And were done! Time to change into something more comfortable and reflect on the highs and lows of a shock packed The electronic rumors Awards. For those who left in the company of a golden Keytar Axeman life will never be the same again. It’s all gravy from here on it. To those that didn’t; there’s always next year.
Here’s you final chance to soak up some amazing talent who have soundtracked out lives this year. It;s these guys who make everything, literally everything, possible. ‘Nuff respect.
This is, as they say, ‘the big one’! The musical equivalent of the Best Picture Oscar. It’s The electronic rumors Awards’ Best Song of 2014. This genre free list is crammed to bursting point with some of the finest ElectroPop, Disco, SynthWave, House and Electro released this year. Whatever your taste, get involved with these tunes!
This is always the hardest list to compile, the hardest winner to choose. These twenty tracks started our being sixty-three, then forty, and eventually, after much heartbreak, the list you see before you. We’re happy with the way it turned out though. Here it is.
Starcadian one of, if not our favourite producer working right now. His musical concoction of SynthWave, Disco, Boogie and Electro blows us away every time and following his amazing Sunset Blood album of last year, this year he released the Saturdaze EP. The opening track n this release was Ultralove; a majestic and bombastic Power Disco track. An immense tune that whisks you away with it’s retro cinematic intro before dropping some of the toughest Disco and Boogie around.
There are a few artists and band on the short list for Hall Of Fame entries but with the unfortunate event of October with the legend that was Mark Bell sadly passing away, it seemed timely to bump LFO to the top of the list. LFO, originally Mark Bell and Gez Varley, later Bell alone, consistently pushed the boundaries of electronic music whether with their own music, reMixes or production for the likes of Bjork and Depeche Mode. Pioneers and innovators of UK House, Techno, IDM and Electro, LFO need little introduction so instead I’ll here’s what they meant to me.
I’ve made no secret of my love for early 90s Bleep House (which is what we called it at the time, these days I’ve heard people use terms like Yorkshire Bleep ‘N’ Bass or Bleep Techno), I mention it on these pages quite a lot and referred to it as my first, and fondest, dance music love. It all started with LFO. It was early summer 1990. As a kid I has dabbled with various different kinds of music. SynthPop hand-me-downs from my Brother got me started any stayed with me for life. Electro Hip Hop was the first music I was into that was ‘mine’ and I consumed it with a passion. Back them it was hard to separate Hip Hop and House, the few late night underground radio shows that did play one always played the other so my exposure to, and interest in, House music was quietly growing. It was work experience time at school (remember work experience week? Do they still do that?) and I had sneakily arranged for myself to do a weeks work in one of two specialist dance music record shops in Bristol (Tribe Of One on Frogmore Street). The week there was mostly spent smoking and listening to Hip Hop and House (learning great work skills for the future!); and then on Wednesday the new shipment of records came in. LFO’s LFO was amongst them, just released. The record selling part of the shop was in the basement, the upstairs being the only place in Bristol you could get Hip Hop and Club fashion, imported from London and New York, and that morning, whilst walking down the stars I hear this otherworldly Sci-Fi synth riff and a speaker shaking bass. Even now when I hear it I am taken back to that shop in 1990, smells and all. I was enraptured with this sound LFO had produced. Futuristic and menacing, enigmatic yet irresistibly funky, so began my brief love affair with Bleep House. I say ‘brief’ because the scene itself didn’t last very long but it set me on the course that led me to where I am today. The news of Mark Bell’s death earlier this year genuinely saddened me and I’m honoured to be able to bestow our Hall Of Fame award on LFO. It’s pretty meaningless, but it means something to me.
Oh, this’ll be a surprise! The Best Album list is always the one that comes easiest to us. It’s by far our favourite format for music. Delivering a musical narrative, a complete picture of an artists work, it’s more exciting to rave about your favourite LPs, as you would your favorite book or movie, rather than an individual song. You’re talking about 45+ minutes of music rather than 5.
There are some seriously, insanely, good records on this list. Like scarily good. Each one worthy of your attention, each one we could listen to over and over (in fact, we have mostly done just that this year), the top three alone constitute some of the best music released this decade.
However, the number one slot was never in question; and here’s why. You can read our particularly glowing review of Ronika’s Selectadischere, that should tell you all you need to know about just how flipping good this record really is, and how much it means to us; but the real test for Selectadisc is that despite having got our hands on it in December 2013, and it being released in March this year. Now, days away from 2015, we’re still playing it just as much as we were back then. It stood the test of the whole year, and stiff stiff competition, and is still one of our favourite go-to albums. The fact that it came from a British, D.I.Y artist just makes the whole thing mind-blowing.
Here we go with another of our optimistically titled Reader’s Choice awards. We’re going to have to make up new definitions for both the words ‘Reader’ and ‘Choice’ at this rate, every year this list get more and more convoluted to compile.
So as you know there’s no poll, in the beginning this category was a straight ranking of download clicks, but as download hosting moved more consistently to SoundCloud and the like it became a hodge-podge of download clicks, click-throughs and post popularity. There’s no science, and really that’s not important. From the analytics that are available to us (and frankly, that leaves a lot of stuff out of the equation) this is what you guys likes this year.
The top post was a massive surprise, Allie X’s Catch was massive ElectroPop tune to kick off 2014 that, surprisingly for American electronic Pop, didn’t fall into the tedious mediocre ‘EBM’ trap. We had a couple more tunes from Allie before she went quiet for the rest of the year, we wonder what 2015 holds for her.
There were a few contenders for Best Video. Ultimately Chromeo took home the prize simply for being two of the coolest peeps on the planet. The video for Old 45s, one of our favourite tracks on their White Women album, epitomises this.
Directed by Dugan O’Neal, the clip is six minutes of distilled Chromeo. Suave, funny, classy, slightly dreamlike and incredibly retro. With cameos from HAIM and Napoleon Dynamite‘s Jon Heder the video blends narrative, comedy and performance with a stunning, and shockingly expensive, leather jacket from Dave-1. See how cool people are when they don’t take themselves seriously?
So on to the awards! First up is the Best reMix. Once we looked at both the long and short lists for this category it was pretty instantly obvious who would take home the prize. That’s not to say it didn’t have some stiff competition though.
The list ended up being part predictable (which we don’t mean negatively) and part surprising. There more than a few names who are no stranger to The electronic rumors Awards present, which just means they are being consistently awesome, and some new faces. All guaranteed to make you dance.
Taking on The Cure’s Indie-Goth anthem Just Like Heaven was a bold move for London based Parisian DiscoPoppers The Penelopes, but they pulled it off with flair. Who’d have though that Robert Smith would ever sound so Tropical? Upbeat and euphoric, The Penelopes weave a deft tapestry of summery good-time dancefloor goodness that transforms The Cure’s quirk-Pop masterpiece into a glitzy, mirrorballed, Disco floorfiller. Hand claps incoming!
Right about now we’re going to give our yearly shout-out to the most wonderful, talented, and creative artists in the world. The artists who have chosen to release on electronic rumors. Unfortunately for them being on the most cutting edge label in the world mean they aren’t eligible to place in the renowned electronic rumors Awards. Buy, hey, you’ve gotta’ take the rough with the smooth, right?
They year for electronic rumors kicked off with our second release from Box Of Wolves. Let’s Start Again got everyone ready for summer with it’s blissed out grooves and carefree mood. Meloder, AIMES and DeltaFoxx stepped up for reMix duties bringing the Deep House, Tropical Disco and ElectroPop vibes respectively.
♫ Freak You (Feat. Bright Light Bright Light) – There You Are
♫ Freak You (Feat. Bright Light Bright Light) – There You Are (Edwin Van Cleef reMix)
We’d been itching to work with Australia’s Kids At Midnight for ages, and when she was finally ready to make her comeback we were honoured that she chose electronic rumors to be her outlet. The double A-side single of Unashamed and Vapours brought real emotion to a sweet blend of Deep House infused Tropical Disco with Holmes Price, So Serious, Daniel Högberg & Touch Tone supplying a broad range of dancefloor styles with their reMixes.
♫ Kids At Midnight – Vapours
♫ Kids At Midnight – Unashamed (Holmes Price ‘Dad In A Sports Car’ reMix)
Many thanks to everyone involved in electronic rumors’ 2014 releases, the calibre of talent we get to work with continuously both humbles and amazes me
The first few months of 2015 will be a busy time for electronic rumors as we bring you some storming releases and introduce some exciting, fresh new talent to you. Keep it locked!
As always, you should definitely pick up some of this music, it all comes highly recommended and most can be purchased here:
Here we go again! As the room crackles with a nervous energy, palms sweat at the knowledge that careers can be made or broken in the next hour. The single most important music industry even of the year is about to begin and those present know that when the dust has settled, nothing will be the same again.
Ladies, gentlemen and those of a self-determined gender, it’s time for The electronic rumors Awards 2014!
Once again it was an amazing year for albums, despite the continual industry flailing of hands about the death of the format (and Röyksopp waving the LP goodbye!), that provided even more proof that those who infer that dance music doesn’t suit the album format are just wrong (and a little small minded). In fact, despite some stellar single releases, for the second year on a roll long players completely eclipsed individual tracks.
Anyhoo, another year of tough decisions, but we got there in the end. Some placings were obvious, some placings were hotly fought over. But we’ve written them down now so there no going back. As usual we’ve most likely missed something, or many things, but there’s no point you moaning to us about it; partly because there’s no turning back now, mainly because we don’t care what you think.
So just grab a drink from the free bar, sit back, and bask in the excitement.
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