2009: The labels, and thanks!

Right, we're nearly at the end of our 2009 round-up… and nearly at the end of 2009, come to that!

LABELS

What's been most interesting about doing this round-up has been looking back and going, fuck, there was a lot of great music this year! And some of those responsible – again with the emphasis mostly on the newer names, in no order and with no overall winner – were:

Deep Class

Drumpoet Community

Cabrio/Ceremony

Defchild

Acryl Music

Lost My Dog

O.O.R.S

Prismatic

Compost Black Label

Bounce House

So Sound

Elevation

Star-Fi Recordings

1Trax

Seamless Black Label

Front Room

Baker Street

Soulstar/Clubstar

Murmur

Tirk/Nang

Freerange

Vibration

I'm sure I've forgotten loads but those are some of the labels I've been feeling the most in 2009, as well as the bigger/more established names like Salted, MN2S, Purple Music, Get Physical, Crosstown Rebels and Gigolo who've all had good years. Special mention also to Soul Jazz and BBE for some great compilations, and to the mighty King Street Sounds for keeping the true house music flag flying like no other!

And finally, this is the last post of TIWWD's first year, so now seems like a good time to give a shout to those whose support for this fledgling, spasmodic and extremely self-indulgent blog has been muchly appreciated! Thanks go to everyone who sends me tunes, of course, but mostly they're sent for my iDJ attention: the following have been, more particularly, supportive of this blog and/or have helped in some way to make it happen. So,

THANKS TO

Ian Straker @ Kahua, Jon Bishop @ MeOnTheDancefloor, John Bourne, Massive G (Mystikos Quintet), JV Chamary, Matthew Bandy, Ruoho @ Defchild (don't worry it's coming!), all the PRs, labels and artists who said thank you for a TIWWD review instead of whining that it didn't go in iDJ, speaking of which Chris K for not vetoing the idea in the first place, YOU for reading of course especially my 10 (count 'em!) loyal followers, and last but not least my man JoeB @ King Street, without whose encouragement I might never have got this blog off the ground.

Right, that's it from me for 2009! Big love and a happy new year to one and all – see ya on the other side.