So far the series has six entries including the Go Team and The Very Best with the absolute standout being Andrew Weatherall’s deep and moody ‘Moon’ mix. Weatherall says that it’s “perfect for headphones”. It is.

While there certainly isn’t a shortage of decent mix series’ – this is a pretty smart idea, and a decent way of getting coverage for Oki-Ni’s T-Shirts on music blogs in a credible way. While the quality of both the T-Shirts and the Mixes is this high, everybody is going to win.

oki-ni presents MOON by Andrew Weatherall by oki-ni

(This a semi-regular solo project and should in no way be taken as the views of Branding Rock’n'Roll, especially not BernieV, who has far better taste than me.)

So here it is: a highly subjective list of tunes that have surprised and delighted in 2010. The numbers represent a proposed running order, not a hit parade. Download the whole bunch by clicking here, or go à la carte below. (Of course you’ll buy the tunes to support the artists and those poor, poor record labels won’t you?)

1. Shit Robot, Take ‘Em Up

Shit Robot’s ‘From The Cradle To The Rave’ was basically a bonus LCD Soundsystem album, and here LCD’s Nancy adds NY sass to a moody synth number worthy of Human League

Download [via HotBiscuits] [Direct link: click to play or right click to download]

2. Gorillaz Ft. Little Dragon, Empire Ants

Damon’s come a long way since the Hair Bear Bunch – just one of a hatful of grown-up pop gems from ‘Plastic Beach’

Download [via You Sound Like A Robot] [Direct link]

3. The Morning Benders, Stitches

A typically well-crafted creation from laboratoires Grizzly Bear

Download [via Maps] [Direct link]

Video [via Yours Truly]

4. Best Coast, When I’m With You

Stoner doo-wop anthem of the year

Download [via KEXP] [Direct link]

5. Free Energy, Bad Stuff

AM rock never sounded so sunny – or dark

Download [via RCRDLBL/KEXP]

6. Sleigh Bells, Crown On The Ground

Boy meets girl; they dream up an unlikely fusion of All Saints and Big Black; awesomeness results

Download [via Regnsky] [Direct link]

7. Arcade Fire, Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

The world’s least fun rock band discover their inner Blondie

Download [via Minneapolis Fucking Rocks] [Direct link]

8. Salem, Redlights

Witchin’

Download [via Mediafire]

9. Crystal Castles Ft. Robert Smith, Not In Love

Overly edgy electro duo hook up with everyone’s favourite hasbeen goth – career move of the year for both

Download [via Ilictronix] [Click to download]

10. Thunderheist, Drive-In (Drop The Lime’s B-Live Remix)

A “happy break-up song” according to TH’s Isis – the perfect swansong for both band and Bacardi B-Live

Download [via WeLikeItIndie] [Click to download]

Video [via Spinner]

11. Kanye West Ft. Talib Kweli and Consequence, Chain Heavy

Q-Tip scores for the home team in the ‘Kanye: genius or nutter?’ debate

Download [via IndieShuffle] [Direct link]

12. Massive Attack, Paradise Circus (Breakage’s Tight Rope Remix)

Hope “Her with the angelic voice from Mazzy Star” Sandoval provides the beauty, Breakage the beast

Download [via Mediafire] [Click to download]

13. Four Tet, Angel Echoes (Caribou Remix)

The heavyweight champions of electronica for the Whole Foods set duke out it over eight minutes of wibbly acid

Download [via Nialler9] [Click to download]

14. James Blake, CMYK

The most hyped artist of 2011 (sic) shows a lovely bit of leg in 2010 – the Nick Drake of dubstep?

Download [via Mediafire]

10. The National – High Violet

While lacking the anthemic bombast of ‘Alligator’ and the atmosphere of ‘Boxer’, The National’s fifth album excels in its variety – from Terrible Love’s noisy conclusion through to the whispered-intimacy of ‘Vanderlye’. See also: Deerhunter’s Halcyon Digest.

9. Twin Shadow – Forget

A delightfully playful debut album from Brooklyn’s Twin Shadow. Full of imagination, variety and bags of melody.

8. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening.

We expected the perfect production, we expected the vocals and we expected the beats. What must be given credit on LCD’s third and apparently final album is the well-crafted songs and the way that his band of DFA all-stars recreated the album live.

7. Oneohtrix Point Never – Returnal

OPN and Emeralds soundtracked the quieter hours of 2010.

6. Darkstar – North

The perfect winter album. Falling somewhere between an 80s pop album and slow-paced post-Dilla hip-hop, this is the album that Massive Attack should have made to follow up Mezzanine.

5. Mount Kimbie – Crooks and Lovers.

Repeat listens of Crooks and Lovers resulted in the understated, little sketches of melody bubbling up to the surface. A complete joy.

4. Sleigh Bells – Treats

With a lack of guitar heroes bothering my iPod, Sleigh Bells are exactly what this year needed. Ridiculously loud, silly, brash and very pop.

3.   Forest Swords – Dagger Paths

A consuming and brooding treat for the ears. Forest Sword’s debut release is a record so considered and focussed that it could only be the work of one artist, where every sound is important and weaves to create the whole piece.

2. Caribou – Swim

This follow up to the sunshine-pop of Andorra was an unexpected joy. One of those truly great electronic albums that sound equally good on the couch, in the club, or played by Caribou’s full-live band.

1. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma

This was the defining album of 2010, Cosmogramma – the moment that FlyLo stepped far away from the Dilla template that he followed on ‘Los Angeles’ and made a completely nuts, banger of an album – a real journey, and the best hip-hop/psychedelic/jazz album released in years.

They’ve recently teamed up with American Express to produce a branded video interview, which looks like it was filmed back in September at the Virgin Festival. There’s four problems with this as a piece of content:

1. Interviews aren’t that exciting, music bloggers usually don’t go crazy for them
2. They’re releasing it a week before xmas, when blogs are notoriously quiet.
3. Matt and Kim aren’t really flavour of the month (as much as we love them at BRR)
4. The video is nearly five minutes long

To encourage views and bloggers to post the content, AmEx teamed up with three different homeless charities and will donate $1 for each view, with a maximum of $50k to be donated. Good work AmEx and Matt and Kim who have raised $7026 so far.

Unfortunately, it looks like you can’t embed the video – but have to go somewhere specific to watch it, such as the campaign home on Spin or over on PMA, where AmEx have bought a bought a homepage takeover-style ad.

Photo from: Wunmi_O on Flickr

“The Blackberry Torch is a decent specimen, and do I need to talk about the BB Messagin??’”

Blackberry, please sort out your music strategy immediately.

Yes, it’s the combination of two of my favourite things. Guinness and …er…Virals?

No! Music! That’s the other thing!

I rejigged that old upbeat classic ‘Jingle Bells’ for Guinness. The reworked version is now known as the ‘Jingle Pints Remix’. The viral was filmed on the day between my Indonesian and South American trips. My mental state was questionable due to jet lag, but I think we got some good stuff filmed. There was even a guy there from Guinness whose sole job was to pour the perfect pint and measure the head with a trademarked Guinness set square…(i’m not joking…he really had one). So I can proudly say that I have had the perfect pint of Guinness (and before you ask…I’m not getting paid to mention Guinness as many times as I can in this paragraph……..Guinness).

The only problem is that Foster’s feels completely wrong for this kind of content. Firstly, we know than Alan drinks Courage’s Directors and secondly, it just feels like it’s a brand that Coogan and Iannucci would stick on to take the piss out of it. A bit like the BP garage that features in series 2.

Consumer reaction has also been largely negative, as a short canvassing of the YouTube comments will attest. At time of writing the most highly rated comment was “greatest comedy series ever, shame it took such a pissy-weak lager to bring him back”.

Surely, with the Myspace relaunch, Fox should have invested in funding original content, such as this, which will ramp up views and be interesting enough for people to dig out their old usernames and comment, embed and share.

So, just how long will it be before we see a band-reunion brought to you by the social media presence of a major brand. Throbbing Gristle, reuniting for McDonalds…

They could have had some fun with it, having some real-footage a real life Tiesto trying to keep up with the in-game Tiesto, or Tiesto pretending to play to thousands using the game controller instead of his decks. Or even made one of those fancy interactive YouTube videos, where you have to press buttons to help complete the song…

It’s got 37k views in two days though, so in reality – a good ploy by Activision.

It’s not as good as this recent video from Diplo, which also uses video-game imagery as it’s creative inspiration (although isn’t trying to promote a game)