Top 15 singles of 2020: #’s 5 – 1

Here we are at the top of the list!

#5: Too Free – “Elastic”

Yes, another song by Too Free. This thing is a sexy floor-filler EDM track that has an underlying hint of goth menace to it that immediately catches your ears.

#4: Jon Hopkins – “Singing Bowl (Ascension)”

If 2020 did anything right, it forced all of us to sit and be here. There was often nothing else to do. It was a year of zazen if you let it be so. Along comes Jon Hopkins with this lovely, stunning track suitable for meditation and making out – again two things that we were given a lot of time to do in 2020. Everyone needed to hear this last year, and any other year before or since.

#3: Matt Karmil – “PB”

I don’t know what “PB” means. Peanut butter? Pittsburgh? Pulsating beats? Yeah, that’s probably it, because this dance track is full of them.

#2: Kelly Lee Owens – “Melt!”

Yes, Ms. Owens has two tracks in my top 15 singles of 2020. I think she is the only person alive who can pull off an absolute club banger about global warming. She does nothing but amaze me and make me want to smash my digital turntables with a twelve-pound sledge hammer.

#1: Flat Worms – “Market Forces”

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that my favorite single of 2020 comes from my favorite album of 2020. Everything about this song works on a high level – beat, riffs, lyrics, and vocals. It moves and slugs like a professional boxer as it throws out lyrics about getting off your ass and shaking illusions out of your head so you can embrace the present and reality.

There you have it. Keep your mind open.

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Matt Karmil unleashes wicked new single, “PB,” ahead of his full album “STS371.”

Photo by Fredrik Skogkvist
Acclaimed UK producer and engineer Matt Karmil is pleased to announce his new album, STS371, out March 27th via Smalltown Supersound, and today presents the album’s lead single, “PB.” STS371 is his most concise album to date, with his signature mix of minimalism and reverb-drenched house still being the backbone of his warm, rich, atmospheric and melancholic sound. 

STS371 was made largely while Karmil was travelling. Anticipating the completion of his music studio in The Cotswolds in England, Karmil favored “on the fly” production methods to finish his album.  “It was not a linear process of recording,” says Karmil, “and in the end the majority of the work was to arrange and choose the right sounds and vibe.”

While his works fit within the tradition of techno’s timeless anonymity,  Karmil’s highly personal music is anything but a xerox on dance music’s previous life.  As Karmil puts it – minimally, simply and functionally: “I made a conscious effort to up the energy, and found a collection of tunes that felt coherent to me”.

Of “PB”, Karmil states: “I made ‘PB’ over an extended period, having made a 120bpm tune with the same texture and then resampled it and upped the tempo one evening in Cologne.  I wanted to make a committed acid track that draws you in and worked hard to get the drums, percussion and main melody working in harmony, but swapping roles a little.”

STS371 follows 2018’s Will. Since the release of Will he has co-produced and mixed Kornél Kovács’ acclaimed Stockholm Marathon. He has also worked with, among many others, Matias Aguayo for Crammed Discs and Talaboman for R&S, as an engineer, mixing and mastering. 

Listen to Matt Karmil’s “PB” –
https://soundcloud.com/smalltownsupersound/mattkarmil-pb

STS371 Tracklist:
1.Smoke
2. Hard
3. Snail Shower
4. PB
5. Still Not French
6. Congo
7. SR/WB
8. Breezy
9. 210

Pre-order STS731 –
smarturl.it/sts371-preorder

Keep your mind open.

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