The sexy beast above is crate digger Joey Hansom . He's put a mix together of what he considers the best of 2010. If you're even a little bit into anything funky or remotely into dancing (even if it just involves moving your hands backwards and forwards), this is the mix for you. It's got some of my highlights from this spectrum of music, and plenty of stuff I've never heard of. And I'm really jealous, because this mix is a really, really tight package. Enjoy!
Los Campesinos! are a really great band and seem like really nice people from their online personas. This reflets their music; which is twee, self-deprecating and unassuming. However, at any moment they might stab you in the back with some punk rock riff. This means that they've released a Christmas track which is really good, and not being one for lyrics, even I can appreciate that they are masters at this art. Also, if you are super fan, they have an amazing, amazing 'zine, which they just started. For £25 a year, you get an issue of [...]
Yes, everything changed! As well as celebrating, we also have to thank Mr. Will Hines . Firstly, he bought the domain. He's also hosting the entire site (including mp3 bandwidth) and hooked me up with the ultimate version of wordpress (wordpress.org). Content wise everything will be the same; I will post, when I can, the music that I am enjoying. It might be new or old, but it will be ever forward. Also huge thanks to Adam Rogerson. He helped me with coding stuff, smart design things and making sure everything was perfect. Without his [...]
This one is part of the Sonic Router series, which means that it comes with high expectations. Hypno managed to deliver. The Icleander gives us a very UK seamless, tight mix with bass-heavy tracks. Enjoy.
This one is lovingly crafted (as you can tell by the artwork above) and is fantastic because of two reasons. Firstly, it moves between genres and sounds far better than the majority of these mixes normally do. I do not understand the dance music heads who insist that a dubstep mix must stay at 140 BPM or that minimal techno must be this and that long. This mix just simply pumps out good music. Which leads me to the second point, the music here is really good. I didn't see the tracklist before, but this one has an A-List collection [...]
Woods , one of Bon Iver 's most beautiful pieces of work, has gone through three iterations. The original is haunting, laid back folk, similar to much of his work, however all the vocals have been edited using a vocoder. It still manages to continue the trends in his other work, but this one is something that I've never quite heard before. It's an incredible piece of music, made perfect by the voice manipulation. The track is taken to whole new levels with his post-rock band, Volcano Choir . The track builds as layer after layer is added, until [...]
Woods , one of Bon Iver 's most beautiful pieces of work, has gone through three iterations. The original is haunting, laid back folk, similar to much of his work, however all the vocals have been edited using a vocoder. It still manages to continue the trends in his other work, but this one is something that I've never quite heard before. It's an incredible piece of music, made perfect by the voice manipulation. The track is taken to whole new levels with his post-rock band, Volcano Choir . The track builds as layer after layer is added, until [...]
What can I say? It's acid. It's a mix. It's awesome.
A giant, though unassuming, kick starts off this amazing house track. The rhythm builds, vocal snippets build tension (Shake Your Body Down!) and the warm, glowing synth stabs drop and I'm in heaven. Discreet Unit have created subtle, beautiful perfection. Shake Your Body Down
One of their best songs from the latest Caribou album, it has had a slew of remixes which are fantastic. It's obviously due to the hook of the song (SUN SUN SUN SUN SUN SUN SUN SUN SUN) being easy to put over any beat you want to. Here are my favourites: The intro to Dead Clown Society 's version of the song is so intense. The entire song is a bit stuttery and chopped up, but not enough to ruin the original power of the track. I wish this song managed [...]
This is the latest to come from Hemlock , a label I'm particularly enamoured with, since they've founded the likes of James Blake and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Which means that these guys are on one of the coolest dubstep labels around. So I was expecting some very grimy, dark productions. I was sort of right, but Hemlock have gone and released something different; namely a band. This sounds stupid, but a band sounds very different to some beat maker locked in his room all day. The band is Breton , and the EP is a mix of lots of different genres. [...]
This week is another garage mix, this time from Jamie Grind . This one stands out because it's a truly masterful mix, in fact it feels like a composition. Everything flows so well, it feels like just one giant track. As a bonus, it's a nice ratio of stuff I've never heard of before and some of my favourites too. Download here .
Bot'Ox released their very eclectic album, Babylon by Car, two weeks ago. Though the majority of the album is made up of electronic elements, there is definitely other influences such as EBM, post-punk, disco, krautrock and industrial. They're sort of like a modern day Kraftwerk. Which means there are parts that I really like and parts which I don't enjoy as much. The first three tracks are really solid, but the rest of the album is good and bad according to the genres they traverse. So if you want something completely weird to listen to, then you've found it. [...]
Bot'Ox released their very eclectic album, Babylon by Car, two weeks ago. Though the majority of the album is made up of electronic elements, there is definitely other influences such as EBM, post-punk, disco, krautrock and industrial. They're sort of like a modern day Kraftwerk. Which means there are parts that I really like and parts which I don't enjoy as much. The first three tracks are really solid, but the rest of the album is good and bad according to the genres they traverse. So if you want something completely weird to listen to, then you've found it. [...]
I initially didn't jump onto the new MGMT album. The fact that they were boasting that they were trying to get away from all the pop music and make something real , immediately turned me off. For me, their best songs were the Kids and the Feeling Electric and such. However, after a recent run in with new Erol Alkan remix (which is fantastic and you should stream it below), I tried the album again. It's actually quite good. There are some songs I like and there are some songs which are boring. My favourite is the final one, [...]
They died last year, but Situationists did a really awesome cover of Daft Punk. It's always fun taking a song and completely reworking it into something new, here from electronica to post-punk. Take note; this is how it should be done, with creativity and instrumental perfection. You can still download one of their EPs for free here . Digital Love (Daft Punk Cover)
Sickness and forgetfulness lead to no Running Music Mix last week. This week, I ask for forgiveness with the announcement of a little change to this feature. Every 12 of these (or every 3 months for those who aren't math geeks), I will be posting a custom-made mix with my random musical highlights. The choices will be faster paced for running, but can be listened to at any time, just like with all the Running Music Mixes featured here. So without further ado... Tracklist I Start To Run - White Denim Infinity Guitars - [...]
I really don't like Lil' Wayne . But discovering Flying Lotus and James Blake's versions of his songs is really helping me come round. I just don't get why people herald him as an amazing musician, when it seems he is just like every other pop gangster out there, but with a slightly cooler voice. Well anyway, I do really like this song. I love some good bass and this has it. Flying Lotus warps it to match his style by pitching vocals up, adding wobbly synths and everything else you've come to excpect from him. [...]
Strangely, the new Soul Jazz compilation, Future Bass , has a fascination with the low-end frequencies that humans can hear. Very clearly, Ramadanman took them up on the idea and placed his track, Bass Drums , within the album with safe knowledge that it would be in good hands. A cheesy long intro leads to a relentless arpeggiated bass line, aggressively attacking your ears for minutes.
Planting The Seed were very ill matched for Gold Panda . I initially took them for some kind of indie rock band, while one of the members said they used to be grunge. However, neither of use was really right. Though they dabbled in these areas (it is hard not to as a 3 piece guitar band), their enthusiasm to experiment and to search for other sounds was apparent. This lead to what I could only conclude as an awesome set, with post-rock build ups, funky guitar dance anthems and slash-my-wrists moaning. The instrumental expertise was great, and despite the small crowd, [...]
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