Congratulations to Ellie Goulding who today was crowned BBC Sound of 2010. It's fast becoming recognised as a stepping stone towards an illustrious career as a musician. Previous winners include Little Boots, Adele and Mika, who following their new found title have all gone on to have successful albums. This year, Goulding was closely followed by Greek-Welsh pop icon Marina And The Diamonds, Manchester's own suited and booted Delphic, more of Manchester's home bred electro from Hurts and New Yorker's The Drums.
This below is a dubadubdub remix of Goulding's 'Under The Sheets'.
Over two and a half years have zoomed on by since Four Tet released Ringers, a hypnotic tease of an EP that swayed towards an experimental, repetitive techno pulse. Hermetic Londoner Kieren Hebden this month released a new limited edition 12" before much anticipated full length album There Is Love In You follows on the 25th. His abstract approach to production amasses inspiration from jazz, hip hop, soul, folk and techno, whilst putting large emphasis on live instrumentation. It's the way in which Hebden defies genre that results in something so uniquely individual and abstract - taking the superlative nature of each generic sound and remoulding them in to his own innovative hybrid.
The A-side of his new single, 'Love Cry', reveals opposing messages within a 9 minute narrative; of sitting in a concrete room stripped of animation with only the pacification of regret and photographic evidence of a past lover for company, while a subdued bass-light melody induces you into a dream-like celebration, much like the result of his previous EP. The revealing, industrial intro is vacuous and distant, interrupted by a funky trip-hop drum roll, eventually dimming before a harmonious vocal sings 'love cry' - as if the two cannot be separated - echoing a reality of life. The rhythm stretches, lulling you into a trance before snapping you back to attention. Retrospective cries of 'love me' pulsate on repeat as if a desperate plea of the obsessed. A final surge of acid house blips lay the subtly disjointed message to rest.
Man of the moment, Joy Orbison, puts his illuminating spin on 'Love Cry' by breaking the vocal into a dreamy stupor and radiating it over a soulful, contemporary garage beat with hints of nu jazz. The vintage sound of a vinyl needle implies a pre-90's production, further warming you to the melody. Synth build ups drop into ethereal electro bleeps while Orbison keeps hold of Hebden's love of percussion, overall expressing a sense of freedom.
While his and Hebden's creations aren't what you'd expect to hear blasted through big speakers in an inside venue, they create an overwhelming atmospheric space in which you can kick back and let the mind float to it's favourite place, wherever you are when listening.
Up and coming, fresh and new, Cragga's sound seems to replicate the youth appeal of N Dubz, instead applying it to the urban dance scene. Take that as you may, his pop styled garage version of Crookers 'Day N Nite' and mellow dubstep remix of the Twilight theme are sure to be heard on a ringtone near you soon!
The surprise drop in 'The Postman', sampled from motown beauts The Marvelettes, is reason enough for his name to be thrown about. At least for a little while.
Adam Tindall is rising high in the drum and bass ranks, though he hasn't always been releasing infectious beats under his solo alias Original Sin. His previous guise as part of Geordie duo G Dub became renowned locally and their skills didn't go unnoticed. Whilst performing at Area 51 his ability to positively demolish raves gained the much needed feedback from headlining acts, eventually being signed to DJ Hype & Pascal's Ganja imprint. He now leaves his individual footprint on the drum and bass scene, bashing out heavy stompers such as 'Don't Be Silly' and his remix of the Shy FX classic 'Rah'. Having released his first Original Sin LP last month called Grow Your Wings, his music is now out of the local and into the national.
This below is a track from said album and an example of his hypnotic work where a classic house vocal is cut and inserted over a junglist background, thrown in with some psychedelia, some soulful bridge undertones and a few subtle steel pan knocks.
Merely a reminder of a deeper, more soulful side to house music because sometimes the mind can align itself to a more bass-fuelled slag of a musical melody.
Why has it taken so long for this track to be released?
Legendary producers combine their powers once again as Kaskade reunite with omnipresential Deadmau5 (or already did do many full moons ago) to release another house floorfiller. This, the first single released from Kaskade's critically acclaimed album Strobelite Seduction, captures the freedom of dancing with a strobe-masked stranger after a gruelling week at work where daydreams of escaping the mundane are a common use of wage earning time. While Kaskade showcase the sultry, cohesive side to this production, Deadmau5 projects his minimal house beat and signature uplifting synths, merging together their talents to form a slick and smooth finish. Following the massive 2009 release 'I Remember', fans may find this track a step down, nevertheless it is still a commercially viable radio pleaser.
People become obsessed with lists around this period of merriment, and though I keep a hypocritical note of who's sold the most over the past year or who has been subject to the most pairs of used pants whilst performing on stage, I am purposefully u-turning away from New Year lists. What the new year is showcasing to me is an unpredictable music scene where anything is possible, much like There's Something About Jedward's hair, where technology will showboat it's speedy age process with touchscreen everythings and a hundred million* new online music stores, inevitably leading to the disparsement of CD's. CD's will soon become archaic if the growth rate of new technology is in ratio to the exclusivity of the brand spanking new TV bought over this Christmas season.
Lists aside, I will project my roaring excitement at what is to grace our every musical atom over the coming year. First and foremost, music is cyclistic, which in essence opposes my initial 'anything is possible' ethos but only ever so slightly. Electro has revived the 80's, persisting an urban splash of dubstep with every winning stride taken to the finish line. Dubstep has had an exceedingly progressive year and some would say it'll soon be over. That's not the prevailing opinion if you stumble through online forums where the 'dubstep is dead' sentiment is blown to bassy smitherines but overlooked by the cloud-like emergence of sub-generic dub, such as the elusive brostep. Yep, I asked the same thing - What the f***? Joe Nice, a Baltimore DJ who introduced dubstep to the USA, explains rather imperatively: "Brostep is not dubstep. Two completely different things. Two completely different sounds. Brostep is impatient, with a serious lack of bass and no real weight." It's quite easy to pass off any bass heavy tunes as dubstep these days, so the confusion that has been creasing brains up and down will eventually iron out in 2010, defined more by specific dub based spawns.
Dance music had a great 2009, dominating the charts for much of it with the likes of La Roux's 'In For The Kill' (Skream's Version), Deadmau5's 'I Remember' and The Prodigy's 'Warrior's Dance'. Chuck in a bit of Dizzee's originality and Calvin Harris's penchant for a floorfiller and you've pretty much summed up the domineers and high standards of the UK dance music scene. Dance as a collective genre seems stronger than ever.
(Take note of how I've left David Guetta off the list, even though it pains me to say, he should be commended for his world domination. Funny how the more overground he has become, the less I like him. Unfortunately, it's me against the world on this one!)
So what next?
Quite possibly rave. It may seem inevitable that sounds of a bygone rave era will again infiltrate our eager little minds and leave us holidaying in a reminiscent stupor of when house music really made an impact in a world that was in constant revolution. This relies on the cyclistic theory maintaining factual substance. Against the wars, famine and social change, rave music unified a youth counter culture through the incessant use of eye-widening drugs and illegal raves - it was a rave-olution in itself. And to think the foundations of this era blew up right here in 'Madchester' in a humble little venue known as the Hacienda. I look forward to the way in which DJ's will incorporate a tried and tested sound associated to the groundbreaking beginnings of an era and contemporise it so the youth of today can integrate it into their ever-increasing Skins-styled lives.
Maybe, just maybe, I'm looking a few too many years in to the future. What will happen in dance is an increased knowledge of house, a deeper subculture of dubstep and an evolution in drum and bass, incorporating broken beat, lo-fi and ambience.
'Hey Hey' is the outstanding new track from Mr Dennis Ferrer, released under his own label Objecktivity and is generating gravitational momentum on Beatport, YouTube, radio and nighclub play. One of my favourite house DJ's, his natural ability in deploying a deeper, percussive side to a genre of music that is saturated by the same repetitive drone of a sound is enlightening - specifically to this old school revival of a track. Ferrer has succeeded in reawakening a vintage sound of house associated to an era of revolution. A house revolution. Use of an old undergound technique creates a distinct sounding house beat that is played over female vocals spilling sultry narrative, which as a complete package takes you back to early rave productions except with Ferrer's added contemporary magic.
In the promo vid, he dances like a man who has just discovered the full potential of his limbs - there have been many occasions where I've been so lost in a tune that I've zoned out and entered a world where only I and the music exist, much like Ferrer's hook-tuned struts.
It was only a matter of time before The Fez (unofficial nickname) released an anthemic track and it's quite perfectly summed up in the promo video below with the quote: "A return to the finest virtues of house music."
Stephen Wilkinson, or Bibio, is a British music producer who released his third album of 2009 earlier this month. The Apple And The Tooth LP flaunts four new tracks and eight remixes of tunes taken from his June release Ambivalence Avenue. Previously having released albums under American independent label Mush, he is now signed to the more heavyweight contingent Warp Records.
From the four new tracks, 'Steal The Lamp' deploys a psychedelic panorama before teasing in a hint of dubstep, closing the track with a scrambled drum and bass arrangement. And title track 'The Apple And The Tooth' is much like 'Bones & Skulls', which both combine folk-pop guitar and vocals from Bibio himself.
As for the remixes, heavy influence is drawn from Warp's way of life, illustrated by label-mate Clark who adds his own gritty, melodic electronica to 'S'vive' (think urban ice cream van) and ultimately transforms Bibio's original with spectacular effect. The stand out remix is Leatherette's easy going version of 'Lovers' Carvings', which pans a broken vocal spread over dream-like percussion and satisfying hip-hop beats.
Unlike Ambivalence Avenue, this album permits you to take a stroll down a more chilled out street, donning an intelligent mix of electronically produced music laced with guitar pop-folk meeting hip-hop. The Apple And The Tooth LP proves Bibio's natural innovation in production is no accident - his previous attempts are the foundations to this claim. With a high turnover of albums as per this year it seems he could be hitting double figures by the end of 2010 - which can only be a positive thing.
This below is the Leatherette remix of 'Lovers' Carvings'.
It's wholly common and mindlessly predictable for tunes to resurface in freshly made packaging, shiny enough to send eager 15 year old bodies dressed in trackies to their local store - the Internet - to spend their pennies. I in no way openly condone the illegal downloading of music, yet I wouldn't feel obliged to deter consumers away from becoming a minor criminal by halting revenue for this remake.
Without a doubt, there have been some credible remixes played across worthwhile nightclubs by purposeful DJ's, a couple of examples being 'Be vs Show Me Love' by members of The Swedish House Mafia where soulful vocals slide nicely alongside a heavy, innovative house beat, or even Dizzee's use of a rave classic in his new single 'Dirtee Cash' where there's enough change brought on by lyrical genius to profess good use of a yester-tune.
Every now and again there will be an updated release of an era-defining classic - in this case the original'Finally' prompted a significant change in my teenage mideducation, which incorporated happy hardcore and mature cheddar trance. I was locked in by a lack of knowledge, basking in a Britpop afterglow and born into a pre-modern town where this kind of scene was revelled in.
The original version of 'Finally', by respected trustees of house music The Kings Of Tomorrow, has been hijacked and transformed into something that quite literally makes me feel a little bit sick. Two reasons why this induces vom in my mouth; one) for taking the soul out of the original production of this tune, and two) for almost taking away from me what I give credit to as being a monumental factor in changing my musical identity.
K-Klass by name are remembered for their early 90's originals 'Let Me Show You' and 'Rhythm Is A Mystery', which were hits for the team of four lads who met in the holy grounds of the Hacienda. However, remixes of pop acts such as S Club 7, Geri Halliwell and Samantha Mumba detract likability away from their hay days, and reminds me of the initial blow upon first hearing this updated version of 'Finally'.
Hopefully, this tune won't make too much of an impression on humble dance floors, though on YouTube I'm left cringing at a little proof of positive reaction received for the terrible in comparison vocals and pestering, trance-like stabs to the heart of a beat.
Sub Focus (Nick Douwma) has finally unveiled a versatile self-titled album full of kicking, bustling beats from a diverse range of genres, released on the 12th of October. This is merely a post to share appreciation of the track 'This Could Be Real' from his debut album.
Who is Loveys? It sounds like he could be a vicar who skips and sings through life whilst producing soulful beats on the side, all of which is true. Except the vicar bit. And it wouldn't be right for me to speak on behalf of Trev in his skipping and singing exploits.
His recent single release on the 19th of October called 'Organ Grinder' shifts from nu-jazz enthused melodies of the past to a more electro-pop outlook, suiting the current dancefloor trends of today. His previous album released in 2005, 'Selected Singles And Remixes', is a collection of his own tunes put through a very cool remix machine leaving a silky, soulful outcome that sounds like it takes inspiration from the Masters At Work. It hosts Hipp-e's Full Mix of 'The Bounce' that samples the brilliant sound of Jazzanova's 'Our Time Is Coming' as well as another lazy summertime lick of soul called 'Elevate Your Mind'.
After swapping records labels over the years he now sits comfortably in Cheap Thrills, under which the new single is released. Though in recent years his most notorious venture is that of being teamed with Solid Groove to create an array of funky, edgy remixes under the guise of Switch.
So from downtempo, to deep house to dancefloor electro, Loveys is an established producer who has me anticipating his 2nd solo album release. Below is one of his finest solo tunes as mentioned above 'Elevate Your Mind'. For more of his stuff check out Kraak & Smaak's 'Squeeze Me', 'The Bounce' and 'Turn It Up'.
The feeling of anticipation for this renowned Manchester institution has overtook my weekend build up many times before and once again I am fully able to tread my eager feet on to definitive clubbing grounds with certain knowledge that at some point during the night to come I will lose control of my tense limbs as they become one with thy music.
The Warehouse Project has returned for another quart of a year to deliver time stopping shows and incredible live and DJ sets. This is the venue that has roused Manchester's worldwide penchant for putting on a memorable night reminiscent of the days when rave began in the history-making Hacienda nightclub.
The clubbing world is at its feet in mention of hugely hyped Canadian DJ Deadmau5 and I feel as if I am attending an event of someone who stands to be one of the most successful DJ’s in the world pretty soon. So naturally, there are high expectations. The crowd is different to the usual sophisticated enthusiasts, seemingly younger and donning clothes that fit the spectre of chav, whilst the aroma of Warehouse virgins lingers in circles around you - assumingly new students in town showing allegiance to an act that has produced some commercially stunning tracks.
Upon entering, supporting act Chris Lake is stimulating the increasing herd of a crowd with a tight and sound-perfect set, throwing out tracks 'Tropical Chick' by Alex Kenji, a special mix of Kings Of Leon's 'Use Somebody' and the overplayed and overrated La Roux's 'In For The Kill'. Commercial sing-alongs aside, Lake provides a popular dirty electro sound that bounces off the walls and fits perfectly, like condom to head, in a venue such as this. Still, everybody is waiting patiently for 2am.
Deadmau5's slightly pretentious entrance is impressing the crowd, overshadowing his impending 2 hour set. The crowd are compressing themselves and cheer as if a heavyweight sporting legend has just appeared from beyond the layer of smoke, all staring at the infamous giant mouse head made larger by the skinny frame it balances upon. The stirring hype, however, is short lived - fast forward past a 30 minute opening of renowned tracks such as 'The Reward Is Cheese' and people start to disperse and numbers dwindle.
It all becomes a bit of a letdown.
Yes, unfortunately the set based on his new material is overusing minimal trance, some of which sounds too much alike to determine the start and end of any one track. Thus, I am craving for more, standing rather than stomping and gazing outwardly towards the lights, the beautiful entrancing lights.
Despite my wish for recognisable tunes to surface amongst this constant, downbeat style synonymous with Deadmau5, there is one aspect that is impressing me and a few other hedonists - the expressive lights and laser show. The stage is mounted with tall rectangular shapes showing trippy visuals of ascending lights shaped like a city of skyscrapers, only to descend in quick succession as if the city is being tore down as quickly as erected. Meanwhile, rays of light are piercing a smoky haze, shooting past the DJ and creating a silhouette Mau5 lapping up the love being projected from the crowd through finger punches to the air and silent screams of approval.
In this egotistical moment of his I realise the legions of fans that remain in the room, and the world over, look up to Deadmau5 as if he invented music itself. What he is achieving is an icon status but only to fans that will stand by him despite what his shows and sounds are like. I feel there is a fine line these days between an icon and somebody who is quite subtly a well marketed gimmick.
Full credit goes out to a few of his renowned tunes - most notably the extra long and very acknowledged version of 'I Remember' - that sometimes couldn't be heard over screams of immense appreciation. For all of the nights grandeur expectations that eventually fell way short of the mark, it is 'I Remember' that resurrected a dying night.
It's the 25th of September, people are gathering inside the world's most popular club for its 11th annual awards. Its name sparkles in sultry red lights above the stage, a cherry logo is dotted around various walls above world DJ's, producers, technology swots and insiders. This is none other than... The Pacha DJ Awards 2009.
I hadn't heard of them either until a few months ago. Maybe I'm a bit slow in jumping on the DJ-wagon? Whatever the case, the awards handed out are well respected, so is deserved when held within a prestigious nightclub domain. One award that has been continuous from inception is 'Best Ibiza Track'.
Insert a drum roll here.... and without further hesitation, the award, if you haven't already sussed it out through the title, goes to Michel Cleis with 'La Mezcla'. Voila.
It has become the sound of Ibiza this year, which saw early predictions of its inevitable success manifest to truth. Its general release is November 2nd, with new remixes from Copyright, Charles Webster and DJ Roog in the pipeline - so expect this tune to play out on many of the main floors across the country (and world) over the coming months.
The tune itself is broken up and packaged into three surging phases. Upon its beginning you'll unknowingly find yourself lying in a blossoming field of percussion through which roams a rattlesnake shaking its fearful sound. Then phase 2 delivers hypnotic pan flute playing, also used in Timbaland's 'Indian Flute', which lingers like the smell of freshly roasted coffee beans under which tribal drums broaden. One of the highlights of this track and something that makes it work so well is phase 3 - the rousing Latin folk-dance vocal sampled from Toto la Momposina's early 1992 release 'Curura'. When in full swing, the spell-like tune leads your mind deep into a Colombian forest where people shake their shit with strong defiance around a campfire as to stop the sky from striking them down.
By all means, a hugely infectious release from Swiss/French producer Michel Cleis. The hype was big early on and novelty may be running low, but now with a new, raunchy music video I believe it to blow up across commercial radio and tv waves.
I envisage this to be a tune that in years to come will inspire sun-kissed memories of 2009.
