Wednesday 29 February 2012

Times Is Changin'

I'm heading towards my last few weeks in college, the workload's stepping up and it's hard to imagine that soon I might even be be heading off to an art college. Anyway, It's a pretty tense time, everything has to be done on time to the highest standard and all that jazz. So I've been looking to counter those bad vibes with - what else? a lil' audio therapy. I've been digging up some old gems from my old HDD I have sitting around for the past couple months and getting all nostalgic re-discovering some tracks I thought I had long since lost, sprinkle a couple new addition in there and you have a nice example of what sounds have been filling my airwaves in recent days, check this out. Kicking it off is a semi-rarity in my collection: a N.O.W Remix. The few I've heard are brilliant, and this one is no exception, Mr. Evelyn takes the iconic dancefloor classic and gives it his own personal twist, until the vox hit you could almost swear this was an original track, slick stuff as always.



Another obscure-ish N.O.W gem, this one's a cover of an old Cymande track that the wax man slotted in on his installment of the Late Night Tales series. It came out around the time Mind Elevation, and it's vibe is present on this tune, particularly with them drum workings and bongos. Even though it's based around one sample it's cut up and kept fresh enough to be interesting, what else would you expect from N.O.W?



Tricky's debut album was a textbook example of trip hop done well, the opening track Overcome is probably one of the best examples of the sound there is and is among my favourites from my genre. This remix included on the 2009 re-issue took me by surprise, taking the sublime original down a more subdued path that just works. I still prefer the original and it's hazy atmospherics but definitely check this one out.



And finally, a mashup I heard not too long ago. I scoffed at when I read the title, I couldn't imagine these two tracks sounding well together and I was expecting a cheap amateurish sounding 'mashup'. The track not only took my expectations and smashed them completely within the first 10 seconds, but continued to do so for eight whole minutes. You don't want to miss this one out, it's just amazingly put together.



I know it's only a small post, but small posts is better than no posts right? right! (even if I do forget to update sometimes, or get lazy) and with that in mind I'm jetting off once again, sadly not away on holiday. Witty One Liner, - Claude Van Foxbat

Tuesday 28 February 2012

Morbid Angel

Hey there

Mondkopf continues to explore and embrace the darkest places of metal and delivers a powerful remix of Morbid Angel - Radikult.



But that's not all, a good news never comes alone I guess, he also remixed a Scratch Massive track. Impressive remix, very dark, loud drums, screams... that's what Mondkopf does, and he does it with talent.



He also recently released a new EP called Ease Your Pain, my vinyl should be delivered this week, so expect a review.

You can also buy and listen to Ease Your Pain here

Let's make a big U-turn now, and listen to something more joyful, and what brings more joy into life than whipped cream ?



I was waiting a bit for the tracklist to be complete to post this little piece of awesomeness delivered by The Magician.



Magic Tape Twenty tracklist:

1. Perseus - Seychelles
2. Lancelot - Spoken Word
3. Softwar - This Time Around
4. LeSale - Make Me Feel So Good
5. Chris Malinchak - There I Was
6. The Supermen Lovers - Say No More (A.N.D.Y. remix)
7. Lauer - Trainman (Tensnake Franceman remix)
8. Classixx - Holding On
9. James Curd - Guide Me (Gigamesh remix)
10. Gucci Vump - Feeling


Enjoy!
-Here

Monday 27 February 2012

Sunshine

Just a few random tracks to brighten your day!



Brand new remix of Picture Book by Justin Faust, the kind of song that makes you wish summer was already there.



And old Ryskee remix by Fare Soldi but something that 90's eurodance feeling made my day. It sounds like 2Unlimited - Ready For This, right ?



More Fare Soldi ? Well there you go.



I'll end this with a guy you'll hear about a lot I think, French Fox. He worked on a lot of remixes for independant Canadian artists, he has a pretty good vibe so keep that name in mind.

Here is his work for Le Couleur - Origami.

Sunday 26 February 2012

Icarus

The much much anticipated track Icarus by Madeon is finally out. It's fairly great and has an amazing vibe, the kind of song that's clearly meant to be played live. Available on Beatport & iTunes

Sundance

Hey there



Some of you might have heard the Sundance track I posted on out facebook page.



We talked about these two french guys for their Revolte remix. Their influences are mainly electro, blues and rock, this explains the amazing guitar in every track.

Here are their three stronger tracks in my opinion, this Helix remix is especialy good.







They released their debut album called Red Ocean City, the idea of the album is to make you travel through an imaginary city with each song.



It is available on bancamp for free, totally worth listening to. Here's the link if you want to pick it up for yourself, and the rest of the album to preview below



Enjoy!
-Here

Thursday 23 February 2012

Total Recall

Hi there!



Let's begin with Flosstradamus who recently released a free EP.

For your information, this isn't Trap, this is Post-Apocalyptic Trap, that's how it's called, yeah. Anyway who cares about music genre's name, they change every 2 weeks, the point was that, it's really really good. UR Life is by far my favorite, but the three tracks are strong.







Thony Ritz will release his new EP Moonwalker on March 5th and it'll feature this groovy The Phantom's Revenge remix !

It's calmer than usual for a TPR remix, it doesn't have its usual vocal (over)chopping which I usually like except when it's just too much. Anyway it's a solid remix, have a listen.



Last time I posted about RESET! I believe it was for their incredibly daring, yet very well done, If I Ever Feel Better edit.

This time they remixed Bingo Players - Cry, which is a good track by the way. They made a massive banger out of a very groovy song, you'll like it.





Bonus : Pyramid's first mix. Tracklist in the comment section as usual.



Enjoy!
-Here

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Tobtok

Hi there Did you guys ever heard about Tobtok ? Well I did not until today, and that's a shame ! He released an EP called Reincarnation on Stardust Records today. If I had to actually compare his style to other artists' I'd say he's between Daft Punk (Discovery period) and Madeon, that's not too bad right? There is only one thing I don't really enjoy, it's the way the songs end, I feel like it misses something, but I guess ending a song is a pretty hard thing to do, I always felt the same way about Boys Noize, does not keep me from liking his songs. These are the two original tracks from his EP. The other tracks on the EP are remixes, from (let's be honest) guys I never heard of, except for this little guy... you might have already heard a few things from him on ilictronix. That's the song that made me curious about Tobtok, I wondered how sounded the song Magna remixed. As you can guess, it's very different from the original one, it's a Made in Magna banger! Enjoy! -Here

Saturday 18 February 2012

Past Meets Present

I was feeling a little down yesterday, but instead of my usual routine of putting some chillaxing stuff on, I went looking for something a little more... Classical. But knowing my eclectic taste it couldn't just be normal classical music, no sir. So now sit back and enjoy the wonderful sound when old and new collide.



Leading the charge is Hudson Mohawke's amazing remix he did for the GTA III 10th Anniversary trailer. I liked the original classical song, but this version just blows it out of the water by miles by hitting all of my hippity hop buttons in the best way possible. Definitely check it out, it's a properly massive tune.



Afterwards I was feeling something a little bit slower, at least for now. And that was perfectly delivered by Venetian Snares with his reworking/sampling of Billie Holiday's version of Gloomy Sunday that's got a kinda dubstep feel to it. Very nice indeed.



Of course, this being Venetian Snares, things don't stay slow for long, and soon we get something a little bit speedier that melds the technological stylings of the glitch-esque drum programming with the natural peaks and intense melodies offered by the classical. Not everyone's cup of tea perhaps, but an experience nonetheless.



Rounding us off we have something with a bit less BPM but by no means less intense, a far cry from the tech tampering Venetian Snares brought to the table. The first time I heard the amazing drop and the coming together of sounds on this track I knew it would be forever a favourite in my library. Brilliantly executed in every single way.



And relax. Now that that's all out of the way, wind down with another Apparat offering. It's mostly chilled out with a whole heap of mellow vibes, that is until about 2:30, when something magical happens. The strings go a little glitchy for just a second, and before you've registered what's going on the track takes on a whole other dimension.



And with that thought I'm signing off; enjoy the tunes, stay safe.

A Free Man,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Dub Days Part 2

On the opposite end of the dub spectrum, No Protection takes a sparser route to the style lacking the reggae flavour present on the last offering from the Spacemonkeyz, it's perhaps a little less accessible, what with the tracks taking a long time to build up and that, but give it a chance and you'll see it's still quality. Get ready for some tracks after the properly amazing album art!



The opener is probably my favourite track from this entire album. The track it remixes, Protection, has one of the best intros I've ever heard, and the remix takes that, adds some reverb, drops some massive bass and garnishes with some cut up snippets from the vocals of the original. Pretty amazing stuff.



I'll admit that some of the remixes take a while to get going, but not this one. Despite being the shortest here (not much longer than the original track, Three) it's still nicely structured; following the outline laid down by the opening track, with some psuedo-breakdowns thrown into the mix to keep stuff fresh.



Another remix of a favourite of mine from Protection, I was skeptical of whether it could live up to the standard set by the original Weather Storm. Not only did it do that, but it managed to give the entire thing a whole new atmosphere in line with it's new title. Some stellar chillout stuff.





The opening of the Sly remix sounds to me like a darker version of Nightmares On Wax's Les Nuits, but that soon changes and we're treated to the usual Dubbing formula, with the orchestral elements do swell back into the foreground from time to time. It gets interesting during the last quarter or so, I especially like the bits at 4:13 & 4:34 and wish they stuck around longer.



Playing us out is another short one: I Spy. Surprisingly, unlike all the other remixes of tracks with vocals in, the Mad Professor does not lend his chopped and reverb-ed technique to Horace Andy's voice from the original Spying Glass. It's a shame, I'd like to hear what Horace would sound like given that treatment. Regardless it's a fine track, and if anything feels just a bit too short.



And that's all folks, I'd like to have posted some more, but the LP's only 8 tracks long. I like the Professor's remixes, they're an interesting take on Massive Attack's distinct sound, though I feel the album kinda peaks too early by having arguably the best reworking first, but I guess it was inevitable as it follows the track layout of Protection.

Way Down Bristol,
-Claude Van Foxbat

I like those HTML5 players

Hi there



Onra's back with one of his funkiest track, if you haven't checked out his latest album Chinoiseries part 2 it's rather great. Something a bit groovier ? How about some Daedelus? The chillest panda around here, Gold Panda, gives us this remix for Luke Abbott, brilliant! Already posted it on facebook but you'll like this! Brodinski is on fire these days! I'm always surprised with Diplo's stuff, he knows how to do about anything, doesn't he? At least he knows how to make love jam. -Here

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Valentine's day music

Hey, seems like it's that day again. Let's start very smoothly with Hudson Mohawke and his annual valentine's day mix



Mehdi's oldschool "Love at 145BPM" mix... ∞ ♥ M



Bonus ? Two brand new remixes.

Jean Tonique is always around, making amazing disco house remixes, this time it's for The Kooks. This would make anyone dance...



Finally, another great remix for Childish Gambino's Heartbeat, this one is from Justin Faust, I wasn't sure about it at first, but it works.



Happy Valentine's Day!
-Here

Saturday 11 February 2012

Second post of the weekend

I did not want to post too much tunes yesterday, but here are more!



Very disco remix of Shake Aletti by Mighty Mouse



I love Original Don, after Flosstradamus, it's KID KAIO's time to remix it.



Brodinski, yeah, him again, remixed Gesaffelstein's Viol



Let's end with Geisha Twins who decided to make their new EP a free download, so grab and enjoy that nice disco house delight! [Update - their soundcloud no longer exists and I have no idea what EP Here was talking about, so this link is broken. Sorry! -CVF]

-Here

Friday 10 February 2012

A bit of everything

Hey

As the title says, I'll just post a bit of everything, tunes I've heard lately and liked.

I'll start with my guilty pleasure, Lana Del Rey remixed by Gucci Vump (half of The Shoes + Brodinski)



Something else by those two talented guys because that remix is brilliant.





A crazy moombahton remix by Dillon Francis.



This has been playing non stop for the last two weeks, so there you go, Myd's awesome remix on Krazy Baldhead's new EP.



The Whip - Movement remixed by In Flagranti !





And how about some french releases from Marble ?!

This EP might sound a bit weird from times to times, well, that's Das Glow.



And I'll wrap this up with a remix by our mates from TEAM BANZAI. A little surprising but not bad, not bad at all !



-Here

Dub Days Part 1

I have two quite similar remix albums in my possession, similar in that they're both dub reworkings of entire albums. After hanging on and hanging on for a while, I've finally decided it's time to show 'em off!

It was really hard to find a hi-res large pic of this one


It starts off predictably enough, there's plenty of organs and trumpets and what have you present in the intro track, a slow paced re-working of the original track, 19-2000. It nicely ushers in the dub/reggae infusion that forms the basis of the album and it's sound.



It wastes no time hitting a high note though, this re-dubbing of Slow Country is an early highlight due in part to the verses laid down by U Brown over that hazy, suitably reggae-fied version of the original's backing track. It could almost pass for an original track by itself.



The LP hits two in a row for me, with this amazing rendition of Tomorrow Comes Today. there's not a single part I don't like, from the sparse intro right down to the final fade, it's a favourite of mine that I could listen to pretty much all day.





By far the most extreme transformation on the album, the fast paced vocals and punch of Punk gets well, De-Punked. It's a lot more subdued sound wise than most of what we've heard before, relying a whole lot on the organs and beats with only the occasional parp of horns in between. Stay tuned for the Nightmares On Wax-esque 'bonus track' during the last 30 seconds or so.



A more upbeat turn now, this remix of Re-Hash is pretty much the opposite of De-Punked. It's probably the best demonstration track here if you're trying to show someone what the album's all about and what it sounds like. While it's pretty good by itself, it's nothing special until after the breakdown at 2:15, then it's home to some of the best parts of the entire LP.





Ah, Clint Eastwood, by far one of the most famous Gorillaz tracks there is. And here it gets completely broken down and re-arranged until it's hard to pinpoint elements of the original other than 2D's vocals and the iconic bit of Melodica. It's a damn good track, especially with that charmingly inspired title.



Which leads us to the 'final' track. The remix of M1 A1 is my absoulute favourite from the entire album, it just takes everything I loved about the previous tracks and mashes it together to end on a massive feel good bang. 'Nuff said.



I would post the bonus track as well, but I feel like I'm pushing it with how many tunes I've posted already so I'm callin' it quits. Be sure to check the album out if you dig it, I just had a look myself and it's nowhere near as rare as I thought it'd be, so go out and nab yourself a copy!

Way Down Kingston,
- Claude Van Foxbat

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Roadgame

Hello there

You know I'm not really into the whole "1 track per post" thing but THIS deserves a post on its own. It's the track Kavinsky released for the release of Drive's Bluray/DVD (Brilliant movie btw, watch it).

I honestly can't wait for his album, if all the tracks are that good, it's going to be one of the 2012's big LP.



-Here

Monday 6 February 2012

The Name & Carbon Kevlar

Hi guys



Some of you might know the french show Bref, which is seriously good so if you understand french, check it out.

Why am I talking about a TV show you might ask ? Because it sometimes features pretty neat songs.

Recently, a song by The Name, so I gave their new song and latest EP a listen, and so should you !





You can also listen to their previous EP on their soundcloud.

And they often refer to Carbon Kevlar, which I thought was a fictional DJ, but actually isn't haha. He makes some good old bangers, quite nice and entertaining.







Hope you enjoyed !
-Here

Friday 3 February 2012

A Very Warped History 14: 2006 (4 Of 4)

    Previous Part                                                                                                       Next Part   


Rounding off what has been the biggest entry in the Warped series so far, we have Clark. I picked this LP up on a whim after listening to it a while ago, and since then I've come to love Chris Clark's unique take on the world of experimental electronic. Clark is probably one of Warp's less popular acts, so have a seat and enjoy!



I love that album art to bits. Anyway, The opener pretty much outlines Clark's style; an equal mix of rattling beats and spatterings of twinkling synths in the background. It's not gonna blow you away, but that's not the point. At least, not yet anyway.



Frau Wav is where things get intersting, the usual formula you heard previously is still followed, but with some violin action thrown in for good measure. It's like some tracks on Apparat's Walls or even a slower paced imagining of Venetian Snares' Rossz Csillag Alatt Született



The strings don't last long however and we're soon back in synthesizer territory. This LP has some great sounds on it, and this is a prime example as the synth line gets chewed up and spit out over and over again, becoming a distorted shadow of itself around the halfway point. And it's great.



I've posted this one before, but it more than deserves putting up again. Ted is short but very, very good, it's the tune I'd use if I were trying to sell someone on this album. The drops in this one get pretty intense, especially if you're a headphone user.





Speaking of intense, Vengeance Drools has you pretty much covered on that front. I like to think of it as a claustraphobic strain of hip & trip hop, cos this one's all about the beats that hit hard and pretty much never let up. especially so during the properly mental breakdown starting around 1:50.



The trend continues with Matthew Unburdened, which also sees the return of the strings we heard earlier. They start off fairly quiet, mingling with the synths slightly, until they slowly come to the foreground of sounds. I hadn't even noticed that before, which goes to show you how smoothly Body Riddle handles trasitions.



A brief respite, this time with something that reminds me just a little of Aphex's Logan Rock Witch from the Richard D. James Album. I wasn't a massive fan of this one at first, but grew to like it the more it came up, it makes a nice change from the usual makeup of tracks we've heard so far.



The Autumnal Crush will always have a special place in my playlists as up until this point I was digging the album, but nothing really knocked my socks off. Then this track started. I could tell it was gonna be pretty sweet from the intro, and then that drop completley blindsided me. And before I had a chance to recover, it dropped AGAIN. It was then that I was sold on this LP, and I recommend you check this out.



And that is that. We're coming up to the final few Warped posts now, I'll be sad to see them go eventually; they've been a constant source for posting for a year and a bit now. But enough sentimentals, enjoy the tunes and I'll be back soonish with more!

Riddle Me This,
-Claude Van Foxbat