I was introduced to The 13th Grade by way of One T. I don’t know how I picked up on his Audible, but I never would’ve guessed the treasures I’d dig up because of it. Shortly after looking into him I looked into his collaborators. Most notably Josh J the freakin guitar wonderist and the rest of the honeypot collectively known as The 13th Grade.
The supergroup is based out of LA and houses 14 musicians, though a few are based in San Diego, Vegas or London. Not only do they have incomparably talented producers, DJs, instrumentals and vocalists, but their music ranges greatly. And they’re well on their way to making a label as sexy as any of their musicians.
So in good fashion we did what we try to do best, made a playlist out of ’em. Unfortunately we couldn’t get all 14 on here for one reason or another, but managed to get most. The list starts off with some funk n soul into jazz and half way through gets into the harder stuff. We end it where we started off, ’cause there was way too much soulful shit to only feature one from each artist. Like I’ve said already enough, there’s a lot of talent in The 13th Grade.
Paris Wells’ Overbite was produced by Eat More Cake, a producer we’ve covered a few times on this little old thing. And his production is only overshadowed by her lyrics, more specifically how Paris Wells says ’em. So many one-liners.
I have no idea what she’s talking about, what the whole story is on Overbite, but she says it with such pizzazz like Gaga. She got that ‘tude like Tove Lo though. Boogie-oogie sliide gets me every time. Shit’s a hook.
About a week back I was reintroduced to Phenom’s Together Forever. And within 24 hours after that I had danced to it at least over 20 times, no bs. In fact, I had listened to it so much for the remaining part of the day that the chorus was burned into my brain, it got real tiresome.
Day after I was back on the bandwagon and I’ve got more obsessed since. I’ll probably get burned out a few more times before my obsession subsides.
That hook! Gonna get me reminiscing for days.
Shormey’s Party Down was meant for some coming of age movie classic from the 70’s 80’s. At a high school dance or some shit, but she’s more than that. She’s a song for reflecting, tapping into the moment and thinkin about your past.
Marvin Gaye has got to be one of the most sampled singers of all time, but most producers pull off a shoddy side step of his original works. It’s hard as hell to find any rework worth saving, but of course Amtrac pulls it off, again.
The man can do deep house unlike most hyped-producers in the genre right now. It’s always fresh, but far from a fad. His latest takes a few lines from ‘Nothing Like The Real Thing’ (baby) and makes mind numbing, gutter house. I gotta dance to this at the club sometime.
I need a good playlist for reflecting on. Especially when traveling long distances. Music that sounds like Toy Box’s Catahoula.
I know alotta people can’t stand a good kick drum when trying to relax, but I almost need it. There’s a lot of little things in Catahoula that doesn’t make it some basic electronic track. Something you should listen for, for the subtleties. The track has heart, texture. And those vocals chops, woof. Wonder where he got em.
Yves Klein’s Look has a catchy little chorus. Something worth repeating at a club. Even the Lauren agrees. But it took Nam’pa to wrap it up nicely in a lazer y style of house. +The glistening electro bits is a nice sprinkle on top.
The first time I ran into Madelyn Grant’s name was on Odesza’s Sun Models. I had recently uploaded the track to SoundCloud and she had contacted me about including her name in the title. The only reason I hadn’t in the first place was because they really chopped and skewed her vocals, making her voice barely recognizable. But she was real nice about it and it seemed more than fair.
About two months later and I see Madelyn Grant on FKJ’s Waiting. I didn’t remember she was on Odesza’s track at first, but once I did I was all the more in love. Madelyn has a breathtaking voice, but even better she knows how to use it – a much bigger problem with most vocalists.
Since then Madelyn has collaborated with a favorite of mine, Emancipator. I asked her how she got to collaborate with all these legitimate producers and she said, I sent them my demos.
That’s it. In Odesza’s case they were requesting female vocalists, but the other two she just sent them a sample. That’s all it took. How the fuck does that happen? Oh wait, that doesn’t. Minus with Madelyn.
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I’ve put together a playlist of my favorite songs of her’s as well as another list for producers she should also send her music to. Although, this time I think they should be doing the reaching out.
Relax in the House is even chiller to dance to than our Horizontal Disco list, but both can also be used for relaxing too. This however lays off the lyricists and goes for deep, melodic, four on the floor kind of music with short vocal cuts.
If you don’t like house though, I’m not sure you’ll want to chill in your house with this.
When I first saw Bishiclet remixed Janet Jackson, I was like naaahh, he ain’t gonna top his Miguel remix or the other Janet remixes I collected. He did both. Well, this might not have the longevity of his Miguel remix, but we’ll see about that.
His So Excited remix was so unexpected. It’s so hard for any producer to be consistently good, let alone come up with something borderline trendsetting. What he did to Janet’s voice, pitchin em on high like that, is best described as sounding like Yolandi Visser of Die Antwoord, except not having to deal with her rap Ninja.
The first night I had with this, I played it over & over at least a dozen times.