I first met Lauren in 2011 on Twitter because of a Facebook Ad I was running about a SoundCloud initiative I was doing for Silence at the time (I love how convoluted that sounds). As many people as I’ve talked to on Twitter over the years, I’ve never met someone so honest about her love for music. Someone without another agenda. And I see her dedication every day.
I usually don’t start my daily SoundCloud listening until later on in the day, but this girl is up at the butt crack of dawn listening to the shit out of it (she seriously wakes up too early) and she always gets in the comment or reshare before I do. The one thing I’ve given her shit about is what she’s doing to contribute in music, but she’s been doing something about it […]
We first found the horizontal disco name on Zimmer’s Galapagos. And although we categorized Galapagos under the tropical house playlist, Zimmer’s sound definitely circles around the theme we’re going for here. Malinchak, however, is the exact sound we think of.
Horizontal disco is meant for late night discoing on the floor and is on the lighter side of deep house. I just like relaxing to it late night though.
I’ve listened to way too much music this year, probably around 12,000 new tracks (I tried calculating it). Most of the music was.. unfinished, to say the least, but we found a lot more songs worth keeping than any year before it.
A lot of new music emerged or reemerged over the year. Deep house was the big thing, but many discredit it because of the hype. It had its bad with its good. Our favorite new style goes to what doesn’t seem to have an official name yet. I’ve heard many call it kawaii, but I prefer vapor – this naming shit is more important than you’d think.
We’ve got 30 songs to show off, 11 artists and 20 playlists for you, but if that’s not enough… wait ’til next year.
Like the iPhone every year, this is our best playlist yet! It really is.
House has been my obsession for the past few years and my favorite kind is the mid-tempo, upbeat summertime jams. Which may or may not turn out to be called Tropical House. Or Summer House. Or Horizontal Disco. It’s up in the air really.
A few tracks do stereotypically incorporate the steel drums, but we did cover more ground than that. We also decided this should be more comprehensive than our usual playlists because we wanted to get all the trop house personas in one place. There are quite a few interesting characters.
Malinchak was my man in 2012 with his deeply touching ‘So Good To Me.’ And although his 2013 was far better than most, it took til 2014 for us to realize the massive amount of hits he has. Malinchak supplies some melancholic disco and there’s really nothing we love more right now.
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Independent record labels are sprouting up all over the place — in location & style. And the ones that are doing it right not only have a choice selection in catalogue, but also take the time to artfully craft their image as they do their artists.
Each of these 12 labels sport some of the most well respected producers & musicians that belong on this blog and create a culture with style around their music. On here I may point out a few that lack in proper online presence, but they are all doing it right when it comes to the perception of this era’s evolution in music labels.
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/18855296" iframe="false" params="player_type=tiny&font=Arial&color=292929" height="18" /]
We’re finally getting our favorite musicians of 2012 out there. Remixes & heavy sampling have made up most of the other best music of 2012, but the rest of these are all originals (at least for the most part).
I also decided to change it from 2012’s best musicians to the most promising. They may be our favorite musicians of 2012, but they’re probably all new to you – except Frank, Madeon & Miike maybe.
Also remember, not every one of these may be your favorite style, but you’ll definitely find a few you’ll enjoy for a good while.
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/66170642" iframe="false" params="player_type=tiny&font=Arial&color=292929" height="18" /]
I hardly ever fall in love from the first go, but Malinchak’s ‘So Good To Me’ hit right from the start. It’s one of those tracks you know will stick by you for the rest of your life (yea, it’s that good).
‘So Good to Me’ starts off slow, but keeps you intrigued until the heart of it all. Once the vocals kick in, however, it’s full flavored bliss. Although it’s hard for me to describe exactly what makes this so special, it’s quite clear to see once you listen in.
Make sure to check out the rest of his music as well and let me know what you think. I won’t listen to anything else of his until I’m sure sick of this (it’s gonna be awhile), it’s just something I do.
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