Top 20 Records of 2009

6. Electric Wire Hustle – Every Waking Hour (self-released / 2009)

There’s no question that New Zealand band Electric Wire Hustle wouldn’t be making the kind of music they do if folks like D’Angelo, Dilla and A Tribe Called Quest didn’t exist. And they make no qualms about wearing their influences on their sleeves. So are they merely imitators? I don’t really care. For my money there aren’t enough people carrying the neo-soul (for want of a better word) torch and more importantly, not enough people doing it as well as these guys.

7. The Gaslamp Killer – Gaslamp Killers Mix (bootleg / 2009)

I’ve read about this mix being released as a bootleg as far back as 2005 but I only managed to finally cop a listen when it was offered as a free download on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder website. What can I say about this mix – this takes me back to 1996, yo. DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, The Prunes, a whole bunch of other Mo’Wax heavyweights and similar artists. Still gutted that I missed his set in Singapore.

8. Headhunter – Nomad (Tempa / 2008)

Headhunter takes the ‘dub’ part of dubstep seriously. A prominent bass line, echoes, the odd sample floating in and out. That just about sums up the entire album really, and that’s a good thing for me. It’s still 140bpm for the most part but you’re more inclined to move at half that tempo when having this album on.

9. Hudson Mohawke – Polyfolk Dance EP (Warp / 2009)

Hudson Mohawke, purveyor of the irregular, bass-heavy, synth-drenched wonky sound. I prefer this EP over his debut album Butter because I think by the time the album came out (this EP was released in January, Butter in October) I was already inundated with too much Hud Mo from all his various bootlegs, mixes and compilation tracks. And to be honest Butter suffered from my high expectations more than anything else. If you still haven’t gotten into the hype yet, this EP is a good primer to get yourself acquainted with the wonky sound. Hate that term actually.

10. J Dilla – Jay Stay Paid (Nature Sounds / 2009)

J Dilla passed away on February 10 2006. That’s almost four years ago now. In that span of time there have been tons of posthumous releases but the truth is they’re going to run out of material soon enough. For that reason, Jay Stay Paid may possibly be the last good posthumous album from Dilla.

This album was mixed and arranged by Pete Rock (whom Dilla himself idolized) and most of the tracks are culled from various Dilla beat tapes. While I’ve heard a vast majority of the beats on here in one form or another in the past, it’s still refreshing to hear them fully fleshed-out as proper songs. ‘Smoke’ for example was initially just a 10-second loop on a beat tape but here it’s a nice 2-minute track featuring Blu. Then there’s Havoc and Raekwon spittin’ over ’24k Rap’ and Black Thought turning what was ostensibly an instrumental called ‘Bup Ba Bup Bup Ba Ba Ba’ into ‘Reality TV’.

There’s a reason why Dilla continues to command the attention and respect of hip-hop, no, music fans. You only need to get as far as track 2 on this album (aptly titled ‘King’) to know why.

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Music | December 14th, 2009

2 Responses to “Top 20 Records of 2009”

  1. Michelle Says:
    December 14th, 2009 at 11:22 am

    As always, an interesting and distinctive list! I’ll check lots of this out. Not sure if I’ll have time to do one myself but honestly even if I do, it won’t be as interesting as yours has been.

  2. shtikman Says:
    December 14th, 2009 at 2:50 pm

    Aww come on, do one! I haven’t read much music-related stuff from you in a while, other than the Michael Jackson ones.

Leave a Reply