Club Music

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.

Cassius - Cassius 99 (Modek's 09 Rechop)

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.”

Well in.

Roundup Of Things I've Been Listening To Lately

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.

Happiness

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.

Kidda - Under The Sun (Hervé's Ain't No Sunshine Remix)
This is the kinda thing you'll hear at a summer dance festival and it is simply euphoric! Everyone around you will take off their tops, put on some shades and grin like fools as they jump up and down to Herve's self-claimed brand of Ghetto Bass.

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.

And there we have it. 'Til next time!

Sunday Selection

Hey everyone, hope all is well. There's been some good stuff lately but I feel I've had to filter through it as not all of it's postworthy. Maybe it'll grow on me. There's new material from Chromeo and Midnight Juggernauts which will always be worth checking out, 'sides I'm sure it'll hit the airwaves and tv screens soon enough and I have other things to show you.

In the summer, I did an internship at a music publishing company in London. I heard there was this guy, Pete, who was a DJ and had 'the best music taste in the building' - naturally I was curious to meet this person. There was also this guy I saw walking around the offices all the time handing things out to people so I thought he was totally average. Turns out this was Pete, who also produces innovative, atmospheric dubstep (if you have to label it). So, I'm in the record store on Friday afternoon I get given the latest releases, amongst them 'Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo/Wet Look' and I'm told it's one of the best tunes around now. I'm gutted as I worked with him for a month and didn't meet him, but I'm pretty excited about his stuff. Here's the AA side, and I'm finding it hard to describe other than.. avant-garde.

Joy Orbison - Wet Look

So, elsewhere we have:

Fanfarlo - Luna
Not the newest of new tracks, but I like it anyway. Anyone remember Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah? Sounds a little like them mixed with The Magic Numbers. Good fun; I wasn't hot on this song at first but heard it on the Nike Store website the other day and was all like 'ooh, this is pretty cool'.

Bombay Bicycle Club - Magnet
The latest track from BBC's debut 'I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose'. As you would imagine, it's got a very catchy riff and those trademark wavering vocals from the lead singer, Jack. Funnily enough, Jack is also a DJ (and quite a good one, too) and the last minute and a half of this track transforms from teen indie rock to super-chilled-ambient-jam. I'm loving it.

Miike Snow - Black & Blue
Yes! More Miike Snow! This time, the latest single, which has already received the remix treatment from some big names, including Tiga and Caspa, but I'll let you guys find those for yourself. The track's got a cool, effortless energy about it that'll get you nodding your head sooner or later. Glitchy electronic beats mixed with some piano keys and an infectious chorus clearly makes for a damn good song. Good Job Miike Snow.

And we're done for the time being - enjoy the music.

If we suddenly fall..

Time for a dubstep post.

See, unfortunately, when I think of dubstep now, I just think of sweaty zombie-like figures ... dancing (..can you call that stuff dancing?) to basslines with ADHD. I like to call that stuff 'clubstep', for obvious reasons you understand. Sure, that can be a lot of fun at times but, if you're anything like me, you cannot deal with that kinda stuff on a day-to-day basis.

I'm sure you realise not all dubstep is like that (cue Burial and Zomby for example), but sometimes you might need a little reminder, as do I. So I decided to do a little post on dubstep that looks beyond a few repetetive womps and wamps.

White Lies - Death (Chase & Status Remix)
First off we have a big one. Chase & Status' production values is the icing on the cake of this epic original's epic remix, complete with driving bassline. To me, it seems like Death is getting the same kind of treatment from Chase & Status the way that In For The Kill was mixed by Skream and that is why I reckon it's gonna be a big one, musically and commercially.

The Heavy - How You Like Me Now? (Joker Radio Edit)
Joker's drops some heavy thwacks, assertive synths and static bass. The result of this mix is a powerful track that wouldn't sound out of place on a Gnarls Barkley album if they got angry with someone and made dubstep.

Imogen Heap - Hide And Seek (Enigma Remix)
I never thought I'd describe a track with a wobbling bassline as 'delicate', but then again, I never thought I'd hear a dubstep remix of Imogen Heap. Incredibly, Enigma manages to make this work with the soft production of the drums and wobble.

So there you go, it's not all cockney this, hammertime that.

Clear skies? Sun's out? 4 rill??

Seems like summer has arrived already! Knowing England though, it won't last for long, but let's stay optimistic (touch wood). I'm not going to spend long on this post because I have some serious lying down to do in the garden. Here's a fresh portion of tropical, summer beats:

Fatboy Slim - Talking Bout My Baby (Midfield Generals Disco Reshuffle)
Majorly summery song. Makes me wish I saw him play new years on brighton beach when he did.

Quantic & Nickodemus - Mi Swing es Tropical
This song featured on an iPod commercial a while back. When I listen to this I get this image of it being performed in a hotel resort with drunken parents dancing about palm trees, particularly amusing.

Air France - Beach Party
Right what it says on the tin. One of my favourite songs to mellow out in the sun to.

Skream - Summer Dreams
Skream boasts his musical versatility with this chilled, summer-evening style filled with trumpets and lazy synths.

Zero 7 - Somersault (feat. MF Doom) (Danger Mouse Remix)

I wouldn't really say this is as tropical as the other tracks I've posted, but definetely 'lazing on a sunny afternoon' style song, not like The Kinks mind you.