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Underground > Radio & Music >

Best tracks of 2005

14:07 / 15.02.05

The best track I've heard so far (as far as I can remember) is the tune that's been obsessing me for the last 16 or so hours. It's called 'Come Inside' by the Chemical Brothers, and it's from their new album Push The Button. If you really want teasing, just scroll down that page and click on track 5, you'll be able to listen to 30 seconds or so of it. God it makes me shiver.

I don't even have the album yet, but that track....it's just blown my head off.

Anyway this is here so that anyone who's had the same type of experience throughout the year can record it here if it's thought/felt that others would also possibly love the tune.

15:44 / 15.02.05

That Jay Z Linkin Park mash up makes me move my booty. and i heard tghis guy saul williams this morning, think the song was "black stacey", that had me bobbin my head

18:02 / 15.02.05

I've been enjoying Kingdom Of One (sample) off "The Dividing" by Android Lust (site). I'm not enjoying the album as a whole as much as I enjoyed the previous Android Lust album - "The Dividing" is a more artistically mature work, I think, but is missing some crucial grind that "Evolution" had - but Kingdom of One has all the elements of Nine Inch Nails' and Skinny Puppy's better works*. I heartily endorse Android Lust for your industrial enjoyment.

*some people may express doubt that these two can coexist. I ask these people to sample the wares on the linked site and keep an open mind.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:52 / 15.02.05

Sounds good to me... as soon as I get to somewhere with broadband, I'll check the link!

I'm currently grooving like a twat over "Can't Hardly Stand It" by Julian Cope. It sounds like Monster Magnet having a fight with the Stooges.

02:30 / 16.02.05

Jack> There used to be a bunch of Saul Williams thread around here. I think they may have been eaten by the board...

12:13 / 16.02.05

There was already Saul Williams threads? I'm always late to the party, off I go to search.

at the scarwash

14:47 / 16.02.05

I'm really digging the John Oates track on the new Handsome Boy Modeling School disk, "Greatest Mistake." The reviews have been horrid, but it's an awesome song.

Jack The Bodiless

15:21 / 18.02.05

I heard the Verbalicious single yesterday. That was kinda cool. Well, given that I heard it once and can't get it out of my head.

20:06 / 18.02.05

God Slick - Hank

Do you mess around now?

I doubt it!

I DOUBT IT!

19:53 / 21.02.05

The first Zazen Boys album is pretty great stuff. Funk-noise with influence from buddhist chants and japanese folk. Sort of Japanese Folk meets Melt-Banana-ish stuff. Second album was more R&B meets Noise meets Post-Rock.

Matthew Fluxington

01:03 / 23.02.05

Ms. Triplets, have you listened to the other songs on the Hank website? They are all pretty great. The video for "Danes In Peril" is a must-see too - it's all reshot/recontextualized footage of Claire Danes...in peril.

ONLY NICE THINGS

01:16 / 23.02.05

My Ghetto Blaster - Brant Bjork and the Operators. Absolutely mighty.

07:59 / 23.02.05

Currently Listening to Candi Stanton best of, which is great - there's another in the same series by someone called Betty Swann, which is fantastic, if you like old Aretha style soul singing ladies.

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:53 / 24.02.05

There’s hope for you yet, Cosmic Neo Fireman X – you’ve started a thread that the somewhat moribund Music Forum could really use. Here’s what I’ve been obsessed with of late…

Kano – ‘Ps & Qs’: fantastically self-assured rhymes over an ice-cold electro-flavoured beat – a strong piece of evidence for those who argue that ‘grime’ is the sound of British hip hop truly finding its own voice for the first time. From the awesome compilation Run The Road, which everyone who reads this should rush out and buy at the first opportunity.

M.I.A. – ‘Hombre’ – slinky, seductive pop from what will almost certainly be the album of the year, Arular, if and when it gets a UK release.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard and some other guy – ‘Go Go Go’: a typically irrepressible party track from the surprisingly consistent posthumous ODB ‘mixtape’, Osirus. Probably not “resistence [sic] hip hop”. Thank Dirt for that.

LCD Soundsystem – ‘On Repeat’: I know a lot of people have mixed if not decidedly disappointed feelings about the album, but I think it has its share of great things, and this is one.

Ciara feat. Petey Pablo – ‘Goodies’: still not tired of this. You think you bad, but you ain’t bad: I’ll show you what bad is.

Haus of Mystery

08:35 / 24.02.05

I really liked the last Ashanti single. Was it called 'Only U'? Whatever, it was fantastic. The vocal was slightly weak (as can be the case with some contemporary R'n'B IMO) but the production was terrific - minimal but bass heavy with a killer hook.

I also think the Futureheads' 'Hounds of Love' single is aces. Hadn't bothered with em before, but this is such a brazen cover of Kate Bush's original it commanded my respect. Very uncool acapella shouting over spiky clipped drums and guitars. Clocks in at about two minutes, and builds to a great climax. Should go top 10, and good on it.

16:59 / 24.02.05

Just downloaded that Hounds of Love cover.

That. Is . Fucking. Brill.

17:03 / 24.02.05

Oh, yeah, and I'm liking the LCD Soundsystem album, particularly Disco Infiltrator, it's nothing particularly new but it is exciting in a kind of desperately contained way and it makes me want to jump around the room.

Which is good.

14:50 / 25.02.05

I don't know what it's called, but that track off the ODB album, the second one, with the refrain that goes 'Dirty Dirty, tell us how you do it' - that's wicked...

I like the song I heard on the radio by The Knife as well. Will be buying their album sharpish.

10:11 / 26.02.05

I really liked the last Ashanti single. Was it called 'Only U'? Whatever, it was fantastic. The vocal was slightly weak (as can be the case with some contemporary R'n'B IMO) but the production was terrific - minimal but bass heavy with a killer hook.

Totally. Kind've horrorist style; that was my single of the January.

20:01 / 26.02.05

The new album by Emiliana Torrini is good:

Fisherman's Woman

And she´s on tour (16.March in Berlin

, England around end of march.

09:45 / 28.03.05

I first heard this in the film Consantine, it's the song that's played in Papa Midnight's club and it's by A Perfect Circle. It's called Passive.

I tried googling for it and found the full song straightaway, it's here :

Passive

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

09:09 / 29.03.05

Pure Reason Revolution - The Bright Ambassadors has been floating my boat quite a bit lately. Google them up and check out their sight, they have (or had) a time limited video of the track there. All 12 minutes of it. I love the anti-radio stance of a band still prepared to release a 12 minute single.

Also like Bev Knight's new effort "Keep This Fire Burning", more for the trip-over drum programming than the song, but catchy all the same.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

09:11 / 29.03.05

Er, that should be 'site' of course, rather than giving them a trip to the opticians.

Also feeling that Ashanti single with the big geetar.

20:40 / 11.04.05

It's not strictly 2005 or anything, but 'Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel' is half an hour of sheer brilliance, I think.

Tom Waits described the Pogues, when they were good, as 'playing like soldiers on leave,' which seems exactly right - In that context, Scott Walker would have been an occifer, doomed, stylish, but absolutely dealing off the same deck.

And it's on sale at Virgin for £7.99 - If anyone wanted to buy it and then express their disatisfaction by hitting me in the face, I'd only stare blankly into the Thames anyway.

But it wouldn't come to that, hopefully.

One way or the other, anyone who's unfamiliar with Scott Walker's work is a bit, uh...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

20:45 / 11.04.05

I Will Be Absorbed by Julian Cope. Albumwise, Citizen Cain'd took a while to grow on me (but boy, did it grow) but this track, epic, glorious and wonderful got me by the balls first time.

Terror Alert: High by Alec Empire. Everyone's (by which, of course, I mean "my") favourite shouty German imagines an epic battle between Tony Iommi and some robots. Well, that's what it sounds like to me, anyway.

03:12 / 12.04.05

I've been trying to find an mp3 of... well... of this. Not safe for work, or else it gets the hose again.

I am Invisible now

03:54 / 12.04.05

I just got the newest album by VNV Nation. I am not too impressed with it as I was with "empires". However, a track of noting in my opinion..."chrome", Track 2. I think metropolis records still has a small sample of it Just click on the links for it in the "v" section if you like. Again, the album isnt that great to me, but again, "chrome" is some good nice VNV at what I think is some of their best. Enjoy.

Red Cross Iodized Salt

05:37 / 12.04.05

I've been trying to find an mp3 of... well... of this.

That's video is fantastic. The song is by GreensKeepers, from a record called Pleetch. Worth.

Records that I've been playing again and again for the last few months are Digital Mystikz and Loefah's 'Twisup' and Toasty Boy's 'The Knowledge.' Neither really count for 2005, as they both came out last year, but it took me that long to get them outside of the UK so I'm pretending that they do.

Current obsessions are Bizzy B's Science EPs. My jaw actually dropped the first time I heard how good 'Darkside' was. I wish there was more stuff like this around, it makes jungle exciting again.

Keith, like a scientist

12:38 / 12.04.05

throwing caution to the wind, and my entire underground buys of the year out the window, I've gotta put Ciara's "Oh" down as the absolute best track this year.

I'm finding myself really partial to Gorillaz "Feed Good, Inc," though.

Also:
Mat Young "Look at Me" (Bully Records)
dusty instrumental hip-hop groovalicious.

21:36 / 12.04.05

Thanks Red.

16:30 / 13.04.05

I am in love with Akon's "Lonely" right now. I know with certainty I'm going to get sick of it, but for now it zooms to the core of that pop sweet spot. To my ecstatic delight, I recently caught Akon on a local radio station explaining the story behind "Lonely" - about how he just after he got out of jail he fell in love, but then cheated on his lady. She found out and came knocking on the hotel room door; since he'd just called room service, he naturally assumed it was his food being delivered. Chaos ensued in which he - stark naked of course - tried to break up the catfight and wound up having to ask security to cart his woman out of the hotel. Love him. Love that song.

Regrettable Juvenilia

21:55 / 13.04.05

Stereo Total - 'Orange Mechanique'
Cover of the music from A Clockwork Orange, including a version of the opening monologue, spoken by a French woman! This will sharpen you up for a bit of the old "ultra-violence".

Fischerspooner - 'Never Win'
Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick In The World' rewritten by way of Franz Ferdinand's 'Take Me Out' to be a compelling, confessional ode to love/hate co-dependencey, featuring Casey Spooner admitting he's a bit of a douchebag, really.

Vitalic - 'My Friend Dario
Electroclash learns how to tear it up like 'Block Rockin' Beats'. Warning: can cause multiple pile-ups on the dancefloor.