drwex: (VNV)
OK, having just said I'm mostly listening to DJ sets and podcasts, let me now try to bring forth a few individual tracks for listening.

https://soundcloud.com/westwoodrecordings/fort-knox-five-give-it-a-minute
Fort Knox Five doing their funky thing. This one is kind of low-down twangy. It feels like I've heard the track - "Give It A Minute" before but I couldn't find an antecedent. Maybe it's that it sounds like a lot of FK5 music or maybe that it sounds like a lot of things that get sampled often.

https://soundcloud.com/likamorgan/sets/sweet-dreams
Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" also gets sampled a lot, but not often remixed. Here are two takes on Lika Morgan's EDM cover of it (original here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz2DZC_yPSU). Of the two I like the first better, possibly even more than I like the original mix, which manages to be both over-thumpy and still kind of randomly glitchy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tdnDFiTysk
Back Avicii died I noted that he'd had some big tracks. Some of those have been appearing in tributes. Here's a live cut of Tiesto, himself a giant in the club DJ scene, doing a major riff on Avicii's "Waiting for Love". I like that this is an extended track, and not just a quick redo. It feels like a proper tribute and I'm glad to have found it. Some of the tracks mixed in I recognized and are clear (e.g. Tim Berg's "Seek Bromance"). Also, that's a hell of a stage show, from what I can see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxcfIG_86MU
While I was researching tributes I came across this, and wanted to share. It's another EDM big name, Markus Schulz, doing a remix of Linkin Park's "In the End" as a tribute to Chester Bennington. I'm not sure this would have worked as a studio-produced track. It's very high BPM and I'm not convinced translating rock tracks to EDM styles works. But in this live clip you can hear the audience singing along and really being into it. Ultimately, that's what it's about, I think. Artistry doesn't exist in the abstract, it exists between the artist and the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTLTXDHrgtw
Janelle Monae's current and very popular "Dirty Computer" made me want to see what she'd been doing just prior to that, as I'd kind of lost track. This "Venus Fly" from Grimes features Monae doing her thing in full color and style last year. It's very interesting musically, bringing several different influences together. I really like the costuming and strong saturated colors here - it feels like many of the same things that ended up in Dirty Computer. The music is obviously hip-hop with a strong tribal drumming... oh, and don't miss the solo violin bits. Grimes is a Canadian musician and visual artist worth checking out in her own right.
drwex: (VNV)
I lost a whole bunch of music tabs; still, I figured I'd retrieve some stuff and find some new stuff. This is not that post. On Friday I saw that Avicii had died, found dead in Oman. I knew that he'd been out of the limelight more, but not why. Turns out maybe he should've stayed away.

Writeup is here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/04/20/avicii-struggling-with-health-and-fame-tried-to-walk-away-from-it-all-two-years-before-he-died/

A story of how, despite being wildly famous and popular and making millions, Avicii still wanted to walk away from the pressure and performance that, apparently, drove him to drink and cost him his gall bladder, appendix, and maybe more. Certainly he seems to have felt that it cost him the real person behind the superstar persona. As I remarked to DJ Purple last night I feel like we're witnessing the 21st-century version of the stress, burnout, and resort to self-administered chemicals that cost us some of the biggest names in rock & roll.

If you don't recognize his tracks by name, have a listen. You've heard these, I expect, mixed and used many places:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ovdm2yX4MA - Levels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcrbM1l_BoI - Wake Me Up (1.5 billion views on that one alone)
And the one that will likely always be my personal favorite:
https://www.vevo.com/watch/faithless/insomnia-2-0-avicii-remix-(official)/GB1101500984

RIP Avicii. I hope wherever you are you've found the peace you didn't have in this life.
drwex: (Troll)
I should've started this post on Monday but here we are anyway. Lots of good stuff this time so let's dive in. Five of the ten open tabs here; I'll try to get the next set together soon. This one bookends two really good dance tunes around three sweet deep house tracks.

http://www.vevo.com/watch/faithless/insomnia-2-0-avicii-remix-(official)/GB1101500984
This should be titled "Avicii Has Giant Brass Balls". I mean, seriously, Faithless's "Insomnia" is one of the most well-known and beloved dance tracks. It has endured for ten years in a variety of forms, and is widely sampled despite the fact that Faithless have objected to that in the past. Both the rhythms and the "I can't get no sleep" vocals (from Maxi Jazz) are iconic - every dance club-goer knows them. So for Avicii to release a 2.0 version, updating it to 2015 style takes some kind of chutzpah. So, is it any good? Unqualified yes. It still has the signature elements of the original but it's done the way a hot club dance track is done today. My sole complaint is that it's too short. The original was ~9 minutes long if I remember correctly, and was pared down into two very distinct versions. This one is only three minutes and really begs for the full treatment. I suppose that's better than doing an epic remix that fails - do something short and good - but still, I loves me some extended mixes.

https://soundcloud.com/satchmode/fade-mount-remix
MOUNT's remix of Satchmode's "Fade" is soft and beautiful, with gentle echoes and soft harmonies. I think of this sort of tune as "night music" - the sort of track I'd want playing as I wandered or drove around under the stars. It's not entirely deep house, but it's close to the sources deep house draws from.

https://soundcloud.com/malu-landman/haevn-finding-out-more
Apparently HAEVN have sold this tune, "Finding Out More" for use in a commercial, which is making it harder to find online. That's good for them - yay getting paid - and a shame, because it's a really beautiful track. It's low and slow and I've been trying to remember what it reminds me of. It's a little like Bronski Beat and a little bit like Jamie Woon. It's also thematically like "Fade" in that low, slow, deep-house sensual way.

https://soundcloud.com/soundplate/19-hundred-oh-boy
Still on the same theme, but less deep and more house, comes 19hundred with "Oh Boy". This tune is almost a throwback to a few years ago when (nu) disco had a real surge going on. This has very definite disco stylings in the music, but the track often drops out the disco entirely to feature the vocals, which are layered, mixed out the wazoo, and beautifully harmonic.

https://soundcloud.com/dj-djampo/hardwell-armin-van-buuren-vs-daft-punk-off-the-technologic-hook-djampo-ido-keshet-mashup
Like Insomnia, Daft Punk's "Technologic" has been sampled a million times. This is like that, only better. Djampo (https://soundcloud.com/dj-djampo) an Italian DJ has slammed together this track with Hardwell & AVB's "Off the Hook" to make a fun dance banger. The original two tracks are each somewhat spare and "Off the Hook" itself samples heavily from "Technologic". So why not put the original back in? It's a brilliant idea and the result is a dance banger supreme.
drwex: (Default)
Yes, we got a meeting postponement and rather than do more political stuff I'm going to try to throw together a music post. I have a lot of stuff marked, and actually some things to say about them.

http://hypem.com/song/1h8tv
Hypem has started trying to get me to listen again. I got annoyed at their stupid mandatory login stuff and haven't visited the site for a while. Apparently this qualifies me for email enticements. This track, an extended club mix by Avicii & NERVO of "You're Gonna Love Again" is good working background stuff. It has several fun slow builds without being overwhelming once it's going full-bore. It's mostly vocal-trance but with heavy electronica influences. NERVO is the stage name for a pair of cute Swedish twins and Avicii is a local-to-them producer with whom they've teamed for this track. The collaboration works well, I think. Hope to see more from these guys this year.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/01/jess-mills-silent-space-acoustic.html
Ah, Jess Mills. Could you get any more dark makeup on those eyes without going totally Cleopatra? Last year I kept hoping she'd do something stripped-down so I could really hear her voice without the overproduction that most of her tracks have and finally we get it. This is her "acoustic" studio version of "Silent Space". It's not what I'm used to calling acoustic - you've got synth effects and computer-generated beats in there, but at last it's toned way the hell down so she can sing. And Oh My God can this woman sing. Check out the transition around 1:08 in where her voice sounds like it jumps up two full octaves. I still think I can hear the producer's hand in how the notes are clipped, but at least she's fronting it, rather than being mixed into sappy strings or something.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/01/buddy-holly-slippin-slidin-jacques-renault-remix.html
There are two basic ways to remix classics: with respect and without. Jacques Renault definitely falls into the former category as he remixes the Buddy Holly rockabilly classic "Slippin’ & Slidin’". Renault keeps the simple riffs and repeated vocals of the original, while weaving in a variety of modern electronic effects and instruments.

http://www.earmilk.com/2012/01/09/mashupmonday-week-46/
I think I have a new music blog to follow. Earmilk is an odd and interesting mix of commercial and anti-commercial remix culture stuff. This is one of their Mashup Monday entries with ten mashes for you to peruse. As with any collection there are winners and losers here. My preferences:

http://files2.earmilk.com/upload/mp3/2012-01/Filth%20In%20Paris.mp3
Basic Physics and 5 & A Dime (both new mixers to me) doing a fast-BPM megamix with several well-recognized entries. I rather like the way they chop-mix Skrillex and then dump the whole thing down to a single vocal track before going back into the mix again.

http://files2.earmilk.com/upload/mp3/2012-01/Relax%20Mode%20(Frankie%20Goes%20To%20Hollywood%20v%20Bingo%20Players).mp3
The White Panda (who I haven't heard from since 2010) doing a Frankie remix. It's a little bit standard techno-thumpy but I really like Frankie remixes, what can I say.

http://files2.earmilk.com/upload/mp3/2012-01/I%20Found%20Killmode%20Maximal%2076%20Right%20Here%20Right%20Now-%20AR3%203ootleg.mp3
AR3's mix is something of a demolition derby of at least five main tracks plus various samples but it hangs together pretty well and it's funfunkingroovin' which I badly need this week so it gets a special thumbs-up.

http://inahandbasket.livejournal.com/632389.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQThHZbCUJo&feature=related
[livejournal.com profile] inahandbasket posted this amazing set of links to performances of Leonard Cohen's classic "Hallelujah". The song has been done a million times - sometimes badly and sometimes someone captures what I think is the tragic beauty of the track. A good rendition of this can leave me weepy and it probably won't surprise anyone who reads my music posts regularly that the Imogen Heap cover is far and away my favorite, with the Regina Spektor second.

The second link is one of those things you stumble across following YouTube recommendations. It's Stromae and Klaas doing a techno-house French Hallelujah and though it's a many-generations-removed descendant of the original in another language it's still one of the best modern interpretations I could find. But in the end I agree with inahandbasket - go back and listen to Leonard himself again. Excuse me, I need a tissue.

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