2008 in music

Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

How many fantastic records does a band have to put out to receive the acclaim they deserve? In Elbow's case, the answer is four, over a timespan of 18 (eightteen!) years. With their latest album they finally won the Mercury Prize. It's quite hard to believe that these guys aren't as big as Coldplay by now. Highlights of the album are The Bones Of You, Audience With The Pope (lyrics) and The Fix. Check this out if you haven't already - next to Doves, this might be the most underestimated British band.

Portishead - Third

Trip-hop. They must hate that term now, but it's what most reviewers would use to describe Portishead. It's a shame their greatest hit was the collaboration with Massive Attack (Teardrop). At the first listen, you'll fall in love with Beth Gibbons' voice. At the second listen, you'll be hammered numb with the distortion-packed on-repeat beats from the single Machine Gun (a big inspiration for my Massive Attack remix). At the third listen, they will take you down in the Pink Floydian Threads. She's always so unsure. I wonder why.

Justice - A Cross The Universe

An inevitable live registration of the live sets they gave with the (impressive) big-glowing-cross-and-shitload-of-amplifiers-and-effect-racks-setup. Sure, it is easy to sample We Are Your Friends (the remix that opened the doors for them) throughout the set, mixing it over all possible genres and letting the crowd beg for every word, but it works. It's not as fluent as the Daft Punk Alive mix (see last year), but it's got more volume and crowd interaction in it. Highlights are the Phantom 1.5 version (3:12), which has new synths mixed into it, Waters of Nazareth, which sounds even more brutal live, and a divine rendition of Stress (now with added police sirens).

The DVD documentary was OK, I loved the polarity betwoon the gospel-loving christian bus driver and the foul-mouthed gun-wielding tour manager. It disturbs me however, how far off the hook our new heroes of electro are. Xavier tries to light a girl on fire. Gaspard is in a perpetually drunk state. There's blood and guns and arrests. Rock and roll ? Maybe. More police sirens, I say.

Mr. Oizo - Lambs Anger

Arretez de vous reproduire. Vous etes des animaux.Vous allez crever. The moustached electro-hero and his yellow friend Flat Eric are back. Highlights: Positif, Cut Dick, Gay Dentists and Bruce Willis Is Dead. Just look at those song titles. Wait, here's another one: Nazis. That's right. Nazis. Listen to it.


Cat Power - Jukebox

Her equally brilliant album The Greatest had to grow on me, but now it passes weekly. I wasn't used to listening to this kind of music. Dim the lights, light the fire and fire up the volume, this is as deep into the dark teatime of the soul as you can get. Highlights of this cover album is where she renders a Sinatra classic (New York, New York) bluesy and pays tribute to Billie Holiday (Don't Explain). And a personal favorite for sleepless nights: Hate.

The National - The Virginia EP

After discovering The National with their most acclaimed album (Boxer) last year, I've spent this year digging into their back catalogue for more. They released a b-sides album this year, bundled with a documentary by Vincent Moon (A skin, A night, see blogpost here). Highlights are the demo of a song called Rest Of Years (mix it down with proper strings and the woman's voice up front, and you've got yourself a song), the Neil Young cover Mansion on the Hill and a staggering live performance of About Today. After watching the documentary the second time, I've got to admit that it's a bit too arty-farty and depressing, though.

Headphone - Ghostwriter

A Belgian band I discovered this summer. They had two hit singles Ghostwriter and She Is Electric. The critics often dub this band Radioheadphone, because of the similarities. Although I wouldn't mind being compared to the greatest band ever (whoops !), these guys deserve to be cut some slack. Notable is the single Ghostwriter - danceable? - and the very touching outro Film, which features some sensual French text I still have to decypher!

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Yes, I've given in to the hip kids in town. Because this album stands for a new hype I've been following this year: remixes and mashups - main source: Hypem. It's stunning how many quality remixes and original versions of song surface the net every minute. This is how I discovered MGMT (which I often confuse with MSTRKRFT - what's with the capitalisation ... you're reading DNT PNC right now!). Album highlights are Kids, Electric Feel and Weekend Wars. That last one is single material, MGMT. I'm talking to you. Quality remixes are the Justice version of Electric Feel - which doesn't touch the original tempo, and the Soulwax remix of Kids, although that last one made quite a lazy impression on me.

Eels - Meet The Eels

Recommended by a lot of friends, I finally got around to discovering Mr. E's music. Combine this with his Eels with Strings, Live At Town Hall album and you've got an afternoon of good music. Highlights of the album are Dirty Girl and an awesome cover version of Get Ur Freak On.


Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night

There are times when I can't bring myself to start listening to another indie-guitar-formation. Weak moments. Highlights of the album are dark opener Closer and the single Sex On Fire. Make sure to check out Lykke Li's cover version of Knocked Up too, it's on a b-side.



Soulwax - Most Of The Remixes / Part Of The Weekend Never Dies

Once again, it's been a great year for Soulwax. Still touring all over the world, remixing the big players (Rolling Stones) and producing for friends (Tiga, Das Pop). The Most Of The Remixes is a double-disc edition which contains the remixes they did on the first disc and all of them mixed together on the second disc, which was a bit unnecessary in my opinion. Dancefloor material: Gossip - Standing In The Way of Control and Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow (the synths!). Special mention goes to Dj Shadow - Six Days, which brought me in contact with Dj Shadow's back catalogue. Cheers!

Part Of The Weekend Never Dies is a fast-paced (don't watch this if you can't stand strobing effects) documentary about Soulwax / 2ManyDJ's on the road. It's very entertaining, with tons of good music and interesting interviews. They're not afraid to show the crappy sides of living in a tour bus for god knows how many months, either. Extra's also include a live registration of Soulwax - Nite Versions, seamlessly mixed between different venues (audio/video wise). Highlights of the album are the live rendition of E-Talking and Washing Up, the bit where Altern8 - Frequency kicks in. Rave never dies?

Runner's Up

Albums that didn't make it into the top list, but are still more than worth checking out.

• Tricky - Knowle West Boy: Except from the bombshell Veronika and the beautiful Cross To Bear, this album contains for too mediocre tracks to stand out. Unnecessary and irritating Kylie Minogue cover (Slow) on top.
• Lykke Li - Youth Novel: This album still has to grow on me. A warm recommendation, especially if you like Feist.
• The Last Shadow Puppets - Age Of The Understatement: Strong singles (Standing Next To Me and My Mistakes were made for you), but I can't get the hang of the beautifully orchestrated, yet bombastic fifties arrangements.
  
• Verve Remixed Volume 4: Not the best volume in the series, but a step forward from Vol. 3. Highlights are the Kenny Dope remix of There Was A Time by James Brown, and the pilooski take on Nina Simone's Taking Care Of Business. Huge dissapointment was the Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark remix of the classic I get a kick out of you. They added nothing but vinyl crack. 'Vintage', my buttocks.
  
• Muse - HAARP: Very convincing live album, but no Plug in Baby ? No Agitated ? Nevertheless, the live version of Take A Bow is breath-taking.
• dEUs - Vantage Point: The Architect ! Eternal Woman!
  
• Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple: Run! Blind Mary!
  

Disappointments:

• Coldplay - Viva La Vida: Rather good single, but we've heard the rest of this album before.
• Monkey - A Journey To The West: Remember me stating that everything Damon Albarn touches turns into gold? I was wrong. This oriental music gets on my nerves quickly.
• Thievery Corporation - Radio Retaliation: A letdown by the Corporation. It's been a bad year. La Femme Parallel and Sweet Tides remind us of the good days, but the rest of the album is unmemorable.
• Moby - Last Night: Strong singles (Alice and Disco Lies), but rather uninspired ambient/electro/pop leftovers fill up the rest of the album.
  

Summermuxtape !

Since the excellent muxtape.com was taken down by the RIAA yesterday, I thought it was a good time to post some of my favorite summer tunes:

• Tricky - Veronika
  Probably the best track on his newest album, which is worth listening too. It's a return to his trip-hop roots, and I can't help but wondering what Massive Attack would sound like if he was still in it.
  
  
• Cat Power - Hate
  It took a while before I could sit through the latest Cat Power album (The Greatest). The cover art belongs in the deepest bowels of hell, and at a first listen, all the songs sound pretty much the same. How wrong I was, and I stand corrected.
  
  
• Gnarls Barkley - Blind Mary
  It's okay, Cee-Lo. I love Blind Mary too. God forbid you should release this as a single, instead of the mediocre Run.
  
  
• Portishead - Threads
  Although not really a kick-back, hats-off summer song by definition, it surely is a powerful end track. I think. I'm always so unsure.
  
  
• Wilco - Impossible Germany
  You think the melody is nice, wait until the guitar solo at the end.
  
  
• Beirut - Napoleon on the Bellerophon
  Lights out.
  

Unfinished Robbery

Hoping to see them this wednesday at the Lokerse Feesten (update: I missed them, bummer !), I thought this was the right time to release a remix I've been wrestling with during the last months. Danny The Dog (international title: Unleashed) was a mediocre thriller by Luc Besson (Taxi, The Fifth Element, ...), but the soundtrack was composed by Massive Attack. For me, the title track really stood out.

I tried to add a subtle dubby feel to it, by overlooping the beats two or three times (it's random), much like Portishead did in its recent single, Machine Gun. I also played around a lot with the echo/cutoff on the parts without drums.

I overlooped the piano synths by accident, but never corrected my mistake because I thought it sounded quite nice. There's clipping and misplaced frames all over the place, including the odd vinyl crack here and there.

Download

I'll probably never finish this, so I'd better get it out the door. Most of the reverb/pitch effects and rough cutting were done using Audacity, with some additional drumkit programming in Hydrogen and strings generation by the ZynAddSubFX Synthesizer. Those are all free, open source applications.

Voxel Trouble

Some interesting bits up at Google Code : it's my second Radiohead-related post this week, I know. For the recording of the House of Cards video clip they did not use any camera's. Yes, that's right. Instead, they used specialised hardware that can register 3D geometry at a very fast rate, and manipulated the information - not only in post-capture processing, though. You can see in the making-of video how they distort the 3D measurements by using reflective surfaces or water.

From a free-software point of view, this project is pretty interesting too: by using the Processing programming language and the data sets (a singing Thom Yorke and a lot of captured architecture) people can remix the video. It's no straightforward task, but if only I had the time, I'd give it a try ...

Big ideas

The song nude by Radiohead performed on old hardware. Several doses of awesome.


Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

A Skin, A Night

I bought the slightly brilliant documentary A Skin, A Night by Vincent Moon last week. It's about The National, a Brooklyn-based rock band which have been making their way to the spotlights slowly in the last few years. Their latest album, Boxer, got some great media coverage in Europe last spring.

Moon didn't shoot a rockumentary: it's a - quite depressing at times - sober montage on the subject of the band members and the recording of the album. A lot of the songs have multi-layered sequences with a lot of instruments, and it's wonderful to see how it all comes together.

Also, the photography is quite odd: instead of using the standard interview and overview shots, we often look at scenes from a fly-on-the-couch perspective, the band members often not even noticing that the tape is rolling. There's also a lot of zooming in to small details, like eyebrows, mouth twitches and ... well, legs.

The DVD came with The Virginia EP, but with it's length of nearly an hour, it's fair to call it an album. Sure, it's a collection of live registrations, b-sides and demo's, but other artists would give a kidney to come even close to these gems. Make sure to check out the Rest of Years demo and the live version of About Today.

Which brings me to another project of Mr. Moon: Concerts a Emporter.

The idea is simple: follow a known (or less known) artist for a couple of hours (I'd like to know how exactly he tackles that part), which often results in a spontaneous street performance or very intimate versions of songs, all at unusual locations. Some of the highlights: The Arcade Fire performs Neon Bible in an elevator , Beirut performs Nantes in the streets of Paris, and once again, The National plays Ada on a mountain top.

Beats it

Since I moved my audio mixer to my student room in Leuven, mixing attempts have become more frequent. I'm not a professional DJ, I just like to recycle the tunes I love in a new way. Recording and after-editing was done using Audacity.

Any help at identifying that unknown Tiga track would be great :)



Playlist

• 0:00 : Simian Mobile Disco - It's The Beat (from the album Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release)
  
• 0.00 : Faithless - God is a DJ (Rollo Live dub from an Athens 2004 bootleg)
• 1.40 : Kraftwerk - Radioactivity (from the album Minimum, Maximum)
• 3.20 : Moby - .257 (from the album Last Night)
• 5.48 : Junior Senior - Shake Your Coconuts (DFA Remix)
• 8.20 : Hot Chip - Over and Over (taken from the 2 Many DJ's Essential Mix)
• 11.42 : Tiga - Unknown track (taken from Live set)
• 11.42 : Soulwax - Another Excuse / NY Lipps (from the album Any Minute Now - Nite Versions)
• 15.13 : The Chemical Brothers - Do It Again / Electronic Battle Weapon 9 (from a We Are The Night b-side)
• 18.40 : Daft Punk - Around the World - (from the album Homework)

Update: this mix was posted on the Tempo Music Deal website, a Belgian mixing contest. Go here to listen, vote and win me that car.

Plain Talking

I will go to hell for this. Especially for the over-use of the vocoder / beatslicer. Whoops ! Most of the effects were done in Audacity with the help of the ZynAddSubFX software synthesizer. Both are freely available open-source products.



Elements you might recognize:

• (vocals / synth) Moby - Lift Me Up (from the album Hotel)
• (bass) Trentemöller - Into The Trees (Serenneti Part 3) (from the album The Last Resort)
• (bass) Justice- Let There Be Light (from the album Cross)
• (weird double kicks near the end) The Chemical Brothers - Electronic Battle Weapon 9 (from a We are the Night b-side)
  

Smashing Mashups

If there's one thing that can drive traditional music lovers crazy, it's mashups. Take the vocals from song A, the bass-line from song B and that funky synth sound from track C, and put them together so it sounds like something new. Blasphemy, you say ? I don't think so.

I recently discovered The Kleptones. They are a Brighton-based DJ collective who mixes rock/R&B instrumentals with rap and hip-hop bits. The albums get released online for free, as "promotional material", because the samples obviously weren't cleared. Be sure to check out their conceptual album 24 hours (which is indeed, a two disc soundscape) and the registration of their show at the Bestival in 2007. A comprehensive list of samples used can be found on Wikipedia.

Tracks to check:

• War of Confusion (Genesis, Edwin Starr and Bush samples)
• Underground Hand (The White Stripes, Nine Inch Nails, Primal Scream, Tori Amos)
• Cymbalicker (Aphex Twin, Bon Jovi)

Another good place to look for recent mashups and remixes is The Hype Machine, which is a tracker of music blogs and creates charts for popular tracks. Lots of free music up for the grabs there !

The city had nothing to lose

I'd like to share some of my favorite free (and legal) music I found on the web.

Nathan Wiley is a pop/folk musician and singer from the great Canada, which over the past five years has released 3 albums on an indie label. His most recent album was released last year and has received numerous of Canadian awards already. Some of his tracks are free for download at his website. Recommendations are the title track The City Destroyed Me and a great song from his first album, Renegade.

I discovered Isabelle Antena through a Thievery Corporation remix release (Versions, 2006), on which her song Nothing to Lose got the standard thievery touch: dubbed up with a great vocal mixdown. The tracks which are available at her website vary from pop to lounge, in French and English. Recommendations are Les Poissons des Mers du Sud and Melodie.

On a lighter note, my lengthy previous post seems to have hit the right buttons at Epic.

Know your classics

If your father is like mine, and thus tried desperately to talk some sense into you when it comes to music, preferably by playing records. You know what I'm talking about. I vividly remember afternoons in the living room, playing around with those funny vinyl covers containing big pictures of men with moustaches, and listening to music that 'would never die'.









Well, eventually some of it did, and I might have turned out a mixed blessing. I know every song in the Beatles catalogue by hard, whilst still enjoying the other sides of the musical spectrum - pounding, pounding techno music. You tried, dad, you tried, but Kraftwerk might have been a mistake.

Then again, any of the following would drive him nuts. Please turn away from what I'm about to reveal to you now:

Hippocamp is a collection of electronic artists which are all working in a different field, ranging from classic to dubstep over techno and home again. As an experiment, they sometimes recontextualize classic albums, in this case: Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys, containing the hits God Only Knows and Sloop John B. This album was recorded when Brian Wilson was still a genious. The album was recorded in 1965, using only four track recorders. And now, 40 years later, Hippocamp ruined it.

This has a variety of implementations: stripping a song to its bare minimum and make something new out of it, or seperating the seperate beats, guitar riffs and vocals and do an alternate mix of the song.

Although obviously, the samples used on this release haven't been cleared - and they never will - I warmly recommend giving this a listen. Another HippoCamp project is the ruining of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Fred Viola version of For the Benefit of Mr. Kite is brilliant.

Best albums of 2007

I don't claim to be a music man. Then again, I know what I like. Here are my votes for the best albums of 2007, in no particular order.

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Who on earth ever thought that slightly religious-inspired rock could ever be hip again ? Well, Arcade Fire put the "Jesus Christ, this sounds great !" back into Christianity. The title track, Neon Bible, is only an interlude on the album, but might be the warmest song of the year. There's a version of it performed live in an elevator (!) floating around, it's an essential. Will & the Gang sure know how to weave melodies and structure a song (No Cars Go and The Well and the Lighthouse are recommended). The album feels more consistent, more mature than their debut, Funeral, and although the group seems to have the occasional sound-mixing problems when performing (performing with a dozen of musicians which like to juggle a variety of instruments around during songs really requires an octopus-like creature at the PA system), I can't wait to see them live.

The Good, The Bad & The Queen - The Good, The Bad & The Queen
If Damon Albarn doesn't make it to the best album list, the world is spiraling away into oblivion. Everything this - oh, let's be fair, ego-tripping - artist touches turns into solid gold. (Blur, Two magnificent Gorillaz album). The critics always entitled this group as being "Damon's Super Band", and they make a fair point. Somehow he managed to recruit the legendary The Clash bassist Paul Simonon, world-class guitar player Simon Tong (The Verve, Gorillaz) and afrobeat wonder Tony Allen. Did we mention he hired Danger Mouse (of Grey Album and Gnarls Barkley fame) as the producer ?

And then Damon went all Barn again, and instead of making a straightforward rock-the-roof-off record, he released a haunting fin de sciècle piece of work, with sound scape-driven songs and slight hints of Gorillaz-esque electronic toying around. Everything really seems to revolt around Albarn's voice (he does all the vocals), and it works out wonderfully. Kingdom of Doom - which may sound like a very bad title for a Black Sabbath album - is the crown piece of the album. Damon at the piano launches the song, and it explodes in a lovely refrain. Pay attention to the closing track too, which looses itself into a haunting three minutes of guitar noise.

Radiohead - In Rainbows
The wait was long. And at the moment when fans all around the world were listening to Hail to The Thief for the billionth time, a small post appeared on the Radiohead Scrapbook (it's an artist term for blog). "Hi there, the new album will be out in 10 days". You can't give them much credit for their marketing campaign, simply because they didn't have one. Thom - pinko commie for some, green environmentalist for others - and the band decided to let the audience put a price on the album. For a limited amount of time, you could download the album from Radiohead.com at any price. Yes, cheapskates, that includes 'for free'. For me, it was the best 15 pounds spend this year. Then again, it's all euros here anyway.

The album has a very perfectionist feel to it. For example, it contains Nude, a song which has appeared in a thousand versions for ten years live, but was never recorded in a studio, until now. The opening track (and first single) 15 Step seems to have it's influences in Thom's solo work, The Eraser (2006), but that's about the only one. The other tracks vary from ballad (All I need) to in-your-face-rock (Bodysnatchers), all covered in the genious arrangements that make this band so special. Another good example is Reckoner, which contains a magnificent vocal piece which thrives completely on Thom's voice and Greenwood's guitar play.

People like to compare with previous Radiohead albums, but yet again, you can't really compare it to anything they've done before (and that's a bold statement for a group which might have touched every spectrum of modern music). It sure has less of the electronic plucking we saw on Kid A, less of the depressive feel we all know from Amnesiac, but it most certainly is not a return to the straight-on guitar approach from Pablo Honey or The Bends. Money well spent, and hands-down the best alternative record of the year.

Daft Punk - Alive 2007
If people would ask me what I would have done different in my life, it would be the following: I wish I would have passed my exams in the summer of 2006. Whilst I was working hard to get them right in the second term, all my friends were out to a show they described afterwards as "the best f***ing two hours of their life". As far as I know, my friends lead quite a dull life, but then again, statements like these must mean something. After getting my hands on a bootleg of that evening, I could cry. That year, that dreaded summer which will haunt me to the end of my days, the Robots came to town.

And they sure know how to throw a party. Two hours of non-stop hits from their decade-spanning carriere of ground-breaking electronic music, not just blended together like your average DJ would do on a Sunday, hell no. When the robots play the records, they do it with style. Having access to all the ingredients which make up the killer tracks, they add some spice to the dish by swapping basslines, adding new effects or combining song elements in a way that makes you think that all the songs they ever made were just building up to this Masterplan.

Highlight of the album might be the fantastic blend between Around the World and Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. It was meant to be.

The National - Boxer
One of my personal revelations these year. How could I miss this band for all these years ? A simple collection of brothers and friends from Iowa, USA (farm people, y'all), which make fantastic music. Shame on me that only their third studio album so far has captured my attention. It has the focus on melody/symphony of Arcade Fire, the firm guitar work from Interpol, and a lead vocal which brings up the Joy Division memories.

Although fairly short, the album has enough highlights to make up for its length. Opening track Fake Empire has a great build-up with different tempo switches, and sets up the stage for the rest of the album. First single Mistaken for Strangers is the most accessible song on the album, but most certainly not the best. The gold's in the tail, people. The closing track, Gospel, is a masterpiece. From the lyrics (Invite me to the war, every night of the summer) to the melody, it all just fits. Warmly recommended, give these guys a chance in Europe. We've been through enough poppy trash lately, we could use it.

Feist - The Reminder
Another recent discovery. After hearing her beautiful voice on the latest Kings of Convenience album (she sings a refrain in the closing track), I checked out her work. This Canadian singer - which now is a Paris resident - has the proverbial 'everything'. The looks, the voice and the songwriting talent. Yes, Britney and Christina, I'd rather listen to Leslie Feist for 20 hours straight than paying any attention to you two performing a lapdance in my living room.

Highlights of the album are the Nina Simone cover Sea Lion Woman (a subtle redub of Sea Line Woman) and the striking refrain of The Water. If you're looking for a different angle on discovering Feist, make sure you check out the Boyz Noize remix of My Moon, My Man. It's so hip it has difficulties seeing over its pelvis.

Interpol - Our Love to Admire
Ever since Interpol released Turn on the Bright Lights in 2002, the world fell for its solid guitar work. It's nice to see that they take it into a different direction on this album. Apart from the standard Interpol formula - thriving bassline plus a rock-out refrain (Rest my Chemistry, The Heinrich Manoeuver) - the real gems of this album are the head and tail. In the opening track Pioneer to the Falls, the group displays a genuine interest in soundtrack music (they always list Ennio Morricone as one of their influences), which works out great.

The closing track, The Lighthouse, is another classic example where less is more. Only a simple guitar riff to simulate the rolling waves at the seaside, an organ kicking in later on, and Bank's haunting voice to wrap it up.

Runners-up:

Royksöpp - Royksöpp's Night Out
A low-profile release of these Scandinavians, but it has two very strong points: first, the live version of Sparks, which turns the album version (a slow-dub, trip-hop tune) into a blazing anthem. Second, the Queens of the Stone Age cover of Go With The Flow. Josh Homme probably thinks it's pretty queer, but when you listen to it you just know it fits.

Bloc Party - A Weekend in the city
Although a solid single (The Prayer) and an overall good first part of the album (Uniform, Hunting for Witches), the second part is a big dissapointment. What's with this sweet lyrics and humpty dumpty love song at the end ?

Justice - Cross
People, forget about D.A.N.C.E. It's nice, it has a funny video with arty T-shirts and stuff, but it most certainly is not the best part of this album. Plus, the annoyance level after the fifth listen is considerable. Waters of Nazareth had me thinking about Daft Punk's Rolling and Scratching for the first minute. It's brutal, it's vigilant, it's a song to go out and make old people miserable with. Then again, there's a lack of variety in the next three minutes. These guys have the talent, but the other tracks on the album are far too mediocre to make it into the top list.

Arctic Monkeys - Favorite Worst Nightmare
Aside from the strong end (505 and Old Yellow Bricks), this album, although more mature than their debut, just doesn't convince me as a whole.

Dissapointments:

Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Decay Sustain Release
Although Hustler and It's The Beat are here to stick around, the rest of the album is far too mediocre.

Underworld - Oblivion with Bells
Sorry, Underworld just ain't the brilliant innovators they used to be.

Vitalic - V Live
Terrible audio mixing (the crowd backnoise is way too loud, this sounds like a crappy bootleg) and poor renditions of otherwise powerful songs. Download a Vitalic liveset, cut it into pieces, and you've got yourself a better album.