VA - Rough Trade Shops: Counter Culture 10 [2CD Set] (2011)

rtcc10 is selection of tracks, released during 2010, that proved popular with customers and staff-alike. weaving between track 1, the sticky and close post-dubstep of actress, to track 44, vernon and burns' plunderphonic radio-play. there are genres too multiple to describe here in the detail they deserve though four variant examples of the variety pack described are these; a cover of harry nilsson's 'one', stripped to an electronic pulse by alva noto and blixa bargeld, the cali-funkbomb of big boi's 'shutterbugg', geneva jacuzzi's lo-fidelity disco biscuit 'love caboose' and the immense 'jesus hates faggots' by john grant.

caribou and gold panda have deservedly been two of our biggest sellers this last twelve months, and we are lucky enough to be able to include the excellent 'odessa' and 'you' from them here. edwyn collins returned with his seventh studio album 'losing sleep'. what a return to form it was and we have 'it dawns on me' from that release.

a cc comp wouldn't be the same if there weren't tales of beautiful heartbreak and this year we have heard great lovelorn albums from caitlin rose and the strange boys. ty segall and tame impala reminded us that guitars can still sound really fuckin' cool despite 2010 seeing a move toward the synth as the popular weapon of choice, the former channeling screaming lord sutch and t-rex to party-rockin' effect. elsewhere you will find the transcendent new-progressive work of emeralds and oneohtrix point never (on editions mego), while that lemon is given further twist-outs into 21st century neu deutsche welle and avant synthpop by schwefelgelb and darkstar respectively. meanwhile, the underground was working in a similarly dreamed-out vein, represented here by tri-angle records' balam acab and ooooo, who provide sensual and unnerving experiments in filtering, compression and liquidised r'n'b.

we follow these with dark electrofunk from matthew dear, blissed-out chill-wave from toro y moi, electro tech from r&s' untold and the discreet and gorgeous hypnotic electronics from pantha du prince - we could go on, and we will...the actress album came out on honest jon's, and they have further enhanced their already stellar rep. with the release of 'shangaan electro', a collection of stunning new wave dance music from south africa, represented here by nkata mawewe's 'khulumani'. another highlight of the year was the arrival of the mighty tonetta, (a youtube sensation, but don't let that put you off) his dirty stripped down junk-funk was irresistible.

that's just some info on the forty-four tracks spread over the two discs here. 2010 has seen a healthy upsurgence of creativity, with genres splitting, amoeba-like, before returning in a new form. some of those results are here and a whole lot more are out there, all waiting for you in your local record store.