the scumfrog - we do

i found this record in one of the bargain bins and it was certainly tracks i've never heard from the scumfrog. neither the a-side, which i found out later was a massive tune in roger sanchez's sets or the b-side. somewhere in my mind i had hunch that it was something chunky and a progressive flirt like most of his other work, basically "the water song" or his remix of kylie minogue.

the a-side is based on the rolling stones' "we love you" and for the b-side, which is "we do" is a stripped down re-dub of it. the riff that jesse houk aka the scumfrog borrowed is removed and it's all focused on the groove. it kicks off with a big distorted whoosh and some dirty bongo drums and that sets the mood, it was also what i was looking for. the strength is the few but atmospheric elements but as soon as the bassline comes into play, it's a done deal.

the only problem with a funky rhythmical bassline like that is that it locks it completely to 128bpm as i think it's would be excellent at faster speeds but it bears to much of it's speed then. never the less it's dark & chunky progressive house for the whole family.

johan claesson - hooliganz on acid (d&a remix)

mate of mine had this "mixcd" from the swedish nrj extravadance series and on it were a couple of good tunes like the alliance remix of q project's "champion sound", the jan driver remix of faithless' "bring my family back", system f's "out of the blue" and kayestone's remix of pinocchio's "hypnotized". as the second to last track there was this bizarre track which was swedish producer d&a's remix of "hooliganz on acid" by swedish producer johan claesson aka bobba fat.

it had these sweeping synth lines and suspense building string parts that launched into more frenetic synthlines and i was balls deep into epic trance and loved the tune. the thing was that it also had a vocal sample with these football hooligans, hence the name "hooliganz on acid". i had never seen the film "i.d." so i didn't know that claesson had sampled them from there or what they actually said.

never the less, the version on the cd was an edit and after a couple of years of forgetting of the song i remembered it when i was in discussion with someone else about those cd's. there was a level of cheese associated with them as they weren't well mixed or structured and the fact it was spearheaded by nrj, it wasn't exactly ministry of sound or renaissance. it led me to track down the song again and i had the edit but i was after the full monty. found out that was released on telica but under claesson's real name than the moniker bobba fat, but it lacked those vocal samples.

something tells me it was out of sample clearance as paul gaarn aka pablo gargano's remix also lacked them. even though i miss them as they were the hook that brought me into the track, the synthline is the sustaining factor. what made wonder then about the track was why the original was never pressed up as the telica release only featured remixes. a thought occured was that the original wasn't good enough or the likes but after hearing a while ago, it sort of the case. it isn't actually awful but take away the vocals and you have a fairly anonymous acid trancer.

daniel ellenson aka d&a's remix doesn't use a lot from the original and works as an own entity. the acidlines are stripped away from the track and the melodies and sounds all come from his own machines and synthesizers. this doesn't remove anything from it and it's a solid piece of epic trance.

listen here (webpage)

karen ramirez - looking for love (trouser enthusiasts' white knuckle dub)

first time i heard the original song was on mtv and liked a bit, mostly because of the video but i quite forgot the song fast. my friend jyri lehtinen was the one who hipped onto the trouser enthusiasts remix as he was quite into them and he knew i loved his remix of dannii minogue's "all i wanna do". the remix of "looking for love" also became a favourite with it's cracking drive, lovely percussion and those sweet piano accents in the choruses.

about a year ago i saw the doublepack in one of stockholm's second-hand stores and my lept with joy and after digging around for other stuff, it was a done deal and purchased it. my interest came with the dub at hand because i knew it was vinyl only and the fact that it was a great tune and something for trancier sets. karen ramirez's vocal sort of started to enervate me at time because she sounded to much like tracey thorn in this song, that may have to do that "looking for love" is originally a everything but the girl track.

my problem was her fake dreary didn't match up with the beats and synth melodies, even though the piano is displaying that melancholi. i was after the nice driving progressive trancer with the percussion and with the dub i found it.

robin s - i want to thank you (africa)

finding this eight tracker single a few years ago with robin stone's name on it was interesting and especially as the names on the credits include david morales and junior vasquez. it also says allen george and fred mcfarlane and is more known as the second half of the other dfa, as in fall out records. i didn't know about this song but i did know it was from 1993 and it definantly was going sound garage-y and have robin's immense vocals gracing the track.

the influence of stonebridge's rerub of "show me love" creeps up in the original "i want to thank you" as you hear that korg m1 organ patch and those shuffling beats. on morales' mixes however that organ sound is removed and is replaced with that classic def mix piano vibe. however there is also some organs in the second half of the remix but it's definantly not the korg sound as they sound rave-ier.

morales also loads up the track with drums and percussion and as the break approaches they get a solo but he also did a version where he focused on them completely. to a certain degree the "africa" version is a tool or a reprise but i like it as an own entity as it's just drums & percussion. for someone like morales that used to play around with his tracks and remixes to make the djmixes more interesting, it wouldn't surprise me if he would play the dub and the africa tool and then head into the main mix.

some part of me think it's stupid to focus on something tracky like a percussive reprise of a song but when it's done as good as this, i repress those thoughts.

arrestar - prayer (charlton remix)

first time i heard about this one was when i was digging through grovskopa's discography following discovering his remix of jeff mills' "the bells" about five-six years ago. the fact that it was free was one of the first i listened to, along with his remix of victor martinez's "aquamortis". fact was that even though i liked grovskopa's remix of the track it was a time where i didn't know how to play it in a set as my idea of playing techno was banging them out. needless to say, it's is anything but banging in a usual context but more of atmospheric but with grovskopa's industrial usual subtext.

a few months ago i was looking in some archives on some of tracks that i played and i saw it there and looked for it again and this time i look at the track with different ears. it's great but i found another version to be the most interesting of the pack and it is done by dutch producer charlton ravenburg. with a big certainty i can say that i've never heard of him prior to this but i'm interested now as he shifts between grimey dubstep and techno in a good way.

he uses a number of the spooky and eerie sounds from the original but more sparsely and much to the halftime rhythm that he employs. to me it sounds more like it would a perfect backdrop for any british mc to spit savage bars over and as soon as i find the perfect acapella, a mashup will be made. in more of a dj perspective it would nice next to some early skream! and digital mystikz tracks and the ilk but as it shifts between halftime breakbeat and some measures of four on the floor, it's a great tool to have to transition smoothly. great track.

download here (label site)

mystic islands - solace

"solace" was a track that i won in a giveaway competition hosted by monster tunes, the label who released the tune. at the time i had heard the ronski speed remix as it was a track that was cained by a number of the big dj's at the time. my friend jan henrik however told me that i should take a listen to the original as it was far better produced and executed than the remix but i was more into ronski speed's version.

reason being that the remix had more of a drive than mystery islands original but looking at it now, it also lacks all the subtlety in the tune and and puts all the focus on the peaks and builds. the drops are shorter in the original and the main breakdown isn't rhythmless but is an piano breakdown which adds to the tracks qualities. what attracted me to both the original and the remix is the use of the supersaw synthsound as a buzzing backdrop or a pad as they are reverbed. it's a good spin on a clichéed element and something that emphasised the track instead of being the only melodic element that stands out.

finnish trance producers seemed to get most things right when it came to epic trance at the time and this is no exception.

buy here (junodownload)

interactive - can you hear me calling? (resistance d remix)

my memory might fail me but this was picked up a while ago with several other singles and the likes and i was hesitant to buy it. even as it was something costed me less than euro second hand because i know the nature of the "can you hear me calling" and there was only one version that interesting. the sleeve said that included a resistance d remix but i wasn't sure to buy something just because it contained that one rendition.

reason for the second guessing of the original isn't because of resistance d, it's with interactive which was a project by ramon zenker, jens lissat, andreas schneider and occasionally also marc innocent. zenker who does the heavy lifting as he is biggest studio rat of them three is known for being one half of hardfloor but also one fourth of fragma, one half of mega 'lo mania, one half of bellini and the list goes on and on. basically for every credible record he has done, there is atleast two to three commercial ones.

i don't falter him for the choice of doing so as you have to earn your living doing something, even if it means sometimes making music for the lowest common denominator. zenker, lissat and schneider also knew that you can benifit from this as you can help out some of your friends to get in on the money by having them remix the song. you will also know that in those cases this version includes as little as possible from the original or whatever works for their sound.

to be honest the original "can you hear me calling" is something restrained in terms of this project and if you've heard it, you will ask yourself how more restrained? well have a listen to their cover of "forever young" or "living without your love", this will sound like carl craig's "dreamland" compared to them. anyhow in the hands of resistance d it's a matter of taking some of the ideas from the original and refitting them. the vocals are reduced to just the title at hand and the synths are classier and isn't that typical of the time.

for all intents and purposes it is something that would work in a modern epic trance set as it's a textbook example on how to good epic trance but i don't see it happening anytime soon. it's more of a case with someone like me that really likes the works of resistance d but i also think that many of their works are timeless.

listen here (youtube)

moon boots - sugar

months had rolled by when i discovered "sugar" on soundcloud but for many of these reworks, it's a matter of if you liked the original or if they've twisted it up enough for it be an own entity. with this one it's a case of taking huge chunks from from janet jackson's "if" and working and refitting them with a new groove. in this case it's a great song being regrooved into something equally awesome.

i would have to say that it owes a lot to the brothers in rhythm house mix from the original set of mixes and that's a version that i love. seaman and anderson was doing pianohouse at the time which sounded like a cross between american garage and italian house but in a distinctive british style. my favourite moment of their remix is the break where they loop janet's "dum da da dum dum" adlibs over the fierce bassline and snappy beats. while moon boots really didn't copy that part, the instrumental sections in the middle with the vibes like piano is almost as brilliant.

with moon boots help basically, i have a version for the song no matter if i'm playing at 100/110/120 bpm and as a dj you enjoy that.

listen here (soundcloud)

the buddy rich big band - the beat goes on (with cathy rich)

five years ago on this day i played on a shoutcast server that me and a few others used and abused from time to time and for boxing day i played a so called special set. i needed a mixtape to listen to on a daily basis and i assembled this tracklist with soul, jazz, funk, folk and spiritual music. as i pressed record it all flowed perfectly but i do remember noone listening at the end of the session. never the less i didn't care as the result was rewarding.

the mix starts with the classic gil scott-heron & brian jackson song "we've almost lost detroit" and it trawls along with some songs by luminaries such as dinah washington, herbie hancock, curtis & carmen lundy, patrice washington, joan baez amongst others. my original plan was to have sam cooke's "a change is gonna come" as this big peak/ender and then wind it down for the closing with karin krog's "the meaning of love".

as the final seconds rolled by on the song i pulled up buddy rich's rendition of sonny & cher's "the beat goes on" and played it as an encore of sorts. i let the bassline end on "the meaning of love" and then faded "the beat goes on" with the intro dialogue and all and it made more sense now. i have no real history with the sonny & cher original as i was introduced to the song by the all seeing i version that sampled the buddy rich version wholesale with bass & vocals being worked.

with the fact that it's a buddy rich version he keeps his drumming tight and controls the track even in the first part of the song, it's the bassplayer that's the dominant factor. this version of the song is noted as rich's daughter, who was twelve (or twelve and ahalf as rich self says in the intro), cathy sings the vocals for the song. she sings most of the lyrics sans the final verse is one of the best ones to be honest but as the biggest emphasis is on the hook, it makes it perfect for someone like buddy rich to make a version of.

buy here (itunes)

note: anyone who've heard the all seeing i version, there is a second version that they did. they cleared out cathy rich's part and out of the song and gave it to britney spears for her version. it appeared on britney's debut album and i sort of like it and i have to thank my sister for playing this album all the fucking time as i would have never cared about it otherwise. the only part i don't like about is they changed the lyrics for the song.

hamasaki ayumi - appears

my mind might fail me but this was maybe the first original track i've heard from hamasaki ayumi as i kept seeing her name as she'd been the subject of heavy remixing at the time. i was a big fan of armin van buuren and his remix of "appears" is still amongst my favourites of all time, but it isn't my favourite remix of an hamasaki ayumi track. that would the alternative richard scanty remix of "end of the world" or the "no. 1 blueberry wonderful" version of "unite!" done by uehara kikou.

"appears" was one of the singles from hamasaki's second album "loveppears" and in single form was themed as a christmas song with bells and everything. the song itself is about a relationship that turned sour and the one part being lonely as the season rolls by, enough said. for me i saw the video first and it's hamasaki in an late summer/early autumn new york with some really fake computer snowflakes falling on her after the break.

it's a catchy song and this was why i got hooked on hamasaki and my foray into otaku-hood started properly. i wasn't just eating a lot of sushi and watching the occasional animé, i was listening to japanese music. at first i had no clue on what the lyrics but as this is pop music, most lyrics are about love....shocking isn't it? if anyone did some further research on her lifebeing, as she wrote most of her own songs, you would understand why she wrote a whole lot of songs about lack of love which many people have attributed to her father leaving the family as hamasaki was just a child.

there is actually essays and such with a load of amateur psychology used regarding her status floating around the web and i think i've read many of them as i was trying to soak up anything hamasaki. nowadays i don't really care and i haven't actually listened to any albums following '05 "my secret" but i still enjoy her works prior to that. yeah, that's about it.

listen here (dailymotion)

note: that i didn't do anything christmas themed writing for last year and this is about as far as i'm going to go, even on christmas eve. also you can only buy this on japanese digital stores as avex pulled their songs from the american itunes following business bullshit. oh, the ease of getting this digitally as i had to purchase this from yesasia.com back in the day.

edp - spiritual hallucination (absence of light remix)

this one comes courtesy of a swedish project called electronic dreamplanet but was shortened edp on their first release on koyote sublabel peyote. i didn't know much about this record when i bought it as it was when i started buying records properly over ten years ago. by going after the sleeve and the information on the record i could gather up that it was about goa or psytrance and sure enough i was right.

"spiritual hallucination" comes in two version both done by dan larsson & tony berntsson themselves and while the original is nice, i steered more towards the "absense of light remix" on the flip. it is a little more stripped down and works well in conventional trance-sets as well, which is what i was playing upon buying this. much like any goa record at the time, it's ultramelodic and the bassline sets the tone for the record. there is also a sturdy tr-909 kick & hihats employed, which wouldn't be the case after the rise of full-on and the likes.

apart from the second break there isn't much to dislike about this record but for me it's just a matter of personal preference. there is a point to it because the track changes key and melodies and i think it's a point for any dj to start mixing out. unless they have a record that works harmonically or is stripped down enough and all that jazz. yeah.

listen here (youtube)

boom bip - closed shoulders (clouddead remix)

from another vinyl purchase comes this one and it was one that where the names were the right ones, even though i had dipped my toes into all of their catalogues. i own this on the "from left to right ep" and is the second single off boom bip's third outing "seed to sun" on former warp sublabel lex records. along with the title track there is three remixes of album track from clouddead, venetian snares and boards of canada.

while i may have bought it for the remix by the latter, aaron funk's and clouddeads remix are far more interesting.venetian snares' take on "the unthinkable" which featured canadian alternative rapper buck 65 is insane in all the right ways. clouddead's version of "closed shoulders" is something else and i've heard it so many times because it's that haunting, intense and beautiful.

i used it in a downtempo mix of mine from 2006 where it followed after miles davis' immense rendition of ahbez's compisition "nature boy". it then into a lenghty dark passage consisting of patrick wicklacz/ambient field's "philéas fogg", off his "five jules verne heroes" ep on canadian netlabel no-type's sublabel nishi, together with this long droning composition by argentinian's anla courtis and pablo reche called "transistores de aire", on spanish netlabel conv.

the reason that i've heard this song the amount that i have apart from the fact that it's awesome is because that mix was i something that i've listened to about a hundred times, maybe more. it was something for everyday listening and something that i listened to as i went to sleep and i always decked out about twenty-thirtee minutes in. i've never reflected on it before know but with the haunting content of the song, i should have gotten more nightmares and dreams where angry women are screaming fuck you intensely at me and etc. that really didn't happen as theatre of tragedy's former singer liv kristine krull's sweet voice would enter the mix about ten minutes after that and i think it balanced that out.

but if i'm going to go into more detail on the song itself then as mentioned, it features vocal samples from an upset women but it's part of the atmosphere. clouddead took the tempo down greatly from boom bip's original and flipped all of the sounds that boom bip brought to the table. there is a more focus on atmosphere than the beat, which itself is trawling along in a really slow pace. the reverbed and echoed sounds all mesh together to form this track and while it is a moodpiece, it also tells a story with all of the emotional ups and downs.

this is the kind of music that should be on bigger ambient and downtempo compilations as it has bite but i don't see that ever happening.

buy here (boomkat)

joel mull - krypteria

"krypteria" comes from a record that i bought around the time of it's release but it wasn't the record i was looking after. i was up in stockholm to get trentemøller's "physical fraction" ep with the divine "prana" & "rykketid" but when that was out i bought the "beta boy" ep with the brilliant "the forest" on the flip. along with it i bought metro area #6 and joel mull's "discotrip" ep.

it's a three tracker with "krypteria" on the flip along with a decent tool called "bump", the titletrack however is awful and hopeless. it's a quite fine piece of techno with great subtleness to it in it's melodic programming. beatport has it listed as house and fact is that pitch it down and it could easily work in a deeper house or techno set. then it would be as a builder but it could even be a peak track if you work it right.

what i love about it is the moody undertones with the strings and all the right minor keys used along the track. the textures that is brought out build a nice soundscape that consist of warm pads and soft keys together with metallic fills and a sturdy beat. all set under a driving bassline that does it's job well, even with it's slight pull back every once a while. well recommended.

buy here (beatport)

i note that the "discotrip" itself isn't available on beatport and i would say it's for the better.

baaba maal - gorel (masters at work remix)

prior to finding the cd-single to "african woman", where the masters at work remix of "gorel" is also featured, the only thing i knew about baaba maal was that he was senegalese and his song "souka nayo". even then the version i knew the most was thievery corporation's remix which featured little from the original composition. with "african woman" it was the kind of material i was looking for, songs or artists that i didn't know of but seemed interesting or had remixes. they could be by people that i never heard of but it was they were many in the amount, i'd scoop it out.

on "gorel" it was a concious decision to branch out to european scene with regards to the drum machines and breaks used underneath it all. now when i mean europe i do by default mean france because of a large number of senegalese immigrants following the colonisation of senegal etc. also as so called "world music" was seeing fame when set to a four on the floor thump, as in the example of guinean singer mory kanté's fame following "yé ké yé ké".

reason for using dancemusic to be the outreach is when dance acts started sampling drums rhythms & vocals to spice up their tr-909 driven house tracks. producers & dj's understood that as long as it's rhythmic no one is going to care what language the vocalists sings in. an other reason is that it fit the background of the so called tribal drums that they took from their recently purchased "world music" cd.

bottom line, in most respects it's a matter of exoticism and/or colonial robbery, disguised as cultural fascination. it's more obvious in a setting where the music and culture is being sampled and by that i mean without permission. as in the cases of enigma or deep forest when they're jacking chants and sounds left and right and setting them to a four on the floor. you're not promoting culture from the solomon islands by taking a recording of a baeggu lullaby and setting it to a drumbeat, you're just robbing someone else's culture and making money out it.

never the less on a glance, it does seam better on when this is done on their own terms as baaba maal gets to promote his own culture and music. then there is that overshadowing fact that it's still done to a locked machine drumbeat, but if you listen the song in a live setting it's more to the root. part of me wonders why i went on this negative sidetrack as i'm not going to talk about the album version but a remix. something that you could say furthermore whitewashes the original song, the difference though is that masters at work does a classier job at it.

masters at work were at this stage exploring rhythms from their own latin backgrounds but also their own liking of fela kuti and drums from all over the globe. to set the song in a housey club setting without it being tacky or dated, you steer away from clichés of the time and do timehonoured clichés like pianodriven house with the percussion reacting and having it's own progression. kenny dope gonzalez & louie vega also took help of percussionist anthony "starvin t" cordero to add some own additional drums and they fit well in the mix. masters at work do their brand of new york garage the best and supplied me with this gem. well recommended.

listen here (youtube)

marc romboy vs. chelonis r. jones - helen cornell

first time i heard "helen cornell" was in a set by my friend robert j turner and i really didn't like it. the beat wasn't interesting and the vocal seamed to meander about some woman and i kept wondering when does this track end? the thing was though the hook of "helen cornell, a bit of her in everyone" was stuck in my mind as i think i subconsciously did like or maybe that a phrase like that sticks to you.

somehow i want to believe the former as chelonis r. jones' voice is the kind that reminisces you of robert owens and joe smooth. even if the music sounds like the typical quality european deep technohouse, romboy wanted the element of chicago even though it more sounds like london if anything. i still don't think that romboy's original is the best version musically but jones carries the track.

the other versions of the track are done by stefan goldmann, jerome sydenham and dylan hermelijn aka 2000 and one. the former two focused less on the vocal and are more interesting and i would loved if they included vocal mixes but i guess it'd work with mashing them up live. goldmann does use the full vocal but i don't like how he played with romboy's sounds or jones' singing.

romboy's original does however lend itself to be played around with but the way i'm feeling now, i love it as it is.

buy here (junodownload)

max peezay - anomi (prod. by matte caliste & pikanen beats)

the return of tom piha aka max peezay on record comes courtesy of his fjärde världen groupmate matte caliste and his producer ep "stadsbild volym 1" ("cityscape volume 1"). "anomi" ("anomie") has been released since the summer but i've heard it one to many times again recently and i really think it's one of the best tracks that piha has ever done. as the title says the track is a questioning of norms and values within the swedish music scene, the world in general and peezay's own life and existance.

piha may sound pissed off and disillusioned with everything in his two verses but that's just on a glance, i think there is a big chunk of optimism hidden in his lyrics. he wasn't happy with how things were then but then again, i think there is a stigmatisation that goes on automatically and swedish rappers feeling sorry for themselves. personally i'm sick of swedish rappers complaining about not getting the recognition when they were actually getting it by all the right people. or thinking the music was ruined by the corporates when the fact that it drove rappers to do better on their own terms without any recorddeal.

however the lyrical aspect of the song is secondary for my liking of the song as caliste & juuso pikanen's beats are amazing. with a bombastic new york meets london type of melodic backdrop the drumbeats changes as the track progresses. it starts with hard thick breakbeats at 80bpm on the first verse and then goes into a modern 160bpm halftime drummachine rejig, this is where the melodic changes a bit as the tr-808 beats are more intricate. on the third verse it goes into 160bpm but fulltime with the melodics being tones down and peezay is rapping ferociously to amen drums.

as his flow and temper may seem at his most angry or most emotional, it eventually reaches a climax and you hear the track change again. this time the beat drops out into a warped bass and some drumstep action for the outro of the track as peezay does his adlibs and shoutouts.

i'd say that i think piha, calliste and pikanen should really pat themselves on their back for this one as "anomi" is without a doubt one of the best swedish hiphop tracks ever done.

buy here (itunes)

high contrast - what's the story?

when i first heard "what's the story", it wasn't because of it per say but i was in love with carlito & dj addiction's "a better day" and did my usual thing of checking out other tracks that they had produced. i found "the ride" on this sampler for hospital records' compilation "plastic surgery 2" and on the flip there was high contrast's "what's the story?" and i found it to be much better than carlito & dj addiction's track.

even though in retrospect i find no flaw in either track i was transfixed with "what's the story", it was also around the time i first heard "return to forever" and "love sick". needless to say, i became a fan of lincoln barrett's style of musicmaking. in his liquid stylings he set a preference with smooth textures and strings mixed with driving basslines and punchy breaks. i was well aware of his more rougher tracks like "the bassment dub" or "angels or fly" but i was gearing toward the liquid back as i think his rough wasn't that rough.

parts of why i also was transfixed with the track had to do with that it's really easy to mix and i discovered it at the time when i was trying to work jungle and drum & bass into my sets. never the less, it's a great track and the groove is really strong and geared towards headknods and bootyshakes. melodically it's a combination of a string motif and these quick keyboard parts that work as both fills and supplement to the groove. they do pale in significance once barrett let the string motif play out in full and it gives the same warm or shivering as when you heard the horns from "return to forever"


buy here (hospital records webshop)

pernilla wahlgren - i need your love

some seven or eight years ago i was watching some old homemovies with my family and some of our relatives and the video at hand was two part. first was when my two oldest sisters had a party with their youthgroup and there was some music, dancing and other types of festevities. the second part was our new years celebration from 87/88 and while this was actually why the video was being seen the first half is at interest here.

i heard a few songs on it that i loved and became obscessed with and tried to ask my sisters if they knew but they'd forgotten. for whatever reason i forgot to google the lyrics but a few years after two of the songs just came up in my head after i heard something that sounded like one of them. i recorded the audio of the two and went online and found that one of the songs to be modern talking's "diamonds never made a lady" but the other was harder.

first of the audioquality wasn't crystal so i couldn't fully hear her what she was singing but i kept looking with little to no result. even nowadays the lyrics are not available on line so i couldn't find it but i knew the year of the event was 1987 and modern talking track was 1985 so i tried a different strategy. i thought the song was called "one word" as that was the punch of the chorus and one of the key lyriclines in the first verse and looked to see if there was any songs called that between those years.

the result was nothing in relevance and decided to upload the clip to and sent it out to some friends that liked 80's music and on some forums dedicated to italo and eighties music and still nothing. enter dennis alexis hallström aka bimbo boy as i through the discogs forum noticed his website & blog and the fact that he was listening to this kind of music on last.fm. sent him the audioclip and what i knew of it and i finally recieved an identification and information on the song.

swedish popstar, actress & musicalartist pernilla wahlgren's "i need your love" from 1987, the lead single from her third album "pure dynamite". the first album of hers that was completely in english with the intent for it to be the launch of an international career, something that didn't happen in the end. she's from a showbusiness family and is the daughter of two actors (hans wahlgren & christina schollin) and is a name and face that's been all over swedish media, oh, the last 25 years.

the song was written & produced by her partner at the time emilio ingrosso and for anyone that inquires, that is sebastian ingrosso's uncle. emilio and his brother vito (sebastian's father) started out as background dancers for wahlgren. "i need your love" doesn't have much of a value outside of a kitschy one but i love it, mostly because how hard it tries to this big stock aitken waterman track.

it sounds more like something that could have come out the german pop scene but this is also why i love it. you hear that the persons who made this song doesn't have english as their first language but they try but it doesn't matter as the catchy melodies make you ignore some of the inane sentances and grammitical placements and all that jazz.

buy here (itunes)

there was also a remix done by swemix's rené hedemyr for the dj's and the european market, hedemyr redoes ingrosso's production and sorts out a better groove for the dancefloor. a four on the floor is brought on and the bassline is heavier, he also replaces the synthsolo in the middle eight  for a wild pianosolo. production wise this remix is much better but i prefer the kitschy original over it.

listen here (youtube)

jan johnston - as the cracks appear (humate remix)

first time i heard this track was in a set and i think it was oakenfold who played it but i forgot about it until a year ago when a friend of mine was talking about it. the story of jan johnston her impact on epic trance music is something you go and on about as she along with kate cameron and kirsty hawkshaw set a precident on how vocal trance would sound. never the less, her association with paul oakenfold and his perfecto label gave her a plateau as a requested vocalist but it wasn't the safest one.

the album that "as the cracks appear" comes, which was called "emerging" from was completed but never released. some of the remixes of the songs only appeared in elusive promo releases and on certain mixed cd's and whatnot. eventually johnston left perfecto for a small stint on vandit, but i believe she is associated with armada nowadays.

gerret frerichs aka humate & highlands remixes of the song appeared on an ep called "a perfecto summer" along with tall tin box's "god's love" and konkrete's "law unto myself". highland's remix is proper nice but it has nothing on humate's remix and reason being that for humate's bassline. with a groove consisting of a sturdy four on the floor and shuffled percussion, gerrit frerichs loads this wobble in the bottom end and it ground the track immensly.

for being this heavy groove it is kind of minimalistic and much inline with the kind of techno that humate was making at the time as well. the melodiic elements are sparse but loaded with reverbs and it works for the atmosphere that is built up. warm reverbed stabs that anyone else would call detroit-esque, since it remotely sounds like the juno 106 patches that kevin saunderson used for all those inner city tracks. even the vocal breakdown serves it purpose especially as this track is brilliant for transitioning in a progressive house set. love it.

chromeo - opening up

from one of my recent physical purchases comes "opening up" by those funky canadians chromeo and their brand of electrofunk. bought it together with hercules & love affair's "blue songs" & folie's "misspass" on an expedition to the southern parts of stockholms suburbs when i meant to purchase some new boots for the winter.

on my first listen to the album it was a solid affair with plenty of funky material that can be described as: nice beats, chunky basslines, memorable synthmelodies, dave's smooth voice and p-thugg's awesome talkbox. this song is no exception and it's probably the best song on the album. it's similar to "bonafied lovin'" but a little more funky so it's better.

buy here (7digital)

joker jam - traffic (sunset mix)

for some reason joker jam's "traffic" started playing in my head earlier today when i was listening to radio and heard some awful song, which i know of but will not name. i was near a mall of some sorts and as i was leaving the place, the power went out and it was dark. outside it's pissing down snow like it should as i'm living in a country where you have winters as in the classic description of the season. the reason i found it weird that melody of "traffic" came into my head was because it's such a summery track and my surroundings were nothing but that.

anyhow when i first heard the song in '04 it was through van bellen's remix and that was because i was heavily into his productions at the time. he knew how to make punchy progressive house and trance and on this one it leaned towards the housier. he took use of the atmosphere and the latent summery feel in the track and refitted the groove of the original and made a great piece of music. a few months after i heard it i was in a stockholm recordstore, that my mate worked in at the time, and saw it there when i was there to pick up a few other records*.

when i listened to the record i discovered the original as well and it was a really good track but i was more intrigued that there was a fourteen minute version on the flip. it was called the "sunset mix" and it became a favourite, even more than the van bellen remix. truth be told that i had seen the record prior on discogs and thought that it was an ambient or downtempo mix as it was called the "sunset mix".

never the less it's nothing of the sorts and it's a trancier and atmospheric version of the original. the pads of the original are boosted in signifance and the groove is more driving. then there is the inclusion of all the trippy sounds that van bellen also took advantage of in his remix and the acid line that is introduced. just that alone is part of why i love it but it isn't the full story. holters goes all out with this version and in the end it something that sounds like a crossbreed between etnoscope and chicane, in the all the right ways.

buy here (junodownload)

mylène farmer - pardonne-moi (forgiveness club remix)

the things you can find on discogs is amazing and this combination left my jaw on the ground, so what is it might you ask? well it's french goa-trance producers blue planet corporation (gabriel masurel) & jaïa (yannis kamarinos) remixing mylène farmer for the second time. it shouldn't make sense but that is such a pedestrian approach and i think most heads was reluctant to it because of both parties statures in their fields.

farmer is one of the best selling artists in the french-speaking world and blue planet corporation and jaïa are two of the most well regarded goa trance producers. masurel had prior to taking on "c'est une belle journée" only done one remix prior and that was of amanite fx & prana's "black rain" and kamarinos had done four remixes prior. it still was a weird choice but their remix of that was quite good and to be honest, there was also a tom novy remix that did much better on dancefloors.

people who are expecting full on goa versions are to be disappointed in both remixes of farmer's songs, they sound more like tilt than total eclipse. however they are well produced pieces of trance with farmers vocals and laurent boutonnat's melodies and chords taken into great use. it's melodic but doesn't go over the board and has a throbbing bassline the changes within the track are subtle. epic trance done right.

listen here (youtube)

taho - crossing the photonic belt

story time again so gather around people, leechers (who don't like me as i don't give out music) and you russian spammers (who think i am stupid enough to click their links). i was listening to taho's remix of timm kawohl's "afternoon sky" and loved it so much i wanted to write about it but and was looking to see if it still existed on the intarwebs as a listenable or legally downloadable entity. fact was that it didn't and on the remaining files from this release on the scene.org ftp, that thinner has reduced itself to after it folding the operation, was the paul keeley remix of "life in half" and the brian kage remix of "notorious hunter". both of which are great tracks but helps little with my request and i thought, maybe i'll put up a sample or something.

as i was going to write a bit on it, i wanted to also drop a word on taho's other productions to see if there was similarities and such and noticed that david jacopin aka taho had a proper catalogue and owned his own label called lumina. when listening to samples on few of these on juno and beatport i noticed that he also released a new single called "solar flare" a few months ago on snejl. a sort of deep housey affair but i don't really like it so i left that alone. the first thing in his catalogue that i listened to was the "vertige ep", his first single released on laurent garnier's f communications.

the thing i liked about taho's remix of "afternoon sky" was his use of heavy reverb and punchy drums. this aestethic was being purveyed on it but the music wasn't completely interesting. i moved onto his second release, the "elle ep" and as i pressed play on "zia", i heard this combination as well but with more somewhat more interesting music. problem was that the remix of "afternoon sky" was broken beats and these were mid 90's not quite techno and not quite trance and i was not looking for that.

i really scoured his entire catalogue to find something like the remix but found nothing of the sorts but i think i found something better. i started to notice that apart from his regular techno he would release beatless tracks as well and they would be brilliant and i was torn between a few of them like "energy fields" from the "forest of wonder ep", "dissolving shadow" from the "future ep" and then there was "crossing the photonic belt" from the "atlantess" ep. at last i had struck gold as it's synthy, drenched with reverb and sort of broken beat.

it's brilliant.

buy here (beatport)

the persuader - from west to south

time for some svek again i reckon and i'm going to highlight one of the persauder tracks that is in regular titleschemes of various part of stockholm, but sort of isn't. in terms of geography "from west to south" means kungsholmen to södermalm* and that means västerbron. dahlbäck has named some of his tracks after bridges, most of them of rather small character compared to västerbron but that has nothing to do with this.

anyhow "from west to south" was one of the first track that i heard when i rediscovered jesper dahlbäck's the persuader project and it holds a dear place in heart. some of the elements reeks of, dare i say it, cheesy but it but that bassline makes up for the combination of the overly romantic keys & saxophone combo. you have to know how to place this in a set for it not to stick out but when jori hulkkonen plays it in his helsinki sessions mix, it's brilliant.

the other keyboard bits from dahlbäcks makes up for it like the noodling type seance in the end and the stabby solo in the break of the song. the latter is used with a patch that is so high pitched that it creates tension like no other and continues as the bass and percussion is romping back in. it doesn't release until a bit in and here dahlbäck improvised within the chords of the song and then starts to do these lush long notes a la "summer madness". simply put beautiful.

i have said before that there isn't one single jesper dahlbäck/the persuader production that sucks because the level is set so high that even the lesser good ones are brilliant. this one ranks amongst the highest with "kungsträdgården", "djurgårdsbron" and "slussen".

buy here (beatport)

*funny thing is that dahlbäck has two tracks called "kungsholmen" and "södermalm" and the musical transition between them wouldn't be like "from west to south".

dharma one - belong (featuring tuomo)

"belong" is a track that i found on their label compilation "liquid assets", i bought it about five or six years ago with a bit of a clue about what kind of music i would find. the only name i recognized on the tracklisting was mekhanist and that was thanks to my good friend jyri lehtinen who has been brilliant at pushing me onto great finnish music. behind the name dharmaone/dharma one (or even just dharma) hides jouni helminen and i know little about him but the tracks i have heard from him has been quality.

the song first came out in '02 on the second edition of a nine2five's "coffee breaks" ep:s. i know for certain that it became a favourite with the mighty gilles peterson and was featured on a mixcd of his along with another compilation. it features fellow finns tuomo prattala on vocals and antti hynninen (aka rebeat) on flute and berimbau. the song is a mighty broken beat track with wild percussion, stabby keys and really subby bass. tuomo's light but beautiful vocal ride on top the beats as the rhythm shuffles around.

it's quite anthemic in it's execution and definitely something for those one am moments in a warm club.

buy here (beatport)

it also comes with a housey version courtesy of jimpster and it's also quite nice

the clifford gilberto rhythm combination - i wish i was a motown star

another track from a compilation and this one comes courtesy of florian schmitt aka clifford gilberto on the ninja tune compilation "funkungfusion". the title of the song "i wish i was a motown star" intrigued me but so did a number of the track on the compilation but it was a track and an artist that i hadn't heard prior to buying the compilation.

from hearing the first seconds of it i understood that the name of the game is jazz in the way that say, tom jenkinson/squarepusher or amon tobin makes jazz music. that means deconstructing the music into pieces and then re-assembling it while still retaining the core foundation. this track in particular reminds me of kid606's ragga jungle breakcore madness except for the all of the ragga; jungle; breakcore & madness.

i know that doesn't make sense but i think breaking it down like this is more sensible: it's a regular cool jazz track with chopped up parts and a drumprogramming that sways between ballistic and something that fits the music. this is what make it brilliant and it stimulates the jazzloving part of me and the lurking a.d.d.-freakazoid that tries to shake legs to the crazy fast rhythm of the song.

the only question remains is if the base of the song is a sample or original and since this is on the ninja tune label the logical answer would be that schmitt has gone nuts on some track. you never know and according to his own biography, he is a classically trained pianist and has played in jazz ensembles and bands so your guess is as good as mine. i choose to believe that it's a prerecorded part of his own history and that he went nuts on that.

buy here (beatport)

interfearence - religious revolution

i saw this album with a great cover and the title interfearence on it a few years ago and i was little puzzled but after a little while, it sprung to mind that there was a british big beat act called just that. they also made a remix of hybrid's "if i survive" but i'm not a fan of that but it was that version that helped me identify the album as i bought the commie's dub digitally the same week. for a remix of theirs that i do like, i really recommend their rerub of galliano's "ease your mind".

the sound of the album is big beat but leaning on the housier side and with a lot of use of guitars, sitars and live bass. according their own biography the words i am looking for is a "unique musical sound with heavy layers" and that it's supposed to be "deeply organic". see the last word is what i wouldn't use just because they've incorporated some live instrumentation. especially when you fiddle around with everything else, and the live sounds as well in a computer.

never the less i am fond of the songs and especially "religious revolution" as the drum programming is the best on this one. it starts out with a sitar that is looped in a really good way and some percussion get into play. here it's still breakbeats with tablas and bongos backing it up and there is a nice groove to it but it changes into a four on the floor after a lengthy break. the transition does take a bit to long but it builds a good atmosphere with all the guitar & sitar parts meshing together.

they use a bit of reversing with some of the sounds and the guitar loop that breaks up those not-spooky sounds is flipped and the effect is great. they've used a guitar pedal when playing and the twang in reverse creates a lovely dissonance and it sets a new tone to the track. when it all kicks in again with the bassline is put in and it's a really funky one that first plays to the guitar chord but then gets somewhat of a solo.

it leads into a new break and here it switches into a breakbeat again but now it's some looped amen drums that are filtered in. the bassline sits sort of weird in this section as they are swinging it and the drums take too much of space but when the amens go out it works again.

funky breakbeat music for the whole family.

buy here (itunes)

kate bush - somewhere in between

"somewhere in between" comes from kate bush's 2005 two disc album "aerial" and is on the second disc which actually is a coherent entity but that doesn't stop me from singling out one track. the lead single from the album is on the first record and while it's nice, i do think the second disc is where the gems of the album are located.

i bought "aerial" a few years ago and liked it but forgot about it until i relistened to it a few months ago and memories came back. for "somewhere in between" i liked it because of the groove and of course kate bush's lovely voice. the song represents what adult contemporary music should be known as all the time as there is punchy instrumentation and great songwriting. then again that is kate bush's catalogue in a nutshell so take notes people.

what this song reminds me off is balearic music and this is why i say that i love it for the groove. i am puzzled that someone hasn't cut their teeth into it and done a lengthy ten minute rework. never the less the shuffling drums, the gentle guitar, the walking bassline and the string arrangements is brilliant. especially as it compliments bush's vocal range from her lower notes and her lovely highs. 

great music from kate bush, i would say genius but as it's kate bush, that goes without saying.

buy here (itunes)

note: with the re-release of aerial "somewhere in between" is done part the second disc "an endless sky of honey"

robyn - be mine! (jori hulkkonen vocal mix)

"be mine!" in it's original form is a song i loved from the first time i heard as robyn appeared on the swedish national radios awardshow p3 guld in 2009. nobody knew what was going on but this was the starting point for robyn as the cultural phenomena in the current shape. as it was released at first it didn't come with any remixes or sorts and to be honest, i was hesitant for any as i didn't want anyone to fuck it up.

as she she took her massively selling album to the uk and eventually the us she, as she runs her own label, started re-issuing singles and with new remixes. "be mine!" was quite late to the equation but eventually the information dropped and i saw the names roger sanchez, ocelot, redroche, meat boys and jori hulkkonen. as they were introduced i wanted to hear samples of the versions but the two that i wanted to know about was by sanchez & hulkkonen. the former was quite a dud in these ears but jori hulkkonen didn't dissapoint at all.

the jist of the remix is that taking the original and refitting into the kind of techno that hulkkonen was making at the time. synthdriven techno with slow builds and heavy grooves. the backdrop fits the melancholy and sadness that robyn is purveying as she sings about missing love. the vocal however is different as i think the remixers were given a new take as the chords are different and hulkkonen uses this to his advantage.

one of the things that eventually irritated me with the original was that breakdown where she talks about "tying her laces", i can't even explain why this exact thing became a point of distress. however in hulkkonens version it works even if all he did was to set it with more of her background vocals and long sweeping pads, now the problem is solved

basically, hulkkonen managed to make a great song even better.

buy here (beatport)

mau - proposal chapter 1

club guidelines was one of the many institutions of stockholm's mosebacke and they championed soulful house and techno with magnus talib and resident mikael nordegren (tiger stripes, d'malicious) in charge. at the end of their run they released a compilation with some of the featured dj's and artists and some of the anthems from the club.

of course i had to buy the compilation and i really liked it, it featured plenty of killer tracks and one of them was this, "proposal chapter 1" from magnus östergren aka mau. i am quite sure that i didn't like this when i first listened to as i was more into the soulful house on the compilation. my current ears however says that this is brilliant and the best way to describe it would be a combination of grimy broken beat, dark techno and a whole lot of eerieness.

i had it in my headphones a months ago when i was out walking and the sun starting to set. it was darker outside and the surroundings were in the transition from fall to winter it was the perfect soundtrack for that moment. the jittery drums and small effected sounds are constantly overheaded by this pad which sets the tone well. the key element is the playful nature of the track and how sounds are messed around with and at parts it sounds like rules being tossed through the window. as it should be.

studio pressure - relics (plaid remix)

plaid remix of "relics" is something i either discovered through my good friend jan henrik or on discogs, probably both in combination. it did spark my interest as it deals with a favourite type of remix as mentioned in my entry on king britt's remix of "do something". plaid was much more known as making nice weird techno and electro but they were offered to put their spin on this photek production.

certificate 18 asked a number of artists from different fields of electronic music to do remixes and most notably it included auteche's remixes of lexis' "hypnotise", two lone swordsmen's remix of klute's "silent weapons" and this one. most of the remixes were gathered up on a compilation called "the widescreen versions" and is well recommended.

"relics" in it's original formation is known by this hypnotic melody sequence and these dubby organ stabs along with thunderous subbass hits. plaid's approach was to work the song into a spookier track and flipped some of rupert parkes melodic parts. the main sequence is looped and the pads are taken in for a bigger role as well as the groove being much more rhythmic than photek's luscious amen onslaught.

it's such an original flip on a track that is dripping of ideas and angles already, to take a bit of each and set them in new sections is brilliant.

listen here (youtube)

shola ama - imagine (ed case & carl h remix)

i heard this version a few years after hearing the asylum remix and that is the definite version of the song for all i care. ed case & carl h's remix does rate quite high as well and reasons being for that bassline. i think this version was done after the asylum remix became the smash that it was. this leads me to believe that a proper underground mix was something that was needed as the asylums remix was much smoother.

this remix sets shola amas vocals behind a sparse backdrop that consists of really punchy drums, a mother of a bassline and then two melodic parts and a choir pad of sorts. much of the track is just ama and the drums and bass, something that on a big system makes the difference. you have to get the elements down really fat as they are they domineering parts but the impact is like no other.

the key moment is when that it drops and you hear this massive murmur of a bassline that is playing the notes of the vocal melody. henceforth the solo parts with ama and the rhythms are nothing short of brilliant. her sweet voice and that menacing grumble, beauty and the bass. always going to be my favourite fairytale.

listen here (youtube)

the odd couple - paperkites

"paperkites" comes from the fredrik lager (freddie cruger/red astaire) & lars berger collaboration ep as "the odd couple" on cruger's own swedish brandy productions. i have it on the most excellent label compilation "current cuts vol. 1" which gathers up some of the best tracks from the labels first ten releases. there is some brilliant hiphop music on this in various shapes and forms, all from proper old school leaning to the twisted editions of the genre from the last decade.

i was blown away by how good this track when i heard the first time, to be honest i don't like the small speech in the beginning but the groove is immense. a nice light summery groove with this smooth floating bass and most of the track feels somewhat natural. cruger's production are generally a hopscotch of samples that has been twerked but despite being constructed it doesn't completely sound like it. both in the programming of the drums and the bass, there is an attention to detail and there are movement that might as well was played by a band.

the trainspotter in me does want to locate where cruger & berger grabbed their soundbites but i can only locate two and i'm not even sure they are the ones. the vocal sound like parts of terra deva's in the furry phreaks classic "soothe" but it's only fragments. the lush string sequence sounds to me like the one from the break of quincy jones' rendition of "summer in the city" but i know that it can't be that. there isn't a clean segment where long notes are playing and no drums or bass are heard.

anyhow, it's a perfect light funky summery jam for a winter day like this where the sun is shining high in the sky and if you actually step outside, it's at least 5 degrees below zero....

buy here (junodownload)

macy gray - do something (sylk 130 remix)

discovered this remix by king britt (aka sylk 130) of macy gray's debut single when i was trawling discogs and checking out king britt's remix discography. when i found the tag "drum & bass" in the genre description things became interesting. it's always fun to hear when producers step out of their comfort zone and leave their regular tempo. i do tend to be more excited when a house or techno producer makes drum & bass than vice versa.

this remix sort of calls to mind 4hero and especially their much beloved remix of the masters at work sideproject nuyorican soul's cover "i am the black gold of the sun". it starts out in slower hip-hop tempo and then flips into double time but they have a different motifs. 4hero's kept it smooth and jazzy throughout whereas king britt kept is rugged at first.

for the first part of the remix, king britt stripped down the original down to the rhythm and bass and it's proper headknod backpacker hiphop mode. it carries on for about two and a half minutes and then he drops the beats and you hear some nice delayed keys and parts of macy's vocals being echoed. eventually he drops in the frantic breakbeats and sounds like he used the original drums in doubletime and an additional breakbeat with prominent rides.

it stays very jazzy and you hear part 4hero but also roni size as influence for it, the bass stays smooth but rumbles well in the lower frequences. a lot of use of longer notes in legato and i quite like it's symbiosis with the airy pad that eventually creeps up. a very well done remix and if he king britt decides do more drum & bass, i'd be up to hear it.

bioground - outstanding emptiness

in the autumn of '05 i heard a dj mix from german dj atak who played an hour in this internetradio ordeal and that set got me into bioground. the set itself was filled with at least five timewriter/jean f. cochios tracks but he opened with the eric kupper remix of bioground's "affinity". then in midset he played the track that was nothing short of heartstoppingly beautiful, "smooth summer nights".

that track alone made me a fan of his works for life even though bioground/luís novo isn't as active as he used to be. when looking in bioground's releases at the time it consisted of a few singles, two remixes and an album from which i found "outstanding emptiness" on. some more great track included "hazel eyes" & "love addiction", the former of which also feature joeee who sings on this track as well.

what attracted me to "smooth summer nights" was that sort of subdued melancholy and while there there is a touch of happiness in it, there is none in "outstanding emptiness". the atmospheric beginning conveys it and joeee's vocal is dripping of emotions and you feel his heartbreak and loneliness. for some reason the track makes me think of the frankie knuckles & satoshi tomiie classic "tears" with robert owens on vocals.

there is no connection other than dripping heartbreak on groovy house beats but it comes from that being one of the prime examples of this. musically "outstanding emptiness" sounds more a bit like marshall jefferson & truth's "open your eyes" and larry heard/fingers inc's "mystery of love" than "tears". it also sound a whole bit like "smooth summer nights" but producers use the same sounds & aesthetics and i only object to that when the song sucks and this doesn't.

buy here (djtunes)

note: for whatever reason, the first 16 bars is fucked on the version available digitally. there should not be a double time kick and the tempo shouldn't be that fast after them.

ken ishii - awakening (christian smith & john selway remix)

can't say i remember when i discovered this track but i have a fond memory of it since i recorded a mix a long time ago where i opened with it. bear in mind that my skills on the decks weren't that good then and even if i had the mix available i wouldn't haul it off that easy. i do know that as an additional intro thing i played a section of james holdens pistolwhip in reverse on top. i practiced and got it down well and when i recorded the mix it, every attempt went down the shitter.. oh well.

truth be told that it's more likely for me to play the original nowadays as i'm more attracted to it, but the smith & selway remix is the one i have played more over the years. both are brilliant in their own way as ishii's original is a bumping piece of techno with more of a housey appeal. really well composed track with all sorts of nice crazy synth sounds and a bass that really resonates well when it hits those longer notes.

christian smith & john selway take a somewhat different approach but do more of a big room version where the bassline rolls and the groove is percussion heavy. ishii's synth sounds are simplified to a few formations but are also treated with reverb and the likes. they float on top of the thick bed of beats and bass and with the additional pads, it's a nice texture of sounds.

in all of it's big roomey vibe they also bring on this nice summery balearic feeling as the breaks down and it feels like the missing link between chicane and adam beyer (circa 2002 mind you).

buy here (junodownload)

echoboy - turning on (red snapper remix)

after hearing the remix of jessica lauren's "uptown" i did check out some of red snapper's other remixes and some of their works. i knew of their remix of ruby's "paraffin" and the remix of lamb's "softly". the former i don't like at all but the remix of "softly" is nice but it has nothing on the bola remix so it doesn't matter.

i really didn't know much about the original song or richard warren/echoboy's works in general but i know i've seen the name before. this was case of hearing the remix before the original so i didn't know what they used and what they did with this remix. after hearing "turning on" i realised they used the resonant synth sounds from the latter half of the song and removed most of warren's vocals.

what made me like the track is the fact they flipped it to a garage like tune but with sharp spaced out sounds. the drums are smacking and on point but apart from additional percussion grooves it doesn't go anywhere with the programming. then again i believe they put the focus on getting the bass down fat and they pulled that off well. it's a murmuring sound and i feel the frequencies excellently when i bang it out.

red snapper really built the tension with this as the bass progresses and with the background sound growing and as you think it will go nuts they drop them. instead they unleash this buzzing high pitched sinewave that they took from the original and it's transient and really gets to you in a good way. as it becomes sort of a noise it hits a level of annoyance and then it drops. really well also and this is the killer moment, killer track.

buy here (junodownload)

amplify dot - three little pigs

this one is quite freshly released from a.dots latest mixtape "spare parts" and after listening to the whole shebang, i thought this was the best of the collection. the mixtape itself is i believe something for the fans to hold on to until her album debut, as she signed with virgin/emi a few months ago. a twelve tracker with a few stonking fresh track including this track and the show-n-prove produced "get down" that was given a few days ago as a tease.

dot kicks some razor sharp rhymes with the viewpoint that she is the villainous character in a few select children stories, like "snow white" and "three little pigs". all over this really banging beat with jamaican horns samples and what sounds like a chopped up break from the commodores' "the assembly lines". together with a womping bass and a kick that punches in hard.

it sits on the line of going completely into wobblecore or brostep during the hooks but it stays there. even near the end where dottys vocals are bitcrushed and the sounds are a bit more mental it doesn't go over the line which is healthy as i'm not that.

ultra banging track from one of the best rappers around at the moment. grab the mixtape and buy here album once it's done and released

listen here (soundcloud) | download here (facebook page)

chakra - home (tilt's topline mix)

"home" is a song that has countless good versions so chances are that i will make another entry about say the solar stone remix of the salt tank reconstruction. parks & wilson had a knack for making great punchy epic trancers and this was no exception. driving beats, great melodics that were in tune and fit with the track at hand and it didn't fanny around.

there is only one thing i don't like about it and that's the drop in the beginning of the track that reminds me sort of the classic anthony pappa & alan bremner moment "skydive". part of what bugs me with both is when trying to eliminating them makes the track seem you have cut out something substantial when you have not. when i do my nips and tucks on tracks like this to remove elements like small breaks or segments with awful synths or vocals and such, i try to execute so it's not noticeable.

tilt's remix came for the '99/'00 re-release of home and besides them there was also remixes by above & beyond, rob searle & mara. chakra was one of the many projects from rick simmonds & stephen jones, more known as the space brothers. the space brothers in general were known for making vocal trance that didn't suck, almost...

a key to their success of pulling this was that they knew vocalists that had a good vocal range. one that they worked with on many of occasions and on all of the five chakra singles was kate cameron. simmonds & jones used to write most of the lyrics to the songs and their only problems is that they used these "poetic rephrasings" that can make you cringe. for example in this song cameron sings:

don't be afraid, your world is dark tonight / for without love, how can your spirit sing? / you are a bird with wounded wings / you're not alone, i've come take you home

tilt also made a second version that has been stripped down of the vocal element but also the melodic parts. parks, wilson & graham put their focus on the rhythm and while it's brilliant as a piece in a set, it's also a bit boring. actually boring is the wrong word but the melodic aspects were part of the brilliant elements of the track so replacing them with warped sirens and other sounds were just stupid.

for their main vocal version tilt took some of the original melodies and put their spin and synth patches and set it to a new groove. i am a big fan of that conga-loop that they used and is so audible in the mix as it's rare to hear it with this kind of tracks. tilt knew that there wasn't that much of a problem with the original besides a typical 1997 synth patch and some other sounds, all what was needed was an update and refitting and something that would be more longlasting.

buy here (itunes)

newkid - luftens hjältar (med lorentz & ison)

the first time i heard about "luftens hjältar" ("the heroes of the airwaves") was about six months ago when i heard an acoustic version of the song. alexander ferrer (aka newkid) was invited by swedish music blog psl to perform a set for one of their newly started ordeals. it's called the sinding sessions and basically it's sort of an unplugged session but with no real audience. with newkids music being based in r&b and hiphop and the hyper-electronic kind, you strip it all down to the core and get close to the music.

what attracted me to this was the fact that ison glasgow delivers a verse and i've stated this before but i am a fan of his. if anyone asks why haven't you heard this one before, especially since newkid's debut album being released in '11. then i have to answer than besides "turbulens" i wasn't a fan of newkid's music and the titles itself doesn't list guests in usual manners.

it is actually a posse cut of sorts (even though it's only three persons) where the topic at hand is to brag about how good they are. the title is alluding to that but it's also the swedish name to the animated 90's disney show "talespin". it's a bombastic production by måns "monzi" persson that contains of shuffled 32th notes hihats and supersaw stabs that sound like the bastard child of just blaze and lil jon.

there are little to say than ison's verse is killer and it's filled with his kind of punchlines and it's delivered flawlessly.

buy here (itunes)

yara - law bassely

another song from when i was enamoured with all sorts of habibi-pop and i think this was a heads up or alert of a new release on one of the many english speaking arabic music forums. what hooked me in with "law bassely" ("if he only looked at me") was that intro that consists of some midrangey-bass womps and this twinkly melody and i was still at the time still liking epic trance music so i liked the bites.

i got hung up on on "law bassely" because of the intro and that it was catchy but also because it goes into two measures of 6/8 during the choruses. yes, it's that simple but i was liking how it switched from 4/4 to 6/8 as she stretches out the phrasing of the hook. i could mention what it is about lyrically but i've mentioned in the entry about nancy ajram's "ashkarballi" that all habibi-pop tracks are about love, hence the somewhat dimuitive name.

but if anyone is interested and haven't checked lyricstranslate.com, then as the translated songtitle says, it's about unanswered love. this is the reason why i for the most part don't care about what the lyrical topics are with pop songs like this, because they are almost all about love. it goes for music in any sort of language, be it arabic or japanese or spanish or swahili or russian.

if the main topic of the song is about love it's probably about three forms: 1) i love you 2) i don't love you 3) why don't you love me. it goes without saying but in love equals physical intimacy in 90% of the cases. hence why i am more grabbed by the music than the lyrics but yara herself sings these enchanting lines about why this guy hasn't noticed her yet really well and that is what matters, doesn't it. great song.

buy here (itunes)

dj marky & xrs - butterfly

a few days ago i was listening to this one, the dj marky & xrs' "butterfly" and the two following tracks that came up on foobars shuffle was dj koze's "mariposa" and sunday brunch's "fjäril". at first i thought the coincidence with dj marky & xrs and sunday brunch's tracks being titled similarily was fun, but after running "mariposa" in google translate it was borderline spooky.

now you may have to know a touch of spanish or swedish but all of these tracks are called "butterfly" and it had me thinking about doing an entry on them. all of them are in different genres and have nothing in common musically really but the coincidence in titles were too much fun. so here goes and first off i'll talk about dj marky & xrs's "butterfly".

in all truthfulness i like "the wizard" much more which the flip on the single but this is a cracking liquid roller. "butterfly" is based heavily around roy ayers ubiquity's song "searching". most hiphop-heads will know that "searching" was also sampled by pete rock & cl smooth back in '94 on the "main ingredient" album. however marky & xrs took the hook as their sample base and this uses more of the melodic elements. the combination of the powerful drums and packing bass and roy ayers electric piano and vibraphone is a winning one.

buy here (beatport)

with "fjäril" it is a track that i've mainly heard when browsing through sunday brunch's album "no resistance" and i've noted it as it's the saxophone track on the record. soundwise it's in line with most of the album's content with the sort of blending of deeper house, techno & broken beats. for some reason it reminds me of lionel richie's "all night long" because the intro for that uses this conga rhythm and it's also present in this one but backed up with more percussion.

rhythmically it's a broken beat of sorts that sounds like a four on the floor with the two and fours being swung a bit back. the kick however doesn't come in at first but it's started out with a shaker & triangle groove that has some phasing on and the distinct sound of jesper dahlbäck's icy synths. the first pad plays a motif that is prevalent in the first half of the track and works with the groove.

anders paulsson's saxophone that also start the track out plays in accents but is given a small solo in the breakdown. part of me doesn't like how smooth jazz and romantic it sounds at times but when it's set to a nice funky techno/house rhythm it's easier to tolerate.

buy here (beatport)

"mariposa" was something that i heard in a set once and was entranced by that groove. it's nice weird techno which starts out with low-key but is something that grows. you hear that as a long mysterious pad is slowly fading in along with more of the melodic elements of the song. when the hi-hats come in to play you hear sampled car sounds, in particular when you lock the doors.

part of me wonders how anyone would react to this element if one was moving in a car and the music is blaring loudly. i know from experience that my cousin didn't like the sampled car sounds in turkish pop singer mustafa sandal's "araba", when we were listening to it on the autobahn heading from germany to the netherlands.

anyhow as the track is progressing you hear this with really pulsating synths that grows in volume and it almost sounds helicopter like. koze drops the rest of the track except for the kick and the dissonant background sound along with the pulsating rhythm is really trippy. this is something that could be used in so many ways but i would say that taking it down or transitioning to something different would be effective. lovely warm weird techno music.

buy here (beatport)

automat - funk me please

"funk me please" is from the french label karat records compilation and i didn't really know of this label before buying the album. i quite liked the album cover and it also contained tracks by black strobe, chloé & nôze so it deemed interesting. the result is a collection of cracking techno, house and some electro and all with a 80's type lean. "funk me please" lands in the category of the latter and it's no secret that i love this kind of stuff.

a good groove with a bassline that sounds like an tb-303 that is used in it's regular style, i.e. not as the resonant squelchy highpitched acid wiggle. it uses all sorts of bends and warps which remind me of garage as the bottom end really punches in at the bottom frequencies. together with punchy drums, clever drum programming and nice melodics, it's a done deal.

buy here (junodownload)

kylie minogue - come into my world (ashtrax mix)

from what i've heard of and read the fischerspooner remix of "come into my world" was what kylie herself favoured the most. when performing the song on top of the pops she used their remix as the backing track and it is fairly nice, but i rate the ashtrax remix far over it.

i like the original a lot and love the michel gondry directed video and what ashtrax did was to use the melodies and sounds and refitted them. it is rather funky and dips more into a robotic side as they worked a breakbeat groove. somewhat of an indictation of what ashtrax would make further onto their musical career.

the only problems i've had with this track is how to fit in my sets as it's too rigid with all of it's funkyness. i find it weird playing it in the beginning and if i play it in midset it dips in energy as there isn't a driving bass or a clear offbeat hat groove. both of those elements are more inline to the drums and the remix in general is more up top than in the bottom end.

which means i've mostly enjoyed this as it's own entity and i think it's killer in that form.

listen here (youtube)

fennesz - dheli plaza

about 18 months ago i had come home from a mental night out with my body being in all sorts of pain after dancing so hard to kevin saunderson's wonderful selection of dark & hard techno music. i ended up in my bed at six in the morning after taking the morning commute with a whole load of people that were probably off to work or whatnot. sleeping the whole day off seemed like a good plan but idiot that i was i left the blinds off and the phone on and i woke up at eleven and couldn't get back to sleep.

i did what i could but i figured i didn't want to fuck up my circadian rhythm and the weather was terrific so the new plan was to go on a half-day. do as little to strain the body and just hang around outside, i took a trip up to stockholm and checked out some recordstores and did eventually purchase fennesz' 1997 debut album "hotel paral.lel" along with a few others albums by other people.

from what i had heard austrian artist christian fennesz' music was seen as something that was as lifechanging as the first time you heard boards of canada or godspeed! you black emperor or sunn o)))) and so on. i had no clue what it sounded like really but i figured that day was as good as anyone to learn. for me it wasn't to that effect but it was amazing and his sonical manipulation was impressive. i felt frequencies fucking my senses and i liked it a lot and the key track at hand was this one, "dheli plaza".

the droning bass that hits you in the beginning was impressive on speakers but on headphones it took my ears on an impressive ride. i did feel that it sounded a bit stephen o'malley-like in but i enjoyed it a lot. when it's broken up by the noise in the middle of the track it brought something new to the soundscape. the glitching buzz and spiking white noise with hard metallic transients is something that i don't take lightly but it worked well in this context.

further on this kind of music makes for a different soundtrack to the hussle and bussle of everyday life as i was enjoying this a few days ago. my sights was stockholms suburbs coloured by the transition of autumn to winter as november becomes more darker and the rain showers are a frequent element. this piece of music that consists of mainly lower frequencies and rewards when you pay attention to it was in symbiosis and contrast with sights, smells and sounds of the outside world.

or something more pretentious than that.

buy here (junodownload)

regina - nyt on jo myöhäistä

i was introduced to this song by my friend nikolai rasimus and if i remember correctly he'd recieved the 2005 album "katso maiesmaa" ("look at the landscape") from his father or somesorts. the music on this cd wasn't completely in his taste but he'd listen to it once a while and he gave me a heads-up on "nyt on jo myöhäistä" ("it's too late"). nikolai knew that the music was more something that i would listen to and that i had no issues listening to anything in finnish.

the name of the game is 80's influenced electropop/dancepop with retro synth sound and tr-808 & tr-909 sounds. in general there is a load of quality songs on the album like first single "olisitko sittenkin halunnut palata" and "tokio" amongst others. "nyt on jo myöhäistä" starts out with a long intro with this jerky off beat sequenced melody and singer iisa pykari delivering the first & second verse in a lovely manner. the counter rhythms and the build up for the first chorus creates great tension as the synths, sounds and white noise slowly accelerates.

as the pykari sings the first words of the chorus and the housey like piano kicks in it goes into the meat end of the song with a sturdy tr-909 that grounds that sequencer sound from the beginning. the piano re-appears in the break and it's all a very festive feeling as the synthesized horns are blasting out over the keys and the conga drums.

what i love the most about "nyt on jo myöhäistä" is the fact that it's a breakup song and suits the theme in the moody and somewhat dissonant beginning. when the piano kicks in the first appearance of the chorus, song goes from sad to cheery even though pykari is singing about heartbrake.

buy here (itunes)

funkenteller & the deep space 69 - all this jelly (featuring mapei)

this one was a tune i heard a long time ago, probably when it was released in 2008 or so, but i was reminded by it again. this one was from rikard skizz bizzi's project in-between the up hygh years and the stockholmssyndromet project. it resulted in this single and an absolute ridiculous ep called "prelude to 2012" with the brilliance that is "smash him" & "emulator".

but this song differs greatly from all of the projects and tracks mentioned at hand, mainly because skizz isn't the originator of the beat for it. that would be anton augustinsson aka drums that made it and while i can't say i have his style pegged down, i know that the bizzi's beats are rougher and have heavier bass. never the less it's a great track and the really slow groove works wonders when skizz and mapei flow over it.

lyrically the hook it taken from the infamous lines from destiny's child's "bootylicious" and the song is all about booty. skizz would later do one of the ultimate booty tracks as stockholmssyndromet with "lårparti". some of the lines that he says in english in "all this jelly" are flipped into swedish with some modification. the interesting factor with song is that you have a female perspective as well. henceforth when bizzi spits about that he wants his partner to eat more mapei goes off on that and talks about eating so much that she'll end up 300lbs and still craving more.

mapei's verse together with this luscious slow groove is what makes this song for what it is. brilliance.

buy here (junodownload)

landslide - hear my people

heard this one after buying hospital record's "out patients 2" double vinyl set that was purchased a few years ago along with jody watley's "saturday night experience" and jtq's "get down on the floor". i didn't really know many of the tracks on the compilation but it contained cuts from swell session (and anyone who've read the blog knows that i'm a big fan of andreas saag), jazztronik and yukihiro fukutomi amongst others.

basically it was a done deal and when i finally listened to the records i took a big liking towards "hear my people". from the get-go with a really bumping groove and nice melodic stabs, it was easy to like. when the bassline comes after the first drop it's a pleasure to the ears. it's so warped but smooth and since the drums are sort of cut off in the lower end, it's given a whole load of room for the impact.

loretta haywood's vocals are a nice touch as well and they remind me a bit of corrina joseph or celetia martin. i think the accents and adlibs are the best parts as they reflect well with the other musical elements. like the occasional horn blares and hits that tim landslide is brilliant at working in, as andreas saag wrotes in his notes about when he collaborated with landlide for "had it comin'" on "swell communications".

"hear my people" has those nice crazy broken beat meets garage stylings but with a deeply rooted house mentality and makes it's easy to work in sets.

buy here (hospital records webshop)

joel mull - warm breeze

"warm breeze" is a track that i heard when i bought the compilation "sportif sound system presente stockholm sounds vol. 1". it was compiled by a stockholm clothing shop by the name of "boutique sportif" and features some heavy tracks from stockholm acts and producers at the time. it has a bit of quality swedish hip-hop, some house and techno and even a jungle cut or two. this track in particular is by joel mull and the more music i've heard from him, the more i've been a fan of his works.

the thing that struck me with "warm breeze" was the awesome intro that consists of a lovely pulsating synth pad. as someone who is a bedroom dj and likes to find good starter tracks, this was brilliant as it has that attention grabbing aspect but it get's going fast. it also goes into high gear and you hear a nice shuffled groove and a steady bassline, both of which are something that mull knows his way around.

as the track progresses mull works the pad from the intro onto the track and the synth washes gives a slight atmospheric touch. it also fits well as mull probably wanted it to have a bit of moodyness along with relentless rhythm. it's techno music meant for dancing or atleast keeping one part of the body moving.

komeda - a simple formality (quant's electrokitchen)

this one comes from a single that i bought two years ago and i knew of the band but had never heard "a simple formality" before. i would have skipped the purchase if it didn't come with remixes. the versions at hand came from artists of the north of no south sublabel dot records and included star, sarilou, friend and quant. i really have no clue on who the first two acts are but i am a fan of the works of friend and quant, as anyone who've read my blog may have noticed.

for jonas quant's version, he took advantage of the fact that komeda used a bit of talkbox action and decided to do a chunky electro rerub. the atmospheric sounds from the original is also in affect with the bumping groove at hand. i love this because it does remind me of the works that jonas quant made on his album "quantastical quantasm" except not as fast.

dj koze - the geklöppel continues 3

the first time i heard of this song was after i'd heard a mashup of dj koze's "the geklöppel continues" and suzanne vega's "tom's diner". it was certainly an effective track and i loved that bass and henceforth i had to have "the geklöppel continues". on the single there are three tracks and the other two are untitled but are informally called track 2 and 3 (digitally) or b1 and b2 (vinyl).

all three tracks on the ep is brilliant and chances are that i'd play the title track more in a djset but the real beauty is track 3. the whole track revolves around this loop that sounds like it may have been taken from some old swing or jazz record. it's very fuzzy and crackled but it's done in a rather smooth way. the sequence is accentuated with trumpets, keys, vibraphones and synthy touches.

as this is stefan kozalla aka dj koze we are talking about, one would know that he isn't just an expert at making killer house and techno grooves. he's also brilliant at bringing out the bottom end and a lovely thick bed of bass is also present in this track. the pure brilliance of this one is the combination of the tweaked out jazz sounds and the heavy low frequencies.

buy here (junodownload)

maas - 911 angel

"911 angel" is a track i heard first on that second "trance central" compilation that i bought a while ago. much like juan atkins/infinity's "think quick" it wasn't one of the tracks i bought the compilation for. however all it needed was one listen and i took a big liking and it's an amazing piece of music by mr. ewan pearson.

it is from his first release on soma but his second release as he put out a single a year prior with someone called john tyrell as dirtbox. "911 angel" was on the flip for the ep that was titled "san narcisco" but i've also seen it titled as "ep 01". it is also the only track on the ep that still holds up as i think both versions of "nemo" are terrible dated. the title track "san narcisco" is decent but there are better summery & housey acid breakbeat material and it's trying to much to sound like the hardkiss crew.

what grabbed me first was that weird melodic sequence that start the track with accentuating pads and it really sets the tone for the first half of the track. "911 angel" sort of sits between melodic techno and progressive house and it reminds me a whole lot of salt tank's material at the time. i really like the progression of "911 angel" and it starts out very sad. the melancholy is being laid on think for most of the track but it's broken up by an arpeggiating piano that dominate and brings something else to the table.

as the piano plays out it's last note the track is starting stripping down to it's rhytmic part for a few bars and it's then it starts this outro part. you notice this as a breakbeat has replaced the four on the floor and the melodies from the first half is back. there is also some movie dialogue from some film that i recognize but i can't identify, as googling the spoken words are pointless.

now to be honest while i love this track it is a bit dated as well in the way it works drumloops and such but the melodic parts are so brilliant that i'd play it in this day and age.

buy here (soma webshop)