Top Hits of 2011 (about time really) # 1 - 10

# 10 SBTRKT - s/t

SBTRKT made this album by getting all his favourite singing buddies together, stuck masks on their faces and made them sing along to him playing the drums. An easy concept with great results. "Pharaohs" has been my alarm clock tone for ages now meaning wherever I am there's a party from the moment I wake up. Oh yeah, you know it, baby.

# 9 WU LYF - Go Tell Fire to the Mountain

The Mancunian four piece sing about god-knows-what because singer Ellery Roberts' vocal style is so damn  sluggish you can't make a word out. This is a bit of a shame on "We Bros" because it's such a fucking catchy tune you just want to sing along. So the chorus goes a little something like this: "We bros nn aase, we bros nnnn nono no. we wear yo guns nn weeee,  aseen no ssooo." '

As clever lyrycs as I've ever heard.

 Wu Lyf - We Bros by WU LYF 

# 8 Lucy Rose

I remember when I was younger and had a massive crush on Kate Nash. Anyone remember her?

Anyway I thought I was past all that silly crushes on redheaded celebrities business. I'm a grown man damn it. Then along came Lucy Rose and "Middle of the Bed" and there I was again like puberty was yet again a blessing of the present. Awww isn't she cute? Oh and getting back to business it's an ace tune too. 

# 7 M83 - Midnight City

Alright so I knew this tune was a winner when I checked out my cousin's Last.fm profile and saw he'd listened to "Midnight City" 100 times in 24 hours, but didn't really get into it until that scene in How to Make  it in America where (spoiler alert!!) Ben has sexy time with the never-ageing sex vixen Gina Gershon. Ooh that was one damn hot scene. I love you Gina.

# 6 Gang Gang Dance - MindKilla

During the summer I attempted an ambitious appeal to get Gang Gang Dance's "MindKilla" played on my mum's favourite radio station. It failed horribly meaning my mum didn't get to appreciate to sonic amazing-ness that the song is but at least the rest of us can still enjoy it.

# 5 The Antlers - Burst Apart

A heavyweight contender for album of the year, The Antlers' "Burst Apart" is a stunning collection of songs, each more impressive than the last one. If you thought their last album "Hospice" was good then you're in for a huge fuck-off treat here. It might have been a dream but I'm pretty sure album ender "Putting the Dog to Sleep" has made me cry at least once and then I realised it wasn't actually about putting a dog to sleep and I was fine with it.

"Corsicana" is as beautiful as it gets.

# 4 Burial - Street Halo

For a person who considers Burial's "Untrue" to be one of the greatest pieces of music ever created, hearing the man's new "Street Halo" EP was like going to Disneyland, Alton Towers, Legoland and Moomin World all at the same time. No great change to anything he's done before but why change something that works like a fucking charm?

# 3 Psychologist - Comes in Waves

What a tune! How to make a song about a man giving birth sound so damn touching is beyond me, but Psychologist does it. The "Waves of OK" EP is practically the man behind the alias wailing in an empty church. Does that sound appealing? Well it should because it's incredible. Sometimes the vocals are reminiscent of Jeff Buckley at his rawest and sometimes they're layered to self harmonise, but always they are amazing.

 Psychologist - Comes In Waves by NOT EVEN 

# 2 Zomby - Dedication + Nothing

This could be considered cheating because I've entered Zomby's new EP "Nothing" here as well as his LP "Dedication" so he gets two entries but when genre mish-mashing is as good as it is on these two records then they both warrant a spot way up on this list. Mixing elements of UK rave, dubstep, garage and D'n'B these are both brilliantly eclectic musical treasure troves perfect for either those late night clubs nights or just lounging about in your underpants on a rainy sunday afternoon. 

# 1 Daughter - His Young Heart

Finally, damn it. It's taken me bloody ages to compile this list so you'd best flipping enjoy it. Even if some of the entries on the list were "boring" or "obvious" I'm pretty sure you'll love this. If Daughter's still an unfamiliar name/face then it's the moniker of Elena Tonra who sings the most beautiful songs you'll hear. Of all the releases from last year, Daughter's "His Young Heart" EP still strikes me as the most important. It's just so personal and close and damn perfect. However many times I listen to first track "Landfill" it honestly always sends shivers down my spine. Haunting and sad, but the most beautiful kind of sadness.

  Daughter - Landfill (taken from the 'His Young Heart' EP) by ohDaughter

Everyone, I need your help

Hello, I'm about to reveal a secret that not everyone knows. Yet.
I have an alter-ego. Yes that's right, as well as being this super awesome music blog guy, I also do normal day-to-day stuff.
During the summer that involves taking part in the runnings of the family business: a quaint little local shop in the countryside for local people. This is all fine and nice but I've just got the tinyest beef with what tunes the matriarch wants to plays in the café. All day, every day we listen to Radio Nova. It's what I like to call the parent-friendly, grand-parent friendy and great-grandparent friendly radio station. Not Thomas-friendly though.

Today, through the seemingly endless torrent of Laura Pausinis and Eros Ramazottis and Bruno Marses (how did this guy get so big?) I caught an advert saying that the top-200 most voted songs will be played on Radio Nova on midsummer's day ie. Saturday ie. the day i'll be really flipping hungover. So I want everyone here to make my day just that tiny bit easier and vote for something I want to listen to. How does that sound ladies and gents?

All we have to do is head over to
http://www.radionova.fi/ohjelmat/radio-novan-yo/Juhannuslista-Top-200-tulee-taas--Aanesta-suosikkiasi--21300.html


IT'S EASY! We can do this.
The only bits that need filling are the two first boxes:
Nimi: Your name
and the bit where it says: "Ehdota omaa suosikkia" you type in, um, I don't know how about, Gang Gang Dance - Mindkilla seeing as that's where we left off yesterday
and then just press 'Lähetä'

Brilliant. Thank you!
Everybody have a Gang Gang Dancey midsummer
xxx

Just pondering, you know, about J-Lo and Justin Biebs

I was sitting around today thinking about stuff in general and then some other stuff. Then I got to thinking about how Gang Gang Dance's Mindkilla is possibly the best song of the year so far and how when the DJs before Crystal Castle's gig played it and it was better than the gig itself.



This got me thinking about another Gang Gang Dance tune, Dust from their previous album Saint Dymphna and how it always reminds me of Kula World. Anyone remember Kula World for the PS1? What a great game that was! Just rolling about as a beachball collecting fruits and keys. Back in the day when men were men and video games were video games.

Does Dust sound anything like Kula World? Well, um, not a lot. Feel like my memory's tricked me and am kind of worried as to what other visions have been distorted by time.





Then I was thinking about other stuff, like how many times does Jennifer Lopez say the word 'floor' in her new "hit" On the Floor?
Because I'm lazy + I didn't really want to listen to it any more than never, I googled "how many times does Jennifer Lopez say the word 'floor' in her new "hit" On the Floor?" and apparently she says it 21 times which is actually a lot less than I was expecting. A simple calculation tells me "floor" pops up every 12 seconds. (Justin Bieber says "never" 66 times in Never Say Never, once every 3 seconds.)

I think the repetition is meant to put me off the fact that the song's just a shit rip-off of Kaoma's Lambada. Unfortunately it hasn't. In fact I've heard a bunch of really annoying, stoned (and awful melodica players) hippies playing Lambada on melodicas in a park which has been better than J-Lo's version.
Also having Pitbull tell me how he's gonna bump me like a tonka truck and then incept and mess up my brain hasn't really worked in the track's favour. Call me old fashioned but I prefer being bumped into and then get issued a formal apology.

Things to get excited about

Two new albums to get all light-headed about. Two new albums from two bands who've previously released music that even still makes me feel fuzzy inside. Ladies and gentlemen. I (and a few others before me) present Gang Gang Dance's new album Eye Contact and Wild Beasts' new album Smother both available for pre-emptive listening. Get in there while it's still hot. And yes, my friends, it is hot. Hot like a granny's purse after scoring that elusive B-I-N-G-O. Hot damn.




So what were your thoughts?




This is the way to listen to Wild Beasts' album Smother. I don't know much about 3VOOR12 as a website but this works, so give it a go.

International Record Store Day

So today = 17.4 has been the international record store day.
A desperate way of trying to rejuvenate/aid the falling album sales rates?
It's a shame to have to use these sort of gimmicks to remind people of substantial records in the hay day of illegal mp3's.

But as a consumer who already purchases a considerable amount of music, I feel my concsience is clean and I'm free to reap the goodies that such a gimmick as Record Store Day offers in abundance.

And goodies is what it does/should offer. With crazy amounts of bands putting out limited editioned releases: Crystal Castles, Flaming Lips, Neu!, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, She And Him, Happy Birthday, Caribou, Dum Dum Girls, Male Bonding etc. Unfortunately as I live in Finland most of these releases were impossible to get over here. Chatting to my local record store's owner, he said that some record labels wouldn't even answer his e-mails and most people just didn't want anything to do with record store day limited releases being released over our way.

That's bullshit if you ask me. Why are these things organised in such a way over here? I feel like someone should set up a consultant agency on how to optimize your illegal downloading rate.

Anyway, thankfully 8 Raita had at least been sent a few items: Something by Soundgarden, a Happy Birthday 7", The Album Leaf's 12" with a few originals and a single remix and finally a Dum Dum Girls/Male Bonding split 7".

As there was only one of each record I snapped up the dumdum/malebonding 7" like quick snap. Then I took advantage of the ongoing sales to bolster my collection with Dum Dum Girls' 'I Will Be' and finally Gang Gang Dance's 'Saint Dymphna'

Thought I'd just add a few relevant video's here now.

A bit of Male Bonding (one of my favourite band names)



Then some Dum Dum Girls



New Crystals..



Daedelus full length should be released today

Daedelus "Righteous Fists of Harmony" from DestroyRockMusic Inc. on Vimeo.

Beach Fossil's s/t out too. whooh!