The fight for diverse and conscious voices

Yes, we got a meeting postponement and rather than do more political stuff I'm going to try to throw together a music post. I have a lot of stuff marked, and actually some things to say about them.

http://hypem.com/song/1h8tv
Hypem has started trying to get me to listen again. I got annoyed at their stupid mandatory login stuff and haven't visited the site for a while. Apparently this qualifies me for email enticements. This track, an extended club mix by Avicii & NERVO of "You're Gonna Love Again" is good working background stuff. It has several fun slow builds without being overwhelming once it's going full-bore. It's mostly vocal-trance but with heavy electronica influences. NERVO is the stage name for a pair of cute Swedish twins and Avicii is a local-to-them producer with whom they've teamed for this track. The collaboration works well, I think. Hope to see more from these guys this year.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/01/jess-mills-silent-space-acoustic.html
Ah, Jess Mills. Could you get any more dark makeup on those eyes without going totally Cleopatra? Last year I kept hoping she'd do something stripped-down so I could really hear her voice without the overproduction that most of her tracks have and finally we get it. This is her "acoustic" studio version of "Silent Space". It's not what I'm used to calling acoustic - you've got synth effects and computer-generated beats in there, but at last it's toned way the hell down so she can sing. And Oh My God can this woman sing. Check out the transition around 1:08 in where her voice sounds like it jumps up two full octaves. I still think I can hear the producer's hand in how the notes are clipped, but at least she's fronting it, rather than being mixed into sappy strings or something.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/01/buddy-holly-slippin-slidin-jacques-renault-remix.html
There are two basic ways to remix classics: with respect and without. Jacques Renault definitely falls into the former category as he remixes the Buddy Holly rockabilly classic "Slippin’ & Slidin’". Renault keeps the simple riffs and repeated vocals of the original, while weaving in a variety of modern electronic effects and instruments.

http://www.earmilk.com/2012/01/09/mashupmonday-week-46/
I think I have a new music blog to follow. Earmilk is an odd and interesting mix of commercial and anti-commercial remix culture stuff. This is one of their Mashup Monday entries with ten mashes for you to peruse. As with any collection there are winners and losers here. My preferences:

http://files2.earmilk.com/upload/mp3/2012-01/Filth%20In%20Paris.mp3
Basic Physics and 5 & A Dime (both new mixers to me) doing a fast-BPM megamix with several well-recognized entries. I rather like the way they chop-mix Skrillex and then dump the whole thing down to a single vocal track before going back into the mix again.

http://files2.earmilk.com/upload/mp3/2012-01/Relax%20Mode%20(Frankie%20Goes%20To%20Hollywood%20v%20Bingo%20Players).mp3
The White Panda (who I haven't heard from since 2010) doing a Frankie remix. It's a little bit standard techno-thumpy but I really like Frankie remixes, what can I say.

http://files2.earmilk.com/upload/mp3/2012-01/I%20Found%20Killmode%20Maximal%2076%20Right%20Here%20Right%20Now-%20AR3%203ootleg.mp3
AR3's mix is something of a demolition derby of at least five main tracks plus various samples but it hangs together pretty well and it's funfunkingroovin' which I badly need this week so it gets a special thumbs-up.

http://inahandbasket.livejournal.com/632389.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQThHZbCUJo&feature=related
inahandbasket posted this amazing set of links to performances of Leonard Cohen's classic "Hallelujah". The song has been done a million times - sometimes badly and sometimes someone captures what I think is the tragic beauty of the track. A good rendition of this can leave me weepy and it probably won't surprise anyone who reads my music posts regularly that the Imogen Heap cover is far and away my favorite, with the Regina Spektor second.

The second link is one of those things you stumble across following YouTube recommendations. It's Stromae and Klaas doing a techno-house French Hallelujah and though it's a many-generations-removed descendant of the original in another language it's still one of the best modern interpretations I could find. But in the end I agree with inahandbasket - go back and listen to Leonard himself again. Excuse me, I need a tissue.

Yeah, I've got a lot of open tabs. Let me see how many I can bang through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVlV7GO2_Bc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYDTcY2MCRc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X72mm-lgPWU
DJs from Mars put out these three remixes with accompanying remixed videos and all are excellent and worth talking about.

The first one is Christina Aguilera Vs. Mike Oldfield. Back when I blogged the new C.A. video I figured it would get some attention. This, however, is... wow. Mike Oldfield (http://www.mikeoldfield.org/) is probably best known for his three-volume magnum opus "Tubular Bells." It's concept album writ large, with sweeping 24-minute piano pieces, orchestral arrangements and of course the famous tubular bells themselves. Unless you're a fan you probably have only heard one part of Tubular Bells One, and you may recall that particular bit was made famous by a certain movie. Yeah, so... um, watch this video only if you want to see Christina Aguilera in a whole new light. Otherwise, just rock out with the remix.

The second one is Tinie Tempah Vs Bomfunk MCs. Tinie Tempah just appeared last week in Dunproofin's Rihanna remix. Here they're up against some seriously heavy house freestyling from Bomfunk MCs (http://www.myspace.com/bomfunkmcs). This mix shows off the Martians' skills, as they skate back and forth across the mixes. I particularly like the way the beats change up around 2:00 in and then back and then back again. In baseball there's the notion of a 'clean-up batter' who appears in a certain order in the line-up with a certain job to do - this here is a clean-up batter mix for a good house DJ set.

Finally there is Stromae Vs Dance All Stars. I feel like I've reviewed "Alors on Dance" from Stromae (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2gRSTofDsk) before but I can't find it in the tags. This is a really nice mix, because it's pulling in not just the Dance All Stars bits, but several samples. The "Funkytown", Benny Benassi, and Daft Punk bits are easy to identify but I'm not sure what some of the others are.

http://www.djspooky.com/arizona_download.html
Here's a free remake from two of the most thoughtful and influential political rap/hip-hoppers. Chuck D and DJ Spooky have remade the "By The Time I get To Arizona" track that was originally written to respond to Arizona's failure to acknowledge the MLK birthday holiday. In this case they're responding to the new immigration law. I love DJ Spooky's characterization of their work as "...progressive, non knucklehead hip hop."

http://www.myspace.com/rachidtaha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DbFYsi9iSg&a=2kVQulx-jTw&playnext_from=ML&shuffle=239
I think I'm indebted to sunstealer for reminding me both of the north African confluence of traditional styles with modern hip-hop, and for the pointer to Rachid Taha, one of the best-known players in this style. Taha's MySpace page mix leads with "Barra Barra", probably his best-known tune in the west because it was used in the movie Blackhawk Down - it's got an excellent feel for his vocal stylings and a thundering beat. I really enjoy the live videos of him that I've found on YouTube; linked above is him covering "Rock El Casbah", the Clash track.

http://hypem.com/#/track/1098277/The+White+Panda+-+Praise+Outkast
The White Panda (http://www.thewhitepanda.com/) push together Fatboy Slim and Outkast, which is kind of an amusing concept. The mix is more understated than you'd expect, which I think is why it works.