CITYCLOUDS

My friend Roberdo asked me to make a top 10 2011 selection for his blog roberdo.de published last sunday and i must say, not an easy task as there was so much good stuff, but great fun to go through some of the tracks that made my year. I really like the selection that came out so i decided to repost it here. Here you go, the year in one paragraph: I listened to a lot of slow house & deep house, indie, downtempo and dubstepish electronica.. in 2011 i felt the tempo going down, with James Blake and Nicolas Jaar coming out strong with their LP’s. The debut of New York’s Sepalcure is great, Motor City Drum Ensemble published a great DJ Kicks on K7 and slow house in general had great output with Berlin-based Trickski and 6th Borough Project releasing full length LPs.
I’ll leave you with my top ten + 1 playlist (in no particular order) which is perfectly suitable for the cosy winter evenings at home, some head nodding and foot wiggling guaranteed..

Looking forward to 2012, a great christmas break to everyone!

Yoko duo – First in Line (Fauxpas)

James Blake – The Wilhelm Scream (Atlas Recordings)

The Limp Twins (aka Quantic) – Sunday driver (Tru Thoughts Rec. – original from 2003, re-released this year on “The Best of Quantic”.)

Ifan Dafydd – No Good (n/a)

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The debut album of the acclaimed duo Machinedrum (Travis Stewart) and Braille (Praveen Sharma) is finally out. I saw Sepalcure in Berlin’s Berghain and for me that was one of the best dances of the year. The live show rocks, so does their music. You can still listen to the full length album if you follow this link (for some reason not always working) or check out the hotflush album preview link below.

I was waiting for this one: Sepalcure finally did a proper podcast. Sepalcure, the Brooklyn-based duo of Travis Stewart (a.k.a. Machinedrum) and Praveen Sharma really made it happen this year. Percussionlab ist one of my favourite listening sites and the Love Pressure EP released on Hotflush just great. Tracklist after the jump.

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I decided to share some of the tunes i´ve been finding across the web these days and that i´m really into.  Regular readers of the blog may have realized that dubstep, 2-step and the UK and US bass sounds really work for me. The smooth and deep atmosphere found in some of the chilled dubstep tracks is unique to me in electronic music and the melancholic feel to the burial-like sounds is great, specially for this time of the year in northern europe. On the other hand the new garage and 2-step sounds being produced have a really fresh and funky feel to them…So some of this stuff is reallly groovy and danceable, and some ist just to lean back and think about the last time you´ve felt sand and salt-water between your toes. And it should not forget to mention that most of these tracks are recent but that im just posting stuff i like without wanting to present the freshest sounds around. Big up!

(Note: If some of the soundcloud players are not working properly please follow the link on the bottom. It will work on the soundcloud page)

Sbtrkt

The first  2 tracks are from Sbtrkt. First one is a remix by Sbtrkt from MJ Cole´s track “Sanctuary” released originally in 1999. I listened to MJ Cole for many years and i think this remix works great for the new directions garage is going. The second is dubstep but goes for smooth danceable rythm (forthcoming on Brainmath Rec in March/April 2010). Sbtrkt is a London based producer..have a eye on him!

MJ Cole – Sanctuary (Sbtrkt Remix) by sbtrkt
SBTRKT – 2020 by sbtrkt

Shortstuff & Brackles

Third track ist from Shortstuff & Brackles, 2 producers based in south england. A future garage track, really nice melody and vibe. Shortstuff´s myspace is here, and Brackles here.
This track was released on the Compilation “Fabric Presents Elevator Music: Vol. 1″ in February 2010.

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Sepalcure is a collaboration of Brooklyn’s Praveen and Machinedrum. The two are creating something they call Lovestep, a combination of soulful house and 2 step beats. Here´s what they write about themselves:

I really like the idea and the´ve got proper support with the art direction by Sougwen Chung who produces imagery that goes with the music.

Sepalcure – Feeling That I Know So Well from sougwen on Vimeo.

This mix by Preaveen is from November 2009 and features some of the best mellow dubstep tracks from 2009. This works so well  for the frosty winter here in Berlin..some of my favourite tracks are among these.

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Tracklist:
Pangaea – Memories
Burial – You Hurt Me
TRG – Broken Heart (Martyn Remix)
Untold – Dante
DFRNT – Tripped (Synkro Mix)
Synkro – Inhale
Sines – Memories Are Here
DFRNT – Tripped (Ital Tek Remix)
FaltyDL – Party
Joy Orbison – J. Doe
Sepalcure – Deep City Insects
Floating Points – K&G Beat