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Temperatures are dropping, the first snow is falling, the Christmas tree is back in the house and I’m running short on minutes for my yearmix. That can only mean one thing: it’s that time of the year again! Time for a year list! I look back on the past twelve months and ask myself ‘what were the best tracks of the year?’. So here it goes:

1. Swedish House Mafia – One
   Not a big suprise, I guess? When it was released it took less than 24 hours to get to the #1 spot on Beatport, so I’m probably not the only one who loves this track. Although I really dig the later ‘Your Name’ version with Pharell, this initial instrumental is definitely the one for me.
2. Faithless – Not Going Home (Armin van Buuren mix)
   I was lucky enough to hear this track when it was just finished, while driving by car to the Alps for a week of snowboard fun. This track became one of the highlights of that week. And the snow quality was awesome and I really like snowboarding.
   I’ve heard Armin drop this track a couple of times the past year and after hearing it over and over again, it still blasted me away at the latest Armin Only – Mirage in Utrecht. Top quality.
3. BT – Suddenly
   I must have played this opening track of BT’s 2010 album These Hopefull Machines hundreds of time. Not only this track, but actually the whole album is full of surprises that are only discovered after hearing it over and over and over again. I love it.
4. Katy B – Katy On A Mission
   Dubstep meets RnB meets pop? 2010 is definitely the year of the breakthrough of dubstep and while not completely settled yet, the genre itself is already morphing into all kinds of subgenres. Katy B is on a mission and while doing that she sounds fresh and oldskool at the same time.
5. Ten Snake – Coma Cat
   Oh, that melody.
6. Alexander Popov – Revolution In You
   When I heard this track, there was a rumour going that Armin van Buuren was testing out tracks to see how the crowd responded on his work for his new Mirage album. I thought this gem was one of them, so I was kind of surprised to hear it wasn’t by the number one dj at all, but by Alexander Popov from Russia. Nevertheless, I think this track dominated by violins and synths is outstanding.
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix)
   It was quite a year for former scratch world champion A-Trak, also one of the two members of Duck Sauce. This remix adds so much power to the orginal, that’s it’s impossible not to move it. It should have been called Heads Will Nodd actually.
8. Bart B More – Brap
   So much power. Watch this crowd go absolutely nuts.
9. Ricky L ft MCK – Born again
   That old Ibiza feeling still exists!
10. Duck Sauce – Barbra Streisand
    Awesome clip, awesome sample from Boney M, awesome track by two awesome producers Armand Van Helden and A-Trak.
11. Skrillex – Rock N’ Roll (Will Take You To The Mountain)
    Dubstepper Skrillex almost featured every spot in the top 10 on Beatport after releasing his Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites EP. Rock N’ Roll is a nice blend of electro, house and dubstep with lots of bass.
12. Caribou – Odesa
    Taken from the album called Swim. This dreamy track stayed in my head for months. Usually when that happens it gets irritating, but not at all with Odesa.
13. Armin van Buuren featuring Ferry Corsten – Minack
    A hypnotising melody that turns into something like an electronic waltz in the break is something I never heard before and only that is enough to get this track into this top 20
14. Deadmau5 & Greta Svabo Bech – Raise Your Weapon
    It starts as a ballad, turns into a ’standard’ trancy Deadmau5 track and then turns into heavy dubstep. So much in one track.
15. Jay Lumen – Clouds Across The Moon
    Although it’s the Jay Lumen’s Lost The Connection Mix that I like most (it’s disappeared from youtube), I’m linking this remix by Neuroxyde and Aki Bergen. And I’m linking the Jay Lumen & Umek remix of this classic eighties track as well. Why? Because they’re all good.
16. Steve Angello – Knas
    Steve Angello has been accused of using samples, but who cares, who doesn’t? When you make tracks as solid as Knas you can do just about anything.
17. Sebastien Leger – Mixtape
    Groovy from bar one untill the end!
18. A Lost People – Big Booty Bitches
    It started as a joke, but it got released and became an underground internet hit. I’m still laughing.
19. Brandy & Monica- The Boy Is Mine (Loopers & Kid Kaio Remix)
    I’m not a big fan of the Dirty Dutch sound, but when something is good it’s good and that’s what I think of this bootleg mix by Loopers & Kid Kaio
20. Danger – 4h30
    Old skool no nonsense in your face house music from 2010 with a bombastic break.

Producers of 2010 (in random order):
A-Trak, Armand van Helden, Armin van Buuren, Riva Starr, Ramon Tapia, Benno de Goeij, BT, Lissat & Voltaxx.

Last weekend dutch radiostation Fresh FM aired The House Top 1000 of all time. In the recent weeks listeners could vote for their favorite house tracks from the early days of house music until 2005. The show started last friday and went on until last monday 8PM.

That’s 80 hours of the best house music in a row. Although some minor things went wrong, it was obvious that Fresh FM did their best to make it a great show to remember. They had dj’s and guest appearances by people who are actually in the chart, Robin ‘Jaydee’ Albers, Kevin Saunderson, Wessel ‘LA Style’ van Diepen, Remy, Armin van Buuren, Mark van Dale and many others. Awesome to hear those background stories on so many tracks.

To my big surprise the list contained not only usual suspects from the 1989-1994 era but also from more recent years. That made the list a very diverse one: music styles change from year to year and that’s why you could here a new york style garage banger right before a trance track. Or an absolute solid classic like ‘Can You Feel It’ by Mr. Fingers followed by one of the first mainstream drum ‘n bass tracks ‘Ain’t Talking Bout Dub’ by Apollo 440. It made the show really fun to listen to.

Special moment for me was when they reached number 656. The two djs, Peter van Leeuwen and Robin Albers realized that The Blunted Dummies – House 4 All was to be next. They didn’t agree on the low position of this track, it was in their personal top 5 – and mine as well, but they didn’t complain about it. And that’s why this House Top 1000 was such a success: the chart didn’t really matter that much, it was all about enjoying and celebrating good house music.

On monday morning I was in the Fresh FM studio to support Frank Schildkamp in the early hours and saw the people who were there were having that same spirit. And getting comments from people from Germany, USA and even Australia sure helps and is something to be really proud of if you are a local (!) radiostation.

I was on twitter when they reached the top 10 and noticed lots of people tweeting about it. There is no national trend overview yet on Twitter, but I’m sure #ht1000 would have been in it that moment.

Although I realize that it’s a lot of work to put such a show together, I hope Fresh FM started a new tradition. I’m ready for next year!
In case you missed it, the whole list is to be found on Fresh Fm’s website, were you will find a classics stream as well.

Dat Faithless in mei van dit jaar met een nieuw album komt, mag geen geheim meer zijn. De eerste single wordt ‘Not Going Home’ (radiorip) en daarvan kunnen we nu al melden dat het een typische Faithless-plaat is met kenmerkende rap van Maxi Jazz en bijzonder pakkende melodie, zoals in hun beste dagen. Remixen komen er onder andere van Hervé en alleskunner Eric Prydz. Maar wat krijg je als je de nummer 1 DJ van de wereld een remix laat maken van een van de meest toonaangevende acts? Antwoord: Een wereldtrack die de vloer aanveegt met het origineel en de andere remixen. Als dit geen floorfiller is…

Bijna twintig jaar geleden zag het legendarische radioprogramma Rave Radio het licht op Radio Veronica, destijds nog op Radio 3. De show bestond ongeveer drie jaar, voordat het in het voorjaar van 1995 stopte. In die drie jaar presenteerde Adam Curry de nieuwste housemuziek van dat moment, geselecteerd en gedraaid door Ronald Molendijk, bijgestaand door Ron Hofland.

Op raveradio.nl wordt vanaf vandaag wekelijks een oude uitzending in mp3-formaat gepost!

In 2000 kwam één van Laurent Garnier’s beste tracks uit: The Man With The Red Face. Vele remixen volgden, maar de meeste haalden het niveau van het origineel niet. Een wat minder bekende remix, die van de duitser Jan Driver, haalde dat echter met gemak.