Outside Lands hasn’t had a woman headline in its eleven-year existence, until 2018. They must have felt especially bad because two dominated this year. First with Florence on Saturday and last with Janet closing out Sunday. Over the past few years, Sundays seem to be the day. They’ve stacked it well.
For the last two years, I’ve started off Sunday early. I go the whole day. Doing it all three days is probably a challenge not worth taking, but I recommend going all day at least once. It’s a lot warmer, Golden Gate Park is perpetually cold. There’s less dust flying around, because of the best thing yet, no crowds! There’s nothing better at a festival than going up to the main stage and being able to dance with some space to a great soul band. And boy was there one each year!
Last year’s Sunday opened with two soul singers, Lee Fields and then Jacob Banks, who are growing on me more with time and accumulating songs. This year, all it had to be was Durand Jones & The Indications. Durand Jones’ voice was expectedly powerful, but his drummer’s voice was something else.
When I first heard Aaron Frazer that day, I thought it was just a recording. I couldn’t see anyone singing and it was too good to be true live. It wasn’t, Aaron’s voice was there, live, and took me back farther than any other contemporary soul singer. It felt as classic as anyone ever has. In that falsetto kind of way.
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.
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.
I love high hats especially with something sexy wrapped around em. I first found this off beat, soulful shit in our vapor lists, but unlike that this is much more hip hop based and much sexier.
We get into some future glam towards the middle and end it a little lighter with my favorite hip hop out right now. So stick til the end.
Try not to think of EDM or electronic dance music as purely just the dubstep, deadbeat music that the mass majority like to think of it as. Dance music has been filled with electronic sounds for decades and its reach is almost all encompassing. From disco to house this music has come a long way and we’re just at the tipping point of things to come (aren’t we always).
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For the last two years I’ve tried to theme our best remixes, mashups & covers of the year off other noteworthy remakes of that year. 2011 was “uninspired by Glee” (specifically it’s mashups). 2012 was a tribute to Anna Kendrick and her remixing ways in Pitch Perfect. And finally for 2013 we go with a more genuine pick. Our hat goes off to Willy Wonka and Chipotle’s remake of its most memorable tune with an accompanying video that’s just as wonderful if not more. It really puts the art in advertising this year.
For the last two years we’ve also usually had a mix of remixes, mashups and covers. However, this year the mashups have fallen to nearly nothing, but the covers have flourished. Remixes are still on top for 2013.
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I may have been more of a Michael fan back in the day, but Janet is the one making a comeback in this untraditional style, via the remix. She’s got a handful of my favorite disco, soul & funk producers remixing her right and I’ve been waiting far too long to present it to you. Now some of them have been so chopped & fucked with that it doesn’t even sound like Janet anymore, but I assure you it’s all in good taste. Guarantee you’ll find some gem to obsess over for sometime.
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I asked WMNSTUDIES if they had any Janet remixes on file – I’m putting together a super solid (yes, super) mix of JJ remixes – but they didn’t have anything finished quite yet. I held off on this super solid mix to see what they could come up with, but I soon started to realize I may not like it. WMNSTUDIES has been pretty consistent so far, but too many times I’ve had to let down an artist and they usually don’t take it too well.
Thankfully, WMNSTUDIES keeps with the quality and mixes one of Janet’s hits into another disco-pop sampler that I’ve been over-obsessing over lately. I don’t know if it’s got the moves to take on a few of my favorite Janet Jackson remixes I got lined up, but they’ve definitely made the cut.
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It’s not about what you say, but how you say it — especially when it comes to music on this site. This diamonds are a girl’s best friend business has been goin on since Marilyn and even though the saying may be cliched enough, how it’s said here has not.
I didn’t originally know this, but Janet Jackson lends her vocals from her ‘Diamonds’ song. However, as you’ll see, Bronson has transformed her sweet style into some deep house, hypnotique soul.
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When this Janet remix first starts off, her voice slowed with that high hat clap, or whatever you wanna call it, sounded a bit too basic to be honest. Once you get into its real funk, however, it stays funky ’til the end. You wouldn’t have gotten away with this kind of soul even a few years back. But it’s flooding the waves, especially here. It’s a strange kind of soul, to say the least, but it’s easy to get caught up in the madness if you sit back, relax & just take it all in.
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