December 9, 2024

Top 2024 (Part 2)

Here’s 20 to 16!

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Sami - Mad About It / Miles Mercer - Unfolding [Faith Beat]

This compilation + DJ mix from Ryan Elliott’s label only came in a few weeks ago but I’ve already got a lot of joy out of these two tracks: listening to them over and over in my headphones and then finally playing both of them out in Antwerp, where, as I expected, they both landed with the crowd.

Sami is a DC producer, part of the 1432 R crew, who earlier this year released another fab EP with dreamcastmoe (reviewed here). His ‘Mad About It’ is quite Nitzer Ebby but make it swaggering tech house? No nonsense and very effective.

Miles Mercer, from NYC’s Accessory Records crew, put out his own ravey EP over the summer, but on ‘Unfolding’ he tones down the Euro tropes (well, there are still gated pads and vocoder riffs) and ups the Detroit, especially in the syncopated snares and charmingly played strings. I’m obsessed with the bassline on this tune, which uses unexpected intervals (to my ears at least) that fill it with intrigue.

Both these tracks feel unabashedly classic without falling into pastiche, an increasingly hard trick to pull off these days. Speaking of which…

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Guy From 1990 - Bassivo Aggressive EP [Percebes]

One of my most played tunes of the year, this got a spin at pretty much every gig from March through July. I’ve previously said ‘Ritmo Alastra’ falls somewhere between Jovonn and Homero G and I stand by that. Not many people are producing this kind of music in 2024, and even fewer to this standard. The arrangement is impeccable and I even appreciate the arrival of the saxophone halfway through. ‘Reunindo’, meanwhile, is a heavy piece of UKG with clever call-and-response between the bassline, organ and pads. The beat is finely programmed to sound stuttery without losing its forward momentum. Packaged together, these tracks make for a spectacular all-round EP.

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Ali Berger

It’s been another great year for Ali Berger, and that’s without managing to keep up with a lot of his output! He’s released several bandcamp-only jams and recordings that I’ve yet to sit down with, so here I’ve focussed mainly on the official releases, all of which are worth your time.

First and foremost there’s his self-released Infinite Chime EP, a gorgeous package featuring three tunes and a handmade spray-painted sleeve. The title track is a 10-minute synth-and-piano meditation to heal your spirit, while on the dusty ‘2021.05.21 FM Arps’ he strips things back to a bare groove and spacey effects. It’s a stunner, and even more meaningful for the amount of care and craft Ali poured into the final physical product.

Next, the Sun Inside EP on Oklahoma label Fixed Rhythms (covered here) hits the dancefloor with big basslines, offbeat snares and some tuff drum work on ‘Inside’ that harks back to older material on Ali´s classic MUSIC POWER LP.

On Scissor & Thread, the Serious EP sees Ali in a more contemplative mood. I’ll never forget ‘A New World To Forget’ speaking straight to my feelings on the way back to Pittsburgh after Campout this year.

Finally, there were a few remixes this year too, including this recent one for fellow Boston alumnus John Barera and an under-the-radar belter for HEISS.

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Non Stop Rhythm

I’ve written recently about my fascination with this label and its frankly incontinent approach to putting out music (here and here). 2024 has seen no less than 58 individual releases, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they sneaked in a few more before the new year comes round. I’m at a point now where I’m trying to let go of my curiosity and just accept it for what it is. Of course there are many tracks that I don’t vibe with, but the handful that I do feel like they will stand the test of time.

Pristine tech house: light, unfussy, serene, a bit quirky in exactly the right places. For months I thought the vocal was an Instant Funk sample, but now I check it sadly turns out it isn’t. This provided a few of my favourite dancefloor moments of the year.

The follow up to last year’s ‘Riding In The Fog’, this is yet more superlative deep house from BDSL, so good it makes me sad to see it squirrelled away on a digital release like this. I played out both tunes this year and they always conjured deep, emotional feelings in the room.

You get the feeling DMX Krew can turn out tunes like these over breakfast while doing a cryptic crossword. It’s almost unfair?

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Elvin T - ‘Love Control’ [Bandcamp]

You’d think it’d be difficult to follow up ‘Get Close’, Elvin T’s debut on Midland’s ReGraded label back in 2021, but he made it look easy with ‘Love Control’. The concept is similar: find a particularly effective two-second disco riff and set to work squeezing every last drop of funk out of it, using every tool at your disposal. The effect is impressionistic and actually quite psychedelic if you really start paying attention to the details, which requires some effort since the basic 1-2 groove itself is so immediate to be almost unthinking. It also sounds absolutely astonishing played out, a real testament to the mixing and mastering.