The Top 50 Tracks of 2010 Redux/Stripmine

The complete list with downloadable links. (Right-click on track name to download.) If you haven’t got the OCD to click them all, the entire Top 50 has been split into 3 archived files (links at the bottom of the post). Archived files are hosted on Mediafire. Links will open in a new window.

1. Justin Bieber – U Smile (Shamantis’ 800% Slower Mix).mp3
2. Crocodiles – Mirrors.mp3
3. Lazer Crystal – Love Rhombus.mp3
3a. Lazer Crystal – Hot Pink BMX.mp3
4. Glitter Bones – Ceremonial Secrets.mp3
5. Rraaiillss – Halogen/Out of the Bag
6. Felix & Volcano! – Shaadow.mp3
7. Whitey – Liars, Vipers, Jokes and Fakes
8. Clive Tanka y Su Orquestra – All Night, All Right.mp3
9. Cyan Tablets – Amaretto.mp3
10. Black Books – The Big Idea.mp3

11. Siriusmo – Einmal in Der Woche Schreien.mp3
12. Foster the People – Pumped Up Kicks.mp3
13. Housse de Racket – Gwendoline (Gemini Club Remix).mp3
14. Miniature Tigers – Gold Skull.mp3
15. Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Tommie Sunshine’s Quaalude Edit).mp3
16. Rick Ross – B.M.F. (Caligula Mix).mp3
17. Acid Washed – Acid Washed (DANGER Remix).mp3
18. Led Zeppelin – When the Levee Breaks (Sidney Frost’s Redneck Mash Mix).mp3
19. Crocodiles – Hearts of Love.mp3
20. Telenovelas – Bloody Mary.mp3

21. Pink Mist – Longer.mp3
22. Grinderman – Bellringer Blues.mp3
23. Joy Division – Means to an End (Eamon Harkin Edit).mp3
24. Arno – All the Young Dudes.mp3
25. Unkle feat. the Black Angels – Natural Selection.mp3
26. Luger – Swastika Sweetheart.mp3
27. Deftones – Rocket Skates (M83 Mix).mp3
28. Twin Sister – Lady Daydream (Glitter Bones Remix).mp3
29. White Ring – We Rot.mp3
30. Young Boys – Bring ‘Em Down.mp3

31. Parties in Belgrade – Statues.mp3
32. Brian Eno – 2 Forms of Anger.mp3
33. ///▲▲▲\\\ – How They Kill You.mp3
34. The Delta Mirror – He Was Worse than the Needle He Gave You.mp3
35. Golden Ages – It Doesn’t Mean Shit.mp3
36. Holy Fuck – Lucky.mp3
37. Record Eating Machines – Roover.mp3
38. The Vaselines – Ruined.mp3
39. Mater Suspiria Vision – The Afterlife.mp3
40. Yu(c)k – Weakend.mp3 // Daughter.mp3

41. †‡† – goth bb.mp3
42. SALEM – King Night.mp3
43. Spider▲Webs – Do the Psycho.mp3
44. Wise Blood – STRT SRNS.mp3
45. Humans – Mon Ton Ton.mp3
46. Chemical Brothers – K+D+B.mp3
47. Haunted Tiger – I’m a Mummy.mp3
48. Grave Babies – Eating Babies.mp3
49. Finkielkrauts – Cocksucker No Blues.mp3
50. Teddybears – Chrystal Meth Christian.mp3

The whole Top 50 compressed and available for download:

Top 50 Folder 1

Top 50 Folder 2

Top 50 Folder 3

-CLT

Top 50 Tracks of 2010: The #1 Track of the Year

Once in a great while, a happy accident results in a great track. Acid house pioneer Phuture yanked the batteries out of his TB-303 bass emulator, kicking it into “failure mode” and bypassing the original settings to tweak out a screeching, wobbling unnatural noise henceforth known as “acid.”

The result? Acid techno and acid house that added  noisy vitality to a nascent club scene.

As some point a guitarist leaned into a hot amp and be rewarded with a high-pitched blast of white noise — feedback. Soon a long string of musicians would come to consider this a “feature” rather than a “bug.” That piercing tone has colored the work of everyone from Jimi Hendrix to A Place to Bury Strangers, the latter of which has adhered to the Jesus & Mary Chain’s “feedback as lead guitar” blueprint.

Other some fortunate glitches exist. New Order rides a drum machine test pattern to the top of the charts with Blue Monday. Prince hears a mix of When Doves Cry without the bass mixed in and likes the sound so much he leaves it off permanently.

The happy accident/experimentation behind the #1 track of 2010 begins in Houston’s hip hop scene, way back in the early 1990s. Local producer and cough syrup aficionado DJ Screw begins producing his own “chopped and screwed” remixes of local rap acts. In an attempt to synthesize the narcotized sleepwalk of a good sizzurp buzz, DJ Screw manipulated his makeshift cassette-deck-and-turntable setup to crank out incredibly slow reinterpretations of various rap artists, turning their gun/crack-slinging boasts into demonic incantations backed by drip-drying electronic smears and jet black, molasses-thick beats, bearing a cursory resemblance to playing a 45 at 33-1/3. Thousands of imitators hopped onto the Screw bandwagon, each of them offering their own stabs at the patented “chopped and screwed” sound.

One such fan of Screw’s was Romanian programmer Paul Octavian Nasca who wished to decouple speed from pitch, thus allowing him to create new tones from existing material without dragging everything into a low-end, somnambulistic slump. However, no such software existed. Being the avid tech-head he was, Nasca decided it would be simpler to write the software himself, cranking out the open-source “Paul’s Extreme Sound Stretch.”

With this tool, producers could create unearthly tones more closely related to the upper echelons of ambient music rather than the darkened, druggy alley of “screwed” remixes. At some point, a bedroom producer got ahold of this software and did something truly amazing while simultaneously doing everything wrong.

How wrong?

Is this any sort of ingredient list for creating something transcendent and the best track I heard all year?

1. Grab the biggest slice of commercial cheese available.
2. Crank all settings to “illogical.”
3. Allow software to work its magic.
4. Click “play.”
5. Ho…ly…shit…
6. Release into the wild.

Top 50 Tracks of 2010: Crocodiles – Mirrors

2. Crocodiles – Mirrors.mp3

You have to hear this song twice to fully appreciate it. If you trust my musical judgment at all, press play and give it a good listen before reading the following commentary. Go ahead. Do something else while the track unwinds. Or stay here if you’d like. You can read this part:

Someone once recommended Flesh for Lulu to me stating that they “sounded like the Jesus and Mary Chain.” At that point I was only familiar with the Chain’s first two albums so my initial reaction was, “The fuck they do!”

It wasn’t until I had absorbed their third album (Automatic) that I saw their point: Flesh for Lulu sound like Automatic. (If that makes sense.) It’s mostly in the rhythm section, which at that point for the Jesus and Mary Chain was a drum machine. Lots of the same tempos and presets. So, to sum up: Flesh for Lulu sound like a particular iteration of the Jesus and Mary Chain.

This Crocodiles song sounds like Flesh for Lulu: compressed riffs riding a drum machine. They do not, in general, sound like Flesh for Lulu, but in this case they do. It also sounds like Lips Like Sugar-era Echo & the Bunnymen. A bit of the Mighty Lemon Drops and small hint of psychedelic bagginess from the Soup Dragons. Some chiming tones, straightforward riffing and the somewhat tinny sound of drum machinery.

OK. Ready for that second listen?

Pay attention to that build. Now that you know where the track is headed, you’re in a better position to appreciate the windup.

Arriving first are the bright tones that surf under the entire song, followed by some subdued feedback that increases in intensity and volume along with the looping drum. It’s all just background for awhile, slowly rising above the open space.

Then the bass kicks in almost unexpectedly, arriving mid-bar rather than on a downbeat, adding propulsion and pushing the track forward and upward.

And now the guitar joins in, setting the pace with a tightly wound, minimal riff that (and I HEART this part) drops off into a full swoon, leaving the listener with the not upleasant sensation of momentarily being trapped in a plunging audio elevator.

Fucking brilliant.

More brilliance follows, led by the lines:

There’s something in the way you crucify me
That makes me smile…

God bless the Crocodiles. And god bless their tortured altpop souls.

Go. Buy. Now.

More Crocodilia.

The rest of the Top 50.

-CLT

Top 50 Tracks of 2010: Lazer Crystal – Love Rhombus

3. Lazer Crystal – Love Rhombus.mp3

Sounds like ’80s music is/was supposed to sound like. Some icy vocals. Glittering synths. The underlit intersection where the New Romantic movement collided gently with the melodic castoffs of the industrial scene. It sounds like the sort of music that should have been on the Less Than Zero soundtrack rather than the schizophrenic wet dream of a major label exec it ended up being. (Bangles, Poison, Aerosmith, Joan Jett, Slayer, Danzig, David Lee Roth, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Doors [?])

(Of course, the movie also features two colossal errors:

1. An attempt to place a sympathetic moral character into an amoral story.
2. Have this Jiminy Cricket be played by Andrew McCarthy, the only person who can make a movie starring both Robert Downey, Jr. and James Spader incredibly dull.

Bear in mind that Downey, Jr. and Spader did nothing more than play themselves (a cokehound and a colossal prick, respectively) and yet still managed to outshine the twin vanilla powers of McCarthy and love interest, Jamie Gertz. [Not that McCarthy doesn’t already have a proven track record for making movies worse.*])

More accurately, Love Rhombus sounds like the soundtrack to the book, before Nancy Reagan instilled a cliched, false conscience into the coke-fueled ’80s.

*More on this later, w/r/t Less Than Zero, McCarthy.

Calibrate your Lazers here.

Flashback to MCMLXXX.

Lazerblast.

The rest of the Top 50.

Bonus track:

Hot Pink BMX.mp3

This rocks hard in a way that tracks named Hot Pink BMX shouldn’t. A completely different side of Lazer Crystal and a great band name for any Death Set-esque electro-punks currently in need of one.

-CLT

Top 50 Tracks of 2010: Glitter Bones – Ceremonial Secrets

4. Glitter Bones – Ceremonial Secrets.mp3

While there are a ton of consistent bands out there, there are very few consistently good bands, and there are even fewer consistently great bands.
Glitter Bones falls into the last category. I have yet to hear a track of theirs that I would kick out of bed, mentally stating, “Done that already. No need for an encore.”
Not one.

Even artists I love irrationally (the Pixies, Love & Rockets, A Place to Bury Strangers, Whitey) have released a few clunkers. Granted, their worst is still better than 90% of everything else out there, a majority of which does nothing but lie there lifelessly, forcing you to do all the work.

(Note: some of these “clunkers” do surprise me, though, altering my take on them in unexpected ways the next time they make their way through my mp3 player. Some sort of transformation takes place, not entirely unlike that mousy girl from all the movies who suddenly takes her hair down and removes her unstylish glasses, morphing into a stunner that elicits a “Hey… It’s you. I see I’ve misjudged you and that what I was looking for was under my nose the whole time.”)

Glitter Bones is all upfront devastating beauty. This track in particular (to continue winding our way down this path paved with dubious metaphors) is the stunner that steps into the bar, turning every head instantly. Even “hooked up” heads that should know better.

She (the track, remember?) glides up to the bar (glides!), simultaneously raising the hopes of every guy in the room, most of whom have already mysteriously appeared at the rail to buy here a drink.

As they gaze blankly into her vertiginous beauty, their hopes and dreams are suddenly dashed with the arrival of her boyfriend. 6’6″ if he’s an inch, carrying his carved ebony body with an otherworldly confidence, devastating in its own way.

As the throng of smaller, less attractive men suddenly look a million other directions at once while ordering Cosmos and Fuzzy Navels (for themselves, apparently) from a highly distracted bartender, her godlike boyfriend orders something manly for himself and something lightweight but incredibly complicated for her. The men who never had a chance are further devastated by the rich tone of his voice, which is as powerful as it is ear pleasing, like the voice of God’s own DJ.

That is this track.

More “out of your league” shit here.

More Glitter here.

The rest of the Top 50.

-CLT

Top 50 Tracks of 2010: Rraaiillss – Halogen/Out of the Bag

5a. Rraaiillss – Halogen

5b. Rraaiillss – Out of the Bag

I’m cheating here because I’ve been trying to nail down which track I prefer for the last couple of months. Just when I think I’ve decided, the other track unveils its particular charms again.

Halogen
Sounds like nothing else on Adam Anderson’s astounding debut 1098, with its My Bloody Valentine-ish, nearly impenetrable sonic thicket. Tangled guitar riffs meet clattering drum machines in a confident racket, asserting Rraaiillss’ grasp of the fact that beauty isn’t always pristine. This one crashes against your ears like an aural monsoon, drenching you in swelling and rippling sheets of sound.

Out of the Bag
This track takes a different tack, rolling out as a refreshingly good natured burst, sounding for all the world like a chart troubler Echo & the Bunnymen forgot to write. The guitar chimes, the beat lies slightly south of bouncy and Anderson’s vocals are appropriately breathless. The whole thing wastes no effort, gliding along on rraaiillss of guitar pop bliss.

Ride the Rraaiillss.

Connect at Mmyyssppaaccee.

The rest of the Top 50.

-CLT

Top 50 Tracks of 2010: Felix & Volcano! – Shaadows

6. Felix & Volcano! – Shaadows.mp3

I don’t care what you’re listening to or what you’re doing. Drop all of it and listen to this. This is best fucking thing you will hear all day/week/month/year.

I said this earlier this year and I still mean it. (Well, except maybe the “year” part. Obviously at number 6, it’s not the best thing you’ll hear all year.) Even though I’m no longer listening to it a half-dozen times in a row, I still crank it way up whenever it makes its way through my mp3 playlist. That it rises no higher than #6 on this list diminishes its impact in no way. It just means the Top 5 are that fucking good.

It’s a triumphantly positive blast, especially considering I can find nothing else in their repertoire that sounds remotely like it. The message it still powerful: sometimes the only way to transcend is to let go.

Camp out with F&V!

Get all up in F&V’s Space!

The rest of the Top 50.

-CLT

Top 50 Tracks of 2010: Whitey – Liars, Vipers, Jokes and Fakes

7. Whitey – Liars, Vipers, Jokes and Fakes

A healthy dose of cautionary cynicism from one of the finest electro-rockers in the business. No one else quite sounds like Whitey and Whitey really sounds like no one else. With Liars, Vipers, Jokes and Fakes, Whitey lures you in with curiously innocuous Caribbean cruise deck sounds. The drums kick in shortly thereafter, letting you know he won’t just be ironically samba-ing all over the place.

The second verse introduces a discordantly growling guitar which lurks just out of sight. Then comes the bridge, a fierce, buzzing, electronic, stuttering burst which stands alone briefly, connecting the breezy opening with the more aggressive back nine. The pace amps up, covered in fuzzed-up bass and carried along by a crashing, hi-hat riding, near-tribal beat.

The machinations of the music match Whitey’s rising anger, turning what might have been just another shaking-your-fist-at-the-world track into a righteously pissed rock monster.

Stick it to the man: Buy more Whitey.

Stay in touch with Whitey.

The rest of the Top 50.

-CLT

Top 50 Tracks of 2010: Clive Tanaka y Su Orquestra – All Night, All Right

8. Clive Tanaka y Su Orquestra – All Night, All Right.mp3

Sporting a Japanese surname and operating out of Brazil, Clive Tanaka and his Orquestra of electronic equipment bring globetrotting flair to the music world with this impossibly great take on French house. There’s all you could possibly want in a stellar dance track: big kickdrums, rolling bass, vocoders and a stylistic confidence that Tanaka wears very well. Easily the best track by Daft Punk in years. Shame they couldn’t be bothered to create it.

Get out your dancing shoes and, while you’re digging around in the closet, grab your old boombox because this debut EP is available on cassette.

Get your analog Tanaka right here.

The rest of the Top 50.

-CLT

Top 50 Tracks of 2010: Cyan Tablets – Amaretto

9. Cyan Tablets – Amaretto.mp3

Coming from Japan via Finland (at least according to the EP title), Cyan Tablets deploy minor keys and a slightly glitched downtempo beat to devastating effect, creating the perfect sonic palette to accompany this heart breaker of a track. The vocals speak to futile actions and inner ache of missing someone who’s sitting three feet away from you.

It’s perfection, from the opening doomed synth line to the near-breathless vocals to the various impeccably placed drum machine stutters. It feels like it’s borrowing from the ’80s heyday of icy synthpop (Japan, Blancmange, Heaven 17) but there’s nothing you can actually grab and say: “X sounds like Y.” Amaretto is very much its own animal, displaying influences without needing to ape. The only thing truly transparent is the wounded heart on its sleeve.

Start popping Tablets here.

Cyan Myspace: halfway to CMYK.

The rest of the Top 50.

-CLT