NORTHERN ALLSTARS vs HARDINO - DON’T STOP BELIEVING vs IT GIRL / How much in the world is purer than the intent of this mix of songs? Since I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by the concepts expressed in this track, I’ll just make a short list of things I’m impressed with here and hope you can help me connect some of the dots.
- “Midnight Train” recontextualized as rave drug reference
- Boy or girl singing? Is this concept a Steve Perry reference?
- Sample clearance for guitar solo or complete re-record?
- The generic rave build owes a lot to Journey anyway
- Now Americans have the wherewithal to create mix CDs called “Clubland Smashed”
- Might make your uncle’s entree into rave scene
- This will be many teens’ first exposure to these lyrics
- ”Hold On To That Feeling” also recontextualized
- Repetitive lyrics not too far from standard vocal trance anyway
- The “It Girl” comes just as you were about to stop believin’
SKY FERREIRA - LOST IN MY BEDROOM / Sky Ferreira occupies much the same space that Hermione Granger does in my psyche, only she has a lot more hard techno production going on all around her, which makes her dangerous for people like me. Not in a stalkery/jailbat kind of way (yet) but in a Downton Abbey / Hunger Games sort of way, which is maybe probably the best way to show your dedication to a serialized artist catalog, as most serious money-concerned chanteuses seem to be these days. The half-Portuguese, half-Angeleno heart killer has left her native LA for NYC at the same age I did. I await her permanent return with an open mind and an open heart.
HIGH CONTRAST - THE ROAD GOES ON FOREVER / High Contrast has very quickly become one of my very very favorite music guys in the whole world, and his label Hospital Records has very quickly become one of my very favorite things in the entire universe. It has always been hard for me to directly express the ecstasy (doink) one simple, gentle raver experiences through music in a non-disgusting way, and most of the people involved in Hospital do it every day for a living! Can you imagine such a job? Like all real real clever artists in 2012 they have also figured out a way to make shitloads of money off of their releases through a tightly-woven ecosystem: unmissable weekly podcasts, a breathtakingly-paced release schedule (that seems to be 100% leak-proof), endlessly fascinating/sold out/independently-wrought parties, and most importantly, a refreshingly simple take on what music should be in peoples’ lives: a constantly powerful force for fun and emotional workout. If this is what it’s like inside the hospital I don’t wanna be well! Make sure to check out some sick early remixes from High Contrast of Missy Elliott, White Stripes, Kanye, and especially his very cute “drum n’ bass / surf” remix of M.I.A.’s “Born Free.”
KATY PERRY - LAST FRIDAY NIGHT (T.G.I.F.) - JOHN MONKMAN & JOHNSON SOMERSET REMIX / Did you know that my favorite genre of music is “remix?” I have known it, inside, for a long time, but never fully acknowledged it to myself, especially to Tumbler, until I heard this song. Remixes are important. Remixes bring a song to you many months or even years after you originally knelt at its altar in a form that comes at you subtly (if it’s done well). Sometimes, there’s no hint of the original at the genesis of the remix, and as you detect familiarity mixed in slowly over the course of a few bars, your heart starts to melt and your eyes get blurry but you are not sure why. It’s like you have tasted the slightest hint of Purr in the air but you don’t even know what Purr is. Then, as a pre-verb of blissful proportions brings itself into aural view, a smile comes to your brain, and then…only then, after the brain smile…do you realize what is going on, and you fall in love all over again, and that is what music is for, and that is why remix is my favorite genre of music: it lets you do it again.
