monkey mafia - blow the whole joint up (let's slash the beats mix)

david holmes version of this bigbeat classic doesn't sound like a version of the original at first but the only part he kept was the bassline but he dampened it to a more sleek buzz. added with synth twitterings and his some noodling and a steady slow groove this is a good version. i still love the original over it tho.

madrid de los austrias - mas amor

file this under guilty pleasures or well not really but still, it has almost every ingredient of cafebar fodder stuff. but i love it anyways, the light spanish vocals, the piano & the trumpet. it's just so easy to swallow that it's hard to resist i think but it does have a good foundation, the bassline is good and the production is crisp.

juno / youtube

mos def & diverse - wylin out (kut masta kurt remix)

mate of mine tipped me off on the adult swim/chocolate industries freebie pack after i heard about wylin out. i was a big fan of the rjd2 remix and the original prefuse 73 version but this had me sold directly since of that indian sample. even better use of a hindi sample than truth hurts' addictive which was just plain annoying.

imeem

bon garcon - freek u (full intention remix)

one of 2005's biggest housecuts, full intention took the plucky chinesesounding sample from the original and worked a groove and a serious funky bassline under it and the endresult was banging. i really like the boingy effectthing that they used on the track, the vocals cover it in the main mix but it's more prominent in the dub

youtube

u2 - hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me

this was the main track for the epicly horrible 'batman forever', the soundtrack was nice tho. this had a nice video and featured some of the alter ego's that bono was working during the 'zoo tv' tour, being the fly & macphisto and applying them with the batman comic aestethics, or summat like that. i just liked the video when i was younger for the machine gun thing with the fill in the last coda.

the track itself is a mighty production with heavyweights such as nellee hooper, flood & mark stent behind the knobs. also included is marius de vries for the keys and craig armstrong (who else), for the string arrangement. i think bono takes a bit to many liberties in this, such as the moaning in the end but the edge, vries and armstrong deliver awesomely

youtube

janet jackson - what'll i do (dave navarro mix)

the original uses the riff from the rolling stones' 'satisfaction' and janet also references it in a cheeky matter for the hook. it's good but dave navarro and his then bandmates flea & chad smith did a much better work on the track. they made it sound like a jam and got that loose funky feel to it. it was a nice move of bringing flea in since he has knack for getting his bass sounding right and is this is no exception.

youtube

ae - with the quickness

megaman 2 is my favourite of the series, probably because it was the first one i played but mostly for the music. i remember humming the metalman theme all the time back in the day, it was so goddamn infectious. when discovering ocremix and all that jazz, i went straight for the megaman games because the melodies was so strong and it lent so easy for modern electronic makeovers.

with this one, ae or alex esquivel molds the quickman theme into a mental breaks rerub with strong links to squarepusher, hybrid and icey. intro with sounds from the original level kicks along and whacks the track into full mode, ripping it up and then going into a nice airy breakdown that works as a calm before the storm before the onslaught of beats that goes off after, the outro is nice aswell

ocremix

outkast - chonkyfire

this one is just funky as hell and has an awesome hook. when i first heard aquemini this was the top track, a good way to finish a good album. i liked it most for the chunky guitar but also for the beatswitch into the pianotwiddles for big boi's verse.

youtube