2010 Music review

Well it's been a long time since I was on here it seems... been busy with work and stuff. Stuff like thinking back over the past year about music, mostly about gabber/hardcore.

Favorite Producer – Paul Elstak

Yeah I know, I could, and probably would, call DJ Paul my favorite producer of the year for every year since I first heard Hardcore. I may be a bit biased towards a guy who was very influential in forming my musical identity but I know where I came from and I know he is to blame… fuck if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be wearing my Rotterdam Records shirt as I type this. Back to the topic, Paul came out with a CD album this year titled “The Evolution Of Hate “ it’s a solid release with lots of help from the rest of the Offensive crew. Now not every track on the album is one that’s going to make me run out and get the lyrics tattooed on me but 3 of my top 10 tracks of the year are on it and that sorta speaks for itself. Having talked about that there are also a few other things he did this year that I really liked, “Turbo” is a classic sounding bouncy tune with a hilarious video.. which is probably funnier if you can understand Dutch. His free tune that was put out a few days before Christmas called “Forever Young” takes an old school approach and couples it with new sounds making what I think real hardcore should sound like.

DJ Mix – Thrillogy Disc 3 by Nosferatu

I straight up loved this mix, the first tune “Poop” a colab between Ruffneck and Nosferatu is a solidly made track with hilarious Beavis & Butthead samples, sure to never be released to the public, it makes buying the CD worthwhile alone. That being said the rest of the mix is well programmed and perfectly mixed (as you would expect in 2010) full of up to the minute tunes and some older (4 months ago) stuff. Man shit sure moves quick now eh? I wasn’t into either of the other mixes in the compilation but that’s not relevant. I would suggest you buy the comp just to get the Nosferatu mix.

Up & coming producer - Furyan

I couldn’t tell you when Furyan started making tunes, but I can tell you that I started to really get into what he was putting out this year. One of my favorite tunes of the year is “Late” which has a super cheesy drop using a well know pop song… and I mean SUPER CHEESY, to the point of Justin Timberlake vocals. His work on the Nightmare Indoor 2010 sub-anthem “Maincore Overload” is solid, equal parts creepy and epic, just the way I like it. His stuff comes out on Rotterdam Records and that’s always a plus for me, it’s nice to see Hardcore’s oldest label still singing new talent with the ability to make solid music.

Best Tweeter – DJ Smurf

With his never perfect spelling and tweets that would seem pointless to even an OCD DJ Smurf-ologist he is the epitome of what the site should be, fun, silly, occasionally informative and always worth checking out. Follow him if you like drunk stories, North England and Scottish rave updates and pictures of drunk mishaps and bruises. Smurf's Twitter

Top 10 tunes of 2010

I'm not going to talk about what it was that made these my favorites this year, I will just give you the link to my 2010 YearMix that includes most of these and some of the other stuff I loved from the past year. Just click to download it HERE!

1. Paul Elstak feat. Maxime - I'm Not An Addict (Offensive Records)
2. Dyprax & Angerfist – The Pearly Gates (Masters Of Hardcore)
3. Beatstream & Radiate feat. Mike Redman - Mainstream Killah (Offensive Records)
4. Fuyan – Late (Unreleased)
5. Accelarator & Radiate – Open Your Mind (Offensive Records)
6. Nosferatu & Ruffneck – Poop (Unreleased)
7. Dave Dope – Industrial Violence (Gunpowder Records)
8. Ophidian - Lost In The Forrest *Prankster Remix* (Rotterdam Records)
9. Catscan & Predator - Repartition (Masters Of Hardcore)
10. Hellsystem - Another World (Hardcore Blasters)

Best Gabber Shirt – Wanna Play (Rige)

I won’t lie to you, I have ordered a lot of shirts from Holland this past year, more than any other year… I figure I have to prop up the record companies with funds that they once got from me buying records. Now that I buy MP3s I pay like 10% of the price for a tune compared to previous years, so I can afford the finer things in life. Like this shirt, it fucking rules and ordering it was a great way to end 2010, it’s also a great way to end this post. You can get one too here Rige Shop or here Midtown Records