The Dance Off (pt. 2)

So, in the last post I was pitting classic garage against more recent electro bangers in a kind of disco fight to the death, and in this post I'm... doing exactly the same. Which doesn't say much for my powers of imagination.

Good old Lonyo, good old Sunship. (I should say, I've no idea if it's actually a Sunship mix of the song, or if he produced it, or if he had anything to do with it at all, but I might as well put his name to it because he's quite possibly one of the hardest-working and most-consistent garage DJ's ever. And he deserves the love of the people. In particular the garage girls.) This piece of old school awesomeness is one of my favourite summer tracks, and it's not sexist: it's appreciative. Probably. Either way, it is a classic.

As is the SFA song 'Flowers', which is why I refuse to post it. There can't be anyone from my generation who hasn't heard that song. But one of their less known tracks is '8 Days A Week', and it follows pretty much the same brilliant formula. Which is a good thing in my book.

Competing with the two classics (I might be stretching the applicability of that word a bit, excuse the hyperbole) I have already mentioned, are two recent releases that have caught my attention. Neo Tokyo's 'Because You Left' and the Culture Prophet remix of 'RAR'. The Neo Tokyo track sounds a bit like an old Gameboy theme song which has mated with a funky vocal sample it met on the internet - a sound which I actually quite like. It's worth a listen.

As for the Culture Prophet remix... it starts epic and just gets more so. Then it gets chilled out. Then it gets epic again. It's almost as if the song is so awesome they had to give you breathing spaces in the middle of it so you can keep dancing. (I've got slightly hyperbolic again there, but it is a cool song.)

Love it.

On a side note - Apparently garage music was influenced by that hero of mine: Todd Edwards. Which means I don't have to feel like a chav for listening to it. Because Todd Edwards is an awesome and respected house DJ (despite all his songs sounding strangely similar), and if you don't believe me you can look below.

Lonyo - Garage Girls (Sunship Mix) Buy
Neo Tokyo - Because You Left Myspace
Sweet Female Attitude - 8 Days A Week Buy I apologize for the quality on this one, it's difficult to get hold of a decent version.
Romulus & Remus - RAR (Culture Prophet Remix) Myspace


Bassline Bonus (recommended)
Artful Dodger - One More Chance Myspace

Todd Edwards Bonus
Appaloosa - The Day (We Fell In Love)(Todd Edwards Liturgical Mix) Buy

The Dance Off (pt. 1)

Sometimes, albeit it very rarely, I sit down and I listen to some banging electro and I think: "This banging electro that I've sat down to listen to isn't really doing it for me". And by that I don't mean 'doing it for me' in any kind of sexual sense, because that would sound a bit gay and weird. In fact, I'd be pretty surprised if anyone thought that was what I meant.

So that's two sentences wasted.

Any way, when I have these particular moments of lost faith, I find myself turning to another genre. Which is usually garage. Because to be honest, old school garage has its moments. And when it has them, it has them big time. 'Love Shy' is quite possibly one of my favourite tunes of all time - not, obviously, because it is some kind of fantastic original musical accomplishment, but because it just sounds happy. It sounds like the producer just bounced up and down on his keyboard when he made it. It sounds like they were on E, and somehow injected that E into the actual song. Quite probably, most people won't have the emotional attachment I have to garage. And for that reason, I've stuck Kristine Blond's old classic next to Mr Miyagi's more recent dance remix of 'Up In The Blue', which is also awesome, and is less sickeningly commercial and pop. But I know which one would make me dance if I heard it at a funeral.

Neither, because that would be sick... But 'Love Shy' would make me want to dance.

Old Mr Dodger and Craig David were once the very essence and lifeblood of the garage scene, bringing it to the mainstream with more success than almost anyone else. 'Woman Trouble' is my particular favourite of their many collaborations, mostly because 'Rewind' is so overplayed, and I reckon it trumps the Gooseflesh remix of 'Taken Away' for sheer euphoric danceability any day of the week. Although the Gooseflesh remix is definitely a pretty handy tune, and one of my recent favourites - I'm sorry to say I ignored it for a few weeks after I first got it, alas. But I am now repenting by playing it about 5 times in the last half hour.

You can make your own minds up about which you prefer - but I know which songs will stick with me for a good few years to come.


(The garage songs, in case I haven't been clear).

Kristine Blond - Love Shy Buy
Jake OH - Up In The Blue (Mr Miyagi Remix) Buy
Artful Dodger feat. Craig David - Woman Trouble Buy
Digitalism - Taken Away (Gooseflesh Remix) Myspace* awesome

*Apologies if mediafire is being a bit funny, they've definitely got some server issues at the moment.

The Lonely Island

They're on a boat.

Got Incredibad this morning. All the singles are pretty hilarious, the rest of the album is less consistent. The concept wears a little thin over time, although the execution of it is pretty sharp - The beat for 'I'm On A Boat' is flipping awesome.

Where can I buy one of those T-Pain top hats!?

The Lonely Island - Dick In A Box (Feat. Justin Timberlake) Explicit Buy

Death By Music

Skream's Lets Get Ravey mix of La Roux, Kissy Sell Out's DataRock remix, '1000 Cigarettes' off MSTRKRFT's new album... the whole of MSTRKRFT's new album (I picked it up on promo last week and it is awesome)...

It's difficult to tell what I love more - so to avoid the problem of choosing between them I'm going to post some other, unrelated songs instead. Which hopefully won't seem like a total cop-out, considering that most of the tracks I've just mentioned are readily available all over the net anyway, and considering also that the tracks I am just about to mention (and post, obviously) are completely immense.
High Rankin is someone I've been listening too pretty much non-stop since ...oh, friday, when I heard one of his tunes on Annie Mac's Radio 1 show (god bless her). Anyway, apart from the insane bounciness of 'Bubble and Squeak', featured on the show, Mr Rankin brings a particularly demonic and aggressive form of dubstep to the table. 'No Money For Guns' samples what sounds suspiciously like a distorted scream, as well as the phrase given in the song's title, and combines both with unusually heavy and crashing, almost rock-ish, drums and the (now-compulsory) stomach-punching bass we've all come to know and appreciate as the whole point of good dubstep. 'Sulfur Tears' does pretty much exactly the same, in a slightly more intense - if that's possible - way, and with different samples (naturally). Both songs demand a skanking related response.

The (kind of) hilariously named Nosaj Thing uses samples in a similarly eerie way, but there all similarities end. Between him and High Rankin at least. And obviously ecluding the one similarity I've just mentioned.

Ahem.

'Coat of Arms' is a really cool tune, I'm pretty sure Pete Tong played it just before Annie Mac took over, and provides a more chilled vibe. If you think Flying Lotus with added synth and a less funk-type beat than you're probably on the right track.* Lots of reverb and a general feeling of being in slow-motion are the key to Nosaj Thing's success.

'Maybes' by Mount Kimbie, taken from a 4-song EP of the same title, is also quite heavily reverbed, although the drums are kept crisp and the tempo is increased slightly - without leaving the general genre of relaxing electronoic tunes. The samples are handed beautifully, the keyboard (sounds like a Rhodes) is quietly epic, and the song as a whole has a gorgeous Caribbean/African vibe which for some reason makes me thing of the monsoon season. Although, of course, England doesn't have a monsoon season. Unless you count the whole year as a season. Regardless, it's a great song and a great EP - heavily atmospheric and just interesting enough to avoid the almost derogatory label of 'easy-listening'. (Although it is easy to listen to).

Finally, I had to put up some electro just because I love it. Russ Chimes is as good an ambassador for the scene as anyone, and 'She's Got The Heat' is a synth-tastic, upbeat track that has pretty much everything I would want in an electro song, apart from some truly epic Designer Drugs style vocals (a shame). Like Bag Raiders on crack. Hooray for Mr Chimes: he's doing good things for London.

Shockingly, I've put up no remixes at all. I'll have to sort that out next time I post.

(Can't wait for the new SMD album, especially after MSTRKRFT's reassuringly strong recent release.)

High Rankin - No Money For Guns (Preview) Myspace
High Rankin - Sulfur Tears Buy
Nosaj Thing - Coat of Arms Buy
Mount Kimbie - Maybes Buy
Russ Chimes - She's Got The Heat Myspace

*Nosaj has actually done a remix of Lotus's 'Camel' which is worth getting hold of.

Gutted

Gutted. My 'Feed Me Bangers' post has been savagely and abruptly removed. I suspect it was either to do with the Lady GaGa remix or the Muse one.

Bastards.

As always, I will persevere. For anyone who missed the tracks, they were:
Lady GaGa - Just Dance (Feat. Colby O'Donis)(Matt Price Remix) Muse - Knights of Cydonia (Feed Me Remix) Ghostland Observatory - Club Soda Foamo - Everything Cool Kap10Kurt - Mission Complete (SymbolOne Remix) Boy 8-Bit - Fog Bank (Jack Beats Remix)

And they are all still highly recommended. (And easily available elsewhere, hopefully).
I also highly recommend you head over to hyperbole for the full Danger remix of 'Walking On A Dream' which has finally dropped. Look for the CSK OK tunes on there as well. Because, as I've said before, they are bangers.

As for music on this blog, this post includes a mix of new (to me, at least) and old tunes. Both 80Kidz and A-ux have been fairly recently ushered into the loving arms of my iTunes collection, and I felt it was high time to spread the love. Much like a bitter and devious student spreading an STD. Apart from these tracks are in no way similar to STD's.

The 80Kidz song is a Bag Raiders-ish track with a bit more grit. It's not as cheerfully Japanese as I would like (a more Perfume-ish sound would be ideal), but it's still pretty hardcore. No distracting vocals - just straightforward rises and falls, piano breakdowns, gut-punching/face-slapping drums, and strings doing whatever the opposite of a breakdown is.

A-ux provides a smooth, come-down vibe, with enough tempo to keep you interested. I've been trying to think of acts to compare him(?) to, but I don't want to cloud anyone's preconceptions. And it's difficult to pin-point anyway; the track would be equally at home on a Chilled Ibiza compilation or a Ministry of Sound one. Probably.

I don't have a hand in either compilation so couldn't say for sure.

Basically, listen to 'Journey to New Hope'. It's cool.

As for the other two tracks... I'm assuming they need very little introduction. The Punks Jump Up remix of 'Breaking it Up' is a classic: It really brings the song to life, and is unashamedly bright and cheerful. (I definitely do behave like the aforementioned Punks whenever I hear it drop.) The Kitsuné/DATA track is another old favourite, simple yet effective, and I highly recommend you get it if you don't have it already.

80Kidz - Life Begins at Eighty Buy
A-ux - Journey to New Hope Myspace
Lykke Li - Breaking it up (Punks Jump Up Remix) Buy
DatA - Aerius Light (Kitsuné DJ Friendly Edit) Buy (Original)



(Thanks to Resonator for the A-ux tune I nicked, and to Discodust for the old Lykke Li favourite.)

Racket Hearing

There are all sorts of songs I'm desperate to post at the moment - the Boys Noize remix of 'Happy Up Here', the Starters remix of 'Thunderstruck Man', the CSK OK remix of 'Shooting Stars' ... but I've decided to change it up a bit. The Boys Noize and Starters tunes are all over Hype Machine at the moment, and I don't want to look like I follow the crowd. Because I'm just so incredibly eclectic and original. Like all bloggers.

As for CSK OK, I heard about him for the first time the other day on the ever-reliable hyperbole blogspot. He's pretty much my new favourite producer, sounding a bit like a more laid-back Danger. (A cross between Danger and The Twelves maybe? Not that I want to raise expectations too high.) I highly recommend that anyone with the slightest interest in electro checks out his myspace - there's a list on it of all the blogs he affiliates with and gives tunes to. Naturally, I don't appear on said list.

Sad face.

Anyway, I'm not going to post anything from him, as it's all ready available elsewhere, and well worth taking the time to find - look for his 'Final Punch' Reprise, the remix of 'Shooting Stars' and the 'Houston' remix.

It's probably time to talk about what I'm actually posting. First up... Housse de Racket, who's name I cleverly punned 'pon in the title, are a cheerful little French indie band - falling somewhere between Phoenix, Mystery Jets, Sebastien Tellier and The Beatles. Obviously, I don't mean that in terms of quality (although they are awesome), but in terms of their kind of sound. Their first album, Forty Love, was a rock opera about two tennis players fighting over a girl/man called Gwendoline (probably a girl). The lyrics might well be as hilarious as the general concept, but I wouldn't know because - quite refreshingly for a French band - it's all sung in French. In fact, the general style is about as French as you could want, and they've produced some very good songs, namely: 'Sur Le Papier' (see below), 'Oh Yeah' and 'Synthetiseur', all of which I highly reccomend. The rest of the album is pretty solid as well. 'Sur Le Papier' and 'Oh Yeah' are nice, cheerful indie jaunts, and 'Synthetiseur' is a bit more electric and powerful (think 'Eye of the Tiger'). Definitely worth a listen.

'Ursuline', by Malajube (who hail from Montréal), is equally French - in terms of lyrics at least. Or so I believe, though to be honest the vocals are so covered in distortion and sound it's difficult to make out if they are talking in any language at all. It sounds nice anyway. Overall the song is nicely balanced between highs and lows. Malajube are a bit more rocky than Housse de Racket, but equally good at song-writing. The drums are nice and powerful, with crashing cymbals and the like, but don't get in the way. In fact, there's a nice selection of instruments (I think a harmonica even creeps in at one point), and the whole song feels like a kind of musical journey.

Basically, I really like it. Their other stuff is good too, try 'Porté Disparu' if you want to hear more. Or try their myspace.
The Weakerthans are pretty cool. Everyone knows this. In fact, there is very little I could say about them that would be interesting or illuminating at all. Overall, they're pretty consistent and you either like them or you don't.
Vague, I know...

'Everything Must Go!' is a pretty cool song, if you ignore the exclamation mark in the title. The chord progression is melodic, pleasant, laid back. The drums are chilled (some tight snare work there), and the vocals float over the top in a kind of Death Cab-ish style.

Finally, I've linked some Chad VanGaalen. Now, Mr VanGaalen is by no means one of my favourite artists, but 'Rabid Bits of Time' is a beautiful song. Just listen to the way he sings 'You've been dead for years'. Great stuff. Bon Iver probably do the genre a bit better, but 'Rabid' is definitely a very good song, with the same kind of emotional power. (Slightly depressing.)

Housse de Racket - Sur le Papier Buy
Malajube - Ursuline Buy
The Weakerthans - Everything Must Go! Buy
Chad VanGaalen - Rabid Bits of Time Buy

Ready For The Weekend

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool are going to be big in 2009. Or so I believe. 'Dance The Way I Feel' (which I think is their first single?) is a great song - pretty simple, but still powerful and catchy. 'Jackson's Last Stand' (I apologise for the quality of the sample by the way) is equally good, although it's garnered less attention. Both songs follow pretty much the same formula: deep, rumbling, distorted bass; well-pitched, epic choruses and stacatto synth melodies. But it's a good formula. Their stuff is easy to sing along to (if you're into that kind of thing), and easy to nod your head to.

But not to nod off to.

I'm pretty sure I've posted about WPAHP, buy Blogger obviously got their knickers in a twist about it. Nevertheless, I will persevere and try again. WPAHP don't seem to be on wikipedia, so obviously I know nothing about him(?) except what appears on his myspace. However, I do know that his(?) brand of trance/dance is exactly what I need whenever I get bored of listening to that new Calvin Harris track. He's(?) done all kinds of incredible remixes - most noticeably of Coldplay, Radiohead and Daft Punk, but his own stuff is just as emphatically good. The track I've linked isn't necessarily typical, it's a bit more laid-back... but it is still particularly euphoric (I'm a bit hung up on that word atm) and brilliant. All the tunes I have from WPAHP on my itunes are 4 or 5 stars, so I'm basically in love. Anyone who's interested should definitely check out the 'Wings of Love' mix on his myspace (see link below).

I've wanted to post a CFCF track for a while now, ever since I got their remix of 'D.A.N.C.E' which stood out for me as the most original (although not necessarily the best). CFCF are another group (or person) that I know nothing about, other than that I like their music. But for the purposes of this blog the music is all that matters. 'Crystal Mines', below, is kind of Crystal Castles, although only in the vaguest sense of the comparison. In fact, it's not anything like Crystal Castles really - other than the fact that 'Crystal' is in the title of both. Which is probably why I made the comparison. I digress. The track is pretty awesome: not in a banger sense, but in a robot-movie-sense (think Bladerunner). Worth a listen, as is most of their stuff.

Finally, I've left a little something for the ravers. Santiago & Bushido's new effort reminds me a little bit of Style of Eye, although a lot fiercer and more powerful, if less hypnotic. It's kind of dubsteppy-electro (I think I probably describe far too many songs like that) with a nice bass kick and a great bit of distorted-vocoder sounding action over the top.

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Jackson's Last Stand Myspace
We Plants Are Happy Plants - Sailing In A Dream Boat Myspace
CFCF - Crystal Mines Buy
Santiago & Bushido - Second Nature (Original Mix) Buy