The fight for diverse and conscious voices

(anyone but me know the Subject line reference?)

I'm still sort of poking around new sounds and finding myself encountering a variant on Sturgeon's Law. To wit, if I listen to ten songs, I'm likely going to hate nine of them, but that tenth one, well listen along:

http://audioporncentral.com/2013/06/cadien-expression-of-self.html
Glitch-funk. It's a thing, apparently, and if this is it, I like it. Cadien (http://soundcloud.com/cadien) have a track here called "Expression of Self" that has a deep funk soul, but sped up and fed through some glitch filters. This sounds like something out of the soundtrack to a 21st-century blaxsploitation flick.

http://audioporncentral.com/2013/06/phaeleh-ft-soundmouse-here-comes-the-sun.html
Trip-hop is alive and well in the hands of Phaeleh (https://soundcloud.com/phaeleh), a UK producer who has previously been known for more dubstep-ish things. This "Here Comes the Sun" is from his upcoming album and features vocals by Soundmouse (https://soundcloud.com/soundmouse) a vocalist/pianist who has worked with Phaeleh in the past. This is gorgeous sound, artfully produced.

https://soundcloud.com/g3rst/g3rst-hollabeck-girl-gwen
G3rst put out a fun little A|B mash-up called "Hollabeck Girl" that puts Beck up against Gwen Stefani. He does a good job of pulling out what's best in each: Stefani's vocals over Beck's drums and guitars.

https://soundcloud.com/mashupgermany/mashup-germany-wake-me-up
https://soundcloud.com/mashupgermany/mashup-germany-wake-up-contact
Speaking of mashups, Mashup Germany has done a clever thing: two mash-ups of the same track, giving very different sounds. They're both built on Avicii's "Wake Me Up". The first uses Eagle Eye Cherry and the second uses Daft Punk. The contrast of jangly guitars versus electronica is fun.

https://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/j-viewz-far-too-close-pegboard
Pegboard Nerds turn in a funky electro remix of J.Viewz' "Far Too Close" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTauZ7UVwRY). The original is highly produced track from a couple years ago that tries to combine poppy male vocals with electro-dub sounds and is sort of OK. The remix speeds things up, smooths them out and adds some serious dub/glitch drops. The build-drop from about 1:00 to 1:15 is fantastic. And the Alvin & the Chipmunks bit is hilarious.

https://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/3lau-paris-simo-escape-feat
A four-way original track - a collaboration between 3LAU (http://3lau.com/music/) a totally bomb-tastic prog-house DJ; Paris & Simo (http://parisandsimo.com/) a Montreal-based DJ duo; and Bright Lights, a Spanish vocalist. The overall sound is prog-house, but the trancey vocals fit nicely.

There's been a sudden influx of good stuff into my stream, so you all get an early edition this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRNPT72z7Yg
Gigamesh's (http://soundcloud.com/gigamesh) Sunlight Remix of Theophilus London's "I stand Alone". This is smooth and beautiful, with Theophilus's vocals featuring over an electro-disco beat mix that is just understated enough. It's actually not that different from the original (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WRuDAasz-8&ob=av2e), just less rap/hip-hop and a little more ethereal. Gigamesh has a very light hand here.

http://www.abneypark.com/I'veBeenWrongBefore-AbneyPark.mp3
Abney Park released three new tracks from their forthcoming album to their mailing list and the world. I confess I've been less enchanted by their current sounds than I was in the stuff I heard from them originally, but this one is not bad. It's kind of bouncy and has more traditional rock-n-roll drums and guitars for backing than you might expect, but Captain Robert's vocals are still front-and-center. Plus the lyrics amuse the hell out of me - give it a listen with headphones on so you can follow along.

http://viprhealthcare.typepad.com/files/3lau---all-night-long-felguk-feat.-darth-vader-vs.-lmfao-vs.-ellie-goulding-vs.-mann.mp3
Courtesy of mashuptown.com this is one of four 3LAU mixes they featured. It's built around Ellie Goulding so I'm already favorably disposed to it and I like the way 3LAU shifts from Goulding to LMFAO and back again. It's a classic A|B mix but the source material is great and the result holds up well to repeated listening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuKZJmxpp_w&feature=player_embedded
Kap Slap put together an awesome four-way mix. Party banger mixes, of which this is definitely one, risk being too formulaic, but this avoids most of those traps. The video also looks like enormous fun. The primary components of the mix are Pumped Up Kicks' "Foster The People" and Martin Solveig's "Hello", both of which are getting a lot of use in remixes these days. Still, this one stands out and I'm going to have to check out what else Kap Slap has done that might be worth blogging.

http://www.musicstop.org/nero-promises-lyrics-with-video
I was listening to a remix that included this track - "Promises" by Nero (http://www.myspace.com/nerouk) - and decided I needed to find the original. I had sort of peripherally heard of Nero a while ago, but they were (then) known mostly for d&b, of which I'm not a fan. This track, however, is straight up vocal electronica with Alana Watson providing the sound that stopped me in mid-mash and sent me looking for the original. You can hear more of her work on the tracks at their MySpace page. She's reminding me of someone else but I can't think of who just this moment.

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/10/totally-enormous-extinct-dinosaurs-4play.html
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs is a kid in a home-made dinosaur costume mixing on stage. This eleven-minute short film shows him on stage doing his thing and also sitting around talking about what it's like to be a live dance music producer trying to do his own thing and not be overly confined by labels or genres or other words that might limit who would listen to his music. I sympathize with him and I like his style.