I guess we could say posting "pop-ish" music ain't really the general tendency of this blog. Not sure what has gotten into me, but I just had this urge to do "it". Possible brain damage might be the cause to all "this".
Shoops - Do Me, Work It ("Jerk It" Remix) Had heard about these guys and never got around to posting. I must admit that their type of music ain't what I listen to most, but I do like their style. They've got a wonderful blend of naughty electro-pop going. Plus this duo is from Montreal, got to show some love. Rep your hood, namean?
Shoops - DTF This could easily be a popular club song. Dance-worthy beat, catchy chorus and naaaasty lyrics! MySpace.com you follow me? My place, my home, you wanna leave? My keys, my coat, you following? Your knees, your throat, you swallowing?
Katy Perry - Milk Milk Lemonade (Audio1 Edit) Probably rethink this one through once i'm not high. *Ok took some time on this one and I'll just run with it. This track most likely won't make it to her new album. Such a shame, I haven't heard this many sexual innuendos since "The Todd" from Scrubs.
Soulja Boy - Crank Dat (Cousin Cole Remix) For me, this song was the anthem to f*cking up the dancefloor in clubs. Followed by mad hate when everyone started catching on to this. I'm glad I have a decent remix which I can still bang out sometimes without becoming incredibly aggressive.
Today is another one of those days that I'm just throwing tunes at you, for shits and giggles. I figured that a nice balance between huge text-heavy posts and shorter, more concise posts was in order. Cal gets back soon, and Bynie started doing night shifts, so you won't have to put up with my incessant rambling every single day, haha. Enjoy! (Oh, and R.I.P Aaliyah. 9 years already? Damn, time flies.)
Loic from Source of Cool recently put me up on this friend of his from Reims, a 19 year old producer and DJ who goes by the name of Echoes. There must be something in the water in Reims (read: Odus, Brodinski, Yuksek,etc), because there seems to be a lot of fine talent there. The tune I'm posting today is an fantastic original by Echoes, an rousing minimalist banger called The Crystal Guru. It's filled to the brim with all sorts of great percussive sounds and a bouncy groove, and a nice little vocal sample that fades in and out. Bloody hypnotic, I must say. Echoes has also been signed to Blast Records, which means that there should be a lot more great songs in store for us soon. Keep your ears/eyes peeled, people.
Although we try not to post blends or mashups, this one caught my attention. Montreal's self-proclaimed king of booty bass, Ghislain Poirier, recently concocted this effective refix of Belgian/Rwandan producer Stromae's gargantuan hit, Alors on Danse. He mashes-up (...sorry) this tune with his own collaboration with Latino-Quebecer Boogat, Que Viva, and the result is pretty decent. A late-summer sizzler, to put it simply. .
My appreciation for John Dahlback (and his cousin Jesper Dahlback, who has worked with Soulwax) runs quite deep. His productions all have a real feel-good vibe to them, and a huge sound. Orchestral and operatic concert-hall rave music, if you will. Or, if you want a less pretentious description, it's just damn fine house and techno made by a very talented Swedish producer. This tune should put a smile on your face and a shuffle in your step, if there's any justice in the world.
Did you enjoy that Steve Starks remix I posted yesterday? I hope so, because today's post is focused entirely on Munchi, one of the most interesting producers out there at the moment. He is a 17 year old Dominican prodigy living in Rotterdam, Holland, and has received a lot of blog attention in 2010, mainly due to his extremely prolific output and his almost feverish desire to innovate.
Munchi's sound, so to speak, skirts the line between moombahton, cumbia, kuduro, reggaeton, merengue, baltimore club, baile funk and salsa. He has tried his hand at a lot of different types of regional dance music, with a great level of success, in my opinion. He has an amazing ear for dope shit, and I especially dig his drive. Munchi, if you're not aware, releases almost every single one of his tracks for free on his blog (link below), in monthly promo mixtapes. Basically, every month, this kid takes on a new genre and puts his spin on it, and releases it to the public for feedback and listening pleasure.
Munchi has been called "The Next Diplo" by Generation Bass, and while it's too early to tell, I can see why they'd throw that out there. Munchi, much like Mr. Mad Decent, is completely unafraid to take the most obscure or obvious sample, and flip it into something amazing. They've both got a manic drive to make people go buck wild, but it may be a while before Munchi attains the same level of recognition. However, if he keeps up his output, all the while turning Planet Rock into a creeping dutch house banger, The Fugees songs into rousing cumbia anthems and Ed Banger electro into Kuduro/Reggaeton hybrids, he might have a chance. Can you say facemelting?
What makes a lot of regional dance music like kuduro or guarachero attractive to me is the fact that these producers make this amazing music with limited resources, usually an old computer running a bootleg early copy of Fruity Loops. While they might not have the luster or big sound of proper recording studios or fancy equipment, the rawness and power of these tracks makes them almost better/funner to dance to, in my opinion. The innate sense of rhythm that these producers have without much outside influence and the almost hedonistic vibe of the tracks makes them appeal to a much wider audience. It is global dance music, if that makes any sense.
What does this have to do with Munchi? Couple that innate sense of awesome rhythm with being surrounded by an exploding dutch house scene, and you have a producer with his finger directly on the pulse of what makes people dance and go apeshit. Truly a force to be reckoned with.
I'm unleashing a HUGE Munchi post tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Rotterdam's boy wonder is making huge moves, releasing a slew of crazy shit at a ridiculous rate. Massive!
Renaissance Man's new EP Brainstorm came out today on Jesse Rose's Made To Play label. This is my favorite tune on the EP, a deep, dreamy powerhouse of a tune. They've produced a lot of amazing tracks, and this one is no different. If you ever have the chance to see them in a show, don't miss it. I saw them perform at Igloofest in January, and they tore the house/ice village down.
D.A.M.B is a producer based in Sacramento who makes beats. He's cool, and this is a tropical banana boat bass anthem. Really awesome flip on this sample, in my opinion.
One of the greatest who ever did it. The H-Town legend's classic ode to his neighborhood, with a great backing piano track that makes me think of Mr Rogers, for some reason.
Here I am posting ear-grating metal music again. Finntroll is a Finnish (coughnoshitcough) band that is known for its rather unique and extreme mix of different genres of music, like polka. Yes, you read that right. Polka meets black metal. Boom.
If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you're familiar with my unabashed love for corny love songs. I watched 500 Days of Summer for the first time in a while yesterday, so that's probably to blame. Still a good song, though.
Great but strange funk tune. It starts off on a cosmic medieval vibe, then kickstarts the funk when you least expect it. Fast forward to 3:16 for a nice little surprise. Anyone remember those horns?
An indie tune from 2006 that features that great sound that my radio and stereo make when I'm about to receive a call. Cell phone feedback noise for the win.
Yes, it's been posted a million times so far. Cee-Lo, for those not in the know, is Goodie Mob's crooner extraordinaire, Gnarls Barkley's meal ticket and one hell of a unique and talented MC. This cut is off of his upcoming album, The Ladykiller. I try to avoid posting songs that've been overblogged, but there was something about this one that I couldn't resist. Soulful as hell.
And here we are again. I hope you haven't been turned off by the ridiculous JBeebz crap I posted yesterday, hahah. To win back your trust, here's the third volume of my weekly Canadian Club Crunchers series, which seeks to expose you to some of the fine talent in the Great White North. For those tardy mo'fuckas who've missed the first two volumes, you can check out Volume One here and Volume Two here.
Kid Aloha (Montreal)
I first heard of Kid Aloha through Montreal's loved/hated promoters Saint Woods, and due to that association, I never really gave his stuff a chance. However, his edits and remixes started popping up fairly regularly on sites that I respect, so I finally gave in, and I must say, I'm quite pleased that I did. Kid Aloha, originally from Hawaii, is one of Montreal's brightest young producers, and his stuff just keeps getting doper. His sound is hard to pigeonhole, and it is his creative and innovative take on music that keeps me coming back for more. His tunes have influences ranging from tropical electro house to 2step anthems, but they all have a distinct hip-hop feel to them. Maybe it's the drums, maybe it's the groove, but Kid Aloha definitely wears his love for instrumental hip-hop on his sleeve.
A few days ago, he dropped these two recent tracks in our inbox, and I figured I'd pass these along to you, our faithful readers. The first tune is a dope instrumental hip-hop track that has gotten play from Hudson Mohawke, Sam Tiba, LOL Boys and more. I definitely dig the eerie screeching sound and the drum pattern, and getting your tunes rinsed by big names like that can't hurt. The other track is, as he describes it, "a mix between Acid house and Funky house". The rolling synth line is exquisite and effective, I must admit. Even though this guy may be a relative unknown to a lot of you, you should keep your ear to the grindstone, as big things are in store for Mr. Aloha.
First of all, I have to give most of the credit for this post to blog homies Electro Toronto, a blog run by two tireless electronic music lovers who have exposed me to a gargantuan amount of amazing Canadian music in the past year, like Golden Gloves, a phenomenal Toronto dj/producer duo. They first started off by producing hard hitting electro, and have opened for the Bloody Beetroots, MSTRKRFT, Laidback Luke & Boys Noize, among others. These days, however, Golden Gloves are delving into the limitless possibilities of tech-house and techno, and are also known as extremely prolific djs. It is impressive that they put in that much work as DJs and still produce tracks that have that high degree of quality.
The first tune I've posted is a klezmer-influenced tech-house opus called The Mensch, filled with Yiddish chants, accordions galore and a galloping techy beat. Again, I have a weakness for strange regional influences, so this Fiddler On the Roof-esque anthem definitely gets a lot of support from me. The second track, a tremendous banger called Lemon Zest, is a powerhouse of a tune that mixes high-pitched synth stabs with a masterful techy backdrop. Citrus flavored house music, for the children.
It is completely surprising to me that Bowly has flown under my radar for this long. He is a Quebecois producer whose incredible productions have gotten support from such names as Cooly G and Ikonika, and threw down one of Mutek's best sets this year. Bowly is a maestro of bass heavy electronic music, and his original take on the UK Funky sound has produced some fantastic material. While most of his songs might not fit your traditional definition of club bangers, they all have an extremely sexy and jacking vibe that is sure to shred dancefloors. This is sweat inducing, malarial dance music that forces you to dance with reckless abandon.
I've included two of his songs this afternoon, but I don't know if I can properly describe them. Listen to his soundcloud and open your mind. Please enjoy responsibly.
The songs featured on this blog are for promotional use only. Our goal is to promote the artists we feature, to expose great talent to a wider audience, and not to steal money from their pockets. If you would like a song removed, just get at us in the comments and we'll be more than happy to oblige. If you like the music we feature, then support the artists next time they roll through your city, either by going to a show, or by buying merchandise!
