I didn't really know how else to title this post other than just call it 'Ricardo Villalobos'. Hardly the most elaborate of titles I'm aware, but then then I realised that for someone as illustrious, artistic and modest as Ricardo, there is something so appropriately pure about just using his name, nothing added, to title a post dedicated just to him. Just like his music, less is more.

Ever since his return to fabric was announced a few weeks ago, I have been mulling over the idea of putting together some kind of tribute to him, something we are yet to do for any DJ or producer so far on SOTW. But if there's one person who deserves special acknowledgment more than any it's Ricardo Villalobos. A DJ who delivers legendary sets of epic length and memorable content, a producer who seems able to manipulate the machines he uses in ways nobody else can, and a personality who makes us all smile with his warmth, generosity and charisma. This is why we love him, and with only a week to go before he lights up the lives of the many who will pack out fabric in the early hours and beyond, here is our pick of what we believe is the best of Ricardo Villalobos's own productions.

10. Ricardo Villalobos - What You Say (Is More Than I Can Say)


The first of three to come from Villalobos's seminal album, Alcachofa, and easily one of the LP's signature anthems. Just like all that appeared on Alcachofa, What You Say is ungulfed in all that warm, organic sound that became unique only to that album. Never again would the droning, tripped out vocals appear on any other Villalobos production, and that is perhaps why particularly this track, among all the rest on Alcachofa, have become so cherished and celebrated.

9. Ricardo Villalobos & Jorge Gonzalez - 4 Wheel Drive


Admittedly, this track is taken off Villalobos's fabric 36 mix, but its inclusion for me still feels like the heartbeat of the mix. At only five and half minutes in length it's remarkably short for such a outstanding Villalobos track, but in that short time is an array of glorious percussive elements glued together with typically nonsensical but welcomely trippy vocals from Los Updates' Jorge Gonzalez, creating something peculiar, but irresistibly rhythmic.

8. Ricardo Villalobos - Queen of Bass Mix


The final part of his deeply beautiful three-track 808 The Bassqueen EP, and one that left a lasting impression on me from the very first time my ears were treated to it. It's not the kind of Villalobos you would hear midway through a set, designed to keep people moving, but far more downtempo. You can imagine him using it to end one of his marathon sets at fabric when those left really are running on empty. Apparently he did.

7. Ricardo Villalobos - Lugom-ix


Villalobos's fourth full length album, Salvador, certainly presents the Chilean's most classically 'techno' work to date. The fragile, minimal structures he had become synonymous with were cast aside for muscular, aggressive basslines that we would never see again. The pick of these on Salvador can only by Lugom-ix, which rumbles in a way that these days you find hard to believe came from a musical mind as minimalist-conscious as Villalobos's.

6. Ricardo Villalobos - Minimoonstar


Shackleton's remix may have received more universal acclaim, but the original Minimoonstar for me is still unreachable in terms of creative genius with such restricted musical boundaries. The microscopic intricacy of every flake of percussion and every beat of a drum could rarely construe something so powerfully metric, but such is Villalobos's command of and attention to every single frequency, what is created is something as deliberately moving as it is delicate.

5. Ricardo Villalobos - Electonic Water


The second track to be taken from Villalobos's most recent full-length, Vasco and like Minimoonstar, Electonic Water it's more of the same microscopically meticulous soundscape, with sounds so organic, so abnormal you couldn't possibly mistake it coming from the mind of anyone else. What begins as a skeletal sequence of bass and delicate flecks of percussion gradually builds towards a frighteningly surprising climax of just one single synth, which opens the door to floods of utterly fascinating sonic gesturing.

4. Ricardo Villalobos - Enfants (Chants)


Just because Enfants is potentially no more than just a DJ 'tool' doesn't necessarily rule it out as one of Villalobos's greatest works. There's no bass and the entire 17 minutes is nothing but pianos, the gentle clatter of a kick drum and the endless, repeated infantile chant of "Baba Yaga La Sorcière", sampled from an old Christian Vander track, but its magic is undeniable. There is something so pure, so inspirational about the simplicity of Enfants, which is probably why it has become as iconic as the man who made it.

Ricardo Villalobos - Easy Lee


Arguably Villalobos's most famous track, Easy Lee opened Alcahofa in a style nobody had quite heard before. As RA's Todd Burns so perfectly described the 'dessicated' voice that reverberates throughout, it is just tantalizingly out of reach. After listening to it over and over we feel like we know what is being said, despite in reality being no closer than the first time we ever heard it. It is this dimension of mystery that Villalobos can inject into his music that makes it so addictive, and there's possibly no better example of this than in Easy Lee.

2. Ricardo Villalobos - MDMA


If I was going to be pedantic and a little superior, I would have confused many and correctly titled this track as Bosch by Richard Wolfsdorf, an alias of Villalobos when he produced the track we know today as MDMA (Chris posted about this a little while ago). Whatever you want to call it though, it's one of the most recognizable tracks in the world of techno, and whenever it's played the reception it gets as it thumps and chugs soundsystems all over demonstrates exactly how good it is.

1. Ricardo Villalobos - Dexter


I remember the very first time I heard Dexter. Coming towards the end of Alcachofa, I was already fairly absorbed, but then I was hit with what I would regard as the greatest track I've ever heard, as far as electronic music is concerned. After probably listening to it about 100 times since, I still am not yet bored of hearing it. There are dark, seductive secrets about that bassline that I still seek to discover and it's rare to find a track sealed with so much intrigue and enigma, yet still able to make you move in such a free, limitless manner.

So I promised more music, and less of me waffling on about all my mischief, so I feel now is the time to just unload all the tunes I've been rinsing lately and put them all up for your enjoyment. I would like to think of it as a little gift package, and a thank you to those who have been reading, and hopefully will continue to read SOTW. We are approaching our year 1st birthday soon and so far our humble little blog has gone from strength to strength. Our mission has stayed the same since day 1: to provide our small, focused and intelligent audience with regular updates on the developments in the electronic music scene, from two people who are a little obsessed with it.

I'm sure you'll find something in this selection to fall in love with, some of these tracks go back a month or two but are still all doing the rounds in sets all over the place. Unfortunately, none of them are the track in the video above, which was taken at fabric's birthday weekend last year during Damian Lazarus's Sunday evening set. It took a while to have any idea what the first track was (the second track is Russ Yallop's I Can't Wait), and still nobody can be totally sure, but I'm 90% certain it's called Much Too Much, by Art Department and it will be included in their forthcoming album, due to be released in late April. Why do I think this? Well a couple of good reasons I believe: Firstly, as a DJ, Damian Lazarus certainly doesn't hold back using his label's finest output, which although could come across a little self-indulgent, you can hardly blame him considering the ridiculous success of Crosstown Rebels. It's worth noting he also dropped this when he appeared at Eastern Electrics NYE party. Secondly, listen to the lyrics: "Love you, love you, love you, love you much too much", and on Art Dept's album there is track called Much Too Much. Those clues are enough to convince me, but either way I can't wait much longer for this, another early contender for one of the year's best tracks, whatever it is.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the best of the last while.

Afrilounge - Lux Dementia (Not at all new I'm aware, but it's inclusion in Steve Bug's fabric mix, who I'm seeing tomorrow night, has rekindled my love for this classic)


Cut Copy - Take Me Over (Mylo Remix)


BeatauCue - Behold


Random Factor - Convergence


Benoit & Sergio - Walk & Talk


Geddes & Alex Jones - Tubular (Lauhaus Remix)


Ernesto Ferreyra - Letting Go (Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts Remix)


Jay Haze & Ricardo Villalobos - The Darkest Disco


Agoria feat. Carl Craig - Speechless


Freaks & 012 - Conscious of my Conscience (Dubstramental)


Maya Jane Coles - Play The Game


Frivolous - Back Into The Deep


Steffi feat. Virginia - Yours


Tame Impala - Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind? (Erol Alkan Rework)


dOP & Seuil - Prostitute (Visionquest Remix)

I can honestly say it's been an incredible start to 2011 already, and we have barely scraped the surface yet. This is even more exciting, if slightly precarious as we have just stepped into typically the calendar year's first major month for parties. Last weekend closed February in style for myself over in London with four exceptional parties over the three days.

On Friday, we took a trip to the temporary Old Street warehouse space CitiPost where James Holden kept us captivated until 5am with his genre-spanning CDJ wizardry. It was an almost flawless night- I say almost because I lost my keys, but that trivial point aside, we enjoyed Holden's impeccable skills mixing experimental electronica, fizzing house mutations and delicate divergences into techno, all in the blissfully crude surroundings of a Shoreditch basement, on a fantastic soundsystem.

Saturday was never going to be for the feint-hearted. Bugged Out! returned to XOYO as we returned to Old Street, and Boys Noize was who we were there for. Despite minor publicity and no tickets available through RA, the night sold out weeks in advance, something I fully expected. Chris couldn't make it unfortunately, having felt his wallet a little lighter than desired after an impromptu trip up north to Sankeys, a night I'm sure he'll share all the enviable details after he's recovered from mumps, which he believes he caught while up there. Without counting, it must have been about the sixth or seventh time I've seen Alex now. Disregarding the very first time, when we witnessed arguably my most memorable night to date at Bristol's legendary 300 capacity boat, The Thekla, I've only ever seen him at huge-scale events, like several times at The Coronet or at EXIT. By large, this is because the nature of Boys Noize's music and the size of his fanbase makes only very large venues appropriate for his visit, but XOYO is certainly no converted theatre or 17th century Serbain fortress. I would estimate its capacity to be little more than 500, which is a fraction of many of the crowds Ridha is used to entertaining, but this made the prospect naturally far more exciting, and consequently very, very violent. During a typically explosive two-hour set of classic BN techno/electro/acid (all the fav's such as the opener, Jeffer, Yeah, Lemonade, My Moon My Man and surprisingly his magnificent summer mix of Chemical Bro's Swoon), the dangerously overcrowded basement main room rocked back and forward in waves of techno-induced chaos, leading to some very angry bouncers, plenty of raver-on-raver and raver-bouncer conflict, gallons of sweat and me unsurprisingly losing my wallet in the bedlam.

As thrilling and typically awesome it was, I left XOYO as we made our way to fabric for part 2 of the night rather dejected. I somehow had the mental collection and wisdom to call my bank and cancel all my cards, which turned out to be a somewhat premature move as miraculously moments later XOYO called me to say they had found my wallet. After marching back to get it, we waltzed past the farcically long queue that snaked round the corner of Charterhouse Street with my retrieved fabricfirst card and headed down that famously treacherous stairwell to another uncomfortably packed main room, this time where Marco Carola was about to start is 5-10am set. As if fabric isn't normally filled out with enough annoying ketted-up Italians, Carola's Play It Loud album launch was always going to attract plenty more of his compatriots, as well as what seemed like the rest of London. As we squeezed ourselves onto the floor of Room One and shuffled a little to the monstrous basslines Carola's album promised from this set, we could barely breathe. After checking out Robert Hood over in Room Two and Terry Francis upstairs, we decided to call it a night at the young time of about 7am, as virtually no essential dancing space was vacated and we didn't feel in the mood to be sardines for much longer.

After only a few hours 'sleep', it was time to begin London's Sunday fun and games. Kroenenbourg and Tequila straight off wasn't the classic lazy Sunday brunch with the broadsheets that is often traditional, but is shamefully necessarily when the party begins at 5pm and you get up at 3. The Half Baked crew returned to the East End after a few months out, this time bringing Dan Ghenacia with them for another dark and sweaty close to the weekend for the many still desperately clinging on to it. The party delivered, but Ghenacia was far from his best and several times we were plunged into darkness and silence as power cuts interrupted proceedings. As the clock hit midnight and it was time to leave, a few of us still had a little energy left and jumped in a cab to, of course, fabric, WYS! style. Despite my initial reluctance to go, the few hours we stayed were great fun. Sascha Funke was the main guest, the portion of his set we caught sometime after 3am was deeply satisfying squelchy, acid-tinged minimal. We finally resigned ourselves to the week ahead tired, but gratified by one of the busiest, most eventful weekends in a long time, but it's only gonna get better. Now it's March...

The video featured above is one I deeply cherish. It was the first time I ever witnessed Ricardo Villalobos in all his glory and will be a night I will never forget. If I had to pick one moment from the 12 hour night that stood out most it would be the one I captured above, where in a moment of dream-like idealism, the master slowly mixed out Laurent Garnier's legendary Acid Eiffel and in comes my greatest track of all time, the Chilean's own Dexter. I'll let the video do the rest of the talking, but I decided now was the perfect time to share this as at almost the exact same time as last year, Ricardo is back at fabric on the 12th, as the previous FABRIC WATCH post elaborates on. But that's just the tip of the iceberg:

London is spoiled for choice this weekend with a handful of huge parties taking place all over the city. The unmissable events happening down at fabric this month are discussed in the last FABRIC WATCH post, but away from EC1, Carl Craig, Radio Slave and Paul Woolford headline the massive 20 Year Anniversary bash for Planet E at Ewer Street car park in South London this Saturday with tickets still available. Elsewhere, Move D, Ewan Pearson and Will Soul take over Corsica Studios with Trouble Vision and even Ministry of Sound has grabbed my attention for once, booking two of my favourites, Joris Voorn and Butch. To not be attending any of that would require only the most credible reason, but I feel I've got one- I've chosen Superfreq's 5th Anniversary party 31 floors above Oxford Street at Center Point where Steve Bug headlines the private members bar. Ok, a little more swanky than usual but the prospect of seeing the sunrise over London as we rave to Bug was something I couldn't say no to.

The prognosis for the rest of the month is, dare I say it, epic. Kubicle with Lee Foss et al will be this Sunday's little treat, while next weekend offers possible the weekend of the year. If I was feeling inexcusably crazy then I would check out Claude VonStroke's London visit next Thursday, but I'm seeing him the following night in Bristol at The Blue Mountain, where he's joined by Seth Troxler. Not a bad line-up, usually one to settle a weekend's raving, but back to London the following day, taking Chris and several other Bristolians with me for Mr. Villalobos's well documented visit. To be honest, I've not stopped thinking about that weekend since it was finalized, but can you blame me? The physical and financial restraints of it will be a challenge I'm aware, but if that's my last 'big' weekend of the year, then I'm satisfied. Art Department and Tim Green are in town the next week at a venue yet to be confirmed, but for now March has promised me more than enough.

Check out Resident Advisor for all region's events this month- there are too many for me to pick out but I can assure you there will be plenty of choice, wherever you are. I also plan on posting two features soon of pure music- I'm aware that reading my essays might be a little turgid at times. First, I will post all the tracks I've been listening to religiously over the last few weeks, and there are plenty of sensations I can assure you, and secondly a little feature I'm conjuring up in dedication to an artist we love very much, and the best of his work. Keep an eye out...

I would have to admit my first genuine blunder of 2011 has to be missing Busy P's and DJ Mehdi's London stop-off on their worldwide 'Let The Children Techno' tour. I can't even claim to have a good reason- that night all I ended up doing was drinking a couple of pints on Brick Lane, tending to my royally wasted brother as he sunk v0dka-laced Amstel. I did have plans for something a little more fulfilling, but regardless of that failure it would never have topped an Ed Banger party at XOYO, especially as Cassius were also lined-up alongside P and Mehdi.

I've seen the photos from the night and now I've heard the mix to compliment the tour. Together, I can safely say those two discoveries have condemned me to guilt, regret and even a mild sense of dejection. Ed Banger was in town and I wasn't there. I thought going to Perlon's night at The CAMP Basement on Friday and aimlessly leaving before Zip or Baby Ford were on was bad enough (blame it on the Strongbow this time), but not even trying to see Busy P, DJ Mehdi and Cassius at one of London's most unique and interesting clubs tops the failures so far. Putting that episode aside, it's good to see the Ed Banger crüe struttig their stuff again, after a relatively quiet 2010. The slogan 'Let The Children Techno' is not new, as anyone who is familiar with their CoolCats site will know from one of their original and most classic T-shirt designs, but only now has it become really relavant

While Justice stay frustratingly and mysteriously off-radar and Uffie continues to follow where her album's fanfare takes her, Busy P seems to be shape-shifting into slightly new territory, especially with his own DJing style. Anyone who witnessed him at EXIT last year will have noticed his obvious fondness for dubstep, with Doctor P's Sweet Shop and Flux Pavillion's You've Got To Know opening his set, a surprise for me as I expected nothing but a purely electro session from start to finish. Earlier on in the year, Pedro appeared at Berghain where he warned he would be consciously keeping within the strict realms of techno, so I can't imagine we would have been hearing him drop anything from his own label there. Several of his charts have been noticeably different too, I recall seeing Skream's name somewhere on one of them not so long ago. Does this mark a new era for Ed Banger? One that shifts the label's musical identity from the uber-cool indie/electro/house sound it's associated with to something more underground, less flashy and arguably more serious? Whether I liked the idea or not is another question, but that theory certainly gathered more momentum for me when I heard of the 'Let The Children Techno' project that Busy P and Mehdi had devised. I may have missed their visit to London, but after hearing the mix they have released, I can answer with some degree of relief that their identity hasn't changed, and we can still look forward to all their showy flamboyance, cracking parties, lofty synthlines and not seeing them at fabric on a Saturday. The Ed Banger 'brand' is very much still alive and the gang are not producing, or spinning techno at all.

Why the mix is called 'Let The Children Techno' I don't know, because there really is nothing that resembles classic techno at all. There's no Sven Väth or Carl Craig here, the closest it comes to techno are the entries from Djedjotronic and Zombie Nation, the latter will happily admit his style these days has definitely moved away from the pounding stuff he was turning out 10 years ago, or even two years ago on his excellent Zombielicious album. Interestingly, the mix doesn't feel at all like any of the Ed Rec. volumes despite maintaining the same signature electro sound, but this is most likely down to the diverse range or artists that appear on the mix. While SebastiAn's noise, Mr Oizo's mischief and Breakbot's ease is all there, Riton's One Night Stand is somehow different, as is Brodinski and Tony Senghore's Anagogue which pulses and reverberates, but in a way you wouldn't find from the original Ed Banger messieurs.

Gessafelstein's The Voice is a bit more trippy and pared down, while Skream finds his way on there with his screechy dub cut Boat Party. But despite all these slight divergences, the Ed Banger voice is still shouting at you throughout the mix. It's fun, fresh and dare I say it, cool. Exactly what Medhi and Busy P have been providing us with from the very roots of their origin and why I have so much affection for them. Mehdi's track TragicoMehdi is a glorious, tinkering blend of electro, house and hip-hop, not the kind of thing you expect, or want, to hear in the world's dingiest underground clubs at 8am, but is what we want when hour after hour of mindlessly grooving to minimal is not so appealing either. It's an interesting mix, with an exciting, if entirely predictable cast of artists, but as far as super-cool electro is concerned, Ed Banger are back doing what they do best.

SebastiAn - Enio


Djedjotronic - The Invisible Landscape


Riton - One Night Stand


Let The Children Techno mixed and compiled by Busy P & DJ Mehdi is out now on Ed Banger Records

Berlin-based producer Siriusmo has been on the peripheries of the electronic scene for many years now, charted and supported by heavyweights such as Boys Noize and Modeselektor, and remixing for the likes of Ed Banger's Breakbot, but why then do we know so precious little about him, and why is Mosaik only his first album? This simple answer is that music, remarkably, plays second fiddle in his life, his main love has always been artwork. What makes this so difficult to comprehend is his obvious talent at producing music, with everything he's put out even before his album, like Simple, released on BNR, and his sensual remix of Baby I'm Yours all genuinely excellent productions, certainly not the work of someone with other things on their mind anyway. But maybe this is what gives Siriusmo's music all that billowing freedom and fun that makes it so charming, and his first album is plenty more of the same- free from categorization, free from the will to impress, and free from expectation.

Released on Modeselektor's Monkeytown imprint, you always expect a dizzying array of drums, sub-bass and untidy synthlines, creating the usual hybrid of electro chaos, ravey techno and dirty dubstep. The opening track, Einmal In Der Woche Schreien is far more melodic however, with some sweetly distorted robotic vocals to complement the jagged beat that breaths beneath it. That's as easy as it gets though, and from thereon Mosaik is a 16 track kaleidoscope of bass heavy mutations with seemingly no coherence of any sort holding it all together as an album. This is its greatest success though, and what is so stylistic of someone like Siriusmo. Good Idea and Idiologie are totally carefree and quenching, and undeniably Ed Banger at heart, much like Mr. Flash's Flesh from last year. Nights Off is the album's most cosmopolitan, set-friendly entry, a harmonious blend of sickly synths and a steady, dance-easy bassline puts it on the album's mantle-piece. But while Signal is more classically Monkeytown, with it's aggressive, intense character, my favourite has to be the 12 minute Red Knob, which breaks halfway through into a second part, but the first is where all the fun is. More Ed Banger touches, with pianos, stomping basslines and abrasive synths making it all pretty compelling stuff.

The rest of the album continues in the same fashion, ducking in and out of party-hot electro and filthier, ear-splitting techno/dubstep, the kind of stuff we raved relentlessly to when Modeslektor, Moderat and Siriusmo landed at Motion a few months back. It's a peculiar style, and one that's certainly gaining popularity as we head further into 2011, but if Siriusmo began prioritizing work like his on Mosaik, then he could well find himself one of the leaders of the movement. Not that he cares...

Siriusmo - Signal


Siriusmo - Red Knob


Siriusmo - Einmal In Der Woche Schreien


Mosaik is out soon on Monkeytown Records, availiable on Beatport

First of all, I must correct a mistake I made in the previous Sorry I'm Minimal post, which was some time ago. That post was titled Sorry I'm Minimal 6, but that was a typo, the post actually being only the 5th. That fairly trivial point aside, I can now dig into the real news in the world of minimal techno that has been raising eyebrows of late, and there's no shortage of interesting developments. I've decided to let the next installment of FABRIC WATCH compliment Sorry I'm Minimal 6, what's happening over in Farringdon recently being inextricably linked to the minimal scene.

Starting with the more specifically Minimal news, Italian Marco Carola has released his first album in 9 years, titled Play It Loud. After a handful of EP's released on labels such as Desolat and M-nus, and following his Groove Catcher EP that preceded the album's release and featured 2 remixes from Martin Buttrich, Carola finally provided us with the most extensive repertoire of his work to date. 15 tracks long and including a complete mixed version of the album, there was certainly plenty to scrutinize, but after how much I enjoyed Groove Catcher, I was definitely optimistic. After giving it a good listen, including the mix, I certainly enjoyed Play It Loud, but I couldn't help feeling very similarly to how I felt after listening to Magda's debut album last year. Play It Loud did everything I expected it to do- provide track after track of loopy, lean beats with bags of funk and muscular basslines. All of this I like, and Carola has built his reputation as a top DJ delivering sets with these characteristics in abundance, but as we so often say, what we want from an album is significantly different from what we want on the dancefloor. Any track from Play It Loud will get bodies moving vigorously in a club, no doubt. The incessant drums, hypnotic percussion and well-placed breakdowns, particularly in Light House are the kind of elements in techno that make people dance a lot, but in Play It Loud, that's all I got from start to finish and I wasn't in a club. Making a dance-orientated album in electronic music has always been a difficult task to pull off. If you're the kind of person who wants just a collection of tracks with great rhythm and tasty material to use in your own sets then Carola's album ticks all the boxes. But I want a bit more from a full length, some kind of narrative or depth that goes beyond the simple realms of a bassline and Play It Loud doesn't really have it. But Carola didn't go about trying to create a melodic masterpiece, the clue is in the title, and as a collection of music designed for the club, I would happily groove to anything on Play It Loud.

Marco Carola - Light House


Play It Loud by Marco Carola is available now on Minus on Beatport

If you can remember, the last Sorry I'm Minimal post centered on Ricardo Villalobos's new two track Peculiar/Zuge 3 EP, which had been released on the Chilean's own Sei Es Drum label. At the time we didn't have it, and it was difficult enough just to be able to hear it somewhere, but we did promise to share it when we got our hands on it and as of yesterday, we have it. Both tracks have cropped up in various DJ charts over the last month or two and it's no surprise why. As you would expect from any Villalobos production, the entire work is stripped down to it's barest bones and layered with flushes of crisp, quivering sonics that only he could craft and weave into something so rhythmic. Peculiar is a 20 minute minimal melody, with contributions from Brito, Weidenthaler and Messelis and is beautiful almost beyond description. Remarkably, the lyrics in Peculiar are as important as the punchy, skeletal beat beneath it is. I'm not sure if this is an accapella of someone far more famous than I'm giving them credit for, but lines like "I know that flowers grow from rain, but how can love grow from pain" are not often found in minimal techno, even in music as colourful and cultured as Villalobos's. Quite possibly a very early contender for the best track of 2011, expect to hear Peculiar played a lot, and Zuge 3 with 3 Phase on the B-side will not be ignored, a less emotive groove but more classically Villalobos with all those pared down, demented dynamics that hit all the right places.

Ricardo Villalobos, Brito, Weidenthaler, Messelis - Peculiar


Ricardo Villalobos & 3 Phase - 3 Zuge


FABRIC WATCH...

It's what we've all been waiting for, fabric have finally announced Ricardo Villalobos's first appearance of 2011. In what promises to be a typically epic, seemingly endless and always memorable occasion, the master of minimal will deliver his exclusive-to-fabric set on Saturday March 12th and not finishing any earlier than 11am on Sunday, but if his appearances last year are anything to go by then all bets are off when the last record will be played...

fabric with Ricardo Villalobos, Craig Richards, Shackleton (live), Applebim, Simon Baker, Ralph Lawson, Glimpse, Chaptal, Nina Kraviz, Terry Francis - Saturday 12 March, 11pm-11am, £19/£18, fabric, London

I've always found it remarkable how the appearance of just a single DJ can create such unequaled excitement and sense of genuine celebration, but wherever Ricardo Villalobos plays, this is the standard reception just his name on a flyer causes. This is especially true in London, where his legendary sets only ever take place at fabric, the first club in the UK to book him, and considering the almost necessary nature of his sets to be without any time restrictions, fabric's unique 24 hour license makes it the only club he would consider playing at in the capital. Of course, there are many other reasons why Villalobos probably wouldn't choose to play anywhere else, such as the unrivaled soundsystem he uses in a way no one else seems able to, but I've said it before and I'll say it again, Ricardo Villalobos and fabric are a marriage made in heaven. The guy loves playing there, and let's be honest he is kind of special so to have the official party hours increased for what is technically just another Saturday night on Charterhouse Street isn't all that surprising.

What will be interesting though is to see how plays after his tragic absence at fabric's birthday weekend last year, when Luciano heroically stepped in. I witnessed his two appearances last year and he took very different approaches in each. In March we had the pleasure of mostly old techno and house classics, such as Ron Hardy's Sensation and Laurent Garnier's Acid Eiffel, with some colourful divergences into tech house. In August, when he notoriously started his set at 9:30, the mood was darker, far more trippy and much more like the signature minimal sound we associate with Villalobos's own work. What will be the narrative of his set this time? I won't dare guess, because literally anything is possible with Ricardo Villalobos is at the helm in Room One. Whatever happens, March 12th is one to put in the diary and will undoubtedly be the highlight of the year for me so far. I feel I should warn those who haven't witnessed fabric with Ricardo headlining before that if you're coming just to catch him, do not come early. Although he was was an hour late, his set time last August was 8:30, which came as a shock even for me after we cruised in at 1am. Back in March, I recall the time being around half five when he came on, so in short, expect a late, late night at his mercy. To make things even more mouth watering, I'm fairly sure not only will Craig Richards precede Ricardo's set in Room One with one of his own perfectly engineered episodes of abstract beats, but also close the night back-to-back with the Chilean, which I can assure you is nothing short of spectacular, especially as the shutters open to allow beams of the Sunday morning light flood into the smokey gloom of the still packed and amazingly frenetic Room One. If you're in a reasonable proximity to London on this date and have a vague interest in dance music, it would be a very wise decision to make the effort and experience arguably electronic music's most important and celebrated personalities entertain for an unlimited length of time at the world's best nightclub. He is a twice yearly resident, but that is never frequent enough after you've witnessed his hypnotic grooves for the first time.

It would be easy to forget there will be so much as another soul in the house while Villalobos is billed, but there is certainly plenty on offer for those in for more than just Ricardo. Prior to his command of Room One, current fabric favourite Shackleton will perform one of his acclaimed live sets, while another techno space-stepper, Appleblim will be the first to take to the booth in what promises to be a bassy first part to the night. Over in Room Two, fabric 33's Ralph Lawson will take care of house duties on that aggressive system along with Simon Baker, while Room Three will surely offer some welcome relief to those wanting to escape the densely packed downstairs, with Nina Kraviz and Terry Francis offering plenty to enjoy.

With that rather supreme matter aside, there's plenty more fabric news to bring, especially regarding their line-ups, as the club continues to book the world's finest talent as we delve deeper in 2011. This weekend, Berlin's Tobi Neumann, who played an integral part in making fabric's 11th birthday weekend so special, will line-up in Room One alongside another one of the birthday's alumni, Levon Vincent, and Patrice Baumel live. Room Two will be taken over by Clone Records, with the most notable guests including Alden Tyrell and Gerd, both performing live. Although I may not make it until quite late thanks to a certain Alex Ridha's touchdown at XOYO, the weekend after welcomes Marco Carola for his album launch (see above) in what promises to be a very busy evening, especially as Robert Hood will DJ under his Floorplan guise in Room Two. Kill Em All returns nice and quick on Friday March 4th with a new Jackbeats fabriclive residency in Room One, where the fidget duo will join one of our old favourites Brodinski, and Trouble & Bass head Drop The Lime. Room Two is the Filthy Dukes', with Aeroplane, Shit Robot live and Punks Jump Up. Hot Chip's Joe Goddard will DJ in Room Three. The next day see's Visionquest land at fabric, a night announced some time ago and will surely have London's underground community frothing at the mouth, especially as Seth Troxler and Ben Klock will join Lee Curtiss, Shaun Reeves and Ryan Crosson. Unfortunately I won't be making it, with Steve Bug 34 floors up at Centre Point's Paramount club having a little more persuasive muscle. But rest assured, fabric on that sort of night will be nothing short of spectacular. On March 19th, Ivan Smagghe conveniently returns after I missed him in early January. All the more exciting is that he's accompanied by Michael Mayer, the individual responsible for one of the greatest mixes of all time, Kompakt's Immer 3. With Steffi in Room One also, there's little chance keeping me away that night. Omar-S and Anja Schneider headline the following week, but interestingly I could well be cruising down to EC1 on a Wednesday on March 3oth, where 19 year old enigma Nicholas Jaar will perform live...

All full line-ups with details can be found on fabric's website

Finally, I can happily inform you that the individual responsible for mixing fabric 57 will be French producer and DJ Agoria, who recently released his excellent album Impermanence, featuring that unforgettable Speechless collaboration with Carl Craig. I was also fortunate enough to catch him early in January when he played at fabric and thoroughly enjoyed every minute. I expect high standards then, with plenty of delicate house soul to come from the latest installment.

I had meticulously planned the weekend just gone, with Friday, Saturday and Sunday all promising a particular party to redeem the long, turgid week I had endured. As often is the case though, a pre-packed weekend didn't yield exactly what I expected. The intention for Friday involved Funkyzeit's 1st Birthday with Deniz Kurtel and Jozif at some unannounced warehouse in Aldgate. Unfortunately, I didn't spend the early hours grooving to Wolf + Lamb's finest, ultimately making it no further than the pavement of Brick Lane without a phone or a clue where I or my friends were. Saturday was slightly more productive, at the very least because I retrieved my phone, but also because I made it through the night with some recollection of my whereabouts, which ironically was back on Brick Lane. I had intended to check out the Lo*kee Loves Harry Klein gig at Crucifix Lane, but for certain reasons that became difficult, so a slightly quieter night at The Big Chill was in order.

Sunday went exactly to plan, and thank goodness because WetYourSelf's birthday bash at fabric was one of the most thrilling, if surreal events I've had the pleasure witnessing for some time. Sundays at fabric have been in the hands of the WYS crew for 4 years now, providing those of us desperately clinging on to the weekend with one more dose of extreme hedonism before we retire to the mundane routine of the week. Now in all honesty, I usually retire after the antics of Saturday, which are usually sapping enough if they have followed a well-spent Friday. But with M-nus's Marc Houle headlining, Sunday night in my dressing gown, sipping tea as I aimlessly think about the last 24 hours would have to be postponed. Sure I was physically drained, even though the previous two nights had been far from epic standards, but the prospect of finishing off the week in fabric, in the solitary Room One with one of Richie Hawtin's pupils providing the tunes was one I couldn't turn down. I was aware of WetYourSelf's reputation as fabric's 'polysexual' night, but if there's one thing I've learned from my time immersed in London's underground community it's those dancing around you are no different from yourself. Broadly speaking they are there for very much the same reasons as you and the notion of a 'gay night' is entirely academic with regards to your enjoyment. Sure, if you looked hard enough you could tell the crowd was perhaps slightly more left-field even for fabric's standards, but the majority of those who packed out Room One were just the long-stayers of London's loyal techno followers.

Until around 7am on Monday morning, as suited City workers made their way through Farringdon to begin their week number crunching, the WYS residents, alongside a top-form Houle who couldn't keep away from the decks, even after his 2 hour slot at around 3am, kept a feverishly excited crowd rocking, despite the physical restraints of 3 successive nights of partying which was the case for most in there. The music was phenomenal. Although labeled as the same music policy as Saturday, there was noticeably more electro influences, expertly whipped-up with the underlying minimal narrative of the whole night. Houle began his set with Butch's adrenaline-soaked Quiet Storm', which set the pace perfectly, the omission of bass keeping everyone on their toes before the floor began rumbling away with more regimented, bassy minimal. Around mid-way through his set, Houle's own brilliant Borrowed Gear was undoubtedly the climax of his knotted journey of bass and bleeps, bouncing in with all that M-nus hazy minimalism.

The WYS residents, Cormac and Jacob Husley seamlessly took the ropes after Houle with more demented, skeletal beats as Room One still simmered with the same level of excitement and enthusiasm as when we first entered, right until the end when the those left to their remarkable demise finally had to kiss the weekend good night. Sunday nights in London are unique and fascinating on several levels. There are a handful of underground venues that don't just throw Sunday night parties, but take a considerable amount of care and dedication in making them special, rather than just a noisy bass-pool for the sleep deprived. WetYourSelf had a far more intimate, friendly ambiance than your average Saturday night at fabric. Sure, with only the one room open intimacy would always be enhanced to some extent, but the jovial, carnival-like flavour of the night owed more to the crowd than just to the small size of the dancefloor. Sunday night revelers all share the desire to just have fun and a limitless passion for music and the glory of underground culture. It is this what gives Sunday nights all over London, but specifically WetYourSelf, such a lovable identity. I could may well make a habit of this, especially considering I have Mondays off...

Part 4 of our 2010 review brings you arguably the most anticipated of all our features so far: our top 25 tracks. Similarly to our remixes feature, many of those in this list picked themselves, but others caused considerable debate and disagreement between me and Chris. After plenty of acquiescence and negotiation, we settled on something we both are very happy with, each track thoroughly deserving to be in there for reasons we will again do our best to describe. It's worth mentioning as a more general reflection that 2010 was once again a magnificent year on the production side of electronic music. In all honesty we were spoiled for choice picking just 25 as it could easily of been 50, but those we selected represent the very best of 2010 in house, techno and electro. I'm sure there are massive tracks we've missed out, but we thought long and hard about the tracks we simply loved personally- not what everyone else loved, or what DJ's, critics and other personalities loved, just us. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, Sweat On The Walls' top 25 tracks of 2010...

25. Kebacid - Jack The Potato


A surging, squelching, sizzling electro classic from Kebacid, who kicked off our year with vintage rave material. We loved Jack The Potato for its undeniably aggressive confidence. Ruthless bassline, layer upon layer of filthy synths, and that lovably random vocal that cues the most chaotic moments throughout the track.

24. Boy 8-Bit - The Keep


You would have struggled to avoid Boy 8-Bit's blistering hit The Keep at any electro night in 2010. Why? Because it was a simply irresistible track for DJ's to use in their set. Bubbling and bouncing with unrelenting intensity from start to finish, it was the perfect peak-time choice and it never failed to get me and Chris feverishly soaking up that instantly recognizable build-up and devastating bassline.

23. Kaiserdisco - Aguja


Kaiserdisco was one of 2010's most consistent producers without doubt. I can't think of one record the German laid down last year that didn't get my attention, but by far the most gripping of all was Aguja, and many others agreed. A simply dazzling tech house adventure, with all the frolic, tribal, percussive morsels you could ever wish for, it sent dancefloors into wild frenzies wherever it was dropped.

22. Round Table Knights - Calypso


Calypso just appeared out of nowhere around late Spring, and its huge reception was entirely understandable. The Round Table Knights didn't re-invent the wheel with the concept of having their tech-house bassline laced with steel drums, it had been done before, but it felt incredibly new and organic. What perhaps was different about it was that those Caribbean touches were the main body of the track, delivering the bulk of its rhythmic qualities, instead of just being a quirky decoration. It worked perfectly, and was one of those genuine stand-out tracks of the year that everyone loved.

21. Santos - Matinée


Fabric, 10.30am, Ricardo Villalobos has been spinning for just an hour in a crowded Room One and is gradually mixing in a psychedelic house piece, drenched in delicate house notes that climb and climb with just as much character and mystery as the guy who is playing it. All of a sudden there is a breakdown after around six minutes of patient building and nothing but slightly distorted white noise screeches from above. Then it all comes crashing down and those pianos blissfully change in tone and pile on top of deeply seductive drums. The track I eventually discovered was Matinée, by Latin-American producer Santos, and I have been a fan ever since. Maybe it's just the associations I make with it being played by Ricardo Villalobos, but it's a delightfully trippy cut, with bags of dance potential but earthy enough to be strictly for only the most prepared dancefloors.

20. Congorock - Babylon


Right on the fence between underground electro filth and mainstream dancefloor bomb, Congorock revolutionized so many dancefloors during the summer of 2010 with Babylon. Another one of EXIT's favoured tunes, played by Busy P, DJ Mehdi and Crookers, it became an instant favourite among all club revelers who couldn't get enough of all those volatile squeeks, tears and slams.

19. Tim Green - Old Sunshine


Tim Green was arguably one of 2010's major players thanks to two tracks; his classic remix of Cassius's 1999, which came in at 15th in our top 25 remixes, and his very own Old Sunshine which lit up dancefloors all around the world over the summer. From London to Ibiza, from Buenos Aires to Berlin it was a natural selection for all DJ's with any interest in tech house. A superbly groovy, summery bassline and fluid doses of teasing vocals made us all go mad for it and as we begin 2011 it now carries nostalgic qualities of the 2010 vintage clubbing season.

18. Carte Blanche - Gare Du Nord


Production-wise, 2010 was a relatively quiet year for Ed Banger. There was only one album released, that being the grossly belated Sex Dreams & Denim Jeans from Uffie, and just a handful of EP's as the key figures of the label focused on various side projects. But without doubt the greatest success for the Parisian clan was Carte Blanche's Black Billionaires EP that landed around late spring. The project that consisted of Ed Banger's own DJ Mehdi and the very British Riton seeked to promote a cleaner approach to House music than the distorted signature style of Ed Banger, but ironically the star piece on their debut EP, Gare Du Nord is soaked in enough ear-ringing distortion to make Justice slightly envious, but that was all for the good. Sure it was noisy and abrasive, but it still felt fresh, not just another Ed Banger outing of unrefined electronic mishchief and it soon found itself as something of an icon among sets of that kind.

17. Pleasurekraft - Tarantula


UK tech house newcomers Pleasurekraft demonstrated the perfect way to plant your flag in the tough EDM soil in 2010 with their instantly recognizable hit, Tarantula. To call it an important track last year would be a gross understatement, it was adored by DJ's and fans alike for it's deeply sexy beat, but what made us all really fall in love with Tarantula was that notoriously mesmerizing vocal hook that doesn't emerge until around half way. We don't know quite what it is, that vocal always frustratingly out of touch, but we know it made 2010 a much more interesting year, especially when you knew what to expect.

16. SebastiAn - Threnody


Controversy is never usually an issue in our ever-loving bubble of electronic music. There are no irritating, narcissistic lyrics from gaudy, untalented wannabes, no abysmal music videos and the artists themselves are all relatively low key by nature (Seth Troxler an exception, Jay Haze maybe another). But if there's one artist and a record label so many just love to hate, it's SebastiAn and Ed Banger, and fortunately for us, that's just how SebastiAn likes it. It's this constant criticism and general misunderstanding towards the entire Ed Banger style that inspires him to produce even more controversial music, seeing how far he can push his critics before they top themselves with disgust it seems. We like to think we understand SebastiAn, and as a loyal follower of both him and Ed Banger for years now, I can safely say 2010's Threnody is arguably the most outrageous of all to come from Paris, but that is exactly why it lit up our lives last year. The concept wasn't exactly ingenious; have a 12 minute build up of nothing but rising white noise, followed by a drop less than two minutes long that bared close resemblance to the effects of Hiroshima, but it was stylistically brilliant. That drop, although so short, is both impudent and immensely satisfying, encapsulating in little over 90 seconds what SebastiAn is all about. Serious technical analysis of Threnody will yield little more than a few lines describing the two crude components of the track, and without looking at any reviews out there I can see 1/5 scrawled in every corner, but for us it was everything we expected and wanted from an artist who to be honest, has never disappointed us.

15. Lee Jones - Yoyo


There's no questioning Lee Jones's influential role in shaping house and techno last year. Not only did he join the established list of artists selected by Berlin's Watergate to mix one of the club's CD's, he also invented Yoyo, which twisted us, tripped us and kept us grooving with monumental ease whenever one of many DJ's weaved it into their sets last year. An absorbing 10 minute house cut, with delicate flakes of percussion and that signature looped horn sample, it left a lasting impression on us from the very first time we heard it, and for us was a stentorian mark of what was coming out of Berlin last year.

14. Kavinsky - Nightcall


Going all the way back to the chilly depths of last year's late winter, Kavinsky had just released his third EP Nightcall. This was cause for considerable excitement for us as we were, and still are, genuine fans of Kavinsky. Although not signed to Ed Banger, the affiliations are inextricable, with the Paris record label one of the main hype-machines prior to the EP's launch, and there's it's no surprise to us why Busy P et al were so firmly behind it. Nightcall, the head track of four on the EP (including superb remixes from Breakbot and Dustin N'Guyen), was a striking divergence from the style we anticipated from Kavinsky. That notoriously visceral arcade-game/cheesy '80's action movie aesthetic was abandoned for something far less satirical, this time using bewitching vocals and a patiently surging house beat. But the old Kavinsky was remained entirely visible, regardless of the slightly more mature brush-up, and his eccentric taste for those retro synths and 'zombie driver' sub-plot to all his music only made us love Nightcall even more.

13. Booka Shade - Regenerate


Booka Shade took 2010 by storm with their sensational live performances, but having a track like Regenerate behind them made failure very unlikely, regardless of how striking their live set-up was. An exquisite composition of ghostly, hair-raising vocal samples, layered perfectly over a bassline scattered with flakes of intelligent, delicate sounds and a devastating mid-way crescendo not only created something marvelously ravey, but undeniably moving.

12. Storm Queen - Look Right Through (Vox)


It may have come late on, but Storm Queen's Look Right Through was an anthem that soundtracked plenty of parties for the last couple of months of 2010, and will surely be doing the same for a while to come. Sexy and svelte with such a groovy, disco-house bassline, it was the perfect peak-time record for dancefloor revelers needing that little lift we all know of...

11. Tensnake - Coma Cat


Whether you hear music submerged in an East London warehouse or on radio in your car, you would have struggled not to hear Coma Cat last year. Tensnake's breakthrough track, it was the perfect amalgamation of tech house wizardry and disco delight, lighting up dancefloors everywhere but also tweaking the eardrums of those not actively involved in the underground scene. This isn't always a desirable transition, but in Coma Cat's case, it made it all the more charming.

10. Simian Mobile Disco - Aspic


Simian Mobile Disco's failed attempt at vocal electro-pop with their second album Temporary Pleasures was well documented by us and many others, and the pair's Delicatessen venture last year almost appeared like a direct response to the criticism, which worrying for them came predominantly from their genuine fans. The concept: make a record label called 'Delicacies', hold a club night called 'Delicatessen' and a bunch of tracks that musically represent exactly what the gastronomic equivalent does- unique, often unpleasant flavours only for the most acquired palates. What a way to restore your fans faith and desires, and in Aspic, their first of a series of 'Delicacies' released throughout the year, we were introduced for real what SMD had up their sleeve- uncompromising, unforgiving and for many, simply unpleasant techno. Of course, we lapped up every dirty morsel...

9. Lee Burridge & Mathew Dekay - Wongel


Simplicity so often proves to be the most wonderfully vivid, expressive and effective formula for electronic music production, and nobody demonstrated that better last year than Lee Burridge and Mathew Dekay with Wongel, which they pretty much swept the floor with when it emerged. At over 10 minutes long, it was never going to be a quick, breathless cut, but there is seldom more than just a drum beat to the entire record, and this was its beauty. That drum beat with its constant, buoyant order of bass, snare, kick is just so moreish. But to say that literally is what the entire track is built upon wouldn't be strictly true. Gradually, and patiently, it morphs itself towards a brilliant and slightly wacky bassless break of cow-bells, which after teasing for a minute or two are suddenly immersed back into a pool of thumping drums once again, and that simplicity is laid out in its full glory.

8. Jozif - Beats In Space


Jozif, now an established London-based producer, will forever look at 2010 as his breakthrough year, as a lot of others will do. Much in the same way as Maya Jane Coles with her huge deep-house hit What They Say, Jozif's vinyl-only Beats In Space, released on his newly found label Fist of Finger with Craig Richards, was the track that turned heads and planted his flag on the underground map. Brimming with various twisted little samples, it treads heavily and slowly before breaking down into a deep, hollow fissure. It is here where the deranged magic of Beats In Space is conjured, gently shifting towards a devastating bassline that continues with all that wonderful, organic originality that the first half of the record kept us on our toes with.

7. Boys Noize - Yeah


Another year and another wonderful 12 months for Alexander Ridha. Following the release of his second full album Power the year previously, 2010 was a year of just having fun it seemed, with no album but a handful of hugely successful EP's, plenty of highly sought after remixes and dozens of explosive DJ sets all over the world. He was arguably the main catalyst for the rebirth of acid we witnessed, one of the most notable electronic music trends, but ironically his best production was far more classically electro house. Yeah began blowing the roofs off nightclubs and the eardrums of ravers around May when Ridha first began slipping it in his sets. Despite being typically brutal in style, it was uplifting and refreshing, pieced together perfectly with a careful balance of hammering basslines and that epic vocal hook, which made it impossible to ignore. Ridha's production skills remain second to none, and in Yeah he delivered something every dancefloor wants.

6. Maya Jane Coles - What They Say


We have 2010 to thank for the emergence of Maya Jane Coles, who has firmly established herself as one of the UK's most exciting underground producers. Already with a string of excellent EP's under her belt, she's well on her way to passing the protigé stage and will almost certainly be one of clubland's most desirable names in the near future. Where did it all start? With What They Say. MJC carved something so gorgeous, so elegant and so deep that we instantly fell in love with her, and before we knew it, What They Say had become one of the years signature hits.

5. Boys Noize & Erol Alkan - Lemonade


Another flawless maximal collaboration from two of electro's most influential and important players. After their acclaimed Waves/Death Suite EP in 2009, it seemed only a matter of when, not if, Alex Ridha and Erol Alkan would join forces once again, and they returned in blistering style with Lemonade/Avalanche around Easter time. In all honesty, either track on the EP could have seamlessly slipped in at the lofty heights of number 5, both genuine masterpieces, but there was something irresistible about Lemonade. It was at the memorable Decked Out 10th Anniversary Party all the way back in February where I first tasted Lemonade. At the time, its identity was unknown, and as so often is the case, those who heard it engaged in chaotic speculation in trying to pin down what the hell it was. How could we track down that fizzing, thumping, incredible banger? I had heard whispers, but nothing concrete, but then Erol Alkan told me, sort of. At a Friday night gig at the Thekla, Bristol, soon after Decked Out!, he dropped it again. Being right at the front, as usual, I explicitly gestured 'what the hell is this tune?', and he kindly took the CD it came from, broke it in two and threw it on the stage. I grabbed a piece, and managed to make out the word 'Lemonade' scrawled on it, and then I knew. From then on, Erol and many others are still playing it, evoking the same frenzied reception as when we first heard it.

4. MMM - Nous Sommes MMM


'We Are MMM'. What a brilliant name for a record that could be described in no other way than the techno A-bomb of 2010. My first experience of it came in fabric, monitored by no other than Ricardo Villalobos who stitched it into his epic 6 hour set of all things house and techno. The effect it had on us in that smokey, bassy, Room One was incredible, but the way MMM constructed the record made such a reaction inevitable for any dancefloor in any club. Ravey, noisy and drenched in adrenaline, the entire track is almost like one big build-up, endlessly rising and teasing with thunderous bass seeping in and out at unpredictable moments. It's difficult to pin down when there is a climax. There seems to be so many, but there quite possibly could be none at all. It was this totally new approach to a synth-heavy techno that made us addicted to Nous Sommes, and is probably why it will continue to be dropped to the same devastating effects for many years to come.

3. Butch - No Worries (Re-Cut)


Butch's 're-cut' version of No Worries couldn't have delighted DJ's and dancefloors much more last year. This was hardly a surprise though, considering Butch's history making of making uncomplicated, floor-friendly tech house. His full length album Eyes Wide Open continued to illustrate what he's all about, a portfolio of yet more rich, throbbing beats and percussion, the exact formula that made No Worries such a memorable hit everywhere. That thumping pulse, those crafty little breakdowns and that incomprehensible vocal sample, flirting from the off is what made No Worries so enjoyable. Again, far from a elaborate concept, but Butch knows just how to get bodies moving, so much that I would suggest it's impossible not to dance to something like No Worries, and a record number of DJ's agreed when they allowed it to spill from their monitors last year.

2. Art Department - Without You


As far as labels go, 2010 belonged to Crosstown Rebels. Damian Lazarus's unique brand of tech-house was an unstoppable force all year, with everything coming from the London-based label irresistibly good. Top of the pile though was Art Department, another one of the year's major breakthrough acts, who provided us with one of the finest examples of a house anthem for a long time. Without You didn't just sound good, it made us feel good. A bassline so deep, so groovy, it went beyond the simple realms of aural stimulation, it got under your skin, gripping you with every sluggish thump and trippy bleep. On top of all that, there was the effortlessly hazy chorus that got us all chanting through bleary eyes and slowly waving arms, "I just caaaaan't...."

1. Breakbot - Baby I'm Yours


Despite the general lack of activity, all the side-projects, the speculation (and often disappointment), Ed Banger still managed to leave their mark on 2010, a mark we believe was the most significant. If Busy P only has his signing of Breakbot to show for last year, then he can rest assured that it was a major victory. Thibaut Berland if anything rescued Ed Banger from widespread disillusion with Baby I'm Yours. Forgetting the loyal stalwarts (i.e, like myself), for many, Ed Banger was still just an uber-cool, party-mad bunch of posturing Parisians, with a reputation propped-up only really by Justice and Mr. Oizo. Their signature, buzzsaw electro sound began to grate for many, but then along came Breakbot who injected elegance, freshness and a whole new aura of modesty to the whole Ed Banger phenomenon. Languid, quiet and bearing an uncanny resemblance to a certain Sebastien Tellier, we liked Breakbot straight away, and his music was just as distinctive and charming as his physical demeanor. Forget any coarse synths, stomping bass or of those wacky idiosyncrasies that have shaped Ed Banger's identity, Baby I'm Yours was an exquisite blend of retro disco and feel-good house, with lyrics. Actual lyrics, courtesy of Irfane who sings as impudently as you would expect on a reality show final, but makes the record oh so memorable. The future of Ed Banger? We're not sure, but we couldn't think of a track that had more of an impact on us last year.

I couldn't think of a better way to welcome back Now We Rave and its eleventh installment, as always bringing you the very best filthy, abrasive, synth-heavy electro sounds of now. I'm also going to use this as an opportunity to discuss the events of last night, which involved me, Chris and most importantly our old friend Erol Alkan at Kill Em All in fabric, in what was a classic rave of pure maximal electro/techno pleasure on Chris's birthday, to make things a bit more of an occasion.

Despite my roots in electronic music owing a lot to the noisy, savage electro from the likes of Justice, Boys Noize and SebastiAn, I would be kidding myself if I said I went to many events with this sort of flavour anymore. It's not that my love for the style has at all diminished , in fact my passion for good electro productions remains as strong as ever, but the intense nature of the style makes it difficult to keep going back for more, which is perhaps why I now see electro nights as something of a treat. While my doses of more minimal beats is ten for a penny these days, being reunited with the old electro kings such as Erol, is something I can never contain my excitement for. Maybe it's just nostalgia, and the associations I make with the sound and the DJ's I first really fell in love with, but whatever the reasons are, a good old-school electro rave is simply unbeatable, as the Filthy Dukes proved once again last night at fabric with their Kill Em All residency.

Very rarely do I step foot inside fabric on Friday nights anymore. This is not just down to the style of music pushed by the club on Fridays, but also because of the awful crowd that gather there too, who I blame entirely for the theft of my iPhone when I reluctantly agreed to go with friends from university sometime towards the end of last year. It does baffle me that for a club I couldn't possibly love any more on Saturdays, I actually genuinely dislike it on Fridays. There is one exception to this though, and I thank Tim Lawton and Olly Dixon of The Filthy Dukes who since they began their quarterly residency at fabric have provided me with at least one Friday every now and again I can fully trust to give me a top quality electro fix.

So far they have not once disappointed, with the two events last year I attended being nothing short of complete successes. Guests such as Four Tet, James Holden, Gold Panda, Floating Points, Carte Blanche, Jamaica and Brodinski among many others made sure that all angles of the indie-electronic spectrum were covered, while the Dukes themselves ensured their sets remained consistently fresh and exciting. It was in their Room One set last Autumn that I was first introduced to one of the year's biggest hits, Tensnake's sensational Coma Cat. For their first event of 2011, as they did at almost the identical time last year, the duo enlisted Erol Alkan to headline, with Paul Chambers in Room One, while over in Room Two, Hey Today! and Shadow Dancer were the pick of the bunch.

By the time we arrived at fabric, our childish excitement got the better of us at first as we were embarrassingly refused entry for apparently being 'too drunk'. Co-operating wholeheartedly with the fear of not getting in at all, we returned soon after, as suggested by the door staff and made our way to Room 1 where Erol was soon at the helm once again. Now I can't say I can recall much in any great detail, by this time I was well and truly in the rave spirit, but I remember Erol laying down a typically magnificent two hour set of classic, top-quality electro with plenty of his own acclaimed productions with Boys Noize used. Having lived in London for the best part of 4 months now, if there's one thing I can be sure of it's that Erol Alkan is one of this city's most celebrated and respected DJ's and events with his name in are almost always sold out. If fabric was not at its capacity during his set then it wasn't far off as a densely packed Room One leaped about wildly to all the devastating bombs Erol had up his sleeve. It didn't take long for him to unleash his recent edit of 2009's Death Suite he created with Boys Noize, something we confidently anticipated after recently (and technically prematurely) acquiring Boys Noize's new Super Acid Compilation. The edit is arguably the star track, giving far more dance potential to the original with a more solid, regimented beat and it was obvious to me and Chris that Erol would be desperate to road test it on Room One's soundsystem. When he did, it received a predictably raucous reception, the edit proving to be one of the night's special moments. Other highlights included the compulsory Pacha On Acid that never fails to reek havoc, and both Lemonade and Avalanche, two of last years greatest releases from Erol and Alex.

It was an unforgivably maximal affair that epitomized the thrilling nature of when Kill Em All arrives at EC1. After bouncing around feverishly to every explosive drop in Room One for a duration I'm unsure of, we made our way to the rumbling smoky chasm of Room Two where German duo Hey Today! were delivering a searing session of more merciless electro-techno. The experience was essentially a blur, but I recall genuine euphoria and a frenzy of embraced arms and bodies with my companions when we sensed Boys Noize's Yeah gradually sizzling in from those gargantuan Martin Audios. This was followed immediately by Hey Today's own bleepy electro cut Talk To Me which elicited poor attempts of trying to recite the elementary lyrics from me and Chris. We finished off what had been nothing short of splendidly hazy night back in Room One where resident Stopmakingme kept things moving right until lights-up with more fantastic synth-heavy beats. One tune that made a lasting impression on me, due to the instantly recognizable Twin Peaks sample used, I soon discovered was an obscure little number called Stop by an artist called Dekker. I knew it definitely wasn't Moby's rave classic Go that I was aware used a TP sample, but I made it my mission to find out what it was and thanks to the Filthy Dukes' willing assistance I managed to track it down. Unfortunately it's unreleased as of yet, but enjoy this magnificent production on Dekker's myspace page.

As way made our way out at what I believe was a time close to 7am, I felt undeniably shattered yet remarkably energized. I forgot why I loved the brutal sound of electro and why I was hardened electro-kid not too long ago, but this night reminded me exactly why. Maybe this is why it's such a treat these days.

MUSIC Please...?


As I mentioned earlier in this post, Boys Noize has just released his Super Acid compilation- a collection of the finest and rudest acid techno he and his friends have been destroying dancefloors of late. You would have had to have been hiding somewhere pretty remote to not have noticed the burgeoning trend for the acid sound last year, and Boys Noize has certainly not hidden his passion for this classic style with several of his productions and pretty much all of his sets last year littered with that notorious squelch. His tribute compilation is a perfect collection of ravey acid cuts from the likes of Jan Driver, Brodinski, Feadz and Erol Alkan, who's also aforementioned edit of Death Suite is arguably the show-stealer of the compilation. We have it, but its official release date isn't until next Monday, so until then we'll leave just a couple of tracks to whet your acid appetite...

Joakim & Krikor - Azid


Erol Alkan & Boys Noize - Death Suite (Erol Alkan Edit)


Super Acid compiled by Boys Noize is out on 31.01 on BNR - available on Beatport

Keeping things BNR focused, Shadow Dancer has just released his new 5 track EP Murder Room. The title track is a typically sharp, ruthless electro outing, with plenty of top-quality rave credentials, but we like the far more disco-themed Parallax which is sure to get hands in the air. Available now on Beatport.

Shadow Dancer - Murder Room


Here's a few more bludgeoning bombs that have been incessantly irritating my neighbours and frying my ears of late. All three have interesting stories behind them: Falcon Punch comes from The Japanese Popstars latest EP titled Controlling Your Allegiance and is yet another demonstration of the Irish act's proficiency in producing savage yet often quite interesting work. If you haven't already been exposed to the hype surrounding the release of David Lynch's new two track EP Good Day Today / I know then it's worth checking what all the fuss is about, especially as Alex Ridha (yes, him again) among several others has remixed Good Day Today. And finally Jori Hulkkonen's dub mix of Villa Nah's All The Days is another gem from Turbo Recordings.

The Japanese Popstars - Falcon Punch


David Lynch - Good Day Today (Boys Noize Remix)


Villa Nah - All the Days (Jori Hulkkonen Dub Mix)