The fight for diverse and conscious voices

Lots of good and interesting stuff here, but damned if I can figure out a theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7sj684zcmzw
MS MR (http://www.msmrsounds.com/) are a new New York-based duo whose first full album isn't due out for a bit but who are already getting a fair bit of airplay due to an EP they released last year that charted well in Europe and got some MTV airplay in the States. The sound is pretty pure electro-pop but with a nice edge to it that reminds me of early Florence or the XXX. This track has been remixed a fair bit but I haven't found a mix I like better than the original.

http://audioporncentral.com/2013/04/rudimental-double-pack.html
Speaking of remixes, here are two takes on Rudimental (http://soundcloud.com/rudimentaluk) tracks. The first is Skream's take on "Hell Could Freeze" and the second is Andy C doing "Right Here." I didn't like the Skream track on first listen but it's been growing on me, providing you're in a sufficiently disco-tolerant mood. The mix of rap and disco electronics is... odd. Takes some getting used to.

The second track is more house-influenced and more vocal centric, with high BPM and a strong beat track laid in. It's an interesting example of how mixes are being influenced by dubstep without themselves being dub. This is good "getting things done" music for me.

https://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/pegboard-nerds-tristam-razor
Speaking of dub, here's another track off thissongissick.com, an instrumental mix by Pegboard Nerds & Tristam called "Razor Sharp". It's fun to read the labels producers put on their Soundcloud tracks - you can see the real-time evolution of styles as DJs grab, tweak, and republish. This one is labeled (among other things) "moombahcore" and "drumstep". I long ago gave up trying to keep track of this stuff - it's definitely a case of not drinking from the firehose. I just pick and choose stuff I like and this one I very much like, as you don't get this kind of floor-clearing bass mixed with melodic stuff often enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=c6ZOLFgLg3E
Armen van Buuren put out a bunch of things promoting some of the new trance artists he's bringing to his label. I thought most were OK, but this one stood out. It's someone calling themselves Airbase (http://airbasemusic.com/) who has been working around Scandinavia for a few years. AFAICT this is their first big US release and it's a sweet piano-centric extended trance track.

http://djsteveboy.com/groovelectric.html
DJ Steveboy's post this time is a salvage job. It's two hours out of a longer party set he DJed back in November of last year. Sadly there's no track list, because there are some real winners in here. I got to dance at a party he DJed at Worldcon a few years ago and it was a blast. He's got a huge library he draws from and although I recognize a few of the tracks there are a couple more I don't and would love to look up.

I've had most of this hanging around for a while, but doing these posts requires a lot of link-following and that's hard to do when on a crappy wireless and then LJ was DDOSed which makes posting tricky and I hate losing mid-post and blahblahexcusesexcuses OK enough, just listen to this. Bonus: a story at the end!

http://djsteveboy.com/groovelectric.html
DJ Steveboy's last mix of 2012 was an extremely solid deep house mix, with several tracks showing the new/old funk influences that first got me listening to Steveboy's sounds. His output last year was somewhat inconsistent and I didn't link to mixes that I thought had weak sections. This one is an hour of great background/dance/get-stuff-done mixing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDiNSyJRDhY
Beats Antique put out the video last month for their latest single, "Skeleton Key". The vid is a delightful, if slightly creepy, stop-animation cross of steampunk and Dark Crystal. The song is pretty much in their traditional instrumental vein, though with somewhat more orchestration and a richer mix than you tend to expect them to have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q0dsG8fTHY&feature=youtu.be
http://soundcloud.com/mashupgermany/mashup-germany-top-of-the
Lots of people linked to the first one, which is DJ Earworm's traditional year-end mash-up. Frankly I'm underwhelmed. I get that he's limiting himself to the Billboard top 25 list but the whole thing feels technically proficient yet uninspired. You can hear around 0:55 he's sort of built to the peak and then it kind of limps along from there.

I vastly prefer the second link, which is Mashup Germany's year-end mega-mix. It's 33 tracks (!) and it's a much better effort. It builds slowly up to about 1:22 and then you get several treats of sliced, sped-up, and interlaced bits that you're likely to recognize if you listened to pop music in the past year and then there are little ear-teasers that leave you going "wait, what?"

http://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/krewella-killin-it-mutrix-1
Another new-to-me find picked off the SoundCloud dashboard this chop-step remix by Thissongissick of Krewella's "Killin' It" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ9-1WD-rBA) is awesome. The original is kind of frenetic and seems unable to decide whether it's hip-hop or dubstep. The remix is like "f all that; throw some electronica in there, smooth this out, and scratch the vocals all up". It's totally stomp-dancin' good.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/11/frail-limb-purity-bare-naked-ladies-v-porter-robinson.html
You really don't see a lot of BNL mash-ups, so this one stood out from the start. Frail Limb Purity pushes it almost over the edge but if you can make it to 1:45 the mix really takes off. It helps if you like the underlying tracks (which I do) and feel like getting up and dancing (which kind of gets me odd looks at work, but who cares).

----- Story time -----

People think I know a lot of music, but mostly I listen to a lot and look up things when I am curious about them. Sometimes, though, I forget to be curious. For over two decades I've been listening to TGU - Trans-Global Underground - and you should, too. They were one of the first to do world fusion, and they've been wild and fun and experimental and different every time. It was through TGU that I found Natacha Atlas and Fun-Da-Mental, among other things.

For a long time one of my (our) favorite tunes of theirs has been "Nile Delta Disco" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XnEP-mzv90&feature=youtube_gdata) which is a fantastic mix of jazz, swing, and African-inspired beats under some psychedelic vocals. It begins with the invocation "Hipsters, flipsters, and finger-poppin' daddies..." which amused me but I didn't think much about at the time. After all, the song's main refrain includes the line "Egyptian pharoahs fell from the sky/ fell from the sky and played the blues" and it assures us that "...the River Nile is like a disco." So, y'know.

Scroll forward to the long weekend just past in which I'm catching up on my back reading and I come across this piece on Boingboing: http://boingboing.net/2012/12/24/lord-buckley-meets-groucho-mar.html

That is Groucho Marx so you should not be drinking anything while watching it. I love all things Groucho, so I'm merrily listening along when HOLY CRAP WHAT DID HE JUST SAY?!?
Go on, listen to it, I'll wait.

Of course, I then have to search out Lord Buckley on the Web and be ashamed that I've managed to be ignorant of this corner of high American weirdness for so long. I tried to make up for it in a small way by adding this reference to his page on Wikipedia. And now I know a bit more about music and music history and how influences can travel than I did before. Maybe you do, too.

If you made it this far here's a little reward: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfgdjfgtJw4
This is Natacha Atlas and TGU doing what they did best together - song and sound and drums and oh the beauty of her voice.

A chance to get this week's post out on time, I hope...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRn2DAggPEE
http://audioporncentral.com/2011/10/goapele-play-los-rakas-remix.html
I didn't like this remix the first go 'round, but on re-listen it's growing on me. Goapele (http://goapele.com/) has one of those beautiful melodic voices that comes across tinged with gospel and soul flavors, but isn't using either of those styles. The first link is to the original, which is a little thin-sounding. What Los Rakas (http://losrakas.com/) have done is add Latin vocals and played up the snap beats to make the whole richer and more energetic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1S2pJmRk-Oo
http://audioporncentral.com/2011/10/sunday-girl-love-u-more-rac-mix.html
Another original-plus remix comparison. "Love You More" is itself a cover, (of Sunscreem - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4MPPOTarDM) by Sunday Girl, like the other track I found of hers last year. And also like that track this one is autotuned and has a heavy producer's hand in it. Once again the remixer - RAC (http://remixartistcollective.com/) in this case - has stripped down to the vocals and then rebuilt it entirely. The result is more bouncy and, I think, a much better use of her voice.

http://djsteveboy.com/groovelectric.html
DJ Steveboy's latest is a house tour de force (see what I did there?). He puts together 11 tracks sampling a variety of things that get called "house" music these days in a mix called "Open House." It's fun to listen to the variety, though no one of the tracks really leaped out at me as particularly noteworthy.

http://www.kraddyodaddy.com/anthems-of-the-hero/
Kraddy has put up the entirety of his new remix album for free download (and you can buy a copy, which I intend to do). I love reading the story of the album on his site. I think he's done a really good job of recreating much of the feel of 70s anthem-rock but with a modern, electronic feel. In particular I commend to your attention his take on the Sabbath classic "Iron Man".

A lot of music tabs open to be closed. Five of the good ones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K09xBYnzfBI
Morgan Page (http://soundcloud.com/morganpage) turns in one of the best Florence remixes I've heard in a while - though it seems to be about a year old. It's a standard dance banger with some electro bits thrown in but it does the critical thing of keeping Florence's vocals in place. My sole complaint is that he's not taking good enough advantage of her ability to raise vocal power as she goes up the scales. At least he keeps the harp counterpoints.

http://katyonamission.com/us/home/
I was sure I had posted about Katy B before - how could I not talk about a cute redhead? But, no, apparently I've been remiss. So go check out the video. It has a couple of cool elements. I can't avoid saying that I wish she'd get a better tune-writer. Her lyrics aren't bad and her voice has a lot of potential, but I want to shoot whoever wrote that whiny keyboard line. The other songs are similar - I like her voice and want to throw out almost everything else. I guess we'll wait and see - maybe she can get a better backing group soon.

http://www.mashup-industries.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=389&Itemid=36
Mashup Industries is normally home to some of the better mixers, but lately their output has been sub-par. CJR turns in a solid, if standard, mash-up using mostly Jason Derulo's "Don't Wanna Go Home" and a little helping here and there of Madonna. The original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CGF_Z3yZAo) is an interesting item, jumping off from the traditional "Day-O!" and re-homing it in the club dance scene. CJR takes the best elements of this and pumps it WAY THE HELL UP, to everyone's benefit.

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/08/mondkopf-song-of-shadows.html
APC compares Mondkopf (http://www.facebook.com/Mondkopf) to Aphex Twin, which is not far wrong. This "Song of Shadows" is dark and slightly weird electronica. I like the edge it has, as well as the way it shifts between a fuzzy grunge-sound effect and then up into high clear eletronica realms.

http://djsteveboy.com/groovelectric.html
http://djsteveboy.com/gravitysfreeride.html
DJ Steveboy's most recent two mixes have been quite good, but very different. The previous mix, "Gravity's Free Ride" is a prog-house fun trip that both throws back to the early days of house and mixes in some very modern riffs. The current one, "Body Slam", is a tribal mix with slam poetry overlaid. I'm on my second listen to that one and while it has some low points it's an innovative style I haven't seen anyone else come close to. Definitely worth the time.

I have a bunch of music tabs still sitting open that I want to close so I can move on to the new stuff I have backlogged to listen to. Sorry I can't even manage a theme here...

http://soundcloud.com/djpozsi/dj-pozsis-balkan-mashups-radio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enIW3KFsIo8
I'm not quite sure how to describe this. It's crazy-awesome. DJ Pozsi has mashed up some Balkan folk tunes and more modern... um, balalaika-on-meth with classic American rap, rock, and metal. I am particularly fond of the second track in the set, "Rolligeddon" which is Limp Bizkit vs. Shazalakazoo. So, who are Shazalakazoo (http://www.myspace.com/shazalakazoo)? Well, um, listen to the second link. This is some rad stuff, like the bastard love child of klezmer and drum&bass. Though if you like d&b you really should listen to the 5th track. Bring the noise!

http://djsteveboy.com/foundation.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8HASH8BtLE
I'm a bit behind on Groovelectric, this is not the current mix, but rather Steveboy's take on house music. His intro to the mix talks a little about how house grew out of disco, which is true, but misses how much house has evolved away from its disco roots. The time signatures are still there, sure, but a good house track today brings in much more depth and styling than you'd get even from today's disco mixes. If you've been reading me for a while you might remember a couple years ago I linked back to this: http://audioporncentral.com/2009/07/pump-up-the-volume-the-history-of-house-music.html - a BBC short series that traced the disco music scene and how house evolved from it.

Going back to that and re-listening it's interesting how different their take on modern house is from Steveboy's. To wit, listen to the second link, a remix by Eddie Amador called "House Music - (Deep Dish Unreleased Remix) its a body thing, a soul thing". The mix takes a while to get going but around 3 minutes in you can suddenly hear it: the disco core at the center of the fancy electronic and effects that characterize house. For one thing, any claim that House has to being a "soul thing" is because it inherited that soul from black disco and funk, which are kind of the white sheep/black sheep musical children of soul itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRIqpIqRn8M
This is Bassnectar's heavy wub remix of Cheb i Sabbah's "Alkher Illa Doffor" and another one I nicked from DJ Purple's set list. I'm not a heavy wub fan in general but in this case there's a lot of lively Middle Eastern beats and vocals against which the bass can oontz, and it works. It stays hot and slinky as Cheb tends to do.

http://www.mashup-industries.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=368&Itemid=36
Clivester continues to branch out in interesting new directions for him. This mix is built around Little Boots's "Earthquake", which is a fun poppy tune. It's a bit thematic, and it works remarkably well.

http://www.mashup-industries.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=366&Itemid=36
This one gets a nod if only because Johnce is mashing up seven tracks, which is an admirable effort in itself. Also, the idea of Bloodhound Gang versus Huey Lewis makes me snigger all on its own.

Some links and a musical story at the end.

http://www.myspace.com/venaccio
Last week's musical pointer to Venaccio (in which, disappointingly, nobody commented on my subject line) led me to listen through his posted collection. I quite liked it. Most of it is electro, and lyrics-free which makes it good for background for many things. He's got a moody minor-key thing going through several of the tracks which makes me feel like it's "night music". I'm not sure why.

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/02/morgan-page-ft-jan-burton-ive-had-friends.html
Speaking of night music, this track and the accompanying video (hotness!) make me wish I was 20 years younger, in which case I would definitely want to be going to clubs like this and dancing all night to DJs like Morgan Page. This track, "I've Had Friends", is the kind of high-energy thing you'd want to drop around 2AM when you want to push things up a notch. I like the vocal mix and it's sort of sad that the bit APC posted cuts off so abruptly. I'll have to get the LP to see what it sounds like

http://hypem.com/#!/item/19ad1/Fredrik+-+Rites+of+Spring
Fredrick (http://www.myspace.com/fredriktheband) are a Swedish trio I stumbled across by accident. If was not a word "folktronica" then someone has coined it to describe these guys. They also are in the same darker/moodier camp that lots of new music seems to be inhabiting these days while blending sampled sounds and electro-beats with the kind of simple plucked strings and earthy vocals that characterizes lots of folk music.

http://djsteveboy.com/groovelectric.html
DJ Steveboy is back again, with a killer 10/12ths of a set for Groovelectric's 5th anniversary. Unfortunately he puts two tracks on the end that, while interesting in their own right, don't really fit the set.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUm7Qok-kO4
I have to call this one of the two don't-fit tune out because it's a "who the HELL thought of THAT" moment. The hosting site - MaxMashups - doesn't identify the mixer who decided to put The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" against Enya's "Orinoco Flow" (it's not called "Sail Away", guys). This thing is scary-close to a train wreck and yet avoids it... somehow. You have to hear it to judge for yourself.

http://www.myspace.com/chrisfraserishere
http://www.mp3rocket.com/mp3/-1_00/Dan-le-Sac-vs-Scroobius-Pip-Thou-Shalt-Always-Kill-Chris-Fraser-Remix-Edit.htm
Once upon a year or so ago someone (mzrowan I think) pointed me to Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip and their "Thou Shalt Always Kill". This odd, minimalist Brit-rant was both perplexing and amusing at the same time. It was firmly tongue-in-cheek and serious at the same time. It was unlike anything since Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and at the same time was completely modern.

This being the 21st Century, of course it needed to be remixed, and Australian Chris Fraser turns in a very nice job keeping the essential rythmic chanting of the original cut up and interspersed with electro-house beats and sounds.

All of which is good, particularly because it led me to the linked page there on mp3rocket, which includes an 8-minute interview with Dan and Pip about some of the less obvious elements of the original track. And now, finally, I understand why the song's final directive is Thou shalt always kill.' I won't spoil it here - ask in comments, or just listen to the interview.

Don't worry, I promise I'll explain that title. Most of what I've been listening to these days are longer mixes and sets, so there are only a few URLs here but a lot of hours of listening pleasure.

http://www.djsteveboy.com/groovelectric.html
DJ Steveboy's latest is "Oblivion Express." It's another drone mix, which means it's less bouncy and more spacey/cerebral than the usual stuff from him. I'm not a huge fan of his drone mixes, but this is great background music for work or study where you really need to concentrate on what you're doing and not be bouncing around too much in your seat.

http://www.mashup-industries.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=357&Itemid=36
Mashup Industries is hosting two good sets from KrazyBen. In these sets he has included 40 different tracks from the pure.fm November compilation, remixed by him. Also on the page are four links to his own mashes, all of which are quite good.

As you'd expect from a 40-track set there's a lot of variety here, but most of it carries a signature slower tempo and somewhat downtempo feel. He also mixes sources I don't usually hear, which is very nice. All four of his mixes are top-notch and you can download those directly via the separate links. I also wanted to pull out two tracks that give you a feel for the range here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXlHQokybrg
I'm quite fond of the Editors' "You Don't Know Love" and here the Cagedbaby remix pumps up the fuzz and funky base-line without messing up the silky noire voicings that make the original so great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P8DtOlAH7s
This is the Venaccio Remix of Jónsi's "Go Do" and I confess I'd heard of neither before this. Here's the official video for the song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYb2Q3DvLNE - but it doesn't do much for me. Near-falsetto male vocal isn't a big thing for me. What Venaccio (http://www.myspace.com/venaccio) has done is tone down the highs, lay on a fast house beat track, and generally fit it into standard electro-house style with cuts and dubs.

http://www.theglitchmob.com/music/drinkthesea-theremixes/
The Glitch Mob have put out a big, beautiful, luscious 24-track remix sampler in two parts. Using material from their "Drink the Sea" album this two-volume collection brings in a different remixer on every track. To my great surprise, the collection is much more unified in sound and feel than you'd expect from that description. For one thing - in keeping with the theme of this posting - most of the tracks are down-tempo, slower and pay at least a nod to dubstep if not being actual dubstep themselves. Even the included remix of "Drive It Like You Stole It" - the track that drew over 100 remix entries in their contest last year - is downtempo.

Since dubstep seems to be the theme here (and may be the hot new things for club tracks in 2011, we shall see) I sent a link to http://soundcloud.com/theglitchmob/between-two-points-spl-remix - the dubstep remix of "Between Two Points" which I love for its torch-singa vocal quality to a friend of mine. He replied that he found it good, and dubstep good in general, because the sound is sparse and leaves him (a musician) space to fill in his own stuff, as he says, "oontzing and beeping" along with the track.

So, you see, oontz is totally a verb.

I've had a bunch of tabs open for days and want to get them cleared up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDOPNLzEFH0
This is a must-watch. The song is pretty standard Japanese male-pop by someone using the name Genki Sudo. But the vid is brilliant. It's a group called "World Order" that is... um, how to describe this. Roboto sarariman? Um, yeah. Just watch it. They're doing a nicely synched dance routine to the tune and the video editing is tight, but what really makes this one rock is that they're doing it in Manhattan and the non-response of the blase' New Yorkers amuses the hell out of me. Particularly pay attention around 2:11 in when one of the dancers nearly smacks some chick in the face and she's so engrossed by her crackberry she can't even glance at them. This is New York, buddy. We get weirder things than you in our breakfast cereal.

(h/t to minerva42 for the link)

http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Ladytron/track/Ace_of_Hz_Punks_Jump_Up_Remix
I keep thinking I should have said something about Ladytron before now. They've been around for at least a decade now (Wikipedia says 12 years) and their new wave/electro style was heard a lot in the last half of the 00's when they were remixing for a lot of big-name artists. This stream showcases their new "Ace of Hz" (pronounced 'hearts') track and a couple remixes of "Ghosts" - though I still prefer the original radio edit for it's rich, eerie, and hauting feel.

http://www.djsteveboy.com/groovelectric.html
DJ Steveboy has been incredibly busy of late and his mixes have been fun to listen to. Back in January he did one called "Four on the Floor" that starts off with a version of M.A.N.D.Y - Oh Superman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7liQx92aoKk&feature=related). Yes, THAT "Oh Superman". I like the Steveboy version better than this YouTube version, but I'm mostly pulling it out because - hello - Laurie Anderson? Electro-House? Rock my little world!

(It has been said that you may be able to determine your musical compatibility with me by your ability to listen to and appreciate Laurie Anderson, particularly this track. I leave the readers to judge for themselves.)

His Jan 28 mix was called "This Old House" and featured a number of house favorites. I particularly liked the crossover house-world tracks like The Fort Knox Five's "Bhangra Paanch" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7mdbSlnE28). It's a bit down-tempo as befits dub, but with the minor-chord strong rhythm styling that characterizes bhangra for me. Again, the YouTube mix isn't exactly the one Steveboy uses, but it's as close as I could get.

Also in the dub house (ha, see what I did there?) is Chocolate Puma's "Back Home" (http://www.4shared.com/audio/6W8U3xW5/Chocolate_Puma_-_Back_Home_fea.html)

There's a new mix up today, but I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet.

http://www.mashup-industries.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=352&Itemid=36
Some things sit open in tabs for a while because I am not sure I like them on first listen and want to come back to them. This one's been sitting for a while and I think I've decided I like it. Dan Mei's "Down With The Precious Sickness" combines Disturbed's "Down With The Sickness" - which I really do like - and Depeche Mode's "Precious". Which is OK, but far from their best. And I'm not entirely sold either on Dan Mei's innate skills or on the wisdom of combining metal with emo, except for the lulz. This, however, works.

http://www.mashup-industries.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=355&Itemid=36
Dan Mei and Marc Johnce contribute a mega-mash of six tracks ranging from the excellent Ting Tings to the pop Katy Perry and Avril Lavigne. With guests spots from Willow and The Police. One of these things is not like the others! It's a bit of a brain-bender but I wanted to point to it because I tend to like the bigger mash-ups when they work and this one may force me to revise my opinion of Dan Mei's skill.

Music tabs. All must be closed, so here goes. Best stuff first this time. Wild variety of styles again.

http://djsteveboy.com/groovelectric.html
http://www5.zippyshare.com/v/41378701/file.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmiInMXo2L4

DJ Steveboy is back. And by back I mean back to that downright dirty new-old electro funky stuff that attracted me to his mixes long ago. It's been a while since he did one of these mixes and when he says "Hit the Funk" you know what you're in for. There are 11 tracks here, of which I've pulled out two for your special attention.

The first is Daniel Hoppe's "Say Say Say (Original Mix)" which is just a brilliant combination of moves. It's funky, but it's got these soaring vocal bits I would more easily categorize as goa or some other middle-eastern influence. And the drums. This one is just... wow.

The second one is Elite Force's "Fear The Pain". I love the little vocal samples in here and the old-fashioned fuzzbox sounds. When I have time I'm going to have to look up more of Elite Force's stuff and see if it's all like this.

http://www.mashup-industries.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=341&Itemid=36
DJ Schmolli is also back to his roots, mashing up a modern track (Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling") with some random unknown-to-me German - excuse me, Austrian - artist. As I said to MizA I think some of the appeal of this is that I don't speak German, so Ötzi's voice is another musical instrument and I don't have to worry about picking apart the lyrics. And frell me if the BEP tune still isn't ridiculously catchy.

http://www.mashuptown.com/2010/11/dj-le-clown-get-drunk-.html
http://viprhealthcare.typepad.com/files/evil-whisky-bar.mp3
DJ Le Clown turns out something called "Evil Whisky Bar" that mashes some old-but-still-good Jim Morrison with the modern English band Hadouken (http://www.hadouken.com/). DJ Le Clown gives a little etymology of how the track came together that's worth reading as well.

http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Dels/track/Trumpalump_Joe_Goddard_Remix
A very different feel from the preceding is DELS (Kieren Dickins) doing a laid-back jazzy rap piece. This is not my usual but I love the smooth vocals, gentle backbeats, and the faint English accent doesn't hurt.

http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Deluka/track/OMFG_Lauren_Flax_Remix
Deluka (http://myspace.com/deluka) are sort of airy, sort of eerie, sort of jazzy, and sort of electronica. Damned if I know how to classify either of these two tracks. Part of me thinks I'm back in 1982 listening to Buggles or similar 16-bit synth acts, but with more modern beats and some really lovely vocals.

Next time I think we'll take a dip into some Art of Noise, among other things.

Another 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.'