Aston

Unbelievable. Guaranteed to be absolutely huge.
Well, it kind of already is.


Aston Shuffle - Your Love by TheAstonShuffle

Chin Up

I'm going to kick off today with an older track. Loose Shus are electro-types with a heavily eighties influenced sound. 'Threesome' is my favourite song from them, and one I've suddenly picked up and started playing again. As long as you don't take it to seriously, it's awesome. Anyone who likes the intros to old cartoons (I'm thinking Bucky O'Hare/Ghostbusters, but with a lot more production value and less epic stadium rock guitar bits) should grab it - like Danger on happy juice.

Speaking of happiness, SMD's new album found it's way into my itunes yesterday. I thought it would be awesome, but they've gone in strong for that minimal sound of theirs (you'll know what I mean if you've heard the singles) which I'm not such a fan of. 'It's The Beat'/'Hustler' are more my kind of thing, but there's not much of that sound on the new record. For me, they should leave the minimal to Style Of Eye, Major Notes, Lazy Jay and the rest and get back on the heavier electro vibe.
So, not going to post anything from SMD today anyway.

Blame dropped a remix for Example's new tune a week or two back, along with everyone else whose any good at the moment, and obviously I have to post it. Good old Blame. If you've heard his 'Shark in the Water' mix then you'll already know how good he is. His take on 'Watch The Sun Come Up' is more of the same. Definitely a huge summer tune, nice to see liquid drum 'n' bass getting a bit more attention at the moment.

GRUM + Edwin Van Cleef = incredible. I've blogged enough times about Grum for everyone to be well aware of how highly I rate the Leeds boy. I rate Mr. Van Cleef almost equally highly, so I was pretty excited to see him given the remixing honours for Grum's new production 'Heartbeats'. Have yet to hear the original, but if Cleef's effort is anything to go by, it's going to be huge. As for the remix - epic, fast, and very very nice indeed. A great blend of electro-house. Very similar to 'Overtaken' and possibly even a bit better. Thanks to these guys for the original post.

I was planning on sticking up some filthy, bass-tastic dubstep but I now feel like I'm in too good a mood. So last up is a remix by FCKN (your guess is as good as mine) which got some attention here and there. The original is by The Bloody Beetroots, who I still can't decide if I like or not. However, I definitely like FCKN's version - very cheerful, bouncy electro house, with a little bit of lo-fi feel distortion splayed over the top to please the more hardcore.

Have a good weekend people.

Loose Shus - Threesome Buy
Example - Watch The Sun Come Up (Blame Edit) Myspace
Grum - Heartbeats (Edwin Van Cleef Remix) Myspace
The Bloody Beetroots - House No.84 (FCKN Remix) Myspace

Frozen

(I'm finally back in blogging action after a week which has pretty much destroyed me, but I haven't slept properly for the last three days so you'll have to forgive me if this post is a little bit disjointed. And I've been sitting on these tracks for a while now, meaning that everyone else has posted them long ago, but I refuse to let that phase me.)

First up, continuing the summer-sound theme that I've been pushing so hard, are the 80kidz. Or more specifically, 'Miss Mars' by the 80kidz. I've posted about these Japanese wonder boys before, but this track goes one better for me. I got their album a while ago, and its very sharp - quite hardcore for the most part (distortion, high tempo, fidgety bits). It's also very purchasable and very previewable, courtesy of itunes and their myspace respectively. 'Miss Mars' is a bit different from the majority of their album, but it's probably my favourite. The synth on it sounds like an electric guitar/video game hybrid, and the classic little electric piano bit underneath is... um...classic. Overall, it bubbles along at a nice little pace, and it sounds very sunny. Recommended.

Speaking of bubbles, the next track is 'Champagne' by Allure, another electro-pop hero from Paris. Around 2:42 is the highlight of the song, and I won't spoil it for you, but basically he throughs in some champagne SFX (sorry, it sounds awesome though!). Overall it's a pretty chilled production, with a nice snare/clap drum pattern that gives it a bit of a funk, and some lovely phaser action. All laid over the top of some very cool synthed-up riffs.

Moving on from those two gems, my love affair with all things GRUM continues. This time, Mr Calling in Sick from Australia (another good electro breeding ground) lends his flavour to 'Runaway'. I don't really know how to describe this song, other than to say that it couldn't be any better and it is huge. Pretty much what you would expect from such an awesome collaboration. Great clubby piano bit, awesome game-boy/Danger-style synth, epic vocals, thumping drums... it's a classic.

Obviously, it's going to be hard to top such an enthusiastic plug. So I won't try. But the next track is still worth some attention, and some positive adjectives.

Galactik Knights are a duo (I believe) out of Japan, France, United States. Which just goes to show that Myspace can be a very unhelpful resource some times. Ho hum. Whatever, or whoever, they are, they make banging music. Their remix of T-Pain's 'Freeze' (which they are giving away FREE on their myspace, with various other remixes) is very cool. It still has that pop-R'n'B flavour, which I actually quite like, but with all kinds of electro-house bits and bobs over the top that make it trendy and alternative. So it's OK to listen to it. They've kept the vocals pretty much intact - I guess there was enough vocoder over the top already - but they've souped up the synth bits and given the drums a bit more punch. They've also taken off that horrible whiny saw-sounding bit from the original chorus. Overall, its a lot more danceable, and the sound is a lot bigger. Highly recommended for anyone who like the original, or who doesn't like the original and wishes it was a whole let better.

Also, I got sent a track about a week ago that is absolutely banging. But i'll post it tomorrow because I'm too lazy to do it now. Have a good day.

80kidz - Miss Mars (Myspace Preview)* Buy
GRUM - Runaway (Calling In Sick Remix) Buy Grum Myspace
Allure - Champagne Myspace!
T-Pain feat. Chris Brown - Freeze (Galactik Knights Remix) Myspace!**

*Original link removed. Sorry!
**Download link on their myspace, along with some other cool shit.

Grum(p)y

So, I've had a phenomenal amount of work lately, and because I've yet to do anything towards reducing it, I still have a phenomenal amount. Sucks to be me. However, I intend to have it all done by the 12th, so from that point on normal posting will resume.

Anyway, because it's been some time since I posted, I have a backlog of banging tracks and summer-type tunes to put up before they become too unfashionably old.

So, 5 tunes for today, varying from super-hype electro to acoustic-electronic fiddling, but all with the essential property of amazingness in common.

I have blogging powerhouse discodust to thank, as I so often do, for the first tune on my list: Ellie Goulding's cover of 'Black & Gold'. Now, 'Black & Gold' is obviously, like, soooo old now, but Goulding's cover adds some summer (this is a key word for today, I'm trying to destroy rain) freshness to it with a nice bit of clapping, some melodic acoustic strumming and an ... interesting singing voice. When I say interesting, I'm referring mostly to her accent, which is ...erm... unusual, and not her actual technique - she sings beautifully. But also weirdly. Anyway, the cover is very good, very chilled, and overall puts a very nice spin on the original. It's different - Goulding's style is fairly unique. She uses a combination of acoustic and soft synth elements (like a more laidback Friendly Fires, I guess, without the percussion) to create a sound which I imagine will get her all sorts of critical attention. Hopefully. The rest of her stuff is also worth checking out, for those who are interested.

Where to go from there? Let's go East, vaguely in the direction of Paris, where DatA hails from. Cheers to deathelectro for the heads up on this one. I imagine most people will know DatA either because of his tunes 'Aerius Light' or 'Rapture' (both laced with awesome), and his new track 'One In A Million' draws on both of those to make a very ear-friendly club banger. I've been listening mostly to the Club Remix, actually, because it's slightly more hardcore, and thats the one I've put below. However, the original, unadulterated version is there to see, for free, on his myspace. The video is pretty trendy, (some guy turns up to a house party in a wolf costume/ Partying ensues) and the song has all the elements of a good electro piece - funky bassline, bright synths, sing-along vocals, happy times.

Now it's dubstep time. Everyone loves dubstep! It's the new bandwagon. In an attempt to secure my seat upon it, allow me to point you in the direction of Caspa's 'I Remember' remix. It's good. I'm a huge fan of the original, and I was a little worried that Caspa wouldn't do it justice, but he keeps it fairly simple. And anyone who's heard the Caspa mix of 'Moments in Love' will know what I mean when I say 'simple' - he basically adds a cracking drum beat and a warbly dubstep bass, but it's a fairly decent take on a solid summer anthem. (Caspa and Rusko also did a fairly tasty mix of 'We Are I.E.' recently, which is worth checking out.)

To be honest, all the tracks above are solid, but they aren't quite summery enough for me. And what with clouds threatening to return again and make us all miserable, I need summer tunes. 'Something Good Can Work', by Two Door Cinema Club (you know they're cool, because they have 'club' in their name), is a step in the right direction. The guitar is nice and trebley (think Phoenix/Housse de Racket), with some lovely, chirpy wah-wah bits, the vocals aren't over-complicated, the drums patter along at a fairly decent and regular pace... they sample what sounds like a party halfway through... ... it starts with a bang...
I'm running out of descriptions, but basically it's very happy, very trendy indie.

But... still not summer enough. Friendly Fires were the sound track of last summer, alongside Vampire Weekend, so I feel like I should turn to them for help. Or rather, to Leeds-boy Grum's absoloutely incredible, super happy, super awesome electro remix of Friendly Fires 'Skeleton Boy'. I listened to the original 'Skeleton Boy' before Grum's version, and I couldn't help thinking that it lacked a funky 80's bass, a dance beat, and some shiny electro synths - I'm quite particular in what I want - so I was fairly happy when Grum came along and introduced all those elements. He starts it off all funky and cool, does wonders with the vocals, and then builds it slowly until the synths are ready to come in (after a classic, trance-style, reverbed breakdown, of course). The track has summer written all over it, in 50ft, flaming, neon-pink letters. I've listened to it every day for about 3 weeks.
Anyone who likes the track, and thinks that Grum might possibly be the best thing to happen to the English electro scene ever (or recently, depending on how hyperbolic you feel), should check out his myspace and tell him as much.

This post is too long! Why am I not working!?

Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy (GRUM Remix) Buy
DatA - One In A Million (Club Mix) Buy
Ellie Goulding - Black & Gold Myspace
Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work Buy
Deadmau5 - I Remember (Caspa Remix) Buy


After the 12th, some new shit off the 80Kidz album 'This Is My Shit' (ironically), and probably some Allure. Summer's coming!

Work Not In Progress

I’ve got an essay due soon, so I thought it was high time I wrote a blog. (Fault the logic).
And speaking of blogs, for some reason my posts keep disappearing. If I had the time and the inclination, I might try and find out why. But seeing as I don't have the inclination, I'll just have to live with it.

Anyways, I was off raiding the intranets for tuneage this morning and I stumbled on Ekleroshock records myspace. Seeing as they are currently looking after the almighty Danger and the only slightly less amazing DatA I thought it would be worth looking into their other artists. The apparently insane Crunc Tesla has a kind of interesting dubsteppy electro thing going on, but it isn’t really interesting enough for me to waste more than a sentence on. More promising is the work of Leonard De Leonard (so good he named himself twice). The remix of ‘Bad Girls Need Love Too’ is a bit of a banger, although it feels a bit too fast and there’s not really enough variety. Still, you can get about 30 seconds of good stuff from it.

Starskee’s ‘This Time’ also started fairly promisingly, and I thought I was on a bit of a roll, but around 18 seconds a more than slightly annoying vocal sample crops up, the funky synths disappear for a while, and the song never really recovers. The first 18 are worth a listen… but if you’re looking for something a bit better Starskee-wise, then try Danger’s remix of ‘My Way’ (which I won’t bother posting, because it’s all over the place anyway). I slagged off the remix before, but having listened to the original I can see that Danger has actually done a fairly good job. It’s a grower.

So yeah, really my raid wasn’t that successful at all. DatA’s ‘Rapture II’ provides a bit of a pleasing contrast to ‘Rapture’, and I like the whole funky electro/hip-hop vibe, but his remixes are a bit more exciting. Nothing else really caught my eye (ear?). In fact, the only new electro song I’ve had much time for is the Damage remix of Grum’s ‘Go Back’, which is nicely epic. Although not really amazing.

All in all, I’m posting a bunch of tracks that I don’t have that much time for – although I’ll be keeping an eye on the artists in case they turn out something truly amazing. I feel like I need to provide something a bit more special though, so I’m including one of my favourite ever remixes: Boys Noize version of ‘Lights and Music’. I could evaluate the song but it wouldn’t be a particularly critical evaluation, as I basically love everything about it.

Cut Copy - Lights And Music (Boys Noize Happy Birthday Remix) Buy
GRUM – Go Back (Damage Remix) Myspace
DatA - Rapture Pt.II Buy
The Toxic Avenger - Bad Girls Need Love Too (Leonard De Leonard Remix) Buy
Starskee – This Time Myspace