House Is A Feeling

I want to do a small chart of some records from 2008 I didn’t see in the end of year polls,. So here it is. I’ve been quite stringent with my picks. Expect a January 2009 chart of 10 quite soon, as it’s been a good month.

2008:

1. Melon-Nitzi (On My Mind So Fine) (Innervisions)

So in a year where deep house ruled all I’m surprised to have heard so little talk about this record. Amsterdam producer Melon seems to have made the ultimate afterhours German house track and yet, perhaps cos it’s buried on an Innervisions “Secret Weapons” comp, nobody has really mentioned it. I guess it’s easy to forget this one but when I look back at every record I bought in 2008 I feel this is probably the best. It’s got Watergate or Panorama Bar’s slow and low psychedelia along with their grey morning haze, one of a new brand of house tracks that seems made to recharge the afterhours, a really strong case for new deep house.

2. Andy Vaz-Bygone Times (Yore)

So throughout 2008, a year of devout retroism in house and techno, I’ve tried to lean towards the records that abandon piety in favour of parties. Cologne’s Yore label is flawless as far as house purism is concerned, but this particular track seems to bring something more universal. The meme of “Bygone Times” won’t ever get old(er) in the dragon chasing world of house music but this track in particular just exemplifies the fusion of melancholy and euphoria that attracts people to deep house in the first place, thankfully minus the political war. I actually also file this record with the music you listen to when nobody is awake, whatever the genre. If you have a file of music like that in your head that I suspect you’ll know what I mean.

3. Jamie Lloyd-May I (Quarion Mix) (Future Classic)

Anyone who reads this site knows I’ve been mentioning this incessantly all year. I guess it was never a huge club hit but I am almost certain there are hundreds of people out there who played this every single time they had friends back to their house after being at a club, and probably are still playing it. Swiss producer Quarion is, for me, someone whose remixes are always better than his originals. This is the biggest case in point, a wintry post-minimal track that can’t really be filed with any wider movement. It strongly evokes something like Inner City to me, albeit with nothing like the same pop feeling. Obviously this could never be an American release either. For all the ridiculous apologies about “minimal” in 2008, if this is its legacy, ice cold pulses of morning techno, then it’s hard to deny.

4. Koljah-Antigua (Vidab)

So this record actually was a huge club hit, but not one anyone knew about. In a year when DJ Koze’s “I Want To Sleep” somehow topped Resident Advisor’s singles chart, there was a definite dearth of that old European staple, the breakdown. It’s not that Koze’s record isn’t good, it’s great, just that it seems frankly bizarre that such a sleek “cool” record ultimately came out on top. Though to be fair “Mumblin’ Yeah” being voted number 1 in 2007 perhaps shows that the universal hits in a dance music world dominated by house tend to be the catchiest wooziest variants of the same. Perhaps there’s a more general swing towards “DJ records” these days when everyone has access to all the music they want.

“Antigua” then was quite old fashioned, a bludgeoning tribal groove which employed the almost obsolete trick of just ramping a melody up over and over and then bringing the beat back. Remember that?  Vidab, the label which released this, is also well worth checking out.

5. Pitto-Sexvibe (Area Remote)

I don’t think this was ever really played out much, despite seeming like a real route back to pop for 2008 house. (Am I wrong on that?) It’s so close to Daft Punk that along with the Mole’s “Baby You’re The One”, it prompted thoughts of a French house renaissance which never really came. I’ve never heard this record even once in London. That’s a shame as it seems a real focal point (way out) for house in 2008, with French house (early stuff in particular) always having straddled a weird individual divide between tradition and pop.

(Keep an eye out for some things I’ve enjoyed in 09 so far)