Once again I’m posting this end of year wrap up/top list/sign of being perhaps too into spreadsheets. Whichever you think is more correct. Or -more importantly- the one that gets you to give it a read. It is after all completely for nothing if not read.

To summarize – this is a project now in it’s 4th year. I saw other people posting their end of year top 10’s and thought to myself “what is this crap, like they remember what they liked throughout the full year”. Usually once something is stuck in my craw I need to do something about it. Since I can’t scoff at every list made due to scale (there are a lot of DJs these days) I figured I’d ‘simply’ do better.

I began by curating tracklists from all the mixes I posted publicly that first year and merged them all into one great list which I then massaged into something more accurate than hopefully every other list shared that year. That wasn’t enough though. Each year since I’ve created a spreadsheet where I write down everything played that year. One year was abut 95% accurate (a few live shows got missed) and the other two years were 100% accurate. As in I am pretty darn certain I captured every song mixed. Live-streams, Gigs, Home sessions, whatever – every one of them I fully tracklisted. It was a right pain sometimes, but I’ve been doing it for so many years now it’s just what I do. At home I simply write it as I play it. When playing outside of home I make sure the records I play go back in my bag in the order I play them so that writing it up the next day is made simpler. And it works! I’m always able to remember what song on a record it was I played. I guess it helps I don’t drink or otherwise imbibe. The worse I get is tired.

So that’s what this is, and where it came from. Now onto the numbers…

I’ve broken the information down into the following categories:

By Year of Release,

By Artist,

By Record Label,

By Tracks, and

By Release

The numbers cover the period Jan 1, 2019 12:00AM through Dec 31, 2019 11:59PM and yes both years I had sets that cross that line and had to be split at the right marker – something I was conscious of and made note of it while playing. Refer to the slashies above 😉

The other piece of information to consider is the names and pieces of information shared below aren’t ALL of the artists, labels, etc played. It’s a top list after all, not just a list of everything. So the cut-off point I once again have selected is 5 plays. If something got 5 or more plays it made this list. The one exception is when I discuss overall stats (like how many lines there were in the tracklist – that is referring to all, and the years of release. That too refers to all).

Year of Release

I once again collected the year of release this year. Each track played was released in a given time period and like in previous years I saw trends develop. Further to the ‘bumps’ seen in previous years in the ’96 and ’06 which still exist I’m beginning to see how many years has to pass before the largest bump that represents current releases begins to taper off. It looks as if there may be another bump that exists in the ’16 period and immediately after that it looks like the new release bump lasts about 2 years and then the background average kicks in.

I wonder if the roughly 10 year spacing between what I find to be the most favourable Techno etc. releases holds up for others. I don’t imagine we’d have a way to figure that out for others with actual data since trusting confirmation bias isn’t my style and is the reason why I started collecting this information to begin with.

Average Year of Release: 2010

Min: 1987

Max: 2019

Spread: 32 Years!

2019 Most Played Artists

Once again I’ve merged artists who release or have released under various names. For example Neil Landstrumm is also Polaris, and a part of Sugar Experiment Station with Tobias Schmidt. So for Neil would have 1 added to his name for any old Polaris records I played, plus 1 for each S.E.S. record I played, but as S.E.S. is also Tobias Schmidt, then Toby gets a +1 in his column too. I have always felt this is the best way to handle aliases/groups.

The full artist count: 665

Of the 665 artists played 75 of them had the required 5 or more plays to make the following list.

Beside each Artist there will be both the 2019 play count and the 2018 play count if it exists so a change from year to year can be seen. This year saw lots of new faces! As a result some of my traditionally oft played folks had the numbers go down a bit, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Variety is the spice of life.

Artist 2019 2018 Neil Landstrumm 78 96 JoeFarr 52 54 Jerome Hill 47 60 Tobias Schmidt 30 24 Clouds 29 N/A Scalameriya 25 25 Paul Birken 24 19 Perc 22 N/A Dawl 20 N/A Kink 20 21 Truss 20 N/A Ansome 19 15 Michael Forshaw 19 8 Norman 18 7 Ben Pest 16 9 Carl Finlow 16 N/A Herbert 16 7 Chrissy 15 N/A Luke’s Anger 15 12 TSR 15 21 Dj Sneak 14 9 Borai 13 N/A Cari Lekebusch 13 20 Dave Tarrida 13 12 Kamikaze Space Programme 13 9 Mark Hawkins / Marquis Hawkes 13 26 Subhead 13 7 Denham Audio 12 N/A Paul Woolford 12 N/A Posthuman 12 N/A Airod 11 N/A Mark Archer 11 N/A Myler 10 N/A Randomer 10 23 Si Begg 10 8 Alden Tyrell 9 16 Another Alias 9 7 Dj Bogdan 9 N/A Sane 9 N/A Adam Beyer 8 N/A Dj Haus 8 15 Joey Beltram 8 N/A Safety Scissors 8 N/A Surgeon 8 N/A T99 8 N/A Advent 7 N/A Cannibal Cooking Club 7 N/A Dibu-Z 7 N/A Dj Valium 7 N/A EBE 7 N/A EDMX 7 N/A Finn 7 N/A Lag 7 11 Masc 7 N/A Oli Furness 7 7 Orson Bramley 7 N/A Pangaea 7 N/A VSK 7 6 West Norwood Cassette Library 7 N/A Wevie Stonder 7 N/A Cadans 6 6 Jensen Interceptor 6 N/A Lo.Max 6 N/A Oleka 6 N/A Zeta Reticula 6 N/A Bodyjack 5 N/A Cristian Vogel 5 14 Holy Ghost 5 N/A Jam & Spoon 5 N/A Justin Berkovi 5 N/A Krystal Klear 5 N/A MasCon 5 7 Mike Dearborn 5 N/A Quick’n’Smart 5 N/A Schematic Tools 5 N/A

2019 Most Played Record Labels

I played music from a total of 519 record labels in 2019. There were also a small handful of “Not on Label” releases both purchased and personally created. In addition to the current and previous year’s play count I’ve also included how many releases went into the total plays for that label. The top label “Don’t” for example had a total of 40 plays in 2019, those 40 plays came from a total of 12 of the label’s releases. There are many ways to think of this and I don’t think any of them are “correct” as not all labels have the same number of releases or even tend to release things I would buy every time. So where it may be tempting to say a label with a higher ratio of it’s back catalog played is better than a label with only 1 release played I don’t think that holds much water (I did last year, but upon reflection I’ve changed my mind). I don’t think those scenarios can be compared to each other properly so I’ve not.

Label 2019 Plays # of Releases played 2018 Plays Don’t 40 12 47 Super Rhythm Trax 34 8 34 Mindcut 31 10 24 Running Back 29 7 18 Headstrong Records 25 2 N/A Riot Radio 25 7 19 Earwiggle 25 5 10 Tresor 23 14 30 Perc Trax 22 8 16 SLAM 19 3 13 Neue Heimat 18 10 16 Turbo 17 6 8 Scandinavia 17 7 5 Power Vacuum 16 6 11 WNCL 15 10 11 Not On Label 15 N/A N/A Plus 8 14 10 N/A Mosquito 14 6 14 Cultivated Electronics 12 8 N/A Antikonsum 12 2 N/A Higher Level Records 11 1 N/A Molekul 11 1 N/A Varvet 11 5 N/A Hot Creations 11 1 N/A Fun in the Murky 11 4 N/A Rauschwaren 11 4 5 Killekill 10 4 10 Accidental Jnr 10 5 6 Defected 9 2 N/A 541 9 N/A Sativae 9 5 14 Bombtrap 9 5 12 Libertine 9 3 N/A Anedote Records 8 1 N/A Mercurochrome 8 2 N/A X-Kalay 8 1 N/A Defiant 8 1 N/A iG Recordings 8 1 N/A Djax 8 5 17 Tonewrecker 8 2 7 Clone Basement Series 8 2 13 Missile 8 3 N/A Leisure System 8 2 7 Teknotika 7 1 N/A Hessle Audio 7 1 N/A Mutter 7 3 N/A Feinwerk 7 1 6 Soma 7 4 5 Sneaker Social Club 7 4 5 Chiwax 7 3 N/A Strictly Rhythm 7 4 N/A Drought 7 4 N/A Unknown To The Unknown 7 6 13 Genesa 7 3 16 Mord 7 4 11 A.R.T.Less 6 1 N/A Hot Haus Records 6 5 19 Dext 6 2 6 Snork 6 5 5 Counterbalance 6 1 N/A Bonus Round 6 3 N/A Novamute 6 3 5 Bleeper 6 2 26 Aus 6 3 9 Kugelbox 6 2 N/A Fix 5 2 N/A Craigie Knowles 5 4 N/A Bass Agenda 5 3 N/A Polybius Trax 5 1 7 Force Inc. 5 4 N/A Propaganda Moscow 5 1 N/A H. Productions 5 4 13 Trust 5 1 N/A I Love Acid 5 1 N/A Null 5 4 7 Input-Output 5 1 5 Balkan Vinyl 5 3 5 Isope 5 2 6 Cytrax 5 4 N/A Kick + Clap 5 2 N/A Drumcode 5 5 N/A Klasse Wrecks 5 2 N/A Peacefrog 5 5 5

2019 Most Played Tracks

The tracks listed here, just like the artists and labels above were all the ones that got 5 or more plays throughout 2019. These 27 songs I guess were the ones I was most likely to play at any given time through the year. It’s mostly harder Techno, but some Acid, House, and Breaks sneaked in as well. In particular I think the JoeFarr track on SLAM digital (Hanger 1) is most impressive. I had it pressed to a 1-sided picture disc (and sent Joe a copy too of course) and now 2 years in a row it’s been in my top 5 tracks played. For good reason too. Despite it being a pretty balls-to-the-wall sort of banger it also goes over really well with those not into that sort of thing.

Artist Song Label 2019 Plays Jerome Hill Wormface Earwiggle 22 14 JoeFarr Hanger 1 SLAM 2 13 Clouds Sharp Like A Razor Headstrong 3 13 Chrissy Truth Bomb Super Rythym Trax 26 10 Neil Landstrumm Night Walker Zwei Running Back 77 9 Dj Bogdan Love Inna Basement Not On Label 9 Posthuman King Rat X-Kalay 17 8 Borai Vs Denham Audio Make Me Higher Level 2 8 T99 Anasthasia (Perc & Truss Remix) iG Recordings 13 7 Orson Bramley Bang Anecdote Records 7056 7 Kink Raw Running Back 81 7 Finn Sometimes The Going Gets A Little Tough Defected 542 7 Dj Sneak Special K Defiant 971 7 Ansome British Steel Perc Trax 75 7 Wevie Stonder Ton Wah (Jerome Hill Remix) Don’t 38 6 Surgeon La Real Counterbalance 2 6 Paul Woolford Don’t Waste My Time Hot Creations 122 6 Paul Birken Acid Youth Of Malibu (Truss Remix) Earwiggle 6 6 Pangaea Bone Sucka Hessle Audio 33 6 Lo.Max Surgery Antikonsum 3 6 Schematic Tools Chunky Chugger Kugelbox 2 5 Sane Sauntering Cockroach Sane 5 Randomer & Cadans Angry Fiddle Clone Basement Series 19 5 Paul Woolford Story Of My Life Hot Creations 122 5 Paul Birken Speaker Freakin Tonewrecker 10 5 Kamikaze Space Programme Didspeed Mindcut 7 5 Dj Valium Whiskas Teknotika 15 5

2019 Most Played Releases

And finally we get to the releases I played the most this year. They’re not all new, they’re not all old. They are all fun on the dance-floor though. Those who have been to an event I played at know I don’t screw around. I aim to make people dance, but to also keep things interesting. I think the variety with the House, Techno, and Electro genres here show that. The House and Electro do get overshadowed in this end of year wrap-up as I primarily play Techno, but there was enough this year to make the list. That doesn’t usually happen.

Artist / Label Catalog # 2019 Plays View Release Clouds / Headstrong Records 3 22 discogs Various / Earwiggle 22 14 discogs JoeFarr / SLAM 2 13 discogs Neil Landstrumm / Running Back 77 11 discogs Airod / Molekul 15 11 discogs Borai vs Denham Audio / Higher Level Records 2 11 discogs Paul Woolford / Hot Creations 122 11 discogs Chrissy / Super Rhythm Trax 26 10 discogs Various / Don’t 40 9 discogs Posthuman / X-Kalay 17 8 discogs T99 / iG Recordings 13 8 discogs Orson Bramley / Anecdote 7056 8 discogs Dj Sneak / Defiant 971 8 discogs Wevie Stonder / Don’t 38 7 discogs Mark Archer, Masc / Super Rhythm Trax 24 7 discogs Ansome / Mindcut 7 7 discogs Kink / Running Back 81 7 discogs Ben Pest / Riot Radio Records 15 7 discogs Ansome / Perc Trax 75 7 discogs S.E.S. / Scandinavia 3 7 discogs Lo.Max / Antikonsum 3 7 discogs Finn / Defected 542 7 discogs Dj Valium / Teknotika 15 7 discogs Pangaea / Hessle Audio 33 7 discogs Norman / Feinwerk 8 7 discogs Various / Mindcut 14 6 discogs TSR / Riot Radio Records 10 6 discogs Paul Birken / Earwiggle 6 6 discogs Clouds / Turbo 138 6 discogs Various / Killekill 20 6 discogs Dawl / Libertine 11 6 discogs Randomer & Cadans / Clone Basement Series 19 6 discogs Surgeon / Counterbalance 2 6 discogs Mark Archer / ARTLess 2180 6 discogs Another Alias / Don’t 37 5 discogs Michael Forshaw / Don’t 39 5 discogs Jerome Hill / Super Rhythm Trax 20 5 discogs Myler / Mindcut 8 5 discogs Neil Landstrumm / Riot Radio Records 9 5 discogs Various / Perc Trax 80 5 discogs Neil Landstrumm / Scandinavia 27 5 discogs JoeFarr / Power Vacuum 9 5 discogs Scalameriya, VSK / Power Vacuum 13 5 discogs Various / Antikonsum 1 5 discogs Norman / Rauschwaren 3 5 discogs JoeFarr / Fun in the Murky 4 5 discogs Paul Birken / Tonewrecker 10 5 discogs Various / Kugelbox 2 5 discogs Kamikaze Space Programme / Trust 24 5 discogs Sync 24, Jensen Interceptor / Propaganda Moscow 9 5 discogs Various / Polybius Trax 4 5 discogs Jerome Hill / I Love Acid 4 5 discogs Tobias Schmidt / Input-Output 10 5 discogs

To wrap it all up with a bow, here’s one final set of numbers:

# of Mixes/Sets: 85 Total Length of all Mixes/Sets: 113 hours Average Mix/Set Length: 1 hour 20 minutes Tracks in year Long Tracklist: 1615 Average # of Tracks per Mix/Set: 19 Artists Played: 772 Labels Played: 519 Average Release Year: 2010 In 2019 I played a mix/set on average every 4.26 days

So what do you think? Is this information useful? I enjoy it, that’s all I know for sure. See you next year for the 2020 breakdown. I hope this all points you in the direction of people making good music. I hope you then grab some of that good music for yourself to play and share. And as always, don’t be afraid to reach out.

Trevor Wilkes, bleep@isoprax.com