The fight for diverse and conscious voices

A weird assortment of music tabs left over from various things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF4LkCx5wpw
Yoshida Brothers was a discovery from Pandora, via MizA. The brothers are a pair of shamisen-playing Japanese musicians. You can find many of their pieces up on YouTube. I'm fond of the shamisen played in traditional styles, and I am even more fond of how these guys mix the traditional instrument with modern (Western) beats and synth pieces.

http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Dennis_Coffey/track/Ubiquitous_Steinski_Mix
Once upon a time there was this thing called rock&roll and a feature staple of rock&roll was the electric guitar. Over the years many masters and lots more lesser players made their mark using the electric guitar. When I was growing up one of the staples of a Top 40 rock&roll song was the guitar solo. Often with the drummer along to keep something like regular time, guitarists would use these solos to show off their style. Some of the better ones would bounce melodies back and forth with other band members like the bassist or guitar player. Others would just rip or shred or whatever verb was used to describe their style and it was fire and it was, some said, the essence of rock and roll. These days you don't get a lot of that, at least not in the music I usually listen to. Dennis Coffey is a throwback to those days and that style. He's good, and this instrumental track lets him show off what he can do with a few backing instruments.

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/04/depeche-mode-puppets-royksopp-remix.html
Also back in the dark ages (but not quite as dark as all that) there was this phenomenon called Depeche Mode. Here, Royksopp gives a very modern electro-disco update to one of the old D.M. tunes. APC claims this track is 30 years old, which just doesn't seem right, somehow. 'Scuse me while I shuffle off in search of my Geritol.

http://audioporncentral.com/2011/04/lobsterdust-policy-of-dance.html
Speaking of D.M., lobsterdust (who remains too cool to have DJ in front of his name) takes another of their popular singles (this one a mere two decades old) and weaves it together with Gaga's "Just Dance" pop hit. Like Gaga, D.M. were generally not known for the depth of their lyrics. What makes this mix interesting is that lobsterdust is good - really good. Listen to the middle bit, particularly starting around 2:35 where he's weaving the sounds in and out and using different layers from each song.

http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Jessica_6/track/Prisoner_Of_Love_feat_Antony_
Jessica 6 is a modern disco-lounge trio with a silky sound. Nomi Ruiz, nominally the front woman for the trio, takes a back seat on this track to some darker male vocal. I love the slinky feel and if you let their stream play you'll get treated to some more house-kick tracks as well.

http://djsteveboy.com/luciddrumming.html
http://www.shopliftwindchimes.com/poems.html
http://www.myspace.com/vimrecords/music/songs/julson-ni-ba-ya-saba-jamie-d-remix-mp3-78756149
DJ Steveboy put out another mix he calls "Lucid Drumming." Nominally it's a tribal/drumming mix but what makes this one unusual is that he is mixing in spoken word pieces. The mix opens very strong with a nicely re-synched version of Hauswerks - Savanna (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5XkZL5V26A to hear the original) with some black vocal over it. I also wanted to point at the mid-mix track called "Gorgeous" by Rives. The Rives in question is a poet/spoken word artist. It's worth pausing the mix to go to Rives' site and listen to the original of "Gorgeous". If you also take the time to listen to the Julson remix you can get a sense of just how much work Steveboy is putting into these mixes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtnVduIY75Y
I'm pretty sure this one is Purple Terror's fault. I was at a party and this came on the sound track and I did one of those classic head-snaps. "Hey! That's... Glitch Mob!" and went to find him to confirm. That it is. It's not particularly new, but I love it in part because it builds from such simple components. You start with a simple pattern of notes, add a melody track, then build a beat complex around it with staccato and, yes, heavy wub. Get over it.