The fight for diverse and conscious voices

I'm trying not to overuse adjectives, or you'd find the word "awesome" scattered all over this set of links.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTdeZqyOjjg&feature=youtu.be
DJ Schmolli released the single + video for "Molotov For A Leather Endboss" one of my favorite tracks off his recent Pirate Nation mash-up compilation. It was one of the tracks that particularly caught my ear when I listened to the whole thing but hadn't followed up on individual tracks yet.

This one is a great mash, building strongly on hip-hop and reggae but with nice rock touches (Offspring) and even a strong metal angle (Judas Priest). But there was a voice in there I recognized - Peter Fox - who I first heard doing the cool spoken/rapped/drummed "Alles Neu" in 2009 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdtLCfEcPL4).

Checking the list of components in this mix I didn't see Fox, but sure enough there he is in the video so off we go. First stop is Marteria, whose glitch/rap/electronica homage to video games "End Boss" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWcFHEdhYys&feature=youtube_gdata) is a component of the mash. Marteria (http://www.last.fm/music/Marteria) is a German electronica/rap artist who has had some success in Europe but doesn't seem to be known over here. A shame, really, as he's pretty good. But he's not Peter Fox, so on we go.

Next stop is Seeed (yes, it's really spelled that way) who are a German reggae/dancehall band fronted by, among others, Peter Fox. How did I not know such a thing existed? Three excellent singers, a phat horn section, and a live DJ - what's not to like? As with Marteria, Seeed (http://www.seeed.de/) are pretty well-known in Europe but haven't been heard nearly enough over here. The Seeed track used in this mash is "Molotov / Wonderful Life" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IZsBaToytg) and it really does what it promises, bringing reggae sounds together with both modern electronica dance as well as older style rock and dancehall music.

http://audioporncentral.com/2013/04/world-premiere-flying-white-dots-barracuda-aor-mashup-album.html
Another album-length work of mash-up excellence. If you are a fan of 70s and 80s rock this one is for you, as Flying White Dots (http://soundcloud.com/flyingwhitedots) has put together a 10-track compilation of sounds that I expect everyone is going to recognize but hear in new ways. It starts off with Eagles vs Tears for Fears - which works amazingly well - and goes up from there. One of the things that makes these mashes interesting to me is that there's no effort to force them into dance styles or modern sensibilities. They're tunes matched for feel and aesthetic and the mashes emphasize the similarities of the sources to each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4RosCKHueu0#!
Spox (https://soundcloud.com/spox) takes the opposite approach in this updated cover of "She Don't Lie". The song is a take on "Cocaine", which is also best-known in cover, as Eric Clapton popularized it though it was written a year earlier by JJ Cale. Spox, a Polish DJ pays homage simultaneously to the Clapton and to the (in)famous cocaine hub that Florida became in the 1980s which gave rise to things like the show Miami Vice which in turn gave us Jan Hammer and popularized New Wave style in the US.

http://audioporncentral.com/2013/04/boris-dlugosch-ft-roisin-murphy-look-around-you.html
Boris Dlugosch (http://www.borisdlugosch.de/) gives us a German take on nu-disco that I wouldn't have blogged except for the featured singer. If you know who Roisin Murphy is without checking, hat tip to you. I knew I'd heard that voice before but I had to go look it up. She was half of Moloko with her boyfriend at the time. Since then she's been doing solo work and now appears to be fronting for Dlugosch. Good for him, and I hope it's good for her; I like her voice and hope we hear more of it.

http://audioporncentral.com/2013/04/tron-major-never-stop-running.html
Tron Major (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tron-Major/401154543333834) is a new sound with promise. I say that because I generally don't like glitch but this track is good glitch. It's complicated and not screechy or jarring. Try it and see if you like it.

http://audioporncentral.com/2013/04/neneh-cherry-afrika-baby-bam-nina-produced-by-four-tet.html
Neneh Cherry is someone I haven't thought about in years but this track absolutely grabbed me. It's a groovy rhythmic spoken-beat near jam between Cherry and Afrika Baby Bam (part of Jungle Brothers). The production is tight and smooth, with a strong hot-jazz feel to it and the two vocalists swap back and forth to create a great duet.

I found a whole new set of good mashes and it's crushing my browser, so you get a third music post this week.

http://www.mashuptown.com/2011/01/mashup-germany-i-just-came-to-say-hello-katy-perry-vs-coldplay-vs-martin-solveig-ft-dragonette-vs-pe.html
Mashup Germany turns in a GREAT 9-track mix. Despite using Ke$ha and Katy Perry as components it manages to do awesome things built largely around Vitamin String Quartet's "Clocks" and a couple of other great guest bits. Given how disappointed I was in the lobsterdust megamixes it's nice to have someone doing well with large sets of source material.

http://www.myvideo.de/watch/5175931/Peter_Fox_Haus_am_See
Contained in the aforementioned Mashup Germany compilation is Peter Fox. I first noted him back in 2009 for his odd but catchy "Alles Neu" and the awesome drumming of the Cold Steel Drumline backing him. This track, "Haus am See", is much less intense, but still catchy fun German pop, and yes the drummers are still there.

http://www.culturebully.com/best-mashups-2010
http://www.culturebully.com/2010-mashed
Boingboing pointed to this blog, Culture Bully, because it created a list of top mash-ups based off suggestions by mashup artists themselves. It contains some real gems, such as Schmolli's "Enter Telephone" which is my vote for best mash of the past year. It also includes DJs from Mar's "Alors on Dance" mix which I had blogged about back in May and Schmolli's Joan Jett homage "Cooler Rock 'n' Roll" also from May.

The second page is a set of ten new tracks, though it's not clear what "new" means. I don't think I've heard any of them before, but who knows. I'll pull out a couple of good ones from that list as well.

http://ompldr.org/vNm51cQ/Fissunix%20-%20Whole%20Sex%20Lotta%20Machine%20%28James%20Brown%20vs.%20Led%20Zeppelin%20vs.%20Run%20DMC%20&%20Aerosmith%20mashup%29.mp3
Fissunix (http://bootleg.fissunix.com/) a French bootlegger, turns in a rockin' mash built around James Brown and Led Zepplin, with help from Aerosmith/Run DMC. Hard to go wrong with that material.

http://ompldr.org/vNm8xNA/Gaston%20-%20Cooler%20Bites%20The%20Dust%20%28Queen%20vs.%20Crookers%20feat.%20Yelle%20mashup%29.mp3
Gaston mashes Queen against the Crookers tune used in Schmolli's "Cooler Rock 'n' Roll" and comes up with something weird and wholly different. This one teeters on the edge of being a trainwreck mix but never falls apart, which is really nice.

http://www.culturebully.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/G3Rst%20-%20You%20Outta%20Know%20Danger%20%28Slash%20vs.%20Alanis%20Morissette%20mashup%29.mp3
G3rst (yes, that's really how he spells it - http://www.g3rst.com/) does something scarily impressive. He mashes Slash against Alanis Morissette. Yes, really. Angry women rock and roll! I'm not a big Alanis fan but she is so much better when she's being angry than when she's being whiny and emo and "You Oughta Know" is one righteously pissed-off tune.

http://www.culturebully.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Slaptop%20-%20Animus%20Vox%20%28Nelly%20Furtado%20vs.%20Ludacris%20vs.%20The%20Glitch%20Mob%20mashup%29.mp3
This is a great mix, not least because it's a mix-of-mixes including The Glitch Mob's "Animus Vox" against Nelly Furtado and Ludacris. Nelly contributes some non-FCC approved some words and the whole thing rides on The Glitch Mob's signature heavy electronics and thuddy beats. Slaptop (http://slaptopmusic.com/) is another new-to-me name that I'll need to check out further.

http://ompldr.org/vNm52MQ/Mighty%20Mike%20-%20Cocoon%20People%20%28Village%20People%20vs.%20Cocoon%20mashup%29.mp3
It's been a while since I posted a WRONG mix. This is WRONG with a side order of Wrong Sauce. No, really. Mighty Mike is a very bad person and if you listen to this I am not responsible for any drinks you snarf or keyboards you ruin.

It's Friday, so we've got some odd dregs and leftovers. I didn't think much of the first new mix on Mashuptown today, but this...

http://viprhealthcare.typepad.com/files/marc-johnce---weapon-of-mista-boo.mp3
This works. Unfortunately the mix is something of a rough cut - you can hear a few places where it skips rather than matching beats cleanly. For reference, you want to (re)watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Ky5R-vxns - the original Fatboy Slim video featuring Christopher Walken. The Fatboy Slim tune itself steals very heavily from Pfunk, and this remix plays that up a little.

(Fun trivia bit: the video was done by Spike Jonze, whose adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are is coming out soon.)

http://fairtilizer.com/tracks/4502
While I'm on the remix side I wanted to blog this dancey house mix. It's been sitting in an open tab for long enough that I've forgotten the chain of events that led me to find it. The basic track, Don't Believe The Hype, has been remixed at least six ways I could find and none of them seemed to be much improvement on this.

OK yesterday I promised you some odd German stuff...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdtLCfEcPL4
Peter Fox's "Alles Neu". The song isn't that odd, but the video is pretty bizarre and features some nice work by a Cold Steel Drumline. Watch the stick-passing in particular. I'm pretty sure I'm indebted to KJC for the first pointer to this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgd1QmjCzEA
Far and away the weirdest of the set. This is one of those idiotic catchy things that gets into your brain and sticks and you wish for some mental floss. It's not as bad as Gummibar but it's up there. Also? Very gay!