drwex: (pogo)
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.
drwex: (Default)
My next-to-last Thursday-as-Friday so let's see what I can clear out. One long set, some loving remixes and we'll close out with a great new band from Europe. If there's a common thread to this set it's that all the selections are rich and reward multiple listens. There's a lot going on here.

http://soundcloud.com/looandplacido/loo-placido-retro-future-shock
This hour-long mix has been responsible for holding up a whole lot of other music listening as I've enjoyed it so much I played the whole thing through four times and select bits more than that. All the items here are Loo & Placido (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Loo-Placido/43248313667) remixing others' work, doing their own bootlegs and mashes. It features a wide variety of electronic styles, of which my two favorites are probably the very first track, "Skrillex Rock" and, about a third of the way in, "Funky Dragula". This is volume 1 and I can't wait for the next volume.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/03/illegal-sunday-fissunix-hitzbreaker.html
Fissunix does some really clever thing with some of the great classic guitar licks and vocal samples from Zeppelin's classic "Heartbreaker". Of course anything that deals in James Brown and Sugar Hill Gang is likely to get thumbs-up from me, but I think what makes this work is that it's not a simple A|B mash, but rather a more complex layering and re-pacing of the track.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/03/kavinsky-road-game-f-o-o-l-remix.html
Kavinsky's "Road Game" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3lb_m1Eopo) gets a pounding remix here from F.O.O.L. The track is still mostly instrumental, but the remix gives it a driving intensity that makes me think of movie chase sequences. The remix amps things up and makes the whole track more bombastic and urgent-sounding.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/03/orbital-new-france-tom-middleton-cosmos-mix.html
Orbital has a new single out, New France, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qV-KwBfszc) and it's good. It puts me in mind of the best of their early stuff, with heavy electronica and near-trancey vocals mixed up and soaring the way they used to do it. Tom Middleton's mix is much more down-to-earth and substitutes low bass trance beats for the high-end vocals. The result feels much darker, but not in a black or negative sense. It's like the Orbital original celebrated the sunset and Middleton's remix celebrates the night that comes when the sun is fully down.

http://thedomusic.com/
Finally, one total change of pace. The Do is a French/Finnish collaboration that features intense vocals and extremely rich instrumentation. I recommend that you listen to the first track at the top - Gonna Be Sick! - first, to get a sense for the vocals. Then scroll all the way to the bottom and watch the extended video for their live studio session doing "Slippery Slope". The live session features some intensely awesome horns and percussions. The singing on Slippery Slope isn't bad - it's got that same full-throated intensity - but the big brass sounds are what make the track great.

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