The clubs, the producers, the labels…the music
Tune of 2014
There have been a few ‘for every and any occasion’ records this year – Duke Dumont’s ‘I Got You’, Zhu’s ‘Faded’, Clean Bandit’s ‘Rather Be’, Secondcity – ‘I Wanna Feel’, Ten Walls – ‘Walking With Elephants’, Robin Schulz – ‘Waves’, Lillly Wood & The Prick and Robin Schulz ‘Prayer In C’, Hippie Sabotage & Tove Lo – ‘Stay High’…but the hands down winner for me (especially in the ‘still got some underground credibility if you play it now’ stakes) is Patrick Topping’s ‘Forget’ with it’s Armand Van Helden / Professional Widow beats, Danny Tenaglia-esque dark growling synths and 70s pop, girly backing vocals and ‘woohs’. For commercial song of the year, I still like Pharrell’s ‘Happy’ because I think the lyrics are great, loved Despicable Me 2 and even though I sometimes get an adverse intro beats reaction, I still end up dribbling to its aural Pavlovian dinner bell – then singing and dancing along and losing myself in it by the end. It’s my personal theme tune for the year. so if the cap fits as they say
Festival of 2014
The Inox Park Paris festival was a great one dayer – a peak time house / electro rave riot. It was super fun and a great honour to play there. After that, the nearest I got to a festival with portaloos, street food, face painting, Holi paint throwing, cheap or shared drugs and a long walk home from the wrong side of the grounds was via the TV remote control, Youtube, my Twitter, Instagram, FB feeds, my iphone apps and…my friends, nephews and nieces who went to a good portion of them in person. So – living vicariously via their reports the best ones seemed to be Hideout, Parklife, Sonar, Burning Man and Worldwide
DJ of 2014
Best DJ Duo – Groove Armada aced it everywhere I heard them play. Best DJ solo – James Zabiela, Richie Hawtin, Soulclap (singular) and Solomun each played exceptional sets that I enjoyed massively. But can I be a little bit grinchy? From Zoo Project to Hard Rock Hotel to Space to Pacha, Destino, Underground, Amnesia, I had the good fortune to gorge on some great DJ sets this summer, but I also heard some shocking, badly mixed, technically glitched sets from overworked, overtired, unprepared, overpartied DJs who either played the same set across the season from club to club or tried to do something so square peg / round hole, technically challenging that was unlistenable in the space or just didn’t work on the night but they ploughed on regardless. I hope that the guilty culprits will sort that out next year
Producer of 2014
Most prollific – definitely MK – he was everywhere this year – DJing, festivals, Ibiza, production / remix list as long as your arm and collaboration ‘Pleasure State’ with Lee Foss but for crossover hits under his own moniker it has to be Duke Dumont
Rising Star of 2014
Copy Paste Soul – tech house. iLL BLU – house / garridge. Females to watch – Nora En Pure and Hannah Wants
Label of 2014
Black Butter Recordings for the artist / talent diversity. Suara, Diynamic and Hot Creations for consistency
Club of 2014
Having spent my summer as a punter and occasional guest split between Ibiza Rocks for live events then We Love at Space and Ibiza Rocks at Pacha, it would have to be an draw between the three. They all rock hard
Podcast / Radio Show of 2014
My favourite radio show is Gilles Peterson’s ‘Worldwide’ on BBC 6Music
Remix of 2014
My favourite remix of 2014 is Dennis Ferrer’s sublime, deep tech and acid rewiring of London Grammar’s ‘Sights’. The subliminal robot vocal fx-ing in the intro is a kinky treat, whilst Hannah’s searing vocal blended with that lush and slightly viscous bassline makes it a hip thruster par excellence
: DISCLAIMER – these answers could change in 24 hours…
