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Dope Jams Best & Worst of 2009

Written by Dope Jams Admin

Wednesday, 30 December 2009

BEST SONG OF THE DECADE

HARDRIVE 2000 "NEVER FORGET"

Hardrive

Once upon a time in house music, there was a magical force of good that watched over the faithful flock & ensured the continuation of our beloved music, a role it was to play for the entire 1990’s. Through the trials & tribulations of major label interest & subsequent withdrawal, past generations waning and fresh perspectives taking their place; from the highs of the Sound Factory & Body & Soul to the lows of Gulianni & NYC’s painful decline, these guardian angels cared for us like their own, raised us to respect our music & taught us the higher path that set us apart from our less enlightened brethren. It was these protectors of the way that we looked up to when in search of NYC house music, the monoliths of quality dance records that we looked up to in reverence and called the all-recognized title: MASTERS AT WORK.

From their debut in 1990 to the end of that auspicious decade, “Little” Louie Vega & Kenny “Dope” Gonzales were the unquestionable notch by which we gauged house music, and it is these visionary trailblazers, along with fellow moguls Blaze, Larry Heard, Romanthony & Kerri Chandler, that we think of first & foremost when asked, “who are the best house producers of all time?” Obliterating the dividing line between “underground” and “mainstream,” only a few legacies can lay claim to having conceived literally countless masterpieces that continue to stand up to today’s relevant material without a question or doubt as to superiority---just listen to what could be argued Masters At Work’s first record, their “Underground” remix of Debbie Gibson’s “One Step Ahead,” released on Atlantic in 1990. Fame & fortune never retarded these geniuses’ drive to continue and refine their music while constantly expanding the styles upon which to stamp the unmistakable MAW imprint: while known for their unarguable mastery of vocal house, they managed to produce some of the most experimental, outlandishly innovative techno inspired tracks, the most remarkable of which is their classic “The Bounce” (the list goes on). Think that’s Masters At Work and the next thing you know you’re listening to their remix of “Days Like This” by Kenny Lattimore: “that can’t be the same people.” Well, it was, and many, many things more, as Vega & Gonzales paid attention to the present, always ahead of the fickle trends of house music’s evolution, forever prepared to offer a fresh perspective, executed with the same, steady, consistent production that always showed through in their seemingly endless side projects & pseudonyms.

In a way, Hardrive: 2000’s “Never Forget” was the triumphant crescendo to the 90’s, a perfect summation & re-explication of M.A.W.’s carefully honed style developed throughout the decade. This is house with firm and solid musical roots that can still retain the raw, unmasked energy of house music’s promise. Refusing to pick between the doubly lethal combination of reserved and resigned “adult music” on the one hand & over-stated immature force on the other, “Never Forget” is a perfect example of the righteous “middle path.” It’s this synthesis of track-driven intensity & seasoned musical intuitiveness that elevate Masters At Work to the status of indubitable legends. “Never Forget” summarizes in 10 breathtaking minutes a consistency & ever-inspiring self-improvement 10 years prior that kept the acronym close at hand & ever present in our hearts and minds as that beautiful, almost fatherly higher force that kept the enemies at bay and delivered the faithful to the promised land. And it was this same record that continue to cast it’s influence a decade after it’s inception, ensuring the continuing legacy of the Masters At Work name.

BEST TRACK OF THE DECADE

PEPE BRADOCK "LIFE"

A true dance music landmark, no record of the last 10 years has overshadowed the alien funk & relentless centrifugal force of Pepe Bradock’s underground classic “LIFE.” One of the few records of the decade that effortlessly transcended genre stratification, “LIFE” became a regular staple of the soulful house enthusiasts & deep techno heads alike, while simultaneously resisting genre classification altogether. Along with its totally incomparable, ethereal inimitability, “LIFE”’s greatest attribute is it’s unequivocal simplicity: using a few well-freaked samples, dark synth pads & one of the most brilliantly programmed drum sequences in house music history, Bradock achieved the glorious promise of “raw analog” minimalism years before the production gear fetish really began to rear it’s ugly head. Of course, “LIFE” could well have been made with the most up-to-date, post-analog technology and it would still tell the same brilliant, eerie tale it does now, proving once more that the key to producing lasting dance music is intrinsically & totally at odds with the religions clustered around the infinitesimal universe of subgenres & gimmick “discoveries” of late. The goal, not the means to achieve it, created the lifeblood, the stuff of “LIFE” and so many other landmarks, and no matter how much stress is lade on the tired, temporal shell of a body that carries the real magic of brilliant, timeless dance music, it is the emotional and expressive depth & not the vehicle used to carry them into our earlobes & consciousness that makes a good house or techno record.

2009 12" OF THE YEAR

JAZZANOVA "LET ME SHOW YA" (HENRIK SCHWARZ REMIX)

Here we have it folks: the dopest record of 2009! Well, it actually came out in late 2008….still, “Let Me Show Ya” cast its grand shadow across the entire year and set the bar for the rest to follow, a standard that proved too high to surpass. Henrik Schwarz’s remix of Jazzanova’s abysmal original is a miracle in our modern day; from stale modern-soul into multi-layered, masterfully complex house song. Far from relying on tried & true formulas from the past (there are many), “Let Me Show Ya” takes it’s cue from it’s own book: unconcerned with fitting in to some preordained & culturally-sanctioned sound, this masterwork walks the steady line between the fetish of the past & the false consciousness of the present with all it’s gimmicks & endless classifications, unafraid to stand for exactly what it really is: a vocal house record that refuses to be pigeonholed in the typical “soulful house” cult of personality. In an era of electronic music when overt emotional transparency and forthrightness is frowned upon with the distain of over-intellectualized pretension, “Let Me Show Ya” is a seriously oppositional---even radical---exercise in absolute defiance to the established acceptability. Despite all the talk of a deep house revival, this music has been with us the whole time, only muddled, stifled, buried beneath countless layers of over-thought-out, emotionless robot music that’s too cowardly to say what we are all feeling, especially in these dark times: “I am completely and utterly alone.” Thankfully there are still a few records out there---and “Let Me Show Ya” is one of them---that are willing to take the chance---potentially fatal, cheesy & embarrassing---at making a full song, and possibly capturing a moment in collective feeling that we can all relate to on the most personal level. It’s exactly this element throughout the history of house music that has pulled so many of us into its orbit, and it will be the saving grace of our desperately impoverished aesthetic.

2009 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

FEVER RAY "FEVER RAY"

fever

Fever Ray revolutionized our concepts of pop in 2009, one of the best electronic full-lengths of the decade in the out-of-the-blue self-titled debut from Sweden’s Karin Dreijer Andersson, better known as one half of the electro-pop-whatever duo The Knife. In her first solo effort, Andersson broke away to produce this concept album haunted by her uniquely surreal, multi-tonal vocal droning & otherworldly, mystical electronic trance. Bizarre, totally engrossing & untouched in aesthetic peculiarity, Fever Ray was as much conceptually as it was musically groundbreaking, borrowing the sweeping, grandiose performance antics of self-mythologized geniuses Bjork & Kate Bush, and pushing them forward into the present with one of the few contemporary full-lengths that retains its conceptual cohesion without a hint of redundancy. A landmark.

2009 TOP 11 RECORDS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOWNLOADS

TRAXX "FAITH 2XLP"	Quite possibly the most over hyped record of the year (seems like someone was doing their job :). All the regulars, from Resident Advisor to Pitchfork, were heralding this as one of the most creative & inspiring new albums of 2009. Obviously so long as you’re nice to all the “journalists” you can get all the write-ups you need to make it look like your record is anything but a banal rehashing of chicago acid house---minus the house: drink a fifth of Brugal and you’d still have to put up a fight to dance to these sleepers. There really is nothing like the Internet to give people a false sense of stardom.
RICK WADE "THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE DEEP"	Rick Wade “the Terrible”: soon to be pillaging a village near you.
OMAR S. "STILL SERIOUS NIC"	Ok so I know we beg people to make vocals around here and I guess Omar S heard us calling. The only problem is that he didn't hear the part when the vocal was actually supposed to be listenable. Not sure if this record is in key or not, nor do we know the difference most of the time, but it sounds like he was tourturing some drunk on the street. I mean if he needs a vocalist why doesn't he give Nick Hallstrom a call. He could sing the pants off this guy. Don Q must be a joke that is the only explanation for something that sucks this bad. I’ll take one lobotomy for me and another for my friend, thanks! Resident Advisor Rating : 4 1/2 out of 5
CARL CRAIG/MORITZ VON OSWALD "RECOMPOSED" (FRANCOIS K)	If anybody told me 10 years ago that this is what you would get when you put Carl Craig, Moritz Von Oswald, and Francois K together I would have told them they were absolutely crazy. Unfortunately I would have been dead wrong. This is truly an example of old men who have lost their way. It's like the more press these guy's get the worse the records get. Maybe this is their punishment for holding so true to ideals and then throwing it all away. Maybe I should say our punishment because we are the one's who have to listen to this. On the A side we have a completly trashy remix of what was an amazing project to begin with, I still listen to the last movement of the original in complete awe and this is all they could come up with? Please listen to it for yourself. On the B-side Moritz Von Oswald gives us something a little more respectable but not really that interesting. What happened to the guy's that made Basic Channel, FK EP? Is this what we have come to expect from the people who lead the way just 10 years ago? Resident Advisor Rating : 4 out of 5
TIMMY REGISFORD/ADAM RIOS "BOLEMEA/CONGO RHYTHM"	You know we couldn't leave out our old friend Timmy from this years list...this should have been called "Bulimia" given the unsettling sensation in one’s stomach after a few notes of this masterpiece. Only Timmy could make such an incredibly funkless record. Where’s the swing gone everyone?
DETROIT GRAND PUBAHS "BUTTFUNKULA" (ROB HOOD RMX)	Buttfunkula! How did I order a record called Buttfunkula? I got exactly what I deserved for ordering this record. Ironically we did sell all the copies. Note to self : Read the title of all releases nowadays because there is no way that a record called "Buttfunkula" that's not produced by DJ Funk or Green Velvet could be good.
REGGIE DOKES "SPECTACLE OF DEEPNESS"	I think we found a candidate for this year’s top records that should be downloads. With a title like "Spectacle of Deepness" I think it's only fair we give it the true respect it deserves. Don't forget to check out "Walk In Deepness". What does that even mean? Is he stuck in the mud? Maybe quicksand. Although, I don't think there is quicksand in Atlanta. Maybe he's warning us about a new danger in Atlanta and we should all be thankful. Everyone be careful when you go to Atlanta, there is quicksand there now. God, I hope Kai knows.
SASCHA DIVE "THE PANTHER E.P."	COINTELPRO House. I'm sorry but this is just wrong, from the blaxploitation artwork to the basically meaningless nature of the samples he uses, the likes of which I can only assume have been lifted from real BPP speeches and rendered totally out-of-context, trivialized & infantilized. In case you didn’t know Mr. Dive, the Black Panther Party and the black liberation movement were concerned with more than looking cool & getting laid---I know, it’s hard for you to understand that they didn’t want to eventually become Moodymann through some magical act of blackification. We bought this 12” without understanding what we were getting into, and when we got it, it sold immediately. What a bummer. Resident Advisor Rating :3 1/2 out of 5
JAY SEALEE & LOUIE VEGA STARING JULIE MCKNIGHT "BITTERSWEET"	We are one of say three record stores that carry new dance music on vinyl in NY, give or take. As a buyer at a record store in NY you’d think , hey, there's a new Louie Vega and Julie McKnight record out this week. I should be able to sell say 10 copies of this record. You order the records and you get shorted, which at this point is 101 as far as ordering from distributors in the US goes. So the 3 copies you get are up on the wall in the store. I know your thinking man they must have sold as soon as you put them up. Well that's what we thought would happen, however to my surprise on Monday morning there were still two copies here. These two copies lasted the the next two weeks. Little Louie Vega has some how managed to go from one of the most popular producers in dance music history to selling less records than Fabio Genito. All in a matter of 3 years. I hope this guy is selling a lot of ring tones because he sure isn't selling records anymore!
MOODYMANN "DET.RIOT"	Do you know a gimmick when you see one? Do you know that Moodymann used to make dope records? Do you know, Do you know?
CHRIS BRANN FEAT. MIA TUTTAVILLA "BEYOND THE SUN"	It is just painful to write this about Chris Brann, but the man has left us no choice. I mean to go from "Cascades of Colour" to this really says it all.
ANTONIO OCASIO "JOAQUIN"	The problem with making a tribute record is that people seem to miss the fact that the record has to be good or it's disrespectful to the artist the tribute is for. If he's trying to make a tribute to the most recent output from Joe Claussell then this definately makes sense. If he is somehow trying to make a tribute to the Joe of the past he is clearly insulting him.

2009 TOP DOWNLOADS THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN MADE

MR. V "I CAN SING"

As my niece likes to say...This music should feel bad for itself because it should have never been made. I knew when Mr. V was crying about the fact that Jay-Z declared autotune "D.O.A."on the deephouse page message board he had to have done an autotune song. Unfortunately I was right. To my suprise this milleniu’s savior of house music took it a step further and named the song he used autotune on "I Can Sing". How clever. I think the point of autotune is that you can't sing and this is why you need it, in Mr. V's case he can't rap either but that won't stop him from sharing his brilliant ideas with us. But maybe we should give him a break, I mean, how would he know? As he's surrounded by people who think Anane can sing, Louie Vega doesn't need Kenny Dope to make a killer record (and vice versa) and MKL wears shirts that fit him. Yeh, maybe pigs will fly one day too.

OSUNLADE "MIX THE VIBE CD"

New King Street "Mix The Vibe" compilation from Osunlade: A CRITICAL REVIEW.

I love how in the press release mystery rhetorical genius Joe (JoeB) Berinato (Joe + B = joeB) describes our latest spiritual-house savior as a respected "ethno-producer & ordained priest in the West African religion of Ifa." For god sakes, the man was producing 'Rico Suave' by Gerado & living the high life before he decided to "go spiritual" & profit off of all the misguided souls looking for some sort of religious re-awakening in house music.

Regardless, this mix sucks! I mean seriously, what's next for King Street? I think they should just pull a 10 year old off the street, tell him to pick 10 King Street classics & throw it together, it would require about the same amount of effort as most of these "professional" mixes do. The sad thing is there are so many DOPE releases on this label! How is it that no one can figure out how to put it together? No one cares anymore, in house music 1 + 1 equals 3 these days and we all smile with our shit-eating grins and talk about how spiritual everything is.......

P.S. He uses the wrong mix of "I Hear You Dreaming"...not that you would expect anything less (or more)....carry on world.

WORST RECORD OF THE DECADE

MICHAEL WATFORD "MICHAEL'S PRAYER" (TIMMY REGISFORD RMX)

When we tried to think of one record that epitomizes the laziness of producers over the last decade we couldn't think of a better example than this. The vocals aren't even in time with the beat let alone the fact that the original mix of Michael Watford's "Michael's Prayer" by Roger Sanchez never needed to be remixed to begin with. If you don't own the original you should probably be opening a new browser window and looking it up on discogs right now.

BEST HOUSE RECORDS OF 2009

THEO PARRISH "SPACESTATION / GOING THROUGH CHANGES"