What a year it has been, in terms of music, our best in living memory, a ton of tracks tipping our satisfaction scales, making the final forty one of the toughest tasks we have ever had. But the chart is completed, the inclusions indented, this rapturous reflection guiding you through the track highlights, 40 to 31, 30 to 21, 20 to 11 & 10 to 7, while a special sixth along with more acute attention for our fantastic fifth to our stunning second, the one question remaining, who & what made it to number one?
Like many traditions we follow fastidiously during the festive season, movie must “Oliver” and eating gammon on Christmas Eve, no Christmas Day ever quite right without “Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang” & champagne, while it has to be a tea time treat tuck in during “My Fair Lady” on Boxing Day, some say we are a full on fruit cake (that’s the treat), hardly able to fathom out why we do what we do. But what makes much more sense is the announcement of our top forty tracks of the year, something we always endeavour to do as the old year becomes the new, a painstaking & prolonged process seeing us amass, without exception, well over one hundred towering tunes that have rocked our world. However, with a year long list to look through, we are then faced with the tricky task of culling that one hundred plus to just forty, this year no exception, well in truth one of the toughest we have come across, such has been the stiff completion for these much prized places. That said, then deciding our forty to one has, this year, been off the scale in terms of toughness, the tightest chart we have seen making for a formidable final formation. But let’s not delay the news any further as we run through the rhymes & reasons of why who made it to what, section splits in track tens, until we reach our special sixth & then fabulous fifth to stunning second, while keeping you in suspense as to our chart topper, that coming in part two of this “music was the answer” special review feature.
So here we go, tripping light-footed through positions 40 to 31, the track holding up the chart a fabulous Zach Burns find and one part of his podcast which, for a while dominated our airwaves, “C’mon Get Funky” in Pagano mix rocking our 2012 world in June, The Believers amazing us in April with a re-work of the classic “Another Chance” our next chart entry, this followed by a trio of treats from D.J./producers that would play a big part in our year, Carlos Gallardo, Peter Rauhofer & Taito Tikaro, the latter’s remix of DPM’s “Lady Luck” setting the scene for no less than five other chart entries from this superb Spaniard & his studio partner Flavio Zarza. Our next top forty tune was very much dancefloor driven, a whole host of D.J.’s including it in their playlists, Fat Tony probably the first, while one other Beyond all-star was to make it his own, the rounding “Right Before Your Eyes” one of the best The Hoxton Whores productions yet, although sitting lowly at position 35 is evidence of just how tight this year’s chart choices were. As for our next three, well they all came from the first three months and include the now infamous “Track 3”, named as that was where it was generally placed in a Steve Pitron set at the time, while the first of two Rony Seikaly entries could have been much higher, had it not been for the stiff competition ahead, number 31 going to a track at the other end of the year scale, Federico Scavo’s “I Do” one of no less than fourteen from a prolific podcast that cram our chart.
As for our highlight track of this slice of selections, well it goes to the Esquire bootleg that pits Sunfreaks against Alex Kenji & Starkillers that resulted in “Counting Down The Pressure”, one that was a another fabulous find by our premier protégé player, Zach Burns, but by making it to a meek & mild 34 in our chart, is further evidence of the delightfully tough dance delectation decisions we faced< but richly deserves our first of eight video links.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppxbWKiyFDY[/youtube]
So we move to positions 30 through 21, our first track charter here another resplendent Peter Rauhofer remix & one which we will forever associate with our Brazilian boy babe Nilsson Junior, while with other huge D.J./producer names from the world stage showing their hand here, Danny Verde remixing Neon Hitch’s “Fuck You Better”, Crazibiza re-working Joey Negro’s classic “Must be The Music” and Lizzat & Voltaxx’s singular entry this year, “In The Heat Of The Night” are all shining examples of what was rocking our world early to mid summer. But two others that were doing the same chart just a little higher, positions 24 & 23 to be exact, New Iberican League’s “Loveground” in Jorge Montia remix form hitting our musical mark well, while Etienne Ozborne shows the second of three top 40 track chart hands with the fantastic “Feeling For You”. However, as we get close to our top twenty, the choices did become even tougher & tighter, the immensely impressionable “World” by The Free Radicals Formation, a collaborative combo between Barcelona based beatmasters Fran Ramirez, Nacho Chapado & Ivan Gomez, for a long stretch of 2012 was destined for headier heights, but was pushed down to 22nd, the last position in this section going to another classic and to the Hoxton Whores, who reproduced their track “Fusion” and was & is still the one that gives us prolific pedal power.
To our highlight track and another forced down the chart by a host of other towering tunes, this from a producer that has been rocking our world for well over three years, Serge Devant having come up with some stunners during this time, although this year would see just one, but what a one it was, “Dice” in Mario Larrea remix form having made it big on two prolific podcasts of 2012 and while sitting sedately at position 29 in out chart, has some many magical music memories that it was an compulsory video clip choice.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkuQgFr0Am0[/youtube]
Well we are into our top twenty,, running through from 20 to 11 here and to our closest choice of tunes, not just this year, but of any, a more colossal collection of towering tech, vivacious vocals & hard hitting hits we couldn’t want to wish for, two lovable classics re-made kicking it off, “Show Me Love” 2k12 form by Crazibiza and then the superb “She Loves” the next Taito Tikaro remix triumph, while we then run into a four track tech tower of tunes, the magnificent “Murder the Dancefloor” from Erick Morillo, followed by David Herrera h=who gave us “Vibern”, Dick Ray remixing this powerhouse production. As for the other two, well they vied positions, Etienne Ozborne & Zolton Kontes winning out by a whisker with “Sotto”, condemning the gigantic “Gravy” from Ministers de La Funk to a still respectable sixteenth place. But now begins that podcast track domination, as the final four slots in this section all came our worldly way from Steve Pitron’s “WE Formula 2” production, one that consumed the last two months of our year, Afrojack’s “Can’t Stop Me” resplendently re-worked by Carlos Fas, while yet another Crazibiza remix charted next, this time of Alex Roque’s fabulous “Finally I”, it put into its thirteenth position place by one of a few simply stunning sounds that still spectacular send shivers up our spines, My Digital Enemy’s “Got To be Strong” an example of the towering tech tunes this have tickled our 2012 taste buds.
But our highlight track had to be the one that hit eleventh spot in our chart selections, one that is a genuine 2012 anthem and is another product from that phenomenal podcast that we predicted would virtually sweep the top ten track board in our, Trent Cantrelle’s “Naturally” coming oh so close, but once again proving what a tough choice we were faced with. However, having played its part perfectly, we thought it only fair to give it an extra bit of exposure with this video clip share.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIstFR9JQvY[/youtube]
So, to our top ten, we running through here from 10 to 6 and four tracks who’s high charting was pretty much a foregone conclusion from the first minute we heard them and, with one notable exception, come from a sound stable that has our name written all over it, uplifting, vocally vivacious & emotionally erupting epics, each & every one of them. So, in at ten comes the simply spectacular “Timebomb”, Kylie Minogue making our chart for the first (and maybe the last) time ever, although when you realise that Steven Redant & Phil Romano were the remix responsible’s, it should come as no surprise. Then in at nine is the penultimate Taito Tikaro chart choice of ours, the mesmeric “My World” an exemplary example of an emotionally erupting epic that, had it not been for the next eight, would have struck a more prominent place pose, even a podium one, such is its sheer splendour. Now we come to number eight and what we have labelled as our birthday track, DJ Eako & Jason Chance’s terrific tune “Deep In My Soul” flying under the radar later into 2012, but for a most of the last eleven days since our birthday, was close to taking the chart crown and has every possibility, given how fresh off the appearance press it is, of making it into our 2013 chart. So to seventh place and this the towering tech track in amongst all the other vocal & emotional entrants here, Chris Lake sweeping us off our spine chilling feet with the scintillating “Stand Alone”, Federico Scavo giving it a remix touch that, in combination with the lyrical line “…i’m the rebel type to never do what I’m s’possed ta…” is sheer brilliance in our books.
However, our highlight from 10 to 6 couldn’t go to any other but the track that charted sixth in a decision that we toiled over for not mounds or minutes or heaps of hours, by a dose of days, “Beautiful Lie” when we heard it for the first time, stopped us in our pedalling tracks, erupting emotions & marking memories of the time & the place that will live with us forever. Yet more than that, the whole story behind the track, that original artist was signed to Island records & that, in Keemo version form, it played a prolific part in this year’s Circuit Festival, particularly the wonderful WE event, both these connections to the track inextricably linked to two of our most nearest & dearest, Steve & Celso making its positioning in our chart all the more poignant. So, leaving it sixth was our toughest choice of the year, the Dick Ray version at http://youtube.com/watch?v=zX_1AqKc4vk the one that charted, although it is this video clip that, for plenty of deeply personal reasons, won over our hearts meaning we just had to share it here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX_1AqKc4vk[/youtube]
Now we head to our fantastic fifth and the singular entry that actually gets two mix form mentions, the pulsating and stunning Prok & Fitch production “Symphony” sending superb shivers up our spines simply by putting proverbial pen to paper on it. Yet when the original mix
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKNFREDIn9Y[/youtube]
first came to our attention back in the summer, while we loved the track, we never thought it would it would chart so high, but this theory was quickly confounded following the emergence of the S. Co remix on Steve Pitron’s WE Formula 2” podcast, another of those torso tingling, spine shivering & emotionally erupting epics that has dominated the final two months of our airwave listening months, itself giving chart inclusion credence to the original and a picks precedence & first, we simply unable to split the two so giving them a combined & collective fifth place position
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4iSnv3K0n8[/youtube]
To our fabulous fourth and another that came out of that phenomenal podcast production of Mr Pitron’s, Jay Lumen’s “Strange Fruit” stunner having gripped us like virtually no other we can remember, each time we hear it, we falling into a delightfully divine daze, our head going into a complete spin as though it is about to explode, such is the enormity of this colossal creation. And to add to the provenance of this pick, not only was it hugely responsible for elevating a stunning set from Beyond just this last Sunday to top spot, but when Steve combined it with “Sunday’s At Heaven” during his performance back at beyond on NYD, we were totally & utterly blown away, “Strange Fruit” continuing to leave us on the emotional edge & breathless with its brilliance, so richly deserving its fourth place positioning in our 2012 chart.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TYTt2IKD4Y[/youtube]
Now to our tremendous third and a huge 2012 danecfloor hit that some tried to steal, but will forever that Steve Pitron’s label sown into its scintillating & stunning sounds, scores of people having come up to us and saying “…what is this track…” Indeed, when we first heard it, that is exactly the question we asked, the moment that Steve looked over at us on our Beyond spot when he first played it back in the summer, one of the magical memories that we will never forget. And from that time on, we knew that it would score highly in our chart, although the spanner in the works came from the ones that made it to fourth, fifth & sixth, although given how much of a magnificent mark it made on our year, we had to see it into our top three, a podium position that Nero’s “Must be The Feeling” in Funkagenda remix form we couldn’t be more pleased about, not least that the heavenly haunting tones & head in hands qualities would, in any other year, have easily seen it to the top of our chart tree.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NDe-qXOfJ8[/youtube]
So we are nearly there, although for this part of our special review we will keep you in suspense, stopping at our stunning second chart choice, a track that like “Strange Fruit” did in the last two months of our year, gripped us for the first three, four & five, erupting our emotions like virtually no other, it by far & away the biggest & best in our books to come out of Steve Pitron’s “Jan 2012” podcast production, a find that floored us from the off and, to be honest, still does today. In fact, on listening to it for the first times in months the other week, it recaptured all those emotional eruptions that were a prolific pattern of our pedalling period earlier in 2012, we having come to the conclusion then, that it would be right up, if not actually at the top of our chart, a decision that we simply couldn’t overturn, even given all the completion that has come before it. So, seeing his second entry into our chart & into second place seems amazingly appropriate, Rony Seikaly not quite making it to top spot, but a podium place so well deserved with the toweringly terrific & tear tumbling “Take Me Higher”, but one that, despite everything, couldn’t quite make it higher than our penultimate chart topping position.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYCts_4YJTY[/youtube]
So what about our number one? Well, in true suspense style and, given it is our top choice, we decided it would be both right & proper to separate it from the rest, extending our 2012 music review into three parts and placing out top track choice, along with our full chart listing, 1 to 40 into a special “Music Was The Answer!” part two post that will follow this, while all our thirty nine entrants here have proved that what a year it was for truly towering tunes & magnificent music, best that we can remember EVER!! (DISCO MATT)
