A monumental year for dance music. Yes, it spawned the irritating, everywhere-in-your-face new ravers, but ‘New-Rave’ was just one branch of a much deeper movement: the fusion of rock and dance. A fresh and innovative wave of tunes were produced that clubbers could rock to and rockers could dance to. Here are my top ten albums of the year:
1. Digitalism – Idealism
Powerful floorfilling tunes. Most are instantly recognizable after a year of DJ’s devoting hours of spinning time to handfulls of Digitalism tracks. We anticipated with baited breath… and thankfully every track excels. The energetic and momentous distortion, for many, brought back fond memories of Daft Punk, and new hope once again for dance music.
2. Justice – Cross
Justice have been destined for greatness for some time. So many feel disappointed with this album due to a lack of new material. Personally, i think its still awesome. Phantom part II is certainly the best new track. But imagine looking at it as an album having never heard any of the tracks: its epic. From the slow build-up of opener ‘Genesis’ to the grandiose drops of ‘Waters of Nazareth’ & ‘Phantom’. Shame bout ‘Valentine’.
3. The Kitsuné Maison Compilations
Technically the five compilations were spread over late 2006 and 2007 (and continue on into 2008), but offered up consistent collections of brilliant tunes. Always hand picking up-and-coming artists, Kitsuné have never failed to please with their eclectic mixes – sometimes banging and ravey; sometimes melodic and soft; always inspired. To name a few of their showcased artists: Crystal Castles, Big Face, Punks Jump Up, Phones, Rex The Dog, Alex Gopher, The Whip…
Alex Gopher – Motorcycle Wet Clutch (Short Edit)
Punks Jump Up – Dance To Our Disco
Guns ‘n Bombs – Crossover Appeal
5. The Chemical Brothers – We Are The Night
Back on form and adapting to the current climate of dance, but adding something new and typically eccentric (see The Salmon Dance). Do it Again features vocals from Ali love and pounds into the back of ur mind with some deep bass, while Klaxons and Fatlip also feature on the album. Chemical Brothers are back – oh, and then there was those famously formidable festival performances…
The Chemical Brothers – Saturate
6. Klaxons – Myths of the Near Future
Do I really need to say anything. A great album. Dominating every club in Europe, and spawning a billion remixes. blah. blah. New Rave. blah blah. U know the story…
Klaxons – Atlantis to Interzone
7. Gui Boratto – Chromophobia
The brazilian producer’s melodic debut. Of course the whole thing hinges on the uplifting and euphonious track ‘Beautiful Life’. Who’d've thought that minimal techno could be so uplifting? The whole album smacks of resounding bliss.
8. Holy Fuck – LP
Yes their name is cringe-worthy, embarrassing: try-hard to say the least. But Fuck it. These Canadians have forged a purely instrumental album; progressive electronica that sounds sublime. Similar to their British counterparts, Battles, only better.
9. DJ Mehdi – Lucky Boy
Anther brilliant signing by Pedro Winters for Ed Banger Records. It has the usual funky-retro feel of the ed banger label, but with an upbeat infusion of old school hip hop and electro. Chromeo features on the stand-out feel-good track, ‘I am Somebody’. The rest of the album consists of a diverse collection of instrumental electro – but sounds like funky hip-hop beats, without the annoying rapping. And ‘Signatune‘ ended up being remixed allover the place, with the likes of Thomas Bangalter taking off his Daft helmet to mix it up.
10. Simian Mobile Disco – Attack Decay Sustain Release
Risen from the ashes of the indie band Simian, Ford & Shaw reformed as SMD, carefully crafting an eccentric, but unembellished debut album. SMD have a fairly large backlog of tracks, but many were not included on the album, impressively SMD offered us tonnes of tracks we hadn’t previously heard, and an altogether tight fitting album filled with dirty electro, plain-old bleeping, blasts of bass, breakdowns and catchy vocals.
Simian Mobile Disco – Sleep Deprivation
close but no cigar: Boys Noize, Goose, LCD Soundsystem, MODESELEKTOR, Feist and Battles also all produced top-notch albums this year…
