2009: four

here are a bunch of things i liked in general this past year.

everything Floating Points did

Floating Points is blending / hopping between elements of disco, hip-hop, dubstep, house and whatever else like nobody else working right now. after a year dense with quality releases on Planet µ, Eglo and R2, as well as some very nice remixes (Sebastien Tellier, Basement Jaxx), i almost hope this guy never releases a full length and just keeps making top shelf singles and EPs. check him out here or on facebook

everything Oneohtrix Point Never did

i got deep into everything OPN / Dan Lopatin related this year. Dan's collaborations with others were excellent (Infinity Window, Skyramps). his releases on tape were epic. and Rifts collected 3+ LPs worth of transcendental material spanning back to 2003, emptying the archives as it were and leaving things open wide for fresh changes in the future. not to mention a dvd full of stuff like this:

dan exists on the web here and his skull theft blog will mess with your brain.

tapes

there was just so much from so many labels, i kind of have to group it all together. releases from:

- Rene Hell / Secret Abuse / Marble Sky / Mare / Disfigure Mare
- Earn (probably my favorite artist working right now / favorite discovery of this year)
- Earth Station
- Color Dream
- Rale
- Infinite Body
- Terrors
- Bryter Layter
- Raglani
- Mark Lord
- Work/Death
- Flower Man
- Face Worker
- Exercise
- Treetops
(among others)

on labels like:

- Ekhein
- Young
- Arbor
- Callow God / Agents of Chaos
- Cavelife
- Monorail Trespassing
- Catholic
- Night People
(among others)

the scene is just swelling with new stuff all the time but i feel like i have my favorites and i know what i like. that is a nice feeling.

Andrew Broder's series of free releases

in the early part of the year Andy (best known for his work as / playing in Fog) released 10 (!) separate improv-based experiments. varying levels of noise and melody emerge from turntable muck, clouds of guitar pedal dust and tape loop exorcisms. they are still free to download here and you can not be a freeloader like me and paypal him some moneys here.

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stay tuned...