With December here, Ban Ban Ton Ton is looking back on the musical year. Since Japanese superstition holds 7 as her luckiest number, we’re gonna try to keep each selection tight to this total, in the hope that our conjuring of 7 X 7 X 7 X … will collectively manifest some magic for 2025. You may witness some attempts to creatively bend the rules, blur / invent genres and rinse formats, in order to squeeze in as many great releases as possible… 

Silvertooth`s cover of Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson’s Shut Um Down was aimed directly at the A Love From Outer Space dance floor. The chap behind Silvertooth, Stewart Rowell, is an ALFOS regular, having attended the party since its beginnings at Stoke Newington`s The Drop. The track, therefore, was intended, in part, as a tribute. There`s a great clip of Sean Johnston playing it and the crowd going nuts. The breakdown packs such energy and excitement that it even had me flashing back to Saturday nights at Flying and The Soho Theatre Club. Silvertooth quickly followed that with Just Check It, which featured veteran reggae DJ / MC Danny Red, and the main source of inspiration was switched to Leftfield. Three more releases are already lined-up for 2025, but here Stewart shares a “lucky 7” from the last year. 

Super selections and wonderful words by Silvertooth. 

DOECHII – ALLIGATOR BITES NEVER HEAL – TOP DAWG ENTERTAINMENT 

To steal a famous John Miles song lyric (albeit slightly altered for the benefit of my hip hop lust) – “Hip Hop was my first love, and it will be my last”...and that’s a fact! Doechii has been floating the occasional track and mixtape out into the ether since 2020, but this is her debut long player. It only dropped a couple of weeks ago, and oh man, what a breath of fresh air. Within a genre that has continued to disappoint and almost embarrass itself for a long time now (so much naffness parading itself as hip hop – it just isn’t OK), Doechii has blown everything else out of the water and has been on repeat ever since. Adopting an old skool style and sound, with the most futuristic and fresh approach to her delivery. The brightest thing I’ve heard since Joey Badass surfaced more than 10 years ago. Check out the Doechii ‘Tiny Desk Concert’  for the vibes.

NADAV DAGON – DAHOLA (SIMPLE SYMMETRY REMIX) – THE GARDENS OF BABYLON 

Simple Symmetry very rarely put a foot wrong! Where ‘Funeral of Past Affections’ left off at the end of 2023, this remix for Nadav Dagon takes over for 2024. Atmospheric, epic, euphoric, indie style electronica and an absolute dancefloor destroyer. Outstanding, once again.

DEARY – AURELIA – SONIC CATHEDRAL 

A fresh duo from London Town, Ben Easton and Dottie Cockram are making waves by writing beautiful, blissed out, euphoric dream-pop meets shoegaze guitar music. They released their debut EP ‘Fairground’ last year, and ‘Aurelia’ is their second EP, both on Sonic Cathedral. Consisting of 6 impeccably produced songs, ‘The Moth’ and ‘The Drift’ being my pick of the bunch – they`re reminiscent of early Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, Saint Etienne, Slowdive, or even Portishead. I recently went to see them at The Lexington in London, their first headline tour. It was a sold out show (as was the whole tour) and their performance was electric with the whole room completely tuned it. Definitely ones to watch as they’re on the rise. 

DAVID HOLMES – TOO MUCHROOM (HARDWAY BROS MEET MONKTON UPTOWN REMIX) – HEAVENLY 

David Holmes is one of my musical heroes. The album ‘Blind On A Galloping Horse’ was an exceptional piece of work and I’ve listened to it relentlessly since its release in 2023. Add to that a whole stack of superb remix packages that have come out this year – reworks from so many outstanding artists that tick many of my boxes, including X-Press 2, Cosmodelica, Phil Kieran, Rich Lane, Glok, Jordan Nocture, and Hardway Bros. In 2023 Sean Johnston’s Hardway Bros remix of David Holmes ‘It’s Over Now, If We Run Out Of Love’ was a stand out version, and a regular moment in my DJ sets. Moving forward to 2024, and Sean’s done it again, The Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Uptown remix of ‘Too Muchroom’ is a dark, pulsing, bass-line-led driver which comes alive on a big soundsystem. It tweeks and squelches your brain into another dimension, and that’s all you need to know. 

TREASURE ISLAND – FREE YOURSELF (OLTREFUTURO REMIX) – EPICURE 

I only picked up on the Oltrefuturo guys this year but they are making some great music of an alternative and experimental electronic nature. Actually, some of what they release is rather quick –  +130bpm – but I prefer their much slower output which resonates around the 100 mark. It’s always deep and vibey, full of atmospherics and emotion. It can twist your melons for sure. This remix of ‘Free Yourself’ is dark, tribal & hypnotic at only 100bpm, and should be filed under A Love From Outer Space – perfect music to set that early evening chuggathon. See you in the corner at Phonox. 

AUDIO JUNKIES – ASPECTS OF RHYTHM – MACCABI HOUSE 

I don’t know much about Audio Junkies as they’ve not been on my radar until this record came to my attention just a few weeks ago. It’s progressive house – done right! Using an infectious vocoder sample which gives the track a robotic-machine-funk, seeing Sasha drop this peaktime at the Roundhouse (London) just as John Digweed was returning to the decks for the first time (after his brief illness in LA), it literally tore the roof off and united the clans. Great club record. 

SILVERTOOTH – SHUT UM DOWN (POP UP 2 GET DOWN REMIX) – SILVERTOOTH MUSIC 

They say that self praise is no praise, and I’m inclined to agree, however, this isn’t strictly my work, although I am the artist and it is my release – lucky me! When I received this remix of my track “Shut Um Down” and listened to it for the first time, it completely floored me. It was a goosebumps moment!  Eames is my co-writer for all things Silvertooth, and he`s also one half of Pop Up 2 Get Down, alongside Jamie ‘Fuse’ Read. Upon finishing the original he asked if they could do their own remix. Of course I said! Little did I know what was to follow a few weeks later. They didn’t just remix it using the original parts, they produced a whole new ‘live’ sounding version taking it into a completely new un-chartered territory, strongly vibing from the disco sounds of Tom Moulton’s “Philadelphia’ and Chic’s “New York’. Drafting in Miguel-T for the live bass, and adding a lush string section. All laid out over a tight Earl Young style disco beat courtesy of Mr Fuse himself. The vision of what they’ve done here is off the scale. It just works so well with the vocals. It’s the stand out mix from the whole package in my opinion and has received plaudits far and wide from DJ Harvey, Francois K, Colleen Cosmo Murphy, Bill Brewster and Tim Sweeney. This remix, and the whole package is available on beautiful 2X12” vinyl via the Silvertooth Bandcamp page.