2: Justice vs Simian - We Are Your Friends

Back at the beginning of the decade, I was DJing on student radio, writing for both the student newspaper and a number of independent webzines, and, as a result, receiving vast quantities of promo CDs and album samplers. More than I could ever possibly listen to, in fact. They say "never judge a book by its cover" but I was often forced to choose which CDs to review based on what the artwork looked like. I distinctly remember the yellow cover and typewriter font of the promo version of Simian's 2002 album, 'We Are Your Friends'. I listened to the album, was mildly impressed, put the CD back into the pile, and forgot all about it.

And then, a couple of years later, two Frenchmen came along and changed everything. Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay remixed the Simian track, 'Never Be Alone' (the central lyric of which had been used as the album's title) for a student radio competition. Which they lost. But French label, Ed Banger Records released the remix in 2003, then re-released it via International Deejay Gigolos in 2004, and out of nothing Justice was formed.



The song, now renamed as 'We Are Your Friends', finally achieved mainstream success in the summer of 2006, scraping into the UK Top 20. The week of its release, I had a torturous journey from Paris (where I was working at the time), via Barcelona and Valencia, to the Benicassim music festival. And on the Saturday night, drunk as a lord, I witnessed a steaming-hot dance tent explode when Soulwax dropped the track. There's a very embarrassing video of myself and my friend Cat at that precise moment on YouTube, and no, I'm not going to tell you how to find it.

From there, the story is simple... Justice's remix became my favourite drinking song, the one guaranteed to get everyone up on the dancefloor on nights out. Their debut album (the one with a cross on the front and no official title) changed my perceptions of dance music and electronica, and I witnessed the Frenchmen dazzle live audiences around London - blowing Chemical Brothers off the stage as their support at Kokos in October 2007, then doing the same to CSS at Brixton that December, and finally getting everyone dancing despite an unseasonal downpour at Somerset House the following summer.

We're still waiting for album number 2 (reportedly due this year), but in the meantime, 'We Are Your Friends' never gets old, even if it has been around in one form or another for virtually the entire Noughties.

33: Daft Punk - One More Time

Recently, there's been a great deal of discussion about the use of Autotune in popular music, prompted by the lead single from Jay-Z's latest album, which he titled 'D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)'. If Autotune really is dying in 2009, and if, as is widely accepted, it was born when Cher hit #1 with 'Believe' in 1998, then this really has been D.O.A - the Decade of Autotune.

This is all pertinent information because Daft Punk's greatest hit featured a vocal performance by Romanthony which benefitted from the technology. And one half of Daft Punk, Thomas Banghalter said at the time that "criticizing the Vocoder is like asking bands in the ’60s, ‘Why do you use the electric guitar?’ It’s just a tool... no big deal."

Glad we got that straight. Anyway, 'One More Time'. Massive global hit, criminally kept off the top of the UK singles chart by two terrible songs by boybands Westlife and A1. Daft Punk's biggest hit in the US. Their only ever #1 single in their home market of France, and a chart-topper in Canada too. Club anthem, still regularly played to drunken revellers across the world. And yet, strangely, not actually that danceable, certainly not to the extent of Daft Punk's earlier hits like 'Da Funk' or 'Around The World' or later hits like 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger'.

It's not really about anything. It's just one of those joyous collective moments, a song of celebration, a happy song that makes me smile.

44: The Prodigy - Warrior's Dance

The Prodigy's 20th UK single, and their 11th to enter the charts in the Top 10, 'Warrior's Dance' continued the return to form that began with the release of 'Omen' (my 86th favourite song of the decade). Largely based around an obscure vocal sample of an obscure collaboration from 1989*, it's the only track on 2009's 'Invaders Must Die' album that would fit equally well on 1992's 'Experience'.

A sinister intro, layer on the vocal sample ("come with me to the dancefloor, you and me, cos that's what it's for"), add the old-skool rave beats and Bob's your uncle, you've got a Prodigy single. It's simple, effective and comes waving a giant nostalgia flag. But following the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" policy has served countless other artists just fine down the years, and making a song that sounds like tunes you recorded over 15 years ago doesn't necessarily need to be a bad thing. And in this case, it's quite the opposite, a huge return to form for a band that were once reviled by the media and large swathes of the British public (remember the 'Smack My Bitch Up' furore?) but are now deservedly treated like legends.



* Final Cut feat. True Faith with Bridgett Grace, since you asked. No, me neither!

58: Sonique - It Feels So Good

When news broke in June of this year that Sonique (a.k.a Sonia Clarke) was suffering from breast cancer, I found myself questioning "why?" Not in the sense of "why her?" - cancer can strike any of us at any time. No, rather, I was surprised that the story about a one-hit wonder, who had been out of the public eye since the early part of the decade, was considered newsworthy. After all, one-hit wonders, by their nature, do not retain much celebrity status. It's even more surprising in the dance genre, where the singers/DJs are largely faceless. Hands up if you'd recognise Rui Da Silva or Mr Oizo if you bumped into them in the street?

The fact that the BBC and most of the national newspapers chose to publish this story probably indicates what high regard the population hold for Sonique's one hit. 'It Feels So Good' was the third biggest selling single of 2000, spending three weeks at #1 and an amazing fourteen weeks hanging about the Top 40. Indeed, it has been named as the biggest selling dance song of the 21st century, having sold over 650,000 copies in the UK alone.*



As dance tunes go, it's a rather uplifting song, bursting into the joyous chorus ("your love, it feels so good, and that's what takes me high, higher than I've been before, and your love it keeps me alive") as North Londoner, Sonique flexed her vocal muscles. I don't know anyone who doesn't love this song. Given that I'd already chosen this song to appear at #58 in my countdown before news of her cancer broke, it seems apt to use this opportunity to wish Sonique a speedy recovery, and thank her for one of the greatest dance tunes of the decade.

* Bizarrely, the only other major market where it topped the charts was Norway. But it did reach #2 in Switzerland and Austria, #3 in Sweden, and went Top 10 virtually everywhere else, including the USA.

72: Fischerspooner - Emerge

4th May 2002. Three days earlier, I'd turned 21. To celebrate my birthday, I had a barbecue at my student house in Oxford on the Saturday afternoon, whilst we watched the FA Cup Final (Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-0 with goals from Parlour and Ljungberg). Various friends had travelled down to Oxford from other universities to celebrate with me.

The pièce de résistance of the birthday weekend was St. Hilda's College Arts Festival. In my role as station manager/DJ at Oxford Student Radio, I had been asked to play the headline DJ set. By the time I came onstage at 2am, the crowd were drunk, happy, and in the mood for a dance. I satisfied that desire, playing an electroclash/dance set that I'm still proud of today (I have my original setlist, if anyone is interested). Felix Da Housecat, Jilted Generation-era Prodigy, Kosheen, Ms Kittin and the Hacker, the odd mashup... everything was well received, as the crowd got drunker and danced harder.

And then, I dropped Fischerspooner's 'Emerge'. The place went berserk. Sweaty bodies flying around the room, arms flailing in the air as the beats reached a crescendo (and let's face it - no song this decade has a crescendo quite like that found in this song). I felt like I was on top of the world.

Every birthday should be as much fun as my 21st was. And this song is inextricably linked to that night in my brain.

79: Darude - Sandstorm

Anthemic trance from the summer of 2000, courtesy of Finnish DJ, Ville Virtanen, aka Darude. He became the first artist from Finland ever to break into the Top 3 of the UK singles chart. Samples a rave track from 1991. Not sure there's much more to say really.... if you're anything like me, chances are you've danced to this in clubs many times over the past decade.

86: The Prodigy - Omen

One of the bands of the Nineties make an appearance in my countdown, an appearance which would have seemed highly unlikely this time a year ago. The Noughties have been very quiet for The Prodigy... a lone single in 2002 ('Baby's Got A Temper'), 2004 album 'Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned' and a Greatest Hits singles boxset. Bear in mind that the previous decade saw The Prodigy release three consecutive hugely successful albums, each with genre-crossing appeal and packed with hit singles.

Early in 2009, though, they were back. And in a big way. 'Omen' took the best rave beats of old-skool Prodge, and married them with that industrial metal guitar sound that Pendulum (pretenders to the throne during the Prodigy's extended absence) had made their trademark. In true Prodigy fashion, lyrics were kept to a minimum, but those they do use are catchy, repetitive and sound best when boomed out across a packed dancefloor. "Now, the writing's on the wall, it won't go away, it's an omen" bellows Keith, sounding as menacing as ever.



Welcome back, Prodigy. We missed you.

95: Sweet Female Attitude - Flowers

UK Garage was something of a phenomenon, no? For a brief period from the summer of 1999 to the summer of 2001, the UK Singles Chart was littered with big-selling chart hits that fitted neatly into their own genre, best described as "speed garage" or "2 step", more club and radio-friendly than earlier jungle and drum'n'bass tracks. Significantly, most of these tracks were successful only in the UK, giving the whole scene a very British feel. Shanks & Bigfoot, DJ Luck & MC Neat, and The Artful Dodger all hit the top of the charts in 1999, and by 2001, as the genre was starting to be supplanted by more traditional rap and R'n'B, Mis-Teeq and So Solid Crew were still able to record huge hits.

Right in the middle of the era of UK garage, in April 2000 came one of its biggest successes, and most likeable tracks, in the form of 'Flowers'. Recorded by one-hit wonders from Stockport, its catchy rythmn and singable chorus ("I'll bring you flowers in the pouring rain, living without you is driving me insane") created a dancefloor smash that summer, which sold over 300,000 copies, and was nominated for a Brit Award.



Sweet Female Attitude turned out to be such one-hit wonders that no other information seems to exist about them on the entire interweb. I can tell you, however, that their names were Leanne Brown and Catherine Cassidy, and that having gone off to start families, they are now back recording again, working with a member of Body Rockers under the name The Koo Zooz. Though bizarrely, their MySpace now lists Arctic Monkeys as an influence.

97: Infernal - From Paris To Berlin

Ah, the first 'Marmite' song in my countdown. But whatever you think about it, there's no question that the banging 'From Paris To Berlin' was THE clubbing smash hit of the summer of 2006. Which is, in itself impressive, for a song that the Danish two-piece first released in 2004.

The song reached #2 in the UK charts in May 2006, and remained in the Top 5 for seven weeks, making it the 6th biggest selling single of the year. A re-worked version titled 'From London To Berlin', recorded for the England World Cup squad flopped however, when the England team were knocked out of the tournament by Portugal.

It's not the most complex or innovative song ever recorded, but it's undeniably fun, full of energy, a proper example of summer euro-cheese. And when a DJ plays it, the atmosphere usually seems to lift. So for that reason alone, I'm having my toast with Marmite.

PS - Fact fans may be interested to know that Infernal also recorded the theme tune for the Danish version of Big Brother