The fight for diverse and conscious voices

Because a meeting got cancelled. No promises on when I hit 'post' though. My mood has continued to be utterly in the shitter, so several of these are going to be the sort of chair-dancing upbeat things I like to use to counter that sort of mood. There will soon be another post consisting of long-form listening but for now let's hit some quick tracks...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TRxT3l2GE0
I'm continuing to listen to Ummet Ozcan's set mixes and sometimes I come across his original creations. This one I really like in part because it feels like an EDM homage to European heavy metal. From the symphonic opener to the solo guitar wail at about 0:40 to the choral refrains you get the sense that this is someone who grew up loving a similar sort of unabashedly pretentious prog and metal I did. Then about 1:30 when I'm already grinning the track drops into familiar electro-dance territory. "Megatron" indeed.

https://soundcloud.com/derpforce/nitro-fun-dragonfly
Frichte's "Nitro Fun - Dragonfly" compilation is kind of a made-up track picking bits and pieces of Nitro Fun's game-themed music. As such, it's very electro, kind of glitchy, and a little dubstep. I don't play enough modern electronic games to recognize most of the samples, but it's still a fun chair-dance track.

https://soundcloud.com/chvrches/bury-it-featuring-hayley
New CHVRCHES that sounds (to me) remarkably poppy. Their previous things I've noted have been generally listener-friendly but not out-and-out pop. I'm continuing to be sad I missed my chance at tickets to their local show this time around. Maybe I'd have a better sense for their sound - next time for sure.

https://soundcloud.com/featurepr/torren-foot-ryan-collins-bounce-feature026
Bounce, from MSTKRFT, is often called "All I do is party" after its repeated line. Here, that lyric bit is repeatedly sampled and played by Torren Foot & Ryan Collins over a heavy electro-bass rhythm. It's nohow the most sophisticated mix, but it's definite chair-dance material.

https://soundcloud.com/120dbrecords/settle-my-heart-premeson-remix
But don't stop there, if bouncy house is your thing. Premeson has a sweet energetic remix of JustLuke's "Settle My Heart". The original is heavily produced male-vocal pop that feels like it's aimed at teens (bubblegum much?). Then along comes Premeson with the 'move aside, kid, let me show you how the adults do it' effects and amps it all up. The vocals still work, but I vastly prefer the remix to the original.

https://soundcloud.com/vicetone/bonnie-mckee-i-want-it-all-vicetone-remix
Vicetone are continuing to find the core honey in tracks and then building interesting dance bits around those cores. This time it's Bonnie McKee's "I Want it All" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj_La4gaVIQ). The original has a very heavy autotuned sound and it's nice to see that stripped down and cleaned up for the remix. Once again I think it helps to have a second

I had planned to post this earlier this week, but had other things to say instead. A couple of good original tracks in this list as well as a couple of great covers.

https://soundcloud.com/dj-surda/ini-kamoze-lykke-li-magician-remix-i-follow-the-hotstepper
Ini Kamoze's "Here Comes the Hotstepper" is one of the most often sampled and remixed tunes I know. Most of them are fun and I try to note a few. Here DJ Surda has mixed Kamoze with Lykke Li's I Follow Rivers (The Magician Remix), which you can watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS6wfWu0JvA I am not a huge Lykke Li fan, and the various mixes of "I Follow Rivers" I've heard have been OK but nothing to blog about. Adding in the Kamoze track kicks it up a notch.

https://soundcloud.com/dancerebels/yeah-yeah-yeahs-heads-will
Dance Rebels are, among other things, a new SoundCloud channel devoted to dance mixes. They're a bit unusual as mixers go in that they only use authorized material. This track is a mix done for them about 8 months ago by David Puentex of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Heads Will Roll." It's an electro-chop mix and is definitely not going to be for everyone. It ventures into some minor-key and high-pitched terrain but I ended up liking it because it's just sufficiently different from the original and yet recognizably the original. I've been meaning to check out more Dance Rebels stuff, so stay tuned.

https://soundcloud.com/secretlycanadian/tomas-barfod-pulsing-feat-nina
The idea of someone being "Secretly Canadian" amuses me. Apparently they're a releasing company and responsible for this track, "Pulsing" by Tomas Barfod. The track is pretty standard house but the fronting vocals from someone identified as Nina K (no idea who she is) lift this above the run-of-the-mill. It's not exactly vocal trance but it has some of those tropes going on. Give it a try.

https://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/makj-mad-max-original-mix-free
DJ MAKJ brings us a hard-edged electro-house banger called "MAD MAX". As you'd expect from the name it has a dark and gritty driving sound with occasional bonus car engine noises. If someone was to make a 21st-Century Mad Max movie this kind of thing should be part of the soundtrack. Just please no more Mel Gibson.

https://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/the-neighbourhood-sweater
Shaun Frank turns in a pleasant house dance take on "Sweater Weather" by The Neighborhood (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCdwKhTtNNw). The original is fairly typical boy-band dance rock; this cover feels more mature and varied than the original, but I like both.

https://soundcloud.com/mashupgermany/mashup-germany-should-i-stay
Mashup Germany slams no fewer than eight tracks into a short mix (2:45). I love all of his source tracks and it's a nod to his skill that he can keep this from sliding into a trainwreck. The transitions are almost all smooth and nearly seamless, and really "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" doesn't get enough attention, in my estimate.

https://soundcloud.com/chvrches/chvrches-bela-lugosis-dead
DJ Purple pointed CHVRCHES out to me some weeks ago but I wasn't that fond of the track she sent. Here they are covering my all-time favorite Bauhaus song for the upcoming Vampire Academy movie soundtrack. Based on this I'm going to have to give them another listen.