Yes, once again it has been like 2 months since my last post. I will say I have been busy. Yes…busy. Anyway, I’m disappointed. Disappointed with Crookers and Sinden and anyone else who just recylcles tracks and calls them a “new song”. I am not dupe. What is most pissoffish about the matter is that I like these guys. It’s not like they are some shitty adult contemporary musicians who make music for people who don’t actually like music. These are guys who can make some of the most solid shit to hit the dancefloor. You want examples? Let’s let Sinden go first. Off the top of my head I can name the songs “If You Don’t Give a Damn” and “Hardcore Girls”. What is worst about these songs is that they came out more than a year apart. Was Sinden thinking we would forget about the first one if given enough time. Did he care? I’m sorry, but by virtue of it having come out 2nd I think I can safely say that outside of recording the vocals, “Hardcore Girls” probably took about 5 minutes to make. I have spent more time hearing it then hetook to make it. Crookers have done few like this. I know that there are a few tracks off the EP.istola EP that i’ve heard before (at least parts) and a handful of other songs that borrow from each other. I have talked about this before during an earlier post. It just pisses me off so much I will say talk about it again. Also, I didn’t think Sinden would stupe to it too. I had faith in him. He makes such a diverse array of tracks with so many different types of beats. He was my new favourite. He still is though. His recent remix of Metronomy is deadly.
Posts Tagged ‘electro’
Quantity, But Where is the Quality
December 12, 2008Rye Rye – Wassup Wassup (Crookers Remix)
August 25, 2008
Yeah yeah, I’m talking about a Crookers remix again. This one is so hot though. I fell in love with it while I was walking to my crummyday job about a month ago. I was struting down the road in the shitty commercial zone of corporate head offices where I whore myself for cash when it popped up on my Ipod and I felt like a sexual Tyranosaurus Rex for the rest of the day. If a song can make you feel sexy as a sellout then how can one protest? Rye Rye has proven she can hold it down with her work with Dj Blaqstarr and she kills it here. This is actually better than the Diplo produced original. I’m not to big on that song because it’s kinda trying too much and being too disorderly. I must say as well that this is also good usage of the old “Trans Europe Express” motif. Check it out. Dance to it.
ACDC – Thunderstruck (Crookers Remix)
August 25, 2008
Now I love the song Thunderstruck. I also am firmly on the Crookers bandwagon. I shelled out 20 bucks to see them when they came to town and pumped my fist as one does when one is dancing and enjoying themselves. A cursory look at the entries on this blog will show I mention them frequently and often. So what am I building towards here by saying these things? Well what do you think? Obviously I am disappointed with this song. Why? Well I feel that way mainly because this song recycles parts from the “Salmon Dance” remix they did. Not only did they reuse the “wow” vocal but also they used the same break after it. I can never excuse recyclingin music. I can excuse sampling because that is recontextualizing a peice of music as a component of something new. Sampling yourself remixing another song less than a year after the fact however is not so great. When Tricky (yes! remember him of trip hop and 5th Element fame?) used the same verse on both the first Massive Attack album and his first album I lost respect for him. You just don’t do those things. Maybe I am too harsh. Am I crossing a line by demanding a fully original (well as original as remixes can be) product every time? The worst part is that had the Salmon Dance remix never existed I would have had an emission of the nocturnal type over this song. I will admit that when I hear this in the club I still go bonkers. Just bonkers with an asterisk beside it.
THE NEW DIRTY FRENCHMAN MIX
July 24, 2008So, it has been a while. Anybody that put any faith in me probably has given up by now. I know all of you. You want a steady stream of content. New things to read and contemplate. Well contemplate this mothafuckas!
This is my new dj mix. Here is the list of songs I used:
Dj Blaqstarr – Hey MF’s
Late of the Pier – Space and the Woods (the c90s Remix)
New Young Pony Club – Ice Cream (Herve Goes Bananas Remix)
ACDC – Thunderstruck (Tittsworth Remix)
Roisin Murphy – Overpowered (Herve Remix)
Crookers – My Penny
Boys Noise – My Head (Para One Remix)
Jamelia – Something About You (Crookers Crunky Remix)
The Count of Monte Cristal – Bounce That Ass
Spank Rock – Bump (Switch Remix)
Crookers – Aguas De Parco
Princess Superstar – Licky (Herve Goes Low Remix)
Liquid – Sweet Harmony (Streetlife Djs Mix)
Scotch – Penguin’s Invasion (Hot Version)
Sinden and The Count of Monte Cristal – We Don’t Give a Damn
South Rakkas Crew – Mad Again (Boy 8-Bit Remix)
Now I know what some of you might say: “Some of this music is from last year or (gasp!) two years ago.” Well indeed that is true and some of it is from the 80’s. Really I don’t give a fuck. I just play music and try to come with the most compelling mixes possible with two record players and a mixer. Really the pleasure of djing for me (if you have not figured it out yet from previous posts) is the mixing of disparate styles. I think an older or even overplayed song can be elevated by creating a synthesis with another song. When I dj, rather than seeing it as an opportunity to show how in the know I am, I use it more as an excuse to make different mixes. It is easy to play one song after the other and make them mix in together but the way I see it, the songs are just links betwenn new mixes. I’m not trying to say I’m special. Just explain myself.
Late of the Pier – Space and the Woods (The C90s Remix)
June 20, 2008So you thought I was dead? Did you really think I could ever be killed? Even if you succeeded in taking me out another Dirty Frenchman would just appear and take my place. For you see, a little known fact about the French is we have a hive mind. Each French person you see is just a piece of a whole. We cannot be defeated by weapons alone. But I digress. So I’m back after a scholarly hiatus and I’ve got a banger for you. This remix takes what is a semi run of the mill electroclash song and makes it insane. It begins with this assaulting guitar that just keeps on pounding on your ears for 2 minutes. It builds and builds and then just drives you home to ecstasy. I spent my two brakes at my shitty day job just smoking and listening to this song. When I came back to sit at my desk I felt like I had lost a part of myself. Oh god am I ready to drop this on people! By the way, I will be adding more content like mad because this mofo ain’t gotta study no more. Wink.
The Whip – Divebomb (Crystal Castles Remix)
June 11, 2008Yes, I know. This song is from last year and is not new. However I like it so that fact doesn’t matter and I’ll talk about it anyway. I’ve had this song kicking around for a long time on my computer but as most often is the case, I only started to appreciate it when I had one of those moments where it just popped up on my I-Pod unexpectedly. I was on the subway and the song just started up as the subway began to leave the station. The song could be qualified as meditative electro. As I was cruising along under the modern downtown in this metal box in a tube I started to think about technology and how it has insinuated itself into everything. Underground I thought of the city’s bowels. I thought of all the complex systems that work together and are fundamentally behind this order in our lives the we (at least we westerners) take for granted. Our lives are dependent on us being part of these pervasive systems. We are connected and live by this infrastructure. Systems of transportation, information, sewers, garbage collection, etc. All things without which our complex society would be impossible. Yeah, I was high too.
Anyway, Crystal Castles are getting more and more press over here (their hometown) but I don’t think the hype is deserved. One reason is I’m just not into the noisyness of their music. I feel sometimes noisyness is a cop out. It’s easy to fake genius. I can certainly agree that noise is something to be explored and played with but I think to make it the underlying departure point for your work maybe a way to cover a lack of talent no matter how much work you put into that noise. I felt this way about Justice for a while (in particular the first shit they put out like “Waters of Nazareth” but then they won my heart again). I feel this way about Feadz. Anyway, here is the song…
Elektrons – Get Up (Herve Gets Down Remix)
June 5, 2008
Are Elektrons actually good? I don’t know. I have never heard a non-remixed version of their stuff. Sinden did a sick ass remix of “Dirty Basement” that was so good that I had to include it in my dj mix:
(hint: it is the fourth song)
But anyway, we are gathered here for this song and it is quite a bit of goofy madness. Anyone who has followed the last year or so in house should be aware of the man credited for this particular remix. He is like the Kool Keith of dancing. I think I understand the system for his aliases. He is Herve for bizarre house tracks like this, The Count of Monte Cristal for booty or B-more tracks, Voodoo Chilli for disco and Speaker Junk for..well…I guess that shit sounds the same as the Herve shit but who cares? I’m still right! As I’ve stated before I really like this house sound that has risen to prominence with this guy, Sinden, Crookers, Switch, etc. in the last year. Assholes who write other blogs and in music magazines call it “fidget house”. I think that name sucks. It sounds like gidget or makes me think of someone who took speed and your friends all went to the bathroom and you are forced to hang out with them and it is awkward. So yes, boycott calling this “fidget house”. In fact, boycott calling things “deep house”, “disco house”, ”tech house”, “progressive house”, “electro house” (I’m guilty of using that one), “acid house”, “chicago house”, blah, blah, bumboklaat. Why do we need to categorize to the point where the ingredients of a genre are so specific as to make it impossible for it to progress? I blame it on other djs and music writers. Worse are djs with blogs. Oh shit, wait…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3cocAmOXp0
Kano – I’m Ready
May 27, 2008
Alright, now I’m gonna talk about one of the most overused and overplayed songs in electronic dance music making and playing. What’s funny is I bet many more people know this song to hear it played than to hear it’s name. Kano is a group that made funkier sounding Italo Disco in the early 80’s. They have other great classics as well like “Don’t Try and Stop Me” and my personal and era of my life defining favourite “Now Baby Now”. This song is great but it was ruined a few years back when every dj in my town rediscovered it and I heard it at 8 parties in a row. It was sampled for tons of hip-hop tracks, most hilariously 1993’s classic “Whoomp! There it Is” by Tag Team. I just love how from the beginning it just builds and then it just drops that crystaly sounding part. Any connoisseur of what I would call the “dance musics” worth their salt should know this track. If you do not, then I hope at this moment I have implanted in you a certain soupcon of shame. Kano also inspired the character in Mortal Kombat. I mean it.
Exhibit A: Kano’s “I’m Ready”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYVA6GWHT4w
And Exhibit B because no blog on music is complete without it: Tag Team’s “Whoomp! There It is”
Cerrone ft Jocelyn Brown – Hooked On You
May 23, 2008
Ah yes, little Cerrone the French disco/electro/house originator. Maybe I will do a profile on him one day. This is my favourite track of his. I discovered it during my italo/space disco phase about 3 or 4 years ago now. I like this track because it is a music of contrasts. It begins with this throbbing funky baseline and is really heavy and goes on like that with the appearance of trumpets and piano a little further in. Then all of a sudden it goes into a super discoesque section with violin and vocals and then goes back and forth for the song. As always with music it is hard to explain. Good song to like when you lust for a girl. Just listen to it. The video I found just has old Cerrone’s face and he seems to be wearing a jacket made out of grandma’s couch upholstery. Not exactly eye candy.
Profile of Originators: Yellow Magic Orchestra
May 23, 2008
In my ongoing quest to highlight innovators of electronic music that I think don’t get enough credit, I turn to Yellow Magic Orchestra. These dudes hail from Japan way. Their best years were the late 70’s and early 80’s and during that time they made some crazy shit. I first got into them by hearing their song “Technopolis” on a collection of future sounding disco music of the kind that was popular a few years ago. I got hooked by that particular song because it reminded me of the background music of classic NES or SEGA Master System games. I had it sitting in my mp3 collection for a while and then somehow through an article on electro or a review of some album they were cited as influential. My curiosity was now piqued so I dove into my equivalent of a crate digging expedition and came out with some killer tunes. After listening to their shit I can tell you that responsibility for that infinitely looping until it was impossible to get out of your brain (even to this day) music (think the early Megaman games) sits squarely on these guys’ shoulders. Now some of you may think that is a bad thing but admit it, some of those tunes were damn catchy (and sticky as the post “The Tipping Point” parlance would put it) and that is why they persist in the back of your consciousness. Otherwise all I can say is have a listen and enjoy these early cgi videos. They are quite fun in a Tron style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk6o4GWFIV8&feature=related
