The Roundup 2010

Well here it is the last day of 2010, and what a fucking year it has been. The World Cup, the HSC, the world's obsession with 3D, the birth of HGH, disasterous mines, North Korea are the ones that just come to my head. But let's look past that to what else this year had to offer.

The Music
I was excited with the prospects that 2010 brought to the electro, dubstep and hip-hop scenes with albums set to be released by Muscles, Bag Raiders, Miami Horror, Grum, Crookers (electro) Rusko, Borgore, Skream (dubstep) and Spit Syndicate, Sage Francis, Shad, The Roots and the always elusive Chico and the Man (the collabo of Tonedeff and Kno set to drop in '08) (hip-hop). For the most part all the albums lived up to their expectations.

Without further let me countdown the music that mattered to me in 2010.

Breakthrough Aritst of the Year

#1. Chiddy Bang

 Chiddy Bang took the world by storm this year with their song 'Opposite of Adults' sampling MGMT and chopping it up into an absolute dancefloor killer. While this song may have been floating around blogs since early 2009 i'll still count it as a 2010 track because fuck it, 'Opposite of Adults' dominated this year. Apart from this track they dropped their LP 'The Swelly Express' and numerous remixes which absolutely dominated the blogosphere earlier in the year. Not one site on my blogroll didn't have a Chiddy Bang track on it. 'The Swelly Express' was a hipsters dream with Xaphoon Jones sampling artists such as Passion Pit, Ellie Goulding, Kate Nash, Hot Chip and Surjan Stevens to create some great hip hop. These guys have definately laid the platform for the future of hip hop and I would expect to see a lot of copy-cat stylings in 2011.

Best Tracks: Truth (Ft. Passion Pit), Under The Sheets (Ft. Ellie Goulding), Breakfast (Ft. Kate Nash), Opposite of Adults (Ft. MGMT)

Honourable Mentions:

Two Door Cinema Club (Can you believe Tourist History was released only this year?)
Ellie Goulding
Breakage
Plan B

Best 5 Electro Tracks

#1 The Aston Shuffle-Your Love


The Aston Shuffle came onto the scene in 2006 with their remix of Claude von Stroke's prog house hit 'The Whistler' and have since been steadily making their presence known on an international scale. Hailing from Canberra they prove that Australia's electro scene is second to none (well maybe the French just have us beat). It's the type of song which sounds equally at home in a club or in a pair of headphones down at the beach

#2 The Chemical Brothers-Another World


The Chemical Brothers relsease a catchy, out of this world jam with an equally out of this world video witht their seventh album being "the band's first to be released with corresponding films made specifically to match each of the 8 audio tracks".

#3 The Temper Trap-Fader (Adam Freeland Remix)


Adam Freeland works magic with The Temper Trap's single Fader. This remix is an example of what a good remix should include. Stays true to the original while also brining a different feel to create a familiar yet different sound.

#4 Mustard Pimp-Paper


Absolute banger, pure and simple. Hard to compare this type of electro with tracks such as Another World by The Chemical Brothers as they're so different, but it definately has to be in the top 5 tracks this year.

#5 The Aston Shuffle-I Wanna See You


Yeah I know, two Aston Shuffle tracks in my top 5 but hey, they had a hell of a year.



Just realised I couldn't leave Shinichi Osawa out of the top 5, therefore I call equal 5th. 

Honourable Mentions
Grum-Heartbeats, Carte Blanche-Do! Do! Do! (Ft. Kid Sister), Wolfgang Gartner-Space Junk, Swedish House Mafia-One, Hey Today!-Strange (Polymorphic Remix), DATA/DEBT-California Special (Eumig & Chinon Remix), M.A.N.D.Y vs Booka Shade-Donut (Boy 8-Bit Remix), Wiley-Never Be Your Woman (Solo Loves Garage Remix), Adrian Lux-Teenage Crime, Duck Sauce-anYway, Daft Punk-Derezzed


Top 5 Dubstep Tracks 2010
2010 saw the transition of Dubstep into the mainstream with Magnetic Man and Rusko both releasing albums on mainstream labels. This year it was hard to escape dubstep with so many electro producers (even Deadmau5 had his go at dubstep) experimenting with the dubstep sound. My prediction for the future? expect dubstep to go the way of electro-house; being mixed with pop/r&b for some weird hybrid that tops the charts for the wrong reasons.

#1 DJ Fresh-Gold Dust (Flux Pavilion Remix)


No doubt in my mind, Flux Pavilion absolutely destroyed 2010 starting off with this ridiculous remix of DJ Fresh's Gold Dust. Absolute banger and easily my favourite track of the year. If you've heard me DJ this year you've almost certainly heard this song.

#2 Ellie Goulding-Starry Eyed (Jakwob Remix)


Dubstep seems to have earned the reputation of 'filth', which is heralded for some of it's artists, but is a big generalisation. Jakwob proves it with this dreamy mix of Ellie Goulding's Starry Eyed. Whenever I listen to this song it just puts me in a different mindset.

#3 Nero-Innocence


Nero's Innocence starts off like one of those dreamy songs but then it drops and all hell breaks loose.

#4 12th Planet & Juakali-Reasons (Doctor P)


No description needed

#5 Rusko-Hold On (Sub Focus Remix)


Drumstep is the way of the future. Is that a bad thing? this tells me no way

Honourable Mentions:

Bassnecter-Basshead (King Fantastic Remix), Skream-Wibbler, Bassnecter & Datsik-YES, Plan B-The Recluse (Nero Remix), Plan B- Love Goes Down (Doctor P Remix), Flux Pavilion-I Can't Stop EP. TOO MANY HONOURABLE MENTIONS TO LIST

Feels like too many things got left out, so let me just post the things that don't fall under electro or dubstep that stand out for 2010.

Bag Raiders-Snake Charmer


Different to what i'm used to from the Bag Raiders but an absolute gem. Easily in my top 3 of the year

King Fantastic-Why? Where? What? (NSFW)
Why? Where? What? from King Fantastic on Vimeo.

Revolutionising gangster shit, King Fantastic had a killer of a year. Expect to see a lot more in 2011. I also hope to see a lot more of Kristina Rose in 2011 (what a babe)


Bonobo-Kong


Bonobo-Black Sands was my favourite chillout album in 2010, here's one reason why.

Stay Tuned for the Hip Hop wrap up coming soon.