FLYCASUAL'S Best of 2011

It's always an unenviable task, trying to streamline your favourite songs into a playlist, but 5, outrageous! Oh the sleepless nights, who gets left behind?? I felt like I was the chopper pilot in the scene in Platoon where Willem Defoe's, Elias gets left behind.

Oh well, there goes Ghostpoet

Yeah, OK anyway, 2011 has been a great year for music but more so since the creation of this blog. One of the points of this blog was to find out what my friends/family were listening to and if they had any anecdotes about the songs as to why they liked them. I don't get to see them as often as I'd like to and like SFW said in his intro, "recreate the listening sessions of the past". So what better way than to conceive a blog where you can do just that!! As a result of the Guest Spots and my fellow contributors, who in turn have different tastes to mine, it has been a bumper crop! So a huge thanks to all of you!


Little Dragon - 'Ritual Union'
My favourite song, album and band/artist of the year for me, their Lo-Fi Electronica ticking all the right boxes, prompting me to get hold of their back catalogue. Ritual Union's a fabulous track (featured here), it's flavour encapsulated the summer for me, great voice and complete with synth sax break (there's not enough sax at the moment). Little Dragon's collaborations this year were exceptional too, including 'Wildfire' with SBTRKT (featured here too) and this beautiful piece, 'Scale it Back' with DJ Shadow.

Beastie Boys - 'Make Some Noise'
"oh my god just look at me grandpa been rapping' since 83". Great back to form old skool flashback from the Beasties with their silly witty rhymes and fresh beats. Trademark outstanding video too, with Hollywood cameos aplenty and if you have a spare 29:55 minutes, check the full video here....

Wild Beasts - 'Reach A Bit Further'
Fabulous vocals and melody, with happy memories of a perfect day spent on the beach with my wife and my little boy.

The Horrors - 'Still Life'
Epic retro 80's stomp fest, I can just picture a Miami Vice cut scene with a jilted Don Johnson tearing shit up around Miami. Would definitely feature on the soundtrack to the remake of The Breakfast Club.

Tinarwiren - 'Tenere Taqqim Tossam'
Unfortunately they didn't take up my offer of a cup of tea at my house (what??) when they were touring last month so I went to see them instead and I was not disappointed. Top, top tune from the desert rebel rockers, The Clash, Santana and Hendrix rolled into one (erm, if they were all Bedouins).