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- Our New Band Of The Day 2010 playlist
It's been another bumper year for our tireless New Band writer. Join him as he runs through his playlist of 2010's best tracks
As with any 12-month period since time immemorial, 2010 was hailed by some as a weak year for music, while others claimed it was a bit of a classic. Personally, I can't remember a time when I paid less attention to old music, to reissues and box sets (give or take the fabulous Big Star 4CD trove, actually a 2009 US release), and more to the new stuff.
Admittedly, this is partly because as the New Band Of The Day writer I get sent about 30 CDs, tracks and links a day – 150 a week! – to listen to, from which I have to choose the 20 New Bands of the month, but there's more to it than that – with chillwave, witch house, dubstep, juke and slow DJ Screw-influenced rap all blowing my mind this year.
But first, an apology, for the absence from this list of anything from Drake's Thank Me Later (my album of the year) or Nicki Minaj's startling Roman's Revenge, neither of which we were given permission to use by their record company. Had they been included I could have used this playlist as proof that, perhaps for the first time in living memory, the best music of the year was made by new acts.
From oOoOO to How To Dress Well to DJ Nate to Teengirl Fantasy to Drake, many 2010 artists shared a penchant for messing with R&B, playing with the tempo or, literally in Nate's case, taking a soul tune like Deniece Williams's 1977 hit Free and putting it through the studio mincer. What I really like is the way it all drifts together so seamlessly – it might be more down to accident than an active free exchange of ideas, but you can play MillionYoung's Pilfer, Toro Y Moi's Freak Love and Washed Out's Belong next to Drake's The Resistance and they sound as though they all used the same producer. There was also confluence between Girl Unit's dubstep, DJ Nate's fancy footwurk and the witch house/drag of people like Salem (not featured here) and Balam Acab.
It wasn't all about reverb-heavy synthesiser music round these parts, though. Rumer proved that there was still a place for conventional pop songcraft and Janelle Monae showed there was still a need for a Prince-style polymath. And Gayngs proved 10cc are more fashionable than ever. Still, as a Guardian blogger pointed out recently, seemingly everyone making music right now has been infected by the chillwave bug, either in the actual sonics or the sense of dazed or dreamy wonderment. There are traces everywhere, from the Vaccines' garage fuzz to the keyboard reveries of Porcelain Raft and Idiot Glee. Indeed, if there was a soundtrack to 2010 – and if New Band Of The Day had a leitmotiv – it was the wistful, ghostly flow of the acts below, nostalgic for a vague past but utterly of the moment.
The playlist in full ...
1. How To Dress Well - Lover's Start
2. oOoOO - Hearts
3. MillionYoung - Pilfer
4. Rumer - Slow
5. Sleep Over - Come Wander
6. Balam Acab - See Birds (Moon)
7. Janelle Monae - Oh, Maker
8. Still Corners - Endless Summer
9. Best Coast - Boyfriend
10. Porcelain Raft - Dragonfly
11. Washed Out - Belong
12. Toro y Moi - Freak Love
13. Perfume Genius - Gay Angels
14. Cults - Most Wanted
15. Teengirl Fantasy - Cheaters
16. Summer Camp - Ghost Train
17. The Vaccines - Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)
18. Gayngs - The Gaudy Side Of Town
19. Girl Unit - Wut
20. Kisses - The Heart Of The Nightlife
21. Darkstar - Aidy's Girl is A Computer
22. DJ Nate - Free
23. Wretch 32 - Who Am I
24. Chad Valley - Ensoniq Funk
25. Selebrities - Audition
26. Trophy Wife - Microlite
27. Minks - Ophelia
28. Neon Indian - 6669 (I Don't Know If You Know)
29. Idiot Glee - All Packed Upguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Behind the music: will 2011 be the year of the ISP music service?
I had hoped we might see an unlimited music download and streaming ISP subscription service in 2010 but the industry continued to move at a snail's pace
I've learnt to be careful with making predictions for the coming year when it comes to the music industry, as it has usually moved at the speed of a snail. A year ago I was making the case for an unlimited music download and streaming ISP subscription service. The ISP that seemed the closest to offering such a service was Virgin Media, after it announced its intentions in the summer of 2009. My hopes appeared to be dashed, however. Meanwhile, BSkyB announced this month the closure of its very limited music subscription service, Sky Songs.
But Virgin Media had not given up. It was recently reported that the ISP was in talks with Spotify, in an effort to offer the music service bundled with its subscriptions. One might think of this as an attempt to avoid drawn-out licensing negotiations with the labels, as Spotify already has licences in place. But the deals that the labels have in place with Spotify (of course, their negotiations are covered by non-disclosure agreements), would most likely have clauses that would require re-negotiations when a third party is involved. It's been suggested that Spotify is seeking up-front guarantees from Virgin Media, in the same way major labels would have done when making a deal with Spotify. This, and reports that the ISP wants exclusivity, may explain why there's currently no set date for a Virgin Media/Spotify launch.
Back in October I suggested the major labels should develop a music service platform themselves that could be offered to ISPs, since the lack of such a platform is usually the first stumbling block for ISPs looking to offer music subscriptions. Now it seems they've been beaten to the punch by Media Service Provider (MSP), whose chairman is Andy Heath of the independent music label and publisher Beggars Group. Last week, Ireland's leading ISP, Eircom, launched a music streaming and downloading service, using MSP's platform. I've had a look at it, and although it doesn't provide unlimited downloading I'd say it offers much better value than the failed Sky Songs. If you're an Eircom subscriber you get free unlimited streaming. For an extra €5.99 (£5.11) a month you get 15 downloads (DRM-free), and for €12.99 you get 40 downloads a month. You do have to use up your ration every month, as it won't carry over to the following month. However, if you want to download more there's a top-up feature.
The Eircom music site, called MusicHub, is easy to operate with features such as editors' picks, playlists made by artists, and "artist radio" (which plays a mix of tracks by the same artist). A feature similar to Twitter allows you to follow other users that have similar music tastes, with feeds showing songs they recommend and the option to see what music they're listening to. Users create their own homepage and can add pictures to the public playlists they create. There is an option to report playlists that are offensive (no, you can't get a playlist removed for featuring Bon Jovi – only if the picture or name of the playlist is offensive). You can also message other users directly – and no matter how much you move around the site, moving back and forth between pages, the song you've selected keeps playing.
So far, Eircom has licensed 4-5m tracks, though only 2m tracks have been uploaded to the site at the moment. It is computer based, but Eircom is looking to offer offline mode later next year.
MSP is aiming to provide its platform to ISPs in other countries, and its offer has definite advantages for ISPs. Danish ISP TDC says that since it launched its music subscription service it has seen a 50% drop in churn for its broadband customers, as well as the added revenue from subscriptions. Yet, unfortunately, we may have to wait to get such a music service in the UK, as record labels are much more reluctant to take such a risk in a country that still has significant legal digital music consumption. Countries such as Ireland and Spain, which see very little income from digital music, and eastern European countries that lack iTunes or other legal alternatives yet have a well-developed internet infrastructure, are much more likely to see labels license such services.
There are rumours that the record labels are looking to carry out a test case in the Isle of Man to see what effect an unlimited ISP service has on music revenue and illegal filesharing. I'd suggest they do their test in Hull instead, as the population would be much more representative of the rest of the UK, and the local ISP, Karoo, has a monopoly in the area.
So, I won't make the prediction that we'll see a solid ISP music service in 2011. Getting the labels to agree on the terms of such a service could take years, judging by Virgin Media's efforts. I do predict, however, that the Digital Economy Act won't have any effect on illegal downloading in 2011: the first warning letter could be sent out in July, at the earliest, possibly not until 2012, and appeals by people who receive those letters could lead to costs that would cripple the rights holders financially.
Oh, and I have one more prediction: Rumer will win at least one Ivor Novello in May.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Bozzwell – the enlightenment
David Boswell makes more exciting, challenging techno than most hyped electronic acts. So why haven't you heard of him?
Sheffield is a city that incubates musical mavericks, but even by the Steel City's standards David Boswell, aka Bozzwell, walks alone.
Older, very attentive readers may recognise Bozz as the singer from late 1990s chart-bothering Sheffield collective, All Seeing I, but, since that brief mainstream interlude, he has spent the intervening years largely hidden away in his tiny studio at Stag Works, making highly individual, idiosyncratic electronic music – first as Hiem, with Nick Eastwood, and, latterly, as Bozzwell. Perversely, such has been his trajectory that, in 2010, Bozz is now better known in Cologne and Berlin than he is in Sheffield.
If, in Britain, Bozzwell's highly enigmatic, poetic brand of vocal post-minimal techno doesn't quite fit in anywhere, in Germany that is seen as a positive advantage. His new album, Bits & Pieces, is released on Cologne's Firm label and sees him collaborating – on the marvellously wry, spry I Can't Be – with the likes of Kompakt's Popnoname and Heiko Voss.
That Bozz is more likely to be found DJing at Watergate in Berlin than over the Pennines, at the Warehouse Project, is depressing for a number of reasons. On one level, he simply deserves to be heard. Even at his most prosaic, on a track like the growling, ominous Voodoo, his work is crisp, powerful and insidiously sonically unpredictable. A track like that could more than hold its own on the latest Cocoon compilation, which, at a time when Britain's most talented producers are generally working on dubstep's fringes rather than in techno, itself makes Bozzwell notable.
It's on his less mechanical, more idiosyncratic songs, however, that Bozz comes into his own. In the melancholy lovelorn likes of Marlena's Eyes and Fiona's Song, he creates a highly personal, emotionally vulnerable electronic music which is uniquely his. Who else but Bozz (who comes from a Romany family, incidentally) would write Escape 5, a dark, unsettling piece of dancefloor techno, in which a group of mysterious escapees are chased across foggy, boggy landscapes by barking dogs and clattering machine guns.
Like the Knife or We Love – only more obviously influenced by after-hours techno – Bozz is, perhaps, ultimately less interested in functionally filling the dancefloor at 4am than in synthesising the latest iterations of club music with songs, choruses and melodies to produce a modern, futuristic even, kind of pop music. Not that he is ever going to be a pop star. He's a big hairy bear of a man who lives a hermit's existence in his Sheffield studio. He is as scruffy as Hurts are neatly pressed, as awkward as Little Boots is amenable. He is 42 years old. No one is going to him up as a next big thing. Luckily, he moves in circles – techno, Cologne, underground nightclubs – where none of that superficial detail matters.
Nonetheless, it is undeniable that Bozz is making the music that you wish all those much-hyped British electro acts were. Where in Silver Columns and La Roux electronic music has enjoyed a distinctly hollow victory – moderately talented people rehashing 1980s synth-pop in inane ways – Bozz is gestating a far more complex pop music. The latest wave of electro-pop acts pose as edgy, arthouse originals. Bozz is true to the spirit of 1982, actually producing music which challenges the listener.
If that's too ethereal for you, incidentally, there is always the occasionally genius – Hiem. A rum mix of lissom disco, acid northern observation á la John Cooper Clarke, brutal Sheff-tronics and glittering crystalline electro, the duo's much-delayed debut album, Escape From Division Street, will finally be released early next year. Featuring Roots Manuva and (of course) Phil Oakey, it is a minor classic in the annals of South Yorkshire electro which surpasses, even, I Monster or Fat Truckers' work.
If Bozz is a prophet unrecognised in his own land, he is not alone. You've heard why I think he is an unsung musical hero, but who do you think is similarly criminally overlooked? Whose marginal status mystifies you?
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