There’s no doubt 2010 was an absolutely massive year for electronic music Dubstep, UK Funky and Techno had all kinds of inbred mutating babies who don’t really have bionafied names yet, garage and off beat wonky hip hop continued to flourish and evolve as influences spread across the globe. Not to mention an almost final nail was hammered into the coffin of vinyl records with the official death of the industry standard Technics SL-1200 turntable just 38 years after it’s birth by Panasonic in 1972 (despite increasing sales of vinyls in the UK in alone), tear jerking stuff!!
 
Now it’s not my intention to summarize “the best” tracks of 2010 as many other blogs/magazine and website do but rather to share with you 20 of my favourite forward thinking electronics tracks of 2010.
 
So here goes …
 
1. Ramadanman – Work Them
2. Deadboy – If You Want
3. Shed – Wax 3003
4. James Blake – Limit To Your Love
5. Funkineven – Heart Pound
6. Eskamon – Fine Objects
7. Four Tet – Plastic People
8. Ramadanman – Glut
9. Redinho – Nuff Prang
10. Gold Panda – You
11. Addison Groove – Footcrab
12. Flying Lotus – Do the Astral Plane
13. Scuba – You got me
14. Redlight – MDMA
15. Mount Kimbie – Blind Night Errand
16. Pangea – Sunset Yellow
17. Lorn – Void I
18. Debruit – It’s Bigger Than Kom-Pa
19. Roots Manuva – Witness (Slugabed Remix)
20. Fantastic Mr Fox – Evelyn
 

 
Naturally there is going to be many tracks I’ve missed in 2010 some of which you might think belong in your top 20 to feel free to share any other out standing tracks in the comments below!!

Future Sound – An Underground Electronic Music Documentary from Jamie Whitby on Vimeo.

…continue reading The future is now

San Francisco the little brother to Los Angeles in the Californian Beat-Movement may never be as big, but what it lacks in size it is making up for in creativity. Today I’d like to share a Brainfeeder podcast and a freebie track from SF based producer Eskmo breaking new grounds in cross genre hybriding. Although he’s been making music for the better part of a decade Eskmo’s latest works have seen him touring Europe and the States for the last couple of years. With releases on Planet Mu, Warp, his own label Ancestor, and his track Hypercolor being placed in the top 100 tracks of 2009 by Bleep.com Eskmo is definitely one too look out for in 2010.

His “genre-less” approach to bass music sees the formation of dark and emotive tracks that utilise a sea of uniquely recorded cracks, snaps and percussive elements. You could almost believe his beats were living breathing entities or sonic trees snapping and creaking in wind.
…continue reading I Heart SF

In the build up to festival season this coming wednesday Fabric London is hosting some of Californian label Brainfeeder’s best artists (and a few UK ones to top it off) . The Line up is huge and I hope to see you all down there. Here’s a few mixes to hype you up for your next midweek explosion.
…continue reading Feed me

As most of you have probably already heard the license for Plastic People in Shoreditch is currently under threat by the Hackney council. Claims have been made that it has become a haven for excessive drug use and rowdy and violent clubbers. For those of you unfamiliar with the club this is certainly not the case.

Plastic People boasts an amazing Funktion One sound system and not a lot else, it is a tiny dark basement with an emphasis on sound alone. It is club that has and will always be purely about the music. It is the home of the Dubstep FWD nights and has helped build several strains of bass music in London over the past 16 years, even recently inspiring Uk based producer Four Tet to name a song after it…..

Four Tet – Plastic People

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Hailing from Brittany in France but now a London Local dÉbruit is a talented french producer banging out some of the best wonky, electro synth soaked beats this side of the globe. In his words “I’m dEbruit, synth breeder, beat baker and rhythm keeper. I make music in styles you can’t name and a genre that doesn’t exist…”

Combining elements of 80s hip hop, west coast electro funk and a huge array of world music into a disjointed groove dÉbruit really is a head of the curve even in the newly emerging “wonky” scene. He’s part of the Musique Large crew which is also home to Fulgeance who pumps out slighty more bass heavy grimey “un-steady hop”.

Now here’s one of dÉbruit’s earlier stand out tracks that will have you groovin’ all the way to the movies Bang’s style.

dÉbruit – I’m Goin’ Wit You Featuring Om’Mas Keith

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As much as I love a good angry wobble trasher, I and I’m sure a lot of other people are growing a bit weary of LFO induced wobble bass bangers that have little variation and seems to all sound the same. Lately my ears tend to be perking up to the sounds of a deeper “Future Garage” sound, usually more sampled based and incorporating elements of techno, garage, classic break beat rave, dub and reggae.

With deep house and techno elements making a bit of a come back in all styles of electronic music in the last few years it only makes sense that these strains of dubstep, 2 step, and new school garage are combining to make a new exciting hybrid for a new decade. As science tell us with every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, much like in music (and social tastes) there is opposites and reactions of backlashes and revivals (whether it be from grungy to poppy or dirty to deep). Now having not lived in the UK during the high points in 2 step, garage and even some of the early dub influenced dubstep from the early naughties, I felt as though I might have missed out on some of the best years for UK electronic music. However as I discover more and more interesting new music taking influence from the past, I feel quite fortunate to have lived through the naughties, despite what other people might say about the state of music these days.
…continue reading 2010: It’s almost the future, where’s my flying car dammit!?