Tim's overflowing bounty of 2010 pop riches extravaganza thread

Mr. F thanks for sharing this stuff, wow

"lifetime groove" is such a jam. one of those things you hear played out pretty often and never get tired of

Funkystepz ft. Louise Williams - Whispers
Rudimental ft. Adiyam & MC Shantie - Midnight Affair

One trope I'm wary of is that of the "good song" in dance music. This isn't just about hard techno or drum & bass or other genres whose engagement with songs is sparing at best - a slavish devotion to songs runs entirely ashore on those genres, and song-enthusiasts and genre-enthusiasts are left with little option except mutual rejection (not to say there aren't people who think that, say, Lamb are the pinnacle of jungle, but you can spot these types a mile off). More insidious - because more successful - is the celebration of good songs in populist vocal-friendly dance genres, of which the closest to my heart are 2-step and uk funky. It's because this brand of popism run amok can survive or even prosper by latching onto these genres that it does the most damage to people's attempts to get their head around what's actually going on: a viral inhibitor that lets you see just enough so as to allow you to think you see clearly.

Of course pop-minded dance music is full of good songs, and its songfulness is often one of its key attractions, so you could rightly wonder what I'm getting at. The thing in issue here is the form of goodness (or, rather, "attraction") in dance-pop. Really I'm not interested in any kind of dance-pop transcending its roots to make songs that work in any context: the very appeal of dance-pop is its rootedness, the way in which its pop-ambition struggles up out of a dense undergrowth of sonically loaded contextual specificity. Even at its most basic, universalist level - say, Robin S's "Show Me Love" - dance-pop is governed by the logic of the dancefloor, a dancefloor that, yes, has space for singing along and singing to one another as much as it does throwing moves, but nonetheless remains a physical space, a space where sound is first and foremost determined by its physical effects (and how empty would "Show Me Love" be without the specific buzzy desirousness of its bassline).

The critical language of dance-pop needs to remain mindful of this underlying truth that what constitutes a good song in (and for) a particular genre is in large part determined by the sound-values of that genre, that the hallmarks of the song (the big-chested diva, the uplifting chorus) are effectively sonic tricks to be deployed as ruthlessly and as precisely as an arpeggio or breakbeat. Instead of asking, "what is it about this dance-pop that makes us forget about its genre" we need to ask "what is it about this dance-pop that reminds one of its genre", how are the emphases on sonic rootedness and pop-universalism intertwining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bry6gxGJVnY

These are two good songs.

"Whispers", in time-hounoured tradition, is a vocal mix of a previous instrumental tune, "Trinity Hill", which was a fine, stirring interstitial funky tune, its blurry piano chords and restless, endlessly ear-tickling beat combining to capture effortlessly the tense bounciness of funky, that sense of it as house on its toes, always tumbling forward over and over. As a tune, "Trinity Hill" isn't exactly groundbreaking - it's basically a straightforward combination of strobing piano house and the kind of airy percussive minimal deep tune that Sebo K might have played four years ago - but it was nothing if not likeable, an instant enlivener in any set.

On the vocal version, Louise Williams sings in a drifting, sighing manner that you could almost imagine her concocting on the spot, intuitively responding to the ebbs and flows in the groove. Undeniably, "Whispers" is a wispy song, but this is also its charm, its very tenuousness capturing a certain vibe of dreamy diva distraction, the eyes closed head back deliriousness of depth that the tune's "classic house" tropes always played with anyway. As a full-blown anthem or "tune of the summer" it fails utterly because it doesn't even go there: Louise or the producers or both understand that instead the role of the "song" here ultimately is to further draw out the scintillating interplay or elements. Nearly all the best Funkystepz vocal tunes - see also "For U" and especially "Lovers", released some time this year - have this same not-quite-coalesced quality, the vocal line itself a percussive counter-element flowing against rather than with the groove. It's almost like, if the vocals ever take on a life of their own independent of the beat, then something has gone wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA0wfeUVliQ

"Midnight Affair" is more typically songlike but hesitantly so, singer Adiyam seeming to put in the minimum effort necessary actually to carry the tune. Even more than on "Whispers", the vocal feels conscious of its necessary subordination to the groove, Adiyam (whose vocals are roughly comparable to Kyla's little-girl-grown-up sexiness, but as if Kyla was shaken awake and handed the microphone in bed) always arriving a beat or two late so as to give the rhythm a chance to announce itself. This is vital on "Midnight Affair" because the rhythm is so voluptuous, so delectable, a stabbing yet delicate take on funky's signature clave rhythm riddled (almost palsied) with micro-tics and hesitations, and a bassline that alternates between menacingly polite and absurdly flatulent.

Again, Adiyam's singing - dreamy, distracted, spare, filled with pauses that the beat is happy to fill - is relegated to the role of rhythmic counterpoint, even more literally than on "Whispers", the barely melodic bridge in particular seeming to drive home the explosions going on underneath. On both tunes, the vocals understand what many pop-minded listeners do not about uk funky: rather than somehow account for or mitigate the music's uncomfortable syncopation, they embrace it, intensify it. When MC Shantie's wordy, spaceless rap arrives the tentativeness of Adiyam's performance is thrown into sharp relief, its true purpose - to offer a variety of different, tensely restrained models for how to respond to the beat - laid bare, the tune itself at last succumbing to the almost unbearable desire to have something smooth to wrap itself around when everything else seems so fractured.

They're supposed to get roughly better as they go along.

― Tim F, Saturday, 5 February 2011 08:44 (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

how many more do we have to go!!!!

― gr8080, Saturday, 5 February 2011 20:16 (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

About 10.

At this rate it'll be going until April :-/

― Tim F, Saturday, 5 February 2011 20:43 (3 months ago) Bookmark

?? (are these on your fb & just haven't been c/pd or did u not end up writing them? or?)

It got too busy at work to keep doing them and not have it be painful, and there was less audience interest this year I think, maybe the meme had gotten old.

this meme never gets old! but no worries if you don't have time to do it any more.

^^^

maybe just release the rest as a list?

support this idea ^^^ i think ur underestimating audience interest unless u mean outside ilx?

yeah post the list!

i always feel these are wasted being just on ilx and fb, you should think of putting them somewhere proper tim.

im mostly a lurker but i always read this

same here, would love to see the rest of the list

I support the movement for publication of Tim F choice cuts. That bit on Adiyam is spot on.

Alright then. Counting down:

Silkie - 80s Baby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xK5eyciIy8
At this point it's kind of offensive how underrated Silkie is. Because he really is the best, like, dubstep idealised. Like here, has stop-start riddimization ever been quite so shudderingly precise? Percussion banging it out of order.

Wretch 32 - Traktor (The Mike Delinquent Project Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-B7L6suQtU
The grand return of 2-step! Don't fight it, feel it.

Lil' Boosie - Bottom To The Top
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkQy7o-u8KI
Fucking love Boosie, and never more so than when he's getting all soft (in this regard see also "Green Light Anthem". Adore the uplifting 80s boogie vibe on this one. Hope you get out dude.

Carnao - Get Out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csh_-ioIcQs&feature=related
Like a private daydream haunted by shadows. Stand by prior claim of strong Terence Trent D'arby vibes on this one.

Tinie Tempah - Pass Out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzvGKas5RsU
Who could resist Tinie?

Jamie Woon - Night Air
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL0pTo9Z_XU
Corny like all of y'all. Funny how I was obsessed with this but have listened to the album, like, twice.

Rihanna - The Only Girl In The World
http://chloeandeddie.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/9fe7c_afcb2739-448d-4062-9ffe-bd565d077c9e.jpg
So many nights. Private salute to Catherine on this one, which gets both of us all histrionic on the dancefloor.

Screama ft. Farah - Kiss Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5zVBRwEGZQ
So want to hang out with Farah. You can measure the precise brilliance of "Kiss Me" by the extent to which Titchy proclaims to be underwhelmed by it.

Benoit & Sergio - Full Grown Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVKhwa_zONY
Amniotic high. A certain autumnal elegance at work here (I even crafted a mixtape called "Boys of Autumn" around it).

Kingdom - Fogs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezVNFkGFMUE
Of all the overhyped R&B cut-ups in 2010, this is the one that stuck with me. Also thematically astute, offering the beautiful nightmare inside Beyonce's "Sweet Dream".

Vampire Weekend - White Sky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaTgDgCSh-w
Soz Lex.

T2 - Better Off As Friends (Lil' Silva Remix)

The very definition of apocalypse. If you're underwhelmed by Lil' Silva's stentorian sounds for the one-one, revisit this charming psycho-rave number.

Los Rakas - Abrazame (Uproot Andy Remix)

The part in the video clip where the young couple is dancing on the beach makes me happier than just about anything ever.

The Jacka & Laroo - Don't Be Scared

The feel goodiest of feel good vibes. Especially because it starts off so mournful-seeming.

The-Dream - Yamaha

Sometimes the Indie Choice is the Correct Choice. Though there's several other cuts you could sub in here. Love the way "still got your name tattooed on my back does a rainbow splay that's like the aural equivalent of MJ in the "Blame It On The Boogie" video.

Devine Collective - House Girls 6

That unholy racket.

Husalah - You Neva Know

Holds the record for the tune played and sungalong-to the most times in a row in 2010. Also, wow so pretty.

Yelawolf - Pop The Trunk
Score one for goth. Score one more for literalism in this video clip. Also this soundtracked a pretty dark time at work for me.

Diddy - Dirty Money - Ass On The Floor

Floods each and every one of my pleasure receptors. There's a moment in this - Kevin knows which - that is as fine as music gets.

Roll Deep - Green Light (Ill Blu Remix)

The most massive dance-pop ever made. You know Ill Blu are getting good when they compulsively restructure their source material to make it work better as pop music. But also, like, that beat!

Shy Child - Dark Destiny

I have so many private theories about this song, they change each time I listen, but all of them make me a bit weepy. Whatever "Dark Destiny" is about, exactly, it's clear that its emotional anchor is a love of others in spite of (because of?) their flaws. It's the most generous song of last year.

The Fives - It's What You Do

Amazingly, I didn't really pay great regard to this the first time I heard it. But then the video clip inspired incredibly strong feelings of good will in me, and then somethow the song saved/changed/justified my life. Now inexplicably tied in with memories of Spain.

Okay so ILX doesn't like me positng so many youtube links at once clearly.

Rihanna - The Only Girl In The World
http://chloeandeddie.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/9fe7c_afcb2739-448d-4062-9ffe-bd565d077c9e.jpg
So many nights. Private salute to Catherine.

T2 - Better Off As Friends (Lil' Silva Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgDEqUeVSTE
The very definition of apocalypse.

Los Rakas - Abrazame (Uproot Andy Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyujRXZ2Gms
The part in the video clip where the young couple is dancing on the beach makes me happier than just about anything ever.

The Jacka & Laroo - Don't Be Scared
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRXRvShQlWE
The feel goodiest of feel good vibes.

The-Dream - Yamaha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRGGFjXUo4Q
Sometimes the Indie Choice is the Correct Choice. Though there's several other cuts you could sub in here. Love the way "still got your name tattooed on my back" does a rainbow splay that's like the aural equivalent of MJ in the "Blame It On The Boogie" video.

Devine Collective - House Girls 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDZceeoRZdI
That unholy racket.

Yelawolf - Pop The Trunk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np3pU-dLok4
Score one for goth. Score one more for literalism in this video clip. Also this soundtracked a pretty dark time at work for me.

Diddy - Dirty Money - Ass On The Floor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90-SWwtpdZU
Floods each and every one of my pleasure receptors. There's a moment in this - Kevin knows which - that is as fine as music gets.

Roll Deep - Green Light (Ill Blu Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyCEO4k3BXU
The most massive dance-pop ever made. You know Ill Blu are getting good when they compulsively restructure their source material to make it work better as pop music. But also, like, that beat!

Shy Child - Dark Destiny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_SWeQCFTtg
I have so many private theories about this song, they change each time I listen, but all of them make me a bit weepy. Whatever "Dark Destiny" is about, exactly, it's clear that its emotional anchor is a love of others in spite of (because of?) their flaws. It's the most generous song of last year.

The Fives - It's What You Do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOcefsTgbhE
Amazingly, I didn't really pay great regard to this the first time I heard it. But then the video clip inspired incredibly strong feelings of good will in me, and then somethow the song saved/changed/justified my life. Now inexplicably tied in with memories of Spain.

thx!!

today just got so much better! brb listening to all the music.

o shit that t2 track!

cheers tim! loading this thread up when I get home.

kudos

thanks!

Diddy - Dirty Money - Ass On The Floor

Floods each and every one of my pleasure receptors. There's a moment in this - Kevin knows which - that is as fine as music gets.

us otm

What's this special moment?

that part just before the hook where the vocals are multitracked and overlapping, they're singing "you know just what to do..."

O yah, real nice.

http://chzgifs.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/whoisatthedoorp1.gif

^me upon opening this thread today^

<3<3<3 Silkie

His EP (City Limits Volume 1.6-1.8) from last month is really good too

Also a week or two ago I posted on FB my top tunes of 2011 so far as a kind of reverse birthday present. There are some ace tunes i forgot about or have discovered since then so I'll do an addendum at some point. Also the original post included a thank you to r|t|c in particular which bears repeating.

33. David Guetta ft. RIhanna - Who's That Chick?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-uEU0Q45hE&feature=fvst

Like a lot of people sooner or later I realised that "The Only Girl In The World" was a fucking anthem. This is not that but it's pretty top-shelf Peel material, there's a certain sense of inevitability to the way it comes together that I respect. Dig the staggered trance riffs (lol at Tim observation very much in character).

32. Missy Elliott - Work It (Nicolas Jaar Rework)

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

This kinda sounds unformed and messy the first time you listen to it and... well that doesn't really change but Jaar's rippling percussion just gets more entrancing the more you listen. The point isn't really Missy's (slowed down) vocal, which while always welcome is more like the maypole around which the groove winds.

31. Hot Natured - Forward Motion

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

Because retro faux Chicago house never gets old, and because of the way the male diva vocal mimics the excellent rising bassline so expertly.

30. Scottie B - Feel Night, Feel Right

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REDw_MSf7bI

Sculpted, bouncy, trancey vocal UK funky that is as superficial and steroided as the (unrelated) beach babes video that accompanies it on youtube would suggest, while also attaining some of the dreaminess of Jam & Spoon's "Right In The Night". But what pushes this over the top are those lazy half-time snares that Scottie B introduces, adding a subtle pout to all the frantic posing.

29. Vybz Kartel - Colouring Book

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK6RX2w98lI

When did Vybz's work become so tinged with melancholy? I think it's part of some general riposte to / accomodation of R&B's autotune era, but for the past few year's most everything has seemed wounded and forlorn. A bit much to take over an entire album, as a single shot it can be tremendously evocative. Admittedly, "Colouring Book" can attribute most of its melancholy to the riddim rather than Vybz: when he sings "galla said me pretty like a colouring book" over dolorous minor-key strings I can't help but imagine some "Where The Wild Roses Grow" style ending.

28. Ussy - Playtime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE_4300UfJQ

This awesome bassline tune falls within the time-honoured category of haunted house arcade music, radioactive bass glowering through the cellophane blue spookiness of its synth chords and the springloaded friskiness of its beat. Slick and sleek as well as sickly, its funereal vibe is a total pose; at heart its seductive strategy is straight "treat em mean keep em keen."

27. Benoit & Sergio - Principles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRCYPbXG6xU

I've discovered a lot of amazing Benoit & Sergio this year, "Principles" being only the best actually from this year. But that is still pretty great, a dream moonwalk through sleazy house-pop wherein the sleaze becomes some kind of state of being within which dancers can aspire to something more; the unexpected nobility of lasciviousness.

26. Andy J & St-Tee - Crunk VIP

http://soundcloud.com/andy-jay/crunk-vip

Slamming UK Funky tune best heard with MCs Shantie and Rankin' over the top in Marcus Nasty's 20th April 2011 Rinse FM set.

25. J Bevin - Zulu

http://soundcloud.com/deep-teknologi-records/dtr006-zulu-j-bevin

As above.

24. Yelawolf ft. Trae - Shit I Seen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MURg4qesYL8

Yelawolf was my favourite discovery of 2010, and pretty immediately entered that twilight zone of "when will he blow it?" Like, a doubletime rapper from Alabama who looks like a trenchcoat high school drop-out can't help but turn into a caricature, right? "Shit I Seen" proves he hasn't fallen off yet, Yela and Trae getting paranoid quicksilver over louche soundtrack beats.

23. Swindle ft. Roses Gabor - Spend Is Dough

http://soundcloud.com/swindleuk/spend-is-dough-ft-roses-gabore

Sugary but queasy mascara'd zombie-lurch grime-house. Like the vocal - superficially sweet but actually mean-spirited - the groove here walks an expert tight rope between svelte and murderous.

22. John Talabot ft. Glasser - Families

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfPP6Y1gEic

Talabot's arrangement on "Families" sounds like a more ornate, illustrious take on The Tough Alliance's impossibly optimistic plasticky sunshine balearic, all echoey piano chords and hazy synth harmonies and a vaguely Carribean slow but propulsive groove. Glasser's happy but still typically mysterious, almost forbidding give this a more hymnal air, as joyous as an apocryphal imagined celebration of vernal equinox.

21. E-40 ft. Slim Thug & Bun-B - That Candy Paint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hW1EqdzCDI

E-40 has released so much amazing material (4 albums!) in the past year that picking out one song is a pretty arbitrary process, but for first timer action it's hard to go past the sugary slickness of "That Candy Paint", a lovely summery companion to Jacka and Laroo's "Don't Be Scared" from last year.

20. Jennifer Hudson - Where You At

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB_IvRcr04E

Love me some J-Hud big-chested drama, and she delivers the goods consummately here, really putting the "power" in "power-ballad". One of the subtly excellent things about Hudson is how good she is at locating that point in R&B where her Idol tendencies can be given full rein without overpowering the real pathos in the underlying song. Maybe it's just that for Hudson affectation always involves attitude: "Now you said you'd go to church / stop slanging, find a real job and go to work!" Consider yourself told.

19. TOK ft. Sleepy Hallowtips - Heroin Needle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw2VD0H_LdM

The rawest, craziest tune in this list, I think, an endless assault of beats and rhymes that attacks with a singleminded intensity you'd possibly forgotten people could still summon up in 2011.

18. Beth Ditto - Do You Need Someone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-xRaxdxEhA

Beth Ditto's recent EP leaves The Gossip's snarls behind entirely for glamorous, glassy Chicago house revivalism a la Azari & III. This is my favourite pick: a marvelously percolating beat, brilliant bumping bassline and lovely, shimmering vocals promising succour and sympathy - seems Beth has learnt a thing or two about being a house diva.

17. S-X - Wooo Riddim (DJ Q Remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1NzVp2MSuY

Increasingly, bassline is moving into this weird ecumenical rave-pop zone where it happily steals the best ideas from grime, funky, 2-step, dubstep et. al. and I have strong suspicions that it's gonna make a dramatic comeback this year or not. This isn't that pop but it's pretty ravey, and also beautiful, churning synths and unsettled vocal samples playing off one another with masterful aplomb.

16. Richelle - Mascotte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjfDD6Fy9cw&feature=related

Nominally post-dubstep or "global bass" or whatevs, "Mascotte" basically is brilliant because it resembles about 10 Jammer circa 2002 grime instrumentals intricately interwoven into the most restlessly mutational club banger ever. The first time I heard it I chalked it up to some insane feat of DJ alchemy - would never have assumed it was all just one track.

15. Tanya Stephens - Shame On You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnzlf_Ccy70

Lighters in the air. Tanya is one of my favourite pop characters, which is to say that she is one of my favourite dancehall chanteuses, which is the same thing or near enough. "Shame On You" is deceptively breezy summery fun, Tanya trying literally to shame the object of her desire into spending the night, but as the song progresses things get tinged with desperation and outrage: "I want to take legal action, if I don't get no satisfaction!"

14. Groove Theory - Tell Me (George Fitzgerald Remix)

http://soundcloud.com/george-fitzgerald/groove-theory-tell-me-remix

Have very strong, very clear memories of the video clip for "Tell Me" sending out chill vibes during the mid-90s. The best thing about this housey update is that it preserves those vibes perfectly: yes this may have a very 2011 syncopated beat but it's really about those gorgeously morphing synth chords and the nurturing 2-note bassline. And that vocal. God that vocal.

13. Art Department - I C U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wed69VmFWU

The best track on Art Department's album of lugubrious male vocal house is its closer, where the singer recedes into the middle ground as an evocative voyeuristic siren, allowing the music to patch the emotional punch: insistent cowbell, crunchy snares, melancholy arpeggios and a lovely repeated synth chord like a heart palpitating with intermingled doubt and desire.

12. Lloyd ft. Awesome Jones - Cupid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tuSqN4pNF4

I love stupid big uplifting pop tracks, and "Cupid" certainly is that, quickly moving from its rumbling bass intro into Lloyd's vocal saccharine so thick you'd need a knife to start scooping it out of the jar. I think this may be his finest moment, possibly, which is saying something. The chorus really does take off.

11. Kelly Rowland ft. Lil Wayne - Motivation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1XozsBN5Z4

Gorgeously becalmed R&B reminiscent of Cassie's "Me & U", only with Cassie's whispery barelythereness replaced with a Kelly's suggestively breathy sighs, so that instead of that tune's faintly ahuman menace "Motivation" captures very precisely that post-coital spent vibe, quiet shivering tremors where full-throated bellows might have been only moments before.

10. Nicki Minaj - Super Bass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JipHEz53sU&feature=player_embedded

"Super Bass" is only now being released as a single but already it sounds like a karaoke standard, Nicki's opening rap in particular just so fun and natural to inhabit that for the first time she seems a character who, if she didn't exist, would have had to be invented. But more than this "Super Bass" is like a redemption of modern rap's plasticky fetish, its tinny synthetic flare and amateur but enthusiastic R&B chorus and yes even its dodgy autotuned middle eight attaining a certain grandeur and sense of purpose that is hard to credit when the song's not actually playing.

9. Cherine Anderson - Make Up Sex

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSRi8_20fno&feature=share

"Make Up Sex" actually sounds like something you've gotta work at, an exhaustive and exhausting panorama of lust and fury - or is it fury and lust? Where one ends and the other begins is never exactly clear. Not sure what I love most about this. Is it the bizarre gonzo groove? Is it Cherine's shocked declaration, "Boy you got me breakin' breakin' glass / boy you got me cussing so low class!" Or maybe it's when she slams her man against the wall and pulls down his pants to check whether he's been getting some recent action (how does that even work?)?

8. Diddy-Dirty Money - No Ordinary Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS8aH7pLVF8&feature=player_embedded

Diddy is weirdly obsessed with Sade: in the past year he's released one song that namechecks her, one track actually called "Sade", and this, which is like one of those X Factor style "mash ups" of Diddy/Dirty Money's "Hate You Now" with Sade "No Ordinary Love" and "Soldier of Love", just to ram home the fact that, hey, how good is Sade? Well, yeah! Also this is amazing, icy and foreboding and sensual all at once, its multiple switches like a dream that keeps wandering in different directions in a way that always seems to make perfect sense.

7. Busy Signal - Pon Dem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJIFf8XH_As

Real down the rabbit hole dancehall madness. Each time you think it can't possibly get more impossibly, brilliantly overblown it, well, does.

6. Invisible Conga People - In A Hole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58mBcLTQa68

Invisible Conga People were my favourite cult niche group of a few years back, but so niche and cult that they seemed apt to disappear entirely, which they did for a while there. Luckily "In A Hole" (and it's flip, "Can't Feel My Knees") is just fantastic, managing yet another utterly new-sounding iteration of their signature collision between weird drony pop and foreboding percussive dub-techno, only the hooks are bigger and deeper than before.

5. Ill Blu - Monsta

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

Ill Blu are the finest producers in the world right now in part because of all the people they're not afraid to remind you of, from The Prodigy to Scooter to Caspa, though of those only The Prodigy at their best ever aspired to such heights of compositional grandiloquence. "Monsta" is a series of bombs that trigger each other like dominoes, build up to breakdown to explosion and repeat.

4. Britney Spears ft. Nicki Minaj & Ke$ha - Till The World Ends (Remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngmz7Dfs9CU

It took its brutal exploitation at the hands of Max Martin and Dr Luke for common garden variety dubstep to reach its true aesthetic pinnacle, though duh you won't hear dubstep fans saying that. But this really is fantastic, and certainly better than even the best bits on Britney's latest album, which always puts me in mind of the ex-cons at my gym . Here the dramedy of the staggering dubstep lurch sections gives the inevitable steroided 4X4 sprints more heft and release than they'd ever manage on their own.

3. Fuzzy Logick ft. Myshy - Playground

http://www.hulkshare.com/h51ggljdilv2

Remember when Basement Jaxx used to do those amazing multicoloured multitextured polyrhythmic polymorphous dance-pop tunes and it seemed like nothing could possibly be better? Yeah. The interplay here between Myshy's vaguely threatening vocal and Fuzzy's lumpen beats is magical. As with all UK Funky, this should be listened to slightly pitched up.

2. S.E.C.T. ft. Ben Westbeech - In The Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnRgO0jq_bM

Beautiful.

1. Purple Pop - The Way (The Living Graham Bond Dub)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aImVAxAtRY4

The Living Graham Bond's remix of "The Way" is a late 2010 tune, but this largely vocal-free dub has never been released to my knowledge and is only now getting some play (from Ill Blu and DJ Eastwood and the like). And, needless to say, it's the one to listen to. Quite simply, this is like a new standard for mindmelting percussive frenzy, squeezing about five different rhythmic attacks into one absolute blinder of a tune.