2007 Year In Review

For me, 2007 ends about three blocks from where it began. Fortunately, those three blocks were the three blocks to the ocean. Looking out of your bedroom window and seeing the ocean right fucking there is what’s up. Big ups to the Baltimore crew for the hookup, it’s always a good time chilling with those guys at the beach. Hopefully 08’s vacations will be as fun as this year’s were! 07 was a year of lots of changes for me, mostly for the better. My wife started graduate school, my son started kindergarten, my sister spent half the year studying in Buenos Aires, one of my best friends moved away from Pittsburgh to Atlanta, an old friend moved back to Pittsburgh from Colorado, another of my closest friends lost his mother (RIP), my car’s engine went down permanently (the day after Christmas no less), and of course we kicked off this here blog. Such is life.

Music-wise, there were not many surprises for me this year: most of the best things that came out were from the people I expect to keep the quality high. That said, some of the surprises were truly special. Instead of top 10 lists of singles, albums, performances, etc., I’m going to talk more broadly about the artists who did it for me this year.

Kevin Reynolds – His 12″ that I’ve been going on about is undoubtedly the top single for me from this year. “Anonymous Room…” is such a deep, gorgeous tune, it is a new classic in the genre and I will continue to play it to death through 08. Also, his CD album “Breathing for the Breathless” which contains both sides of the 12″ is also quite dope, though not readily available online. Check Detroit record shops! I’m really looking forward to seeing what Kevin will come up with next.

FXHE Records – 008 with Theo Parrish, Oasis 13/2/8, Omar’s “Psychotic Photosynthesis”, and the EPs from Kyle Hall, J Fine, and Luke Hess were all dope releases. Many sounds from deep house to classic Detroit electronics to experimental to dub techno were represented on the same label, and the quality control was very high. Getting a chance to interview Omar-S was a personal highlight for me this year as well as my favorite post here.

Environ – Between the twisted 80’s electronic sounds of the two Baby Oliver 12″s, the new 12″ from Kelley Polar (with that insane remix!), and of course Metro Area 7, Environ quietly had a hell of a year. Techno, house, electro, and disco deejays found something to like here and those of us who play every one of those styles have been hammering on all these releases all year long. Environ cohort Danny Wang also dropped a hot disco 12″ on his own Balihu label that shouldn’t be overlooked, as well as rereleasing the classic Balihu 001.

Aesthetic Audio and Sistrum Recordings – Keith Worthy and Patrice Scott unleashed the newest wave of Detroit house this year on their new labels. From Patrice’s “Beyond Deep” to the “Underground Anthems” series that appeared across both labels, every release was top notch.

3 Chairs – Even though their most recent 12″ came out late in December of 06, I was crushing this one early in 07. Their set at the DEMF was a highlight of the weekend, with them playing everything from Donald Byrd to Rinder + Lewis to James Brown to crazy edits to classic NYC house, even though they didn’t have a timeslot conducive to their sound. On the individual tip, Malik Pittman dropped the ridiculous second release on his Unirhythm label that featured twisted acid and an 808 rhythm track both of which are dancefloor bangers. Moodymann’s DEMF set may have been something of a disappointment, but his two 12″s “Technolgystolemyvinyle” and “I’d Rather Be Lonely” (though I much preferred the white label version to the one that came out!) were both on the deep soulful house tip. Theo Parrish had only one new release this year, but it was his epic 3×12″ album Sound Sculptures that included some of his best jams in a while “The Rink” and “Soul Control”. Theo also put out a 12″ of his older material that showed exactly how far ahead of most people he was back in ’97. Rick Wilhite had something of a quiet year, but his two mix CD’s I picked up from his shop are both stellar.

Tony Allen Remixes – Tony Allen’s music is pretty wonderful on its own, but Honest Jon’s got some ridiculously talented cats to remix his tunes and they turned out quite awesome. The best were by Carl Craig who made a breakbeat house monster (easily his best remix of the year!), and Moritz Von Oswald whose mix was probably the deepest tune of the year.

Carl Craig – Planet E had some of its less than stellar releases from outside artists this year, but when Carl got jazzy it made up for everything. “Paris Live” delivered awesome live versions of “Twilight” and “At Les”, while the Tribe 12″ that Carl produced hits home with the spoken word soul jazz not dissimilar to the awesome Detroit Experiment from a few years back.

Paul Randolph and Amp Fiddler – Two Detroit soul artists who have a close relation to the dance music world released some ill joints this year. Amp’s “Ridin’/Faith” 12″ featured a wild Jazzanova remix as well as a stripped down extended edit by Carl Craig, and he appeared on the previously mentioned “I’d Rather Be Lonely” on KDJ. Randolph’s two singles also featured hot remixes, “Believer” was turned into an epic electronic house journey by Jazzanova while “Earth 2 God” gets the hi-tech jazz treatment from Mad Mike of UR fame.

Escort – The releases on their label were dope, with the vocal anthem “Bright New Life” and the Arthur Russel channeling “All Through the Night” making them the best live dance band in 07. The one that REALLY killed it for me though was their remix of Tracey Thorn’s “It’s All True”. I couldn’t believe people talking about the super-lame Martin Buttrich dub when Escort’s complete remake of the backing track turned it into a vocal dancefloor anthem. I dropped this one at basically every gig i had after picking it up and people always go bananas for it. They take the 80’s disco feel that the original had and switch it up to be more stark and beautiful. It will easily be one of the most played tracks from 07 for me going into the future, it would have been my #1 tune of the year in any of the last couple of years (as well as this year, had Kevin Reynolds not dropped his ridiculous 12″…).

DFA Records – This was probably the biggest surprise for me this year. DFA is usually known for its hipster disco and indie flavored dance, which just doesn’t do it for me. They only had two releases this year that were to my taste, but each one is absolutely gorgeous. First off was Hercules + Love Affair’s “Classique #2” which mines the sound of old school Chicago house but with a new twist that makes it hit the spot perfectly. Still Going’s “Still Going Theme” is also rooted in the 80’s, but this time it’s echoing the sound of New York City deep house. A perfectly beautiful tune, I can’t wait to play this one in the warm weather next summer.

Burial – The 12″ for “Ghost Hardware” showed a slight change in style that was a teaser for the new album “Untrue” that is undoubtedly my album of the year. It was very uncool to like 2-step for a long time there, and I have to say that the renewed interest in it due to Burial’s popularity is really awesome to see.

Detroit – Yeah, many of these artists I already mentioned are from Detroit, but there were a couple releases by people who only had a single record out this year that really stood out. Reggie Dokes’ “The Skin I’m In” was the highlight of the new Beatdown 12″, along with the track by Smith-Hall whose “Thesis EP” on Mixmode was another deep house highlight from this year. Jared Wilson’s “Drug Related Stories” brought back the 707+303 acid vibe in a nice dirty style. The Plan’s “Plan B” was an awesome 12″ of electro, techno, and deep house that is slept on like crazy, it’s one of the highlights of the year as far as I’m concerned. Mike Huckaby had a couple things going on, but his “My Life With The Wave” EP was a fantastic display of deep house and the best dub techno I heard in a year absolutely saturated with it. Finally, Reloose (in his “Chow Daddy” guise) dropped a super hot edit 12″ on Moxie that features a Ronnie Laws edit that was the best edit of the year in a year where edit oversaturation has gone from crazy to just over the top.

Juju & Jordash and Lerosa – These guys had releases prior to this year, but 07 was the year they really started hitting us with the big guns. The Real Soon label dropped two releases by JJ+J and one by Lerosa (as well as a hot Kai Alce 12″!) that established them as one of the prime players outside of Detroit in pushing that downbeat soulful house sound. JJ+J also dropped a joint on Jus-Ed’s huge 4×12″ LP and Lerosa was in fine form with the first release on two new Irish labels Uzuri and Enclave (which for me is the best of his 12″s this year, absolutely awesome) as well as the relaunch of Andy Vaz’s A Touch Of Class label. These guys are big favorites of ours here at ISM so you should be seeing more of them in the future!

HipHop – Not really a great year for hiphop in 07, but Waajeed’s “War” album was a killer, along with Flying Lotus’ Reset EP on Warp. Erykah Badu showed up at the end of the year to drop a new single “Honey” produced by 9th Wonder that will hopefully be followed soon by a new LP in 08.

Rhythm and Sound – No new releases this year, but their Basic Replay reissues are making awesome tunes available again, and their set at DEMF was ridiculously good, the second best set I’ve seen in the 5 years I’ve gone to the festival.

I’m sure there’s things I’m forgetting(especially earlier in the year), but this is what I could come up with over the last couple of weeks. Overall, the second half of 07 was especially ripe for good new music. I’m very excited to see what we get to cover here in the next year!