Okay, so we’re one month into 2008, but – hopefully – the music listed below is still as current now as it was when it was released last year. In a bid to discover the best longplayers of 2007, we rounded up a panel of 45 DJs and producers – consisting of, among others, James Zabiela, System 7, Ben Sims, Alex Smoke, Will Saul, Silicone Soul, Nic Fanciulli, DJ 3000, DJ Yoda, Steve Lawler, Mike Monday, Elite Force, D:Fuse, Deepgroove, Black Dog, Aquasky, Audiofly, Barry Ashworth, James Mowbray, Perc, Prosumer, Tom Real, Skool Of Thought and 30hz – and got them to name their top three albums of the year. We awarded points to the albums according to their positions, and came out with a winner…
So EQ’s album of 2007 is Untrue by the elusive dubstep artist Burial. We tried to get hold of him/her to comment, but true to form, the aonymous producer stayed in the shadows. But when you’re impressing your peers as much as Burial does, surely you can’t stay hidden for ever? Expect to hear a lot more from this fast rising production star over the next 12 months…
Anyway, the top 10 albums of 2007 – as voted for be our panel of DJs and producers – are:
1. Burial – Untrue [Hyperdub]
2. Justice – † [Ed Banger]
3. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver [DFA]
4. Matthew Dear – Asa Breed [Ghostly International]
5. Chemical Brothers – We Are The Night [Virgin]
6. UNKLE – War Stories [Surrender All]
7. Pinch – Underwater Dancehall [Tectonic]
8. Ricardo Villalobos – Fabric36 [Fabric]
9. Modeselektor – Happy Birthday [BPitch]
10. High Contrast – Tough Guys Don’t Dance [Hospital]
And EQ’s own top 10 are:
1. Omid 16b – Like 3 Ears and One Eye [Sexonwax]
2. Two Lone Swordsmen – Wrong Meeting 1 + 2 [Rotters Golf Club]
3. Joris Voorn – From A Deep Place [Green]
4. Guy Gerber – Late Bloomers [Cocoon]
5. Underworld – Oblivion With Bells [Underworldlive.com]
6. Digitalism – Idealism [Kitsune]
7. Smith & Selway – The Coming Storm [Sino]
8. Luke Fair – Balance 11 [EQ Recordings]
9. Shiloh – Elements 01 [Baroque Records]
10. Klute – The Emperor’s New Clothes [Commercial Suicide]
Now read on for the full list of nominated albums (in alphabetical order), complete with glowing praise from our panel of experts…
Shlomi Aber
State of No One [Renaissance]
System 7: “Shlomi Aber is a leading light in new progressive house, but his album is not just full of heavy grooves – it’s light, varied and inspiring, with a dreamy spiritual quality in many of the tunes. An inspiring album for System 7 in 2007.”
Air
Pocket Symphony [Virgin]
Steve Lawler: “What an amazing album. I saw them live recently, and it showed just how talented they are. Incorporating all the live elements into the classic Air synths, this gives you something very different, an ambient, psychedelic, tripped-out love affair with dirty rock ‘n’ roll.”
Gabriel Ananda
Bambusbeats [Karmarouge]
Mike Monday: “While deciding my top two albums were pretty easy, I had real problems with the third. In the end, as I do spend most of my life playing records in clubs, I thought I'd pick a ‘DJ’ album. I wouldn't listen to it from beginning to end, but I have played more tracks off Bambusbeats in clubs all year than off any other offering. And Trommelstunde is one of my favourite (club) tracks of 2007.”
Baobinga & Id
Big Monster [Fat!]
30hz (Lot49): “Cheeky Manc chappy's someone manage to find some depth in the local chippy. Coal mining angst meets Tresor in a moment of misguided euphoria.”
Basteroid
Upsets Ducks [Areal]
Perc (Perc Trax): “Basteroid, along with Metope and a small group of other visionaries, manages to blend the dancefloor with the deranged in a perfect balance. Fitting in with the current minimal sound, yet a million times more interesting than the current crop of glitch merchants, this is the perfect introduction to the ever-brilliant Areal label.”
Beirut
The Flying Club Cup [4AD]
Dean Muhsin (Codex): “Brilliant band skillfully picked up by 4AD. Think Gus Gus (when they were more eclectic) mixed with Sigor Ros with a little bit of gypsy instrumentation thrown in for good measure. Wonderful stuff!”
Stephan Bodzin
Liebe Ist [Herzblut Recordings]
Black Ghosts (Theo Keating): “One of my favourite producers of recent years. Again, it's the use of overdriven and heavy sounds to make beautiful, delicate and intense music - and it's still techno.”
Bola
Kroungrine [Skam]
Black Dog (Soma): “Does what it says on the tin – glitched out low-tech funk from up north.”
Booka Shade
DJ Kicks [!K7]
Kraak & Smaak: “One of THE classic DJ Kicks mix albums – a perfect belnd of old and new electronics, with the rediscovery of Aphex Twin's Alberto Balsam as the icing on the cake.”
Burial
Untrue [Hyperdub]
Will Saul (Simple Records): “This LP never fails to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. A big step forward from the last LP, with much more introspective melodies and depth. It’s so captivating it enables me to drift off in my own little world. I also love the fact that he still hasn’t revealed who he is, he very rarely does remixes and he has never had a photo taken of his face. As a result, when he does actually release original material you really treasure the listening experience.”
Elite Force (Used & Abused/Lot49): “The new Burial album succeeds less as a collection of songs, and more as the creation of a location – and a claustrophobic one at that. I can't say I like all of it (the shuffling, clipped precision of the garage moments leaves me stone cold), and in another year it wouldn't feature in my list, but for 2007 it's one of the rare things of futuristic beauty out there.”
Mike Monday: “His last album was one of the albums of 2006, and this is one of the albums for 2007. In fact it probably ties for my first place with Matthew Dear. Burial has a talent for placing you in his world. One for the headphones with the lights off. And it’s got one of my tracks of 2007 on it: Ghost Hardware.”
Audiofly: “This album is groundbreaking in the way it pushes dubstep out of the underground into a more extended market… a great album in itself, but watch out for Archangel.”
Gavin Herlihy (Leftroom/Kindisch/Moodmusic): “It’s a mark of how far dubstep has penetrated into the mainstream that Sunday broadsheet readers are name dropping Burial. That's not necessarily a negative. Good music travels, and the elusive Burial's second album is like a postcard from nighttime London. Maybe that's something to do with the ghosts of rave and garage that haunt its tracklisting. Or the urban soundscape it creates. This reminds me of staring out the window of a nightbus lost in a pair of headphones watching London drift by when I first moved there. Urban alienation, solitary bliss surrounded by a city of millions — these are all feelings evoked by a true landmark album that binds dance music's past into something all new and exciting.”
Also nominated by James Zabiela, Alex Smoke, Jim Hutchison (Hum+Haw), Tom Real
Lee Burridge
Balance 11 [EQ]
Nominated by Nic Fanciulli
Buscemi
Retro Nuevo [Downsallplastic]
DJ 3000 (Motech/Submerge/UR): “I’ve always been a fan of Buscemi because if his ability to fuse cultures in his music from samba Brazilian to Bossanova to just nice lounge down tempo music but this album he really showed his growth and put himself way head of the pack with his diverse production. His lead single "Bollywood Swing King" was so so crazy for me it was the first track on my list to license for my mix CD, what a amazing album!”
Caspa & Rusko
Fabriclive37 [Fabric]
Nominated by Tom Real
Chemical Brothers
We Are The Night [Virgin]
Elite Force (Used & Abused/Lot49): “I listened to this twice straight through on a flight out to India earlier this year, and it shines bright with a restless energy, awash with psychedelic hooks, fierce and focused melody lines, and only the one duff moment in the Salmon Dance (but Herve's remix sees that right – so sub it in yer iPod for the perfect listening experience).”
Barry Ashworth (Dub Pistols/Dogtown Clash): “What can you say? I loved this album. Tom and Ed showing their class.”
Tim Paris (Marketing Music): “Because producing a relevant electronic music long format appears to be almost undoable, only a very few talented people can even bring it to the likes of a 'very' large crowd. This album is a great achievement.”
Chloe
The Waiting Room [Kill The DJ]
Tim Paris (Marketing Music): “Perfectly balanced between electronic and acoustic, this record is brilliant. Every moment of it is pure sincerity and enables you to enter Chloe's mind. Album and artist of the year.”
Clipse
Hell Hath No Fury [Star Trak]
Nominated by Alex Smoke (Hum+Haw)
Cobblestone Jazz
23 Seconds [!K7]
Gregor Tresher: “Amazing debut album by Mathew Jonson, Tyger Dhula and Danuel Tate containing great new tracks like W, 23 Seconds and Lime In Da Coconut, plus Dump Trunk and India In me on the bonus CD. Big album!”
