Our Top 50 Favorite Tracks Countdown - 35 - 31

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. 35 - ‘Superman’ by Celi Bee and the Buzzy Bunch (Victor Rosado edit)

The clip is the original, so don’t be fooled, but I couldn’t find a stream of this edit anywhere unfortunately. But it keeps that vibe from the original, namely very disco, very over the top, and very happy and merry and gay. And if you aren’t getting that from the song, you might want to watch this original performance that might spell it out for you. But this is on here for a reason, namely because it is just so fun! So much fun, very sexy and over the top, and women speaking out about wanting sex. So hey, it’s not a guy thing after all.

Nr. 34 – ‘Kissmetellme’ by Tiger & Woods

The album is absolutely amazing, and this gives  good preview of it. The track is a good example of this distinct sound these lads have crafted for themselves, which is quite remarkable given this is their debut. The art of repetition is on full display here, and these guys know how to keep it rolling, and this track surely does. At the third minute mark you get a brief breather, but soon they are back to their loopy kind of ways, to everyone’s delight (at least, to my delight). And there are even some vocals in here as well, which never try and steal the spotlight but which are perfectly integrated into the song. If you like this, take a chance on the album, that’s my little secret tip for ya right there.

Nr. 33 – ‘It Goes On’ by Storm Queen

Storm Queen positively killed it with ‘Look Right Through’, which is just the most amazing track. This year Morgan Geist, for Storm Queen is an alias, released this little gem. Not quite up there with ‘Look Right Through’ for me personally, but still it delivers the goods. It has got this nice, deep beginning. The vocals are lovely rhythmic. It creates such a nice house vibe this. I mean, try not to dance to this one, you won’t succeed surely. Storm Queen just keeps on hitting these out of the park, and he keeps on giving DJs the tools to get the house a movin’. And those vocals, hotdamn. And it is not too crowded, I love that, it just has the beat, the rhythm, the vocals. And seriously, what more do you need? And then I’m not even talking about the change-up three minutes in.

Nr. 32 - ‘Parfait Tirage’ by Paradis

I love how this one flows. And it has something decidedly French to it in terms of aesthetics for me. Which is quite easy for me to say since they are French and the lyrics are French, but there’s just something about that vibe that strikes me as French for some reason or another. It has a certain delicacy to it. Something midnight-at-the-Seine like or something, it could easily accompany a clip of a Nouvelle Vague outtake as far as I’m concerned. And did I already mention that I really like the flow of it and the overall delicate feel of this?

Nr. 31 - ‘Where is the Love’ by Betty Wright (Danny Krivit re-edit)

Okay, don’t let the start fool you, this is actually a great tune. After that strange thing at the starts with the horns it gets to work and it delivers. Nice bass and guitar work there to get you a dancing, and then Betty Wright comes in with those amazing vocals asking her soupse or boyfriend where that love exactly is that was promised to her. Wright released an album with The Roots this year, but for me I would pick this edit of one of her old tunes any day of the week. It has that old disco vibe, Krivit lets Wright shine quite enough, but it does give the song enough oomph and it has it propelling forward quite nicely. If you like your old school vocal disco, this is an edit you shouldn’t be missing out on. By the way, the horns that appear throughout the song are far more fitting for this song, and they do a great job getting the disco on the dancefloor.

Crazy Zany Radio Sunday - 'Inside World' by WhoMadeWho

Every week our contributors will voice their opinion concerning one song, it’s a simple as that! The more the merrier, so people are always welcome to join in, just leave a note, eh.

Track: ‘Inside World’ by WhoMadeWho (listen here)

Average grade: 7.6

Ilse: The vocals remind me a bit of Wild Beasts, but other than that: one, two, three, DISCO! Particularly the bit around the 3 minute-mark is excellent.
6.9

Anna: This is exactly how I like my electronic music - with an introspective voice and a splash of melancholia. It sounds quite a bit like Hercules and Love Affair's Blind but as it's almost the holidays, I won't hold it against them. 

Now close your eyes and dance, dance, dance.

Grade: 7.mistletoe 

Linda: What is it about those Scandinavians? There's just slightly more of them then there are Dutch people (less than 2 times as much, but they are spread out over four, vast countries, so maybe bitter isolation is a contributing factor), but still they manage to produce so much more great music. You could easily mistake this track for something doing the rounds in NY, though I do feel it is a bit shy of being a total dance floor killer.

7/10

Craig: Pretty solid dance jam.  The ethereal harmonizing in the background gives the song a smooth, fluid quality.  I could dance to this at a holiday party...
8/10

Stef: Noisy start, but soon the rhythm comes in and the thing gets rolling. Good (melancholic) vocals, catchy, dancey, but still with a bit of an edge to it. Excellent tune to end the year with.

9/10

This is the last Crazy Zany for the Holidays. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year y’all, and this column will be back in January. Hope to see you then!

New album Matthew Dear

Beam will be the title of the next Matthew Dear album that will be in shops next year. Dear released the ace Black City last year, and he will follow it up with an album next year that will feature, amongst others, the singer of The Drums. All of this will be preceded by an EP called Headcage.

WhoMadeWho to release album next year

WhoMadeWho released Knee Deep this year, but their hungre isn’t stilled yet and they are going to have a new album out this Februari. It will be called Brighter, and it will be released on the 27th of that month. This will be done via Compact. They will release a 7” of their first single next month, and that single will be called ‘Inside World’.

News Archive of December, 2011

Yessir, all the new(s) stories written in the month of December are gathered here. So the latest music news with the latest stories are here for you to read. Hope you like it!

15 Dec:
WhoMadeWho to return with album next year
Matthew Dear preps new EP, LP

12 Dec:
New of Montreal album coming
Islands readying Valentine's Day release

07 Dec:
Axel Willner to come with album under new guise
Sophomore album Perfume Genius coming

05 Dec:
New Sleigh Bells album coming
Incubate Festival opens up programming

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.

The Weekly Froth #21 (with We Have Band, Azari & III x Tiga, and more!)

The weekly froth! A weekly take on six tracks, most of which have recently popped up somewhere in the blogosphere. Bit of a mixed bag with a slight leaning towards house, disco, and remixes, but generally just anything that for some reason tickled the writer’s fancy.

Track of the week: ‘Where are Your People?’ by We Have Band

We Have Band are really setting up their run for their sophomore album. They already released a track earlier this year, which I was kind of lukewarm about I guess, and this is their second try to wow their fans and to expand their base. Love the vocals by Darren, that’s really cool. It kind of has the same anxiety of their debut, but a bit slower paced I guess in terms of the music itself. I made a point in my review of their debut about using circular imagery quite often (knowingly or not), and it’s back again in this song as well. I like the change-up at 2:20, that’s nice, and the instrumental side that ensues is something I think we haven’t heard yet from the band. I certainly like it more than that other song they released, and it sheds a light in terms of where they are going with the new album. Something a bit more varied in sound, perhaps a bit more mature, slightly slower paced, but with the same feel to it in terms of what it exhumes. And I think the latter is important.

(If you want to listen to this track and five others, and read some write-ups on them, click here)