The fight for diverse and conscious voices

The last one only took four days of stolen slices of time and left me with lots of open tabs. Most of these are YouTube, which is what happens when I'm trying to track down sources or following leads off SoundCloud, whose internal search engine leaves a lot to be desired if what you want is the official version of something. Anyway, bonus points if you can figure out the link from last week's post to this set of tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8YfJjnQ2sc
To save you brain cycles I'll tell you up front that this one came from a Beats Antique mailing list and isn't related, except thematically. It's B.A's remix of Major Lazer's "Be Together". Fronted by Wild Belle (http://www.wildbelle.com/), the original track (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1g4Uoqhhc8) is a slow, sensuous 1940s-style love-and-longing track with just a touch of modern electronic sensibilities. If you've been playing along at home you may recall that I reviewed an earlier version of this remix back in June. This version is updated and better polished. For fun listen to just the first 15 seconds of the original and then the first 15 seconds of this remix back to back - it's instructive to see the different styles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQGFeRI0qbg
This... is a new thing for me. A cover of Beyonce's "Single Ladies" by Postmodern Jukebox in the style of Bob Fosse's vision of Chicago. Yeah, it's about that weird and/or cool depending on your point of view. The cover is good, true to the era/style that the book and play were set in, and the music follows along. The dancers, such as they are, are the big disappointment. They more "pose" than "dance" and form a somewhat interesting accompaniment, but I was hoping for more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlwwpWaYf_U
I think this one is also from DJ Purple (so there's your link back) and it's surprising to me that it's an old DJ Schmolli track I've not heard before or at least not blogged. I've been thinking about "Jump Around" for a while so it was a surprising coincidence to hear it coming out of someone else's speakers. The mash itself isn't spectacular so much as "yep that works" and "yep, that's fun!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrNTOo4KH8c
Ellie Goulding doing "Beating Heart". As a song done for a movie (Divergent) soundtrack it's heavy on the production values and the auto-tune, but I continue to think it's a good track and want to hear her doing it live. The best I could find on short notice was this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngoIDaxhFHs - a performance she did on the Today show. Skip to about 1:29. So I have to ask - is anyone else old enough to think "Stevie Nicks" when they see her?

https://soundcloud.com/tosses/tosses-under-mi-senzi-free-download
Tosses (previously half of Tosses & Varvez) throws together some hot reggae rhythms and fun samples in a bouncy electro-funky mash. File this under "I like what I like" and what I like includes frequent helpings of reggae sounds.

And now I have fewer tabs for the next post, but there are still more. And bonus this post only took about a day to assemble.

After a long dry spell (caused in some part by APC being down for a while) I've been inundated with good stuff. I actually have more than one post's worth, so let me share some of it...

http://soundcloud.com/ruinmytune/hot-maniac
Ruinmytune is very hit-or-miss. He picks good-to-great starter tracks, but sometimes I don't feel like he's adding much to them when he mixes them. This one is a stand-out though. He's got the acapella "Hot Right Now" and the music from Michael Sembello's "Maniac" (aka the Flashdance song) and puts them together brilliantly. It's a very fast-paced track, clocking at 165 BPM but that's appropriate for this kind of thing.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/10/judas-priest-hell-bent-for-leather-drop-out-orchestra-acid-tool.html
More metal on the dancefloor? Well, it's a thing. This is a very funky, nu-disco treatment of Judas Priest's "Hell Bent For Leather" by Drop Out Orchestra (http://soundcloud.com/dropoutorchestra). It's a little repetitive (in that way that nu-disco tends to be) but the overall funk vibe is strong enough to carry me through it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=C4zerkrCBS0#!
I recently subscribed to AVB's channel and this popped up. It's a 20-minute sampler from AVB's "A State of Trance" radio show. It's called a 'podcast' but it's really just a sample of five vocal trance tracks, with a little voiceover. All five are great, but if I have to pick one I'd go for the first one, "Island", which is inspiring me to check out both the DJ Roger Shah (http://rogershah.net/) and the vocalist Adrina Thorpe (http://www.adrinathorpe.net/fr_home.cfm). I'm hoping to have more goodies from them to blog soon.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/10/lcmdf-paranoia.html
LCMDF (http://lcmdf.com/) are a female duo from Finland who provide an interesting blend of electronica and conventional rock structures. As best I can tell, they are two of the members of Le Corps Mince de Françoise, a larger New Age-ish collective, who are taking things in a new direction. That doesn't tell you much, sorry, but it's about all I've got. This kind of dance-rock seems to be growing in popularity in Europe and I expect we'll hear more of it in the coming months.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/10/major-lazer-ft-flux-pavilion-jah-no-partial.html
Major Lazer continues his surprising new styles. As I noted in September his new stuff doesn't have his previous signature fast vocals. Instead, he's importing Jamaican sounds and laid-back pacing. This time he's pushing it up against some heavy-fuzz dubstep rhythms and chop-mixing. I'm not (yet) in love with this track but it's interesting - I don't know anyone else who's trying this - and it's nice to see someone pushing boundaries rather than just repeating what they did last time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GaWXA5e0YTQ#!
Willy Moon produces a video that would do Busby Berkeley proud. You definitely want to watch this one if you can. It's a wonderful blend of very modern and classic both in sounds and visuals. The dancers are doing moves that are familiar from the 1950s on up, but they're clad in Mummenschanz black minimalist style and the set is lights and chrome and mirrors. The track itself, "Yeah Yeah", isn't that complex or sophisticated, but Moon's got a decent voice and a good presence. It'll be interesting to see what he puts out next.