beautiful. I could have listed every one of Recloose’s records from the decade, but decided that would be overkill for the purposes of this list. There were lost of other dope albums, but these are the ones that I identify with the most from various points of my life in the ’00s. If you don’t know any of these records, go out and buy them immediately. All are awesome, and in constant rotation in my car, my deejay sets, my iPod, and in the CD player I listen to while going to sleep at night. These were the soundtrack for the past decade of my life. RA’s (rather interesting, I think) results are here.

Finally, my top tracks of the ’00s:

1 Recloose “Dust” Peacefrog
2 Omar-S “Just Ask the Lonely” Fxhe
3 Reggie Dokes “The Skin I’m In” 3rd Ear
4 Kevin Reynolds “Anonymous Room At The Corridor Of Last Night” Todhchai
5 Shaun Escoffery “Days Like This (Spinna & Ticklah Mix)” Oyster
6 4 Hero “Hold It Down” Talkin’ Loud
7 Theo Parrish “Solitary Flight” Sound Signature
8 Erykah Badu “Honey” Motown
9 Erlend Oye “Ghost Trains” System
10 Amp Fiddler “Superficial” Genuine
11 Underground Resistance “Transition” Underground Resistance
12 Troubleman + Steve Spacek “Without You (Waajeed’s Flash Gordon Remix)” Far Out
13 Platinum Pied Pipers “The Look of Love” Ubiquity
14 Cesaria Evora “Angola (Carl Craig’s Mix)” Lusafrica
15 Nelly Furtado “Say It Right” Geffen
16 Mr. De’ “Whonleeone” Electrofunk
17 Pépé Bradock “Life” Atavisme
18 St. Germain “Rose Rouge” Blue Note
19 Cobblestone Jazz “The 5th Element” IIWII
20 Rhythm & Sound + the Lovejoys “Best Friend” Burial Mix
21 Metro Area “Miura” Environ
22 Tevo Howard “Passion Sound” Beautiful Granville
23 Gnarls Barkley “Crazy” Downtown Music
24 Hercules & Love Affair “Blind (Frankie Knuckles Vocal Mix)” DFA
25 Loosefingers “Lamentations” Alleviated
26 Seiji featuring Lyric L “Loose Lips” Bitasweet
27 Irfane “Just A Little Lovin'” BOOTLEG
28 Laurent Garnier “The Man With the Red Face” F Communications
29 Wayne Wonder “No Letting Go” Atlantic
30 Rufige Cru “Beachdrifta” Metalheadz
31 Detroit Experiment “Think Twice” Planet E
32 Kenny Dixon Jr. “Should’ve Known” Private Press
33 Alice Smith “Love Endeavor (Maurice Fulton Vocal Mix)” BBE
34 Povo “East On West (Moonstarr Remix)” Raw Fusion
35 Jay Dee “Fuck the Police” Up Above
36 Far Freddy’s Drop “Hope” Kartel Creative
37 Wookie “Get Enuff” S2S
38 Mayer Hawthorne & the County “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” Stone’s Throw
39 Osunlade “I Don’t Know” Yoruba
40 Galaxy 2 Galaxy “Hi Tech Jazz (Live Version)” Underground Resistance
41 Osborne “Ruling” Spectral
42 Flying Lotus “Tea Leaf Dancers” Warp
43 Theo Parrish “I Can’t Take It” Sound Signature
44 Underground Resistance “Timeline” Underground Resistance
45 Carl Craig “Just Another Day” Planet E
46 Tracey Thorn “It’s All True (Escort Remix)” Virgin
47 Cassio Ware & the O.G.’s “I Wanna See You Freak (Like Dis)” Black House / Funkysoul
48 Juan Atkins “Rebound” Subject Detroit
49 Jose Gonzales “Down the Line” Peacefrog
50 Smith N Hack “To Our Disco Friends” Smith N Hack
51 Osunlade “Pride” Set
52 Louie Vega “Circa De Mi” Vega
53 Omni Trio “Nu Birth” Moving Shadow
54 Drexciya “Under Sea Disturbances” Tresor
55 Omar-S “Set It Out” Fxhe
56 Amp Dog Knight “I’m Doin Fine” Mahogani Music
57 Jay-Z “Big Pimpin” Roc-A-Fella
58 Africanism “Block Party” Yellow
59 Annie Lennox “1000 Beautiful Things (Blu Mar Ten Vocal)” BMG
60 Underground Resistance “Hardlife” Underground Resistance
61 John Tejada “Timebomb” 7th City

The ’00s were the first decade of my life during which I was always deejaying. There were plenty of songs that came out that I liked in various ways, but this list is all about the ones that created moments for me when deejaying over the past 10 years. I probably could have gone on and on even just within that framework (for example, the one year of drum and bass and the year and a half of 2-step are well underrepresented due to the fact that I rarely got to play any of those tracks over the past 8 years. But you could add any number of tracks by Marcus Intalex, El-B, MJ Cole, etc. in there as well….), but I had to cut it off at some point. This list is hardly definitive. Every one of these tracks is special to me though, and I have very good memories to go with all of them. Making sense of a decade’s worth of music in a list, even when making it as personal as this one is, is just kind of stupid. But I can say that reading this list shows just how incredible music can be, and how it can help define your life. What an amazing decade. When RA posts their results, I will link to them here.