You could put some joy upon my face

Booka Shade - Darko (Ganzer & Nigemann Remix) You gotta admire the German's attitude towards their music: they don't bother building fake museums for their classics, they almost automatically celebrate great records in their own decadent way. This 2006-emerged classic comes from one of my albums of the year, Booka Shade's awesome Movements, and as with any other great track from this album-- it was celebrated with a handful of remix packs. Now, I'm all for this approach-- the more the merrier or something, although it can drain the track out of its initial energy (see article 'We Are Not Your Friends: Cultural Studies On How To Take A Feel Good Indie Track And Turn It Into Hell' for more). This time, we're all for the Radio Slave remix, we're all for the amazing combo named 'Booka Shade Meets Hot Chip', we don't even mind Tiefschwarz taking their shot (However, I did, for some reason, listen to their Misch Masch this week in the car and it sounds awfully dated already). For me, this masterpiece called 'Darko' can come in many shapes and forms - keep 'em coming then, I'll probably buy it.

Booka Shade VS Corona (Dumb Dan Edit) Some more Shadeness, this time not an official Get Physical release. This track, simply Corona's 'Rhythm of The Night' acapella glued with Shade's 'Darko' again, is quite basic. But, well, it's quite good! I mean, it's about pop magic or something, God. God, fuck blogging. I don't really know, I guess the DJs should play it in their oh-so-versatile electrohouse sets, it's one of those good surprises. You recognize the voices, you feel at home, but then there's this strange warmth that you don't recognize... It makes you feel new again.

Jona & Claude Vonstroke - Someone (Flylikeaneaglemix Claude Vonstroke) This year has been mostly about Rekids and Innervisions for me. Yes, it did have its Kitsune moments. Yep, it had a few of Ed Banger moments for a while, DFA too, of course. I could never really neglect Soul Jazz. Can't really forget the wonderful Dubsided moments, which most of the time Jesse Rose supplied. Full Pupp, Feedelity and the other norwegians were there with me during the good and bad times as well. Wagon Repair and DC Recordings are ones to be namechecked as well, ahhh, and the minimal-schminimal shenanigans of Perlon/Playhouse are on the map too. But really, it has been most of the time, Innervisions and Rekids. Again and again. But hold, couple of days before 2007, I think I've been missing Claude Vonstroke's San-Fransisco-based Dirtybird Records all along. Man, does this guy know what the fuck he be doing? I mean, he's putting the 'gno' back in Detroit Techno. I had trouble selecting one favourite track off his amazing list, but the man's a proper genius. Go check out what he did to Luke Solomon's 'Ghouls ' (on Rekids) if you haven't already. After that, that new The Rapture remix is so intact, that it's hopefully gonna give Vonstroke the adequate dance-rock crossover. So much better, sorry guys you know how much I love you than SMD's version (which sounds very much like what they did with Klaxons' 'Magick', same ideas etc... damn). His re-tweak of Andy Caldwell's 'Warrior', his own BookakakaShade-ish 'Beware of The Bird', well, just grab anything you can.

Matt O'Brien - Serotone (Radio Slave Remix) After I managed to purchase every single one of the releases on the short-lived Rekids label, this gem pops up. More Radio Slaveness, who's putting out so much shit right now (really, have you heard 'Screaming Hands' yet? man oh man), which is kind of like saying to us: please don't forget me. It's like he fully realized us kids love to idolize someone else every new day, and he's making sure that his name doesn't leave our consciousness. Kind of like how Google became the word for search engines, like web 2.0 became the word for some obscure internet thing, Radio Slave is the word for clean, minimal, banging & blissful tracks and remixes. Thank you, Matt Edwards. Go buy this record when it's released, the sleeve is beautiful too (as with anything else related to Rekids).