Trends

I know next to nothing about micro-house, but I'm going to say micro- house so I can be the first to say micro-house. Real answer later, perhaps.

micro-house. (aka glitch-house, click-house, kompakt-stylee etc.) fer real though, any kompakt record, perlon's superlongevity, et al = da bomb. the neptunes. archival mania (deride if you must, but for every abortion like the ride boxset, there's a deceit, a brain damage in oklahoma city, an anti-ny.)

the re-emergence of a good chorus!

I don't know abt any ideas- but a few interesting records from Taku sugimoto, Joe morris. Some excellent reissues as well. The question is: does it matter if there are any ideas or not? The way I hear it glitch isn't a strong enough idea, really, sounds a bit gimmicky and therefore shit (Kid 606 is a big culprit). Perharps it falls down in the execution.

1.markus guenter/in moll[kompakt] 2.swollen members/BadDreams[battle axe] 3.anything from the pinback/black heart procession axis 4.micks record stiffing ;-)

Just the sheer volume of good-to-great records coming out, regardless of genre. Anyone I know who tends to buy a lot of records has pretty much said that this year's been great to their ears. I haven't heard anything completely mindbending or trailblazing lately, but I'm fine with this for the time being. I reckon I'll be playing catch-up with 2001's releases through next June.

Cabaret in its traditional sense and music made in its spirit ( Rufus or Jarvis for example)

I know I'm gonna shot for saying this, but garage-punk is on the way up.

Spot on. You can drink to it, fall over to it and socialise to it, often in the same action. Also there's lots of it around (always has been I guess),there are a couple of 'big' bands to carry a scene right now, and club owners like people who spend cash on booze, which should it see it in favour for a while. Vive la pub rock!

patriotic-anthem compilations.

Northern Europe, in the broadest way:

Motorpsycho, Norway Fireside, Sweden the Hives, Sweden (recently also made available in Britain through Poptones Recs.) Caesars Palace, Sweden 22-Pistepirkko, Finland

some of these bands have been around for some time, others 'emerged' recently. amazing bands.

The obscene number of chaotic, loud, raucous "rock" duos poking their heads out of the underground (Lightning Bolt, Pink & Brown, Burmese, Orethrelm). On a more general level, the cross-pollenation (laterally and vertically) between steps of the music food chain is always nice to behold (though I'm not sure if I'm just noticing it or if this is a new development). Those expecting more specifics on this 2nd point will be sorely disappointed.

What Andy said. And I'll second micro-house although I don't like the term, most of it sounds like good house music. So...erm...good new house music. :) And nu-post-neo-whatever technopop a la Ladytron/Felix da Housecat/Miss Kitten & The Hacker/parts of 'Discovery' basically is the sound of 2001 (in my head).

Actually sort off-topic but I really would love to have one of those Reynolds style 5-year boycotts on *re-issues*.

Glitch's appropriation of pop and The White fuckin' Stripes.

Breakbeat Garage ala Stanton Warriors and Plump Djs.

Sure, MICROHOUSE - including the dubbier scape recordings, & glich- core kid606 stuffs (Matmos & Bjork subscribing along)...

with the whole indie-hip-hop thing - Def Jux, Sole (Clouddead, Roots Manuva, Cannibal Ox) & Neptune non-indie-hip-hop or just HIPHOP in general...

1) Everyone agreeing that it's not enough "just to sample" in hiphop any more. It has to be more than that - architected synths and drum sounds built up from scratch, or that combined with subtle sampling (the piano slide from "Oh Baby Give me One More Chance" in H to the Izzo) or carte-blanche sampling taken to an extreme: "What Means the World to You" by Cam'Ron or "Hard Knock Life". The live swirl of Aquemeni leading to an even denser crafted sound in "Stankonia". Hiphop instrumentation is getting more provocative and original every day.

2) rock bands with a REALLY basic sound finally getting some attention. i don't think i need to name names.

3) the guy from Creed is the last grunge-style vocalist with chart power. soon he will fall.

Mmm. It's hard to pin-point a good new thing happening in music in 2001. My favourite things happening have been happening for a couple of years now.

Hip-hop has been doing great for a few years. I like the old-school soul in new music from Jay-Z and anyone RZA-related. The Neptunes are on a winning streak that started with ODB's album in 1999. I hope 2002 will see some more good music from OkayPlayers such as The Roots, Common en Black Star.

Breakbeat-garage was the new thing in 2000. This year has seen some more fantastic 12"-es and remixes from Wookie, DJ Zinc and DJ Hype. Stanton Warriors made a cool mix album but not a single with the impact of last year's "Da Virus". Plump DJ's remix of Orbital was great, but that's the only new thing I heard from them this year. The flux of garage MC's is quite the trend right now and So Solid Crew reflects this more than anyone. Their album is a bit long, but still a lot of fun. So MC's would count as a trend, but it wouldn't be what it is if the music wasn't up there as well.

I still get a kick out of lots of broken-beat records, as long as they don't get too jazzy. But this has been going on since as at least 1999. I still see a lot of potential here, in good and bad directions.

In general I'd say there's a lot of possibilities in music right now, of which I hope we'll some interesting things developing in the near future.

Stantons have a proper album in January I think. Also they did do some fantastic remixes which kind of count as their own work.

Three Interesting Things:

1) the infestation of ragga and dancehall into anything and everything. 2-step, hip hop, lots of ragga-house (check out the awesome new Masters At Work single)

2) Clever dance producers rediscover their pelvises. Yes, micro-house obviously, but this is a broader process than just that (admittedly quite large and amorphous) area.

3) New twists on futurism - Daft Punk, Cannibal Ox, Kelis/N*E*R*D, Bjork... the upshot to the breakdown of the "futuristic pop" consensus is that there is an increasing anti-consensus when it comes to futurism in music. The escape from irony and the associated diminishing returns (take a bow also The Avalanches) has also helped here I think.

Tim's 3 trends all = recession music, dystopian street soldiering. Cool.

Ragga however, seems to be "rediscovered" every three years or so, which I guess means that it seems less of a trend.

Rap is getting complacent. Transforming from the young Frank Sinatra of Pal Joey to the old Vegas Sinatra.

Also, teenpopstars going "urban" much as happened in the early '90s. Oh, & urban/teenpop hybrids like pink moving yet further from pop too. Proof -- r&b's divergant paths are seat of new musical innovation for coming year.

If Pink's latest moves (as I understand them from reading Tim and Sterling's respective blogs) are predictive of Where Pop is Going then Alanis' comeback should be massive, right?

No. Alanis wil go the way of later Vanilla Ice. We live in a time of transposition.

1) Ecstasy use hitting US R+B, Hip-Hop culture.
2) Rise + rise of Mix-CDs as popular, accessible, + available format espec. for provincial kids with no pirates, few specialist record stores, + limited money
3) Former Dutch Gabba-heads falling for Hard-House in big way, whilst knowing little of the later I'm hoping it will breath new-life into the once thriving low-lands hardcore scene.

provincial kids with no pirates = New Yorkers

I'm more interested in songs than trends, and The White Stripes have a bunch of really good ones.