Here, for the benefit of all who have stuck with the ‘finger throughout the droughts of the last half year’ is my mix of some tracks from albums I really loved this year.

2011Albums by Bn1

I’m not going to go into details right now but here’s the tracklisting.. I hope if you check it out you hear something you haven’t heard before and maybe something you like a lot.

“The Suck” – Roll the Dice – From ‘In Dust’
“Chrome Vox” – Tropic Of Cancer – From ‘The End of All Things’
“Double Day” – Sandwell District – From ‘Feed Forward’
“Yama” – Dead Skeletons – From ‘Dead Magick’
“Hatred Of Music II” – Tim Hecker – From ‘Ravedeath, 1972′
“Descent to the Zenith” – Earth – From ‘Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I’
“Zombies Never Die (Blues)” – Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore – From ‘Beileid’
“Microon II” – Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto – From ‘Summvs’ -
“Caladan” – Roly Porter – From ‘Aftertime’
“Badmind” – Hype Williams – From ‘Kelly Price W8 Gain vol II’
“Or” – Kangding Ray – From ‘Or’
“All You’ll Never Know’ – Matthew David – From ‘International’
“Choice” – Perc – From ‘Wicker and Steel’
“Reality Drift” – Kuedo – From ‘Severant’
“Rainy Dub” – Actress – From ‘Rainy Dub’
“Seasons” – Thundercat – From ‘The Golden Age of Apocalypse
“InnaFocusedDaze” – Dam Funk – From ‘InnaFocusedDaze’
“It Was Whatever” – Shlohmo – From ‘Bad Vibes’
“See You Tomorrow” – Henrik Schwarz and Bugge Wesseltoft – From ‘Duo’

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Onto the tunes, and there’s been a crapload of tunes doing it for me. Enjoying the chance to dj a little bit more of late. Too many to categorise or rank, here’s just a few favourites.

Brackles and Shortstuff’s ‘Blunted Robots’ label is always worthy of a listen, and I really like Dj Dom’s recent EP for them. Deep but bouncy UK Funky.

Sticking in the UK, and LuckyMe have another big tune in the form of Jacques Greene’s ‘Another Girl’. The original is a big, rnb based record, but my favourite from the release is Mark Flash UR’s Detroit based reworking of ‘The Look’

One more Uk based, RnB influenced tune, this time coming from Deadboy who’s been mining the rnb and uk bass sound for sometime, this time coming with an uplifting bassline which will no doubt sound massive at the various festivals over the northern summer.

Moving into more traditional house and techno territory, and Move D is on his usual fine form, recently remixing leif in a very laid back deep style with some lovely jazzy touches.

His EP from a few months back is also essential deep listening, I can’t get enough of ‘Your Personal Healer’ – lush piano chords, muted vocals and snips of acid.

Also dusting off the piano keys is Reggie Dokes. I really like his new EP on Clones’ excellent ‘Royal Oak’ sub label. ‘Haiti’ brings spritely keys and a great remix from promising new producers ‘Morning Factory’ who are named after my favourite Ron Trent track, which is a cool thing to take a name from.

Time to Express is a must check label for me since Dozzy and Cio D’ors hypnotising ‘Menta’, and their compilation has yielded some new gems including new (to me) tracks from Dozzy and Van Hoesen.

Sascha Rydell comes through with some deep heaviness on the equally awesome Fachwerk label.

Perc is another consistently strong producer, his great new track on his label features (amazingly) a remix from Chris Carter of throbbing gristle. That’s not on youtube though, so check out the equally smashing Ancient Methods mix;

Finally, Andy Stott emerges again on Modern Love with some amazing music. I really like this release, each track has something unique to it, and most of it is slowed, skewed, and dark. Great stuff.

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Kicking off in house territories, little white earbuds has an interesting interview and mix from Tin Man. I’d heard a little of Tin Man’s stuff, being aware of him from the start of Tama Sumo’s Panorama Bar Cd from a few years back. He has an interesting production style, and this is an enjoyable wee mix. Check it out.
Tin Man-LWE78

Moving into somewhat heavier realms, new producer Blawan has been making some waves. Recommended by Mick, I’m digging on this one.
FACT Mix 230 – Blawan (Mar ’11) by factmag

The labyrinth aside, the best gig I went to in Japan last year was Kode 9 and Martyn. I was looking forward more to Martyn’s set but was surprised by how much I enjoyed Kode 9′s mix of dubstep, grime, and loads of Uk funky, all mixed up in between blasts on the vuvuzela (it was during the world cup). He recently did the essential mix, your enjoyment of which probably will correlate with your enjoyment of uk funky. I quite like it.
Kode 9 Essential Mix

Finally, a couple of things from further leftfield. I like eclectic mixes, they’re a great way to discover new artists you may not normally check.

Don’t know much about Roll The Dice, but here’s an interesting eclectic mix I found – the tracklisting should give you some idea of whether it’ll be your cup of tea or not.
This Is How We Roll by Roll the Dice

Blackest Ever Black venture into the darkness with their mix “she died with her eyes open”. It’s dark and different, and as we move into autumn I look forward to more from them.
She Died With Her Eyes Open

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Jazz is one of my favourite musical genres but I don’t post a lot about it on here. Jazz has such a long history and such a large amount of writing has been done on it, it feels a bit intimidating for me to talk about it. No such qualms about playing it though, and a few weeks ago I finally took advantage of the recording setup at my new home to pull out some of my favourites for a mix which has been up on my soundcloud and now here.

Wednesday Jazz by Bn1

As you’ll hear, my taste in Jazz is reasonably broad and generally stays on the more melodic, structured side of things. This mix actually starts off with some ghana funk and instrumental hiphop before things finally hit the Jazz side about 30 minutes in, with ‘Oregon’ a b-side from Cinematic Orchestra which has always been a favourite of mine. Further absolute favourites from David Axelrod, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, and Donald Byrd follow. The final section heads off to south america, with some samba and bossa nova. Tito Puente who I’m a big fan of features, as well as Brazilian weirdos Os Mutantes. Lonnie Liston Smith finishes up with a Jazz funk message of peace.

Hopefully I’ll delve back into my collection again, possibly with some dub and reggae next time.

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First up, you can’t really argue with Millions of Moments re-release of ‘wallshaker’ by Aaron Carl, who sadly passed away last year. I think this one is a favourite of Micks.. The great original is accompanied by a midnight dub, and a beautifully deep sounding dub from ‘Sven’, presumably Sven Weissemann who is doing some lovely stuff lately.

Kassem Mosse has a new release on Workshop, and as usual with work from him and workshop it is sounding impressive. Mosse has become one of my favourite producers over the past year or so and this is more solid work.

Another guy I’m always on the look for releases for is Tevo Howard, who has a nice stripped down but melodic style to his deep house. ‘The age of compassion’ came out on buzzin’ fly last month which is a big label and hopefully a sign of more recognition for his productions.

Sneaking in from last year is House of Jezebel (aka Legowelt) with his take on ‘love and happiness’. It’s a sample that’s been used so many times, yet this raw, old school sounding production just does it for me..

One more house thing is Lauer’s excellent release from Robert Johnson last month.. Both these tracks remind me of New Order for some reason, perhaps the melodies and old school sounding drums..

Over in the increasingly popular post dubsteppy/nu garagey world, things are ticking along nicely too..
Really enjoyed sepalcure’s first 12″ last year on hotflush. This new one’s sounding good too

Staying on hotflush, the new George Fitzgerald with remix from Scuba is nice

Hackman is a newish uk funky producer who’s stuff I always check of late.. Interesting how some of this more mellow end of the uk post garage/funky thing is starting to meld with more trad tech house.

Julio Bashmore also successfully pushes my deep housey/steppy buttons with his new release.

Lovely stuff from 2562 who apparently made his entire new album constructed from samples of old disco records!

Over in more techno territory, Mike Dehnert comes through with another reliably enjoyable record

Delsin come through with some lush detroit stuff

And finally, Mike Parker and Donato Dozzy come heavy and hypnotic with a new Prologue.. Can’t listen to this without imagine it booming out over the mountains in Japan, and I’m already a bit excited about that becoming a reality.

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Despite being separated from my record collection, I’m still on the hunt for new additions. For a change I’ve decided to chronicle a few of them here. And, fuck it, a few old things too.

Bubble Club ‘Lonely Acid’ (Brennan Greens remix)
It’s safe to say Brennan Green is a bit of a BMP fave. I’m a sucker for any remotely maurizio influenced stuff.

Cosmin TRG – Liebe Suende
Following on from his initial dubstep leanings Mr TRG is doing some nice house stuff. Been enjoying this one, rough, clonky, deep stuff now out on Rush Hour.

Yennek – Without
Kenny Larkin action, discovered via (I think) Peter Van Hoesen’s amazing set at labyrinth. It sounded great there.

Makam – Planet Pimp
A fairly innocuous track to be fair, but one I find myself going back to and mentally pitching down a whole bunch. I reckon the first part of this would be cool, slooowed down quite a lot.

Mark Ernestus vs Konono No1 – Masikulu Rhythm
I have to get my hands on this one. I like Konono No 1, but never been able to fit their stuff into a dj set. Mark Ernestus has come through with some insanely heavy remixes of their stuff. I need to get this and play it really loudly.

DVS1 – Polyphonic Love
Another big labyrinth record, it doesn’t work quite the same at home but did the trick at the time, so I like it.

Dennis Ferrer – The Red Room (Kyle Hall remix)
Kyle Hall’s stuff has all been so great this year that I’m at the point of accepting this one without having heard the whole thing.

Marcel Fengler – Enigma
Yeah, the sample’s been used before.

Mike Dehnert – Thermique
Getting into this guy’s productions lately.

Crue L Orchestra – More Than Paradise (Theo Parrish mixes)
Had to grab this one when I saw it in a record store this week (an advantage to living in Japan is easy access to these Japan based label releases). The ‘long version from Theo Parrish is a 17 min jazz/funk epic. Not to mention a more conventional house mix from the freaks on the other side. Beautiful stuff.

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Labyrinth 2010

I’ve been keeping a relatively low key ‘finger profile as of late but it would be remiss of me not to report in following the labyrinth festival – which is (or is becoming) renowned for its quality soundsystem, artist selection, and general atmosphere.

The festival runs over 3 days just outside of Naeba, a town in the mountains of Niigata, Japan. I have the good fortune to be living in Japan. Unfortunately I don’t live anywhere near there so the first day started off at 6am for me, with a train ride to Osaka, then what turned into a 12 hour bus ride up to Niigata. This was a 3 day weekend in Japan so the traffic on the highway outside of Kyoto was crazy. On the bus we listened to Donato Dozzy’s past labyrinth sets, and I was very happy and made a little homesick by hearing him playing micronism’s ‘Constructing Space‘, a beautiful tune that I haven’t heard in a long time.

I made it to the festival around 8.30pm, met up with my friend Dan, and wandered down the road into the forest already hearing the music booming out over the valley. The labyrinth site is fairly simple consisting of the main ‘teepee’/dj tent, the funktion one rig on either side, and the massive dancefloor area in front. As we arrived Scuba was booming out an old Plastikman record (possibly something from consumed) which sounded amazing. I enjoyed his set, particularly hearing more steppy numbers – such as A Made Up Sound’s fantastic ‘Sun Touch’..

I jumped around for a few hours, drinking pricey festival beers, eating chicken, chatting to people, and generally having a great time. Peter Van Hoesen played afterwards, I can’t recall a lot about his set, but I enjoyed it a lot at the time! Finally we headed back to Naeba near the end of his set, to have a bath and a sleep.

Woke up to a beautiful day in Naeba!

My hopes of getting out there early in time to see Move D’s ‘Reagenz’ project were severely unrealistic as a lazy sunday morning ensued.. We eventually made it onto a bus and got back to the labyrinth just in time to see steffi kicking her set off!

Steffi is a fav of a bunch of the BMP and I’m happy to report that she didn’t disappoint, working her way through bass heavy, deep house in the sunshine. I danced, had some breakfast (have to say that the food selection at labyrinth was pretty great, there were quite a few places to choose from and all had great food) and resumed dancing.

The afternoon rolled on, we relaxed during A Guy Called Gerald’s nice but a little unmemorable set, and cowered as Marcel Fengler pulled out the heaviest set of the festival. I think they had to shorten his set a little and he smashed things out for the first hour or so, pulling back a little towards the end for some deeper stuff (and err one track which was borderline trance) which coaxed me back onto the floor. Overall an enjoyable set. Van Hoesen bridged the gap between Fengler and Shackleton, with another amazing set, overall probably my favourite dj that I saw. At some point during this I heard Mathew Jonson’s ‘Marionette’ – an all time favourite of mine, which sounded fantastic over the funktion one soundsystem.

Next up came function who built things up and brought them back down over his amazing 4 hour set. I was pacing myself, we did some dancing, chilled out a bit, talked to people, danced more, went back on the floor. I could have easily danced for the whole four hours but was saving myself for Shackleton.

Shackleton kicked things off with what sounded like ‘Johnny Cash reads the old testament’! Again the sound rig came the fore as Cash’s voice boomed over the assembled masses. He was using a skippy little drum sound which reminded me weirdly of psy trance(!), but then in came the heavy bass, and then my mind kind of turned to mush as Cash’s voice looped up and into the madness.

Heard ‘death is not final’ and of course ‘blood on my hands’ in the mix – along with drums that sounded more like collapsing buildings, and lots of strange samples. It was fairly mind blowing; I wonder if there is a particular term for what Shackleton does because just lumping it in as ‘dubstep’ does him a disservice. Someone put the opening minutes of Shackleton’s set up on youtube if you want to check it out.

The following day was naturally a little more restrained – I had gotten to bed around 3, and was feeling a bit tired, and also had another lengthy bus ride home to deal with that night. We caught the end of Convextion’s set as we arrived, which was sounding amazing. I wish I’d caught more of it; I don’t have a huge amount of Convextion’s records but he is responsible for another all time favourite of mine – ‘Crawling and Hungry’

We relaxed during So’s set of tech house, and Mathew Jonson’s set. Donato Dozzy closed the set with an epic 4+ hour set which was great. I saw a few of the other djs and producers who had played during the festival dancing and enjoying the set, and briefly talked to Move D who seemed like a nice guy. I told him to come and visit New Zealand. Dozzy played the micronism track I mentioned above again! Everyone was dancing and smiling and I wished that I didn’t have to leave labyrinth (or Japan). This video kind of shows the relaxed daytime vibe at the festival:

The music finished up after dark, I had a little more food and wandered up to find my bus and prepare for the uncomfortable ride back to Osaka.

Overall this was probably the best festival I’ve ever attended. The music is obviously coming from pretty specific genres and at times I felt like a little variety would have been good but I can’t fault any of the acts that played, and the soundsystem gave everything an amazing edge. The crowd (Japanese and Gaijin alike) that I spoke to were all friendly and knowledgeable. The security was unobtrusive and as far as I could see there were no problems all weekend. There was lots of space on the dancefloor. The food was great. The toilets were like festival toilets anywhere but you didn’t have to queue for long. The festival bus back to town was convenient and we didn’t have to wait very long at even busy times.

Above all, the beautiful countryside and forest added an an awesome element to the festival. I left already scheming to come back next year.

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Here’s 5 records I like to accompany the haze

James Blake; probably my favourite producer right now..

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What is your favourite music related Zombie?

In my opinion Fela>Zomby>Zombie Zombie>The Zombies>Zombie Nation>A.D.A.M’s “zombie”>Major Lazer “Zumbie”>White Zombie>Being disemboweled by a Zombie>The Cranberrie’s “Zombie”.

Right? Give your opinions or add Zombie related music I forgot about in the comments.

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Unlike previous years I bought next to no singles this year which really has affected my ability to judge the tracks of the year. This year my methods of music consumption were basically either through mixes on my ipod, or buying whole albums (usually old albums) on vinyl for home consumption.

Despite all this a few things managed to slip through and become firm favourites so lets take a look at a couple of them. I’m hoping to look at about 10 or so that really made a strong impact.

Ramadanman – Humber

This was floating around on a couple of appleblim’s mixes last year which might explain the lack of excitement that seemed to be around when this song was released this year. ‘Humber’ is a beautiful fusion of wooshy detroit synths and deep drums. Sven Weisemann came through with a nice deep house remix. The dubstep/techno crossover remained interesting to me this year after really making an impact last year, and this record is a prime example. Ramadanman was the producer of one of my favourite tracks of last year too – definitely one of my favourite producers at present.

Floating Points – Vacuum Boogie

I don’t really know much about floating points. This track is at the start of Scott Grooves’ very good FACT mix. I tend to listen to it a lot on the train so I’ve come to associate it with journeys, and I like the way this track builds its way up and up into heavier and heavier levels of bass.

Untold – Just For You

If the last 2 were a bit polite, here is something a tad heavier. Untold with his work on Hemlock, Hessle Audio and recently Hot Flush (basically a list of my favourite dubstep labels) has had a strong year. Really like the garagey aspects on this one and the way the whole thing sounds like it is falling down a hole in several parts. Looking forward to much more from Untold in 2010.

Donato Dozzy and Cio D’or – Menta

Mick and I were both fans of Cio D’ors’ work a few years ago, and it has been good to see her re-emerge this year amidst this darker techno sound that seems to be gaining traction from labels like Time to Express and Prologue. I didn’t make it to the Labyrinth festival in Japan this year, I am absolutely determined to do so next year. I did however enjoy a lot of this stuff. ‘Menta’ is a really deep, rolling tune that I heard in a lot of mixes this year, looking forward to more of this stuff next year.

Ame – Setsa

Ame and Innervisions had another good year with some strong releases. ‘Setsa’ has a good combination of catchiness and weirdness to get you hooked and keep you hooked. Had to pick this one up. Great work from them as well on ‘The Grandfather Paradox’ which I have kept going back to throughout the year.

That is it for today! Back with 5 more at some point soon!

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