A lot of YouTube video’s get attached, that’s why the page is a bit slow loading at first. Do not worry, it’ll come.
Just like last year I decided to give an overview of what I liked and/or listened to a lot in 2010. While writing the blogpost, I put all tracks in a YouTube list. This time, I started one on Jan. 1, 2011. Made the compiling a lot easier..
I listened a lot to the radio, listened to tips from friends with great taste, recommendations via Twitter and Google+ and a lot through YouTube. Shazam was a great help too.
Mind you, I didn’t hear every single, every album, every remix, cover that’s been produced in 2011. This is a very personal list, with some choices you’ll agree, others not, just use it to listen to nice music or to be introduced to stuff you didn’t know already.
Point out my ignorance or other black holes in these lists in the comments, I love to learn about great music.
Ok, enough text crap.. let the music play (copyright : Bohannon, btw..)
Top 11 International
Azealia Banks – 212 FT. Lazy Jay
This track has a strange history. Original “released” without giving credit to Lazy Jay who had a hit with it a few years back under the title “Float my boat”, this New York based Azealia Banks turns it up 2 notches and enhances the original with explosive rap. Definitely my top track of 2011. (In the end the copyright issue was resolved among all parties. Music won.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSfEudN1MzI
Long time I doubted if this song would trump SX’ Black Video (see Top Belgian list), but in the end.. it’s a tie I guess. There are some similarities, but both songs are great, and much too words have been written on Lana’s physical appearance and/or marketing biz than about this fantastic song.
Great track. Period.
Rock is back. Bands like the Black Keys prove that rock music is dance music too.. No boring shit, straight to the point bluesy rock with just two guys. Band setup and sound both remind a bit of Blackbox Revelation and White Stripes.
Tinie Tempah – Wonderman ft. Ellie Goulding
Track I didn’t like at first, but since Sam kept playing this one, and the angelic voice of Ellie Goulding gives this song it’s silver lining, it eventually became one of my favorites.
Admittedly, this track feels old, but was in the air, on the air, under the air weeks on repeat. Just because it’s hypnotic, great and sung by Beth Ditto.
Soft housy groove, very dark with subtle claps gives it indeed a very nightly feel about it. I also constantly heard it at night, and almost became a synonym for “driving the car at night”.
Amy Winehouse – Like Smoke (feat. Nas)
Dunno how I discovered this one, maybe in search of the mashup at the end of this lengthy page, but a great collaboration that’s featured on the Amy tribute album.
I think this track originates from 2010, heard it on Entourage and immediately loved the track. Also a great clip, and nice to see Aeroplane doing so well.
Lykke Li – I’m Good I’m Gone (Dagga remix)
Another great remix of a Lykke Li song. This dubstep track got played by me a lot. I don’t know much of Dagga..
Rizzle Kicks – Down With The Trumpets
Two very young Brighton dudes delivering a fun bouncy track, that reminds a bit of Audio Bullys imho. Saw them a few episodes back in Never Mind The Bollocks, and noticed they’ve got a sense of humor as well ;)
also:
Nero – Guilt,
Miles Kane – Rearrange,
My Morning Jacket – Holding on to Black Metal,
Poolside – Do You Believe?,
Kasabian – Where Did All the Love Go?,
Morning Parade – Under The Stars,
Buraka Som Sistema – Hangover (BaBaBa),
Katy B – Broken Record,
Noah And The Whale – L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.,
Beastie Boys ft. Santogold – Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win,
Willow Smith – Whip My Hair [Derek Sabiston Dubstep Mashup (Bassnectar)],
Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra),
The Rapture – How deep is your love ?,
Housse de Racket – Roman,
SBTRKT – Pharaohs,
Katy B – Easy Please Me,
Emeli Sande – Heaven,
Waar Is De Meisje,
White Lies – Bigger Than Us,
Raphael Saadiq – Radio,
Lana Del Ray – Blue Jeans (Penguin Prison Remix),
Top 11 Dance
Top banger imho. And totally unsuitable for daytime radio, many evenings driving home from work at too high speeds, just because of this track.
Camo & Krooked – Make The Call (D & B Mix)
See former impression. This was late 2011.
Vato Gonzalez ft Foreign Beggars – Badman Riddim (Jump)
Another track Sam played a lot, to my liking, that’s for sure. Sample from Pharaoh Monch’s “Simon Says” if I’m correct. Put to good use too!
Liked Ms Dynamite few years back already, lost sight of her a bit, but this track certainly is worthy successor material. Dubstep annex Drum ‘n bass.
Skrillex – First Of The Year (Equinox)
Whether he’s true dubstep or not (read a hilarious article in Humo about it), he delivers Bangers with capital B! This one is no different. And to think I got to know him more or less after watching this hilarious mashup with the Sesame Street aliens..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyIxnQdZKOU
Typical Siriusmo track with lots of bleepy, sweepy sounds and a hypnotic rhythm. Can’t stop nodding head on this.
The Subs – Don’t Stop (Mustard Pimp Remix)
I am no fan of “all” Subs tracks, but this year they put out some fantastic tracks like “Don’t Stop”, this is one of many good remixes (another one is the Ashton Shuffle rmx as well as the original Don’t Stop). This one gives it more a dubstep feel.
Chase & Status – ‘Time’ Feat. Delilah
This is maybe too radio friendly, but this was all over the waves this year as well. Nice track, crisp drum ‘n bass & sweet vocals = classic.
Seemingly oldskool housy track by Toronto based Azari & III with a solid groove and robotic voices, repeating voices and noises. Hypnotic.
Joe Goddard feat. Valentina – Gabriel
With a similar oldskool bassline and repeated vocal shouts, the Joe Goddard track, one of the chips of Hot Chip btw, reminds a bit of the former Azari track. This track however gets lifted from a sombre pumping beat by the crystal vocals of Valentina, although the despair in her voice keeps the track rather dark and downbeat.
Lipps Inc – Rock It (SymbolOne edit)
God knows how I learned about this track, but this is a really, really good remix of the 70’s classic. In fact, it’s more of a rework, because it steals ideas from almost every 70s hit and then some from the Lipps Inc original. Disco nouveau at it’s best.
and also :
Magnetic Man – Getting Nowhere ft. John Legend,
DJ Fresh ft Sian Evans – Louder,
Benny Benassi – Cinema (Skrillex Remix) (Ranger’s Bootleg Working in Progress Edit),
Is Tropical – The Greeks (Moonlight Matters Remix),
Munk – Mis Labios (Black Van Remix),
Caribou – Sun,
SebastiAn – Embody,
Late Of The Pier – Best in the Class (Soulwax Remix),
Hercules & Love Affair – My House,
RacknRuin – Dazed & Confused (SKisM’s Baroque Out Remix),
M.I.A. – Internet Connection (Flux Pavilion Remix),
Jakwob – Right Beside You feat. Smiler,
Nero – Promises,
Azari & III – Reckless With Your Love
Top-11 Belgian music
This year was a very good year for Belgian music, and especially for new bands, not only the traditional hit-delivering bands. Bands like SX, Intergalactic Lovers and School is Cool dominated a lot of the playlists and artists like Aeroplane and The Magician delivered worldwide dance hits. Triggerfinger also stormed the charts, this one’s my favorite. Selah Sue was left out of this list (to make room) because I digged her album as a whole, and she’s in the Top Albums list.
Also nice to see that some tracks I favorited in the beginning of 2011 got picked up throughout the year. Great to see the Magician’s remix of Lykke Li I posted on my Facebook wall in february getting the recognition it deserves.
Fantastic track that I literally had on repeat during the first months of 2011. Great video as well. Breakthrough single from Kortrijk based SX (I learned weeks after discovering that this band was in fact Belgian..)
Adele – Rolling in the Deep (VILLA remix)
Another remix by Belgians “thatarenotsoulwax” that kicks major ass. I think there are more remixes of this track than Adele did gigs in 2011, but this is definitely one of the best around. Thé best in my opinion at least.
Lykke Li – I Follow Rivers (The Magician Remix)
Another international artist that gets a great rework from ex-Aeroplane member The Magician. Was one of the theme songs of the 2011 Music for Life campaign on Studio Brussel. And well deserved.
The surprise of 2011 in Belgium is this group with Lara Chadraoui as center point. Opened with this instant singalong (don’t worry, I’m usually alone in my car) and followed up with She-wolf and Howl.
Shindu – Happy House (Midnight Savari Remix)
Static & Greedy, cool dj guys I met with in the past, produced this killer remix of a golden oldie from Siouxie and the Banshees. Sometimes people say “do not touch an anthem”. I’m glad they didn’t hear that..
Fun, uptempo, almost orchestral track by chameleon-like band Das Pop. Got deservedly so a lot of airplay with this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3mWBfuTtNU
Trip set in music. Electro but not as we know it. Had to get used to their new sound, but kinda like it now.
A band I like for many years, had their grand-cru this year with a few big hits (whom the biggest one (All This Dancin’ Around) I didn’t like ‘that’ much), but this one and the Love lost in love are really awesome.
Catchy, poppy, hooky uptempo feelgood track from with some odd 70s classic synth sounds in there. This newly surfacing new band sometimes reminds of Phoenix, I state this mainly because my interpretative description doesn’t get it right. Know what, just listen to it.
School Is Cool – The World Is Gonna End Tonight
Once more a relatively new Belgian band ruling the airwaves with this popsong about the end of the world while jigging the violin like it’s no real big deal. Real fun song you can listen to again and again.
Great song to scream along in the car (notice I’m in my car a lot? ;) ). Not that this is it’s only merit, but often a good grade to measure a song’s strength by.
also:
Selah Sue – Crazy Vibes,
Hooverphonic – The night before,
Teddiedrum – Miami,
Little Trouble Kids – Freemason,
Processory – Nightfall (Aeroplane Remix),
School is Cool – New Kids In Town,
Das Pop – The Game,
dEUS – Constant now,
Aeroplane feat. Sky Ferreira – Without Lies,
Intergalactic Lovers – Shewolf,
Intergalactic Lovers – Howl,
The Subs – The Face Of The Planet,
Triggerfinger – Love lost in love,
Customs – Harlequins,
Top sad music
Since apparently sad music always gets rated higher by the hipsters .. ;), and I also saw that I tagged a lot of that kind of music this year and didn’t want to clutter it with undecent, below par, regular fun music like above, I decided to create a separate list for it. Some known, some lesser known, all very nice to hear. Give ’em a go, even if you’re not a hipster or Duyster-fan.
Elizabeth and The Catapult – Do Not Hang Your Head
Aged 14, cover of Bon Iver. Great cover (and that’s pretty hard to do).
Heavenly voice over a beautiful melody, nice piano and acoustic guitar track. Light and relaxing.
Feist – How Come You Never Go There
One of the best singers of her generation with a nice downtempo track. Pleasing to the ear.
The Cinematic Orchestra – Arrival of the birds (Acqua di Gioia TV Spot)
Although I “knew”, or more like, heard of, the Cinematic Orchestra before, I really got to know them via the commercial of Acqua di Gioia with this beautiful track. And they’ve got more where that came from I discovered.
Almost classical track, reminiscent of the great old composers in a very modern world. This is how the future sounds. Tipped by my colleague Robin.
Saw these guys perform and although very minimal and downkey, one of the most intense shows I saw this year. Great song from their Imagine Mountains EP I bought after the show. Very good too btw. Get it somewhere.
2011 was the year Amy died, and that Adele flourished completely. She ruled all hit lists with popular AND awesome, good tracks, a very rare combination nowadays. Nice to see that someone with boatloads of talent still can overtake those with fake boobs, faces, smiles and manufactured trash.
Also:
Wu Lyf – We Bros
Top-5 Clip
Some tracks I couldn’t really categorize, but had great clips, so I put ’em in this category..
Chilly Gonzales – You can dance
Nice, feelgood dance track with nice .. ehrm.. “parts” :) Or like someone in the comments posted: “Sound on mute, still like the video.”
Beastie Boys – Make Some Noise
More a mini video than a simple videoclip, celebrating the old Beastie Boys with a few dozen Hollywood celebrities doing a cameo. Spot ’em all..
Female elf like characters in slow motion doing weird stuff.. tend to have a licking addiction..
Nero, providers of the soundtrack of 2011 with numerous hits, with one of the strangest tracks of the year. Starts out as a vintage 80s hit, with accompanying video with all popular Miami Vice and Dallas-esque video FX, and then turning into a postmodern nervous dubstep/italo song.. Future music ?
and, of course, a bit disturbing (but a Belgian video production.. so had to include it)
Also view:
Top albums
- Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts
- Adele – 21
- Selah Sue – Selah Sue
- Kasabian – Velociraptor!
- Nicolas Jaar – Space is Only Noise
- Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee pt2
- The Black Keys – El Camino
- Amy Winehouse – Lioness: Hidden Treasures
Discoveries/Breakthroughs (for me)
- SX
- Aeroplane
- Oh Land
- Intergalactic Lovers
- Teddiedrum
- The Black Keys
- Nicholas Jaar
- Housse De Racket
- The Magician
- Azealia Banks
Concerts
Didn’t catch a lot since my main event, 3 days at Pukkelpop, got cancelled due to a storm destroying festival and campsite, injuring hundreds of people and even leaving 5 people dead. This was by far the lowpoint of the year for me.
Attended Rock Herk again after few years of absence and saw a very good gig from Buraka Som Sistema and a great set of Sinden. At another event I saw Oscar & The Wolf perform a intimate but intense set.
Tribute
A lot of talented people died this year, and I really regret never having seen this amazing artist perform live:
Amy Winehouse – Our Day Will Come: Amy Winehouse Tribute
and a bonus not many people have heard already, a great mashup of Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry and Amy’s Love is a Losing Game:
Bob Marley/Amy Winehouse – No Woman No Cry (Al Fingers’ Love Is A Losing Game Remix)
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