OTF Tracks Of The Year 2011

[Freestyling buck wilding Stijn Stijnen]

OTF Tracks Of The Year 2011

Adding my support to the two shouts for Little Dragon.

Lana Del Rey's effort is a good 'un too, she has some lovely soothing vocal stylings.

[Come along, Min]

OTF Tracks Of The Year 2011

At first I attempted to arrange these tracks in one big list in order of preference, but every time I listened to any individual track I found I wanted to move it higher from where I originaly placed it, and I kept doing this until I realised that it was pointless trying to compare vastlty different sonic expieriences as, say, Martyn's - Distortions to Edo G's - Drink Up.
So I scrapped that idea and put them in three smaller groups instead, and then put those in order of preference, and even then the difference in quality between top and bottom is wafer thin.

General

* Steve Arrington/Dam-Funk - Goin' Hard
* Best Coast - When You Wake Up
* Thundercat - Walkin
* Alice Smith & Aloe Blac - Baby
* Booker T Jones - Progress Ft. Yim Yames
* Gang Gang Dance - Glass Jar
* The Weeknd - Glass Table Girls
* Ry Cooder - El Corrido de Jesse James (Spotify link)
* Paul White - Wily Walruses ft. Nancy Elizabeth (Spotify link)
* DJ Shadow ft. Little Dragon - Scale It Back

A round up of tunes that dont fit into either of the other lists tbh, that's not to say I love these tunes any less, I think the top three could appear in my overall top five.

House/Garage/Tech/Dubstep

* Martyn - Distortions
* Kahn - Like We Used To (Bristol represent)
* XXXY - Ordinary Things
* Unknown Artist [strike](Joy Orbison)[/strike] - Sicko Cell
* Ital - Culture Clubs
* LoveBirds - Want You In My Soul
* Octo Octa - Coldwaves (Link to snippet on Boomkat, not a very good one as it happens)
* Orbital - Never
* Mosca - Done Me Wrong
* Mr. Beatnick - Synthetes
* Ossie - Tarantula
* Skream - Exothermic Reaction
* Hackman - Close
* Jacques Green - Another Girl
* Braile - Riverbed.
* Deadboy - Aint Gonna Lie.
* Gesloten Cirkel - Yamagic

I didnt dig on much of James Blake's stuff earlier this year, but (and I'm prepared to be corrected on this) I think he (along with the likes of Burial) are having a certain influence over style and technique on stuff thats come from the Dubsteppier side of dance music this year, and that's not to say there style is being aped, but rather a dedication to producing crafted, bespoke music, the level has been raised by many people who care deeply about this music.

I think the overall quality in some of these records shows that club music is going through some kind of major purple patch atm, some great tunes this year, a toast to that, long may it continue. It seems more vibrant than ever, and that's saying something.

Rap - Hip Hop

* Edo.G - Drink Up
* Clams Casino - Realist Alive
* The Brainstormers - By All Means
* G-Side Ft. S.L.A.S.H. - Came Up
* DJ Quik - Ghetto Rendezvous
* Lil B - Motivation (A Clams Casino Production)
* N.O.R.E - N.O.R.E. Shot Somebody
* Mobb Deep Ft. Nas - Dog Shit
* Wiz Khalifa - The Race
* DJ Khaled Ft. Drake/Lil Wayne/Rick Ross/Skinny Jay - I'm On One remix

All American stuff, just the way I like it, I suppose. I think it's a decent mixture from East to West & down South, Indie & Grammy award winning, Old & Young.

.........

I spent most of my music listening year hunting down older stuff. I listen less to newer stuff than I ever have before, but I dont think because there's any kind of drop-off in overall quality, more of a case of getting older and naturaly having a wider breadth of music that I'm interesed in and having instantly available to me, like, for example - everything that's ever been recorded

I kept to a rule where I could only choose one track per act, the likes of Edo G., Clams Casino, Martyn and The Weeknd amongst a good few others could have been represented more than once. And although I made a cursory check, a couple tracks may have overlapped back before 2011 - for example, I think the the Skream track was first heard in 2009, but only got a proper release this year - when I stopped sleeping on it. And it rocks,

- so fuckit.

[imp]

OTF Tracks Of The Year 2011

Fans of Lana Del Ray may want to avoid her performance on Saturday Night Live last night, singing an incredibly flat and lacklustre 'Video Games'. She looked terrified, sounded sub-amateur, and had the charisma of a large and slightly swaying bottle of mayonnaise. I can only assume that in the studio she benefits from a huge helping of auto-tune.