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!!

LPs

Daphni – ‘JIAOLONG’ [Jiaolong]

FAY – ‘DIN’ [Time No Place]

How To Dress Well – ‘Total Loss’ [Acéphale]

Kendrick Lamar – ‘good kid, M.A.A.D. City’ [Interscope]

Frank Ocean – ‘Channel ORANGE’ [Def Jam]

Andy Stott – ‘Luxury Problems’ [Modern Love]

Hip-Hop

Anything produced by Mike Will Made It. Doing acid and listening to 2 Chainz ft. Drake – “No Lie” – life changer

Rhianna – “Pour It Up”***Mike Will & “Get It Over With”

Juicy J – “Bandz A Make Her Dance” ***Mike Will

Chief Keef – “Love Sosa”, “Hate Bein’ Sober”, “I Don’t Like”

Lloyd “Foreign”

Mixtapes

Jeremih – ‘Late Nights With Jeremih’

Lloyd – ‘The Playboy Diaries, Vol. 1′

Mike Will Made It – ‘Est. in 1989 Pt. 2.5′

Mix CD

Maya Jane Coles ‘DJ-Kicks’ [!K7]

Comp

L.I.E.S. Presents: American Noise

Event

Boiler Room LA

BIG ROOM

Storm Queen – “Look Right Through (MK Don’t Talk To Me Dub)” [Defected]

Cloud 9 – “Do You Want Me Baby (Dusky Remix)” [Toolroom]

Jessie Ware – “Running (Disclosure Remix)” [PMR]

Huxley – “Let It Go” [Hypercolour]

Dead Rose Music Company – “Tonight” [Let's Play House]

Kevin Saunderson ft. Inner City – “Future (MK AW Deep Dub)” [Defected]

Jack Dixon – “E” [Hotflush]

Move D – “Got 2 Be” [Electric Minds]

Ejeca – “Horizon” [Need Want]

Mosca – “Eva Mendes” [Hypercolour]

Recloose ft. B. Slade – “Magic” [Rush Hour]

Duke Dumont – “The Giver” [Turbo]

Scuba – “Talk Torque” [Hotflush]

West Norwood Cassette Library – “Coming On Strong” [WNCL Recordings]

BEAUTY

Andrés – “New 4 U” [La Vida]

Anthony Naples – “Mad Disrespect” [Mr. Saturday Night]

Evy Jane – “Ohso (Max Ulis Remix)” [King Deluxe]

Ryan Hemsworth – ‘Last Words’ [Wedidit]

How To Dress Well – “&It Was U” & “How Many” [Acéphale]

INC. – “The Place” & “5 Days” [4AD]

James Welsh – “The Way” [Join The Dots]

Jeremih ft. Natasha Mosley – “Fuck U All The Time”

Kuhrye-00 – “Give In (For The Fame)” [UNO NYC]

Moodymann – “Why Do U Feel” [KDJ]

Nicolas Jaar & Theatre Roosevelt – “The Ego” [Clown & Sunset]

Usher – “Climax” [RCA]

DEEP

Burial – “Kindred” [Hyperdub]

Dream Continuum – “Set It” [Planet Mu]

Mykki Blanco “Haze.Boogie.Life” [UNO NYC]

Omar S and Ob Ignitt – “Wayne County Hills Cop’s Part 2 (Omar S Mix)” [FXHE]

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.

JUSSAYIN

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.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

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 Tonight EP 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.

LEAVE IT TO Resident Advisor to track down a reclusive artist who shies away from the of press to contribute one of the most memorable mixes of the year. Joy Orbison, an artist who has always been close to jazner and was one of the first who opened him up to a whole new world of styles with his quintessential game changer “Hyph Mngo“, dropped RA.331 and it’s fucking tight.

Sure, starting off with Jeremih “Fuck U All The Time” just about guarantees instant infatuation from jazner, but there are two selections in particular from the mix that needed to be cherry picked and put on full display.

The first is a Joy O edit of Donell Jones “U Know What’s Up”, coming in around the 15′ mark of the mix. Mixing R&B vocals with a 2-step / garage beat is a classic recipe for success, at least one that will get jazner‘s ears to perk up. Makes you wonder how many of these edits Joy O is sitting on.

The second is a more downtempo jam, coming in around 2′ as the second track of the mix behind Jeremih – Damage “Love Lady (Groove Chronicles Remix)”. A groove made for the late night love zone, its swinging rhythm and vocals dripping with sensuality  guiding all riders to the bedroom for a night cap. A great track to build momentum for the rest of the mix, this one can easily stand on its own as a groove to find on wax.

Download the whole mix over at Resident Advisor, you will not be disappointed.

MAYA JANE COLES, three words that will get jazner to drop whatever it is he’s doing and tune in.

Early this morning Coles took to her Soundcloud and posted a remix of Phil Kieran & White Noise Sound “Never Believed“, which you may remember from her super stellar DJ-Kicks on !K7 earlier this year, and it’s tiiittteeee. Tune into the stream above!

YESTERDAY SAW THE return of one of my personal favorites.

Los Angeles’ Inc. took to their website and unveiled their latest single, “The Place“, forthcoming on their soon-to-be detailed debut LP due out in 2013 on 4AD. The group, led by brothers Andrew and Daniel Aged, had been laying low the past year working on this release, and it’s nice to hear the fruits of their labor.

“The Place” – sensual, dark, romantic, and subtle, it embodies Inc.’s vibe and points to exciting new tunes ahead. If you’re digging it, you can download the mp3 by joining their mailing list from the website. Will definitely have more details on the LP once it’s available. Till then, enjoy!