Saturday, May 30, 2009

Resourcefulness



O'Spada - Time

Our first track comes from Swedish group O'Spada, dubbed due to lead vocalist Julia Spada. 'Time' sounds like classic disco house except without the cheese. It's probably redundant for me to claim this to be a great track when it's me that posting this on my blog called my picks. This is a great track. However, when I first heard it, it was a lo-fi, live version and I just imagined being in this dark and sweaty VFW hall that we broke into for one night to throw this jam of a party... rebroadcast on AM radio.

Speaking of lo-fi, what are your thoughts on it? Annoying? Classic? Hearing 'Time' again makes me almost prefer the grimey version because of the image it provokes. I liken it to reading a book versus watching a movie; you are casting your own perceptions of what a given moment is like and how the sound really would sound if the production was glossy format. With old jazz/blues recordings, I feel like that is the sound that is proper for the time, almost a part of the tune's credibility. Naturally, the other side of this is that if I heard a song before and are hearing it again on a shitty 32kpbs MP3, I'd throw a fit.

Back to the tune, I feel like it has too many stop/starts in it. Luckily for me (and you) they put out a remix comp so you can sleight your own hand at it.

O'Spada - Time (producer remix pack)

---

The Radio Dept. - David

Track 2 comes from these guys. This should be on your personal picnic mix to play after you've eaten too many PB&J's and you stare at the sky in your poodle skirt or high pants, whichever you prefer. The strings, high-pitched synth vamps, and bells give it just the right amount of sugar especially when coupled with the dreamily distorted vocals. >>This is a great track.

P.S. I didn't plan for this, but these guys are Swedish too.

Friday, May 29, 2009

New resource


source

So I was checking out my analytics one day and I saw that I got a hit from wearehunted.com. What is it? Basically whereas traditionally charts rank their music according to record/mp3 sales, these guys blogcrawl and try and figure out what people have been talking about and they base their rankings on that. Interesting concept: instead of looking at the economic side of music, it takes into account what all the fanboys are saying. Anyway, it turns out that La Roux is up there and I'm part of the cause. She's great!

I've come to appreciate good vocals in music now. Not so much the content, but the delivery. This is in contrast to opera or other classical music where the goal is to achieve a sort of perfection therebywhich everyone starts sounding the same. Elly Jackson (La Roux), Hope Sandoval (of course), Stephen Merritt (The Magnetic Fields), Alison Moyet (Yazoo), Morrissey, and Laura Marling specifically on young love. There are more, but let's not advertise everybody just yet. You know if a voice is good when you can close your eyes, nod your head, and feel enchanted with goosebumps and want to go to their next book reading written in Italian or Portuguese with lots of vowels.

P.S. Just found a new blog whose last like 10 posts align perfectly with my tastes. Winner: offtheradarmusic.com

Like Sita Sings The Blues, that's all.

Monday, May 25, 2009

expansion of new Desires (part 1)

My musical tastes are expanding. More specifically, I am utterly tired of bangers. I think I've mentioned it before that I've been getting more and more into is chiller downtempo (but not necessarily electronic) tracks. Specifically it has lately been The Magnetic Fields.


source

The Magnetic Fields - All The Umbrellas in London

The Magnetic Fields - Underwear

I actually was first introduced to Underwear via Dedric, alongwith he added

The White Stripes - Handsprings

Not exactly within the scope of this post however it is a fantastic song.

Anyway, I'm not saying that I no longer appreciate the hard hits... hardly. I think that as of late I'm more attracted to the slower grooves especially by Fred Falke, Hope Sandoval, Badly Drawn Boy, Chad Van Gaalen. It's probably a reaction to the popularity of the harder stuff. Now, a more important question to myself is why am I repelled by the popular? I'm not actively trying to put my nose in the air (most of the time), it just turns out that it's part of my personality. I guess if it is an innate quality, I'm not going to start going to delve into my childhood to figure out why I became me (my grandma custom-made my clothes, my ma made my lunches from polish ingredients, I was in the IB program, my dad knew the answers to all my questions, all my friends were all different races...). Ok diary, that's enough of that.

I think I said it before when speaking of this that this is my prediction for the next trend in electro-indie-pop. It's true; the saw wave with distortion has its limits. Hell, distortion itself has its limits before the stuff all starts to sound the same and starts to border with just looping a sound bite to a 64th- or 128th-note (yes, that effect transition is used a lot). What about that transition in other instruments? Done that. That hard/forceful stroke with the bow on the violin, that hard growl vocals you hear in blues, same with saxophone. I wonder how one would take those transitions and put them into electro? DEF the saxophone. There needs to be more of the soulful jazzy sax tracks in electro (case in point 'Hearts on Fire'). But in terms of a loop -> distortion there would need to be some analysis done of the sax growl. For one, it is a singular note, but how do you analyze the timbre? Man, I've always wanted to make my own synthesizer.................. dedric?

Sunday, May 24, 2009

A day being wasted?



I really really wanted to do a vinyl rip of Zombie Nation's Zombieliscious. Lo and behold, I look at the bottom of the vinyl sleeve and there is a little card for getting the mp3's. Fantastic! Please don't stereotype the guy from the old song that has become uberklassik-overplayed. (Did you know that it was a remix of a game song from within Lazy Jones on the Commodore 64?)

Anywho, for some reason I want this album to be the next OK Cowboy for me. It doesn't have the hard-hitting distortion, but rather more rough melodies con driving beats. Some of it even sounds like it's meant for bboys. Hmm...

Zombie Nation - Filterjerks

Zombie Nation - Get It

Zombie Nation - Supercake 53

By the way, please go get the rest of the album. It's begging for your attention. And your feet's.

Maybe now that it's 7pm I should go outside a little more and perhaps crash a bbq somewhere. Or I could just deliver a loaf of pork loin. Have meat will travel.

It is a crime!

WHY! Why have I not put this song up yet. AAH!

Yazoo - Don't Go (Whorehouse remix) Vinyl rip

Not only is it Yaz, it's massive dancy. You>> download now. Naturally it's hard electro clubby.

Followup

If you are in dire need of a conversation sound effect, here is easy access to my favourites:

Rim Shot
instantrimshot.com

Waa waa
sadtrombone.com

Price Is Right epic fail:
bombombombomwooooo.com
4 Boms, 1 wooooo.

Bull Post

Whenever I have issues as to what to write about here but want to do it anyway, I hope I don't end up putting up some bull post on whatever. Mild inspiration last night by ddrake making me take another gander at motelmoka as well as being a social recluse at my own party caused me desire to start blogging.

Glenn Frey - You Belong To the City


Granted I'm not even watching the video right now and just keeping it there as background noise.

So I bought this painting the other day for too much money. My tax return check came just in time. I feel like it would be too pompous to post how much I actually got so I'll leave it at that. The painting is supposed to be Loki, Norse god of mischief. Now, I'm no expert on Nordic mythology but I like it. I was going to say that he doesn't look very norwegian but that's because he doesn't have blonde hair. He also looks like Captain Hook as a spectre, or at least that's what I've been telling people. I imagine in the future hanging it up in my future house with my future kids running around at night and coming upon it. What the fuck am I listening to? Pink Floyd - Free Four? No thanks. You know, I've been listening to Pink Floyd all morning thanks again to ddrake for getting me to dnload "in through the out door" by Led Zeppelin. It was a natural transition. Jeez, I need something better. Here we go.

The Beta Band - Little Bird

How about a repeat of some of the Oink playlist from last night?

Blur - Coffee & TV

King Tubby - Silver Bullet

Faded Paper Figures - Track 06

Manu Chao - Bongo Bong

New Order - True Faith
^^ much better in this mixed version

Lali Puna - Faking the Books

There. Much better.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Vinyl Rip

While having the old compy hooked up for the flyer art, I figured it was time to rip a vinyl. When the needle started to constantly skip, I cleaned the platen (no dice), then I cleaned the cartridge (nothing) and adjusted the weight (nope). You know what worked? 3-in-1 in the two tone arm bearings. God I love being an engineer.

UMC's - One to grow on

Excuse the scratchiness. Need to figure out how to filter that out...

It has that definite jazz groove like most classic hip-hop and in another track on the EP it has Large Professor on it. The story was they were playing this at Gramophone and I had to have it. And here it is... 4 years later.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Daft Punk Daft Punk Repost Repost

I def have been missing out.



This post has given me a lot of information:
A) I don't check the blogs enough
B) Daft Punk bloggers are putting out a remix compilation
C) I just found 9 new blogs

First of all, the superfrancos put out a remix album but exclusive to Japan (why does that happen all the time?) and it seems like folks got a little unhappy at the fact that they didn't live a Tokyo trainride away from the record store. As a result, this group of blogs did something about it: each one of them picked a song (or got dealt) a track and it's their job to find a producer to remix their particular track. The datebook reads 19May to say who is their producer, and put out a 128kbps version and then 20May put the song out... just in time for the weekend. Sonotheque are you listening???

Second of all:

01. Human After All —> Chosen by Disco Demons
02. The Prime Time Of Your Life —> Chosen by Data Sapiens
03. Robot Rock —> Chosen by The Cold Cut
04. Steam Machine —> Chosen by Cream Team
05. Make Love —> Chosen by Sheena Beaston
06. The Brainwasher —> Chosen by Danger! Danger!
07. On/Off —> Chosen by The Lemur Blog
08. Television Rules The Nation —> Chosen by Noise Porn
09. Technologic —> Chosen by Pretty Much Amazing
10. Emotion —> Chosen by Binary

That's it. Excuse my tighter pants.

20May09 Edit:
Here it is: clicky.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Chilled out

It's about time to go to bed so I need some nappy time tunes.

The Magnetic Fields - Take Ecstasy With Me
The original to the lovely cover that is always perfect. I actually think this track is better than the cover because it captures the dreamy sensation better (by being less dancy). By the way, I just listened this song 3 times in a row. Wow, what if Hope Sandoval sang it?? I'd be in a heaping pile of swoon.

Amazing Baby - Supreme Being
My temporary Cut of your Hands connection said that these guys are the next MGMT coming out of AUS/NZ. Interesting. Funny how I just bothered getting this song yesterday while recombing through the blargh X months after actually doing that interview. Anyway, I think that when I heard 'the next yadda' comment I was looking to basically hear more tracks by MGMT. Keep your mind open, people.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Diesel Desi

Another video that I think is tight. And Sam tested and tested and tested and tested and tested

Friday, May 15, 2009

A New Hope

I've found a new music resource and his name is Kyle. Kyle is not hyped up on electro like I am but prefers the more (relative) slow jam. I can't delve into description as to what he's recommended so far, however he has given me a super tip: her name is Hope Sandoval. Former lead singer of Mazzy Star, she has one of those voices that makes your body melt like a candle. I retreat all my reality into her sound. I've heard her voice before, but never took the time to research as to who she was. Here are some favorites currently:

Hope Sandoval - Clear Day

Hope Sandoval - Cherry Blossom Girl (cover of Air)

The Chemical Brothers - Asleep from Day

Thinking about it now, it sounds like she never fully experienced a vocal coming-of-age; she has a sultry, young voice. Don't call me a creep until you've listened.

Did you really believe this was going to be a star wars post? So did I...

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Recent acquisitions

People have been sending me stuff and I've been pillaging hard drives and sucking the life out of the my circle of blogs. Below are the fruits of my laziness thriftiness resourcefulness.

Major Lazer - Hold The Line (LehtMoJoe Remix)
Quasi-dancehall remix of Toto's Hold The Line. If I were to DJ with this track, I'd just sneak in about a 1:30 of it for a mashup set (if I did mashup sets). Good.

Chad Van Gaalen - TMNT Mask
From the same guy who brought you this excellent ultra-creepy video comes this jam track for driving/biking. Everytime I listen to this I think of the original TMNT movie and how I would blast the stereo when I was 7 to the TMNT cartoon theme song. Personally, I prefer the 'real' life lingo a la Malibu.

Jet Taylor - Output One-Two (Demo)
I got sent this. Indie dance winner. Waiting waiting waiting for the mastered version.

Health - Triceratops (Acid Girls Remix B)
It doesn't quite have the pure Megaman-nery of Adventure, but it comes close. Perhaps if he added the distortion keys and a had a real drum machine the two could merge into a single member of video game dance fantasy.

Speaking of which, there is a mariokart contest combo dance party at the Congress tomorrow eve. $1 to watch, $5 to compete. I'm going to kick all of those 15-year-olds' asses.

Feeling down?

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Do bloggers dream of electric blogging?


(best camera phone shot)

It's really sad actually. I'm sitting here in my underwear reliving my night of excellence and recounting how I needed to blog in the midst of what I wanted to blog about. The evening's purveyor was Diplo. Oh wow. He played a ridiculous amount of baile funk, Mad Descent stuff, M.I.A., and then this pair one after another with some loops/effects on them to make them a bit more Smartbar worthy.

Dick Dale and the Deltones - Miserlou

The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird

Damn. So tight. Listening to that right now makes me want to just have at it on my rug here. MM mmmhm. After gyrating through the crowd just to try an get an underexposed shot of Diplo, and repeated comings and goings of alcoholic beverages (cherry vodka, water, cherry) I couldn't take it anymore and had to leave. Too many couples. That and I lost my buddy Christopher whom I then spoke with 5min later as he was leaving Smartbar as I was in a cab. Oh well. Alles gute. Bottom line, if you have the chance to see Diplo in your town, wear something that you know you don't care getting sweaty in and run for it. After pushing through the line outside Smartbar "Hey where do you think you're going??" "Hard tickets, bitches." it was fantastic.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

The one I've been meaning to do for a while

While living in Denver, or in Chicago or going anywhere, I have a natural draw to spend a couple of hours in a local record store. It is not news to anyone of the interesting things that you'll find. Seeing as I have a poor memory and even poorer associative memory of text to sound, it is difficult for me to find things I'm actually looking for that I've heard. Most of my purchases are based on how interesting I find the cover art, or band name, or whether I've heard them before and can recall their name at that specific time. One band that I gave a chance to were The Buggles.


(reverse cover)

Yes, they have the obvious song, but the whole album is really good.

Buggles - Astroboy

Buggles - Elstree

Buggles - Kid Dynamo (streaming track on youtube)

I highly recommend picking this one up.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

College

Back when I started this blog my main source of inspiration was stuff that I've been listening to for a while and needed to document it somehow. Today after making an omelette and putting on some slow jams it turned out that there were all from days of yore; reminiscing. Hedlund, Lipgloss, Lesbian Carebears. Here's my 'morning' playlist:

Air - Kelly Watch the Stars
Air - Cherry Blossom Girl
Air - Run
Aphex Twin - Bbydhyonchord
Arcade Fire - My Body is a Cage (Live at St. Michael's Church)
Badly Drawn Boy - Once Around the Block
Badly Drawn Boy - Fall In A River
Badly Drawn Boy - Cause a Rockslide
The Shins - Sphangnum Esplande
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
The Smiths - That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
The Starlight Mints - Buena Vista
Stellastar* - My Coco

Not to brag, but I won a Lipgloss contest for free tickets to Stellastar because I sent in a submission explaining in one word or less why I should get them. My text body was: *! .

Now if you excuse me, I've got cookies in the oven from my awesome neighbor, Rose.

Wow this song is really fucking good.

KaraokeMF - 6:12am, train