2007 ends in less than 24 hours and before the ends, I want to highlight a few great tracks from 2007 from the independent scene. This is music that you’ve never heard of, at all, ever (well maybe if your friend told you about them or your brother is in the band). Rather than doing the good, the bad, and the ugly (as I did with popular music), I want to highlight some of my favorites in no particular order and the reasons why.
Burial’s Ghost Hardware from their Untrue Album is just a hick ass downtempo/dub song. When I first heard this song, it really hit my sweet spot of emotion. It is a dark, moody song that has a bunch of life to it. Get more Burial from the iTunes Music Store
Cevin Fisher has this song that is completely a biased pick, the name of the song is New York New York, and I think I’ve used it in just about every house mix since I’ve heard it. Outside of being a song about New York, the track is just a great disco house track to mix, even if you just use the vocals over another track. Get more Cevin Fisher from the iTunes Music Store.
I’m a complete fan-boy for any electronic music that mixes classical music. All year round I have praised the music of Kourosh Dini. I really like his approach and his music is this perfect blend of synthesizer and piano. What makes it even better is that he is a very talented Second Life musician. Valve is my favorite track from his Live at Bliss Gardens album. You can purchase or download the album from CD Baby or his website www.kouroshdini.com.
Help! I’ve Been Robbed is a great track from J-Bru that mixes the story telling of traditional Hip-Hop about being robbed in the hood. I love the hook and if you have ever been robbed, you can really relate to the track. Get more from the iTunes Music Store
A great ambient track from Michael Brooks is Want II. It is very Enya like, relaxing and very spiritual! Get more from the iTunes Music Store
Ananda Project’s Stalk You is a great disco house track. This is one of their standout tracks from their recent album. If you ever been punch drunk smitten with someone, this is the song you will surely relate to. Get more from the iTunes Music Store
Buddahead is a combination of U2, Radiohead and Coldplay. I was introduced and worked with them during Virtualive.tv and really grew to like their music. They released their recent EP in 2007, and from it I’ve really come to like Ruin (you can hear it on their MySpace). I can’t tell you why, but every time I listen to it, I just sway back and forth.
From music that you haven’t ever heard to music that you not only haven’t heard but never will hear again, a great hard rock/punk band from Philadelphia, Trouble Everyday, has broken up. They released their release “On The Way To Disaster†in 2007. You can check out Pedestrian on their MySpace page which is one of their best singles from their recent release. Outside of being friends with the band, I really liked their music, it was hard, edgy and the band was very diverse (which is really hard to find in most hard music.)