An Overdue Return.

So the WoW account is canceled, and as we near the end of another summer I emerge from my proverbial womb. I actually have a few songs I’d love to share with you all. Sweet sexy fun.

Electric Feel (Justice Remix) – MGMT
(zshare)

Ambient Room (Symbol One Remix) – DVAS
(zshare)

DFA. NYC….MOMA?

So some of the musical masterminds over at DFA apparently attempted to make the MOMA boogie. I’m not too sure of what actually went down, but from the mix recordings over here it had to have been great. Despite being at the MOMA.

Thankfully it seems like Pat Mahoney and James Murphy are going to be throwing it down regularly for once, as soon as they make it back from Europe that is. As posted by Murphy on the DFA board they will be hosting “Special Disco Version” nights semi-regularly at 100 Lafayette.

Added Bonus:

Hold On – HOLY GHOST!
(zshare)

Errybody Disgoo!

Ahhh disco. The most superficial, least heterosexual, least ‘meaningful’ genre of music to every be put to record. But how can you deny the groove?!? You can’t. Disco was where it all began, the remix, the syncopated bass lines and the unruly, almighty, 4 to the floor beat. Like it or not modern dance music owes almost everything it is to disco in one form or the other, whether its Italo, Hi-NRG, Space Disco or Laser Boogie. I, being from America(who if you’ve forgotten killed disco) sometimes have trouble getting people to understand my love of disco. It usually ends with people concluding I listen to ‘gay’ music, which is sometimes hard to argue against. But I also never fail to give them an example of disco music which they can’t appreciate. Today I have some solid tracks which are not necessarily disco themselves, as much as modern takes on the style.

First up is a grandiose remix of Ashford & Simpson(via Solid Goldberger).

Bourgie Bourgie (Joe Claussell’s Classic Remix) – Ashford and Simpson
(zshare)

Next is a sublime edit of the Chic classic I Want Your Love(via 20 Jazz Funk Greats).

I Want Your Love (Todd Terje edit) – Chic
(zshare)

And finally for something a little different, a 17 year old from England who goes by Louis La Roche is bringing that good old French Touch back with a vengeance. Essentially glorified, bassed up disco and soul edits these tracks are some of the funkiest I’ve heard since DJ Falcon disappeared. Enjoy the entirety of the Peach EP (via DiscoDust.)

The Peach EP – Louis La Roche
(sharebee)

Space Is The Place

It’s no small secret that electronic musicians have a very special place in their hearts for the music of the 80’s. For good reason too, the decade saw the first widespread use of synthesizers and drum machines in popular music as well as an intense infatuation with all things ‘futuristic.’ Today the most lasting influences tend to be the likes of Micheal Jackson (read: Quincy Jones) and British New Wave artists. But one often over looked musical aesthetic of the 80’s has been French Synth Wave. In the early 80’s a number of influences impressed themselves upon French pop musicians. The electronic experiments of pioneers such as Jean Jacques Perrey and Jean Michel Jarre, as well as the popularity of the new fangled dance music Italo-Disco, resulted in a new breed of French pop. Obsessed with space, and often mistaken for the faster, more dance oriented Space Disco, French Synth Wave was a sublime combination of thick arpeggios, spaced out pads and trebly 80’s drum machines.

Today on the west cost of France there is a re-birth of this lost music. The Valerie collective is a group of electronic musicians who literally seem to be trying to make music for aliens. Their early efforts found a huge audience in the 80’s obsessed blog-0-sphere, and have even begun to create imitators. Their own blog, linked above, is a verifiable treasure trove of old school electronic tracks and modern efforts to recreate that same feeling of drifting through space on a laser. Members of the Valerie collective include, College, Anoorak, The Outrunners, Maethelvin and Minitel Rose. Other artists associated with Valerie are Russ Chimes and Stephen Falken, and the new kids on the block include Parallels, Altair Nouveau, DaroC, 7he Myriads, and Adeyhawke.

Fred Falke and Lifelike’s most recent remixes show a good deal of influence from the Valerie aesthetic, prompting me to try and integrate some of there tricks into my toolkit. The nice thing about the style is that with a decent analog synth plug-in, and a good phasor the synths are pretty easy to replicate. The harder part is the drums. For this I wound up scouring the internet for samples of old Yamaha drum machines. What I found was the largest collection of drum machine samples I’ve ever seen, all for free. Feel the joy. The Yamaha RX-5 is especially good, with wet samples put through a nice variety of reverbs.

Now here’s some treats, from my bedroom to yours.

Teenage Color (Russ Chimes Remix) – College
(zshare)

Nightdrive With You – Anoorak
(zshare)

Hypnotic – DaroC
(zshare)

Shadow of the Wind – Stephen Falken
(zshare)

Skyscraped – Adeyhawke
(zshare)

Pumpin’ With Sidechain Compressors

So a buddy of mine sent me a link to this video of Steve Angello making a track from scratch. Besides being shamed by the quality of his bass drums I picked up on his use of sidechain compressor on the bass. The end result is one I’ve heard time and time again on house tracks but never knew exactly how it was done. Basically the idea is to feed the bass drum into the compressor which is processing the bass line, and then the added gain winds up causing the compressor to squeeze the hell out of the bass line as the bass drum hits and then loosens up as the bass drum decays. You gotta play with the attack and release to get it right but it pays off with a tight pumping bass drum and bass line combination. It just makes the bass elements fit together seamlessly and keeps the low end clean. Live 7 has a new 64 bit sidechain compressor built in so if you got it give it a shot! For everyone else you can pick up a free VST here. Happy pumpin’!

Ed. Rec. Vol. III

It has arrived. Full download of the entire album. Here. Ive heard mixed reviews, probably due to the ubiquity of Ed Bang in the bL0GzZz. The kidz love ‘em and the bloggin’ “veterans” have had it up to ‘here.’ If you fall into the former category buy the 12″ or a bunch of T-shirts or something. You’re getting free music and sometimes even Uffie needs to eat, or you know buy an 8 ball a day.

Fred Falke + Lykke Li

I don’t get it. The entire blog-0-sphere is throwing a never ending party over the recent Lifelike remixes. I think it’s Hipster Runoff’s fault. What I do know is that I’ve been in conniptions for months over Fred Falke’s new remixes. Just love those understated dreamy synths and funked up bass lines. And I just got my grubby little paws on a new one! This mix of I’m Good, I’m Gone ain’t quite Golden Cage territory but it certainly doesn’t disappoint!

I’m Good, I’m Gone (Fred Falke Remix) – Lykke Li
(zshare)

T. Pain Gets Robots to Sing For Him.

It seems like these crazy robot voices are popping up all over the place in popular hip-hop and R&B these days. Between T. Pain, Akon, Chris Brown and even Snoop Dogg theres been lots of fake singing going on. But how are they doing? I hear a lot of people discussing talk boxes and vocoders. According to Wikipedia it’s an Auto-tuner, something like the TC-Helicon. So despite what it looks like in Snoops Sensual Seduction video (pictured above) no one is playing the notes like a vocoder or a talk box. In fact the more “digital” the singing sounds, the more the Auto-Tuner has to correct, so to get it real good and robotic you should sing really badly.

Now for some goodies.

First up, an everyday interaction between Akon and T. Pain.

And T. Pain actually has a sense of humor! Who would’ve thought…

Some awesome talk box action from the great Stevie Wonder

And finally some stirring examples of Auto-tuners in action.

Kiss Kiss (Eli Escobar and Doug Grayson Remix) – Chris Brown Feat. T. Pain
(zshare)

Good Life – Kanye West Feat. T. Pain
(zshare)

Sensual Seduction – Snoop Dogg
(zshare)

Now get some love in the club!

Boom Bass

I love bass. I’ve heard others do too. So I thought for a good first post I’d throw up some of the best bass lines I’ve heard recently. I hope you enjoy them. If you like these be sure to check out Frankie and Fred’s other remixes, as they regularly bring the funk.

Blind (Frankie Knuckles Remix) – Hercules & Love Affair
(zshare)

Colours (Fred Falke Remix) – Hot Chip
(zshare)

For the added pleasure of computer musicians everywhere, specifically those who enjoy making chest rupturing bass lines I point you towards the completely free, full featured, cross platform, TAL Bassline, a Roland SH-101 emulation.