It's that time of the year. Alongside Jimmy Carr's bloated face lurking about on Channel 4 every night counting down the UK's top 100 daytime agony aunts, Get Low Blog is gearing up for a glut of top 10 videos, breakthrough artists, festivals and fruity loop snare samples. Because lets be honest, it's bloody easy.
Apologies for the long list of youtube beds but it's the easiest way for readers to hear our selection of the most exciting tracks of 2010.
GET LOW BLOG'S TOP 10 TRACKS OF 2010
2010 has been a stirling year for Get Low. Alongside festival appearances and established growth into new cities and venues, 2010 has seen us re-consider our approach to electronic music and where we believe the scene is heading. 2009 was the year that Dubstep blew up. Skream sold 400,000 records, Dub Police became a staple monthly event at Fabric, TV commercials and beds were awash with grumbling basslines and it became de rigeur for there to be a dubstep remix on every chart single release, through Katy Perry to The Chelsea Pensioners (probably). It is inevitable that this explosion of interest would create an interesting vortex within a scene that had previously been fiercely insular and independant, funded and supported by its own keen gaggle of supporters, much like D&B was in the mid 90's.
Skream, Benga, Rusko and a handful of others rightly reached for the stars, taking advantage of their natural charisma and pop hooks to penetrate the global conciousness. Major labels invested in Dubstep in a big way, from Magnetic Man through to the True Tiger outfit. Many of Dubstep's original innovators hastily took a step back from the monster they had helped to create. Mala halted his once regular slew of releases, giving us only the admittedly brilliant Return To Space LP in 2010. Loefah moved away from his sour, halfstep style to explore an entirely new scope of sound, mixing 80's inspired 808 rhythmic patterns with grimey, uneasy melodies that sounded like nothing before. His label Swamp 81 shot ahead of the pack to swiftly become the label that embodied this new sound that was once, and possibly still is, Dubstep. Recruiting Headhunter in his new guise as Addison Groove was a genius stroke, aswell as securing Ramadanman's startling new body of work.
The rise of funky and house has seen a new space open up between 130 and 140 bpm, exploited most efficiently by Redlight, formerly DJ Clipz. It is this angle, lazily labelled "future garage" by many, that has seen some of the most innovative and exciting music in 2010, and it is this sound that looks set to be the hip noise of 2011. If Redlight, Jamie XX, James Blake, Dark Sky and the Night Slugs crew continue generating the quality we have seen from them so far then there will be surely be much to look forward to.
Below is our pick of the tunes that have shaped our year.
10. REDLIGHT - STUPID (DIGITAL SOUNDBOY)
This could have been the equally great vocal version featuring the fearsome Roses Gabor, but the original instramental is just simply HARD. 'Stupid' consistently moves dancefloors and is large enough to blast out in 6,000 capacity festival tents, as Skream did at Bestival to devastating effect.
9. ADDISON GROOVE - FOOTCRAB (SWAMP 81)
Both incredibly sparse and delightfully rich, Footcrab ushered in 2010's progressive sound at the same time as marking Swamp 81 as a label with serious intentions to push the letter. Genius.
8. BREACH - FATHERLESS (PTN)
A moody, angst ridden stomper from Ben Westbeach cloaked as the mysterious Breach, 'Fatherless' takes it time to drop but is definitely worth the wait. Like Redlight's 'Stupid', 'Fatherless' explores the murky waters between Dubstep and Tribal House to devastating effect.
7. RAMADANMAN - GLUT (SWAMP 81)
Yet more bassy magic from Swamp 81, with Ramadanman re-inventing himself as a trailblazing producer with a style bang on trend. No idea why this didn't appear on his own Hessle Audio imprint however, I certainly wouldn't have given this banger over to another label.
6. SKREAM - FIELDS OF EMOTION (TEMPA)
The choice cut off the mixed bag that was "Outside The Box", 'Fields of Emotion' is a joyously melodic stomper with references to Silkie's lightness of touch. Superb track.
5. ZINC FEAT MS DYNAMITE - WILE OUT (RINSE)
Nothing new here, but Zinc's low end bassline has proven it has the power to just simply make people move. A cross demographic smash that became huge across House, Funky, Dubstep and Pop, 'Wile Out' was also responsible for re-introducing Ms Dynamite into a scene that was crying out for strong, powerful women figures. We had Ms Dynamite at several Get Low parties throughout 2010 and consistently witnessed her awesome stage presence and popularity amongst girls bored of sweaty Dubstep raves full of gurning lads. Gamechanging stuff.
4. KATY B - KATY ON A MISSION (RINSE)
Alas, another boring choice. However, the importance of this chart destroying Summer anthem cannot be underestimated. Played across the board in the UK and America, 'Katy On A Mission' combined Benga's rolling, muscular dancefloor nous with Katy B's sultry, evocative vocal skills. It is a track that contains all the best elements of Dubstep and Pop music in a way that Magnetic Man's limp "I Need Air" never was and has turned a whole generation of teenagers onto well made Bass music. An unbelievably crucial song.
3. MAN LIKE ME - LONDON TOWN (OURTIME)
A curveball here, but this brilliant ode to London is too good to miss out. Man Like Me have been on the grind for years, never saturating their unique take on pop music, whilst their live shows are consistently magical. A band to be treasured, as their hilarious turn in the recent IKEA advert shows.
2. JAMES BLAKE - CMYK (HOTFLUSH)
As time will no doubt tell, 2011 will be the year that James Blake establishes himself as the credible bridge between Dubstep and chart music. His superb cover of 'Limit to your Love' may have put him on the map as a man that could sing as well as produce, but CMYK was the real showcase of his abilities. Slicing Kelis' RnB gem 'Out There' with Destiny's Child, CMYK is a fragile, weird piece of music that gradually builds into a heartstoppingly beautiful crescendo.*
1. GIRL UNIT - WUT (NIGHTSLUGS)
'WUT' is arguably a boring choice for the Get Low Blog Tune Of The Year, as many other blogs have done the exact same thing. However, Girl Unit has created a track that combines several strokes of genius at once. As-well as introducing us to an exciting new artist on the incediary label 'Night Slugs', 'WUT' gave us a glimpse of where UK Bass music was heading at the same time as reminding us why we fell in love with Dubstep in the first place. In a year where Joker has failed to develop his own take on the sound after a string of awesome tunes in 2009, Girl Unit has filled the void with a synth drenched monster.
*CMYK was the closing song for our set at Outlook Festival.
