Funky Friday

SIART has been slacking so far this year. There's nothing like a good Funky Friday to rectify and reboot the old blog. Today's selection includes some oldies of all ages and some slightly fresher material. All of it is guaranteed to get your head nodding and your toes tapping - maybe even a bit of booty shaking. Happy weekend!

Sly & Robbie feat. Shinehead - Boops (Here To Go) (Twelve Inch)
St. Etienne - Nothing Can Stop Us (Foxbase Beta Version)
Simian Mobile Disco feat. Gruff Rhys - Cream Dream
Groove Armada - Shameless (feat. Bryan Ferry)
Chic - Good Times (Fat Camp Edit)
Taana Gardner - Heartbeat
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Cymande - The Message
RJD2 - Tin Flower
Four Tet - Sing

Plastic Beach

Hot press release! Plastic Beach the new album from Gorillaz, will be released by Virgin on March 9th. The album is preceded by first single Stylo (featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack) which will receive its radio broadcast premiere tonight and will be available for download on January 26. Five years on from the release of Demon Days, Murdoc Niccals and co. return with Plastic Beach. The band have taken up residence, recording on a secret floating island deep in the South Pacific, a Plastic Beach HQ, made up of the detritus, debris and washed up remnants of humanity. This Plastic Beach is the furthest point from any landmass on Earth; the most deserted spot on the planet. The Gorillaz' return will be marked by a headline appearance at this year's Coachella festival. The Sunday April 18 performance will be the first Gorillaz live spectacle on U.S. soil since the awe-inspiring Demon Days Live run in April 2006 at New York's Apollo Theater.

The full tracklisting:

1. Orchestral Intro
2. Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach (feat. Snoop Dogg and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
3. White Flag (feat. Kano & Bashy)
4. Rhinestone Eyes
5. Stylo (feat. Bobby Womack and Mos Def)
6. Superfast Jellyfish (feat. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)
7. Empire Ants (feat. Little Dragon)
8. Glitter Freeze (feat. Mark E Smith)
9. Some Kind Of Nature (feat. Lou Reed)
10. On Melancholy Hill
11. Broken
12. Sweepstakes (feat. Mos Def & Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
13. Plastic Beach (feat. Mick Jones & Paul Simonon)
14. To Binge (feat. Little Dragon)
15. Cloud Of Unknowing (feat. Bobby Womack)
16. Pirate Jet

Listen to the first single Stylo (feat. Mos Def & Bobby Womack) here and here!

Top 25 of 2009

Alright. Another list. The top 25 records of 2009. Much hemming and hawing involved. And again I'm sure there are probably things I missed. I didn't rank them. I just know I listened to these 25 an awful lot last year...

1. BLK JKS - After Robots
2. SFA - Dark Days/Light Years
3. Late of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
4. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
5. Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue
6. Lily Allen - It's You Not Me, It's You
7. Mulatu Astatke & Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information
8. Royksopp - Junior
9. Q-Tip - Kamaal The Abstract
10. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
11. Miike Snow - Miike Snow
12. The Idle Hands - The Hearts We Broke On The Way To The Show
13. Joakim - Milky Ways
14. Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For The Young
15. Datarock - Red
16. Mos Def - The Ecstatic
17. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
18. N.A.S.A. - The Spirit Of Apollo
19. Amadou & Miriam - Welcome To Mali
20. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
21. Gossip - Music For Men
22. Metric - Fantasies
23. Depeche Mode - Sounds of The Universe
24. Jimi Tenor & Tony Allen - Inspiration Information
25. Soulsavers - Broken

Best of the 2000s

The top 100 records of the last decade. I spent way too much time debating and searching and perusing and I'm still sure there are things I missed. A lot of good music here. It is not in any kind of order or rank - just a list. Feel free to remind me of what you think I missed...

1. Super Furry Animals - Hey Venus
2. Royksopp - Melody AM
3. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
4. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
5. Spoon - Kill the Moonlight
6. The White Stripes - Elephant
7. The Strokes - Is This It?
8. Radiohead - Kid A
9. Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5:55
10. Miike Snow - Miike Snow
11. Gnarls Barkley - St Elsewhere
12. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
13. Graham Coxon - Happiness in Magazines
14. Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger
15. Santigold - Santigold
16. Datarock - Red
17. The Young Knives - Superabundance
18. Ambulance Ltd - LP
19. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
20. Metric - Old World Undeground, Where Are You Now?
21. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
22. The Knife - Silent Shout
23. British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
24. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
25. Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
26. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
27. Plaid - Double Figure
28. The Bees - Free the Bees
29. Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt
30. Caribou - Up In Flames
31. BLK JKS - After Robots
32. M.I.A. - Kala
33. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
34. Ladytron - The Witching Hour
35. The Libertines - Up the Bracket
36. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
37. Barry Adamson - The King of Nothing Hill
38. Frank Black and the Catholics - Dog in the Sand
39. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
40. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
41. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
42. Elbow - Asleep In The Back
43. Beck - Sea Change
44. Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor
45. The Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia
46. Gorillaz - Demon Days
47. Poni Hoax - Poni Hoax
48. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
49. Ima Robot - Ima Robot
50. Common - Electric Circus
51. Soulsavers - Broken
52. The Roots - Phrenology
53. The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Behind the Music
54. Bent - The Everlasting Blink
55. Kerrier District - Kerrier District
56. Phoenix - Alphabetical
57. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
58. Sonic Youth - Murray Street
59. Radio 4 - Gotham!
60. Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump
61. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga
62. Q-Tip - Kamaal The Abstract
63. LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
64. Supergrass - Supergrass
65. Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
66. Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
67. Manu Chao - Proxima Estacion Esperanza
68. Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
69. Kings of Leon - Of Youth & Young Manhood
70. Amadou & Miriam - Dimanche A Bamako
71. Danger Doom - The Mouse And The Mask
72. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
73. Kanye West - Late Registration
74. The Avalanches - Since I Left You
75. Luke Vibert - Rhythm
76. Basement Jaxx - Rooty
77. Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
78. 2 Many DJs - As Heard on Radio Soulwax, Pt. 2
79. Super Furry Animals - Rings Around the World
80. Hot Chip - The Warning
81. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
82. The Rapture - Echoes
83. Clinic - Internal Wrangler
84. Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
85. Primal Scream - XTRMNTR
86. Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
87. The Notwist - Neon Golden
88. Four Tet - Rounds
89. The Beta Band - Hot Shots II
90. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
91. M83 - Saturdays = Youth
92. Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll
93. Jamie Lidell - Multiply
94. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
95. Q-Tip - The Renaissance
96. Cee-Lo - Cee-Lo Green And His Perfect imperfections
97. Add N To (X) - Loud like Nature
98. Zero 7 - Simple Things
99. Joy Zipper - American Whip
100. Moonbabies - The Orange Billboard