billie the vision and the dancers - queen of the dancefloor

i heard this one first through national radio station p3 a few months ago and i took a liking to it from the first listen but it sort of left my conciousness. until two week ago when i heard it again and my heart leapt with joy again over this song.

i had no idea who this band was until they showed up in 2010 at national radio event "musikhjälpen", which is the equivalence of the dutch show "serious request". i found out later that they'd been a successful indie (in the truest meaning of the word) band and they'd been a fixture of the swedish indiepop scene since '04. they also found big success in spain after spanish brewery estrella damm used of their earliest songs "summercat" in one of their adverts.

i had heard of their songs since i've listened to p3 a long time and i know of "i miss you" but i didn't catch on to it. i just thought that was a nice song but it was one of many good songs in rotation at the time. anyhow, back to this song and the way the thing that grabbed my attention on the first listen was of course the intro.

it's this picked guitar and a lovely violin that then kicks right along into a nice jangly rhythm. which is quite catchy and describes the need to dance out in a club or bar and feeling like queen of the dancefloor. on an instinct i would say that it's a dance song for the indie floors but it might as well be any room as it can easily transcend that.

buy here (7digital)

the interesting part is that when i first "queen of the dancefloor" another song came in my mind because it was also a swedish pop song about dancing without a typical four on the floor drum machine beat. it was released a few months earler and it probably had to do with the song being on rotation on p3 as well, but it was the comeback single of the band bob hund.

their song is called "harduingetmankandansatill?" and apart a vague link of having dancing as topic and also including a violin, they are quite different. but they are both great songs and i love them both in their own way. the charm of "harduingetmankandansatill?" (translation: "do you have anything one can dance to?") is that it describes the notion of dancing in a much more primal way.

also since it somewhat pokes fun at the infamous dj request "hey dj, do you have me/anyone can actually dance to".

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the tlark - horunge

some songs you hear the first time blindly and it becomes your alltime favourite song before you have any clue about what it is. i remember clearly when i first heard this song and it was in a crowded & sweaty pub in february last year. i was there to listen to my older brothers band, named orangeclub, and two other bands (the tlark & nale) from södertälje.

my brothers band played first and did a great gig despite issues with the sound. then a punk band called the tlark came on and they had a style that is which is just energy. i had never heard of them before and this gig changed that royally. i am forever a fan and i tend to wear their t-shirt to any club that plays house or any other dancemusic.

amongst the songs played was one song that was obviously a favourite as the crowd kept yelling it throughout in the tradition of "freebird" or whatnot. the name of the song is "horunge" and it's a really simple song but utterly effective.

listen here (youtube)

it's one riff, one chord progression and a lyric that goes "horunge, horunge, h-o-r-u-n-g-e". (equivalence/translation "bastard, bastard, b-a-s-t-a-r-d"). basically it's got the catchy nature of the ramones' "i wanna be sedated", "blitzkrieg bop" and "pinhead" but with the lyrical mastery of anal cunt's "i noticed that you're gay", "you can't shut up" and "i sold your dog to a chinese restaurant"

i heard the song again on that night as an encore and i believe it's the version that is captured on camera on the clip above. the guy who ironically screams "va sa han?" ("what did he say?") and filmed it is a good friend of my brother and me named mikael norstedt is a talented musician as well.

anyhow those versions set the standard of how the song should sound so it was a little disapointing to hear the finished studio version. i had heard that they working on an album and saw on their youtube page that they uploaded songs. i had a listen and it just lacked a little of the gruffy screaming but it's not that much of a problem anyways. but it still is, so the best way is to just hear this song live. hope for the tlark's world domination then...

listen here (youtube)

also some part of me thinks i should plug their band as well in an own entry and i'll probably do it after they finished their new ep but knowing me i'll talk about an older song...

miss kittin - dub about me

i didn't know about this one until i bought miss kittins '04 record "i com" a few years back and i really got the album for "requiem for a hit" and "happy violentine". but i went through the cd eventually and this one got my attention when i revisited the album a month ago.

i found out that this track was a cover of holger zilske & michael schmidt's smash tv original "what about me". while that is a straightforward techno track with a heavy bass & distorted vocal, this is a dubby remake and i quite like the original but like this i had no relation to it before hearing "dub about me".

i prefer miss kittins' version since it does with sound and it's the way it grabs you with that heavy drone in the intro. the drums really hit hard with a pounding kick with a deep tr-808 kick backing it up and a really popping snare. the bass isn't as obvious as in the smash tv original but it's deep and very subby but on a good system you feel it.

caroline hervé (miss kittin), tobi neumann & thies mynther give the atmosphere that is suited for the track and reverb trails from male vocal stab and a dialtone all blend together well. together with the lush pad that forms the soundscape it's a very hard hitting track and great counterpart to the original.

halfway into the track and right after the big breakdown, that on an initial has you thinking the song is about the end, it then brings in the original vocal. it's a male vocal and because treated it with the distortion and dirt, it has a gruff feel and is quite a contrast to hervé's light and sympathetic vocal. overall this track is quite hard hitting and it almost stopped me in my tracks.

the way i properly rediscovered it was when i went out walking and had some songs in my headphones and this one came on. i had just finished a lengthy round through town and it worked really well as a comedown and contrasted some of the more uptempo bass music i was listening to before it.

buy here (junodownload)

ramses revolution - in control

this i discovered when i going through the website for flora & fauna and like the sweptaways one i had no idea what this was and i was looking for information about something else. all i knew by listening to it that it was one really funky track and it got my attention instantly and bought it.

the track was the lead single coming from their ep released on flora & fauna and has been featured on a couple of compilations. it's a jam from this swedish funk group that starts out a guitar doing some blues riffing and then starts forming a rhythm that is part james brown and part fela kuti. either way when the track kicks right along it really does it in style.

the track got to me in more ways than just liking it and eventually i started listening to it in a different way. if you're a dj or producer this isn't that uncommon since you listen to it as a tool other than an entity onto itself. as i was doing beats here and there at the time and liked to sample and chop up beats, this track got quite interesting fast.

it had many parts that i could easily take and eventually i started to shape an idea of this track in my head. i would use the guitar in the intro on the latter part and also the long horn fill, i would have also filtered the bongos and bassline on the outro and then done something. so many times i started to do something and it just didn't resonate in the end.

i think even though the open parts were really good the whole track is much better as one piece and i shouldn't have fucked with it. actually that was a bold lie, the reason it didn't pan out was that i kept procrastinating and eventually i lost interest of doing that beat. anyhow this is awesome and it should be heard more.

buy here (itunes)

the sweptaways - let my shoes lead me forward

this one came to awhile back when i was going through the hybris label website for a reason i don't remember. probably to check out information on one of their artists and i believe either jonathan johansson or el perro del mar fits what i might have been listening to.

they had a part of the website that handed out free audio of some of their catalogue and including this one. i knew of jenny wilson's original as i really loved that song and it's still one of the best songs ever. i hadn't heard of the sweptaways but quickly found out that they are a choir consisting of thirty women singing pop songs in choir arrangement.

initially it was done in acapella but on their second album they used some instruments and also some guesting soloists. but this was from their first release and all melodies, sounds and harmonies are done by women themselves. it's not really that different from most acapella renditions but i really loved how they did the synth melody and it made me a fan.

buy here (itunes)

ursula 1000 - that hindu thing that you do

this was part of a crate dig at one of stockholms second hand stores and i bought the album "kinda kinky" on the strength of some other tracks i'd heard from him. the style that alex gimeno (ursula 1000) works on his tracks remind me a bit of kraak and smaak & skeewiff but on a different slant.

the name of the game is sort of big beat with a little less obvious drums but it keeps the agenda of sampled grooves and drumbreaks. for someone like me that love this stuff it's an album chockful of great tunes and i could highlight any track off it. it has it's dancefloor numbers and some midtempo groovers and i've chosen one of the latter.

the title alone is one of the best parts (there are a few other good ones on the album) but it's sort of misleading as gimeno is employing arabic samples. i can't say where their taken from as i have no clue and the intarwebs isn't giving me any help. it's a headknod groove that could with some choice working fit in balearic type sets.

it rocks this oud for the first half of the song where it's accompanying a mellow tribal groove and this string fill that is lovely. it breaks down and goes into two different sampled arabic grooves with one being very operatic and the other one being something you'd hear in an folk song.

i'm generally a sucker for anything that uses arabic or middleeastern samples in a good way and i love how this one turned out.

buy here (junodownload)

the aloof - bittersweet (lemon in the honey - domestic mix)

this was part of a '09 crate dig and i didn't know of it before but i was well familiar with the players in mind. i think i was on a fairly large ashley beedle kick at the time but i liked the aloof as well so it was a sure cop. the cd-single was for "wish you were here" and included an edit, an ashley beedle remix of that and two remixes of album track "bittersweet" also done by beedle.

the more traditional of beedles versions, named the house mix, is a garage-y rerub with proper mix-in & mixout and i do like it but the other take is far more interesting. the domestic mix was shaped more like a traditional song and it really made me fall in love the track.

the original had a dancefloor thinking but had a strong dub influence and beedle took away the latter for his versions. on this one he replaced it with a deeper broken beat feel and i've mentioned before that in most respects i get more excited by broken beats than four on the floor.

this one has the combination of very vibrant drums, a great bassline and uschi classens keys that come in a little bit in the first half but is given a near solo part on the second half. the latter part of the track also has a lovely string/pad arrangement that first builds tension well but also closes the track on it's second appearance.

beedle and company did amazing work on this track and i really love this track. well recommended

listen here (youtube)

soundmurderer & sk-1 - bad sound

prior to hearing this song i knew a little bit about this kind of twisted ragga jungle that more resembles breakcore. i think it's music that is just one big load of fun and my introduction to it was my good friend jan henrik showing some examples but kid606's "slammin ragga bootleg track".

this track starts very hiphop and it doesn't give of any hints of the chaos that will come in. a simple drumloop and key sequence goes on for a while and then some "it's a new drums" comes in along with a one drop and a ragga vocal. then a really hype scream comes in and it's all madness, in the most glorious way.

after a mighty exercise of how to twist a snare like a pretzel another hype sound comes in yelling "fire!", it then goes into a huge chuck of what must be cutty ranks moshing it up on the mic. including is the bassline from slim smith's "i'll never let you go", more known as the "answer" bassline after the lone ranger/studio one's 1977 cut.

you can't go wrong from there and it's gets more frantic and it's just glorious. banging!

buy here (rephlex)

garbage - special (brothers in rhythm remix)

this was a record i bought in '05 and i think i'd known about it prior through sets but it was a thing that i just bought and then forgot to really take a close listen to. cut to a few months ago when i went through what i actually had in my collection and i decided to take another gander.

and i fell in love with this one after hearing the full thing and thought that it was a stunning piece of progressive trance. it didn't shock me completely as seaman, anderson & bremner have rarely done a poor production and i've been a fan of their remixes and tracks for a long time. from their earlier piano house output to the more progressive sound of later.

on this one it's a subtle slow burning trancy track that builds incredibly well. shirley's vocals ride on top a driving beat that stays somewhat sparse and rhythmical with hints of melodic elements. when the first chorus hits the track expands on this melodic role and uses (what sounds like) a sitar from original to later introduce more synthwork.

there isn't any grand epic overtone on this track until the bridge comes in and mighty string arrangement takes form that guides a chorus into the bridge. the bridge expands the role of the breakdown which is a real beauty and works in role of the song. overall it's quite a grandiose piece but it stays tightly in it's epic nature

i prefer to spin the instrumental in sets but i love the main vocal mix. i should note that the version on the cdsingle is an early fade and removes c:a 3minutes and the version on the greatest hits is a 5minute butchering beyond belief.

listen here (youtube)

who da funk - sting me red (atfc's vocal on the rocks)

when the original came out it was a favourite track but then again i found most things with terra deva blessing her vocal presence very likable. i played that original in sets and in headphones quite a bit and didn't care about any other remixes.

i think i found the cdsingle for sting me red in a shop and bought it for curiositys sake. it included mixes by freaks and atfc and while the freaks remix was fairly nice the atfc rerub just hit home with me. it had a really good bounce to it and it's something that can really work with some uk funky or really swinging percussive house.

i'm torn to atfc as a producer as he sometimes goes on the lazy side with productions or takes the safer big room route but he really knocked it out with this one. the drums & bass are on point and terra's whispered vocal fits to the track to t and he employs her initiall whispers really well in the buildup. the second half he busts out an electric piano that plays parts of terra's vocal melody and it.

i love this remix and i'm going to keep supporting this till day dot.

listen here (youtube)

seiji - silver blossom

this one was either a recommendation or something i heard in a set but either way it's a track that i loved on the first listen. out of all the bugz in the attic member i seem to be finding seijis tracks the ones i like the most but i do like the works of kaidi tatham and daz-i-kue.

much like many bugz in the attic track this employs dirty broken drums but since that rudimentary, it's what's on top that brings many to this track. the icy & sharp synth stabs combined with really warm strings has this track under control of the wonderfully maddening rhythm section.

i've mentioned to many times that i like frantic drums when they are working as powerfully as this. love this track.

listen here (youtube)

little boots - every night i say a prayer (tensnake remix)

this came up on my soundcloud a month ago and i didn't know what i was going to hear when i pressed play. i thought it would be some housey or neodisco stuff but it was back to 1987 on this one and i loved it on the instant. i'm such a sucker for anything that is proper electro or at least neo-electro.

i've mentioned that once or twice but robotfunk is all sorts of awesome and one this one it starts with a tr-808 groove and an arp. the bassline goes in and it smooth and works right with the groove. little boots vocal come in at the drop and it does break up the electro feel. 

but then right when she says "i have seen into the future" the drums kick back in and an additional vocal comes in. the fact that it's vocodered makes it all sorts of right and it puts the emphasis on the "futuristic" feel that the 80's electro records tried to convey. there is also an italo type synth melody near the end that is really nice and the bass keeps it all moving nicely along.

tensnake did a great electro throwback and one that isn't completely built around "naafiysh", "planet rock", "electric kingdom", "clear" or any other big electro hits.

listen here (soundcloud)

shaft - sway (skeewiff's salsa splash)

i think most remember the original song which was a huge hit and i still really like it. i believe it was adapted after rosemary clooney's take of the original and that's only one in many good versions of the song. i didn't know that the skeewiff guys were responsible for the original, so i always thought this remix was the random "bigbeat" remix on the single.

it is however somewhat more interesting than the original shaft version because of reasons that only i agree to. i think the original is far too dated, which says little given that this version is also quite dated in it's bigbeat drums and aesthetics. but i think the vocals was in a lower pitch to sound more like rosemary clooney and i love that the tempo was kicked up a bit.

i really love it and i was happy when i discovered it about 9-10 years after the original when i found the single in a bargain bin. i'll probably still bang it out in sets in it's original speed or pitched down a wee bit for breaks sets. it's too good not to be worked in.

listen here (soundcloud)

milton jackson - double trouble

this one was from a cd called "the bionic boy" that i didn't know of but had seen in a second hand store for a while but i didn't know of the name milton jackson so i passed on it the first couple of times. but it was released on glasgow underground and for whatever reason i did buy it.

the cd is like most house albums and is pointless to talk about in that form since it's in most cases pieced together dancefloor cuts. jackson did however sequence it well and it's built in a fairly nice way and it has it's good cuts. i've also played a number of the tracks on it but this one i keep getting back to.

one reason is that it's quite funky but the main reason is it's sample of irakere's "chekere son" which was one of the my earliest entries. i love the irakere song and i think jackson did a great job at refitting to a house groove. he's taken use the wonderful percussive sounds but also the vocal parts.

but what he different from someone else doing a simple sample job is that the song shifts focus away from the original irakere song and take it in a slightly progressive route on the tail end of the song. makes of a more dynamic track because even though jackson built his track around the original it has a strong enough backing to hold on it's own.

stacey pullen - freeworld

this one is from stacey pullen's album "todayisthetomorrowthatyouwerepromisedyesterday" and i didn't completely what to expect when i bought it. i knew the track "vertigo" through the 4hero remix but i was expecting something techno or housey.

there is one track that is four on the floor and even that rides a swing but the rest is experimentation of breakbeats, broken beat and dare i say it, freejazz. i can hear the james brown and sun ra references in many of the tracks where it's not aimed for the regular dancefloor. that is actually a whole lot of the album since he goes into all sorts of wonkery.

it's all very detroit in it's state of mind since it has that futuristic notion that pullen have been toying with on his previous releases. this track i don't even know what to define it as, but it's sure is good. it focuses on it the unorthodox drumpattern and a moogbass along with two sections of long chord progressions.

this track has the kraftwerk influence but in it's melodic section but for it's rhythm it's not anything that i had heard before. it's probably because of it's proper mechanical feel that it doesn't have the swing of a drummer and it all feels programmed even with it's randomness. it rocks a 9/8 for it's timesignature but it does throw me off have me thinking it's 7/8 but that's a good thing.

donna summer - winter melody

i was going to do a piece on a donna summer track a while back and then she passed away but i pushed it forward because i'm not that attached to her music in that way. don't get me wrong i enjoy some of the songs a lot but i can say that i'm not that big of a fan of the stuff after the moroder & belotte era.

like to most "i feel love" is an all-time favourite but i did start to like other things and i have bought a couple of her records and my favourite is the "four seasons of love" lp. this is a five tracker with a song representing each season and one reprise. the a-side has spring and summer and those two tracks are well known club tunes but on the b-side there is autumn and winter and the reprise of spring.

autumn is a dancefloor track but winter is a midtempo number that probably got it's fair of rotation being that is was the b-side for single release of "spring affair". "winter melody" may seem like a standard rhythm & blues track at a glance but i loved it on the first listen. summers does her vocals in a more sombre and moody way but it still includes her lighter tones that is so associated with her voice.

moroder & belotte's production isn't the stripped down machine groove that was brought on when they did "i feel love" a year after. the credits doesn't say if it was a band who played but it is more live instrumentation and strings and the usual philadelphia sound.

as much as i love the mechanical touch of the latter records this has it's charm as well. the rhythm section is well punchy and i quite like the flutelike sound coming in right before the guitar. it's a great track, no doubt about but the whole album is quality.

buy here (7digital)

sista widey - inspecta (jimpster's dancehall remix)

i heard this one first on jimpster's remix lp where i got that for a few others but this became the one of my favourite tracks of it. i don't know much about sista widey other that she is/was a uk dj who put out some records and then faded into obscurity.

this track had a few other remix when i looked at her myspace but i think they were made after this one but that has nothing to do with this. it kicks off with the drumbeat of vanity 6's "nasty girl" and then it plays off as a cross between a jamaican club riddim and the uk bass sound.

it's a fairly straightforward banger and jimpster made this one easy to get into and it fits sista wideys voice and has a really nice bass. i've had fun playing this one in all sorts of sets but mostly the ones where i just pick a tempo (usually in the 115-130 bpm region) and started working everything and anything to it. love it

buy here (junodownload)

another piece that is also well recommended is the deekline & ed solo remix of widey & ursula 1000's collaboration "step back". it's more ragga breaks than uk dancehall musics but i think they work in the same box. good music

buy here (junodownload)

urban tribe - eastward (forme remix)

i heard this first on mo'wax compilation headz 2a like most but i heard it maybe 10years after that was released and it coincided with me getting into all sorts of bass music. it really resonated into the mixture of sound i was liking and it felt really ahead of it's time even though it really isn't.

sherard ingram original however is a case of that with it's shuffled hiphop sound that sound like what going in modern times with the usual names but it was packing a massive bass. it's a sort of subby bass that you hear in a loefah track and it's really awesome. i don't know how much carl craig helped with mixing but he and sherard did great job at it.

forme aka unkle's richard file took the track to do the 132bpm breaks rerub and did a bangupjob with it. on this one he had the help of will bankhead and illian walker aka ils and he used most of the parts from the original but added some clean drumbreaks to for dj's and did a small build to make a vicious drop. the build is so effective when it brings out that massive bass in and then it drops to the guitar stab that start of the original.

it really does make an impact and but it's underpinned by the bass that is very subby but every two bars shoot off a midrange stab that really hits you. the way the drums are chopped and the sounds are worked all under this rumble makes this track quite versatile. i tend to play it in the 125-140bpm regions but i've also played it at jungle speeds as it makes sense as well.

listen here (youtube)

tranquilo - menthol

a long time ago i found this cd called "lights out - the deepsounds of sweden" and i hadn't heard of this compo but there was a few artists on that i liked. i was over the moon about finding something like this that rounded up some nice swedish deephouse and it featured tracks by kristoffer marchi & ronin (aka jonathan axelsson).

finding information on this cd at first was not easy but i pieced together that it was a compilation on the night lights label that was started up in 2000. it released a few records and another compilation with the aid of corona beer and then it was defunct.

there are a few track which i really like but the ones that i liked the most was axelsson's funky number "romantic yearnings", pete gust's "the cassisman" and this track by an lesser known producer by the name of pedro tranquilo.

it's the closing track on the compilation and the one of the few working a breakbeat. normally the combination deeper house and breakbeats is called broken beat but  i don't know if i would call it that. the break is too straightforward for the track but it also switches the dynamics instead of the four on the floor.

it gives off a much playful vibe with the vibes, electric piano, guitar & congas bouncing off it. it was the lovely musical content that made love this direct but then the break hits halfway in. the bass along with electric piano sent serious shivers down my spine in all the right ways.

vex'd - ghost

i was one of those who dismissed dubstep early on when everyone was started to buzz on it. my good friend jan henrik was one of the early ones to get on it but he had a passion toward uk bass music. i think i didn't get it and i wasn't all up on the halftime tracks.

i liked more frantic drums instead of wobbly bass but i caught on eventually and i found the things that was dubbed break-step the most likable. despite a really stupid name it made sense and it still had the aesthetics of it's core music but with more emphasis on the drums.

vex'd track was things i liked the most since they had that eeiry atmosphere, chunky deep bass but really heavy drums. there were a few tracks that came to me like "canyon", "gunman" & the a-side on this track "lion" but this one remains my favourite.

right from the start that stabbing kick and popping snare demands attention and as soon as the dark pad builds up tension it slowly ushers in that brooding bass. this was a track i found a way working into so many sets where i felt i either wanted give a kick in the balls or just bang out drums.

in ishkurs there is a comedic punchline about the basslines of drum&bass darkstep and how the growling sounds eventually come off like it's talking to you. in this track vocodered voice samples are actually talking within the midrangy bass frequencies.

it's more apparent in the latter half of the track, near the end of the track, where it's done with effect in mind of a ghost talking to you. i can't decipher what it's saying but i'm saying that you need this track now.

buy here (junodownload)