Went to a Giraffage show a few months back in his San Francisco hometown, and of the handful of acts I’ve seen at The Rickshaw Stop, Giraffage’s night took the rest. I may not appreciate his music at home as many of my friends do, but take his set to a club and you know where it’s meant to play out. Giraffage’s latest remix of ‘Better Off Alone,’ may not be anything new from this dilated soul producer, but I guarantee this is fit right for the club.
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‘Above the Middle’ by Odesza starts off grand but gets progressively worse until just over a minute in. What makes it so bad is a progressive crackling and off beat sound that becomes almost unbearable to the point of a trip gone bad: nothing made sense. But what I’m realizing more and more over these working so closely with music is, vocals really do carry the piece. And just when the true feel of ‘Above the Middle’ kicks in at 1:18, all the nonsense fades away… well, the the vocals do a good job of covering it up.
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Starfucker (STRFKR) was one of my first obsessions on the blog just four years back (happy birthday to us!), but of course it took a fairly experimental remix to wet our appetite again. We actually fell off this Wet Paint remix for a while, it was posted 3 months back, but Starfucker’s video for ‘While I’m Alive’ creeped into our life and got us obsessed it once again.
This ‘While I’m Alive’ remix may take its sorry ass time to kick in the vocals, but once the whole thing gets going it reminds me of why I was obsessed with Starfucker in the first place. Such distinct and memorable vocals.
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Funkerman’s Can You Feel It Records hit me up with three remixes of ‘Wine & Roll’ a couple days back. I pretty much fell in love with ’em straight from the start, but was a little misinformed at the time. See, I thought the ‘Wine & Roll’ original was a much more popular hit simply because I-Candy’s lines sounded so familiar. But after trying to google her lyrics and Shazam that shiz (I don’t really talk like this), I finally just figured it out through Funkerman’s record label. And apparently this is not the pop hit I once thought it to be.
So either this ‘Wine & Roll’ sounds like a hit I’ve heard before or this is sure to be one soon enough. So listen in and let me know if this sounds like anything you’ve heard before. We’re either finding this mystery out or getting this to the pop status it deserves.
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As far as the remixes go, the Peter Horrevorts version is my favorite, although it starts out slow. I actually like the beat better than I-Candy’s vocals – she may deserve mainstream pop status, but pop still isn’t my thing.
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Doja Cat’s style in ‘Nunchucks’ reminds me of Erykah Badu’s ‘Rimshot.’ It’s how she twists her words and ‘Nunchucks’ is all twisted up. Not only does she have style, but the lyrical prowess to back it.
The beat from ‘Nunchucks’ takes from MNDSGN’s ‘Legwarmrs’ – and even though it needs a bit more fit for Doja’s voice, I like how the two clash. Doja clearly has somethin goin with this.
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The Oliver duo, consisting of U-Tern & Oligee, just did a remix of Mayer Hawthorne’s ‘Her Favorite Song’ and man is it on the funky side. Hawthorne has one of my favorite voices of this past decade, but Oliver takes his sound to my neck of the woods in music right now, electro funk.
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I’ve seen Paul McCartney twice now, once in Minneapolis and the other time at Wrigley Field, and I’m still most excited for him at Outside Lands Festival for 2013. Well, Hall & Oates and Jurassic 5 might be my personal favorites to see, but I’m guessing Paul’s performance will still be my favorite in the end. Which brings up a huge predicament, Pretty Lights plays the same time as Paul. Paul does play earlier, but I couldn’t imagine leaving him to go see PL. If I could only get them to play together…
… also excited to see z Chili Peppers… and even more excited for the food.
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Banks has got a beautiful voice, but her ‘Warm Water’ is a bit too mellow for me. Snakehips (love the name) however has graciously put some nu funk, electro-soul sauce into this Warm Water melody.
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Gentlemen like MT. OSSA are the musicians to wonder about it. Each month I come across an artist or two that I’m eager to see how their music career plays out.
I recently read The Weeknd’s first interview and saw his Complex cover. Abel is one of three or so artists that I’ve ever reached out to for an interview – mind you, he wasn’t so big back then and at the time was a friend on Facebook (my only claim to fame). I may not have got the interview back then, but it’s inspiring to see an artist grow from nothing to someone so influential. Hopefully, it’s just begun for Abel.
I don’t know if MT. OSSA will rise to the status The Weeknd has, but ‘Love Jam’ is my jam right now. This psychedelic indie whatever you wanna call it puts such vivid images in my mind every time I hear it. But as similar as they feel every time, they’re ultimately always changing. Wonder what it’ll look like in 10 years.
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Man can Vindata cut up vocals. Somehow they chop every chorus with a precision that captivates with repetition. The duo did it with their 14th remix and now they do it with Cambio Sun.
Special note to producers, learn from Vindata – it’s better to remix some good unknowns than any mainstream vocals. So it’ll help you both more equally. Trust me, Ellie Goulding doesn’t need anymore remix publicity.
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