Friday 29 July 2011

blu mar ten - the feeling

this one i heard first a few years ago, it was at the time when i discovered blu mar ten was making house and broken beats and not just jungle. they released a couple of records on exceptional and a few other labels. i believe they were unhappy with the situation at good looking.

it's a semi-mashup or just a track that uses two huge chunks from other tracks. it uses the first two bars of thin lizzy's "waiting for an alibi" as it's main groove and takes a verse and the hook from the carpenters' version of "tryin' to get the feeling again".

it sits in this juxtapose because it's at a tempo that i don't know who other than well gilles peterson could work it. i've played it but pitched down since i don't like how it sounds pitched up to d&b speeds and even then, nothing seems to work with it. it sounds weird speeded up since the carpenters sample is already pitched up with pitchshifting and chipmonking the vocals even more doesn't work with the groove.

youtube

bmt initially released this one on their own label 'deep structures' but they later revisited their track for their 2007 album on exceptional called black water. this strips away the samples and replays but not faithfully. it's a whole different groove and feeling from the locked up nature of the original. i like it as well but i like the original version more.

buy here (junodigital)

Thursday 28 July 2011

d*note - lost and found (joe claussell's disco club mix)

this one i found as usual on a bargain bin hunt and i do believe it was in diamond records. i used to go there quite often to go through bins but i don't like the clerk and i take it he doesn't like me either. anyhow, i grabbed this one without knowing the track but it had two long versions by tenaglia and claussell. tenaglias version is good but claussells 14 minute exercise in drums, synths and giving the diva the space to really explore the whole track is remarkable.

claussell calls it a disco club mix and he doesn't take that name in vain since it really is disco. well at least the kind of salsoul in that era when the dj's and producers radically transformed songs while still still just using the original as their main source.

i planned to do drop a line on this some months ago but then i believe i couldn't find a sample nor it being available on digital. it probably was available and i just was lazy but anyhow. now that i found it also on spotify i had a listen to some of the other versions. ashley beedle & co's version (the spiritual vocal & dub) are nice.

i have that on my cdsingle but just as an edit but the second version i want to recommend is the companion piece to claussell's main version. the "spritual life rhumba" version and that also is a fourteen minute epic and spends the first half with out a kick and just this mesmerising bongo groove. awesome intro or something you can use to fuck around with the main version.

buy here (7digital)

Wednesday 27 July 2011

mini reviews #3

third edition then and for this one i asked someone else first but they felt they needed some time to sort out stuff first so i thought of this other individual after that.

this individual goes under the moniker of miss pie and is this wonderful weird dirty canadian creature. she's a person that i talk to a lot since we share a similar love of 80's & 90's music.

01. robert hood presents floorplan - funky souls | youtube
it's very funky but extremely repetitive but it my leg moving right from the first beat so i like it.

02. wham! - a ray of sunshine | youtube
this is flamboyant but quite funky and i've never heard this one before but this goes down well in my book.

03. jorge ben jor - oba, la vem ela | youtube
i've been tipped off on this before and it's quite a beautiful song but my favourite part is that break in the middle with so much tension building

04. barrabas - woman | youtube
the track is incredibly funky and just the percussion groove has me moving my butt. right on.

05. pat metheny group - slip away | youtube
my introduction to pat metheny when i found out that nick holder jacked the song for his "summer daze". great song and i love that piano break.

06. davy dmx - one for the treble | youtube
classic b-boy track this one, it has an incredibly nice groove and i really like it but it's not anything special though.

07. the s.o.s. band - just be good to me | youtube
ifirst introduced to this when someone pointed out that "dub be good to me" used the lyrics. it's a really good 80's funk joint and i love it.

08. aphex twin - xtal | youtube
gorgeous tune and i really like how the melodics are reverbed out.

09. madeon - for you | youtube
this sounds like mylo circa 2004 but on steroids and it's incredibly funky.

10. funeral oration - i fall harder | youtube
this sounds like if bad religion wanted to sound like r.e.m. and i don't really like it, except the bass.

thanks for those ten jennie. and as always i asked if she wanted to anything extra about her picks and her response was:
so hard to choose 10 tunes, so i just went with the ones most recently in my head. i could have easily just gone with all hip hop or funk

Monday 25 July 2011

moby - into the blue (summer night mix)

i picked up the cdsingle through a bargain bin and to be honest it was one of the moby tracks from this period i had never heard before in my life. but the original could have easily be a track from the play/18 era. it has that mellow nature and the notion that you might have heard it on some soundtrack (yeah, i know not the most original idea but it's true).

the remixes on the single had versions from junior vasquez, beatmasters, jon spencer and a rendition by moby himself. i had high hopes on vasquez' version and especially on jon spencer's rendition but they aren't anything special. the version that i fell in love is moby's own summer night mix which is quite nice. moby strips the track down to a simple lowkey backing track and goes off on the piano.

i do have to point out that this track isn't by far anything special since there are countless other tracks in this kind of style. most of them are either on chill out compilations or in the rotation of soft adult contemporary radio stations but yeah i quite like this one.

youtube

Saturday 23 July 2011

mary j. blige - sincerity (feat. dmx & nas)

this one flew completely under my radar until i read about it in fredrik strage's book "mikrofonkåt" a few years later. strage mentions that swedish rapper petter used the instrumental to perform his song "du vet att jag gråter" instead of it's original backing.

it's a very heartfelt song which has a grimy sample of the breakdown from bob james' "nautilus". i'll get my nerd on that one later but i'll talk about this song first since it's a really good song. the moody backing gives blige a great field to do her usual strong vocal performance and you really feel every word from her.

dmx opens up the song and does a short verse and i'm really not that big of a fan of dmx since he tends to do overdo his schtick. but on this one he's very subtle and straight to point and does a great introduction to mary j. blige. nas who was also featured on "love is all we need" off the "share my world" album does a longer verse which is really good.

the combination of mary in a serious and heartfelt mood and nas & dmx who also get serious in the topic matter makes this a great kind of hiphop/soul number which mary j blige built her career on and i think this track was especially meant for the streets since it's only been a b-side.

buy here (amazon.com) | youtube

also i have to nerd out a little on "nautilus" since this track is a classic in hiphop and has been used to make countless tracks out of. just blaze mentions in this youtube video that there are so many little breaks in the song, but they all just have you pacing towards your sampler/mpc/computer to make something out of it.

i think there is not one single second out of the song that hasn't been used but there are a few breaks and sounds that most like to use. like, the bassline, the intro or the first part but there is also the mood switch when it goes blues-y and also the breakdown where it's drums and bob james' electric piano.

this along with the moody part is my favourite parts of "nautilus" and like just blaze and 9th wonder mentions in that video, one you hear the track you think "i have to do this". eventually you start to assembling an idea of what you want to do in your head. problem is with me is that when i first heard "sincerity" i was pissed since kenny "smoove" kornegay already did what i wanted to do.

Friday 22 July 2011

jill scott - spring summer feeling (ron trent remix)

i picked up jill scott's second album about a year ago and i quite liked it and i especially liked this one track called "spring summer feeling". a nice mid tempo ballad lovejam with raphael saadiq's magic touch on it. i think i was looking at last.fm and found something that then intrigued me, a remix by ron trent.

i think ron trent is one of the best in the business when it comes to remixing non-house songs since he makes an effort to make songs as well as something that work in the club. this remix for instance has jills vocals and raphael saadiqs chords and melodies woven into the track and really well. there is so much thought into the production and just the percussive programming along is stunning.

reason i was suprised when i first heard the song was that it wasn't a bootleg remix since he has the vocals and full parts but it never got properly released. finding out why was quite a mystery since there was no clear answers but i think i know why. i managed to piece together some info via the two threads at deephousepages about this track.

basically there was meant to be a jill scott remix album that would have come out in 2009 or so and ron trent was asked to do a remix. for whatever reason this remix album never came out and i think it might do with either some eleventh hour shelving or fact that scott was leaving her label. ron trent was playing the record in his sets and had given it to a couple of other djs and then there was just this wait.

i think he put out a limited single sided white label with the remix and then a second white label came out with a new version on the flip. it's well worth trying to find one of those copies since the remix is quality however i know the record is not for everyone. but i like ron trent and jill scott so i love it.

buy here (itunes)

second edit: this has been released now but it comes with a problem that you can't buy it separately. since the remix clocks in over 10 minutes it is album only on both itunes & amazon.

Thursday 21 July 2011

groove armada - my friend (dorfmeister vs. madrid de los austrias dub)

the original version was quite a big hit and i like it and it's video but i really liked the way they used the sample of fatback band's "got to learn how to dance". especially when they dissolve it for the break when they go into some moog action and celetia martin doing a couple of bars of chaka khan.

this remix however i discovered much later than that and i believe it was through really liking dorfmeister & mdla's remix of "relaxin' at club fusion" by koop. this version uses the bassline from fatback band but ups the tempo and breaks it up a little. it's still four on the floor but it has all of the swinging rhythms and grooves from broken beat and funk. which makes it really useful when transitioning from broken beat into house or vice versa.

youtube

Wednesday 20 July 2011

orbital - satan (live at irvine plaza, new york)

orbital has been an act that is a prolific live-act and with electronic music, especially the type that were really made in a studio, a live pa meant pre recorded music and some occasional own tinkering. this actually is true with orbital but what they did was what a lot of producers do nowadays with abelton, only with these big alesis mmt-8 sequencers, some other machines and a desk.

as far as i know they became a well known live act after bbc showing a bit from their performance at glastonbury in '94. what was memorable was their headbands that had some lights attached to them. it was actually just so they could see better in the dark but it's become one of the things associated with orbital. at last.fm the avatar for orbital is a two framed animation of the hartnoll brothers with these headbands.

now the live version of satan isn't really one that is much different from the album rendition since it plays much similar. there isn't any hilarious mashup moments like the infamous live rendition of halcyon+on+on where the hartnoll brothers chucks in bon jovi's "you give love a bad name" and belinda carlisle's "heaven is a place on earth" onto the track and make it work immensely.

however the thing i love the most is the intro because when the ominus pads are playing and everyone is just waiting for the butthole surfers sample to kick in you hear this one guy yelling "bring on the fucking bon jovi" and another guy chimes in with "yeah, bring it on". someone on youtube mentioned that "maybe they were from new jersey" which is funny and probably plausible. but yeah, other than that it's just "satan" but with live energy.

not to say that i don't think it's special since i think the live version really captures the tension and release through out the track and especially well with the last breakdown where the hartnoll brothers just comes in with everything for one final beat-assault.

buy here (7digital)

Tuesday 19 July 2011

the sonny rollins quartet with thelonious monk - the way you look tonight

i think i heard the frank sinatra version a year ago and i was tipped off on this version. with standards you can always find some interesting renditions and especially with the jazz interpretations. like for instance who knew miles davis would do "someday my prince will come" without it being corny. but yeah with the big classic songs there is always artists trying to put a different spin on the song.

when i heard about this version i didn't know what i was getting when i first took a listen on youtube. i was somewhat expecting this moody version since most things i've heard by monk has been in that direction nbut to be honest neither rollins nor monk has been people i've listened to in an abundance but i quite enjoy their work.

i was really surprised by it's uptempo rhythm since i'm used to the sinatra version and i really liked what rollins and monk did with the song. rollins takes center stage on this stage and does a fairly standard thing by playing the main leitmotif and then improving on the scales of kern's original. monk does mainly rhythm work on this one but gets a solo spot halfway through the song.

i think even though it's the heavyweight players on top that gets main credit and it was probably their idea of the arrangement but i have to also give props the art taylor and tommy potter on drums and bass respectively. i'm generally quite a fan of a good dancable rhythm and that in combination with jazz is gravy.

buy here (7digital)

Monday 18 July 2011

kylie minogue - made of glass

xenomania is when it comes to safe bubbly formulaic pop music the best in the business and most of their material is gold. their productions for girls aloud made me a big fan of "call the shots" and a number of other tracks from them and i loved most of the sugababes singles produced the team.

they basically know their shit when it comes to good pop music and i think it was quite a weird thing to hear when the pet shop boys decided to make an album with them in 2009. because of the fact that tennant & lowe make some of the best pop music around and i fail to see why they needed any help.

but anyhow kylie used their talent on her "giving you up single" and to be honest it was not a great song but the b-side was a great song. i don't remember who tipped me off on it but i know it's considered by hardcore kylie fans to be one her best songs from that era and i agree. the verses and hooks are quite vintage kylie but what i love about is the bassline and pre-chorus.

buy here (7digital)

Sunday 17 July 2011

the rurals - no sunshine

the rurals have been this act that has been delivering top notch material for a while and they put out music on their own label peng. they are a bit under the radar but i think it's sort of intentional, it's not music that feeds of attention but rewards it. this one i heard first on jesper dahlbäcks's stockholm mix sessions compo for tiga's turbo label.

dahlbäck starts off with some nice light tones and goes into the dubbier side of house starting with isolee's 'beau mot plage' and he eventually works in this track. it's kind of a re-imagining of bill withers' classic "ain't no sunshine"

buy here (7digital)

what the rurals do with it is to keep the vibe but go for a chunky dub-infused backdrop and work and have the vocals and strings soar over the track in a sweet matter. i think it's gorgeous and while it's isn't bill withers it isn't trying to be him either. the drums and the atmosphere give it a good touch and it's useful in a wonky type house set.

buy here (junodigital)

Friday 15 July 2011

daft punk - rollin' & scratchin'

this track which originally was the b-side to "da funk" was some other shit really and it was shocking to hear this side of bangalter. he's often associated with heavy filter-funk but something that is just the hard 909 he usually employs was something that looked towards the other side of chicago. it's sort of techno but it's hard house as well and i think the fuckall genius of the track is summarised to: one hard beat, a stabby note sequence and some distortion.

in one of the best interviews i've read with guy-man and bangalter was by fredrik strage and was done in '96-'97 for a swedish music-mag. they talked a little about how "da funk" was done after listening to nothing but g-funk for a week and how the album shaped up to be and how they didn't want to put that single onto the album but virgin thought it wouldn't sell otherwise. he also said that he thought that most producers in techno should listen to toni braxton's "unbreak my heart" and listen to the strings.

buy here (7digital)

Wednesday 13 July 2011

madonna - nothing really matters (kruder & dorfmeister remix)

when i bought the cd-single for nothing really matters i think i bought it in a sort of completist way. because i had a lot of the singles from japan and the us from the "ray of light" & "music" era and they were in most cases packed with quality remixes. this single i had reservations back then and i still have some reservations to be honest.

it has two different styles of reworkings and the first one is many versions by peter rauhofer (club 69) and aims for the big room and american circuit scene. the second style is the different reworkings by talvin singh and kruder & dorfmeister and these versions was the ear towards the smaller rooms. singh did his india meets brixton thing and is a really good remix, but the version that captured my attention a few years ago when i listened to this single again was by austrian duo kruder & dorfmeister.

they capture the inner essence of the song when strip the song down it's core and reassemble bits and pieces and emphasises the background singers along with madonnas hook. the bass is really heavy and the atmospheric melodic bits from the original are well used in this version. kruder & dorfmeister load the track up with drums and percussion and it over all feels like joe claussell meets seiji in a very natural way. i played this version in a mix of mine a few years ago and because of it's versatility it really works well even today. do look for this one in the bins, it's well worth it.

grooveshark

should be noted about the dub that is/was a minor grail to both kruder/dorfmeister/g-stone records fans and madonna fans. it's not really worth shelling out the outlandish cash the elusive promo is exchanging hands for. it's just a more "clubby version" since it skips the atmospheric passages and is focused on those drums and the rhythm.

Sunday 10 July 2011

mini reviews #2

so second edition of this fun game and i had a few people in mind when i planned the first one and i was going to ask someone else but this particular individual wanted to do one for me so i put him next in line.

picking these ten tracks is mark asbrey, techno producer and dj extraordinare. i've been supporting his works for a while now and he's even done a remix or two of my tracks and i've contributed with a vocal sample for one of his track. he's also a bit of a cunt but a loveable cunt and with a strong sense of what good music is.

01. actress - senorita | youtube
decent groove but i'm not really grabbed by the lapels on it's own. it honestly sounds like an excerpt from a beat tape.

02. elecktroids - kilohertz | youtube
this might be drexciya or dopplereffekt in a different suit and it's really nice. stripped down and straight to point.

03. little dragon - ritual union | youtube
they play this a lot on radio and i like it a great bit. the wonky synth in the end of the track is nice

04. dopplereffekt - voice activated | youtube
i love this one, i like electro but i was a casual fan of drexciya but find most of the related work to be mintos.

05. depeche mode - behind the wheel (shep pettibone remix) | youtube
sheps reworks at this time were gravy and this is no exception. i know the original and i like it and shep just boosted it in a good way.

06. kas product - tina town | youtube
kind of dark and subdued track and really hypnotic. i quite like it.

07. robert hood - who taught you math | youtube
a bottom end that does business and a top that just goes in all directions in a good way. like it but this needs to be heard in a mix.

08. surgeon - atol | youtube
techno that doesn't fanny about from a man who knows his rhythmic space. i like it but like the hood track, this needs to be a in a mix.

09. underground resistance - hardlife (aaron carl remix) | youtube
don't like the vocal or how it's worked but i think without it the track would be just another decent detroit house groove

10. shuggie otis - inspiration information | youtube
asbrey put me onto shuggie otis a few years ago and i'm greatful since he really does great music. i like this one a lot.

thanks for those ten asbrey. i asked him if he wanted to say anything extra about his picks but his response was:
that it's not a top 10, just a representation of 10 tracks I'm digging at the minute. ask me next week and it'll be a different 10.

like any sound person to be honest.

Saturday 9 July 2011

emma nilsdotter - kalles klätterträd (markus enochson dub)

i discovered this one when i was properly introduced to markus enochson's work by being spellbound by his amazing remix of koop's "summer sun". the original song was one of my favourites and when i bought the remix version of "waltz for koop" i was in love. after that i was quite interested in whatever enochson was dabbling in and i found a number of good tracks.

some tracks on svek, some on maw and other us garage-y kind of house and it was quite nice. but i remember finding his remix of swedish jazz/folk singer emma nilsdotter's "från mig till dig" (from me to you). it was on one of dimitri from paris playboy mansion compos and just the fact you have good house music with a swedish vocal intrigued me. i later heard the original version which infact was better than the enochsons remix but and i tried to locate her self titled album.

her album was a good to decent affair, had a number of nice poppy songs and a few cracking tracks. it also had a version of (legendary swedish guitarist) jojje wadenius' classic childrens song "kalles klätterträd". that was the theme song to a swedish cartoon series back in the '70s. way before my time really but when i heard it on youtube i do have some memory of it, but a slight one.

buy here (7digital) | youtube

nilsdotter's version takes the tempo down a little bit and does it a bit more singsongy than wadenius version and it's quite nice but i didn't know how a remix of it would sound when i found the cdsingle for track in a bargain bin. what enochson did with the song was to basicly take the guitar riff that carries throughout the song and work that fully in the song and and then use a few vocal bits and the kind of humming that is in the middle eight of the song.



enochson's version is great and a good summertime house track and i particulary enjoy it since the guitar riff he took from the original sort of sounds like blue öyster cult's "don't fear the reaper".

buy here (7digital)

Friday 8 July 2011

pinku vääty - all that she wants

i mentioned in the post about quant that jonatan bäckelie (ernesto) was one of the artists highlighted in showcasing of young swedish electronic musicians out of gothenburg. ernesto was at that time sort of the de facto vocalist for most of the works coming out the scene but he made his own tracks as well and was good at it. his voice had that blue eyed soul sensibility and he had that style as the moniker "ernesto" but he when goes more quirky he takes a couple of other monikers like "tan tan", "jong tan" but mostly "pinku vääty".

i didn't know pinku vääty was his moniker in the beginning ('01-'03) as there wasn't any clear indication on the intarwebs but it later was in bold as well. and this moniker was one that i didn't have much idea about but i saw on juno that he started to put out tracks on that alias instead of usual ernesto stuff. but what really gave me a heads up was hearing it on national radio.

i was flicking through channels and then something weird came on, a funky yet wonky cover of ace of base's smash hit "all that she wants". it's quite random and but i think works on many levels even though the bits that were recycled from the original was the bassline, the kind of one drop reggae piano stab and the hook. but it's totally revamped in a new way. i kind of still like ace of base's original but when paul just belts out the hook in his way it makes me forget it even more.

buy here (7digital)

Thursday 7 July 2011

lill lindfors - (det är då) jag känner jag vill va' hos dej

the thing about being a musicnerd is that if some new composition is based on an old composition be it a cover, a sampling or a reworking, then you want to hear the original and compare it the newer version. if you are into hiphop then that's just called the main side effect of being a crate digger. i consider myself a crate digger but i tend to look in the crates that have certain hard plastic boxes with these five inch plastic discs inside of them. but i look for records as well as wax.

crate diggers have there databases of who sampled who in their minds and then a few years later some people created websites specifically for these databases. i seem to have forgotten on what that popular website is but anyhow. the nerdy hiphop cratediggers have used the forums for the-breaks.com as their main watering hole and there are a few swedish people who tend to try to identify sample-sources for swedish records.

i keep certain records in mind from that site when i look for records and i was grabbing ten record from a store up in stockholm and i found this one lp by swedish singer lill lindfors. now let's be confessional for a second and for someone who looked elsewhere than swedish culture in ones youth then swedish singers and musicians were the squarest thing possible. whether it's lill babs, siw malmkvist, lill lindfors, monica zetterlund, alice babs or lasse berghagen or whatever.

however one does grow away from whatever norms and prejudice you have about music or any form culture. part of this is discovery that they could sing extremely well and lill lindfors in particular became a name that people told me dig deeper into the catalogue. she had a number of records where she sang a couple of original songs and some that were swedish covers of a popular international record. in this case it's a cover of "feel like makin' love" made popular by roberta flack.

buy here (7digital) | youtube

to be honest i hadn't heard robertas version first since i was quite late on that track but the reason is that i really wasn't on many of the soul or r&b classics. you get to know them much later, i mean i knew who roberta flack was since she was a big singer and she was the one who made "killing me softly with his song" popular which of course was mentioned when the fugees did their version back in '96.

which leads to the how i knew of lill lindfors' version of the song since it was sampled in one my favourite records by swedish hiphop due ison & fille. dj large chopped up a bit from the end of this one for "utanför tullarna", the intro to ison & fille's third album "stolthet".

buy here (7digital) | youtube

now after discovering this record i've discovered more of lindfors' music and found the versions she used to do of songs where really good and i think her versions of "canto de ossanha" (fri som en vind) and "killing me softly me with his song" (sången han sjöng var min egen) are great. of course she is most famous outside of the nordic regions for the wardrobe malfunction stunt* at the 1985 eurovision song contest. but she can really sing and do it well and i think this version is on par with roberta flack's version.

buy here (7digital)




*yeah it's awesome and it will never happen again since the whole janet jackson thing but to be fair the only thing more awesome than the stunt is terry wogan's commentary.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

eddie kendricks - goin' up in smoke

i think the temptations were one of the best motown vocal groups mostly because of the later works with norman whitfield on production which pushed the envelope on what the motown sound was. now it may sounds like i've listened to motown, norman whitfield and whoever else all my life but i haven't so this is just my halfarsed opinion about it. but when i first heard the full 12 minute version of the temptations "papa was a rollin' stone" i was blown away and that song forever is one of my favourite song of all time.

but enough about that one since kendricks had left the temptations before they recorded that track and this song is not related to it at all, just wanted to tell what my favourite song is. this track i have no real relation to it other than that i heard it on a youtube clip featuring a frankie knuckles interview.

said youtube clip

in that clip he tells the story chicago djs tell about when disco died and good uptempo records were rare, they would use older records and edit them and whatever. then he proceeds to play this song and then he tries do an live edit on reel-to-reel like he did back in the day. that song blew my mind in how awesome and flamboyant it was. i had to have it and lucky me found the record in one of the second hand stores i usually find records. i think i bought the eddie kendricks lp, a sos band lp and a inner life lp.

there is a good dynamic in the song and the sense of over the top campy disco flamboyance along with moody breakdowns had me sold. the rest of the records on the lp are nice as well but i've only given them a couple of needle drops so i can't give a detailed opinion about it. edit: there are a number of great songs including "tenderoni" & "music man" and the whole record is brilliant.

this is one of those disco records that i've tried to use in sets and failed every time since it doesn't hold timing well and it doesn't give you any leeway. the few breaks are to short to extend and the intro is big and musical and extending that is just stupid. this is why i've yet to date never heard a good re-edit of the song, yes that super value edit is craptactular and just makes it boring. for the people that is going to say that there is a ten city cover, i am well aware of it but i am just not fond of it.

buy here (amazon) | youtube

edit, there is actually a really good edit of the song on soundcloud by john morales. he used to have it up for download but not anymore. scratchnsniff's version is good as well but the he did a crappy loop job in the breakdown, doesn't flow really well. did not like babyface/alex ferrazi's edit because of the drums he added and same goes for the "purple nights edit".

Sunday 3 July 2011

carl cox - phuture 2000 (hybrid remix)

this track was brought to my attention again and it hold a special place in my heart. it was amongst the first records i bought and it was a track i really loved. however it wasn't hybrid's remix i heard first but the original version and that version is immense. carl cox is one of those geezers who are a dj first and a producer second and to be honest his productions aren't the best but he has a few good ones.

the original is sort of driving techno with subtle trancy influences and it's the kind of stuff that would go down well in a tech-trance set. but hybrids remix was something else and it clicked with me instantly much like when i first heard "finished symphony". having said that and while i love this track i always feel it fuddles around too much in the midsection of the track.

when i've played it in mixes the last couple of times i've just played the first few minutes of the record and worked that with the same track on the next deck and worked some looping as well. reason being because it's quite a driving record but it just flatlines during the breakdown. i know that someone who reads this is going to say: "motherfucker, you are not supposed to play it like build-up record, it's a peak time track". i agree on that but i don't care since most of the times i have no patience for breakdowns, even if they are as good as in this record.

youtube

oh and i should mention that oliver liebs remixes are very good and so is deepsky's remix. lieb's versions sort of keep it somewhat faithful to the original but has a bit more rhythm and the bonus version is very oliver lieb style techno. deepskys version is a very driving and on point as well.

Saturday 2 July 2011

mandy moore - in my pocket

so before mandy moore decided she was going to drop the sugary blond pop princess look she had a few good tracks, i haven't heard any of her albums but i do remember the first time i heard "candy" and i think it was on mtv. this was during that whole boom of american pop singers, girlgroups and boygroups who had all of their tracks made by a collective of swedish producers (the cheiron crew for the most part). "candy" sounded a lot like robyn's '96 single "do you know (what it takes)" which i really liked back in the day.

youtube (this is the original swedish video and it's horrendous, the american one is much better)

mandy moore's track also had an amazing hex hector remix which had a trancy breakdown whom which got i hooked on. it was during that phase that hex hector was incorporating a lot of influences from the epic trance that was big in the clubs. his remix of jennifer lopez' "waiting for tonight" for instance is as far as i'm concerned epic trance and is a mighty fine track. one of my favourites of all time actually.

youtube

but anyways i didn't know about "in my pocket" until i heard the ending of it on mtv and it was some deal where it didn't announce what it was called at the end (which mtv always tends to do). but i heard that arabic-sounding loop and was intrigued and it further tickled my mind when i heard swedish/greek act antique's album and heard that same loop in one of the closing track "westoriental trip"

buy here (7digital) | youtube

ever since then i was sure that the loop used in "in my pocket" was a sample but no one seems to where the origin is and i've asked people who listen to more arabic music than me and they have no clue. one person said that it doesn't really sound proper arabic and it's probably made by some european or whatever who composed it to sound "middle eastern". i don't really buy that theory but it's plausible. there is that theory of the traditional asian/chinese riff (yunno the one in the intro to carl douglas' "kung fu fighting") is not asian at all but what a westerner thought that typical oriental music sounds like.

but yeah, my search to find the source will go and i thought for a long time that i would never find the name for mandy moores song until i one day in (the equivalence of) high school and i was transferring songs for my minidisc (yeah, i was that broke to still have a minidisc in 2002 when everyone else had discmans with rewritable discs or mp3players) and i heard the song on my mates mp3player and thought "finally found the name of this one". it's a really good song and i know other people think that thunderpuss knocked out a really great remix but i don't think much of it. they didn't use the loop or the melodics of the loop which brought it down for me.

buy here (amazon)* | youtube

* i know you can't buy from amazon's digital service outside of u.s. territory but it's not available on 7digital who i like better. but it's itunes anyways, not that people buy the tunes but i tend to put directions on where to buy the tunes since it's only fair.

Friday 1 July 2011

scrimshire - you will save me

after i heard jessica lauren's "uptown" and the awesome remix by red snapper i think i looked for other tracks by her or featuring here. discogs helped me locate this one which really had me intrigued after i heard a sample on juno.

it's the kind of music you would imagine someone like gilles peterson busting out and it's quite odd in it's tempo. this is the kind of stuff you might hear on the tru thoughts label except it's much faster. it rolls around 140 bpm and is this whirlwind of drums along with jessica lauren's keys. the start is quite tribal and it keeps that focus except it doesn't delve into the tribal clichés.

it's the drums take all the focus except for a bit near the end where it goes a bit into some sort of latin piano house stylings. that break gives the track an exciting flavour since it kicks back into the drums afterwards the piano break.

this track is the kind of thing that would interest fans of gilles peterson and the whole "west london" sound but i think it also would be perfect for a techno or a house dj as a tool since the vibrant percussion and drums could give an excellent backing to more static tracks. house dj's might also pitch it down and just play it with kerri chandler/joe claussell/dennis ferrer/osunlade body & soul/ibadan/yoruba style house.

buy here (junodigital)

oh i should mention the spiritual south remix. i don't think much of it since i think it sort of misses the point of the track however i do recommend their remix of max sedgley's happy instead.