BEST TRACK
I am pretty close to putting the perfect pop song, Call Me Maybe, by Carly Rae Jespen right here (don’t fight it, you’ll feel better), but I need to start recognising that ‘best track’ is a different thing to ‘best karaoke track’. I think Ned Collette & Wirewalker hit gold with track six, Long You Lie, from their album 2. The stops and starts of Spanish guitar weaving between Collette’s distinctive soaring vocals and Wirewalker’s tribal drum beat result in a shoulder-shaking playfulness that licks and threads a string through your disposition to pull you gently upwards during the rousing chorus. It sounds every inch of what we’ll show our kids to be the defining Australian tracks of yesteryear. – Taryn
The ubiquity of Todd Terje – Inspector Norse has almost killed it for me – in fact, I don’t think I’ve listened to it voluntarily for months. Nevertheless, it’s omnipresence at clubs, bars and house parties have kept its aural encapsulation of soaring ecstasy seared into my memory. Otherwise, Kahn – Margeaux Part 1 & 2, KwikFiks – I Love You, Becoming Real – Snow Drift Love, Andrés – New 4 U and Ejeca – X Girl have all been on high rotation. Oh, and y’know, all five parts of Music For The Quiet Hour. – Tyson
Towards the end of Lil B‘s 3 Stacks – a freestyle over a smooth jazz rendition of My Heart Will Go On – Based God attempts to explain why he puts out music like he does. He can’t explain it, and neither can I. At a rate of around one mixtape per fortnight (most recently an 855-track collection of freestyles), it’s impossible to keep up with Lil B. But if you try, the rewards are there. Underneath the garish samples, the (Based) god complex, the derailed flows, there is something so incredibly heartfelt in 3 Stacks. If you don’t agree that this is “ONE OF THE REALIST [sic] SONGS EVER MADE”, you are wrong. – Lachlan
BEST GIG
Nope. Can’t. Sorry. Although the gig gods did give me a kiss on the cheek during a week in February when they put Harmony/Spod, Cass McCombs and Jason Lytle onto stages at Yah Yah’s, The Corner and The Toff respectively. Cheers guys. – Taryn
When you work full time there’s not too many performances that will have you stumbling back home at 9am on a Friday morning – but pair up Detroit luminary Rick Wilhite with the Animals Dancing collective and an Easter Friday public holiday and you’ve got a perfect recipe for debauchery. Following Marcellus Pittman’s visit to the Mercat Basement last year, Wilhite was the second member of the revered 3 Chairs to grace the decks – and taking to the floor from 1am he worked the Funktion One system for a seven hour frenzy of house, techno and disco fusion. You haven’t lived until you’ve been involved in a dance floor sing-a-long to Skatt Bros – Walk The Night at 7am. – Tyson
This year I’ve seen Prince, Gaga, Janelle, Chic, and plenty more, but nothing obliterated my mind quite like the midnight forest set from Forces at Camp A Low Hum. Two awkward dudes from Melbourne formed a gateway into another dimension that night, and I haven’t been quite right ever since. – Lachlan
BEST ALBUM
Grimes is an artist who has a really valuable thing going for her – she doesn’t sound like anything or anyone else. Visions (4AD/Remote Control) is such a compulsive listen that my copy would have been dog-eared and covered in coffee stains a week in if it was made from paper. I got a lot out of it. I had to have a little breather for the past few months but I listened to it again this morning and yep, still so much to give. – Taryn
A venerated and enigmatic soundsmith, Shackleton has never been one to be swept up within the hyperactivity of contemporary electronic producers. Music For The Quiet Hour is perhaps the most perplexing album of 2012 thus far – beatless, percussive and irrefutably hypnotic. An undefinable blend of ambient dub, tribal techno and minimal garage – molested synths are held captive by crumbling vocal loops, hissing organs soundtrack engrossing spoken narratives and bass heavy expansions of the sonic universe culminate in a mesmerizing and inexplicably harmonious expedition. Honourable mentions to Voices From The Lake – Voices From The Lake, Delano Smith – An Odyssey, Fort Romeau – Kingdoms, Claro Intelecto – Reform Club, Coyote Clean Up – Frozen Solid, Simoncino – The Dream of Amnesia and Recondite – On Acid. – Tyson
Head Back, the final track from Dick Diver’s LP of last year, is my safety net. Hearing Al Montfort sing about jet skis and loop-di-loops in his calming Australian drawl invariably warms the heart. That’s why it’s so affecting to hear that same voice knife-twist through a torrid tale of heartbreak on Nullarbor, taken from Lower Plenty‘s Hard Rubbish. The record is powerfully understated, and stands as one of the finest releases from one of ol’ Melbourne town’s many pseduo-supergroups. – Lachlan
