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Best of 2010 Podcast

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Just a note to announce a new pair of mixes I've done for the fabulous Made Like a Tree series, wrapping up (in a roundabout way) my best-of-2010 picks.

The mixes are titled, respectively, "House" and "Home," which pretty much sums them up: one is an hour of house (for lack of a better term); the other is an hour of darker, slower, moodier stuff. The first is a DJ mix, recorded "live" at home (after many hours of preparation, it must be said); the second was collaged together in Ableton Live.

Overall, they take in a pretty wide range: Oneohtrix Point Never, Gunnar Wendel, Omar-S, Nebraska, Discreet Unit, Floating Points, Scuba, Joe, Tim Toh, Caribou, DJ Koze, Baz Reznik, Adam Marshall and Milosh, Roman Flügel, John Roberts, Aera, September Collective, Glasser, Forest Swords, Raime, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Benoit Pioulard, Demdike Stare, Barn Owl, Mist, Klangwart, Tin Man, Pariah, Lorn, Actress, Imaginary Softwoods, Anworth Kirk, Teebs, Reagenz, and James Blake.

(The labels include Editions Mego, FXHE, Rush Hour, Prime Numbers, Eglo, Hotflush, Philpot, City Slang, Arbor, SD Records, New Kanada, Dial, Aleph, Mosz, True Panther, No Pain in Pop, Blackest Ever Black, Leaf, Kranky, Modern Love, Thrill Jockey, Amethyst Sunset, Staubgold, White Denim, Brainfeeder, Honest Jon's, Digitalis, Pre-Cert Home Entertainment, Brainfeeder, Workshop, and Atlas. A nice little range there.)

Putting together a "best of 2010" mix wasn't easy, if only because the parameters of the project made me hyper-conscious of what was getting left out. I knew that I didn't want to simply corral together a selection of top-ranked tracks, in part because I really don't like ranking things—how do you compare Oni Ayhun and Nebraska, and say that one's music is "better"? Besides, it was important to me that each mix had its own coherence and flow. In the end, there were a few key tracks (especially on the house mix) that determined the direction of the rest. In the case of the house mix, those choices also precluded going in a darker, more warped direction, which I had hoped to do via tracks like Oni Ayhun, P. Eladan, Healing Force Project, Cub, etc. And I didn't really get to explore the Caribou/Four Tet/James Holden/Luke Abbott axis as much as I would have liked. Another day, another mix.

You can find links to both mixes, tracklists, and a short interview with me here.

Finally, I just wanted to express my gratitude to Jeremy and Made Like a Tree for giving me the opportunity to represent the best in 2010 for them; it's been an honor and (my neurotic tendencies aside) a pleasure.

I'll be posting a proper end-of-year roundup of some sort on this blog in short order.

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