The fight for diverse and conscious voices

For once I've got this planned. Time is still tight but I'm waiting for IT to sort out a scanning issue, so here we go.

http://m3ll155x.com/
FKA twigs is the stage name of Tahliah Debrett Barnett, an English/Jamaican singer and dancer. She's put out a couple of EPs so far and this site will play you tracks from her newest just-released EP. Her sound has been described as "ethereal", "twisted", and "R&B". I'm not so sure on the last one but the former two, yeah. This is the electronic music of modern dance - it has those rhythms and sensibilities, along with an interesting vocal range and sounds imported from fuzzy electronica. If you're interested in the dance bits, go to the YouTube-hosted copy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYU3j-22360) and skip forward to about 8:30.

https://soundcloud.com/loo-and-placido-mashups/deorro-smashed-by-loo-placido
Another Loo & Placido smash, this one using some classic Sugarhill Gang. The tracks kind of bounces along, the way you'd expect such a smash to bounce. It's a fun track, but nothing exceptional.

https://soundcloud.com/bautmusic/sean-paul-temperature-baut-bootleg
Baut brings a remix of Sean Paul's reggae-rockin "Temperature". It's hard to believe this track is almost ten years old now. Baut's treatment is stripped down and more spare than the original. This has the effect of highlighting the vocals but at the same time leaving the track feeling thin. The original has a sense of the banging steel you get from lots of reggae. Here there are piano bits and it's just not the same.

https://soundcloud.com/thefallingapple/alesso-ft-roy-english-cool-nomero-remix
Another remix, this time Nomero doing a deep house remix of Alesso's "Cool". As with the previous item, this one is also sparer and simpler than the original, which is a pretty standard teen dance track. Maybe it's just my fondness for deep house, but I think this remix works better.

http://www.npr.org/2015/08/26/434358222/first-listen-dam-funk-invite-the-light#playlist
Saving the best for last, as usual. MizA sent me this compilation of pretty intense jazzy funky stuff. Dam-Funk isn't so much doing funk as he's using funk source material to make other kinds of music, much of which I'd class as "jazz". Tere are tracks like "HowUGon'Fu*kAround..." which is much more like funk-infused hip-hop but even here there are jazz riffs and rhythms throughout. In the end I think I'm not enough of a jazz fan to give this a big thumbs up but it's interesting to see people experimenting with musical styles.

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).

Half my meetings today have been cancelled, so while I wait for the gaps to fill let's have some sounds. A couple of different things, a couple you'll be expecting.

https://soundcloud.com/thegoldenpony/the-sound-of-silence-the
I forget exactly what wandering took me to this remix from last year. It is, as the name says, The Golden Pony's remix of "The Sound of Silence". So if you're me get ready for a huge rush of nostalgia. It's wrapped up in modern electro-funk but very respectful of the original. I really like it.

https://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/of-monsters-and-men-little-talks-thomas-jack-remix-free-download
I've mentioned Thomas Jack a couple times in the past. Each time he's brought gentle beats and a lighter tone to my day and this is no exception. It's his take on "Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghb6eDopW8I), toned and quieted, but still bouncy fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCiQ7Lm8Jag
I found this one in a DJ Steveboy mix and liked it enough to pull out and blog separately. The is The Beatangers doing "What's That Sound." The first commenter (at least as of this writing) has it mostly - the track relies on the classic Rapper's Delight and a lyrical couplet from "Stop Children What's That Sound"?" though it's the Les Rythmes Digitales version, not the original.

https://soundcloud.com/djschmolli/insomnia-rhythm-satisfaction
DJ Schmolli has been uploading some of his older mixes. This one just went up a few weeks ago, but it's from 2011 and highlights some of the great dance tracks that were popular around then. It's a little bit of a trainwreck but the source materials are great and it's fun to remember them.

https://soundcloud.com/steyoyoke/skena-waiting-in-the-wings
I remain not a huge fan of Italian nu-disco but the electronic scene there has spawned some variations I do like. This, Skena's "Waiting in the Wings" is one such. It's darker and more ethereal, taking disco beats and looping them into a driving vibrato.

https://soundcloud.com/looandplacido/house-of-pain-x-gta-x-dj-kool-x-fatboy-slim-x-chardy-x-dooze-jackers-loo-placido-bootleg
https://soundcloud.com/looandplacido/tjr-vinai-x-ac-dc-x-metallica-x-lluke-diplo-loo-placido-bootleg
Here's a double shot of Loo & Placido multi-mashes in similar but different styles. The first one is a "Jump Around" moombahton mash with a number of scratch-based styles built around it. The intro is a little longer than I'd like but once it gets going it's a lot of bouncy fun.

The second one is a bounce-metal combo, which seems appropriate today since Nicky da B died this week. RIP Nicky. Twenty-four is way too soon.

Lots of things I've listened to lately haven't impressed me, but there are a few gems. This time we have a couple of mash-ups, a couple interesting voices, and one visually AWESOME thing.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/07/bat-for-lashes-laura.html
Bat For Lashes's singer Natasha Khan still has the power to melt me in my seat. This track, "Laura", is hauting and sad - essentially vocals and piano. She carries the emotion in her voice but it feels effortless, which is both a tribute to her and to whoever produced this track.

http://bootiemashup.com/blog/2012/07/bootie-top-10-july-2012.html
Bootie posted their July top 10, and I found four tracks worth grabbing, though I was sad that the usually excellent DJs from Mars only turn in a so-so mash. The first item is a Michael Jackson remix, "Beat It Freaks", which is pretty good. It's a four-way of Jackson against Yuksek, The Noisy Freaks, and Richard Cheese. I like the variation in pacing, and the use of Jackson's vocals over different backing music.

The big winner of this list is "Skrillex Rock". I continue to like Skrillex much better in mixes than on his own and here he's got stand-out backing from Daft Punk (Robot Rock), Queen (We Will Rock You), and House of Pain (Jump Around, of course, did they do anything else?). The whole track thunders along and I can't help dancing.

I also liked the Party Ben entry, "We Are Young", which is more of an electro-disco remix than a mash-up. Basically it's three different takes on the same track, woven together. It's dancey, hoppy-happy and a good antidote to the gray outside.

The DJ Schmolli entry, "Rock of Ages", is a near-trainwreck in places. It's an 8-track mega-mix that gets noisy and almost slips out of control but pulls it back in. It's good to see Schmolli stretching his skills more - he relies on his standard heavy metal favorites but takes things in a different direction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mYkv2O1Wyuw#!
This one you have to watch. No, really, you want to watch this. The Knocks (http://www.theknocks.com/) are an electronica duo who have teamed up with Fred Falke for this track, called "Geronimo". And look, the video features a Native American... who is AWESOME. Oh my god can that kid dance. The video credits list him as "Nakotah Larance" but I think they mean Nakotah LaRance, because see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKg8RQSv4LE&feature=youtube_gdata - this guy is a six time World Champion Hoop Dancer. Wow. Just, wow. By the way, it's a great track but the dancer really steals the show.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/07/burns-lies.html
http://www.factmag.com/2012/07/31/enjoy-rusties-glass-swords-youll-be-over-this-skream-remix-of-burns/
Burns (http://www.facebook.com/thisisburns) has a new EP coming out. Lies is the first single and it's a tight vocal electro production. I can't seem to find out who the singer is on the track, sadly. There are hints of trance buried in the track, and Skream picks up on those and goes in a whole new direction with his remix, giving us a chop-paced mix that feels experimental. Love it or hate it, it's another case of an established name trying something new rather than repeating the same old formula.

http://www.nme.com/news/deadmau5--2/64986
Deadmau5 remixes Nine Inch Nails. Either you like these two and will appreciate this remix, or you don't and won't. I can't say much more about that.

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.

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.