The fight for diverse and conscious voices

The new theory is that when I have five music tabs I make time to post them. I had been trying to organize things into groups, or balance the entries out but that leads to long delays and lots of open tabs. Sometimes "good enough for now" is good enough for now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ05hz9JEvU&feature=youtu.be
Have I mentioned I have a New Minion at New Job and she's into music? Like, into it. She knew who Shpongle were but also she's young and non-American so her musical upbringing is different from mine and there are lots of things I've been able to toss to her. And she tosses some things back, like this. Mop Mop is a lot more jazzy than my usual fare but this performance (it's live) has a good high-energy rhythm powering it along and it doesn't noodle and wander the way some jazz does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FafT6m4uQxg
First of two mashes by DJs from Mars. This one is simple, combining the recent (disturbing) pop track "Sweet but Psycho" from Ava Max with M83's "Midnight City" - itself a pretty disturbing track. The majority of the mash is carried by Max's vocals, which remind me a lot of Gaga's early work. The DJs put in a couple of segments of their own work but it's pretty minimal, more of a remix than a true mash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO43XZ1zXBg
The DJs doing a mega-mash of Avicii tracks as a tribute to him on the anniversary of his death. I wrote about it shortly after it happened and it's hard to believe it has been a year already. This mash-up is brilliant because it showcases both the number of popular hits that Avicii produced in his short career as well as the DJs' skills at mashing things up. If you don't watch the video you may miss the transitions because they're so smooth and well-chosen. I like that the video also includes a variety of different clips from live performances to the music videos.

https://soundcloud.com/enormouschills/lika-morgan-california-man
Lika Morgan's "California Man" is listed as a "chill" track but I think of it as a more standard dance-pop tune with the expected catchy riffs and simple lyrics. It's not bad by any stretch and I quite like it, even on third listen. The vocals are promising, particularly at the end of this track. I'm surprised I haven't blogged Lika Morgan before. I'll likely pick another track or two to write about.

https://soundcloud.com/candemirmusic/can-demir-feat-orhan-yildirim-jelka-original-mix
Can Demir's "Jelka" is also a little outside my usual wheelhouse. It's a high-BPM d&b-adjacent Israeli track - no surprise I got a pointer to it off Maya Jakobsen's feed. Still, I like it enough to blog it - tell me if it appeals to you.

I keep accumulating music tabs as I'm trying to get work done between the multitude of meetings this week. Let me try to close a few here since I have no idea when I'll get time to do another music post. Five entries, five different music styles, GO.

https://soundcloud.com/fortknoxfive/cinco-to-the-brinco-feat-empresarios-basement-freaks-remix
I found Fort Knox Five originally through DJ Steveboy who uses their stuff a lot in his sets. Here they're bringing a "Latin Funk" track, a concept that I had no idea existed and am immediately in love with. "Cinco to the Brinco" bounces back and forth between Spanish and English and across a variety of musical styles - there's obvious Latin and funk and some glitch and some electro thrown in. Nice bass, nice horn bits, very much my kind of thing.

https://soundcloud.com/machetehacks/wake-up-machete-cut
Rage Against the Machine takes me back to a period of my musical past when I was listening to a lot of harder-edged stuff. RAtM, Rammstein, Godsmack, etc. This is a modern electro-fuzz remix of "Wake Up" done by someone calling themselves Machete. Like a lot of modern reworks it doesn't quite seem to know what to do with the vocals which is a shame, I think because although the intense drums and screaming guitars are key features of this genre so are the intense vocals. RAtM were particularly known for anti-establishment lyrics and you can't just ignore that.

https://soundcloud.com/gwen-stefani/make-me-like-you-rac-mix
https://soundcloud.com/panicatthedisco/panic-at-the-disco-victorious-rac-remix
For contrast, here's a doube-shot of RAC. First up, a remix of Gwen Stefani's "Make Me Like You". The music in this one is almost disposable pop - what matters are Stefani's vocals and they're front-and-center in the remix. For contrast here's the original - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uljUDtv1Kw - and I think the remix is significantly better. The original has a tamped-down pop beat bouncing around; the remix has more of a dance beat and it's layered underneath the vocals rather than mixed side-by-side with them. Second is RAC's take on "Victorious" from Panic! at the Disco (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUChk0lxF44). Again, it's fundamentally pop, and the remix doesn't change that, but it does separate and amp up the vocals, giving it a dance slant.

https://soundcloud.com/freethepandas/dirty-ducks-luca-rezza-kanuri-original-mix-master-mp3
I had to investigate something with the label "panda funk" and I'm not convinced it was a good idea or a good label. There's a pandafunk.com that appears to be the label behind this, but the track is less funk and more electro-bounce. If that's your thing, Dirty Ducks & Luca Rezza have a stomp-inducing example of the genre for you right here. I'm still on the fence about this one.

https://soundcloud.com/djsfrommars/djs-from-mars-varanasi-ghats-original-club-mix-5
I've been meaning to post this since I first heard it a couple months ago and it kept getting pushed off. So let's close out this set with an awesome track from DJs from Mars. "Varanasi Ghats" takes its name from the stairs (ghat) constructed specifically so people can go down to holy rivers. This track steals liberally from Indian celebratory music both in the beats and the sampled vocals. These elements are assembled with the DJs traditional stompy style and the result is awesome. There's an invitation to remix that comes along with a purchase of the track but I'd be surprised to see someone outdo the original.

I have two half-formed posts in my head and am not having much luck fully baking them. So like I do when that's going on, I listen to music. This set of links isn't planned out so much as "a set of musical coincidences".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yk5_y6IERw&feature=em-subs_digest
Florence is coming to town. I was a big fan when she first got played on this side of the pond and have dropped off considerably since then. It's not like Infected Mushroom where the music has changed. Nor, I think, is it the old fogey of I-can't-like-anything-once-it-gets-popular. Florence is still doing her thing, except with a big stage now, bigger budget, and the trappings that come with that. In this live recording from last year you can hear her with a big-stage quality drum kit backing, two backup singers, a harp, and a full live horn section. I'm left wondering if that makes her (act) better or not. What attracted me to her was the combination of her voice and the deep weirdness of her lyrics. It has been a very long time since I've seen a show at a place so big they needed Jumbotrons - I forget what stadium-concert sound is like. She's very clearly having fun, though, and that's a strong incentive to try and see her when she comes around. Of course, the ticket price is likely to make me balk, but it's a thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLKIkmiLCzM
Also coming to town is Bob Mould. I've written about my admiration for him a few times in the past. Going to see him would be a no-brainer except it's at the Paradise, a venue I despise. Their sound quality is uniformly terrible, sight lines are mediocre, and it's never comfortable. But it's Bob Mould, and I'm going to go in part because we've lost some great talents recently and I feel like I want to appreciate the really great gray-haired performers who are still with us. And because, duh, it's Bob Mould.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTKzF9mTqII
This was one of the fine tunes in the New Year's Eve party soundtrack. The host who had programmed that night's set has different musical tastes from mine, but there's a fair degree of overlap to the point where it's enjoyable for me to notice something they've picked and inquire, or to suggest something they can check out. Here is Melosense with a deep chill track. Very 'night music' and slinky acoustic sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obS09VerQig
While we're still in the mellow part of this post, let me also introduce you to Phutureprimitive. This track came off Pandora's recommendations from my modification of sweetmmeblue's Glitch Mob station. The resemblance should be clear - bass electronica, with a strong beat and some stutter programming. "Kinetik" is also an acoustic-only track.

https://soundcloud.com/vicetone/pitch-black
Vicetones continue to supply me with lush, sweet club sounds. It's a house track, like their other work, but it's also uptempo and melodic (despite the title). As so often happens I wish to complain that the track clocks in at under 3 minutes - feels more like a teaser than a fully developed track.

https://soundcloud.com/rac/beautiful-heartbeat
Back in 2014 I noted that RAC mixes have this habit of slipping by unremarked. And somehow I managed to go all of last year without blogging any of his work. My bad - I do follow it but don't always notice and mark his entries in my stream. This one reaches out and grabs you (well, if you're me) entirely because of the vocals. Frida Sundemo fronted this track for Morten originally and this is RAC's mix. Her voice is excellent - I particularly like how she handles the minor-key bits without sounding whiny.

http://new.livingelectro.com/House/126120-best_of_2015_-_megamashup_extended_club_mix.html
I hope you've had enough of relaxing because the last two items are going to break that mode. First up is DJs from Mars' year-end megamash. This is the extended mix - I linked the original when it came out last month but I like this better. You get an extra minute and a half of ear teasers as a bonus and where I thought the end of the original mix was kind of a letdown, this one goes strong right up to the last 20 seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncxgwY77omA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiFRIzlt27g
About a decade or so again there was a thread in club music that was just generally called "hard". It featured very fast beats, electronica with distorted edges, insistent repetitive phrasing, and a lot of the tropes of club music at that time - sound samples, manga or Japanese animation elements, using horns or whistles as found sound, and simple message-oriented vocals. The first link is a recording of Marco V doing his hard anthem "Godd" recorded in 2005. I had forgotten all about this track - and really never was much of a hard fan - until a version of this got sampled in a DJ set I was listening to last week. I have no idea where the memory is from, but I remember thrashing to this track until my shirt was soaked with sweat. (I believe the track first came out in 2001 which only broadens the possible places/occasions - my best guess is one of the poolside parties that used to happen at Disclave.)

The second link is the V-Dubb remix of "Godd" and it's what started me on this as it was sampled in the DJ set and something in my brain pinged. This mix has some of the elements of the original but I think I can see how the edges are starting to soften and evolve into what house music would become in the years after. If you don't like hard techno you're not likely to enjoy this mix any more than the first, but for me it's a nice reminder of where EDM used to be when I was first dipping my toes into the waters.

While I was doing all that Serious Writing(tm) I accumulated a lot of interesting music. I'll split it up for now into two bits. This one is the long-form pieces.

http://www.djsteveboy.com/pastorale.html
DJ Steveboy's "Pastorale" mix is one of his drone mixes. I never liked that moniker because 'drone' has negative connotations for me and music. They're not quite easy listening either, but that's closer. These mixes are mostly deep house, so they're relaxed, often fewer BPM and sometimes down-tempo. They also have a more even feel throughout. I find them to be very good writing background music for just that reason - they don't call your attention with big crescendos and epic drops. The bad part is that there is rarely a stand-out track or two to talk about. So put this on, let it play, and get relaxed or focused as suits your needs.

http://thissongissick.com/blog/2015/gryffin-flight-log-002-winter-solstice-mix-free-download/
New (to me at least) producer Gryffin has a gorgeous set up as their "Winter Solstice Mix". I'm having a hard time characterizing this style - it's labeled as "cloud house" and yes it's house music of various sorts. It does have a lot of airy, dreamy, ethereal bits. Like the drone mix above, it tends to have a fairly even tempo but it's much more a set of songs than a continuous mix. I'm only on my third listen-through and nothing has jumped out at me as much as The Him's remix of "To the River" by Causes. I'm fond of the original and this remix is beautiful, a little more bouncy, and is one of the deepest pieces in this mix.

https://soundcloud.com/djsfrommarspodcast/2015-12-03a
And what would a set collection be without some DJs from Mars to pick you up? Trust me, if you've been lulled into calm by the previous two sets prepare to get jolted awake. The set starts with the heavy metal "Apocalypse Now" and continues extremely strong. JapaRoll's reword of "Knas" leads into the Klaas remix of "Can You Feel It" that then goes into a nice bootleg of "Star 69" and Bisbetic's remix of "Bang My Head" from Sia/Guetta. I could keep linking tracks or you could just listen to the set; I recommend the latter. Never fear, the DJs will appear in the next entry, too.

Going to try something different this time - a post just based off one set list. If you want things in the order they were originally arranged, start here:

https://soundcloud.com/djsfrommarspodcast/2015-11-07a
This month's "Alien Selection" mix from DJs from Mars ranges from OK to excellent, as do most of their mixes. There are one or two skippable bits and the DJs have provided a handy timestamp-encoded track list to let you do just that. That said, I didn't find a lot to dislike in this mix. It has a great deal of the DJs' trademark stompy house going for it and a lot of variation. Some of the tracks used are mixed and updated versions so the links below won't be 100% accurate to the full set but they're the best I could find.

In case you're new to this, the "Alien Selection" podcast is their monthly best-of, with a heavy dose of their own work thrown in.

If you want (what I consider) the highlights first, try these:

https://soundcloud.com/calvoofficial/id-sweet-dreams-calvo-remix
Ah, Annie. For a while one could hear remixes and mashes of Annie Lennox or Eurythmics tracks all over. But it's been a while since I heard such and now we get not a use, but a straight-on updating of the iconic "Sweet Dreams" into CALVO's deep house style. The song has always had a strong electronica element to it, but this is pushed up several notches into house tempos. The kick-bass is also amped up, giving it a bit of chest impact. I agree with one commenter on Soundcloud who objected to the initial drop but other than that one bit I think it's an excellent take on the original.

https://soundcloud.com/angemimusic/ed-sheeran-photograph-angemi-remix-1
Ed Sheeran's "Photograph" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSDgHBxUbVQ) is another lovely tune that's been mixed a lot the last few months. This is Angemi's mix, and it's a gorgeous EDM love song. It's got Sheeran's vocals front-and-center but the core melody is backed with some electronica. What makes this work, I think, is that it's almost a duet between the original and the remix, which you can see about 2 minutes into the track when the electronica really kicks into high gear. As with so many of these things, if you don't like "Photograph" to begin with you're not likely to enjoy this mix, but I like it a lot.

https://soundcloud.com/massivedrumofficial/the-goodmen-give-it-up-massivedrum-2015-stage-remix
A mostly instrumental drum-heavy dance remix from Massivedrum. The style is pretty standard house but I like the banging essence of the track. This is one of those that was remixed a bit differently in the DJ's set and I think their version is better but this is still pretty good. My main complaint is that the track's interesting complexity doesn't come out until about 3:20 in. I would've liked it more if the whole track had that much variation and layering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UriEpyohMWw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snBfAlUXUlI
Finally, I want to close with two entries from the DJs themselves, one new and one old but both holding strong in this set.

The first one is a heavy Nicki Minaj mix. I'm not all that fond of the scratch-mixing in the middle of this track, but I adore the second half where Minaj is fronting for Run DMC. The second one is something the DJs did back in 2011 that I'd somehow missed (at least, I think I missed it. As I write this, the LJ tag pages are broken so I can't quite check). The remix uses Evanescence, and it's totally a reminder of why I loved their flash in the music pan. "Bring Me To Life" was played and overplayed to death in part because it was a damned good track with amazing vocals and a haunting air. The DJs take that and speed it up to 11. The result still soars, but it also proves it can dance.

I don't feel like posting an update because it's too depressing. Soundcloud was down for a bit last week, which caused me to wander over to Bootie Blog and check out some of their monthly listings. Lots of pop stuff, but it's not bad for all that.

Warning: all of these MP3s tend to start playing LOUD. If that's not what you want, tap the volume slider or download and playback through another device. There's also a ZIP file link that gets you all these tracks and the other Bootie Top 10 for June.

http://www.bootiemashup.com/top10/06-2015/lobsterdust--PlayaDoIt_(MontellJordan_x_AlanRipley%26MikeCandys).mp3
Lobsterdust doing what he does, a technically proficient A|B|C mash with Montell Jordan's classic "How We Do It" updated and modernized with a nu-disco feel.

http://www.bootiemashup.com/top10/06-2015/Maya%20Jakobson%20-%20Lean%20On%20Backstreet%20Boys.mp3
Maya Jacobson who goes as DJMaya is an Israeli mash-up DJ, new to me. Here she's got the Major Lazer ft M0 "Lean On" that I mentioned in last week's music post going up against some old Back Street Boys. My biggest complaint is that the track is short and ends abruptly. Seems like more could be done here.

http://www.bootiemashup.com/top10/06-2015/5.%20Alesso%20Vs%20The%20Temper%20Trap%20Vs%20Afrojack%20%26%20Martin%20Garrix%20-%20Turn%20Up%20The%20Sweet%20Heroes%20(Djs%20From%20Mars%20Club%20Bootleg).mp3
DJs from Mars with one of their standard high-energy dance tracks built around Alesso/Tove Lo "Heroes". It's interesting for the number of styles they mix into it. There's still a basic dance feel but it's got a lot of different tempos and sounds going on.

http://www.bootiemashup.com/top10/06-2015/Kill%20mR%20DJ%20-%20Summer%20Nights%20(Avicii%20vs%20Calvin%20Harris%20vs%20Coldplay%20vs%20Bob%20Marley%20vs%20Royal%20Gigolos).mp3
Kill_mR_DJ has a nice summer nostalgia mix of five favorites. It's bouncy and trippy but also a bit on the short side. I know pop songs aren't supposed to be much over 3:30 but who said mash-ups need to fall into that same creative sinkhole?

http://www.bootiemashup.com/top10/06-2015/Pierce%20Fulton%20x%20Walk%20The%20Moon%20-%20Shut%20Up%20And%20Dance%20Kuaga%20(Cream%20%26%20Gary%20W%20Bootleg).mp3
I keep think I'm going to get tired of the "Shut up and Dance" mixes but it's a damned catchy hook. Here Cream & Gary W use a couple of minor supporting tunes to play around with the basic "Dance" elements but it's still largely the track you expect.

http://www.bootiemashup.com/top10/06-2015/(2015)%20Amoraboy%20-%20Charli%20XCX%20vs%20Antares%20-%20Break%20the%20meteorite%20-%20hearthis.at.mp3
Amoraboy, a French bootlegger, gives us what's listed as a simple A|B mash but I think at a minimum he's using versions of these tracks I haven't heard before. The components are Charli XCX's "Break The Rules" that I heard a lot last fall and an old track by Antares called "Ride on a Meteorite" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA05D5rkHFA I think) but this mash has a level of profanity I didn't hear in either of those source tracks. I'm betting it's someone's remix but I haven't bothered to sort through all the options to figure out which one.

I've been hit with some serious emotional dips lately, like I haven't had in weeks. So I do what I can to equalize and turn my mood upward. Right now that means some high-energy get-your-body-moving dance tracks. Also, modern love songs and nostalgia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCPyJ6Cl03Q
Raise your hands if you can still remember MTV playing Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" on heavy rotation. Yeah, me too. The jeans-and-tee-shirt band seemed to be mocking everything MTV promoted. Here is a bit of awesome where DJs from Mars mash four tracks but mostly it ends up being Ariana Grande fronting for Dire Straits. If I win the lottery I'm going to throw a private party with these guys DJing.

https://soundcloud.com/mr-andrea-impellizzeri/madcon-and-imagine-dragons-dont-worry-vs-radioactive
Imagine Dragons is one of those things that gets stuck in my head, so I'm not sure why I like this mash so much. It's I.D. versus Radioactive, another catchy pop tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cimKio_bEo4&list=TL72UvprWXN44
Here is Ben Gold, one of the ASoT stable of trance DJs, doing a set in Buenos Aires. It's a fun mix featuring a lot of his stuff and he does a decent AVB impression on stage. Like any set there are high and low points and I want to pull out three tracks he uses because each is interesting.

https://soundcloud.com/ankhewitt/andrew-rayel-ft-alexandra-badoi-goodbye-ben-gold-remix-premier-asot-700
Here's Ben Gold's remix of Andrew Rayel's "Goodbye". The original track features Alexandra Badoi a Romanian singer-songwriter. I love that her site lists it as her song featuring Rayel whereas ASoT lists it the other way around. Regardless it's a good collaboration and Ben Gold's remix is a cleaner and punchier take on the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW9nLyixyYE
This is a Ben Gold trance original, featuring Christina Novelli on vocals. Ms. Novelli is herself a DJ out of the UK. She looks to be fun and I intend to check out her stuff. This track caught my ear for her voice, obviously, and the piano bits. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, a love song. In another genre it'd be a singer (usually a woman) and a piano. This here is just the EDM version and I freakin' adore it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mpWgVwb6mo
And finally another Ben Gold love song. I liked this one in part because it's featuring a male vocalist, Eric Lumiere. I've been skimming some of what Lumiere has posted, and he seems to be very much in the vein I travel - listen to what makes you feel better, giving away his first album for free, etc. Like many of these folk you can get their stuff on Beatport, which I'm told returns a larger percentage to the artist than most comparable sites. If you love it, buy it.

I've gone through the Best of Bootie 2014 mixes and have four to talk about. If you just want to stream or download the whole thing you can get it at that link. Fair warning: the Bootie links are MP3s that will probably start playing on click.

http://bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2014/Best%20of%20Bootie%202014%20(Unmixed)/DJs%20From%20Mars%20vs.%20DJ%20Surda%20-%20Jammin%20Good.mp3
http://bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2014/Best%20of%20Bootie%202014%20(Unmixed)/DJs%20From%20Mars%20-%20We%20Will%20Breate%20In%20The%20Name%20of%20Bangarang.mp3

DJs from Mars make several appearances in the Bootie list and I think I like the first in this pair best because the source material is James Brown and Bob Marley. Kind of hard to go wrong with that, and this mix doesn't disappoint, mixing soul and reggae and the DJ's signature stomp beats.

The second track is pure fan service, putting together Queen's beloved "We Will Rock You" with Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name". That itself is well done, but then the DJs reach again into the popular closet and come up with some Prodigy and some Skrillex to give everything a racing fast harder edge. It's still a love anthem to rock, and when it kicks into high gear around 2:35 it's a hard rock on meth mix.

http://bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2014/Best%20of%20Bootie%202014%20(Unmixed)/Loo%20&%20Placido%20-%20All%20Night%20(Don't%20Stop).mp3
Loo & Placido have two entries in the set and this one is the better of the two for my money. It's a high-energy bounce-and-rock opening that has some real surprise change-ups in it. The transition from piano to piano-and-vocals caught me by surprise and actually made me laugh out loud at its cleverness. This is the sort of track I'd open a club set with - enough energy to get people moving and enough variety to catch attention.

http://bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2014/Best%20of%20Bootie%202014%20(Unmixed)/Lobsterdust%20-%20Anaconda%20Action.mp3
Lobsterdust makes an appearance with an eight-way juggernaut of a mix. This one is clearly done for the humor value, as there are both lyrical and musical juxtapositions that are done just to say "isn't that funny". I suspect if you don't like the humor you won't like this mash, but I don't recall Lobsterdust ever doing a humorous mix before so I flagged this one. His other entry is a standard A|B pairing that's fine but unexceptional.

https://soundcloud.com/eskimorecordings/eelke-kleijn-lovely-sweet
I can't remember the sequence that landed me on Eelke Kleijn (http://www.eelkekleijn.nl/) but his compositions are an interesting atmospheric palate cleanser. They're mostly instrumental, or use voice-as-instrument, and his work has started appearing in media such as TV/movie trailers. His style, as here, is often ethereal and I like it as background while I'm working on other things.

http://thissongissick.com/blog/2014/dzeko-torres-2014-in-10-minutes/
You know there are going to be any number of end-of-year mashes and I'll probably blog the ones I find interesting, but I wanted to pull this one first as it's something I've not seen before. Dzeko and Torres have put together not a single mash track, but ten full minutes showcasing EDM tracks - 62 to be precise - of 2014. There are some big names in here (Tiesto, Hardwell) but the majority are lesser-known producers doing interesting things. At 600 seconds to cover 62 tunes you're rarely getting more than a tiny snip of anything before the track moves on, but there's a listing you can use to track things down (if you're crazy like me).

AudioPorn Central and Mashup-Industries are both down for the count (though M.I. may be back again) so I'm using SoundCloud more for new sounds. However, this post is brought to you by two words:

New.
VNV.

https://soundcloud.com/vnvnation/transnational-album-preview
https://soundcloud.com/vnvnation/retaliate-from-the-album
Let's get right into it. These here are the preview stream and first single off the upcoming VNV Nation album, called "Transnational." It drops in the US Nov 19, but the earliest we're likely to see them over here is Spring, since their posted tour has them in the UK/EU through February. So yay, and boo.

The single and preview sound like much the same as we've heard from them, with strong vocals, rock- and metal-infused electronica, and intense emotional/political lyrics. What makes VNV, though, is the live experience which I've tried to describe before and mostly failed. If they do come around I'll be there and be looking for people who want to go see them with me.

https://soundcloud.com/gigamesh/talking-heads-once-in-a
It's always a risk trying to remix a beloved classic, but I think Gigamesh pulls this one off. It's his take on the Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" (sometimes referred to as "Letting the Days Go By"). The remix keeps the surreal feel of the original, with Byrne's vocal assertions featured prominently, which is what made the original so good. It's a little more electronica, a little bit sped up, but overall a wonderful homage.

https://soundcloud.com/goldroom/goldroom-embrace
Goldroom (http://goldroom.la/) is a new-to-me producer of lush electronica. This piece is really evocative of end-of-summer to me, and features great vocal work by Ariela Jacobs (http://www.triplejunearthed.com.au/ArielaJacobs) another new name to me.

https://soundcloud.com/mashupgermany/mashup-germany-naughty-pompeii
https://soundcloud.com/mashupgermany/mashup-germany-naughty
Mashup Germany continues to give me the best kind of whiplash. I start playing one of his mixes and find my head snapping around, going "he did NOT just..." Here he's mashing four main tracks, all of which I need to check out on their own. The whole thing makes a great track, so it seems a shame to pick one or two of the transitions or drops, but check out how he changes up the tunes and if you like it check out the extended mix (second link).

https://soundcloud.com/djsfrommars/djs-from-mars-alien-7
DJs from Mars. Extended mash-up set. What more do you need to know? Features some of the Mars's own mixes but mostly it's other peoples' original tracks, mash-ups, and remixes in a delicious hour-long set. Go listen; I can't possibly do it justice in a few sentences.

Trying to keep my stress at a reasonable level, music helps. It helps if you can dance to this stuff.

http://djsteveboy.com/groovelectric.html
Doing something he said he'd never do, and with a large helping of sarcasm, DJ Steveboy has finally put out a trance mix on Groovelectric. His subscriber newsletter was more snark-full than the Web page, so I can't resist posting this one bit:

Trance became the elfie sword-and-sorcery fantasy of dance music. The Stevie Nicks of electronica. It could be downright embarrassing. Then came Tiesto, and, well, let's move on, shall we?

Well, with all that said, he did find some trance music he liked and put together a highly listenable, relaxing, and yes "feel-good" set. Check it out.

https://soundcloud.com/mashupgermany/whatsapper-speck
https://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/underworld-born-slippy-nuxx
I was surprised that these two items appeared almost back-to-back in my stream. Both are reworks of older, popular tracks and both infuse new life into the older items.

The first one is by the excellent Mashup Germany, putting Peter Fox's "Schüttel deinen Speck" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTmf11OxOYc) a bebop-inspired dance-hop tune against MC Fitti's "Whatsapper" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxb2A4uASqc), which is in turn based on the Ini Kamoze reggae fusion classic "Here Comes the Hotstepper". It's a brilliant combo, executed with Mashup Germany's flair and brilliance.

The second one is SPL (https://www.facebook.com/TheSPL) touching what has to be one of the classics of trance, Underworld's "Born Slippy NUXX" (Wikipedia has an excellent discussion of the two versions of the track and why they're often confused.) SPL borrows tropes from dubstep and d&b for this rework, but does a decent job of staying true to the original.

http://audioporncentral.com/2013/07/kavinsky-odd-look.html
Kavinsky, a French electro-synth producer, is at it again. This is his latest EP, with three mixes of the same track. The styles are so different, though, that if they didn't come labeled you'd be hard-pressed to tell they're the same. The first one features The Weeknd and it's a very disco styled Michael Jackson-esque vocal piece. The second is A-Trak with some deep dub house sounds and breaks, and I think I like this one best. The third is a hand-clapping/feet-stomping fast remix from Surkin, which sounds the most like the movie soundtracks Kavinsky is known for.

https://soundcloud.com/divideandkreate/christina-aguilera-your-body
Divide and Kreate has been working hard putting pop sounds into dance shapes. Here he's got Christina Aguilera's 2012 vamp-trash track "Your Body" and he makes it so much better than the original. He's cleaned up the sound, tightened up the vocals, and build a comfortable electro-pop backing for it. C.A. clearly needs a good producer and when she gets one she can sound really good.

https://soundcloud.com/djschmolli/example-vs-lenny-kravitz-are
This is utterly brilliant, even if it's Lenny Kravitz. DJ Schmolli did a mash-up called "Are You Gonna Change The Way You Kiss Me" for the second Pirate Nation compilation. Then DJ's from Mars got ahold of it and put their signature heavy stomping production touches on it. Pure gold.

https://soundcloud.com/themashupradio/01-dan-mei-this-is-what
Speaking of DJs remixing DJs, here's Dan Mei mashing up Armen van Buuren's "This is What It Feels Like". The original is a feel-good bit of vocal trance, which Dan Mei slams up against Zedd's "Clarity." The mash is tricky because both tracks feature high-quality strong vocals. AVB is featuring Trevor Guthrie and Zedd has Foxes doing the signature female voice for his track. The result is something of a vocal duet/duel and I really like it.