Spire and his Soda Island friends put on some of my favorite bumble gum funk, generally known as future bass, specifically called kawaii, but I call it vapor (who knows). He does however have much more breath than that.
He has some of the most intricate & introspective music, and a good handful of it, which I don’t see enough. The guy can take what sounds like a scene from a movie and make it music. Beautiful in a way that reminds me of jazz. You don’t know where it’s going next.
Couldn’t have kicked off 2017 any better than this inspiration (other than disco).
As much as our most relaxing playlists get more attention online, I’m sure our dance ones do better off. Plus they’re much more fun to make (it’s involves a lot of dancing). And if you’re not dancing too, it’s not worth listening to (as much).
Make sure to check out our best of 2015: Loose Control and 2014: Dance Party as well.
Beats Music, previously MOG, now Apple Music, played a huge role in getting us switched from posting singles to primarily playlists. Trent Reznor, head of creative at the time, created a video in 2014 introducing Beats Music and its promise to find the best song to come next.
I’m still not sure if Beats ever fulfilled that promise, or if Apple does now, but I’ve been trying to do it for myself ever since. And hopefully sometimes for you too.
If you’re into jazzy, hip hop beats more uplifting than our Late Night Beats & Late Night Jazz, this is for you. All the way through.
Pomo will be playing with Kaytranada, Anderson .Paak + The Free Nationals on New Years in San Francisco. We’ve featured the last two artists, but only dipped into Pomo a few times – did not realize whom he’s produced.
People were telling me he did an Anderson .Paak track, but I didn’t realize which one. Then come to find he produced the only Mac Miller song I’ll ever like, which of course has Anderson .Paak featured on it.
He’s also got plenty of good remixes to bring in the New Year. Hope to see you there.
It’s been a mess this last week. When the bombshell of an election result dropped, I landed on one of Robots Can’t Dance’s songs and rolled through the rest of his music. It helped.
Here are 10 of his best (my favorites). Let it get you through any madness you’re going through.
For the second year in a row at Symbiosis I wasn’t prepared.
With camping equipment, the right clothing and food. All the things you should prepare for when your off the grid for a few days. The one thing that makes those problems a lot easier is friends. It’s easy to survive in the city alone, but not out there. Plus, the more friends you have in your own camp, the more connections you have going around Symbiosis.
And isn’t that the point of the festival? Above music, learning, and even eating. Conversations with people is highest priority.
The first playlists on Silence for the first few years were all best of year. In 2014, it turned into focusing on best of genres. Over the past year, I’ve tried to be more creative about it.
This list is really just remixes of famous songs in a groovy house kind of way. But not titling it so specifically allowed me to broaden the song selection, which made room for more fun things to dance to.
My obsession with EnormousTunes has been growing over the year, but another music fanatic friend first told me about them before that. She made a list about this time last year and I can see now what she saw back then, especially with artists like Calippo, Sons of Maria, Nora En Pura and Me & My Toothbrush on both of our lists. Frey & Croatia Squad are my top two though.
EnormousTunes reminds me of Ghetto Funk in that the label defines a genre, but where as Ghetto Funk is also the name of the genre, EnormousTunes is what I think of when I think of G house. If I had to describe G house: a kick that comes from the gullet or gutter (gully?), something like that, falling on the tech/no house sound. A lot of them are remixing classic rap songs, also like Ghetto funk. But going through Enormous’ SoundCloud page, I realized that’s not all they do.
I found a lot more styles of house in there. This list starts with the best, gets into old disco & rap turned house and ends on the deep side.
The first track on a playlist is an important one. The majority of people probably don’t get passed it, so you got to set the tone right away. I usually do my personal favorite song, but I always have reservations with that. Autograf is a good example.
Metaphysical is a perfect start to Autograf’s music. It’s not a remix of a popular artist and has a beautiful singer that doesn’t get old & irritating after a while. The Autograf trio has about nine other songs worth featuring, but only one hits heavier far above the others. Their Temptation remix.
I like their remix of ‘Ain’t too Proud to Beg’ so much it’s sparked another playlist I’ve been compiling: think the best of Motown with some heavy house. This list, however, is based off of all Autograf music.
Odesza’s Above the Middle was my first love of theirs and even though it starts off rocky, as I originally pointed out, once the vocals kick in it’s the sound that inspired this list. Especially hearing it live at Outside Lands in 2015. Ever since hearing it first back in 2013, I’ve found a set of songs just as inspiring.
The whole thing reminds me of a dream I had at least 10 years ago. It’s probably the most vivid dream I’ve ever had. It started off with me falling from the sky, but I wasn’t frightened of falling. More fascinated by how enormous the sky and ocean were around me. I remember there was a castle in the distance. It was like I was falling to get there. It’s the most beautiful dream I can remember.