A mixed musical bag
Nov. 17th, 2010 12:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwexAnother set of things I can't really categorize. Some of these are light listening, but a couple really want your attention when you can spare it. I'll put the easier stuff first.
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/James_Curd/track/Live_Forever
James Curd (http://myspace.com/jamescurd), a Chicago DJ, turns in a dance/rap tune I think of as 'walking' music. It's got a good rhythm but it's not too fast and it makes me think of moving along. Then again, I walk pretty fast :)
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Crystal_Castles/track/Not_In_Love_feat_Robert_Smith_
If you're going to venture into the down-tempo emo side of club you cannot possibly do any better than backing up Robert Smith. The legendary Cure front-man pioneered much of what we think of as "goth" in music and also brought his personal brand of smooth and gentle vocals to bear in surprising ways. Here he is fronting for Crystal Castles (http://crystalcastles.com/) who - on their own - seem to be more atonal, electro, and much less interesting.
http://audioporncentral.com/2010/11/illegal-sunday-colatron-someones-missing.html
APC flagged this one as "do not listen if your heart is broken" and I can see why, though I really like the mix. Colatron (http://www.colatron.com/) has mixed up three tracks, Trentemøller's "Miss You" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DUCKGyojpE) itself a very melancholy bit of electronica, Imogen Heap's "Headlock" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKZsZkH_MJc) but fortunately leaving out the annoying bloops and bleeps of the original, and Vangelis's "Rachael’s Song" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5wJyLFnxNk). Now I'm an unashamed Vangelis fan though I don't think this is one of his best it's still nice to see it being reused. The original Vangelis soaring vocals are missing, sadly.
http://djsteveboy.com/groovelectric.html
DJ Steveboy's latest, "Drumatic", is tribal percussive and a major uplift if you're feeling down from the past two selections. It has also sent me searching through some of my older drum/dance/tribal favorites and I might link some of those next time. I love good rhythms and things from east Europe/Asia/South Asia/Middle East/Africa that get appropriated into club music under the 'tribal' banner are a welcome change from the standard house and disco beats.
http://www.yousayparty.com/
You Say Party's latest video is a must-watch. I like the tune "Lonely Lunch" but I adore the video, which is a little 5:30 mini-science fiction story. It's set in a modern or just past modern-day Indian city and like the best such videos it manages to tell its story entirely through action and expression, with no dialog. It certainly doesn't hurt that the main characters are Bollywood-esque pretty but being pretty isn't really the point. It's an engaging visual story, and a fine soundtrack.
http://www.kleptones.com/blog/2010/11/08/hectic-city-11-moombahtronica/
You have two choices here. Turn on your brains and read the interesting text Erik Kleptone has posted, or just scroll down and hit "play" to enjoy the mix. I did the former, so excuse me if I riff for a moment. This is a great example of a working DJ sharing his craft in plain language. He talks about how he got some ideas from other music blogs and decided to experiment on his own. The style itself is a great example of how sound evolves - take Afro rhythms, filter them through Euro-dance tracks, then take those tracks and re-shuffle them back into a style that owes its roots to another set of African traditions. Then use that tradition and tunes to create a mix that samples heavily from things you already know in other contexts and see if you can play 'spot the sample.'
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/James_Curd/track/Live_Forever
James Curd (http://myspace.com/jamescurd), a Chicago DJ, turns in a dance/rap tune I think of as 'walking' music. It's got a good rhythm but it's not too fast and it makes me think of moving along. Then again, I walk pretty fast :)
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Crystal_Castles/track/Not_In_Love_feat_Robert_Smith_
If you're going to venture into the down-tempo emo side of club you cannot possibly do any better than backing up Robert Smith. The legendary Cure front-man pioneered much of what we think of as "goth" in music and also brought his personal brand of smooth and gentle vocals to bear in surprising ways. Here he is fronting for Crystal Castles (http://crystalcastles.com/) who - on their own - seem to be more atonal, electro, and much less interesting.
http://audioporncentral.com/2010/11/illegal-sunday-colatron-someones-missing.html
APC flagged this one as "do not listen if your heart is broken" and I can see why, though I really like the mix. Colatron (http://www.colatron.com/) has mixed up three tracks, Trentemøller's "Miss You" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DUCKGyojpE) itself a very melancholy bit of electronica, Imogen Heap's "Headlock" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKZsZkH_MJc) but fortunately leaving out the annoying bloops and bleeps of the original, and Vangelis's "Rachael’s Song" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5wJyLFnxNk). Now I'm an unashamed Vangelis fan though I don't think this is one of his best it's still nice to see it being reused. The original Vangelis soaring vocals are missing, sadly.
http://djsteveboy.com/groovelectric.html
DJ Steveboy's latest, "Drumatic", is tribal percussive and a major uplift if you're feeling down from the past two selections. It has also sent me searching through some of my older drum/dance/tribal favorites and I might link some of those next time. I love good rhythms and things from east Europe/Asia/South Asia/Middle East/Africa that get appropriated into club music under the 'tribal' banner are a welcome change from the standard house and disco beats.
http://www.yousayparty.com/
You Say Party's latest video is a must-watch. I like the tune "Lonely Lunch" but I adore the video, which is a little 5:30 mini-science fiction story. It's set in a modern or just past modern-day Indian city and like the best such videos it manages to tell its story entirely through action and expression, with no dialog. It certainly doesn't hurt that the main characters are Bollywood-esque pretty but being pretty isn't really the point. It's an engaging visual story, and a fine soundtrack.
http://www.kleptones.com/blog/2010/11/08/hectic-city-11-moombahtronica/
You have two choices here. Turn on your brains and read the interesting text Erik Kleptone has posted, or just scroll down and hit "play" to enjoy the mix. I did the former, so excuse me if I riff for a moment. This is a great example of a working DJ sharing his craft in plain language. He talks about how he got some ideas from other music blogs and decided to experiment on his own. The style itself is a great example of how sound evolves - take Afro rhythms, filter them through Euro-dance tracks, then take those tracks and re-shuffle them back into a style that owes its roots to another set of African traditions. Then use that tradition and tunes to create a mix that samples heavily from things you already know in other contexts and see if you can play 'spot the sample.'
