Alright 2012, whatcha got for us…?

So, 2011 is now on the way to the compost heap and we sweep the hearth clean in anticipation of what 2012 will bring. Lots of good stuff on the electronic music horizon, fortunately mostly slated for the early part of the year, which is a good thing as we’ll get to enjoy some good new music in advance of the looming apocalypse in the fall (or is it the spring? We get our apocoli confused).

Our list is topped by Assemblage 23’s Bruise (supposed to be out this fall, but we’ll take it whenever Mr. Shear wants to deliver it, so terrific was his last A23 album); and after hearing sensational advance tracks from Bunny Lake their The Sound Of Sehnsucht is also high on our anticipated list. But these two are far from alone. 2012 looks to be replete with potential awesomeness, to whit:

The 2011 Softsynth playlist

So, as we do every year, we have assembled the individual songs that made up the soundtrack for Softsynth this year. We are generally more about albums than singles but there are individual songs that stand on their own as outstanding. Some of these come from albums we found underwhelming as a whole, some were one-off singles, or standouts from excellent EPs.

We don’t do a singles list because as often as not it’s album tracks that get us all hot and bothered but the song collection that truly moved us, our “top 25 songs” to go with our albums of the year, starts with the following:

Three artists we’re digging this week

In the closing weeks of the year we’ve been inundated with exceptional new music. In addition to the terrific Trent Reznor/Attacus Ross soundtrack for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which was released the day of this blog post (and contains a wonderful new How to Destroy Angels song which makes us yearn even more powerfully for a full length album from that outfit), we’ve seen a bundle of great new stuff which has made up the bulk of the Softsynth playlist these past couple of weeks, to whit:

Mute

When we look back at the history of electronic music, and more personally Softsynth’s own journey to embrace our shared genre, Daniel Miller’s record label played a larger, more significant role than any other entity. As a young lad in a small Canadian city in the pre-internet era there were only a few ways to discover new music. Mainstream radio was the big one and we’ve waxed on about how we discovered Depeche Mode in 1984 thanks to the then-ubiquitous “People Are People” which aired on MuchMusic, daily video shows like CBC’s Video Hits, and on radio programs like Dick Clark’s op 40 Countdown which aired on Halifax’s C-100.

The Softsynth 2010 playlist

Daunting is the idea of having to single out singles.

a) What do singles even mean in 2010? The digital age, the era of the pre-release leak, the lack of any physical “release” for all intents and purposes, the absence of any television presence where videos are played in any meaningful way – all have lead to a music world where a so-called “single” means no more than any other stand-out track on an album.

b) If breaking down the best albums in a particular genre is as daunting as it was in 2010, the idea of having to attack the mountain of meaningful electronic songs and somehow rank them in a consequential way is beyond the mental capacity of this blogger.

That said, each year there rises an honour roll of sorts, in absolutely no particular order at all, no “first”, no “last” . just those songs (yes, usually singles, but not always) that were constantly on the Softsynth playlist this year; those songs that resonated and rose above the conclave, the 30 “best” electronic songs of 2010.

Our thoughts on the annual Grammy noms for “Best electronic album”

Each year one of the more frustrating experiences as a fan of electronic music is witnessing the dunderheads at the Grammys choose what they think constitutes the “best” electronic releases in a given year. The latest round of nominations is upon us so let’s open the pot and have a look inside, shall we?

Revisiting the Xtina files

So we alluded to the newest effort from Christina Aguilera in a post back in May. Our discussion was an holistic look at her being the latest in a long string of mainstream artists to develop a hard-on for electronic music and while we celebrated that embrace, we took issue with some of the obvious reasons for the directional turn and the derivative qualities inherent within.

Review: Goldfrapp – Head First

We were worried. After following two of the greatest-ever electronic albums with the tepid The Seventh Tree, Goldfrapp stood as something of a precipice, do they regroup and remind us of the energy and punch they were capable of, or continue with experiments that don’t work and feel like a shadow of their best?

They gave us the single “Rocket” which thanks to an odd Pointer Sisters synth refrain and a strangely emotionless energy, felt off somehow. Then we caught a glimpse of “Believer” which was just dull and uninspiring.

We were worried. Was this another large-scale misfire in the offing? Was this disco experiment just window dressing for underwhelming songwriting?

As it turns out, not so much…

March madness

As we swerve head-long into March Softsynth is excited about the spate of new releases from an assortment of some of our very favourite bands. A sampling of the March goodness:

Absurd Minds: Serve or Suffer – March 5

De/Vision: Popgefahr – March 9

Diorama: Cubed – March 19 (check out their new video for “Child of Entertainment” at the link below – despite the horrific lipsyncing we’re diggin’ the tune…)

Psy’Aviah: Eclectric – March 19

Goldfrapp: Head First – March 22

The Girl and the Robot: The Beauty of Decay – March 26

Blind Faith and Envy: Into the Calm – March ??? (they are still saying March but no actual date yet…hmm…)

Goldfrapp revving up the Rocket

So there are places you can now hear the forthcoming new single from Goldfrapp including at YouTube (see/hear below) and the jury is still out on what this new album is really going to sound like.

Much of the discussion surrounding the new single has centred on its early 80s sound and yeah, it’s there in spades. Specifically many have compared it to the Pointer Sisters and once again, yeah. The main synth line sounds like it was lifted from “I’m So Excited”, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.