tunes of 2004
So lets talk music. For a few days now I've been thinkin I really need to recap the essential groove tunes of 2004. At a glance I'd say it was a banner year for breakbeat, nuskool and drum and bass goodness. Not deep grooves but action grooves, fast forward down right agressive grooves of the year. While the early months of 2004 were dominated by 8th street lounge classics the last half of year broke out in a fury of agressive beats that kept my head bobbin all day long.
Lets talk albums first. Here's my top albums for 2004, and thats discovered and listened to in 2004, not necessarily 2004 cd releases:
Lee Coombs - Breakfast of Champions - The best breakbeat (though i sorta put it in the nuskool listing as well) cd of year breaks in with solid grooves. Nothing too wild expect a few killer must have tracks. I used to hate those tracks, they always cost me money. I'd have to have them, spare no expense, damn you grooves!!! Ahhh well, luckily the whole cd is cuck full of groove goodness. The must haves on this cd are: OakenfoldTime Of Your Life (Lee Coombs Mix) and New OrderCrystal (Lee Coombs Boc Remix). The remix if New Order's Crystal is especially tasty. And this a rare treat for would be dantunes fans.. this track has OMG - lyrics! Yes.. it was the year of lyrics...
One thing I like about posting a best albums of 2004 is the fact I actually bought albums. In fact for the "sound" i'll spare no expense. Its the one aspect of spending that I dont care what it costs I need that sound. Juno Records in the UK fullfilled many of musical goodness desires. Hell this whole list will probably be cds I picked up from Juno. Very nice brits btw, fast shipping, always kind on the phone and in email - good folks. And even better Juno just got a face lift! Holy CRAP! Juno Records gets face lift... awesome. Check it!
Bring on the slow overdrive!
Ok so on to the next cd, Booty Breaks! Actually 2 cds. Booty Breaks Volumes 1 & 2 have some sweet remixed masters on them. I will say I dig volume 1 a weee bit more than volume 2. Still there are some must have tracks here. The music mashup of Madonna is a tasty floor thumper but witchcraft mastery of MoCheba of volume 1 is a must have, one of the best dantune tracks of 2004 indeed. Sadly Volume 1 is looking pretty bleak to find, so if yer lookin, see me after class.
Faithless - Mass Destruction. I remember first hearing/seeing the video for Mass Destruction and thinking, damn that is dead on glorious work of art. The cd doesn't disappoint either. Initally drawn to the cd just for Mass Destruction's lyrical brilliance, I found some truly beautiful tracks inside: I Want More & Love Lives on My Street are excellent tracks that hit the mark on how much of the world is focused on the wrong messages.
If you asked me to pick one one excellent must have cd for 2004 i'd say DieselBoy's DungeonMasters Guide to Drum and Bass. This cd sparked such inspiration in me that it dragged me back into the editing world (a much needed trip i might add), and forced me to obsess about the amplication of such grooves that they must have a canvas of animation to haunt and attack them as well. Ok that may have not made any sense there. I dont care. This cd caused me to dream, create, paint images in my mind. Haunting visuals that are sometimes already beautifully painted for you already in some killer japanese animation. It was my job to mix them together and get a taste of the result. It made me fall in love with video editing all over again in some ways. Mmmmm just listening to this makes me wanna deathmatch or edit.. dangerous.. I may not finish this entry if I keep jammin to this cd: Wink, Follow the Leader, Take Me Away From Here, Human, Break, such music.. so nice. In fact " Decorum - "Cantrax" (Weapon remix)" is the dantunes 2004 track of the year kids! Yep, thats pretty damn hard to do btw, cause I usually put 20 or so songs all around the top 1.. heh.. but in 2004 this was, is and still resides the best track of 2004 for me.
What was suprising in 2004 was the merge of trance and drum and bass, now I'm not really up on the scene any more and I know this has been happening for awhile now but it was just nice to find the trance sound i liked mixed into the hard beats of drum and bass. Trance is one genre you won't find too much of on this list btw, just not into the sound really whether its mutated or i have I dont know.
Next up on the list is Way Out West - Don't Look Now, overdue for a cd for sometime know, this one does not disappoint. Killa is top pick off this cd, I has a taste of dub/garage in it that I love. This slow groove build action is wonderful. In fact I've only heard this kind of dubby bass groove on a few other cds, all of which, and this sound in general seems like a rare find to me. So once i had a brief taste of Killa, I knew, again like many other tracks, spare no expense - have to own. Apollo is another awesome track on here as well.
2004 opened up with a boom when DJ Hyper landed in my hands. My House was smokin goodness, "thats good shit" I thought to myself. Then listened a bit further and stumbled upon Infusion Legacy ( the Junkie XL remix )... holy crap that is awesome. I must of played this track oh... I'd say at least a few hundred times this past year. I love it. And again kids lyrical goodness!
Of course this led me back to Junkie XL which is probably the most listened to artist for me this past year. Yep 2004 was the year of the Junkie.
Rolling in at I'd say #2 for best cd of year in 2004, Junkie XL's A Broadcast from a Computer Hell Cabin is an awesome cd. Some great tunes on here and again more lyrics folks.. those that know my tastes will be suprised here... Anyways, we kick off this cd with Crusher, Reload, and then we run into Gary Numan... Gary Numan? This guy has a beautiful voice. In fact upon hearing Angels, I felt like I relived the memories of Dark Kitty an animated show concept I whipped up while working at ADV in texas many years back. I used a Gary Numan track back then for a the Dark Kitty trailer. I love his haunting voice, an almost etheral spookyness to it. The first lyrical progression of Angels has my ears attempting to merge with the sound, as if I could be one with it. Powerful magic of sound that takes you places you just can't get to any other way. Catch Up to My Step with vocal bustin via Solomon Burke screams EDIT ME INTO SOMETHING ME PLEASE! I like tracks that.. only problem is after about 5 steps.. I'm done on that track.. hah. Beauty That Never Fades is also on this cd.. which you Matrix fans may take of note, this track also appears in the Animatrix I believe. Another good thing here about Junkie XL is that I went online and bought the companion cd to this one, an internet only version. That's the first time i've ever done that.
Correction: the Dark Kitty trailer track came off the Dark City soundtrack cd- Sleep Now by Hughes Hall is the track. The Gary Numan cd Exile was the cd I used to inspire and provide me with a kind of soundtrack landscape to animate and create to.... Dead Heaven, Absolution, and several other tracks on Exile we're the base of this dark world I created inside Dark Kitty.
Most tracks listened to but never knew what cd they came from is Fluke's Puppy. I had the tracks from various sources but never put them all together to realize they all came from the same source. Damn web radio! Anyways, remember the stormin make love to me neo dance track from Matrix Reloaded? Well its here along with several other killer must have tunes.
Hmmm that about warps up tonights blog entry folks. I think thats a pretty good groove sampling of the tracks that attacked my senses this past year. Of course this listing doesn't include the many lounge cd's I aquired as well. Thats for another time another thought channel.