My Friday Crack

Helium-soul dubstep!!!

This track is a huge leap forward (or sidestep, depending on your take) for the restless versatile music of dubstep. No more sulking about in dank urban dens or catching the last tube to Elephant & Castle, this tune is aiming for the top of the pops comparatively from what the rest of the scene is producing. Love to hear where the vocal bit is sampled from. Bet if I was more familiar with British pop I'd already know. It sounds like it could be late 90's garage/two-step, or earlier from that same decade American r&b? Regardless, it challenges the whole eerie, off-kilter vibe that is becoming de rigeur in dubstep, and although it will probably be a one-off track leaving the general path unchanged, it is fucking beautiful for right now.

D1 - Mind & Soul


Another potential melding point/ breakthrough track is Burial's in-progress remix of "Wayfaring Stranger" by Jamie Woon.

Available on Burial's myspace

I was tipped off to this ditty (and indeed a good deal many others) by Kiran Sande's Fact Magazine column, The Contemporary Fix. Otherwise known as Mr. Soft, he runs an excellent blog by the name of TAPE, where if you have never been, I'd recommend staying away from there, it will make your tunes feel irrelevant.

Waited forever to hear this track, and finally it's here. It seems like you would need to start your own weekly newsletter to cover all of Carl Craig's activites as of late, but how can we complain? The C2 renanaissance has given us some uniformly superb remix work (except for maybe the choice of keeping the vocal bits for his take on X-Press 2's "Kill 100"?) and unlike some other top producers, never seems to depend on rehashing the same formula again and again. In the last few months he's put out stellar versions of tracks by Faze Action, Amp Fiddler, Japanese Synchro System, Lazy Fat People, and let's not forget to mention an unparalleded 2006. This one is no exception... oh, and the source material is no slouch either.

Junior Boys - Like A Child (Carl Craig Remix)

I've been out of the loop for a while, but after finally getting my hands on a Nintendo Wii such can be expected. Since school work is at a standstill, this week will hopefully be a return to shifting through the staggering amount of new music being released in these early months of what is looking to be a promising year. Until I get a grip on that, we will be digging back a few years for this next track, to a time just before Mr. Schwarz started getting his much deserved mad props and bloggers were jumping all over every single thing he touched.

Alex Smoke - Don't See The Point (Henrik Schwarz Vocal Mix) (2005)

And then going even further back, a leftfield disco oddity from pop reggae superstar Eddy Grant. My vinyl version comes on the b-Side to his biggest hit "Electric Avenue". When you hear this one I am sure you will agree it is near unbelievable that these two tracks are packaged together. This is the same guy who wrote "Walking On Sunshine"? It has an incredible cosmic feel to it without indulging in any of the familiar contrivances we are getting accustomed to from the buttload of disco neuvo and re-edits as of late. Listening to it now, the memorable vocal snippet surely influenced Metro Area's "Miura".

The Coach House Rhythm Section - Time Warp (1982)

Motiivi Unknown

A lot of folks have been waiting for another outing from these three Finns since back in 2005 when their soul-destroying punisher of a track "1939" made us stock our shelters in delightful anticipation of whatever other firebombs they decided to drop. And it struck a chord elsewhere too, getting licensed to mixes from artists as disparate as Annie & James Holden. Two years down the road we find them now in Kompakt's Speicher series sounding unfortunately more shiny - rough edges polished back by software perhaps? The A-side "I Don't Feel Good (When You're Not Around)" is a bit of a let-down, brandishing these ugly ravey stabs that scream dancefloor filler. The flip, however, is a bizarre treat. While never as noisy as their former release, it pursues a more familiar moody-yet-hard vibe for a few, then drops the beat to let metallic synths trumpet around an abstract plain for the last five minutes. Like Eno doing Metal Machine Music. I'm not sure where they fit in much with other techno contemporaries but path they've carved with "1939", "Floor Defender" and now, "Mankind Failed", is to be applauded.



Motiivi:Tuntematon - Mankind Failed [Kompakt Extra]

New Beat, Old Beat

I know I've posted on them
recently, but lately Quiet
Village Project has been
turning out some very special under-highlighted dubs in a very particular opium-laced mode.... double dutch disco is what you might call it. I'd hazard Matt Edwards has been groovin' on Rub-n-Tug's Better With A Spoonful of Leather. This is where 45 rpm disco & new beat becomes all spacey, pitched-down paranoia. The perfect come-down sound.

Gorillaz - Kids With Guns (Quiet Village Remix)






And here's an old treat that I can't seem to get out of my head as of late. House legend Jesse Saunders getting all suave & sexual on your ass under the guise Z-Factor.



Z-Factor - I Am The DJ

GAME OVER

<<atari pixel fetish people click below for your retro gaming gaga >>


pes has more if you want them

Put Your Schaffel Shades On

By way of their offshoot K2, Kompakt brings us the consummate union of one dormant subgenre and one reigning one in what will perhaps be the subgenre to end all subgenres..... minimal shuffle?!?

Maxime Dangles - Don't Worry

Celebrate good times indeed. The ever ambitious Gun Club party folk have announced their one-year birthday is a redux of one of the top nights in our fair Bay Area last year: JD Twitch & Tim Sweeney are comin' back. February 24th. Location unknown so far. All-nighter.

If you haven't already, do your self a favor and listen to Twitch and Wilkes' BBC Essential Mix from a few months ago for a supreme example of what this dude is capable of.

Optimo Essential Mix

Three Songs (Two Of Which Are Crunk & B Remixes) Making Me Wish I Were Dancing In London Town, Accompanied By Photographs Apropos Of Nothing

P. Diddy - Tell Me (Switch Remix)

Voodoo Chilli - Look What You've Done To Me


Missy Elliot - We Run This (Duke Dumont Remix)

Mr. Teki Back

Teki Latex of TTC fame has a solo album coming out (on Virgin France, no less) backed by some promising remixes on the singles, one of which I have for you below. In this shot dude looks like a honky Heavy D. or a euro-fied Patton Oswalt, I can't make up my mind. Up-and-coming Parisian producer Surkin - who with the rest of the Institubes crew is still un-just-ly lurking in the shadow of Ed Banger - does well to turn the smarmy smooth groove quotient of the original into some filter-house monster stomping alongside a stuttering bobble-head.

Teki Latex - Les Matins De Paris (Surkin Remix)

Also of note is Surkin's appearance on Orgaga's mixtape for the Alors Les Filles, On Fête Noël? party that happened in Paris. He actually swipes the bottom end of "Da Funk" for the second half of this remix, updating it with 21st-century electro-house tempo and the attendant grittiness you might expect. Sorry but it's in mixed form....

Para One - Midnight Swim (Surkin Remix)

If you enjoy these tracks please, please buy this stuff (and other French badness) at Arcade Mode, s'il vous plaît!

Enthusiasm

Round up of a few stellar recent tracks - big ole' long ones. The elusive Serafin emerges from hibernation with his leisurely take on Butt-Rich's newest. The Mole modernizes and modulates a disco classic. Superpitcher learns how to play a recorder. And Quiet Village takes you home deep & dubby.

Martin Buttrich - Well Done (Serafin Remix)

The Mole - Jingover

Superpitcher - Lick The Pipe

Grandadbob - Pictures (Quiet Village Dub)

Bleeda Frum Da Eah

Another Modeselektor release is upon us, although if you saw them at all in live mode last year it is one you will instantly recall. Figuring prominently in these raved about sets amidst broken techno & chunky hip-hop was their own potent concoction: mutant dancehall. From Tigerbeat6's Jamaican-minded imprint Shockout:

Modeselektor - Weed Wid Da Macka feat. Ninjaman
mp3 from zShare

And this one from their BPitch Control album "Hello Mom!" is in the same vein, if you know what I'm sayin':

Modeselektor - Silikon feat. Sasha Perera
mp3 from zShare

A Number of Names - Sharevari

merci beaucoup Pierre pour ce vidéo!

Don't Call It A DJ Tool

I love everything this guy has touched so far, so imagine my pleasant surprise when he gets tipped to remix The Rapture. I was a bit skeptical listening to the first two minutes of layered building, although it remains true to his bleepy, grindin' production ethos. About 2:15 in he drops the bass for a moment and proceeds to some deft vocal cut-up shit that totally destroys your spatial awareness in the best way possible. Get your yourself a nice pair of headphones and try listening in a crowded cafe while the insaneness happens, then find yourself looking around to gauge somebody else's reaction and realizing you are all alone with respects to this nasty bit of tunage. Oh, and the Simian Mobile Disco mix of same track is worth checking out too.

The Rapture - W.A.Y.U.H. (Claude VonStroke Pantydropper Vocal Mix)
mp3 from zShare

About the only other track from Mr. Dirtybird that I haven't seen licensed to a Fabric comp or in some mega dj's top ten is this bouncy buzzin' monster which probably missed greater recognition due to its initial appearance in an Om Records compilation. It deserves to be heard.

Andy Caldwell - Warrior (Claude VonStroke Sharp Toof Mix)
mp3 from zShare

If you are in San Francisco and your night isn't already full with Thomas Fehlmann & Gudrun Gut go check out the whole Dirtybird crew at the Mezzanine for a mere 5 bones. Although I am getting tired of finding myself at Mezzanine damn near weekly instead of some more sordid, intimate locale you got to admit they are stepping up the booking game for the whole city with a few choice nights looming ahead these next months.... Carl Craig/ Lindstrom, Switch, Ed Bangers Night!

And while I am big upping SF parties, tomorrow night is the second [Kontrol] night at The End Up with Dan Bell & Matt Dear performing live as Audion. The first one was really a treat because the system is one giant notch above where these type of nights usually find themselves (sorry Rx, BOCA, Dark Room, et al.). Don't miss this one.

Better Bastard

Amusing mashups are still a dime a dozen but I want to highlight two of the best I heard this last year. (Aside: Is that term "mashup" even accurate/valid anymore? Bootie is still using the term to bring more folks into the fray, but I like the embracement of "bastard pop" to describe what was formerly "bootlegs" or "mashups". This seems even more appealing when used to describe increasingly sophisticated attempts to re-wire the circuitry of the pop machine, 'specially when you start to think of Girl Talk and five hundred other similar folk probably lurking on myspace. And when I say sophisticated I just mean something that isn't Song A + Song B = Song C. Anyways on to the tracks.)



Justin Timberlake - My Love (Diplo Remix) : jt vs lcd soundsystem
mp3 from zShare











Cassie - Me & U (Siik Remix) : cassie vs ratatat
mp3 from siik.org

(Check out siik's site for other choice cuts - his Amerie remix is another sign of brilliance- the dude is one p-fork track review away from blowing up.)









....and if you're still interested here's another that was oddly hilarious combined with my enthusiasm for the original.

Fedde Le Floyd - Put Your Hands Up For The Wall : flg vs pink floyd
mp3 from zShare