Wednesday, November 30, 2011

#31: CJ's Addictions 6

With the release of a new chillout album comes some awesome kickass music. And I am obviously going to pour nothing but sweeping, inappropriate love and praise over the following songs, which are way beautiful and only lead to amazingness and... *sigh* I'm not making sense. I blame this, liquid music.
So we'll start with a song that, as soon as I heard it, went straight into two playlists: Melbourne and Utopia. It's a Melbourne song. (See the end of this post for a list of other Melbourne songs and you'll see a pattern emerge.) Regardless of the fact that they're Swedish, it's a Melbourne song. Much love, respect and ♥ for this song. I fell in love thanks to the chords they use, and the fact that the background synths are nice and sweeping. Minor key? Maybe. Delicious key? Definitely. As I say, it's not the first time I've fallen in love with such a song, and it won't be the last. But music is like that. I picture a sunset over the city and that glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice that I keep mentioning in my hands as I overlook the city from goodness-knows-where (because one can't get up that high without at least an aeroplane). I'M MELTING. THIS SONG IS AWESOMENESS IN A NUTSHELL AND IT IS MAKING ME MELT.

...ahem. My bizarre thought process aside, on to the next two. Here is a song by Bibio:
And here is le video of Le Bump:
What connects these two, other than the fact that they both are awesome? They're both ridiculously catchy in exactly the same way. And that way is the right way. Granted, Anything New is a bit slower and hellish to dance to (beyond a bizarre tribal dance), but it's really nice to just sit there, listen to and maybe click your fingers in time to (fuck grammar up the arsehole. Seriously). Bibio will go far in my playlist. In contrast, Le Bump is unfortunately predicted to go the same way as We No Speak Americano (ridiculously overplayed in and out of clubs and radio stations and hence annoying as HELL to listen to after a few months), but for the moment I'm not complaining. Le Bump starts by sounding like grungy house but it pleasantly surprised me when I first heard it, because it's anything but grungy. Good to see Yolanda Be Cool fucking the trend that Afrojack, Angger Dimas and LMFAO are perpetuating. Fuck them. I have Yolanda Be Cool. As for what the songs individually sound like: Anything New sounds like it comes straight out of The Sims (the original one, when it still had the isometric views and Sims didn't age) and Le Bump sounds like it comes straight out of Yolanda Be Cool. Wait...

Last: I really love this song.
Allow me to flash back for a bit. If you're allergic to flashbacks, please turn off for the next half a dozen lines or so. Last summer, I had my first ever summer Nando's experience. The chicken was pretty sweet (well, it was spicy actually) and the atmosphere was deliciously summery. But it wasn't those that sold me on summer peri-peri chicken, it was the music. Apparently they play deep house in certain Nando's restaurants during summer, because they did it again not two weeks ago. I learned to love a song by 4Hero (which I will feature next time I do deep house) and I found three more kickass ones two weeks ago. So I guess you can say summer is my time for deep house phases. And I'm going through one right now and I really love this song as a result. In fact, I love it so much I'm going to repeat myself over and over for a little while until either the message sinks in, I get bored, or you get so annoyed that you track me down based on my IP address and beat the living shit out of me. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. That's all I can really say, because it is - like Feathers and Anything New from before - absolutely delicious and meltworthy. Someone get a mop. I'm now a puddle on the floor.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

#30: The Call - Raized By Wolves ft. Tom Smith

You want to hear good house? This is it:
These guys are relative newcomers to the house music scene, having just sprung up out of Manchester. In fact, they're so new that they don't have a Wikipedia page yet. Somebody should really get on to it (SHOTGUN NOT). They've jumped on to mau5trap Records, along with the little wizard of progressive house, deadmau5. Which immediately says to me "awh yeah progressive house". It's not quite correct, because this is halfway between progressive and straight-up electro house, but hell if I'm complaining. It's a beautiful song in its own right, but borrowing the talents of Editors singer Tom Smith sure as hell didn't hurt it. I loved it from the initial synth line at the start, because of its minimalistic nature that couples brilliantly with Smith's voice; when it gets into the sound saturation stage (~1'22") it's gone through fifty different kinds of transformations and it has evolved nice and early. So there's one big huge tick from me. I'm also in love with the fact that it's not grungy, despite the huge potential (and, I'm sure, temptation) to do so. It brings them into line with acts like the Swedish House Mafia, who are exceedingly good at that kind of music (for those wondering, yes, the Swedish House Mafia - Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello - are all Swedes and amazing producers of house music. They could give The Bloody Beetroots and The Aston Shuffle a run for their money). So, everyone got that? Comparison with David Guetta, Skrillex or LMFAO = bad. Comparison with The Bloody Beetroots, Swedish House Mafia or The Aston Shuffle = good. Comparison with The Bloody Beetroots, Swedish House Mafia and The Aston Shuffle = very good. I should feature all three one day. Or something like that. Anyway, this song is delicious. Liquid music. Hear it, love it, give me money.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

#29: Children Of The Sky - Mike Batt

Please ignore the shitty quality here.

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care,
They pursued it with forks and hope,
They threatened its life with a railway-share,
They charmed it with smiles and soap.

So begins Children Of The Sky, by acclaimed pop-rock artist Mike Batt. The poetry is borrowed stolen liberated from Lewis Carroll's The Hunting Of The Snark, a famed nonsense poem that was turned into a musical1 in the mid-1980s by - you guessed it - acclaimed pop-rock artist Mike Batt. A little history lesson: the musical originally included such names as Cliff Richard, Art Garfunkel, Deneice Williams, Captain Sensible, John Hurt, Billy Connolly and acclaimed pop-rock artist Mike Batt. The album was twelve songs long, a huge part of my childhood, and I've suddenly come across Dancing Towards Disaster by acclaimed pop-rock artist Mike Batt featuring the vocals of Deniece Williams. So I rediscovered Children Of The Sky, performed by acclaimed pop-rock artist Mike Batt himself, and I thought I'd share it, and the fact that this is epic music, with you all. I say "epic" in this post to mean "heroic". Not that Children Of The Sky isn't awesome. I just mean "epic" a little differently here. In any case, I do have a soft spot for epic music. Movie music, if you will. I much prefer it with vocals, which is why I love Children Of The Sky. I also love it because of its disconnection with Snark, meaning it can work as a standalone song, as part of a concert, as part of a musical, or as just anything really. There are two other songs on the same album that don't have narration or mention the Snark at all - Dancing Towards Disaster and The Snooker Song - both of which are also pretty cool, just not epic. Okay, this one started off with narration, but hell, it bizarrely works. Also, it's not hard to Audacity out. My apologies to acclaimed pop-rock artist Mike Batt for that, but again, it's purely in the interest of making the song completely standalone. Also, can someone PLEASE share a music video or MP3 of this song in better quality, without the thing skipping or fading out WAY too early? Quality notwithstanding, this is an amazing song, and full credit to acclaimed pop-rock artist Mike Batt for making it.

1Yes, it's a musical. Yes, I like it. There are actually a few musicals I will willingly sit down and watch. Short of older Disney movies, the ones that come to mind are The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Cats, Avenue Q, The Blues Brothers, and this. If I think of any others, I'll post them.