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New year, new start, new music to explore. It is an incredibly satisfying thing to come across artists/producers in their sonic infancy and potentially track a rising star; equally satisfying is discovering a sound which quickly becomes part of your daily listening habit or sets. The following five are definitely worth a blast through the sound system.


Brenmar
Chicago house, and especially Juke, is back in a big way, influencing the mutant house and dubstep sound of the likes of Girl Unit and Julio Bashmore. Brenmar is an interesting producer bringing the bounce that made songs like Addison Groove's 'Footcrab' so popular, but also the lightness of R&B through well placed and uncomplicated samples. His remix of Rihanna's 'What's my name' is a good introduction to the pure danceable quality of his productions.

Pariah
Probably best known for his remix of The xx's 'Basic Space', Pariah is making the rounds on the club scene with his deep future garage beats. His Burial influence is apparent in the soft and melancholy vocals he lays over sometimes quite dark 2-step rythms. R&S, the influential Belgian label, which has the much hyped James Blake under its wing, has a generally very impressive stable of producers and Pariah's tracks certainly beat the pulse of innovative UK Bass Music.

Dro Carey
Leftfield and quirky Dro Carey hails from Australia, using Tumblr to spread his twisted lo-fi music. His sound lays deeply melancholic tones over pounding basslines which range from disjointed hip-hop breaks to rolling chicago house patterns. It is music that transfers angst, which he professes to be racked with, onto rythmic beats creating a jarring and uncomfortable atmosphere. It drags and pounds, and definitely catches your attention.

How to Dress Well
Pulling a somewhat similar drag lo-fi thread is How to Dress Well. His tunes place haunting and emotive vocal samples over quite sparse kicks, allowing for the delicate texture of the echoing and reverbed voices to make their biggest impact. The sound of his 'Ready for the World' is a typically excellent Tri-Angle release: beautiful, haunting and a perfect example of electronic music being able to evoke sentiments to rival the most mellifluous and bittersweet acoustic music. One to follow closely, as is Tri-Angle, if this strand of bewitching electronica appeals.
http://howtodresswell.blogspot.com/ his excellent blog

Jacques Greene
'Jacques’ sound speaks direct from the dark heart of the dancefloor', according to dummymag.com, this description perfectly summing up his vibrant and visciously energetic productions. Being on the Night Slugs imprint seems to equal well produced tracks and Greene is no exception. The standout track '(Baby I Don't Know) What You Want' sways between deep breakdowns and twinkling vocals, oozing club favourite. Another Night Slugger to push the boundaries of dubstep into house, creating tracks with incredible groove.

What we saw in 2010

2010 has been an innovative and exhilarating year for alternative music. Dubstep became more mainstream than ever and doggedly replaced Drum n Bass as the broody adolescent’s parent-bothering noise of choice, the Mercury Music Prize was won by a band which perfectly encapsulated the wistful tone of contemporary electronica whilst still appealing to the masses (advertisers/trailer editors in particular) and Glastonbury enjoyed a rain free 40^th anniversary festival, lauded by many as the best yet.

The sheer volume of quality that the internet age keeps churning out makes it very difficult to attempt to put together a comprehensive highlight reel of the last 12 months. Instead here follows 10 things that have excited, delighted and at the very least alighted by this writer. There’s no better way to look forward than by first looking back. Enjoy.

Deadboy

It must be a good year if your Fact Mix beats critics’ wet dream Ariel Pink and synth hero Four Tet, amongst others, to the top spot for 2010. The South-East Londoner’s brand of time warp tech house has been slowly trickling into club consciousness, ‘If U Want Me’ finding a place on just about every on-trend DJ’s repertoire since the start of the year. The sheer quality of the slowed down chill wave which permeates his remix of Drake’s ‘Fireworks’ is a joy to behold, sink away to it.

Jamie xx

Mercury Music Prize: tick, ‘Warehouse’ residency: tick, Highly anticipated album: tick. James Blake and Jamie Woon are not the only two with a monopoly on eminence when it comes to newcomers filed under the letter J. It takes quite the wealth of talent to help create and produce one of the best albums of recent years with The xx, but to also put together some quite inspiring tracks whilst actually on tour takes that little bit of special. Take a glimpse at the man in action at The Boiler Room, one of his many quality mixes doing the rounds.

Night Slugs

Jealousy should be the main emotion felt by every other label this year (perhaps only Young Turks and R&S just about avoiding a fatal bout of avarice). This fledgling label, despite only truly forming in the past year, has come to represent the best of fresh, interesting and infinitely original UK Bass Music. Bok Bok and L-Vis 1990 are riding the zeitgeist wave so sycophantically wafted by The Guardian and the like, but certainly do so on merit. Every 12” they have released has found its way onto at least one ‘Top Songs of 2010’ list; who cannot help but be infected by the pure dance virus that is ‘Wut’ for instance? An incredible year has ended but the Night Slug party is far from over.

Magnetic Man

The now famous trio have ripped through 2010 like a building crushing 40 Hz sub bass-quake. Having originally popped up as a faceless DJ group that would play behind a white sheet on club nights and featured memorably on N-Type’s  Dubstep Allstars vol. 5 in 2007, they have since become the face of Dubstep.  When not chilling with Prince Harry, according to The Sun, they have been impressing over eager audiences with bass heavy tunes, cocooned in a £750k light stage, and constantly featuring on Radio 1. Skream himself has released a widely acclaimed album in ‘Outside the Box’ and even deigned to give away a whole free one on Christmas Day. General opinion is divided but as a contemporary musical experience they are both unavoidable and not to be missed.

The Warehouse Project

Since its inception in 2006 ‘Warehouse’ has been the biggest and best night outside of EC1, being at the same time the curator-in-chief of the UK dance scene and the litmus test for any act’s popularity. It was the ‘Thrasher’ night last year which was looked at as proof that Dubstep had truly been accepted by the masses and this year promoters found little obstacle in bringing in the best DJ’s in the world, representing a most eclectic mix of genres. The atmosphere, although criticised by some ‘Warehouse’ veterans as worsening, is still electric and the venue is rightly called one of the best in the world. 2010 was another vintage year, with everyone from Boys Noize to MIA to (unfortunately) David Guetta whipping the appreciative crowd into frenzy. If there is a silver lining to be found in the current economic climate it is that developers’ plans to build on the current site of the venue have been indefinitely put on hold; long may this incredible urban festival continue.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

2010 has definitely been the year of the sample. The overwhelming volume of remixes, made by artists intricately skewing the original beyond recognition or sampling a vocal, has meant that only the best have risen above the dross. Fantastic Mr. Fox is of that peculiar UK Bass Music breed that can drop a remix or a song built on samples which makes us nostalgic for music we wouldn’t ever listen to, his quite apparent production prowess led to a support slot for The xx on their US tour. His multi-layered songs have a dubstep groove with deep R&B sensibility that seeps into that buried unconscious part of the mind, making you simply nod along with rhythmic abandon. A brilliant Fact Mix coupled with the popularity of songs such as ‘Plimsoul’ has meant that this young producer will surely be gracing many a festival stage this summer.

Netsky

Drum n Bass may well be on the back foot, looking to legends in the game such as Shy FX and Marky to stop the scene being overwhelmed by the dubstep storm, but its lack of limelight means producers can just get on with it without the need to appease the braying hordes. Hospital Records has produced another gem in Netsky, who has even managed to coat the Swedish House Mafia’s ubiquitous ‘One’ with an extra layer of energy. His eponymous first album is pure liquid heaven and the essential mix for Radio 1 showed that as a DJ he can create varied and vibrant sets, even his nod to dubstep via ‘Tomorrow’s Another Dub’ has his signature funk tinged vibe. It is the liveliness and jump-up nature of his productions that set him apart as a drum n bass producer to be closely followed.

Rinse FM

London’s worst kept secret has been the purveyor and promoter of the underground since 1994 and the radio station almost inordinately responsible for the rise of grime, dubstep and UK funky. The roster of DJs owner Geeneus has fostered is responsible for the state of modern music in the UK today and taking a look at the line up now is to glimpse at the future of the genres causing a stir globally. The station’s mention here is because at long last Rinse was awarded a Community FM Broadcast License in June meaning that the days of searching for a suitable rooftop for the transmitter, before the police found out, was over. Moreover, critics’ darling Katy B is signed to the Rinse label and to say that their other artists are knocking on the mainstream door would be an understatement: Roska has recently completed a Radio 1 essential mix and Zinc’s collaboration with Ms. Dynamite, ‘Wile Out’, charted in the top 40. Rinse FM is quite simply a stalwart of the UK music scene.

http://rinse.fm/

Phaeleh

As genres grow they tend to either reach a bottleneck or fracture. Hip-hop was professed to be dead by Nas and others as it all seemed to boil down to rolling beats with increasingly inarticulate lyrics, such is the fate when commercialisation rips the heart out of the musical form (see the Hip-Pop of 50 Cent and Kanye West circa 07-09). Dubstep is staring down a similar fate, however, it appears that it is beginning to fracture beautifully. Picking up the IDM/mellow/contemplative strain that Burial so expertly nurtured is Phaeleh. His songs are melodic and dark but beat driven and melancholic, a lot like a fresh Massive Attack. Darkstar have been the more popular proponents of this particular approach to dubstep but it is hard not to be utterly entranced by the sharp glow of his album ‘Fallen Light’. Interchangeably, Mount Kimbie could just as easily be mentioned here to fill the ‘post-dubstep/shogaze’ slot.

Witch House/Drag

Could the wider spectrum of America’s young population finally be getting over its bloated obsession with rock? The youth finally seem to be turning to Cubase and Reason and away from guitars to produce quite mystifying electronic music. Salem, oOoOO and the quite incredible Balam Acab have been creating songs that resemble the sound of distant voices floating through the forest of another age. This music has little unified structure, just tropes, and is all the better for it. Breakthrough tracks such as ‘Hearts’ by oOoOO and ‘Redlights’ by Salem conjure images of a submerged CD player blaring Crystal Castles and elegantly twist the synths of the 80s into a deeply haunting sound. Balam Acab seems to sculpt tunes that echo the past yet are as contemporary as they come. This scene is sure to create more fantastic music in the coming year, the pensive Creep having already collaborated with Romy from The xx.