FaltyDL - Straight and Arrow (Four Tet Remix)

Fucking awesome.
FaltyDL - Straight and Arrow (Four Tet remix)

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

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

C.9ine - Wonder

See this now - See U Later...

8-Hour House Party Mix (via my year of mixtapes)

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.

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

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..."

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.

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.