Aaron Spectre is an amazing producer and I wish more people knew about him, like that the whole world knew about him. His range over this decade is incredible going from Ambient to Jungle to Metal to breaks/dubstep, and literally creating some of the best music I’ve heard in every single one of those genres. Lost Tracks was the album that got released on Ad Noiseam in the mid/late ’00s, but much of it is based on a demo called “zzzzzzzzzz” that he handed me back at a gig at Phoenix Landing in 2003. I think I actually like some of the versions of songs from the first album best, but it’s all superb, blissful wash.

My Rap Heros. The best rap group that’s every existed. The most blatently original and crazy album of hip-hop ever. I’m sorry but who else in hip-hop does this? The weirdness of Mega with the crazy operatic breakdown in the middle? Tron Man Speaks, which has to be the best skit on a rap album ever? Z St, raps over this heavy as F bass wobble that no one has matched since? And freeform flows for days. “I move crowds like Larry Levan; Very advanced; Unbearably Man’s; ArroGANce; Will lead to his downfall…” And Priest has the best voice in hip-hop. Whatever album it is that you think is their best, I defy you to find one where weird raps and beats meld better.

Bliss. Pure and simple. I only had this on vinyl for a long time and used to put it on the stereo as I feel asleep to let it play out the first side, letting my needle play 7 hours of silence for the rest of the night. Worth ruining the needle for. The chunky by simple beats of some of the tracks with the crazy harpsichord thing are haunting, and the beat-less tracks just melt you into oblivion. Arovane could have kept making albums like this for years and I would have bought ever one.

Beck’s great. Pure and simple. Saw him in 1997 and was totally blown away. Guero and Guerolito are definitely not his best album, but they are his best of this decade, and totally inspiring pop. It’s amazing too his choice of people to remix his stuff, it’s always just kind of spot on, making Guerolito one of the best remix albums in existence. It’s too bad about his scientology leanings, and the fact that his last two albums haven’t really been that good, but go back and listen to Guero again if you want to be inspired.

Maybe I’m overindulging my nostalgia for Trip Hop, the first scene I ever really felt a part of, but let me state the obvious. Beth Gibbons can sing. Whether operatic or quite and crooning, this sort of slept on album is her single greatest performance for her voice, and Rustin Man brings out all sorts of characteristics that Geoff Barrows somehow couldn’t. Plus the Tom The Model cover is amazing. It’s a tough work, but if you want to have a good cry, go put this on and marvel.

Huh, you say? Well, Music Has The Right came out in the 90s, and while Geogaddi is amazing, it’s not perfect, there are a few slip ups, despite being, of course, awesome. But this? This is perfect. 4 tracks of total tense bliss, Amo Bishop being the greatest under-appreciated BOC track ever. People shrug them off all the time, and yet please listen to this EP and tell me that it’s not the pinnacle of … something … whatever it is that BOC does that no one else can do. I hope they never stop making music.

Not truly groundbreaking like a Music For Airports, but a really special album for me, as was his next one. Just awesome beat-less music that I wrote my entire application to grad school listening to. Kranky had a great if pretty singular decade, and I think this is probably their catalog’s greatest hit.

David’s first album is really almost perfect, a chill but beat filled masterpiece that was the pinnacle of The Agriculture’s post Asphodel output. All bloops and dubby playfulness, it’s understated but wonderful, and stands up to years of repeated listening.

A unique album from a unique voice in electronic music. I actually had Something Borrowed Something Blue here, because in a way it’s a more singular coherent statement of a particular sound that I fell in love with at first listen. But New World pushes the boundaries even further, which I always have to champion, exploring different tempos and different sounds while staying in the same framework. He went downhill after this, to the point where he basically makes boring simplistic techno, but there’s no reason he couldn’t make another album like this. I sure hope he does.

Yeah, it’s not Endtroducing. But it’s still freakin’ fabulous. So diverse and crazy and weird. Watching DJ Food playing Walkie Talkie as a blistering rocker was inspirational to me. Trying to take apart the elements of Right Thing is mind-boggling. The heartache of the 8 minute long Blood on the Motorway used to make me think I was seeing ghosts in my old apartment. And You Can’t Go Home Again is this crazy fusion of rock and electro that’s never been equaled. Every moment totally choreographed to perfection.

The best cover album ever produced. Easy Star are incredible for the faithfulness in which they reproduce an album, and yet blindingly original in the way they add their own spirit to a project. The best voices in Jamaica take on every aching note of Yorke’s magnum opus, and with the Jamaican propensity for cover songs has never been put to better use. Dub + Radiohead = Awesome

Oh Elliot, how I miss you. I still remember the announcement of his death vividly, cutting me like a knife blade. And while some people might put XO or Either/Or ahead of Basement, both of which came out in this decade, Basement is just epically perfect, and so thick in production that it hinted of a new direction for Smith, so tragically cut off. I wish he was still with us today, I think he might have even been able to top this.

Another surprise, I bet if anyone mentions Flaming Lips it will be for Yoshimi, which is a great great album, but this just had an epicness that touched me strongly. These are beautiful love songs, great rock songs, and crazy experiments in sonic exploration. And while they seem to have gone down hill with their latest album, Coyne and crew of lovable Okies definitely rocked my world all throughout the decade, and continue to be one of my favorite bands of all time.

LA’s pretty unique. No one touches Steve for singlehandedly creating not just a sound but a whole movement. I love that you can now break the world into Pre Fly Lo and Post Fly Lo, and Los Angeles stands up to repeated listening, getting the balance between crazy beats, syrupy samples, and just pushing cacophonies of noise to a new limit. Here’s to the new face of soul.

Just a great pop album. Stacy’s Mom, right? This is probably just in there to fully express my love of the short form song, and it’s just one of the albums that got into me and I know all the words too. It sort of tapers off for the last couple tracks, but the first 11 or so are rockers and the best thing to listen to in a car on a hot summer day.

OK, I saw Girltalk in ’04 and was like “This dude is weird, his whole aesthetic is just to play a bunch of mashed together samples, and then take his clothes off”. Little did I realize that he would produce THE definitive statement on what it’s possible to do with NOTHING but music you already know. Yeah, it can be seen as a little gimick-y, but really it’s actually quite forward thinking, having talked to Gregg about how the sample is THE base component of his musical world, as it is mine.

A lot of these tunes were actually made in 99, but some were from 00 and 01, and this is the definitive statement of Dubstep. Where it all started. Before it morphed into the half-tempo monster that it’s only moving out of these days. A wonderful monster, don’t get me wrong, but man has anyone else equaled the attention to detail while still making the best damn skip-groove tracks to dance to since the golden era of Horsepower? I think not. It still sounds as fresh today as when it came out. “When it comes to music, we are the gorgons.”

Another funny sort of nostalgic selection. Soul Coughing’s three albums would all probably be in my best of the ’90s list if I ever did it, and this is the solo front man+guitar versions of a lot of them plus a several new songs. He’s funny, he’s soulful, his a pop master. And the covers are all just as touching as the originals. Plus it’s cool to me that it was all a bootleg tape.

PZ is kind of amazing. Attacking whole artist catalogs, extracting the best grooves that you always wanted to hear, and then just putting good solid raps overtop of them. The number of times that I’ve played one of his tracks in a club and someone’s run up to me to be like “ah year” is countless. And his work “with” Beck is the single best album of his stuff. This is the other Girl Talk who should be hired to remix anybody he chooses.

Yeah, that Paul Anka. Yes, straight Frank Sinatra style swing covers of Rock songs from the 80s and the 90s. There’s something about a great cover that brings out the best of the original, if for no other reason then sometimes you get to actually hear and understand the original lyrics. But Anka, a voice for the ages, created a masterpiece with this and I dare anyone to listen to it and not smile.

Yeah, another stretch kind of. Because this is THE defining sound of the early 90s. It just happened to have been collected in the early 00s. But it’s in here because A) timeless music never gets old and B) I fully support the concept of pulling out the old and recompiling it in a particular way that makes sense. And hell, everyone comes to stuff at different times, and all of this was new to me. Got my first taste of it from DJ Flack’s Blue Beats for Longing mix, which still has to be one of the best mixes of the decade.

I met this man in the 3rd Ave L stop at 1AM, playing this insane contraption and picking the hell out of a banjo. I missed two trains just to hear more, and bought a CD off of him that eventually turned into this. Just perfect, and perfectly original stuff that calls on blues and appalachian roots, and also a healthy dose of punk rock aesthetic. If you don’t know him, check him out please!

Probably one of the only things on here that will be on many other people’s list. But why not, it’s a great touching album that perfectly bridges pop and electronics. You probably have you’re own opinions on it as well, so I’ll just say that I love it too!

OK, I could write a whole post on these two albums, so just some simple facts. One, you can’t tell me that they aren’t really two sides of the same album, because they are. Two, talk about blending electronics and rock. No one’s done it better since. Three, these are the best Radiohead albums every. Better than The Bends of OK Computer. It’s just the way it is, period. Treefingers, You and Whose Army, How to Disappear completely, Everything in its Right Place…. these are some of the most important songs I’ve ever heard.

I heard a bunch of Queen the other day and realized how influential they must have been on Ratatat, in addition to a bunch of other stuff. Noone makes instrumental rock albums anymore, so they have that one-uped on everyone else, but in addition to that, it’s playful, rockin, chunky, interesting, and quite packed with detail, more so than anyone of their other albums. I’ve still never seen them live, I’ll have to change that.

Just beautiful dark bliss and a unique take on dub. The highest statement of alterna-dub, that lead to everything that was the fusion of techno and dub that ever came out of Germany and everything from beyond it. A real eye opener to me as to just how many great voices I haven’t heard from Jamaica or elsewhere, and the most wonderful shimmery techno-dub that’s ever been made. They founded an empire in the 90s, and then created their crown jewel this decade.

Just a great blissed out pop album. Some people find the dudes voice breathy and inane, but really that all just glosses over for me and mixes up into this wonderful stew of hazy bliss. Glittering synths and just heavy enough beats from the super group keep it wonderful from the first to the last note.

I adore this man. The man with more aliases than anyone else on the planet, and probably produced more must than anyone else in the electronic world. And for some reason he decided that his big project of this decade was going to be reinterpreting stupid pop songs as though done by a salsa/rhumba band, but instead of actually getting a band he would do it all with samplers. And make it sound better than live musicians. This is one of the most pleasing and yet mind-bending albums that’s ever been done.

Stereo and Al’Haca kind of show the other way Rhythm and Sound could have gone, if they weren’t focused on Roots but instead on Dancehall. Amazing tracks here of clinical cleanliness and yet fierce, rough, rugged and raw voices (with a few crooners in there) that took my by storm right as I was first getting into dancehall around ’03 and ’04. Both have gone on to do amazing work, but this was a flashpoint for me.

I raved about Teleseen in the last post so go check it out there, but really it bears repeating that Gabe took all the elements that Rhythm and Sound and Rupture and Stereotyp laid all throughout the decade and came up with the statement of the logical conclusion of all of it in 2009. This is one for the ages.

For some inexplicable reason, this album is intimately linked with Rye, New York for me. Don’t ask why. Another landmark in Dub, this is the chunk-y weirdness of Meat Beat cross with the amazing grooves of the Tino project, and it’s best seen as a Trip Hop album that has funk and dancehall in it and just happened to have been produced in the 00s instead of the 90s. Go listen to it again if you haven’t picked it up in a while.

There’s a lot of use of the word Bliss in this post, but really can you think of a better person to apply it to than Schnauss? His output is consistently great over three records, even as it’s turned a little darker, but this was the opening statement that made me and a lot of others fall in love with him. This is a man who deserves to make songs that are longer than 8 minutes, because every note sparkles with life. Again, pick it up again if you haven’t listened in a while.

Why does no one see and understand how insanely awesome the Wasteland project was? This was Scud and Isound putting out three insane albums in the 00s, flipping the script both on their old sounds and any genre they could get their hands on, and really preceding Wonky by like 4 years. It’s not for the faint of heart, I think the word gritty was made for an album like this, but damn if it isn’t original.

Shoegazer to the max, this is still just a lovely occurrence of an album… it’s the most pleasing thing ever, and maybe its my southern roots and time spent in the Cat’s Cradle hearing endless variations of Yo La that put me in the right mind state to accept it when it happened. But every track on here still makes me smile and sigh, and probably has been listened to more times than any other album on this list.

OK, onto the comps and other weird collections, starting with this, another definitive, life changing statement on Wonky, and also what a really good curated CD can do for someone to introduce them to a scene. Some people on here have become staples of the scene, others I’ve never really heard from again, but it doesn’t matter and this is just a brilliant statement on this sound that is packed with crazy goodness from start to finish.

OK, so I just looked. This came out in 97. I thought about changing it to the Discomix series mentioned below, but then I was like, well, no I discovered it this decade, and it doesn’t really make any difference because Brother Joe’s work was done by the 80s. What it was for me was a rediscovery of Dub, beyond what Scientist and Tubby did, to show me that there are many routes to dub, and the warmth of his productions stand the test of time just as well as the other masters. Brilliant.

Soul Jazz swoops in and gets the best of every scene … but as a DJ I love curators, and lots of these tunes were new to me, and beyond that it’s just an amazing statement of the blurring lines that have always been present between dancehall and hip-hop back to Cool Herc. I still end up playing a Screechy Dan track most hip-hop sets, and I would never have heard of him if it were not for this. J Live, Ward 21, Pompadoo, just a great cross decade selection here.

Holy Moly, 8 albums of dancehall tunes from the 80s, every single one created by Jammy and almost all instant classics. 8 CDs worth! And that’s probably just a best of. I discovered the beauty of 80s dancehall thanks to Firehouse’s Computer Mastermind mix CDs that have many more undiscovered gems than you’d find here, but this is THE place to start to understand the crazy innovations that were going on in this very early incarnation of the melding of vocals and electronic music.

Another concert that changed my life. The Rephlex Allstars tour that came through Brooklyn in March of 2004. Plasticman and Mark One playing three straight hours of just instrumental grime dubs. Not a single MC in sight. And this was the compilation of all those tunes. No one before or since has made stuff quite like this, in terms of weird flatness but also complexness, and the difference between the three artists is apparent in repeated listenings. While the second volume set the stage more more of what Dubstep would become, it was the raw originality of this comp that sparked my imagination.

OMG how much do I love all three of these comps. Another permutation of the dub/techno elision. I wrote a lot of my college thesis about the first volume, it was called Immersive Sound Environments, and the first track on the first comp, Gramm (Jan Jelenik under a different name) is just the most spooky and fantastically wonderfully claustrophobic thing ever. By the time they got to volume three it was a little more hip-hop, and you can hear Kit Clayton also proceeding Wonky by about 5 years, as did Capablack and others on here. Pole’s a master producer and a master curator, and these are a defining sound of this decade.

Huh? Remember this? Maybe not, but this is where Girltalk, Jason Forrest, and others got their prankster genes from. Just a collection of your favorite cantankerous beat makers flipping the script on various pop tunes and totally wrecking shop on them, in a way that gave everyone else license to go there. And this was long before Ableton made it super easy to do so.

Starkey and Dev79, both incredible artists in their own write, curate the best remix series in existence. Going through and listening to it I realize just how chock full of goodies it is, and these are weird ass remixes for sure, proving that there’s a whole crew of us out there who both know and understand what’s up with hip-hop but are willing to go there with the twistup mashup of a song. Plus these were all internet releases, which I appreciated a lot, and it looks like Vol 4, who’s first EP is just out, should be just as good. Bring it Philly.

I was trying to think if there was one single album of Kevin Martin’s that was his definitive statement. But really, there wasn’t, for an man who’s completed his second full decade of music making. Pressure, Razor X, London Zoo, and the King Midas Sound project are just the albums, but the singles and remixes standout too, and if taken all together it shows an incredible variety of production from one of the most inquisitive and uncompromising minds of a music generation. A true hero, and, in a proud moment, something of a friend as well.

Really? Any one else come close? Not Hud Mo. Not even Fly Lo, for full output. I have a bit of an unfair advantage, having heard some of his original productions as early as 05, but really, in 5 years look at how many heads he’s flipped in so many ways. He just makes music that makes me want to pump my fist and scream “Hells yeah” more than any other artist, and he’s done it all without actually putting out an album. Who else can do that?

The most forward thinking label of the decade. From the very first release, that was completely out of left field, through the retrospective that was just put out, Kode 9 is a another visionary curator who has never compromised a moment in his musical career. He’s an inspiration for me, that one man can have such a musically open mind and attract so many others to him. All while being kind of a huge sourpuss. With a heart of gold. I can’t wait to see what the next decade brings for him and the label.

The nicest man in music. Period. To stand in the presence of Jan Disrupt is to bask in the warm glow of one of the most pleasant people on the planet. But that it should be correlated with such and incredibly strong and original statement on a sweeping slice of music is frankly stunning. No one else succeeds the way he does at BOTH being a curator of others music and being the strongest thing on his own label. Plus, most of the stuff he just gives away for free! This man has never played in America. That must change in 2010.

An old friend a huge inspiration on the way I DJ, I can’t underestimate the influence of the Mashit catalog on me from its inception. Although now a blog and a different sort of force, the 10 mashit releases and C’s sound and vision are totally who I was musically for a large part of this decade. And Tyler’s now defunct Pressups was the other side of it, both this beautiful fun pure take on Ragga in the ’00s. Every single tune a winner.

And the other side of the ragga movement in the 00s. Just mad as F beats trying to outdo Bizzy B and Remarc and every other beat chopper from 94, all from the man who gave you the glistening electro of Osbourn and the man you more commonly know as Dabrye… say what? Yup, I don’t know how they got it in themselves to take on the project, but they did it better than anyone else. They must have been old junglists like me. Stellar stuff from the beginning to the end of its run.

Another blindingly eclectic label, this time pushing the boundaries of Dancehall. Kind of started on a whim of 606s just to get some vocals from Jamaica and put beats over them (5 years before Diplo and Switch had the idea), this turned into one of the most influential projects of the this decade, exposing some massively talented artists like Rupture, Shadetek, and Filastine to the larger world, and getting awesome vocals into the hands of anyone who wanted a shot at it. Pure gritty loveliness from start to finish.

Can you deny it? More than Warp, more than Rephlex, it was the decade of Planet Mu. Who knew that the goofball who’s Umer Bile tracks I picked up in 96 and rocked out to would be the best, if most manic, curator of the ’00s. Sheer quantity alone is stunning, and the fact that every genre under the sun is represented, while all of it kind of being the best example of said genre frankly makes my head spin. It’s kind of the Google of the electronic world, and has engendered a bit of backlash in the same way. But really, they just raise the bar for everyone, and I’ll be fan till the run is done. Which I hope is no where in sight.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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!)

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!

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.

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 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.

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.

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

Solid EP from the Monkey Steak boys, all 4 tracks great, and another outstanding performance from Zulu, this time in a Soca party vein.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

I didn’t like the album enough to give it album of the year, although it’s excellent. But this track is mind blowing.

Beautiful dubstep in a Qawalli style with the most recognizeable voice out there. Beautiful

The Aluminum Riddim from BD1982, with classic Bahamadia on it. Finish this track and put it out!

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

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.

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 had a sort of 1/2 full length out this year but not much new output. This song entered my lexicon of beautiful.

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

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.

Track it down if you can. A Chopin loving Portlander making some of the best weird mangled dubstep of the year.

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.

Don’t know nothing bout him, just showed up in my inbox one day. Awesome digidub remixes of two great tunes.

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.

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.

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.

Yep, it’s a song of the year. You want to argue with me? The Ill Gates mix makes it playable.

A hard as F track Lexy posted on his soundcloud account. Future thinking hard half-time dnb.

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.

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.

Another amazing and perfect song I discovered this year. Got to do a Bmore mix of it.

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.

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.

Mr. Sauve from NYC, doing Cumbia and a bunch of other things in a way I can get my head around. Party tunes galore.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Yeah. He’s Brilliant. Party artist of the year if you have open ears and minds, and super influential on everyone else

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

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!

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.

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!”

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!

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.

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.

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.

Great EPs from Mount Kimbie, Scuba, Untold, and the awesome chillness of Pangaea and Sigha. Jury’s out on Joy Orbison, but otherwise superb.

Solid several offerings from the contemplative side of dubstep, blending in with the techno.

See above. Best thing ever in Skweee, every release a winner, and all of it happened in 2009.

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.

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!!!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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