60: KYLE HALL
‘A WORLD OF NEW OLD’
(from WORX OF ART, WILD OATS)

Omar-S’s prodigious protĂ©gĂ© Kyle Hall has done more with his teenage years than most people do with their whole lives, and 2009 saw him get the attention already overdue him. The four-track Worx of Art EP found him in freewheeling, jazzy mode – more Theo or KDJ than Omar – and the aptly titled, piano-driven ‘A World of New Old’ confirms him as a worthy guardian and effortless evolver of Detroit’s grand future-soul tradition.

59: ALTERED NATIVES
‘RASS OUT’
(FRESH MINUTE MUSIC)

One of the most heavily rinsed UK funky tunes to date, ‘Rass Out’ is as simple and devastating as a kick in the knackers, little more than looped tribal drum clatter and the kind of syncopated post-garage melody that sends dancefloors doolally every goddamned time. In a year when homegrown house sometimes got a little too tricksy for its own good, this was a bracing and above all fun return to first principles.

58: DONEA’O
‘PARTY HARD’
(WHITE LABEL)

Donea’o holds a place in UK garage history for various reasons, but mostly ‘Bounce’. One of the great instrumental tracks from the transitional period where the heavier side of UK garage became grime – recorded under the alias Mr. Fidget – it remains one of the genre’s best; but was only properly released as an absurd (either endearingly or annoyingly so, depending on who you ask) anti-drug vocal track. Finally with the emergence of UK Funky, Donae’o found music more accepting of his silly side, and produced one of the genre’s definitive anthems in ‘Party Hard’.

57: DIRTY PROJECTORS
‘STILLNESS IS THE MOVE’
(DOMINO)

In Bitte Orca, Dirty Projectors’ leader Dave Longstreth finally found a musical balance that reflected his wildly personal approach to indie: an off-kilter pop that’s equal parts Belle and Sebastian, Gang Gang Dance and Aaliyah. It was never better reflected than on ‘Stillness is the Move’, a mountaintop jam full of dying harmonies, colossal vocal solos and maddening chords.

56: FLOATING POINTS
‘VACUUM BOOGIE’
(EGLO)

Pretty much everything Sam Shepherd touched in 2009 turned to gold, and ‘Vacuum Boogie’ was the very highest carat. Most dance producers spend a lifetime trying, and failing, to make music as perfectly weighted and composed as this; Shepherd managed to knock it out on the side while doing his phd. Deep house with the kind of bumping, busy kickdrums that betrays its maker’s appreciation of 2-step, this was deservedly an underground smash, appealing to young bassheads and dad-house traditionalists alike.

55: THE SOFT PACK
‘EXTINCTION’
(POD)

Hoary, straightforward nu-new wave that reminded us of a less urbane Strokes, in a good way. So much fun, in fact, that it made us want to have a keg party and wank each other off, or whatever it is they do to keep busy in the classier frats these days.

54: EQUALIZED
EQD002 – SIDE A
(EQUALIZED)

Rene Pawlowitz, the producer we know best as Shed, was revealed this year to be the mastermind behind the anonymous Equalized and WAX white labels that had been emanating from Berlin techno hub Hardwax since 2008. The second EQD was rollicking on both sides, but the A, a just-off-the-grid, steppers’ take on the classic Maurizio sound, smashed hardest and truest.

53: MAJOR LAZER feat. VBYZ KARTEL
‘PON DE FLOOR’
(from GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE…, DOWNTOWN)

On an album full of considered pop songs – shout out to ‘Keep It Goin’ Louder’ and ‘Hold the Line’ – it was Major Lazer’s simplest trick that produced their most ubiquitous track. ‘Pon de Floor’ is, on the surface, a simple fidget house squealer, the sort that Crookers’ Serato must be fit to burst with, but in its intricacies – particularly the rushed ‘pondefloor‘ that follows the long build-up to the drop – it rose above hordes of similar tracks and became pretty much the house party anthem of the year.

52: DORIAN CONCEPT
‘TRILINGUAL DANCE SEXPERIENCE’
(AFFINE)

Austria’s Dorian Concept has been indulging in bottom-heavy synth experiments for a few years now, but 2009 was the year they finally hit clubs. ‘Trilingual Dance Sexperience’, released in the latter half of the year, was his biggest release and probably his best – combining the demented dancefloor aesthetic of past singles like ‘Vertical Output’ and the abstract heaviness of his album, When Planets Explode, to create one of the year’s most dizzyingly euphoric singles.

51: ZOMBY:
‘DIGITAL FLORA’
(BRAINMATH)

After perfecting the 8-bit treble tracks that made up his One Foot Ahead of the Other mini-album, Zomby spent the second half of the year honing a kind of delicate techno, one that – like much of Zomby’s work – pulls and tugs at the inside of your head rather than the corners of dancefloors. ‘Digital Flora’ couldn’t have been better named: it sways like a flower in a cyberworld wind; its staggered breakdown reminiscent of petals falling. If there’s an album of this stuff on the way it will be incredibly beautiful.

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