FUCK YEAH. she's still the fucking coolest.

Man I've been neglecting my blogging duties over the festive period... (but remember you can always check me every Wednesday on Generation Bass) but I'm back! With a week-late Untimely round up of 2010's best tunes... blam! Well, not objectively the best, just the ones I listened to most - I'm kinda cheating by using my last.fm profile (or actually maybe that's not cheating at all, just forcing me to be honest...) - so, looking at my most listened to tunes of the last 12 months, and filtering out all of my stuff which doesn't count cos i listen to a new tune about 50 times in a row before deciding if its finished (plus all the Peter Fox, Gang Starr and Tom Waits which I listen to all the freakin time), this is what comes out... These aren't all necessarily new tunes from 2010, but they were all new to me in the last year. It's quite an interesting way to do this really, turns out what I actually listen to most is basically split between hip hop, country and urban-ish pop...

1. LDZ – La Quenta

This is from an album from a couple of years ago which has become my number one UK hip hop album since it was played to me by my Sheffield crew earlier this year, though it's more of a mixtape really... the beats are solid as fuck and the rhyming tight, inventive and funny... I absolutely love the verse at the end of this tune (from 1:37) which gets criminally faded out. go buy some of their stuff, they deserve it: LDZ at Bandcamp

2. Skinnyman – Smoking Ban

Another one from a few years ago which passed me by until a trip to Sheffield (the same one that brought LDZ to my attention), I've not been too bothered about most of Skinnyman's stuff but this tune is examplary, the beat is insane and the agression of his delivery is just amazing

more after the jump...

There's some good pop music around at the moment! Well there always is really, among the endless churning out of tripe (which I think is probably necessary to turn up the gems) but there's at least two tracks around at the moment which are totally rockin, the first being Tinie Tempah's Pass Out which I correctly predicted would be huuuuuge (at this point I'm retiring from the chart predicitons business with a 100% success rate). The second is Rude Boy by Rihanna - I've never been a fan of her previous stuff but that hook is just pure wickedness. Seems like everyone and his dog has done a remix (my dog is in the studio right now) - here's a little selection:

Heavy dancehall / reggaeton grind: Rihanna & Agent Sasco - Rude Boy Remix (usershare link). I think Agent Sasco replies "like a bus" to Rihanna's "is you big enough?" - that's pretty big

Bleepy IDMesque dancehall: Rihanna - Rude Boy - Murlo Remix (via Palms Out

More after the jump...

Been getting a whole bunch of hits from Kenya today since my post on Muthoni The Drummer Queen (still my hero) yesterday so I thought I'd return the favour and check out some more Kenyan stuff... here's a little selection of links to what I've come across (all with downloads!):

Two tunes via Ghetto Bassquake, both called Hey Baby:

Chiwawa - Hey Baby - raw Swahili hip hop..

Marya feat. Colonel Mustapha-Hey Baby - Cheery afro-pop..

So it seems I must be well behind the hype on this one since I first heard it on the Radio 1 request show, and every time I've put on Radio 1 since it's come one within 5 minutes... but daaaaamn this is an awesome track, surely destined for number 1?!?!

Came across this guy on fairtilizer, or maybe he came across me, anyway he's in my list of contacts & I've just been listening to his stuff and gosh it's nice. Check him out on Fairtilizer, and here's a tune to download:

Mondrian - Rise and fall of a golden boy seen by a porn star using no sextoy (society)

Starts of with 4 bars of a folksy bluesy acoustic guitar riff which makes me think of Gillian Welch, then we get funny wobbly indie which is just lovely, and nothing at all like Gillian Welch (though her music is also lovely). Continuing the lovely music for a sunday theme.