Best Tracks of 2014: Part 2

Here's our final rundown of the year's very best tracks.

25. DVS1 – Black Russian [Klockworks]

This tight slice of techno is as essentialist as you can get: propulsive forward momentum, a single showstopping synth that builds but never peaks, and the leanest of percussive tweaks to keep you on your toes. Engrossing and devastating.

24. Leon Vynehall – Inside The Deku Tree [3024]

There was so much to love about Vynehall’s Music For The Uninvited release on 3024, but it was this unusual opener really stood out from the bunch, from its Zelda-referencing title to its grand orchestral sweep. Another winner from one of the UK’s brightest stars.

23. Traumprinz – Messed Up Jam [Giegling]

The first cut from Traumprinz’ stellar All The Things EP was melancholy deep house par excellence (you may have noticed that we’re fans of the style here at White Noise). Meditative and moving, Messed Up Jam moves with pitch-perfect reluctance and grace.

22. Daywalker + CF – Supersonic Transport [LIES]

LIES’ best cut of the year came in the form of this galactic stormer, a propulsive journey comprised of an army of synths: twinkling, churning, swooning, stabbing, and an adamantine percussive skeleton.

21. Lnrdcoy – I Met You On BC Ferry [1080p]

The most emotional cut from Lnrdcroy’s sublime Much Less Normal LP was this 8-minute voyage into nostalgia, a skittering 2step beat tied to a hopeful synth line, its tune later echoed by a resonant bassline, the ghost of a melody.

20. Moodymann – Lyk U Use 2 (feat. Andres) [KDJ]

This dream collaboration worked as well as could be expected, albeit at an unusually high tempo. The heartache of Dixon Jr’s lyrics (narrated with his tongue firmly in his cheek – “eight and a half is not enough for you anymore?”) adds a certain melancholy to the buoyant production, with a deep soulful melody and some expertly chopped disco samples towards the close certainly courtesy of Andres.

19. Andy Stott – Faith In Strangers [Modern Love]

The most surprising cut on Andy Stott’s superb new album was its title track. Having chopped, distorted and generally abused the vocals of his ex piano teacher Alison Skidmore, here Stott lets her voice take centre stage, accompanying her pop-referencing melodies with twilit synths, a diving bassline and jittering percussion that never feels anxious. If this is Stott doing pop, we’re eager to hear more.

18. John Roberts – Ausio [Dial]

With his productions becoming increasingly knotty, it was great to hear a proper dancefloor track from Roberts. Ausio is superb for setting the scene: that harrowing bass threatens to break out for the 3 minutes, and when it finally does the track bristles, rather than bursts, into life: a field of searing synths, nervous atmospherics and insectoid chittering. Superbly moody and full without ever feeling crowded, this track showed Roberts back on fine form.

17. Call Super – Acephale II [Houndstooth]

This is one of Call Super's straighter tunes, but it’s a long way from simple. A hammering kick anchors an increasingly frenetic field of crystalline synths that jostle for attention alongside an impressive range of details and effects. Listen closely for the canny use of panning and the genuinely alive feel of the track’s melodic details, each sound individually minute but powerful when put together. There's a trick to Super's best productions: they move with an unhurried pace, a central motif slowly accruing more detail, adorned with more sounds, until the force is just about overwhelming. There’s some kind of alchemy going on in Call Super’s music, and this ‘floor-ready track shows it better than any other.

16. Pender Street Steppers – Bubble World [Mood Hut]

Another genius oddity from the Vancouver duo takes the titular bubble sounds as its inspiration, cooking up a delightful plate of loose-limbed percussion, warm synth glows and a bassline that’s essentially out for a stroll. Killer mood music.

15. #####.1 - ##### [No ‘Label’]

This ungooglable cut on Rush Hour’s No ‘Label’ didn’t need a name to sell: its perfectly tuned percussion, synthetic choir and crushed melody was utter bliss, taking us into a dreamworld with every listen. The track has since been sourced to Dutch producer Aroy Dee.

14. Vril – Torus XXXII [Forum]

The centrepiece of mysterious Vril’s debut album was this slow-burn techno number, where a subtle play of percussion provides the backdrop to a building, keening synthline, leading to an emotional climax which is more about the build than any sort of payoff.

13. Kassem Mosse – Untitled A3 [Workshop]

Our favourite cut from Mosse’s superb debut LP was an expert construction of articulated percussion, searing synths and that tumbling, showstopping melody like pebbles falling through crystalline water.

12. DJ Richard – Freydis [White Material]

After a busy, hype-fuelled 2013, White Material provided only one EP this year, but it might have been the labels best. On its closer, DJ Richard combined a low-slung rhythm with alarm-like synths, a swooning wash and dramatic cuts to an eerie, inviting string section.

11. Jamie xx – Sleep Sound [Young Turks]

Jamie xx’s tracks may not be the best for getting your groove on, but he certainly has a way with making beautiful music. Sleep Sound’s lush harp melody gives way to a light, shuffling beat for the early hours, with smart, emotive vocal snips. After a gorgeous breakdown the track picks up pace, lush and melodically complex, a joy time and again.

10. Kowton – Glock And Roll [Whities]

This one was a real curveball from Kowton, best known for melting bass and grime tropes into tough techno forms. Here he goes for something prettier, as a delicate chiming melody takes pride of place over a fortified rhythm section and a vocal looped to infinity. It’s a simple construction, but the contrast between fragility and strength helped this one destroy many a ‘floor.

9. Objekt – Ganzfeld [Leisure System]

The release of Objekt’s excellent debut LP Flatland clearly wasn’t enough for TJ Hertz, and he came along to offer us one of the year’s best singles on a split 12” for Leisure System with Dopplereffekt. Ganzfeld is a mind-bender full of sudden shifts and electro flourishes, stuffed with detail but destructive on the dancefloor. You couldn’t ask for more.

8. Barnt – Under His Own Name But Also Sir [Hinge Finger]

The only release this year on Will Bankhead and Joy O’s Hinge Finger imprint was a stunning one-two punch from man of the moment Barnt, both sides of which really deserve a place in this list. While the stark Chappell detonated many a dancefloor, it was on the brilliantly-titled B-side that he struck true gold, militant percussion cutting like knives through the mournful, swooning synthwork: a sound somewhere between danger and religion. One of the year’s most singular, inspired cuts.

7. Caribou – Can’t Do Without You [City Slang]

The first cut from Caribou’s Our Love LP may have been played to death by the time you read this, but there’s a reason for that. It’s a veritable anthem, that tune that brings everyone together on a dancefloor, singing and smiling. It’s no simple production, either: Caribou plays with volume to make the track’s drop all the more effective, it all builds to a veritable fireworks display of melody, while the simple, sincere vocal line is sure to strike a chord with even the most hard-hearted listeners.

6. Dan White – Death Flutes [Forbidden Planet]

This techno space odyssey from Montreal’s Forbidden Planet has been on extremely heavy rotation in White Noise HQ, its slow build of ambience, gurgling acid and steady thud conjuring adventures in a bleak, desolated terrain. That the titular woodwind adds perfectly to the distressed, wistful aesthetic rather than proving a cheesy misstep only reinforces this song’s strength.

5. Efdemin – Parallaxis (Traumprinz’s Over 2 The End Version) [Dial]

Traumprinz has a way of going for big, genuine emotion without ever overdoing it, and reviving sounds that you might belong in the past with flair. He’s unafraid, and that’s part of what makes his music so enchanting. This stunning remix of Efdemin starts off as a subdued house track, its desolate vocal and cinematic synths conjuring a powerful mood. It’s the unexpected addition, just after the three-minute mark and some rave sirens turned melancholy, of a snappy breakbeat that elevates this tune to near-perfection. By the time you get to the burbling chimes that bring the track to a close, your fingers will already be edging towards the repeat button, and you’ll probably be feeling a lot of things you don’t normally feel. Viva Traumprinz.

4. Leon Vynehall – Butterflies [Royal Oak]

Vynehall’s mini-LP was a wonderful collection of tunes, but for us his best single track of the year was this follow up on Clone’s Royal Oak imprint a few months later. It’s an unashamedly upbeat slice of filtered house, with a lush piano line and an introspective vocal just on the right side of cheesy, with a rhythmic backbone tough enough to keep bring even the most reticent to the dance. The word ‘organic’ is thrown around a lot when it comes to Vynehall, and with good reason: his instrumentation has a warm, live feel that sets him apart from contemporaries, and a sincerity that allows euphoric tracks like this one to really take off.

3. Daniël Jacques – End Of My World [Mistress]

This one casts a spell: synths flicker like candlelight, open hi-hats slice through the dust, and that enigmatic vocal line is cooed over and over, seemingly acquiring different meanings with every repetition. When we appear to be heading for a breakdown halfway through, the kick disappears, the vocal echoes off, and, abruptly, the kick returns - gratification is sudden and immediate rather than delayed. That’s what makes this track more than the disco loop it appears to be: a sense of mystery that lingers long after the tune ends.

2. Jack J – Something (On My Mind) [Mood Hut]

Mood Hut’s releases have a way of prioritising vibe over innovation or dancefloor power, and that’s just why we’ve come to love them. The gorgeous B-side of Jack J’s solo EP (he’s one half of Pender Street Steppers) was an absolute masterpiece, rolling on at an unhurried pace, funky bass bumps and a lazy sax line bringing a contemplative mood to the chill. There aren’t really the words for this one: you’ve just got to relax, close your eyes, and listen.

1. Floating Points – King Bromeliad [Eglo]

King Bromeliad opens with a recording of Floating Points playing it out at his (sadly closed) home, London venue Plastic People. The sound is tinny, filtered, we can hear the crowd chattering and the speakers rumbling. Then, a switch, and the groove continues in unadulterated form, Floating Points’ immaculate sound design all the more impressive for the contrast (a similar trick was memorably pulled in Slum Village's Dilla-produced anthem The Look Of Love). It’s an example of exactly the kind of ingenious (not to mention meta) touch and real care that Sam Shepherd brings to all of his productions, and the track that follows is, unsurprisingly an utter delight. It's a rich, jazzy house tune that shuffles along at its own pace, sounding a little like the dancier cousin of Myrtle Avenue, the opener to Shepherd's superb Shadows EP. Its elasticated chords are arranged spaciously, building and receding, while thousands of melodic and percussive details bristle beneath the track's surface: it takes a great deal of complexity to come up with something that sounds so effortless.

In any list like these, the top few entries will be ordered almost arbitrarily: what makes the second best track worse than the first? We gave Mr Points the top spot not just for this excellent jam but also for his peerless musical catalogue: each release, however infrequent they may be, refreshing and joyous, while even his older cuts sound as relevant and moving as they did on first release. He might just be the best producer we've got right now.

---

Join us for more White Noise reviews and features in 2015, and while you wait you can listen to our resident DJ Moth's mix of some of our favourite techno tracks of the year, embedded below or here on Mixcloud.

Best of 2014:

* Best Albums

* Best Tracks: 50-26

* Best Tracks: 25-1

Best Albums of 2014

We may have been afk for three quarters of the last year, but White Noise never stopped listening to music. Aside from conducting explorations into the realms of disco, funk and Arabic music, we’ve been keeping tabs on the dance scene’s development across 2014, and in many ways a time out has been useful: cutting out the flotsam of a year’s releases and just focusing on the essential, checking in on the latest tunes without falling prey to the hype machine’s endless spin-cycle.

Even from a distance it’s clear that 2014 was a standout year for the electronic LP. Some albums provided conceptual weight to back up auditory pleasure, while others provided such strong narratives that to cherry-pick a track or two does a disservice to the whole. Elsewhere a handful of producers finally pulled off dance albums that didn’t resort to throwaway ambient passages to provide ‘flow’, while those that took ambient seriously upped their game to new levels.

This list may not be as exhaustive as those of our contemporaries, nor is it punctual. But we’re not here to push the reader count or sell ad-space, just to share good music. So here are our 16 favourite albums of 2014.

We love all these albums and the diversity of sound makes them fairly incomparable, so we’ve ordered the albums alphabetically. They’re all more than deserving of your time.

  

Andy Stott – Faith In Strangers [Modern Love]

Violence

On Faith In Strangers Andy Stott continued to tread his singular path into the murk, taking another step away from the dancefloor but remaining as beguiling as ever. His blend of fathomless atmospheres, brutalist meditations and even a title track that vaguely resembles a pop song resulted in his most memorable, rewarding LP to date.

The Bug – Angels & Devils [Ninja Tune]

Mi Lost

The Bug has never been one to rush, yet the 6 years he took to follow up the hi-def dread of London Zoo was more than worth the wait. Here he returns to those unique dancehall / bass hybrids, with an album of startling contrast, the first half loaded with woozy menace, the raucous final run going right for the jugular.

Caribou – Our Love [City Slang]

All I Ever Need

Dan Snaith's follow-up to the masterful Swim showcased songwriting more accessible and anthemic than ever before, and while it didn't please everyone, we kept with Our Love for its colour, its diverse palette and, even in its most stadium-bating moments, its disarming intimacy.

Edward – Into A Better Future [Giegling]

Skating Beats

One of the key players in Giegling's world-beating year was Edward, whose heady sophomore album introduced accomplished deep house to structures and sounds from as far afield as punk, new age, hardcore and disco. Whichever left-turn he took, we were more than eager to follow Edward thanks to the detail and finesse of his productions.

Fatima – Yellow Memories [Eglo]

Biggest Joke Of All

Eglo's resident songstress exploded our (already high) expectations with her sterling debut, a masterclass in modern RnB. With one foot planted firmly in the history of soul, Yellow Memories never shied from experimentalism and forward-thinking composition. Perhaps the greatest credit that can be given is that with production duties assigned to the likes of Theo Parrish, Floating Points, and Flako, Fatima's indomitable voice was never overshadowed.

HTRK – Psychic 9-5 Club [Ghostly International]

Give It Up

The story of this album's creation, of grief and healing, has perhaps been allowed to eclipse its remarkable musical achievement. On their third album HTRK conjured a half-lidded world of lethargy, doubt and sensuality, with Jonnine Standish's elliptical lyrics gliding over the stark soundscape of a wounded psyche.

Kassem Mosse – Workshop 19 [Workshop]

Untitled A3

Mosse's fullest release to date on the superb Workshop imprint was a collection of pure dancefloor fire. His articulated grooves rattle and writhe, welded to strikingly bright melodies and bound by sudden left turns. The work of a true original.

Kettenkarussell – Easy Listening [Giegling]

Drama

Giegling may now be synonymous with Prince of Denmark (Traumprinz) and Vril, but the imprint's first release was courtesy of this German duo, whose lush, meditative sound has continued to define the label's style. Here the pair lead the listener through playful compositions that pay homage to the best of Aphex Twin and Boards Of Canada without ever giving up their uniquely melancholic fingerprint (except on the wryly titled Chords Of Banana, which could be the work of a master forger).

Leon Vynehall – Music For The Uninvited [3024]

It’s Just (House Of Dupree)

Who cares if it's technically an album? After a couple of years at the fringes threatening to break out, 2014 was the year of Vynehall as he burst joyously onto the scene. On this wonderful collection he came up with his best work yet, delightfully organic house compositions drenched in warmth with groove to spare, always hitting that soulful sweet spot.

Lnrdcroy – Much Less Normal [1080p]

I Met You On BC Ferries

Lnrdcroy's lauded cassette debut was the best in a strong year for new imprint 1080p, his engrossing melodies making for one of the year's most beautifully nostalgic listens, drawing us inexorably onwards with a longing, heartsick glance over the shoulder.

Max Graef – Rivers Of The Red Planet [Tartelet Records]

Running

Max Graef's debut album fuses house and hip hop so well that you can't see the joins: crisp drums, smoky melodies and a healthy dose of funk, all cut together with imaginative samples, superb interludes and that cover. It's a classic case of an album being greater than the sum of its parts, but bear in mind that those are some damn fine parts to begin with.

Millie & Andrea – Drop The Vowels [Modern Love]

Stay Ugly

Andy Stott and Miles Whittaker (of Demdike Stare) return to their experimental pairing on this searing LP, combining fresh cuts and a couple of their best past releases. The world of these tunes is a hostile one, their distorted rhythms occupying the black space between techno, jungle and trap, where melodies like shards of glass lie glistening in the wreckage.

Moodymann – Moodymann [KDJ]

Lyk U Use 2 (feat Andres)

If Kenny Dixon Jr auditioned for the Greek pantheon, he'd get the part of Dionysus without even trying. His latest offering is hedonism in musical form, from its bloated tracklisting to the subject of its lyrics, not forgetting the gluttonous funk of his grooves; always sultry, often playful. When you want even the interludes on a 27-track album to be longer, you know you're onto something special.

Objekt – Flatland [PAN]

Ratchet

With his run of warped techno singles, Objekt had the bar unfeasibly high for his debut album. Yet Flatland exceeded all expectations, an LP of immaculately produced mutants that kept swerving but never sacrificed their groove. Flatland hits that sweet spot between techno, electro and experimentalism in glorious high definition; a jewel that shirks a singular approach, perplexing but always gleaming.

Session Victim – See You When You Get There [Delusions of Grandeur]

Never Forget

We were big fans of Session Victim's debut LP, and it was the greatest pleasure to get our hands on a follow-up that bettered it in every single way. Those sumptuous melodies are richer, brighter and more addictive than ever; their rhythms are looser and more confident, and the duo continue to equal, if not better, the warm US house sound they love so much. We challenge you to stay still to this one.

Vril – Torus [Forum]

Torus XXXII

The space occupied by Vril's stunning debut Torus (on Giegling offshoot Forum) is a strange one: dub techno with a house crunch, galactic exploration with an unexpected emotive pull. Yet it is from this unusual middle ground that Vril draws his unique appeal: an album of otherwordly music that seems to only bring us home.

That's all we've got for today, join us next time for the year's best tracks!

Best of 2014:

* Best Albums

* Best Tracks: 50-26

* Best Tracks: 25-1

Daphni – Jiaolong

Label: Jiaolong

It might sound fun, but it can’t be easy being one of electronic music’s big names. Not only are you expected to churn out great release after great release with alarming consistency; on top of that you’re expected to innovate. Two consecutive LPs that explore the same sonic territory are quickly branded ‘samey’ and ‘unadventurous’. So I have a lot of sympathy for Canadian artist Dan Snaith, who effectively blew the competition out of the water two years ago with his phenomenal Swim album under his better-known Caribou alias.

 

Yes I Know

Swim was a near-perfect album on first release; the tracks were detailed and sophisticated enough for headphones, propulsive enough for the dancefloor, catchy enough for pop-fans, more than eclectic enough for the alternatives. It ticked pretty much every box.  So rather than attempt to follow that up in only two years, Snaith has been getting increasingly in touch with his club-side, with the notable release of the moody, pacing Ye Ye as Daphni on a split-release with Four Tet last year. And now, we have a whole album under the dancefloor moniker on Snaith’s own Jiaolong label. Is it a worthy follow-up to the mighty Swim? No, probably not. But it doesn’t have to be; this is Daphni we’re dealing with now, and it seems that Snaith can easily translate his compositional expertise and individual voice to the dancefloor.

It should be noted, these are real dance tracks: Yes I Know starts with a DJ-friendly intro building to its unsteady bassline, but these tunes contain more surprises than your average club fare; such as the opener’s excellent funk sample or the iridescent synths that course across the remix of Coz-ber-zam’s rare 7’ Ne Noya. These tracks stand in clear contrast to Snaith’s early work not just because of their surprises but also their spontaneity, the carefully wrought structured replaced with a sound that is more rough and analogue, sometimes bordering on the skeletal. The excellent Ye Ye finally finds an LP home for it’s throaty synths and anaesthetised one-word sample, while Pairs twins African rhythms with a deep bass response and a detailed array of percussive accents to great effect.

Ye Ye

Each track is geared purely towards getting the listener moving, generally through shifting arrangements of spare, analogue sounds such as Light’s sharp snares and phaser-gun breakdown. Elsewher Ahora most closely recalls Snaith’s earlier work, with pitchbent synths accompanying restrained beats and a gentle groove. Jiaolong is explorative and packed full of ideas, but it suffers a little from the bombast of its opening three tracks; the shift towards more stripped-down tunes means that the less hook-laden numbers may have trouble grabbing the listener’s attention. But if you’re not expecting Caribou then it’ll be hard to leave this LP disappointed, there’s a wealth of muscular grooves on display, all the more impressive for Snaith’s rapid mastery of this pure house sound.

7.5/10

Sweet

Since I Left You – Avalanches

Shoo Be Doo – Letherette

Stay Close – Delorean

Shy – A Sunny Day in Glasgow

Drama Cum Drama – Autre Ne Veut

The Nothing – Baths

My Girls – Animal Collective

Kim & Jessie – M83

Aminals - Baths

Gravity – Lusine

Sun – Caribou

Summer of Summer – Lone

Marriage – Gold Panda

Now You See Me – Emeralds

Rill Rill – Sleigh Bells

I've saved my favourite list til last, these are the sugar-sweet sounds of the synthiest of summers, moving between the light and dark of summer electro. Kicking off with my favourite song of all time (I know, that's a big statement but there you go, this is it), the Avalanches' stunning Since I Left You (I've left the brilliant video in there too), this playlist begins with some shining summer beats; Delorean's Ibiza-pop Stay Close shimmers with fun and Baths' most recent single The Nothing is another banger.

After a few classics from Animal Collective and M83 we move to choppier pastures, another great Baths track, Lusine's fantastic vocal cuts in Gravity and Gold Panda's unforgettable Marriage. The list rounds off with Emeralds' stunning fusion of the analogue and the digital in Now You See Me, and what is probably the summeriest track I've ever heard is saved til last, Sleigh Bells' synth-pop anthem Rill Rill (also replete with a rather gorgeous video).

P.S - I really wanted to stick Blue Hawaii's Belize into this list but couldn't find it on youtube, and after wasting an hour trying to work out how to upload it I gave up. But you can check it out here if you're interested.

Over the next week or so I'll be doing a selection of reviews of some of the best albums for summer, so let these lists whet your appetites and get some sun til then.

Caribou – Swim

Caribou, a.k.a Dan Snaith, the musical mathematician behind kraut-rock project Manitoba, called his album Swim as a reference to his attempt to “make dance music out of water”. If there was ever a vague and challenging idea for a dance album, it's that. However more of a surprise is the fact that most of the time when you expect this album to fall flat it succeeds, moving fluidly (ha) from strength to strength across its 50 minute playtime.

The album bursts into life with now-famous grimy opener Odessa, with heavy synths looped into a track that could easily be a classic on the dancefloor. Not content with this, the track is laden with constantly brilliant and surprising detail, from the tiny piano-like samples following his assertion that “She can take” to the lush natural-sounding synths that burst into the track briefly around the 3 minute mark. With all this its easy to forget that he's actually singing about a messy break up. The track moves into arguable album highlight Sun, with a trippy throbbing synth and slick percussion that feels as if its moving all around you. Movement is perhaps the true achievement of the album, it circles your brain and insinuates itself squarely into your head. The moment halfway through the track when the submerged vocals seem to physically break through the surface of the sound and suddenly become crystal-clear is almost revelatory, conjuring images of sunlight filtered through water.

The album is full of gorgeous details like this, such as the sound towards the end of Sun appropriated from the extraordinary album closer Jamelia. Out of any track on the album, for me it is the last that deserves the most praise. Starting with a formulaic synth and tinny beat, Luke Lalonde's guest vocals seem to be shaping up to a pleasant album closer. But then things start to go slightly awry. Just before the one-minute mark, an out-of-tune string noise slices through the song, and as it continues different unexpected sounds punctuate the otherwise regular formula. Halfway through the track these noises flutter and swell out into a driving, messy, natural rush – suddenly the vocals are no longer sitting on top of the track, they are breathlessly trying to catch up with it. The music sounds as free and pure as any I've heard, it sounds like pure joy.

It's unfortunate that the album suffers a few problems, because these tracks are so incredibly promising. Although some of the tracks I haven't mentioned are good (The one-two punch of Leave House and Hannibal are especially satisfying), the middle of the album sags noticeably. Kaili sounds quite good in the context of the rest of the album, but the heavy reverb on the synths make it sound as if it belongs in a cheesy club, and although the vocal harmonising at the end is an interesting change, it doesn't quite work. The next two tracks, Found Out and Bowls are also both rather underwhelming, exhibiting the same techniques and ideas as more choice album cuts (even some of the same melodies) but the marriage of the disparate musical aspects is not as fluid.

Every album has a few tracks that aren't quite as good, and it would be entirely forgiveable if it weren't for the slight identity crisis from which the album suffers. The tracks are often too dancey for a relaxed listen, but not enough to go all-out on the floor, so it sits in a kind of middle-distance where it's never that close and never that far away. Yet his attention to detail and inspired cross-genre tracks are staggering at times, and Swim is certainly a great album, but its a hard one to love as a whole.

8.5/10