And for good measure, a slick remix of Chromeo’s Don’t Turn the Lights On:
Chromeo - Don’t Turn The Lights On (Aeroplane Remix) [dl]
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Been pretty crazed as of late – working non-stop, running non-stop and not sleeping nearly enough. It wasn’t until after my early morning coop shift, this passed weekend, that I had a moment to sit down in Tea Lounge, order an iced coffee, jack some wifi and write about the music that’s hit me this week. So here’s a few tracks for ya…
A great one to start the day with. Nomak’s melodic keys, moody strings and simplex beats will easily please fans of Downtempo and Hip-hop alike. I found Nomak by searching for artists similar to the late, great Nujabes, whom, if you’ve never heard – you need to. While Nomak’s mix tapes take on a great Leftfield Hip-hop vibe similar to that of Jun Seba, his original work is far more calming and thought provoking; invoking a sense of nostalgia and, dare I say, zenful peace. Check out more from Nomak, here.
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I got into Mayer Hawthorne when he jumped on Snoop Dogg’s track Gangsta Luv, yielding an entirely new version of the song that’s soulfully superior to the original. He’s a singer, producer and wiz on more than a few instruments – but the sweet sounds published on his 2009 album, A Strange Arrangement, are rooted in a Motown R&B kinda vibe with a Mark Ronson-like big band sound. With a knack for catchy melodies like Ben Folds mixed with Diana Ross and a side of Jamie Lidell – it’s tough not to dig him. Your Easy Lovin’ Ain’t Pleasin’ Nothin’ is a fun, summery track with a nice deep sax and a melody that invokes The Supremes’ track, Can’t Hurry Love, which always reminds me of my favorite Whoopi Goldberg movie.
Mayor Hawthorne - Your Easy Lovin’ Ain’t Pleasin’ Nothin’ [dl]
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One of those bands whose tracks have been floating around the net for a few months now without any sort of solid detail as to the release of the actual album – Kisses, has caught my ears and it’s surely not for overpromotion. Produced by one of the chaps from RAC (absolutely love their Nintendo VS Sega work), Kisses’ sound has a bit of The Smiths with some Cut Copy and a bit of Delorean. It’s light-hearted pop-rock with a disco vibe; just right for your vacation play-list. Since they clearly don’t have a SoundCloud account, check out their MySpace page for more music and an eventual announcement as to when their album, Heart of the Nightlife, will see release.
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Want another helping of Balearic pop? Then check out this track from ceo, the solo project of Tough Alliance’s Eric Berglund. It’s happy, melodic and all about the hooks. While the entire album isn’t as danceable as the song Illuminata is, the light electro pop-rock flavor makes this another perfect one for your patio play-list. Among the other tracks on White Magic, my other album favorite is Come With Me, an overly-sampled, overly-happy blend of disco beats, strings and dreamy vocals. Not sure when this is seeing a proper release here in the US, but if you simply can’t wait to say “Yay for Sweden” then you can buy the album here.
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I don’t really need to say very much about Coldplay. They’re a really great band and I love the fact that they appeared in Shaun of the Dead as part of the ZombAid gag. I do, however, think that Coldplay is a band for people who enjoyed Radiohead, but just don’t understand musical exploration and are frightened by anything that’s left field of left field – you know what I mean, you have friends like that. By the way, have you heard Mark Ronson’s cover of God Put a Smile Upon Your Face? So, for the track below I’ve got the Thin White Duke remix of Talk, originally from Coldplay’s album, X&Y. The Thin White Duke? Jacques Whu Cont? Ah, well that would be none other than Stuart Price – Part of Zoot Woman, originally behind Les Rhythmes Digitales, producer for the Scissor Sisters, Madonna, Seal, amongst myriad others. He was making electro back in 2000 that’s still, maybe even more, relevant now. Everthing he touches turns to gold disco balls. Ahem, yeah Coldplay…great remix.
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I originally got into A Guy Called Gerald back around 1998 when his epic Downtempo track, Humanity, was all over the place – click that link, it’s an excellent track. Taking his penchant for electronic music with his love for Jamaican sounds, much of his work swirls around in a stew of lo-fi Acid-Jazz and Downtempo with a bit of Techno. Indie Vibe, off his latest release – Jazz Tronic: The Berlin Session – however sounds like something that would come from Orbital, totally different than that sound of Humanity. Rather than being fit for the beach play-list, this is a great one for a dark-tech dance floor or zoning out at work…
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Black Ghosts are an Electro/Pop-Rock outfit from the UK with a dark and catchy sound. Their self-titled album was released on 2008, so I’m getting into them a little late, and honestly – they sound very 2008, that’s not to say they’re not good – just a little dated. I’ve been really digging their track, I Don’t Know, a lot over the last few days. More from these guys, here.
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For what it’s worth – Scott Pilgrim was fucking awesome and I finally saw Inception in the theater for a 4th time – just like Beetlejuice’s love for The Exorcist: It keeps getting [better], every-single-time-I-see-it!! Now I just need to figure out the significance of the scenes where Cobb is or isn’t wearing his ring…
You say potato, I say poh-tah-toe.
You say eclectic, I say BADASS.
Brooklyn’s own, Holy Ghost! is something of a lovechild between the sound of Jesus Jones, Harold Faltermeyer and LCD Soundsystem. After releasing their first single just a few years ago, they returned earlier this year with the 4-track EP, Static on a Wire. I caught them with Chromeo and Telephoned at The Bowery Ballroom last week and between the three of them, I’ve never felt The Bowery’s floor bounce so hard.
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Mount Kimbie is categorized by many as Post Dubstep – While I won’t argue against that, I prefer to describe them as sounding like early Cassius and Basement Jaxx with a little more tech and synth. Good for a chill-out session, but don’t intend to fall asleep as these guys will keep your ears on your toes.
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Trippy and experimental Electronic music, that’s Siriusmo – the German graffiti artist turned electronic producer, even though he swears that the paint still comes before the keys. Sure, the Electro side of his sound has a lot in common with Boyz Noise and Jackson & His Computer Band, but to my ears, this just screams Yellow Magic Orchestra – especially in The Plasterer of Love. I’m also really loving his track Blaue Sonne. More? Here.
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Japanese singer, Bird, has the aesthetic of Jazz and Soul with the energy of Disco. Produced by the great Shinichi Osawa, this beauty’s voice comes together with funk beats that sound like she could be doing a Japanese cover of Jamiroquai’s Synchronized. Funny enough, my first listen of her hit song, Mind Travels, was the instrumental version – which really makes it a Shinichi Osawa track. The vocal version can be heard (and seen) here and her blog is here. Did I mention that she’s beautiful?
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Potato, po-tah-toe. Eclectic, BADASS.
Let’s call the whole thing off!
You’re probably not even awake yet – and I’ve definitely heard Stardust’s original version of this track in my sleep. Although, you may have an entirely different definition of “original,” maybe you prefer Chaka Khan’s funky sample-source instead.
On any note, Music Sounds Better With You, would hardly be considered a wake-up track – that is, not until Eat More Cake stepped in to give the track an encore of a remix. The 4-piece, London-based, Electronica outfit gives this classic track a swan-song revival: sticking with a heavy beat but staying true to a chill aesthetic with an emotional piano and a subtle build-up that never quite explodes.
It’s a nice one to grind your beans to.
Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You [Eat More Cake remix] [dl]
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More from Eat More Cake, including their debut album, Climb The Ladder, Live The Dream, at their site.
Pretty Lights is Leftfield Hip-hop at its finest. Colorado’s own Vincent David Smith takes pieces of Funk, Electro, Rock, Classical, Jazz and more – digitally folds it inward, outward, adding glitched effects, effectively yielding a Soulful, Breakbeat-infused, heavily Electronic while subtly organic vibe. His head-nodding grooves reach from uplifting melodies, way back to the sexiest kind of darkness.
His latest release, Spilling Over Every Side – his second of three planned for 2010, is an adventure in genre defying production. Each track, with its own narrative bounce, has a unique feel while keeping true to that Pretty Lights core-sound of deconstructed beats, thick synth melodies and old-school samples. My choice of the lot, Let The World Hurry By, is packed with dreamy piano riffs, banjo-strumming chords and backbone-beat density. He never sticks to one emotional-tone for too long, and that’s why it’s so damn good. I think I even hear a sped-up instance of the death-sound from the original Super Mario Bros. in there! If you’re a fan of DJ Shadow, RJD2, The Herbaliser or DJ Food – then Pretty Lights is certainly the sound to add to your collection.
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Slightly more uplifting, a very groovy tune from 2008’s Filling Up The City Skies,
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All of Pretty Lights’ music is available for FREE via his site, here. Support the man’s epic aural creativity by checking him out live – performances schedules may be found on his MySpace page.
Do you smell that? It smells like Monday in here. Yeah, I don’t know, it just does. And with that, here’s a few tracks that I’m particularly lovin’ hard at the moment, such that, sometimes? I wish I could listen to them all at the same time. Also, I need to have dinner with DJ Shadow and Girl Talk at the same time, gonna have to look into that – my schedule is so damn busy though.
Chicago-based, electro, pop-rockers – Hey Champ – have been heavy in my rotation ever since their remix of Database & French Horn Rebellion’s, Beaches and Friends, in late 2009 (really, check out that link, it’s a great track). Their harmonious, rock-thick, synth-heavy sound is something like if Van Halen were just coming about now. Their drummer, Jon Marks, is not only the proficient backbone of the group, but works his ass off while not afforded the posing-luxury that guitarist/singer Saam Hagshenas does (to Saam’s defense though, he’s the lead singer so he should be doing that). Their keyboardist, Pete Dougherty, not only lays it on thick like it should, but I’ve got the feeling that he might be the brain behind the remix operation (I honestly wonder who’s at the heart of their remixes). This is an example of a band that leveraged remixing and blog distribution to get their name out there in order to get people psyched for their own debut album. Sometimes using the sub-moniker of Hey Champ DJs, their first full-on mixtape, Winner’s Circle, featured some solid remixes of The Sounds, Passion Pit and The Priors. Their second collection of remixes, set to a more summery aesthetic, the Jet Set Mixtape, features an awesome overhaul of Yeasayer’s Sunrise and a hilarious rendition of T-Pain & Lil Wayne’s I Can’t Believe It. I’ve seen these guys twice, and their shows are a lot of fun and aside from the crappy sound mixing at The Bell House (I’m looking at you, whoever was doing the mixing on June 4th), their live sound is right on with their recently released debut album, Star. Cold Dust Girl will always be a great listen, but I find myself obsessing even more over the album tracks that were not sequentially leaked before the album’s release. Particularly Shake, which really pulls out that Van Halen-like sound. But I’m especially hot on No Future, which is easily my favorite Hey Champ original track to date. I seriously hope that they don’t show any sign of slowing just because their album is out. But if their recent remix of Andy Bell’s Call On Me is any sign of things to come, I’m confident that Hey Champ will continue to rock solid. Buy Hey Champ’s Star, here.
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And then there’s Health’s latest release. This is one of those albums that I didn’t know was coming out until it already had. Feeling like fool for not having earned (through eager anticipation) this earful of head-nodding, shoulder-bouncing goodness. The LA based Indie-Noise-Rock turned minimal-prog-electro foursome first found their way to my ears via a collaboration-track with Crystal Castles. Their latest release, Disco2, is a collection of remixes from their second album, Get Color. In Violet (Hidden Cat remix), starts out as dream-wave sound scape and then at 4:35 elapsed, it drops into this great dance groove. Pay for some more Health!
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Orbital needs no introduction. The brothers Hartnoll shall always be known around these parts as the producers of the pinnacle of Techno. With groundbreaking tracks like Halcyon, Choice and The Box – they were my mainline-love for quite a while. So it’s very exciting to have two new tracks recently released – especially since they broke-up in 2004. From this new two-track EP, Don’t Stop Me is certainly my cigarette of choice. Using the “Ooh-ooh” sample from Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles – Don’t Stop Me starts out sounding like something from Orbital’s first album and takes a turn about halfway through, sounding like something from In-Sides. I actually wanted to use this track as the background music for the intro video that appears on a site that (my team at work and) I just launched for The Discovery Channel. The time and money that it would have cost to secure the rights didn’t fit with our plan though, but you can see my vision via the magic if YouTube Doubler here, it’s a perfect fit. Orbital can break up as many times as they want, just as long as they deliver gems like this every so often.
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Looking like Bob Dylan in a Jamiroquai hat, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs is another one that keeps floating to the top of my playlist over this passed weekend. Orlando’s production on his released EPs varies within the Electro realm from dreamy Two-Step to half-speed Hard House. Not only are his tunes catchy, but his melodic vocals add a layer of emotional authenticity to his work. Pretty addicting stuff all around. I’m definitely psyched to hear more from this dude. The undeniable love-ballad, Moon Hits the Mirrorball in its glitched-out glory, is right here:
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Moon Hits the Mirrorball [dl]
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Last, but certainly not least is an entirely over-the-top obsession of mine as of late: Inception. Hanz Zimmer’s in-your-face, dramatic as hell, beautifully crafted suite is an absolutely perfect accompaniment to Chris Nolan’s masterpiece. Only time will tell, but I might like Inception on the same level that I enjoy BladeRunner, and those who know me personally can attest to the fact that I LOVE BLADERUNNER (there are nights where I hang out on my roof listening to Vangelis). I’m actually planning on seeing the film again, twice this week. Dream Within a Dream is serious, motivating and immensely atmospheric. The balance of that somber guitar, melancholy strings, erie piano and window-shattering bass levels set the mood like few film-scores have in recent memory. Also of worthy notation is the frenetic track, Mombasa. Enjoy the track below, and purchase the entire soundtrack, here.
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These are the type of tracks that I’d love to have as my a.m. alarm-tone – but I’d surely just lay in bed chillin’ with my AC. So, for now I’m going to have to stick with the default “rooster-tone,” it’s the only thing that get’s me out of bed, it’s horrible. That doesn’t mean that the stereo doesn’t go on the moment I’m out of the shower though. Sitting with a mug, letting the morning sunshine engulf me in my living room while sucking down as much Gorilla coffee as I possibly can. It’s the way I boot up. Some bacon never hurts.
I mean, if you wanna drink a Red Bull and listen to Boys Noize, go ahead. I’ve definitely had mornings where I needed that sound.
DJ Cam, the original Downtempo pioneer, originally from France, currently calling LA his home – makes the first morning track with his ‘Quartet project’s Mystic View. It’s a great easy-rider with a bassline awesomely similar to Tribe’s Electric Relaxation.
Following that up with one from RJD2’s newest release Inversions of the Colossus, a nice collection of instrumental versions of cuts from his fourth album as well as a few new tracks. The Glow was my favorite from the original release and the instrumental version is great when you’re just not yet ready for active thought. Whenever he plays the keys I always find it to have this great Elton John sorta vibe.
Finally, once you’re ready to up the beat toward something in the neighborhood of some Minimal, Tech, Electro with a dash of Chip Music, check out Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs‘ melodic gem, Garden. In all honesty, I’ve listened to this track at least 100 times over the last 24 hrs. Visually, dude absolutely has this Bob-Dylan-in-a-Jay-Kay-hat thing going on, and phonically he’s creating a refreshingly minimal, electro-rave sound as evidenced by the other tracks appearing on his two releases.
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After a bit of blog teasing, singles distribution, and Facebook/MySpace/Twitter page creation – Parisian duo, Jamaica, is finally set to release their debut album: No Problem. Wait, what? It’s not out until August? Alright, then it’s good that we have a few new tracks for you.
Jamaica’s raging guitars, melodic vocals and breakbeat rhythms have had me hooked all weekend. What do they sound like? Well, it’s a bit like The Police meets Beck meets Bloc Party with a little bit of ACDC. Their track I Think I Like U 2, made the blog rounds a few months ago – with a little bit of of punk and a little bit of disco. Since then, the ears of many have been salivating for more. The full album is a summery mix of airy, quick, hard, fun, not overproduced, absolutely approachable – Rock. My two favorite album tracks are below – from these When Do You Wanna Stop Working is my undisputed sing-along mantra for the week.
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Woke up this morning with Groove Armada’s track, Little by Little, in my head. So much that I had to throw it out to your collective a.m. rotations as well. Hopefully you’re catching this while still sucking down that coffee.
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‘Night Work,’ the latest album from glam-pop collective, the Scissor Sisters, just came out – and I can’t turn it off. As a friend of mine so perfectly put it, It’s super flamboyant and over the top, with a lot of variety, a little disco, rock and electroclash. My obsession is surely sourced in the fact that the album is partially a collaboration with Stuart Price – of Zoot Woman, Les Rhythmes Digitales, & more – he’s an electro-pop professional in every sense. The third Zoot Woman album was all I listened to for about a month straight, but that was due to the absolutely perfect timing of its release.
‘Night Work’ offers a lot. Tracks like the album starting ‘Whole New Way to Love You‘ are the stuff that slow-jam anthems are made of – where dance-floor beasts like ‘Any Which Way, with its sexy bass and ‘Invisible Light’ with its in-your-face Pet Shop Boys meets Cut Copy on coke sound are already spawning remixes. My absolute picks of the litter however are
‘Running Out,’ for its rolling speed and electro-Talking Heads ambiance, making it the best recent addition to my ipod playlist for running. Then there’s the beautifully perfect duo of ‘Skin Tight’ with its love-confessing, I-can’t-stop-singing-it, feel-gooder – coupled with the American Psycho inspired, sexy and dark, ‘Sex & Violence.’ The production mix between the two is something that’s so slick, danceable and emotionally opposite that I’ve quite literally had it on repeat for the past three days and nothing else.
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Bonus beats: Zoot Woman - We Won’t Break (Boris Dlugosch Les Visiteurs Remix) [dl]
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