Alan Lockett :: Top lists for 2009

(January 2010) This is a rough guide for the Igloo-peruser who may be passing by, grazing, looking for some tasty electronic shoots from 2009’s crop. My choices are grouped into two – ‘Ambient’ and ‘Beats’ (mainly techno and dubstep, with a smattering of IDM) for greater clarity. With so many releases in these areas vying for attention in ’09, narrowing them down to 10 has
been an invidious task. These are the ones that seem to have continued
to radiate while others have faded away or got lost in the memory.
There may be a certain ‘halo effect’ at work, whereby traces of other
‘Best of 2009’ lists tend to bleed into and, however unconsciously,
influence one’s own; I think, though, that I’ve managed to stay authentic to what I feel are my own judgments. If I had to pick out one release as emblematic of the year for me, it’d be Demdike Stare’s Symbiosis,
a wonderfully atmospheric recording that managed to incorporate a
number of influences – Techno, Dub, Ambient, Trip-hop, Library music,
hauntology, to name but six – while being constantly questing, playfully spooked, and excellently produced.

You can listen to extracts from these in the context of continuous mixes – streamable or downloadable here.