December 2011
9 posts
4 Jacques Greene - Another Girl
4 Jacques Greene – Another Girl
Although 2010’s ‘The Look’ was a great release, 2011 was definitely the break year for Montreal’s Jacques Greene. His ‘Lotus Flower’ remix was majestic, his ‘Motivation’ white label absurdly good (take a bow, Kelly Rowland), and his October Panorama set – on a beautifully chilly Sunday afternoon – was probably the best I saw all year. Anyone who drops ‘MTI’...
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5ive - Drake Dreams Money Can Buy
5 Drake – Dreams Money Can Buy
Drake. For such a big-selling and popular artist, he has faced some pretty bilious and personal criticism this year. He is, apparently, a bad rapper, a bad singer, a bad lyricist, too middle-class, unconvincing, a phoney, too materialistic, little more than the beneficiary of a generous benefactor (Lil Wayne), and ultimately a guy who is a lame addition to the...
6SIX OBJEKT CLK RECOVERY
6 Objekt – CLK Recovery
Before we get to the more contemplative and poppy tracks of the top five, I am delighted to write about TJ Hertz’s (Objekt) second release, ‘CLK Recovery’. The first thing that struck me about this was its title. The first word indicates brutally efficient Germany engineering, and the second a restoration of health. An odd juxtaposition, non?
But the track itself is,...
7 Banjo or Freakout - I Don't Want to Start All...
7 Banjo or Freakout – I Don’t Want to Start All Over Again
Having been a huge fan of Banjo or Freakout since the release of single ‘Upside Down’, I was delighted this year to see him release his debut, eponymous album. At the end of the diverse and heartfelt record sits ‘I Don’t Want to Start All Over Again’, a truly wonderful climax of exhaustion and lament.
Translucent shimmers and a...
NUMBER EIGHT OF TWENTY TEN
8 – SBTRKT – Trials of the Past
I wrote a review of the SBTRKT album way back in the summer, concluding that as a whole it was a perplexing record. By widening his styles to include RnB and UK funky, SBTRKT had made his sound more – rather than less – accessible. He turned away from the more vigorous UK bass beats of his excellent Step in Shadows EP and introduced more vocals. He lined the tracks...
TEN and NINE of Top Ten Twenty Eleven
10 XI – Gamma Rain
Canada’s XI is one of the country’s burgeoning breed of bass producers. Creative, intelligent, and distinctly unafraid of melody. This track, ‘Gamma Rain’, was released way back at the start of the year, and I have listened to it so many times that it feels more than a few years old.
It bases itself around one of the sexiest sax lines you could ever hear on a dance...
Top Ten of Twenty Eleven
So what kind of year has 2011 been? One of highs, lows, triumphs, disasters…? A year to remember brilliant pop music, great film, and stupendous oratory?
Well, if you’re really honest with yourself, 2011’s probably been a year of seismic and hypocrisy-shattering revolutions. Dictatorships have come crashing down through the Middle-East, setting Western leaders scrabbling to cover decades (or...
Kevin McPhee / Tom Croose
The rain hammered down tonight, smashing into the grim orange concrete outside my window. I actually arose in the dark, due to a late night out at Cafe 1001, and was greeted with frustratingly depressing weather and black-soled shoes. For 1001 was a grubby club with an even grubbier floor. It had a stench which made me long for the resurrection of smoking in public places and was full of more...
Craig David
In Berghain, there are stairs up to Panorama which lead up the front of the building. The walls and windows are covered in graffiti - pointless musings, scratchings, hearts, liberal declarations, and so on. But on one window, about half way up, someone has etched their clean finger into the smudge, leaving a grainy, peripheral message against the dark of the night or the hopelessness of morning....
