Ebo Taylor - Love And Death (Strut)
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Free The Robots - Ctrl Alt Delete (Alpha Pup)
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Gonja Sufi - A Sufi And A Killer (Warp)
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Homelife - Exotic Interlude (Humble Soul)
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Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey - Stay Gold (Kinnara)
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Marco Benevento - Between The Needles And Nightfall (Royal Potato Family)
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Mushroom - Naked, Stoned & Stabbed (4 Zero)
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Quantic and his Combo Bárbaro - Tradition In Transition (Tru Thoughts)
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Skeletons - Smile (Impossible Ark)
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The Souljazz Orchestra - Rising Sun (Strut)
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After publishing a solid
10-records-a-year selection of the last decade (from 1999 to 2009), we took a few days to think about the 2010 best of... The first thing that came to mind when weed look back at the past 12 months, was the obvious blast of compilations that were released. From the incredible
Ninja Tune XX boxset (6xCDs, 6x7", 2x12" and a book - all new tracks and remixes!), the amazing "world" compilations and reissues from
Soundway Records,
Analog Africa,
Academy LPs,
Nascente or
Vampisoul, the fantastic and rare funk/jazz stuff from the diggers at
Finders Keepers,
Jazzman or
Luv'N'Haight, the jaw-dropping sets from
Numero Group, all those
Fania Records reissues... I'm missing a few but you get my point: this is highly-entertaining quality stuff, but from hte independent's viewpoint it also looks like the music industry has never been so much focused of its back-catalog.
Meanwhile, a few labels are still doing the job of distributing today's music to the people of today, and maybe they deserve a little bit more spotlight... That's what we thought would be interesting to look at anyway. We had to forbid ourselves not to put any
Colored-Inc. release in our selection, of course, even though some of the records we've put out this year were simply astonishing... such as the
Hard 2 Find series for example!
What was left: some genre-bending electronic/hip hop/psychedelia marvels from
Gonja Sufi and
Free The Robots, from the Los Angeles beats scene, ecstatic afro/jazz from Germany (Eboy Taylor & Afrobeat Academy), Canada (The Souljazz Orchestra), or England (Skeletons), addictive cumbia/soul from Columbia (Quantic and his Combo Barbaro), psychedelic folk exotica from former Nina tune affiliates Homelife (their leader Paddy Steer has also released a solo album that's quite a treat too), and finally mesmerizing jazz/indie rock mixtures from Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey or Marco Benevento, both released thru the sensational US label
The Royal Potato Family. Well, all in all another good year for music, nothing like 1976 when stadium FM rock was rising and
Hotel California was king...
Contenders : Bonobo, The New Mastersounds, Randa & The Soul Kingdom, Fat Freddy's Drop, The Qualitons, Saravah Soul, Hidden Orchestra, The Roots, Kings Go Forth, Big Pimp Jones, The Hot Rats, Flying Lotus, Candice Monique & The Optics, Aloe Blacc, Cochemea Gastelum, The Bees, Roots Manuva, Lloyd Miller & Te Heliocentrics, Brownout, Grupo Fantasma, Mike Gordon...
