Posts in Music

Warp Records new signing Gonjasufi has a noticeable mindset that is screw whats trending i’m going to make something special that is my sound. With the soul filled song Duet he does wonderful additions/effects that sets him apart from just a one genre track. I personally love the effected guitar and the vocal echo, it really makes me want the song not to end.

New single from Neon Indian, I saw him this weekend perform live, he’s a rock star already, the whole package to entertain live and if he makes more music like this then he’ll definitely outlast the sound he leads. In Sleep Paralysist I hear abit of Human League and spot on synth melodies being layered, definitely a nice teaser for anything new he’s brewing up.

I found The Advisory Circle by just scrolling thru eMusic, its nothing new but nothing that’s broken either. Sometimes its nice to hear calming synth solos for a couple minutes, perfect for a quick daydream in the middle of the work day.

Jon Hopkins’ Light Through The Veins is the lighter side of even what M83 makes on his happiest days in the studio, it certainly has a cinematic sound especially the way the song ends. I’m just more of a fan of the build and layering I guess but the song gets a bit too long.

One of the best tracklistings and mixes i’ve seen and heard in a while is this one from St. Louis’ Phaseone that Pitchfork posted yesterday, download it here. Check the tracklist out to see if your interested, i’m sure many of you will be very pleased:

TRACKLIST
Slowdive – Miranda
Curren$y – I’m just dope
Aphex Twin – Fingerbib
Nite Jewel – Want you back (phaseone remix)
Lukid – Hair of the dog
Talking Heads – Listening wind
Tricky – Bad dream
Polanski – punked out
J Dilla – Oxtopus boom boom
Falty DL – Made me feel so right
James Pants – Shower party
Fleetwood Mac – Isn’t it midnight
Teebs – Humming birds
Actress vs. Zomby – Aazz2
Phaseone – Sandra

* Note that the photo above is unrelated.

This Bluebrain’s song takes a second to kick in, it has such unique production, vocals remind me a bit of TV On The Radio and the music makes me feel like how I felt after hearing The Dirty Projectors for the first time which they don’t sound the same at all but both album hit me off guard where the music wasn’t something i’d usually listen to but composition wise it was very fresh feeling and I wanted know if they could pull that feeling off thru the whole album.

This isn’t the only Prins Thomas song i’ll be posting from his new album thats for sure, I think it comes out next week in the US and i’m geeking over it. I think after the first few minutes in I wrote to him and said “epic! country space jams touching the disco gods” and thats a good thing in my mind.

Dayve Hawk aka Memory Cassette aka Memory Tapes aka Weird Tapes has recently made his way thru many of the cracks of sub genres and made a great name for himself which is well deserving since his music is top notch. I saw him open for Atlas Sound as Memory Tapes, he did his Memory Tapes sound really well plus added a hint of his disco-ish Weird Tapes sound into it all too, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED you check his work out.

A long groover from Motor City Drum Ensemble, these keys could loop forever in my head and i’d never get sick of them.

I’m pretty proud of this music selection today because its so diverse on the electronic end, we have a track from the potentially Top 40 worldwide Gorillaz, a summer track from Birds & Souls, a hip Yeasayers like song from Tanlines and one of the most beautiful ambient tracks that has come out this year from Loscil.

So glad to hear this track Stylo on the new Gorillaz tracks, I was going thru the album trying to find a song I liked plus one to share and it seems that this was my jam. It really reminds me of INXS – Mediate at times especially when the synth lead chord is being held down. I can see this song being played at clubs and also the more hip private parties, I hope it spreads like wild fire to people’s ears.

Birds & Souls are new and their first single is what i’m going to call 2010 summer’s jam for the festival circuit in the dance world(WMC, DEMF, Sonar, etc.). The track builds from what sounds like friends experimenting making a song into where they find a groove then after around the 4 minute mark it starts blooming into one of the more catchy songs i’ve heard in a while. Its definitely one of those songs to lose yourself in, you can’t even judge a 3 minute section of the song since the song completely transforms if you stick with it, really looking forward to hearing this on some big speakers.

This back to back with the Birds & Souls track you might like i’m a world music nut when it comes to percussion which I am but this song from Tanlines goes a completely different direction which is this sound that is seeping into the indie rock world. I think the unraveling of it started with Animal Collective > Yeasayers > to someone like Tanlines, the added synths morph it into something a bit more poppy and youthful and less experimental.

Time to shift gears and slowly dip into the calm water, let me paint you a picture in your mind: you’ve canoed around a mile off the coast its about 4:55am on a foggy rainy night where its almost dawn, you grab your goggles and put them on, they’re your favorite ones with an oval face and vintage leather strap that doesn’t match and somehow has made it thru all your early morning solo dives. You drop in the water backwards and go exploring like you always do, part of the thrill is people don’t know your out or know that you even do this, its your small kept secret that you take very serious yet when you come up from the water and you see the tiny bit of sun starting to peak out you can’t seem to never hold back your smile. Thats how this Loscil song is for me.

I’ve been bored with dance music for a bit now when it comes to the more upbeat stuff(the slow groove stuff has been amazing though). I use to play these kind of records and it was a ton of fun to dj out but its pretty much been harsh cut up remixes of Top 40, newbies that haven’t heard much of what was going back in the day and fusions of trending whatever. In Part 1 I went on this small rant:

“No matter how much you might hate certain kinds of music you can always find something that appeals to you unless you have a one track mind or prefer a safe and conservative lifestyle. So you’re definitely not looking for trance, you definitely don’t want what’s playing at Crunch gym, and your sick of what your friends are suggesting because the vocals make you uncomfortable or there are too many snare rolls or it gets too cheesy dreamy sounding. Maybe you just want one dancey anthem for the week, well i’m gonna do my best to help steer you in the right direction before you have a bad club remix of Pet Shop Boys on your hands.”

I hope these kind of posts show that there was some melodic dance cuts at one point that worked both in the underground and mainstream dancefloor, I hope we come back to this driving catchy sound where the synths are warmer and the instrumentals could hold their own without a vox.

Mark E’s works 2005 -2009 selected tracks and edits is a must have in my mind, I only wish I had collected all these tracks on vinyl but here it is in an easy to swoop CD over at Phonica.

Mark E’s production is very groove based a slow burn if you will, its definitely for fans of Pilooski, Studio, Marvin Gaye, or Moodymann.This music for a dance floor that’s in it for the long haul and not looking to tire themselves out at some club. You might notice his edits touch on slow house and disco and classic soul, nothing in your face, to be honest I could put a song on repeat and have it going for 40 minutes+ and just keep trekkin’ along my work day completely enjoying doing anything while every once in a while dance in my chair.

I’ve seen Deru play a few shows with Tycho, he always gets a crowd going with what some people might call IDM but it can’t be you know why because girls dance to Deru and girls don’t dance to IDM. This is definitely for fans of older Lusine but with a bit more noise, damage and darkness.

Osborne’s Afrika is a classic on Spectral Sound, I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to take on a remix of it since its such a killer track originally. Recently though Bullion stepped up the challenge with luscious results.

Everyone probably has this Jose Gonzalez cover of The Knife’s Heartbeats, I just felt like the blog would be naked without it archived somewhere.

Animal Collective’s Panda Bear collabing with anyone seems like a good idea but after hearing him over a flat 4/4 it kind of makes me think not, I love both Panda Bear and Pantha Du Prince but this remix is just a wee bit off but the video has a nice treatment and is pretty entertaining.

Sometimes I like to make sure some of you haven’t missed underground classics in the synth world and also edits. This is my favorite track by Giorgio Moroder by far, I always wanted a 9 min version of To The Bridge and I thought that person should of been Pilooski. As for this edit of Del Shannon, Pilooski kills it with this stomping reinterpretation which will go down as one of the best edits in my mind, I couldn’t imagine a dance floor that wouldn’t enjoy it.

I haven’t heard new production from Hercules And Love Affair in a while now, I saw a mix recently but thats about it, I went back and noticed I really wore that LP down, I loved listening to it. Here’s a remix they did and here’s something that might just leave me alone in the dark but i’ll try and see any of you agree, did anyone play Streets Of Rage 2 on the Sega Genesis? well there is this swamp level and the boss for that level I swear sounds like the sample at the beginning of this song, anyone hear it? no biggie if you don’t hah

I like to check Pitchfork daily no matter how much right or wrong that people might think they do they definitely are very up to the minute and have their fingers in everything. Today they gave this unique Floating Points house track an 8 out of 10! it was soo nice to see, an 8 for something that i’d never think that they’d post about, it just made me happy that’s all.

This Andrés LP came out last year and i’m sure its still on a lot of peoples record players. The record was produced with Kenny Dixon Jr. on Moodymann’s label Mahogani Music, it touches on House and Hip Hop from the center of Detroit, MI. This is a record for the people that live and breathe this sound, after a few listens I realized one of the only ways to truly enjoy it is playing the LP in full so you can lock into the sound. Its a very rewarding and solid listen if you enjoy J Dilla, KDJ, and most Detroit deep house but it also touches on the slow edit world like Mark E and Rub n’ Tug.

Above our some screenshots from the Syntaks videos that i’ve posted below, beautiful visuals that i’m sure many of you will be happy to see. Syntaks is Jakob Skott from Denmark who collaborates with Anna Cecilia, the music hints at calm instrumentals by Cocteau Twins and all the way to the more melodic work by William Basinski.

Wow I don’t have the guts to put out what Tune-Yards does but i’d love to try and make this kind of music, raw and loopy with plenty of passion behind every note played.

Pictureplane and Teengirl Fantasy seem to be both on the same boat, sounds like re-edits of pop songs but with additional melody and lo-fi backing. Teengirl Fantasy has hints of what seems to be Throw Some D’s by Rich Boy(great song by the way) accompanied with a lullaby like melody and calmed noise while Pictureplane takes the classic Seven Wonders by Fleetwood Mac and give it a harsh crunchy swing backing beat, its a pretty nice edit, I wouldn’t of gave it its own name though I would of just called it an edit, still a great listen.

Syntaks – “Twentytwohundred” Video from Ghostly International on Vimeo.

Syntaks – “Blue Sunshine” from Ghostly International on Vimeo.