9/11/2010

scotch hangovers


Well, besides the fact that I have a little headache, things are good in Avenge The Virgins land. Cal, Dom & I just got back from seeing The Seventh Letter's exposition at the Yves Laroche art gallery on St-Laurent, which was supremely dope. The Seventh Letter, for those not in the know, is a crew of West Coast-based street artists/vandals/etc, which includes such names as POSE, REVOK, RETNA, REYES, NORM, and others. If you are unfamiliar with their work, step your game up. They are some of the most talented street artists in the States, in my opinion. If you're in Montreal, go check that out pronto, the exposition is there until the 15th, I believe.

Here's a little video of a mural that RETNA & EL MAC (Seventh Letter/AWR) painted, just to give you a little look into how skilled these dudes are. Smooth stuff.


Anyways, on to the music. A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Pressure- Love and Affection

One of my favorite songs, regardless of genre. Smooth, positive and uplifting vibes.

Florrie- Give Me Your Love (LOL Boys remix)

Brand new LOL Boys remix, folks. This time they take on British pop newcomer Florrie's song Give Me Your Love, and warp it from a sensual pop ditty into something dark and slitherin'(no harry potter-o). Sounds like something a serial killer would put on during a romantic supper.

Harmonium- Pour Un Instant

1970s Quebec rock. Try it out.

Wyclef Jean ft John Forte & R.O.C- Street Jeopardy

Have you ever heard the sound of a .44 at your door?

The Carnival was the first rap tape I ever got, hilariously enough.


au revoir, motherfuckers.

-Matt

9/09/2010

Diva Nina


On a cold and rainy day like today nothing can beat a good Nina Simone playlist. If by any chance you've been ignorant for the past decades, Madam Simone was an incredible jazz/blues/soul/gospel/pop artist that was active during the late 50s to the early 70s.

Her work can still be found in not so late productions by other artists. A lot of hiphop&rap artists have been sampling her tunes for their beats. Just a random example, if you are a Lil Wayne fan well one of my favorite song off the Carter III album called "dontgetit" is sampling Nina Simone. He's surely not the first and last one to do it.

As for today, I will be sharing one of my favorite song of hers and an excellent classic remix that goes with it. As a bonus I'll be adding an other remix off the Verve collection which I talked about in an old post of mine. Enjoy

Nina Simone - Aint Got No/I Got Life
Nina Simone - Aint Got No/I Got Life (Groovefinder Remix
Nina Simone - Gimme Some (Mike Mangini Remix)

Peep the video below, very good performance, she changes the groove of the song a bit, which I love.


Adios

9/08/2010

femmestep


Look, everybody, a post with a theme. Don't we love those? Let's see if we can figure out today's theme. First person to guess gets sweet F.A.

Welcome to Luvstep. Old news, of course, but this ain't a bloody competition. If you are already informed on this kind of sweet, easy listening tuneage, hats off to you. If not, please enjoy our little thematic Wednesday.

Ladies + Dubstep = Smiles all around.


Rusko ft Amber Coffman- Hold On



Katy B- Katy On A Mission (produced by Benga)



Magnetic Man ft Angela Hunte- I Need Air

(Magnetic Man is Skream + Benga + Artwork)




Have a pleasant evening, everyone.

-Matt

9/07/2010

Canadian Club Crunchers vol 4


As promised, here is the fourth volume of Canadian Club Crunchers, my weekly attempt at promoting great Canadian talent. So far, we've covered a great deal of ground, profiling producers in genres as varied as dubstep, tech-house, instrumental hip hop, electro, and more. Although I am just re-hashing what I have said before, I must dwell on the fact that Canada possesses an extremely large amount of electronic music talent. Considering the size of our country, it shouldn't come as that big a surprise, but I digress. Today's edition of Canadian Club Crunchers features a nice little mix of nu-disco boogie madness, zouk-influenced house music and nigh-unclassifiable dance music.

As always, if you know any great Canadian acts producing electronic music, or you just want to big-up your friends, then drop us a little message in the good ol' inbox, and we'll be sure to give that a look.

For those who skipped school on these days:

Vol I
Vol II
Vol III


U-Tern (Vancouver)


Vancouver producer U-Tern has already gotten a fair amount of burn on Avenge The Virgins, but we've never really said much about him, besides the occasional "OMG SO GOOD". Considering that he consistently releases some of the finest funky music in the northern hemisphere, I figured that it was time for a little profile. The problem with a lot of nu-disco is that you often have a nagging feeling that it is somehow phony or too polished, if that makes any sense. U-Tern's love for live instrumentation and old synth sounds is clearly heard in all of his tunes, and that's probably why I enjoy his stuff so much. This guy always lays down the smoothest, most groovetastic basslines in his productions, and will probably be a big name, if things keep going well.

U-Tern has also been running a radio show called One Day Later on Brooklyn Radio, which has received a lot of attention and accolades from critics and fans alike. He's definitely got an ear and deep love for disco, funk, boogie and other music of that ilk, and it shows, both in his productions and in his mixes. U-Tern has worked on some official remix projects for the likes of Britney and LMFAO (which is a weird mix, but whatever), and I've just recently heard that the incredible Mark Ronson remix that we've posted below will be on the official release of the single. Power moves, Mr. U-Tern. Keep it up!

U-Tern- 808 remix

Mark Ronson & The Business INTL- Bang Bang Bang (U-Tern's Disco Dub)

Myspace
Facebook
Soundcloud


Nujax (Montreal)


The first time I ever heard this Montreal duo's name was probably when they dropped their remix of Major Lazer's Zumbi a while back. Since then, they've received quite a bit of blog, radio and chart attention from around the world. Kid Legit & Girl Problems, the two DJs that make up Nujax, have been throwing parties at Montreal's own Blue Dog Motel for quite some time (Sextape Fridays, anyone?), and it's rather embarrassing that I have not found the time to check them out yet. They've released a few dope EPs, Aya and Beat Gon Boom, which have seen support from the likes of Egyptrixx, Treasure Fingers, Dooze Jackers, LOL Boys and more.

While their recent productions have a very tribal feel to them, Nujax actually started by producing harder, more electro-influenced fare. However, I must say that I enjoy their recent adventures into the ethno-house genre much more. The two songs that I've posted today are intense jacking party tunes that still retain a bit of tribal flavour. I'm a sucker for nice percussion sounds, to be honest. Nujax has also attempted to weave the sounds of Zouk (a rhythmic Antillean sound) into their tracks, and the result is magical. These dudes have managed to craft a hard-hitting, dancefloor-pleasing sound that still pays homage to its ethnic influnces. Huge!

Nujax- Tonight

Nujax- Bekinya

Myspace
Facebook
Soundcloud

Azari & III (Toronto)


You know, I'm probably not going to do these guys much justice, but I'll try. My introduction to Azari & III (pronounced Azari and Third), a Toronto house collective that consists of two producers and two vocalists, was when I saw the incredibly fucked-up video for Hungry For The Power (posted below) on the Fader blog a while ago. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to make of them for a long time, but as I did a bit more research into the history of house music, it started to get clearer. That being said, I don't want to pigeonhole them into any genre, because their sound is a lot more diverse that just 'house music'. They pay homage to early Chicago house, sure, but much of their material is just too bizarre and amazing to place in a nice little bracket. They mix hoarse and diva-esque vocals with an almost phantasmagorical-sounding backdrop of drum machines and deep house grooves. Vogue house, maybe? I wish that I could describe it better, but that's probably the best that you're going to get today.

I've actually heard through the grapevine that Azari & III are the most recent signees to legendary Montreal label Turbo Records, which absolutely blew my mind. Tiga's record label is one of my favorites, and to find out that this very unique group will be collaborating with some of techno's brightest minds leaves me foaming at the mouth. Metaphorically, of course. If you dug the Friendly Fires collabo that I posted a few days ago, then give this stuff a try. It might be a bit too out-there for some of you, but this is decidedly awesome and unique music. A great mix of the past and the future.

Sunday Girl- Self Control (Azari & III remix)

Bot'tox- Blue Steel (Azari & III remix)



Myspace
Facebook
Twitter

Hope you enjoyed this segment of Canadian Club Crunchers. Thanks for reading.

-M.

9/06/2010

Toddla T


Well showing up late as hell to Piknic Electronik was more than worth it. I arrived at 8 o'clock on the dot, right on time for this young DJ from Great Britain: Toddla T

Big Boi - Shutterbug (Jack Beats Remix)
Not long after exiting the Metro, I arrived at the main stage and to my surprise this song was playing. Came across it a little while back and hadn't seen a release date for it. Don't pass this up, it'll most likely be my autumn anthem!

Vato Gonzalez - Badman Riddim
So this song right here, huge. Dutch banger with an original way of sampling Pharoahe Monch's "Simon Says". Dropped it in the heat of the set and it destroyed the dancefloor.

Rusko - How Lo Can U Gizzo
Dubstep remix of Ludacris' hit song by the Don of wobbly bass and hard beats.

Ludacris - How Low (Yoseph Remix)
I'm pretty sure this is the reason I threw my back out during the show. Seriously, just how low can you go? If I'm not mistaken Toddla T played one of these 2 remixes, just not sure which...


This is probably half way through his set or something. His was creating a fabulous vibe all throughout. Unsure of the first song, but he moves into a remix of Congorock's "Babylon". Big ups to Gareth for this clip!

Toddla T - Shake Ya Body Naked, Shake It (DJ Sega Philly Club remix)
I'm pretty sure the previous songs were part of his set that night. This one however, was probably not part of it. Still, fits the ambiance of the set and is a mash up of a Toddla T song, enjoy!

Eazy E - Boyz N The Hood (Squincy Jones 16Bit Edit)
Simply incredible. Like for the song above, it fits the mood.

Toddla T knows how to throw a good party, regardless the mix of styles he decides the include in his set. Dubstep-reggae riddims throughout and finished with a bang by playing Duck Sauce's summer hit "Barbra Streisand" into Fake Blood's "Fix Your Accent". Beautiful? I believe so.
Even went on stage with 2 friends after to meet him. Always a pleasure to find a DJ who seems stoked to talk with fans. Sadly, he missed one hell of a house party after the show.

-B

9/05/2010

sample me


Yesterday was a good day. We partied our asses off as usual, randomly met and got drunk with Bloc Party's bus driver which was quite funny.

Today's post is going to feature hip hop songs and the samples used by each producers. Some times you find a beat so sick that you wonder what was the original track used to create this master "piece".

1st track by Talib Kweli. This is an old track off the Eardrum cd. First time I saw Talib Kweli live he started the show with this song and it was damn good. The bass was hitting so hard I thought I was going to have a heart attack. The sample used here is from an old mellow funk/soul song. Good beat to relax
Talib Kweli - Listen
Sample:
Fred Williams & The Jewels Band - Tell Her




CunninLynguists have been one of my favorite hip hop act for quite some time. This beat called Hellfire samples a weird demoniac song by Arthur Brown. Ryan "Kno" Wisler really did a great job on the beat. Take a look at the video, his dance moves are too good.
CunninLynguists - Hellfire
Sample:
Arthur Brown - Fire



Last one by Camp Lo is a classic track. O.G video. Good hip hop vibe.
Camp Lo - Luchini AKA This Is It
Sample:
Dynasty - Adventures In The Land Of Music



Have fun