Rockwell

First up today is 'You Cant Cool', off Rockwell D's new 'Burning Up' EP. I got sent this a while back, but I haven't had a chance to post it until now - which is mildly gutting, as it's now on general release anyway. But ho hum. Anyway, I've been playing this track about three times a day. Particularly when I've been feeling tired and in need of my game face, because when it drops it feels like being shot with a Red Bull launcher. Genres now confuse me, because there are too many of them, but I'm going to go with describing it as House music. (Although it might be more accurate to call it banging House music). Whatever it is, its pretty dramatic. The bass is laced with electro-type distortion, but it still has the kind of hollow harmonics you'd associate with a standard club base, so you can feel it slapping your brain and your stomach at the same time. If you're going to play it, play it loud.

Anyway, that massive and hyperbolic plug has put me in the mood for some more house(y) tunes. 'Give My Love A Try', remixed by Leon Du Star, is a bit more chilled out and floaty, but it still pushes along at quite a nice pace. Feels very much like a holiday tune: not too much to it, but enough to help you kick back with a cocktail and relax. ESTO!'s remix of 'Saturated Phat Impact' has a pretty similar vibe to it, although it's half as long and a bit more punchy. The basic difference is that ESTO! has gone for horns where Leon went for strings, and sliced the vocals where Leon stretches them.

And there's also the massive difference of them being remixes of completely seperate tracks, obviously.

But they're both solid mixes, and worth a listen.


Anyway... having trailed off rather rapidly in my discussion of house music, how about a more elc - oh, wait, shit. Is this house as well? Does it even matter? Isn't genrification just holding back the music industry, restricting creativity, and pidgeonholing artists so that the corporate execs can stay in their comfort zones, the bastards? Shock - horror - no one cares and - probably not. It's probably just a way of conveniently labelling music so that everyone can enjoy it and get what they want.

As long as I'm getting tunes as good as CCENTURIESS remix of 'Do The Criminal' it probably doesn't matter either way... This is a track I've been playing a lot alongside that GRUM remix of Skeleton boy, because they have a mildly similar feel, and they're both very good remixes of quite decent indie tracks. The Golden Girls track, however, is probably slightly less decent than the Friendly Fires one, so I have to say well done to CCENTURIESS for doing a bang-up job. So "Well done CCENTURIESS (for doing a bang-up job)". I'm not going to pretend I know anything about them/him/she, because they/he/she are/is very enigmatic (phew). But I will say that this remix is very tasty. The bassline is lovely and funky (especially at the start), and the electric piano bits are very Stardust sounding. Overall it has a very happy sound and I award it 1,000 points. With a few minus points for the annoying car noises they stuck in halfway through, which always scare the crap out of me when I'm crossing the road.

Just realised the spell cheek function on my firefox has failed. Hopefully my amazinged English skills have saved me from any embarrasing mistakes!


Rockwell D - You Cant Cool Buy
Hugo Van Dyck - Give My Love A Try (Leon Du Star Remix) Buy LDS
The Phantom's Revenge - Saturated Phat Impact (ESTO! Remix) Myspace*
Golden Girls - Do The Criminal (CCENTURIESS Remix) Buy

*Check out his mix of 'Just Dance' - awesomeness.