Top 25 Tracks of the Year: 15 – 6
15. Azealia Banks - 212Anyone who thought that female fronted electro-rap had run it’s course was forced to eat their metaphorical hat this year when Azealia Banks‘ ’212′ swiftly went viral. Like a showreel, the record demonstrated a multitude of talents – from tough as nails and filthy as hell Harlem rap, to an impressive R&B croon to a pretty aggressive battlecry. And all of this whilst delivering one of the biggest party bangers in recent memory. We’re hyped to see what Azealia’s Paul Epworth-produced album will sound like and with new material also on the way from Kid Sister as well as Nicki Minaj‘s “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded” due on Valentine’s day, 2012 looks set to be a pretty vintage year for estrogen-fuelled hip-hop.
14. Chilly Gonzales - Knight Moves (Lone Remix) / (DJ Koze Remix)
Despite it’s release in the latter stages of 2010, Chilly Gonzales‘ ‘Ivory Tower’ continued to produce excellent singles during the first half of this year with ‘Knight Moves’ providing us with two luscious remixes. The source material undoubtedly afforded a lot of scope to work with and Lone and DJ Koze took the track in very different directions. Lone’s rework feels warm and blissful, whilst simultaneously purveying a slight sense of melancholy. It’s tropical, balearic, dubby and filled with shimmering chimes and bongos, yet the melody Lone draws out contains hints of sadness in his use of minor tones. Dj Koze on the other hand completely restructures the track, predominantly utilising Feist‘s gorgeous, sighing backing vocals. He also casts aside any notion of house or techno, instead taking Chilly’s work to a soulful, hip-hop haven and imbues us all with a dosage of happiness en route. Glorious efforts by both parties.
Knight Moves (Lone Remix)
Knight Moves (Dj Koze Remix)
13. Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers (The Magician Remix)
Now, we’re going to be honest, we reckon this might technically be a release from the very last moments of 2010, but given the presence it has had in our lives right through to this very December we felt it’s inclusion was essential. Lykke Li’s return to the spotlight was reason enough to celebrate and ‘Wounded Rhymes’ proved to be a very rewarding album. ’I Follow Rivers’ was one of the strongest songs from it, but it would be an (at the time) unknown who would really bash it into something amazing. The Magician sprung from nowhere to deliver an exemplary remix, introducing a whole new layer of gloriously happy piano house to the track and in the process, created one of the biggest indie-dance crossover hits of the year. The Magician transpired to be none other than Stephen Fasano, formely of Aeroplane. As the months rolled on he continued to stamp his mark on house and disco reworking the likes of Beni, Yuksek, Scenic and Tyson and proved that most of Aeroplane’s magic luckily seemed to be contained within his wand.
12. Glass Candy - Warm In The Winter
2011 was a pretty big year for Johnny Jewel with the hugely popular soundtrack to Drive featuring tracks by both his Desire and Chromatics projects. Not only did this renew interest in the Italians Do It Better sound but also won leagues of new fans owing to the usage of Desire’s ‘Under Your Spell’ during a key scene in the movie. We were also blessed with new material, this time from his other group Glass Candy, who unleashed upon us ‘Warm In The Winter’. A career high in our opinion, the song showcased a poppier and more slickly produced side to the group yet still maintained the unmistakeable retro sheen that characterises all of Jewel’s output. 7 minutes of lush arpeggiated synths are complemented perfectly by Ida No’s vocal delievery, somewhere between Nico and Debbie Harry, with cute, hopeful lyrics about love. It’s a little saccharine perhaps, but we’re on board with that and with an excellent new track from Chromatics also doing the rounds (Listen to Kill For Love here), we’re excited to see where both these projects will be headed next year.
11. M83 - Echoes Of Mine
When we first heard M83′s ‘Intro’ we immediately took to writing an overblown post extolling it as one of the most amazing things that Anthony Gonzalez had ever produced. We’d still agree that it’s a pretty marvellous effort, but having had time to absorb ‘Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming’ it is in fact ‘Echoes Of Mine’ that keeps us coming back for spin after spin. Describing M83′s music without repeatedly using the word ‘epic’ is a tough task indeed and thus we must lump the song firmly in that camp. We’re definitely not going to heaven because of our sinful ways and because it doesn’t exist, but if for arguments sake it did, we imagine this may well be the soundtrack to the golden gates opening. Overblown? Maybe. Spectacular? Yes.
10. Apparat - Black Water
As a man known for delivering some pretty unrelenting pieces of techno both on his own, alongside Ellen Allien and as part of Moderat, Sascha Ring, AKA Apparat, is also quite the songsmith. And it’s these two strings to his bow that have allowed him to produce such an accomplished album as ‘The Devil’s Walk’; a collection of properly accesible songs filtered through the mind of someone with a thorough understanding of leftfield electronica, or, if you like, the kind of album everyone is waiting for Radiohead to successfully make again. ’Black Water’, with it’s vocals emerging from a crackly and atmospheric instrumental feels anthemic, but strips away any bombast. It is massive and intimate at the same time. For us, this was perhaps the most beautiful and emotional song of the year and we’re hoping that we’ll be introducing it to at least a few new pairs of ears.
9. Beyoncé - 1+1
What a year Beyoncé has had. 2011 has seen Ms Knowles miraculously turn one of the most overplayed dance records of the last two years into a bonafide pop smash, release her fourth album, announce a suspect pregnancy and most notably headline Glastonbury (with us in attendance). It was this performance that highlighted for us the true majesty of ’1+1′. As a pop song and as an album opener, it’s a definite curveball but this is where much of it’s charm lies. Indeed, the closest thing we can associate ’1+1′ with musically is Prince‘s ‘Purple Rain’ - a huge shift from anything we’ve heard on B’s previous 3 LPs. Emotional, sprawling, soulful and finishing with a lengthy bluesy guitar solo, this is a record that should convert even the stoniest of anti-Beyoncé lobbyists.
8. Hudson Mohawke - Pleasure
The Numbers crew and all of their associated members made a massive impact this year (we’d argue they’ve snuck in and pushed Night Slugs to one side) and in terms of heaviest productions the crown has to be awarded to Hudson Mohawke. Alongside Rustie‘s ‘Glass Swords’, HudMo’s neon noise in it’s many guises was some of the most exciting electronica to see the light of day all year. Whilst his ‘Satin Panthers’ EP was excellent, it was to be the collection of R&B / hip-hop reworks entitled the ‘Pleasure Principle’ EP that would really get our blood pumping. With much of Hud Mo’s reputation built on a remix of Tweet, it should come as no surprise that the results of taking on an 80′s classic by Janet Jackson were an overriding success. ’Pleasure’ restructures the DNA of ‘The Pleasure Principle’ keeping it’s vocals intact but building around it an entirely new instrumental with the trademark Hudson Mohawke sound – bass, thundering percussion, video game synths and a bunch of other wizadry we don’t even have the musical knowledge to describe. It’s a testimony to the timelessness of Janet too just how great this record sounds. Collab for 2012 please!
7. Jacques Greene - Tell Me (Kingdom Edit)
We’re not sure who exactly should be sitting in the picture for this entry: Jacques Greene, Kingdom or maybe even Ritchie Hawtin…so we’ve plumped for the EP’s artwork instead. Our love for both Greene and Kingdom has been well documented during the last 12 months so a musical meeting between the two pleased us no end. Kingdom’s take on ‘Tell Me’ was masterful. Instead of fiddling excessively with an already expertly balanced production, he instead made two slight adjustments. Firstly, he layered over the techno-defining drumrolls from Plastikman‘s ‘Spastik’, immediately introducing an insistence and urgency to the track. Then, at the two minute mark, he added one small additional vocal sample and his work was done. In the probably-not-as-simple-as-it-would-seem process, he’d succeeded in turning an already excellent record into one that blew our minds.
6. ASAP Rocky - Palace (Produced by Clams Casino)
We’re excited about ASAP Rocky in a way we haven’t been for some time about a new rapper. Unlike the Odd Future hype which seems to have burnt itself out before the year is even through, Rocky stands up as an artist with some real gangster credentials, a distinctive flow, a pop sensibility and one who is being backed by a range of exciting new producers. Most notable of those is Clams Casino whose output this year has been consistently devastating. Clams takes the controls on 5 cuts from Rocky’s debut mixtape ‘LIVE LOVE A$AP’, all of which are excellent, but we’re citing ‘Palace’ as possibly his best production to date. Cutting up a male choir, then piling on the heavy drum hits and bass that characterises the Clams Casino sound, he provides a springboard for Rocky’s lazy drawl. When we put this on we can’t help but do the ‘Break Ya Neck’ for it’s entirety. We think you’ll understand why.
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