Had a cracker of a night on Friday seeing Zane Lowe play Sugarbeat at Cabaret Voltaire. Blau! was the first track he played and I hadn’t fully appreciated just how BIG that track was. Here are some more jamz I’ve been bopping my head to. The Rubix remix is by far the best on the Romane EP. This fresh-ass Foamo remix is also catchy as hell. Finally, got emailed by the Don Diablo posse his new track with Sidney Samson. Samsonite! I was way off.
Saw Jack Beats on Friday there and they (or should I say he – it was one guy, I thought Jack Beats were two people???) tore the fucking roof off the Cabaret Voltaire. Was rammed and sweaty and pushy but the beats were glorious. The one that I lost my shit for was SonicC. I’d never heard it before but it completely blew my mind. So after ID-ing the track (thanks Erol Alkan Forum) I’ve played it to death. I also love Kissy’s version which is a lot more playful.
When Jack Beats “dropped the bassline” the place went mental – I think I got about 4 elbows to the windpipe. The last two tracks I’m posting are just big bangers that deserve to be played at full volume. First is RipTidE who I’ve posted about before – his track Fk Me is huge and sexy and kinda sounds like Santa farting and you should download it immediately. Second is the excellent Para One remix of Boys Noize which I’d only first heard a couple of days ago.
Saw Steve Aoki on Friday just there. I was absolutely hammered and therefore dancing like an absolute gimp on the dance-floor. He played a really good set and did about 150 stage dives – love it, wish more DJs would do that. And yes he played Warp 1.9 and yes it was amazing. I shook his hand at the end for being a legend.
No Steve Aoki songs but Dim Mak-related material so stop complaining. Plus I ♥The Bloody Beetroots. Their Groove Armada remix is one of my favourite this year – I bet in the live environment it’s fucking euphoric. The Timbaland remix packs a big punch too.
Radio discoveries next. Kissy Sell Out played this Lucky Dip remix the other day and it stood out right away as one of the best ones he played – it actually made me smile when I first heard it. Takes a while to get into (~1min before it stutters in) but is a really playful remix and it’s worth the wait. Heard this Felix Da Housecat remix on Alex Metric’s Radio 1 show and same again, it stood out from the pack so I’ve ripped it for your pleasure. Finally, this Jaymo & Andy George (another Radio 1 staple) remix is fantastic. Exactly what I want from a remix.
Saw Phoenix at the Glasgow Arches on Sunday just there. Sounded awesome live, but the crowd really didn’t seem up for it. It was quite disappointing actually. I went with my bro and an altbro, expecting it to be really jumpy – but it wasn’t. I dunno if it was because it was a Sunday and people didn’t want to go wild because they had work in the morning or what, but it was a total fucking buzzkill. Worse, it was like the crowd had never heard of ‘Too Young‘ (my fave Phoenix song) or any tunes pre-Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix for that matter.
Phoenix @ Arches, Glasgow
Enough of the rant FFS eh! Ok back to la choonage. Heard Sleigh Bells for the first time the other day and was kinda blown away – especially by this song. Sleigh Bells are a boy-girl duo who make a fucking glorious racket and I could see them going down a storm live – plus the singer is FIIIIT! Next is Juiceboxxx who apparently recorded this in one take. Anything with Javelin attached will at some point be posted by me – cos I’m obsessed. Slinky blue-eyed soul from Mayer Hawthorne puts a smile on my faces.
Caught this over at PMA and couldn’t resist a repost. Another fantastic Seven remix. I think Fever Ray sent each remixer a strongly worded email telling them to NOT. FUCK. THIS. UP. The Twelves didn’t. In fact, they made the best one yet. Lifelike sprinkled his Falke-dust over Barcelona and out popped this remix. Harvard Bass is fast becoming a staple of my morning wake-up audioporn. Harvard Bass = The Sex.
Just got my ticket to see Steve Aoki at Cabaret Voltaire on the 13th Nov. This WILL be me.
Kind of a mish-mash post this one. Just a collection of bangers. Aoki gets a lot of stick but I don’t give a monkeys – I’ll be down the front holding him up with the rest of them.
I like to keep up-to-date with new music releases/news/current goings on, so instead of trawling through every. single. fucking. website. I employ an RSS Reader – basically a program that updates you when you’re favourite blog has a new post. I used to use FeedDemon but it fucked up and wouldn’t display images so I now use Google Reader and fuck me its awesome. Even better, apparently I already have 26 subscribers on Google Reader! Yeaaah Boyeeee!!! The moral of the story is – get Google Reader. NOW!
OK enough of my pish. I heard The Proxy remix on James Mountain’s Escape Plan and cheekily ripped it. Saw the Larry Tee and Alexander Technique remix over at Stoney Roads. I ♥ Ubbs like a blogfather. Both of these remixes are top notch, and as much as I would give a kidney to see The Proxy in the live environment, I’d say the Blogula remix just pips it.
Finally getting round to mentioning this absolutely STUNNING remix by The xx. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Florence And The Machine is/are(?) overhyped to the max. I won’t even link to the fucker. The xx, however, have released one of my favourite albums this year. They have a song called ‘Basic Space‘ and I’d say it’s a good description of their sound more than anything else. Single guitar/bass notes, basic drumbeats, sparse production. They have their own ’sound’ after only 1 album it’s crazy. Goes totally against the grain of what kind of music has been coming out in recent years. Brilliant.
OK quick catch-up. I went to see Micachu on Saturday at Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh. I won’t lie – I was actually really disappointed with their set, and wouldn’t recommend them live. However, the night wasn’t a total loss, as the support band was recently Mercury-music-prize-nominated The Invisible. I can’t tell you how amazing they were.
I can hear why people compare them to TV On The Radio – and, I admit, I was one of those who brushed them off as merely copycat bastards. But seeing them live completely changed my opinion. Highly recommended. And yes, they blew Mica-shite off the stage. Harsh. I still like her album though.
Yeah I saw Foamo last Friday – I know, this post is verrrry late. He rocked Cabaret Voltaire – we were on the vodka Red Bulls all night and ripped up the front row with our impeccable dance moves giving it the big licks. I’d give him an 8/10. He’s new but he’s got potential.
Oh yeah, some bastard hit the fire alarm at about 2.15am. The lights came on, the music stopped, and we all had to file outside. Foamo went out right behind me. There was a chant started on our way out. “FOAMO! FOAMO!” I turned round to Foamo and said, “They’re chanting your name“. He laughed. He understood why.
OK so its about time I informed you of what I’ve been up to for the past few weeks. I went on holiday with my family to Benidorm – don’t judge me. Basically spent a week going to the beach or lying beside the pool and at night venturing out to see trogolodytes like Sticky Vicky. After I came back I flew up to Iceland with a few uni chums for a wedding – Scottish-themed funnily enough, so I was looking braw in my kilt!
A great upcoming Icelandic band called Hjaltalín played at the wedding (they knew the bride and groom) and had everybody dancing – even threw in a Michael Jackson cover. After the band, the Scottish crowd got everybody pumping with some Ceilidh dancing – believe me its a fucking riot when everyone is hanging out their tree.
The internet is a fast moving beast, so the streaming MP3s that are posted may not work after a while due to them being taken down. And since I can't be arsed uploading them all again it's tough shite. I'll always post a link to a downloadable MP3 though. As always, if you like what you hear - away and buy it eh!
p.s. if I've put up a song you'd rather not see here then let me know, you can email me here
