Music - 2006 was a gooder (if you know where to find it)

Reid's recent post with #1 songs on his birthday showed how bad North American's taste in music is. I couldn't believe some of those songs made it to number one but that is beside the point. I never really understood how a song becomes number one as it is supposed to be a combination of sales and radio play. They still play that shitty Kryptonite song on the radio all of the time, so does that mean it is good?

I figured I should give a recap on what I thought the best albums 2006 were. I don't listen to albums very often as DJ sets and mix tapes are what occupy my headspace the majority of the time but because I listen to music for at least half the day at work and when training, I get a lot of time to review the latest stuff. Also, my share ratio is very good so I get access to all the music I could ever imagine. I have almost filled up my second 300GB hard drive. The drawback of this is that I don't remember what music I have and don't exactly get to listen to all of it. I rarely listen to something more than once unless it gave me goosebumps the first time around.


I could do a whole thing on mix tapes/DJ sets but because most people do not have the resources to aquire these, I'll leave those to myself. I believe I do have an eclectic taste in music but based on the feedback I receive at work for some of the stuff I play, it is not loved by all.

Cy's favorite albums of 2006:

This is in no particular order. Each album is great but it is not like I am going to be listening to down tempo world music when doing an intensity session. Each has its time and place.

Gabriel and Dresden - Self TitledThis suprised me quite a bit because I have listened to probably a dozen of their live sets and thought I had grown out of their trancy vibes. I also thought I had heard all I could hear of vocal electronica. This was a breath of fresh air for electronic music. With standout tracks like Enemy and Tracking Treasure Down, this stayed on my player for a while.



DJ Jazzy Jeff - Hip-Hop Forever III

Again, I have listened to lots of Jazzy Jeff in the past (yes, this is the same Jazz from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire, one of my favorite after school TV shows when growing up) and found that he tends to play similar sets. This is a compilation album and does not have any Jazzy produced work but it is still a gem. I say this because it introduced me to J-Live. J-Live's track on this album "Them That's not" with the way that it plays with the tempo is hip-hop taken to another level.

Trentmoller - The Last ResortYou need to be in a different state of mind for this album. It has big drawn out beats played at low BPM and is pretty experimental house music but it somehow managed to work for me. This artist also won the best Essential Mix of the year for what I thought was a pretty weak two hour mix. After I listened to the mix, I was pretty sceptical about the album; was pleasantly surprised.

John Digweed - Transitions John Digweed, I remember listening to his stuff quite some time ago and have heard him shape the way house music has evolved. He continues to do so with this offering. I don't think this album is widely available as I have never seen it in any stores. I remember riding to work in a record 28 minutes with playing the whole time and I wasn't even going to be late to begin with. Awesome.


Chokalate - Self Titled I have only listened to this album a couple times as I have only had it for a few days but it is already on high on my list for smooth R 'n B type vibes. I don't know too much about this artist as I heard of this album from another best of list.


Hybrid - I Choose NoiseI have been waiting for an album like this for a long time. Hybrid came out with a beautiful track on their Wider Angle EP but since then I have been yearning for more. Hybrid does an amazing job mixing symphonic music with bassy electronica. I love it. This album kind of reminds me of an epic Gladiator type movie soundtrack but edgier.


Quantic - An Announcement to Answer

Trip-hop, oh where have you gone? UNKLE hasn't came out with anything new in a while, Massive Attack is said to have something in the works for the past one million years, DJ Shadow's latest album was a bit dissapointing for me so I was about to give up on this genre until Gilles Peterson introduced me to Quantic. This album is pretty worldly and does a great job overlaying oriental rhythms with arabic stuff and current electronica riffs. Nice work.

Claude Vonstroke - Beware of the BirdCaution, this album is weird. I haven't heard anything like this before. This is some experimental techno housy stuff produced by a gentleman in San Fran. The track "The Whistler" was stuck in my head for weeks.


That is all I can think of right now. I am positive I forgot to mention many others but oh well. Right now I am listening to some dubby stuff from MRK1 called Copyright Laws (kind of ironic)and it is pretty good too. Way too much to choose, which is great. I can't wait to see what 2007 has to offer.