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Best songs of the year - 45-41

 

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045 Zechonia 72 // Andrew M Pisanu - Rufus Wainwright

044 Quintessa 71 // Float Fall - Someday

043 Flynnonda 76 // Tame Impala - 'Cause I'm A Man

042 Utopia 72 // Brenmar - Hula Hoop (feat. UNiiQU3)

041 Terra Avium 79 // DIA - Egeya

 

A moment of silence for Zechonia (RIP) :snif: who sadly left the contest at the start of the year. Their final entry to the contest was the beautiful 'Rufus Wainwright' by Andrew M Pisanu, which sadly didn't see them ending on a high in the contest but it did have a big impact on me at least and finishes #45 on this countdown, and is definitely up there with the very best songs Zech provided. A fittingly sombre song for his departure, also with an artistic tear-jerker of a music video. Quintessa fall just short of all 4 of their top 100 appearances being in the top 40, with their first entry of the year, Float Fall's 'Someday' at #44. It's another fairly low-key song with The xx-style laidback vocals and a simple but effective chorus. Sounds very much like something Jade would send, especially as they're Belgian. This is obviously a good thing. Tame Impala are at #43 for Flynnonda with ''Cause I'm A Man', I had known of and liked them for a long time before they finally appeared in BJSC, I actually nearly sent them myself with 'Solitude Is Bliss' back in le day, but glad Harry stepped in to make sure someone did send them eventually. They haven't lost it over the years, delivering with another airy psychedelic chillout jam here. Picking up the tempo from the first 3 songs in this section, Utopia are at #42 with another once-a-Persephonia-potential artist Brenmar with 'Hula Hoop' (feat. UNiiQU3) although whatever song I wanted to send from him was never actually available online so that never happened. I don't think it was anywhere near as good as 'Hula Hoop' anyway. Iconic vocals and banging production, what more can you ask for :music: Another Terra Avium entry at #41, DIA's 'Egeya', which officially dethroned her similarly named countrywoman DENA for the best Bulgarian entry to ever grace the contest. Not that there have been that many of them, but they do tend to be pretty great it seems. It's also probably the best ethno-Bulgarian-drum-n-bass-with-violin song ever, because it's probably the only one that exists. It doesn't even sound much like a Eurovision entry to give it the same excuse as Kesh You. But anyway yes, an enthralling mixture of the traditional and the modern in a similar vein to Clean Bandit. What's not to love ~

Naturally that description of 'Someday' has just led me to check it out straight away. It is indeed very up my street, so beautiful. :heart: Loving the chill-out vibes <3

 

Speaking of chill-out vibes, 'Cause I'm A Man' is definitely a highlight there too. :wub:

Yes, at the love for Float Fall, it's definitely in my top 5 entries, glad you liked it too Jade :wub:

Persephonian News Bulltin ~ 11/12/2015

 

7 entries vying for a place in the TBO semis alongside A-WA

 

Nominations for The Best of BJSC VIII have now started, and for the second year in a row Persephonia have the honour of auto-qualifying to the semi-finals with one of our songs:

 

A-WA - Habib Galbi

(1st in BJSC LXXIV)

 

We have 7 other eligible songs in the nominations stage, but they can't make it to the semi-finals without your support! So if you want to see any of the following in the semi-finals, you'd better get nominating ;o

 

San Holo - Hiding (feat. The Nicholas)

(28th in BJSC LXXI)

 

Dawn Richard - Tide: The Paradox Effect

(4th in BJSC LXXII)

 

Audialist - Burning

(15th in BJSC LXXV)

 

Audrey Napoleon - Dope A La Mode (that thumbnail tho)

(5th in BJSC LXXVI)

 

WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA - Shakushain

(36th in BJSC LXXVII)

 

tiny deaths - Ocean

(3rd in BJSC LXXVIII)

 

DANCE WITH THE DEAD - Waves

(3rd in BJSC LXXIX)

 

~~~

 

My EOY will be continuing today now I'm done with the coursework it was distracting me from. :magic:

Dat boob bants :mellow: :kink:

 

(So many good'uns there *.*)

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 14/12/2015

 

Sogand through to Rejects final

 

Sogand's 'The Lom' has made it through to the final of The Best of the Rejects VIII to become our first finalist in the contest for 3 years! PNB are happy to report that most of the Persephonian voters' favourites in the contest made it to the final alongside us, although sadly Mazoo And The Zoo missed out due to Beaverdonia not submitting any votes. Boo.

 

Run The Jewels represent Persephonia for BJSC's second Christmas special

 

For the last spinoff of the year Persephonia have decided to FIGHT THE POWER by sending American hip-hop duo and critics' favourites Run The Jewels after all, after they were unceremoniously vetoed when we attempted to send them to BJSC LXXX.

 

Of course that song had nothing to do with Christmas so wouldn't have made sense for the new spinoff - a sequel to the old Xmas Special, hosted by first time hosts Ultraviolenceland - but luckily digging further into the duo's archives they have a song that is at least ostensibly festive, 'A Christmas Fucking Miracle' taken from their self-titled 2013 debut album. It has the same sort of hard-hitting lyrical content that Killer Mike and El-P usually provide on their songs and not really much of a Christmas link beyond its title, music video and sleigh bell usage in the instrumental, but we couldn't pass up this opportunity so that's good enough for us!

 

 

~~~

 

Continuing my EOY didn't happen last time :kink: It will be finished in good time. Pinkie (pie) swear.

Belated yay for Eves reppin' at #99 :cheer:! I did think when you revealed there were three of my songs in your top 150 that all would fall short of the top 100 as I knew none made a particularly big impression on you, so it's great to see 'TV' just scraping by in true Desbuanda style!

 

Been enjoying following this thread for all the insights and lovely presentation, as well as the musical picks of course. Some highlights so far would be 'Make Me A Bird' (love the build too <3), 'Get Up' (had to re-listen after what you said about the nonsensical verses :o but yeah who cares anyway :music:), 'Kool-Aid' (I must have been the only person unsurprised that this qualified...but then I'm usually useless at predicting qualifiers so of course I can get the 'shock' ones :rolleyes:) and 'Rıyzamın' (not ashamed a little ashamed to admit I lost my shit to the chorus the first of many times it graced me :wub:).

I'm actually already regretting putting 'TV' so low! Hearing it again for TBO nominations (and just when I was listening while posting it in here), I had forgotten how much I grew to like it (after admittedly originally not being THAT big a fan of it). There are a couple of others that I already wish were higher as well but too late to change them really!

Sorry for continuing lack of progress with this EOY! To relieve the tension a bit here's a rundown of the 40 songs which are still yet to be revealed:

 

Aeroche 73 // Sidewalks And Skeletons - EXHUME

Aeroche 80 // TIEKS - Cake

Botanikka 80 // Kai Tracid - Trance & Acid

Danaelanda 77 // KSHMR - Jammu

D'yermak'er 71 // Kacy Hill - Experience

D'yermak'er 78 // Roshan Prince - Look / Lak (The 'REAL DESI' Remix)

Espen 75 // Etienne De Crécy and Madeline Follin - You

Espen 79 // Club cheval - Discipline

FARC 78 // Ji Nilsson - Encore (Boeoes Kaelstigen Remix)

FARC 80 // Wolf Tide - Spoke The Words

Fljótavík 75 // Space Above - This Is It

Florina 73 // George Maple - Vacant Space

Florina 76 // Jai Wolf - Indian Summer

Hushkanukia 72 // PVRIS - St. Patrick

Jadakissnia 74 // Last Lynx - Curtains

Jadakissnia 75 // ONUKA - Time

Jadakissnia 78 // AK and LYNX - Virtual Paradise (feat. Veela)

Jadakissnia 80 // Stranger Cat - Unzip Your Skin

Jukianië 73 // Rochelle Jordan - Follow Me

Kluminican Republic 80 // Caravan Palace - Lone Digger

Kylienips 75 // Meg Myers - Sorry

N DNTN 72 // 18+ - Dry

N DNTN 73 // Swet Shop Boys - Batalvi

N DNTN 77 // Theodora - One Foot In The Grave

(FKA) π 77 // Omar Souleyman - Enssa El Aatab

PRoJ 73 // Everything Everything - Distant Past

Quintessa 74 // Silvermine - Flying (Solarstone Pure Mix)

Quintessa 75 // Priest - Strong Hearts

Quintessa 79 // Avec Sans - Resonate

Séyetana 75 // Goodbye Tomorrow - JAY Z

Séyetana 79 // I See Stars - The Hardest Mistakes (feat. Cassadee Pope)

Singerpurear 74 // Neeraj Shridhar and Tulsi Kumar - Love Mera Hit Hit

Singerpurear 78 // Kishi Bashi - I Am The Antichrist To You

Skall 76 // The Very Best - Yoshua Alikuti

Terra Avium 72 // Power Glove - Crypt

Terra Avium 74 // Crywolf - The Home We Made Pt II (Skrux Remix) (feat. Maigan Kennedy)

Terra Avium 76 // Two Steps From Hell - Miracles

Terra Avium 78 // Slow Magic - Girls

Terra Avium 80 // Owsey, Jernalism and Resotone - I've Been Secretly Falling Apart

Trifoski 71 // Yeasayer - O.N.E.

Slay me with those four remaining appearances :wub: looking forward to seeing where they end up!

043 Flynnonda 76 // Tame Impala - 'Cause I'm A Man

 

Thank you for the kind words about this Bre :heart: I love the airy psychadelic feel :heart:

 

Also HYPE for your XMAS entry :heart:

Best songs of the year - 40-36

 

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040 Kluminican Republic 80 // Caravan Palace - Lone Digger

039 Florina 76 // Jai Wolf - Indian Summer

038 Quintessa 74 // Silvermine - Flying (Solarstone Pure Mix)

037 Jukianië 73 // Rochelle Jordan - Follow Me

036 Espen 79 // Club cheval - Discipline

 

At #40 is the most recent offering from Kluminican Republic and rightfully their biggest hit to date, Caravan Palace's addictive electro swing anthem 'Lone Digger'. It took a couple of listens for this to properly click with me but once it did it kept getting better and better with every listen, aided by the rather incredible (if mildly disturbing) music video. I wonder if it was done by the same people behind DyE's 'Fantasy'... hm. The song itself brings back memories of Gramophonedzie's Why Don't You' and - don't take this the wrong way - yes, Electro Velvet. Therefore I count 'Lone Digger' getting a silver medal as JUSTICE for those silly Eurohoes not knowing what's good for them :D One of two excellent entries from Florina this year - I liked a couple of other entries from them a lot as well, but their only two in the top 150 are both top 40 - at #39 we have Jai Wolf's 'Indian Summer', which is that song I alluded to earlier which could be called instrumental but I prefer to think of it as a foreign language entry, as it does have a single phrase in Hindi repeated throughout. In contrast to the last song this was very much love on first listen as it's exactly the sort of 'just sounds like random noises' songs that Robot always points out that I stan (although actually it's been a while since he's said that :() Originally I thought it might have ended up near #1 on my EOY (it sounded like something I'd have sent myself in a heartbeat if I found it independently of Froot sending it to me as a potential) but it did fall slightly in my affections - indeed not even being the highest Florina entry in the end - but nonetheless it's still a great song with some very similar vibes to Taquwami's 'vvi+h You' which came top 3 on my EOY last year so look back at what I wrote about that. Lol. Another Quintessa at #38, with the song that sadly broke my 21 contest streak of giving 12 to a qualifier in at least one semi-final, Silvermine's 'Flying' (Solarstone Pure Mix). And lord knows how it broke that streak because it's an absolutely excellent bit of soaring trance (one of the best entries of that genre this year) and BJSC usually appreciates what little of it turns up in the contests. (My favourite song in the opposite semi also bizarrely DNQed but we'll get to that later..... :P (is this the third time I've teased that song?)) Another DNQ at #37, a little more understandable this time as R&B always seems to do awfully, but perhaps the second best R&B entry ever for me was Jukianië's offering in BJSC73, the Aaliyah-esque 'Follow Me' by Rochelle Jordan, standing head and shoulders above Totto's other entries to date. Not entirely sure why I love it so much compared to other similar songs but there's just something very captivating and charismatic about the chorus I guess, as well as the v swaggin production ~ The best R&B entry ever was of course Tinashe & Travis Scott's 'Vulnerable', which also DNQed last year. Dafuq you guys. Then at #36 with their first of two top 40 entries it's Espen entry 'Discipline' by Club cheval. Everything about this song is beyond unrelatable to a massive introvert like myself but who can resist the catchiness (du dudu, du dudu, du dudu, du du) and ~carefree attitude~ ;o Once again props to the video which is a very cool and well executed concept, and looks like something that might be very enjoyable in real life if, again, I wasn't the world's biggest introvert. Although I wish I could enjoy both the video and the song at the same time. Those interruptions from the music come so close to ruining it.

Ooo two entries Top 40 yay! 'Indian Summer' was an odd choice for me because usually I'm not that keen on the 'just sounds like random noises' type songs but there's something a lot more magical around the song for me, perhaps due to it's theme~

 

yay for that Klum song in that batch too

Ooh quite a strong start to your top 40 there! I completely echo what you've said about 'Lone Digger' ~ such a cool mishmash of Electro Velvet/Gramophonedzie with an iconic video to boot. 'Flying (Solarstone Pure Mix)' was such an unjust DNQ :'( I didn't quite give it the full 12 like yourself but also love it to bits. (just realised Last Lynx have now surpassed that in your affections as you gave them 10 in the semi ;o yay! x)

 

'Discipline' was a v swag grower :music: great stuff as per! x

Edited December 15, 20159 yr by Slade

Ooh 2 Singerpurear's in the 40, and only one Persephonia in ours. Doh! I'm amazed to see there's only one track we mutually rate top 40 - Jadakissnia of course, Last Lynx. Even our other big Jadakissnia track isn't in yours! :o

Ooh 2 Singerpurear's in the 40, and only one Persephonia in ours. Doh! I'm amazed to see there's only one track we mutually rate top 40 - Jadakissnia of course, Last Lynx. Even our other big Jadakissnia track isn't in yours! :o

 

Well I had another track in your top 100 at least so that's good enough! (Although of course there was also another Singerpurear in my top 100 :kink:) Our tastes don't seem to match up that often unfortunately, aside from me tending to love your entries recently.

 

(just realised Last Lynx have now surpassed that in your affections as you gave them 10 in the semi ;o yay! x)

 

Indeed, it's had the advantage of me hearing it quite a lot more since its contest :kink:

Best songs of the year - 35-31

 

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035 Aeroche 80 // TIEKS - Cake

034 D'yermak'er 71 // Kacy Hill - Experience

033 Kylienips 75 // Meg Myers - Sorry

032 Singerpurear 74 // Neeraj Shridhar and Tulsi Kumar - Love Mera Hit Hit

031 Jadakissnia 74 // Last Lynx - Curtains

 

Aeroche have continued to only let up on their hit-after-hit-after-hit romp through the contest on rare occasions, managing another end-of-year #1 success for 2015, but unfortunately their entries haven't QUITE resonated with me as much as they did before (which says more about how good they were before really because I still loved most of their 2015 output). Nonetheless they have two tracks in the top 40, the first being their recent autoqualifier 'Cake' by TIEKS at #35, transforming audio and video samples from the sadly deceased Rap Sumo and my lookalike Ceddy Bu (as well as clips of people making actual cakes) into a rather iconic package. Even setting the slight novelty factor aside, it has a genuinely great instrumental. I was very glad to see Lew finally sending this one in after it was a long-time potential for him. For the second year in a row I was charitable enough to give one of my own potentials away to D'yermak'er and thankfully, unlike Oscar And The Wolf last year, this year's second-hand Persephonia entry managed to qualify. Kacy Hill's 'Experience', a very FKA twigs-meets-La Roux track (no wonder Bal latched onto it ~), lands at #34 here, leaving an actually original D'yermak'er entry (and one that could ONLY be D'yermak'er (or maybe Singerpurear)) as their highest appearance. Still awaiting Kacy making a mainstream breakthrough :snif: Possibly the biggest and most memorable BJSC moment of the year - even above A-WA winning!!1 - was BJSC originals Kylienips finally adding a winner to their discog after 74 consecutive failures. It was quite the honour to be the person announcing that winner, and especially momentous considering just how dominant it was in the contest, seemingly bringing in big points from nearly everyone. That song was of course the powerful pop-rock stormer 'Sorry' by Meg Myers and it's #33 here, and well-poised for a possible contention to win in The Best of BJSC VIII in the next couple of weeks?! And from one iconic BJSC moment to another - albeit not quite a winner this time - #32 goes to Singerpurear who pulled off the seemingly impossible and brought Bollywood to the BJSC final with the marvellously trashy and devilishly catchy 'Love Mera Hit Hit' by Neeraj Shridhar and Tulsi Kumar. This marked the start of the major turnaround in Singerpurear's fortunes as I already praised a few posts back so I won't repeat myself. Singerpurear have one more entry to come here and, in true Singerpurear fashion, it sounds completely different to the two I've already announced. My first 'genuine' top pointer (as 'Important' was slightly inflated to get 18 from me) to drop out is the song that just beat 'Love Mera Hit Hit' to take my 18 in BJSC74, the long-delayed BJSC debut of Jadakissnia who quite predictably - considering our music tastes seem to be nearly identical - opened their BJSC account with a brilliant tune in Last Lynx's 'Curtains', a gorgeous bit of Nordic indie-pop with similar sort of The xx-y vibes as Float Fall (hence the 'sounds like a Jadakissnia entry' comment back there x) It's currently still the only time Jadakissnia have received my top points but I'm sure it won't be the last, especially as it's not even in my Jadakissnian top 3 any more! Indeed, as brilliant as it is, it only really got the 18 because people were silly enough to vote out the best songs in each semi. Further exposure has seen 'Curtains' surpass 'Flying' (see last post) in my affections but it's still well behind the other which is the only song in BJSC74 left to be revealed... but how high will it be?? :o

Oops at being the floppiest top pointer (well, minus 'Important') but it was an honour to be a top pointer in the first place! Was v happy about that 18 swappage at the time, Jadaphonia off to a flying start from the word go <3

 

I love the way you've described 'Curtains' and I'm pleased it appealed to you so much! I really wanted to get that debut entry just right, especially after making you (and Ryan (and even later April)) wait so long for that to actually happen. So it was amazing to have your support, and that you're still liking it.

 

This whole section is full of 'moments' really, as you mentioned Singerpurear qualifying with a Bollywood song and Kylienips finally having a win to their name! Both such a pleasure to witness so soon into entering the contest.

 

Hooray at still having three entries to come in the top thirty, looking forward to those write-ups. Keep it up! x

I feel like I'm the only person who liked Singerpurear's other Bollywood entry better :P

Yay for 'Experience' :wub: it's probably now my least favourite Kacy sang (or I maybe prefer it slightly to 'Foreign Fields') but that takes nothing away from how incredible it is, more the strength of her other songs. Really hope she make it mainstream eventually :snif:

 

'Love Mera Hit Hit' is a certified desi jam too :music: 👳