Mark Zip Poop 2013


Albums

Buy Disclosure – Settle New or Used via Amazon    Buy New or Used via Amazon
Disclosure – “Settle” – I was pleasantly surprised that this showed up quite high in a number of other US-based year -end lists. It’s a really good contemporary pop LP, made from a UK perspective. The beats are varied and interesting, house, two-step, garage- funky and, I’m sure, some other micro-genres with names I’m hip enough to know. They also manage to integrate many different guest vocalists remarkably seamlessly. Unlike the Major Lazer record (see below), Disclosure make a real effort to integrate guests into and overall sound and feeling. This one played next to the Chase & Status record really made that one suffer by comparison.

Buy Daft Punk Random Access Memories New or Used via Amazon   Buy New or Used via Amazon
Daft Punk – “RAM” – Which appealed for the three really good singles and the production overall. That expensive sheen sounded so good. But, yes. The noodling and fusion jazz excursions are unfortunate. (It’s OK to still hate fusion, BTW, really). “Get Lucky” provided me with this year’s opportunity to tell the neighbourhood kiddies that it was going to be a hit. As usual, they laughed at me in April and were singing it in August. Then in December got their own back by laughing at me for not knowing Imagine Draogns. As to the hype surrounding the record, try Stereogum’s “Get Luck Supercut” on for size http://vimeo.com/82568910

Buy Major Lazer Free the Universe  New or Used via Amazon   Buy New or Used via Amazon
Major Lazer – “Free The Universe” – Last year they released the “Get Free” EP (with that great Andy C remix) and this year we get the whole new LP. For me, it’s almost as much fun as the first, although it’s more of a Diplo-produced effort than before. And all of the tracks have the “(feat. XXX and YYY) citation after the title. This can prove problematic as. Diplo does chooses not to show the same production finesse as, say, Disclosure (see above) and doesn’t try to integrate his guests into an overall sound. With guests including Amber Coffman, Elephant Man, Danielle Haim, Santigold, Vibz Cartel, Flux Pavilliion, Ezra Koenig among many others, he opts for an atomized approach and so the record lacks coherence. Having said that, as an advertisement for a live show, it’s pretty awesome. Except for the awful Wyclef Jean track. EDIT: Late in the year the wonderful Mungo’s Hi-Fi collaboratd with So Shifty for a “Lazers Strike Back, Vol. 6”, a remix album of this record. Their re-imagining tightens up the reggae references and deepens the bass, to great effect.

Boiler Room TV
Laurent Garnier Boiler Room Live at Warehouse Project Dec 16 2012 – The Boiler Room TV channel on YouTube – Sets from many greats, including Loefah, Frankie Knuckles, Disclosure and Laurent Garnier. Usually in front of small (and often seemingly dangerously close!) crowds in small rooms.

Buy Pet Shop Boys Electric New or Used via Amazon    Buy New or Used via Amazon
Pet Shop Boys – “Electric” – I wonder if there is another pop act with so consistent an output for so long a time equally ignored by the American market? Went to see them at the Beacon and was struck by the cognitive dissonance of such a standoffish act saying “Hellooooo New Yoooork”. Enjoyed the show thoroughly, of course.

Buy Burial Rival Dealer EP New or Used from Amazon   Buy New or Used via Amazon
Burial – “Rival Dealer” EP – As with so much of his work, it feels like music for a film never to be made.

Buy Annie Mac Presents 2013 New or Used via Amazon   Buy New or Used via Amazon
V.A. – “Annie Mac Presents 2013” – Includes the usual assortment huge and not so huge dancefloor hits, along with a disc of not quite as banging ones. The Duke Dumont remix of Haim’s “Falling” stands out, as does London Grammar.

     Buy New or Used via Amazon
Machine Drum – “Vapor City” – The first half is really good and then it peters out. So, an amazing EP.

Rudimental – “Home” – Last year’s wonderful “Feel the Love” is here. And a bunch more.
Bombino – “Nomad”
Vampire Weekend – “Modern Vampires of the City”
Kermit Ruffins – “We Partyin’ Traditional Style”
Chvrches – “The Bones of What You Believe”
Neko Case – “The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You”
Blood Orange – “Cupid Deluxe”
Janelle Monáe – “The Electric Lady”
V.A. – “Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings from the 1970s & ’80s”
James Blake – “Overgrown”

TRACKS

Just Blaze x Baauer – “Higher”
Lorde – “Royals” – That the kiddies on my block were singing this next to Justin Bieber cheered me no end. And the space in the recording is just wonderful. I really hope she sticks to her guns. Last year in the “Tracks” section of my poop, I mentioned the idea of space. I said that there had to be more of this in the US charts. Well, there were some respectable showings, but this was by far the best.