Ilya Yablochnikov

I am so surprised to hear a track that totally gets the early 90's vibe in 2010. I guess we'll be hearing more of those in the future. Just a totally joyful house track, maybe a little cheesy even. I prefer the radio edit because it gets down to business right away.

Spacey, melodic, fast paced electro with that Nintendo top-down shooter feel.

Tuneful indie with girl vocals. This is a bit heavier than their earlier material. Non-stop hooks.

Very funky, prefiguring post-punk in some ways. The vocal style reminds me of the Knife. Saxophone is a bonus.

From the Scientist Encounters Pac-Man album, this is a dub of Linval Thompson's Call Me. The bassline is unstoppable and the dub is livened up by the inclusion of a small bit of the excellent vocals. The rhythm guitar comes in and out and the snare is reverbed to massive dimensions. Magnificent.

Don't know how I avoided this all my life. A great slice of mid-80's pre-sample era hip-hop with the dj juggling two copies of Bob James - Take Me To The Mardi Gras. A fat drum machine provides the rest of the beat with a few other samples scratched in here and there. I've really grown to love the really bare-bones drum machine driven hip-hop like this recently (see also previous selection).

Instrumental or vocal version, both are slightly otherwordly. It has a reggae feel to it while still retaining the trademark Talking Heads funk.

The essence of mid-90's NY hip-hop. Such a heavy and dark beat thanks to a 70's jazz sample. OC puts some amazing lyrics over it with a flow that adds a whole new layer of rhythm and rhyme scheme that comes and goes.

A perfect slice of cheesy European disco. The corny melodies are tempered by some nice synth work and live percussion. There's a great breakdown in the middle that could have come from a Salsoul record. There's some vocoders in this as a bonus.

Beautiful song, very lush, not overpowered by 80's sound design. Catchy melody obviously. There are so many things going on in this track, so many layers.

Yet more proof that disco sampling house is the best dance music possible. Relentlessly uplifting. Love the chipmunky vocals. There's quite a lot of detail in what appears to be a simple three bar loop - from little guitar lick edits to just the sheer amount of sounds happening: bass, strings, two guitar lines, vocal samples, keys. When you start getting into it it just becomes a swirling mass of sound.

Cover of a Smiths song. This was kind of an introduction to both T.A.T.U. and The Smiths for me (hey, only 5 and 25 years too late). I think I slightly prefer the cover to the original. Morrissey himself called it "magnificent". Something so great about the video too.

Dub techno in the style of Rhythm & Sound. Nice patois chatter. Pretty busy for this kind of track. That key change in the middle adds so much to the track, makes me wonder why it's not used more often.

Late to the party as usual I only just heard the second Luomo album "The Present Lover". "Shelter" grabbed me immediately. It's probably the most straightforwardly house-y track on the album. Unlike most of the other tracks the vocal is a simple refrain repeated over and over (but so sweet). The bassline is bubbly and insistent. Good, shoplifting stuff with all the mastery you expect from Vladislav Delay.