12.28
Well, the year is (almost) over, and it’s time to look back and sum up my favorites of 2009. Definitely another good year for electronic music. I was listening to some essential mixes from 2005/2006 and it’s fascinating to hear just how far trance and house have come since just a few years ago. And that’s not even mentioning the early 2000s and prior to that! That is why EDM is so special – it continues to evolve and change completely, much faster than rap or rock or any other genre. Because there are so many talented producers and DJs out there, keeping up is half the fun. Trust me. I can barely keep up with trance/house releases on a week-to-week basis.
Anyway here’s to another good year of music, LA events, and releases.
Top 10 Tracks of 2009
Definitely hard to choose. There are so many damn tracks and of course my memory will favor the ones that were released most recently. I will also be releasing a mix early next week with some of my favorite 2009 tracks.
My favorite tracks are simply those that I couldn’t turn off or stop replaying. They got into my head and when I heard them live they got even better.
1. Rex Mundi ft. Susana – Nothing At All
2. Purple Haze – Blikzem (loved SVD’s releases this year)
3. Jochen Miller – Brace Yourself
4. Cicada – One Beat Away (Arno Cost remix)
5. Gaia – Tuvan
6. Tiesto ft. Emily Haines – Knock You Out
7. Rafael Frost – Red
8. Above and Beyond – On a Good Day (Daniel Kandi Mix)
9. Lange – Happiness Happening (2009 Mix)
10. Robert Nickson – Circles
Top LA Events of 2009
I missed out on some of the big ones – Monster Massive, Nocturnal, etc. But I made quite a few trips out to the clubs and saw who I wanted to see. Goal is to drag more people out to events in 2010 and make the LA Beat Connection presence felt!
1. Electric Daisy Carnival – This event puts LA on the map in terms of festivals. 2 days of insanity in a row. Stellar lineup. Great setups and lighting. Can’t complain about this one! Favorite sets were Crystal Method and Sander van Doorn. Put them on the mainstage next time!
2. Markus Schulz at Vanguard – saw him right after new years. Thought I wouldn’t be able to do it so soon after TAO but Markus “banged it out”, got everybody dancing, and played an awesome set.
3. Tiesto at the Shrine – great venue, great performance. See my review for more.
Favorite DJ Mixes
1. Markus Schulz’s Toronto compilation – the guy put so much work into it and it shows. It flows beautifully, has great tracks with those signature basslines, and is a very good compilation because it shows that Schulz can be mellow and melodic while throwing down intense live sets.
2. Gareth Emery’s Sound of Garuda – it’s about time this top 10 DJ put out a mix CD. Very well mixed together and has a lot of great tracks. Although many of them have been released, Gareth’s sound is a bit different from a lot of the mainstream trance DJs and he shows it on this CD. He’s going to get only bigger in 2010.
3. Armin van Buuren’s ASOT 2009 (club disc). Armin’s mix compilations are usually pretty disappointing. He doesn’t get too creative; just keeps some ASOT tracks hidden from the radio show and then releases a cd with his favorite producers on there anyway and nothing new. However in this case he really surprised me with some great tracks and great mixing that didn’t feel rushed.
And that’s my top sounds for 2009. As you can see… extremely trance biased. In my world, if you showed up to EDM court and looked at the scales, trance would weigh down one side so much that you would just throw your case out and go on a violent killing spree instead, yelling about the unfairness and injustice of my musical choices.
Hopefully Rob will fix that with his post.
Until then, adios and see you next year!
© 2009, M Silin. All rights reserved.
