Posted in On Notice on December 26, 2012 by jazner
HARDLY A COMPREHENSIVE list, I’ve done my best to pluck my favorites from 2012 – excluding the artists and records I was lucky enough to work with throughout the year – and served em up below in no particular order.
As always, there was so much great music, most of which I missed out on or didn’t give proper time and attention to, while also many records I’m still playing catch up on – Gerry Read, Vessel, Lukid, Lee Gamble: I’m looking at you guys.
Up top you’ll find the lists for favorite LPs, mixtapes, hip-hop, events and the like, while down on the second half I had to list my favorite tracks – for peak time, for chill time, and for introspection…time.
Thank you to everyone that still reads the blog, we ain’t never gonna stop. Happy New Year Everyone!!
LOTS OF TIMES, music fall through the cracks here. Other times, tunes are so big, they get stuck in the crack, at which time I swoop them up and throw them up here.
Although a little late to this one (a month or 2, but who’s counting), had to show some love to this – Cloud9, “Do You Want Me Baby (Dusky Remix)”, off the eponymous 12″ available now on Toolroom Records.
A classic deep house voluptuous bass pushes this tune with a wild pitched up vocal and swinging drum pattern. This tune screams peak time, the wailing vocals begging a question a lot of us do when we go out and get thirsty.
THE DAY HAS come – Inc. announced details of their debut album, ‘No World‘, due out February 19th on 4AD. Ringing in the news today is a beautiful new song off the LP, ‘5 Days‘, which you can listen to above.
Andrew and Daniel Aged’s Inc. has been on the radar for some time, and the news today is met with great adoration. I was lucky enough to see them a few weeks back, the crew playing all new songs, and I can say it’s definitely worth waiting for this record. All you readers out there know what to get me for my birthday on Feb. 22.
Check out the full tracklist below, and if you’re lucky enough to be in one of these cities, catch Inc. live -
No World Tracklist:
1. the place 2. black wings 3. lifetime 4. 5 days 5. trust (hell below) 6. your tears 7. angel 8. seventeen 9.desert rose (war prayer) 10. careful 11. nariah’s song
November
17th – Steel Drums, Brooklyn, NY
22nd – L’International, Paris
25th -Deviation @ Birthdays, London
DO YOU FEEL it, America? It’s the day after the presidential election, optimism is high and there’s freedom in the air.
Actually it’s just a new song from Bicep.
The duo of Andy Ferguson and Matt McBriar took to their Soundcloud and shared a new track with us, “Feel It”, stream and download available above.
If it’s one thing these guys know, it’s classic house. A slow grower that takes time to develop, “Feel It” utilizes all its different tools to come to a head midway through the track. And you know if it’s got female vocals, jazner is down.
If you’re still hungry, check out this Night Trax mix they also shared, leading head first with Sade (always a good look).
ACID ACID ACID. FunkinEven has been atop the game for a minute, helping to champion the 303 with such classics as “Roland’s Jam” and “She’s Acid” as both a regular member of the Eglo family as well as starting his own imprint, Apron.
Here to celebrate Halloween, FunkinEven brings us “Cha” b /w “Dracula” which will see a limited vinyl release on All Hallow’s Eve through Apron.
The video for “Dracula”, directed by Hiroo Tanaka aka Inumikaku, features our man FunkinEven creeping through the streets as Nosferatu, shrouded in red, fiending for the blood of a woman, and blanketed by that signature acid sound.
HOUSE MUSIC FLASHBACKS seem to be all the craze these days, echoes of the past creeping in to today’s sounds making for a retro-futurism simultaneously looking back while moving forward. We’ve seen it with Bicep’s massive “Vision Of Love“, George FitzGerald’s addictive “Child“, as well as with Julio Bashmore, Huxley, Nicholas, and a number of others.
Gary McCartney aka Ejeca’s ‘Horizon’ EP out now on Needwant is the latest example, the title track (streaming above) giving the 90s plenty of shine while keeping the groove contemporary for modern dancefloors. While Ejeca recently rose to the popular consciousness with his ‘You / Don’t’ collaboration with Bicep on Aus Music, this latest solo affair further proves his strength as a producer.
“Horizon” is full of 90s goodies, with the “Whoo” samples to the retro keys and drums. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where the sounds seem to fit appropriately in the linear scale of history – this track bumps, and that’s what’s really real.
You can grab the ‘Horizon’ EP on wax or digitally, so go.
BIG TUNE INCOMING from the enigmatic Dead Rose Music Company, who just let loose the TonightEP on Jacques Renault’s Let’s Play House label.
While the whole EP is filled with cuts, nothing stands out quite like the title track. “Tonight” takes a sec to warm up, with a chugging kick thrusting the tune along with vocal snippets ebbing in and out and hints of keys to come. Come 2′ things start really heating up, full fledged keys raining down with phantom femme vocals and rhythm in full force. Basically, it’s a jam.
The EP rounds out with remixes from KRL and Ooft!, as well as TDRMC’s “Not Enough” – stream the whole release above.
