Best of 2009 - Music
- Hotflush Recordings I hadn’t been too into dubstep until I heard a track from Headhunter on the Mary Anne Hobbs show. Mixes from him and labelmate Scuba got some of the heaviest rotation on the iPod this year, with their unique mix of dubstep rhythms and techno atmospherics. Check out their podcast, and especially check out Headhunter’s set for Dub War NYC (mp3) and Scuba’s set for MTV Brazil (mp3).
- Paris DJs - The crew at Paris DJs churn out piles of excellent mixes of funk, afrobeat, reggae, and other tasty niches. Especially recommended are Grant Phabao and DJ Djouls’ 21st Century series.
- Huffduffer - a nifty website where you can index and tag mp3s on the web and create a podcast of stuff that interests you. I haven’t got much tagged but I’ve found a lot of good stuff.
- Hillstomp - I only saw one live show this year, and it was almost by accident. These guys were so good after hearing them warm up (with intentions of bailing out before the show started) I actually stayed for the whole thing and bought a CD at the end. John Johnson’s drum work on old buckets and the washboard was awesomely driving and funky. Go see ‘em.
- Dark Energy - I recently found this podcast on Huffduffer, and DJs Shurikan and Milton Jackson play deep house with the perfect mix of classic deep and modern tech stylings.
- Bodytonic - another Huffduffer discovery. Lots of choice mixes to choose from. I especially recommend The Herbaliser and Soul Clap.
