Random non Butterz music I enjoyed as a DJ and customer.
Champion & Ruby - Sensitivity
Champion - Lose Control
Silkie - City Limits 2
JME / Preditah / Royal-T & DJ Q - Tropical 2
Most of P Money & Blacks joint mixtape // Blackberry, Crusader and Mike Lowery from P Moneys free mixtape.
Hudson Mohawke - cBat
S-X - Bricks 2
D Double E - Flava
Katy B album
Joker - The Magic Causeway
L wiz release on Kapsize
SBTRKTs good. Needs to get some good MCs on his shit though. Bit tasteful at times. But he got style and pattern.
Didn't buy as much music as I did in 2010, or 2009. That goes for vinyl and digital. And the habit of not buying records means you dont look to buy records either. Vicious cycle, coming from a label owner. I feel like if I enjoyed more personally then it would probably motivate me even more to get out more records. Not sure.
I tried to get into a few popular things just hasnt happened for me yet. The Weeknd, Drake, Jay-z & Kayne, Odd Future, Rick Ross not really my cup of tea. Im going to need to find something to fill that void soon, or I am going to be stuck.
Oneman, Ben UFO, Jackmaster making people check for 'pure' DJs has been a good thing this year. Hopefully a few more guys break through next year. Loads of good selectors about.
Ive definitely listened to a lot less radio over the last 6 or 7 months too. Over the last 20 years this has been the main way I have enjoyed music too. Most of the time I lock in to different stations I don't hear anything new. If it is new, its something already out there in the world. Like I dont remember hearing Bax much before it came out, now I hear it all the time. Is that to do with the way people service their music? Not sure. Generally across the pirates its lame house, classic reggae/dancehall and then assorted London club classics from the last 15 years. Hearing this DJ getting emotional on the radio about Kele Le Roc - My Love the other day made me sad that there isn't anything modern for him to do that. He didnt sound old either. Strange.
Really enjoyed Uncle Dugs nostalgia show on Rinse though. On my travels I check out Rinse podcasts from The Heatwave, Marcus Nasty, Brackles and a few others.
I don't really download podcasts from producers much anymore without fresh tunes. When I see them putting together 45 mins of any music they feel like from the past 20 years im like cool, why would that make me want to listen? What happened to upfront tunes? Testing riddims, bootlegs, remixes, anything. If you downloaded a Royal-T podcast and he played DJ Assault, Prince and Wookie in the space of 45 mins wouldn't that piss you off? Theres def a time and a place for all that, but it doesnt motivate me to listen to someones productions or go and see them DJ.
Prob leads me onto my next point
I haven't actually raved that much either. Didnt go to any festivals either so didnt really have an opportunity to be exposed to anything I didnt intend to see. Bit lame on my part. Aside from DJing, staying in with my kitten and listening to 90s music was pretty much my whole summer.
What has pissed me off about Grime / Rap / MC music in the UK this year is chorus music. The boring inspirational rap formula like Tinie Tempah - Written in the stars. Wretch 32, Skepta, Lethal B and countless others all guilty of getting these cheesey hooks to try and get radio play. Irony of all this is the only Grime song to chart this year has been Pow 2011.
I haven't got into UK Rap yet, may never do. Seems like it has all been said before, in New York, 15 years ago. I still keep an ear out, now that Charlie Sloth has a show on Radio1 starting next year hopefully that helps make it easier for me to digest. Like Grime there is definitely a lot of MC talent, but not enough great original music is made for me.
In terms of what I am doing I hope the breakthrough producers in Grime this year Preditah and Faze Miyake go onto put out strong projects in 2012. Not just EPs, but vocal projects, singles, everything.
I haven't been receiving a lot of of original Grime music that I liked in my email for a few months, but this goes up and down like a yoyo. The trend atm for young producers is to make genreless music so it usually doesnt work in my favour, but it is kind of cool because most of the people that consistently send me tunes, ask for feedback are really just strong Grime fans looking for a foot in. Rather than someone that will do anything to get played by anyone.
This turned out to be really long.
Probably should start blogging again