RA Poll: Top 50 tracks of 2010

In an album full of stark experiments of varying fidelity, “Maze” stood out on Actress’ Splazsh, a reminder that Darren Cunningham was just as capable of crafting a naked and melodic gem as he was a cloudy and difficult banger. Perhaps what made it even more amazing, though, was his use of 8-bit effects, making them sound like melancholic accents rather than kitschy nostalgia. Cunningham’s ear is like few others in this respect. While he may get grouped in with dubstep because of his age, location and DJing, his productions sounded as unclassifiable as Autechre to these ears in 2010.
– Terry Fonseca

Moodymann’s whistle-stop 2010 tour was a whirlwind. An interview, soul skating outside (and inside) Detroit and Ol’ Dirty Vinyl, yet another dusty masterpiece in his cluttered closet. The title track sounded like it could have fit right in on 2004’s Black Mahogani, stopping, starting, levels dropping in and out haphazardly. With a style that is increasingly being copied around the world, Moodymann proved with “Ol’ Dirty Vinyl” that there’s nothing like the original. Even, or perhaps especially, if you have to clean it to hear it.
– Sam Louis

Leave it to New York-based Jacques Renault to craft one of the year’s biggest disco bombs. The producer has been on a roll of late, both in his solo work and as part of Runaway. In this case, he transformed Midnight Magic’s “Beam Me Up” into an epic ballad, where a punchy piano riff, trumpet and vocals were met, more often not, by a rapturous dance floor. In another standout year for Permanent Vacation, this was almost their most ecstatic moment.
– Matt Unicomb

In a year typified by nostalgia, Discreet Unit’s “Shake Your Body Down” was among the most memorable no-nonsense classically-rooted house tunes of the year. Prime Numbers has often been associated with such sounds, but this was perhaps its perfect distillation. A familiar chord structure. A repeated vocal sample. A solid groove. It’s funny to think that a duo—Tim and Nick Moore—to craft such simplicity. But sometimes you need a voice in the background reminding you that less is more.
– Scott Milsap

When Kassem Mosse’s “578” first came out two years ago, it did so very discretely: on the B-side of a 12-inch for Mikrodisko. Despite being one of his most powerful tracks yet, it met with little response other than some enthusiastic blog posts and purchases from in-the-know DJs. One of those DJs was Omar-S, who liked the tune so much he decided to make a couple remixes of it while traveling through Berlin. Of his two new versions, the “Rude Boy Warm Mix” packs the most punch: Slowed down to a sluggish 111 BPM, those dusty keys get downright sinister.
– Will Lynch

It wasn’t a huge leap from Krautrock pastures to dance floors for Caribou. Nor to imagine Four Tet roadtesting tunes from Swim at his Plastic People residency. What made the album, and standout single “Sun,” so special to the world of electronic music, though, was how easily it revealed those links. Journalists love this sort of stuff, of course. But just look at how many DJs were playing it as well. Great to listen to at home, and playable as well? It’s a trick that few pulled off as well in 2010.
– Terrence Fuller

It would have been impossible for Sam Shepherd to improve on his flawless output of 2009. So he outdid himself by loading all the elements of that entire year’s work—spacey pulses from “For You,” the piano soul of “Love Me Like This,” the intricate programming of “J&W,” Vacuum EP’s Herbie Hancock accents—into a single seven-minute opus. If nothing else, “People’s Potential” stands as testament to Shepherd’s classical skills as an arranger, demonstrating that it’s somehow possible to construct something so spontaneous-sounding from all of the above.
– Christine Kakaire

You could assert that the most striking thing about “Fatherless” is its virulent flute riff. But we’d consider it to be a mere trifle without the mule-like kick drum and bassline underneath it. Ben Westbeech, who for the last few years had been crooning for us to “Get Closer” and “Hang Around” had crafted a bona fide club banger on his debut under the Breach alias. A “universal hit that gets rinsed and thoroughly wringed by every DJ spanning dubstep, funky and everything in between,”  RA’s Andrew Ryce back in September, and it was impossible to say otherwise.
– Ryan Keeling

Kenny Dixon Jr is a master of what some have called “WTF moments.” From “Shades of Jae” to “Dem Young Sconies” all the way through to “Freeki Motherfucker,” he’s got a knack for songs that make you turn to your friends and say “What is this?!” “It’s 2 Late 4 U and Me” is the latest case in point. A loose bricolage of hectic acid, orchestral swells and floppy upright basslines, it’s not the kind of thing just any DJ can pull off. But when executed properly, nothing woos a club like that Rhodes kicking in.
– Will Lynch

Want to hear how Night Slugs sounds different than what came before in the UK bass scene? There was no better example than “Wut,” whose neon synths, half-time tempo and chipmunked vocals all echoed previous trends, but put them together in a new way. Like many of Night Slugs’ best tracks, all you need to do is look at the artwork to understand: The building blocks are ancient, but they’re arranged differently. It’s youth. It’s airhorns. It’s Night Slugs.
– Dan Hartner

“Prodigy” is a word often used to describe 21-year-old James Blake. And “CMYK” is one of the reasons why. You’d be hard-pressed to find a track that epitomized the hyped post-dubstep sound more than Blake’s R&S debut, with its sampled glitch, warm chords and rolling sub bass—all things that would usually be at odds, but in Blake’s hands, combine beautifully for one of the genre’s most pleasing track to date. With a debut album coming early next year, this young producer’s star will only rise from here.
– Matt Unicomb

If there were an award dedicated to the track responsible for closing the most DJ sets in any one year, “Time for Us” would surely take top honors in 2010. Nicolas Jaar’s January 12-inch was a brilliant start to Wolf + Lamb’s campaign, and cemented the young producer’s name as one of dance music’s emerging stars. The track’s sudden drop down to 75 BPM might’ve confused more listeners than it pleased, but in a year when house music seemed slower than ever, that’s exactly why it’s such a defining single.
– Matt Unicomb

Gunnar Wendel’s music can sound a little stand-offish. Either the groove is really weird (“Hi Res”), the tempo is really low (“No Peace No Love No Unity”) or the whole thing suddenly drops off into a surreal ambient piece (Workshop 3). This is by no means a criticism. In fact, it’s precisely these quirks that make Kassem Mosse exceptional. But it does make it all the more satisfying to hear him indulge in a fully fleshed out club track, complete with a thick bassline, a melody (well, kind of) and even a few drum fills.
– Will Lynch

Everyone seemed to have an opinion on which version of The Gathering’s “In My System” was the foremost. Chez Damier, Chris Carrier, I:Cube, Milton Jackson and The Revenge all remixed the track—of which an original was never released—although the version that rang loudest, longest and truest was Jef K’s System Mix. House music may have reverted to groove-based thrills in recent years (and “In My System” had plenty of ’em) but the Frenchman’s remix was all about a single moment: the split second of silence before its bass and drums returned thrillingly to the fore.
– Ryan Keeling

Of all the trends in dance floor house that polarized opinions this year, it was the use of those kinds of vocals that inflamed the most. You know. Trippy, sideways and distorted, suggesting the holes fallen into and the marbles lost at unreasonable hours. Calmly sipping on his sizzurp, Axel Boman out-weirded and out-classed them all by keeping it deceptively simple; although he kept insisting that he woke up with our name on his lips (lips, lips, lips), the swirling, narcotic wisps of melody, tutting hi-hats and splayed out claps beckoned, and we followed him willingly into the opiate fog.
– Christine Kakaire

There’s an endearing moment in our RA Exchange with Chrissy Murderbot, in which he describes Headhunter, AKA Addison Groove, asking him if anyone in the Chicago area was playing his new juke/footwork-inspired track. “Yeeeeaaaah, things are a bit slow here,” says Chrissy. Things weren’t slow, however, across the pond in Europe, as the track caught the ears of dubstep (and beyond) DJs. Slowed down to be compatible with either scene, its manic vocal was the hook and its old-school flashes of electro were what made it truly sing. Who needs Chicago when you have the world playing your tune?
– Sam Louis

If “OAR-003B” suggested that Oni Ayhun had acquiesced to sunny, shimmering dance floor concerns, its follow up smote us lowly beings for being foolish enough to relax in his presence. “OAR 004-A” unfolds like a techno panic attack with shrieking bursts of industrial noise, violent metallic impacts, hissing static and bass frequencies that vibrate to the core of the cerebellum. And that’s all before the voices…you hear the voices, right? “OAR-004A” is for the quickening pulse, the shortening breath and the hair standing on end—reactions that characterize both the darkest of night terrors and the most thrilling experimental innovations.
– Christine Kakaire

01.Art Department Without You Crosstown Rebels]

In a year that seemed to be as much about looking back as it did looking forward, there seemed to be no better tune to take the top spot of RA’s tracks poll than Art Department’s “Without You.” A&R’d by old hand Damian Lazarus. Produced by two Toronto vets Kenny Glasgow and Jonny White. A bassline that hearkened back to.A ketamine-laced vocal. Everything points backward, and nothing in the world of house music sounded more current.