In the Zone

These kids are in the ZONE!

.... and then there's Boyzone...

Monkey Business

If you speak to people in the music industry these days, there seems a lot to be depressed about... And rightly so, perhaps. BPI's annual review of key developments in the sector does not paint a pretty picture: industry revenues fell by 13% in 2007, with the focus shifting from developing new talent to cutting corporate sponsorship deals. Industry people no longer dream of signing "the next big thing", but about cutting deals with Nokia, Coca Cola, and Burger King. Meanwhile, aspiring artists looking to get discovered fill the internet with DIY digital doodles in a desperate bid for attention... God bless the digital revolution! To be fair, it aint all bad, some of it's pretty good, some of it even brilliant. But I'm the first to admit that I can feel overwhelmed by how much crap we have hurled at us 24/7.

So thank God for this light in the darkness! I had been excited about seeing "Monkey: Journey to the West" for months, and finally had the chance last Saturday. Why was I excited? Mostly because its creative team included Damon Albarn, enigmatic singer of Blur and The Gorillaz, who I've had an intellectual crush on since (at the age of 12) I heard him say that "music these days is not intelligent enough". Sweet. And Jamie Hewlett, who animated The Gorillaz and whose vision of the world I would love to borrow for just - one - day. Please? These big-brained giants of British creativity teamed up with Chinese director Chen Shi-Zheng to create... a Chinese Opera!

I surprised 2 good friends with tickets to see it at The Royal Opera House and can confirm that Monkey is pure magic. The production features a cast of circus artistes and martial artists that would give Cirque du Soleil a run for their money, as they weave their wondrous path through Jamie's exquisite designs and spellbinding animations. Damon's musical score is otherworldly, haunting, and perfectly delivered by a choir of ethereal Chinese muses.

If I had to pick at it, I think Monkey could have benefited from having a stronger plot and storyline. I did not engage with the characters on an emotional level and felt the music/choreography could have easily evoked something deeper. But I'll forgive it this tragic flaw because Monkey managed to sweep its audience (myself included) off their feet, not by pushing our usual buttons, but by attempting that perilous thing of using new media to reach us - and surviving the experience. More than than, the creators achieved something of genuine beauty and harmony. This is entertainment for future generations.

Apparently it's coming back to the UK in autumn... Go on, treat yourself.

It's a Rave Day

High Contrast does it again! Female vocals + a phat bassline = FIT. Check out Adele - Hometown Glory (High Contrast remix) Yieyieyiehhh, supersweet.

Oddly enough I've spent the pas 3 days pretending I'm a 90's raver. If you'd like to jon me in my time machine why not bounce around to L.A.O.S - 1990's, Mistabishi - No Matter What, or Fake Blood - Mars. Love it.

I leave you with a slice of HOTness to match the heat outside. JERK IT OUT!

thunderheist - jerk it (contest cut) from thatgo on Vimeo.

Excitable beats

Ok first off, check out minute 21 onwards on the post about Philly Mad Decent Mix by OriginalDMAX. SIIIICK hiphop vocal TUNE. Followed by a sicker old school tune (oh my god what a beautiful vocal - gwaaaan SET ME FREEEEE) then followed by a mega mash up tune. YEH YEH YEH!

Ok So. I discovered this BEAUTIFUL sound that went by the form of a SONG. Squarepusher - Iambic 9 Poetry. DMAX put it up on the seeqpod playlist, check it out. And then ten minutes lates check it out again. ANd then again. Next day, wake up, switch on your computer, turn it on, again. And again. Its made for those moments that we call 'standard'. Basically play it all day, all night, and then again the year after. Its TROOOP BEAU KOI. Alaise. Innit.

That Squarepusher tune I discovered on the top ten list of a Production Duo from london called Instra:Mental. Now. Instra:Mental. Well. They're just pretty damn sweet. Their production is top notch, coming well above most producers. Although their tunes sound dark, its minimal darkness. So in effect you can hear everything so crisply that it doesnt sound threatening despite the layers they use. Its as if you were walking through darkness, with beats hitting each side of you as you explored further, yet the beats come as beams of light which you can clearly distinguish, and if anything they are lighting your way edging you to seek further and explore deeper. Then it drops. SWEEEEET.

SO check these guys out please please please!!!

Aight Peace.

More Santi

Can't get enough of Santogold? Me too.

Check the dope remix by Kid Gloves (original is 8 min, but I cut it to keep the freshest bit)

nice one

REZZZ

Keys to the City

Imeem are doing a pretty cool thing stateside where they get Local labels and artists to highlight the up and comers in a scene for each city. Check out their page here they just did philly and got ?uestlove and Mad Decent involved. The mix is below. Enjoy...

Feisty remix

Firstly I want to reiterate how glorious the tune Xav posted is - get it here: La Priest - Engine (Erol Alkan re-edit)

Secondly, check out Chymera for some super sweet techno / prog house. I recommend Ellipsis...

Finally, yet another remix of Feist - 1.2.3.4.... It even has a video!

Kick the burger

If a tune is dropped but no one's listening - does it make a sound?

It's a been a while since I've posted. New job's keeping me busy and leaves little time for discovering new music... But that won't stop good tunes from being released! So here's a few I want to share with my friends on this fine Sunday evening.

First up! If you like your FIDGET house this tune is seriously heavy: A Girl and a Gun - Whomp That Sucka (A1 Bassline Remix). Whomp THAT.

Men of the moment are without a doubt CROOKERS who are churning out big tunes at at the speed of light. Top of my current list are Il Buono (if you like your drops prepare for a 1000 feet PLUNGE!) and Brick City Go.

I love Boys, I love Noize, I love Feist. This tune aint hot off the press but it's glorious none the less: Feist - My Moon My Man (Boys Noize remix).

Next up: DIPLO. I would probably pay to have children by this man because he everything he produces is beautiful. His latest, Black Ghosts - Repetition Kills (Diplo remix) aint his best but good enough to mention.

Finally - seriously loving My Drive Thru, the result of a collaboration between N.E.R.D., Santogold (Spank Rock) and Julian Casablancas (The Strokes). One of those tunes that get better and better and better, got one heck of a guitar hook to it.

I leave you then with a piece of Norwegian culture... Apparently Diplo is obsessed with this. The original game is to kick a hat off a ski pole. We replace the hat with a burger and have... The Burger Dance. "Get low.... get low... Alright!"

Party like the Fucking Germans!

Hosted this german dude this weekend from Couchsurfing (dope site, get on it, you'll meet awesome people) and got talking about festivals. Anyone who's been to Berlin in the past sorta 10 years knows its got it going on, actually I say Barcelona and Berlin are the dopest cities in europe. Anyways my man Ede pointed me to a video from a German festival called Juicy Beats. WATCH IT ITS DOPE. It was this group Deichkinds 10th bday. Give out 200 beers. Shake shake shake... Watch it. Getting me hyped for Fusion Festival. We heard about this thing through the grapevine and from friends. 40,000 people, dope German electronic music and an Ex-Soviet airfield for an extremely low cost. Thats just the start this thing looks AWESOME. Yeah Im Fucking Game!!! Bring on Summertime...

More Titts

Another Fat Titts Mix

Mix Teree

As we luuuv to say:
Booty Shakin' Fresh

Man Make Bruk

We love the guys at ManMakeMusic. The dudes at Bruk are friends of ours in Bristol.

They do guuuuuud stuff, superphat parties and bangin' times always guarenteed, so when they through a party together we'll always be up for it.

Most importantly though they keep you the listener close to their heart, bringing deep, up and coming or cutting edge acts to play every time, guarenteed freshness and cutthroat low prices (a fiver in london? Yeah thats decent.)

They just like to party...

Gimme some of that Ayres & Titties

We ain't been writing (or going out much lately) due to mad amounts of stuff goin' on in our respective lives BUT we rocked out to Deviant in Brick lane the other day to check out the Rub, they didn't disappoint with some Booty shaking freshness, see the DJ Craze music description:

'Club-style Miami bass, formed with the technical love of hip hop with clean cuts and ridiculously dextrous scratching, but a mix up of straight up rap, ghettotech, raw booty house, old-school electro, Baltimore/Miami bass crossover and sweaty lo-end dancefloor music, making it all but impossible to keep still.'

Yeeaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh....

Ayres gets the most props usually but I reckon Cosmo Baker rocked it freshest with an array of fun tunes put at our disposal. Noticed on their site they got a whole history of Hiphop thing thats DEF worth checkin' out (if you love Hiphop like we do). So what year was the best?... opinions...

Post gigs the works piles on, so been listening to alot of shit, especially uber fresh Tittsworth who unfortunatly we missed on out Miami WMC trip.

Mix1

Mix2


So heres my bet. YOU LISTEN TO ONE OF THESE TWO MIXES, BASS PUMPED UP AND DON'T SHAKE SOME PART OF YOUR BODY FOR THE WHOLE MIX. The whole dam thing kid. Honestly Titts gits ya movin' and BMore is um yeah takin over. You do that come tell me and I'll buy you a drink...
Then again Ian over at Songkick says British women can't shake it like the yanks, but that's a whole other story about not showing up.

We hate it when people don't show up man...

The eight-teeees

Who doesn't have love for those 80's classics like Back to the future, and Trading places?

I found a jokes remix of a famous soundtrack that you might recognise from Indiana Jones

Check "Super Jones" at http://www.myspace.com/djamazingclay

www.musicismylife.blogspot.com

First of all, i wanted to point out how i love the way Danny assumes we have all voted in DeadRat6, or mau5 or whoever into the best artist at the moment. I didnt know him before i read the post. Nice one danny. For now, im nominating Breakbot the one and only slickest Rico Suave around.

Ok. So. Recently. Like for the last few weeks, i've been getting well into my continental electro which encompasses a HUUUGE amount and variety of stuff. From Ed Banger (1), to filthy German electro (2), to electro funk (3) (or electro rock/indie disco as others call it - im sure there are loads of terms). When i say continental, i guess im kind of mistaken, because within a few weeks you get to listen to a whole lot of shit that might include some UK electro or some yanky doodle electro (4). And when i say electro, i might mean Big Beat, or Techno, or Deep Funky Electro Tech. Etc. Aight.

I've been raving on about these discoveries of mine as if i had been hunting high and low for months and was gathering up all the meat to show y'all what other species live in distant lands. As a result some of you are super excited to hear what i have to say. Unfortunately, it might not be your cup of. But nevertheless, for me and anyone who happens to think like me, and hence have super duper good taste in music, you should also salivate to these beats.

1-Justice Essential Mix - Pretty sweet mash up of all things electro + electro funk and refreshed with some old school Frenchie songs. NICE NICE NICE. (isnt nice such an undescriptive word?)

2-One tune has been a stand out GEM for me over these weeks. 'Dont Go' by Puzique which can be found on their myspace. I've just tried describing it, but cant quite get it right. Super tight beats, over an extremely uplifting synth, running parallel to some funky old school vocals. All in all something you'd love to hear out right? Well. For my lovely girlfriends bday we went to a newly introduced electro night in Brighton, and some dude from Dublin called Arveene played this tune as we were all leaving: ... Don't Go away... Don't go away... I listened, and thought oh MAAAAN. Yes you can imagine. I went right next to the dj booth and ripped it up, then left. But mate. Yes. I mean like. Oh my. Seriously sweet.

Enough about that tune, check out Puziques other tracks, which are filthier, a lot filthier but pretty damn sweet nonetheless.

Speaking of Filthy, there's this new free porn site that i discovered, really good if you like filthy stuff. On the other hand, Filthy musicwise, d.i.m. appears, who, along with Boys Noize make up Puzique. His track 'noize' on his myspace is another gem for me. Check it out.

3-The electro funk tracks i discovered are numerous, but one artist that has 4 amazing tracks on his Myspace is Breakbot. Listening to his tracks, and thinking of Justice's distinctive bass, made me realise how French electro stems from a country that already had very good taste in music. Back in the 90s, Double HH crew were a dj crew comprising a few hiphop heads, namely Dj Abdel and Dj Cutkiller (the bald guy that rips it up in La Haine - what a clip + movie) who not only mixed up the best in REAL RnB, HipHop, but also old school 80s funk. Now, 80s funk is called funk for many reasons, but for me, the one thing that distinguishes it from a lot of shit, is that funky ass bass. Its all about the bass. When i say bass, i dont mean DOOF DOOF DOOF as Danny and Renate rave on about. I mean instrumental bass, or double bass to make it double funky. Justive use this sound, and it makes their tracks that much more virulent. We can't forget Daft Punk either, who back in the 90s came out with such funky electro, that i was wondering at home if maybe french electro is so funky because of this history of good taste. Or if im just observing a couple coincidences. Either way. Breakbot (coming back to him) has some wicked tracks. The PNAU tune, despite sounding excessivley poppy, just makes me want to be on holiday for the rest of my life, spending it with the people i love. When that bass comes in, once again, sweet instrumental bass AIIIGHT, it just digs into your head, confirming the holiday thought. Lets go to SONAR. Haha, Yes yes. Hence electro FUNK.
The LOTP remix is equally good, more indie disco-ee. The guys vocal, as well as his voice is just amazing.

On this electro funk note, or indie disco one, Scenario Rock are another stand out band. I discovered them from Justice's essential mix, along with Breakbot, what a mix. Their new album Histrionics is pretty sweet, been listening to it quite a bit lately. Their track Both Gotta Move On, is lovely. As is their SKitzo Dancer which appears to be very famous in france. Damn NICO.

4 - To finish off this short post, A-Trak is some amazing dj, but to be honest i dont like the amazing hiphop mash up dj's. I mean you can't really dance to the stuff, its just impressive because he juggles 5 tracks, scratches a word for 5 minutes, and then does more amazing shit. Recently he's gotten into mashing up tracks electro stylee, with some nice remixes. The Boys Noize - Oh! remix he did is off the hook. Check it on his myspace.

Discovering music is one thing i could never do enough of. It makes my day or even entire week. Music is my all. I LOVE MUSIC. Lets all get naked and make love to music.

Ok guys, sorry for the long ass post, but hopefully some of these things will appeal to you. And if they don't, screw you guys. Im going home. xx

Who5 that Mau5

Last year the man on the tip of everyones ton had to be Trentemoeller. Deservedly so, dude is sick and his album the last resort showed he had more than just a penchant for club killers like that Royksopp remix you all know.

So who looks like the heir to that warm, techno-ey, makes you feel fuzzy inside, electro throne.... Without a doubt its gotta be the DeadMau5.

Another computer geek turned music illustrio the 27 year old hailing from Toronto was first discovered through his tune 'Faxing Berlin' sent Pete Tongs way.

He seems to drop alot of sick tunes and when he plays live he wears the most jokes mask imaginable.

And the name? A mouse died in his computer, so he named himself after it (and for IRC the deadmouse didnt fit). Listen, cause dude's sick...

What Went Down in Miami (pictures/links to follow)

A week of ups and some little downs (fortunatly mostly ups!), WMC can only be described as Sick. While it comes across as a get together for superstar dj's to pat each other on the back, there's absolutely tons going on, as the streets are lined with music heads, cosmetic surgery and pretty people.



Firstly the top two lessons learnt:
-RSVP email EVERYTHING the week before the conference, even if you have no idea where it is you may wanna check it out at some point and emails are free.
-My bro collects old door wristbands from party's gone by. We usually use them for sneakin' in to places (always been my hobby, greatest coup song ever!!!) The doormen in Miami tend to be lazy and exhaust (talked to one they work about 90 hours that week!) so they dont really check, honest you could get into SO much by doing this. You heard it here first!
-Dont do this as a student, man it aint about miami on a budget, I aint doing this as a student again... having said that, the free parties tended to be the best parties.




What we hit up that we rated:
-Weds bmore party with low budget, stretch armstrong, alexander technique. All impressed, Stretch Armstrong told us he's trying to come to london soon to do Fabric with Sinden. It was damn fun, the evolution of hiphop with a lil bit of everything chucked in. We need this music in the UK.
-We checked out the Rub that night aswell and came across some uber uber safe people in the form of Shakespeare, Amon and Dawn. With so much fake around miami, talking with them was awesome, as it showed that a. the conference has a bit of everything b. the country and hopefully the world is heading in the right direction (change right?). Shoulda gone to see them play, cept they never called back with details. Thanks for the ride home!
-Went to the Raleigh pool on Thurs for Digitalism and Boys Noize but left to go check out Richie Hawtin and Steve Lawler at the Surfcomber. Straight up SICK though by the end of this we were in no state to go out that night (missed pryda WACK!). Pool parties ARE THE WAY FORWARD!
-Hit up the Radio 1 pool party, watched Kissy Sell out, a very Lame Justice showing, pete tong, deep dish and the likes (aswell as calvin harris at the raleigh). Nothing especially noteworthy though.
-My brother emailed me from Paris with info on a Mad Decent Warehouse party (nice shout Rez) which merits a couple comments:
-The design district is way sicker than the beach.
-The venue was awesome only one thing really really pissed me off: noone ended up in the indoor pool, that wouldve made the party... (couldve been the all night mad decent pool party ey?)
-Calvin Harris showed up relatively unnoticed which was quite jokes as that wouldnt happen in the UK, didnt know he was a mad decent fan?
-Drop the lime was awesome, South Rakkas were decent, everyone rocked it but above all I felt Blaqstarr stood out. Impeccable mixing, BANGING tunes (well it is blaqstarr), but above all the feeling that if this guy played at a big bouncy rave it would go absolutely climb the rafters, gobsmacked infuckingsane. At this point the crowd was thining a bit though. Briefly asked him about europe, he said he may head this summer, fingers crossed...(ps if diplo reads this bring blaqstarr to sonar, if they wont have him he can always play at anti sonar, they'd love the energy)
-They shouldnt have hinted at possible guests playing if werent gonna play! (also diplo showing up woulda killed it, after all it is florida) and switch/santogold dissappointed.
-Finally checked out Mehdi and A-Trak along with peanut butter wolf and madlib for a classic hip hop party on Sat. Its mehdi and A-trak, it's gonna be fucking good. Awesome crowd, awesome vibe. Mehdi told me he had done 4 parties in 2 days and was down with his girlfriend (famous graff artist fafi). Mans uber safe and obviously works uber hard, props.



What we missed out on:
With this much shit goin' on some things were bound to be missed in the bucketloads. The following were either at the same time as something else, or we were too exhausted/hungover to get our asses out to check 'em. Through the Grapevine these couple sounded supreme:

-Bass Sessions with Craze, tittsworth and krafty kuts. A mashup of breaks/bmore and basssss. Apparently bounced all night.
-Richie Hawtin Minus 10year party. After the pool party he apparently spun a mammoth set at nocturn.
-Eric Prydz at Space. The real killer, as after Exit festival WLTE crew love Pryda.
-Nikki Beach on Saturday, just cause the diskomafia crew and robosonic were playing. Woulda been fun to suprise robotti there .
-Deadmau5, MSTRKRFT and Morillo, cause I was curious.

Direct from the Winter Music Conference in Miami

So why am I missing the Man make music party posted below? I'd always have a good reason if I was missing something like that. We're hitting up the Miami winter music conference this weekend, starting off today with rooftop parties, followed tomorrow with bangin nights with Euro names like sinden, morillo, annie mac or yanks like low B, stretch armstrong and the likes. Thursdays a pool party with Richie Hawtin, followed by a night at Space miami with Eric Prydz. I haven't even gotten to friday, saturday and sunday yet, there really is no need to think that far ahead. WLTE will try and keep you informed on who rocked it, who topped it and who bopped it as we take a look into the american electronic music scene on the sun licked beaches of Miami. Only problem I see is waking up to write....

Thats one party I wish I didnt have to Miss

About a year ago was when man make music really really started going. Run by three talented heads by the name of sketch, sam and another amit, they had had a few warehouse parties that I heard about through the grapevine with a big one lined up for the beginning of march. The location, an abandoned warehouse in north east london (hackney wick) was out of the way, rented by 5 lodgers and set for demolition come the 2012 olympics. The party was... AMAZING... words can't really describe, the vibe, the people, the music, the way everyone was living just for that, the line outside the door stretching down the block at 2am, the party. It was HUGE, it was SICK it was Make make ILLNESS. Seriously seriously dope. Thing is it was SO DOPE that ever since every party MMM have thrown has been compared to this one shindig. I reckon everytime sketch throws a party someone asks him when his next Hackney WIck party is. There's an answer now... 29th of March in the location where it all started and I cannot really say enough to GET YOU TO GO!!!!! seriously get there before midnight cause its gonna pack out for sure! Anyway check out Man make music dot com to find out more and if your in london DO NOT MISS THIS PARTY...

Musical Marmite

Progressive House is musical Marmite - people seem to love it, or hate it.

I can see why people criticize it for being repetitive. A ProgHouse track will typically last 8 minutes, take 5 of those to evolve from minimal bleeps to something with a recognizable tune, go silent... Re-emerge with a subwoofy bass-line, and spend the last 2.5 minutes fading out. Yes, you could say it's pretty minimal.

But to me, that's the beauty of it. It's the subtle, intense beauty of waves lapping on a beach, of the sun slowly rising, of clouds passing by, almost unnoticed. Enveloping yourself in a ProgHouse mix slows the world down, which somehow clears the mind, accelerates thought, and makes everything go faster inside your head. Like people dancing under a strobe light, or the world gliding past behind a train window. If you don't get it, you don't: but for those fortunate enough to speak its language, Progressive House is a wonderful place to lose yourself once in a while.

If you haven't listened to much before and want to give it a go, I suggest you start with the following tunes to wet the appetite:



If you're ready to take it to the next level, I entreat you to check out the sound of Omni. A musical truffle I just stumbled upon, this Montreal based DJ/producer's Myspace features a few tunes + mixes that I soon hope to hear played all over London: 'Electric Music', as well a stunning trance remix by Nick Bugayev. Please buy them here - they're worth it.

Already excited about SONAR

Here's a couple reasons I'm going to Sonar this year:

-DIPLO
-Cause Barcelona and Berlin are the funnest places in Europe (we're all going to a festival near Berlin called fusion the weekend after)
-Cause Sonar 2007 was SICK
-Cause Mehdi vs A-trak with kid Sister is the best thing I've heard in the past month (except number1)
-Cause Yazoo are 80's Fresh
-Cause Ed Banger are gonna come back and Kill it Again
-Diplo
-My Fam lives there so I can see them too
-Cause its gonna be hot
-Cause everyone will go this year after I convince them
-Diplo
-Cause they got a bit of everything (see Konono no.1)
-Cause Yelle is this years Uffie
-Cause I wanna celebrate the end of an Era and couldn't imagine a better way of doing it
-Cause the city is ALIVE for Sonar
-Cause I know we are gonna love EVERY FUCKING MINUTE!!!
-Did I mention
DIPLO....
I'll see you in Barcelona come June...

Mo' gold digging

Yesh yesh y'all

This is my first post for WE-LISTEN-TO-EVERYTHING, so you know I had find a good gem worth bringing to light. I reckon the Switch remix of Santogold's track "Shove it" will shine nicely.

Keep digging!

RIGGIDY REZ FOR PEREZIDENT

A-trak: Turntablist by nature

So, Atrak, Here's the resume: When I was 13 I took my bar mitzvah money and bought myself some turntables and a mixer. I practiced for about 18 hours a day. Then I came out of my basement, packed my lunch and won a bunch of world championships. Joy! I formed a DJ crew called the Allies with Craze and friends. We toured the world for a while... I guess I've been touring for the last 10 years. Time flies.

Hilarious, not just cause of how he writes it, but how understated he is. He was 15!!!! Just 15!!!! when he won the world DMC champs. Dude then went on to win it a bunch more times, reaching a point where he was head and shoulders above everyone else.

So whats he up to now? Kanyes tour DJ (props to kanye for getting one of the best) and producing remixe's (check out SICK scanners tune on his myspace), aswell as tunes for kid sister.

That aint it though, last year he released Dirty south Dancing, a mashup of Hiphop/electro/Oldskool/Funk that is guarentee to get your body jacking.

All this shoulda gone to his head right? Nah man, check out his diary on his site.

Basically A-trak is a living Hiphop legend and certainly to go down as one of if not the greatest turntablist of all time(he even works on a notation system for scratching!!!!!!!). Mad motivated and mad skills,

Rise of the ElectroClash Giants

I'm going to do something I almost promised myself I wouldnt do: Give justice yet another blog mention.

A year ago Justice played with Annie Mac in Bristol. They filled out a club with maybe 2/300 people. It was a DJ set, amazingly well done, they smashed it and left town. Then comes the summer of '07 and the release of their Cross album. It was a good album. Great? I don't know, depends on your opinion.

Anyway, yesterday they come back to Bristol. They fill Carling on a Sunday with about 2000 people. 2000 people who came to only see them play for 2 hours and paying £14 to do so.

So what the hell happened over the summer of '07! Viral growth of two electroclash icons from DJ status to mainstream Rock act, picking up an MTV music video award in the act.

It's been an impressive rise for justice leading me to a couple questions. Firstly, obviously some people will call them sellouts, however their music hasnt changed, is this the mass-popularisation of Electro music?
Secondly what are Justice? They use guitar distortion on banging electro tunes to create a sort of Rock and roll meets electro atmosphere. So are they trendie indie electro, or the emergence of a new sort of Rockstar?

Im not gonna answer those questions, that would be boring. I'm just gonna sit back and try and take in more of Justice's meteoric rise and try and work out whether they will fall off.

As for the show, pretty decent, but nowhere near as maddecent as Justice at Sonar last year, is it the location or due to the fact that they played a 2 hour 'gig' and not really a dj set?

Here's to the frenchies...

ps There is an UNbelievable number of Justice remixes - Check em out on seeqpod

BMorphed

I've gotta say, I'm loving the way that all and everyone have embraced the Bmore-ification of our favourite chart-toppers. After years of putting the likes of Britney, Madonna and Kano through Electro and DnB remix machines, it seems the dawn of Baltimore Beats is upon us...

With some SWEET results. Check out neon-fresh Stuttgarters Bass Ill Euro: I'm loving their version of N.E.R.D - Everyone Nose (EuroJunk Remix). Visit their Myspace to download some of their utterly danceable Mixtapes. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face and blisters on your feet.


BITE-SIZED electro

First up, a couple of wicked remixes from the Masterful Craftsmen that are Mstrkrft:

Justice - D.A.N.C.E (Mstrkrft Remix)

Kylie Minogue - Wow (Mstrkrft Remix)

If rocking out to Kylie makes you want to revisit the 80s, check out this super smooth Chromeo remix by Paris based electro-heads Lifelike ("so electric"):

Chromeo - Needy Girl (Lifelike Remix)

For some more down-tempo shizzle, check out this lovely rework of a 2007 chart topper from badboy Chicago remixer Million $ Mano:

Digitalism - Pogo (Mano Remix)

What is Music?

"You call that music?! Sounds like a broken car alarm..."

Sound familiar? Something most people that are into Electronic Bangin Stuff will regularly get thrown at them from unappreciative friends/family. But maybe the idea of considering the bleepedy bleep noises that microwaves/computers/mobile phones/etc produce as 'music' isn't all that crazy. Take Apple Computer's Macintosh Startup sound; that's music to my ears.

To prove my point, a couple of guys from Berlin called Transformer di Roboter had the rather awesome idea of using Apple's epic sound (created by Jim Reekes) as the bassline for a cover of MJ's Stranger in Moscow. The original idea behind Transformer was to do covers of known pop hits, using cliches of contrasting musical styles and... musical language.

This tune is likely to raise a few eyebrows if played at the next family gathering: but despite being based on a 3-second synthesizer
chord, it's making me nod my head like a little chipmunk. This underlines that asking questions like "Is it Music? Is it Art" is often irrelevant. Whether it's a star soprano singing her final aria, a badly sung karaoke performance or my latest ringtone; they are all part of the musical language we know the world and our own minds by.

(Doesn't mean some of the stuff we rock out to IS pretty funny)

Let's get Krump

Following on from the 'whats goin' down in Paris' post, Sketch showed me a vid of Clowning. Sorta like krumping, it's hard to describe, kinda similar but involving more joking around. It's a complete contrast to Techtonik. While krumping started in Southside LA, clowning apparently started as just that, a clown dancing crazily and getting kids to laugh. Question is which one do you prefer? Clowning or Techtonik?

Nu trance, ravemore, fashion dance-core... Purple crush and EmoClub???

Describing music as emo-club may make some cringe, unless your particularly fond of the 80's. Purple Crush, actually a couple who met at Art School in LA, now rep from Brooklyn NYC. They got an interesting sound and remixes of their tunes are becoming big on the BMore circuit. Perhaps sounding better when remixed, is it worth checking out? Hell yeah...

Couple Words on Tune Selection

So what's the logic behind the WLTE2 selection, a rundown tune to tune:

• We live in Brooklyn by Roy Ayers is an absolute classic, soulful tune about brooklyn, despite ayers being from LA. If you haven't heard it you HAVE to listen to 'everybody loves the sunshine'
• Chromeo, on Tiga's Turbo will definatly come up later on this blog. This is a remix of their fancyfootword tune which Will get you moving...
• Oh Yeah Booka Shade is pure genius if you've seen Ferris Bulers Day out (SICK movie!)
• Noisia Yellowbrick, is another highly compressed brain tickler from the Dutch tech heads.
• Somersault remixed by Dangermouse allows MF Doom (interesting character also to feature at some point) to flex his lyrical brilliance over a zero 7 soulfull rift.
• Raise the roof was discovered from Tiga's podcast (check it out if you get a chance). An 80's freshness (the good side of the 80's) with a incredibly beautiful melodic ending.
• Low Budget ran the Hollertronix parties in Philly with Diplo, boy is a mashup BEAST!
• Again found on the Tiga podcast Let it Happen Lindstom vocal mix is a disco meets rock classic, it'll grow on you.
• Tribulations has had a ton of remixes, rightly so. I like Tigas slow buildup to the LCD crashing chorus.
• The cool kids Black Mags B-more fix is hiphop meets a true classic producing some real bumpngrind.
• Finally wasnt sure about the Shonky track, but I like shonky's rolling minimal touch; he chooses his synths and sounds carefully and it shows.

Hope you enjoy, you'll like at least one of them...

Variety.

First off, we have a sweet new german producer on the DNB scene bringing us some Berlin influenced rowdiness. Too much dnb sounds the same nowadays, and a fresh new sound is always welcome, especially if its from Berlin because Berlin is just super sweet. Martsman is currently signed to several labels, but more importantly has made his debut in the Uk with the releases of a couple tunes on Hospital's baby sister label Medschool. Check out 8-bit bouncer as its full of ounce.

I was in a wicked shop in Brussels (birth place of all things sweet) and there was a sick cd playing. It's more on the chilled and funky spectrum of aural pleasures. Kira neris is a relatively new addition to the Nu-Jazz posse. Not much to say about these guys, just that they're pretty sweet and sensual and if you like Cinematic Orchestra, Bonobo (and the rest of Ninja Tune) then Kiraneris lives right up that avenue. Check out their myspace.

Finally, taking the dpm's lower still, we have Fennesz. Now this might be a little too abstract for people like danny as he prefers 'bangin stuff'. However if you go to this guys myspace and check out his tune called 'Tree', well i reckon you might see the white light emitted. His music generally consists of quirky laptop sounds bouncing over gorgeous soundscapes. If you like this sort of stuff, check out his album co-produced with Sakamoto, its pure loveliness. Sakamoto is also pretty sweet!

Enjoy. Miaaaow (yess yess).

Here Comes FlossTradamus!

(Click on the Pic for recent Flosstradamus Mix)

Was Fortunate enough to catch Flosstradamus first hand at Sonotech in Chicago pre-christmas, as a friggin blizzard was braved to check out the hyped midwest act. Despite the 8inches of fresh snow lining the pavement outside the place was pretty rammed and these boys sure didnt disappoint. Jetlag was forgotten as the party rocked through 80's, b-more, rave, and various other genres of eclectic tunes (eclectic is the key word nowadays...). Anyway these guys are def on the up, check em out on myspace, they even made the cover of URBs next 100. Don't Believe? Check the eclectic-ness of the tunes bellow...

Have you Ever Seen a MusicVideo like this?

Found this Video from a decent canadian band called 'Lesbians on Ecstasy'I found out about on Big Stereo.

Incredibly Amusing...

Round Table Knights Rocks the Party (& Wake up Cat is Hilarious!)

(Click on pics for links to RTK mixes and Wake up Cat)

We went to see Vitalic and the Round Table Knights yesterday in Bristol on Friday, a whole Posse of us Rollin' deep (big shouts to sketch and the monkey!knife!fight guys for the entry). It can only be described as.... bangin'!!!!
Vitalic's cool, seen him a couple times and Glastonbury and in belgium; but while he was headlining, the guys my humble (others disagreed) opinion, who really rocked the party were the Roundtable Knights. We first caught a glimpse of these guys in action at Sonar 2007. Come sunday early early morning everyone went outside to check out miss kitten. A couple of us left over from DJ Nu-mark stayed behind and were in for a treat. This boys can mix, from baltimore through to bangin electro or 80's funk, or even Oxy Cottontail, they throw it down for you to shake to. Not only that, but DJ Atomic seems to sing along to every single song (in a very jokes manner, inspiring even more rowdiness).

Unfortunatly the Party ended at 4 (licensing laws are DRY), so being unable to locate another party to rock up to we headed home; deciding to chill out by having a youtube off (ie person with the best youtube clip wins). If you hear me miaowing in the next month the reason's probably this:

How its goin' down in Paris

Well you know the french do electro their own way, starting with daft punk and lately being overrun with non stop Edbanger EletroClash blipness, but there's a new trend emerging thats apparently even cooler than baguettes: Tecktonic!

You gotta check out this video on youtube of a Kitsune single by Yelle called 'a cause des garcons' (because of boys). The dude dancing in the video is Vavan, the supposedly best dancer of the tecktonic scene in 2007. So what is tecktonic... its uprocking meets popping meets metrosexual meets Belgian jumpstyle. For french speaker's there's also a documentary on the style here. Needless to say everyone awaits with baited breath to see what happens next, does Edbanger and Kitsune embrace it? Does it fade out as quickly as it comes? Do the frenchies realise that acting metro and yet thinking mullets are cool just doesnt work? We'll let you know what happens next....

Battle of the Year

Hmmm, today it just seems to be posts about female artists so might aswell not fight the trend...

I was thinking about what the most HILARIOUS MC battle of the year would be and I came up with this:

Uffie

vs Roxy CottontailJust compare the lyrical GeniuS! of 'you just heard what I said dude/ I said your played out for being so rude' on Oxy's mind your own business to Uffies 'all the girls getting horny/ but all this shit is so corny' on her ready to uff tune and you wonder if all you need is to be cute, a bit of Sas and a decent producer to make it in the electrorap game.
To be honest though I do have to give them props for getting heard and while they will never compete with the lyrical genius of Aesop Rock, that not really what they are trying to do.
I was in New York talking to some cool girls when the subject of cheesy music came up.
On the mention of some long forgotten cheesy tune one girl turned to me and said 'yeah, but it's so much fun to listen to when your drunk'. That sums up Uffie to me, I'd never listen to her at home, but hey if Im drunk I'll throw my hands up too! As for Oxy I kinda rate some of the remixes of her tunes, her Sassyness is slightly better applied than Uff, whom was described to me the first time at sonar as 'imagine if your little 17 year old sister in highschool started rapping about glocks n stuff...exactly'

Ladies on the Decks

There just ain't enough female Dj's spinning in clubs nowadays and I ask girls why not? From Miss Kitten through to Ellen Alien, they're mad decent, yet despite most festival crowds being 50%50% if you look at the big lineups at any decent festivals, the dj's are mainly male.

D'n'B may be changing but lets face it dancefloors are def male dominated, which is why these two ladies are like a breath of fresh air. BTraits and Dj Empress are going against the UK trend, heating up dance floors on both sides of the pond. B.Traits recently dropped a sick Digital Soundboy mix on DnB arena (see her Myspace for details) which I've had on rerun for a while, sultry mix of jungle inspired groves, a perfect fit to ShyFX's style. Empress hails from the Apple and has produced some sweet tunes too, including the much acclaimed remix of Roy Ayers we live in Brooklyn (sick sick tune, check it out). Now I just gotta wait for them to come to a dancefloor near me...

Amanda aint shootin' Blanks

At least that's where my story began, and Philly aint never been lacking a music scene with everything from the fresh prince, through to the roots and Dieselboy, coming through for the city of Brotherly love at some point. But things really seem to have exploded as of late, with a couple real jems coming out of the blue, being brought out by pioneers of the scene such as Diplo and SpankRock.
'Amanda blank is straight buffness' says songkicker, and I would defnot beg to differ... With SpankRock collabs and some hot Diplo and Low-B produced tunes, Blank is defnatly on the up sporting a lyrical style, that some may call dirty, I call it attitude. Check out 'for the unloved' another brilliant Diplo production, with Blank's lyrics setting a perfect melancholy scene. 'Bump' by remix master Switch is also pretty bangin, while her releases on Bmore gutter music are undoubtably fresh.

Tools 'n Tricks of the Trade

We all know about Myspace, the only thing I really rate it for is the Musicplayer's and discovering new artists. Tables are slowly turning though and new stuff is emerging to reign supreme on the digital music and information market. Here are my two fav toys of the moment (assuming you know last.fm already):

Seeqpod: Just about the sickest new music gadget on the web, I tip my hat to these dudes. Essentially it searches the web for music files you wanna get, and allows you to line them up in a player which streams the tunes straight to your speaker. Not only is it a wicked way of hearing new tunes from your fav artist (or looking up tunes mentioned in blogs like this!) but it even allows you to save playlists, meaning you never have to download a tune again......SICK!!!!

Songkick: Musiclovers live for livemusic and these guys have created a program that scans your computer and tells you about upcoming events that could be of interest to you! You never gotta look at the listings again. They even propose similar acts you may be interested in, making it doubly usefull.