but they fear us just the same

etta james - all the way down

2012-01-26T15:40:00.000+01:00

i was torn about talking about an etta james track or a shem mccauley/slacker track seeing as they both passed away recently. because i tend to talk about electronic music in general the obvious thing would be talk about the latter but it's more cliché to talk about the former.

i'm going with etta james because i've been blessed to hear a lot of her gems recently, and i'm not even talking about after she passed away. i've known who she was and that she could sing ferociously but a familiarity to her catalogue besides big ballad numbers like "at last" and "i'd rather go blind" was lost on me.

but like most people that get into funk, soul and all that jazz in recent times my nods towards discovering other tracks came from hiphop. but this time not in terms of sampling but hearing certain swedish dj's, producers and other profiles talk about certain songs.

swedish rapper petter mentioned "seven day fool" in an interview for his latest album and spouted out this platitude: "when a young singer talks about being dumped it doesn't resonate to me at all. but when etta james says that she is pissed because her man dumped her, you feel that in your heart".

(note "seven day fool" isn't about being dumped though, it's about being treated like shit by your partner and taking it because you really love him/her, and that is not the exact translated quote as i don't have the magazine in front of me)

while that is a horrendous cliché thing that can only lead to the everpresent "nothing was like it used to be", it did trigger me to want to hear the song. i liked it even though the lyrics disturbed me a bit but it was a mighty funky number. which led me to find more of that because while i like the soul ballads and whatnot, i like the funk.

fact was that it was rather easy to find just on youtube but on other blogs as well i could find recommendations on tracks. tracks like "jump into love", "you give me what you want" and this one "all the way down".

the track starts very norman whitfield like and it reminds me a lot of the temptation's "papa was a rollin' stone" (and that's not a bad thing since that's probably my favourite song of all time). but then it goes into a kind of sleek interpretation of what james brown was doing. etta james even had that same vocal presence of brown but a bit more raw.

the topic of the song is a bit like convoluted in the beginning since it comes off like she is saying loose words that fit the groove and is rhyming but listening closer it's about fame and class. very much like james brown in the songs that come off as ten minute jams ("talkin' loud & sayin' nothing") but have a topic, it's just it's lost in the groove.

i know i mentioning james brown (and by james brown i mean brown and the whole cast of j.b.'s) a lot now but my frame of references isn't completely big and some one else might say that they can name maybe sly stone or whatever but i have no clue. for me the kind of the raw funk that's set in it's groove and goes on for what can be fifteens minutes or even more is james brown since he used to let his band just go on and on and every once a while break but then go back to that groove.

should be noted that is much like modern dance music yes but anyways, this track is that groove for most of the track and it has one break/bridge and then it kicks back in. for the break it goes even more raw and bit more rock & roll with it's fuzz guitar and heavier bass groove. the blurb/review on allmusic says something about a janis joplin influence and while i wouldn't know about that since i haven't listened that much to joplin i do have to agree somewhat. it's definitely rocking, and rolling and funky. it's awesome.

buy here (7digital)

quant - miracle man

2012-01-25T16:45:00.000+01:00

i've talked about quant and jonathan bäckelie (ernesto) before, it's obvious that i'm a fan but when you make funky music like this you can not be. this track was the first single from quant's second album "getting out", an album that is very much quant but also had some change in the sound.

the singles were much more of the digital funk numbers that you could hear on "quantastical quantasm" but the album but they leaned towards the jazzier sound. sort of makes sense as this album wasn't released on dot as the previous one and it was on austrian label echo.chamber which worked the kruder & dorfmeister/rainier trüby sound.

but as mentioned this track was quant as i fell in love with on the first lp, the synth & keyboard work is accented and the funk is heavy. the resonant almost acid-like bass is thick and gives it a nice stanky groove. the drums are punchy as usual and the track in general sound like how a good modern interpretation of 80's r&b should sound.

almost forgot to talk about ernesto's effort on this, it's in his usual high standard. he really feels the track and does the prince thing quite well. sort of how jamie lidell performs in his early funkier numbers as well. bäckelie is a powerful singer and i understand why he sang on so many of the gonkyburg massive tracks.

buy here (amazon)

fc/kahuna - microcuts

2012-01-24T13:09:00.000+01:00

i picked up fc kahuna's "machine says yes" album a while ago and i did what i usually do when i take home a new piece of music. i skim through the tracks to asses if it's anything i can work in a mix or if it's a listening thing completely. i already knew some of the tracks and knew that there was going to be prime beats on it.

this one i almost thought it was going to be hiphop thing from the beginning, don't ask me how i came to that conclusion. but then the italo like melody came in and later a four on the floor came romping in, there was no doubt in my mind.

this was one of those album gems that's under the radar that could have an impact as long as the right person picks it up and works it again. i'm not saying that would be me but i will be working it. i love sort of mesh between the italo, the neo-electro and the bumping house groove.

you also have a stunning live bass is rumbling under neath and there is a whole deal of attention to detail. there is a number of small breaks that culminates with effects & filters and one goes into this double beat right before kicking in strong.

the melody sequence is also really hypnotic, it draws you in, well that has to be the reason since i've listened to this a few times in a row now and wants to be heard again. lovely track really. support and bang it out

buy here (junodownload)

mini reviews #8

2012-01-23T20:13:00.001+01:00

eight edition now and for this one i asked another person i've had in mind of asking when i started this thing. he is jack moss and is an opinionated fucker (like me) and a music journalist, or not. his blog states that he is not but he's made clear elsewhere that what he wants to do. he's not anyone shy of a debate about music, arts or anything in general.

he is also a person who doesn't like when people like to describe as genres or subgenres as being dead just because the trend of said genre/subgenre is over, it's all a matter of digging deeper and so forth. he also try to knock out a few mixes here and there and they are mostly themed in a special manner and try to feature tracks that noone (read, the beatport top 10 followers) plays. yunno, how a real dj does it but i'm not sure he'll call himself that either....

01. actraiser - wip3out | youtube
punchy trance that wears dub influences, i like this and i like the idea of that reverbed out compressed 909 snare but it's annoying in the end.

02. amoebassassin - the rollercoaster | youtube
it does flow like a rollercoaster with the builds & release within the track, only heard oakey's mix before. i enjoyed this one more than his.

03. amorphous androgynous - ephidrena | youtube
nice heavy electronic dub, i've heard this one before and i enjoy it a lot

04. deep space organisms - into the blue | spotify
i liked this one a lot, it's trancy and ultra-melodic but in that good way that is quite rare.

05. faust vs. dälek - t-electronique | youtube
the heavy drums and guitar feedback caught my attention, it can't go downhill from there and it didn't. top stuff.

06. geomatic - shesqi | youtube
more drums, quite liked this as well. sounds like a bit like juno reactor circa bible of dreams.

07. basil poledouris - tower of set | youtube
while i may appreciate it when it's played in it's context, i did not like this one at all.

08. shpongle - periscopes of consciousness (greg hunter edit) | youtube
the first half is horrendous but once the taiko drums kick in, it's tolerable but then the vocals come in again... ugh.

09. taho - the sun star | spotify
good melodic prog but it's also sort of wallpaper.

10. union jack - water drums | youtube
heard this one before plenty of times and as much it's near cretu & sanchez levels of cliché, i still like it.

thanks for those ten jack. and as always i asked if he wanted to anything extra about his picks and his response was:

these are all tracks I find "interesting". none of them are wildly experimental, more subtly subversive. i want to use most of them in a dj set but can't make them work, although this tracklist might flow weirdly well as a mixtape.

right on.

culture beat - der erdbeermund

2012-01-23T13:29:00.000+01:00

this song came to me when i was going through a crate of records that a mate of mine had bought for dirt cheap and asked if i wanted to rummage through. i knew that culture beat had done tracks before the big breakthrough known as "mr. vain", infact i like "no deeper meaning" and have worked it on some euro sets.

most true heads know that torsten fenslau (r.i.p.), the driving force and producer of culture beat (before his untimely death in late '93), had done credible records and really good tracks. most known is abfahrt tracks and it's not-quite-body, not-quite-trance classic "alone (it's me)" and a few other tracks.

i have been given to believe that certain projects were meant for the "underground" and some were for the mainstream and i think culture beat was not meant as underground but this track still shoots for it. it's a track that heads in the know talk about when mentioning fenslau and culture beat.

while i like the track and wouldn't mind playing it out the fact is and it's probably something that's been pointed out before, it's just a re-take on mr. fingers' "can you feel it". the big difference is that the vocal isn't chuck roberts or martin luther king as in larry heard's original, it's klaus kinski.

this track is based around his reading of the paul zech translation of a francois villon's poem (which in german is known as) "ich bin so wild nach deinem erdbeermund". this is intarwebs information since i had no clue on the origins of this one so i don't know the original french title, tried looking it up and i got nowhere.

fingers inc's original came out in '88 and as i wasn't even concious of that track but taken in consideration that the track did get a lot of attention back then and it probably became an insta-classic. maybe that statement is bullshit given the hype that concerns all early chicago and detroit releases but "can you feel it" must have reached this iconic status quite fast given how much it's still is being jizzed over.

fenslau put out his version the following year and saying that he was just remaking a house classic that i want to write seems stupid as even though the original was a hit, he could have easily redone joe smooth's "inside my mind" or whatever. i call this a remake of "can you feel it" but it does have some enought merit grant it to be played and not just be referred as a clone.

the dark acapella intro in "der erdbeermund" is lovely and sets a nice tone, the groove is really nice and while it does not have the same thump of the bassline or as good of a ride-hat that larry heard worked out it does give the same vibe. fenslau added some own melodies to the table including some plucked keys and a lovely guitar.

as i said it is heavily inspired by "can you feel it" but it does bring new aspects to the table and does them well. i do have to say though that given between the vocal and the instrumental, i'll mostly play the instrumental but i can easily play the vocal.

original vocal: listen here (youtube)

instrumental: listen here (youtube)

sweep - running up that hill (jam's labyrinth mix)

2012-01-22T13:36:00.000+01:00

i saw the cdsingle in a charityshop i believe and i've heard of this one before but i never actually heard the track but i think there was a consensus on that jam el mar's remix was a classic. then again i think the single was for 10kr and it had the name jam el mar on it, i would have bought it anyways or anyhow.

i did listen to the original cover version of the tune but i'll be damned if i remember how it sounded. the jam el mar remix however hit all the right notes and i did remember it because of that weird snare in the middle of the track.

jam el mar's take is very much like his works at the time and it's deep, very trancy and it just builds and builds. it's quite lovely, right from the intro that creates a just a smidge too much tension for the track. after that it's just subtle layers upon layers that slowly grows onto the track and the end result is quite hypnotic.

it doesn't even matter that el mar bring in a soft pad to play the original melody and create a setting for the vocal, the overall groove is that hypnotic and there isn't a disruption. the track just goes until it gets heavier and heavier and right at it's most powerful it stops there. the sweeping pad from the intro makes a re-appearence but in reverse and it still creates as much tension as in the beginning.

i think most people who like classic trance (this means '90-'96 not '99) know of this tune but i didn't and my life was slighty empty without it. now i just have to find a way to actually work the track into a set, something tells me i will fuck up a many of times until i get it right.

listen here (youtube)

j.axel - love letters (henrik b remix)

2012-01-21T15:57:00.000+01:00

i got the heads up on this one in 2005 and the skinny given to me was that it was gorgeous house stuff and that i should look into the works of jonathan axelsson (j.axel / ronin). i did so and discovered some great tracks including this and "you give me love" and a few others.

but what really surprised me was seeing that axelsson had gotten some of his fellow swedish techno producers to do remixes. most of the guys (pär grindvik, hardcell & devilfish) who did it where known for making much harder techno but people like joel mull (who did a remix with pär grindvik) and henrik b had done housier tracks even though they are associated with that swedish techno sound.

mind you i don't know if all of them have gone into trendier or slower territories after '07 since i really don't kept in touch nor care but i do know that henrik b had a change of sound so the idea of henrik b making house (and deep house) was a little off at the time.

anyhow henrik b's take on axelsson & suryanto's light deephouse-bordering-on-lounge vocal duet tune is a stunning track. he builds up a thicker groove but keeps the atmosphere that axelsson had in the original. much like the original this song is built around the vocal and it even takes a bigger role than the original.

the lush pads set a backdrop to the track while the groove grounds the track. the bassline is quite present since the track still has a stripped down feel. there isn't a heavy amount of useless layers that is meant for the big room soundsystems. it's just is and does what it does quite well. i fell in love with the tune almost on the first listen and i still think it works and should be supported to this day.

buy here (junodigital)

the spinners - working my way back to you/forgive me, girl

2012-01-19T13:22:00.000+01:00

heard this one first on kevin smith & scott mosier's smodcast on one especially good episode and they used it as an intro and it grabbed me instantly. it had that kind of not quite rhythm and blues and not quite disco thing to it even though it's a four on the floor and it's a danceable number.

i never heard it before or at least consciously nor in it's original form as it's mainly a cover of the four seasons song. the main difference is that it's a medley and features a second song in the later half of the song but it's similarly themed to the four seasons song.

while i think it's really groovy and like this song, it puzzles me as time after time these kind of songs eventually pop up and become big. reason why is the topical content of the song, which in this song is "i had you, i cheated on you, you broke up with me/you are pissed at me, i want you back and i really love you".

the spinners have some of the smoothest voices which makes this "apology" seem sincere but look at it in text form and it's just douchebaggery at it's worst. i don't get how people like these songs (no, i have idea either, well apart for the rhythm being good) but sure enough they get big.

just recently (well, the recent enough) there was that stupid jason derulo song called "whatcha said" and i absolutely despised that song. not just because he (and when i mean he, i mean the producers) sampled an imogen heap song called "hide & seek" that's about from the other point of view in this topic. it's that he sounded so insincere and like a jackass.

then again had the beat been better and jasons's voice been better or smoother like the spinners did i'd probably would have eaten up his story wholesale and been playing the song in my sets. i want to hate this song because it's not really a topic you should endorse but it's so good.

buy here (7digital)

reuben wilson - hold on, i'm comin'

2012-01-18T21:19:00.001+01:00

i bought this blue note compilation called "the lost grooves" in a charity shop along with some other compos but this one said, get this now right at the cover. the blurb on it says "rare and previously unissued slices of funk from the vaults of blue note '67-'70".

now granted that this record was put out in '95, so these cuts must have been explored later on but there are some heavyweight players featured as main artists and of course as sidemen. this track which kicks the compilation right off had me locked on and when i was going through the cd to see what was on it, i kept scrolling back to this track.

that's mostly because it kicks off in a right fashion from the get-go and with funk like this that spans for 8 minutes, it's a good sign the arrangement have enough faith to start heavy and it doesn't lose that weight. this track of course is the isaac hayes/david porter composition "hold on, i'm comin'" as made famous by sam & dave.

after falling in love with this track i did some small research on how something this good could have been left off a regular album. i found out later that it wasn't made at a regular album session hence why it wasn't on "love bug" originally (but it was added as a bonus track on the '97 reissue).

this track is done with an all-star cast with lee morgan on trumpet, george coleman on tenor saxophone, grant green on guitar, jimmy lewis on bass. lewis is uncredited on the liner notes of the album, i looked it up on discogs to find who played bass i heard a bass line on the track and wondered who it was.

i thought it was wilson playing the bass notes on his organ, as i've heard that in certain jazz combos (without a bass player) an organ player fills in the lower end. all of which, including wilson do a great effort on this and all their solo moments are top notch. the best moment has to be right between green's solo and wilson's second solo as there is a slight calm before the storm thing going on.

i left of introducing one and it's of course idris muhammed on drums and his rhythm is relentless and outstanding on it. infact his groove on this have inspired me to try to work it in my sets as this track is too funky not to be played with house music or broken beats or anything with a funky touch.

buy here (7digital)

amr diab - habibi (rhythm masters vocal mix)

2012-01-13T19:01:00.000+01:00

in 1996 amr diab managed to score a hit that was so big in the arabic countries it managed to cross over outside of the region. thanks to the diaspora mostly but some other reasons might had to something with it. the sound of record was the main reason as it sounded like a mellow gypsy kings record.

"nour al ain" (translation: "light of my eye") as the record is actually called really was everywhere that year and following. in common terms outside of the arabic countries it was known as "habibi" (translation "darling") since diab repeats the word constantly in the insanely catchy chorus.

i believe that it's with this song the dimuative phrase habibi-pop came about since it just personified the new type of arabic pop song that started borrowing influences outside of the region. much like the songs in the western pop charts happened to be about love (in one way or another) and repeated "baby", "darling" and other overused endearments the arabic songs started to use the same tricks

i never knew that amr diab even did a version with verses sung in english until i discovered this oddity on kazaa over ten years ago. i found the concept funny then and think it's still bizarre that this single had not just an english version (that was produced by none other than stuart chricton) but remixes by few of the big names at time (rhythm masters, klubbheads, matthew roberts/phunk phorce & shazz).

emi really tried to sell the record by making sure that if the beats were hot, people wouldn't mind the fact that diab's english verses were terrible. but then again most of the remixes focused on the hook beside shazz's main version. all off them who did the remixes in their distinctive sounds at the time. shazz with a lowkey deep house rerub, klubbheads doing a really stupid hard house meets speed garage version, rhythm masters with pumping house mixes and roberts going into 4x4 garage but with a slighty darker slant.

when i heard of the remix pack the first time the mixes i geared towards was rhythm masters but i can say nowadays that shazz's dub is great. i didn't like that one at all on the first listen but i think it's a great production but i'd liked a full instrumental since the occasional vocal stab just doesn't work.

however i figured out by doing some searching on junodownload that the remix is essentially a rework of one or two tracks from shazz's 1998 album. those tracks are "pray" and "escapade" and i'd play those two over this one had not it been a full instrumental.

but anyhow back to the rhythm masters main mix since i decided to focus on it. their modus operandi at the time fast, funky, pumping, clubby house and this is no exception. they kicked up the tempo right up and worked that hook to it's fullest but sped up without timestretching. there is heavy looping to match the pounding tribal big room backing track.

that's the key word, "big room" since this track isn't subtle in any way, even their dub (it's known as the diskfunktional mix) is big and funky with loops, samples and filters worked over that pounding beat but the dub has a slighty quainter break but it's not classy, it's just a few notches down.

truth be told that i'd play the dub if i'd bust out some older olav basoski records but the vocal mix doesn't hold up. neither does the dub really in modern stylings but with context of those type of record it's a fish in the waters. like with most of those records, funky techno and harder french filterfunk tracks the key way is to actually not play the whole record but the best parts.

listen here (youtube)

noticed that i didn't go in depth about klubbheads or matthew roberts remixes? yeah, if the rhythm masters dub barely holds up, the version by former and latter really doesn't. well completely not true, the lesser vocal of the robert's mixes is decent. but none the less klubbheads remix is a steaming hot pile of turd.

new order - blue monday (andrea remix)

2012-01-12T16:56:00.000+01:00

i remember i heard this version right around the time i discovered hardfloor's awesome remix of the original. back then i was not a fan of either two versions by jam & spoon but i slowly was turned around. it had to do with me not understanding dub at the time.

but infact i didn't like jam & spoon's main dance mix (called the "manuela mix") either since i didn't like how they transformed the original into a german trancer. but this concept with jam & spoon taking on a remix and turning in a dance version and a slow version wasn't new.

they did it also with moby's "go" where the slow mix mix is a two parter with first section being psuedo-ambient and the second section being a dub reggae section. that second direction is the better of the two parts and i even extended that for an edit, but i also sped it up from 60bpm (or actually 120bpm halftime) into 90bpm.

the section part of the "go" remix is how this version was approached, it introduces the bass almost upfront and then shortly after the riff slowly creeps up but in an synthy organ type patch. additional soundscaping is brought on such as pads that were from the original but tweaked a bit here.

i'm happy that i turned around on this because i would have been lost a great version of this classic. i also really like how the one phrase that jam & spoon used isn't completely the line that is associated with the song. "how does it feel" is how this song is known but then it goes into "when your heart grows cold". which is the ending lines but of the song but jam & spoon introduce the vocal with this line.

listen here (youtube)

stakka bo - great blondino (alien abduction mix)

2012-01-11T17:21:00.003+01:00

i'm quite sure that i never heard the original back when this was released but i did hear of the title because it sounded funny. stakka bo or johan renck is one of those guys who is a bit underrated musically, i've heard a lot of his backcatalogue on later days and he had great songs and really good lyrics.

"here we go" is one of those where i didn't know that it was a sarcastic commentary to modern consumerism, then again with my command of english i wouldn't know anything about that in '92. the song could easily been about how he much liked icecream, all that matters was that insanely catchy hook.

anyhow with this song i saw the single a while ago in a store, i don't remember if it was charityshop or secondhand but i wouldn't buy it but i saw names who did remixes on it that attracted me to it. first of all, lucky people center and nåid who did a slowburning dubby techno version, saint etienne who did a wonderful version that is very mid 90's saint etienne.

but of course the main attraction of me was the "alien abduction mix" by monkey mafia or jon carter. i've mentioned before that i'm a fan of jon carter and quite like his beatmaking. here he kicked up the tempo a bit and used a few selected bits from the original and went in his own direction.

that way happened to take a swift route to jamaica as it incorporates the "bam bam" riddim. infact the original bassline uses the same notes as the infamous riddim (who's mostly known as "murder she wrote" by chaka demus & pliers). carter doesn't stay in the dancehall completely and it overall sounds very mid 90's uk hiphop-flavoured big beat.

in the same lines another favourite monkey mafia remix that is an favourite, "filthy" originally by saint etienne. but then again also like "tear the whole joint up". this remix is very jon carter and it's really great.

buy here (7digital)

christian falk - make it right (true faith remix)

2012-01-10T18:02:00.000+01:00

the original is an all-time favourite track and it was a magic moment the first time i heard the song back in '99. it's an house tune for all time and a perfect set-starter with it's piano intro. falk really nailed it with the vibes and demetrius' soulful vocals on top.

so naturally this track is in my conciousness quite alot, much like stonebridge's remix of robin s or miranda's "gnocchi" to name a few. it was either on discogs or youtube i found this remix recently and i can honestly say that had i heard it only five years ago i'd wouldn't have liked it. but my mind was turned around on uk garage during this period.

i know that i didn't get uk garage except for a few tracks but i think it had to do with that i was exposed to crappy tunes. of course noone is going to like 2-step if they are introduced to it by something like shanks & bigfoot's "sweet like chocolate", but i was shown better tunes and i understood the music more.

for this version takes the original and tweaks the groove a bit and redoes the bass but keep the vibes (but here sounding more an electric piano than vibraphones). it's a good case of just translating the song into a slightly different vibe but where they still are rooted with that garage sound.

where as the original is a classic garage houser (in the style of masters at work and blaze) this is the uk sound and the breakbeat version of the that sound. ishkur states on his site that he doesn't get how the uk sound is any related to the us sound and the fact that he doesn't like the uk garage but there is a logical progression.

i am well aware that he says things as a joke or in means of provocation but it's just that modern uk garage does not sound like masters at work but that link is still there and mj cole and few others still can prove it. but in short the uk garage sound became the way it did because of natural progression where as the new york sound stayed in it's classic form.

to understand how there is a few key players and they are all americans, and there is a funny irony about the uk side of garage that prides itself of being a very british sound that even though their sound is distinctly british, all the innovations that pushed it towards the sound came from americans.

although armand van helden's influence came from england but basically without m.a.w. you wouldn't have m.k. and without m.k. you wouldn't have todd edwards who along with grant nelson (who was doing a combination of m.a.w. and m.k. stylings) would set the blueprint to original uk garage.

armand van helden is said to be the one to take the reese basslines (again, even though this is a jungle thing, it's from detroit) and the aestethics of jungle and make house out of it "inventing" speed garage or bassline house or 4x4 as it's called now.

anyone reading this might be wondering "what did any of this last bit have to do with the tune in question" and the answer is nothing, i just had to get that thing off my chest so back to the tune in mind. so yeah, when i first heard this version, accidentally by clicking the wrong thing on discogs it was the version of "make it right" that had been missing all my life.

listen here (youtube)

also there was other remixes than this that i actually heard a few years after i heard the original but back then i hated them since i thought the original was far superior. i don't know what i was thinking really since tommy musto's versions are sublime as well, both vocal and dub. but richie santana's and sal dano's efforts haven't resonated with me other than they are decent.

gina - let me free (vocoder version)

2012-01-09T17:42:00.000+01:00

i mentioned in the entry about the shep pettibone remix of new order that i was on a huge italo kick a while back. i got hung up on a lot of songs including this and after doing a lot of digging i found out that a whole truck load where churned out by a selected few. the most prolific person being the producer behind this track, being michiel van der kuy.

this producer was a master of working those synths and really knew how to write hits after another. this track wasn't a big prolific hit but could have been, it has a hook screaming "why wasn't this as big as the laserdance or koto tunes".

the track is very van der kuy from the groove and the way he works the drum-machines to that buzzing synthesizer play. compelete with different arpeggios in the verses/bridges and hook sections and string fills. it's glorious. the only downside with the original dance version (called so on the record) was the vocalist, i just didn't like her vocal timbre and it came of as too dramatic.

i think her tone and the way she accentuated her vocals in a diva-esque way just became epic overload. it doesn't work when having layers of synths and sounds that's loud and full and then slap on a big vocal. usually for something like this you'd wish for an instrumental, however no such version was made by van der kuy.

what he did instead was to have this version with the vocal sung with a vocoder. the result is glorious, awesome and fifty other adjectives like that because robots fit with this kind of synthy italo. i was obsessed with this tune after hearing it the first time and never forgot when i saw the record in a store clearance sale in stockholm. i had to have it. it's such an great track.

listen here (youtube)

nancy ajram - ashkaraballi

2012-01-08T16:48:00.000+01:00

i think i got introduced to nancy ajram like most people, that monster hit "ah wo noss". i heard that performed on so many weddings and other gatherings people from middleeast get down and party. reason being that it was infectious and a great habibi pop song.

later on i discovered older songs with ajram and at first i was quite infatuated with her first two albums who had production in a more traditional musicality. meaning less obvious influence of computers and machines. keyboards and synths has been a thing since the 90's but the clear influences of very western production came around in the late 90's and during the the 00's.

eventually you heard arabic singers do their songs on either tracks that sounds like cheiron, darkchild (or any hot production sound at the time) or like the turkish guys and straight on dance music. with prominent four on the floors and synths that comes straight out of the latest m.o.s. release.

this song from nancy ajram's third album sound sort of like a modern habibi pop production, there is obvious western influences but the traditional string instruments and durbakke is still prominent. since all habibi pop songs are about love and especially troublesome romance song, this of course is one of those.

it's a cheery production but ajram speaks of a lover that she gave her heart to but is playing games with her. she is sick of him eventually and tells him that she doesn't want him anymore. i really like this song but it's from a production point of view actually since my knowledge of arabic is only limited to understanding conversations and such.

that acapella intro with four backup singers doing the chorus grabbed me instantly, the second thing was the bassline which sounds like a synthy one but it moves in 16th notes and swings a bit as well. the track overall is well made and sounds like it could have been a single.

buy here (7digital)

seba & lenk - everyman for himself

2012-01-07T19:10:00.000+01:00

i think i found this one through discogs or google but i was looking to see which one was the last drum & bass production that jesper dahlbäck (here in his old lenk moniker) did. he'd quite often do them with fellow swedish producer seba who he worked with on various projects, both house&techno and jungle.

this one grabbed me instantly with it's crisp rolling breaks, sharp drum programming and heavy bassline but also the vocal by robert manos. his presence on tracks changes the whole thing and while this record could easily do without his vocal, it lights up quite nicely. he does his usual changing from wailing harmonies to singtalking but in the fast tempo.

manos' tells a story about a struggle in the city and life in general and he comes of both random and coherent, but not in that karl hyde style even though it reminds me much of it.

listen here (youtube)

mini reviews #7

2012-01-06T08:36:00.000+01:00

seventh edition now and as the last one, very long overdue. but it wasn't my fault, it was her fault sort of as she's been a bit unreachable. she's another one that i asked her from the beginning but she was reluctant but finally things have come to order. she is scottish woman by name of kayleigh mackie and she likes music as much as i but finds that i listen to mostly stuff that she's never heard of. as she was named after marillion's 1985 hit "kayleigh", it's her favourite song of all time..... i've never heard of that until i talked to her so she did introduce me to something new.

01. wiley - boom blast | youtube
this is prime dancefloor material but it does nothing for me.

02. the klf - what time is love (pure trance) | youtube
it's technically not trance, but this is trance and it's one of the best songs of all time

03. talla 2xlc - no in between (john o'callaghan remix) | youtube
it's not bad but this comes of as a poor mans version of paul van dyk's "the riddle" and the vocals are terrible.

04. pulp victim - the world (moonman club mix) | youtube
there are a few other version i rate higher than ferry's own remix but i do still enjoy this track.

05. avicci - levels | youtube
i tolerate this but i don't like it and i think the etta james sample works better in the context of flo rida's "good feeling" even though i hate that song. i think this song would have been better instrumental.

06. simian mobile disco - hustler (armand van helden remix) | youtube
i love the original and this comes of as more second rate felix da housecat than armand van helden. it's decent.

07. kidda - under the sun (herve's ain't no sunshine remix) | youtube
i like this one and the way herve worked those amen-like drums along with the piano in the break is nice

08. otis redding - hard to handle | youtube
this so funky. one of the best songs of all time.

09. nas - if i ruled the world (feat. lauryn hill) | youtube
classic song, not my favourite nas track but i love this song

10. foster the people - pumped up kicks | youtube
i've heard this song a few times and while it's really groovy and i like the bassline, the rest is nothing special.

thanks for those ten kayleigh. and as always i asked if she wanted to anything extra about his picks and her response was:

no.

right on.

mj cole - sincere (black science house ride)

2012-01-05T15:27:00.000+01:00

i think for this song i never heard the original first but the miguel migs remix since i was quite a fan of him when i was getting into the naked music sound. i quite enjoy migs version still but this tune has quite a few remixes and for the regular four on the floor ones i found that the most interesting ones came from when "sincere" was getting it's moment in the sun.

i bought the cdsingle on club tools which had the original versions, the birth of cool mix from german producer lars behrenroth (who did a great funky latin inspired version) and the black science orchestra mixes. beedle and his companions kept the vocal but redid the bass in a radical way. it's heavier and it wants to pull you down to the ground in a really good way.

there is a whole lot of the usual keyboard goodness that uschi classen adds on black science orchestra tracks. her solo spot in the middle of the track provide a good contrast to the strip down that follows where the bass gets even heavier if my ears aren't deceiving me.

the track follows a structure of a small build before taking it down again and then building and building. right where you get a wonderful coda with trumpet stabs, keyboard noodling, trombone hits and repeated chops of the vocal, it just all ends right when it's the heaviest.

now to be honest i think jazzanova's remix is much more classier but i think this one rates highest in all the versions of "sincere".

listen here (youtube)

legacy of sound - happy (full vocal gypsy mix)

2012-01-04T11:26:00.000+01:00

the original hadn't been in my mind for a while until i heard about the creation of the song and the project on a swedish radio show called "livet är en fest". the thing that popped in my head then was that i noticed how much it copied cece peniston's "finally".

i've heard the song countless times since it was a hit in '93 and i've danced to it countless times and i still really enjoy it. but the connection to "finally" which is also a childhood favourite was lost on me, even then i'd pick up on tracks copying each other. those piano riffs are near identical and the structure and production lifts a few other notes from david morales

this version i discovered much later and found it pleasing since it worked better in a setting where i'm playing eurodance. the problem with certain of the housier europroductions is that they sound less beefy with other tracks, especially when i mix it with other tracks that have the rolling basslines and driving rhyms. i also tend to pitch up eurodance and the original doesn't lend itself to that.

the band of gypsies who did the remix took the original and added fuller beats, more synth work and of course a really driving bassline. there is also some acidy twitters that really tickled my fancy and the piano molds together into the beat which works out really nice. with that the omnipresent "finally" influence is lost and it becomes a better track because of it.

listen here (grooveshark)

by the way, the original itself was produced and written by two gentlemen that went under the monikers "snowman" and "d-bag". they are nowadays some bigshots and record execs and are no other than peter swartling and anders bagge. while those names are synonymous for swedish idol, they have done more than that and are responsible for quite a few hit records.

azzido da bass - dooms night (dub mix)

2012-01-02T17:04:00.000+01:00

i can't remember the first time i heard the timo maas remix which is the defacto original of "dooms night" but i do know that i bought this exact record in a bargain bin about eight/nine years ago. while i've heard the original and dub mix when i listened to the record before i can honestly say that i never recalled how it sounded.

the only thing i remembered was that there was a reason why the all the versions done after this remix hit the scene was based on maas' rerub. the original sounded like a cross between stripped down german hardtrance and uk hardhouse and not in that charming way either. it had an awful lead that dumonde managed to salvage by replacing the sound in their remix.

but the reason this one came into my head was that i was talking to my mate ian about some tunes and he mentioned "dooms night". the thing that popped into my head was that i wonder if the original & dub is available anymore, since azzido da bass' revamp for the latest rerelease was based on maas remix as well.

there is the funny thing that on the releases after maas' remix, the original club mix is labeled "real club mix" because of the fact that timo maas' version being the most popular version to be played. sure enough you can find it on junodownload and other places but not the dub mix. i did a search for it and did find it on youtube.

i was always given to believe that maas used next to nothing from the original from the original but when i heard the dub again, things made more sense. it wasn't minimal usage at all but he didn't use the lead. he employed the backing bass rhythm that's covered up by the overly large synth-line as the lead. the distinct bass-womp is from the original and so is another sound that's somewhat prominent in his remix.

however just taking out most stupid element from the original doesn't salvage the dub mix, it still retains everything else. the result is a somewhat generic hard-trancer that personifies "umpa-umpaa", since it magnifies that very prominent offbeat bassline. i don't know if this track could work well in a modern context, i could have worked well as a punchy filler over ten years ago but it's far past it's expiration date.

listen here (youtube)

goldmine - mic love (raconteur box remix)

2011-12-30T18:13:00.000+01:00

i think i heard the original "mic love" back in the 90's since it was sort a small hit but i didn't recall it until i heard it on a swedish hiphop compilation that most younger heads that grew up in the 90's went and bought. goldmine was a hiphopgroup with a whole team of guys and one girl called deetah.

she was the one that managed to get a small career afterwards and i often heard that she was featured on a 2pac song. which is correct but still not, stonebridge gave her the opportunity to add a verse for his remix of pac and biggie's posthumous single "runnin'".

anyhow, that had nothing to do with this one but i bought the "mic love" 12 inch about ten years ago in a big sale and it started my fascination with the tune. mostly because of the bobby caldwell sample but it was quite nice and catchy.

the remixes for it was something i didn't care about until i saw the cd-single in a charityshop and bought it because of the fuck of it. somehow i don't get the point of buying the same song on different format but i was buying some other stuff and it was cheap.

raconteur who did two remixes and both removed the bobby caldwell sample that stonebridge & nick nice based their original and club mix around. they both lean on the r&b side but while the 'combo version' is a bit soulful, the 'box version' revolves around a stripped down beat and a talk-box.

i really like the bassline, the subtle melodic elements and of course the robot-soul. raconteur chopped up deetah's hook to only keep the first parts and had them then repeated and resang on the talkbox. it's a really good change and i like it especially since the original hook is bad. but with a little robotics it's passable.

emma bunton - crickets sing for anamaria (atfc's samba magic vocal)

2011-12-29T14:11:00.000+01:00

this one was discovered definitely through discogs because i really don't know what emma bunton did musically after the spice girls, apart from a jump in on the tin tin out cover of edie brickell/the new bohemian's "what i am". which was decent, captures sort of the tone of the original but not as good but the gang starr remix was a few notches better.

little sidetrack now but that gang starr remix was unreal in a few respects, mostly that premier would touch something inferior like that but also that guru mentions emma bunton's name in the adlibs for the intro. this same feeling came when i heard bunton's version of this astrud gilberto/marcos valle classic.

mostly because bunton was trying to sound like astrud gilberto and it's just bizarre really, but to be honest it wasn't for bunton i fell in love with this one. atfc captures the vibrant madness of a samba carnival and with the chords and rhythms from the original song he transforms it into a really funky tune.

the version i heard first was atfc's dub on fatboy slim's brazilian mixcd where it was excellent and i tried endlessly to get hold of that but could only find the vocal version which works. for the vocal mix atfc uses a lot from the vocal but keeps the chorus out and only uses the first parts from the first line but treated with effect and filter to segue into the bombast.

alexia - number one

2011-12-28T14:45:00.000+01:00

on sunday a mate of mine (ian) played mixed some tunes together on a shoutcastradio session, so did i after him but this has nothing to do with it. ian was playing an assortment of drum & bass tunes and halfway in he played a blu mar ten's "nobody here".

i'd never heard that before but once the vocal hit i kept thinking "i know those lyrics" and it hit me directly, they had borrowed the lyrics and vocal melody from this song. alexia's "number one" from '96, it's one of my favourites of all time and i'm saying that as someone who actually has:
a) several favourite eurodance favourites that isn't the most popular tunes out there (i.e. "what is love?" or "mr. vain" or "rhythm is a dancer", etc etc etc)
b) likes and spun a hefty dose of eurodance over the years.

now granted i can't for 100% sure say that this song is original since eurodance was built on borrowing elements. i looked around and i can't find where robyx (who produced this track) would have taken the hook from but do correct me if i'm wrong. anyhow, the lyric lines were changed a little bit sure enough it's the almost the same.

it was a fun revelation and it's always fascinating when someone or some people (in this case) takes something from a genre less credible and work it into something that is quite serious. since normally it's the other way around but this concept is employed a lot in recent years and especially when they try to make it darker or moodier than the carefree original.

but let's get back to the original since i have no relation to blu mar ten's track besides hearing it that it on sunday and then hearing it on junodownload later again. this track just clicked with me instantly and showed me that alexia had more hits than "uh la la la" because back in the 90's i hadn't heard anything besides that.

the track itself isn't any different from other eurodance track, it employs the usual driving beats and rolling basslines and catchy melodies. i'm not going to say that it was a whole new breed of tracks because it's a robyx production as per usual but he knew how to make good tunes, especially for corona and ice mc.

that piano melody and alexia's deliverance is just great and i hold this one dear to my heart as cheesy as that sounds. and i bet it's a big contradiction for me to like this considering i was bigging up something like jan jelinek, goran kafjes and emmanuel top just a while ago but that's me. i like almost everything and i'm not afraid to tell that.

buy here (djtunes)

also well recommended is noel sanger's remixes for the us market, they are trancy and well done and can work in a trance set even in modern standards. especially the dub

buy here (djtunes)

ralphie b. - massive (d ramirez remix)

2011-12-27T17:10:00.000+01:00

this isn't by far my favourite version of this track (that would be the mirco de govia remix) and i think it wasn't well received by most of us trancecrackers at the time. it did get some play by the people who were into the tribal prog thing but even then the version more looked at was the filterheadz remix.

i remember not getting a really big impression from the tune since it was like any other tribal technohouse type joint. the repeated "massive" vocal sample which wasn't in the original gave me a link to another remix that didn't use any parts of the originalm, the mauro picotto version of dj tiësto's "lethal industry". where picotto handed in a techno track with an occacional vocoded vocal sample saying, well you guess it.

d.ramirez approach to this track was to load in a heavy set of drums and let them do the working and they deliver. there is some other sounds used like some synth sounds but they are subtle and so are the uses from the original.

the overall misconception is that d.ramirez didn't use anything of the original since neither it's distinct bassline, melody or it's drumgroove are played as per usual. the bassline isn't present but elements from the melody appears and they are chopped up in a clever way.

it's these kind of thumpers that is fun to throw into techier sets for those choice subdued melodic stabs but also trancier sets where a heavy tribal groove does the job for buildups.

the cranberries - zombie (camel's hump mix)

2011-12-26T14:30:00.000+01:00

i was given a heads up on this one through acid ted's blog when he discovered it on one of cranberries greatest hits boxes/compos. he wasn't up on it since it featured dolores singing but i found it intriguing since it focused on the bassline. this is truly one of those orb remixes that's been under rug swept and not featured elsewhere, probably because it wasn't properly released until it appeared on the cranberries 2002 box set spanning their entire career (until then).

the many times i've listened to "zombie" after 1994 i've always been captivated by that low bassline and how it's in a almost dub reggae style. i've mentioned before that a lot of times i get more intrigued by the rhythm section of a song than the guitars or vocals and especially in rock music.

i tend to like the song more if it has a great bassline rather than a lengthy guitarwanking session. songs like the beatles' "taxman", the jams' "a town called malice", the breeders' "cannonball" and nirvana's "in bloom". "zombie" is often remembered for that hook and that heavy guitar but for me it's the bassline and the chord progression.

the reason i'm talking about "zombie" and this version was because of i had the displeasure of hearing mohombi's recent song "in your head" where he very tounge in cheek like replaces "zombie" with his artist name. the original then came to mind and of course that this remix that i heard a while back.

it starts out with a funny quote "you're about to discover how to create your own music, that's right. you no longer need to listen to the dumb music they play on the radio, now you can create your own dumb music. just look what you can do with this rhythm machine" and then it goes into what can only can be described as orbular.

heavy soundscapes, some random sounds, a deep and booming bass and all the trimmings you expect from dr alex patterson in his dubbiest labcoat. o'riordan's vocal is featured in the first half and a little bit at the end and while they sound random in this shape and form, they aren't really bothersome. i quite liked what the the orb did with this track and it's well interesting.

buy here (7digital)

new order - true faith (morning sun extended remix)

2011-12-24T14:07:00.000+01:00

i was on a huge italo kick a few years ago and i was digging into stuff that i knew my older sisters liked and things i heard when i was a little kid. i had remembered this song from mtv actually where the video was fascinating but i always mixed it up with fine young cannibal's "she drives me crazy".

the original song is amazing and is one my favourite new order songs but i guess it's kind of predictable as well since "true faith" was a big hit and i think most people have heard it about a million times. this version that was remixed by shep pettibone and what he did was he usually did at the time, he kept the integral part of the song and added a little more melody, groove and sorted it for the dj.

pettibone's version is quite italo and it's a whole load of energy, not saying that the original was not but it was focused a little more on bernard. pettibone sets up the original song a little more and much like 80's style remixing it lets the first three quarters of the song run almost in ordinary fashion. except it does included more production from pettibone.

the usual routine for that kind of remixing is right after the second chorus is to go into an extended instrumental bridge where it gets musical but simmers down to a groove. in a very release and tension style but the groove section was employed as mixouts, especially if it was a longer bridge.

pettibone actually employs this routine but keeps the bridge like the original where it was a guitar solo but loops one section of it. the mixout is actually employed at the end of the record and i think it's because the record was done in the late 80's and at that time dj's & producers started to employ the new form of track structure.

the records made by dj's had a groove in the beginning that builds up to the song and then, when the song is over it strips down to the groove again. this form would later be perverted as dj's making the music weren't that musical and kept it rawer and rawer because they didn't know how to play instruments.

the reason i love this version is that it keeps true to the original and uses all it's good parts and highlights it more. the keyword is more, more drama, more melody, more groove. it's a version i'll support for a long time.

buy here (7digital)

lovebirds - behind you

2011-12-22T15:09:00.000+01:00

i heard about "modern stalking" ep when it was first released four years ago and it was an really good solid four tracker where every track was on point. the tracks i locked into first was "can't get along" (with it's vance & suzzanne sample) and the title track "modern stalking" with it's rising moog sounds & boogie groove.

but i was compiling a mix for my friend bassel and i was much intending to work atleast one track from the ep and this one came into play. it had a really strong groove and i liked the way it teased in the george benson samples in on the build.

it was almost kenny dixon jr-esque and it worked really well when i played it after kdj's remix of "people make the world go round". of course it's not completely kdj since he doesn't filter and effect like the lovebirds/knee deep brothers do.

buy here (junodownload)

stina nordenstam - people are strange (u.n.k.l.e. remix)

2011-12-20T16:36:00.000+01:00

i remember hearing about this one about eight years ago and it was the combination of u.n.k.l.e. and stina nordenstam that intrigued me. i later found out that the original song was a cover of the doors and i liked their original but this remix rated higher in my book.

i heard the remix and liked it but didn't do anything substantial with it until i talked about it with my good friend jan henrik. he was one of those that caught fast onto dubstep and i remember asking him if he had a way of working the tune and he said: "pitch it up and you get something that you can play with dubstep".

i chose to talk about this one coming of the previous post with the bola remix of lamb since it is another tune that was dubstep before anyone (including me) knew that dubstep was. but it's hard of talking about things like matter without coming off as a pompous jackass but it's always fun to find progenitors.

listen here (youtube)

lamb - softly (bola remix)

2011-12-19T14:24:00.000+01:00

i bought the softly single at a secondhand shop four-five years ago or and i hadn't heard "softly" before but i knew of lamb and the fact that you could always find quality remixes on their singles. this one had two versions of "softly" by bola and red snapper and a version of "alien" by photek.

i listened to them all when i took it home but one version caught on fast and it was quite ahead of it's time. burial's sound was hot at the time and i found something that was in that sonical neighbourhood but made ten yours prior. it has the distinct shuffled drumrhythms along with heavy atmosphere sitting on top of heavy subbass.

only thing that is the track is at 6/8 since the original was made in that and i found it harder to work along with other tracks but i did anyways and when i didn't do that i listened to it a little to much. it's just infectious and you do get the same feeling as when you heard "archangel" or "broken home" the first time.

buy here (7digital)

veronica maggio - jag kommer (mash up international remix feat. kakan)

2011-12-17T15:18:00.000+01:00

the original track was one of the biggest tracks of the summer here in sweden and it's partly because of it's catchy lyrics. probably because of the not so discrete innuendo with the hook as well. it might have also be because the riff sounds like the strokes' "reptilia".

anyhow, i liked the tune but was fed up with it until this version appeared. mash up international's remix is a party tune with their distinct flavours. or their and their, it's kind of radioclit actually. but the biggest change apart from the new electronic groove is the verse added from club personality and blogger kakan hermansson.

also the fact that they edited the vocal and the lyrics to not being tongue in cheek about it's innuendo and played it up even more. kakan's verse helps even more and what she does is to spin the perspective from veronica's original where she talks about a guy into a girl on girl perspective.

this is not a stunt like "i kissed a girl" but kakan's upfront personality and the fact that she is lesbian, not bi-curious makes it more believable when she says lines such as "i stole you from your dj boyfriend / he couldn't give you what you wanted / you want to come in my mouth / screaming as loud as you can in your old maiden room".

i'd like to point out that i don't care if the roleplay was reversed and it could be a guy-on-guy thing, if the track is banging then the track is banging. there is no such thing as "too gay" in music.

listen here (soundcloud)

tosca - honey (funky lowlives dub)

2011-12-15T17:56:00.000+01:00

i bought the 'honey' remix lp along with the 'fuck dub' remix lp awhile back and i knew that there was a huge load of quality in them. both listening-wise and for djing purposes since there is a wide range of musical styles on those, and on the g-stone sphere in general.

since 'honey' sits in 100-110 bpm range the musical styles range from dubby to housey, some use a lot from the original and some use just the vocal sample/the percussion/the bassline. the rerub by funky lowlives take a lot from the original but adds more groove and beefs it up.

heavy emphasis on atmosphere and especially the drums which attracted me to it, it's also why i like faze action's version. there is a lot of vibrant percussive action set to a nice groove backed up a good bassline. this is a track that i'd pitch up a bit and work it with similar funky broken beat tunes or whatnot. lovely

buy here (junodownload)

asian dub foundation - dub mentality

2011-12-14T18:23:00.000+01:00

i've mentioned that i love the word 'dub' and i think this was the reason i decided to listen to this one that time over ten years ago. but i heard of asian dub foundation through a book i read once and in it was a small description of bhangra. i liked that word as well but not as much as dub.

i didn't listen to any of the artists or track mentioned in that book but some names was in my head forever. i listened to this because of it's title but the lyrics made sense from the get-go. they talk about dub, jungle and the fusion of ideas and how you shouldn't limit yourself to one sound.

to be really honest the track and also to a certain extent the band sounds like rage against the machine in the hands of a london jungle producer. that thing, while it sounds corny and really bad just works on this track. it has a great bassline and a violin part that is really lovely and i like the hook. it's also somewhat corny but makes sense: "dub is the preacher / jungle is the teacher".

when i first heard the track it was the version on the 'rafi's revenge' version which is a remix with a lot more dub influence and additional production. the original version 'r.a.f.i.' is much more simpler and removes a lot of the reverb and echo effects and whatnot. i enjoy that one but i'm used to the dub haze of the original and it sounds weird in these ears.

buy here (7digital)

natacha atlas - moustahil

2011-12-13T16:04:00.000+01:00

i came in contact with natacha atlas' music like most, through compilations and it was her voice that just did it for me. the production by the transglobal underground family was not completely lost on me but she had an amazing voice. it's a voice that sounds like if nancy ajram didn't sound so girly.

note that this is when she sings in arabic, which she does mostly but she does sing in english and it just sounds wrong. the big paradox is that atlas' isn't someone straight out egypt but someone with arabic parents and apparently someone who speaks her english with a strong london accent.

"moustahil" isn't one of those track but the second track on her second album 'halim' (named in honour of abdel halim hafez). in her concert routine this track is usually used with atlas doing her finest bellydancing in mind. the groove is quite perfect for that and it's a good interpretation of a modern arabic dance song without the over-use of western influences.

structurally it's quite in line with the traditional arabic songs & aesthetics that atlas' was trying to do. strong groove, vibrant drums, heavy use of keys and by keys i mean those very resonant synth patches prominent in music from the region.

he most apparent is the vocal arrangement which always have the main singer singing a verse or a hook and it's always repeated directly by backup-singers. a lot of times the main singer will be prominent on on the last parts of the repeat to add a vocal fill.

the structure also is have the symbiotic nature between vocal and instrumental part, especially in upbeat songs or songs obviously meant for dancing. since this music was built from a live setting and later transferred onto recording, singers know that they sometimes will take a backseat role for the groove.

as i mentioned since this is a very danceable song, in concert, atlas' has the band jam on sections and move her hips to everyone's delight. all the versions i've heard from concerts has been better than the album version but i still rate it high. it builds so much in it's first part and you have that two note bass groove just getting more intense along the way.

right after the instrumental middle eight, there is a drum fill and an "oh vocal stab" and then the track kicks in a slightly higher gear. the bass is very resonant and the tempo keeps getting faster and the keys and flute seem to fight over who can outdo each other. this chaotic coda gets more frantic and right at the peak, song ends.

she does the same structure live but while the album version goes up a few bpms it goes into double time in the span of thirty seconds or so. awesome really.

buy here (junodownload)

the future sound of london - glass

2011-12-12T11:49:00.000+01:00

i (re)discovered this one when i popped on the dead cities album some while ago and with all the goodness on that album one track stood out and it got stuck in my head instantly. that says a lot with an album filled with quality. because seriously, there is not single bad note on the album.

that repeated note sequence in "glass" is a tease really and you think it's going to be that all the way through since it's building and building. then that weird wonderful bent sound that comes straight out leftfield and then it dies down. and introduces this rhythm that will make you knod your head or move your feet as it's quite dancable.

the beat and it's time signature always puzzles me as it sounds both like a 4/4 and a 6/8. there is enough swing to throw me off and this is what i love about the track as well. the progression is quite natural but i do want a bit more rhythm.

buy here (junodownload)

motorbass - bad vibes (d.mix)

2011-12-11T18:32:00.000+01:00

i found the reissue of pansoul a while back and was quite chuffed to find that. i'm not going to say that i knew much about motorbass but i had heard a few tracks and liked their type of house. philippe zdar and etienne de crécy had this approach to making tracks that was almost kdj-esque.

their style of sampling wasn't as rough as their contemporaries and it had that nice druggy vibe to it. i particularity like their remix of björk's "isobel" where they built the whole thing around a huge chunk of the supreme's "my world is empty without you", compelete with ross' vocals and all. but they twist it around and overlap it with their own sounds and it sounds really nice.

this one was one of the tracks that i couldn't stop listening to when i first went through the album and it was just that nice atmosphere and groove that got me hooked. it uses a billie holiday vocal sample but i only figured that out after reading a discogs comment and hearing the original version on soundcloud.

the original is much more deep but this version adds a bit more bounce and rhythm. i know this version contradicts what i said about their sampling not being as rough but i don't care. both original and album remix are good tunes. the rhode loop that carries the track out along with the bass are quite infectious. the drums pack quite a punch and those rides and percussion grooves is saying all the good things to me.

tune is quite simply, french funk. as it should be. support and bang it out, it'll work even today.

buy here (7digital)

delerium - truly (infusion remix)

2011-12-09T19:45:00.000+01:00

this one i heard slightly after it was released, i remember that the signum remix was the one given out first to some of the big jocks at the time. signum had a bit of a second wind at the time and armin van buuren was supporting their works.

slightly after came infusion's remix to most peoples attention and i bought the cd-single right when it came out. it was a groovy piece of thing. it uses cut up vocals and a really buzzy bass groove. much like their remix of transformer 2's "just can get enough" for positiva's 10 years release. less trancy influences on this and it's quite focused on the groove and it's a heavy one.

the vocal is introduced rather nicely and i quite like nerina pallot's effort and lyrics on it but there is a part of me that'd like a dub. or at least a part with less vocals and i have tried my hand at editing the tune but it's infuriating since i get it to flow smoothly. the only other edit i've see was by one of the minilogue/son kite guys (i think it was mullaert) and i didn't think his edit worked.

anyhow, the other reason why i'd want to edit it is that the best part of the song, the coda that has the bass & synths going frantic in a good way. it's too short really. i have done some live mixing trickery a few times when i've doubled up the track and looped it up. it's a really banging track and it's a track i'll be playing for a long time.

buy here (7digital)

theatre of tragedy - lorelei (icon of coil remix)

2011-12-08T15:54:00.000+01:00

a mate of mine introduced me to the band over ten years ago, it was with the "aegis" album. i can't say that i listen to them often nowadays but i like that album. probably because the songs are quite easy to get into, and especially "lorelei".

i think i found out that there was a remix of this song when i googled the lyrics for "lorelei". i didn't look for it instantly but there was something intriguing. especially when i heard other icon of coil tracks and remixes. the end result is quite epic.

ishkur mentions that in his guide to electronic dance music that futurepop and epic trance are like lost cousins and with this track, it's true. it's a piece of stonking trance with great melodics and vocals by people that can hold a note. i think i gave the heads up on this tune once as, "it's good vocal trance".

the combination of the synth buzz and the guitar riffs is great especially in the hooks. another really nice thing is the piano that is tucked away in the back and is later given solo in the last two minutes. great tune.

buy here (7digital)

jan jelinek - moire

2011-12-07T12:02:00.000+01:00

this one came around at a time i was looking for things out of my comfort zone, and then in the big cloud of genre music either known as "downtempo" (or "electronica"). that is the name(s) most people, pidgeonholers and non-pidgeonholers use for all electronic music that is not danceable in a clubby manner.

i have no idea what to define it as it is part glitch, part dub, part "idm" and part michael jackson. i don't really care what it is, so for all intents and purposes it's techno. except it's not.

musically it is a haze of very fragile sounds, a lot of enclosed dub echoes and crackles. this piece comes in three shapes and forms and what separates them as they have similar themes is the additional sound. they are called "strings", "guitar & horns" and "piano & organ" but fact is the additional sound isn't as defined as it says on the tin.

they are part of the haze and by far the composition that is my favourite has to be "piano & organ" as sample evokes all the right shades of that nice cheery gloom (if that even makes sense). i think it's more predictable for me to say the "strings" as i used it in one of my mixes but while i think that version is awesome, it just made sense for that portion.

however, all of them are great.

piano & organ: buy here (junodownload)
strings: buy here (junodownload)
guitar & horns: buy here (junodownload)

armand van helden - alienz

2011-12-06T19:43:00.000+01:00

this was one of the tracks on armand's "2 future 4 u" album that i didn't like or understand until a few years later. i think it was because it was too noisy and too dark but once i got it, it was a revelation. to understand the track you'd have to like uk garage but maybe jungle as armand's experiment of taking jungle sounds & production aesthetics became uk garage.

it was in some interview that van helden said that noone cared for his small foray into jungle, so he decided to try to implement what he liked into his brand of house. and "alienz" is for all intents and purposes a techstep track at 130bpm. just punchy drums, dark pads and a massive reese.

that reese gave me the same shivering feeling as the first time i heard trace's mutant jazz remix. it's really rugged and the hard & aggressive nature gives any mix a right kick up to all the right places. i used it as the tail end peak for a mix i did a years ago and it was for all those reasons.

the mix starts off very disco flirting and soft and goes into deep and techy territories but goes back to some bright summery stuff and to contrast that section i unleashed this. lovely.

buy here (junodownload)

pete heller - nu acid (robert babicz remix)

2011-12-05T14:38:00.000+01:00

this one was discovered through juno and the reason i checked it out was for it's stupid name but i saw that robert babicz had done a remix. this combination intrigued me since it's quite well known that robert babicz aka rob acid put his tb303 in storage, or at least just put away, since '06 or so.

he'd do an a track or two with some serious acid tweaking but his output mostly lacked that resonant acid wiggle. now the original is the second track acid track that heller has done for bedrock and the first one was decent at best. this is better but it rides on a gimmick.

fact is that the original is heller's take on phuture's "acid trax", it kicks along the same and the riff is near identical. unlike "acid trax" that is that groove for twelve minutes, this goes into a kevin saunderson flirt in the middle and adds a few more ideas in. however for heller's "raw mix", the modus operandi is like the track it's covering.

babicz version is a fuller version of heller's track and it works the riff initially more like a bassline. it then breaks out the higher frequencies in sections but you understand by the first three minutes that babicz isn't going to join heller and remake "acid trax" in that fashion. probably because babicz already done his grand opus named "acid!" as his moniker origin back in 1995.

instead babicz works the groove and i fail to see how anyone can listen to this and not move their butt. every idea that heller used in his original is implemented better in babicz version. the kevin saunderson flirting (that's a nicer term for using the inner city "big fun" stab soun) is worked much more naturally.

the slight moody melodics is retranslated into the small breakdown where it's a nice contrast to the groove pounding away in the back. babicz's version is named "robert babicz smiling mix", and i'm smiling as well with this wonderful piece of house.

buy here (junodownload)

a hundred birds - black water

2011-12-02T11:29:00.000+01:00

this one i discovered a little while after hearing the a hundred birds remix of either âme's "rej" or lifelike & kris menace's "discopolis" and finding out that they did their remixes as a band/group/collective. it was kind of nice and i then heard about them making their own records and that did a cover of rolando's "jaguar" and then this one.

now "black water" is one of those detroit tunes that has become like a staple and i keep hearing that melody in a few other tunes (yunno how saunderson's/inner city's "good life" & "big fun" and derrick may's "string of life" melodies keep getting sampled and replayed all the time). this however is a quite faithful rendition but with a more groove and more focus on instrumentation.

the melody is quite present on this track like it was in the original and you hear in a multitude of ways, right from the get go it's from a vocal perspective, it's then joined by vibes and strings, i believe also a guitar and in pad form. but it's there and it's backed up by lovely percussion and drums and a punchy upright bass.

there is also a second version, here called the dub which starts off with the grand string arrangement that is the coda in the main version. it then goes into the groove but leaves off the melody but keeps some some occasional vocal stabs.

i love the main mix but i found this version to be the most useful in my sets and i tend to also pitch it down from it's 133 to the lower 120 mids for a better effect. any way you choose to work the tune or it's a fantastic version, hats off to those japanese people

buy here (junodownload)

madrid de los austrias - mas amor

2011-12-01T17:03:00.000+01:00

this one i discovered through a compilation and it's a big favourite of mine. it's the combination of a really good instrumentation, good programming and a memorable hook; both vocal and piano. there is almost nothing to not like, it just hits you really nice and sticks to you, almost.

the almost comes with that while i love the track and find myself humming the tune sometimes, it's bit on the sugary side and it doesn't have enough bite. also those lyrics, let's just say that some languages give you the freedom of singing all sorts of both sweet and twisted lyrics and they will be a delight in the mix.

carol c's vocal effort on this is lovely but yeah i liked it more when i didn't figure out most of the lyrics, but it doesn't detract too much of my liking. i don't even care that the tune is something that has a cafebar/lounge compilation written all over it, i still hold a deep place in my heart for this tune and think it's excellent.

buy here (junodownload)

i also recommend the remix by sergio flores' aka scientific soul, who got the resung vocals from the "weekender mix" to work with. that version was a bit more upbeat and had more of a swing to it and flores worked the groove nicely. a stonking funky house tune with a repeated flute riff and a chunky bassline set to a danceable rhythm. lovely

buy here (junodownload)

nicola conte - fuoco fatuo (koop remix)

2011-11-30T17:21:00.000+01:00

i think this one was though either juno or a compilation of sorts but i got interested since the names it had the names nicola conte and koop. koop i was already a big big fan of and enjoyed their remixes and wanted to hear their touch.

i hadn't heard the original before i heard the remix but found out later that it wasn't that different, koop kept the main groove and ideas from conte's original but added a bit more vibe and party into the action. another addition which leads me to like koop's version more is the fact that koop got earl zinger to do a number on their remix.

earl zinger who is rob gallagher's alter ego always does these spot on stories about clubland and dancemusic, always very tounge in cheek but they are also quite funny. most know "escape from ibiza" and "attack of the djs" and "story of the heaviest bassline ever" and i'm a big fan.

on this one zinger tells the story when he was going out to the club on rather rainy evening and finding himself trouble of getting in. zinger tries to get himself in on a couples night and he has some problems but with enough haggling and blagging, he is in.

i quite like the story and i like conte's groove and koop's additions which is a bit heavier bass and some piano. it's also a great introduction to koop, zinger & conte.

buy here (junodownload)

robin s - show me love (tonka's pianomission)

2011-11-29T19:54:00.000+01:00

most people know "show me love", or sort of, the stonebridge remix that is which is the defacto original. i'd give a history lesson on that one but let's just say that the original versions never saw any light of the day after 1991.

stonebridge's remix is one of the favourite tunes of all-time and i've rarely taken a liking to the other versions (sans than the '93 stonebridge/nick nice version) than it and lord knows there has been countless remixes. nothing really worked with me until i heard a version in laidback luke's 2005 sensation white set.

laidback luke was rocking out with some big tunes and being his usual creative self behind the decks and then halfway into the set. right after he dropped his cutup of bucketheads' "the bomb", he went into this oldschool section where he played small bits of some big tunes and anthems and he started with this awesome version of "show me love".

i'd never heard it before but i had heard tonka's main remix and thought it was respectful but just ok, but here tonka stripped it down to the piano's and the lovely pads he was rocking throughout the main version. it became a "piano-pella" of sorts and quite frankly, one of the best set-starter/enders out there. but also a killer acapella tool in the hands of a good dj.

shame that it isn't available on digital so here is the youtube link

listen here (youtube)

louis prima & keely smith - that old black magic

2011-11-28T11:07:00.000+01:00

i was introduced to this one through kevin smith & scott mosier's podcast that i used to listen to until i grew sick of hearing kevin smith talking about that he was an unmotivated fat stoner all the time. this track was a backing track when they riffed/discussed the harry potter books and i noticed it when i heard that drum fill.

i hadn't heard "that old black magic" before, nor any other versions of the song but with some close listening and some googling i found it and my heart lept with joy. i've mentioned before that i get excited by drums and especially with funky and weird rhythms. love those drumbreaks and i saw this track first a cool track but also a source of sampling.

after chopping it up a few times and using the drums and cymbals for a couple of beats and found that i could do much with it, an idea came into my head. i had sometimes in my sets played funk, disco, soul and danceable jazz with the house and other things (i.e. i wanted to be mr. scruff and gilles peterson). the idea was to do a subtle edit since the track moved around the 130 bpm region (sort of, it fluctuates a lot).

i had the edit mapped out in my head and first it was to time stretch the whole thing and work it like that, but after a while with ableton and audition, i gave up since i was just destroying the track. then i came up with another idea which was basically dropping a beat that filtered in the looped drum fill and running the track almost as per usual but with some additional looping at choice sections.

this idea is what i would do if i ever should finish it, i've just been lazy with it and haven't done it but after a while there was also another idea that i thought of. it came to me since there was a couple of tracks that used samples of these kind of tracks and worked them in a special manner, i'm of course talking about "we don't speak americano".

the problem was this idea really scared me since i knew exactly what to do and which parts to use effectively (it would be the drums, the piano bits and some of louis prima's louder moments). it scared me since since i thought that it was too disrespectful.

but i never made any edit and the times i have played it, i just dropped it like that since it works it's awesome as it is. i really like the vocal counteraction with smith and prima and the tight orchestration and how punchy the rhythm section is. what a lovely song.

buy here (7digital)

microwave prince - eternal light

2011-11-26T16:05:00.000+01:00

i think this was introduced to me in 2007 and it was while i was re-acquainting myself with other older microwave prince tracks. it struck a chord with me as i was quite into longer deeper records at the time and this just fit the mould perfectly.

the track is a long 10 minute groove that picks up more elements very slowly and has a lot of atmosphere. it's one of those records that is versitile enough to be pitched down and pitched up for greater effect but i think it has it's places in the bookends of a set.

i've mostly taken the pitched down route since it works well with the dubbier deephouse records i have played sometimes. infact the basic channel aficionados could work this one also, if they don't know it already.

buy here (junodownload)

universal principles - inspirational breaks

2011-11-25T13:48:00.000+01:00

i found this some years ago on a soma label compilation and it was something that clicked with me instantly. a quite bumping piece of funky broken beat with punchy drums, lovely strings and nice rhodes like stabs. truth be told the name of the track is quite pretentious but it's makes sort of sense if you hear the vocal 4/4 version "inspiration + light"

the drums was the thing i got attracted to the most and it was partly due to it's use of the break from coke escovedo's b-boy classic "i wouldn't change a thing", the other factor was those loud ride hats. the melodics carry out like it's 4x4 house counterpart but with more of a swing.

it's still rhythmical stabby notes that go through a couple of patterns and progressions but it carries out more naturally given the rhythm and nature of the track.

buy here (junodownload)

blundetto - nautilus

2011-11-24T11:02:00.000+01:00

i discovered this one though soundcloud while doing a search on bob james' classic "nautilus". i had the bassline of "nautilus" stuck in my head and given the iconic status of the track and how people tend to find new ways of chop it up or recut the track, i wanted to see if there was something interesting.

i was quite disappointed sans a couple of versions; one that used reverb and effects to a decent effects, one that re-sequenced the tracks and chopped it up a nice manner, and then this version. a cover of "nautilus" and i actually know that their is a few of them around, like nuyorican soul (aka masters at work)'s version but i don't like that one.

this one came from a band i've never heard of but it was the fact that blundetto labeled it "jazz / reggae / deep soul" that got my interest. the sounds were like bob james' original but more swing and dub influenced. it did have it's weaker sides and one has to do with that the piano click with me like when james' plays the blues-y section (which if you read my post about mary j. blige's "sincerity", is my favourite part).

however it compensates that with some improvisation and a few new ideas that fits really well to the song. after a listen or three i had to see if it was available for purchasing. after looking on google, discogs and juno i found it and saw that there was also a dub which is also really good. well recommended.

buy here (junodownload)

future breeze - heulender wolf

2011-11-23T16:26:00.000+01:00

this one is on the b-side to the single "read my lips" and it was one of those tracks that future breeze used to do before scoring a hit with the pizzicato riffing "why don't you dance with me?". all the songs on the "read my lips" ep had that acidy trance sensibility that le petit prince was known for.

which explained why they were on the label but their later tracks were on alphabet city but the thing is that it's all in the same label umbrella. the alphabet city label (who is founded by marc romboy and klaus derichs aka marc et claude) had a trick that they did on their releases.

that trick isn't limited to them but to many labels and acts (jam & spoon were infamous in doing this as well, see "right in the night"/"follow me!" and "angel"/"can you feel it"), used it with certain releases. the trick is to put out an ep or release and have a quite (or really) commercial a-side and then have a couple of cracking b-sides that were for the underground.

you can then score a hit on charts that'll give the artist/label some commercial recognition and also have some underground appeal. it should be noted that this trick also came a high price as too much of these shenanigans will destroy all your credibility as a serious producer (that is if one was trying to have the cake and eat it too),

in this case "read my lips" were joined by "heulender wolf" and "islamic nights", two stonking acid trancers that are on point and well deserving to be played out. "heulender wolf" starts with a wiggly acidline and carries on in that fashion, quite boshy but it's my kind of bosh. "islamic nights" is tamed down in relation to the former and tones the acid down but is also a good track.

listen here (youtube)

now for some reason heulender wolf isn't available for purchase since that hasn't been put up on digital yet but "islamic nights" has since that was included onto future breeze's first album "why?".

buy here (junodownload)

iio - rapture (john creamer & stephane k remix)

2011-11-22T13:29:00.000+01:00

i know that talking about "rapture" is redundant since markus moser and made records seems to issue out new remasters and repackagings of older stuff every week or so. reason for that is that markus moser haven't made a hit record on his own back.

also ever since nadia ali figured out that moser was holding her back and her vocals and the productions from other producers she did a wise move of breaking out and becoming an own star. shame that nadia ali seems to also try to live of her old hits since "rapture" have been resung and re-released under her own name.

anyhow this record when it came out was everywhere and ministry of sound's promotional team didn't spare any expenses of ramming the track down peoples and djs throats. i think it has quite over ten different remixes in it's initial run and it didn't stop there.

i heard the original first but then it was armin van buuren's remix and later riva's and creamer & k's versions. the latter is the one that stuck with me to date with it's heavy groove, effected vocals and that bassline that correlates well with the repeated staccato riff.

john creamer & stephane k were excellent at this kind of prog and they knocked out a couple of tracks and remixes around this time that had heavy chugging grooves and deep basslines. this version however had flaws that bugs me even to this day; the breakdown and how it goes out from the break.

i think it takes the tempo down just a few notches more than it should and this is where i found paul van dyk's reworking, for his "the politics of dancing" mixcd, a nice solution since it kicked it in again more effectively and added a nice acidline to the mix.

rumour has it that van dyk did the rework since m.o.s. pushed him to include "rapture" and since none of the other versions wouldn't work he took it into the machine and beefed up the creamer & k remix.

buy all of the versions here (junodownload)

but ignore all of the first ones since they are really crap.

ananda project - secrets (king britt's sunset mix)

2011-11-21T11:21:00.000+01:00

heard this one when it came out probably, i was into king britt and was quite into chris brann and thought version was magic, right from the sample i heard on juno. it's quite a subdued version that king britt does for this one and it's very sexy.

the original is a great track and king britt takes a lot from the original and then just works on a slightly different groove. i think the main difference is that it's not a four on the floor and uses a softer breakbeat and that the track is loaded with atmosphere.

the thing that attracted to me was that sexy vibe and how it reminded me of one my alltime favourite tracks, the miguel migs dub of britney's "stronger". it's just early night deep house at it's warmest and lushest.

buy here (junodownload)

nine inch nails - the hand that feeds (the dfa remix)

2011-11-20T18:47:00.000+01:00

this definitely came from a heads up on some website and at the time neither nine inch nails or the dfa was on my radar. nin was something i didn't care about sans a few songs that i liked ("leaving hope" for instance) and the dfa was just something i wouldn't get until i heard their remix of justin timberlake's "my love" and a few other tracks.

what i understood from those tracks was that dfa (both the core and whole label group) worked with material that they self played and their remixes and productions could be seen as jams sometimes. this is one those remixes and it's quite disco in that edgy stripped down way.

it does borrow slight influences from moroder/belotte but i guess that whole thing is second nature since they were the starting point with that sound. but it goes beyond his synth workouts, there is live drums on here and also live bass.

while the main mix is awesome and is really good there is two versions that the dfa did that appear on promos and some slightly elusive releases of "the hand that feeds" single that are jams. obviously they were played before or after or when making the main remix and then that was edited down to make the main version.

some of the ideas presented in the main version are explored upon more and the key thing is the fact that there is a female vocal that sings lines from donna summer's "i feel love". along with that is more noodling on the synths and just more or that lovely thing. shame these versions didn't get a wider release but anyhow.

buy here (7digital)

listen to version one (youtube) | listen to version two (youtube)

steve angello - teasing mr. charlie

2011-11-19T18:55:00.000+01:00

this track has been on my mind ever since i had the displeasure of hearing lmfao's "sexy and i know it". i believe that it's actually afrojack's "pacha on acid" which was a bigger source of inspiration for that one but the riff sounds more like steve angello's track.

now all tracks in question aren't original in one bit and people has been doing records like that since the eighties. but for all intents and purposes and considering acts like lmfao seem to sample/borrow from newer records, i'm going to say they clearly did draw ideas from these two (and other tracks).

anyhow "teasing mr. charlie" came at a point where the s.h.m had firmly established themselves in clubland and they seemed to do no wrong. i either heard it out in the club or in a set but it was a simple track that worked extremely well. one infectious acidlike bassline and a catchy rhythm and some filtering. boom.

buy here (junodownload)

goldfrapp - strict machine (benny benassi dub)

2011-11-17T11:52:00.000+01:00

this is one of those remixes that changed my view on the benassi cousins for one inkling during the time they seemed to "satisfaction-ise" everything with their remixes and tracks. they later toned it down and kept it to having their signature sound being the sidechaining but not the other parts from "satisfaction".

i think they did two versions of this remix and that the main mix is infaction a sfaction version but the dub is the more interesting one. it's this resonant pumping piece of "not quite acid house" and "pumping clobb muzik" had it been released five years earlier.

it kicks along with a bassline that filters in the rest and it gets right into action quite fast and has a line from the original saying "i'm in love" repeated. benassi does throw a link to moroder/donna summer but so did goldfrapp sort of.

the breakdown is one of those that fades down to silence and i think i discovered this one before i went on a tirades against those kind of breakdowns which is why i haven't treated the track like leper. it also has to do that the break does sort of suit the purpose of the track since it's energy level is set to firmly on eleven in all points (sans the break).

youtube

melo - upp till dig

2011-11-16T14:36:00.000+01:00

bought the song and single in one of the stores on st. eriksplan (stockholm) in '04-'05, can't remember which because i've bought a lot from the three-four stores in that area. i think i picked it up on the strength that rasmus faber and alf tumble was on production. i don't remember if i'd heard of melo but i think he was starting to become a name on the scene.

the curiosity of this track however is the fact that it's 2-step with swedish vocals, the former isn't surprising (in retrospect) as i found out later that tumble and faber but mostly tumble had dabbled with 2-step around the 2000's.

but with swedish vocals and it's the same style of r&b vocals that have been cut up and shaped much like how the uk producers used to do, left me thinking "huh" on the first listen. reason being is because hearing this kind of music but not with english vocals is wierd, it was like that when people heard the first hiphop song on swedish or r&b song or soul song in swedish.

but it's only weird since the music is so associated with another country and in the case of 2-step and garage, that's the uk and this track really tries to sound the uk. but with a swedish vocal. it took a few listens to get over that but after that i was vibing to it because it was a nice bumping piece of 2-step.

the other weird thing was that i was picking up on 2-step and whatnot in 2005 when that the whole hype of that music had died and the music was becoming what is now 4x4, grime and dubstep. yeah, this track is quite an oddity but a cool one.

listen here (grooveshark)

oh since i mentioned r&b, soul and hiphop in swedish. my opinion is that swedish hiphop is awesome and was nice even when everyone wanted to sound like americans. but soul and r&b in swedish (when trying to sound american) is still a quite a joke and there has only been a few records that's been good.

hott 22 - want you

2011-11-15T15:14:00.000+01:00

as i mentioned in the post about kmc/live element i am a fan of the gossip records production crew and i heard about this one right when it was released. loved this right from the get-go and thought it was a lovely piece of disco house. the main thing that got me hooked on it was the fact that they used vocal samples of a favourite song of mine, annie's "the greatest hit"

buy here (junodownload)

"the greatest hit" is quite known for being annie's first big hit and it was produced by tore kroknes (aka erot). erot really knew how to shape tunes and he was quite creative with samples and with the sound in general. on this one he used the bassline from madonna's "everybody".

buy here (7digital)

but much like when kanye used a vocal sample from m.i.a.'s "paper planes" (which samples the clash's "straight to hell") for "swagga like us", the end result of this sample-chain doesn't have the influence from the original track (in this case madonna's song).

what hott 22 did was to borrow two lines and set it to this filtertastic loop which has me confused since i can't identify where they used that from. i was rocking this for most part of '08 and '09 and thinks it deserves play. it's be cool to work it with the longer annie dub or original mix.

buy here (junodownload)

oh yeah, i recommend most versions on the digital ep for that annie track. especially the b-side "i will get on" which is also produced by erot.

lasgo - alone (hiver & hammer instrumental)

2011-11-14T14:28:00.000+01:00

believe a mate of mine tipped me off on this one on the basis that hiver & hammer's remixes at the time was on point. he was right also, they were quite cracking and they saved a lot of tunes with their versions and had a really good idea on how to build tunes, sort of.

i bought the cdsingle for this one at stockholm recordstore pitch in their second location at gamla brogatan. it was on positiva and i remember that i bought it cheap and was pleasantly surprised when i took it home. reason being was while the version on the cd was billed "hiver & hammer's ground control mix" (in this case meaning the main remix with full vocals) it was the instrumental.

which was the only version worth bothering with any way, this remix takes the only good bits from the original: a sound effect. the rest is a cracking hiver & hammer track and it has found it's way into my sets plenty of times. the one thing that bugged me with quite a few of their remixes and productions was either horrible vocals or the fact that they had these great builds and everything was mintos, except for a lengthy breakdown.

to the defense their breakdowns seemed to have a rhythm behind it but it did take down the energy at a point where it wasn't needed at all. in this case it had one of these longer drops but it used a break loop for it's rhythm. i quite enjoy this track, how non-credible lasgo is and i am one of those people that find pleasure in finding good versions of cheesy tracks.

the only thing is that often these versions tend to be slightly or heavy reworked version of other their own productions and a small (or in many cases slim to none) bit from the tune they are remixing. you might aswell buy and support the original tune (that the remixes based their remix on) then.

i don't know if this one is heavily based on anything else besides a small influence from other remixes done at the same time so i'll continue support this one.

buy here (junodownload)

abdel halim hafez - gana el hawa

2011-11-13T15:50:00.000+01:00

this was a song i thought was by george wassouf had done since i was introduced to his version first. every time i heard it on weddings, parties and all sorts of gatherings where people from the middleeast got together and danced etc. etc, it was in the arrangement that wassouf used.

later i was told that all wassouf did was update it and it was actually a song by abdel halim hafez. the thing that really captivated me with hafez version was the live version i saw on youtube. my mother mentioned hafez was a carismatic guy with enormous stage presence and sure enough the video clip showed it well.

said youtube clip

my favourite point is where he just teases the crowd and has his band play the introduction and first part and right where it's expected that he goes in he lets the band play the melody again. it's a marvelous song and thanks to youtube becoming bigger and some videos being uploaded from original sources you can see other performances as well.

like this one

that's from tunisia and it's a great performance as well. the "studio" versions that can be bought are almost as good as the live versions but they seem a bit tame. probably just me.

buy here (7digital)

kmc - i feel so fine (live element remix)

2011-11-11T19:43:00.000+01:00

bought the cd single for "i feel so fine" around the time it came out after hearing it in a mix cd. was quite a fan of this song and am still sort of, it had a lot of versions on the cd-single and i liked most of them. however one stood out eventually and i would just focus on that one, live element's version.

it didn't use the melodics that most of the other remixes was based on and this swelling kind of rhythm, this was before i knew what sidechaining was called. the discoloop it filters around is treated with phasers and ducking and it's quite infectious.

this version started my liking towards the live element/hott 22/gossip records production team. they just have a knack of making good funky house records. records that steered just a few notches the other way could be like any insipid hed kandi track.

buy here (junodownload)

cappella - move on baby (armand's peaking mix)

2011-11-10T12:52:00.000+01:00

this one came to me through discogs and youtube because i was looking at van helden's backcatalogue and seeing what other eurodance songs he had reworked. i've already talked about his version of urban cookie collective's "the key, the secret", but he also did rednex's "cotton eye joe" and cappella's "move on baby".

the universal theme in most of these remixes is that he used a little bit and then did what he wanted to do. in the remixes of rednex they are more of a hard house thing, the short version called the "dosey-doe mix" uses the full hook and the strings set to a backdrop of stripped down chicago hard house. the "funky trance mix" works around repeated vocal stabs and a jacking beat in that "witchdoktor" style.

do they hold up? no, not at all and they are more just a fun artifact but his remix of cappella still sort of works and is a bumping piece of music. armand's uses of the original is a sound effect and of course some vocal stabs. it's one of those 90's big room pieces that's a little bit to epic for it's own good. on the track itself armand works the usual repetitious rhythms across.

i still get a kick out of finding when certain names did remixes of artists that aren't credible, especially early on but i know with armand it was a story of he took on most of what was given. van helden has said in interviews that he doesn't know many of the poppy artists and don't care who they are and will remix things like this or sugababes and others.

it's because this was at a time when remixing often meant quick money and many producers / dj's take on anything just because. he's a bit of a paradox because while he is known for doing edits (for x-mix in the early days) and remixes, van helden claims he doesn't like remixes himself. anyhow

buy here (beatport)

note, while it says "tell me the way", it's "move on baby". armand's remix was done for london records and as a promo on the side. but was given more exposure on the "tell me the way" release.

mj cole - wondering why (recloose vocal mix)

2011-11-09T19:21:00.000+01:00

don't remember when i heard this one first but i do know it was when i was introduced to some recloose tracks. there was a type of bounce in his tracks that was infectious and it sort of reminded me of the rhythmics of some uk garage.

this version of "wondering why" is not that however and is more boogie but it's fun none the less. i find the dub to be the best version but that's not available anywhere on the intarwebs so the vocal version will suffice. the thing that really caught my ear again to it was when i heard a song on the radio two years ago, ciara's "love sex magic"

it's not a big similarity but there is something there that connects these two tracks, i think it's just the bass notes and vocal stabs. but i found a big liking to recloose remix of mj cole again and both tunes was under my radar until i hard the ciara song on the radio again, and i remembered how good this remix is.

buy here (7digital)

malorix - belsalama

2011-11-08T14:50:00.000+01:00

this one i was introduced to by my good friend jan henrik when he recommended me a set by american dj ripley. it was this frantic mix of everything and the kitchensink and it was quite luscious. there was a few tracks that caught my attention but one stood out.

it was this really bassheavy track sampling an arabic track. it was quite funky and i really liked how the samples was twisted around and manipulated. but the bass was the main course and was buzzing in the background and made it impossible to not move atleast one part of the body to the rhythm.

listen here (myspace)

the sample is from samira said's hit track "bil salama bil salama" and that track has a few key points which is twisted around in malorix's version. it's a production that sounds very post millennial as the arabic producers started to take notice of the both cheiron productions and shak'speare/darkchild/timbaland type bump that was the sound of the time.

buy here (7digital)

emelie sandé - heaven

2011-11-07T13:54:00.001+01:00

i got introduced to the this one through radio and as most people i was gobsmacked by it's production. not that it was groundbreaking but it was the fact there was a record released with a backing that was just funky drummer, a bassline and strings.

you couldn't have pulled this off ten years ago since it'd been stigmatised with the wrong side of nostalgia. but now it's a whole different ballgame and it will be possible to do those records that were stripped down and sample based. it sort of started with that jazmine sullivan's "holding you down" which was just the "impeach the president" break and some vocal samples.

but then again that was a us track and i think the real kickstart for the uk was the skream remix of la roux's "in for the kill" which had that infamous ending that was nothing but an amen break, heavy subbass and vocals. skream and other jungle tekno revivalists decided to use the amen in a manner that been deemed outdated.

i.e. using it as it is with no chopping or editing. then a little while later came this song and some month after that a new track by some bloke by the name of olly murs (who i've never heard of) which has a track which is just the think break. i wondered when this magical timebarrier had been crossed when certain producers could do things like this again without being scrutinised.

now i know this honeymoon will only last for a little while but i'm glad that amidst the other junk and adele songs (not calling adele songs junk, she is awesome) there are songs like this to please us people who grew up in the 90's.

buy here (7digital)

the nu:tone remix which is heaven jacked kicked up to jungle speed and with an amen along with the funky drummer is also good and well recommended.

scott hardkiss - come on, come on (joe claussell's sacred rhythm version suite)

2011-11-06T15:56:00.000+01:00

i think i was given a wind on this or that scott hardkiss was active through another blog. i've enjoyed his music and the hardkiss heritage for a long time now. i saw a mentioning that claussell had done a version of the song and it appearently was one of his long epics.

yeah i mentioned that i like when claussell do these kind of pieces in my entry about his remix of d*note and this one goes one step beyond that one. claussell reshapes what was a nice six minute song into a 15 minute one and he loads the track up with so much musical content.

the track has this extensive lush breakdown that starts with some ivory tickling by bennett pastor but it's claussell's brother congas that dominate the backdrop. after that he introduces backing vocals by the group called "voices of mali" that give some wailings until he brings back lisa shaw's chorus.

the suit starts out as something for the one a.m. but as it unfolds it's a five a.m. thing and claussell did some other versions as well. they are called "the dance dance version" and the "humidity dub" and they don't revel in the musical excesses that claussell did for his suite. he also used the "electro" lead that hardkiss used for his original.

buy here (beatport) | soundcloud

mini reviews #6

2011-11-04T12:29:00.003+01:00

sixth edition now and another one really long overdue. this person was in my mind from the persons i wanted to ask in the beginning since she has a really big music interest. she's quite opinionated and on the intarwebs you can see her razzing and discussing all sorts of ideologies within music and club culture. she's a dj, producer (but i think she's put this part on the side for now) and a selfproclaimed glamazon, i've been a fan of her mixes for a long time. it's no other than avana vana

01. kaval - august night | youtube
nice rhythm and use of effects but the flute doesn't have the impact it should

02. burnt friedman - sex working class | boomkat
there is a strong funk piece underneath but the main vocal takes away from it

03. the cure - the figurehead | youtube
you can easily get lost in the bass & drums on this as it's lovely, roberts vocals are roberts vocals.

04. true widow - blooden horse | youtube
more shoegaze and i enjoyed this one, it just did nothing special for me.

05. forest swords - miarches | youtube
nice and dubby but i could do without the guitar being so prominent

06. outpost 13 - ice planet | myspace
i listened to this twice and both times i came to the same conclusion, nice bassline and soundscapes but it did nothing else for me

07. ike yard - a dull life | youtube
it sounds like funkstörung remixing throbbing gristle, not in a good way though.

08. sonic youth - i dreamed i dream | youtube
kim gordon's parts on this is nice, rest don't really give a lasting impression

09. bernard szajner - welcome (to death row) | youtube
sounded like casiocore in the beginning but i liked it a lot after that.

10. le1f - saltimore | tumblr
nice piece of abstract hiphop and that water break is awesome.

thanks for those ten avana. and as always i asked if she wanted to anything extra about his picks and her response was:

these tracks comprise a rather dark group of new and old music that I am finding myself drawn to as autumn creeps into winter.

right on.

d'angelo - chicken grease

2011-11-03T11:57:00.001+01:00

i've mentioned before that i have a whole big load of albums and records but that i keep them in storage in the basement mostly. except for recent purchases or albums that i just feel like listening to through and through. which is something special for someone who enjoys singles more than albums.

d'angelo's second album is one of those albums and it's been said before but there is so much quality on that album. every time i listen to it i find a new favourite track but there has always been three that has been on top from the beginning. "devil's pie", "untitled (how does it feel)" and this track "chicken grease".

the thing that most will react on is that d'angelo practically raps on this one and the groove is perfect for the flow he employs. the groove itself is some drums that are very upfront and a bass underneath. all the other elements like the guitar, the trumpet and d'angelo's vocals are subdued in the mix.

the other thing that i reacted to instantly was the fact that d'angelo quotes/rephrases rakim with a classic line from "i know you got soul". he turns "but i'll wait 'cause i mastered this / let the others go first so the brothers don't miss" to "but i'll wait till i've mastered this / let the others go first so the brothers won't miss".

the slight change makes rakim's bragging (even though he was perfectly entitled to say it because rakim did master it) into a different slant and gives him an aid in his simile for fatty food as that good gunky funk. or something.

buy here (7digital)

leann rimes - life goes on (29 palms remix)

2011-11-02T19:54:00.000+01:00

this one came to me after i heard some other 29 palms remixes and liked the sound that pete lorimer was trying to do at the time. it was the kind of circuit sound that people like hex hector and others were doing when epic trance got big in the us gay clubs. only a bit more fuller and sort of more housey but still keeping all the trancy tones.

it's been in my playlists for years since it's a really nice slab of trance and i've worked it well as a driver. however it's not in it's original form. i thought that it was really good but i thought it could do without the breakdowns. i discovered this track right around the time i grew sick of the excesses in beatless breaks and how some tracks had strong parts and then came this part in the middle which didn't make sense.

so i took out most of the first breakdown where it breaks down into half-time and goes into a lush vocal part which is good but served no point when i was playing it. i had it go in to the drop and then went straight into the part of the drop where the acid-like sound kicks right along.

the drop then became more effective worked better with the rest of the song and as for the second break i just took it out completely. the end result is some pete lorimer goodness and some dabs of leann rimes on top. now that sentence made it sound like i didn't like rimes' original, it's quite nice actually but it's not something that works with trance.

now i'm not going to give out my re-edit since i don't do that at all so see my comments as a guideline on how to do your own cutting and splicing in your audio-editor of choice.

buy here (itunes)

apollo 440 - liquid cool

2011-11-01T12:39:00.001+01:00

naturally this one came to me with the fact one of deep forest remixes (ice cold @ the equator) was featured on sasha & diggers northern exposure set. as much as that version is good i think the other deep forest remix (trans-afrique life extension express) is better.

the second one is a bit more funky and i think the first one just seems to redo the ideas from the original and/or the rerub on the rumble ep and i think that one is much stronger but hey, if it wasn't played by sasha then it's now worth tracking down...

"liquid cool" is one those pieces of music that can be classified as progressive house or trance. i'd say it's the former because it's not quite the kind of trance that was made during the time even though it does share it's idiosyncrasies. it's kind of the trancy house with atmospheres that seemed to be reinvented about 8 years after that.

the track seems to revolve around this buzzing low-key bassline and the hypnotic chord sequence played on a piano and a few synth patches. but the other striking feature is it's reverbed out guitar that is much ignored on all the other versions except the future sound of london remix (which is the best remix of this song besides version on the rumble ep).

it's quite a subtle track and it's weird when apollo 440 as a production team are associated with all these big breakbeat and techno productions and remixes. this one is quite a gem and the way the vocals have been treated really emphasise the ethereal mood that they nailed. from elizabeth gray's hazy "fade away" to noko's speech parts.

buy here (7digital)

i should give a short word about the other remixes since i mentioned three or four of them. i'm torn about jah wobble's remix since i like all the ideas he put in and especially his bassline but i don't think it was executed well. the two space versions are the longest and the beat one is decent but the ambient version which is 24minutes in it's entirety really doesn't fill the time well.

bobby womack - secrets

2011-10-31T11:57:00.001+01:00

this track was introduced to me through my good friend mikael forsberg when me, him and a two others were at his house before we're going to hear joel mull rocking it out in stockholm club "fabriken". as we're all musicnerds and mikael having a big recordcollection, he was playing some tracks and he went through this case of 45's.

he kept talking about this bobby womack song ballad where he was wailing through the song and right out of nowhere he mentions "some good old kentucky fried chicken". naturally we had to hear this majestic piece of music. the record was played through and we didn't hear said line and then i flipped it over and there it was.

that lyricline and simile was quite fun but fact was the song "secrets" was some bumping piece of music. it's very 80's r&b and the slap back bassline delivers quite well. i really think it's a fun song and i would love to hear an extended jam version of this.

buy here (7digital)

the chuck davis orchestra - spirit of sunshine

2011-10-30T17:18:00.000+01:00

this one is those unbelievably rare disco records and it's been under the radar for a lot of years until about five years ago when it got dug out with the mighty disco revival. fact is that it's an amazing track and a great groove and it could easily work in any set today.

i got hipped to the track a few years ago through a blog of which i cannot remember, it may be american athlete but it's also possible it's some other as it's been hyped up on a number of blogs. the jist is that it's a west end record that hasn't been any compo or anything.

it was originally on a french label (here comes some discogs information) and there it had a different mixdown which focused more on the instrumentation rather than the groove. it also sounded a bit rawer and the structure was more compact and you got from point a to b much quicker.

when tom moulton got his hands on the record he looked at it on from a dancefloors perspective and put the focus on the groove. he reshaped the track to the sense that it still felt like the original record but made it more dancefloor friendly. the rhythm sections was extended and all the horns was taken down in the mix.

moulton's version is quite refined and i think it really shows how much of a talent he was and how he understood dance music. he really understood that there was a gem underneath all the madness and all he had to do was to polish it up.

youtube

and it's quite mixable in it's original state but you need to be quick on the hands because it is a live drummer behind the rhythm section. there is one re-edit (that i know of) out there by super value edits and i don't like it at all. too much bas looping going on and it has this this ultra-bombastic section that doesn't pay off well and further more the kick that was placed on top is too overpowering.

i think all that's needed if one has to do edit this then it's to tweak moulton's version slighty more and just extended the groove a little bit more and maybe add a mixout section, sort of like a theo parrish style "ugly edit". otherwise, what's the point.

lenny dee - emotional response

2011-10-28T14:32:00.000+02:00

following the previous one with another older tune i have no real relation to until someone gave a heads up on. i know sort of that lenny dee had done more than the hardcore & gabber he's associated with nowadays. he started out with house and techno and did a whole load of that but after that it was mainly hardcore and all sorts of harder techno etc.

so gather my suprise or should i say gather most peoples surpise when this is brought to the table. a deeper halftime techno track that could easily be slipped into any house set when pitched down a bit. it's a gorgeous piece of music and it really contrasts the other pieces on the ep.

but i reckon lenny dee was trying to make some more "emotional" and more melodic records with the two ep's released on the l.d. sub-imprint. for instance the second ep (named "forgotten moments") includes two very melodic and emotive tracks. not that they hold as well as "emotional response" but it's well worth checking them out also.

but this track i have forever gratitude to whomever brought it to my attention, i know it was on the discogs forum but i can't be arsed to look up that thread. i should also note that the record was made with belgian producer marcus salon and i should also note that it does tread some clichéed grounds, especially the pad work but the rest is great. from the acid in the beginning to the lovely bongo drums in the middle.

buy here (junodownload)

emmanuel top - spherique

2011-10-27T15:22:00.000+02:00

i came across this one recently when i was looking to find if "hypnose" was available on digital download in all of it's full 15 minute glory. "hypnose" was the b-side to bbe (top is the e in bbe) and consisted of a infectious heavy and hypnotic slow technotrance groove.

the best kind of not quite techno and not quite trance music. sadly that thing isn't but the thing with emmanuel top (and bruno sanchioni for that matter) is that they made a boatload of killer tracks in that style. so i looked on discogs and found that he had recently started to put up his backcatalogue and i started digging.

i knew of a few tracks like "lobotomie", "fusion", "static" and others but there was many cuts i've never heard and many that had been missing in my life since forever. naturally i started listening to the really long ones first since that's where top shines.

and then i found "spherique" and it stopped me dead in the tracks. it reminds me "hypnose" a lot and it works that minimalistic approach to hypnotic techno & trance to the fullest. it's one groove that consists of a bassline that alternates key every four bars and on top it's very finely programmed drum hits. the most striking and interesting thing is that the clap hits only on the one and not the two and four as per usual.

the track slowly picks up pacing but then it filters down the beat and it eventually it filters off everything and then when you expect the track to end it kicks right back along. back with a bang and some acid. it's lovely and i think it's well worth reviving some of these tracks considering the versatility they have and how much quality it it is.

thank you mr. top for making the effort of uploading these gems, now try to get "hypnose" up as well and i will be very happy.

buy here (junodownload)

4hero - bed of roses (with jody watley)

2011-10-26T12:06:00.000+02:00

this one came to me through two directions, i believe i was on a small jody watley kick at the time and i was also buzzing of some drum & bass and especially the shy fx/digital soundboy remix of lily allen's smile. amongst other things but also liking 4hero in general.

on this track you have marc mac and dego's usual high quality production with vibrant drums, soaring strings and all that jazz. it's what you expect from 4hero following "creating patterns" and the passing down of the heritage of richard rudolph etc. etc.

jody watley's effort is lovely as well and she sits on the track really well but i think the bridge section is implemented better on the shy fx & t-power remix of the track where it's in the breakdown.

buy here (junodownload)

kent - ensamheten (erase remix)

2011-10-25T14:59:00.000+02:00

was recommended this one over irc a while ago and it came into conversation after i mentioned that i had recently seen jesper dahlbäck rocking out with just his drum machines, a tb303 unit and some effects. some other guy mentioned this guy known as erase and that he puts up videos of him rocking out with his machines.

i liked the clips and i recommend people to check them out (his youtube channel) but the person i talked to mentioned that erase done a remix of a kent song which was excellent. it was a remix of a song that i hadn't heard of but i did want to check it out.

kent is this swedish rockband who first started out very guitarbased but along the lines their 80's influences came into play and with their last music they went further more electronic and alot of remixes of their works started showing up.

erase's remix focuses on the electronic bit on the track and it's a section that really stands out on a kent song, regardless of if they decided to be more electro. it's like someone just added some berlin into the mix and erase expands on it.

what starts out as a moment of berlin in a rock-track becomes an exercise of harder techno, some flashes of acid and all sorts of lfo warbles. i really like the filterwork within the synths and machines used and i especially love when erase kicks in these small fills that sound like they wouldn't have been out of place in a megaman game.

buy here (7digital)

milky - just the way you are (full intention remix)

2011-10-24T11:14:00.001+02:00

this one came to through a hype up when i happened to visit the swedish deejay promotions site back in '02. it was talked about how it was going to be the next big thing coming from the up & coming motivo production camp. it was not and beyond this track and one other song, this project barely had a buzz.

however this song was nice although the reason it was good because of it's samples. it was built around the beginning strums of "the streets of your town" by the go-betweens and the hook of wings' "listen what the man said". the verses from whoever actually sang on the track was flawed and while i could tolerate them before i cringe nowadays.

the singer had this awful accent and it's the same reason i got so annoyed at alexandra stan's "saxobeat", i promised myself that i would stay away slating this song because it's pointless and i don't think anyone cares about the verses in that song either.

but full intention's remix of "just the way you are" is brilliant and they focus on the two samples and do their thing with it. they build up a better and fuller backing and really work the go-betweens sample better. i think they might have even replayed it since pearn and gray tend to do that.

they also add this live bass that comes in and it's that thing that steps the track up a notch. i remember playing this one on shoutcast a while ago and a mate of mine (jan henrik) had nightmares from the original but enjoyed the remix much more.

buy here (junodownload)

lemon8 - new york, new york

2011-10-18T19:53:00.000+02:00

discovered this track when lemon8 and/or basic beat re-released his backcatalogue on digital and it struck a chord with me. i think i had heard the much more melodic 'out of the sanctuary mix' in a few sets and probably this one as well but the sanctuary mix was the more common one.

the original just came to me in a phase where i saw the track for it's brilliance even though it's very much a track of it's era. it's very 'prog' and has a sonical kin to the bedrock remix of luzon's "the baguio track". but with more satoshi tomiie influence sort of.

what attracted me was constant driving percussive beat and something that was a really good tool to play with other tracks. it lent itself really well for longer turnovers or mashings since it's almost all rhythm.

buy here (junodownload)

lemon8's work in general and in particular from the era this track came out (early 2000's) have found their way into my sets and i really love his remix of misja helsloot & ronald k's "a different world" and kid vicious' "contagious". the former for it's darker trance vibe and that coffee percolator sound used throughout and the latter for it's groove.

buy here (junodownload)

puss - master & slave (fpu remix)

2011-10-17T12:43:00.001+02:00

this one came to my attention somewhile after i bought the fpu (peter benisch) remix of paris' "disco fever". i saw the puss seven inch record in stockholm recordstore pitch on their old location. there was a buzz about puss at the time (i'd say early noughties) and how they made music using a gameboy and a special cartridge and cable system.

the original is a chiptune riff and a simple vocal saying: "we are synchronized by our small device / i'm the master (said by tobian hofsten aka tobi-wan), i'm the slave (said by josefin karlson aka laydj) / when we use our cable, everything is stable / i'm the master, i'm the slave"

benisch's version beefs up the original heavily and adds some new melodies & sounds but he also puts the vocal in a vocoder and for the electro vibe. sonically the remix is very similar to the one of "disco fever" and i really love that tune and i love this one also.

i really like the combination of the chiptune, benisch's sounds and all the robofunk and it's been fun to work this one in sets even though it's been seldom. reason being because it's at 140bpm and when i'm playing at that tempo i'm more likely to play techier or trancier things. sometimes i play more bassier things and then with some breaks it tends to fun work it in. killer tune none the less.

buy here (klicktrack)

håkan lidbo - capoeira (jeff bennett's dub mix)

2011-10-13T15:25:00.001+02:00

the name jeff bennett was shoved down my throat about five years ago by a mate of mine who said that he was the next big thing. he couldn't believe that i didn't know who he was because bennett also being swedish. i was given a crash course in his productions and i found out he made techno, house, occasionally something proggy and a lot times some thing dubby.

i like a few of his productions but nothing has stuck on me as much as a version of håkan lidbo's capoeira. the original is this lovely latin house excursion with a great groove, heavy drums & percussion and the whole nine yards. lidbo is usually really good at one of those tracks.

bennett's main mix is sort of techno but with a dub slant but it's still driving and keeps the latin influences and it did nothing for me at the time but his dub however. it takes the tempo down a notch and has this steady bongo groove carrying the track throughout.

of course it also employs the usual reverb, flange and other modulations to widen the soundscapes while it puts the horn from the original right in center. the track starts off kind of mellow but picks up some steam in the last quarter and i've had some fun trying to work this track out in sets.

at first i didn't know how to place it but it was more of a case of me where i was playing all these tracks at 130bpm and trying to work everything. my aspiration was to be versatile but it just came off awkward and sets had no flow and i constantly tried to overlap tunes for the sake of overlapping.

that also had to do with me hearing that sasha, digweed and a few others did these four minute transitions and i wanted to redo that. even when i was playing tracks that didn't enable that. ah when you are young, curious and stupid.

anyhow, this tune is wicked and so is all three versions included in the release but i hold bennett's dub highest in regards.

buy here (junodownload)

swv - right here (back to black mix)

2011-10-12T11:58:00.000+02:00

right so in a few other posts i've made it clear that i'm not going to be one of those bloggers who constantly rant about bad music. i think there are too many of that extent, but then again there are a big amount of people on the other side of the coin but i'm going to try to be on the glass half full side for as much possible.

however it does grind my balls when i hear good things turning into bad and it was exactly what happened when i heard this song on the radio. from the initial drums i thought, nice "right here (human nature mix)", but sadly i was mistaken. chris brown's vocals came on instead the swv's.

that pissed me off sort of since i still don't like chris brown ever since the rihanna incident, the fault is that he got off too easy. that also came as a problem since i really like "look at me now" because i don't support chris brown but busta rhymes' verse is amazing. lil' wayne's verse is great as well, even though i don't like weezy either but for other reasons.

but then i came to my senses and thought fuck it, this is going to run it course and it's probably going to get a whole new generation hipped onto teddy riley's human nature mix of "right here". that song along with "anything" and "weak" are 90's r&b classics and they are awesome.

this song had a lot of remixes and it's initial run the remixes were different since the original does not have the human nature sample. it's sort of new jack swing and the versions from funkyman (lord finesse), g-man (whoever that is) and one or two others were kind of harder and hiphop/new jack swing based.

then came teddy riley which did his version completely based on mj's ballad "human nature", this version became even a bigger hit. the additional versions of "right here" now incorporated the mj sample. there were a couple of versions but none gave me a bigger "oh snap" moment than the "back to black mix".

reason being that this version has a rap by none other than pharrell williams who was a protogé of riley at the time. i think i was listening to the song one time and thought "that voice sounds familiar". williams sounded a bit younger but i had a hunch it was him and then i read somewhere that pharell is the one saying that famous "the s-s-double-double-u and the v" hook.

then it fell to place. and sure enough, looking at discogs later, it was confirmed. a similar thing happened also when i heard the sly & robbie version of the fugees' "fu-gee-la". there on the end of the song you have an (then) unknown and uncredited toaster at the end. it's no other than akon.

anyhow the back to black mix who was done by chris cuben-tatum (unknown name to me but discogs claims he's a producer that's done a few productions) and he regrooves the track into an even mellower groove. he adds a guitar and some nice bass and overall does a really good version.

youtube

also well recommended is the beatless version called the "back to nature version" which expands the atmospherics but removes the rap by pharrell

beanfield - close to you (maurice fulton remix)

2011-10-11T17:09:00.000+02:00

this one was introduced to me a few years ago and it was mainly through being a fan of jonathan bäckelie who does the vocals on this one. i think i'd heard one or two beanfield tracks before that but wasn't that well invested in them.

but they were on compost so i had a hunch in the sound and to be honest the original is very much like that jazzanova/compost sound. it's a good song and it lends itself to variations and permutations. this version by maurice fulton works like an extension of the original.

it builds up this groove that's sort of boogie and robotic and it slowly but firmly introduces the chords and sounds of the original. right before it kicks into the main vocal and the jist of the song is this small break that's really effective and i like how it's executed.

fulton uses a huge chunk of the track and tries to compliment it to make it work on the dancefloor as the original is a lounge type track. it was because of this one i started to take a closer listen to fulton's work and his remixes and found that he is a great producer. well recommended

buy here (junodownload)

also well recommended is the funkstörung remix of "close to you" which i found a few months ago through spotify. it seriously rivals the fulton remix as the best version of the song and it's very funkstörung. their version takes the guitar twanging and work it onto their type of not quite electro.

it employs a fine bassline, a hefty chunk of audio tweaking and general wonkyness. but i think they should have extended that bit in the middle since it's one of the best parts of the track

buy here (junodownload)

holly valance - kiss kiss (jah wobble remix)

2011-10-08T17:42:00.000+02:00

back in 1998 turkish popstar tarkan scored a hitsingle called "simarik" and while other europeans didn't understand a single word he said, that hook was infectious. i think it still lingers on as a summer hit song in the annals of pop music but what would happen a few years later an english version would be made by some american singer called stella soleil.

the producers behind that track did the track using the exact same instrumental as "simarik" but the thing was stella soleil's effort was terrible. it didn't attract much attention but the following year it came again but with australian model/singer holly valance.

this used a new backing and for all intents and purposes holly's vocals was decent. but then again no one cared about the former or the latter because the main attention of the track came from the video with featured valance scantily clad in some scenes the scantily clad became next to nothing.

now i didn't care about valance version but i do enjoy it as the remade production was better but it wasn't until i saw something on discogs a few years later that stopped me in my tracks. i noticed that jah wobble actually did a remix and i was intrigued.

now at the time i couldn't find a way to hear the thing so i was just left wondering but it wasn't until a some months ago. i picked up the cd-single for valance's "state of mind" (for the felix da housecat mix mind you) and it triggered that thing in my head going, i wonder how it sounds?

fact is when i finally heard the song i was first puzzled because it started out much like the original but after the first minute holly is removed. it then becomes an istanbul meets london thing with jah wobbles massive bass underneath.

wobble still keeps all of themes from the original tarkan song but does them all in his soundscape and the end result is just wonderful. i still wonder from which direction the initiative to have jah wobble remixing came from? i thought it might have come out of wobble knowing or maybe even have worked with some of the producers but the intarwebs doesn't seem to find a connection. the track is well recommended anyhow.

buy here (7digital)

goran kafjes - sand boogie

2011-10-07T19:48:00.000+02:00

the hype concerning the latest goran kafjes album has been big and it was given a whole shower of praise and back-patting. to be honest it's well deserving all since he made a really good and nice fusion album.

i've skimmed through the album a few times but i've been too much of a lazy arse to listen to the whole thing. will do it soon probably but i've really liked what i've heard. however there was one track that's been lingering in my mind since i can really see me rocking it in a mix.

the track is called "sand boogie" and it's all about the drums and people who know me know that i love drums. the rhythm section sound quite hiphop and what i mean by that is that i think goran gives a nod to herman kelley's "dance to the drummers beat". the guitars and flutes all of the other melodics however sound like something between eastern europe and anatolia.

buy here (7digital)

mini reviews #5

2011-10-06T10:10:00.000+02:00

fifth edition now and i wanted to do this one earlier, i had thought of doing in a few more days because the fourth one was really long overdue. the person i asked for this one is the one i stole this concept from and his name is christian ciccone. more known online as sykonee and he's a music enthusiast and i quite like his reviews and his mixtapes.

01. envio - time to say goodbye (passiva remix) | youtube
the track does nothing for me. i think arksun's remix was much better

02. tranceformer - hypnotized | youtube
quite sounds like resistance d in the best way possible. i approve.

03. ice mc - take away the colour | youtube
i think this version is nice however the '95 version is far superior.

04. ice cube - once upon a time in the projects 2 | youtube
the beat isn't anything special but cube is decent even though i'm not keen. the best thing is this bass fill that appears twice in the track.

05. deep forest - cafe europa | youtube
michael sanchez can be either really good or extremely crap and derivative. this one is the latter.

06. bob marley - buffalo soldier | youtube
still appreciate this song but i've really grown sick of it over the years.

07. raekwon - knowledge god | youtube

one my favourite rza beats and the track itself is bumping.

08. malcolm mclaren - d'ya like scratchin' | youtube
it's ok but the soft jazz flirt near end is questionable but the piano and bass combo sound like larry heard.

09. audio bullys - turned away (tony senghore electric vocal mix) | youtube
there is a subtle "cübik"-influence on this one and i enjoy the track but i wouldn't buy it.

10. asura - back to light | youtube
decent track but i would liked it more with out the four on the floor beat and it would have been beatless up to the breakbeat part

thanks for those ten sykonee. and as always i asked if he wanted to anything extra about his picks and her response was:

they were randomly selected, so there's nothing especially special about them that I can think of off hand

right on.

kings of convenience - i'd rather dance with you (cornelius remix)

2011-10-05T13:28:00.000+02:00

i think i discovered the original when it came out and i saw the video on mtv. rather charming tune and i already was a fan of erland øye/kings of convenience with the röyksopp connection. but this version came to me a few years after and i just loved it.

i knew a little about cornelius and his tracks and liked his style and thought he was very creative. the first thing i heard from him was the single "star fruits surf rider" and it shifts from sweet pop to organized chaos (i.e. breakcore). i thought it was amazing but then again that thing isn't a new concept, björk comes to mind. anyhow...

this version takes the original for a subtle re-grooving and most part of it is just øye and bøe's vocals along with guitar strums with a few accentuations. further along the guitar gets shuffled slightly but it's subtle in the beginning and gets a bit more apparent in the last bit.

i think it's quite refreshing for anyone to do a remix like this but i know you can flip the argument and say that all that cornelius did was to bust out a glorified "acoustic version". and on that statement i have to agree but i really like the song so i don't care.

buy here (junodownload)

sylver - livin' my life (filterheadz dub)

2011-10-04T16:26:00.000+02:00

this one i discovered a few months after it was released and there was a slight buzz about it. i think filterheadz was quite hyped up at the time and was alternating techy works with more progressive stuff but the theme conveyed in most of the tracks was the tribal groove.

eventually that schtick got quite overplayed when they kept using the same loops in all of their productions. i got quite bored with their productions after that and i really have no clue on what they are doing now and really don't care.

their version of "livin' my life" was obviously meant to be the alternative to the more commercial original. they took the chord progression, a few vocal bits and rest was chucked in the bin. instead they built up this smooth track with it's base being all of these reversed effects.

then the bassline kicks in and the groove is built upon and it eventually goes into a guitar-sounding lead. it's a lovely piece of music and i got reintroduced to it a while ago when i was going through some prog-tunes that i liked. i think i would have to edit it a bit to play it in a set but i'd definitely work it any day.

buy here (amazon mp3)

lady gaga - judas (goldfrapp remix)

2011-10-03T15:07:00.000+02:00

i went all gaga over the röyksopp remix a while ago and i have no idea on how i looked past this remix... no, scratch that. i do the reason, i was to busy hugging the remix from the norweigans so i just ignored all the rest.

but like the röyksopp remix, i discovered this on national radio station p3 and it was in a discussion on remixes. this awesomely weird remix came up when they started to talk about the trend of version that isn't meant directly for the dancefloor (since that's the usual thing for poppy tracks).

goldfrapp's invisioning is dark, slow and slows gaga's vocals down and uses all sorts of reverse vocal techniques to really over-emphasise the quasi-diabolical nature. the lyric lines chosen by goldfrapp is from the bridge and the re-contextualisation works in this sense.

however it is one bit that bugs me is that the four on the floor isn't any heavier, even for the ebm/new beat thing they obviously tried to nail. other than that it's remarkably awesome and this track is worth the second posting of a track.

buy here (7digital)

inverse cinematics - sundrops

2011-10-02T03:25:00.000+02:00

i think i discovered this one when it came out in '08 and this track just struck a chord with me. it was some element that reminded me of some other tune and i liked it a lot. inverse cinematics was a new name for me at the time even though i'd head "detroit jazzin'" once or twice as that was a quite a big tune.

this track has a moody intro but picks up tempo and some vibrancy from the get-go and the result is a swinging broken beat cut. the drums and percussion are the main course and they really worked on the groove which makes this prime dancefloor material.

buy here (junodownload)

it has some nice melodic touches and the usual rhodes noodlings but as per usual for a dancefloor tune it does have some great bass. and it was that bassline which eventually made me figure out where they borrowed influence from.

it was from the rima (domu & volcov) remix of koop's "bright nights". this track is also a favourite of mine and it's from the remix lp of the "waltz for koop" album. amongst the many great versions (including my one of my all time favourite tracks, being the markus enochson remix of "summer sun") was this dubby late night kind of houser.

it rocked that king of shuffle which king britt would employ in many of his tunes and was the middle thing between house and broken beats. this is a track that also is very useful in a dj's hands as it's versatility makes it excellent to transition or to work it as a peak thing as that break is epic.

buy here (beatport)

arctic monkeys - chun li's spinning bird kick

2011-09-30T19:12:00.000+02:00

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)

the guzalos - uno (jesus pablo remix)

2011-09-29T20:47:00.000+02:00

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.

mini reviews #4

2011-09-28T14:42:00.000+02:00

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

sugababes - overload

2011-09-27T16:48:00.000+02:00

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.

janelle monaé - come alive (war of the roses)

2011-09-26T14:02:00.004+02:00

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)

wamdue project - king of my castle

2011-09-25T21:45:00.000+02:00

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.

humate - choose life (rob rives dub)

2011-09-23T14:55:00.000+02:00

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)

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

2011-09-22T17:23:00.000+02:00

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)

guillaume & the coutu dumonts - chilly willy

2011-09-21T15:36:00.000+02:00

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)

speedy j - hayfever (helical scan mix)

2011-09-20T12:37:00.001+02:00

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)

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

2011-09-19T11:35:00.000+02:00

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)

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

2011-09-17T18:52:00.000+02:00

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.

cibelle - mad man song (with spleen)

2011-09-16T12:31:00.000+02:00

this one came to as i was on a matthew herbert kick and i very much enjoyed his remixes. he had remixed brazilian singer cibelle's song 'noite de carnaval' and i thought that his remix was really nice and especially his dub where he did his thing.

on the same ep that contained herbert's remix there was two b-sides taken from her album "the shine of dried electric leaves". one was called "flying high" and is decent but the other song was called "mad man song" and featured french singer spleen. i knew of him through a cd sampler i picked up that featured his song "bitches on the ground".

"mad man song" was something i thought had to do with matthew herbert aswell but was stunned when i looked up some information and found out that he had nothing to do with it. reason being is that the song is made out of strictly using "voices, spoons, sugarcubes, cups & coffee" (info taken from the crammed disc website).

this kind of songmaking is very similar to what herbert has been doing for a while for instance in "around the house", the sounds used were taken from his house and in "bodily function" sounds were taken from well, ye you guess it.

in his album "plat du jour" he made songs about consumption and one song was infact about coffee but unlike cibelle's song which is a sung song about a man is or becomes crazy. the song also talks about tea and a kettle and is quite lowkey but hauntingly awesome none the less. the ideas about the song can be discussed more but i just like the compisition of the whole thing.

buy here (crammed discs webshop)

herbert however does a whole different thing when he did his song about coffee and on the "plat du jour" microsite he explains his m.o. and thoughts on every track and "an empire of coffee" he does a much more agressive thing which is equally awesome as cibelle's song.

i could quote the bits from the website about this particular track but i suggest perusing the whole thing. mostly because herbert is one of the few producers in dance music who is smart enough to do something like this and without an ego.

buy here (7digital)