About a week ago my sister came back from Spain and introduced me to David Guetta, who apparently is all over the clubs in Europe. If you’re into some fun Electronic/House/etc, it’s pretty good. I can’t believe I’m gonna say this but the track with Akon is great (“Sexy Bitch”). Today on Okayplayer I saw a post with a download for the track “Memories” featuring Kid Cudi. On Tuesday, Guetta’s album One Love comes out in the US.
Download “Memories” (feat Kid Cudi)
Part man, part machine, part cockatiel, Cage & Aviary take flights of fancy whenever they can.
Cage & Aviary, one part Jamie Paton and one part Nigel of Bermondsey, are busy people. They run a record label, they DJ, they produce, they jam. Their most recent release, the stellar Television Train/Suburban 12″ out now on DFA records (the euro version), has catapulted their success to a global scale. The two came stateside to play some of their first ever American DJ gigs in Los Angeles. So as their legend grows, and as their music continues to amaze, be sure to check them out. The two were nice enough to sit down and fill out a nice e-mail correspondence for Mind Inversion as well. Enjoy! (Nigel isn’t much for the talk)
Mind Inversion: So I’m barely 19 and have a limited knowledge, yet great appreciation and love of disco and house records from days gone by. I feel like all of your tracks draw upon very historic music, and music that most mainstream listeners don’t have an ear for. Elaborate on this idea, What from the past has influenced your music?
Jamie: I guess the short answer is lots of things, but that’s not much in the way of elaboration! We both bring lots of different influences to the mix, but our tastes also blend in some areas too – we both love the whole post-punk NY art-pop stuff like Talking Heads, and the Mancunian 80s new wave punk-funkers like A Certain Ratio and early New Order. We also have much love for the whole island records thing. A lot of this stuff when listened to now doesn’t sound mainstream but at the time, when the charts were made up of less formulaic production-line music, these oddball records made it into the upper reaches of the charts, I think it was an amazing time for popular music. Aside from all of that, I guess I bring more of a disco and house thing to the mix.
Nigel: I agree
MI: What is your model for creating music? I know you guys are involved in various other projects, so is the way you guys create started separately and then fused together at a different time, or is it more of the just sit down together with a plan and create tracks?
Jamie: We just sit down and jam really, see what comes out and take it from there. Recently we’ve been getting our live DJ set thing together, and the practice sessions for that have really produced some great new material, or at least starting points for them.
Nigel: I concur
So for the past couple of months the team here at Mind Inversion have been brainstorming over different weekly columns that each of us will run. Ryan’s got his awesome ‘Sunday Metal Minute’ and Tim’s got his fantastic ‘Wildstyle Wednesday’. I’ve been hard-pressed to come up with anything decent for mine, so I had put it off for a while. But it dawned upon me tonight while I was listening to the new DFA single from Walter Jones that a weekly write up about the world of House and Electro music would be a great thing. I’ll dig into my back catalogue when I get a chance, but each week I’ll try and offer up some of the best new singles, remixes, and b-side releases. So here we go, week one… Thanks for reading this far, enjoy!
Walter Jones – “I’ll Keep On Love You”
DFA Records Supersoul Recordings BUY: iTunes/Vinyl
The newest edition to the DFA family, Walter Jones is a man of simplicity. In a world that’s been dominated by glitchy, chopped up electro music, house music has seen a strong revival within certain crowds. Artists and DJs like Walter Jones would be the reason for this strong movement, combining echoing feminine vocals reminiscent of recent Au Reviore Simone and Hercules & Love Affair releases along with poignant and perfect loops. The amazing bass kick in “I’ll Keep on Loving You” times out perfectly, not too fast, but not near deathly slow. Jones is able to reach a happy medium on all fronts of his music. It’s great for House enthusiasts who are particular about every little nuance on a track, but it’s able to satisfy the more relaxed listener who enjoys some vocal overlay instead of straight repetition. It’s a blend of genres that I have a fondness for, so it’s a great place to start ‘Saturday Single’. Those who know me well know that I’m a total DFA fanboy, but that aside, “I’ll Keep On Loving You” is a single slightly different from many of their larger full length releases, proving once again why Murphy, Goldsworthy, Sweeney and co. have some of the best ears for electro music of any styling. B-side “Living With Out Your Love” shouldn’t be forgotten about however. Again featuring the vocals that haunt even the biggest Silent Hill fans, this track feels exactly like what it is, a B-side. It’s unpolished, unfinished, and sadly forgotten. It’s house’s version of indie lo-fi, giving an old vinyl-like sound to a new mp3.
There you have it, the first in what will hopefully be many successful ‘Saturday Single’ columns. If you like what you read, please come back. If you don’t like electro music of any sorts, too bad I suppose, I’d say you’re missing out. At any rate though, thanks for sticking around!
Dizzee Rascal is back with some new grime for the world, and his new single “Bonkers” (featuring Armand Van Helden) from the forthcoming Tongue in Cheek LP serves to show that he doesn’t plan on toning his persona down one bit for the new release. While all the news in the world may be depressing as ever, Dizzee’s infectious, funky, off-the-wall house/hip-hop style make you forget about that pretty quickly. I hope to hear this track bumping at party’s alot this summer, cause it’s definitely one of the freshest songs I’ve heard this year; the beats are huge and Dizzee’s frentic rhyme skills sound 100% explosive. Keep your eyes peeled for the official release of Tongue in Check, but for now enjoy the a/v candy known as the “Bonkers” music video above (click “HQ” for better sound quality!) and don’t feel bad if you wanna get outta your chair, start to dance, and let yourself go a little crazzzy.
MP3: Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden – “Bonkers” (from Tongue in Cheek, forthcoming 2009)
Simian Mobile Disco have stayed fairly busy since their amazing 2007 release Attack Sustain Decay Release. Though the album didn’t gain as much support as it deserved (thank Justice and Daft Punk touring for that) the boys still released plenty of single around the album, touring heavily in support, and fixed up a Fabriclive mix as well. I haven’t heard much in the way of official plans for their next release, fingers crossed that it’s this year, but a new song they’ve been playing live got the video treatment. Though the video is nothing special, seeing as it’s just the video accompiament for when they play the track live, the song is something to stick around for. “Synthesise” is more beat driven and heavy than some of their prior songs that may have relied a bit more on vocal samples. At any rate though, it’s definitely worth a listen. Enjoy!
With the 2007 release of his debut album entitled “I Created Disco,” Calvin Harris burst onto the scene just about as fast as he disappeared from it. Riding the wave of stellar electro-pop that year with Justice, Simian Mobile Disco, and Digitalism all lighting up the charts, Harris was heralded for a while but then was immediately dismissed as “the same cookie cutter bullshit” that was floating around in heavy amounts that summer.
I have to say though, that “I Created Disco” however cookie cutter it may be, was a fun album. I got plenty of plays out of it, and when it comes up on shuffle now-a-days its a great refresher. I guess I was sort of dismissing a sophomore album from him though, thinking that it might just be over-the-top and foolish a la his track with Dizzee Rascal “Dance Wiv Me.”
But here I sit, enraptured by Harris’ newest single. Premiering on what seems to be some sort of French electro radio/podcast (it’s a radio rip so he talks near the end, but it doesn’t take away from the essence of the song at all) “I’m Not Alone” is pretty different from his past material. And in a really good way. Instead of the same old indie-hipster-electro-techno whatever you want to call it, Harris goes the route of 80’s new-wave house. Well, it’s kind of hard to describe and certainly not easy to categorize, for whatever it’s worth though it’s good. Like I said, “I’m Not Alone” absolutely booms with energy and club vibe, sounding like something you might hear overseas at a Tiesto show rather than on the average teenage kid’s iPod.
I’ll stop trying to describe a song that simply has to be heard. Whether you dismissed his first release or simply haven’t heard him yet, Harris will be making waves with this release, so be ahead of the curb and grab “I’m Not Alone” now!
mp3: Calvin Harris – “I’m Not Alone” Radio Rip
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