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.

Related posts:

1. Moody Blues
2. Shackleton must
3. Function @ About Blank

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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