If the year 2006 was notable for any particular trend in the world of electronic music, it was the continued prevalence of greatest hits compilations from the genre s biggest names. While on the one hand this can certainly be seen as a positive development if you consider that dance music was once considered by many to be a fad that would never produce artists or groups capable of producing a full career s worth of material it still can t help but make a body feel old. I mean, seriously, have Moby and Fatboy Slim really been around for that long?
It doesn t feel like it. Have Massive Attack really graduated from young innovators into the position of elder statesmen, practically an institution unto themselves? Apparently so.
Surprisingly, given his nature as the most pop-friendly of straight-dance artists, Fatboy Slim s hits collection, was perfunctory, ill-sequenced, and contained little in the way of extras or bonus features. Fatboy Slim continues to record interesting music, even if it is consistently more low-key than that released during his popular peak, but Why Try Harder? didn t seem like much in the way of a bid for relevancy.
Ditto for the Prodigy s collection. As with Fatboy Slim, while the actual tracks themselves remained for the most part unimpeachable, the collection itself seemed less a statement than a stopgap (the Prodigy at least deserves props for providing ample bonus material for the longtime fans, which is more than I can say for Fatboy Slim). promised the first-ever comprehensive overview of his prolific recording history, but instead provided a deceptively narrow look at one of the most diverse and important careers in modern music.
Conversely, there were no real flies on Daft Punk s Musique 1993-2005 they even threw (some of) the videos onto a bonus disc. But seriously, Daft Punk have released all of three albums. If you already have Homework and Discovery, well, you don t really need Musique.
The Future Sound of London s was depressing, inasmuch as it pinpointed just how far that once-storied group had fallen since its mid- 90s heyday. It doesn t seem like very long ago that the FSOL was one of the premiere names in electronic music, but a long hiatus that happened to coincide exactly with the genre s high water mark in the late 90s and early 00s diminished its profile, while a disastrous comeback record that brought to mind nothing so much as Syd Barret s acid-casualty outtakes pounded the final nail in the coffin of a once-formidable career. (It is worth noting that the group s absence was prompted by an extended illness by frontman Garry Cobain, so they can hardly be blamed for missing out on the peak years.
) It is almost inevitably that the group will be remembered as little more than a footnote at this point, but Teachings from the Electronic Brain goes a long way towards arguing that they were at least a consistently interesting footnote. Laurent Garnier s plainly-titled delivered where many other retrospectives floundered, offering a compelling look at one of the most underrated careers in modern music. With an output that ranges widely between the worlds of jazz, techno, and downtempo while still remaining firmly rooted in the world of house, Garnier deserves credit for having remained at or near the apex of international club culture for almost the entirety of his almost two-decade career.
2006 also saw the overdue American release of essential listening for anyone interested in the roots of modern dance, and the evolution of disco into house and techno. No less essential, Tommy Boy released The Tommy Boy Story Vol. 1, the first of hopefully many further excavations into their massive vault of hip-hop and dance classics, hearkening back to the days right after the fall of disco when hip-hop and house shared the same rowdy apartment in downtown Brooklyn.
While Tommy Boy has never shied away from repackaging its back catalog, this is essentially the perfect format: the original unedited 12 mixes of classics like Planet Rock and Looking for the Perfect Beat , unmixed and even presented in faux record sleeves. Even if you ve already got most of these records in one format or another (and you probably do), this is the format for the ages. The most satisfying compilation of the year, however, was undoubtedly Massive Attack s .
In just about every way possible, Collected surpassed the competition, both in terms of the quality of music on display and the class with which it was displayed. Not only does Massive Attack have one of the strongest discographies in recent decades, not only is the token new track their best in years, but the deluxe edition even comes with a DualDisc positively stuffed with deceptively essential rarities ("I Against I deserved a spot on the hits disc, dammit) and, almost as an afterthought, every single music video from the group s storied career. (Yes, even that really freaky clip for Teardrop .
) If you buy one career-spanning retrospective this year, make it this one even if you already own everything Massive Attack has ever released, you will not walk away disappointed. Some of the most important records in the history of electronic music were refurbished and rereleased this year if you don t already own a copy of Depeche Mode s , well, you ve no excuse now that has been remastered. While they don t always get as much credit as they should, they are without a doubt one of the top-five most important bands in the history of electronic music, and a significant influence on contemporary rock as well why the fuck aren t these guys in the Hall of Fame already?
I suppose they just had to induct Paul McCartney three times. This year also saw the release of yet another Depeche Mode hits package, The Best of Depeche Mode, this one a single-disc look at the entirety of their career. They may not yet have as many compilations as New Order, but the gap is shrinking.
The Pet Shop Boys saw the release of not only a career-spanning retrospective, in the form of Pop Art, but also their best-received album in years, Fundamental. It s rare for any group still around after the two-decade mark to get such rave reviews for recent material, so I guess Messrs. Tennant and Lowe have to be doing something right.
While certainly less fondly remembered, Heaven 17 are still worth remembering, and if you ve only got the patience for one, check out the Gang of Four-by-way-of-synthesizers agitprop of Penthouse and Pavement. Of a decidedly more recent vintage, the man formerly known as Manitoba, Daniel Snaith, re-released his first two LPs under his new Caribou pseudonym. While his first album remains mostly charming, Up in Flames remains one of the most consistently interesting electronic albums of the current decade, greatly enhanced by a bonus disc full of rarities and remixes.
And while it may not have aged as well as , Brian Eno and David Byrne s other great collaboration, , also saw re-release this year. If you consider yourself an electronic music fan and you don t own this album, well, I don t know what to tell you. Maybe Tiesto has a new CD out.
Two of the best electronic music releases of the year weren t even technically electronic music. Indie stalwarts Tortoise released a comprehensive box set of rarities, remixes, and live cuts, , that deftly navigated the liminal zoned between leftfield electronic music and instrumental post-rock of especial interest were remixes by figures as disparate as Autechre and Steve Albini. may have been ostensibly a Thom Yorke solo album, but the real stars of the show were Nigel Godrich s ice-cold beats and sparse, paranoid instrumentation.
Poised somewhere in the middle ground between Timbaland and Venetian Snares, the result was a uniquely focused solo outing, and certainly a far more concise a statement than Radiohead s Hail to the Thief. Without a doubt, the biggest disappointment of the year for me was Aphex Twin s . If Richard D.
James had just released the entirety of his vinyl-only Analord series on CD, that would have been a milestone recording, assured of a place at or near the top of any list this year. But instead, James chose for whatever reason to compile a selection of tracks from the project 11 tracks culled from 12 12 releases. This is an incomplete statement no matter how you slice it, a slap in the face for those of us who simply can t afford to follow James s whims across a year s worth of hard-to-find 12 records.
Considering how many times in the past James has not balked at releasing massive double albums, it is bizarre that he would acquire a taste for brevity at such a comparatively late date. If I felt like cheating and having a Top Fifteen instead of a Top Ten, it is almost certain that Daedelus would be on it, as well as the Rapture s . The former was an almost-perfect slice of baroque instrumental hip-hop from one of the genre s rising stars, while the latter was a much better record than anyone had any right to expect from a band that by all rights have been an indie-rock one-hit-wonder.
The verve with which the group conjures the frenetic presence of Fear of Music-era Talking Heads is simply uncanny if only every group that purported to blend the worlds of dance and rock did so with as much competence, the world would be a much better place. And although Kid 606 s recent was met with some pretty fierce indifference, I d like to go on record saying that I quite liked it. If I d been in a different mood when I sat down to compose the list, Miguel Depedro s spot-on tribute to the classic rave sound might very well have made it.
So, here s the list. If you don t see your favorite electronic/dance release of the year, well, just assume that I didn t hear it (and not that I didn t like it and chose not to mention it for fear of incurring angry letters). This is by no means a comprehensive list, or even really PopMatters list this is my list, with all the bias that implies.
I don t pretend to have heard everything, but I heard a lot. Hopefully you ll be inspired to check out something you would not otherwise have heard. Keiran Hebden is a mastermind of modern electronic production who records as Four Tet; Steve Reid is one of the most storied jazz percussionists in history, having worked with the likes of Miles Davis, James Brown, and Fela Kuti, in addition to his work as a session drummer during the formative years of Motown.
Perhaps on paper the pairing might seem odd, but in reality this is one of the most inspired team-ups of recent years. Straddling the line between free jazz and dense experimental electronic music, The Exchange Sessions are musical artifacts of unparalleled imagination and confidence. Split into two CDs seemingly at random, both discs present a picture of effortless musical rapport that surpasses generic boundaries and easily qualifies as the most effortlessly exciting musical event of the year.
It was a big year for Hebden and Reid. Under his Four Tet alias, Hebden also released , as well as a similarly eclectic . The Steve Reid Ensemble also released , technically a 2005 release that didn t actually cross the pond until earlier this year.
Spirits Walk is important as something of a companion to the two Exchange Sessions, featuring Hebden prominently on electronics throughout. Free jazz gets a lot of flack, some of it undoubtedly deserved. So does jazz fusion.
The Exchange Sessions qualifies as both: entirely improvisational, composed in equal amounts of electronics and acoustic drums, as indulgent and hypnotic as you could reasonably expect. But somehow it manages to surpass the already-high expectations engendered by the participants pedigrees. In every way, this is a truly essential listening experience, one of the year s few genuine surprises.
In her review of the second disc, PopMatters own Jennifer Kelly put it perhaps as succinctly possible when she said: Hebden and Reid have locked onto some sort of transmission from a higher consciousness here, and if you listen hard enough, you can feel it right along with them.
If you haven t yet heard The Exchange Sessions, all this hyperbole might seem excessive once you actually do hear them, however, no amount of rhetorical excess could possibly seem excessive. Simply flawless.
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