The fight for diverse and conscious voices

Did actually intend to get this written last week but it didn't happen for a variety of reasons. I also didn't manage to write more serious entries so there's that. I'm hoping this entry will get done soon and give me some kind of impulse to write the other stuff, which is much harder to formulate.

So we've reached that time of year - the end - when mashup DJs put together their "best of..." mashes. I probably won't review most of them, but two names put out entries I have to cover, so we'll start with those. Next up (probably next week) we'll have some long-form pieces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggn9fZimc4A
DJs from Mars, 40 songs in 3:30. What else do you want to know? It doesn't have exactly the classic DJfM stompy feel, but it's definitely framed as a dance banger, though the ending slides a bit. I think it's positioned as the sort of thing you'd play for a set finale - at least, that's how I would use it.

https://soundcloud.com/united-state-of-pop-2015/mashup2015-12-1-15-2
DJ Earworm's "United State of Pop 2015" uses 50 tracks in a 5:15-long mash that is much less intense than the DJfM's entry but still gives a good sampling of what's been pop this year. Earworm's take is still danceable but not a house banger by any means. As with so many of these year-end things I feel like there hasn't been a ton of great new things to carry the mix. Most of what I'm liking in mashes these days mixes new pop with older classics, which these best-of obviously can't do.

https://soundcloud.com/tritonpromotions/quintino-milestone
In case you are somehow unfamiliar with the basic form of the house dance banger let me link you one. I don't link most of these because they're all pretty similar. Triton here turns in a perfectly serviceable entry, with minimal vocals and maximal house beats. I can't put my finger on precisely why I like this one and not other standard bangers, but this one sticks well with me.

https://soundcloud.com/electro-house-repost-site/faithless-insomnia-sash_s-remixclub-mix
Remember a couple months back when I claimed Avicii had giant brass balls for (daring to) remix/update "Insomnia"? Well stand down, Avicii because here comes the unknown Sash, doing their remix/club mix and it's really damned good. It's got the same basic feel, vocals, and builds as the original but with more BPM and some up-to-date electronica. Clocking in around 6 minutes feels better, too.

https://soundcloud.com/vicetone/colorsremix
"Colors" is nowhere near the classic level of "Insomnia" but it's a well-loved club anthem and seeing it get a touch of new life is nice. Vicetone's version is sweet - nearly love-song levels - and I like the lush sounds.

https://soundcloud.com/vijayandsofia/patrick-baker-gone-vijay-sofia-zlatko-remixmaster
Speaking of sweet, Patrick Baker's "Gone" was a gently breathy summer night track from a few months back. Now comes Vijay and Sofia remixing it. I still think the autotuned strings bit is a little saccharine but I like the basic rhythm of the track and Baker's voice is pleasant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs962Vqq9mA
Chasing some old links I came across this and thought "How could I have missed a DJs from Mars doing Deep Purple mash?" Turns out I did spot it back in July but that link is now dead so I'm going to give you this, the updated version that they did for the Bootzilla compilation. I hope this one survives because it's got so much of what I love about the DJs' work. Good stompin' beats, and a nice mix of the modern vocals with the classic backing guitars. Like all DJs from Mars tracks the key question is "Are you chair-dancing now?" Um, yes.

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.

Lots of end-of-year stuff here. I'm sifting through a truly awesome Best-of DJ mash set from DJ Morgoth so let me clear some tabs first before I dive into that.

http://viprhealthcare.typepad.com/files/god-save-the-queen.mp3
New Year's greetings courtesy of Her Majesty, with significant contribution from the Sex Pistols, Queen, and DJ Le Clown. Sex Pistols don't appear in nearly enough mashes and putting "God Save the Queen" up against samples from QE 2 herself is so natural I wonder why nobody's done it before.

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/12/dj-earworm-united-state-of-pop-2011-world-go-boom.html
DJ Earworm's "Top of the Pops" year-end mix. I'm liking this a little more on re-listen than I did initially. It's severely infested with Katy Perry (can't we spray for that, yet?) but that was sort of inevitable. It does have a couple of high points, such as Adele and P!nk, and I like the Pumped Up Kicks bit he chose around 3:50. It's also worth reading his take on why Billboard's method of calculating is less accurate than it might be. Overall, we still have yet another year of pop hits almost all of which sound the same. Fortunately that's not all we have.

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/12/dj-bahler-frail-limb-purity-dancing-with-the-devil.html
DJ Bahler (http://soundcloud.com/dj-bahler) and Frail Limb Purity take two versions of the Glitch Mob track "We Swarm" and build around it. The result has that classic Glitch Mob bass thread with a whole new vocal interpretation and an almost choral feel to it.

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/12/thingsweforgot2post-2011-oh-my-dirty-dancer.html
Oh My! (http://www.facebook.com/ohmyofficial) are a new bouncy UK duo that combine singing, rapping, and some of the best un-selfconscious dancing in their premier video. It's kitchy and clearly an homage to the original movie, done in a very up-to-date style. Their Facebook page has one other original track and several mixtape variations.

Yeah, I know, I just did a music post, but there are a bunch of 'best of the year' things out so I'll be putting up a bunch today and hopefully another bunch before the week is out.

http://audioporncentral.com/2010/12/dj-earworm-united-state-of-pop-2010-dont-stop-the-popdj-earworm-united-state-of-pop-2010-dont-stop-the-pop.html
I don't think you can do one of these without pointing to DJ Earworm's (http://www.facebook.com/Earworm) United State of Pop mix. His 2009 mix was awesome and really set a high bar for every mix last year. Earworm doesn't just mix a few tracks against each other - he samples at the word/phrase level and blends the results. Unfortunately (imo due to inferior source material) this year's mix isn't as good as last year's. His skills are still evident, but the 24 tracks represented here are more concerned with trying to sound like they are their own party than anything else.

http://www.bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2010/
Also like last year, Bootie turns in a few surprises in their top of the year picks. For one thing, the page now has a Soundcloud stream so you can listen to the set all together. I do wish Soundcloud would implement a "forward one track" feature, though. Bootie did something interesting this year, producing two lists. The first are in the mix - 23 tracks that fit together. Then they added 10 bonus tracks that they thought were good mixes, but that didn't fit the set for one reason or another. I didn't think much of the main set (the good tracks were ones I'd already blogged) but there are some real gems in the bonus tracks. Let's see:

http://www.bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2010/Best%20of%20Bootie%202010%20%28Unmixed%29/Mashup-Germany%20vs.%20Faroff%20-%20Everybody%20&%20Ray%20Speaks%20No%20Americano.mp3
Mashup Germany hit a home run with this one, called "Everybody & Ray Speaks No Americano". As you can guess from the title the popular Yolanda B Cool track is the backbone for this, and it's cut up and mashed with some great bits including some classic Ray Charles vocals that I just adore. Ray Charles was such an innovator in his time I regret he's not around to collaborate with some of today's best.

http://www.bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2010/Best%20of%20Bootie%202010%20%28Unmixed%29/Titus%20Jones%20-%20I%20Wanna%20Bulletproof%20Dancer.mp3
Titus Jones turns in another hot dance track putting together four female vocalists, pitting La Roux and Robyn against Whitney Houston and Taylor Swift. As pop female vocals go, each has something interesting to add and the result makes the best of each one's style.

http://www.bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2010/Best%20of%20Bootie%202010%20%28Unmixed%29/LeeDM101%20-%20%28Find%20Myself%29%20A%20Heap%20Of%20Love.mp3
LeeDM101's "(Find Myself) A Heap Of Love" brings a melancholy note using mostly Florence & the Machine with a helping of Depeche Mode and some Imogen Heap.

http://www.bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2010/Best%20of%20Bootie%202010%20-%20Bonus%20Tracks/DJs%20From%20Mars%20-%20Love%20The%20Way%20You%20Lie%20In%20Paradise%20City.mp3
DJs from Mars remain some of the most brilliant creators in the scene and this track proves it. Take the problematic Eminem/Rihanna track and fold in some stereotypical 80s hair rock - that can't possibly work, can it? Uh, yeah. It works. Seriously, this ought not to be possible but these guys are that good.

http://www.bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2010/Best%20of%20Bootie%202010%20-%20Bonus%20Tracks/DJ%20Fox%20-%20Come%20See%20About%20Down.mp3
What could possibly make one overplayed Jay Sean tune interesting again? How about a BIG helping of Motown superstars The Supremes. This one may be more hit-or-miss for those of you who didn't grow up loving Motown the way my pre-pubescent past self did. The elegant style and beautiful harmonies of the Motown ladies were magical then and they're magical now. Props to DJ Fox for this blast from the past.

http://www.bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2010/Best%20of%20Bootie%202010%20-%20Bonus%20Tracks/Mashup-Germany%20-%20Imagine%20One%20Day%20So%20Far%20Away.mp3
Mashup Germany also take an overused track (Lennon's "Imagine") and reinvigorate it with contributions from a selection of more modern male vocalists. The combination of Matisyahu and Bob Marley is particular brilliant - an obvious pairing retrospect but so far as I know nobody's done it before.

This entry has a couple of old favorites and some stuff from people I haven't found likable enough before to blog.

http://audioporncentral.com/2010/06/miike-snow-the-rabbit-stuart-price-mix.html
Miike Snow has done a bunch of things that were... good, or OK. RCRD LBL likes to promote them (http://rcrdlbl.com/search/miike+snow) so I listen and think... eh. Nothing really moves me. This one is just that extra bit better that makes me want to blog it, and it's not just because of those hot writhing chicks in the video (though they don't hurt). Stuart Price is a UK remixer whom I've not heard before and I really like what he's done here. The song is catchy without being syrupy and it's still got Miike Snow's trademark slightly-off-kilter weirdness.

http://www.mashup-industries.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=315&Itemid=27
Marc Johnce is someone I've also wanted to blog several times. His remix style hasn't appealed to me as much in the past. This one... whoa. It doesn't hurt that he's starting with the legendary Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water". And putting up against Christina Aguilera's recent "Not Myself Tonight" is brilliant. I really like the mix - it is true to both the hot scratchy vocals of the C.A. tune and that signature Deep Purple riff (bomp bomp bomp, bomp bomp ba-bomp bomp). The extended edit has a few more house thumpy filler bits than I'd like, but I'd drop this into any club set for sure.

http://www.mashup-industries.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=314&Itemid=27
If the Jonce mix goes long, the worst thing I can say about this awesome smash from DJ Schmolli is that it's too short. He's got two classics - Queen's "We Will Rock You" and Cypress Hill's "Insane In The Brain". Neither one is that long of a track and both are ridiculously simple. The best bit is near the end where he's using Brian May's guitars over Cypress Hill rhythms.

http://audioporncentral.com/2010/06/big-nuz-ft-dj-tira-umlilo.html
Hey spinners, check this vid out! Big Nuz is a South African rapper who just won their Best Album of the Year award. There's not much else of his out on the Web that I could find to check out, but I like this track - it has obvious hip-hop styles but uses the down-beat rhythms I associate with traditional south African music.

http://audioporncentral.com/2010/06/dj-earworm-like-omg-baby-capital-fm-summertime-ball-mashup.html
DJ Earworm has been remarkably quiet this year. Since releasing his "United States of Pop" in January his blog hasn't updated. He plays a part in the student documentary "Walking on Eggshells" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt0ASo_6Sdg&feature=PlayList&p=6DE7C8C33450E9CC&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=7) about remix culture, but this appears to be his first big new track in months. It's a 15-source mega-mix showcasing bits of the artists who played at a London concert. As before, this track stands out because of the level of detail in the work - he's mixing down to the word/beat level and reassembling something wholly new. It doesn't quite rock as hard as the previous megamix, but it's still very danceable and an impressive piece of work.