The fight for diverse and conscious voices

(anyone but me know the Subject line reference?)

I'm still sort of poking around new sounds and finding myself encountering a variant on Sturgeon's Law. To wit, if I listen to ten songs, I'm likely going to hate nine of them, but that tenth one, well listen along:

http://audioporncentral.com/2013/06/cadien-expression-of-self.html
Glitch-funk. It's a thing, apparently, and if this is it, I like it. Cadien (http://soundcloud.com/cadien) have a track here called "Expression of Self" that has a deep funk soul, but sped up and fed through some glitch filters. This sounds like something out of the soundtrack to a 21st-century blaxsploitation flick.

http://audioporncentral.com/2013/06/phaeleh-ft-soundmouse-here-comes-the-sun.html
Trip-hop is alive and well in the hands of Phaeleh (https://soundcloud.com/phaeleh), a UK producer who has previously been known for more dubstep-ish things. This "Here Comes the Sun" is from his upcoming album and features vocals by Soundmouse (https://soundcloud.com/soundmouse) a vocalist/pianist who has worked with Phaeleh in the past. This is gorgeous sound, artfully produced.

https://soundcloud.com/g3rst/g3rst-hollabeck-girl-gwen
G3rst put out a fun little A|B mash-up called "Hollabeck Girl" that puts Beck up against Gwen Stefani. He does a good job of pulling out what's best in each: Stefani's vocals over Beck's drums and guitars.

https://soundcloud.com/mashupgermany/mashup-germany-wake-me-up
https://soundcloud.com/mashupgermany/mashup-germany-wake-up-contact
Speaking of mashups, Mashup Germany has done a clever thing: two mash-ups of the same track, giving very different sounds. They're both built on Avicii's "Wake Me Up". The first uses Eagle Eye Cherry and the second uses Daft Punk. The contrast of jangly guitars versus electronica is fun.

https://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/j-viewz-far-too-close-pegboard
Pegboard Nerds turn in a funky electro remix of J.Viewz' "Far Too Close" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTauZ7UVwRY). The original is highly produced track from a couple years ago that tries to combine poppy male vocals with electro-dub sounds and is sort of OK. The remix speeds things up, smooths them out and adds some serious dub/glitch drops. The build-drop from about 1:00 to 1:15 is fantastic. And the Alvin & the Chipmunks bit is hilarious.

https://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/3lau-paris-simo-escape-feat
A four-way original track - a collaboration between 3LAU (http://3lau.com/music/) a totally bomb-tastic prog-house DJ; Paris & Simo (http://parisandsimo.com/) a Montreal-based DJ duo; and Bright Lights, a Spanish vocalist. The overall sound is prog-house, but the trancey vocals fit nicely.