We look back at the best tracks to come out of the local music scene this year. By Mark Tjhung

Listen to the year's top 10 tracks on the Time Out Hong Kong Podcast

As the year comes to a close, we’ve been bombarded with a plethora of ‘Best of’ lists. And while we’re far from above such indulgences, we’ve chosen a focus close to home. After many a stalemate broken by muskets at dawn, we’ve compiled our favourite tracks in Hong Kong music this year. It’s a diverse list, made up of old hands and relative newcomers, ranging from atmospheric electronica to stinking metal. Listen to them in our special Top Ten Podcast, presented by Metal Postcard’s Sean Hocking, and judge for yourself.

1. S.T. Weird Mind
It took seven years for one of our most promising electronic artists to release his debut, Weird Mind, 16 tracks that span the electro realm. With such stylistic variety, it proved difficult to pick our fave, but the abstract hip-hop title track finally won out. Opening with a ghostly, meandering line, it kicks into expansive beats, oozing the influence of S.T.’s idol, DJ Shadow. Scratching vocal samples, momentary squealing synths, florid keyboards, and a howling electric axe all appear in the ensuing electronic mash, ultimately returning to the haunting opening line that, only upon its reprise do you realise, never actually left.

2. Chochukmo Tell Her (Laura I Love Her)
Our We’ll Make Your Album winners have had a massive year, playing a string of high-profile gigs before launching their first LP. This track is the standout from The King Lost His Pink – a retelling of Ricky Valance’s Tell Laura I Love Her that couldn’t be more different to the original. Chochukmo’s version mutates from a restrained opening into an anthemic rock chorus imbued with bouncing carnival-esque glee, while Jan Curious’ poetic lyrics and distinctive vocals wail above. It’s a track that encapsulates Chochukmo’s superb debut: diverse art rock that pushes the envelope while remaining utterly listenable.

3. Volt in Music Ghost
Apart from the odd multimedia festival, Volt in Music has been largely unseen around our musical traps. But if you’ve heard the dynamic layered work of Honhim and K, you’ll know they’ve got talent. We’ve been impressed by VIM’s sampling, manipulating, digitising and carefully constructed music, particularly on this track. The instrumental Ghost is mysterious and captivating from the outset, building slowly upon a dirty, descending electro bass foundation with rising arpeggios and a warm synth that floats with an almost-improvised freedom.

4. DP Supermegadon
Fierce beards, shattering cymbals and powerful walls of sound are the hallmarks of the hairy duo of Dave Wong and Paul MacLean. Super Megadon features all the pillars of DP loud metal – a grinding, encircling riff and a stinking kit that drives the sparse, almost chanting vocals. The track is going to appear on a new EP/album next year, which, along with an appearance at Texas superfest SXSW, should make 2010 massive for DP.

5. A Roller Control Story of a Fly
ARC does electro disco-punk with songs that are part-kraut, part-retro, and we think this track is their finest yet. It’s got a driving bass line, broad throw-back drums, a range of synths dancing over the top and direct, aggressive vocals that somehow feel scolding, despite the fact that the lyrics are about some random fly.

6. My Little Airport Donald Tsang, Please Die
In many ways, MLA’s latest album, Poetics: Something between Montparnasse and Mong Kok, is a watershed for the band – a collection of half-old and half-new material that points to the future of this now geographically separated outfit. Donald Tsang, Please Die epitomises its new face – an Ah P sung political diatribe that remains a little Belle & Sebastian but goes more punk than ever.

7. Snoblind Sound System Opening Splash
With three releases in the last year, Snoblind has been busy. But while Phantom Cartography went more experimental, and the most recent Learning from Murmurs was best enjoyed as a whole, Imaginary Soundtrack contained tracks that were more accessible as single entities. Based on a similar rising motif to VIM’s Ghost, the purely instrumental Opening Splash chops between a selection of ambient beats, while plucking simple synth lines out of the air.

8. The Yours Stupid Artpiece
It’s been a while since The Yours last release, but Stupid Artpiece has been central to this post-punk band’s regular gigs. Stupid Artpiece takes the simplest of ideas and electrifies it with primal rhythmic beats, dual, raw, pulsating guitars, aloof shoegazing vocals, and largely indecipherable lyrics (“Being my arm pits”?).

9. Poubelle International The Battle of Trafalgar Square
After several months absence, this energetic and entertaining rock trio has returned with a bang. This is one of our favourite Poubelle tracks, which is made by a swift, rhythmic riff, rattling cymbals and oozes rock attitude in frontman Ben McCarthy’s oft-falsetto vocals. As the lyrics go, “It ain’t no love song.” Rather, it’s a satisfying slice of the lively three-minute pop-rock that Poubelle specialises in.

10. The Sinister Left Her Drive
Although the vocals were literally recorded in a wardrobe, The Sinister Left this year produced a cracking debut EP that went largely unnoticed. The most interesting track on this work of moody rock is Her Drive, which lays throbbing fretwork over a pulsating beat with barely discernible vocals thrust artfully into a support role.

Listen to the year's top 10 tracks on the Time Out Hong Kong Podcast