Friday 30 September 2011

arctic monkeys - chun li's spinning bird kick

this one i discovered a while after the initial hype with the monkeys, i don't remember when but i do know it was after their first album. i had heard "i bet you look" and saw some where online that it had a b-side called "chun li's spinning bird kick".

i kind of liked the title and i wanted to hear what the lyrics were about. i thought it would be some street fighter II related thing but it turned out the song was instrumental. it starts out with a great intro with some feedback and someone saying "show us your special move" and then it eventually kicks right into the riff that the whole song is built around. it eventually goes into a few breaks and it's quite a nice tune.

i really like groove and i used it in a mixtape type thing i did called "claire & john". it was just a few really good tunes assembled together and i stringed it along with dialogue from john hughes' "the breakfast club". i mostly used dialogue with molly ringwald and judd nelson but on this one i used a bit from ally sheedy since it fit perfectly.

buy here (7digital)

Thursday 29 September 2011

the guzalos - uno (jesus pablo remix)

this one i discovered quite recently on radio when miriam pemberton opened up her set with this track. i remember this intro with just some bass & a piano and along with that a familiar vocal sample.

i was quite intrigued by the track and quite like it's sparse groove and darker bassline. it's quite melodic and a great break with the rising piano twinkles and above all of that is the ever present vocal sample. i found out what the track was on the intarwebs and had never heard of guzalos or jesus pablo.

but i like this piece of music and while the original isn't anything special, the remix by jesus pablo and tino camillo's remix were quite nice. the latter version smooths out the original and keeps it deeper and is also worth buying.

buy here (junodownload)
buy here (junodownload)

but about that vocal sample, it racked my head on where it was from and later i figured out that it's from a classic; being ce ce peniston's "finally". this song has crept up to me a lot in recent time. i think i heard it on radio a few times the last weeks or so and then i got linked to remake by [re:jazz]

and i have to say i quite liked that version as it was quite classy and ranked among the best renditions i've heard from the project. it became a jazz standard thing and while the vocalist isn't that good, the instrumentation is. i quite liked that it took some from the original intro but instead of a piano intro, it's the upright bass that plays the melody.

buy here (djtunes.com)

but yeah "finally" is one of those tunes that i loved from the first listen and while it's quite overplayed now it's always interesting to find all these versions of the song. it's been sampled a few times but it's been remade and remixed a lot over the years. i think the two versions most known is the original morales version and eric kupper's version for the '97 re-release.

but i found out that morales did more than one version in his original set of mixes, i'd always been under the impression that he did the choice version and his dub and that was that. but discogs revelead that morales did a few other version and i got to hear the journey mix.

and it's just incredible. a lovely near instrumental that is driven by string ostinato in the first couple of minutes. it then breaks down to what i think is some vibes and then just as peniston's ad lib come in, the strings and pianos come in full force. it also some further synth action in the end half of the track and i quite like that as well.

youtube

yeah it's quite apparent that "finally" isn't going to go away any way soon but i know i'll be on the lookout for a copy of the journey mix because i have to have that.

Wednesday 28 September 2011

mini reviews #4

fourth edition then and this one is long overdue and for this one i asked the person who was supposed to do volume three. she's been patient but i kept her in mind all this time so here goes. picking these ten tracks will be jamey tang, she's a fellow music enthusiast and spins some records on the side.

01. hamasaki ayumi - far away | todou
one of my favourite songs off the "duty" album.

02. dbridge - memory park | soundcloud
quite nice. the intro is lovely and the drumgroove, bassline and melodics are delightful.

03. nightwish - bye bye beautiful (orkidea remix) | soundcloud
i'd like this more without that plucked twinkly lead. it's quite on point without it.

04. lynx - disco dodo | youtube
i don't like this, it's too much of a gimmick and i think it should have been done at 135 bpm for a better result.

05. chapel of rest - the path (dub) | soundcloud (from 1:25:00 and onwards)
i think it's good, aaron curtis would later redo this track as mid atlantic science - the seventh day which is a fav of mine

06. the chemical brothers - hold tight london | youtube
it's quite nice and psychadelic. love the dubby effects but i think it would have been better without the drums.

07. misja helsloot - first second | youtube
it's ok, i may have liked this a a lot a few years ago but it does nothing for me now.

08. bt - memories in a sea of forgetfulness | youtube
it's very nice even though i think "the road to lostwithiel" is a stronger track.

09. yuck - rubber | youtube
this sounds a lot like kevin shields and it's very nice and druggy. very nice use of distortion.

10. the devlins - world outside | youtube
i like the bass but the rest of the song is just ok

thanks for those ten jamey. and as always i asked if she wanted to anything extra about her picks and her response was:
obviously, i like every track in this list, but i also tried to select tracks which i was interested in hearing what tony montana had to say about

Tuesday 27 September 2011

sugababes - overload

if i remember correctly i heard this one first in the autumn of '00 when it was pummeled on radio and was announced as the first single of a new british girlgroup. i think i liked it from the first listen since it had a decent groove and was good song. the other thing was that breakdown near the end of the song where the drums are stretched out and i really liked that.

it has also has a bassline that borrows from jefferson airplane's classic "white rabbit" and that was a thing that someone pointed out to me. however i couldn't seem to understand what those first lines of the hook said and even though i've looked those up on the intarwebs plenty of times, i always catch myself thinking: "what is she saying?".

this song ranks on top the best ones from the sugababes and i quite liked this group or at least their singles. never listened to an album of their but i love "overload", "round round", "in the middle" (because it's wholesale sample of moguai's "u know y") and a few others.

however i've not kept any eye on them ever since keisha buchanan left and i think the last thing that i actually liked was "about you now" and their cover of arctic monkey's "i bet that you look good". i don't really bothered by their recent work and with all of the change in members. it's just not the same, which is funny considering they are an assembled group.

buy here (7digital)

also look for the nick faber remix which is a nice slick house version that works the guitars very well. the capoeira twins version is a breaks thing leaning on uk garage but with a melodic slant. ignore the city slickers remix which can be heard youtube, it tries to be 4x4 garage but it's just annoying.

Monday 26 September 2011

janelle monaé - come alive (war of the roses)

i think i discovered monaé when national radio here played her single "cold war" extensively. i think i brushed it off in the beginning since it at a glance sounded like melanie fiona's "monday morning" which i despise. but all it needed was one concentrated listening and i noticed: 'hey those are the drums from outkast's "b.o.b."', a song i really love.

i got quite into the song and got into "tightrope" as well after hearing an amazing rendition by swedish choir klubbkören (see here). all these nods along with some hefty ones from various music mags giving her props.

listened to her album/suites and found that she is in fact the rightfully heir to prince, whitney houston, michael jackson, aretha franklin & james brown. but the thing that amazed me was the fact while she is a part of big boi's collective, she is actually signed to bad boy. she must really impressed sean combs or his a&r's in order to get all her creative input intact. because if it's some thing associated with combs and bad boy, it's that: whatever puffy says is what ever going to happen and that's final.

but the surprising factor is that she is still considered to be a bit under the radar which i found weird considering all the hype's been given. but i think her touring has won her a hefty amount of fans and one thing they all noticed is her magnificent finisher. she usually ends with "come alive (war of the roses)" and it's really something.

this song is one of the songs that really stands out on the album and it grabbed me instantly, just like "cold war" & "dance or die". i think the most noticable thing is that it borrows from the b-52's classic "rock lobster". the track has this nice swing to it but it's the quiet/loud dynamic that really stands out. it's not that the quiet parts are that quiet either but the loud parts are that over the top that it makes the intro and the bridges looking calm.

buy here (7digital)

however when it's live she blows up the song and set the epic level firmly at 12, no not eleven, twelve. because she's really taken all the right cues from james brown and extended this powerful three minute song to a 10+ minute epic. it has this middle piece which brings it down, down, down (yeah, i had to do that reference). later comes the big bikini whale and it's just pompous and epic.

it was my good friend jan henrik who linked me to the performance at this years glastonbury and it's just aweinspiringally awesome.

said live performance (youtube)

Sunday 25 September 2011

wamdue project - king of my castle

i don't really need to explain where i heard about this track as it was a big hit back in '98-99... or? no it wasn't per say. the common misconception about this track is that the original version is the roy malone remix since that was used for the video, radio airplay and most of the remixes are based on it.

i learned this in '03 or '04 when i heard the actual original version when i started getting into chris brann's work. malone's remix is much faster and strips off chris brann's disco/funk flavours and introduces a different melody. i believe that gaelle addison's vocal was pitched up as well.

the original is a great track and it's quite familiar to the wamdue kids tracks and the cuts he would do as ananda project. the thing that greets you at the start is of course those lush pads but the main course is that lovely live bass. along with the flute and trumpet that is introduced later it's just a stunning piece of music that would fit any spot in any deephouse set.

buy here (junodownload)

of course this song is much more known for the subsequent remixes and i talked about the roy malone version but there are much better ones. roger sanchez' version is quite nice and like it's breaky type bump groove. charles schillings version is a lovely deep and stripped down version with a hefty dose of atmosphere.

there is also a version by armin van buuren which a lot of the trancecrackers know about and that remix while it being quite nice as well it sounds like how olav basoski would have interpreted the roy malone mix. it's quite banging though and for the rest, i have no clue about and i really don't care.

i hope the original gets it's revenge eventually as it's the strongest version of this song and now that chris brann remade the track in 2008, he just weakened his own piece.

Friday 23 September 2011

humate - choose life (rob rives dub)

i think i discovered this back in '04/'05 when i got a cd-sampler with various tracks and copied them to my minidisc (as mentioned in a previous post i was still using a minidisc until '08). i didn't label the tracks and for a long time i didn't know what it was called because the disc was unlabelled.

for all i cared it was just that dark techno track with the distorted vocal. i think i didn't figure it out until a few years after when i was listening to the disc and went on the intarwebs and googled the lyrics. it was a remix of humate's "choose life", a rather big dancefloor hit if i remember correctly.

i believe the original versions and the thomas schumacher versions was most played by dj's. this version by rob rives was meant for the us market when deep dish licensed humate's original from superstition onto yoshitoshi.

this version isn't something i'd usually associate with rob rives as i know him for his spacier and soulful efforts along with françois k. his main version channelled the melodic bits from the original along with rives' own spacy touches.

the dub however is just murky & banging techno and it's luscious. i think it's on par with humate's own gee shock mix in terms of the techy rerubs and that version is excellent as well. i think what attracted me to this version is the fact that the vocal is sparse and i like the fact that he ran it through a vocoder since it sounds better.

buy here (junodownload)

Thursday 22 September 2011

miguel - all i want is you (with j. cole)

when listening to radio nowadays i tend to ignore the commercial stations and stations that just play the same "hits" all day. i'm quite a fan of the national radio stations here since they tend to break some new tunes and try to diversify.

i think it's funny that i'm starting out talking about this when i'm going to talk about a tune which is an r&b song which is the usual hit fodder. but this one just grabbed me for some reason and i think it's not because of miguel or j.cole, even though both do a good effort on this track.

it's salaam remi's production and i found it weird to hear this kind of r&b in the midst of the all the eurodance & house influences which "modern r&b" seems to incorporate. remi's production is just a punchy drumbreak, a nice bassline and some light guitar strums.

i don't even know who miguel is but i like his mellow and almost lethargic singing on this track. it fits this track perfectly and j.cole's verses is really good and i really like the callback to his mentor jay-z's song "onto the next one".

but still with these kind of songs, i still wonder if i'd still like the song if i had the song rammed down my throat ten times every day? and i would have to say that i have a hunch that the jaded fucker inside of me would scath the living crap out of the song. but i guess i was lucky with this song.

buy here (amazon)

Wednesday 21 September 2011

guillaume & the coutu dumonts - chilly willy

this one i discovered a few years ago come courtesy of a mate of mine named clovis bouhier. he's a dj extraordinare, producer & photographer and also a master of wearing the most ugliest shirts ever along with killer pilot shades and big luscious mou(lester)stache.

he hipped me onto this track and i had heard of guillaume and a few tracks of his and knew that he was quality. dumont had a knack at using old blues samples and i think he was better at it than the shower of producers that would jump on this thing the following years and are still doing it.

this one starts with a groove that kicks along nicely and then it introduces a reversed & affected vocal. that plays rather straight for the first half of the track where the groove stays four on the floor. in the second half of the track groove changes into a breakbeat and the vocal is chopped up. but the track just steps it up a notch with a trumpet and a whole different feeling.

it's like the track just wakes right fuck into life and the first time i heard this track i thought it was just like any house joint at the time. but then on the second or third listen i was in love with that second half and started to give the track more attention.

nowadays when i play this one out in sets i tend to mix it in from the second half as it's the stronger section and i tend to double up the track and loop and do some minor effect work. it's quite fun to fuck around with that section but i think the whole composition is a great tool for dj's. support this behemoth.

buy here (junodownload)

Tuesday 20 September 2011

speedy j - hayfever (helical scan mix)

found the single to speedy j's "ni go snix" in one in one of stockholms second-hand recordstores a while back along with and bought it. i didn't know it or but i found it un-plausible that a cdsingle with names such as speedy j, mike paradinas (µ-ziq) & stefan robbers would suck or anything. i did have a hunch that it wasn't the usual type techno that i associated speedy j with.

this was from the public energy era where speedy j made weirder techno and i believe some would call it "idm". but even me as a notorious pidgeonholer don't really go into that mess since i don't even know what is "idm" and what isn't "idm" and to be honest, i don't really care.

the single to "ni go snix" contained four versions of that and two versions of hayfever, unlike the latter the former was not on the "public energy #1" album. however the track of choice on the single was the rework by stefan robbers called the "helical scan mix".

robbers kicked up the tempo from the original and did this nice contrasting piece with fast-paced metallic drums and airy melodics. it's the latter thing which attracted to me it because i was skimming through the single. when i got to the break of the song i heard this lovely long sweeping pad on top of these crunchy drums and i loved it.

this part was taken from speedy j's original but i think he applied it very well and it really gives the track a nice edge. it also aids well from the pretense when robbers built up a dark bass and aggressive in the first half leading to it's going to be an evil breakcore tune. this track is quite a gem and i like listening to it a lot.

buy here (beatport)

Monday 19 September 2011

alicia keys - like you'll never see me again (seiji remix)

i heard about this one through the djricomixshow forums when they announced that "like you'll never see me again" would be the next single from her "as i am" album. to be honest i hadn't heard the original but i saw that it included a seiji remix so i was sold.

i was madly in love with his remix of erykah badu's "honey" and he was a producer i was quite a fan of in general. i heard a sample of the remix and really love it's fun 80's vibe. it's always weird remixing ballads and adding a different backdrop to it since in a few cases it contrasts to much with the nature of the original.

that was the issue i had with the uberzone remix of sarah mclachlan's "sweet surrender" where her emotional vocals clashed with the neo-electro breaks. seiji however seemed to find a good balance and i really loved the combination of the arpeggiated synth and the chunky bass.

buy here (7digital)

Saturday 17 September 2011

pink elln & atom heart - electronique (live casino montreux 07/06/92)

along with a few but very notable records, this live recording encapsulates trance music. i knew of it through the rising high compilation "secret life of trance 2" which is one of those compos that has almost no bad tracks. but of course that has to do with the fact that it was a label compilation and rising high held a very high quality.

this was a track i believe my friend jan henrik steffensen mentioned to me when i talked about this compilation like 6+ years ago or so. it's an 808 and a few synths, sequencers and machines and they release so much musical ideas into this simple groove.

i can easily delve into a few cliches now about talking on how real trance music is a journey and this music really rewards paying attention. basically everything ishkur and other writers have written before but i think the key thing is to actually expose this to the common mass.

and by common mass i mean the people who got into trance after the anthemic wave. i don't want to use the name the name that these kids are hyping their own hugathon to but yeah, that crowd. armin van buuren who was/is their god did an attempt at exposing music that went beyond the kiddie pool when he played ben liebrand's "modular 1" on his radioshow "a state of trance".

and it was recieved blandly by that crowd but it was gobsmacking since liebrand just went above and beyond what pink elln & atom heart did back in '92/'93 when they did these live shows. then again liebrand did his track in a studio and he probably worked on it a lot but none the less it's just the ideas of repetious entrancing music which was conveyed perfectly.

then again this live show/track isn't repetitous but it's very entrancing and with the right dj at hand, i'd love to hear it's working in a set since it could easily work as a tool. but yeah it should be listened to it's own and listen to the power of machines.

here is the point where i'd link you to the songs that i know used to be available on either juno or something like since platipus used to have it up but after looking on the intarwebs. it cannot be found. i'd link you to youtube links but it's pointless since both track that the ep contains are over 20 minutes long. so search for the thing yourselves.

Thursday 15 September 2011

adam goldstone - earthblow

i think i picked up the album this track is taken from in the big closing sale of megastore in sergels torg. the album is an house album like most and it has some good tracks but in the end it is a collection of cuts to dj with. it does however have some ideas on it's structure and i like the linernotes by goldstone.

goldstone (who passed away in 2006) had a few notable notable records and was mainly known for the tiny trendies single "the sky is not crying". his flavour of house had a strong dub influence and it's quite showing in this track. it also borrows some ideas from stone roses' classic "fools gold".

buy here (7digital)

Wednesday 14 September 2011

shy fx & t power - feelings (incognito remix)

in the mid 90's when both acid jazz and drum & bass where big there was some cases where jungle producers were asked to do remixes. so it was weird when i heard about the this remix. i don't know many cases where say galliano, the brand new heavies or this case incognito were asked to regroove jungle.

i don't know exactly when i heard about it but i do know 'feelings' was quite a big single. what incognito did for their version was to use the grooves and chords from the original and then called up the instrumentalists in the incognito camp to jam out a version.

killer work by father and son maunick (bluey and venom) on production and noel mckoy on lead vocals. also lovely trumpet work by dominic glover.

buy here (junodownload)

Tuesday 13 September 2011

aphex twin - phloam

this one i believe was introduced to through a really off-kilter mashup with cindy lauper's "true colours". this was back in '05 or '06 and i had really started to get into mashes and was skulking the "get your bootleg on" forum. it was always interesting to see what certain producers wanted to do other than the usual "take chart hit vocal and stick it onto some other instrumental".

eventually mashups would become collage sculpturings as in school of the bombsquads beatmaking but with less focus on making the hardest beat for chuck d to rap over. i've been a bit out of touch with that scene but i take a gander at that forum once every two months or so.

but that mashup sort of was more interesting in theory than in practice and i found the original "phloam" to be a cracking piece of techno. as with rdj's early beatdriven pieces it has those relentless rhythms, acid twerps and distorted dirty drum-machine sounds along with the usual smooth or haunting piece of pad or string.

i think this would make an intersting piece of music to drop right in the middle of a banging techno set. actually it would be better in a wobble/brostep set since the double kick rhythm and the breakbeat on top would contrast just the right amount to give the crowd that kick in the balls.

buy here (7digital)

Monday 12 September 2011

håkan hellström - dom där jag kommer ifrån

if there is one artist that had a lengthy queue for people wanting to kiss arse or fondling genitals, in sweden mind you, then it's håkan fucking hellström. he's tolerable but i can honestly say that i'm not a big fan but i do like some songs. this one for instance was introduced to me when i was listening to national radio station p3. the music policy executives at p3 are big fans and were excited once they got the promo back in october 2010.

they busted out this one and normally i would have just switched station but i was in a recordstore in stockholm and holding a big stack of cardboard singles. it kicked off with some lucious drums and a groove that didn't sound like hellström. infact it sounded like like a dfa records meets compost records thing. i was in love.

i would die happy if an instrumental would ever be released to be honest but to be honest i think i could easily rock the vocal version as well. those drums & bongos and that bassline and those lovely string stabs.

the only other håkan hellström track that i like very much is "klubbland" which has a similar vibe but is more driven by it's synth hook. that hook which is quasi nicked of an other song which i can't name but i'm still looking. for some reason i keep thinking it is patti labelle's "love, need & want you" or a george mccrae song whomwhich i can't remember the title of.

however i think "dom där jag kommer ifrån" one ups "klubbland" with since the performance of håkan is better in it.

buy here (7digital)

Friday 9 September 2011

refused - the deadly rhythm

i have no real relation with the refused other than i have enjoyed their works but i'm not really one to say on how much i've listened to their albums for ages. but a mate of mine was a big fan of the album "the shape of punk to come" and i've heard the whole shebang at his house. it's probably very influential but to be honest it's been praised and patted on it's back to death already so there's no need to do any indepth analysis.

my favourite song of the album is the one that grabbed me the hardest on the first listen. actually that's a lie, that song would be "new noise" which i heard on either ztv or radio. but after that it was "the deadly rhythm" which starts off with this lucious jazz sample but is broken up a thunderous beat.

the other thing i love is the fact they do use the jazz influence well and how it breaks down to an upright bass and the drums switch to a looser drum groove. something tells me that someday i will probably sample that bit and work it onto something else.

buy here (7digital)

Wednesday 7 September 2011

snooze - quiet alone

i've listened to this one a few times in headphones but it was in a lowkey manner but it really hit me when i had it on today. i have this one on a really good compo called "french fried funk vol. iv" released on kickin records. it's devoted to various french grooves as usual i found it in a charity shop.

this particular track is a version of jazz standard "i'm left alone" penned by billie holiday and mel waldron. i can't really say i was familiar with the original or any other renditions. it's a gorgeous but very sad piece though that deal with loneliness and with holiday's life i'm suprised it's not any more gut-wrenching.

french producer dominique dalcan's (aka snooze) version uses upright bass, jazz-like drums and a piano and it feels like he was trying to do just a subtle electronic version but still keeping the jazz feel. dalcan also hired jazz singer deborah brown and she delivers a magical performance that holds up the whole song.

buy here (junodownload)

Tuesday 6 September 2011

yakari - helix wave

this one is from an old swedish compilation called "echoes of the sun" released on loop. it's produced by cari lekebusch and it's no secret that a lot of the prominent swedish techno producers started off making trance and hardcore. most of them stopped around '94/'95 and i believe out the main core it was only robert leiner who continued to make trance.

lekebusch who has released tracks under a whole load of monikers only released on ep as yakari and this track wasn't on that ep but was exclusive to the compilation. i think it's definantly amongst the best tracks on the thing but then again the compo is quite patchy.

it's kicks off with an acid wiggle fading in and a few bars later lekebusch drops a deep but heavy tr 808 kick and track picks up steam quite fast. it's very much a lengthy hypnotic piece that revolves a few different motifs and has that feel that most early trance have. i fell in love with the track on the first listen but i must say it also has two things that irritate me a little.

first off is a sample of a baby laughing in the breakdown. i really have no idea why these kind of sounds gets into certain productions. the second thing is that it uses a panflute type synth-patch in the second half of the track. that works when it is a top layer with all the other sounds but when it's introduced on it's own it just feels like michael cretu.

however as i mention that some parts are weaker than the others they balance themselves and it's overall a stunning piece of music. if you are in sweden you can find this particular compilation in a few second hand stores. they tend to be in circulation along with all the other bollocks that noone wants. it's also well worth copping for the harmon eye tracks by peter benisch.

youtube

Monday 5 September 2011

the verve - lucky man (happiness more or less)

i guess everyone who didn't know who the verve was got an answer when they unleashed the monster that is "bittersweet symphony". i love that song but i guess there isn't anything to not like but i found myself taking a more liking to their third single of "urban hymns".

"lucky man" was introduced like most songs through mtv and i liked this song more than the previous single "the drugs don't work". i appreciate that song nowadays but i hated it with a passion back then. "lucky man" was the logical continuing after "bittersweet symphony" and it shared some sonical ideas and that glorious string ending. i think had the song taped off radio and used to listen to that quite a lot in my walkman.

a few years on i found some information on the intarwebs about a version of this song (and a version of "bittersweet symphony" labeled "msg") on the second cdsingle. the version is a dub of the song and removed most the guitar and leaves echoed fragments of the vocal. for someone like me that got into instrumental rock at that time and liked the aestethics of shoegaze; dub; post-rock and all that jazz, i was just over the moon.

it's to be noted that it is a dub and unlike "msg" which is more or a "remix" if we are going to be pidgeonholing twits. in "msg" then the song is stripped down to drums & bass and a whole lot of harps, strings (but not the andrew oldham strings), reverb and a dubby type vocal samples. it's lovely and it's like what james lavelle's remix of "bittersweet symphony" should have sounded like.

buy here (7digital)