2014: Favourite 100 Tracks

It goes without saying that 2014 was another damn good year in music terms - then again, pretty much every year is - and as is customary for blogs, we're poppin' off a few lists of our favourite bits and bobs from the past year. First up, here's 100 tracks we really liked, in something of a rank order. Our choosing of the number one pick was pretty much the easiest decision in //APEX history, and there's plenty of other goodness elsewhere on the list, whatever your tastes may be, from smash hit singles to mixtape deep cuts. No write-ups here; we reckon these songs speak for themselves.

2014: Favourite Tracks/EPs So Far

6 months have passed in what is already shaping up to be an outstanding year in the world of music. As a new age of musicians begin to leave their mark on the face of the industry, whether it be the future garage sounds of Jamie xx or through hypermodern UK grime as demonstrated by Serious Thugs, it is evident that the underground scene is thriving more than ever. As is usually the case, it has been immensely difficult for both myself and Joe Sherwood to keep the list's maximum at 15 tracks, and so considerable mentions must be given to Swans' "Bring The Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture", Hannah Diamond's "Attachment" and "Slave To The Rhythm" by the late Michael Jackson to name a few. We'll be releasing our list of albums with a short review for each very shortly so keep on checking back for that. Until then, enjoy our favourite tracks and EPs of the year thus far, complete with a Soundcloud playlist for each of us (tracks not on Soundcloud are linked to YouTube/Spotify).

New Music: Grapes (James Ferraro)

The ever-mystifying James Ferraro has been pretty hot damn prolific lately, and it would appear he's got a new alias as Grapes. The two tracks he's dropped thus far, "." and "Sherm", feature Jim rapping (for the first time?) over some woozy-ass instrumentals (definitely not the first time), replete with movie samples and sirens aplenty. Give them a listen below, and expect more to come from Grapes.

#STOPTHEVIOLENCE #GRAPES 2014

2013: Joe Gilbey's Favourite Tracks

As Joe Sherwood said on his own 'Favourite Tracks of 2013' list, although one may be led to believe that an end of year tracks list should primarily consist of tracks produced by those on the same person's albums list, there is far more to the process than that. An album is usually written with all of the tracks on it in mind, and so the finished product gives off a vibe that is similar at the start of the album to the end of the album; it is a continual piece of art. A single, however, is usually produced for mainstream entertainment purposes in order for an artist to get out their piece of work and showcase it to the world as a glimpse of their abilities as a musician. This, therefore, made choosing the greatest tracks exceedingly difficult as 2013 has been such a brilliantly diverse year, and although they have been ordered, I feel that any track could slide into my top 10 depending on what mood I'm in. Anyway, here's the list.

2013: Joe Sherwood's Favourite Tracks

You'd think that a favourite tracks/singles list would converge mainly around one's favourite albums, but to my mind a good album is one that retains a degree of uniformity quality-wise, making it rather difficult to dissect and split up the overall experience. That said, I've done precisely that for a number of tracks here, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that my favourite albums list isn't particularly reflected in this list of my favourite tracks of the past year. It contains plenty of singles, non-album tracks, mixtape cuts, and even stuff from albums I didn't really care for - my number one pick here confirms this sentiment rather nicely. Ultimately, I prefer the full album experience, but my enjoyment of single tracks this year has certainly been expanded over the past twelve months, and a large selection of 75 seems to suggest that. So, having reveled in the long players of 2013, here's to the musical short form.

P.S. Yes, Miley Cyrus has indeed made the list, even cracking the top 50. Sometimes, it's just too difficult to deny some pretty good pop music.