I hope you read Hannes’ best of 2011 yesterday. Here’s mine.
Best Album
SBTRKT – SBTRKT / Calibre – Condition
Best EP
Hackman – Close EP / Skreamizm Vol. 6
Best Track
Hackman – Agree to Disagree / Joker – The Vision (Instrumental)
Best Remix
The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army (The Glitch Mob Remix) / Gappy Ranks – English Money (Trrbo & Cat People Remix) / Calvin Harris – Feel So Close (Nero Remix)
Best Live Performance
The award for best DJ Set goes to Skream & Benga back in late April. This set was incredibly good. Their mixing was flawless, the sound system was massive and the crowd went mental. And, at the end of the night, the security didn’t seem to care if you smoked a cigarette or two on the dance floor. Or if you hopped on stage. Kudos!
I gotta give the best Live Performance to Death Crew 77 at the Emmaboda festival. Such an energetic show, with strobe lights and lasers what not. And then of course the Bloody Beetroots themselves getting ravey on stage. I was very impressed by them as they were able to make a performance with instruments sound a lot like a DJ set.
Biggest Disappointment
I was really looking forward to Camo & Krookeds debut album, but I only enjoyed about one track. All the other tunes were too… much, basically. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say what Camo & Krooked (at least their new style) is to drum and bass, is what Skrillex is to dubstep. *wink wink*
Looking forward to in 2012
The new High Contrast album that’s coming out on Hospital. It’s going to be big.
Oh yea, if you want to read my review on the Emmaboda festival, it’s after the jump.
Emmaboda this year was a lot like the two other ones I’ve been to. Great people, great atmosphere, great music and last but absolutely not least, great food. This year was a bit sloppy as it rained constantly for about 3 days. But I don’t mind being dirty and sleeping in a leaking tent for a week. Actually, I do, but Emmabodafestivalens massive line-up made me see past the mud and rain.
As per usual, electronic music was the main theme, but plenty of other genres were in the line-up mix. Two Door Cinema Club, Daniel Adams Ray, First Aid Kit, Ska‘N’Ska, The Casualties, Movits were just a few bands who showed the visitors that there is more to music than electronic sounds. But for the people who were there to see electronic music, what a line up they had in front of them. TBB Death Crew 77, Vitalic, Danger, Skrillex, Infected Mushroom, Booka Shade, Feed Me, F.O.O.L., Slagsmålsklubben, Designer Drugs etc… It was Mecca for electro fans.
My top 3 shows must be: 1. F.O.O.L. 2. Feed Me 3. Vitalic. Death Crew 77 was a joy to watch as well with their massive lighting system and impressive setup with live instruments. Not to mention Fenech-Soler who also did a great show! One big disappointment was actually Skrillex. I might get hated on, but I thought so. You’d think since he’s gotten so incredible famous he might want to do something for his fans like, I don’t know, put on a good show? Do something different, some mash ups, throw in some cool samples, whatever. Now it was just a boring regular DJ set cross fading between songs. But hey, that’s just my opinion.
Another downside with this year’s Emmaboda was the amount of people that was there, although you pretty much didn’t notice it, until you went to a show. One example is Skrillex again. He was probably the most popular act on the festival, so you could figure out that there were going to be quite a few people there out of the 10.000 who attended. And yes, there were. And also he was playing on the smaller stage, so people had to stand pretty far out in the forest, battling with the trees for a good view. Chaos is the right word for that show.
All in all, the festival was great. I intend to attend next year, and I recommend you all to do as well.
