OK. That time of year again. Or decade again. Or whatever. 2 posts. The best of the best of 09. The second best of the decade.

Not much preamble, except to say I’ve seen a lot of journalists griping about the lack of innovation this year, and all they can do is point to Lady Gaga as the bright spot on their year. This is why I love being involved in electronic music, because it’s never ever ever ever ever a bad year when you look at it and listen to it with an open mind. Haters … I dare you to listen to the following 90 things and tell me it hasn’t been an awesome year.

Albums




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All City 7×7

Did you hear anything about Wonky this year? Did you like what you heard? OK, did you listen to this? If not, why not? This is the best thing the genre has produced yet. Some familiar names here if you follow the genre, Hudo Mo, Mike Slott, Fulgeance, and some people who are a bit obscure even to me (Snowman? Mseslee? Onra?). But it’s 100% quality. Plus Dimlite’s Quiz Tears is here. Truly awesome.

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Beat Dimensions Vol. 2

Oh, wait, I meant one of two. After Beat Dimensions 1 flipped the scrip about two years ago, Cinniman and Jay Scarlett have done it again, and even bigger and better this time. This is both a who’s who and also, with a few old masters (Danny Breaks!) in here too, but then folks who I knew about but just barely, and the Where the F did they come from folks (Dalt Wisney? Who’s track is so freakin heavy). Plus totally repping the best really really new sides of LA, including Pudge, Ras G, and Mono/Poly! And my favorite Nosaj Thing track. And my favorite Low Limit track … and and and …. just go listen to it. It’s a brilliant comp. Funny how, like all city, it’s put out by people who run a record shop. Maybe it’s not enough to be a DJ anymore, now you have to own a store.

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Millie and Andrea / Hate

OK, this is a bit of sonic sleuthing. I knew nothing about either of these labels till very recently, but I suspect it’s all the same guy (I’m not really sure there is an Andrea, unfortunately…). I can’t prove it except that it really sounds like two different sides of the same p

roducer. Millie and Andrea stuff is this really thick, kind of dark, complex and compelling. Really neat. And the hate stuff is SUPPOSED to be lost hardcore dubplates lost in 91-94. But it’s just too good a story, and besides, the production is totally ’09. BUT it’s absolutely true that they’re using all the sounds that would have been used back then. Which was one of the first things I though when I first hear the second wave of Dubstep in 03/o4, which was oh wow, if you just slowed down jungle from 94, it would totally mix with this stuff. Regardless of its origins, it’s also pretty brilliant stuff, super dark and really goes there

with the feeling. Don’t know where I’ll get a chance to play this stuff, and yeah it’s a bit of a cheat because half of both catalogs (5 deep each) came out in ’08. But taken together it’s an awesome fresh, mystery sound for ’09.

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Aardvarck – Bloom 1-4

Another slight cheat, because 2 of these came out last year, but the 4 releases in the Aardvarck Bloom series are stunning especially when all taken together as an album, which it’s basically the length of. Super techno in presentation, just white labels, all tracks called untitled. Really dark and spare and minimal. But instead of techno sounds, there are three elements here … dubstep, reggae and metal. And it all works really well together, I kid you not. Aardvarck’s done some other stuff on various beat related labels, but this is basically perfect as what it is.

(first 2 minutes)

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Dodpop Vol. 1

Skweee sort of got written off by all by a few. It’s sort of the latest “Oh those crazy electronic musicians they’re always coming up with new names for their genres”. Well this one deserves it, it’s definitely it’s own self contained thing, and like pornography, I know it when I hear it. I know the good stuff when I hear it. And it’s Dodpop. 4 incredible singles and this awesome compilation of mostly Norwegian artist is absolutely brilliant, all squiggles and bloops and funky stuff to make you jerk and rumble. Robert Lorenzo’s label is just a paragon of what someone can do in a small scene, especially when they have awesome artwork. Go Scandinavians.

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Easy Star All Stars – Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band

Easy Star does it again. These guys kind of can do no wrong, their third cover album. I’m not sure it would be my first choice, and it’s kind of the most faithful recreation of an album, just reggae-fied. But it’s a great album and there are a few gems here, including Fixing a Hole, Day in the Life, and the Sgt Peppers outro. I hope they never stop doing this.

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Teleseen – Fear of the Forest

My review I wrote for Gabe:

It is a beautiful and rare thing to create gigantic woods from such small seeds. Every sound on Fear of the Forest, when taken individually, is almost microscopic in detail, like ice or crystal, the fine razor of a scalpel’s edge … each click of sound that serves as a beat element could be from a live drum or just as equally from hours of painstaking work of programming in MAX/MSP. Every crackle of synth that snakes through or hints at the 2/4 of all reggae seems to coalesce into something coherent … only as it breaks apart scattershot in into a spray of fine falling leaves.

But if you take the above description to indicate something cold or distant or dead, you miss the forest for the trees. True, full, heavy dub bass riffs and totally unique vocal lines tie everything together in a way that, if not exactly warm, then at least gives an earthy rootedness that sprays golden sunshine out on the leafy fractals that might otherwise seem too complex to rub up against that most simple core of all dub, the drum and the bass. For dub is a palette that has been used by 10,000 artists in 100,000 ways, and Teleseen’s work deserves to be compared to the great linage of all practitioners that ever pushed an envelope (filter) all the way back to Tubby and The Upsetter. Yes, the most obvious connections are to the best work of Deadbeat, Pole in his early days, Strategy, and the mighty Rhythm and Sound, but to only compare them to such artists who are known for their “cold” sound undervalues Gabriel Cyr’s wide knowledge of the other practice and creative uses of dub and dancehall, from Dillinger to Mad Professor to Twilight Circus Dub Sound System to South Rakkas. That is, to think of this creation as only another cold techno-dub creation is to do this album a disservice but not listening to the worldly warmth in it closely enough.

Some of the vocal tracks soar. “Crown” and “Black Monday” use the autotune function in a blindingly unique way, and this is said when Techno Braga, Dancehall, Kuduro, Rap and Pop try to push that strange sound farther and farther every week. But no one has yet woven the fabric of the voice, the processing, and the music so seamlessly together as Teleseen has … it is possible that Cyr has made the first two tracks the world has ever heard where autotune has come into itself as an instrument in it’s own right, and it is pure bliss to hear how he floats Abena Koomsom and Jah Sight (respectively) into two gorgeous minimal creations. Other tracks (“Prophecy Is Fulfillment in the Mouth of the Land” and “The Echo Will Triumph Over the Voice”) are awash in instrumental and natural sounds, with keyboard lines running like water in a sonic kinship so close to Strategy that the tunes could have been made on the Community Library’s bossman’s couch when Teleseen was soaking up the cascadian vibes. And while Billy Woods, the most distinct voice on the album, appearing on the two straightest hip-hop (“Chikurubi”) and future roots cuts (“White Worst”), may not be the Forests strongest or most original contribution, they still have a place in the long tradition of the Sound Lab crew that Cyr comes from, the same crew that produced Antipop Consortium and that was never been afraid to fuse run-on hip-hop with fractured electronic music in strange praise of New York City.

Teleseen is not a big name by the world’s musical reckoning. But that has not stopped him from producing a fully formed sound through two albums and his Precepts label, and along the way incorporating into it what is so important about the Dutty Artz extended family, including /rupture, Shadetek, Uproot Andy, Maga Bo, Filastine, Geko Jones and Jah Dan. For every one of them travels physically, and they all listen while they travel, and their music does the same. Teleseen may be the group’s dub head more than the others, but those travels have given him leave to make a beautiful album outside the confines of storied genre. Fear of the Forest should be seen as an example of what is possible for producer to do with open ears in 2009. And because he creates music with such beautiful flare, and because the result it so stunning that you can literally listen to it on repeat for days, Cyr truly deserves kudos for making the album of the year.

Nothing Embeddable! Check his Myspace page to hear Black Monday.

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Autopilot – Fireflies

I know nothing Autopilot. I’m not even sure he has a myspace page. But my friend Tim pointed this out to me and it’s truly a wonderful creation. Yes, it’s kind of trance dubstep if you want to put two labels together. But that doesn’t really do it justice. I think of it more this way: That I’ve been listening to a lot of the classic Orbital, Underworld and Orb albums, and this reminds me of what they would make if they were making dubstep these days. Super clean and epic and wonderful and completely original from what almost anyone else is doing. Check it. Also, looks like he’s put out like 4 EPs since this summer. Who is this guy?

Nothing Embeddable, listen to the whole album on Bandcamp.

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Architeq – Gold and Green

Sam Annand’s lovely full length really gets me. This was an album of the summer for me. In a way it’s not totally mindblowingly original, OMG no one’s ever done anything like this before. But it’s very very good, just a lovely combination of live instruments, a dose of dub and funk, and just enough glitch and dub to keep it interesting and grooving.

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Major Lazer – Guns Don’t Kill People – Lazers Do

There isn’t a lot about this release that I can say that hasn’t already been said. I’ll just say that I think it’s great. The roots-y tracks are only OK, but even some of them are fine. And the combination of Diplo’s take on dancehall, the polished nature of a lot of the dance tracks, and just the sheer stunningness of all the vocalists in their top form is awes. Plus all the great remixes that Hold the Line and Pon the Floor are heartening. All that AND he introduced the world to Prince Zimboo, the Jamaican Borat, as he’s been called. Diplo continues to be absolutely relevant throughout the decade, and Switch ain’t bad either.




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Joe Gibbs Discomix Vols 1-3

Joe Gibbs. Master of the roots tune from the 70s and 80s, creator, either through production or through studio time of most of the hits you know from Jamaica in JA’s glory days. And … Disco producer? Sort of. Basically these are 3 volumes, each track is two songs on the same riddim that were hits, edited together, and possibly given slightly heavier and more consistent kick, but not electronically added, just turned up. It’s so many classics its ridiculous. This is your education, wonderfully re-mastered and collected in 2009.

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Mike Slott – Luck 9teen

Only out a couple weeks, and not fully digested, but what the hell I’m going to give it to him on a feeling. It’s pretty amazing, and strikes this perfect balance of wonderful lyrical/musicalness with the tumbling overthetop mashed-togetherness that the Lucky Me posse do so well. It’s the best ALBUM of that stuff (way better than Hud Mo as an album). So until I get my full length out of Rustie, which if that happens in 2010 that’s already on the end of the year list, the honor goes to Slott. Double props coming from me who was really skeptical of his productions and presentation until really recently.




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J Todd – Ryzzynynce

Todd gets the award for the hardest album to spell (I think it’s a play on Resonance, but I could be wrong), but it’s really something, also another summer listen. Totally thick with wonderfulness – it’s kind of like digital wonky, lots of synths which are never bad in my book if you know how to use them. Straight out of Milwaukee this one, had a few releases on Beat Dimensions and else where, and if I had my way his name would be a lot more well known.

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Steppas Delight Vol. 2

Soul Jazz just sort of has so much muscle that they can pull in the best of whatever they want, and a couple years ago they decided that Dubstep was legitimately British enough that they’d start putting out some. The first volume of this was underwhelming, but this one is positively the best statement of where the interesting part of Dubstep is going this year. It’s about 25 tracks deep and I think only a few had been released before, so it’s well worth checking out if you want to get the broad overview of the year while having two solid hours of music to listen to.




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Paul White – The Strange Dreams of Paul White

Paul White totally exploded into my consciousness this year, mostly thanks to the remix of Tranqil that was on the Mary Anne Hobbs comp. And while I don’t think Sounds From The Skylight was as good as I wanted it to be (he’s clearly a rock head at heart), Strange Dreams is AWESOME. Just a beat tape in a way, all things really short, but man are there some heavy beats on here. It’s not so much wonky as just out there abstract hip-hop. I got to get to the UK to see him and Bullion in action.




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2562 – Unbalance

Who knew that 2562 would actually kind of make a wonky album? Maybe others don’t see it that way, but this is truly complex, wobbly off kilter dubstep that still maintains some of the techno elements that 2562 is known for, but really if you compare it to say Kontext (see below), this is complex, weird tumbly stuff. And it grew on me the more I listened to it, off that bat I was kind of like “Good background listening” but the more I did the more tracks I found that I liked. Best Artist Dubstep album of the year.




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Cloaks – Versus Grain

Yeah, I’ve got an angry side. It comes out a bit and is what causes me to like Mr. Bungle and Aaron Spectre’s harder stuff. And in that realm I think that Cloaks made a brilliant creation. It’s been a long time coming, got held up by some industry stuff, and eventually they released it on their own label that they launched with it. Dark, growling, glitchy, Metal plus Dubstep plus Wasteland all in one. It’s not for the faint of heart but is well worth listening to if you want some intelligently evil music. And made all with analog synths!

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Warp20 – Recreated

You know, it might seem obvious, and a little of me feels weird about this, since I’m not sure if it’s objectively good if you don’t have the nostalgia element to it, but damn is this whole thing amazing. Warp artists covering other Warp artists, and for the most part doing it well and creatively, doing what should be done with remixes, keeping the flavor of the original but totally flipping it to make it their own. The Ozymiso mix that went along with the whole thing is stellar as well. Plus it’s got the best thing Luke Vibert’s done on ages on it, his remix of LFO!




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ZZK Sound Vol. 2

Seems like it was a good year for second volumes of things. I’m by no means totally up as I could be on the minute changes and bursting styles that are flowing from all over south america, africa, and the world at large, but I do know enough to perk up when ZZK puts out a new compilation. And this once stellar, got lots of really fun moments, bloops and bleeps on it as well as all the permutations of cumbia and everything else you could want. A real renaissance happening in the South!

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Hyperdub 5

Did you really think I wouldn’t give it to them? Is there even have to say much? A superbly collected series of old and new tracks from the 5 years of one of the two best labels of the decade. Kode9′s moving to John Peel status for me for what he’s done to push the boundaries of music, and having this roll out in EPs and a CD over the last half of the year just shows you how healthy music is at this point. I don’t know if this comp is enough to convince the haters of electronic music, but I’d like to make every 16 year old in the US listen to this and be like “How ya like me now?”.




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Singles / EPs

(OK, no more pictures or links, or else I’ll never make it to my New Years party!)

Sometimes it’s hard for me to know what gets released when, what’s out and what’s not, what came out this year, last year, next year, or never coming out. It’s a predicament that probably a lot of people would love to have, but hell, it’s my predicament. Here, to the best of my knowledge, are 20 full releases that were shorter than albums that actually had releases and I like the vast majority of the tracks on (or most likely all). Just enter the release name into Boomkat and you should be able to hear almost all.

Akira Kiteshi – Pinball / Noglitch 1 & 2 I’m so happy to rediscover that this actually came out this year on Black Acre, because it’s really the best party dubstep track ever done. Like Penduluum but for Dubstep. And Noglitch is like a wonky fantasy.	Rustie – Bad Science EP OMG OMG OMG I’ve been waiting for Bad Science to come out forever (check my early 08 XLR8R podcast, it was the number one track everyone kept asking about), but Tar and Shadow Enter are dope too. And Zig-Zag Reprise takes the cake!	Dead Fader – Autumn Rot/No Thief This might not be out yet, but it’s the next release on Cloak’s 3×3. Heavy like Cloaks but a little more groovin at the same time. Metalstep.
King Midas Sound – Dub Heavy Hearts and Ghosts The Bug donning ever new guises, this time as soulful roots man. All three tracks dubbed out awesomeness from the album that would be coming later in the year.	Martyn/2562 – Yet/Kontrol Two artists at the top of their game. I took a long time to come around on Martyn, but Yet is like the funnest party track from him, and Kontrol is 2562 at his dubby minimal best.	Mount Kimbie – Taps EP / Sketch on Glass EP It’s hard to believe that Mount Kimbie only really have 8 songs out for all the excitement they’ve generated, but it’s well deserved. Beautiful stuff that’s well worth checking, homing for an amazing album by them soon, and their collaborator James Blake
Octapush – Iberian 04 Awesome 3 tracker from Portugal (at least the label is, don’t know if Octapush is). Awesome cut up slinky dubstep, with one of Zulu’s best lyrical deliveries (I love that the guy will work with anyone good!)	Illyah & Ltd. Candy – Machines & Ghosts EP The best thing on Jahtari this year. Never mind that three of these tracks came out already, this is a near perfect beautiful EP, and the new track Out in the Desert is superb. I wish more people knew these guys, and they’d make more tunes!	Karizma – Necessary Madness A new producer to me but apparently has a long history to him. One of the best things that’s in the UK Funky vein, if maybe not straight Funky. Perfect dance tracks for the thinking man or woman.
Ernest Consales – Self Awakening EP Leeor of Terrorbird’s new label Friends of Friends launch release. Ernest Gonzales is pleasing enough, but the amazing amount of diverse remixes here are totally stellar. This is where I really realized that Take is a genius.	BD1982 – Shotta Pon De Corner/Space Boots BD1982 is the bomb, downtempo in a streetbass/grime universe. Lots of great remixes here, but the water faucet riddim that Shotta Pon De Corner is on is THE best instrumental of the year.	Appleblim & Geiom – Shreds/Flame Tree I only really love Geiom when he’s doing stuff with other people, and Appleblim totally brings out the best in him. These tracks a wild for everything they combine, there’s even like 2step in there, and it will just totally take you away.
Numan – 7th Key & Skull Crusher OMG Numan. Kid’s like YOUNG, and yet he’s totally carved out a unique sound with these two tracks. Great pairings for the 501 remix of 7th Key and SDUK’s Clunge. It’s like totally flat crazy dubstep. Check it or be sorry you didn’t	Monkey Steak – Steakhouse 2 Solid EP from the Monkey Steak boys, all 4 tracks great, and another outstanding performance from Zulu, this time in a Soca party vein.	Blue Daisy (Everglade) – Strings Detached Mount Kimbie got a lot of the attention that Blue Daisy should be getting … apparently a 22 year old from London, basically doing the lost ilbient EP in a Wonky/Soul style. Another great release on Black Acre.
Nalepa – Sunflowers EP Salva knocks it out of the park with his great remix, but Virtual Boy and St Andrew, two of Steve Nalepa’s students kick it hardcore too. This is the best example of West Coast sound, that is, the other west coast sound that Mary Anne doesn’t cover quite as much, the burner side. Solid.	Dorian Concept – Trilingual Dance Sexperience Just go listen to it. It’s freakin’ great. It’s freakin’ incredible. And basically they kind of made the same track at two different tempos, bonus for us DJs. Dorian, make more dance music!	Invasion Vs Shackleton – Wizards in Dub Shackleton came into his own more than ever this year. This is a man who deserves to make 8 minute songs, because the long format was made for people who can fill the time. One dark/metal-y, one more dubby.
Jamie Vex’d – In System Travel Come back to us Jamie! This is incredible. Obviously influenced by Fly Lo et all, but done dubstep way. Very different than the first album but just as good, and thicker, as opposed to dry. Rockin.	Clause Four Basically Clause Four made an amazing EP of four songs Better Daze/Bradfor/Disco Wackoff/Quite. I don’t even know if there’s a plan released but you can hear them all on his Soundcloud page, and taken together deserve Best of title. If you ever told me I’d like something described as Slow Disco I would have laughed. But that’s music for you.




Tunes

Single songs that are particularly noteworthy, whether they were found on rapidshare, or just a track from an album, or something else.

Antipop Consortium – End Game I didn’t like the album enough to give it album of the year, although it’s excellent. But this track is mind blowing.	Sideshow – If Alone ft. Paul St. Hilaire Beautiful dubstep in a Qawalli style with the most recognizeable voice out there. Beautiful	Bahamadia – U Kno How We Do (BD1982 rmx) The Aluminum Riddim from BD1982, with classic Bahamadia on it. Finish this track and put it out!
Prince Zimboo – Say Heh Might have come out in 08, but whatever. “Zimboo don’t drink water because fish have sex in it … why you think the sea is salty, because the octopus is getting naughty”. Brilliant	Zinc – Number 1 Girls Ft. Benga and Swettie Irie Don’t really have to do more than report the title. One of the best dance tracks of the year. Zinc is like the energizer bunny.	Robot Koch – People Are Strange ft. Grace Robert’s album was really good, the whole thing, but this song just is killer, and not just because it’s a cover. Wonky Robot.
Pacheko – Figure 8 Pacheko had a sort of 1/2 full length out this year but not much new output. This song entered my lexicon of beautiful.	Nosaj Thing – Light #1/Light #2 I’m not prepared to call Drift album of the year. It’s good, but Jason has farther to go, and I think he’ll get there. These were the two highlight tracks from the album	Scott Matelic – Grapevine Crossfaded Bacon was the only Bmore label I cared about this year. This was the best song on it. Just a great simple version of Heard it Through The Grapevine. Rocks the party every time.
Kotchy – She Made it Easy (The Plain Ensemble Remix) Track it down if you can. A Chopin loving Portlander making some of the best weird mangled dubstep of the year.	Sub Swara – Cobra remix SS boys had good stuff this year although I’m ready to move beyond the last album and get a new EP from them. But meanwhile this track is the highest refinement of their sound yet.	Blenda – Remixs of Day and Night and Pon Di Floor Don’t know nothing bout him, just showed up in my inbox one day. Awesome digidub remixes of two great tunes.
Chase and Status – Eastern Jam (Strangeloop Revolution Mix) Dr. Strangeloops took the anthem of last year and just totally blew it out of the water. Amazing what a non-dubstep person can do when they get their teeth into a dubstep track. Available on Brainfeeder. This guy’s insane.	David Last – Jakeville 4 Funky Kingston/RaggaStick MJ Version Neither came out, but both were created for Priceless this year, and man are they David in top form. Dance music from the king of downtempo nu-dub.	EPROM – Zoning (ft. Prof.I.See) Heard this on a Mary Anne Hobbs show, the beat is just great and the raps are dope. It needs to come out, along with some of Sanders newer stuff.
The Lonely Island – On a Boat (Ill Gates rmx) Yep, it’s a song of the year. You want to argue with me? The Ill Gates mix makes it playable.	LXC – I Know U A hard as F track Lexy posted on his soundcloud account. Future thinking hard half-time dnb.	3 6 Mafia – Sizzurp (Scott Melker Pianofied rmx) Just like a funny soulful piano ditty with a simple fat beat. And 3 6 on top of it. Sometimes simple is the most brilliant.
Aphrodite – Tell The Truth Yup, from 1996. Finally got it. Aphrodite makes a straight hip-hop track. I think I listened to it on repeat for 2 hours once.	Jackie Wilson – Lonely Teardrops Another amazing and perfect song I discovered this year. Got to do a Bmore mix of it.




Artists

Folks chosen because their entire output was impressive this year, more than just one release.

Appleblim Laurie was always my favorite 1/2 of Skull Disco. Now that he’s sort of waving the techno flag, he’s expanded definitions infinitely, remixing Eno and collabing with Geiom, Peverelist, Ramadanman and Komonazmuk along the way, as well as running Applepips. Small output but consistently brilliant.	Raffertie Dude is crazy. It’s like dubstep rave on crack for metalheadz. No one pushed the envelope more than Raffertie this year, but not for the faint of heart.	Uproot Andy Mr. Sauve from NYC, doing Cumbia and a bunch of other things in a way I can get my head around. Party tunes galore.
Ras G The Sun Ra of Wonky. Truly an amazing individual, and one of those peoples who’s better taken as a sort of presence than just a single release.	Take The latest edition to my knowledge base. Really only a couple releases this year, but all amazing and thick. Great combos of sounds and textures.	Phosho/Salva Paul’s the man. He’s making Lazer Juke. The man I’m going to bass my 150bpm mix around, one of the best producers on the west coast.
Zomby Like Ras G, better understood as a sound and aesthetic, bigger than just One Foot Ahead of the Other, which is justifiably great. But the whole aesthetic is amazing. Just don’t go back to the rave anthems thing.	Untold Jack’s amazing. The range of output he made in one year alone is insane, and where he ended up, with Anaconda and that dry flat sound is brilliant. Only person I wrote an article on this year.	LV Deep as hell, doing like perfect roots into dubstep combos, but then blowing me away with some of their new releases and remixes, that are so detail oriented it’s mindshattering.
Lazer Sword/Low Limit/Lando Kal Hometown heros, but really, can you deny that this year was all about Lazer Sword? We finally saw a proper release from them, we’ll see another soon from Numbers, great solo outings, a dope mixtape, and great live shows. Blowing everyone else away.	Joker Yeah. He’s Brilliant. Party artist of the year if you have open ears and minds, and super influential on everyone else	Falty DL Also great as an overall producer. 2 singles, an EP and an Album, and while I don’t love every track, his aesthetic is dope. Plus he uses a lot of the synth sounds that mu-ziq used in his heyday, so what’s not to love
Starkey I think Starkey will always be in my top producers. Year after year he’s consistently great. Most of the stuff he made this year didn’t come out, but trust me it’s all brilliant, and the bits you did hear, Creature, Next Hype Remix, OK Luv are only tastes. Wait to you hear Club Games with Vortex and Leezle!	Kush Arora Friend and fantastic producer, he came into his own this year with two albums and a bunch of great remixes and a sound aesthetic that’s so uniquely his own.	Ghosts on Tape Ryan Merry doing it all with two crazy live samplers, making techno stomping hip-hop club that’s perfectly unique and amazingly fun. “He’s in a Predator Mode!”
Shortstuff and Brackles The two geniuses pushing this weird blend of house/hip-hop/glitch into the world of dubstep. No Hand Signals is superb, but really the whole project of the sound between the two and their other collaborators deserves enormous credit. Just wished people in the US liked it!	NastyNasty A name to watch, another San Franciscan, Jasper’s abandoned his breakcore roots and gone straight over the top club/glitch, with awesome remixes to boot.	Mono/Poly Wiz kid from LA, with equal parts soulful and heavy heavy mixed up beats. So glad a lot of his tunes came out. MS-14 is the pinnacle of something.
Taal Mala All dubs this year (I think), but man what a range of stuff within the dubstep sound. From dubby to harsh and gritty, the more I listen to his stuff the more I get into it.




Labels

Finally, 10 labels that consistently put out wide-ranging great material.

Hotflush Great EPs from Mount Kimbie, Scuba, Untold, and the awesome chillness of Pangaea and Sigha. Jury’s out on Joy Orbison, but otherwise superb.	Immerse Solid several offerings from the contemplative side of dubstep, blending in with the techno.	Dodpop See above. Best thing ever in Skweee, every release a winner, and all of it happened in 2009.
Hemlock Not just great because it’s Untold’s label, but introducing us to Fantastic Mr. Fox (who’s had a great year), Rich Reason, and James Blake, everyone’s best of 2010 favorite.	Hyperdub What can I say that I haven’t already? In addition to 5, there’s Ikonika, Joker, the King Midas Sound album, and even LD’s Woodblock that I still play consistently. Oh, right, and the anthem of the freakin’ year, WIND IT UP!!!!	Ramp How many faces can one label have? Shortstuff? check. Falty DL? Tokimonsta? Slugabed? Zomby? Computer Jay? Check. Even Skeee? Check. Desto and Maxamillion Dubbar – who? Doesn’t matter, they’re great. Ras G and even Fly Lo. Tom, you set the bar very very high. As you should.
Man Recordings Daniel Haaksman does it again. In addition to a full album label retrospective, awesome material from label boss Haaksman, Schlachtoffbronx, Genghis Clan. And the big star, Ku Bo, who’s new album will flip heads the world over.	Stuff/Wireblock/Dress 2 Sweat/Numbers All the first three are combining into the fourth, but it was a strong year for them all, really a wide range of stuff that defines the party side of Glasgow at the moment.	Black Acre Just a really strong showing from Akira Kiteshi and Blue Daisy, mentioned above, and a lot of other artists as well. Ian raising the bar as well.
	Planet Mu Did you really think I wouldn’t? There were like 50 releases this year, across the board in all genres. Who else would put Bizzy B and Eskmo on the same label? Stunning stuff. But you felt that already

Aight, that’s it for me, got to go prep for the NYE party. Best 50 things of the last decade coming this weekend.

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