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2014 Songs of the Year: Part One - 60 through 51

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It's that time of year and as always I'm a little late out of the gate (blame the fact that advertising, my day job, doesn't make compiling this sort of list in December particularly easy!)

I didn't do a songs list last year but as I've focused more on posting one off tracks in 2014 it felt much more relevant. I'm going with a top 60 format and will be posting ten every day or so, then I will look to cover the top ten albums of the year.

I won't comment on these early ones (I just don't have the time sadly!) but where possible I've included a free streaming link or video, otherwise I expect a Spotify player.

Finally before we dive in, I wanted to call out four songs that very nearly made it but just missed out. Stills by Panes, Restless by Oyinda (big hopes for 2015!), Levitation by Marz Léon and Everything We Touch by Say Lou Lou. And with that, on to the list...

Click the Prev post button at the bottom of this post to get to Part Two.

60. Mess On A Mission - Liars

 

59. Hold Me - JJ

 

58. Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) - Run The Jewels feat. Zack De La Rocha

 

57. Summer Jorts (Some Cats Still Do) - Lockah

 

56. Origins - Max Cooper

iTunes - http://smarturl.it/MCKindred A few years ago I did a remix of a track by Dominik Eulberg called Sansula, which featured an instrument of the same name. After the release a builder of sansula instruments in the Netherlands was kind enough to give me one as a present in case I wanted to use one again in a live recording, which I have finally got around to doing now with this track! My process consisted of me sitting in my studio (badly) playing the thumb plucked sansula for quite a while, so that I could go back to the recording and pull out some useable loops as a starting point. I wanted a nice warm analogue chord progression to complement, but more in the high bass and low mids than my usual chord progression that's down really low, to fill the mix with the warmth as much as possible. The track still needed something though, so I turned to some spare recordings of my favourite vocalist - Kathrin deBoer, from some of our previous recording sessions. I didn't want to go for the usual full lyrical approach of a vocal collab track, I just wanted to add some small snippets of human feeling to round off the track properly. The release is coming out on Fields on the 1st of December along with an intense synth experiment with a Prophet 08, and beautiful remixes from David August and Throwing Snow. If you're not into buying music there is also a new website I have just launched which will be providing exclusive new free downloads for all in return for signing up to the website - http://www.maxcooper.net/downloads

 

55. Let Me Down Gently - La Roux

 

54. Heroine - The Night VI

 

53. Johnny and Mary - Todd Terje

 

52. Getaway - EBY feat. IIRIS

 

51. Oasis - Alpines

More to follow...

Video: Friday Night - The Grizzly Folk

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This hit my inbox in a moment introspection on Friday night, as I was on the train home, and it probably benefitted from the perfect timing... But having gone back to it a couple of times since it still tugs at my heart strings.

The song is a heartfelt ballad about waiting patiently for someone returning from a long trip. The video was a collaboration between The Grizzly Folk and Three Mobile. To celebrate the launch of the iPhone 6 they decided to see what kind of music video they could film and edit entirely on the phone itself, and this is the result. You can see some good use of the phone's hyperlapse and slow motion capabilities in here but it also perfectly captures the feel of London now that the weather has turned - something made possible by how quickly you can produce this kind of thing on a phone these days.

Anyway, lovely song and a nice little video.

Ethics policy: BlackPlastic.co.uk never takes paid posts. Any items received free will be disclosed, with the exception of music itself due to the nature of the site. No payment or gift was received for this post.

Video: City Of Night - Nicholas Krgovich

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A frankly remarkable video directed by Peter J Brant, who has created videos for both Solange and War On Drugs, for this new track from Nicholas Krogvich. The video includes a cameo appearance from Amber Coffman of the Dirty Projectors.

The song itself is a distinctly LA-sounding piece of yacht rock, making the video, which is set in the hills of east Los Angeles, perfect. It's an amazing piece of music, full of subtlety the sparkles and fades like the Hollywood dreams of those in the city that inspired it.

The new album, On Sunset, is out through Tin Angel Records now. Get it on CD, LP or MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate links].