Simon Grigg has The Opinionated Diner, a music blog with good taste.

Silent Introduction (1997) – Kenny Dixon Jr
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….enigmatic, even in his most open moments, Kenny Dixon Jr remains both one of America’s great musical secrets, almost unknown outside electronic circles, and a massive influence across the pond in Europe and America (try and imagine Henrik Schwarz’s wonderful DJ Kicks mix without Kenny’s influence). And completely addictive…once you buy in you come back again and again (and indeed, find yourself paying silly money for those rare 12”s). His rhythms, grooves…call them what you will…are often ridiculously understated in their subtly but their ability of snare you…as he says: I Can’t Kick This Feeling When It Hits —The Opinionated Diner

A bit more on Henrik Schwarz:

DJ-Kicks (2006) – Henrik Schwarz
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It features tracks by personal favourites, Moondog, James Brown, Cymande, Drexciya, Coldcut, Robert Hood, Pharoah Sanders, Arthur Russell and Rhythm & Sound.

Other releases in 2006 that seem good:

Sunday Afternoon at Dingwalls (2006) – Gilles Peterson, Patrick Forge
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Related: Patrick Forge – Gilles Peterson – Acid Jazz – Dingwalls

And finally K Punk’s 2006 rewind:

Momus argues that ‘if music didn’t exactly die in 2006, it certainly felt sidelined, jilted, demoted, decentred, dethroned as the exemplary creative activity, the most vibrant subculture.’ That is one reason why Burial has to be the album of 2006, and hauntology the year’s dominant theme. K Punk’s 2006 rewind

Burial (2006) – Burial
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Burial’s self-titled LP on Hyperdub is one of our albums of the year. It’s a remarkable debut, built from damaged beats and distant, hiss-smothered vocal samples: a haunted pirate station broadcasting forgotten rave anthems from the afterlife. —factmagazine

Listen to a track by Burial here. The genre is called dubstep, and it has been championed by Simon Reynolds and K-Punk since more than two years, I’m not sure I’m too keen on it. I have the same feeling as when the British music press was raving about The Streets.

Best of 2006 in music:

I’m afraid I’m not very good at year end lists, but everyone seemed to like Ys by Joanna Newsom. She belongs to that elusive category New Weird America, my brother bought a lot of that stuff last year, and his musical taste is impeccable.