So it's come that time of the year again and I thought I would get the ball rolling. Feel free to make your list as big or small as you wish.
For me, this was one of the best years musically in a while. I could have easily made up a list of 10-20 tracks for various genres without any problem. I hope this is a sign of things to come as there are way too many talented artists out there who need to be heard. For my list, I will try to be as descriptive as possible to pay homage to these great artists. In descenidng order;
15)Spectrasoul-Fool's Paradise [Shogun Audio]. Any fan of traditional Liquid Drum N Bass will be familiar with Spectrasoul. This is one of the highlights off their album which has a soulful, hypnotic touch.
14)Psycatron & Secret Cinema-Toy Soldiers [Gem Records]. Big room, peak hour techno-progressive belter which killed Guv when Digweed dropped it in May. The melody has an old school sound reminiscent of the progressive days.
13)Birds of Paradise-Soulgasm [Additech]. Bird of Prey is one half of Birds of Paradise and is probably my discovery of 2012 (I was also lucky enough to meet him). This is his alias under birds of paradise which is best defined as psychedlic dubstep however this is no where near the dubstep you have in mind.
12)Cold Project-Spirit Catcher [Occulta Records]. Ektoplazm played a huge role in distributing high quality free releases in 2012. This one here is about as dark, driving and shamanic as progressive music can get.
11)Dustin Zahn & Melanie Palmer-Milange [Drumcode]. Another great artist from 2012 was Minnesota's Dustin Zahn. This guy plays exactly the kind of no nonsense techno that drives a clubber crazy. Here's his best production of 2012.
10)Diyo-Smooth Ride (Graziano Raffa & Alberto Blanco Remix) [Stripped Digital]. Great melodic prog which is an example of the high quality stuff Hernan was playing this year.
9)Savage Circuit-Untame [Alchemy Records]. Brilliant new British psy-trance producer. This reminded me a lot of J00F/DB's alias 00.db. Anyone looking for the epic trance/psy fusion should check out this big banger.
8)Waifs & Strays-For a while (Huxley & Matt Tuolfrey Remix) [Leftroom limited]. Great deep house for the day time. You can't help but think this one was made especially for the legendary WMC boat cruise with Sasha, Digweed and co ;).
7)Bushmech-Wisely Chosen [No qualms Records]. Very creative track this. Some may discard it as just another Zenonesque track but the level of detail in it really grabbed my attention. Another reason to thank Basilisk and Ektoplazm for distributing this amazing music.
6)Aes Dana-Tree Some [Ultimae Records]. Many people will remember 2012 and think of Ultimae's release of Solar Fields uptempo album which gained great acclaim amongst TA's and psy enthusiasts. However, Aes Dana's album Pollen includes a few progressive trance gems which are quite notable.
5)John '00' Fleming-The 10th Life (Artifact 303 Remix) [J00F Recordings]. Artifact 303's debut album in 2011 was more like a Religious experience than audio and this song shows that he can also make the top Trance track of the year.
4)Michael,Levan & Stiven Rivic-Violence (Marcelo Vasami Remix)[Movement Recordings]. The best progressive house tune of the year by far from my perspective. Lush sounds all around.
3)Avalon,Dickster-Into the new world (Sonic Species Remix) [Nano Records]. Excellenct psy trance from my favorite psy EP of the year.
2)Victor Calderone & Nicole Moudaber-The Journey Begins [Drumcode]. If someone had told me in the begining of the year that Victore Calderon would make the biggest club track of the year I would have laughed. However, this is certainly the track that left the biggest impression on me out of all the big room techno tracks of 2012. The hypnotic feel to this track brings back the old Lieb sounds of the 90's which were always highlighted as the peak tracks of the 90's progressive era.
1)Avalon,Dickster-Distant Futures (Dickster Remix) [Nano Records]. Was without a doubt the highlight of my trip to Eclipse Festival this year. Hearing this with the Sun hiding in the distance (no pun intended) at 5am in the middle of a beautiful park was something I will not be forgetting anytime soon. Dick Trevor (some of you may remember his Science Department alias with Danny Howells) is a master at creating the perfect psychedelic vibe and this is an amazing example.
As I said in the introduction, I could easily have kept going. This seems like just the tip of the iceberg. Hats off to 2012 and I hope the trend of amazing music continues into 2013. :)
hardcore trancer
Holy now that's a proper proper ing list right there!!:toocool:
Mach X
Usually I compile my lists on NYE on FB, but here is a sample lol
MIX OF THE YEAR - Maceo Plex - Essential Mix aired 17-2-2012 - Radio 1
First listened to this the Sunday after it first aired after a solid night out... ended up listening to it 4 or 5 times that day. Amazing set full of great productions. Set up the year with my excitement to hear Maceo play at FW and at DEMF. So many great tracks on this one, stand out track was Macep Plex & Jon Dasilva & Black Smoke — Love Somebody Else which is probably my contender for track of the year for me... was also blown away by Louis Fresco — So Good (Russ Yallop Remix). I can honestly say I've listened to this well over a 100 times this year. Such a shame and travesty that it didn't even get to the shortlist of contenders for Radio 1's Essential Mix of the year. :(
Kolsch Feat. Troels Abrahamsen - All That Matters (Original Mix)
The gem of a track I found in my hunting, that one track you don't hear in a set, never heard of, just came across in your travels and link jumping and downloads on the net. I never heard of him, just grabbed it because it was on one my favourite record labels, Kompakt. After I started hearing it a bunch of Sasha sets.
I have a few more, just trying to narrow it all down to the top 3 for mixes and tracks.
Yohan
Brazilian DJ/producer Danny Oliveira goes a little back to his trance roots for this prog tune. I like synthy, uplifting prog that gives me the fuzzy feeling inside.
Probably my favorite tune of 2012. It's so happy, and dancey old school feel house tune mixed with some uplifting synth near the end.
Mario Basanov does unbelievable stuff for deep house right now, combined with Crazy P who is another phenomenal producer. Perfect intro tune for a feel good set.
Another producer I discovered this year that produces some laid back, relaxing prog.
House legend Joey Negro brings the old school funk vibe made into a chilled, groovy remix by Roberto Rodriguez, another favourite producer for me.
Hauntingly beautiful prog. I can go into a hypnotizing meditation with this tune.
One of few tech house tunes that didn't bore the crap out of me. The vocals just enhances an already solid tune.
I gotta give some props to a TOTA, Tim Penner aka Tygon who is starting to make some waves in prog and techno world. This tune combines prog from the DNYO's original mix and combines it with tech feel touch from Tim.
I love banging techno. And this tune is it.
I can't say why, but this tune has solid old school prog house feel. Just solid prog without being diluted by tech that creeps into a lot of prog these days.
Guy J is probably the best prog producer this year and this track is example of why. This tune makes me happy.
After all the garbage Prydz has been putting out lately, he demonstrates he still has the prog touch with this uplifting prog tune.
jad
Great thread Ben. Plenty of great tunes posted here. Beyond 8 by Pryda is definitely up there for me.. amazing song.
I find it fairly hard to narrow it down to a list of favourite electronic songs, considering that I usually listen to genres and sounds that reflects how I feel at a certain point in time. However, there are a few songs that would keep making their way back on my playlists, so here are a few of them. I'll only be posting hyperlinks here, as viewing embedded media seems to slow down my computer.. heads up to future posters!
Mohn - Saturn - Amazing new collaboration by Jörg Burger and Wolfgang Voigt of Kompakt. If you're a fan of spacey atmospheric drone-like electronica at its finest, then you'll want to check this out.
Autechre - Nine - I came across this Autechre album (Amber) from 1994 earlier this year and I was stunned by the beauty of their music... wow! This is one of my favourite songs off of the album.
I'll be posting a few more within the next few days..
