both those tracks are off the new hyperdub compilation five years of hyperdub. sweet stuff. in other dubstep news, PEVERELIST will be releasing his upcoming album, jarvik mindstate next month. keep an eye on this guy, shit'll be nuts.
if you haven't already heard the xx' remix of you've got the love, check this out. its definitely out there at this point (rcrd lbl, pitchfork etc.,) but if you have yet to experience this kickass track, here it is. HOT SHIT.
by the way, if you didn't grab andy butler's sidetracked I HIGHLY recommend it. its a modern iteration of 90s house at its best, combined with old school disco and the general badassness of h&la.
cool people // fun stuff will be back on schedule soon. keep dancing till then
hello friends, so sorry about the unannounced break-- things have been a bit hectic. soon, cool people // fun stuff will also become the online home of our radio show FRESH FROOTZ. we'll be posting recordings of the show here, so look out for that within the next few weeks.
if you have yet to experience florence + the machine, I highly reccommend that you pick up the album, lungs. florence's style quite literally epic, and fairly cinematic. she draws heavily on orchestral instruments, which creates a really interesting dynamic in terms of the emotiveness and intensity of the music.
apparently she pounded on the walls to contribute to the percussion on between two lungs-- pretty damn badass. but even more badass is the BOY 8-BIT remix of FOTM's drumming song, which honestly blew my mind the first time I heard it. the track is fairly ominous, and almost scary at parts, but overall fresh as hell.
the continual building up/ breaking down throughout the song, in addition to the timing of the percussion is very successful and seals the deal for this tune as a dance jam. this approach seems to be the new direction in which electronic music is going. It's much more techno-based, as opposed to pop-oriented electronic music which has been most influential in the recent past, as well as the technique of building up to a moment which brings a significant change to a song.
that very same approach in boy 8-bit's remix (a constant crescendo followed by decrescendo) is present in deadmau5's remix of calvin harris' as well as the boyz noize remix of sebastian tellier's l'amour et la violence. both are fantastic.
PASSION PIT has been doing some remixing work lately, again using that same new techno-ish style. their remix of yeah yeah yeahs' heads will roll has that scary element to it as well, but is a definite jam.
despite the growing popularity of overly-colorful and borderline tacky sneakers, the soon-to be released mita x asics collab on the gel lyte is BEAUTIFUL. it manages to pull off being a multicolored shoe, mainly because of the de-emphasis of the bright colors-- they serve as accents on the entire shoe, which is mostly tan. good luck finding these at any US shoe retailer, i'm almost positive they're only being released internationally.
a friend of mine showed me this AMAZING cover of beyonce's crazy in love by antony and the johnsons.
the official video was just released a few days ago-- take your pick:
despite this year's lackluster headliners, LOLLAPALOOZA really was three days of awesome. both fleet foxes and bon iver put on great shows on friday. A-TRAK, SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO, AND CROOKERS all spun that night, obviously making for a crazy dance party. the MAJOR LAZER, SMD, CROOKERS, and LA RIOTS aftershow at congress theatre was nuts-- a hype dude for major lazer spent quite a while feigning sex with raunchy caribbean girls and pouring alcohol into people's mouths in the audience (including mine). fantastic sets on all parts, though.
saturday began with a set from KASKADE, who had a pair of scantily-clad dancers/cheerleaders attempting to hype up the crowd. he was followed by avey tare and geologist of ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, who were fairly awful. their set consisted of music that heavily influences their work, which wasn't bad, just inappropriate for a festival setting. not to mention the infinite number of tools pretending to enjoy it just because it was animal collective. ANDY BUTLER put on a mind-blowing DJ set after perry farrell's cracked out performance with his terrifying wife. from what i saw, LA RIOTS was pretty good, but shortly after they started i headed over to the vitaminwater stage for the animal collective show, which I also left almost immediately. YEAH YEAH YEAHS headlined, which was fantastic-- karen o was sporting a pretty fantastic outfit-- or outfits, i should say, and put on quite a show.
sunday was a busy day. we began by catching a bit of a glitch mob, which was shitty, and only for the purpose of seeing BOYS NOIZE, who pretty much started a riot at perry's. this was followed by SNOOP DOGG, and a bit of MSTRKRFT, and a deadmau5 headlining show.
BLACKSPOT shoes are the the new, anti-brand/corporation sneaker. they're 100% hemp and vegetarian--I definitely like the concept, but the design isn't quite enough to make me want to run out and buy these. even though its more about the idea as opposed to the design, they could definitely do a little more with it. if they're your style, you can check them out at the adbusters website.
so the summer is coming to an end-- for me, at least. but that doesn't seem to be putting a stop to the amount of awesomeness that began two months ago! I spent last week on a number of san diego beaches consuming unhealthy amounts of liquor, (among other things) and grooving to the following tunes:
the first track is a jam, hands down. calvin harris has really been doing it for me lately. he does a really cool harmonizing/round type thing with the synths in this one. second is kind of a quiet, darker song from dubstep artist synkro-- it samples closer by r&b artist ne-yo. kind of a unique spin on a fairly popular track. last is a tilly and the wall remix-- those girls are so cute. i was pleasantly surprised by this one.
so lately i've been pretty disappointed by amanda blank's work-- it just doesn't live up to those old standards. when heard that rusko was remixing might like you better, i got my hopes up, but yet again, a little too high. the track is solid, but it's no bionic commando.
everyone knows that KATIE SKETCH, former frontwoman of (now defunct) toronto-based band THE ORGAN is amazing. and seriously skilled at a number of things-- in addition to her success as a musician and model for MARC JACOBS, the canadian renaissance woman has taken up a new venture-- opening a bar with ex-bandmate, jenny smith. and god dammit, she's good at it. sadly enough, i think that at this point it's evident that sketch's supposed side project for the past oh i dunno two plus years is on hiatus indefinitely. especially after that AMAZING glimpse we were given in 2007 from one of their few (only?) performance(s).
all i have to say is DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!
ifyou'refeelingasdepressedandnostalgicasiam,maybeafewofmyfavoriteorgansongswillcheeryouuporsomething. if that doesn't work, you can always eat chocolate.
STEVE NALEPA is so-cal based electronic musician who's been working with solid artists in the world of electronic music for some time now. he'll most definitely be making a name for himself in the near future. and his recently released EP sunflowers is going to help guarantee that. unfortunately for nalepa, the remixes on the EP put the original track to shame in a big way. i've been cranking these remixes nonstop lately, and one of the things i love best about them is how incredibly different each one is. and by different i mean it's pretty much impossible to deduce that they stem from the same song. I was so pleasantly surprised by that i didn't even mind the one remix that was kinda bullshit. if you're into it, i recommend listening to these tracks in a lifted state.
so i just can't seem to stop raving about machine drum. I caught this track he worked on with glitch/dubstep DJ cacheflowe, who has also worked with some serious electronic giants. this is from his 2008 release cache, stacks, and queues.
august is approaching, and with it comes some serious excitement for me. I'll be traveling all over the east coast, and hopefully catching some cool happenings which will all be documented narratively and photographically. i've also got some exciting announcements to make as we gear up for the fall.
I really love burial. I also really love four tet. so you can imagine how excited i was when BURIAL and FOUR TET released their wolf cub/moth 12"-- basically i pooped in my pants while the tears of joy streamed down my face. after listening to it, i was definitely not let down by either parties. you'll find yourself noticing who did what in each track, which really sets wolf cub/moth apart from any other 12" collab. then again, what do you expect from fucking burial and four tet? not only do they fit totally unique sounds together in unthinkable ways, but the two artists manage to work around the other's style so that both are heard and recognized. the end result is a single mind-blowing track. or tracks in this case, cause there's two.
you'll be hard pressed to find this on sale through text or any other retailer for that matter. if you're lookin to buy, i'd suggest ebay. no previews for this one, but a little present if you click on the image of the album artwork. happy hunting, vinyl-heads.
KID SISTER's got a new track that i'm definitely digging on. it's called right hand hi, and its gonna be on her upcoming album ULTRAVIOLET-- i don't know whether or not she worked on this with a new producer or something on, but it definitely breaks new ground for her. in other words, i'm so down.
CALVIN HARRIS' recently- released single ready for the weekend from his upcoming album with the same title definitely got me amped for the shenanigans that were afoot these past two days. the original is good, and the remixes are GRRRRRREAT! the vocals on ready for the weekend are reminiscent of 90s house music-- resonating sort of black woman power ballad, chaka khan-esque, crystal waters type stuff. you can't not love it.
A-TRAK & ARMAND VAN HELDEN have banded to form an exciting new duo called DUCK SAUCE. they're getting a ton of hype right now, and with good reason. i foresee much more from these two in the near future, so keep your eye on them. that first track has similar vocals to that harris tune. you're nasty is fairly hilarious. both are a little overwhelming, but this could honestly go anywhere from here.
