End of year polls… We weren’t going to indulge this particular tradition this year as frankly we’re too busy, I can barely remember what I listened to at the weekend let alone last January and Vice always does a great job taking the piss out of them anyway.

But in between watching family films and making gravy (yes that’s how I roll) I’ve found a spare 10 minutes so thought instead I’d have a look back at the top posts on Slutty Fringe this year as chosen by YOU the readers…

Still whilst we are in reflective mood I do have to say that 2010 has been, much to my surprise, a vintage year for new music and if for some reason you don’t already own the albums released by the following this year… sort it out!

Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem, Walls, Grovesnor, The Chap, Silver Columns, Caribou, Gold Panda, Errors, Mount Kimbie, Pantha du Prince, Prins Thomas, Four Tet, Kanye West, Posthuman, Detachments and Daft Punk.

Right onto the Slutty Fringe Top 10 Posts of 2010… Drumroll please…

10 – When Time Was On My Side

Going way back to February for this one featuring the ace Brazilian remixers The Twelves working their magic on Finnish faves Husky Rescue. The Twelves ended the year strong too with their recent remix of Black Strobes’ seminal Me & Madonna one of the highlights of the recent Kitsune Maison Ten compilation.

9 – Retro/Grade: Moda

It’s one of our few ronseal moments here where you should be able to guess straight away the subject of the post. Anyway this post from 2009, is still getting some serious eyeballs a sure sign that Serge Santiago and Tom Neville’s Retro/Grade project is making all the right noises. Expect to hear a whole lot more from them in 2011…

8 – Surrender To The Shadows

If there’s any label that has chalked up more posts on Slutty Fringe than Gomma I’d like to know about it, and our favourite Munchen have been on stellar form this year. Coming in at number 8 is this August post featuring the new Kathy Diamon/Mix Skiba project The KDMS, and if you haven’t already, check it out now.

7 – We Speak To Those

A late entry here but seeing as it featured a remix/edit of what was quite possibly one of the songs of the year it soon made up lost ground. It is of course the Midland edit of Caribou’s ridiculously good Sun, and it’s no wonder that this ended up riding high on the Hype Machine’s charts.

6 – Summer In The City

We don’t often post dubstep tracks, but seeing as Tek One‘s refix of Crystal Fighters has gone in at number 6 with a bullet perhaps it’s something we’ll need to discuss at our next editorial meeting. Actually scratch that, Tony would just throw a right old tantrum.. Anyway enjoy this brief moment of sub bass whilst you still can…

5 – Roger That

We’ve spent much of the year going on & on & on & on about the Walls album, but for good reason it’s really bloody brilliant. So anyway i’m glad that they’ve made it onto our top ten with having to cheat, even if it is in the rather unlikely mode of remixers for alt country stars Wilco.

4 – How To Take Your Own Lookbook.nu Shots

It was the first ever post on Slutty Fringe by Petitflo, it had nothing to do with music and over a year and a half later you’re still clicking on it, that is how to make an entrance.

3 – Message From Planet Love

In which Tony gets his Pips and his Sac’s mixed up, and the now not so mysterious Villa turn in an edifying remix that gets our boy Poland over his distaste of the original.

2 - Faces Of Death

It contained no links to buff/hype music, and wasn’t even written by one of us. Kind of makes you question the point of this blog really! Still in at number two of this year’s most read posts comes this curio on the evolution of Iron Maiden’s mascot Eddie.

Yes, you read that correct. Written by one of my favourite writers Justin Quirk, it was to be the first of a series of guest articles from journalists we love, giving them the chance to mouth off about anything they fancied.

As tends to happen with these grand plans (see label of the month for a quality example) we got quite busy and forgot to keep it going, still Justin set the bar sky high with this first entry and if anyone out there does have something funny/interesting to say then feel free to drop us a line anytime…

1 – The Slutty Fringe Mix Series

Just occasionally though we do manage to follow through with a grand plan, and our mix series has been an unqualified success (in fact the individual posts took up 8 of the top ten posts of the year so we’ve merged them into one), although it’s far from been as regular as we’d originally planned we’ve still somehow made it to 18 mixes now and we’ve got some huge names lined up to take part in 2011.

So a big shout out to Tronik Youth, Rory Phillips, Justin Robertson, Dam Mantle, Cosmo Lopez, Fernando,  Lostbahnhof, Simon A. Carr, Radioolio, Matt from RVNG, ZNTN, Matt Waites, Lovers & Gamblers, Luke Abbott, Acid Girls, Red Rackem, Anthony C and last but by no means least Acid Washed.

We’ve had everything from 50′s rock and roll to Witch House via psychedelic noise and good old fashioned disco so I think you can’t say fairer than that, if you’ve yet to sample their delights, I’d suggest now is as good a time as any.

Thanks to all those involved who took the time to put together these amazing mixes and then suffered the indignity of having to answer our stupid questions, also lets give a special thanks to Nikhil and everyone at Mixcloud for inventing such a great site and saving us from total bandwidth destruction.

Right, that’s probably it from us till 2011, it just leaves me to say thanks to all the bands, producers, DJs, labels and PR people who have worked with us this year, especially those like :Kinema: and Shock Defeat who let us release their music, the venues and promoters who booked us to play or host nights in 2010, those who have written, taken photos or done our design for us, and finally you for reading us.

Take care and if for some reason you’re not at The Horse & Groom or 93 Feet East tonight we’ll see you in 2011, (oh and sign up for the mailing list on the left up there… we’re about to actually start sending out regular mails in 2011 and there’ll be some exclusives just for the list…).

Team Fringe xxx

I’ve heard lots of chatter recently about 2011 being the year of the trip-hop revival and whilst that’s probably a fairly safe bet, I’m also expecting it to be another massive year for quality French House music.

In the past few months we’ve had excellent new releases from newcomers like Douze, the old guard such as Cassius have risen to the challenge with some career bests… (seriously why I Love You So didn’t feature on more end of year lists is beyond me) and even Daft Punk resurfaced with their massive Tron score.

Anyway keeping up the gallic pressure as we ease our way into 2011 is another member of the ancien régime, Alan Braxe, who has just remixed Pacific’s Narcissus to suitably spine tingling effect.

His label Vulture have been nice enough put it up on Soundcloud and made it available to download so here it is, and since we’re getting our French Touch on here’s the aforementioned Douze’s We Got The Love as well, part of the Doxology EP, out now on Work It Baby.

Pacific! – Narcissus (Alan Braxe Remix)

Douze – We Got The Love

Whilst I’m sorting out the bangers for tonight’s DJ sets it’s nice to have a break and listen to something completely different. So here for your pleasure and my sanity is the debut release from Soda Shop, the Brooklyn based duo comprised of Drew Driver from Horse Shoes and Maria Usback from Selebrities.

A faithful and lovingly recreated slice of perfect pop, Driver and Usback have made the kind of heartbreaking teenage symphony that Phil Spector produced for 60s girl groups like The Crystals and The Ronnettes. Lovely, lovely stuff.

It’s out on white vinyl 7″ on January the 18th on Shelflife Records, order yours today.

Download: Soda Shop – Farewell

Generally speaking January the 1st is good for nothing more than crawling under a duvet and mentally screaming ‘WHY DID I JUST DO THAT’ a million times into the empty void that is your soul.

Still apparently some of you are made of sterner/more depraved stuff than that in which case we’ll point you in the direction of Hybridlife who not content with throwing some of the best parties of 2010 are kicking off 2011 in fine style with a NYD Showcase.

Whilst it would require a lineup so heavy it had it’s own gravitational pull to get me out of bed it’s still a strong look to start the year with dOP, Levon Vincent, and Hybridlife residents Ste Roberts and Alex Jones downstairs, and Casper C, Benedict Bull, Alex Egan and Dollop DJs upstairs.

If that’s piqued your curiosity then it’s happening at excellent Red Gallery warehouse space on Rivington Street, 10pm till 8am and should be full of some right sorts… If you can make it out from under the duvet, have fun…

Whilst splayed out on the sofa, drifting in and out of a turkey induced coma I thought I’d clear out the old inbox in the hope of starting 2011 afresh. 3759 unread emails deleted so far and I figured it was a good time to take a break and share some choice finds.

So here’s the first fruit of today’s trawl, an Acid Washed remix of Mustang‘s Apocalypso. Acid Washed of course should be familiar to Slutty Fringe readers as they recently featured in our mix series, a sure sign of quality, and indeed the mix is 6 minutes of pulsating, squelchy disco.

Mustang are veteran DJ Renaud Deru (aka Cosy Mozzy) & Andy Faisca. Renaud built his career as co-owner, resident DJ and artistic director of the infamous Dirty Dancing Club in Brussels, a crazy venue that I was lucky enough to play at a couple of times ‘back in the day’.

Anyway The Apocalypso EP is out now on Abracada Records, and you can grab it now from Juno in the mean time enjoy the Acid Washed remix below.

Download: Mustang – Apocalypso (Acid Washed Remix)

It’s not even Christmas day yet but the gifts keep on magically appearing as if from nowhere under our virtual tree.

Next to be unwrapped is this utterly fantastic remix by Joakim of Water, Music and Tronaction, taken from Wendy Carlos‘ soundtrack for the original Tron film.

Having spent the past few days grid locked in traffic listening to the Robots’ new soundtrack for Tron Legacy, it’s nice to hear the original get a dusting down for the holiday season. Enjoy!

Download: Wendy Carlos – Water, Music and TRONaction (Joakim Remix)

I’ve got a lot of time for Eli Escobar‘s Love Thing so was delighted to wake up this morning and discover those lovely chaps at Plant Music have snuck in during the night and left a brand new set of remixes for us under the Christmas Tree.

The EP comes complete with reworks from Runaway, John Selway, Mike Simonetti and DJ Mehdi. They’re all great and if you don’t believe me you can check them all out on Soundcloud now and marvel in their housey goodness yourself.

Grab the Mehdi remix now below then scoot over to iTunes or Juno now and fill your sack with the rest.

Download: Eli Escobar – Love Thing Part 2 (DJ Mehdi Remix)

The master of proper 90s groove-led house tunes, Shonky, returns with his Real Tone release, Le Velour. I pray to the God of house music that he will play this when he replaces Nina Kraviz after she failed to get a visa (sucks to be a Russian DJ) at the Nofitstate New Years Day party alongside Shaun Reeves, Bad Passion Project and of course Geddes. 10pm – 6am  at a ‘secret London location’.

Shonky – Le Velour

It was the best of gigs, it was the worst of gigs but at least in video form we can almost forget how painfully shit a venue Alexandra Palace is. Honestly bands please never ever, EVER, agree to play this dump, it may swell your bank account but you’ll just piss off thousands of fans.

Anyway apart from the venue being truly hateful Hot Chip were on imperious form earlier this year, and One Life Stand is still one of the best albums released in 2010 so we’ll give them a pass. It seems like this clip is just the first of many to appear so I imagine this means they’ll be releasing a DVD in the very near future.

Right… As you can see by the flurry of activity today, I’m catching up with a couple of week’s worth of posts. One track that I’ve been desperate to get up for a couple of weeks now is a new song by our own Hot Pockets’ recording stars :Kinema:.

It was recorded for the Brighton Source, who put the band on the cover of their Christmas issue (and took the amazing picture used above) and is as good a slice of uptempo pop as you’re likely to hear this year.

The band’s next single, My Beautiful Machines, is out early next year on both gorgeous orange 7″ vinyl and heavyweight 12″, with quite possibly the best brace of remixes, courtesy of Sweden’s Drop Out Orchestra, that I’ve heard in years.

If you’ve seen them live in the past 6 months, then you’ll know MBM as their set ending, stage invading monster of a tune that should in a world that really cared for good pop music catapult these boys into a celeb A-list world of switching on Christmas lights in rundown seaside towns.

Anyway till then enjoy this new track, 3 Wolf Moon…

Download: :Kinema: – 3 Wolf Moon

For the third year running TP and I will be manning the decks at 93 Feet East on NYE whilst attempting to hold it down after a night of snorting vodka. It’s going to be real.

It’s a fine looking bill with the likes of Drums of Death, Burns and Wrongtom also in the hizzouse. We’re on at 2.30am in the main room and will be propping each other up till 5.30am.

Tickets available now from www.93feeteast.co.uk

Tis the season for artists to give away freebies and the latest to join in this noble tradition is regular to these pages Banjo or Freakout.

Head over now to BoF’s Bandcamp where you can grab a free ten track album of festive Christmas covers (free for the first 1000 people).

Download: Banjo or Freakout – Frosty The Snowman

With Poland off in the states doing his best Tom Hanks Sleepless In Seattle impression, I guess it falls to my lazy self to keep this backwater of the internet going, so first off lets give a shout out to the Pelski mob who are back at Counter Culture tonight (Saturday 18th).

They’re taking over the back room tonight whilst the Jackmode crew man the main room, which means the arches will be  banging to the sounds of Jesse Rose, Oliver$, Zombie Disco Squad, Pelski’s own CHarles Darkly and loads more.

It’s kicks off at 10, goes on till 6 and will set you back around £12 on the door.

Now just a word of warning in case you’re coming from afar, I live about 3 minutes stroll from the venue and we’re currently under about 4 inches of snow, so I’ve no idea if any of the acts have had to cancel so wrap up warm and bring a St. Bernard!

Here’s a couple of Jesse Rose tracks to warm you up.

Download: T.E.E.D – Garden (Jesse Rose Remix)

Download: Jesse Rose – You Know It (Made to Play Edit)