Monday, December 19, 2011

End Of Year Caveat


Top Tracks (incl. Remixes)

Wolfram feat Haddaway
A Thing Called Love (Legowelt remix)
Permanent Vacation
Deepak Sharma & Dieter Krause
Wolkenreise
Hidden Recordings
A Sagittariun
The circle Stops Somewhere
Elastic Dreams
Benoit & Sergio
Everybody
DFA
Julio Bashmore
Battle For Middle You
PMR
Benoit & Sergio
Let Me Count The Ways
Spectral Sound
Alex Jones
Romania Pika
Hypercolour
Sigha
I Am Apathy I Am Submission
Blueprint
Radical Majik
Fianchetto
Boardroom Music
Space Dimension Controller
The Pathway To Tiraquon 6
R&S



Top Compilations/Mixes

Marcel Dettmann
Conducted
Music Man
Scuba
DJ Kicks
K7!
Ben UFO
Rinse 16
Rinse
Marcel Fengler
Berghain 05
Ostgut Ton
Seth Troxler
The Lab 03
NRK
Pearson Sound/Ramadanman
FabricLive 56
Fabric
Lawrence
Timeless
Ccocoon
Jackmaster
FabricLive 57
Fabric
Prosumer
Panorama Bar 03
Ostgut Ton
Soul Clap
Social Experiment 002
No. 19



Top Artist Albums

Planetary Assault Systems
The Messenger
Ostgut Ton
Tommy Four Seven
Primate
CLR
Lucy
Wordplay For Working Bees
Stroboscopic Artefacts
Sepalcure
Sepalcure
Hotflush
Legowelt
The TEAC Life
Self-Released
Rustie
Glass Swords
Warp
Roman Flugel
Fatty Folders
Dial
Maceo Plex
Life Index
Crosstown Rebels
Nicolas Jaar
Space Is Only Noise
Circus Company
Steffi
Yours And Mine
Ostgut Ton
Morphosis
What We Have Learned
Delsin/Morphine
K-S.H.E.
Routes Not Roots
Sklylax
2562
Fever
When In Doubt



Top Labels

Stroboscopic Artefacts
R&S
Hotflush
Visionquest
Hypercolour
Culprit
Clone
Permanent Vacation
Electric Sheep
Mathematics
Modern Love

My caveat here is that when compiling these lists I didn't always order them accordingly. I always find the "Top Tracks" list especially difficult to compile. I should have added Omar S's 'Here's Your Trance, Now Dance' but everybody else seemed to so what the hell. Labels, well you can only play the hand you're dealt and, although I listen to as wide a range of stuff as possible, like the tracks list you can't do them all. I can see why Crosstown Rebels won this year, it's getting to the point now when if you stick around for long enough it'll happen like a Nobel Prize or an Oscar but for me at least they put out quite a few average releases which I remember far more than the good stuff. Electric Sheep is an interesting and varied label which, with it's Black Sheep Trax offshoot has a great range and will hopefully turn a few years in the year ahead. Hotflush and Stroboscopic Artefacts were probably my top two here though.

The "Compilations/Mixes" list is totally occupied by mixes. I listen to more mixes than anything else, preferring to have my music in situ. The mix cd had a bit of a boom year, with some sturdy contributions, the best of which I think I included. I will go with Dettmann as my top for this year, Prosumer was excellent as well, as were Pearson Sound and Jackmaster. Finally the albums. There was some great techno released this year, as is the case most years, but Morphosis stood out, his individuality and twists being ultimately more appealing than the grit and dirt of Tommy Four Seven, Planetary Assault Systems and Lucy. Rustie's 'Glass Swords' was a crystallisation of every bling-laden, steroid-enhanced wall-to-wall sensurround experience I've ever had, or am likely to. Crosstown Rebels make their only appearance in my chart with Maceo Plex's excellent 'Life Index', but this album heralded another wave of copyists and fit so snugly against Hot natured that the impression it made on release diminished progressively as the year wore on.

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