Our Top 50 Favorite Tracks Countdown - 40 - 36

Yessir, it has started, the countdown of the 50 best tracks of 2011! Everyday I’ll post one track in the Daily Clip section, but if you missed one don’t worry, after each batch of five I’ll be sure to post those songs with links on the site (you’ll find it in the main post). So for the next 50 days, nothing but the best, here we go!

Nr. 40 – ‘Channel’ by Nile Delta

How much water can you have in both your name as the title of a track? Nile Delta is from Belgium though, which might explain the Delta, not sure about the Nile. Love the piano you can hear through the clubby beat. Also love that this piano just feels so Jazzy, you almost half expect the horns to come in right on over it. Instead it goes into a more club direction, though it also increasingly seems to get more funky as the track progresses, which is probably why I like it so. The cheering in there, it’s a nice gimmick, to get across the vibe of a party. And ah, there are the horns, just before the three minute mark. That’s nice, it’s nice when you get a certain vibe from a song and then to know it was intentional by putting in some of these characteristics you’d expect to be there. Lovely tune.

Nr. 39 – ‘Kenny’ by Montauk

Oh my, how about the two lads from ‘What a Fool Believes’ lighting it up this year, influencing loads of great tunes. The ‘Kenny’ in this song is Kenny Loggins, and the song itself is based upon the track ‘This Is It’, without actually featuring the chorus (!?). And it features Michael McDonald, the other “lad” I referred to in the opening line. The whole Montauk album are these slower paced edits of these classic songs, and they all run so smoothly, and they are all so kind to the ears. The vocals, naturally, are stellar, but the whole EPs strength is how these classics songs get these slow grooves attached to them and how restraint they are. As I said, no chorus here, which is remarkable. And it’s Kenny Loggins people! Come now.

Nr. 38 – ‘Into the Valley’ by Classixx

Got to love those gospel vocals, and that gospel vibe with the “Into the valley” reference there. It’s a lovely dancey, discoey, track, but the Karl Dixon vocals do really steal the show as far as I’m concerned. Which also is a compliment to the music makers themselves, because they’re giving it the space, they keep up the pace without too many shenanigans, they throw some horns in there to protect that vibe, and then comes Karl Dixon again and they let him. That’s awesome. And you know you’re doing something right if people like Julio Bashmore and YACHT are on remix duties.

Nr. 37 – ‘Double or Nothing’ by The Swiss (Louis la Roche remix)

I really like some of The Swiss’s output, and here they get a little help from Louis La Roche, who makes it a catchy affair with some space sounds thrown in there for good measure. It’s that pace-up after thirty seconds which really gets the ball rolling, and I like that new sound at 45 seconds. Just a nice, catchy affair with a space bend, and surprisingly short for something like this at that.

Nr. 36 – ‘Symptoms’ by Kasper Bjorke (Mano le Tough remix)

When Bjorke gets it on, he gets it on. Some of my fav tracks in the last two years have come from his  hand, and here he gets a little bit of help from Mano le Tough. This thing, this one has the flow, no doubt about that. It just flows! I don’t know how to explain, but when something just flows its kind of magical. It just goes on and the sounds just slide on over each other and it just feels right, it just feels as if it belongs together. Not to mention that it is so hypnotic, these sounds, that bass, the beats; drop this on the dancefloor and people will be dancing ‘til sunrise. It just flows man! It does, you’ve got to hear it to believe it. And then this new sound just after four minutes, wow, that’s atmosphere right there.