ILM'S TOP 77 TRACKS of 2010

Taio, Hot Chip, Four Tet, the Fives, Marina ???

yup - plus deadboy, planningtorock ("colouring of pigeons" is credited to the knife, mt sims and planningtorock) and i guess elton john and elly jackson on "all of the lights" lol.

Between Drake, Azari, Caribou, J Biebz, and Crystal Castles, the Great White North has caught up to you guys.

Pretty sure "Soldier of Love" will place. A lot of people (including myself) didn't like the album anyway.

The Reverend OTM re "Dynamite". Track of the night, on my best night out of the year.

British tracks that are pretty much assured of placing: Pass Out, Wut, Soldier Of Love, We Want War, at least one James Blake track. And that's it.

Agree the UK will probably do better in the albums list.

(xpost - is Dynamite the piano house one early in the album? That's my favourite)

Always Loved a Film maybe?

pretty sure "katy on a mission" will place

I dunno, I haven't listened to the album and don't have any plans to. Tbh, the idea of encountering it as an album track rather than a ubiquitous hit is blowing my mind more than Lex only hearing "Lemme Smang It" as an mp3. It does have house piano, but it isn't really house.

Oh, "Perfect Stranger" better place. I voted for that. (Also Sade and Tinie Tempah. Sorry other British people!)

Btw, I heard this awesome dancehall-y song by Katy B and a female toaster today, but didn't catch what it was. What is it?

probably "lights on", her current top 5 hit with ms dynamite

Yeah it's Lights On, the track that PUT UK FUNKY INTO THE TOP THREE and no one commented upon it.

I'd forgotten about Underworld - Scribble will probably place. And maybe Swoon by the Chemical Brothers as well. Never sure how much of an ILM following there is for Katy On A Mission, seemed to be a bigger deal on FT/Poptimists.

Yeah, that's it. Thanks!

Oh, "Perfect Stranger" better place. I voted for that. (Also Sade and Tinie Tempah. Sorry other British people!)

(Oh, and Taio. Duh.)

i probably shouldn't reopen the argument but i don't hear those tracks as uk funky, particularly katy on a mission. like it seemed like a deliberate provocation to me when u posted it to the uk funky thread. n.b. my notion of uk funky is entirely shaped by rtc & tim f ithatt

Yeah it's Lights On, the track that PUT UK FUNKY INTO THE TOP THREE and no one commented upon it.

i remember saying that exactly this would happen - that katy b would use "katy on a mission" as a trojan horse to bring in the house and funky beats that she'd previously been known for - back when everyone acted like they were going to get dubstep cooties off it (ignoring how well "katy on a mission" works as a POP song)

or rather by occasionally checking out that thread, i'm not at all as well informed as that last part sounded xp

Sounds like I voted for the wrong Underworld and Katy B tracks.

Pretty sure "Katy on a Mission" = dubstep; "Lights On" = funky, yeah?

oh lol sorry matt dc i automatically assumed that was a lex post!

Pretty sure "Katy on a Mission" = dubstep; "Lights On" = funky, yeah?

yeah, and "louder" is just straight house.

lol idk what i'm talking abt or to

the bbc "perfect stranger" performance is real good, kind of leaves me cold without that visual

I completely flipped out for it before I had any visual.

i remember saying that exactly this would happen - that katy b would use "katy on a mission" as a trojan horse to bring in the house and funky beats that she'd previously been known for - back when everyone acted like they were going to get dubstep cooties off it (ignoring how well "katy on a mission" works as a POP song)

I think the reservation was more "she's as likely to turn her back on funky altogether once she gets a sniff of success" which is fair enough given the track record of equivalent figures in other UK scenes.

Perfect Stranger is amazing and the best Katy B track but it really is total 90s ravepop Baby D nostalgia. It's a good kind of nostalgia though.

it really is total 90s ravepop Baby D nostalgia

I'd like to note that I'm an American who started listening to dance music like 4 years ago.

I like "Perfect Stranger" a lot but "As I" is still my favourite.

I tend to approach pop songs on a case by case rather than as part of a strategy so my attitude towards Katy can go up or down depending on which tune i'm listening to. FWIW I prefer "Crossroads" (also dubstep) to "Katy on a Mission".

it really is total 90s ravepop Baby D nostalgia

hmm i didn't get that from it at all, isn't it like superserious non-goodtimes look we aren't at all cheesy even though we have beats and female vox

?

i shld prob just stop posting right

"As I" is great.

"Perfect Stranger" seems to me more like, um, Shy FX & T-Power's "Shake Ur Body", rather than actual 90s rave pop.

I think it's because Perfect Stranger feels like breakbeat dubstep rather than Shake Your Body, which is more post-95 dnb gone pop. Anyway we're derailing a bit, maybe a separate Katy B thread might be in order given that she's got an album out soon.

I think it's because Perfect Stranger feels like breakbeat dubstep rather than Shake Your Body, which is more post-95 dnb gone pop.

If you think about it this supports rather than contradicts my point.

I'm about 500 posts late on this, but mind = blown by ambient Bieber.

Ambient Bieber's presence on this list feels especially disappointing to me because I voted for a real Justin Bieber song that I know has no chance of placing.

Ambient Bieber is disappointing to me cos there were a bunch of good ambient things that came out this year that no-one gave a shit about cos they weren't basically novelty records.

Another good reason to be!

Re Bieber: it's undeniable that the Bieber factor got a lot more people to hear it than would usually hear any other record described as "ambient", and otherwise it would never have got into the countdown. But I still think it sounds pretty special on its own merits; if it was just a joke I wouldn't have voted for it.

What other good ambient things would you recommend from 2010? (serious question)

Loveliescrushing

interesting comparison with usmileambient

smdh at ppl assuming usmileambient is a lol novelty vote, it's a legit awes piece of process music

the original track is pretty good too

Yeah, my reaction wasn't "wau this is a classic ambient track, wish I'd voted for this" but more like "I can't believe somebody slowed down a Justin Bieber song and ended up with THIS -- and it's pretty good, too!"

As for "real" ambient music, Eluvium's "Similes" was my #3 album (some might not call it ambient because of the vocals, I say whatever to that) and I just realized that I forgot to vote for the Infinite Body album, that was a good one too (well, at least half of the album was breathtakingly good, the rest was a bit meh).

Listening to Lovesliescrushing now - it does sound kind of similar! Pretty nice.

Is there anywhere you can download the ambient Justin Bieber song so you don't have to listen to it in parts on Youtube?

smdh at ppl assuming usmileambient is a lol novelty vote, it's a legit awes piece of process music

I know right, but I bet you a pound that Philip Jeck isn't going to place in the next 40.

Ambient(-ish) things that I liked in 2010: Loscil, Grasslung, Erik K Skodvin (the Deaf Centre guy), Clem Leek, Greg Haines, Marcus Fjellstrom, BV Dub... not really the same sonic territory as the Biebster though, so ymmv

smdh at ppl assuming usmileambient is a lol novelty vote, it's a legit awes piece of process music

the original track is pretty good too

― nakhchivan, Wednesday, January 26, 2011 4:55 AM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark

it's not that the the votes are lol votes. tbh, i assume that they express legitimate appreciation. the fact that the track got heard in the first place, where most ambient music just doesn't, seems undeniably to have been based on its virality, and that in turn on the bieber factor. this makes is something of an internet age novelty track, regardless of what one thinks of it as music.

tuomas -

www.megaupload.com/?d=A74DRQDQ

Thanks!

As I said above, I completely agree that it wouldn't have placed if it was processed seal noises instead of Bieber. But given the top 77 isn't exactly full of experimental music, I'm very happy it placed.

NickB: thanks for the recommendations, I'll check them out.

not yet sure how to parse "uk funky," but i listened to both "lights on" and "katy on a mission" last night. hated the former (though the lyrical conceit is awes), loved the latter. not sure i'd have voted for it, as dance pop isn't really my thing, but i'm hoping it places. it's at least as good as, say, taio cruz.

this makes is something of an internet age novelty track, regardless of what one thinks of it as music.

― normal_fantasy-unicorns (contenderizer),

that is kinda obvious yeah....but that 'virality' is entirely epiphenomenal to its quality -- there are thousands of timestretched edits of pop songs on youtube but none of them are nearly so popular, because none are so successful

i rate it a lot more highly that any of the names nickb mentions, most of whom i am quite familiar with