The gems, jests, and goddamns! of 2007

Boxcutter's Glyphic, Planet Mu's Sacred Symbols and, of course, Burial's Untrue have all impressed in 2007, despite the inordinate amount of hype surrounding these releases, particularly the latter. In contrast, Disrupt's Foundation Bit and Deepchord's Echospace series both slipped out without too much fuss, and yet managed to blow both minds and speakers in one fell swoop with their intricately engineered take on low-end electronics.

And having dropped one of the most powerful pieces of music in years in the shape of The Last Resort (2006), Anders Trentemøller did it again this year with The Trentemøller Chronicles. Though clearly a long way from his previous incarnation as part of the live house act, Trigbag, whose plaintive wailings extended to depressed robots and wanting to be in The Doors, Anders is now keen on Radiohead, and thinks that Thom Yorke's The Eraser has some of "the same energy and vibe to it as The Last Resort." There are similarities in both albums' introspective, emotive styles, however, The Trentemøller Chronicles is a dancefloor destroying up-tempo beast, full of gnarly bass for your brain and kickdrums for your ears.
As if one stunning techno compilation wasn't enough for 2007, this year also saw the release of Donnacha Costello's Colorseries CD, which collects tracks from the 12"s released back in 2004 in one rather gorgeous psychedelic trip through the whole spectrum of electronic music. Another album built on expectation has to be Happy Birthday, Modeselektor's second foray into crunked-up electro and hip-hop posturing, which just manages to hold off Neil Landstrumm's Restaurant of the Assassins to win 'Bass Cadet of the Year'. And this was after astounding us all with their twisted, treble-y take on Burial, Spank Rock and everything in between on Boogybytes Vol.3. Son of a Glitch. On the subject of mixes, Optimo invaded living rooms again with their Walkabout mix CD, meaning it is no longer necessary to go out on a Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Underworld made a frenetic return to the fray with their fifth studio album, Oblivion With Bells, and a stonking five star tour before it was cancelled due to illness. Scotland was grinning like a Cheshire cat to be one of the lucky hosts and witnessed a comeback so pleasing, they reminded us that they've never actually left. "I can't help thinking I don't remember us making a comeback," says Karl Hyde, the lead singer. "I thought that was what you did after you'd been away for a very long time at Her Majesty's pleasure or shipwrecked on a desert island with a luxury item and the works of Shakespeare. We've been putting out new music since 2003 and touring the world every year, but you're right - we haven't been on home shores for a long time..."


In their 'hiatus' they've released three download only albums, web radio and live tv casts, a triple live CD from Japan, five 12"s, two film scores and a book. This has kept Underworld busy, "exploring ways of publishing that are different to the traditional album-tour-album formula." Their embracing of technology was evinced at their Glasgow Carling Academy gig, when live CDs of the event were available to purchase soon after the last note was played - the move from performance to production was almost instantaneous - and a sure sign that the group, far from hanging up the mic and production equipment, are actually pushing forward the limits of what artists can do in the 21st Century. How does Karl therefore see the dance scene itself progressing into 2008, and what role will Underworld be playing in it? "For a time a few years back, the dance scene was massive and feeling stagnant. Sure it was turning over a lot of cash, but the music was in need of a spring clean. When the scene started to break into smaller factions, the dance scene in the underground began to have an important voice, and the underground is often where new ideas start and grow," believes Karl. "If Underworld continue to have some place in whatever scene there is, it would be a smile. Being around people who want to celebrate and enjoy themselves is a great source of energy."

Meanwhile, EL-P, the prodigious three-in-one Brooklyn MC, producer and label boss also known as Jaime Meline, flagged up as one of 2007's hottest properties. "There are two things that I love about being in the music business," reckons EL-P; "I love making the record and I love performing the record, the rest of it can basically blow me." Having dedicated some seven years to 'the rest of it,' the impresario set up Def Jux and handled much of the production work for the artists on its roster. "I didn't create a record label," he refutes, "I created music and I've tried to create a mechanism to get the music out." And this mechanism has served him well, dropping his second LP proper - I'll Sleep When You're Dead - on 2007's uneasy hip-hop climate like an unexpected Molotov cocktail on a flock of corpse-pecking buzzards. This epic and fiercely visceral polemical assault left Fiddy and Diddy standing cold in designer threads with their heads up their derriere.

Marking his return to the ring in style, EL-P's live show made many a jaw drop when it outshined even the mighty Sonic Youth at the Coachella festival back in April, before he proved this to be no fluke with another assault on young Scottish minds at King Tut's in October. So can we expect the same level of EL productivity in 2008? Or will he opt for the Hova 'retirement' plan? Not likely. "I think I'm on a good path man, I feel energised again," he enthuses, "I spent five years bubbling up with ideas, influence and experience and I have so much of it pouring out of me now that I feel ready to jump into another record. I'm going to release an EP, I think, in the first quarter of next year... I'll probably have some remixes as well as about four or five new songs on there."

This article could probably go on for several hundreds lengths of yarn, and we don't have enough time or pages to possibly cover absolutely everyone, so we'll end it here, but not without a quick shout out to Ny, who became the talk of the grime town mid-2007 as one of the first recognised females on the male-dominated scene; Gui Boratto, thanks for Chromophobia and the Addicted Mix, champion; Chloe for showing the French how to really do it; Lethal Bizzle and his and tips for your stereo and dancefloor needs.crazy beats; Bonde Do Role, those genre-crossing baile-funk flirts; and the comeback of The Black Dog. Keep pickin' up The Skinny in 2008 for our predictions