I made this for a friend a few months ago that wanted a playlist with uplifting music. It feels like a compliment to my Keep Calm playlist, which was for when we went into the pandemic, and this is the outro, hopefully.
The silly reason I never posted this playlist on Silence before is that I couldn’t find good art for it. Then comes along Midjourney, something similar to DALI-2, that can generate images based off a string of text, and presto here she is! Guess what my input text was.
The title is based on the first three songs of this list.
Music is about feeling. And is best described through it. Even the words are written for the heart more than the head. My last decade has been defined primarily by music, curating here and at TuneIn, but more recently I’ve shifted towards spoken word. Podcasts, not specifically poetry.
Podcasts have the buzz these days, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have the substance. They’ve got more of it for the head than music does. The insights from the conversations and questions that come out of podcasts are only matched by the feelings I get from music. But I can find dozens of new inspiring podcast episodes each day. I can’t say the same for music. Music has a greater barrier to greatness and is far more subjective as an art, but the ones I do love I can listen to forever. All the more reason why curation is so important to music. People need as much context and connection when discovering something.
Most of the new music I found in 2019 came from SXSW and I guess that’s how I found Channel Tres. He wasn’t at the 2019 showcase, for all I know, but he was there in 2017 supporting Duckwrth. It was one of the most memorable shows of my life. Dudes could dance, in unison.
Channel Tres has grown into his own thing since then and I was so honored to see him at the Starline Social Club in Oakland this last December. The presence him and his dancers, Jessie & Nique, embodied on stage reflected in his audience. Their routines livened the whole club up. A progression from his dance moves with Duckwrth just two years ago. It felt like something out of a movie. The whole experience. It’ll be etched in my body forever. And the music even more so.
Trying to describe in words something that is far deeper is challenging. I’ll keep it simple, Channel Tres can make a Jew from Minnesota feel like a cool ass black dude from Compton. And it’s mostly through his beat. Empathy at its finest.
I love to dance, but rarely do so at live shows. If any of these tracks are playing though, it’s a different story. Loose Control is the collection of music I love to dance to most. At least contemporarily speaking.
Most of this list is funk-inspired, but we’ve got the best in all of dance here: disco, house, electro, and hip hop. Anything that grooves. And Anderson .Paak and Kaytranada groove most. They’re over-represented here. I just can’t help myself.
Channel Tres has hits, mostly with DUCKWRTH. I’ve seen both live a few times and they’re charming as hell on and off stage. Ask my girlfriend. But Channel Tres just came out with his self-titled EP and it’s unexpected & good. My favorite combination.
I may not love it like I love his work with DUCKWRTH, but it’s hard for any artist to top what made them so special to you in the first place. The follow up is a big step, but like all great things, give it time. Tres’s production is my favorite in funk with some synth flare. He changes it up enough from DUCKWRTH to his own voice to keep it fresh. Definitely wasn’t expected.
Instrumentalists are going to save electronic music, especially singers. It’s hard to make a melody that sticks with just a computer and a producer who knows how to play an instrument usually pulls off much better sounds.
Brasstracks is best with the horns. And equally as impressive, knows where and how to team up with some other talented instrumentalists. Mostly singers.
The great thing about running your own site is that you get to do whatever you want with it. The problem with it is you do whatever you want and that means you overlook somethings some of the time, letting stupid shit slip through without getting someone else’s opinion first.
JaFunk once again starts out our list of groove music, the first being Groovewit. We decided to call this one Groovetits because sometimes it feels like no one is reading these things. So I thought I’d try to get some kind of reaction. And it was refreshing to know I could post whatever the hell I want. Even though this’ll probably be one of those things that I should have gotten a second opinion on.
Fuck it, at least the music will last.
I was talking to my coworkers about the music in my Late Night Jazz list. While it’s definitely not the music of the early turn of last century, it still gives me that feeling of jazz for the evening, unconventional as it may be. It’s all covered in electronic sounds and that’s where our opinions stray.
Same goes with our funk-infused playlist, The Funk Shall Be Within You. It may go off into electro at times, but the feeling of funk is strong throughout and I don’t think any word could describe it better, especially electronic. Other than nufunk or any other made up offshoot, but that’s a whole other debate.
You know this guy can play guitar when he’s got me off my ass dancing better than any edm. Most music takes vocals for me to connect, but Josh J’s guitar talks wonders.
Just listen to Babble’s Sundazin for me, all the way through. That ending! Woof.
But he’s got much more than that. That’s what’s so amazing about him. Consistency. And he sets up his guitar well (he can produce).
Our electro funk from last year grew so much we decided to break it up & section it into a few playlists. First up comes from the groovier side.
I wanted to call this Groovewit hits, but Lauren talked me out of it. Generally speaking it lies in the mid-range of electro music with heavy synth influence and a whole lotta funky bass.
Let us know how well the songs flowed together for you.
It’s important to us.
Of all the obnoxious, nonsensical electronic styles out there, how the hell didn’t ghetto funk get to be the biggest? Back in 2011, we so badly wanted it to be the next big thing, but didn’t happen. All the decent ghetto funk hits were remixes and the much more garish electronic styles owned the years up ’til now.
The reason I’m such an advocate for this style of electro funk is that like the thing it’s attached to most, remixes, ghetto funk is meant to be taken lightheartedly with a sound much more for mindless dancing – in the best sense of the word – than anything else. I’d actually say it’s my favorite style to dance to overall, though individual songs are a different story.
It kind of reminds me of what swing might have felt like back in the day.