Best of 2007 by Cameron Bird

Panda Bear and Balearic tickle the cortex of this Architecture in Helsinki band member.

Best Artist
Late of the Pier is a band from Nottingham in the U.K. I saw them play a few times this summer. Each time my brain felt like it was melting.

Worst Artist
Open up a copy of NME, close your eyes, and stab a dagger into the page. There lies your answer.

Best Album
Panda Bear’s Person Pitch.

Worst Album
Definitely ours.

Best Single/12″
“Patrick 122” by Mr. Oizo.

Best Record Label
Italians Do It Better.

Best Live Event/Festival
Missing The Boredoms’ 77 drummers thing, which they did in NYC, was my biggest musical regret of this year.

Best City and/or Scene
If it wasn’t so full of insecure, whinging little bitches, I would say our hometown of Melbourne is a freakin’ awesome place to be a musician, artist, alcoholic, and sport’s fan.

Best DJ
DJ /rupture is equal parts classicist and Renaissance man.

Best Music Trend
The use of the word “Balearic.” I have no idea what it means, but I like it.

Worst Music Trend
The concept of new rave.

What will be big in 2008?
Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain” will be Number One before April.

Biggest/Best Music-Related Beef of 2007
Bands that play to backing tracks. Blahhhhhh.

Best Music Hardware
I love my two Latin drum machines, the Roland TR-727 and the Yamaha RX21-L.

Best Music Software
Garageband doesn’t have to be a bad thing!

Electronic Gadget
I can’t go to sleep at night without playing golf on my PSP.

Best Visual Artist
Will Sweeney is my hero.

Best Shoe
Nike Air Force Lo-Cut–the classic that’s comfortable.

Best Clothing Label
Romance Was Born, Sydney, Australia. Wild styles!

Best Style Trend
The return of color.

Worst Style Trend
Why in the fuck is everyone wearing those Palestinian scarves?

Best Media Item
R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet, Parts 13-22. Someone on an R. Kelly fan site called him “the new Shakespeare.” Ain’t that the truth.

Best Videogame
“Me and My Katamari” for PSP. That shit is mind-blowing.

More Best of 2007
Switch: Artist of the Year
Sage Francis’ Top Five Albums of 2007
Best Artists of 2007
Best Albums of 2007
Best Singles of 2007
Best of 2007 by Busy P
Best Live Events of 2007
Best of 2007 by Dust La Rock
Best Visual Artists of 2007
Best of 2007 by Dirt Crew
Best Music Trends of 2007
Best Style of 2007
Best of 2007 by Mochipet
Best of 2007 by DJ Ulysses
Best Music Technology of 2007

Bot’Ox Preps New Single for Death From Abroad

Cosmo Vitelli and Julien Briffaz just dropped a new single in our laps, further proving that when two highly-ranked Parisian producers join forces, only good can come of it. “Babylon By Car/Tragedy Symphony,” made under the duo’s Bot’Ox moniker, marks the fourth release for DFA-offshoot label Death From Abroad, and it’s a fine example of how dance music can still be compelling, with layers of live guitars, bass, and drums are slathered over dark disco beats and a zillion tempo changes.

According to the group’s MySpace page, one Mark Kerr was recently added to the outfit to do vocals. Hopefully he’ll lend his skills to the forthcoming full-length we’ve heard rumor of…

Watch the video for “Crashed Cadillac.”

Various Jamaica Funk–Original Funk & Soul 45s

There is no denying the influence of funk on Jamaican music during the 1970s. Indeed, Bob Marley kicked off the decade mutating James Brown, while Sly Dunbar took his stage name in homage to Sly and the Family Stone. This excellent compilation gathers 18 uncommon tracks defined by hefty funk rhythms, with nary a weak one in sight: Cedric Brooks’ “Silent Force” and The Rebels’ “Rhodesia” are in a class of their own, while Jackie Paris’ “Make Me Smile,” The Heptones’ “Do Good to Each & Everyone,” and The Now Generation’s sensitive version of “People Make the World Go Round” are also outstanding. Despite a few noisy vinyl transfers, the set nicely captures the era’s island-wide pervasive funk vibe.

Hey Willpower “In The Basement”

Imperial Teen’s Will Schwarz and Tussle’s Tomo Yasuda are already known in Europe as the duo Hey Willpower. Now, the U.S. will become acquainted with the electro-pop team, with the Stateside release of their debut, P.D.A.. This re-vamped version of the album features a new track sequence, all-new artwork, and a cover of Architecture in Helsinki’s well-known track, “Heart it Races.” Fans of laid-back dance music, take note.

Hey Willpower – In The Basement

Einmusik De’ Medici

Call me Ishmael, because I am going to tell you a white whale of a tale. There was once a young boy from Hamburg, Germany who was never told that the ’90s were over. His name was Samuel Kindermann (a.k.a. Einmusik), and along with DJ Bastian El Zohbi and Pelle Buys he made riff-heavy, shit-eating-grin-inducing micro-trance-techno tracks that almost begged for there to be another Mortal Kombat movie made just so that they could provide the triumphant climax cues. Okay, perhaps the 20 tracks (split between new and early) on these two Einmusik CDs aren’t quite that retro, save for the unadulterated stadium electro-haus of “The Runaway Child” or “Jittery Heritage,” but there is something so unabashedly punch drunk in the cosmic detailing and clubby robofunk that it feels like it’s of a less genre-delineated era.

RBX Broken Silence

If Stones Throw can bring back Percee P, who’s to say Technicali can’t resurrect the career of former Death Row inmate RBX (who’s been M.I.A. since narrating live from Cell Block 3 on The Chronic in 1993)? Jokes about overturned convictions aside, RBX was the most technical, stylistically versatile rapper of the G-Funk era; Broken Silence indicates he’s kept his tonsils toned. On “Overdue,” he drops lyrical napalm (“Finger on the button like Kim Jong Il”) over a squealing, nostalgia-evoking Snoop Dogg beat. Elsewhere, he hangs with young bucks LMNO, Chace Infinite, Self Lion, and Tate the Great. It’s good to have X back; now if only someone would only put out a new Volume 10 album.

Autechre Preps Ninth Full-Length

Rob Brown and Sean Booth may still look as cold and austere as the IDM-heavy music under their Autechre moniker sounds, but the word is out that a near three-year silence is ending and they will release a new full-length in March 2008.

Quaristice will mark the first full-length for Britain-based duo since 2005’s Untitled. A news announcement from Warp Records, who will release the album, was sparing with detail (really sparing, actually), but expect announcements on tour dates, tracklistings, press quotes, and the like to follow soon. Keep checking the duo’s MySpace page and website for further updates.

XLR8R’s 12 Days of Christmas: Day 1

Rhino Boxed Sets

The Heavy Metal Box ($59.98)
The Brit Box: UK Indie, Shoegaze and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium ($64.98)
Love is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970 ($64.98)

Would XLR8R scribes typically cover stuff like hippie pop and ’70s metal? Not unless it’s filtered by rock’s finest distillery, the Rhino label. With these three sets, you can chart some of rock’s finest moments ever.

Starting with Love is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970, we tune in and turn on with our fair city’s finest old haunts and bands. Not only does the set offer some magical tunes from Moby Grape, Blue Cheer, and The Youngbloods over the course of four discs, but it also comes packed in an incredible book, which chronicles one of history’s most colorful times in music and culture.

Then jump into The Heavy Metal Box, a super-heavy, super-packaged collection of tunes from both the usual suspects (Sabbath, Motörhead, Maiden) and lesser-known names (Raven, Venom, Saxon). A bit ironic, you say? Sure. Does it still kill us? Yes. Yes it does.

Top it off with my favorite of the lot, The Brit Box: UK Indie, Shoegaze and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium–where everyone from Suede and Blur to Ride, New Order, and My Bloody Valentine rip through the crown jewels of guitar-fuzzed and synth-kissed pop–and you’ve got one hell of a gift pack for any music lover with his or her salt.

More Days of Christmas
Day 2: Death In June Brown Book
Day 3: Selk’Bags
Day 4: Hangar One Raspberry Vodka
Day 5: Mishka Keep Watch Eyeball Hat
Day 6: GRN Apple Tree Hoodie and Nixon Watch
Day 7: Canon HG10
Day 8: Gee Vaucher Artwork
Day 9: Kid Robot Smoker’s Delight Bundle
Day 10: Eco-Friendly Bags from Colette
Day 11: XLR8R Subscription
Day 12: Ableton Live

dublab Re-Issues Its First Compilation

In summer 2001, a little-known collective in Los Angeles named dublab released its first compilation, a disc entitled Freeways that showcased some of the city’s most creative musical personalities making downtempo, avant-jazz, and leftfield hip-hop.

Fast-forward to 2007, and one could hardly say dublab is just a collective. The company has curated art exhibitions, film productions, numerous events, and hosts a heavily-visited website that offers audio streams and podcasts from a range of different musical styles.

To commemorate their many successes, dublab has made Freeways available in digital format for the first time ever. The re-release comes with the original selection of tracks that dublab heads frosty and Carlos Niño put together (including early gems from the likes of Dntel, Yesterday’s New Quintet, and John Tejada), along with a bonus track by Daedelus. Grab it all at iTunes now.

Download Ammoncontact’s “Chords (Parts 1-2)”

Tracklisting
1. Languis & Fer Chloca “The Sky Below”
2. Daedelus “A Mashnote”
3. Mia Doi Todd “Digital, Version 2.1”
4. Dntel “If I Don’t Return”
5. John Tejada “I’ll See You In a Place with Lights
6. Mannequin Lung “Is It Live?”
7. Yesterday’s New Quintet “Soul Searchin'”
8. Divine Styler “Shen”
9. Damon Aaron “Don’t Get Up Again”
10. Nowhereman (a.k.a. Nobody) “Seathrough Dolphin Smile”
11. Ammoncontact “Chord (Parts 1-2)”
12. Skull Valley “Death Zone Reflection”
13. Adam Rudolph “Nawa”
14. Daedelus “Lover’s Dub (Digital Bonus Track)

Photo of Daedelus by Laura Darlington.

Ammoncontact “Chord (Parts 1-2)”

The Los Angeles-based dublab crew first released its Freeways compilation in 2001, and now, having grown into a heavily-trafficked website and production company, the collective is once again giving fans a chance to hear the sounds that originally put dublab on the map. The re-release of Freeways sees the compilation in digital format for the first time ever. Sample a slice of dublab history with this track by L.A.-based jazz-funk duo Ammoncontact.

Ammoncontact – Chord (Parts 1-2)

Ammoncontact – Chord (Parts 1-2)

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