Teebs, Babe Rainbow and Ital Tek tattooed onto a pop star's innards

I barely wordpuke about electronic jams in this here netspace, even though the whole reason for this website is to delare the word of the beat, of the resonance filter, of the wob-wob-wob.

Instead, I'm either banging on about pop music (OMG JUSTIN BIEBPIPE GOT A TATTOO OF POL POT ON HIS LARGE INTESTINE OMG) or simply not posting at all. This, lovely reader, is not good enough.

So what has been performing syncopated rhythms on my ear drums?

Teebs (pictured) has joined Soundcloud, which is about bloody time because I'm fed up of searching for the deadlocked skate dude on there and not finding him. Seriously. Just last weekend, I couldn't find him so had to punch Soundcloud in the face yet again. His first track posted there is about a year old, but it's sunny and dancy and deserves an embed below.

Anchor Steam by teebsio

Speaking of ambient jams that wouldn't look out of place spread over Brian Eno's bald head, I do believe I haven't told you about Babe Rainbow's Set Loose from his Endless Path EP.  It's simple and sad and deserves repeat clicks.

Babe Rainbow - "Set Loose" taken from Endless Path EP - OUT NOW by Warp Records

Also, Brighton's Ital Tek (or iTAL tEK or iTaL tEk or whatever his shift key is doing on any one day) has teamed up with London's Om Unit. Mr Unit, as it's only polite to call him, has been known to make music in the back of an RV before now. His pairing with Ital Tek is a persistent little bugger: a remix of Mr Tek's War Of The Ants. I'm having those tiddlywink snare effects tattooed on a pop star's pancreas.

Ital tek - war of the ants (om unit remix) Coming Soon (Atom River) by omunit

Top 20 electronica tracks of 2010 (kind of) so far (sorta)

YouTube playlist time, kids!

I'm currently doing time in comedy-prison for impersonating a Michael McIntyre fan, so I decided to use my spare time in the yard (full of people making inane observations) to see where we're up to in this ubiquitous block of time we call "2010".

Here are the 20 best tracks of 2010 so far. I've done this before, and again most of the choices are mine. I spiced it up this time by asking some of my musical chums and contemporaries to include their own favourite tracks.

If you want to play all the choons at once, I've fashioned together a YouTube playlist. Here are the Top 20 electronica tracks of 2010 (kind of) so far (sorta) in their entirety. If I was you, I'd jump straight there. (Edit: you can also see the list in MASSIVE CLICKABLE WORDS, thanks to a link sent to me by Cameron Reed. Ta!)

Here are the individual tracks with their youTube links. Let's go!

- Girl Unit: Shade On from the I.R.L EP.

- Instra:mental: No Future (Skream Remix)

- Africa HiTech: Blen, recommended by DJ / producer the 8Bitch. She also wanted to go for Ramadanman's Glut or a bit of Subeena or Brackles, but instead ended up plumping for the first single from the rather exciting Steve Spacek and Mark Pritchard collaboration.

- Flying Lotus: Do The Astral Plane from his latest album Cosmogramma.

- Gonjasufi: Ancestors, produced by Flying Lotus and taken from the Warp debut A Sufi And A Killer.

- Caribou: Jamelia, recommended by Cameron Reed, a.k.a. Babe Rainbow who wanted "something off the Caribou album". Glad to oblige.

- Pariah: Detroit Falls, recommended by Yer Mam. He also wanted to go for Brooklyn's Pursuit Grooves.

- Lorn: Cherry Moon (link updated), who is bringing the Brainfeeder sound to the UK with his essential album Nothing Else.

- Ikonika: Idiot from the Hyperdub album Contact, Want, Love, Have.

- Son Lux: Break. Isaac Ashe's Sound Advice threw several recommendations in my direction, so I chose a Son Lux track. But he'd also like you to listen to Bass Clef, Bonobo and Massive Attack. Actually, I feel guilty for not including Massive Attack on my final list.

- Starkey: OK Luv, the opening track from Ear Drums And Black Holes.

- Four Tet: Angel Echoes, recommended by Isaac Ashe's Sound Advice.

- Shlohmo: Spoons from the woefully overlooked Shlomoshun Deluxe album on the Friends Of Friends label.

- Babe Rainbow: Shaved. Speaking of Babe Rainbow, here comes another of his recommendations...

- James Blake: CMYK, recommended by Babe Rainbow and by Borland. Borland also like a bit of Gold Panda and are busy producing their own gubbins (see my post last weekend.

- Autechre - See On See from their first album of 2010, Oversteps.

- LV And Untold - Beacon (Mount Kimbie Remix)

- Pantha Du Prince: Stick To My Side from the hypnotic album Black Noise.

- Floating Points: People's Potential, recommended by Yer Mam.

- Kourosh Yaghmaei: Gol-e Yak, an older track recommended by a superbly exasperated Two Fingers, one of whom said he was too skint to be buying music all the time, but "on the plus side, I pretty much hate everybody. So I could pretend to like the shitty thrill-free dubstep etc that this generation farts out, but I'm not going to." That's rather refreshing, methinks. And he sounds like half my mates.

A massive thank you to everybody for collaborating on this piece. And again, here's the whole playlist in one playable list which enables you to play it as one big list of playness, entirely without listlessness.

Gonja Sufi's a smokin' nomad in sound and soul: plus Friends Of Friends and Babe Rainbow

Gonja Sufi

Time for some single reviews. The haunting voice of Gonja Sufi will leave an indelible mark on 2010, especially with his second 7" single Kowboys And Indians. He's so unique, a nomad in sound and soul, that he hardly needs the production genius of eclectic LA beatcruncher The Gaslamp Killer. But it works like nothing you've heard before.

The track opens with a buzzing that will have you packing your speakers off to the repair shop. What follows is a stunning blend of eastern mysticism, slacker guitar, psychedelic rhythm and a vocal that swings loosely between Bollywood theme music and Method Man aged 95.

Gonja Sufi, that sinister, genre-smoking spirit of an electronic Hendrix, has produced the essential new sound of this year. The rats are already fleeing town in preparation of his all-conquering debut album A Sufi And A Killer (featured in the March section of my 2010 electronica preview).

Daedelus

Where do I start with the first volume of a split-single series from the Friends Of Friends label? They've given Ninja Tune's Daedelus and debuting double-act Jogger three tracks each on the Friends Of Friends Vol 1 EP, but then they've gone and drowned it all with no less than seven remixes. Flippin' heck!

Daedelus slaps down some disco house (C'est Super works nicely), then gets the guitars out and strums to a Smashing Pumpkins sample. Jogger concentrates on pumping house (Litre O' Colais is especially manly, grrr) and then goes and spoils it all with vague electric guitar noodling, demonic growling and speed techno silliness.

On the remix side, Prefuse 73 protégée Eliot Lipp puts Kraftwerk through an 80s disco mincer, while for his remix of Nice Tights, Nosaj Thing does a wonderful job creating a leftfield soundtrack full of guitar whimsy and minor-key boogie. A mixed affair - it could have been prettier without all the remix bling, as they'd no doubt say on Stockport's Next Top Model.

Babe Rainbow

I promised I would waffle about Babe Rainbow when the time came for his long-awaited Warp debut, the Shaved EP. It's time, so let's get the clippers out and inspect the scalp of Canada's premier dubstepper.

Sorry. I mentioned the d-word. The thing is, Cameron 'Babe Rainbow' Reed is kinda dubstep, but only in a slow-motion, life-slowly-melting-before-your-eyes way. His noise is so deep and deliberate, he makes Massive Attack look like Scooter (the hardcore German funsters, not the weedy muppet).

And so we have seven tracks of metallic, ringing percussion with vocals swamped with claustrophobic drizzle and an all-too-familiar whoomp bass. With the exception of sixth EP track Celebrate, I'm yet to fall in love with Babe Rainbow. Then again, I haven't used his music to get so stoned out of my face, my brain is melting on a toxic beach somewhere north of Jupiter.

Here's the skinny (dip) on Warp's Babe Rainbow and Flying Lotus

And now, some news from the Warp label.

Two of these facts are absolute hogwash and were written whilst I was high on methane. Three of these facts are 100% genuine leather newsbites about Warp Records and their artists.

Babe Rainbow

Babe Rainbow (pictured) is the newest act to sign to the label. He is a Canadian experimentalist sitting somewhere amid Req, Burial and anything ending in 'step'. This has been covered a-plenty by other websites, so I'll post more when his debut Shaved EP hits in February. Listen to loads of Babe stuff on Tumblr.

Achy breaky heart

Last week, Warp Records founder Steve Beckett announced to an astonished media that he was, in fact, Miley Cyrus. Tongues began wagging on the set of the 3D kid's film Bolt, where "Miley" would spend hours listening to mp3 demos from wannabe Squarepushers. Billy Ray Cyrus' first dubstep EP will be out on Warp in the spring.

Flying Lotus

I mentioned the release of Flying Lotus' DJ kicks CD in my 2010 preview, but I can add to that the release of a fully-formed FlyLo studio album too. Cosmogramma will be out on April 20th on Warp. He is quickly becoming the godfather of modern beat production, and all ears will be tuned in. There's even a Massive Attack remix on the way, according to this interview in Pitchfork. I know this is exciting, because on my notes for this blog post, I have scrawled "OH YEAH".

Warp Records for Dummies

This Dummy Guide to Warp Records is wonderful, and a definite must-read for Warp noobs and vets alike. I wish I had written it: Rob Gordon throwing the phone is classic rock 'n' roll angst. It finishes with a list of essential Warp albums, so if you're looking to fill up your virtual music shelves, here's where to start.

Skinny dipping

Warp Records is relocating to the house next door to me. They've decided London didn't really work out, so they've bought a modern semi-detached bungalow complete with swimming pool. I am allowed to skinny dip any time I want, and they have promised to furnish my villa with all-new furniture made with off-cuts from vinyl records. I hope the grooves don't chafe.