14 Tracks – Best Of 2013: Part One + Part Two + Part Three

Artist: VA
Title Of Album: 14 Tracks – Best Of 2013
Year Of Release: 2013
Label: Boomkat / 14 Tracks – bundle_276 / bundle_277 / bundle_278
Genre: Ambient, Experimental, Bass, Grime, Dubstep, Techno, Electronic
Quality: MP3
Bitrate: 320 kbps
Total Time: 03:48:57
Total Size: 519 mb

Part1

1. EVERGLADE : Area Login
2. D/P/I : Track10
3. FIS : Magister Nunns
4. RASHAD BECKER : Dances III
5. WANDA GROUP : OVERR AREA
6. JOANE SKYLER : Foam
7. MARINA ROSENFELD : I Launch an Attack…
8. DOPPLEREFFEKT : Zygote
9. LOGOS : Cold Mission
10. MORDANT MUSIC :
11. XOPHER DAVIDSON & ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI : Processor, Pt. 5
12. JAY DANIEL : Brainz
13. A MADE UP SOUND : After Hours
14. THE SUN GOD : Being Hieroglyphic

Once again split over four parts, our 2013 round-up commences with 14 unique pieces of electronic music you really need to know about. They range from mind-bending avant-garde systems to rugged house and clinical electro, taking in the cutting edge of UK grime, grid-dissolving Kiwi D&B and styles that haven’t been christened yet. Joane Skyler’s playfully fractal jungle jaunt, ‘Foam’, has provided us no end of fun this year, whilst the advanced structures of Rashad Becker’s ‘Traditional Music Of Notional Species Vol.1’ and the psychoacoustic techniques of Xopher Davidson & Zbigniew Karkowski have triggered the sort of rare sensations we return to over and again. Equally, artists such as Marina Rosenfeld, Wanda Group and Alex Gray’s D/P/I have deeply infected our listening habits with their intra-dimensional probings, and we’ve been very excited about the time-and-space-bending contortions of A Made Up Sound, FIS, Mordant Music and Logos, who’re all taking UK-rooted dance music to stranger, nexx levels. The emergent vapour trails of Everglade’s hyper-clean ‘Area Login’ have given us a tantalising glimpse of possible futures, whilst Dopplereffekt and Jay Daniel have kept that unique Detroit sound burning bright…

Part2

1. ENSEMBLE ECONOMIQUE : We Come Spinning Out Of Control 6:33
2. NEGRA BRANCA : Beira Beira 7:05
3. YONG YONG : Bongo Flex 1:29
4. THE STRANGER : Where Are Our Monsters Now, Where Are Our Friends? 7:13
5. MOON WHEEL : Walpurga 2:43
6. JESSY LANZA : Pull My Hair Back 3:51
7. KATIE GATELY : Last Day 4:09
8. VIRILE GAMES : Firmament 5:51
9. LAURA GROVES : Inky Sea 4:18
10. LUCRECIA DALT : Vitti 5:08
11. KAREN GWYER : Sugar Tots 7:20
12. ROJ : Home Telescope Kit 3:00
13. EGYPTIAN SPORTS NETWORK : Jai Lai Space Jump 5:10
14. CARL CRAIG : Meditation 6 (Version)

The second of our 2013 round-ups intersects all manner of cosmic electronics, avant-pop and lustrous R&B. Rather than a definitive overview of this nebulous spectrum, we’d rather take this opportunity to highlight those pieces that might not end up on every end-of-year list, but rather quietly stood out as unique or affecting and stuck in the memory more than others. We’ve been smitten with Ensemble Economique’s epic, defocussed soft rock number ‘We Come Spinning Out Of Control’ off his amazing ‘Fever Logic’ album, and can’t help but return again and again to the breathtaking electronic denouement of The Stranger’s “Where Are Our Monsters Now, Where Are Our Friends?”. Solo female voices were strongly felt both metaphorically and literally, from Laura Groves’ heart-melting ‘Inky Sea’ to Jessy Lanza’s suggestive, Junior Boys-produced soul bomb, ‘Pull My Hair Back’ thru to the probing use of sound design and technique in Katie Gately’s hyper vivid eponymous debut for Public Information and the canny avant compositions of Lucrecia Dalt. At the further (upper) reaches of lo-fi cosmic imagination, the likes of Gnod’s Marlene Ribeiro aka Negra Branca, and Matt Mondanile (Ducktails) & Spencer Clark’s Egyptian Sports Network channelled beautifully free vibes for our benefit, whilst former Broadcast-er Roj offered a divergent yet equally well-schooled vision of stellar synth musics.

Part3

1. VISIONIST : M 5:42
2. OPTIC NERVE : Time Lapse (Time Displacement Mix) 5:31
3. MUMDANCE & LOGOS : In Reverse P.I.V 6:31
4. MSSINGNO : Xe2 5:28
5. RP BOO : Area 72 4:36
6. THE-DRUM : Sim Stem B 5:18
7. SOPHIE : BIPP 3:44
8. LIL JABBA : Serum 4:16
9. TRAXMAN : Manic 3:14
10. LOTIC : Sankofa 6:24
11. PEVERELIST : Aztec Chant 6:12
12. JOE : Maximum Busy Muscle 6:14
13. GOLDEN TEACHER : Sweat Bath With Saturn 4:47
14. SLACKK : Blue Forest

In 2013 the best dancefloors flexed a spectrum of futuristic, colourful and uniquely syncopated grooves that didn’t pander to the trend for beige tech house. As ever, the dynamos of Chicago and Detroit delivered deadly, advanced ideas, most notably in the kinetic energies of Footwork founder RP Boo on ‘Area 72’ or the twisted flux of Traxman’s ‘Manic’, and Optic Nerve repped the rarest Detroit sound with the breathtaking ‘Time Lapse (Time Displacement Mix)’ by-passing pretty much everyone. Related, but twisting in divergent directions, Lotic and Lil Jabba applied individual signatures with the fibrillating ‘Sankofa’ and body-bending triplets of ‘Serum’. Closer to home, the resurgence and mutation of instrumental grime was a joy to witness, especially in future-shocking anthems such as SOPHIE’s ‘Bipp’ or Mssingno’s ‘Xe2’, whilst Slackk and Visionist owned it with their incisive advances. Likewise the UK’s riddim engine worked like few others, turning out exceptional constructions such as Joe’s ‘Maximum Busy Muscle’ and the Mumdance & Logos epic, ‘In Reverse P.I.V.’, whereas the likes of Bristol’s Livity Sound and Glasgow’s Golden Teacher had forward-looking tribalism on lock, albeit with respectively idiosyncratic results.