ILM'S TOP 77 TRACKS of 2010

kinda want to hear a night slugs version of 'money power respect'

i honestly wanted to be unb& to persuasively make the case that the entire uk funky movement needs to be painfully euthanized but i mean it is w/e you like what you like.

to the degree that theres any type of intellectual umm rigour with these agruments i think were better off looking at the aims of the music itself - who does this music seem to envision listening to it, what is it trying to achieve &c - rather than just conducting some relentless anthropology on the ppl who we imagine are listening which often appears to be an accident of history rather than something meaningful ime.

really? to me it sounds way less weirdly laborious than, say, a lex luger beat.

xxxpost

i have no idea why ppl keep bringing up lex luger lately

I brought him up because deej likes flockaveli

sorry for confusing you

I'll try to namedrop someone less trendy next time

the dj arson can also be found here
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RAV9P4Z4

Cheers deej

kingdom mix is cool altho around 6:25 it starts sounding like some dude repeatedly stepping on a dog's chew toy

i probably should approach my criticisms in a way that seems less like i think this stuff isnt 'good' (this mix is pretty impressive altho it makes me wish i was stoned) & more about how it functions in a way that i dont see how it works as dance -- what do u do during that big slow part at the beginning of 'fogs' just sorta sit there?

i cant explain why waka's laboriousness swings to me & this doesnt
the 2nd track on the kingdom was more rhythmically similar to juke & worked that way

deej FWIW this is my favourite danceable (non-Lil Silva) Night Slugs tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc81FemzXus

im skipping around in this mix & i think the things that are annoying me are pretty much the echoes of dubstep rhythms that creep in every once in awhile. that stuff hits my pavlovian response like the sound of drake's voice

kingdom mix is cool altho around 6:25 it starts sounding like some dude repeatedly stepping on a dog's chew toy

― *kl0p* (deej), Friday, January 28, 2011 9:06 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

it's usually a baby toy, don't have a dog

like the song thats going on at 36 mins is dope, but it slows down into this sluggish dubstep tempo & doesnt stay in the groove
sorry for wasting everyone's time while i was bored at work & couldnt listen to samples, but basically i think tim f otm about not liking how the groove switches up a lot

FYI not saying this makes the genre shitty or worthless or that only jerks like this stuff

it's usually a baby toy, don't have a dog

lol'd @ this

otm

im gonna go ahead & say i was wrong or certainly oversimplifying abt the aesthetics at hand in this stuff at least based on the kingdom mix. the sudden shifts into slower tempos are still jarring for me (& those fart bass tones at like 18 mins in) but i can see how it would still work for stoners, ha.

ghetto division stuff here probably holds the place of night slugs music, too, which is why i think i have a distorted view of how this stuff is working in other places vs. chicago
their stuff is a lot more straight-up house groove-wise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcVvVOid1cw

WUT WUT

― Gukbe, Friday, January 28, 2011

I gave up on grooveshark but I'm checking out more of these tracks individually and I like "On a Mission" though I'm not sure why. Also still liking the Fives. (And I'm just going to hold my tongue on some of the ones I dislike, because I don't feel like arguing.)

(I'm even liking "Lights On" and I don't like most house, or that's what I say anyway. There's a doumbeky timbre to some of the beats here, though I don't think that's why I like it.)

I also like her.

"On a Mission" keeps getting better.

their stuff is a lot more straight-up house groove-wise.

yeah some night slugs DJs are housier than others (bok bok and l-vis prob the most). not liking dubstep tempos is fine obv - i was never a huge dubstep fan myself when it existed as a scene, but i don't dislike them enough for it to ruin things.

funny how i diverge from tim even within which NS-affiliated trax are good - i wouldn't have picked out "square one vip" to win anyone over! my key danceable tracks -

jam city - arpjam
ikonika - they are all losing the war
funkineven - heart pound
t.williams ft. terri walker - heartbeat (mosca remix)
floating points - people's potential
julio bashmore - battle for middle you
optimum - crash riddim
velour - booty slammer

god "they are all losing the war" is still completely insane. i really hope ikonika's album places.

I think what bugs me about ilxers being all "hay stop talking people be liking what they like there's nothing more to to it" is that it's usually people who also say in different contexts "oh this is the aural equivalent of an emetic awful and if you like it you are morally and aesthetically reprehensible slash I don't even believe you".

― Tim F, Friday, January 28, 2011 5:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

see, thing is, i'm one of only a couple people ITT pushing back against what i see a toxic (and with regard to certain posters and genres, pervasive) snobbishness toward wrong people who like the wrong things for the wrong reasons lol. i haven't said that people need to stop talking. i'm not on some anti-intellectual tra-la-la shit where i think taste isn't worth interrogating. and i don't put people down for what they like, or or how they like it. not seriously, anyway - maybe in jest. i'd just like to see less gatekeeper elitism.

relax, tim was talking about, like, lamp & plax or whoever

actually duh the mix deej will prob like best is manara's miracles minimix if it's still up - http://www.discobelle.net/2010/01/20/manara-miracles-mixtape/

If "Wut" and "Hard in the Paint" are the Top 2 then BEST ILM POLL EVER

― prolego, Thursday, 27 January 2011 20:36 (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

listening to every youtube and ignoring everyone on the thread = surprisingly enjoyable experience, even if it did mean i heard like kesha and katy perry and kanye and other horrible k acts.

wut wut wut wut oh

In "Katy on a Mission," "this right here I swear will end too soon" (if that's what she's singing) pushes some exact button for me, the melody and cadence more than the words (though the words give it extra kick, I'll admit--and for someone who was just saying I don't care about lyrics, I really enjoy the compressed ballad of club-going in this song).

retrospectively regret dorking out about nothing ITT

main thing is i got to hear "hold yuh" and "age of information," neither of which might have happened otherwise

You know what does suck about this poll though? Nothing off of Heartlands

dj dropped 'wut' in the club last night was awesome - all my smart ppl went ham

mixed into "i'm fly" doooooope

You know what does suck about this poll though? Nothing off of Heartlands

― sammy bagels (a hoy hoy), Saturday, January 29, 2011 4:16 PM (1 hour ago)

the owen p? i'm sure it'll do fine in the albums poll, no need to be sad a rando album cut didn't make the singles list

well actually i'm not so sure it'll do well, because i didn't vote

I'm sure it will to well in the albums poll. My original tracks ballot would have pushed 'Lewis' into the top 77, but I tried to avoid double-counting tracks/albums. If it does place well in albums, ILX be crazy.

Beating a flogged dead gifthorse into the ground here, I guess, but: the Waka vote from me was partially me not able to stop thinking "Ooh! 90s Laibach!" bcz of the beat. SHOUTY DUDE on top is an obvious plus, so I'm happy to see it at #2! ^_^

haha that's a weird-ass comp for lex luger beats but i hear it

Been a mainstay in hiphop since crunk was invented imho I guess haha.

Only on ILM could dubstep be considered to have died or stopped existing as a scene or whatever. But it's probably had its drum and bass 1995 moment by now, where half the scene is content to be generic and play to the crowds and the other half is off doing more interesting things.

Breakbeat has been written out of dance music history somewhat now, but when you think about its relationships of proximity with 2-step, hip hop, techno and house and the way it drew on all of those things circa 2001-2003 (esp. via bootlegs), it's not a bad historical comparison point for uk bass.

No actually I think there's a fair bit of similarity in the audience for the more generic/lairy end of dustep and that of breaks (and drum and bass in the 00s too). Fabric still does these hugely popular dnb nights on a Friday night and at some point in the last few years Skream/Benga/Caspa/Rusko/whoever increasingly started to replace people like the Plump DJs and Adam Freeland in the second room. Obviously Skream and Benga are big enough to headline the whole thing now but that was definitely the situation pre-that tipping point.

Night Slugs and affiliates remind me aesthetically of the more open-eared side of that breakbeat scene, Stanton Warriors and the like. Also some of the rhythms aren't entirely dissimilar. Wut is a total outlier here because most other NS stuff doesn't actually sound like it, including his other single IRL (which I hate). And a magazine like Jockey Slut would have been all over Night Slugs.

But it's probably had its drum and bass 1995 moment by now, where half the scene is content to be generic and play to the crowds and the other half is off doing more interesting things.

tb

oh right i'm still not done listening to these yet here's part 3:

40. GUCCI MANE "Lemonade" [300 points, 10 votes]
i have yet to dive into gucci's back catalog but i do like this song a lot, it's so singularly focused line by line on the titular theme where most rappers would indulge in going off on tangents.

39. LIL B "The Age of Information" [302 points, 11 votes]
my favorite discovery on this list, and one that has me completely reappraising lil b and finding that he's a much better rapper than i gave him credit for. the second verse might be one of the most beautiful raps ever put to tape, like he's having an epiphany right in front of us and is stumbling over his words trying to get it all out in one piece. i used to listen to a lot of the backpacker rap that this song is channeling and none of it ever hit me as hard as this.

38. KATY B "Katy on a Mission" [322 points, 13 votes]
for some reason i find myself listening to the drum programming and particularly how the second half of each bar comes out rapidly in a glob instead of playing out like a normal break. also i like the bit where everything but the drums+bass drop out for the 2nd chorus, inverting the traditional soft/loud structure isn't done enough these days.

37. JAMIE WOON "Night Air" [324 points, 13 votes]
this is just a real pretty song, i don't give a shit about MOR signifiers or anything. i didn't realize burial was involved but now that i know it seems so obvious. the bass is massive and his call and response with the burial-ized versions of his lines are what makes the song for me.

36. CARIBOU "Sun" [330 points, 11 votes]
it's easy to forget this guy used to be an IDM dude but it comes through a bit on tracks like this, in how even when he locks into a dance groove the track doesn't sit still. the weirdest thing about the beat here is that there's snares on the 2, 3, and 4 instead of the usual 2 and 4.

35. WIZ KHALIFA "Black & Yellow" [330 points, 13 votes]
ok i definitely underestimated this song, it didn't seem special the first time i heard it but now it's sounding like a instant classic. it's the best case i've heard for siding w/ the steelers in the superbowl. people who are saying wiz doesnt have any presence as a rapper are way off, he more than carries the track here. and it has a middle eight! more rap songs should.

34. M.I.A. "Born Free" [340 points, 13 votes]
is this MIA's take on thrash metal or something? this...doesn't really have any of the musical elements of the MIA tracks that i like.

33. THESE NEW PURITANS "We Want War" [342 points, 10 votes]
this is pretty cool though i kinda feel like i voted for it just to get some variety on my ballot. the singer sounds way too unassuming britpoppy for the music and i can't decide if i like that cognitive dissonance approach.

32. TENSNAKE "Coma Cat" [342 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote]
i wish i could figure out which ILM thread stuff like this gets discussed on since there's always a few great dance tracks that place in the yearend lists that i haven't heard of at all. this sounds pretty unassuming until the B section when the synth bells drop (are they supposed to be steel drums? they don't have quite the right timbre) and then it's a jam.

31. EARL SWEATSHIRT "Earl" [344 points, 10 votes]
i think the main appeal of a lot of the odd future stuff is that tyler and earl use those super complex rhyme structures that harken back to 90s rap and make even the nagl-est lyrics sound fun and inviting, but unlike most of the underground/backpacker rappers still working in that style, their beats sound fresh and not like old dj premier outtakes.

30. ROBYN "Hang With Me" [346 points, 14 votes]
i love me some synth arpeggios so i enjoy the production on robyn's tracks but a lot of the time her vocals leave me cold. this song's alright though, mainly on the strength of the bridge, i don't like the chorus much.

29. GYPTIAN "Hold Yuh" / "Hold Yuh (Funkystepz remix)" [380 points, 12 votes]
hmm i don't think i'd heard this before. always nice to hear a song that preserves its momentum with only minimal percussion, in this case just a snare drum. i don't really like the piano sound, it's a bit too piercing and muffled.

28. CIARA ft. LUDACRIS "Ride" [394 points, 12 votes]
the video is kinda fascinating but without it i don't think there's nearly as much to be impressed by without it. not my favorite ciara track at all.

27. LINDSTRØM & CHRISTABELLE "Lovesick" [394 points, 18 votes]
this one's got a good groove and i love the little piano figure at the end of some bars, but i don't really like the sung bit in the second half and in general this doesn't stand up to 'baby don't stop' or 'music in my mind' for me, mainly due to the lack of a good sung hook.

26. KANYE WEST ft. PUSHA T "Runaway" [396 points, 13 votes]
i really like the way pusha's voice sounds over kanye's beats here and on 'so appalled' even if he's not bringing his best verses to the table. here he's the unapologetic foil to kanye's endless apologizing

25. TINIE TEMPAH "Pass Out" [398 points, 14 votes]
wow this is fun! i have friends who are into oldschool video game music and such and claim to have no interest in mainstream pop stuff but i wonder if they realize just how close the two approach each other these days.

24. KANYE WEST ft. DWELE "Power" [410 points, 15 votes]
this is one of the points on the kanye record where the album rock undertones break through to the surface for a bit. though listening to this makes me wonder if we don't give kanye enough credit as a rapper anymore, he goes hard for the first 2 verses, but then the asshole line and the obama line are such a stinkers that they're all you remember.

23. SADE "Soldier of Love" [410 points, 16 votes]
ok i'd be lying if i said i listened to Sade at all before 2010, but if this song's any indication then i fucked up big time. i love that the track gets away with using that distorted muted guitar sample. when i was a kid i used to make shitty corny rock 'songs' on my computer using an identical one, and there seemed to be no possible way to make it sound good.

22. KE$HA "TiK ToK" [424 points, 14 votes, 3 first place votes]
i feel like this song violates some primal, unspoken rule of club music where you're not supposed to remind the listener about the passage of time. nevertheless, it's the best ke$ha song to date on the strength of that infectious chorus which makes you forget all about the verses each time it hits.

21. JOANNA NEWSOM "Good Intentions Paving Company" [428 points, 13 votes]
everything about this song feels awkward to me. the moment when the drums drop into the mix is awkward, the transition into and out of those little bits with the banjo is awkwardly done, that trumpet line in the last part awkwardly clashes with her vocals. there's still stuff to like here, but this isn't one of her songs that justifies its length, i don't think. the parts don't work together naturally in my mind.

24. KANYE WEST ft. DWELE "Power" [410 points, 15 votes]
this is one of the points on the kanye record where the album rock undertones break through to the surface for a bit. though listening to this makes me wonder if we don't give kanye enough credit as a rapper anymore, he goes hard for the first 2 verses, but then the asshole line and the obama line are such a stinkers that they're all you remember.

the brilliant thing abt the single version is that u don't hear those terrible lines or despair at the song going on for too long coz it beats you up and leaves like an awesome thing

the age of information is unbelievably stellar. would have been on my ballot. just a transcendentally perfect musical moment, yall

think all the lyrics to that song are pretty great.

It's been interesting reading these rundowns and guessing at their author before you get to the bottom.

and it has a middle eight! more rap songs should.

ha yeah man when this first popped up i was like 'damn i love the bridge!'

ciderpress v often otm in that rundown

Night Slugs and affiliates remind me aesthetically of the more open-eared side of that breakbeat scene, Stanton Warriors and the like. Also some of the rhythms aren't entirely dissimilar. Wut is a total outlier here because most other NS stuff doesn't actually sound like it, including his other single IRL (which I hate). And a magazine like Jockey Slut would have been all over Night Slugs.

Well Stanton Warriors was who I was thinking of. Pretty sure I'm on record somewhere comparing Night Slugs to early Stanton Warriors (which is very complimentary in my book) about 2 years ago.

Though I don't think there's much of a binary b/w Stanton Warriors and Plump DJs.

Also does this make James Blake the new Hybrid?

Who is the BT of dubstep/uk bass?