I originally wanted to make a mix of music inspired by California about six months back when I moved to The Bay Area from Minnesota, but shit got hectic & I got lazy. I moved out to Cali because I wanted to get into the music/tech scene and Minnesota just wasn’t cutting it. Well, I’ve been in & out of some pretty cool companies since, but still haven’t landed a permanent job. Especially at the one company that actually drove me out here (quite literally), SoundCloud.
My attempts to get SoundCloud’s attention have been pretty much failures, most notably my SoundKlout project, but in the least it’s given you all a lot of good content on here. However, I still haven’t given up hope! (and never will) So for their recently posted “Communications internship,” I decided to do a few special projects to hopefully get their attention once and for all. Here I present Part I in hopes to tell a little about my story and get you all sympathizing for me so you actually help me out! Plus, we get to throw some quality Cali music at ya.
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Outside Lands 2012 has an eclectic set of artists to say the least. I’ll be covering it this year and even though my main goal is to see acts I’ve never heard before, there are a few I know who I’ve got to see! Check out my top picks for Outside Lands 2012 below and let me know who I should and shouldn’t see (here‘s the full line up). If you happen to be going as well, hit me up in the comments or on Twitter and we can meet up!
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Last year when I was writing up a piece on the best ghetto funk of 2011, I thought that ghetto funk would be the next biggest thing in emerging music – well, I more hoped it would be. The sub-genre just doesn’t have enough traction with producers and listeners to be the next big thing. However, I do know what’s about to tear up this next progression in music and this time it’s not just wishful thinking.
Our last major mix of music was comprised of the next stylings in R&B. With the likes of Frank Ocean & The Weeknd, soul music is back, but that’s only one half of the equation. Where this hipster R&B is our new music to make love to, nu-disco is where it’s at to get down and dirty on the dance floor […]
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Ever since I started up Silence, I’ve always wanted to discover the next big thing in R&B, mainly because of my disliking for its mainstream counterpart over the past few decades. The problem with finding this underground soul that’s about to reinvent R&B is that they’re not easy to dig up online, but I managed to do it, eventually.
I got my first taste of neo soul, or so I liked to call it, when I heard the super-group out of Minneapolis, Gayngs, play ‘The Gaudy Side of Town.’ The group gained a decent following, but never enough to start a movement, even in light of all the names behind the project. Six months later, however, a duo out of Toronto created one soulful tune that set the spark for soul & R&B’s reunion, their name was The Weekend […]
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The 1st edition of A Stoner’s Guide on Beats to Blaze to, featuring mostly hip hop, was a major failure, so I thought fuck the second edition… well, up until StumbleUpon got a hold of it about six months back. Apparently, there’s a whole lotta stoners on StumbleUpon because the traffic from there has been majority flowing in since.
So in tribute, I decided to start it back up and go from a hip-hop theme to an even trippier one. Now, all of these aren’t technically “trip hop” tracks, but they’re somewhere in that mix. So check out a handful of my finest, awe-inspiring electronica to smoke out to. I’ll also include a few albums from various genres if we get enough traction (ie. you share it with yo friends).
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Here’s a collection of all the best of lists for 2011. I gotta admit there’s a lot of remixes & mashes on here, but when you’re working with underground producers, their access to great vocals is limited to well-known acapellas (for the most part). But don’t let that get you down, music snobs, there’s still some find work all over here!
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I was a little hesitant on compiling a list of my favorite non-electro heavy tracks for 2011. It seemed like most blogs had the gist of what mine would look like and, for the most part, I didn’t have too much to add. But I decided to sack it up and do it anyway because (1) I wanted to keep track for future reference and (2) I did manage to find some real gems in here.
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Other than the Mixes & Mashes, 2011 was the year of Electro Music here on SNG. It all started out through our transition with hip-hop. I remember thinking to myself that we needed more uptempo, dance type music. A year later and the majority of the site is just that. As much as we need to hop back on the hip-hop wagon, this electro ride has been one of our favorites!
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I categorize mashups in two ways. First is the “supermash,” where you take a grip of samples and lace em all together. The other is just two or so tracks twisted into each other to make one. Either way, it’s to bring vocalists into a new style & genre.
So in this Best Mashups of 2011, we’ve got about five of each. With styles ranging from rap to nu-disco, the only thing consistent in this mix is the amount of soul… basically, they’re not inspired by Glee ;)
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Dubstep remixes were dominated by b.e.a.utiful vocals this year…. Or maybe it’s just I’m obsessed with these beauts mixed with dirty, dirtay dubstep. Either way, this style has ruled SNG for the last half of the year and hope it rules for many months into next.
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