So, my laptop is a bit broken so I have limited access to the internet. This also means I haven't been able to search high and low for all things tuneful but I'd like to share London-born rapper Sway's latest that I can't get out of my head. I warn you, it's pretty addictive.
I've got two weeks off! This means that I don't want to write that much and you don't want to read that much. There's been a fair amount of hype around these three; you might even say people have been raving about them. Ha ha ha.
Just earlier today, I was watching the charts on some music channels. It occured to me that most of them were made to be played in clubs. It occured to me that I liked this. Has club music always been this big? Maybe I've been living in a hole. Regardless, here is this evening's post, with just a few songs that are quite obviously hand-crafted to be banged out at loud volume for your listening/dancing/skanking pleasure:
Tomb Crew - Western Jam You've heard the original three hundred times and, although that epic, warbling womp of a drop never seems to get boring, it's always nice for a change. Tomb Crew mix it up a bit, chopping it up and whacking a baltimore beat over the top. Funky stuff.
This is one of those songs I have had for a while but never really listened to; it popped up the other day and I was all like SKEEN. But yeah, it's a good old retro stylee choppy disco number. Credit to Parisian dance pioneers Cassius for laying out the incredibly catchy original.
Chromeo - Night by Night (Skream Remix) You won't notice much of a difference unless you've got some kind of access to sub bass with this one. In the words of Chromeo's Dave 1: “I was confused when I first heard this: all of a sudden, our song sounded like a Bone Thugs record. That’s because I couldn’t hear Skream’s satanic sub-bass on my computer speakers. Then I switched systems and it made perfect sense. Play this loud and you’ll hear all the hypnotic qualities you’d expect from the grand wizard of UK dubstep.”
You may or may not know that I have a soft spot for anything that is/sounds remotely like french electro (as many others do too, I'm sure). This movement was arguably pioneered by the 'Ed Banger' record label; most signed seem to be living off the fat wads of cash they made during the so-called electro glory days of '06 and '07 as there hasn't been too much activity from the crew lately. I believe Justice are occasionally being borrowed by clubs around the world to do DJ sets for lots and lots of money, chain smoking as they go.
As you can imagine I was mildly excited when I heard of a new video for 'Pop The Glock', the biggest and most well known track from Ed Banger's sexually active rapper chick Uffie. The video itself is.. questionable; a 'quirky' indie/hipster party/jam at Uffie's pad with random motion graphics sequences every here and there. Although it does kinda make me want to hang out with them.
The sheer average-ness of the video doesn't faze me as the song is good fun and it could mean the Ed Banger lot are making a comeback, perhaps not as big as they were in the 'glory days', but these things are cyclical, right?
And the relevant mpthreels:
Uffie - Pop The Glock (SebastiAn Remix) True to his style, SebastiAn chops up the vocals and serves them back to us over a slower-than-usual, fuzzy, lo-fi beat resulting in this trudging electro jam.
Justice - Phantom Pt. II (Boyz Noise Remix) I find you can never go wrong with remixe by/of Justice. Boyz Noise gives this banger more of an intense, techno edge, chopping and looping that electro distortion. I like his take on that distinctive string riff.
Donovan - Chord A staple track for any french electro enthusiasts out there. I don't think there's any part of this that doesn't remind me of the Parisian electro scene. An effortlessly suave delivery from Donovan who is currently touring with Vitalic if you're interested in either of them - I'm sure it'd make for a great gig.
Not the most creative title, but whatever, it's to-the point. You know, soon enough I am going to have to start posting one or two songs at a time. This means that my titles will sound a lot cooler and I can make a big point about a track and give you more information about it, unless you don't care and just want the music, which is also possible but tough!
On to today's main feature(s):
Chromeo - I Can't Tell You Why New Chromeo! The funky electro duo lose none of their Fancy Footwork feel with this smooth track which, to me, sounding like it could have come from the softer side of Daft Punk's backcatalogue. If you don't like it at first, let it rest for a while and give it a listen later on, I guarantee it'll grow on you!
Electric Wire Hustle - They Don't Want This Mauri outfit's twist on modern hip-hop has got me hooked. Electric Wire Hustle have captured a big city sound with this one that's been pretty scarce in music lately. Be prepared for a large portion of soul food.
Olive - You're Not Alone (Kill Light Remix) I'm loving the airy, ebbing synths in the intro to this one. It soon develops into a kind of half-wobble bassline where it sounds like it's been chopped up and fed back to you in small doses.. but nowhere near as grimey as you might be imagining it. In fact, it's sounding like a bit of an anthem to me. Especially that chorus. Inspiring.
CRS - US Placers CRS is composed of Lupe Fiasco, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West. US Placers samples The Eraser by Thom Yorke. Yes, it's as good as it sounds.
I'm very much enjoying these above tracks. I hope you do too.
What do you do when you're happy? Do you sit down and think about all the little thing you really appreciate? Do you nod your head to some super smooth beats? Do you dance around the house naked? People express happiness in different ways. Today I am particularly happy as I just banged out some essay I've been putting off for ages and tomorrow it is Friday. Here is some music which may or may not make you feel happy, or maybe you'll listen to it when you're happy and smile.
Filewile - Number One Kid Or maybe you prefer some oddball, electro hip-hop? Pretty smooth with a bit of wonk to balance it out. May cause you to dance in that ridiculous, quirky, awkward, robotic style that the post-trendy kids are doing. Cooly G - Love Dub Even smoother than the aforementioned. Smoother than clouds and marshmellows. This 26 year old lady has been crowned the queen of 'funkstep'; the lovechild of funky house and dubstep. A suitable theme tune for the effortless suave out there. Salem - Skullcrush Happy in a very, very niche way. You might be able to extract some weird, melancholy pseudo-happiness/sad-happiness out of this slow, abstract, electro-goth fuzz. I've actually been getting into a bit of Salem lately, but they are very obscure and pretty scary.
