The fight for diverse and conscious voices

(I've had a muttering or two that I post too much music stuff. I'm not likely to stop, but if people don't want to read this I don't feel compelled to post it or maybe I can make an opt-in music filter. Opinions welcome.)

First up this time, a trio of new-to-me voices that I think are worth keeping an eye on. Then a couple remixes and finally we'll close out with a long-form item of awesomeness.

http://www.reverbnation.com/monicarichards
Monica Richards has done front work for a number of indie and unknown bands. She was (is?) part of Faith and the Muse (http://www.myspace.com/faithandthemuse or http://www.mercyground.com/), a dark folk/goth rock duo that's been around for about 8 years now. Her solo stuff shares some of those influences, but has more rock stylings and some tribal steals, too. For example, "I Am Warrior" is a pretty straight-up goddess tribal piece, though it gets kind of audio-cluttered in the middle. Still, worth a listen.

http://www.myspace.com/elizabethharper
Class Actress is a trio fronted by Elizabeth Harper, a sultry deep-voiced nu-disco queen. She gets compared a lot to early Madonna, which is not musically apt, but conceptually I see the comparison. Remember early Madonna played heavily off sexual themes and musically stole quite a bit from disco? Yeah, that. But there the similarity ends. Harper is much more of a torch singa, as well as being more delicate and wistful than Madonna ever was. She's still early in, with one EP and one full LP just out. I love this line from her MySpace page: "Class Actress is [...] Depeche Mode meets early Madonna and Five Star as played on KTU Radio in the leather backseat of a cab".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n1wAzuXAKU
Lindstrøm's new "De Javu" is a high-energy fun dance piece off his upcoming album. There are some minor vocal bits, but mostly this is carried along by a wind-ey, bouncy combination of keyboards, rhythms, and some phat horns. Much liking.

New voices out of the way, let's take on a couple remixes...

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/11/dj-shadow-ft-little-dragon-scale-it-back-party-ben-remix.html
Party Ben (http://www.partyben.com/) does a fine, low-key job of remixing "Scale it Back" by DJ Shadow. The original, which has a fun video (http://www.okayplayer.com/news/video-premiere-dj-shadow-x-little-dragon-scale-it-back.html) is a light and wistful piece with jazz riffs and lovely harmonies and is not at all a dance piece. So Party Ben speeds it up, gives it a disco beat line, and does some vocal clip-mixing. By the time he's done it's almost a wholly new piece, which is a fine kind of remix.

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/11/illegal-sunday-dj-y-alias-jy-another-one-bites-this-way.html
DJ Y alias JY (http://www.checkdissout.de/) takes three classic rock tunes and mashes them up

Finally, your awesomeness of the day...

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/11/illegal-sunday-amerigo-gazaway-fela-soul.html
Amerigo Gazaway has put together a 9-track remix album under the name "Felasoul" that combines work from pioneers Fela Kuti and De La Soul. Kuti was an influence on De La Soul, just as he influenced pretty much every hip-hop act ever and it's beautiful to hear his pioneering jazzy horn- and soul-filled works combined with the complex and smart rap items from De La Soul. If you only have time for a couple, I recommend "Breakadawn" and "Ooh". The latter, done originally with Redman, was one of De La Soul's few crossover hits later in their career; the former was one of their early hits and gets props for being one of the first "jazz-hop" tracks. Gazaway lovingly picks up the best elements and builds his tracks around them, with bonus vocal samplings mixed in.

I've been spastically busy, with no time even to read LJ let alone blog this stuff. I'm seriously thinking of opening up a Blogger or similar host site for these just so I can point people at them without them having to wade through the rest of my LJ. Of course, that'd reveal just how excruciatingly few people actually READ this shit, so maybe not. ANYway...

http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Vitalic/track/Second_Lives_The_Bloody_Beetroots_Remix
Vitalic (http://www.myspace.com/vitalicofficial) is an electro-disco master. His stuff has just enough of a funky edge to be interesting and avoid the over-drone that so much electro loses with. The first track on this page is pure instrumental; the second has some interesting if subdued female vocals. I like them both. This is the kind of stuff I like to listen to when I'm doing long highway drives - it keeps me moving and the beat is fast enough to match with the flow of the cars.

http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Music_Go_Music/track/Light_Of_Love_diskJokke_Remix
Music Go Music (http://www.myspace.com/musicgomusic) is another act that does most of its best work with no or very subdued vocals. The other tracks in this mix are a bit more plastic-pop than I like but the diskJokke remix is really nice.

http://audioporncentral.com/2010/03/class-actress-%E2%80%93-journal-of-ardency.html
Hot hot hot! Class Actress (http://www.myspace.com/elizabethharper) lays down some nice funky beats under good vocals. Also I'm extremely susceptible to the sexy writhing woman thing. Yep, still a guy!

http://audioporncentral.com/2010/03/dj-fac-things-just-aint-forsaken.html
I thought I had mentioned work by DJ Fac (http://djfac.wordpress.com/) before but I can't find it right now, so let this be an interesting intro to what he's capable of doing. First, not a lot of people mix against VNV Nation, one of my favorite acts. So that got my attention. He's put the minimalist instrumental bits of their "Forsaken" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sme5EWwFViY) against Canadian R&B singer Deborah Cox's "Things Just Ain't The Same" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7W7CRIkHK8) which I'm not all that impressed by on its own. How the heck Fac makes this combo work is beyond me, but it does work.

http://www.myspace.com/looandplacido
Loo and Placido released two new mixes - "Rolling for Cash" and "Californication" - which were immediately picked up by bloody every music blog I scan. The first one is a high-BPM take on making a Rolling Stones classic into a 21st-century dance track. Definitely a good pick-me-up. The second one is much more house-funk but also very danceable, with a slightly slower set of beats that drive hard under a bunch of synth-stretched vocal samples.

And heck, while you're listening definitely do not miss "Betty Got Jacked", which still has my vote for best remix of 2009.