Archive for September 2013

Deep and Disco, Disco and Deep; Remixes to Make Your Ears Weep

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     Ear tears, a term popularized by the Hawt’s own Nikhi as a clever way to equate visual representation of emotion with sound, is what I’m using this week for lack of inspiration. Lately, my brain seems to fart more often than that of the average human being and in writing this post, I was unable to find a word other than ”weep” to rhyme with “deep.” I deem it sad that I had such a difficult time searching for a rhyme for a word so often heard, although my ego after this sentence finds confidence in my ability to remedy my lack of a knack for rhyming. As always, my introduction is completely independent from whatever it is I write about, so fast forward to the music.

     He calls it a remix, but he’s giving the song away for free and something tells me the label wouldn't approve, so I’m inclined to call it a bootleg. Moon Boots’ skewed categorization aside, the rework of CHVRCHES’ “The Mother We Share” that he recently posted to his SoundCloud page is marked with an indelible nu disco stamp, yet interestingly features a genre ambiguous house/deep house/disco bassline that keeps me puzzled. It’s stuff like this that makes him my favorite French Express artist.

CHVRCHES – The Mother We Share (Moon Boots Remix)

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     In my opinion, Bondax’s “Giving It All” received far too much praise around the time of it’s release. It’s undeserved hype of this sort that overshadowed the subsequent release of Giving It All (Remixes) EP and the nu disco treasure buried within. Not to be outdone by the equally undervalued remixes of Joe Goddard and Friend Within, French Kiwi Juice separates himself with one of the most summer-suited songs in a long time, with brightness emerging from every single clip that comprises this piece. While the timing may have been off by a few months, this one is sure to help keep warm in the harshest of climates.

Bondax – Giving It All (French Kiwi Juice Remix)

iTunes

 

     The third track this week is one of two from Konstantin Sibold, a young producer hailing from Stuttgart, Germany. What I love about this remix is its simplicity. Instead of weaving the deep and acid house from “No One Gets Left Behind” into a web of convoluted cacophony, Sibold mixes the subgenres in the most explicit way possible, keeping the whole of the track intact as deep house and isolating an acid house element as a hook. The result is stunning; the contrast of these two opposites takes center stage and makes this remix as danceable as is it relaxable. I realize that “relaxable” isn’t a word, but if you read the introduction, you’ve learned about how I deal with rhymes.

DJ Yellow & Flowers and Sea Creatures – No One Gets Left Behind (Konstantin Sibold Remix)

Beatport

 

     Get Physical may be my favorite label at the moment. Its Poésie Musik sub-label has released some of my most cherished tracks of late, like the Martin Roth remix of “Balloons” and the Gui Borrato remix of “My Head is a Jungle.” In Poésie’s latest offering, a drab and lifeless production is saved by the magic of Konstantin Sibold. While Sibold’s “disco” remix of “Into You” may be the most popular from the release, it’s his “years ago” mix that best captures the essence of the track in my opinion. With deep, stabbing, synth sounds acting as both hook and bassline and the strength of some relatively bare percussion sounds, the song turns into a track  more than worthy of Get Physical.

Jonas Woehl ft. Fabian Reichelt – Into You (Konstantin Sibold Years Ago Remix)

BeatportiTunes

 

     The video of the week is another interview with RiFF RaFF, because I’m lazy and the guy is just funny.

 

     Have a great week!

Embodying the Kenyan Spirit (Part 1)

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The completion of my weekly quiz marks the beginning of the weekend. In other words, it's time to drink beer upon beer upon beer until one passes out in the comfort of a warm, welcoming floor. As the sunlight dawns the following morning, a headache seeps itself into one's consciousness, as a symbol of your sins of the previous night; no need for worries, multiple glasses of water and ample rest is all one needs to restart the cycle Saturday night.


Personally, my Friday was fairly anti-climactic. Following a brief game of ultimate frisbee with friends, we all headed to the bars for happy hour. Before I proceed, I must inform you all that I was relatively new to the concept of drinking at approximately 5PM, my only prior experience being at frosh. I am a night owl, and normally have my first beer by midnight or so. Amazed by the incredible concept of dollar beers, within the first hour I was already 5 drinks in, and feeling pretty drunk at that point, although that did not stop me from dishing out some loonies for a few more beers. Fast forward to about 9PM, when I decided to drop off my bag (containing my laptop) at my apartment to continue the night. As it so happens, there was no continuation. From what I can remember, I stumbled into my place, took off my bag, and passed the fuck out (apparently it was for "power nap" purposes). Peace homie, as in "I am never going to wake up from this eternal boozy slumber". Not even multiple slaps from my sister could bring me back from the depths of my sleep. 

                                      

I woke up at approximately 5AM to a multitude of texts and missed calls, all of them to which I replied at that very time. They immediately called back to inform me of the epic night that I had missed out on. If there is something that I can draw from this entire situation, it is that when you start drinking before the sun sets, it becomes a marathon rather than a race. You must embody the Kenyan spirit to stay awake and functional (optional) throughout the night. Furthermore, my bed is too comfortable for my own good; consequently, I will opt for a floor the next time I consider taking power naps. 

The music I will be providing for you today comes directly from my Ravenight set, so each and every song has been expertly curated by yours truly. 

After having seen Dusky at piknik only short weeks prior, I most definitely was including them in my set. As it so turns out, they are releasing an EP on the 23rd of September. That being said, I was unable to play their new material, although I did play an old (2011) song of theirs entitled "Stick by this". Differing from the current direction of their music, this tune is very melodic and euphoric. 




Following the melodic and emotion-grasping song above, I decided to keep those emo vibes rolling. Kilter is the man for the job. Having remixed a well known song by Ben Pearce, "What I might do", Kilter provides the right amount of tempo for the melody, conveying a piece that I classify as "ear tear" material.


Lost Scripts is a duo comprised of John Talabot and Pional. This pretty much sums up their sound, as it is exactly as one would imagine. The tones used in this piece mesh really well together, employing slightly dampened vocals with pronounced synths that are omnipresent throughout the chorus. The verses come with low notes and a percussive kit that does not overpower the other comprising elements of the song. Taken from a label collective release, "Young Turks 2013", Lost Scripts debuts their song entitled "I'll be watching you".


I will continue my Ravenight set playlist in the following instalment of "Embodying the Kenyan Spirit". You see, I separated my set into two different segments, the first being very emotional, while the other half would be dance inducing. The aforementioned songs represent the emotional segment. I hope you enjoyed listening to these tunes as much as I had fun playing them. 

The rather smokey video of the week comes from Alex Smoke. See what I did there. Of course not. Hailing from R&S records, this tune is entitled "Dust". Speaking of R&S, Tessela released an absolute percussive masterpiece called "Nancy's Pantry", for those of you who are into minimal UK bass.  



Have a good weekend! 

Introductory Implosion

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     I really liked not having to write an introduction for my last post, so I’m going to do the same with this one. I think this could be considered an introduction, seeing as it’s a block of text that precedes the body of the post, but it completely avoids the responsibility of an introduction. In layman’s terms, not that a non-layman wouldn’t know what an introduction is considering it’s self-explanatory name, an introduction introduces the subject matter that is to follow. Since what is contained in this “introduction” doesn’t mention what’s featured below, it can’t be thought of as an introduction at all. In essence, this introduction is a group of words that is simply filling space. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I don’t think any of you read anything that we write, so long as the block of text is long enough. If it’s an introduction, which on this website is usually reserved for personal anecdotes and laziness-related apologies, I’m assuming that the odds that anyone reads said introductions are even slimmer. In fact, I could write just about anything at this juncture of the introduction and pair it with a completely unrelated image, since I’ve just about reached the paragraph size necessary for dismissal. Therefore, to properly conclude this introduction, I’d like to congratulate myself in achieving my goal of using the word introduction more times than there are lines in this introduction. Onto the music.

wild yeti

     Fantastic Armada-sounding drop and a lovely bunch of vocals from one of the best independent trance labels out there.

Arman Bahrami ft. Alisa Villegas – Beat Of My Heart (Uplifting Mix)

Released through Neuroscience Recordings on August 19th, 2013

BeatportiTunes

     French Express keeps on getting better and it’s easy to see why when they’ve got a guy like Chris Malinchak on their roster. Also worth a mention is Isaac Tichauer’s full-length album “Devotion,” which will be taken down from SoundCloud shortly, so grab it for free while you still can.

Chris Malinchak – So Into You (Original Mix)

Free download via SoundCloud

     Ignore the Hardwell remix of the Mark Knight and Funkagenda remake. Laurent Garnier never would have accepted his song be re-interpreted if he had known it would be edited by one of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of mainstream EDM. ATFC’s on the other hand… just listen.

Mark Knight & Funkagenda – Man With The Red Face (ATFC’s “When The Lights Go On” Remix)

Released through Toolroom Records on September 2nd, 2013

Beatport

     My brother used one word to describe Dusky’s performance at Piknic Electronik: vibe-inducing. I’d use the same one to describe their upcoming release on Aus Music.

Dusky – Carefree (Original Mix)

Released through Aus Music on September 23rd, 2013

 

     This week’s clip is BY FAR the worst DJ Mag video this year.

    

     Don’t forget to buy your tickets for the Above & Beyond afterparty at Circus Afterhours on September 21st, when Rob Naylor will make his debut as a professional DJ. Also, have a great weekend!

post travel blues

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Honestly, it’s really hard for me to find any kind of general motivation whatsoever since I got back from travelling/living in Europe. They call it “post vacation blues” or something, another fancy phrasing to basically say that when you go from something "awesome” to something “normal”, you find “normal” quite boring. At least there’s an advantage that comes from my lack of motivation (and new(re)found love for sleep) and that would be that instead of being all serious about school and stuff I’ve just been wandering on the web and digging around some new (and old) music.

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A few months back I wrote a rant on how I thought that new music sucked: well, to be honest, I think I was just digging at the wrong places and listening to the wrong tracks and genres. I guess I’m a little over commercial Trance and such (although I can still confirm that Throuse fucking sucks) and that even if I don’t enjoy certain genres as much anymore, it doesn’t mean everyone should think like me. Music has to evolve (for better or for worse) and you can’t do much about it, beside trying to find stuff you like somewhere else if that particular genre you liked went to shit (in your opinion).

Lately, I’ve been looking into the debut albums of well-known rap artists (50 Cents, Eminem, …) and found out that before most of them went all YOUNG MONEY CA$H MONEY BUSINESS, they actually had a lot of talent and deserve their fame. One of the most surprising album I have found was Infinite, by Eminem. That album was released in 1996 and most of the world never heard of it because Eminem only got popular after The Slim Shady LP. The whole album is great, but the track entitled Infinite (like the album title) is definitely my favorite. It’s quite nice to hear Eminem kicking it old school. Check it out below, it’s definitely worth your time.



 

Most of my time has been spent finding nice indie and underground music though. It is unbelievable how much music goes by unnoticed and how much the ones we hear all the time are not always the best; I guess marketing is that powerful. I’ll start by posting another rap song since you probably are already in that vibe if you took the time to listen to the previous track. It is called “Slicker Than Average” and was made by The Mouse Outfit (featuring Sparkz and Dubbul O). Not going to lie, I have no freaking idea who these guys are and let’s thank the Hypemachine for this one (although from their accent we know they’re not form the US and they sound weirdly familiar to the Foreign Beggars). Very very chill track: some piano and quite minimal and standard bass line and drums. Great track to listen to after a long day. FREE DOWNLOAD!



 

Next is a track from a guy from Sydney that loves Paint (oh, and that makes good beats too). Very happy track (woo hoo!) with some kind of trappy feel from the hit hat, clap, snare and samples. I’ve heard this guy was rocking it lately, so make sure to check his stuff out. FREE DOWNLOAD AGAIN!



Finally, the most random find of the week for me is definitely Vondelpark. Vondelpark, beside being the park of Amsterdam, is a music group from London (UK) formed in 2010. They use many different instruments and seem to turn every song they touch into the chillest track ever. Their last “victim” (or winner) was a track from Pale named Fearing Faces. Here is the dub mix that Vondelpark did:



Also, Vondelpark released in album earlier this year, called Seabed, that is really worth the listen if you enjoyed the track above. Check out their Soundcloud HERE.

The video of the week is the unrated version of Blurred Lines, just because… Woooooooo. PS: Pharrell Williams is a fucking boss. PS 2: Hope you’re not standing or/and in a public place.


 

Have a great week people!