moodmat

Okay, this is pretty fun. Even with all the crappy slideshow-based “videos” on YouTube, they have a pretty amazing database of music. Leave it to Google to find a new way to mine it. Or at least a way they can own. Send us your playlists!

I didn’t know this documentary existed. Mind = blown.

Hey, well it’s almost Chinese New Year… I’m a little behind, but the drill is the same, and my list for 2009 hasn’t changed. What you see and hear isn’t what I think are the best records to be released last year, but a straight dump of Last.fm data of my most listened-to songs, minus any duplicates from last year’s list. It’s data-driven, and it’s delicious. Dig in!

10. The Burbs – “Organic”
Drum & bass has become a bit more of a staple for me in the last three or four years, so I’m surprised more of it didn’t creep into the top ten. Given another couple months, this plaintive burst of emotion might be a lot higher in the list.

9. Osborne – “Downtown”
Yep a 2008 record. For some reason this didn’t hit me over the head until last year and then it came crashing down like the Hudson’s Building. I’m still playing the crap out of it.

8. MF DOOM – “Hoe Cakes [Ant Remix]”
What do you do between Madvillain records? You scare up some hoe cakes, 2004 style.

7. Osborne – “Ruling”
And here’s Mr. Osborn again, giving us a big warm hug of a house record. Something in this also makes me think Michael McDonald could be singing backup in another dimension.

6. Burial + Four Tet – “Moth”
You know when collaborations sound too good to be true? This isn’t one of those times.

5. Martyn – “Vancouver”
“Timmy, when two genres love each other very much, God sends them a blessing…”

4. Peverelist – “Junktion”
Speaking of sex, this is the most beautiful mindfuck I have ever heard. I have yet to hear this in a club but I get a little jolt thinking of all the minds lost when the bassline drops.

3. Martyn – “The Only Choice”
Maybe I’m still reaching for my Kling Klang Security Blanketâ„¢ and can’t get enough of the rhythmic sound of numbers pelted at me from vocoders and whatnot. Maybe I’m just glad Martyn is too.

2. Dert – Venus Morning
1. Dert – It’s Oh So Loud!

I love the concept of the “beat tape.” I love Björk. Nuff said.

Huge congrats to our friends in Metro Area and at Environ records for making the least shittiest dance tune of the last decade according to the experts at Resident Advisor. Environ was also responsible for the 2nd least shittiest dance mix of the past decade (2nd only to I-f, of course), but the experts failed to recognize this fact.

Good job, Environ. Good job.

I can’t go for just repeating the same old lines.

Let’s all wake up and feel good about today!

The lineup for the Big Ears 2010 festival is out.

It’s awful. Simply awful.

Especially when comparing it with last year’s line up , 2010 seems like an obvious grab at the Pitchfork crowd rather than keeping it challenging and wonderful. Fennesz, The Necks, Burning Star Core, Negativeland, Philip Glass, Pauline Oliveros and Matmos last year. This year we get Vampire Weekend, The Ex, The xx? Granted Terry Riley, DJ /rupture and the Calder Quartet are solid choices. But putting the two lineups side by side, you have to wonder exactly WHAT the curators of this year’s event were thinking. It’s not even close in terms of quality.

I went last year and enjoyed myself immensely. This year I think I’ll just stay home and save my money for Mutek or the DEMF.

Time to unwind this wild week.

His last two shows on RBMA have featured the first decade of ECM records and they’ve been outstanding. Most definitely essential listening if you’ve ever wanted to dive in to the otherwise intimidating ECM catalog. Anyays, over on his blag, Mr. Kirk gets up on his soapbox and delivers his State of The Union in fine form.

The southern offices of moodmat have reopened for business. Thankfully we brought back the snow from the north and northeast from vacation back home.

Just as a quick warm up post to get the old grey matter working. Digital music news has been doing some nice coverage of CMS.  Two of my favorite pull quotes:

The Recording Academy is also at CES, ahead of the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards on January 31st. The group is previewing its ‘Fan Visualizer’ iPhone app ahead of a January 12th launch. The ‘fan index’ promises to ‘measure, monitor and visualize the volume of online conversations’ surrounding an artist, and is getting previewed Friday evening at the Venetian.

I seriously can’t recall the last time I was so unexcited by a new technology, from the RIAA no less! The second little ditty:

Among the usual group of celebrities, superstars Lady Gaga, Dr. Dre, and Tommy Lee will be plugging themselves and their ‘favorite’ products over the course of the conference

Can anyone tell me the last time Tommy Lee was relevant?  However, the list of celebrities assembled for CES is pretty surreal. Where else could one see Lady Gaga, James Worthy, Prince Fielder and Garfield at the same place?

There’s an AC radio station here in Detroit that, sometime around Halloween it seems, switches over to an all-Christmas format. If you tune in to it even occasionally, you realized they pretty much just play a few songs over and over again. (and how is that unusual for commercial radio anywhere? but, I digress…)

In the interest of pointing to something a little outside the AC Christmas canon, here’s something a Moodmat audience might find a little more interesting. Sometime during the last century, Spoon Records posted a genuine rarity — an old 7″ recording of Can performing “Silent Night”. It’s a truly wonderful performance — it glows.

I’d downloaded it way back when, but at some point I lost track of my copy. For purely selfish reasons, I contacted Spoon Records and pleaded for them to repost it this year.

I’d like to publicly thank Sandra Podmore at Spoon Records for getting this posted over at the Mute site.

Enjoy!