Another music post, with commentaries

[drwex]

Two in one week. Horrors. Clicking on the links will get you some good stuff; that's all I'm sayin'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJZYGVknWuQ
I somehow missed this when it came out early this year, which is a damned shame. Hooray for best-of-year posts I guess. This one showed up on some DJ's list (Diplo?) and caught my ear. It's Duck Sauce remixing Chromeo's "Hot Mess", featuring Elly Jackson. Ms Jackson's vocals are a major element of the good here, but I also like the way Duck Sauce mix this one up and down, with tempo breaks and samples to keep things interesting. This is the way house music ought to be.

If you like this one you can find several other Hot Mess remixes online.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ks8UIJI2ls&feature=digest_sat
Watch the vid for some really awesome street/break dancing action, apparently filmed in Venezuela. The remix, by DJ Schmolli, is mostly a Beastie Boys "Body Movin'" recut with some nice Latin horns by LaBrassBanda. It's a good base track and the remix is fun. But it's the guys' moves that really make this one worth your time.

http://viprhealthcare.typepad.com/files/djs-from-mars---seven-loca-rattle-bingo-players-vs.-sak-noel-vs.-white-stripes-djs-from-mars-triplemash-club-mix.mp3
It's been a while since DJs from Mars did something I thought was good enough to blog. This one is a pretty standard dance banger, but with lots of good samples and contributing tracks thrown in. Like a lot of mashes lately (and probably on into next year) it samples the vocals from Sak Noel's "Loca People" including the iconic "What the fuck?" clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBlY53fgN-k). Technically it's a three-track mash but DJs From Mars do so much with it you probably won't care.

http://viprhealthcare.typepad.com/files/mashup-germany---paradise-infinity-and-you-know-it.mp3
http://viprhealthcare.typepad.com/files/mashup-germany---top-of-the-pops-2011-what-the-fuck.mp3
A double shot from Mashup Germany (whose real name apparently is Ben Stiller, go figure). The first one is a five-track remix of "Paradise" using two versions of that song, a little LMFAO and helping of this and that. At heart it's a dance-floor track but it's not typical techno. M.G. uses some of the banger style (see previous track) but he's got a subtler, lighter touch and a fun bass line running under the last third of the track. Overall, remarkably tight and well-contained.

The second is a "top of the pops" mash such as you tend to see at this time of year. Remixers take the biggest pop tunes of the past year and produce a megamash. Lobsterdust is still best known for this, but Mashup Germany is not taking a back seat to anyone. Here he puts in 28 tracks - yes, twenty-eight - and makes it all hang together. Some of them, like the Sak Noel, Adele, and LMFAO, are easily identified but others are more subtle. As Stiller himself says, this is something of a sad commentary on pop music, which continues to churn out one hit after another, all of which sound essentially the same.

http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/The_Jezabels/track/Try_Colour
Last time I ended a post of original musicians with one mash-up so this time I'll end a mash-filled post with an original, new-to-me band. The Jezabels (http://www.myspace.com/jezabelsband) are an Australian-based quartet doing pretty straight-up rock-and-roll. Drums, guitar, and some very pretty melodies here. Normally I complain about mixing, but in "Try Colour" I think the sound engineering is gorgeous - the vocals mix up into soaring harmonies and then strip down to near-solo beauty. Their MySpace page has four additional tracks I'm looking forward to listening to.

Comments

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

i like The Jezabels' sound... reminds me of some 90s bands.