This week we run down a few of the stand out producers of 2011, today with Sirius Mo, Pearson Sound and Mosca.
12. SIRIUS MO ‘Mosaik’ Monkeytown
At fucking last! Whilst Modeselektor produced one of our favourite albums of the year they also started this record label specifically to release Moritz Friedrich’s debut. He’d been teasing us all for the last eleven years without a proper LP. Everyone had thirst. Half-reluctant musician, half-frustrated painter, Friedrich’s analogue fizz comes via his strange approach to banks of old synths buried in his bunker in East Berlin. ‘Mosaik’ did everything all his previous 12” on Sonar Kollectiv and Grand Petrol had hinted at: cerebral electro and dreams made for horny robots possessed by detailed programming that’s riddled with the soul of a pained artiste.
Best Bit: ‘Einmal In Der Woche Schreien’ – as colourful as German electronic music can get.
11. PEARSON SOUND Various Nightslugs, Fabric
Ramadanman had a blinding 2010. Having deftly side-stepped into a new alter ego he’s found fresh legs and nailed 2011 to a similar cross. He was central to the explosion of the key anthem ‘Sicko Cell’ (even remixing it); he hammered out a Fabric mix; released an ode to Chicago footwork with ‘Working With’; re-rubbed the house classic ‘Deep Inside’ as well as completely overhauling MIA’s ‘Muscle’ to resemble an ambiguous yet towering wall of bass in his own progressive image. If you struggle to define underground electronic music in 2011, it’s mainly because David Kennedy is the ultimate moving target.
Best Bit: Hearing yet more space be injected into his sparse but jacking landscapes.
10. MOSCA Various 3024 / Numbers
UK bass culture is at massive risk of eating itself. Such is the tight nature of the scene, it’s cannibalistic munching of shared sounds and how contagious rival producers make their drops. We do worry. So Mosca’s manoeuvres have been a relief as he looks to world music for new sounds whilst boisterously sponsoring the 2-step revival by pumping his warped house and techno with the champagne swing of UK garage a la ‘Orange Jack’. A regular performer on London’s experimental bass lab The Boiler Room as well as crunching out his essential ‘Bax’ anthem on Numbers has seen Mosca’s stock rise effortlessly.
Best Bit: The guilty 2-step pleasure that is ‘Bax’; garage is coming back, but with bigger bass!
Follow the rest of our Top 15 Producers of 2011 across this week on ClashMusic.com.
