Searchin’ for a note / pure and easy
Simply put, what a great year for music. The repeated obituaries for the music industry were clearly erroneous, clearly overstated. In real terms the record industry is in big big trouble, especially the old guard record companies and the world they know and live in. If any evidence of that beyond falling sales was needed, witness the thrashing around of Doug Morris, the head of Universal Music, in his attempts to blame the impending demise of the system as they know it on anyone but themselves.
Right now the ploughs are out digging up the playing field. What and where we will end up, I don’t know, but the likes of iTunes is only a way station on the way there. Ask me if five years and I may have a clue…
So, 2006, a vintage year for contemporary music, I think, but aren’t they all. That I still get excited at my ripe old age about new music makes me happy, but I think I would shrivel up and die without it. And it’s easier and easier to get hold of, courtesy of our electronic world, something that must seem like a cruel irony to the record companies who monopolised for so long by controlling the means of distribution. There is more music everywhere than there has ever been in my lifetime and more people are listening.
So to my personal picks for 2006 (and thats all they are..nothing definitive, just the things I’ve liked)…..
Firstly singles…and there were a few. There are singles by acts that I’ve included in the albums but will avoid here to prevent a double up.
- Chateau Flight – Baroque
- Delia Gonzalez & Gaivin Russom – Relevee (Carl Craig mix)
- Rhythm and Sound – Poor People Must Work (Carl Craig mix)
- Goldfrapp – Fly Me Away (Carl Craig mixes, esp C2 mix 4)
- Coldcut – Walk a Mile in My Shoes (Henrik Schwarz mixes)
- Rob Mello vs Robert Owens – The Energy
- Marc Romboy vs Robert Owens – I Need (Martin Landsky mix)
- Martin Buttrich – Full Clip / Programmer
- Joi Cardwell – What It Feels Like (Quentin Harris mix)
- Stefan Goldman & Ame – Sleepy Hollow
- Dennis Ferrer – Underground is my Home
- Chelonis R Jones – Deer in the Headlights (Hell mix)
- Dennis Ferrer – Transitions
- I: Cube – Acid Tablet
- Kerri Chandler – June 23rd EP
- Ferrer & Sydenham Inc.- Timbuktu (Ame mixes)
- Kerri Chandler & Monique Bingham – In the Morning
- Dennis Ferrer & Jerome Sydenham – The Undertow
- Dennis Ferrer & Jerome Sydenham – The Back Door
- Ame / Schwarz/ Dixon – Where We At
- Chicken Lips — Motion Sickness (Rekid Mix)
- Claude Vonstroke — Who’s afraid of Detroit
- Arthur Russell – Springfield (DFA mix)
- Capracara — Opal Rush / Flashback 86
- Simian Mobile Disco – Hustler
- Cobblestone Jazz – Dump Truck
- Justin Timberlake – My Love (DFA mix)
- Tiga – Good as Gold (Morgan Geist mix)
- Tiga –Far From Home (DFA mix)
- DJ Mehdi – I Am Somebody (Kenny Dope mixes)
- Goldfrapp – Slide Away (DFA mix)
- Depeche Mode – Sinner In Me (Villalobos mix)
- DT vs Booka Shade – Played Runner
- Henrik Schwarz — Leave My Head Alone Brain (mix4 by Osunlade)
- Hiltmeyer Inc – Final Ah (Nicky Mix)
- Brennan Green — Little Ease
- Loco Dice — Seeing Through Shadows
- Radio Slave — Secret Base
- Larry Heard — The Sun Can’t Compare
- Junior Boys – In The Morning (Alex Smoke mix) / The Equalizer (Morgan Geist mix)
Salif Keita – Yamore (Luciano mix)
- Claude Vonstroke – 7 Deady Strokes (Patrick Chardronnet mix)
Albums.…actually not that many, partially because I’ve found myself listening to a lt of older albums, but partially because my focus is very clearly less albums than singles these days. A few of these acts released a few singles that would’ve made my above list (especially Anders Trentemoller) but are either on the album or, in his case, come as a bonus disc. Lucky…
- Fuckpony – Children of Love
- Rekid – Made In Menjorca
- Booka Shade – Movements
- The Beatles – Love
- The Others – as yet unnamed
- Guido Schneider — Focus On
- Trentemoller – The Last Resort
Fujiya & Miyagi — Transparent Things
- Clipse — Hell Hath No Fury
Mixed albums….
- Henrik Schwarz…DJ Kicks
- Laurent Garnier & Carl Craig — Kings of Techno
- Steve Bug – Bugnology 2
Reissues and comps
- Laurent Garnier — Retrospective
- Wire - 154
- The Clash — Singles Box
- Deep Disco Culture Vol 1
- Destination Boogie
- Gilles Peterson & Patrick Forge – Sunday Afternoon At Dingwalls
- Rip It Up And Start Again
- Groove On Down Vol 2
- Brian Eno & David Byrne – My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
- Confuzed Disco
- North by Northwest
- A Tom Moulton Mix
- You better believe It Vol.2