Tracks of the Year (Alex)

Through sheer saturation and ubiquity, it’s hard not to declare 2008 the year of Sex On Fire and just be done with it. But too much good music came out this year that got lost in the fury that was the KoL, MGMT, etc explosion. What follows are my personal faves, to tessellate with the heat Nat dropped below. All are linked to individual zshares.

Bishop Lamont – Grow Up
Dre produces one of the hottest beats of the summer, in classic restrained Dre mode, and Bishop Lamont furthers his claim on being the new saviour of West Coast rap. So fresh.

Passion Pit – Sleepyhead
Hands-down banger of the year. The most exhilarating and life-affirming sub-three-minute experience since bungee jumping.

MGMT vs Notorious B.I.G vs Justice – Nasty Feel (DDPesh rework)
When someone gets a mash-up right, something like this happens and it’s so epic. Brooklyn's DDPesh come through with another rework that's so much greater than the sum of its parts.

Horse Feathers – Albina
It’s so mesmerizingly pretty, and then you listen to the lyrics and go “oh - woah. That is so bleak,” but the song is made all the more beautiful for its honesty and discordance.

Lykke Li – Little Bit (AutoErotique Bootleg Remix)
I posted a whole album worth of Lykke Li mash-ups in my Best Albums list, but this remix is so much fire it can’t be skipped for that reason. It takes a sparse, delicate song and turns it into a total banger, without losing the tenderness of the original track. (thanks to the good folk of creamteam)

Grouper – Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping
Their album was super close to making my top five for the year. It would've made a top ten Although it’s only short, this is a song to get lost in.

Arthur Russell – I Couldn’t Say It To Your Face
I’m totally with P4K on this one. What is it with Arthur Russell? A track that should be mundane by any other standards is siphoned through Russell’s vulnerable sincerity and accomplished structuring, and so it talks to somewhere deep inside.

D. Gookin - Glad I Met You

Puts bop in your stride and gets your smile out. Catchiest song of the year?

Air France - Collapsing At Your Doorstep

My favourite song off one of my aforementioned favourite albums of the year.

Bon Iver - Skinny Love

The forceful passion of this song, and the damage in it, makes the idea of spending a period of alcoholism in the wilderness seem compelling. This would have been available from Nat Albums of the Year list, had it not been quietly assassinated by the fire Nazis.

Happy 2k9 all: may it be as fruitful as 2k8 was.

Tracks of the Year (Nat)

As promised in my now MIA Best Albums post I now present my top tracks of the year. Lets hope this one survives the blog wilderness. Please note that I'm feeling a little lazy and I have put all the tracks in one easy access ZIP file.

Tracks of the Year (Nat)

Young Love - Mystery Jets featuring Laura Marling



A quaint little English ditty about love made all that much sweeter with a cameo from Laura Marling and an inventive film clip.

Mr Carter - Lil' Wayne featuring Jay-Z


From an album full of standouts this one rises above the rest. Just Blaze lays down the best chipmunk soul since The College Dropout while Jay-Z pretends to pass the torch too his fiercest rival.

Hold On - Holy Ghost!


Nu/new/neu disco, or what ever the hell you want call it, exploded this year. Holy Ghost! were at the forefront with this pop space synth workout.

My Turn - Basement Jaxx


While the Jaxx have been knocking out interesting LP's for years now nothing has ever come close to their debut. Until now. My Turn captures is a more restrained side of the pair and uses the considerable talents of Devonte Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion to craft a tasty slice of emo electro.

Tear You Down - Brookes Brothers


Until recently High Contrast was the king of drum and bass single and remix. New comers Brookes Brothers have been kicking around for a while but it was this soul sampling banger which put them on the map and threatened to turn BW member Alex into a bonafide candy raver.

Pjanoo - Eric Prydz


Pjanoo was everywhere this year. With a huge showing at both Miami and Ibiza as well as remixes from Fred Falke and BW favourite High Contrast. All white noise, huge build ups and THAT piano line shit was guaranteed to get you reaching for the lasers.

Frayed - Hermitude/ Don't Mind - Calibre


These songs sit together as tracks that emit a certain mood. They both use dusty piano lines and muffled soul vocal to create beautiful emotive music. Deep.

Golden Cage - The Whitest Boy Alive (Fred Falke Remix)



Hands down my track of the year. Shimmering synths, clean drums and dash of french touch mixed with naked vocals of Erlend Oye. Audio bliss. Enjoy the amazing film clip for the original above.

Tracks of the Year (Nat)

Albums Of The Year (Alex)

To be honest, we here at BW didn't really discuss the logistics of posting individual Best Of lists in a year that saw us agree firmly on the releases of a certain few bands. Which is rarer than you might think. To avoid redundancy, see Nat's post for two albums which will probably make a heap of Best Of lists worldwideweb-wide, with mine no exception:

Passion Pit - Chunk Of Change EP

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

There were albums this year that had moments of sheer individual brilliance, from people as diverse as T.I and Bob Dylan, but it only seems fair to include the albums which got the most overall burn. So, as dictated by my iTunes play count, I present you the other 3 best albums of 2008 :

Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak

Kanye's decision to move beyond his comfortable, highly successful mould as a hip-hop producer is demonstration of a commendable ambition, and largely unsurprising for someone with an ego as healthy as his. Like him or hate him for his bold claims about being 'the voice of a generation', with 808's, Kanye has managed that rare feat that is sporadically achieved in pop music: the ability to craft an album that will influence the sound of pop music for the immediate, and perhaps lasting future.

(On a sidenote, anyone unconvinced by the new material should try to catch a live show, as some of the BW family did last night. Moments of earnest indulgence from Mr West did nothing to stymie a concert that at times reached obscene levels of fun.)

Kanye West feat. Kid Cudi - Welcome To Heartbreak

The Hood Internet - Lykke Li minimix

I thought Lykke Li's album was amazing in and of itself. But it seems to have been the most fertile ground for people wanting to do mash-ups or remixes since Paper Planes. The Hood Internet's signature approach pairs her transcendent vocals with a range of sweetly tessellated beats, from the beautiful ambience of The Field and Gui Boratto to dancefloor bangers with Hercules & Love Affair and Booka Shade. When quite often mash-ups can be merely "oh that's kinda clever," these six little gems leave you more "oh woah that's better."

The Hood Internet vs Lykke Li - minimix (via The Hood Internet)



Air France – No Way Down EP
This was my go-to ‘in transit’ choice. It works equally well as background music to a book on the train, or when I’m skating somewhere, or when I’m just walking. Which is not to say it’s a white noise thing: the songs all just have a way of being present and feeling so appropriate to being in motion. Sort of like when a song sounds right at the beach, and you zen out a little.

Air France – Collapsing At Your Doorstep

Electric stimulus to face

What do you do for fun? This guy attaches electrodes to his face and makes compositions for his face to wig out to. Could easily be an Aphex Twin video. Bless the Japanese.

It's Obama bama

It may be a little late and barely musical but at BW we love ourselves a bit of Randy Marsh. Like Homer Simpson said, 'Its funny cause it's true'.

We say party - you say die!

As you know we here at BW are a big fan of the beats from the Blue Mountains. Cloud Control and Hermitude are two top acts to come from the region. Must be cause they don't have a mall or something.

Add to that list the psypop stylings of we say bamboulée who have recently come to attention of local Sydney station FBi and now myself. Peep their Klaxon's style lyrics and Passion Pit influenced beats below. Props to them for letting a little Aussie twang steal into the vocals. Refreshing.

we say bamboulée - Unwelcome Copacaban Holiday

Myspace

I heart Mark Ronson

Fuck yes Mark Ronson killed it yesterday at Global Gathering in Sydney. Along with an incredible list of supporting acts, are you listening Gorillaz? This is how you do a show, none of this 'soundsystem' bullshit.

There ain't much on YouTube yet but here is a little taste of set closer/encore 'Stop Me'. More as it develops.

The 10th Wonder

It's sort of hard to concentrate on anything other than 808's & Heartbreak at the moment because Kanye has - I think - dropped one of the most revolutionary albums of recent years, but apparently the world keeps turning for people who aren't utterly fascinated by Mr West. Prolific mix-taper Mick Boogie has yet another, this time with flame-spitter Cynicus. All the beats are produced by 9th Wonder which should make this a repository of heat. 9th Wonder's material is super fresh at the moment, possibly my favourite going around. And this is a beautiful thing because, between him and Kanye, we now don't have to put up with listening to the tween pop-rap that Will.i.am continues peddling and all the d-bags who choose the music in shops force on us.

Mick Boogie presents Cynicus - The 10th Wonder (rapidshare)

That is alot?!

So you may have noticed that Burnt Waffles has gone a little quiet lately. Well as we wait for the last few big albums of 2008 to drop and put the finishing touches on our best of's I thought I would point you too a few albums that have been locked in my pod.

Whenever other genres are feeling a little limp I find a trip to the deeper, heavier end of the spectrum is in order. The new Chase and Status album that dropped recently has filled that need quite nicely. Entitled More than Alot it lives up to its title with a buffet of different, dare I use marketing speak, urban sounds. While many of the bigger singles have been kicking around for a while and are made for losing your shit too at 3am such as Smash TV, Pieces and the massive Hurt You it is the dub step inspired Running which I find sticking in my head day after day. Enjoy the cheeky contrast of rattling bassline and soulful hook below.

Chase and Status - Running

Myspace

Moving to the deeper sound, specifically that of Cambridge, England. Hospital has recently release the third volume of their acclaimed Future Sounds of Cambridge compilation and it is smacking. Its filled with productions by drum and bass heavyweights Commix, Nu:tone and Logistics and even sports a number of collaborative tracks to sweeten the deal. Standouts include Cosmonaut and Intervention by comparative new comer Logistics and the collab track Ghost Snare. Ghost Snare can be found below, all clicks and deep grooves. For those who like to enjoy the subtlety of the jungle genre.

Commix, Logistics and Nu:tone - Ghost Snare

Hospital Homepage

Tiny Masters of Tomorrow

A school in Montreal started an after school program for kids to get involved with making music and lo-fi video clips. The results were stupendous... more at Naked Eye Magazine.

Viva La Hova

Stone Fact: every 12 seconds, someone, somewhere uploads a new Jay-Z mash-up. 

Mere Opinion: Viva La Hova, the latest mixtape effort from Mick Boogie and Terry Urban, might be the best yet. Not straight mash-ups, but more beats sampling Coldplay and using Jigga's vocals, the mix includes tracks like this banger from 9th Wonder, as well as a slew of others including Mick Boogie and, apparently, Coldplay themselves. Cop a sample below, and you can grab the full .zip via EastOfLA.

Jay-Z & Coldplay (prod. 9th Wonder) - Cold Success

Who's go is it?

So, this one is about 2 months late but I just needed to draw attention to the slight return of Basement Jaxx. While each album has been a compounding disappointment after their amazing debut Remedy it seems a set of EPs titled Planet 1 & 2 signals a return to form.

Standout track My Turn features BW favourite Lightspeed Champion, while Nifty is a straightforward big bass banger. Not every track across the two EPs is a classic but it definitely bodes well for future Jaxx albums. Enjoy the fire below.

Basement Jaxx - My Turn (featuring Lightspeed Champion)

Myspace

What does hipster mean?

Recently, rappers have seemed really, really affronted by hipsters. Or specifically, by the 'tight jeans.' It's part offense, part bewilderment. Bishop Lamont thinks tight jeans will prevent you from breathing, and Jigga argues that he won't wear them because his "nuts don't fit." Mickey Factz got all upset when people labelled his tracks hipster-hop, which they only did because he wears pants less than two sizes too large. Fortunately for us, Buff1 has gotten his pals Mike Lee and DJ Graffiti together, they've banged heads, and have delivered a deep, sociological exploration of just what exactly it is to be a hipster. Because - duh - underground rappers from Michigan are experts on it. 

(Incidentally, for those of you worried about it, they're cool with the whole hipster thing as long as "your music is as tight as your jeans.")

Buff1 & DJ Graffiti - What Does Hipster Mean? (feat. Mike Lee)

Buff1 Myspace

Sean Wrong - Minimix 10_10_08

Here is a mix i did for work on a Friday afternoon. (Everyone puts there name in a hat and whoever gets pulled out plays their music for an hour on friday arvo.) This is my latest offering, bit of Prog with some Trancey elements thrown in for good measure...

Mixed live with Ableton live (224kbps, 58 mins)

Download/Stream here

Chris Lake - Start Again (Dub Mix)
Leventina - Medical Insurance
Passenger 10 - Passenger 10 (Chris Reece remix)
Kenneth Thomas - Riders On The Storm (Brisker and Magitman remix)
Andy Moor - Fake Awake (Myon and Shane 54 remix)
Cressida - 6am (Kyau and Albert remix)
Deadmau5 - Brazil (Second Edit)
Pryda - Rakfunk
tyDi - Hide (Andy Moors Ecomix)
Adam K and Soha - Twilight (Deadmau5 remix)
Eric Prydz - Miami Atlanta

Alexis Taylor - Rubbed Out

Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor recently released a solo album, Rubbed Out, through Treader, who make some of the slickest little packages of music ever. I'm still not sure about how I feel about the album as a whole, but there's some nice little tracks. It's all kinda ephemeral and spacey, and sorta has some Beatles and Elliott Smith sounds, but still with a very Hot Chip tone throughout. Treader's site describes it as a collection of "bespoke songs and instrumentals" which is basically a nice way of saying 'he threw some stuff together.' But when you're responsible for the genius of Hot Chip what you can just throw together is about nine million times better than what anyone else can.

Alexis Taylor - Baby

Hellzapoppin' (1941)

Hellzapoppin' makes a super strong case for dancing in a movie. This five minutes is why learning Lindy Hop and going to swing bars could be the funnest thing ever in the whole world.

How To Spend Your Pocket Money

OK so it's heaps late news and whatever, but out of principle and because we're total bandits for their shit-hot gasflare pop, BW wants to make everyone aware of Passion Pit's EP "Chunk of Change" dropping. Nothing going around at the moment is as fun. Play them to anyone, and if they say "I don't really like them" you will know that person is boring and tonnes lame. Out now through Frenchkiss, it's $7 asking price might be the biggest bargain of the year - especially tasty given everyone has no money left and we're all going to lose our jobs.

Passion Pit - Cuddle Fuddle

Myspace

Update:

The video to Sleepyhead just got released over at Pitchfork.tv. Have a look below - no CGI is used, which is pretty incredible.

Eric Prydz pres. Pryda - Rakfunk

Yes people, it's happening. Eric Prydz is coming down under. He'll be in town for Shore Thing at Bondi on New Years, along with Underworld and The Presets in what promises to be an absolute stormer and will surely be off the proverbial hook. So if you haven't already got your tix via pre-sale your best bet is to gather round the computer tomorrow (Friday 10th) before noon or you will most likely have to make other plans for New Year's.

To celebrate here is a track from Pryda's latest release, Rakfunk. It is actually a B-Side of 'Evouh' which is also receiving heavy praise. I first heard Rakfunk on Paolo Mojo's EM a few weeks ago and it really did steal the show. I've also included Pjanoo below in case you weren't around here at the start of the year. Enjoy.

Eric Prydz pres. Pryda - Rakfunk

Eric Prydz - Pjanoo

Myspace | Website

It ripples our reflections

Radiohead - Reckoner - by Clement Picon


Reckoner was a favourite track of many from the In Rainbows album. This is the new video for it, and it's everything we've come to expect from Radiohead videos: intricate, complex, beautiful and challenging. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

MySpace | Website

Monotonix And The Art Of Rocking The Fuck Out

Sometimes you're lying there at night unable to get to sleep, pondering life's little mysteries, like: why are we here? Why did they take John Lennon from us, but they won't take Bono? Are the Republicans seriously going to stick with Sarah Palin? If you were wondering about this biggie:

What would Led Zeppelin have sounded like if they were a trio made up of the guys from Death From Above 1979 and one of their friends? And they lived now? And they were from Tel Aviv? And were tonnes into Dov Charney style clothing?

...wonder no more. The answer is Monotonix. And yes they will make you get awesome and naked and drunk.

(ps peep the videos on their Myspace - I haven't seen shit this frantic since DFA1979's shows.)

Monotonix - Summers & Autumns

Myspace | Website