The fight for diverse and conscious voices

Two meeting cancellations - let's try to close out some of these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PdILZ_1P74
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuY4MSh1V-I
Right, Lorde has a new single out, which is apparently on the new Hunger Games' movie soundtrack. When I found out she existed last year I remarked that her sound showed talent, but a heavy production hand. You can still hear that production work here, but it's in service of a musically interesting tune, with interesting tempo variation. I would very much like to hear her do this tune live - if you listen to the sustain on "me..." around 2:45 it's clear they've cleaned up a good deal. I still think she could absolutely blow the roof off, but this tune is much more subdued.

The second link is an official "rework" of the tune by Kanye West. I think I like it better than the original. It's more of a torch-singa feel, slowed down into slinky and sensual ranges, and most of the tempo changes are discarded in favor of deep slow beats and choral fillers. Give it a listen.

https://soundcloud.com/bootleggers-music/bm31
I thought I had blogged Bootleggers Music before now but it seems not. This is kind of a show-off track in which they've taken a single track (Macklemore & Lewis's "Can't Hold Us") and mashed it with a series of 11 other tracks, many of which you'll recognize as pop favorites. It's not precisely a mega-mash because the track doesn't vary or weave the source tunes the way most mega-mashes do, but it's an interesting demonstration of the "you can mash anything" principle.

https://soundcloud.com/luke-db-bootleg/bel-amour-vs-jozsef-keller-muzikamour-luke-db-luis-rondina-mash-up-mix
Luke DB has an interesting A|B mash between Bel Amour's "Bel Amour" - a relatively forgettable disco-heavy tune from 2008 - and Jozsef Keller's "Day Muzik", a recent nu-disco track. Luke has managed to do a good job of pulling out all the weak synth stuff from these tracks and replacing it with a hard house beat. The result shows some nice vocal bridges and is much more danceable.

https://soundcloud.com/danihel-offical/lets-loose-mammoth-free-dl-25-reposts
This is another experimental track that I thought was worth noting. Danihel puts together an interesting six-minute mix showing off a set of what I think of as "dj standard" mix tropes. I started off not liking this track much but it gets better as it goes along.

https://soundcloud.com/mixmstrstel2/fergie-vs-disturbed-la-sickness-mashup-by-mixmstrstel-mustard-mix
"The Sickness" is one of those songs that's nearly perfect for mashing and this track is one of the more innovative uses of the source I've heard. MixmsterStel 2 uses the Disturbed a capella over audio from the new Fergie single "L.A.Love", which is pretty much necessary because otherwise you'd have to listen to Fergie and we don't want that.

https://soundcloud.com/luca-rubino-mashup/calvin-harris-vs-survivor
Closing out this post with a question - what do y'all make of this one? Luca Rubino has been doing pop mashes that I haven't bothered to blog and this one is the new Calvin Harris "Blame" with the classic "Eye of the Tiger". I'm not sure I like Eye sped up this much but it's interesting. I think the original Calvin Harris tune has some interesting riffs but it's a bit repetitive (pop, yeah, I know). Someone is going to do something interesting with this source material; I'm just not sure Rubino has it pegged.

It's been a while since I had music I wanted to post about. This is a weirdly disjointed set of links but it's what I've got.

https://play.google.com/store/music/collection/promotion_20002d7_vid_clash_doc
Google Play have a fantastic page up with a five-part documentary/interview with the members of the Clash talking about how their various albums came together. There are also links to remastered versions of the albums and singles you can buy (hey, it's a music business after all) but the documentary alone is worth your time.

I first heard The Clash in 1978. The same guy who introduced me to Devo played me a cassette that he'd gotten from someone who'd gotten it from someone who had... And it was fantastic. I was never a punk, but my world became instantly better knowing music like this existed. It's not like the band saved my life or anything (that was Yes) but hearing them expanded my sense of what music could be. From the Clash I went to Sex Pistols and Ramones and Patti Smith and more. But it started here.

http://www.vevo.com/watch/lorde
https://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/lorde-royals-lazerdisk-remix
Speaking of starting (how's that for an awkward transition) feast your ears on a raw, beautiful, bursting with potential 16-year-old who goes by Lorde. She's got some heavy production hand on these tracks but I still like them. She apparently writes her own stuff which speaks well for the future. The style blends female vocal harmonies with snap rhythms and a vocal punch that's half torch singa and half Andrews sister doing modern pop.

And because we live in the modern electronic age, I also give you the Lazerdisk remix of her "Royals". I think the remix does a great job of capturing what she does well and giving it a different production twist. This one is definitely intended to be a dance track, which you might or might not like, but I think it works well.

http://www.hernameisbanks.com/
Banks is another new-to-me female singer with a unique style. She reminds me a fair bit of Tricky - she's intimate and breathy and you can easily feel she's singing just for you. The top track here, "Waiting Game", blends vocal+piano with deep trance electronica. Don't miss her cover of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes," also on that page.

http://audioporncentral.com/2013/08/alpha-beta-ft-%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8F-%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0-%D1%87%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BA%D0%B8-moullinex-remix.html
Boy I hope that URL works. What this is I don't even know. Alpha-Beta (https://soundcloud.com/alphabetaband) are a Russian trio of two DJ/producers and a female singer - Kate Pavlova, if Google Translate is to be believed. Here we have their track "Чайки", which Google tells me is "Seagulls," in a Moullinex remix. He does a fine job producing an upbeat dancey house track. I've got their Soundcloud page marked for further listening.