The Abandon Silence Best of 2010 lists

When I approached the compilation of these two lists, I had a general idea as to what the top 5s were going to be. The problems came when decided which tracks to include and leave out, thus I extended my top 10 tracks to a top 25, though still several glaring omissions that I am finding it hard to live with.



When I started to think about creating this lists, I knew that James Blake had to be my number One. I restricted myself by deciding to include only one track per artist, and I just had to put the anthem in. CMYK is just a clarrion call for all that was good about UK music in 2010. This was the sound of an emerging artist finding his feet, but doing so miles ahead of his contemporaries. He is sure to take over 2011 with his vocal works.

Tracks -- (all are YouTube links)

1)James Blake - CMYK
2) Girl Unit - Wut
3) Mount Kimbie - Maybes
4) Foals - Spanish Sahara
5) Flying Lotus – Do the Astral Plane
6) Ramadanman – Glut
7) Kingdom – Fogs
8) Deadboy - If U Want Me
9) Skream/Instra:mental & D:Bridge - Acacia Avenue
10) White Ring - ixc999
11) Gil Scott Heron – New York is Killing Me (Jamie XX remix)
12) Balam Acab – See Birds
13) Sepalcure – The Warning
14)Jamie Woon – Night Air (Ramadanman remix)
15) Gold Panda - You
16) Datsik – Firepower (Moombahcore remix)
17) Burial - Prophecy
18) SX – Woo Riddim
19) Magnetic Man ft Katy B – Perfect Stranger (dBridge remix)
20) Pariah – Detroit Falls
21) Redlight ft Ms Dynamite – What You Talkin’ About
22) Swindle - Airmiles
23) MJ Cole & Wiley – From the Drop
24) Pangaea - Why
25) Joy Orbison – The Shrew Would Have Cushioned the Blow

The album list could easily just be the top 2 on their own, as FlyLo and Kanye's efforts were just streets ahead of the pack this year. No other albums got near to connecting with me and I will always remember 2010 for those two LPs. Notable mentions for the fantastic Mount Kimbie record, Four Tet creating his best album to date, Foals finding maturity within their glitchy indie pop, Arcade Fire stepping up yet again and two obscure record labels, Autonomic and Night Slugs, coming to the fore of 'UK Bass music'.

Albums

1) Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
2) Kanye West – My Dark Twisted Fantasy
3) Mount Kimbie – Crooks & Lovers
4) Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
5) Four Tet – There is Love in You
6) Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
7) Foals – Total Life Forever
8) Fabric Live 51 – Autonomic
9) Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
10) Night Slugs – Night Slugs Allstars



Please use the comments box below to vent your fury, or maybe even agree, with my decisions.