2011 has been a good year for music, especially compared to last year. There was as ever a wide array of different styles and genres that we at SBBS have enjoyed. My list is naturally dominated by guitar-driven bands, with the odd feature of chillwave, techno and whatever you classify Gang Gang Dance as. It is perhaps surprising then that my top two records feature little to no guitar at all. However, they were by a long way my two favourite albums, with my number one pick being a certainty from the first time I heard it:
28 Dec 2011
2011 has been a great year for music. Shortly before us SBBS writers weigh in with our favourite albums of 2011, I thought I would quickly run through some of my favourite songs that aren't going to feature in my album list, but are worthy of their own 'end of year' segment.
08 Dec 2011
UK bass promoters
Aka Aka Roar!have been putting on some fantastic nights lately in Brighton. The likes of Blawan, Ben UFO and Midland have all hit the coast under the Aka Aka Roar! banner in the last few months, with the highlight being an epic night at seafront club Life that saw Pearson Sound and Claude von Stroke play back to back. Life was previously known as Arc, under which moniker it employed the rather hackneyed formula of “make it cheap and the students will come”. It’s still cheap and the students do come, but its left-field design (thin corridors, angular rooms and dark spaces) is now backed up with groundbreaking left-field acts, three of which come to Brighton in an end of summer Bank Holiday special where Bristol meets Berlin.
15 Aug 2011
As ever this January was a little slow, however we did manage to get through a fair through records released this month, as well as catch up on some December 2010 releases.
In terms of the site itself, we have obviously been continuing to develop the new design and make it more functional. The search page is now back and fully functioning, and we will be adding a 'new releases' section in the next week or so where we will keep you informed with any new records we are anticipating. The other thing to mention is that we have streamlined our reviews down mostly to minimal techno/electronic, some U.S. alternative and noise/shoegaze. Quite frankly, if you want to read an Arcade Fire review, go to
Pitchfork. We want to bring new and exciting artists and labels to the fore as much as possible, and will continue to adopt this focus in the future.
Other than that we had record hits reported in December, and will look to continue this success. We are still looking to expand our team, most importantly we would like to try and increase our bass music/urban portfolio and we will remain in the hunt for a suitable candidate.
01 Feb 2011
I love my list and I hate it because there are plenty of very good albums that are not on this list. Whilst compiling my list I thought I was going to struggle to put it in any sensible order, but it turned out the top six or seven picked themselves as these records really stood out. The top record then stood out even further, and it is a worthy winner of 2010.
21 Dec 2010
This has taken me far longer than I'd liked, and I've omitted far more than I thought I'd need to. Anyway, in my opinion the number one is fairly predictable on my part, although hopefully there are a few curveballs to keep everyone interested. Minimal techno is of course a mainstay in my collection, and one of my favourite records of the year is from this genre. In fact, electronic music features highly in this list, my move to East London seems to have been compimented by a recent surge of interest in genres such as garage, r & b, and lo and behold, dub-step. I'm not listening to Magnetic Man just yet, but I think that since Burial there have been a few promising developments. The 'Alastair Hill Urban Collection' has certainly grown over the last year, and entries from this new found collection feature accordingly. Enjoy.
20 Dec 2010
Choosing my top 15 records of 2010 was always going to be a difficult process, given the nature of trying to quantify what makes a great record. There’s a disorientating range of factors to consider; from the quality of individual songs, to individual hooks and motifs within particular songs, to what constitutes great lyrics and how a record “flows” to how daring and forward-thinking a record is. And in this age of Spotify, last.fm and a million blogs written by advocates of every possible genre and niche, there are a myriad of musical nooks and crannies to delve into. One record on my list would never have been found had it not been for a late night wandering through Discogs.com that brought up a glistening emerald of an EP.
20 Dec 2010
This year I listened to much less than normal. A lot of stuff that came out didn’t connect with me. Maybe it’s me; maybe it’s the music. Who knows? But here’s some shit that did catch my attention. Well, at least briefly. In truth, I grew tired of everything quickly. It all got boring. Jesus shit, what’s wrong with me?
19 Dec 2010
