Sep 8, 2010
Play For Today: ComDot– She Likes
SIS EXCLUSIVE! posted by Veronica Murtagh at 9:00 am
Each morning one of us shares a track that you need to hear. Today, Veronica takes the reins. This is Play For Today.
ComDot landed in my inbox, promoting his freshly released (and free) EP, Pushn Dope. The North Carolina native has spent time in Indiana and Mississippi, and his flow is a smooth amalgamation of Southern hospitality, Midwestern approachability and classic backpack rap stylings.
The EP collects intellectual rhymes, storytelling statements on street life and what is ComDot’s best exploration; swinging, upbeat jams. Both “She Likes” and “Name Drops” fit this bill, end of summer cuts that showcase ComDot’s production savvy and affable flow.
Pushn Dope is available for download via SoundCloud, and is well worth a listen in full.
http://www.strangersinstereo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ComDot-SheLikes.mp3
Sep 7, 2010
FoundCloud: Smoke Machine,Galapaghost, Fuji Kureta
SIS EXCLUSIVE! posted by Veronica Murtagh at 1:30 pm
At its height, MySpace was a valuable resource for the discovery of emerging artists. With its former prominence waning, SoundCloud has arrived a powerful tool for musicians and hotbed of talent ripe for discovery. Each week we’ll showcase three artists we’ve recently found on SoundCloud.
Smoke MachineNormally I wouldn’t profile an artist in this feature whose SoundCloud contains just a single track, but in the case of Smoke Machine, I love that single track so much that I can’t help myself this week. Smoke Machine completely transforms a track by Brooklyn’s Destronauts titled “Flight of the Dead Grizzly”. The light electronics of the original are reworked into a speaker-filling, big room watery dub. At under three minutes, it is not lengthy, but this version seems to expand forever in a mix of thick bass, multiple driving beat lines and the rolling Spanish words of a sexy female voice.
Flight Of The Dead Grizzly (Smoke Machine Dub) by smoke machine
GalapaghostThere’s an immediate specialness in the voice of Casey Chandler who hails from Austin, TX and records as Galapaghost. His indie folk sound projects a confident voice, and speaks to an equal gift for songwriting and instrumentation. Standing out is a use of multiple vocal ranges through which Chandler mimics the participation of several contributing vocalists. His reference points range from country, to ’60s folk pop, to modern rock and “Smile” falls into the latter category, a wonderful, inspired modern folk rock cut. I suspect Casey Chandler won’t remain unsigned for long.
Smile by Galapaghost
Fuji KuretaIstanbul boy-girl duo Fuji Kureta remind me how much I loved the Kindercore and Emperor Norton labels. We all did. The mid-to-late ’90s on through the early part of last decade was a key time in the development of the indie pop and electropop sounds so widely utilized right now in music. Combining live instrumentation and synthetic elements, Fuji Kureta’s sometimes twee, sometimes avant pop sounds bring to mind Stereolab’s past and Blonde Redhead’s present. A pleasant-sounding artistic pet project worth its weight in nostalgia alone.
Keep us in the loop
Sep 7, 2010
Play For Today: Gold Panda– Snow & Taxis
SIS EXCLUSIVE! posted by Will Hines at 9:00 am
Each morning one of us shares a track that you need to hear. Today, Will takes the reins. This is Play For Today.
Gold Panda stood to attention with “You”. The subsequent EP, remixes and live performances confirmed that Derwin would be a big player in 2010, and whilst things since then have stayed relatively low key, October will see the release of his debut album.
“Snow & Taxis”, the first single off debut LP Lucky Shiner (tracklist below, artwork above), picks up where he left off. Beautiful bells chime over syncopated samples, layers upon layers build to engage sonic overload in the same fashion as “You”, but with a different outcome; my estimation is that Lucky Shiner will infiltrate and ultimately perform some sort of synaptic spring cleaning. Out October 12 on Ghostly.
Tracklist:
You
Vanilla Minus
Parents
Same Dream China
Snow & Taxis
Before We Talked
Marriage
I’m With You But I’m Lonely
After We Talked
India Lately
You
Sep 6, 2010
You Slept On This: Pacewon& Mr. Green, Menomena, Eyedea& Abilities
SIS EXCLUSIVE! posted by Adam Itkoff at 3:30 pm
Music moves at a frenzied pace. Blink and you’ll miss a great album, track or remix passing you by. Each week we bring you a collection of sounds that you might have slept on.
Pacewon & Mr. Green – Children SingPacewon & Mr. Green are mad scientists, but they don’t wear lab coats, and instead are armed with skateboards and baggy clothing. Oh, that doesn’t sound like something unique to hip-hop? How about chopping up a Hebrew poem (“a woman of valor” or “eshet chayil”) and then spitting about hijacking cars and getting laid over it? The song “Children Sing” is an absolute smash, and most importantly, something the rabbi can bounce to.
http://www.strangersinstereo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/02-Children-Sing.mp3
Menomena – Wet and RustingI don’t give a shit if spell check doesn’t think Menomena is a word. Urban Dictionary clearly states that Menomena has multiple meanings: 1. the sound a muppet makes 2. good band. After Menomena’s album Mines dropped in July, I got back into some of their older work, specifically the song “Wet and Rusting” off their 2007 album, Friend and Foe. Layered with an arsenal of sounds and beautifully depressing lyrics, this song illustrates the true depth of the word Menomena.
http://www.strangersinstereo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/03-Wet-And-Rusting.mp3
Eyedea & Abilities – Exhausted Love
If you have ever been discontent with “the system” or have felt like “the man” is getting you down, you are not alone. Sometimes you just have to rage against the machine and let it all out. That’s exactly what infamous underground rapper Eyedea does on this track, giving us all an earful to listen to on the way to our cubicles.
Damn, what’s wrong with my generation?
We was the cream of the crop but it seems we’ve been robbed
That’s what happens when you trade in all your dreams for a job
and every day it gets less and less exciting
I would make a difference but I’m busy faking this instead of trying
Change my shift from now to never and I’ll pretend I’m fine
Why am I stuck at the shitty end of the assembly line?
I guess I’m built to be intoxicated with hope
Sometimes it’s a journey, most the time it’s just a bad joke
http://www.strangersinstereo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/04-Exhausted-Love.mp3
Sep 6, 2010
Review: Hurts –Happiness
SIS EXCLUSIVE! posted by Will Hines at 1:00 pm
Hurts – Happiness | RCA | Grade: B+
It’s still not quite clear how Hurts made the glorious transition from a pretentious independence to the big time. Their recent showing of 21 in the UK charts with “Wonderful Life” might even argue that they still haven’t made that move. There is, however, something gloriously big budget about their approach to music, which overshadows an agenda that is, at its core, throwback and simplistic. There is also the hype.
Perhaps it is their obsession with eking out every ounce of dramatic impact which has contributed to their contradictory billing as a “big” band, who perform on GMTV without shame but also hand out hymn sheets at their live shows and seem afraid of the light. As for the music, Happiness vouches for pop more than you might have guessed, but does so with an occasional sense of intricacy which is largely missing from modern mainstream music. However cool they appear, Hurts are actually attempting to revive a hopelessly uncool genre of music, and they come desperately close.
Their ’80s revival will surely polarise opinion. Just as their brand is dominated by monochromatic gestures, there is no neutrality when it comes to this band; you are black, or you are white. The album’s demeanor is similarly split into two distinct parcels. The steam punk opener of “Silver Lining” is ominous and thrilling: “Now there’s no way back from the things you’ve done/I know it’s too late to stop the setting sun/You see the shadows in the distant light/And it’s never going to be alright”.
Flipping the coin, the album’s content focuses on romantic gestures. These often indulge in all out cheese, “Sunday” the most pertinent example of a tendency to walk in Take That’s well-worn shoes. The album closes with “Unspoken” and “Water”, two terribly lightweight ballads with curiously shallow lyrical content. The old romantic facade is shattered: ”But it’s the same old situation/We made it through this far/We watched the rockets kiss the sky/I saw the flames burn out in your eyes”.
Shallow and unconvincing, these moments chip away at their carefully crafted image of dour focus and dark intensity. However, a little digging proves that there has always been this unconvincing aspect of their presentation. Hurts have swept their past under the carpet. At 16, “DJ Theo” had a career set out in front of him, yet he threw that away for Bureau, and subsequently, Daggers. The biggest change was to come, and Hurts moved away from those days of singing about scallies and nihilistic girls, to where we are now.
Their brand is a premeditated decision, but fortunately isn’t fully a case of style over substance. Their early videos were beautifully simplistic, but the once over of “Wonderful Life” trades in mood for big budget dancers and complex camera work. It seems at the centre of it all there are two approaches; the band with nothing who live by a simplistic coda, and the group who seem to have walked into a bid for chart appreciation.
At the core of the album are three diverse singles, and one potential. ”Better Than Love” is a classic new wave anthem, coupling pounding bass with strange metronomic synth lines and aggro vocals. Most importantly, it is distinctly British, a welcome change in a chart dominated by Americanisms and commercial sheen. In what will surely be the next single, “Devotion” opens to wheezing accordion and provides the album’s star cameo in Kylie Minogue. Her connections with Biff Stannard (the owner of Biffco, whom Hurts are signed to) made this strange but ultimately thrilling meeting of worlds possible.
Across the album, Hutchcraft provides a natural feline focus, yet it is Anderson who keeps the album afloat through consistently original production values. Whilst the riffs cropping up could have been taken from any electronic stadium band of the early 1980’s, there is a lot more to this than nostalgia. What many construe as a throwback to the days of yore is more a doff of the cap to timeless songwriting.
Happiness is a lean album, and as a result places Hurts in the corner. Occasionally thrilling, and often dissappointing, it strikes an unusual balance, but also points to a short shelf life. And as much as this album is enjoyable, let’s hope they respect that.
Sep 6, 2010
Play For Today: Flight– Turns To Blood
SIS EXCLUSIVE! posted by Veronica Murtagh at 9:00 am
Each morning one of us shares a track that you need to hear. Today, Veronica takes the reins. This is Play For Today.
I didn’t realize until I sat down to write a few words on Mississippi act Flight, just how much press they’ve received via their small catalog of short-format, usually limited run releases. And, it’s all deserved.
Flight’s compositions are oil slicks in a grimy back alley on the wrong side of town, heavy with percussion and thick guitar, vocal hooks caged under the noise. “Turns To Blood” off the upcoming Lead Riders EP combines garage distortion with an industrial beat, an oddly danceable track that projects a truly unique sound.
http://www.strangersinstereo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/01-Turns-To-Blood.mp3
Sep 3, 2010
Music In Media: Grand LakeCovers The Adventures Of Pete& Pete Theme Song
SIS EXCLUSIVE! posted by Amanda Krieg at 3:15 pm
Ever left a movie wondering what that great song was? Each week Music In Media will spotlight tunes and explore collaborations between music and the Arts.
I know, I know. This isn’t a new song and was not featured in any form of media released this week. But, when I caught a tweet posted by the friendly folks at Terrorbird Media about a cover of “Hey Sandy”, the theme song to former Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete, I knew the news must be spread far and wide.
On the air between 1993 and 1996, for most people I know between the ages of 24-27, Pete & Pete was a show that defined their youth. Everyone wished they were as badass as Little Pete (Danny Tamberelli), and wanted to have an older brother like Big Pete (Michael C. Maronna). It was dry, smart, funny, had plenty of heart and most of all–didn’t pander to us kids. Every zany adventure was treated with the utmost sincerity. I don’t think any of us realized just how cool that show was though, until years after it had ended.
It wasn’t too long ago when a few friends and I came across DVDs of the show and treated ourselves to a mini marathon. Not only did it still resonate and make us laugh, but for the first time I noticed just how ahead of its time the music choices were. The Magnetic Fields , The Apples in Stereo, Luscious Jackson and more were all featured. Polaris, the band behind the original theme song, was a side project of Mark Mulcahy, more known for his work in Miracle Legion. They provided a ton of music throughout the show’s run, even appearing on camera during one episode, and releasing a soundtrack album for the show.
Grand Lake is a Bay Area indie quartet with the angsty edge necessary to throw down a cover of an early/mid ’90s classic with their own unique signature. In a feature in the OC Weekly, frontman Caleb Nichols describes his approach, “There seems to be quite a bit of debate about what the actual lyrics are to this song are. I decided to sing the lyrics the way I remember them from childhood—so firstly, I left out the second verse, and secondly I sang the chorus ‘Hey Sandy, does your dog bite?’”
Little Pete: Will I ever see you again?
Artie: Worry not, boy. Worry not…for I am Artie, the strongest man…
Little Pete: …in the world!
Grab Grand Lake’s most recent album, Blood Sea Dream, on iTunes now. Purchase The Adventures of Pete & Pete on Amazon and you too can relive the awesomeness.
http://www.strangersinstereo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Grand-Lake-Hey-Sandy-Polaris-Cover.mp3
Sep 3, 2010
Now Playing: Week Of August30
SIS EXCLUSIVE! posted by Strangers In Stereo at 1:00 pm
Goodbye Arcade Fire, hello Hurts! The British synthpop duo have progressed from artistically obscure, to potential major pop players. While opinion of their debut, Happiness, might be divided they’ve nonetheless piqued our curiosity. Sufjan Stevens shared equal playtime, thanks to his inventive, All Delighted People EP. To round out the week, Kanye West received nods and in a strange alignment, many of us returned to The xx at the same time.
Those of us stateside have a long Labor Day weekend upon us to close out summer, and if you’re looking for some new music to fill your backyard stereo, Disco Demons suggests electro punk from A.G. Trio, Pigeons And Planes tips you to Big Sean’s Finally Famous Vol. 3 mixtape and Tastes Like Caramel suggests spending some time with the new Friendly Fires material.
Will Hines
The release of Hurts’ debut album, Happiness dominated my week. With no fear of grand gestures, a collaboration with one Kylie Minogue and a healthy dose of new era pop, I was quickly hooked. The rest of my listening habits comprised a 20-hour journey to Malaysia, where I’m currently on a holiday of sorts. No comment on the local radio…
1. Hurts
2. Arcade Fire
3. Matt & Kim
4. Sufjan Stevens
5. The Golden Filter
Veronica Murtagh
Hecuba are Isabelle Albuquerque and Jon Beasley, a performance artist and designer, respectively. Their 2009 album, Paradise, shuffled into my iTunes this week, and I remembered both how much I loved their music, and how underappreciated they are. Their out there electropop combines danceable melodies and the avant-garde, laden with high drama and references to mythology.
1. Hecuba
2. Soars
3. Active Child
4. Gem Club
5. Bran Van 3000
The Blue Walrus
I’ve been hard at work this week and this studious time has been soundtracked by me digging through my old box of sometimes old, and sometimes not-so-old, blues records. These are in no particular order really, except that I’ve had Keb’ Mo’s Am I Wrong on pretty heavy repeat so he gets the top spot.
1. Keb’ Mo’
2. Robert Johnson
3. Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup
4. Bo Diddley
5. Bessie Smith
The Culture Of Me
Seriously, these guys Hurts may just have the ALBUM OF THE YEAR (emphasis all ours). Happiness might not be the best title for the emotional content of the record, but something about that emotion in the listener is what we’ll take away. Filled with synthetics and reined in by the organic, very human vocals of Theo Hutchcraft, Happiness is the leak you’ve all been waiting for if you’re a blogger, and the album you’ve been waiting for if you don’t know any bloggers. The middle third of the disc is such a good effort for ’80s send-ups and excruciatingly cunning hooks—you simply should not miss it.
1. Hurts
2. Pretty Girls Make Graves
3. Interpol
4. Max Justus
5. Pantha du Prince
Disco Demons
Austrian electro punks A.G.Trio have definitely rocked my week as I spent huge amounts of time working on a remix for their latest release.
1. A.G.Trio
2. Dada Life
3. Carte Blanche
4. Boney M
5. Afrojack
Earmilk
SposhRock is a Toronto based DJ/producer who first came onto my radar through his remixes of old and new. Paying tribute to his genre, he remixed the original electro anthem, “A Cause Des Garcons” by Yelle into The Twelves. Now with his The Dirty Tees remix charting well in the blogs, I expect to see his name appended onto more tracks looking to crossover. Keep your ear to the ground kids.
1. SposhRock
2. Kanye West
3. Toro Y Moi
4. Scanners
5. Carte Blanche
Forward Music
Best Coast’s debut is turning out to be one of my favourite albums of the year. I am loving it. Also this week I’ve been listening to more future garage, a Spanish indie rock band and numerous other bands playing at the Berlin Festival next week.
1. Best Coast
2. Scuba
3. Polock
4. The Morning Benders
5. Caribou
Hard Candy Music
This week I’ve indie’d it up with some Daedelus, Buff Roshi and pop’d myself into oblivion with Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream (which isn’t half as bad as I thought it would be.) I’m also beginning to check out Canadian pop/rock sister duo, Lillix!
1. Daedelus
2. Buff Roshi
3. Katy Perry
4. Robyn (as always)
5. Ladyhawke
TheMusic.FM
While waking up at 4 a.m. so I can get ready for work doesn’t agree with me, three hours alone in the office does. This gives me a great chance to listen to old favorites, catch up on new tracks, and just explore. I recently revisited The xx. The hype has settled, the overwhelming blitz of PR and tunes has now given way to their music being available sans expectation or deadlines. Needless to say, it has held up well and makes me eager for what is next. The throbbing basslines and tempered tete-a-tete vocals reign supreme this week.
1. The xx
2. Class Actress
3. The Chemical Brothers
4. The Rapture
5. Mogwai
The Music Ninja
The Music Ninja is getting ready to cover the Electric Zoo Festival in NYC this weekend. With the rise of progressive electro house and more aggressive, bass-heavy genres like dubstep, trance music has been dramatically pushed aside by the blogosphere rendering it irrelevant. While there is some merit for this exclusion as the hypnotic beats have technically not changed much in comparison to other electronic genres, trance is far from dead. Armin Van Buuren has been chosen to close the last day of Electric Zoo and we could have not asked for a better way to end the epic festival of party bangers.
1. Armin Van Buuren
2. Pretty Lights
3. Bassnectar
4. Boys Noize
5. Wolfgang Gartner
Pigeons And Planes
After a long wait, Big Sean finally dropped his Finally Famous Vol. 3 mixtape. With features from Drake, Kanye West, Asher Roth, Curren$y and Chiddy Bang, Big Sean shines bright among a pool of support from some of hip-hop’s hottest acts. If you’re unfamiliar Big Sean is a G.O.O.D. Music affiiliate who sounds something like a more raw, less emo Drake (sidenote: many claim that Drake’s flow is heavily influenced by Big Sean). The young emcee’s debut is set to drop in September.
1. Big Sean
2. Matt & Kim
3. King Fantastic
4. Sufjan Stevens
5. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Pretty Much Amazing
It’s been over a year since The xx’s release and the album’s perpetual presence in my Recently Played playlist on iTunes is a testament to its near-limitless artistry and excellence. I’m half-hoping to see sophomore album rumors trickle down the mill soon, but I have been wondering, for quite a while, if The xx could even fathom a proper follow-up.
1. The xx
2. Sufjan Stevens
3. David Bowie
4. TV on the Radio
5. jj
The Recommender
Being on a two week holiday means properly switching off. Unfortunately, being a music blogger, you actually feel abnormally detached. To soothe my mind I’ve eased into perfect holiday accompaniments, such as Jimmy Cliff and Steel Pulse. I also had a chance to check out the new Hurts album, which will be as easy to shoot down as it will to highly praise.
1. Hurts
2. Steel Pulse
3. Jimmy Cliff
4. Warpaint
5. Arcade Fire
Sheena Beaston
Great Dane, Trentemøller, makes it so damn easy to fall in love with his latest album, Into the Great Wide Yonder, with a collection of dark, deep electronica cuts. Hell, by merit of how many times I’ve played new single, “…Even Though You’re With Another Girl”, he steals my top spot. It bears more weight with each listen.
1. Trentemøller
2. Hurts
3. The Thermals
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
5. The Count & Sinden
Tastes Like Caramel
Last week Friendly Fires debuted their new track with Azari & III, “Stay Here” from the Bugged Out compilation (curated by Friendly Fires.) It’s quite a departure from the tracks off their self-titled debut album, but if you’ve ever seen one of their DJ sets, it makes total sense. In anticipation of even more new material, I listened to much Friendly Fires this week and found some great new covers and remixes.
1. Friendly Fires
2. Bob Dylan
3. Hurts
4. Gwen Stefani
5. The Drums
Tympanogram
Gary Clark Jr. sent us his EP earlier this week, and it completely floored us. It’s such an eclectic mix of styles and sounds—from hard-edged blues to easygoing R&B—that it’s almost impossible to imagine listeners not being able to find something to enjoy. Hailing from Austin, TX, the 26-year-old Clark has already had a date declared his by the mayor of his hometown when he was seventeen, acted in 2007’s Honeydripper alongside Danny Glover and played with the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan. If this EP is any indication, he’s got nowhere to go but up.
1. Gary Clark Jr.
2. Ra Ra Riot
3. Sufjan Stevens
4. Annuals
5. Tokyo Police Club
We All Want Someone To Shout For
I finally got my copy of The Suburbs on vinyl and it’s pretty much all that I’ve been listening to since. Hearing it on vinyl really does make a difference. The album continues to show strong legs as I continue to want to listen to it day in, and day out.
1. Arcade Fire
2. The xx
3. Sufjan Stevens
4. Thom Yorke
5. Girls
Sep 3, 2010
Review: Sufjan Stevens– All Delighted People EP
SIS EXCLUSIVE! posted by Emma Zumberge at 11:00 am
Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP | Asthmatic Kitty | Grade: B
I will come straight out and say it. I don’t “get” Sufjan Stevens’s new EP, but when the label’s press release contains the following: “The EP, All Delighted People, is built around two different versions of Sufjan’s long-form epic ballad “All Delighted People,” a dramatic homage to the Apocalypse, existential ennui, and Paul Simon’s “Sounds of Silence.” I don’t get too hung up on trying to “get” it and just listen to the music, which I find is the key to truly enjoying this EP.
Taking a stroll through the 60-minutes of experimental musicmaking, I found myself referencing a totally random assortment of musical touch points. From the trippy, Pink Floyd-esque guitar riffs in the monstrous piece “Dojariah” to the tender acoustic chamber folk track “Heirloom”—which definitely carries some heavy Simon & Garfunkel influence—to the sparse ballad “Arnika” which circles back around to Stevens’s previous work, this is an EP overrun with inspiration. Stevens’s undeniable musical ability is only part of what makes All Delighted People successful, the other major factor is the creator’s confidence in his experimental approach.
The eight tracks that make up All Delighted People are all very independent pieces, drawing on their own pools of inspiration and expressed in whatever manner Stevens feels appropriate to sufficiently represent them. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than on the 17-minute closer “Dojariah” which pulls out all the stops—fuzzy guitar solos, rhythmic chanted choruses, inconsistent but effective horns—all to achieve his “guitar jam for single mothers”. The chaos of the arrangement’s opening peaks, then dips beautifully into Stevens’s own lyrical code. While 17-minutes may seem a bit much on the surface, he truly uses every moment to tell his story.
The titular track comes in two variations (classic rock and original) on the EP and are the most focused tracks Stevens offers up on this release. They achieve their epic sound with classic techniques like swelling strings and rich horn sections but arranged within the quirky structure Stevens relishes. The distinct pluck of the banjo and the offbeat lyrics push it just enough off course to make it refreshing without being too obtuse. Of course, he is taking this new material on the road this fall where I’m sure it will pick up even more flavor—and maybe, within the context of the live show, make a bit more sense—but for the $5 he is asking, this is a 60-minute adventure well worth having.
http://www.strangersinstereo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/08-Djohariah1.mp3
Sep 3, 2010
Play For Today: DJ Still Life– Rock The Boat (DJ Still LifeReggaeton In Helsinki Mix)
SIS EXCLUSIVE! posted by Meaghan Garvey at 9:00 am
Each morning one of us shares a track that you need to hear. Today, Meaghan takes the reins. This is Play For Today.
I get why DJs make tributes to certain iconic celebrities around the anniversary of their death, but a lot of the time it’s still sort of weird. When Michael Jackson remixes blew up The Hype Machine charts last summer, it seemed to get opportunistic real quick, resulting in some thousand “P.Y.T.” remixes and a kind of bad taste in my mouth.
Last week marked the nine year anniversary of Aaliyah’s plane crash after the video shoot for “Rock the Boat.” I didn’t think I was in the market for any form of Aaliyah tribute (what could top the originals?), but bass enthusiast DJ Still Life won me over completely with his sincere, intoxicating Tropicaaliyah, a four-track EP of tropical bass takes on some of Aaliyah’s biggest hits. I love the way the languid rhythm of her voice sounds even sexier matched with the rhythms of cumbia and reggaeton; it’s so perfect, but I never would have put it together.
Still Life, who DJs for East Village Radio, contextualized it really nicely:
“The real roots of the project are in Brooklyn’s expanding global bass scene, which itself builds on the youthful re-invigoration of regional sounds happening around the world, where a melding of the traditional with the abrasive is encouraged, and the loping gait of folk dance music effortlessly meets the jagged textures of American hip-hop and R&B. This spirit of re-contextualization and playful appropriation informed the pairing, and the result is a tribute to a performer whose talent continues to unite listeners years after her untimely passing nine years ago.”
His reggaeton version of “Rock the Boat” has been stuck in my head since I first heard it; I challenge you to not hum it all day. Grab Tropicaaliyah for free here.
The Daily Dose
-
A sudden forced departure from his own site finds former Music Slut, Matt Gross, launching a new project titled A Heart Is A Spade. via Village Voice
3 hours ago
-
Tron hits theaters December 17 and in preparation, a website has been rolled out for Daft Punk’s much anticipated film soundtrack. via Pitchfork
6 hours ago
-
Congratulations to The xx who beat out a stuff list of competition to take the honors of the Mercury Prize. via Pedestrian.tv
9 hours ago
A little birdie just told us...
-
BLOGDISCOPUNK 2 weeks ago
welcome guys! RT @strangersstereo FEATURE - Join us in welcoming Earmilk (@EarmilkDotCom) to the #SiS collective!: http://bit.ly/bViC5M
-
will_hines 2 weeks ago
Holla! So pleased. RT @strangersstereo: Join us in welcoming Earmilk (@EarmilkDotCom) to the #SiS collective! :: http://bit.ly/bViC5M
-
creamteam 3 weeks ago
One of our #SiS contribs is on the road with @realchiddy's Swelly Life Tour. The artists share some tracks + words: http://bit.ly/ct58SS
-
sheenabeaston 4 weeks ago
Our #SiS SXSW panel "The Rapidly Changing Face Of Music Discovery" is up for voting. Help us speak at #SXSW in 2011! http://bit.ly/9ssekk
-
thecultureofme 1 month ago
watching @spectacal noodling around and celebrating his #sis premiere mixtape...LIVE. (#analogtodigital live at http://ustre.am/9o7q )
Dont be a stranger join our mailing list sign up now its awesome!
HOT TOPIC
eek. I'll still give it a listen tho.
Mtti sounds off on "Review: Interpol - Interpol" JOIN THE DISCUSSIONCHARTER MEMBERS EST 2010
- The Blue Walrus
- Cream Team
- The Culture Of Me
- Disco Demons
- Discopunk
- Earmilk
- First Up!
- Forward Music
- Hard Candy Music
- TheMusic.FM
- The Music Ninja
- Muumuse
- Nialler9
- One Thirty BPM
- Pigeons And Planes
- Pretty Much Amazing
- The Recommender
- Sheena Beaston
- Tastes Like Caramel
- Stoney Roads
- Tympanogram
- Too Many Sebastians
- Vinyl & Vodka
- We All Want Someone To Shout For
- The World In A Paper Cup
- Yours Truly
