Pitchfork.com recently released their “Best Songs of 2010″ and “Best Records of 2010″ lists, which featured a number of artists we proudly distribute. Here’s a roundup of the songs and albums, along with the numbers they hit:
Amazon released their annual Best Of Lists this week and we couldn’t be happier about the IODA-distributed inclusions! From IODA faves Typhoon to indie darlings of the year Wild Nothing, it’s been a great year for IODA-distributed artists. Congrats to all the artists and labels mentioned. Hit the jump for the rest of our inclusions and more promotracks!
Outstanding 2010 Albums You Might Have Missed:
#5 – Typhoon – Hunger & Thirst (Tender Loving Empire)
#8 – Wild Nothing – Gemini (Captured Tracks)
#16 – Beach Fossils – Beach Fossils (Captured Tracks)
#38 – Jason Collett – Rat A Tat Tat (Arts & Crafts)
#39 – Kings Go Forth – The Outsiders Are Back (Luaka Bop)
#49 – Zeus – Say Us (Arts & Crafts)
Overall MP3:
#81 – Typhoon – Hunger & Thirst (Tender Loving Empire)
#84 – Wild Nothing – Gemini (Captured Tracks)
#88 – Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts & Crafts)
Best Songs:
#79 – Typhoon – “White Liars” (Tender Loving Empire)
#98 – Jason Collett – “Love is a Dirty Word” (Arts & Crafts)
This year’s iTunes Rewind lists are out and we’re very happy to report there’s a bunch of our favorite artists from the catalog included. Here’s a list by categories:
iTunes US:
Alternative:
Best New Alternative Artist: Wild Nothing – Gemini [Captured Tracks]
Oh yeah it’s that time of year again. This year we’ve opened up our annual Best Of lists to all IODA employees and received over 20 submissions from many different departments! This year we chose our top 5 IODA-distributed records of the year with up to one reissue included. Numbered lists are ordered by their creators and those unnumbered are in no specific order. Enjoy the selections and be sure to hit the jump for the rest of the lists and lots of free Promotracks from these great releases.
Jordy Trachtenberg – Content Acquisition Representative
Blank Dogs – Land and Fixed [Captured Tracks] Tobacco – Maniac Meat [anticon]
Ty Segall – Melted [Goner]
Agent Ribbons – Chateau Crone [Antenna Farm Records]
Kris Kristofferson – Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends: The Publishing Demos 1968-72 [Light in the Attic]
Brooks Rocco – Production
Lento – Earthen [Relapse Records]
Mugstar – Lime [Important Records]
Anika – Anika [Invada]
DDMMYYYY – Black Square [Invada]
(Reissue) Death – Individual Thought Patterns [Relapse Records]
J. Gibson – Client Manager
White Pines – The Falls [Yer Bird Records]
Weekend – Sports [Slumberland]
Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record [Arts & Crafts]
UNKLE – Where did the Night Fall [Surrender All]
Big Light – Animals in Bloom [reapandsow, Inc.]
As the push for new ways to monetize music intensifies several bands and labels have been exploring new ways to package releases. One such effort is the MDBC (Matthew Dear Black City) Totem from Matthew Dear and his label Ghostly International. Journalist Rob Walker picks up on this trend and the MDBC Totem in a recent NY Times article titled “Consumed – Band-Branded Merchandise Gains Momentum.” Excerpt from the article below:
“…Ghostly International, announced the latest release from the electronic artist and D.J. Matthew Dear. “Black City” is available on CD, vinyl and in the form of a $125 “sculptural representation of the themes explored” by Dear’s music. Ghostly International calls the object the MDBC Totem, and it looks like a spooky, monolithic building, about seven inches high and made of bonded aluminum finished with a “gun-metal patina.” Conceived by Dear and Will Calcutt, a Ghostly designer, and created by the New York design firm Boym Partners, it’s available in an edition of 100. Each is inscribed with a code giving buyers access to the music in digital form (download or stream), including a bonus track.
The totem is hardly a tchotchke, and the Ghostly founder, Samuel Valenti IV, isn’t making merchandise the centerpiece of his label. But this is one strategy, he argues, for “imbuing the aura of music onto an object.” He’s planning more such releases, and on some level the effort seems to be as much a statement about the future of music and value in general as it is about Dear’s work. Nine Inch Nails and Pixies, among others, sold lavish box sets that included DVDs and lush books in limited editions, and Valenti suggests the MDBC Totem takes another step toward responding to “the reality of a post-format world.” Ghostly’s site announces: “The totem is a physical format for cloud-based listening, an acknowledgment of two seemingly irreconcilable notions: the need for a tangible representation of music and a future in which music is utterly ethereal.”
The MDBC Totem’s were made by artisan sculptors and cast in bonded aluminum. Check out the process captured in video form below:
Depending on whom you ask, Matthew Dear is a DJ, a dance-music producer, an experimental pop artist, a bandleader. He co-founded both Ghostly International and its dancefloor offshoot, Spectral Sound. He’s had remixes commissioned by The XX, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Spoon, Hot Chip, The Postal Service, and Chemical Brothers; he’s made mixes for the Fabric mix series and Get Physical’s Body Language. He maintains four aliases (Audion, False, Jabberjaw, and Matthew Dear), each with its own style and distinct visual identity. He straddles multiple musical worlds and belongs to none—and he’s just hitting his stride.
Matthew Dear’s 2003 full-length Ghostly debut, Leave Luck to Heaven, is a suite of sparse, wickedly funky house laced with Dear’s deep, distinctive vocals, and includes the much-loved single “Dog Days” (voted one of Pitchfork’s Top 100 Songs of the Decade). The record was met with rapturous acclaim from both the dance-music establishment and the critical press, including a four-star review in Rolling Stone. Dear’s 2007 follow-up, Asa Breed, is a considerable departure from Heaven’s dancefloor excursions, incorporating the polyrhythms of Afrobeat, the irreverent pop sensibilities of Brian Eno, and the austere beauty of Krautrock. More four-stars reviews followed (Q and Mojo magazines), and Dear subsequently began touring with a live three-piece band, Matthew Dear’s Big Hands, in which he acted as frontman, commanding the stage with a Bryan Ferry-like swagger and a gentleman’s grace.
Today, Matthew Dear finds himself in a unique position. His highly anticipated fourth album, 2010’s Black City, is the culmination of years of hard work and experimentation, a darkly playful sound-world that envelops the listener like the arms of a malevolent lover. After over a decade of exploring pop’s outer limits, Matthew Dear now inhabits a rarefied corner of the musical universe: no longer tethered to any one genre, respected by his peers, and blessed with a bottomless well of creative energy. Now is Matthew Dear’s moment, and it sounds like nothing else. Look for the album to drop August 17, and check out this sick teaser and promotrack while you wait!
Matthew Dear
“I Can’t Feel” (mp3)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Amazon MP3
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