Songs of 2013 - Julio Bashmore - Peppermint

This track from Julio Bashmore surfaced in September 2013. It features the vocals of Jessie Ware, who has collaborated with him many times before, probably to the best effect on "Imagine It Was Us". This tune features her weaving her way in and out of the track, with delicate ease.

Julio Bashmore is from Bristol, which is an area that has produced a number of British dance music heroes, most notably Massive Attack, Portishead and Roni Size. The difference with Bashmore to a number of acts is that his style is closer routed to American style house music. It is still unmistakably British though. To me when I hear American influenced house it depends a lot less on the bass element than it's British equivalent. It's definitely a sexy sound and this is emphasised in this track by the fact Jessie Ware's vocals repeats "I'm hot for you, whatcha gonna do" a number of times. I love the bell sounding synth line that is featured prominently in the track too.

Julio Bashmore is scheduled to release his debut album this year after a number of underground hits. He hopefully will enjoy the success of his musical brethren Disclosure. I am looking forward to his new material this year!

Songs of 2013 - M.I.A - Bring The Noize

This year M.I.A released her fourth album "Matangi". It was nearly 2 years ago that the first track from that album, "Bad Girls" was released. Apparently in the intervening period there were disagreement between her and her label. M.I.A said in an interview“[Interscope was] like ’We just built you up as the public enemy No. 1 and now you’re coming out with all this positive stuff.” This was at the beginning of 2013. She went back to "figure out what this meant" and then her album came out in November. So when "Bring The Noize" came out in the summer that felt like the real jump-off for the album.

It is a track which has many of the things M.I.A has done over the years; a bumping beat that sounds energetic & exotic, rapping with a confidence and swagger and a provoking and colourful video. The beat is brilliant because all the energy is concentrated in the drums with vocal samples jumping in every now and then. It was produced by Switch & Surkin.

M.I.A is such an important artist. She stands for something and is a powerful female voice in today's music industry. She may never be an artist who sells lots of records, but I imagine she has and will continue to inspire many up and coming artists around the world.

Songs of 2013 - MKS - Flatline

One of my favourite tracks of 2012 was "Losing You" by Solange Knowles, produced by Dev Hynes (aka Lightspeed Champion or Blood Orange). This track by the act originally known as The Sugababes   is also produced by him. It is a track that despite the lyrics seemingly to be about a relationship breakdown (the chorus begins "Stay gone, darling I won't hang on\ I can feel the flatline that ought to be away") has a really uplifting vibe to it! I think that is partly because it is great to hear the original Sugababes back making music together. Plus the choir sounding"ohh's" that come in at 2:28 always sound cool. The video is great too. It's like there are 3 women re-connecting with each other after being kept apart for reasons none of them know why. Which I guess is what has happened.

Unfortunately the song was not a big hit and only got to number 50 in the UK charts, despite critical acclaim. That's not a good sign. I imagine there is a bit of label money behind them, so MKS would expect to have significant chart success. I hope this happens, but not at the expense of quality music. Hopefully there will be more tunes like "Flatline" that meet with great success and a great album to follow.

Bombay Bicycle Club - Carry Me

As we come to the end of another great year in British music I am going to list my favourite tracks. I think the thread that they all have in common is that I wish I had created something as amazing. And I am going to start with Bombay Bicycle Club's "Carry Me".

My perception of Bombay Bicycle Club was that they were a folk-type act in the vein of Mumford & Sons. Then I heard this track, by luck, when one of those infernal YouTube adverts came up. Luckily it was for this song, which had been released a few days earlier.

That insistent bassline gets you at the start! It's really infectious and is danceable and powerful. And there is a element to the beginning of the track and throughout the song that reminds you of a 90's rave track re-imagined by a band. The parts in the chorus that sound like a trumpet, the high male vocal in the verses, the repeated sung parts "You Carry Me" and the far-away sounding guitar parts all sound triumphant, but with such power behind them. I guess that comes from the drum part with the powerful sound of toms and snares melding together.

Bombay Bicycle Club have a new album called "So Long, See You Tomorrow" which is due out on February 3rd 2014. It's definitely much-anticipated and they released another taster called "It's Alright Now" earlier in December. That's a banger too. But "Carry Me" is easily one of the best tunes I have heard in years!