The ill-ec-tro-nic

It's been another great year for electronic music of all forms with Minimal Techno still king in Ibiza, Dubstep exploding into everyone's consciousness after years developing in the underground and the Rock Rave/Electro sound still making the Indie kids dance. I personally have grown bored with this particular genre although it has thrown up some decent records the majority have been Electro House by numbers.

There have been some outstanding tracks and albums released this year of which below are my personal favourites. The tracks are placed in order of preference but pretty much after the top 20 they can be placed anywhere. The albums and compilations are all outstanding in their own ways and are in no particular order. Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem just squeezes ahead of Burial and The Chems by a small margin.

Here's to 2008.









Tracks of 2007.

1. Modeselektor - The White Flash (Feat Thom Yorke) // BPitch Control
2. The Chemical Brothers - Saturate (Electronic Battle Weapon 8) // Freestyle Dust
3. Heartthrob - Baby Kate (Sascha Funke Remix) // M_nus
4. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends // DFA
5. LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great // DFA
6. Moderat (Featuring Paul St Hillare) - Let Your Love Grow // BPitch Control
7. Frankie Valli - Beggin (Pilooksi Edit) // 679 (Technically out in 2006 on Dark & Lovely)
8. Jamie Woon - Wayfaring Stranger (Burial Remix) // Live Recordings
9. Burial - Ghost Hardware // Hyperdubs
10. Bloc Party - Where Is Home (Burial Mix) // Wichita
11. Faze Action - In The Trees (Carl Craig C2 Mix) // Juno
12. Beck - Cellphone's Dead (Villalobos Entlebuch Remix) // Interscope
13. Shackleton - Blood On My Hands (Villalobos Apocalypso Remix) // Skull Disco
14. The Others - Bushido // Dub Police
15. Bob Marley - War (Matty G Remix) // WAR001
16. LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum (Onastic Dub) // DFA
17. Ame - Enoi // Innervisions
18. Dubfire - I feel Speed (Audion Mix) // Sci + Tec Digital Audio
19. Underworld - Crocodile (Original Mix) // Underworldlive.com
20. Dubfire - Rib Cage // Desolat
21. Dubfire - Roadkill // Funkwelle
22. Thom Yorke - Harrowdown Hill (Ripperton Dub) // Unreleased
23. Ripperton - Siboney // Unreleased
24. Andy Stott - Hostile // Modern Love
25. Andy Stott - Massacre // Modern Love
26. Shit Robot - Chasm // DFA
27. Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (Ashley Beedle Edit) // White Label
28. Gui Boratto - Mr Decay // Kompakt
29. Riton - Hammer of Thor // Souvenir
30. Sebo K & Metro - Transit // Get Physical
31. Paul Ritch - June // Get Physical
32. Kenny Hawkes & David Parr - The Booby Trap (Serge Santiago Mix) // Arcobaleno
33. Rekorder - Rekorder 8.1 // Rekorder
34. Audion - Noiser // Spectral Sound
35. Unklejam - Love Ya (Herve Remix) // Virgin
36. Justice - D.A.N.C.E. // Ed Banger
37. Justice - Stress // Ed Banger
38. Hot Chip - Shake A Fist // EMI
39. Simian Mobile Disco - It's The Beat (The Teenagers Mix) // Wichita
40. Samim - Heater // Get Physical


Albums of 2007

LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver // DFA
Burial - Untrue // Hyperdub
Interpol - Our Love To Admire //
The Chemical Brothers - We Are The Night // Virgin
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Modeselektor - Happy Birthday! // BPitch Control
Gui Boratto - Chromophobia // Kompakt
Lusine - Podgelism // Ghostly International
Cobblestone Jazz - 23 Seconds // !K7
Echaskech - Skechbook // Just Music
Justice - Cross // Ed Banger
!!! Chk Chk Chk - Myth Takes // Warp
Monosylabikk - Rocks // Kitty Yo

Mixes / Compilations of 2007

Ellen Allien - Fabric 34 // Fabric
Modeselektor - Boogybytes Vol III // BPitch Control
Optimo - Walkabout // Endless Flight
Dirty Edits Vol 1 - Dirty Soundsystem// Discograph
Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve - George/West // 3rd Mynd
Skull Disco - Soundboy Punishments // Skull Disco

Labels: 2007, Albums, Charts, Compilations, Mixes, Top 40, Tracks

A Yuletide greeting going out to everyone from our friend George Dubya Bush.

Happy Christmas (War is Over) - Wax Audio

And who can forget his other message of peace and harmony that is.... Imagine.

Imagine This - Wax Audio

You can check out more of George's ramblings and other messages of peace and love here at Wax Audio.

And from RAW and myself, Merry Xmas everyone.... Peace. (Er I think).

Labels: Bootlegs, Mashups

Two massive remixes here.

Firstly it is (now everyone's favourite) Dubstep producer Burial giving his trademark refix to Bloc Party. This is taken from their 12" Flux

It is textbook Burial with rain samples, 2 step beats, haunting atmospherics, a beguiling melodic hook and snatched vocal samples. This could have easily sat on his album Untrue.

Bloc Party - Where is Home (Burial Remix) // Wichita

Buy the 12" at Juno





Next is a simple Tech-House tune from Dubfire that has been given Matthew Dear's Audion treatment.

This is another classic Audion remix. It reminds me somewhat of his Hot Chip remake with echoey vocal moans and a simple analogue riff. This though is taken up to the next level halfway through the track with a huge 'French Kiss' style slow-mo breakdown and soaring synths that will have you going loopy on the dancefloor. Massive.

Dubfire - I Feel Speed (Audion Remix) // SCI + TEC Digital Audio

Buy the full 320 kbps version at Beatport

Labels: Audion, Bloc Party, Burial, Dubfire, Dubstep, Electronic, Remixes, Techno

I've received some quality music over the last month but have been too busy to give it all my full attention. So in the interest of saving time I'm doing a random roundup of some of the most interesting tracks that have come my way.

Firstly it is more quality Techno and Electro from Home Made Electronica The Spook EP is by a project entitled Doctor's Orders. There is not much more info forthcoming but it is described by its maker thus ...... "Clinical ... precise ... melodic but just a little bit dirty. The main guideline of this project is to extract something bright from a dark and gloomy atmospheric background and a noisy saturated rhythm". Sounds good to me.

Doctor's Orders - Spook // Home Made Electronica

Doctor's Orders - Stramhalt // Home Made Electronica

Buy it from these digital vendors. Just one other comment though guys. Great music but please fire your graphic designer! The covers for these EPs are truly awful.


More filthy happenings from the Dirty Soundsystem. Firstly a great re-edit by Pilooski of John Miles. "Stranger in the City". This one sided slab of 10" vinyl was limited to 500 copies and is no longer available. It's no surprise when you hear this classic extended and refixed.

John Miles - Stranger in the City (Pilooski Edit) // DLL07

Next up is Dirty's first proper artist release. Discodeine are Pilooski and Benjamin Morando. They are inspired by "Morricone's weirdest sounds, Chicago House, Krautrock and and of course disco". Their Discodeine EP is out on the 8th January 08. Check this slab of trippy space disco.

Discodeine - Ring Modulation // DLL08





The Rvng of The Nrds Vol 4 is now out. Lovefingers are the ones responsible for these new set of edits from a mid-70s pre-disco Spanish compilation, a Moroder obsessed Bollywood composer, a squishy-squashy space funk anthem, and an Italian new-age progenitor.

The results are as you'd expect; retro space disco beamed in from a time traveling space-ape high on disco biscuits. Hmm proper.

Lovefingers - Zoysia // Rvng of the Nrds Vol 4

Buy the 12" release here






This has been out a while but is still highly recommended. Studio do their tripped out Balearic remake of A Mountain Of One (Great name) This group have a sound pitched somewhere between Psyche Rock and Progressive with splashes of Latin and world music thrown in for good measure.

This remake adds some heavy smacked out 4/4 beats to the mix along with some Flamenco style guitar. Very Ibiza.

A Mountain Of One - Brown Piano (Studio Remake) // AMO

Get their album 'Collected Works' at Phonica

Labels: A Mountain Of One, Dirty Crew, Home Made Electronica, Lovefingers, Pilooski

Browsing through Transmat's back catalogue is like getting a lesson in Techno in itself and this is perhaps best seen on two of the unmixed compilations to bear the iconic logo.
Twenty years on since techno was born and there aren't that many labels out there capable of putting out a compilation of such high quality as 'Relics' which was released back in 1992 (actually on Buzz records but as an approved Transmat product) and even then many of the tracks were several years old. Virtually all of the full length tracks on Relics are considered to be stone cold classics and these are neatly woven together using orchestral 'intervals' from Carl Craig. Relics came out on both LP and CD and despite my love of wax, the CD version had the benefits of extra tracks including the amazing version of Wiggan (Wiggin) featured below.

Time:Space came out in 1999 and despite not being quite as close to perfection as Relics was (few compilations are!) it's still a superb release. This time, the compilation featured tracks from largely European producers although they had clearly all been influenced by the Detroit sound.

There's also a Time:Space 2 but as this was only released in Japan I haven't heard the full contents and can only hope it gets a wider release at some stage in the future.


BFC - Evolution

Mayday - Wiggan(Re-Mix)

The Vanisher - Elementary

Rhythim is Rhythim - Beforethereafter

Buy Transmat releases here and here

P.S. Sorry for the zShare links but we're currently having issues with our hosting service - direct links will be back ASAP.

Labels: Carl Craig, Derrick May, Techno, The Vanisher, Transmat