Thursday, January 12, 2012

Top 50 Albums of 2011


1. Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise
2. The Weeknd - Thursday / House Of Balloons
3. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
4. Radiohead - The King Of Limbs
5. Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
6. Pursuit Grooves - Frantically Hopeful
7. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
8. LV & Joshua Idehen - Routes
9. Gil Scott-Heron + Jamie xx - We're New Here
10. Little Dragon - Ritual Union

11. Clams Casino - Clams Casino Inst. Mixtape
12. Morphosis - What Have We Learned
13. Modeselektor - Monkeytown
14. SBTRKT - SBTRKT
15. James Blake - James Blake
16. Robag Wruhme - Thora Vukk
17. tUnE-yArDs - W H O K I L L
18. Andy Stott - Passed Me By
19. Bjork - Boiphilia
20. Art Department - The Drawing Board

21. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Rome
22. Machinedrum - Room(s)
23. Zomby - Dedication (+ Nothing EP)
24. King Midas Sound - Without You
25. Hype Williams - One Nation
26. Martyn - Ghost People
27. Battles - Gloss Drop
28. Instra:Mental - Resolution 653
29. Sepalcure - Sepalcure
30. Shlohmo - Bad Vibes

31. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
32. The Roots - Undun
33. Matthew Herbert - One Pig
34. Tyler, The Creator - Goblin
35. Deniz Kurtel - Music Watching Over Me
36. FaltyDL - You Stand Uncertain
37. Eric Lau - Quadrivium
38. Guti - Patio de Juegos
39. Toro Y Moi - Underneath The Pine
40. Drake - Take Care

41. Emika - Emika
42. Kryptic Minds - Can't Sleep
43. Africa HiTech - 93 Million Miles
44. Culoe De Song - Elevation
45. Boxcutter - The Dissolve
46. Saul Williams - Volcanic Sunlight
47. L-Vis 1990 - Neon Dreams
48. Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbauer - Re ECM 1
49. Bombé & Mr. Caribbean - James-Drake Mixtape
50. Washed Out - Within and Without

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Hitting Refresh

DJ Dexterity (that's me) on Hit Refresh, 5 August 2010.

Includes tracks from Soul Clap, Spoek Mathambo, Solomun, Afefe Iku, Trickski, Benoit & Sergio and more...


Watch live streaming video from dontlookdown at livestream.com

Monday, April 4, 2011

Kate's New Cut


Kate Bush releases are increasingly rare, so news of a new one is always welcome - especially after I bought Under The Ivy: The Story of Kate Bush last night and even if Director's Cut is a collection of reworked catalogue songs.

The first song to surface is a reworking of "Deeper Understanding", and whilst it's awash in Autotune, unsurprisingly she uses it rather cleverly to scramble lyrics about finding intimacy with her "friendly computer".

Stream it at Disco Naivete.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Dexterity Hits Refresh

Check out my hour-and-a-half set for Friday (18 Feb) night's edition of the Hit Refresh TV show (on the Vuzu channel, DStv 123).

From future Afro-funk through to deeper (and deadlier) floor fare, the tracklist features C.9ine, Soul Clap, Hercules & Love Affair, Maya Jane Coles, Black Coffee, Jumping Back Slash, T. Williams, Jimpster and many more...

Watch live streaming video from dontlookdown at livestream.com

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Top 50 Tracks of 2010



You've gotta love the end-of-year list - or in this case, a "beginning-of-year" list of last year's most significant singles.

Here are the fifty "songs" (even the "tracks" here are more than just "funk-tional") that lit up my life and sparked my senses in 2010 (my Top 50 albums will be up soon).



1.   Jamie Woon - Night Air
2.   Balam Acab - See Birds (Moon)
3.   Ramadanman - Tempest
4.   The Roots - Radio Daze (ft. Blu, PORN, Dice Raw)
5.   James Blake - CMYK
6.   Tensnake - Coma Cat
7.   Drake - Fireworks (Deadboy Re-Edit)
8.   Nicolas Jaar - A Time For Us
9.   Hackman - More Than Ever
10. Moody - It's 2 Late 4 U And Me


11.  Four Tet - Sing
12.  Erdbeerschnitzel - To An End
13.  Toro Y Moi - Missya
14.  LCD Soundsystem - Get Yrself Clean
15.  Axel Boman - Purple Drank
16.  Joy Orbison - BRKLN CLLN (Michna's Brooklyn Bridge Remix)
17.  FaltyDL - All In The Place
18.  C.9ine - Wonder (See U Later)
19.  Floating Points - People's Potential
20.  Sinden & SBTRKT - Kind of Familiar
21.  Hype Williams - The Throning
22.  OoOOo - Burnout Eyess
23.  Pantha Du Prince - Stick To My Side
24.  Birds & Souls - Birds & Souls
25.  Jam City - Arpjam
26.  Findling & Lihab - Stay Down
27.  Gonjasufi - Ancestors
28.  Kingdom - Seven Chirp
29.  The Groovers - Chicken Noodle (Sad Ghost Remix)
30.  Andre Lodemann - The Light
31.  Mark E - Nobody Else
32.  Jamie xx - Far Nearer
33.  Caribou - Leave House (Motor City Drum Ensemble Remix)
34.  Altered Natives - The Bitch
35.  Pursuit Grooves - Pressure
36.  Gonzales - I Am Europe (Claude VonStroke Take A Trip Mix)
37.  Hot Chip ft. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I Feel Bonnie (Club Version)
38.  Egyptrixx - Drive U Crazy
39.  T.Williams - Anthem
40.  Teengirl Fantasy - Cheaters
41.  TOKiMONSTA - Gamble
42.  Becoming Real - Fast Motion
43.  Pearson Sound - Blanked
44.  Actress - Purrple Splazsh
45.  Jimmy Edgar - Hot Raw Sex (Instra:Mental Mix)
46.  Girl Unit - Wut
47.  Spoek Mathambo - Mshini Wam (Canblaster Remix)
48.  Jumping Back Slash - Kwaai Sneakers
49.  DJ Roc - I Can't Let Go
50.  Harvey presents Locussolus - Gunship


And to borrow a disclaimer from the radical Sonic Router: "This list is not definitive. Tomorrow it would most likely be different..."

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Black, Strong...

I’ve been fortunate enough to chat to a few of the planet's most influential house music practitioners in the past couple of days - Abicah Soul, Quentin Harris, Ralf Gum - and when I ask them about South African music, the first name on every one's lips is Black Coffee...

More on Coffee in my latest (and possibly last, for a while) post for Generation Bass.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Afro Beats From Outer Space

The Pan African Space Station is a fascinating project currently happening in Cape Town. Inspired by Sun Ra’s aphorism, “There are other worlds out there they never told you about,” PASS is “a cross-cultural and cyber-spatial exploration bringing together diverse pan-African sounds, from ancient techno to future roots.”

This year’s programme includes amazing musos like Dr. Philip ‘Malombo’ Tabane, Thandiswa Mazwai and Camerounian drummer Brice Wassy, and a back-to-back DJ master class featuring Theo Parrish and Sowetan cutmaster Mbuso T.

Also emanating into the ethernet as part of the festival is an amazingly eclectic radio stream broadcast from Long Street. Get more info on the Shook site.