Oh December, what a month it has been. More music coming my way in every direction, weekends in my diary packed to levels I've never experienced before, and enough end-of-year charts and polls to make any music follower slightly dizzy. But I've done my very best to cope with it all, while of course balancing it all out with some much needed studying and other festive delights.

Of the hundreds of tracks I've acquired over this busy month I can confidently declare some simply fantastic tracks among them. Some of these may not have been necessarily released this month but they have soundtracked it for me personally. The style spectrum is fairly wide, with several less familiar sounds represented, such as SBTRKT's dark and bassy Hide and Seek, as well as a tragically rare Ed Banger inclusion, this time from Feadz and his recently released T.U.F.F EP. As for techno & house, as always there are some magnificent beats in here, worthy of my favourite month of the year.


Delano Smith was one of Room 3's interesting additions at fabric back in November, when Âme took control of things downstairs in Room 1. My brief spell in Room 3 was genuinely very entertaining, coinciding with Smith's set. His ability to mix deep house and techno was obvious for all there that night and to my delight, his productions skills are just as good. Dee's Gruv is an intensely slick deep house affair, simmering with all the underground bass and rhythm you would find in his sets.

Delano Smith - Dee's Gruv


Carl Bee's Crashold is tech house at it's most free and fun. Teeming with so many playful sonics and other percussive flavours, it's guaranteed to get bodies moving wherever it's dropped. It's just a shame I'm yet to hear it out yet.

Carl Bee - Crashold


House music is such a wonderfully open, unrestricted, style of music. This couldn't be better demonstrated in Gregori Klosman's Rendez-vous, a tune that has kept me smiling all throughout this month. Pianos, sunny synths, massive crescendos and a thumping house beat make this a truly stand-out crowd pleaser from this month. It even has a slight Balearic essence to it, which isn't always a bad thing...

Gregori Klosman - Rendez-Vous


Ever since I had the pleasure of experiencing Matthias Tanzmann's incredible debut performance at fabric last month I have been all but obsessed with the German's every movement. Production wise it's been a fairly quiet year for him, but I recently unearthed Slingshot, a dazzling tune of his that is every bit as brilliant as the name suggests. This is Tanzmann doing what he does best, and on this evidence you could be forgiven thinking there are few that do it better than him. Groovy, tribal, percussive tech house, strutting with all that dancefloor worthy wisdom that Tanzmann always invests in his music.

Matthias Tanzmann - Slingshot


Anders Trentemøller has had an enigmatic year. His album, Into The Great Wide Yonder saw him distance himself from the synthetic world of music, something I worried about initially. However, he hasn't completely lost faith in the sonic template. 2010 has seen several productions of his return to the fascinating confines of his cold and sharp brand of minimal techno that we witnessed in his previous album, The Trentemøller Chronicles. Recently I got hold of Sunstroke, a daring, mysterious fusion of minimalism, house and strokes of eerie synths, the Trentemøller I like best.

Trentemøller - Sunstroke

Azari & III have had an excellent year without question. Several of their EP's have been a massive hit with the underground, and having been released on Turbo, it comes as no surprise. Their divine disco house style is so seductive and Reckless For Your Love is arguably their finest production yet. The original is almost unbeatable, but the Manuel Tur remix is a definite challenger.

Azari & III - Reckless With Your Love (Manuel Tur Remix)


There are few words of praise for Dutch Techno prodigy Egbert that I haven't already used. After his hammering techno A-bomb Open comes the far more minimally-inclined Groots Uitpakken. A surging, shadowy turn from his usual brand of massive-room techno. This track illustrates Egbert's ability to veer away from that field and into the tighter underground vortexes of techno.

Egbert - Groots Uitpakken


2010 has been the year of the return of acid. Producers from all ends of the spectrum, in techno, house, electro, even dubstep have all dabbled in a bit of squelch at times and there's a very good reason why: it sounds incredible. The acid bassline in the Alden Tyrell's remix of It's The Music by Murphy Jax fizzes with all that sonic pleasure that the acid synth provides. Craig Richards has used this in his Saturday night sets at fabric to devastating effect.

Murphy Jax feat. Mike Dunn - It's The Music (Alden Tyrell Remix)


Steve Rachmad rarely disappoints with his bassy, tripped-out style of house and once again he flexes his muscles together Ignacio to create the deep, imposing, progressive Virton Upgraded.

Steve Rachmad & Ignacio - Virton Upgraded


Another captivating Tiefschwarz remix, this time of Ruede Hagelstein's Embezzle Me. Tiefschwarz's deep house style is perfectly tuned for these types of remixes, the vocals from Maggy who features on the original elegantly infuse with the layers of sonics and synths melded in by the German duo.

Ruede Hagelstein (feat. Maggy) - Embezzle Me (Tiefschwarz Remix)


The first of two inclusions from Marc Romboy and Stephen Bodzin's recent Drei Monde EP. Gui Boratto's Atlas remix is magnificent at so many levels. It's not prime-time dancefloor material, but that's never been Gui's style. This is the Brazilian at his best; taking the original and making it every bit more satisfying. Whether it's the delicious little synthetic string-hook or the progressive feel to the beat, you'll find something in this remix to like.

Marc Romboy & Stephen Bodzin - Atlas (Gui Boratto Remix)


Joris Voorn's remix of Castillo, the second track taken from Romboy & Bodzin's Drei Monde EP, takes a good few minutes to become seriously good, but that is exactly what it becomes. Of all the tracks posted here, this one I'm undeniably addicted to most. Joris Voorn has shape-shifted the original into a blistering all-out big room house banger. Full of yet more progression (something which seems to be the flavour of the month), crescendos and climaxes, it sends shivers down my spine listening to it. At around 4:20 is the first major drop and it's serious hands-in-the-air stuff. There's nothing remotely minimal, trippy or dark about this, just house music at its party-driven greatest. Hats off to Joris.

Marc Romboy & Stephen Bodzin - Castillo (Joris Voorn Remix)


I was going to do a separate post on Feadz's new EP, T.U.F.F, as I intend to do for all Ed Banger related news, considering it's so rare these days. Unfortunately I didn't get round to it, which is a shame for so many reasons but mostly because it's actually a really good EP. So I thought I would include the best track in the EP in this post, and Boys Noize in on the act you can expect a devilish outing of ear-ringing maximal, although this is more reminiscent of his recent house favourite, Yeah, which is only a good thing of course.

Feadz & Boys Noize - The Ultimate


And finally, SBTRKT's Hide and Seek. Yes, it's bassy but not quite the SBTRKT you might expect after listening to his older work. This is what we saw of at Modeselektion in his set, where he seemed to veer away somewhat from his old space-step style and into a more house-orientated session, while still keeping all that floor-shaking sub-bass.

SBTRKT - Hide & Seek