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As with my album picks, my top tracks of the year are in no way meant to be comprehensive; rather, just a sampling of songs I listened to a lot this year and thought others might enjoy. Most of these are dance tracks that got heavy play at events I went to this year. None of these songs have been mentioned anywhere on Indie Shuffle in the last year.

10. Borgore – Foes (16 Bit Fuck Hoes Remix)

The kids these days are calling this stuff gorestep. I suppose if indie rock taught us anything it’s that a vigorous taxonomic assault on dubstep is inevitable. Seems like things are moving pretty fast for a genre that just recently emerged from UK garage (or was that speed garage? no wait, grime? 2-step? jungle? bassline? d&b? dub? whatever). Call it what you want, this song is face melter.

9. MSTRKRFT – Heartbreaker featuring John Legend

Fist of God had been out for a month, but I still hadn’t given it a listen before seeing MSTRKRFT at Coachella last year. This song was the surprise finale and began with a mysterious MC coming on stage and finally telling us “My name is John Legend, by the way.”

8. Diplo & Blaqstarr – Get Off (Jack Beats Remix)

I was pretty excited when I heard Diplo and Switch experimenting with some dubstep and bassline sounds in addition to their already
extremely varied musical offerings. Jack Beats add their typical wacky bass wobble to this one and make it work better than any of their other remixes. In all of 2009 the most nuts I ever saw crowds go was when the bass drops on this song for the first time.

7. Moderat – Rusty Nails

Modeselektor and Apparat teamed up to drop one of the most powerfully emotional electronic albums I’ve heard this year. Modeselektor’s glitchy thump goes along beautifully with Apparat’s dreamy layers in this fantastic song.

6. Burial & Four Tet – Moth

Another collaboration, this time between Londoners, not Berliners. They kept it simple while releasing Moth/Wolf Club and, despite a lot of hype and subsequent backlash, put out one of my favorite songs of the year.