I'd like to thank everyone of the 18 people who contributed to this feature over the past few weeks. It's been a blast and I don't know about you but I've certainly found out about some great acts that I'd missed this year thanks to these knowledgeable people and their lists. So a big thanks out out to the following:
To those who said that 2011 was full of shit music, I say look harder and more importantly, listen harder. Use the internet, get peoples opinions and do some work. There was a hell of a lot of music churned out again this year and the bullshit filter had to be turned up to the max but there was also a lot of great, truly great music out there that you didn't really have to try that hard to find.I had great difficulty in narrowing down to five choices, but here they are. I've dropped in a few of those who didn't make the cut at the end.
Justice - Audio, Video, Disco What to say about this album? It split fans and critics alike. The back-draft on this was huge. I loved it, it's a masterpiece and massive step forward for a band that will hopefully be around for a long time to come.
Alex Turner - Submarine (Original Songs) Original songs from the film Submarine, directed by Richard Ayoade. A super film that I loved and it's the song that make it what it is.
Puro Instinct - Headbangers In Ecstasy Great band, great attitude, great music. This album is a work of art, well programmed and produced demands to be listened to from beginning to end every time. 'Stilyagi' just about my fave track.
Tycho - Dive Dreamy beats, the cover artwork explains it all, sunset, sea, warm climes and good times. J'aime.
New Look - New Look 'Nap on the bow' is one of the tracks of the year and the album is another future classic that demands attention throughout. Can't wait for the next one.
Some honourable mentions go out to:
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming Blood Orange - Coastal Grooves Mr Oizo - Stade 2 Hollie Cook - Hollie Cook 2562 - Fever Ancient Astronuats - Into Space And Time Chali 2NA - Fish Market Part 2 Lucy - Wordplay For Working Bees Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi The Kills - Blood Pressures
So sometimes you love a track but not a whole album or it's on an EP or single or maybe you love one track even more than any of the others on a downright amazing LP and want to give it a special mention. Thats what this little piece is about. We just wanted to highlight some of our favourite individual tracks of 2011. Here are the top 5.
New Look - Nap On The Bow OMG words cannot describe this dreamy electronic ejaculate. Musical perfection, just about. A superb little death and worthy contender for song of the year.
Blood Orange - Bad Girls If Prince was starting his career now then this would be his Purple Rain, but he's not relevant any more and thankfully Blood Orange is around to take the baton. This is a classic already.
Metronomy - We Broke Free Made me cry the first time and still gives me shivers.
M83 - Midnight Sky Hands in the air people, this was my 2011 anthem.
Kavinsky Feat. Lovefoxxx – Nightcall This actually came out in 2010 but was re-ivigorated by it's inclusion on the awesome Drive OST. The opening scenes feature this superb track and help make this iconic hit film of 2011 hence the inclusion.
Tasha Lovecity is Editor in Chief at Demain Magazine and well, she knows her music. Check out her list for the proof and don't forget to check out the superb Demain too.
New Look - New Look I’ve been waiting for a record from these guys for a long time. Something really endearing about the sparse beats and Sarah Ruba’s voice really reminds me of loads pop stars I loved as a kid in the 80s. ‘The Ballad’ is so beautiful I could almost cry.
The Strokes - Angles The Stokes were largely panned for this record, as people felt they were not trying anything new. I remember when I was very young, I found it harder to take when my favourite band had a ‘new sound’ on every new record they put out and found it hard to adjust. It’s hard to deny the jovial and uplifting chorus of ‘so long, my friend’ on ‘Caffeinated Consciousness’ and the band’s signature droll lyrics on ‘Taken for a Fool’. This was an album for fans of The Strokes, and I love the fact it didn’t break any boundaries.
TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light There is little this band can do wrong. My stand out track on this has to be ‘Will Do’, it’s like a gloriously haunting words of advice.
Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost A very emotional record full of different shades.. from the wonderfully chipper ‘Honey Bunny’ which kind of makes you want to run through the nearest field with all of your friends to play Frisbee to the Love is Like a River which could almost be a doo-wop song from the 60s. However, the song which fascinates me the most is ‘Vomit’; though it’s the most sparse track on the album, it’s probably the most enigmatic.
Cold War Kids - Mine is Yours Up till now, Nathan Willett’s voice was always quote weathered and blues-y, which is great but on this record it’s quite smooth and poppy. The guitars and arrangement on the single ‘Finally Begin’ remind me of The Smiths, which I always find a good thing. A really uplifting album.
I used to work with Tel back in the day and he is a top bloke. He's currently Editor of Dazed & Confused’s global platform Satellite Voices, heading up creative special projects at Dazed Group. Music and arts journalist for Dazed & Confused, AnOtherMag, Nowness, URB, Staf. He's also one of the founders of the Earnest Endevours record label. You can check out their latest release by B. Bravo below. It's hot by the way, smoking in fact. If you are into that then they also have upcoming releases from Cardiff’s Darkhouse Fam and LA’s Widows. Check out his thoughts on the top 5 albums of 2011 below.
“I tried to stick with albums but there was a mixtape and a forthcoming EP (which with its seven-minute-long songs is nearly as long as an album). Half hourz of power.”
Kutmah - The New Error Vol 1 My most listened to mix of this year that kicked off 2011when we launched Kutmah’s “Two Soups & Honeybun” exhibition and party, back in January with HIT+RUN. Certified classic.
Borgata Boredom - Borgata Boredom A scene-defining compilation of primal sludge noise from Rome’s east side emerging from the classic NO=FI label, who also run one of Rome’s best dive bars.
Shabazz Palaces - Black Up Rampant experimental hip hop that transcends into visual art with both the awesome Dumb Eyes studio and the game changing filmmaking collective What Matters Most.
New Look - New Look This is a celebratory album as two amazingly talented friends of mine finally released their awesome experimental pop debut on !K7 after years of other labels’ indecisive quagmire.
E.S.P - E.S.P The EP is forthcoming but the dublab session and free first track are all over the internet. This cosmic LA psyche trio of Aska, Bobby Evans and Seiya Matsumiya are the future.
First up to the plate to tell Vainzine their Top 5 Albums of 2011 is Simon from the Sonic Emporium, that's him on the right getting strangled by Ozzy. In case you don't know who Simon is here is a little bit about him.
Kicking off with a DJ residency at legendary London club The Cross, Simon quickly established an enviable reputation for playing extended and expansive sets that helped him blaze a trail across the capital’s biggest clubs – Fabric, The End and Ministry Of Sound. Spells back in his former Newcastle home at Shindig added to a growing portfolio followed by an 8 year residency in the Dance Arena of Serbia’s gargantuan Exit Festival and back across the UK for Wax:On as part of People Get Real - taking in a wrath of further UK and world-wide favourites.
Before long though, the bright lights of London became too strong to resist and Simon was off again on a new path of musical adventures as ‘The Sonic Emporium’. The floor-rocking DJ sets continue along with pitch-perfect festival appearances & live support slots for Soulwax, Simian Mobile Disco and LCD Soundsystem.
Bang up to the present day his first proper forays into production are garnering increasing love and support, with a pant-wetting remix of Audibilis - 'Dropping Mean' set for release in February 2012.
Simon has also done a special Minimix for Vainzine which you can download below. Mad respect for that and don't forget to download it because it is jaw droppingly good. But first up here's his Fave Five Albums of 2011.
When Saints Go Machine - Konkylie
Surprised this gorgeous, floaty little number never got the traction it deserved with the taste makers, even more surprising when you think how anything with a slightly motorik air sends the sceney bloggers typing off into the stratosphere... File this review under the 'internet = poor attention' cliché heading because that's what I'm going to blame for people not going banana's for this record. You're not gonna 'get' this one with 1 minute online previews or with your player set to shuffle. Maybe I should be thankful though, a little more attention and you can imagine lazy TV music researchers claiming this as their own when they want to set the muzak dial to spooky, sound bedding every last thing from Crimewatch to David Dickinson's Real Deal.
New Look - New Look
Analog synthy pop that brings to mind the uber-cool artists of the Italians Do It Better fold, only with a smoother coat of turtle wax applied. You can easily see the Urban Outfitters/American Apparel set appropriating this as their own but fear not, there's not an ironic beat in sight. The approach may be old school, with shades of early 90's R&B but this is very much a modern pop record. Add to that the fact that there's not David Guetta parp or RedOne klaxon in earshot and you can reassure yourself that all is not lost in the modern musical melting pot.
Grimes - Halfaxa
Mysterious, ethereal and electronic - touches on similar territory to When Saints Go Machine only with a sprinkling of 'Salem' at their twitchy, witchy best. Lush and involving, though in the proud tradition of classic horrorists Goblin, I'm guessing this record will develop a dark heart of it's own now that the nights are quickly drawing in up here in the northern hemisphere.
Nebraska - Displacement
Yeah! A proper House record. No messing about, superb deep sounds and productions with a rawness to satisfy the no sleep 'til Tuesday mob and an intelligence to suit the home listening beard strokers in equal measure. I got this album on vinyl earlier in the year and it's never left my record box since.
SBTRKT - SBTRKT
Influenced by the subplot behind SBTRKT I may have been as much as anything (cooler than thou record label, catching their first ever official live gig) the first thing that struck me about their debut was how few of their previously released singles and tracks made the final cut. The ultimate result though is a tight LP of familiar feeling but fresh tracks, fashioned to work together as whole not merely a set of overlong club bangers. It's a dark record with a hazy shimmer of hope, a menagerie of shapes and shades. Much as I've loved the James Blake, Jamie Woon, Metronomy and Azari & III records this year, you can help but feel that up against this they all occupy very two dimensional spaces.
I'd like to thank everyone of the 18 people who contributed to this feature over the past few weeks. It's been a blast and I don't know about you but I've certainly found out about some great acts that I'd missed this year thanks to these knowledgeable people and their lists. So a big thanks out out to the following:
