The fight for diverse and conscious voices

In a rare fit of sanity, work cancelled or failed to invite me to all meetings and reviews today. I actually emailed a cow orker to inquire if hell had frozen over. Thus I finished the task I had planned to finish by 5 at 2 instead so now I have... what do they call this? Oh, yes, time. Let me entertain you!

https://soundcloud.com/ido-keshet/hokima-vs-imagine-dragons-radioactive-aceline-ido-keshet-djampo-edit
I mentioned DJampo early this month and finally got a chance to poke around at some of his Soundcloud tracks. Much of what he posts are pretty standard house bangers and this is no exception. I picked this one (and the next) because he sometimes uses unusual source material. Here it's Imagine Dragons' mega-hit "Radioactive" from a couple years ago. I'm fond of that track but never before felt like chair-dancing to it.

https://soundcloud.com/dj-djampo/show-me-new-delhi-djampo-mashup-kshmr-vs-linkin-park-vs-tiesto-dallask
And another one from Djampo's stream, this is a super-hot mix built around Linkin Park's "New Divide" which is an awesomely stompy metal track on its own. Here it takes a lead in a four-way mash that includes some electro-fuzz and a lot of bounce.

https://soundcloud.com/ne7code/watermat-moguai-portland-ne7code-remix
I've been listening to things that are more fuzz and electro-noise than my usual and then chasing some related links. One of those trips brought me to NE7CODE and their remix of "Portland" from Watermat & Moguai. Some people credit Moguai with more or less bringing techno to his native Germany and he's been doing interesting things for approximately ever (and yet I appear never to have blogged about his stuff). I tracked down the original (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMF76MYFjQo) and it's not bad on its own but it kind of bogs down in its repetitions. By making this harder/faster/bouncier remix NE7CODE have really upped the game.

https://soundcloud.com/gouranga/jolene-toddterje-remix
"Jolene" was the first Dolly Parton track I can recall hearing and though I'm not really a Parton fan (nor fond of much country music) it's still a nostalgic piece for me in part because I had such a strong response to the the story of the lyrics. Todd Terje's remix here is both entirely something new and entirely steeped in the traditions the song draws from. The guitar licks are well-featured and the track's pacing is just right for an electronic update of a country tune. My sole complaint is that Terje waits until almost 2:30 in to start using Parton's vocals, which makes a chunk of the earlier bit feel like repeated teasing.

https://soundcloud.com/theknocks/the-knocks-matthew-koma-i-wish-my-taylor-swift
Speaking of country music, The Knocks are looking for their own Taylor Swift, someone who would... well, listen to the lyrics of the track and find out. The song is kind of an electronic chill homage and definitely not country itself but I find myself singing it even after it's done playing. That doesn't happen all that often so I figured I'd share.

Taking Fridays off means I move more stuff into the other four days so I often don't get extra time at the end of the week to put a music post together. Start of the week can be slow, and we just cancelled one meeting, so here we go. We'll start off with three versions of songs I really like, hear from one well-known act, then listen to one powerful and one beautiful new voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRy_ioyIW0Y
This is actually an older mix, dating from mid-last year when Daft Punk's TRON tracks were being remixed all over the place. Fissunix takes DP's "end of the line BoyGenius Remix" and slams it up against "I Am The Walrus." The TRON soundtrack pieces all have a slightly weird and eerie feel to them and Walrus has always been one of the odder Beatles pieces. Now turn all that weird up to 11 and lay it over a medium-BPM and add in a couple of weird vocal samples. Presto! (h/t DJ Purple for the pointer)

http://thissongissick.com/blog/2011/red-hot-chili-peppers-dani-california-manic-focus-remix-official-release/
"Dani California" has been my favorite RHCP tune since it came out, displacing several great tracks they'd done previously. It has song-story structure, which I like, good vocal ranges (for me), excellent instrumentation and a soaring chorus. Sadly, it hasn't received a lot of remix attention and what it has received has largely... um... sucked. After listening to yet another crap remix I said "c'mon, someone has to have done a good job" and went looking. Google led me to this by Manic Focus (http://manicfocus.com/, http://soundcloud.com/manicfocus), the DJ name of one John McCarten. ThisSongIsSick calls it "chillstep" which is a great portmanteau. The remix has certain dubstep tropes, but avoids the heavy wub and instead keeps it low-key and chill.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/02/roxy-music-love-is-the-drug-todd-terje-disco-dub.html
Roxy Music's "Love is the Drug" is one of the core disco tunes I remember from the mid-70s. It was also the first R.M. tune to be played heavily in the US, and Grace Jones' cover in 1908 didn't hurt any. This is a nu-disco extended remix by Todd Terje and it's kind of a love homage to the original. A must-have for Ferry fans.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/02/cypress-x-rusko-roll-it-light-it.html
When rap music came up in the Confessional nobody mentioned Cypress Hill, which was really a shame. They've been interesting and provocative and cutting edge for years, often doing things first that other rap acts would then imitate. Now they're setting out on another new frontier, teaming up with dubstep DJ Rusko (http://www.ruskoonfire.com/) to bring their high-speed vocals and unashamed lyrics to lay down over some intense bass/dub lines. This is the first single of what is promised to be a 5-track EP.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/02/sykur-curling-database-remix.html
Sykur (http://www.facebook.com/sykurtheband) an Icelandic quartet that combines light vocals with electro-disco main lines gets remixed by Database, a Brazilian electro duo. The result is definitely electro, but comes out stronger and punchier than you'd expect. The girl has pipes; I'll give her that. I'm just not convinced that the electro-fuzz works for this.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/02/nawel-nightcall-kavinsky-cover.html
Finally comes Nawel (http://www.facebook.com/Nawelmusique) doing her minimalist acoustic cover of Kavinsky’s "Nighcall". The original (http://www.last.fm/music/Kavinsky/_/Nightcall) is an electro-house track that is known both for being produced by half of Daft Punk (and having the heavy thud you'd expect from that) and for being the title track for the movie Drive. Swapping out the electronics and thump track for xylophone and acoustic guitar gives this cover a very odd feel but it does let Nawel's vocals shine, while keeping some of the essential darkess of the original.