The Best Tunes Of The Year

What on earth will people say when they look back on 2010? I mean, what in the good name of Sehkmet even happened? I'm sitting here, it's the 29th November, my house is too cold to be deemed livable, browsing the '2010' entry in Wikipedia. International Year of Biodiversity, apparently. But forget all the 'reality', like deaths and stuff, let's focus on the greatest abstract and amorphous thing in the world. Apart from maybe 'love', or something.

This year in music has been good, I feel. I hear people, and have always heard, actually, banging on about how music is now shit, talking of the past as if it's some unachievable pinnacle that shouldn't even be questioned. I say, 'Why don't you sit in your Nuke bunker, live off corned beef and listen to the Smiths for the rest of your life you boring scumbag?', but they never do listen. I love the history of popular music as much as anyone, just don't tickle its perineum with your nose all the time.


Mercury Prize nominees (and rightful victors, but shush) Foals produced numerous BTOTY candidates, especially their exceptional and epic seven-minuter Spanish Sahara, but Blue Blood, album opener, is going to nick it. If you can find me a groovier bass line produced this year and I will bathe in sulphur, cuz it isn't happening. And I've looked. Hard. It's impressive, also, how they've taken the almost mindless freneticism of Antidotes, condensed it, and created not only dancefloor fodder, but also calming and sombre music to be enjoyed whilst having a nice sit down, maybe with a cool glass of IRN BRU.

2010 has seen the emergence of Trinidadian hip hop artist Nicki Minaj. Minaj's popularity is something of a controversy to some. Her supposed influence on young girls both sides of the Atlantic has garnered attention, some partaking in the love, others looking on with disdain at the new 'idol' for young women. Most negative arguments against her can be quickly rubbished, as far as it seems, Minaj promotes positivity, for women, young girls, and mostly everyone. Not to say she's the second coming of Christ, or Emmeline Pankhurst's 21st Century Brooklyn equivalent, but her vocal and lyrical talents and barmy ice-cream hair are irresistible. An example of this is recent single Right Thru Me. Minaj rhetorically questions her beau, with a Satriani sampled melody chiming in the background.







But enough about the USA, what's been happening over here? Well, Jamie Woon happened, and thank God, really. Woon is a singer songwriter who has played at various jazz festivals, usually on his own with just a guitar. Watching these performances reminds me strongly of Jeff Buckley; a stripped back and solemn stage presence accentuated powerfully by the vocal work. His recent single Night Air, co-produced by Burial, is a truly icy, the sound of a midnight stroll in mid-Winter. His voice is nothing less than sublime, and works perfectly with the bubbling track. Another artist strongly representing these cold Isles is Jessie Ware. Debut single Nervous, produced my SBTRKT, has an unnaturally catchy melody line and chorus, impossible to overlook. Buy now if you already haven't.



Sometimes BTOTY's just slap me in the chops when I'm least expecting them to. I was working on a building site earlier on in the year, stripping wallpaper, carrying bricks on my shoulder, you know, all that man stuff. I was just about to fill up the steamer for an eighth time, when I heard something interesting on the radio. Being the fucking hip labourer that I am, I whipped out my phone and opened Shazam. It turns out the song was When I'm Alone by heavily freckled American singer Lissie. The introduction is what strikes the most. The ebbing guitars and ghost noted snares are quietly moving. Her vocals begin understatedly, but as the song progresses they get more powerful, culminating in a head noddingly righteous chorus. Very promising for the future.


If you're on Twitter, you'll have realised by now that it's pretty fucking boring. I mean, I'll still go on it, but I'm not really sure why. I think it's because in the back of my mind, I hope that someone will say something interesting, or at least post a good link. Most of the time I just go on to see what Wiley is doing, because it's usually something bizarre. Whether it's sitting in the Sun on ustream for hours on end, or hypothetically placing himself in Chipmunk's jungle- themed video (on a hang glider, specifically). When not unleashing his strange-of-conciousness, Wiley is making special music. A prime example of this was his collaboration with garage and 2- step innovator MJ Cole, From The Drop. Again, the song begins, and continues, in a calm, almost simple way, the track punctuated by the sound of jarring metal. Wiley's lyrics and flow are typically on form, clever lines are blended perfectly with the sort of self aggrandisement that made grime bars so special.



There's one tune that really stood out this year, though. When I first heard Wut by Girl Unit, I knew instantly that I loved it, but also had no idea how to categorise it, or even define it really. It begins with bright synths and frenetic percussion, up until the devastating drop. And it is truly devastating, the crashing bass and the desperate cries of 'wut' and 'oh' all blend perfectly to create something very, very special. The whole EP, including Showstoppa and Everytime, is an excellent set of songs to be listened to ad infinitum, without boredom occurring.

So what for 2011? Well, who's to say? The remix of Gil Scott-Heron's album 'We're New Here' by Jamie xx looks very promising, as debut single NY Is Killing Me proves. English singer Adele's second album 21 should also be interesting, as she's proven time again that she's a consistent talent, and one to keep an eye on.

Now go on, enjoy your Christmas and New Years, and for God's sake, whatever you do, don't touch any of my things.

Pillaging the Airwaves

Pirate is a funny word. Olden day pirates are usually shown in either one of two ways; swashbuckling men of the sea, searching for hidden treasure buried under an arbitrary X. What’s wrong with the other letters, anyway? These sort pirates generally tend to light heartedly enjoy the exploits of the deep blue, making men walk the plank on their birthday and making rum-based Metropolitan cocktails. The other sort of pirates likes to decimate whole fishing towns. They brutally rape its citizens and take all of its resources and money before spitting at everyone and sailing off, laughing at how weak and raped their latest conquest is.

These days, pirates are either AK- 47 toting East Africans or they’re taking over the airwaves in your local area. Rinse FM is obviously the latter.

In 1994, DJ Geeneus set the station up in a secret location in East London. During the nineties, pirate radio was getting a pretty bad rap. There were news stories claiming that to gain access to the stations themselves, DJs would abseil in, with all their records in a bag. Obviously this is completely ludicrous, and about as plausible as them getting in by being sucked through a giant straw, but the viewing public undoubtedly eat it up and radio piracy was seen as more of a threat than it actually was. Every interview conducted with pirate radio heads got the same result: they were in it for the music, and that was it.

And this is certainly why Rinse was in it. The station was an integral part of the progression of Grime, a brand new genre of music straight from London.
An unnaturally dark progression from UK Garage, combining elements of Dancehall and Jungle, Grime is the truest sound of the City, representing its underbelly in an unflinching and uncensorable way. It allowed people to discover talents that perhaps they didn’t know they had, and reflected how they felt about their surroundings, about their lives and what they saw, what they wanted to be. Wiley, perhaps the strongest and most prominent member of the Grime scene, got his time to shine on Rinse FM. He, along with other early Grime artists like Dizzee Rascal and the Newham Generals, brought Grime to the listening public, and from there it blew up. Underground MCs were featured on various DVDs like ‘Risky Roadz’ and ‘Aim High’. The stations continuous support of this new and exciting music sealed its spot as arguably the most important pirate radio station in the UK.

Even legendary BBC DJ John Peel showered it with praise, saying “When I'm in London I listen to the pirates as much as I can. There's a station I like called Rinse FM, which is somewhere in the area banded by Kiss FM and Classic FM.”
In 2005 something strange happened. Ofcom decided that Rinse was not worth the airwaves it was broadcasting on, and disconnected its radio transmitter. One of the stations DJs, Slimzee, got tarnished with and Anti Social Behavioural Order (ASBO). Quite what is anti social about a radio station is beyond me. Maybe if you were driving a porous skinned child with leukaemia too close to the station and the radio waves shook the very bone marrow out of their dying femurs, but that’s not going to happen, is it?



A similar phenomenon to Grime has happened more recently to electronic dance genre Dubstep. As with Grime, Rinse FM saw the rising demand in this new, darker sound. With its wobbling bass and addictive drops, dupstep soon became huge in the London underground rave scene. Genre pioneers like Skream and Kode9 were frequently featured on the station. These DJs, among others, started the ball rolling on something that, in a few years, would grow to be one of the most popular types of music in the UK, and is on its way to achieving worldwide recognition. Rinses participation in the development and propulsion of this new music caught the attention of Radio 1 DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, whose consistent championing of dubstep brought it into the public consciousness.
What’s in the future of this innovative station? Thankfully, the station was given an FM broadcasting license in June 2010. This meant that they could broadcast new and exciting music, along with the classics that made the station so popular in the first place, legally. The station has become almost of a brand itself, releasing self branded mix CDs from resident DJs. They were also fundamental in the recent success of singer Katy B, whose song ‘Katy on a Mission’ (Produced by Benga) reached number 5 in the charts.

Rinse continues to display the best of Londons electronic music; from dubstep to grime, house to funky- something for every musical palette. Will it be the birthplace of another rich sound of the City? There’s only one way to find out. Stay Tuned.