Anyhow, thought I’d compile a list of my favourite tracks of the last year, rather than albums as I did for 2008. Have done a top 30 rather than 50 as I couldn’t really think of any more other than the ones I already had down, so enjoy. Oh and tbh, 30-10 aren’t in any concise order, just a rough one, only the top 10 really stand out as my favourite of favourites.

30. The All-American Rejects – Gives You Hell // Maybe a surprise to some of you as I don’t tend to list to much rock or whatever, but as mainstream as it is, its a great tune.

29. Enter Shikari – Hectic // Again probably an even bigger surprise but this is worthy, srsly. The main melody is AMAZING, just needs a good remix without the vocals (which are somewhat painful) to get it more acclaimed. Seen some remixes but nothing of note, yet..

28. Wolfgang Gartner – Push & Rise (Original Mix) // Wolfgang is another who had a fantastic 09, this being my favourite pieve by him.

27. Matt & Kim – Daylight (Troublemaker Remix feat. De La Soul) // Troublemaker has done a few good rap remixes, this one in partic being on Fifa 10, showing how big he’s gotten. Great remix.

26. Bad Boy Bill – Falling Anthem // Lovely prog house beat with lovely distinct vocals.

25. Tiga – What You Need (Proxy Remix) // Big year for Proxy, this being my favourite of his works. Mental breakdown!

24. Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo // Probably my favourite piece of dubstep to date. Not the usual ‘dirtiness’, but instead nice and clean with the sampling of 90′s garage. Joy shall be big this year.

23. Wale – World Tour (feat. Jazmine Sullivan) // I was a big fan of Wale’s long-awaited debut album, this being my favourite from it.

22. Moguai – I.D.Y. (Original Mix) // Huge support from Deadmau5, great electrohouse from Moguai. He should be even bigger this year.

21. tyDi – I Like, You Like // Huge year for the young Aussie, this is an amazing, chilling masterpiece. Fantastic debut album and really starting to rise in the trance world. I’m listening to his album as we speak, perfect relaxation music for 2am

20. Classix feat. Jeppe – I’ll Get You // Summer anthem, nice beat, nice vocals. Very productive year for Classixx.

19. OneRepublic – All The Right Moves (Danger Remix) // One from the tail end of 09, Danger’s done it again! Didn’t think I could ever like OneRep but this is a sick remix.

18. Example – Watch The Sun Come Up / Fred Falke Remix / Blame Remix // Example got more mainstream in 2009, but even so this is a wonderful track. My favourite is probs just the Falke mix, but the Blame one is amazing also. Original ain’t half bad either..

17. The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition (Axwell & Dirty South Remix) // House’s popularity reached new levels last year and this is exactly why.

16. Gareth Emery – Metropolis // Really starting to prove himself as one of the front-runners in trance; this and Exposure are both fantastic examples of why.

15. Shakira – She Wolf (Villains Original Mix) // I’ve always liked Villains, but this made me love them. So much better than the orig.

14. Designer Drugs – Drop Down // Designer Drugs first came to my attention with their amazing Mariah Carey remix. Further remixes followed but this to me is their first original that really stood out. Another sick breakdown.

13. Chiddy Bang – Kids // Big year for Chiddy Bang also, this being by far the best of their tracks. Becoming known only now, which shows how slow the British public is..

12. Erika Jayne – Give You Everything (Dave Audé Club Mix) // My number 2 track until the very end of ’09. Amazing vocals, amazing prog house, as simple as it is.

11. Avicii – Bullet (Original Mix) // Avicii is amazing, this sampling is amazing. Didn’t like the guitar initially as it didn’t really blend with his housey sounds imo, but really, it works amazingly.

10. Netsky – Smile // Huge up-and-coming talent in DnB, this track a perfect example of why.

9. Chase & Status – End Credits (feat. Plan B) // Only started listening to this recently but you cannot deny how good it is. Great prod from C&S and Plan B is definitely showing his credentials as an excellent singer.

8. P-Money feat. Vince Harder – Everything // Technically 08 but I don’t really care. Crazy beat with huge vocals. Blame mix is also worth checking out.

7. Calvin Harris – I’m Not Alone // This was in my top 3 or so for most of the year but various things put me off (most namely ripping off Art of Trance). Still, sublime choon!

6. Addeboy vs Cliff – Beep My Beep // They first made their name 3 years ago with their awesome production on some of Adam Tensta’s album, but this original is just AMAZING. Beat owns, vocals are sick, wish they made more stuff. Gorgeous vid too.

5. Passion Pit – Little Secrets / Felix Da Housecat Remix // Heard right at the start of 09, and due to that I half forgot about it. But Felix’s mix from the back end of the year reignited my love for it. For me, its PP’s best track. All-round brilliance

4. Paloma Faith – New York (Tom Middleton Remix) (Laidback Luke Remastered Edit) // Another from right at the end of ’09. Great edit, unbelievable drop.

3. Deadmau5 – Strobe // 2009 was the year of Mau5′s mainstream coming, and saw the release of FLOABN. Which I didn’t like much, but this track made the album good. This track is just indescribably good, Mau5′s best track by miiiiiles. Chilling yet proggy, just unreal!

2. Bob Sinclar – New New New (Avicii Remix) // Imo, Avicii was the best artist to come out of 09 by a million miles. This remix is my favourite piece by him; euphoric house sounds, typical Avicii piano, and the vocals he uses are amazing (the original is dire). And everybody should be dancin’ to these sounds…

1. Pryda – Melo // Not going to go into detail with this, but just listen. Rivalling as my favourite track of all time. Pure euphoria for 9 minutes, words cannot describe just how good this is. Amazing work my Mr Prydz..

Long time no see! Been busy with uni which is why I haven’t posted in a good 3 months, so don’t expect me to again when I go back in a couple of weeks haha. Whilst there I barely downloaded any music and that which I did was mainly all trance, but as its the holidays and I’ve been proper bored I’ve started diversifying again. Wasn’t sure what to start with though so thought I’d go with an albeit late review of Kid Sis’ debut album Ultraviolet.

Now, I pretty much completely lost track of the music world over the past 3 months so I completely forgot about her long-awaited release. It came out at the end of November and when I remembered about it I thought I’d check out Pitchfork’s review. They basically slated it so I didn’t expect much, but was pleasantly surprised. I’d already heard some of it, namely the Swedish House Mafia-produced ‘Right Hand Hi‘, which is still excellent, ‘Get Fresh’, which I think is a bit meh, and of course ‘Pro Nails’ w/ Kanye, again an ace track.

Looking at the list of producers, you’d expect it to be a very good but somewhat genre-defying record. Which to be honest, I basically agree with. Producers include the aforementioned Swedish House Mafia, UK dubstepper Rusko, UK part-dubsteppers Herve & Sinden (with whom she collaborated on ‘Beeper’), Spank Rock’s XXXChange, Ed Banger’s Yuksek, and her boyfriend A-Trak supervised it all. Guests also include Estelle, Gant-Man and Cee-Lo. Some pretty big/diverse names.

Overall, the album has an expected light-hearted/party feeling to it, with nice synths and casual rapping/singing combos from Kid Sis. I wouldn’t describe Kid Sis as a good rapper, but I am a fan of her mixing rapping with singing, similarly to Plan B, Example and so on. I do actually prefer her singing, which I first realised in ‘Right Hand Hi’, one of the album’s best tracks. For me though the best is definitely the (I’m fairly sure) Rusko-produced, Cee-Lo-guested ‘Daydreaming’. Lovely synths mixed in with tasty dubstep production, with Kid Sis and Cee-Lo singing on top of that. Doesn’t sound like those factors would mix well but to me at least, they really do.

My other favourite would be her first ever single from way back in 2007, ‘Control’ – a great electronic/hip-hop hybrid, the very soft ‘Life On Tv’, and of course ‘Pro Nails’. Other highlights include Yazoo-sampling/dubstep-like ‘Big N Bad’ and ‘Step’, which features Estelle.

On the whole it’s in no way a serious hip-hop record, nor is it ground-breaking, but it is fun and a nice listen. Highly enjoyable!

Kid Sister – Daydreaming (feat. Cee-Lo) Buy Album on Play

On a side note, here’s Doorly’s latest dubstep remix, of Wiley & Chew Fu’s ‘Take That’. Not bad..

Wiley & Chew Fu – Take That (Doorly’s Dubstep Remix)

Don’t you love finding music randomly? I was watching some clips from the film ‘Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus’ (need to see it tbh) and clicked on a related video about sharks, and it had a song by a guy called 009 Sound System as the music. Didn’t really go overly but what a choon! Reminds me of some of a favourite of mine, We Plants Are Happy Plants’ stuff, in that its kinda dreamy with that electronic aspect, this being more so though. Great chill music though, has an ambient feeling whilst retaining a trancey style. 2 of his songs are below, have a listen. Lastfm calls it experimental pop but it could easily be regarded as a number of genres. His use of (what I think is) this sitar, especially in Space And Time, is amazing.

009 Sound System – Dreamscape

009 Sound System – Space And Time ♥

Remember a while ago when I was amazed by a track called ‘Feel’ by a guy called Tom Staar? Well not so long ago his management sent us this track, entitled ‘Best Friends Girl’, in full 320 glory. As in Feel, the synths are absolutely amazing, all crunchy and everything. Lyrics are also similar, I find these kind of amusing for some unknown reason. Have a listen and support him though, hopefully he’ll be getting a lot more press soon.

Tom Staar – Best Friends Girl

And lastly, I think I’ve posted a rip/LQ version before, but here’s the full version of Chicane’s remix of William Orbit’s latest single ‘Purdy’. Definitely worth listening in this better quality, its got that progressive feel which reminds me a bit of Arno Cost’s stuff (specifically ‘Cyan’) alongside Nick’s typical ‘wavey’ sounds. Great remix..

William Orbit – Purdy (Chicane Remix)

When I first heard Calvin Harris’ ‘I’m Not Alone’ I did think it was honestly amazing. I went off it a bit though, but this new remix from Japan’s Taku has reignited my love for it. Starts off with repetition of some of the vocals but then builds up into a mighty piece of electro, I prefer it to the original atm. Have a listen.

Calvin Harris – I’m Not Alone (Taku Remix)

Starsmith’s remix of ‘Sleepyhead’ with the much-loved Elli Goulding was pretty good, but his latest of Lisa Mitchell’s ‘Coin Laundry’ is even better. Again he uses a soft-voiced female vocalist and then puts his synthpop goodness into it, lovely track.

Lisa Mitchell – Coin Laundry (Starsmith Remix)

Martin Solveig and Dragonette’s ‘Boys & Girls’ is an awesome piece of electropop, and this remix by Les Petits Pilous (haven’t heard any of their stuff in ages, so hopefully they’re back) turns it into another fantastic piece of electro. Still waiting on the HQ Laidback Luke mix though.

Martin Solveig – Boys & Girls (Les Petits Pilous Remix)

And finally found this version of the amazing ‘Arguru’  by Deadmau5 the other day. Quite old and mainly a live version, but I find it refreshing and just as beautiful as the original.

Deadmau5 – Arguru (New Deadmau5 Live Version)

Fake Blood’s ‘Mars’ has pretty much become a dance floor classic since it came out, and I’d probably class it as the leading track in fidget, in a benchmark kind of way. Anyhow Boy 8-Bit recently covered it and what an end product! Maybe not as groundbreaking as the original but as a personal preference I actually prefer it, very progressive element to it for the most part. Nice.

Fake Blood – Mars (Boy 8-Bit Cover)

TTS fave Louis La Roche has been fairly active of late, with remixes for Phonat and Bestrack most recently. But this remix of Del Marquis’ ‘Runaround’ is for me easily one of his best pieces of work to date, a different style from Louis it would seem, again this has a prog element to it. Very nice piece of music though, and don’t let the fact that Del Marquis is the Scissor Sisters’ guitarist put you off, he has a pretty good voice that goes well with the remixery. The main remixing sounds like something Deadmau5 would’ve done on Random Album Title, very nice indeed.

Del Marquis – Runaround (Louis La Roche ‘In 1995′ Remix)

Been a while since I’ve listened to any High Contrast, but this new (or fairly new, I think) remix of Jokers Of The Scene’s ‘Baggy Bottom Boys’ is a reminder of how good he is. Nice vocals mixed in with the typical HC style, very nice.

Jokers of the Scene – Baggy Bottom Boys (High Contrast Remix)

Hadn’t heard of Art Vs. Science before the other day when I got their latest EP. I didn’t know what to expect (just thought it might be good so got it) but was pleasantly surprised, quite an enjoyable EP on the whole. My favourite track is by far ‘Hollywood’ (just found out its actually been out for like a year, but still), great guitar and drums with an electro-ness that reminds me of The Whip’s stuff. Rest of the EP is quite light-hearted and amusing but yeah, this is by far my favourite track. Another great artist coming out of Australia..

Art Vs. Science – Hollywood

Secondly cheers to DiscoDemons for this one, dubstep artist Kans’ edit of Nas’ classic ‘Made You Look’. Pretty epic I must say, have a listen..

Nas – Made You Look (Kans Edit)

And lastly, saw this on TV yesterday, Dave Darell’s remix of 4 Strings’ classic ‘Take Me Away’, which is being released as a single (UK-wise anyway). Very mainstream track but regardless the vocals and remixery is pretty good. Dave does make some sick stuff to be fair, mainstream or not.. kind of in the Spencer & Hill mould.

4 Strings – Take Me Away (Dave Darell Remix)

Pretty retarded of me to’ve only heard of Matt & Kim yesterday. Not a clue how I missed them, but thank god for Troublemaker! We’ve posted some of his stuff before, my favourite of his being the ‘Nothing To Worry About’ remix with Adam Tensta, U-N-I and the 87 Stick Up Kids. Very nice remix. Anyhow, yesterday we got this little remix in our inbox. Well its not little actually, its amazing. But anyway, its Troublemaker’s remix of ‘Daylight’, by Matt &  Kim, with hip-hop pioneers De La Soul on the top. I hadn’t heard the original before (somehow), so I checked that out immediately after having heard the remix. Gorgeous pieces of music (both the original and remix), something so positive and upbeat about them. The original was on a Bacardi ad (which I haven’t seen.. though as they had Herve’s Kidda remix on before it would seem they have good taste..) much to some people’s distaste but regardless, its an amazing track, so get it if you haven’t already, and definitely get the remix also, which as a matter of fact is gonna be on NBA 2010, so a big congrats to Troublemaker.

Matt & Kim – Daylight ♥♥♥♥

Matt & Kim – Daylight (Troublemaker Remix feat. De La Soul) ♥♥♥♥

Sorry for the lack of posts recently but there has been like nothing to post. So I’ve only got a few tracks today, but better than none.

Firstly, after Chicane’s very successful ‘Poppiholla’, it would seem he’s going all out with the reworks in the mainstream world. The newest is ‘Hiding All The Stars’, which is a week or so old but oh well. It starts off nicely I think, relaxing with some decent vocals, and then it goes into…  wait for it… ‘Cars’ by Gary Numan. I actually laughed when I heard it. It doesn’t sound overly bad, but to me it just doesn’t really work, too.. fast and full-frontal for a Chicane track, even though its got some new synths and other stuff. Meh, new original productions shoould be surfacing at the end of this year, in preparation for next year’s album. Also below is a Chicane remix which is a couple of months old, much more likable, more typically relaxing etc. Both rips, with the latter though you get a nice bit of AVB instead though..

Chicane – Hiding All The Stars

William Orbit – Purdy (Chicane Remix)
Got little else to post so here’s the DBN remix of Ingrosso’s ‘Kidsos’. I got the original a while ago and thought it was a bit meh, the melody from MGMT’s ‘Kids’ works I suppose, but it was missing something. This remix is more prog housey and generally better, I think.

Sebastian Ingrosso – Kidsos (DBN Remix)

A little while ago I posted the rip of Wiley’s remix of ‘Tupac Robot Club Rock’. Pretty good I must say. The full version has now surfaced and tbh the rip sounded better.. this final version uses Filthy Dukes’ own ‘Kill Em All’ remix, rather than the original, with Wiley still in. The original remix is a proper good piece of electro in fairness but I reckon Wiley would sound better without.

Filthy Dukes - Tupac Robot Club Rock (Kill Em All, Let Wiley Sort It Out Remix)

A while ago I read about a 3OH!3/Katy Perry collaboration and although I don’t think this is the one I heard, its a collab regardless. Its a remix of ‘Starstrukk’ with Katy on who makes it easier to listen imo, as, being honest, 3OH!3 are pretty dire. I do like Katy though, mainstream pop I know but she’s quite a character anyway. Have a listen below though, being released as a single I believe.

3OH!3 – Starstrukk (feat. Katy Perry)

And lastly the new track from Mr Fedde Le Grand. Obviously ‘Put Your Hands Up..’ was a massive success and even though it is a tune I find it pretty grating. This new track though is fantastic, much more progressive element to it, whilst containing a kind of euphoric feel. Nice vocals also.

Fedde Le Grand – Let Me Be Real (feat. Mitch Crown)

Simian Mobile Disco – Temporary Pleasure

Following up from the highly acclaimed Attack Decay Sustain Release was always gonna be hard, but after having heard tracks like ‘Audacity Of Huge’, I think myself, amongst others, thought that there was a possibility that SMD’s second album could possibly be almost as good as the first. Most of you who’ve read reviews though will probably find this isn’t the case, and tbh, even though it definitely isn’t as good as the first, I still found it highly enjoyable. Reviews in the 50′s/100 etc I find pretty harsh, though I guess after ADSR the follow-up was never gonna be as good. Anyhow, the obvious feature of the new album is the amount of guests. This is the year to release an album full of guests after all (see MSTRKRFT, Tiesto, Guetta and so on) but to be fair to SMD its no way near as disastrous compared to MSTRKRFT’s etc. ‘Audacity of Huge’, the first single, I still think is great. Beth Ditto’s feature is a bit low-key imo but nice nonetheless; but my favourite guest performance would be that of Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) on the album opener, ‘Cream Dream’. It sounds like something you’d get on a farfetched TV show or something, can’t quite think. Really good tune though. A close second would be Telepathe on ‘Pinball’ though, the album closer. But after having listened a few times, by far and away the best track is the pre-released ’10000 Horses Can’t Be Wrong’. It is basically this album’s version of ‘Sleep Deprivation’ (their best song, for me anyway) and is actually the only instrumental, given that ‘Synthesise’ is now updated, for the worse unfortunately. Still though. 10k Horses is a fantastic track, typical glitchy stuff. Overall I’d probably give the album a 6.5 or 7/10. Not the best but still a good listen.

Simian Mobile Disco – 10000 Horses Can’t Be Wrong

Simian Mobile Disco – Temporary Pleasure

Deadmau5 – For Lack Of A Better Name

You gotta love Joel’s track and album names, if nothing else. FLOABN follows up well from Random Album Title in the naming sense at least, but sadly not in the quality sense. The thing about RAT was 90% (if I remember correctly) of its tracks were already released, so you kinda knew what you were getting. With this though, even though most of them had been floating about for a number of months or weeks, nobody really knew what you would get. The new version of ‘Ghosts N Stuff’ (now a single) with Rob Swire was good fun, but not as good as the original. ‘Moar Ghosts N Stuff’ I actually think is fantastic; the original was a nice mix of his melodic and experimental styles, with this being a more fast-paced electro-style version. Now, the other tracks… I just don’t particularly like them. ‘The 16th Hour’ is probably the best of them but even that isn’t that great. It is mainly back to his ‘Get Scraped’ style it seems, ie. experimental, rather than the gorgeousness of pieces like ‘Arguru’ on RAT. I really am not into this old style that much and accordingly I didn’t find the album very good at all. HOWEVER! A new track, named ‘Strobe’, is the album’s saving grace. Originally called ‘And Then We Stood Still’ (we posted it a while ago) and only 3 mins long, Strobe is a full 10 mins+. Anyhow, this track is a MASTERPIECE. Considering how amazing Arguru, Not Exactly etc are, it would take a lot to make something what I would consider Mau5′ best track. But Strobe does this with ease. It is honestly his best track by a mile, words cannot describe how good it is! Tied for me with Pryda’s ‘Melo’ for best track of the year, and it may go ahead of it. It to me is already in my top 10 tracks ever, it is truly amazing. If it weren’t for this, the album would be pretty dismal. But this makes it SOOOO much better. To be fair, as soon as I heard it, I immediately thought of BT’s This Binary Universe (my favourite album of all time) as its got that quiet, beautiful feel, but this also has that progressive element as it gets going. So yeah, enough about Strobe; overall the album is probably only 6/10 imo, with Strobe and the 2 versions of Ghosts N Stuff being the only tracks I still listen to. Worth buying just for Strobe though! Oh and how could I forget, the awesome ‘Hi Friend’ with MC Flipside is on it. Old, but a classic. That makes it 4 tracks I listen to still.

Deadmau5 – Strobe

Deadmau5 – For Lack Of A Better Name PreOrder on Amazon