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Los Angeles-based DJ/producer best known for various mashups and remixes.
Senior dance & electronic music programmer at Amazon Music.
Formerly Pandora, Slacker Radio, and LIVE 105 radio/SF.
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DECEMBER 25, 2025
BEST OF 2025: A CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO THE WORLD
Cannot be returned or exchanged. Hey, it's been a year, or maybe, just another year? With every passing one of them, I find myself less and less well-equipped to truly judge the Year in Music. I suppose it was folly to think I ever truly did, but 10 years ago I at least had time to listen to rock, hip-hop, and um, Panda Bear. Nowadays, I'm buried under so much bleep-bloop that I can barely come up for air to whimper, "what's this Geese thing you kids are talking about?!" So, same as it ever was, I suppose, the 2025 list is just what came across my headphones this year and what I thought was fun and worthy of proselytizing about. Gaze upon the Top 10s below, or read all about it and dive into the archives over on the Charts page.
Best Albums of 2025
1. Barker - Stochastic Drift (Smalltown Supersound)
2. Ela Minus - DIA (Domino)
3. KAYTRANADA - AIN'T NO DAMN WAY! (RCA)
4. Barry Can't Swim - Loner (Ninja Tune)
5. Ora the Molecule - Dance Therapy (Mute)
6. Deftones - private music (Reprise)
7. Sudan Archives - THE BPM (Stones Throw)
8. Marie Davidson - City of Clowns (Deewee / Because Music)
9. Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out (Roc Nation)
10. Juana Molina - DOGA (Sonamos)
Best Songs of 2025
1. DJ Koze - "Die Gondel" (Domino)
2. PinkPantheress - "Illegal (+ Nia Archives Remix)" (Warner)
3. Four Tet - "Into Dust (Still Falling)" (XL)
4. KAYTRANADA - "SPACE INVADER" (RCA)
5. Tame Impala - "End of Summer" (Columbia)
6. Barry Can't Swim - "Childhood" (Ninja Tune)
7. SX2 - "Soul For Sale" (Disco Halal)
8. Tyler, The Creator - "Sugar on My Tongue" (Columbia)
9. Seven Davis, Jr. - "Is This the Apocalypse" (Secret Angels)
10. Skream, Fletch - "Lost Without You" (CircoLoco)
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DECEMBER 29, 2024
PARTY BEN MASHUP REEMERGENCE WOWS GLOBE,
BEST OF 2024 CHARTS ELECTRIFY CRITICS
I was told there would be no fact checking. So, first of all, ever since "Neverender" came out back in the spring, I would hear it in my car and sorta hum "Music Sounds Better With You" over it, cause it does kinda have the same little high double-note on the three-and-four-and. Also, both French! But even without checking the songs' compatibility in the secret Mashup Generator software we've all had for years, I just felt like the keys would be way too far off to even attempt to actually blorp the songs on top of each other like I used to do. Anyway, months went by, and finally I thought, "well, let's just try it," and by gum if they don't sort of work. I made a draft and sent it to good ol Adriana of Bootie Mashup Inc., asking "is this anything?" And she was like, "yeah." Next thing you know, it's in the Bootie Best of 2024 and everything. Am I cool again? Press one for yes, two for no, or say, "representative."
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Justice vs. Stardust
"Neverender Sounds Better With Stardust"
Wave file link
Honestly, by the way, download the wave file, and just go ahead and ignore that Best of Bootie link above, because Adriana asked for a radio edit to fit on the CD (retro!) so I made one and that's what they have, but I still like this 5:28 version better. Also, I feel like I have to explain the cover: I was trying to make some connection between the Justice cross and the model airplane in the Stardust video, which is vaguely cross-shaped... but even I admit it's a stretch.
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Anyway, come for the mashups, stay for the lists of other people's music. I've tried to rank albums and songs again this year, and you can see those lists along with my patented aw-gee jibber-jabber over on the Charts page. Pretty soon I'm gonna have to reformat that page because the "previous years' charts" box over on the right is stretching down into infinity. It's so crazy I was making charts when I was 3 years old!!! Hahahahaha anyway see the top 10s below:
Best Albums of 2024
1. Charli XCX - Brat (Atlantic)
2. Justice - Hyperdrama (Because)
3. The Cure - Songs of a Lost World (Universal)
4. Kelly Lee Owens - Dreamstate (DH2)
5. Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk (Mom+Pop)
6. Caribou - Honey (Merge)
7. Kendrick Lamar - GNX (Interscope)
8. Vegyn - The Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions (PLZ Make it Ruins)
9. Jlin - Akoma (Planet Mu)
10. Fontaines DC - Romance (XL)
Best Songs of 2024
1. Kendrick Lamar - "Not Like Us" (Interscope)
2. Justice - "Neverender" (Because)
3. Joy Orbison - "flight fm" (Beggars)
4. Caribou - "Got to Change" (Merge)
5. Charli XCX - "Von Dutch" (Atlantic)
6. Yaeji - "Booboo" (XL)
7. Megan Thee Stallion - "Mamushi (feat. Yuki Chiba)" (Warner)
8. DJ HEARTSTRING, Narciss - "Heartbreak Repair System" (Polydor)
9. The Cure - "Alone" (Fiction)
10. Kim Gordon - "Bye Bye" (Matador)
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Of course, my job requires me to also sum up the year in music in the dance and electronic space(s), which I did in cooperation with my fellow genre experts and afficianados employed by our corporate overlord. As usual we came up with two song-based lists, which you can check out below:
- Best of 2024: Dance
- Best of 2024: Electronic
Happy new year, noone!
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