drwex: (pogo)
Trying to keep my stress at a reasonable level, music helps. It helps if you can dance to this stuff.

http://djsteveboy.com/groovelectric.html
Doing something he said he'd never do, and with a large helping of sarcasm, DJ Steveboy has finally put out a trance mix on Groovelectric. His subscriber newsletter was more snark-full than the Web page, so I can't resist posting this one bit:
Trance became the elfie sword-and-sorcery fantasy of dance music. The Stevie Nicks of electronica. It could be downright embarrassing. Then came Tiesto, and, well, let's move on, shall we?

Well, with all that said, he did find some trance music he liked and put together a highly listenable, relaxing, and yes "feel-good" set. Check it out.

https://soundcloud.com/mashupgermany/whatsapper-speck
https://soundcloud.com/nickraymondg/underworld-born-slippy-nuxx
I was surprised that these two items appeared almost back-to-back in my stream. Both are reworks of older, popular tracks and both infuse new life into the older items.

The first one is by the excellent Mashup Germany, putting Peter Fox's "Schüttel deinen Speck" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTmf11OxOYc) a bebop-inspired dance-hop tune against MC Fitti's "Whatsapper" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxb2A4uASqc), which is in turn based on the Ini Kamoze reggae fusion classic "Here Comes the Hotstepper". It's a brilliant combo, executed with Mashup Germany's flair and brilliance.

The second one is SPL (https://www.facebook.com/TheSPL) touching what has to be one of the classics of trance, Underworld's "Born Slippy NUXX" (Wikipedia has an excellent discussion of the two versions of the track and why they're often confused.) SPL borrows tropes from dubstep and d&b for this rework, but does a decent job of staying true to the original.

http://audioporncentral.com/2013/07/kavinsky-odd-look.html
Kavinsky, a French electro-synth producer, is at it again. This is his latest EP, with three mixes of the same track. The styles are so different, though, that if they didn't come labeled you'd be hard-pressed to tell they're the same. The first one features The Weeknd and it's a very disco styled Michael Jackson-esque vocal piece. The second is A-Trak with some deep dub house sounds and breaks, and I think I like this one best. The third is a hand-clapping/feet-stomping fast remix from Surkin, which sounds the most like the movie soundtracks Kavinsky is known for.

https://soundcloud.com/divideandkreate/christina-aguilera-your-body
Divide and Kreate has been working hard putting pop sounds into dance shapes. Here he's got Christina Aguilera's 2012 vamp-trash track "Your Body" and he makes it so much better than the original. He's cleaned up the sound, tightened up the vocals, and build a comfortable electro-pop backing for it. C.A. clearly needs a good producer and when she gets one she can sound really good.

https://soundcloud.com/djschmolli/example-vs-lenny-kravitz-are
This is utterly brilliant, even if it's Lenny Kravitz. DJ Schmolli did a mash-up called "Are You Gonna Change The Way You Kiss Me" for the second Pirate Nation compilation. Then DJ's from Mars got ahold of it and put their signature heavy stomping production touches on it. Pure gold.

https://soundcloud.com/themashupradio/01-dan-mei-this-is-what
Speaking of DJs remixing DJs, here's Dan Mei mashing up Armen van Buuren's "This is What It Feels Like". The original is a feel-good bit of vocal trance, which Dan Mei slams up against Zedd's "Clarity." The mash is tricky because both tracks feature high-quality strong vocals. AVB is featuring Trevor Guthrie and Zedd has Foxes doing the signature female voice for his track. The result is something of a vocal duet/duel and I really like it.
drwex: (Default)
Some old favorites are back this week in new contexts.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/08/skye-featherlight.html
In 2010, Skye Edwards rejoined Morcheeba. She's still working on her solo projects. This is the first single from her upcoming solo LP. It's got her voice, but it's more fast-paced and less bluesy than I'm used to hearing from her. She's still very talented and even with all the electro in this track I'm liking it a lot.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/08/illegal-sunday-lobsterdust-star-buzzin.html
Lobsterdust turns in his latest banger, a six-way mash. He's still very good at what he does, but he's not doing anything new here. It's a high-energy party track, as you'd expect. If you like his stuff this is a good track; if not, you probably won't like this one either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BpEP6b3mBI
This one you should watch if you can. The video is a really fun stop-motion animation tribute to music video images that have been popular at one time or another. It's neat to see how many you can identify. Some I got even though they're just on for a few seconds; others I'm still scratching my head over (the solo guitarist in front of the church - help!).

The track is a fun collaboration between DJs from Mars and Fragma. I have not been that fond of Fragma's solo stuff but her voice really works well here, over the strong techno beats that the DJs provide. It's a fun track through and through.

http://rcrdlbl.com/2012/07/25/stream_m_i_a_bad_girls_surkin_remix_
MIA's "Bad Girls" has been remixed a hundred ways by now, so it's rare to find something new/interesting/unusual done with it. Surkin scores a hit here, though in part because he's pulling from so many influences. As Carter Maness says in the blurb you can clearly hear African rhythms in the remix, and also high-speed street-dance sounds. That kind of thing can easly turn into a mess, but it's kept tight and the sound layers are managed well. Check out the bit starting at 1:50 where it drops to solo flute and then slowly builds back up over the next minute.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/08/public-enemy-harder-than-you-think-featurecast-remix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLnINZ-cANI
I had forgotten how much I liked Public Enemy. Every time I listen to a new rapper I hope I'll hear someone who has Chuck D's ability to sling words and mean something without every fifth word being 'nigger', 'bitch', or 'ho.' The man was - is - an amazing vocalist/lyricist. Featurecast (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Featurecast/8844117036) gives us his vision of what those words would sound like above some slamming techno dance rhythms and phat horns. I've had this on frequent repeat for most of the past week and been missing P.E.

Well, if you're like me you can do a little searching and find that Chuck is still out there doing his thing. The second link is to "I Shall Not Be Moved" and just appeared last month. He's slowed down a bit - he's joking about "the senior circuit" now - but it's still that style and that voice. He hasn't lost any of his political sensibilities either ("What good is doing some record/ When y'all only listen to fifteen seconds?").

Profile

drwex: (Default)
drwex

July 2021

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
1819 2021222324
25262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 13th, 2025 07:33 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios