The fight for diverse and conscious voices

Holy exploding life-mines, Batman! The rain of debris from the past week or so is going to take a while to settle. (My life? Mostly OK. Bombs dropping all around me on people I care about? Not OK.) Here are some pleasant, almost mellow, listening suggestions.

http://www.partyben.com/downloads/
http://www.partyben.com/PartyBen-AnotherSleeplessNightAlone.mp3

I've been lost for several days in the Party Ben mixes. I totally blame mrf_arch; he started it. Party Ben has been a featured artist at Bootie parties for at least the last five years and lots of his mixes do the fun thing of taking a modern tune and mixing it over an old favorite, usually from the 80s. Sadly, even his talents can't make Lady Gaga interesting again, so skip that. He shines when he pulls even older favorites; for example, I really liked "Hella Dare You to Smoke" which mashes Gorillaz and No Doubt against Deep Purple.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about his (currently) second-newest item, "Another Sleepless Night Alone". One of the things I like about remixers is that I get to hear things from them I wouldn't normally encounter, but it has been quite a while since I had a new discovery this way. This mash from Ben uses Bat For Lashes (http://www.batforlashes.com/) and her new tune "Sleep Alone" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1vtr9fXdg8) which is beautiful and haunting. Bat For Lashes is Natasha Khan, a Pakistani-Brit with a voice like Loreena McKennitt and inspirations like Siouxsie Sioux. *melt*

Ben mashes against the ambient electronica of Egostero (http://www.egostereo.com/ - warning, starts playing on load) which is not bad. I don't mind the samples on their page, but you get a much better sense of their sound by playing the stream on their MySpace page - http://www.myspace.com/egostereo. So that's two new finds in one mix. Win!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikoNdWageFo
DJ Purple sent me this pointer, to Just Jack's "Snowflakes". This is a tune that has had actual pop airplay, including use in high fashion shows. It's a rap done over The Cure's "Lullaby" instrumental track and it holds very true to the dreamy goth-ness that underlies the best Cure tracks.

http://audioporncentral.com/2010/02/booka-shade-regenerate.html
Booka Shade (http://www.bookashade.com/) gets listed as "German electro-house" but this track from them is much more mellow and almost ambient electronica.

MizA has suggested I tag these silly posts, which would make MY life easier but damned if I can find the time to go back and redo the last year, let alone all of it. Gah. (Not Gaga. SO! TIRED! OF! HER! Where was I?)

http://audioporncentral.com/2010/01/illegal-sunday-amoraboy-come-together.html
DJ Maggie Mash's previous entry was brilliant and brain-breaking. This one is also quite good. I don't hear a lot of Beatles mash-ups, and this one really sounds like Green Day just sat down to cover "Come Together" in their own style. I think Maggie captures that feel while still being very true to the original.

http://audioporncentral.com/2010/01/eric-peltier-dadada.html
Speaking of covers, I adore the old electro-pop "Da da da". It's still every bit as catchy today as it was back then. This cover video is a cute trick with iPhones by TinBoxTwo (http://www.tinboxtwo.com/). Watch for the guitar, particularly.

http://hypem.com/#/track/1006676/Jackie+Boyz+-++Stick+Up+
Like the original blogger, I have this tune stuck in my head. Jackie Boyz (http://www.myspace.com/officialjackieboyz) blend things from the pop side of hip-hop with some more traditional R&B stylings. It's very catchy and danceable.

http://hypem.com/#/track/1006622/The+xx-Shelter+%28Death+To+The+Throne+Remix%29
The last time I pointed to a cover of a The Xx tune I noted that they had some breathy and haunting vocals. That's still true, but this time Arizona-based DJ/remixer "Death to the Throne" (http://www.myspace.com/deathtothethrone) has paired the vocals with some nice house dance beats. It's a little on the bass/thuddy side in places but he does a good job of making sure that doesn't overwhelm the vocal feel.

http://massiveattack.com/
Massive Attack is a group I used to listen to on near-infinite repeat. Lately I've lost touch with what they're doing so I went over to their site to check it out since they've got a new EP just out. The page is very cluttered but if you scroll down a bit on the left side you can stream six tracks from them, including some very different remixes featuring some awesome guest artists.

http://hypem.com/#/track/1006120/The+Cure+-+Lovesong+Diplo+remix+
This one is purely and solely for my Babe and I'm not gonna 'splain that. If you want to read about the track, check out the original blogger at Indieshuffle: http://www.indieshuffle.com/?p=3321. Unfortunately the uploaded sample cuts off abruptly - you need to download the fuller version if you want to get it all.