MY TOP TEN SINGLES OF 2012

Merry Christmas! I hope you have all had a good one.

So, here we are, almost at the end of 2012! I’ve been thinking about what my favourite tracks were of this year and the list was rather large. After a struggle I’ve managed to whittle it down to my top ten below, so without further ado, and in reverse order, my top tracks of the year were:

10. Black Keys “Gold On The Ceiling” YouTube Amazon
Now, I’m not usually a massive fan of bluesy stuff, but I absolutely love this track, I think in part because I love Dan Auerbach’s voice, and also because this track is not overdone with the sort of bluesy widdling that normally puts me off of any blues tracks. In fact it’s kind of the opposite - very simple and effective.

9. Gabrielle Aplin “The Power Of Love” YouTube Amazon
I happen to think that the original of this track, by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, is the greatest Christmas track ever made (although really it’s only the original video that qualifies it as a Christmas song). I usually hate cover version of great classics like this, but in this case I think Gabrielle Aplin’s version is almost as good as the original. Her vocals are stunning, and the arrangement gives it a whole new lease of life which, I think, is superb. Of course it helps that the tear-jerking advert that brought it to our attention (courtesy of M&S) is a stroke of genius. All together now….”Ahhhhh!”

8. Photek feat Ray LaMontagne “This Love” YouTube Amazon
Ray LaMontagne’s voice is not dissimilar to Alex Clare’s (in fact I think I thought it was Alex Clare when I first heard this track). I love the darkness and bass of this track, and with LaMontagne’s vocals there is an added special dimension.

7. Gotye “Somebody I Used To Know” YouTube – Gotye version
Amazon
YouTube – Walk Off The Earth version
I’m a bit of a sucker for unusual tracks, and this track falls squarely into that category. With the plucked bass and guitar, and jaunty xylophone intro, this track just hooked me in. Then when another band, Walk Off The Earth, did an acoustic cover of this where all 5 members played the same guitar at the same time (using it as a guitar, bass, and drums), I was captivated all over again by its cleverness. I’ve included the cover link above so you can see what I mean.

6. Foo Fighters “Bridge Burning” YouTube Amazon
When I bought the Wasting Light album back in 2011 this was easily my favourite song, and so when the Foos released it in March of this year I did a little jig! Not only is it a bloody fantastic rock track by one of my favourite rock bands (with one of my favourite rockers, the lovely Dave Grohl, at the helm), it’s produced by one of my favourite producers, Butch Vig. Although I didn’t catch all of the Foo Fighters’ set at Reading Festival this year I did manage to catch this song and it sounded absolutely awesome live. For me, this is one of those tracks that is really, really therapeutic if played at ear-blistering level after a bad day.

5. Alex Clare “Too Close” YouTube Amazon
I can’t be the only one who heard this on the Microsoft advert and was instantly smitten with the dubstep instrumental of this track. After a bit of research I found the vocal version, which I loved even more due to Alex Clare’s smoky vocals. Alex is a former boyfriend of the late sultry singer, Amy Winehouse, and I can only imagine how fantastic the vocals would have been if they had recorded a track together!

4. Coldplay “Up In Flames” YouTube Amazon
The first time I really took notice of this track was at one of Coldplay’s gigs at the Emirates Stadium in the summer, and I was blown away right from the simple bass/drum and snare at the beginning. The lyrics really resonated with me. They are so simple but say so much. I am not easily brought to tears but this song, for some reason, always brings a lump to my throat. It’s even better live.

3. The Weeknd “Wicked Games” YouTube [Explicit] Amazon [Explicit]
I’d heard this track a couple of times, but it wasn’t until I heard The Weeknd playing it live on Jools Holland in November that it blew my head off. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and I was completely captivated by it. The vocals are fantastic against the slow, dark beat, and even though the lyrics are absolutely laden with expletives (….Argh! I sound like my mother!!), this track is absolutely stunning.

2. Rudimental “Feel The Love” YouTube Amazon
The first time I heard this happy drum and bass hit on the radio I instantly loved it. I missed the announcement of who it was so I spent half an hour frantically, but fruitlessly, searching the web to find out who it was. When I did eventually find out who it was I pre-ordered it and spent what felt like a very long time waiting for it to become available. Then I played it to death. Despite that, I still absolutely love it, which is a very rare thing for me. Usually if I play a song to death I go off it quite quickly. Fantastic!

1. Maccabees "Feel To Follow" YouTube Amazon
A fusion of soaring guitars and haunting vocal harmonies, this track effortlessly travels from a laid back, chilled start to a burning, wild finale. The drums, bass and piano provide a solid foundation for the ascending guitar riffs and vocals. It is a brilliantly beautiful song and easily made it to my number one spot.

So what do you think of my selection? Do you think I’ve missed a trick somewhere? Which track had you scrambling for the volume knob this year?

FULL GIG REVIEW – The Prodigy at the Brixton Academy

"End Of The World Extravaganza"
18th December 2012
Support: Gedo Mega Bitch, South Central, Jaguar Skills, Caspa

To celebrate fifteen years since the release of their third album, The Fat Of The Land, The Prodigy generously treated their fans to a re-release of the album (with additional Added Fat remixes) and three (almost) all night raves at London’s Brixton Academy. They lined up a whole host of support acts, with Caspa playing all three nights, and Jaguar Skills, Araab Muzik, Shy FX, South Central, Gedo Mega Bitch, Devious D and I.R.O.K. sharing deputy support responsibility at various points over the three dates.

Kicking off on the first night, the first support act up was Gedo Mega Bitch, who happens to be the wife of The Prodigy’s Keith Flint. The show started tentatively, swinging from trance to dubstep and drum & bass, with opportunities for epic drops being sadly wasted as she, almost timidly, played through her set. The audience didn’t seem particularly excited except at one point when the set crashed into an unplanned silence.

The following set from South Central started with more promise, particularly as you could see on the projected screen that they were doing more than just cueing tracks up. They glitched and mashed their way through their set, playing Pendulum riffs over the top of the tracks and making the most of drop opportunities. The crowd cautiously left any reticence behind and started to warm up, and by the time the third support act (Jaguar Skills) emerged, things were starting to go off in the audience.

Jaguar Skills presided over his impressively genius set from what looked like the side of an ice cream van. Mindful of the audience before him, he mashed metal classics from Motorhead and Metallica (much to the glee of an avid metal fan behind me) with old school jungle and rave classics like Original Nuttah and Sweet Harmony, and even finished, slightly bizarrely, with Madness’ One Step Beyond. By the final throes of the set the crowd was fizzing and eagerly anticipating the main event of the night.

And so, just after midnight, The Prodigy finally took to the stage and launched straight into Voodoo People. The crowd went nuts. What followed was a set that infused classics such as Breathe, Omen, Poison and Firestarter with a fresh dubstep-style undertone. With production genius Liam Howlett at the helm of The Prodigy’s control centre, wild-eyed Maxim and scary-haired Flint roamed the stage barking and snarling lyrics, much to the obvious elation of the audience.

While they were on a roll, the band sporadically threw in new tracks Jet Fighter and AWOL from the new, eagerly anticipated album, How To Steal A Jet Fighter, the former of which had been previously aired at Download Festival in the summer. These were well received, as was brand new track The Day, with the crowd moshing and throwing themselves about as enthusiastically as when other favourites like Thunder, Run With The Wolves, World's On Fire and Spitfire were played. During Invaders Must Die Flint disappeared (or at least that seemed to be the case to those of us trapped in the Circle seats), and Maxim distracted the crowd by encouraging everyone to do the classic hand movements to Queen’s We Will Rock You.

Suddenly, as Diesel Power struck up, Flint appeared in the gangway about 10 feet away from me, at the front of the Circle. How he got there I have no idea, and at this point I’m not sure how the Circle didn’t collapse due to the excited hopping and grabbing that ensued! Far from being the scary mentalist he seems to be onstage, Flint obliged by stopping for pictures and clasping the hands of his adoring fans and then, as swiftly as he appeared, he vanished through the exit and reappeared back onstage in time for the final epic track of the set, Smack My Bitch Up.

After opening the encore with Take Me To The Hospital and another new track, Dogbite, those of us who have loved the band from the beginning were treated to Hyperspeed and (my personal all-time favourite) Out Of Space from their first album, Experience. Whilst I would have preferred that they had played Fire from that album instead of Hyperspeed it was still a perfect journey back to the old school rave classics that started off the band’s 22 year career. And with that, the band disappeared into the murkiness at the back of the stage and left the audience, exhausted but happy, in the hands of their last support act, Caspa.

My only other slight disappointment with the set was that they didn’t play Warrior's Dance, which is puzzling since it was such a huge hit for them. But whatever their reasons for omitting that track, the rest of the set was a shining triumph, and they certainly put their Brixton Warriors through their paces!

My review score: 8.5/10

SINGLE REVIEW - Among The Echoes, "Freak"

Birmingham band, Among The Echoes, have a unique style that manages to successfully fuse dark wave, synth pop, ambience and 80s electronica, the result of which has spawned tracks such as the intriguing earworm, "Freak". Whilst the song would not be out of place in a Depeche Mode set due the expert use of ethereal and swirling synths courtesy of Among The Echoes’ Steve Turrell, it is also reminiscent of the style of current indietronica band, M83, and reminds me in particular of M83’s fantastic track “Couleurs” from their “Saturdays=Youth” album.

With lead vocals from Rachael O’Hara and Ian Wall, who sound uncannily like Siouxsie Sioux and David Bowie respectively, and edgy bass from Phil Lockhart, “Freak” swirls moodily through dark verses to the stop-start of a softer interlude, before sweeping up into an anthemic chorus. Fans of dark wave electronica will not be disappointed – this an absolute gem that is likely to awaken an urge to dig through your music collection for similar 80s, dark wave and indietronica anthems.

To listen to "Freak" go to this link to Among The Echoes' Soundcloud page.

Among The Echoes will be headlining the Birmingham O2 Academy on 25th January, 2013. For more information on the band, gig dates and tracks visit the Among The Echoes website at www.amongtheechoes.co.uk or their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/amongechoes.

UNEARTHING MUSICAL GEMS - Dance Classics Special no.1 (16/2/12)

Someone asked me last week what my favourite dance classic is, and about a dozen songs tripped off my tongue without me even having to think about it. Once I deployed my brain, and then looked down the "Dance Classix" playlist on my iPod to see if I'd missed any, I realised that I don't have a hope in hell of answering that question because there are so many to choose from.

So following my other Musical Gems Specials, I thought I'd start off a mini series for the dance nuts among us, accompanied some facts about each song. I've done my usual thing of setting my iPod off on shuffle within the list, so without further ado, and in no particular order, I present the first ten....

1) Insomnia - Faithless
YouTube Amazon
Originally released in the year that Faithless formed, 1995, this was Faithless' second single. It was re-released in 2005, having hit the top spot in the UK chart in 1996. With its most famous lyric, "Tearing off tights with ma teeth", this track is an absolute anthem, although in my opinion there are quite a few Faithless songs that would fall into that category. Faithless called it a day in 2011, after six albums and their final gig at the Brixton Academy for the "Pass The Baton" tour. The song was sampled in Tiësto's track, "Dance 4 Life" on which Maxi Jazz from the band provided vocals. I've included the album version of the song for the Amazon link as it's the long version from the "Reverence" album from 1995. Absolutely superb!

2) Greece 2000 - Three Drives
YouTube Amazon
A trance classic, this was released in 1998 by the Dutch duo who are Three Drives. Originally called "3 Drives on A Vinyl", due to track listing errors the artist was variously labelled as "Three Drives", "Three Drives On A Vinyl", and "Greece 2000", so the band changed their name to Three Drives to be less confusing. This track has since been remixed and re-released in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2008. The track contains samples from China Town's "Cruisin' Gang" and has been both covered and remixed by other bands.

3) Voodoo Ray - A Guy Called Gerald
YouTube Amazon
This acid house classic was released in 1988, and contains samples from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's "Derek And Clive (Live)". It has been used in films such as 24 Hour Party People, and in the Grand Theft Auto video game series. The vocals were sung by Nicola Collier.

4) Original Nuttah - UK Apache with Shy FX
YouTube Amazon
This oldschool jungle hit is credited for pushing the jungle genre into the mainstream in the UK and is one of the best known tracks of the genre. It was released in 1994 and contains the famous "Amen break" that is the mainstay of a lot of drum n bass tracks, from "Amen, Brother" by The Winstons. It also contains the horn sample from Cypress Hill's "I Wanna Get High". It has since been sampled itself in various tracks including "Watch This!!" by Superior and Shy FX's own "Raver".

5) I'm Alive - Stretch n Vern
YouTube Amazon
Containing the unmissable sample from Earth, Wind and Fire's "Boogie Wonderland" this track was released in 1996. The original video featured model and actress Jaime Murray, daughter of Bill Murray, miming the lyrics in her acting debut.

6) Valley of the Shadows - Origin Unknown
YouTube Amazon
Another very influential jungle/drum n bass track from 1993. The "long dark tunnel" vocal is sampled from a BBC Q.E.D. programme about out-of-body experiences. It also samples part of the countdown to Apollo 11 landing on the moon ("thirty-one seconds").

7) Setting Sun - Chemical Brothers
YouTube Amazon
From their 1997 album, "Dig Your Own Hole" this big beat track features some mental bass drops and some vocals from fellow Mancunian, Noel Gallagher. The Chemical Brothers have won four Grammys and a Brit Award for their music and have released 7 studio albums, a live album, three compilations and a film soundtrack for "Hanna". They are now in their 18th year!

8) Yeke Yeke - Mory Kante (Hardfloor Remix)
YouTube Amazon
I absolutely loved this remix when it came out! From 1994, it was remixed by Hardfloor, a German techno and trance duo. I loved how unusual it was - it features Mory Kante's vocals and kora harp. The original song came out in 1987.

9) Silence - Delerium
YouTube Amazon
Canadian trance duo, Delerium, co-wrote this song with Grammy winner and singer/songwriter Sarah McLaughlan, who also lent her vocals to the track. It was released in 1999, and the video was shot in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It still regularly pulls a full crowd to the dancefloor today.

10) Meet Her At The Love Parade - Da Hool
YouTube Amazon
Released by German artist, Da Hool, in 1997 this track makes reference to the Love Parade, the massively famous dance festival held in Berlin which was cancelled permanently in 2010 following the tragic deaths of 21 people, with nearly 500 injured, due to a crowd rush. The track has since been sampled in songs by the Vengaboys (oh dear) and 50 Cent.

That's it for this Special, but stay tuned for the next instalment - No.2 is coming soon!

What are your favourite dance classics? Comments? Speak now below...or forever hold your peace! :-)

GIG REVIEW - Skunk Anansie at the Brixton Academy

Brixton Academy, 1st December 2012
Support: Arrows Of Love

For their last European tour date of this year, Skunk Anansie chose to do a homecoming gig at the mighty Brixton Academy. The gig had sold out early, leaving unsuccessful fans desperately trying to find tickets for what promised to be a cracking gig.

Those who were able to get tickets were not disappointed, except perhaps by the support band, Arrows Of Love. Unfortunately they failed to engage with, and win over, the majority of the audience. They suffered badly from technical and sound issues, and this was not helped by the fact that you could really only see the outlines of the band members in the haze of dry ice and poor lighting. Most of the audience continued to chat (loudly, to overcome the wall of noise emanating from the stage) and ignore the band, and the band eventually slinked off stage.

Over an hour later, it was a completely different story. Kicking off with The Skank Heads, the band burst onto the stage to projected footage of a car racing through traffic, with their "fearless leader", Skin, appearing in a black, feathery looking outfit resembling the image on the front of their new album, Black Traffic. From the moment they started, the audience was in the palm of their hand. A couple of tracks later Skin ditched the feathery effort, and bounced back onto the stage in sparkly hotpants, proving that she is one of the only people who can pull off this look whilst still remaining the epitome of a rock chick. She then joked, "Some of our songs are a tiny, teeny, tiny bit political...", raising laughter and cheers from the eager crowd.

The band played effortlessly, with drummer, Mark Richardson, providing a solid, relentless backbone for bassist, Cass, and guitarist, Ace, to power their way through a really tight set. After I Will Break You, I Believed In You and God Loves Only You, and bringing it down a notch, the band played their new single, I Hope You Get To Meet Your Hero, before Skin whipped the crowd up into a frenzy with Twisted (Everyday Hurts), marking the start of a number of surfing voyages over the heads of the lively audience. A few tracks later Skin cheekily told the frazzled security guards to give up as she urged all of the audience on the balcony to their feet, and launched herself into the crowd in the stalls, only to be lifted up above their heads so that she looked like she was on a rather unsteady podium, to sing Weak with absolutely flawless vocals.

After returning to the stage for Hedonism, Skin then introduced another singer (Erika), and the two of them sang Our Summer Kills The Sun to a projected backdrop of speedily growing flowers, after which Skin stated that she was coming back to the audience for some more surfing and teased the audience about grabbing her backside during her previous escapades. Alternating between crowd surfing and throwing herself around the stage (all, I hasten to add, whilst delivering perfect vocals) she and the band sliced their way through the following few tracks, including I Can Dream, Spit You Out and Because Of You, before Skin jokingly chastised the audience, during Sad Sad Sad, that there was way too much camera phone action, again raising cheers from the crowd. The band's final song of the set was the mighty Charlie Big Potato, which was enthusiastically received by the audience, and was delivered uncompromisingly by the band, to bring the set to a shuddering climax with much clapping and cheering from the crowd.

Coming back onstage for the encore, the band delivered Tear The Place Up and the downbeat Secretly before Skin introduced the band and urged drummer Mark to take his t-shirt off. This revealed "scientific shit" (as Skin put it) by way of a contraption resembling an heart ECG to monitor how hard he was working (which, given the heroic performance that he and the other band members were providing, must have been sending the device into a frenzy). After thanking the crowd, Skin once again threw herself into the stalls for the final song of the night, Little Baby Swastikkka, making it all the way from the stage to the sound desk. After standing on top of the desk and posing for photos, she returned to the stage to finish the song, and the band left the stage to deafening whooping and clapping.

The whole gig was spectacular and memorable due to the tightness of the band, the flawless vocals of Skin, and the band's ability to identify with the audience and get them involved. It helps, of course, that their back catalogue is brimming with energetic, solid tracks. They really are a must-see act.

My review score: 9/10

Did you see the gig? What did you think? Leave your comments below...