The fight for diverse and conscious voices

I can't believe it's been 10 days since I last posted a music entry. Partly I've been busy, partly APC has been extraordinarily quiet, and partly it's been suck city in the new music I've listened to in the past week or so. I've gleaned out a couple of worthwhile items nonetheless. Herewith three voices and two megamixes.

http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Rachel_Goodrich/track/Light_Bulb_ANR_Remix
Rachel Goodrich (http://myspace.com/rachelgoodrich) is another artist I'm surprised I haven't written about before. She's a fun poppy folk-acoustic performer with a light pleasant voice. I find myself grinning while listening to her music - it's catchy without being too kitschy (despite the whistles, oompahs, and ukelele).

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/06/jess-mills-live-for-what-id-die-for.html
New single from Jess Mills. She continues to be as silky and seductive as when I first heard her but this track feels like it has more underlying power. I'm just waiting for a good remixer to take this one and tear it up.

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/06/rye-rye-ft-robyn-%E2%80%93-never-will-be-mine-the-video.html
I had been on the fence about this one when it came out. I don't think much of Rye Rye's lyrics or voice on this one and I think she comes off particularly poorly against Robyn - Rye's voice is thin and the damned clap-beat almost drowns her out where Robyn's vocals are strong and she just soars.

I pulled this one back just so I could comment on the video, specifically the costuming. Rye's outfits range from awful (the yellow thing at the start) to passable (the green-blue thing you start to see around 2:20). However, the dress Robyn is wearing starting from about 0:35 is possibly the most AWESOME thing I've seen on a singer in a while. It fits her perfectly, moves well, and the wild color scheme goes well with the graffiti-filled filming locations and contrasts perfectly with Robyn's platinum cut. Whatever idiot decided she needed a jacket on top of it should be slapped. The analogy of Robyn's voice:Rye's voice :: Robyn's dress:Rye's dress is just too good to pass up.

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/06/illegal-sunday-lobsterdust-%E2%80%93-whole-lotta-extra-dougie.html
lobsterdust's "Whole Lotta Extra Dougie" begins with a classic Zeppelin tune and shows that you can put together that, some standard rap lyrics, and some heavily edited Katy Perry to get something unique. The man is a master - I'm convinced nobody else could've done this and made it work.

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/06/dj-earworm-party-on-the-floor-capital-fm-summertime-ball-mashup.html
Speaking of masters at work, here goes DJ Earworm with another mega-mix. This one takes 19 tracks from 15 artists and produces a high-energy summer dance extravaganza. He's so good at this it's hard to realize how much work goes into these things. Again I don't know anyone else who is pulling off these kinds of megamixes these days.

http://audioporncentral.com/2010/04/lcd-soundsystem-%E2%80%93-bye-bye-bayou-turbotito-remix.html
LCD Soundsystem (http://www.lcdsoundsystem.com/) gives up an extra-cool electro-rave tune. It's got basic house beats and trippy vocals but a second rhythm layer makes this more of a drive/dance mix than you'd expect initially. This is the sort of thing I like to have on the car sound system when I have a lot of miles to cover.

http://audioporncentral.com/2010/04/robyn-fembot-live.html
http://audioporncentral.com/2009/12/i-blame-coco-ft-robyn-caesar.html
http://audioporncentral.com/2010/01/i-blame-coco-ft-robyn-caesar-miike-snow-and-diplo-remixes.html
Robyn (http://www.robyn.com/#) is a far too white, far too cute and poppy of a singer chick to be producing these funky sounds. This is no Ace of Bass, trust me (also, she's way hotter). Robyn's been around for a while, doing more standard pop things, so I was wondering where I'd heard her voice before when I realized she'd been the featured backup singer with Coco Sumner (http://www.myspace.com/iblamecoco) on Coco's release earlier this year of "Caesar". And for extra-bonus coolness, Coco released not only the original track but two remixes - one by Diplo and one by Miike Snow. I love these side-by-side remixes; it's a kind of dueling turntables, giving you a feel for how very different two DJ styles can make the same base track sound.

http://audioporncentral.com/2010/04/simon-iddol-dirty-like-dat-the-young-punx-vs-michael-jackson.html
http://audioporncentral.com/mashedpoppedpunked
http://audioporncentral.com/2010/04/simon-iddol-%E2%80%93-infinity-sunset-mix.html
Simon Iddol is the force behind APC and he's such a prolific blogger that it's easy to forget that he also does his own projects. Here we get a full-on dose of some of his best.

The umbrella project here is called The Young Punx (http://www.theyoungpunx.com/site/) and it features some of Europe's best young DJs, producers, and remixers doing their thing live and available for download. There are literally hundreds of MB available for free download at the site and if you like what you hear you can buy more through Amazon and iTunes. The new album is called MASHED POPPED PUNKED and it has 12 tracks of The Young Punx vs everyone else from Vangelis to the Pixies to opera. Yes, really. Some of the Young Punx names will be familiar if you read my music entries - lobsterdust and schmolli for example - and other names are new to me.

Finally, the third link is to a four-track set on Soundcloud that Iddol put together. It's very Euro-pop and much lighter than the Young Punx tracks.