Rounding Off

It's been a good year, (that's unless you mention football); lots of new music consumed, books read, household chores put off for infinity, a tuberculosis breakout at work, finally getting paid for writing in the service of music . . .not bad at all. Difficult to say who stood out for me over the year as I'm not a great one for lists of any description. Having said that I did, for the first time since having started contributing to them, deign to complete the Resident Advisor end of year poll. I was unable to finish the top tracks section though. Maybe I'm not listening hard enough, or is it really a case of not enough individual tunes standing out . . ? I don't know. Anyway, I would have found it easy to chart whole releases - which is what I do every month in the same studied, but arbitrary, fashion.


In any case, as RA don't publish individual contributor's polls, opting rather for the "put everything in a bag, shake it all about and let it spill out" approach, here are my individual results in the categories of Top Artist Albums, Top Compilations/Mixes and Top Labels, in that order. Oh, and as well as not sending in my "top tracks" I also didn't bother with "top live act" either.

Top Artist Albums 2010:

1
Flying Lotus
Cosomgramma
Warp

2
The Black Dog
Music For Real Airports
Soma

3
Ikonika
Contact, Love, Want, Have
Hyperdub

4
Peter van Hoesen
Entropic City
Time To Express

5
Anthony “Shake” Shakir
Frictionalism 1994-2009
Rush Hour

6
Marcel Dettmann
Dettmann
Ostgut Ton

7
Ark
Arkpokalypse Now
Perlon

8
Caribou
Swim
City Slang

9
Robert Hood
Omega
M Plant

10
Mr G
Still Here (Get On Down)
Rekids

11
Shed
The Traveller
Ostgut Ton

12
John Roberts
Glass Eights
Dial

13
Scuba
Triangulation
Hot Flush

14
dOP
Greatest Hits
Circus Company

15
Wareika
Harmonie Park
Perlon

16
Commix
Re Call To Mind
Metalheadz

17
Matthew Dear
Black City
Ghostly International

18
Efdemin
Chicago
Dial

19
Massive Attack
Heligoland
Virgin

20
Darkstar
North
Hyperdub

Top Compilations/Mixes 2010:

1
V/A
Funf
Ostgut Ton


2
Optimo
Fabric 52
Fabric


3
Kode 9
DJ Kicks
K7


4
Seth Troxler
Boogybytes Vol 5
BPitch


5
Martyn
Fabric 50
Fabric


6
Shackleton
Fabric 55
Fabric


7
Ben Klock
Berghain 04
Ostgut Ton


8
V/A
Superlongevity 5
Perlon


9
Todd Terje/Various
Remaster Of The Universe
Permanent Vacation


10
Scientist
Scientist Launches Dubstep . . .
Tectonic

Top Labels 2010:

1
Ostgut Ton



2
Hyperdub



3
Hot Creations



4
Underground Quality



5
Numbers



6
Highgrade



7
Desolat



8
Crosstown Rebels



9
Upon You



10
Hypercolour

In order to be more critical and, of course, more precise next year I'll have to start taking notes from next month so I plan to be a lot more investigative from 1/1/11. Meanwhile, I hope you all had a happy Christmas, or a good equivalent if you don't celebrate it, and all the best for 2011.