I don't understand how everyone gets time to do massive end-of-year posts... surely everyone's busy doing fun stuff at the end of the year? Anyway in the spirit of getting back on the blog wagon, here's my top tunes of last year:

SHAZALAKAZOO - BANG!

The title tune off their Moombahton Bang Bang EP on Generation Bass couldn't be more appropriately titled... it bangs HARD & I'm sure I'll still be playing this out this time next year.

Shaza La Kazoo - Bang! Bang! by ShazaLaKazoo

The Town - Velvet Tears

Hard, sinister UK Funky track which never seems to resolve, just builds and builds the tension, I've played this at almost every gig since I got hold of it.

The Town™ - Velvet Tears Part 1 (Preview) by The Town™ [Kazey & Karve]

D'Banj - Oliver Twist

9ja pop house tune, love the combination of the atmospheric production and the comedy lyrics.

more after the jump...

Out this week, the latest installment in the Generation Bass moombah EP series, this time from Balkan electro kings Shazalakazoo. Balkan music is a natural bedfellow for Moombahton - Balkan club tunes have been hovering around 100bpm dembow territory for years. Shazalakazoo are the perfect guys to push the combination forward - as a pair they've been at the forefront of electronic Balkan music for the last 5 years or so, without relying on the same tired old brass samples, and of course on his own Neki Stranac, one half of Shazalakazoo, is one of the biggest names in the Moombahton scene.

With this EP Shazalakazoo bring us 4 solid original moombalkan bangers. Title track Bang! deftly twists Balkan brass into Dutch pitchbending, and is probably the stand out tune of the set. Balkan sounds aren't all that's thrown into the Moombah mix here though; MC Gi lends some Baile Funk style vocals to Danca Do Facao, whilst Neki's Tune follows a more straight up Moombahton template. Rojo Rubi, with vocals from MishMish, sticks fairly close to a pre-Moombah Balkan sound - this is basically vintage Shazalakazoo, with a few extra synth stabs & pitch bends thrown in - an excellent vehicle to take you from the Balkans to Moombahland.

On remix duties: SaBBo puts Danca Do Facao through his Deepaton filter (grab this one below) and Bert On Beats pitches Bang! up into Kuduro territory to fairly devastating effect.

Check it out:

Shazalakazoo - Bang! Bang! EP Teaser (Mixed by Neki Stranac) - OUT NOW by djumb

BUY IT!

Bang! Bang! at Juno
Bang! Bang! at Beatport
Bang! Bang! at iTunes

Grab the SaBBo remix free: Danca Do Facao (SaBBo remix)

To celebrate the site reaching 2 million visitors, Generation Bass has put together an enormous monster of a compilation, released in three parts over the last few days, featuring tracks from global bass heavyweights Bert on Beats, Bandish Projekt, Shazalakazoo, Celt Islam, the list goes on... plus a tune from me! I'm genuinely humbled both to be on this comp among such outstanding artists and to be involved in generationbass.com at all, it's kind of scary to think how many eyes must have read my words over there.

For the tracklist & downloads, head over there!

It Takes a Nation of 2 Million to Hold Us Back - Vol 1 - I'm on this one! Also features Bert on Beats, Bandish Projekt, Diamond Bass & load more
It Takes a Nation of 2 Million to Hold Us Back - Vol 2 - Celt Islam, Sabbo, Liquid Stranger, etc etc...
It Takes a Nation of 2 Million to Hold Us Back - Vol 3 - Shazalakazoo, GoldRush, Kush Arora....

This is just plain awesome

Shazalakazoo - Cyrillic (NEKI STRANAC Moombahlkan Edit) by SHAZALAKAZOO

ain't it?

Here's a nice lil balkan house blend from Balkadan:

BalkanCloud Mix by Balkadan

And here's what the man himself says about it:

A Balkan-Gypsy-House mix comprised solely of free tracks posted on Soundcloud! Look below for a tracklist with links to each of the tracks. Endless thanks to all the artists releasing AWSOME tracks for free and big-up Soundcloud for making it happen! Keep inspiration going 'round the world!

...also it has my tune Amyl Balkan on there so I had to post really... nice idea though doing a soundcloud-only mix, I can never remember where the hell I got tunes from personally unless they are represented by a circular piece of plastic

Shazalakazoo - Live in Amsterdam (2010) by shazalakazoo

This speaks for itself really, 2 solid hours of Balkan Folkstep Bangers from carnivalesque balkan soca-dancehall-house to hardcore balkan junglistic fever... all in Shazalakazoos inimitable style... for free!