go make a cup of tea, settle in.
click play a few times.

when you’re done here, check out part 2 for tracks 25 through to 1.

50. Clark – Look Into The Heart Now
honorable mention to tim exile’s marvellously loopy family galaxy… i listened to the clark and tim exile records at about the same time of the year, they complement each other quite nicely. both of them very warp, typically technical and at times “showy” electronica, full of “i bet you don’t know how i did that” VST-bravado. each track has more ’special effects’ than a james cameron film. all in good fun.

49. Dorian Concept – Trilingual Dance Sexperience
paranoid radioactive hypercolor electrojazz that threatens to fall apart at any minute – file alongside zomby “strange fruit” and rustie “zig zag”.

48. The Very Best – Warm Heart Of Africa (Architecture In Helsinki Remix)
want a soulful vaudeville vamp? you got it. handclaps too, of course. gee i can’t wait for the new architecture record.

47. Suckafish P Jones – Caribbean Nightmare Agent (mp3)
globe-trotting voodoo riddim wizard suckafish p jones, originally from brisbane, released one of the strongest australian releases of the year, but you probably haven’t heard about it because it came out via spanish label disboot. its a free EP – download it here. its huuuge.

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46. Marina & The Diamonds – I Am Not A Robot (Penguin Prison remix)
disco-pop production du jour on this remix from NY whiz penguin prison. the sounds on this track are so juicy and enticing – all those little cute synth and percussive guitar accoutrements, yum – that i didn’t realise until probably the twentieth listen how incredibly naff the lyrics are. indeed, as i quickly discovered after a quick search for ‘marina & the diamonds’, the original track is probably best left alone! but this penguin prison guy is a genius – his single a funny thing is particularly amazing – and i’m hanging out for his 2010 album.

45. Passion Pit & Wallpaper. – The Reeling (mp3)
i just couldn’t quite get behind the passion pit thing this year. i just didn’t buy it and i’m not really sure why, because it would seem like the kind of thing i would be into. something about it didn’t hit the spot for me. i loved that one drum fill in “the reeling” though. and even more than that, i loved wallpaper’s afrobeat revision of the track. a wonderful curio.

44. Joakim – Spiders
i’ve been waiting for the next joakim record ever since “monsters & silly songs” and i’m happy to report that its just as loopy, confused and inspired. while there may be no lonely hearts this time around, there’s plenty of tracks like ’spiders’ – psychedelised pop songs whose leisurely arrangements take many many listens to completely reveal their full splendour.

43. Yeasayer – Ambling Alp (Instrumental)
yeasayer’s production nous has come on strong, even stronger than their blindingly awesome debut record. shame you can’t hear any of it in the mix because of the slamming, distracting and ultimately very underwhelming pop vocal. so its a very good thing – and a huge relief – that they put an instrumental version out. only on the instrumental version can you get a true sense for how fascinating and detailed this track actually is. perhaps they’ll consider putting an instrumental version of their whole record out… or just dial the vox back a little?

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42. Subway – Lowlife
“subway II” joins arp’s “in light” and kraftwerk’s “ralf und florian” as my three current favourite albums to get blank to.

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41. Riton + Primary 1 – Who’s There? (Instrumental Mix)
i love basically everything riton touches. there’s a few different versions of this track floating around, all of them rewarding – similar to the yeasayer track (see above) i like the instrumental version the best because i can hear whats going on da mix betterer.

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40. Mayer Hawthorne & The County – Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out
ultimately i was left a little underwhelmed by the mayer hawthorne LP, but it was always going to be hard to live up to this track. so instead of listening to his record i just put this track on repeat for 45 minutes and it does the trick. soul music.

39. Chancha Via Circuito – Prima
argentinian pedro canale (who also records under the alias universildo) released a chancha via circuito LP on zzk records that i very much enjoyed. this track, however, comes from a zzk compilation that also came out this year. i seem to only be dipping my toes into cumbia – thanks almost solely to the efforts/selections of lewis cancut over on the scatterblog – and i’m finding only some of it really sticks with me. its the tracks that i’ve come across via zzk that i find most engaging. when i first heard this song, i couldn’t get over how much it reminded me of jean michel-jarre’s zoolook (mp3) – the resemblence was so startling that i couldn’t resist mixing the two songs together in the emotions mixtape i made this year.

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38. Wave Machines – The Greatest Escape We Ever Made
a remarkable indie pop song with an actually quite complex arrangement but you barely notice because there’s so much space in the mix that it feels like you can take a swim in it. i’m not sure why this band isn’t huge, they are english so its probably simply that they don’t have the right haircuts.

37. Fontan – Early Morning
this is what its like to listen to the fontan record.

36. Kharkov – Crustacean (mp3)
i am becoming of the opinion that young kharkov – aka melbourne’s john bartley – is a genius. he’s leaked out a bunch of different tracks and remixes this year over on his blog – including a frankly stunning remix of my track “silver line” which you can hear here – and he just dropped an amazing mix of organic minimal which can be heard here. there’s a full length coming out in 2010. this track comes from the second of three free compilations released this year by new weird australia showcasing unheard/obscure australian music. the NWA comps have definitely skewed heavily towards what ten years ago would have been called, uh, “leftfield music” – folktronica, “electronica”, glitch, ambient stuff – but even if that brand of electronic music is not your cup of tea you’ll still find something to love on each of their releases. while we’re talking NWA-featured artists, special mention to william gardiner, 48/4 and tom smith.

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35. Junk Culture – West Coast
a great cut-up from illegal art dude junk culture. if you’re not sold on the first couple of minutes, hang in there for the second drop, its a vibe. trust me. for me this track works as a nice companion piece to that gold panda EP that came out this year.

34. Jimi Tenor and Tony Allen – Selfish Gene
anything that tony allen puts his hands near i try and keep track of, and his collaboration this year with slightly wiggy finnish jazz dude jimi tenor was spectacular.

33. Danimals – Christmas Worms Quest for Fresh Apples (mp3)
danimals is probably the most exciting thing i’ve heard emerge from this country in several years. don’t let the quirky vibe fool you – danimals is a rare talent indeed. there’s more going on in this song than in most careers, and the track barely reaches three minutes. complex melodic and harmonic ideas are let loose amongst really thoughtful arrangements, but its all done so effortlessly that you’ll never notice just how much is going on. and its all delivered with this kind of charming, fragile naivety that simply can’t be manufactured. and good god the boy can concoct (not to mention, deliver) some a-fucking-mazing harmonies. i’ve been watching danimals leak tracks out on myspace for what feels like years, but its just now that he’s starting to write the kind of pop songs that will deliver his music to big big audiences. deserving of all the hype you can throw at him and more.

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32. Gui Boratto – Take My Breath Away
i spent much less time this year listening to this kind of music.

31. Super Melody – Nervous Energy (Thrown Back with The Luxury of Strings)
this luxurious slice of production music stepped right out of the studios of an old-school production music master – think janko nilovic, john barry, alain goraguer.. david axelrod maybe.. – and landed at the end of super melody’s debut EP. you’re going to love the super melody record.

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30. Boy 8-Bit – Baltic Pine
i am such a sucker for this kind of thing.

29. Toecutter – Best Party Ever (Flight Facilities Remix)
i had the pleasure of seeing toecutter perform for the first time in newcastle earlier this year. it sounded nothing like this. i have no idea who flight facilities are, but i know who kool and the gang are.

28. Parallel Dance Ensemble – Weight Watchers
a friend turned me on to this gem towards the end of the year. new zealand mc coco solid teams up with copenhagen producer robin hannibal to turn in an EP of no wave disco that recalls the tom tom club and ESG. the only thing better than coco solid’s lazy raps on this track? hannibal’s incredible falsetto! what a heartbreaker. check out the end of the clip for cute dancing.

27. Miike Snow – Animal
an offbeat pop anthem written by the guys who wrote britney spears’ ‘toxic.’ so, yes, i was always going to love this. the whole miike snow record was great too. this is something darren hayes and i can definitely agree on.

26. Boris – Buzz In (Nosaj Thing Remix) (mp3)
something about the nosaj thing record didn’t quite click for me, but i really dug this remix of japanese psych-rock band boris.

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onwards to tracks 25 to 1….