The Clash Top 40 of 2008: numbers 10-6

If you’re only just clicking your way to Clash’s Top 40 of 2008, where have you been?

Since Monday we’ve been counting down the very best tracks of the year, sorted into a top 40 via a combination of public votes (we asked, and you answered) and editorial opinion.

So far we’ve seen big-hitters like Kanye West and Oasis rubbing shoulders with underground successes like High Places and No Age, with newcomers like Fuck Buttons and Johnny Foreigner also making their best noises heard, and having them respected.

Check out the previous instalments to get an idea of where we find ourselves today:

PART ONE – 40 to 31 (featuring Coldplay, Mogwai, My Morning Jacket and more)
PART TWO – 30 to 21 (featuring Bon Iver, Foals, Late Of The Pier and more)
PART THREE – 20 to 11 (featuring Kanye West, Oasis, Hot Chip and more)

And where we are: numbers ten to six. Exciting, it is becoming…

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10: Portishead – ‘Machine Gun’

You release nothing for over a decade, residing in relative obscurity while your one-time peers either implode (hi, Tricky) or become bona-fide ‘heritage’ artists (natch, Massive Attack), and then you come storming back with THIS? Talk about a blindsiding blow. But then again Portishead (pictured) were never as straightforward as some thought them to be; ‘Dummy’ and ‘Portishead’, both classics of their kind in the ‘90s, contained greater depth, and degrees of dread, than their ‘coffee-table’ advocates comprehended, and the group’s long-awaited third album, appropriately titled ‘Third’, furthered this exploration of atmospheric experimentation, and ‘Machine Gun’ was the most brutal of the bunch. It pounds at your skull like a sonic battering ram. Just give in, yeah?
(Read our recent interview with Portishead HERE)

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9: Buraka Som Sistema – ‘Sound Of Kuduro’

At the start of the year, when it came to picking a city that’d play the most significant part in the crossing-over of West African kuduro sounds, few would have pointed straight at the Portuguese capital Lisbon. But it’s here where the collective known as Buraka Som Sistema make their home, and in ‘Sound Of Kuduro’ – released in 2008 on their album ‘Black Diamond’, but available as a single again in the new year – they have the leading track of a blossoming sub-genre, mixing African rhythms with European dance sensibilities and beats most (feet) blistering. Add M.I.A. to the equation and you’ve A Guaranteed Hit on your hands. This is one to lose yourself to, be it on the dancefloor or your bathroom before a big night out.
(Read our recent interview with Buraka Som Sistema HERE)

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8: British Sea Power – ‘Waving Flags’

Perhaps they should have won the Mercury ahead of Elbow… perhaps. What’s certain is that with ‘Do You Like Rock Music?’, much-respected indie adventurers British Sea Power had released their greatest long-player to date, a more than worthy successor to the excellent pair of ‘The Decline Of…’ and ‘Open Season’. ‘Waving Flags’ was the first single to be lifted from the album, and it tells the tale of immigrants being welcomed, after a fashion, to their new home – but they shouldn’t worry, because they’re only here for a while, and it’s all a joke. It’s a stirring anthem, one of the most affecting of the year, and a powerful highlight of the band’s live set.
(Read our recent interview with British Sea Power HERE)

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7: The Bug – ‘Poison Dart’

While The Bug is actually just a single gentleman by the name of Kevin, the raft of contributors – including the imitable Warrior Queen, who provides vocals here – on his ‘London Zoo’ album came together in a beautifully organic way to create an album that ranks among the year’s best, regardless of genre pigeonholes. Its maker, disappointed with the progress of both dancehall and hip-hop over the past five or so years, set out to refresh himself by focusing on making the music he was desperate to hear; his tunnel-vision approach has produced wonders. With dubstep perhaps peaking too, as Benga and Burial take it into the mainstream, acts like The Bug serve to remind listeners of the scene’s rawest roots – this is senses-smacking stuff that rumbles on a bass-heavy backbone more bombastic than anything else heard in 2008, its dub qualities setting it aside from so many other low-end-riders.

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6: Santogold – ‘L.E.S. Artistes’

So it came out in 2007, too – so what? It was in 2008 that Santi White made her Santogold project an almost-household-name, and this pick from her self-titled debut still gets us bopping around the Clash office even after far too many plays to be healthy. From Brooklyn via Philly, White’s pop-savvy take on smooth-glossed hip-hop rhythms, with a slight ‘80s edge, appealed to critics across the board, and the nation’s club-goers were soon moving in agreement. She’s on the look out for barriers to break down, and with her album a scattershot affair embracing many disparate styles, who knows what White will do next? For the time being she can smile contently at producing one of our highest-ranked tracks of the year.

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COMING TOMORROW! OUR TOP FIVE TRACKS OF 2008! CAN YOU CONTAIN YOUR EXCITEMENT? DID THIS NEED TO BE IN CAPITAL LETTERS? YES! YES IT DID!

PART ONE – 40 to 31 (featuring Coldplay, Mogwai, My Morning Jacket and more)
PART TWO – 30 to 21 (featuring Bon Iver, Foals, Late Of The Pier and more)
PART THREE – 20 to 11 (featuring Kanye West, Oasis, Hot Chip and more)