My Best Moments of 2011

"Life moves pretty fast sometimes. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. "

Thanks Ferris. With that in mind, and the dawning of a new year (a new era and all that jazz), I have decided to look back over the last 12 months of my life and pick out my top 15 highlights. From a music and performance perspective mostly, so not including stuff like Murdochgate (which I was obsessed with over the summer), the August riots and the Japanese earthquake. Looking back it turns out 2011 was quite event packed:

1) Boyz Magazine cover

The year got off to a good start with a cover feature in the London magazine Boyz (above). The interview is not online, but you can read this one at Bent mag instead.

2) Writing for Dangerous Minds

In January I landed a job writing about music (and other stuff) for my favourite website Dangerous Minds. I had been reading and commenting for over a year when I decided to chance my arm and send them a pitch - and they were into it! I've done well over 200 posts now, you can see a list of them here.

3) Vogue Brawl

At the end of January Growler & Niallist held our inaugural Vogue Brawl in Legends. The night was a huge success with Manchester's fiercest and most fabulous showing out. Music was supplied by Pumping Iron and Menergy, and prizes went to Woof Woof, Sebastian, Zsa Zsa Noir and the House of Blige. Vogue Brawl will be back this year, bigger and better than ever! Funnily enough, the Facebook event page is still up.

4) The Birth of Joyce D'Vision

I knew from the moment that Joe Spencer told me his idea for a Joy Division based drag act called Joyce that it was beyond brilliant. So big props to Scottee Scottee for insisting that Joe do some kind of performance piece at Eat Your Heart Out in February, kicking Joe's arse into gear and giving birth to the whole Joyce D'Vision thing! [Eat Your Heart Out pics here]

5) Dirty Minds - a tribute to Prince

In March Growler and Niallist hosted a Prince tribute night at the Purple Pussycat with help from local scene queens Sheela Blige, Kurt Dirt and Emma Peate (who incredibly dj'ed for 4 hours playing NON STOP Prince music and not even resorting to extended mixes!) This was a major blast, and I wanna do it again... [Dirty Minds pics here]

6) Facebook gay kiss controversy

In April Dangerous Minds had our biggest story of the year, unintentionally inspired by a post I wrote on a London pub's gay "kiss-in". This post was removed from Facebook, inspiring Richard Metzger to write another post that got shared 85,000 times on Facebook and gaining coverage in the international media.

7) Ariel Pink & Haunted Graffiti live

This was a great gig, but it was what happened on the walk home with Joe Spencer that was the real magic. Call it another gay kissing controversy if you will.

8) Supporting JD Samson's MEN at the Islington Mill

Another awesome gig by one of my favourite bands, and this time I was honoured to be able to share a stage with them too. Me and Joyce D'Vision also got to interview JD Samson and talk about queer issues, and it turns out she's lovely! You can see that (unedited) interview here.

9) Sharing a stage with David Hoyle

David Hoyle is a natural comedy genius, a legendary performer and a huge inspiration to pretty much everyone I know. Getting to share a stage with him (as part of Joyce D'Vision) was another great honour for me last year. As for the show, well, it was smashing...

10) Biophilia live

Bjork's Biophilia show as part of the Manchester international Festival was by far the best thing I saw live lsat year. It was a perfect blend of the old and the new, the organic and the technological and in a beautiful setting too (the Museum of Science and industry). The music was wondrous, rapturous - this was pretty much some kind of religious experience. You can read my review on Dangerous Minds.

11) Tranarchy presents Showgirls

As part of a series of alternative events over Pride Weekend, Growler & Niallist screened the cult classic Showgirls with live drag queen stripping, topless (bear) dancing, a thrusting competition, Bad Taste Barbies live and more.

12) Menergy second annual Fierce Ruling Divas Ball

The FRDB returned for it's second outing in Glasgow near the end of August, and saw a huge turn out of drag queens that seemingly never existed in Glasgow before. Have we cast some kind of a spell? Guest judge Jonny Woo might well think so...

13) Zombie Pride 4

A week after FRDB2 saw Zombie Pride return for its fourth year to Legends, packing in well over 400 crazily dressed people into the venue, and going on till 4AM. Although it was a long shift, it basically ran like a dream, and was probably the most successful night I've been involved in running! Here's Kate Hughes' excellent investigative report:

14) Remixxing werk

Although I spent a large part of my musical time this year getting together the AKA album (out soon with guests like Yo Majesty, Andrew WK, Beth Ditto, Ali Renault and more) the work I was most pleased with was my remixxing. I have been honing a sound that takes the best bits of urban music and makes it house (with some acid and disco thrown in).

15) Joyce D'Vision on Harry Hill's TV Burp

What the fuck can I say? This is still like a dream, it all happened so fast. I still have to pinch myself to remind me that it's real - it's one of the biggest comedians in the UK basically saying, in front of one of the largest audiences of prime time television, that he thinks this is great. Thank you Harry, so so much!!

Top 5 albums of 2011

JOHN MAUS - We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves
SSION - Bent
DEN HAAN - Gods From Outer Space
MEN - Talk About Body
AZARI & III - S/T

Top 5 singles of 2011

CHERIE LILY - Werk
SAM SPARRO - You's A Nasty
MIDNIGHT MAGIC - Beam Me Up
BEYONCÉ - Who Runs The World?
AZELIA BANKS - 212

My awesome Best of 2011 mixtape!

Cross post from Dangerous Minds.


Image from the English riots, the defining moment of 2011 for me

So here it is, what I just know you've all been waiting for - a round up of 20 of my favourite tracks from the past 12 months. It's just over 60 minutes, meaning that some of the tracks have been edited to fit, and it's in 192kbps resolution to make the file size manageable for download.

This mix is pretty eclectic and features a ton of acts I have covered over the last year on Dangerous Minds. I'm sure there's tracks on this mixtape that the other DM writers will hate, but that's part of the fun. One of the points of Dangerous Minds is that we have not set out to push some unified, all-encompassing, easily-packaged view of the world. We're all different, and at the end of the day debating stuff is healthy.

As for the music itself, well I'm with Andrew Dubber on this - the past 12 months have seen some fantastic music, and some very interesting trends in both the artform and music consumption. I mean that stands to reason right? As the amount of music that becomes available increases, the amount of good music increases. It might not come to us through the traditional channels, but it is out there. So here's twenty of mine (and before you say it, yeah, some of these tunes came out in previous years, but those tracks are also featured on albums released this year):
 

Best of 2011 mixtape for Dangerous Minds by Theniallist on Mixcloud

 
Fucked Up - The Other Shoe
SIlverclub - The Goldener Reiter
Atari Teenage Riot - Black Flags
SSION - Feel Good (4 Ever)
Den Haan - Metamorphosis
Black Devil Disco Club ft Farris Rotter - Distrust
Ali Renault - Dignitas Machine
John Maus - Keep Pushing On
Neon indian - Halogen (I Could Be A Shadow)
MEN - Who Am I To Feel So Free?
Azari & III - Into The Night
Midnight Magic - Beam Me Up
Dam Funk - Forever
Destroyer - Chinatown
Grace Jones - Devil Dub
Mungo's Hi Fi - Super Sharp Roller
Beyonce - Who Runs The World (intro version edit)
Ben Butler & Mousepad ft The Niallist - Infinite Capacity
Arthur's Landing - Bobby
Andrew WK - Vagabond

You can download my Best of 2011 mixtape here.

BONUS!

If I had to pick just one record from the past 12 months, it would have to be We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves by John Maus. It's glorious, genuine outsider music that's also genuinely brilliant. If you dig Ariel Pink, don't mind a bit of lo-fi hiss and have a soft spot for early OMD, then I can't recommend it enough. Here's a fan vid for the album's opening track featuring a scene from Abel Ferrera's Ms. 45:

John Maus "Streetlight"
 

 
EXTRA BONUS!

I originally uploaded my Best of 2011 mixtape to Soundcloud as it's my music sharing site of choice, but oddly it was blocked because of the inclusion of Fucked Up's track "The Other Shoe". That's not very punk rock, now is it? But hey, I don't blame the band, rather their label Matador. What's even funnier is "The Other Shoe" is widely available freely, and legitimately, from the label itself. I considered taking it off the mix, but as it's my single of the year I decided to upload the whole thing to Mixcloud, intact, with a separate download option .

So just for you dear readers, here's a link to the free download of my single of the year:

Fucked Up "The Other Shoe"

And here is the mixtape minus Fucked Up.

And here's to an exciting and eventful 2012!

Best of 2010 on Radio Magnetic

RadMag are hosting my best of 2010 mixtape. Check it out here, and for more info on the bands and ting, go here.

BEST OF 2010 Mixtape

Here's my 100 minute comp of my favourite tunes of the last 12 months. It wasn't intentional but there's quite a lot of synths on this, from the cold and discordant to the warm and lush. Oh I do love synthesizers!

TRACKLISTING:

Silverclub - Your Headphones
Ben Butler & Mouse Pad - Electric Bamber-Boo
Divorce - Bloody Horn
Fox Gut Daata - Frontal Skull Jamz (Cupp Cave Remix)
Tyler The Creator - VCR/Wheels
Mungo's Hifi - Belly Ska (Dubatak Mix)
Sad City - Sister
Ben Butler & Mouse Pad ft The Niallist - Infinite Capacity (Fulgeance Remix)
Dam Mantle - Purple Arrow
Horse MacGuyver - Nod
Detachments - Flowers That Fell (Niallist ColdMixx)
Goldfrapp - Hunt
Areil Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Fright Night
Nite Funk - Am I Gonna Make It?
Space Dimension Controller - The Love Quadrant
Lindstrom & Christabelle - Baby Can't Stop (Idjut Boys Remix)
Brassica - New Jam City
LCD Soundsystem - You Wanted A Hit
Gold Blood - I Dreamed A Dream
Liberta - The Fountain

Download my BEST OF 2010 Mixtape here.

There's info and links on the tracks after the jump:

[[[Click here for more info]]]

BEST OF 2008 Mixtape

THE LINK IS WORKING! THE LINK IS WORKING!!

Hey all my LJ peeps - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!



It's been a pretty strange and difficult year for me, all in all, but with intermittent bright spells. It's not been all bad of course - there's been lots of great music! Jesus what would we do without music eh?

There's been a few changes in my life, and also a lack of change in areas where I'd like it to happen. I know I say this all the time, but I will be updating this to let folk know what has been going on. I promise!

But anyway, to ring in the new year I have put together a mixtape of some of my favourite tunes of the last 12 months. This isn't beat mixed, it's just a collection of songs that I happen to like a lot, and that have some kind of meaning or resonance with me.

The Mix: http://www.littlerockrecords.com/releases/Niall_Favourite_Tunes_Of_2008_Mixtape.mp3


Tracklisting:

TAYSIDE MENTAL HEALTH - The Face Song

This tune pretty much sums up how I was feeling at the start of the year. Pretty fucking bad. Somebody said this is a weird tune to start off with as it might alienate folk. Well, I'm not really about makin it easy for people - you have to stick with things to get the most out of them, as I am learning all the time. TMH are my band of the year anyway, my band of the decade perhaps? Defintiely the best NORAVE band in the world EVER! Their music is like electronic exorcism - you have to be in the mood, but boy when you are... Once you know the shit they've been through as people it makes a lot of sense.

MONG - Moongdog Chant

The only fully new piece of work I have been involved with this year, along with cohort Brad Manners. This should be appearing in 2009 on SL Records as part of a Mondog tribute compilation. Discovering Moondog's work has been a huge inspiration and has really got my juices flowing again.

LINDSTROM - The Long Way Home (Prins Thomas Edit)

The Disco Vikings are back! This was given away free last year on Myspace to promote Lindstrom's latest album "Where You Go I Go Too", hence the slightly shoddy MP3 sound quality. But at least it means you can play one of those tunes in a club setting, and not just on a sofa. I saw these dudes live last year at Electric Picnic, which was an amazing festival except for their set - which was because it had been so badly organised. Blown speakers, bad acoustics, the works. Hopefully the organisers can sort something better out for the next time they have them back (if they will bother going back that is).

ALI RENAULT - Cuffs

Label of the year? What is a label? A price-tag? A denomination? A descriptive term? A pigeon hole? Well, I dunno what all that means, but I love this tune and Ali Renault's production in general (see also Heartbreak later). Dissident is going from strength to strength - not least now that they are releasing Niallist music. Ahem.

HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR - This Is My Love

From one of the dance albums of the year, my personal favourite tune, featuring the lovely vocals of Andrew Butler himself. Pity they then got dropped by EMI, but that's their loss. I met Mr Butler in February of 2008 and a lovely chap he was too!

EASY GOING - Do It Again

This is off the compilation album Disco Italia, selected by Steve Kotey, which came out on the revived Strut record label. Easy Going were produced by Claudio Simonetti, were WELL gay, and sounded awesome! This has that lovely warm analogue late 70's sound which is great to go back to after the 80's sounds - the clavinet reminds me of the Van Nuys Blvd music too (see clip posted a few entries ago) - in fact the whole album is lacking in digital synth music which is surprising for something labelled as Italo.

THE RADIATION LINE - Morningstar Blues

One of the highlights of our recent Norave anti-Christmas party, The Radiation Line are a collective from central Scotland who specialise in blissful drones with a splash of moody blues thrown in too. They should be appearing on the next Norave album too. Go serach them on myspace - I can't be arsed reposting the link here.

CUTTING PINK WITH KNIVES - Fuck You, I'm The King Of France

After Norave was released some people got in touch to tell us what it reminded them of - this was a band that was mentioned that I decided to check out. I dunno much about this bunch except they remind some people of Gay Against You and vice versa - this was a random track of theirs available for download form their myspace.

FOX GUT DAATA - Clutha Kids

Probably the find of the Norave album, Fox Gut is a super talented producer who deserves to be acclaimed as highly as his pal Rustie, even if his music has a different flavour. We're still hoping to put some of his material out on little Rock, but as he's just had a bairn we're guessin he must be pretty busy.

RUSTIE & 215 TFK Just 4 Kicks

Speaking of - I couldn't do a round up of 2008 without something by Rustie, released on the always excellent Stuff records. We're still waiting for his debut album to drop though - will that be this year?

KANYE WEST Bad News

"808s & Heartbreak" - that pretty much sums up the year 2008 to me, emotionally and musically. I put out a bunch of stuff on Little Rock, I suppose, but it was all old (ie had been recorded in the previous 8-9 years) so looking back on the '08 my emotional state was probably a bit different to my outward appearance. Just like Kanye. Emo-hop with big tuned kick drums - sounds better in practice than it does on paper. Yeah he's a fanny but this tune is actually really great.

SHACKLETON - I Want To Eat You

Not a 2008 tune technically I guess, but this sound really makes me think of London, where I spent a lot of time in 2008. Last time I was down there we listened to the Skull DIsco Vol 2 CD a lot. I then tried to find it up here but couldn't - instead I found Vol 1 from where this is taken. It all sounds the same anyway ;-) It's all about the ethnic percussion. And the massive basslines that come in halfway through the tunes. And the spaced out dubby bits. That's Dubstep baby!

MISS JOOLZ - A La Luna

This is a tune given to me by Liam Arnold, who joined Team Little Rock in the 08 on active press duty. He has been doing some sterling work ever since, and developing his alter ego Kid Ritalin quite nicely. I dunno much about this tune except I think it's from Berlin and it sounds very nice - so this is a dedication to him!

HEARTBREAK - Soul Reversal

More Ali Renault, this time with vocalist Stephane Muravchix as Heartbreak. Their album is surprisingly great. Unfortunatley it looks like Heartbreak may now be no more, which is sad as they could have been pretty big - their live shows were great, and they knew how to pen a catchy hook. Well, who knows, maybe differences will be patched up in the future. Here's hoping!

JULIUS SEIZURE vs CALCUL8RS - You Don't Have To Take Your Clothes Off

This is still a work in progress by my producer Aleks (aka Line Idle / Julius Seizure) and his mate Jim. Yeah it's a cover of the 80's cheese classic, bt it's worth including for the awesome deadpan Scottish vocal, which is probably gonna get taken off the finished article.

SAM SPARRO - Hot Mess

Black & Gold is my single of the year, it's a stone cold classic, but it's been played to death so instead I have included this Prince-esque slice of funk from Sparro's debut. He's got a pretty good falsetto so he has. This may not be as strong as B&G (like most of the album) but then what could be?

HOT CHIP - One Pure Thought

Made In The Dark was one of the best albums of the year I thought, and by far the best album Hot Chip have made yet. I love some of their singles but have always found their albums lacking - until now. This is one of the best tunes on there too, although I do feel it is two songs welded together by the power of Afrobeat. They're two great songs though. I have a Hot Chip story from 2008 too - I saw them as they arrived at Optimo's Halloween party after their gig, and I heckled them for their amazing fancy dress - coming dressed up as a very convincing version of Hot Chip.

STEREOLAB - Cellulose Sunshine

My favourite band returned with the excellent Chemical Chords, and from it the beautiful harpsichord and string sounds of Cellulose Sunshine. Nobody beats the lab at stunning psyche-pop. I also had the pleasure of meeting, through a friend, Joe one of the keys players in the groop, in 2008. Thoroughly sound man he is too. Sadly, the lab have now (apparently) splie up, but I shall do a post on that some other time.

FLEET FOXES - White Winter Hymnal

I usually avoid hyped indie albums like the plague, even when they turn out to be very god (The Strokes being a case in point), but this is genuinely affecting for me with it's lovely Electric Prunes/west coast 60's vibe. I saw them at Electric PIcnic in 2009 too, and was heartened to see that they re=produced the album's sound very well in a live setting.

PORTISHEAD - The Rip

And this is hands down the best musical moment of 2008 for me. Having Portishead back was like having an old cuddly toy or blanket returned after it had been missing for years. And they didn't disappoint - though the sound was distinctly still Portishead, they had also moved onto pastures new. Well, the pastures of 1976, but it's still a move forward if you are trapped in 1969. I just hope they don't take 11 years to make another album!

I will come back here and update each tune with a bit of explanation as to why it's on here, hidden behind a cut. If you want to hear why I have chosen a particular song on here go up to the poll above and click on the artist name. Anyone with any criticism, suggestions or reminising of their own, please leave a comment...