Mark Zip Poop 09




MAJOR LAZER   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
Major Lazer – Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do
A collaboration between Diplo and Switch and a whole bunch of others (Nina Sky, Ricky Blaze, Prince Zimboo). This was my favourite by far this year. A completely mad mix of Jamaican dancehall, techno, cheese, judiciously applied Auto-tune (yes, yes, I know, I know) and other assorted flotsam and jetsam of dance music from the last 5 years. Diplo has been at the top of the game for the last five years at least here he combines it all into something which is as much a statement of the times as it is a statement of the intent to have a good time.


GOD HELP THE GIRL   Buy New or Used through amazon   OR   @ eMusic
God Help The Girl – God Help The Girl
Stuart from Belle and Sebastian, Neil from Divine Comedy and a host of female singers make music for a musical film which has yet to be filmed. The characters come to life through melodies which would be as at home in the Music Hall as on CD.


Duckworth Lewis Method   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
Duckworth Lewis Method – Duckworth Lewis Method
Neil Hannon (divine comedy) Thomas Walsh (Pugwash) make what must be the first cricket-pop album. One song Jiggery Pokery, even describes one single, particularly famous, ball. “The Duckworth Lewis Method is an album steeped in the love of cricket and pop. The resultant twelve songs are a cacophony of leather and willow turning through a cosmos of searing melodies and all round tunes” says Duckworth in his post match interview.


NEKO CASE   Buy New or Used through Amazon
Neko Case – Middle Cyclone


CAMERA OBSCURA   Buy New or Used through amazon   OR   @ eMusic
Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career


Florence & The Machine   Buy New or Used through amazon
Florence & The Machine – Lungs


XX   Buy New or Used through amazon&
XX – XX


A Sunny Day In Glasgow Buy New or Used through amazon OR  @ eMusic
A Sunny Day In Glasgow – Ashes Grammar


Passion Pit - Manners   Buy New or Used through amazon   OR   @ eMusic
Passion Pit – Manners (my fave of all the powerful falsetto singers this year)


DIRTY PROJECTORS   Buy New or Used through amazon OR @ eMusic
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca


Madness - The Liberty of Norton Folgate  Buy New or Used through amazon   OR   @ eMusic
Madness – The Liberty of Norton Folgate


Micachu & The Shapes – Jewellery   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
Micachu & The Shapes – Jewellery


Bat For Lashes – Two Suns   Buy New or Used through amazon
Bat For Lashes – Two Suns


Gogol Bordelo – Live from Axis Mundi   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
Gogol Bordelo – Live from Axis Mundi (CD + DVD)


Hudson Mohawke - Butter   Buy New or Used through amazon
Hudson Mohawke – Butter
This might just be the strangest record I listened to this year. It has an R&B flavour, with a bunch of guest vocalists. And it has oddly retro synths. And then it has this weird abstract electronic shit all over it too. And I still can’t decide if it’s all the most pretentious bollocks or a profound new direction. Do I really have to decide? Really?




Humanizing the Robots section:


La Roux - La Roux   Buy New or Used through amazon
La Roux – La Roux
Yes, it’s a throwback. And yes, if you lived through Yaz(oo) or BEF, you will hear echoes of synth pop all over the place. But check the Skream remix of “In for the Kill” and you’ll hear the whole CD differently the next time.


Little Boots   Buy New or Used through amazon

Little Boots – Hands

  Buy New or Used through amazon
Pet Shop Boys – Very (Special Edition)




Armchair Traveler section:


Oumou Sangare – Seya   Buy New or Used through amazon
Oumou Sangare – Seya


Various Artists - Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968-91   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
Various Artists – Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968-91


Keletigui Et Ses Tambourinis - The Syliphone Years   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
Keletigui Et Ses Tambourinis – The Syliphone Years


Blk Jks - After Robots   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
Blk Jks – After Robots


Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
Very Best – Warm Heart of Africa


V.A.  - Marvellous Boy: Calypso from West Africa   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
V.A. – Marvellous Boy: Calypso from West Africa


Staff Benda Bilili - Tres Tres Fort   Buy New or Used from amazon   OR   @ eMusic
Staff Benda Bilili – Tres Tres Fort




DJs and stuff section:



Rusko
He first came to our attention in 2004, but over the last 12 months this has been the single gnarliest producer on the dubstep scene (Skream is a close second). Some have accused him of being too obvious, not subtle enough and “a fratboy of the underground”. But when those enormous squelching sounds kick in I feel better. Much better. What’s next? Dunno, but it’s bound to be heavy.


Caspa – Everybody's Talking, Nobody's Listening   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
Caspa – Everybody’s Talking, Nobody’s Listening
Rusko’s sometime spinning partner, Caspa plumbs similar depths. Sometimes, however, he lines the edge of the sub bass with just a touch of twisted prettiness. Heads explode.


  BBC
Annie Mac – Radio 1 Swindon Big Weekend Essential Mix
Annie Mac played the first hour of this six hour Essential mix (which also included sets from 2 Many DJs, Pete Tong, Erol Alkan, Plump DJs) and blew the place up. In her regular radio shows (“The Official Start to the Weekend!!”) she often goes for more cheese than we might like, but on this one she went in for some very fierce dubstep too. Deadmau5, La Roux and Streets remixes were great. There’s a playlist on the pooplist site and You can hear all the tracks here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4A3B17DEC2F09759


Mary Anne Hobbs Presents Wild Angels   Buy New or Used through amazon
VA – Mary Anne Hobbs Presents Wild Angels (Planet Mu)
These days her Radio 1 show is pretty much the clearing house for underground electronic music from around the world. As the dubstep she championed a few years ago moves into the mainstream, her show seems to be moving towards the abstract. Some recent tracks and exclusives from the Planet Mu label are on here.


Toddla T   Buy New or Used through amazon
Toddla T – Skanky Skanky
His CD had some fun tracks on it, mostly brash reggaefied big beat type stuff. As a DJ though, he goes further afield than that and has some guest mixers on his series. Oh, and he introduced me to Prince Zimboo’s “Love Diareha” (sic)



Buy New or Used through amazon
Dizzy Rascal (w/ Armand van Helden) – Bonkers
This maddeningly effective slice of noise, beats and simple rhymes got to number one in the UK for god knows how many weeks. If you were to hear the noisy part of the song in isolation you might think that it came from Einsturzende Neubaten’s Habler Mensch



Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo
Strays a little too close to new age flim flammery at times, but there is something here…Something deep and propulsive and outside (also the best artist name of the year)




Chase & Status - More than Alot   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
Chase & Status – More than Alot (2008)
This CD is mostly pretty regular (if noisy) drum & bass. But it yielded tunes which received remixes throughout this year (Saxon, Eastern Jam). The duo also contributed fine remixes to others’ projects in 2009. A new EP (presumably dubstep oriented) is due early 2010.


5: Five Years of Hyperdub   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
VA – 5: Five Years of Hyperdub
2 discs and 32 tracks of dubstep evolution. Many of the big names are here (Kode9, Burial, The Bug, Flying Lotus), but there are a many, many lesser known gems here too. A good introduction to what is one of the fastest moving, most innovative music scenes on the planet.


  Buy New or Used through amazon
Royksopp – Junior


s
16 Bit – Chainsaw Calligraphy (single)


Moderat   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
Moderat – Moderat


Deadmau5   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic
Deadmau5 – For Lack of a Better Name



Kid Cudi was a disappointment






Names (new and old) to conjure with for 2010:

Flying Lotus
Gaslamp Killer
Ramadanman
Boy 8-bit
Al’Tourettes
Roska
Four Tet