Happy to read me again? It’s been quite a while since I last posted to this blog, the chief cause being my disdain for the educational institution I currently attend. My seemingly everlasting struggle with CEGEP will soon be coming to an end, although I’d much sooner change program in order to graduate with honours in Science, study analytical physics at McGill, and spend most of my adult life developing a time machine so that I could travel backwards and kill myself in the present. I hope that gives you an adequate appreciation of the scale on with my academic boredom currently registers. In any case, this hatred for tuition has not hindered my love for electronic music in any way. In fact, the only positive I choose to gather from this semester comes from CSKY, the college radio station for which I am obliged to stay sharp in my discovery of new music. That’s its slogan up there. Without further ado, here are a few of the latest tracks I’ve played on the airwaves of the John Abbott radio station.

     I always make sure that the songs I play on the air are of the highest possible quality, yet the best versions are typically only available on, or shortly after their release dates. I had been looking for this track for a full three weeks before it was released, so impatient was I to have it play second fiddle to the cacophony in Abbott’s cafeteria. According to the release notes of the Requiem EP, “The concept of Ten Walls is simple. A music driven project where the focus is moved away from the personality of the artist so that the music can more directly speak for itself.” Pursuant with this description, I couldn’t find any information about Ten Walls apart from the praise showered upon his/her first production, the amazing Gotham EP. Here is the equally fantastic “Requiem” in all its oratory glory.

Ten Walls – Requiem (Original Mix)

Released through Life and Death on November 4th, 2013

Beatport

     There are several tunes that I always wished I’d get the opportunity to share with an audience of a certain size, regardless of whether or not they treated the music as background noise and spoke over it. Enter CSKY, with a glowing opportunity for me to play the tracks of LA-based producer DAVI. I first took notice of the Armenian musician back in 2011, with the release of the third volume of Anjunadeep’s yearly mix compilation series. His remix of Underworld’s “Two Months Off” was/is one of my favorites from the entire Anjunadeep catalogue, thus motivating it’s presence in one my weekly tracklists, which in turn made me thirst for more DAVI. Fast-forward to 2013 and the appearance of Anjunadeep 05, which features two of his originals, highlighted by “The Time Has Come.” I like the idea of letting the songs speak for themselves, so just press play below.

Underworld – Two Months Off (DAVI Remix)

Released through Anjunadeep on February 21st, 2011

Beatport – iTunes

DAVI – The Time Has Come (Original Mix)

Released through Anjunadeep on July 22nd, 2013

Beatport

     Another artist who’s music I had wanted to play for an inordinate amount of time is Celsius. The Englishman’s knack for blending garage, pop and orchestral sounds has resulted in some of the most engaging, danceable, and unique arrangements seen in the electronic music sphere for quite some time. Two of his more recent works found their way into my CSKY sets and were subsequently ignored by virtue of strength of bassline, melodic prowess, and overall sound quality. Most Abbott folks don’t know good music from bad. Here is Celsius with “Incoming” and “Thought As Much.”

Celsius – Incoming (Original Mix)

Released through MadTech on September 23rd, 2013

Beatport – iTunes

Celsius – Thought As Much (Original Mix)

Released through Moda Black on February 18th, 2013

Beatport – iTunes

     No set of mine would be complete without at least some nu disco. Since their collaborative production with Fred Falke back in 2011, The Knocks have acquired an impressive amount of recognition, having shared the stage with artists like Madeon and Chromeo. We hold them in high esteem here at the Hawt, as their bootleg of Of Monsters and Men featured in our top 15 tracks of 2012. The NYC duo is back at it again, retooling a cut from The 1975’s self-titled debut album. What better song is there to be crushed by the faint voices of the 4 students with classes on Fridays than this lively remix of “Girls”?

The 1975 – Girls (The Knocks Remix)

CDR / White Label

FREE DOWNLOAD

     Last week, French Express executed a takeover of the LA Boiler Room and delivered 4 of the best mixes I’ve seen in the recent past. For this week’s video, watch Perseus admirably bear the opening duties for his label-mates. Let me know if you can identify the edit of “Return of the Mack” he plays at the very beginning; its been stuck in my head for 4 days.

     If you haven’t deciphered it yet, the moral to this week’s post is: “Barely anyone knows that CSKY exists, let alone actually listen.”