Best of 2009

2010 is just around the corner and I’m already getting excited about the music that’s to come in the new year. As for music this year, I feel like there were a lot of great albums but not many that really grasped my attention for very long. My first choice was really easy but the other four were hard to rank. But I’ve re-listened to the ones I remember the most and the five that are posted are the ones that my ears seemed to like the most this year.

Number 1

Röyksopp – Junior, March 2009

Hands down, this was the best album of the year in my opinion. It was almost like a Scandinavian celebration album. With Lykke Li, Robyn, and Karin Dreijer Andersson (The Knife and Fever Ray) as vocalists for more than half of the songs on the album; I was very pleased and impressed. Even the songs without the vocals are amazing. “Röyksopp Forever” is an instrumental that is some kind of emotional and passionate electrorchestra. I’m not going to lie, I probably listened to “The Girl and The Robot” over 100 times this year. The bass is so intense, I imagine the whole world shaking every time I play it. This album makes love to my ears every single listen.

Röyksopp – The Girl and The Robot

Number 2

Vitalic – Flashmob, September 2009

Vitalic is classified as techno/trance but I would say Vitalic is just completely electronic. I feel like Vitalic put a lot of thought into the songs on Flashmob. Don’t be discouraged by the description, the album isn’t a complete dance fest. There are slow songs as well. This French artist has done a remarkable job of producing and creating his own music. Flashmob is an explosion of noise, i.e. beautiful noise.

Vitalic – Poison Lips

Best remixes/mash-ups of 2009:

1. Bag Raiders vs. Chromeo – Shooting Stars/Call Me Up
To be honest, any version of Bag Raiders’ “Shooting Stars” is unbelievably elating.

2. N.A.S.A. feat. Kanye West, Lykke Li and Santigold – Gifted (Steve Aoki Remix)
Aoki remix of an already amazing song, enough said.

3. Fever Ray – If I Had a Heart (Fuck Buttons)
This remix has followed me throughout Vancouver for the entire year.

4. Lykke Li – Little Bit LIVE (Death to the Throne remix)
The amazing live version of “Little Bit” remixed into an 8-bit masterpiece with a heavy bass.

5. GRUM – Runaway (SymbolOne Remix)
Image: dancing in circles with confetti falling all around and pink lights flashing.

2010, here we come!

Moving Lights

I was extremely impressed with the July 29th fireworks (UK fireworks for the HSBC Celebration of Light). Even though I saw no other fireworks to compare them to, these ones were remarkably put together with dramatic, excellent music.

Slight change of subject: Kris Menace has done a Bag Raiders remix of their song, “Shooting Stars”, which is a great song on its own. As you may know though, Kris Menace is known for his elating, euphoric remixes; therefore this remix is pretty mood-lifting. And considering this song is called “Shooting Stars” and really reminds me of shooting stars, fireworks and everything bright and alluring, I thought it would make sense to coincide it with a post regarding fireworks.

Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars (Kris Menace Remix)

Shooting Stars

I had no idea that the Bag Raiders’ remix of Chromeo’s “Call Me Up” was more of a mash-up than a remix. Literally a minute ago, I listened to “Shooting Stars” by the Bag Raiders and it’s the exact same instrumentals as their remix of “Call Me Up”, just with different lyrics. I’m very impressed with the “mash-up/remix” (or whatever you wanna call it) and the original. So here is the original and here is the link to my post with the remix of “Call Me Up”. Both are very elating.

Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars

You can call me up all the time

How many Chromeo remixes exist out there? Too many to count. Not like that’s a bad thing, but some of them are getting slightly redundant. When I first clicked on this remix by the Australian group, Bag Raiders, I expected it to be a mediocre one but I was pleasantly surprised; hence the blog post. The use of synth and keyboards give the song an extra euphoric aura, which is definitely needed nowadays.

Bag raiders claim to be “hotter than a welding machine” and this remix can stand as proof for this statement. Apparently one of Bag Raiders’ remixes is featured on the GTA4 soundtrack. I guess that can be pretty hot as well, depending on who you are and what you like.

Chromeo – Call me up (Bag Raiders Remix)