Natural Selection: Top 10 Labels 2011

01. Anjunabeats - 101200 Points

That the number one spot was going to be for either one of the Anjuna labels wasn't a surprise. Both beats and deep were major factors in my 2011. But in the end, it seems beats made the biggest impression. Where I thought to have heard it all, Anjunabeats completely changed my view on music this year with their legendary way of labelmanagement. Anjunabeats made listening to their label something fun. Their club consist of the most versatile and unique producers around these grey musical days. Guys like Mat Zo, Arty and Andrew bayer have been dominating my top tens and top 100.

Where Axtone delivers an unmatched unique degree of quality into the house scene from time to time, it's Anjunabeats that takes the cake because of their ever so frequent quality releases. They don't overdo it but rather spice things even more up with two or three albums a year and a yearly compilation that are equally spectacular as the "normal" releases.

Their innovative and pleasing take on trance, also dubbed as "Trance 2.0", has turned my world upside down. The combination of strong melodic music with a enjoyable tempo was the perfect solution to the current problem I have with the house scene nowadays. Where the tracks used to be dark, complex and most importantly, sophisticated, the current scenes brings forth nothing but cheap simple carnival music.

"Levels", "Pressure", "calling"...Those are all songs that make my puke.

No, it were glorious singles like "Rebound", rulebreaking remixes like Mat Zo's take on "Thing Called Love" and the entire Group Therapy album for that matter, that have filled my year with happiness and joy.

Thank you, Anjunabeats.

02. Anjunadeep - 91200 Points

Anjunabeats was there to save the day together with the follow up on this list, his little brother Anjunadeep. This number two spot should actually be seen as a shared championship with beats. Both labels were so very much important this year. I thing that the album of A&B gave that extra push to give that little bit of extra quality.

But normally, anjunadeep would have me captivated with their ways of doing things like no other. The gentle, subtle way core of those tracks made by top of the crop of progressive house is unmatched among it's genre. The sound deadmau5 presented me where I fell in love with is back, on a much higher level! Where Beats had the huge amount of brilliant tracks, deep had more concentrated quality.

With the brilliant Solarity as captains, Deep sailed away as near first this year together with a versatile crew into 2012. I can only hope 2012 is going to be as good as this year has been. With Anjunadeep 04 on the way and many much wanted ID's, things are looking very bright for this sister/brother label.

03. Size - 38900 Points

Size records, run by the lately infamous Steve Angello, has managed to do great without a single release of it's head hondcho. Most of it's success came from the two Tim Mason releases. Both "The Moment" and "Anima" set the bar for both Size and Mason awefully high this year.

Where I was hoping for some single releases for the AN21 and Vangeli album, I found out that all will come in 2012. Other surprising news was that Third Party's "Feel" will also come in 2012.

The same party did contributed though, with a brilliant statement to the happy house scene called "Duel". The almost iconic breakdown was one of the highlights of the Size event amsterdam. Futhermore, Swanky Tunes and Hard Rock Sofa managed to actually make a decent tune instead of the bags full of garbage they released earlier.

But the biggest contributed single was ofcourse "Era", placed on number three on the top 100. Kim Fai have been awefully busy lately, but I hope he will continue his domination on Size in 2012.

04. MTA - 21500

MTA thanks this spot to Nero and Nero only. The album was such a thrilling success for me that I almost selected all single releases and album edits for in my top 100. Being my only dubstep artist in the top 100, Nero showed me that a change of genre can be very rewarding.

The album I'm talking about is ofcourse "Welcome Reality". The versatile easy to the ear album got a 80 in a review, and it did it's score proud by lifting MTA directly into the number 5 spot.

"Reaching Out" was number one by far, but "Promises" and "Deparure" succeeded to impress too. MTA seems to feature other dubstep artist too, but I have to say that Nero rises out above them all.

With more single releases from "Welcome Reality" on the way (Must be the feeling will be remixed by a stunning selection of "Flux Pavilion, Funkagenda and Third Party) is seems that MTA is going to run for the top 10 next year too. But what happens after that will remain a mystery since I don't expect Nero to be as active in 2013 too. Intriguing.

05. Balance - 19700 Points

The Balance mix series has been in my heart since James Holden and will always remain there. This attempt by the mighty and intriguing Henry Saiz couldn't defeat the legend, but came very close. The whole assembly of tracks and mixing was utterly superb.

The problem with the mix was that few solo tracks actually stood out on their own, which is a compliment for Henry Saiz if you think about it. But two did and they are both from the mixmaster himself. His collab with Jesse Somefay blew me away after the first play (I believe it also was the first track I heard from the mix album). So did his edit for Elle from Amyn.

Balance did a great job by calling in Henry Saiz on their mixtables, and I hope 2012 will be filled with more brilliant decisions like this.

06. Traum - 17300 Points

Traum also took this place with just two tracks. One of those tracks is Dominik Eulbergs stunning "Der Tanz Der Gluehwurmchen". His album in general was quite brilliant, but evidently just like the Balance mix, few were good enough to stand on their own. The whole bundle was brilliant put together, but alone only this one remained strong. It was the first track I heard from Eulberg and hopefully not the last.

That traum is one of the leaders of sophisticated electronic music, is proved with the signing of Max Cooper. Max is one of the innovators of EDM. This track Ripple made such a scary impact on me that I still hear it when I find myself alone!

I'll follow Traum more intensively this year, with the hope of finding more great tracks from artist like these two. Otherwise I would surely lose out a lot!


07. Axtone - 17600 Points

Axtone should be pictured as a rare tree with slowly growing fruits. The whole label is identical to it's master Axwell: It takes a while before something falls of that particular tree, but when it does it's utter brilliant. The way the tracks are nourished and promoted is examplenary for other labels. The artwork is one of the finest around, and the tracks that are released are top notch.

Ofcourse, the first track that should be notified is "Heart Is King". My official anthem of 2011. Heart Is King stands for everything that's so exciting about House Music. It stands for the things that made me listen to it. This is what I meant with Axtone being a rare tree that requires patience. Axwell releases one single track on his label and it turned out to be the best one of an entire year. The other tracks that caught my attention were also all Axwell related. His collaborated remixes for already brilliant tracks like "Blow Up" and "One Look" ensured my faith in mister hedford for 2012. But that the present and future isn't always the most important is proved by Whelan & Di Scala. The rising duo made a bootleg of one of my personal all time favorite tracks, Axwell's "Feel The Vibe". Being one of the biggest tracks of my childhood, I was of course a bit skeptical. But those hints turned out to be very false, since the duo made a very refreshing and daring update of a classic. The past matters!

Axtone is a class label, that ensures it's goods are nothing but perfect. You'll very
rarily find something unoriginal or boring on the Swedish label. Tracks from Axwell don't follow trends, they set them. Unfortunetaley, the extremely low release frequencies made this year a bit empty for Axtone to stand it's ground. Non the less has Axtone, with the help of Axwell himself, made a big impact this year. But with forthcoming releases such as "Sing2Me" and "Center Of The Universe", axtone will be restored to it's former glory in no time!


08. Mixmash - 15600 Points

I was incredibly curious about the 2011 of Mixmash. Last year, the label dominated my yearmix with incredible melodic innovative signings and releases. This year, Mixmash has released thrice as much as tracks as last year. Yet, the only tracks that I could bare were from Luke himself.

"Natural Disaster" and a remix/edit here and there made enough points for a spot on the top 10 this year, nothing more. It's obvious to mention that I'm deeply dissapointed in this former rising label. Instead of drawing the line further into their innovative label management, they decided to bombard the scene with mediocrity.

Not only the tracks themselves have been damaged. The artwork that I used to love is being completely neglected by artist KOA aswell. I can only hope that Luke will keep a closer eye to the Mixmash management and won't have to save their asses once more!

09. Doorn - 13900 Points

The year started out incredibly promising for Doorn records. I fell in love with the Identity podcast and with Doorn's his productions.

But in the end, only Doorn's own productions made the cut. "Timezone" being a contender for the number one spot at the time, made me very excited for his album "Eleve11". That was the reason I purchased it blindly back in the summer. It was one of the biggest disappointment of the year, with only two new quality tracks (one of them released on Mixmash).

I still enjoy the Identity podcast though. It combines simple easy tracks with new cool tunes making a very pleasurable mix to listen to. It has to be said, Doorn is one of the more pleasant mixers of this time. The current ID's of Sander aren't very promising, so I hope the label at least gets some more nice tracks like the ones played at the identity show.

10. Rejected - 13800 Points

Joris Voorn as said before, is the only Tech House artist I can endure at the moment. His track "Incident Miyagi alone, made to assist Fukushima in their time of need, made by visit him at Queensday and I was not dissapointed! I took a while before another production of Joris saw the light of day, but when it did, it pleasantly surprised me again! Joris his take on Moby's "After", was unmatched compared to the other remixes. I can only hope Joris will make even more tracks in 2012 and get some other artist to color the label.