And we’re back… As many of you know I’ve been a hundred miles and running since moving to LA and with my renewed love for hard work and execution I don’t think I’ll be stopping anytime soon. I’ve never worked a day in your typical office but for some reason high level corporate execution of companies like Apple fascinates me right now. This company is making life changing products that are revolutionizing industries left and right. They’re making an impact on contributing to the world like almost no one else, I mean the latest iBooks textbook and publishing tools will literally change the way we learn. Now we’re all spoiled, always ready for the next best thing but if you take a moment to think about it you’ll realize just how amazing all that is…

I see God in the instruments and mechanisms that work reliably.”

I don’t know about you but I find the current state of technology, all the innovation and forward progress mind blowing. You got 3D printing on the way and who knows what kind of ridiculous changes that will lead to. There are always those sultans of doom out there who think the world is going to crap and nothing is getting better but avoid those pessimist like a plauge. Sure not everything is perfect but man there world is taking leaps and bounds right now, don’t be afraid to appreciate it. All this has led to my new mantra about life – break the threshold. That basically means constantly push your own expectations to ridiculous heights. Look at everything being created right now, that’s not even touching the surface of our potential. Be grateful, appreciate but never stop going, we are limitless in every way possible, amaze yourself.

So why am I posting Lucio in face of all this futuristic human talk? Well for one this is the Space Age and two, it’s an amazing, laid back, great feeling love song…

To feel in love, it’s life and living

You meet someone and you start breathing…

Love is typically associated with human romance but is it possible to fall in love with concepts, ideas, art and life? Absolutely, and right now I’m in love with greatness. People that work hard and push themselves to create and do the so called unimaginable marvel me. My whole life I’ve admired the exceptional and at this point I’m not concerned with being much else…

Ni%$@s is this and that, I’m just the best…” – Nas

That’s what I want EMPT to be, the best. These other sites can have every single song ever made, they could be up on every thing but for EMPT I just want this best, they can have everything else. My new found love for hard work is breathing a new life into me and this LA sunshine makes it that much better. Couldn’t think of a better jam for this Monday morning, enjoy.

Luca C & Brigante – Lucio

If you’re anything like me, you’re obsessed with all things Gotye related. Not only has he proven himself as a remarkable musician, but his artistry often times leaves listeners in awe, again, like me. Something I think about a lot, is how we can all rave about albums and say that every track is truly phenomenal, or that every track is terrible. Vast descriptions that summarize an entire album, without attention to each specific track. (This applies to the general people, not necessarily people who get paid to write about music…they try to put together quite the in depth review) But it’s always difficult to pick out new songs to specifically seek out on the album, besides what is offered as, “hit singles” or whatever you end up hearing on the radio. It’s difficult to stray from these songs that have been declared as the ones you should listen to, by whomever it may be — the producers or the musicians themselves. But what happens to be so beautiful about music, is that it is a social art. It’s something that brings us together, not only because we may find others with similar tastes, but because it offers itself as something we can talk about with each other. If we like a song that is not widely received or discussed, we can share it. And because we’ve received the OK from whomever the recommend-er was, that this song is in fact great by at least one other person’s standards, subconsciously, we feel that we may just like it too. And that makes it just as significant as the single, or the over played radio song.

That’s how it works. And that’s why I bring you this song. Because I do feel that the entire Making Mirrors album is remarkable, to say the least, but it’s easy to get lost or obsessed with two songs that have happened to acquire much attention. The point is to stray away from that, because once you do, you’ll find something like this.

Enjoy

Ethereal - extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world. Press play on Ryan Radlers latest mix tape and that’s exactly how the music will make you feel, immediately. The effect is no coincidence and if you’re hip to the anti-summer/anti-winter concepts then you know that’s what these tapes are all about…

At the end of the day I think the mixes are really about how to navigate each season. Personally, winter has been killing me and this mix is literally some catharsis to cope with the stuff that comes. Cold, depression, lethargic lack of motivation…

I love finding alternative perspective to seemingly crappy situations so Ryans and I see eye to eye on anti-lameness methods. Listening to this tape while reading that makes me think of all type of reality alteration; if you haven’t noticed by now I’m big into Steve Jobs and if you’ve read Walter Isaacson’s book you’ll know all about Steve’s reality distortion field. At it’s most fundamental level it was a complete neglect and disrespect for any know limits, boundaries and expectations. Dig a little deeper and it was Steves ultimate tool for creativity…

Reality is maleable, we should all know that but we don’t. There’s no such thing as the “real world,” the only thing that exists is what we decide to bring into fruition. That may seem far fetched but think about it, if you’re feeling down one day and you put on your favorite song to cheer you up and it works then you’re effectively changing your “reality.” That’s why the world, it’s art, it’s people, customs, morals and standard are constantly changing. The concept runs deep, I mean just think about the things you don’t do because of what you have come to accept as possible in your life.

In the case of a n t i – s u m m e r  2 a rebellion never sounded so good. Talk about reality distortion, this hazy dream of a mixtape make the world feel like heaven as it effortlessly jumps from genre to genre, decade to decade and known to unknown. There are mixtapes all over the place but you’d be hard pressed to find two as unique and inspiring as Steph’s and Ryans and I think I speak on behalf of the entire EMPT army when I say how thankful we are to have these great artist bless us with their selections. Alright, I have to go face this bitter sunshine filled LA winter, enjoy.

W I N T E R : a n t i – s u m m e r  2 a

1. Dissolving – BON ACCORD
2. Tropic Fruit – POLOGRAPHIA
3. People Can Do the Most Amazing Things – KISSES
4. Windows Of The World – PETER JOLLY
5. Roscoe – MIDLAKE (BEYOND THE WIZARDS SLEEVE REMIX)
6. Open Your Eyes – PARTY GIRL
7. Everybody – BENOIT & SERGIO
8. Charlotte Wants to Dream – BETAMAXX
9. Take me Home – POOLSIDE
10. Animal – MIIKE SNOW (FRED FALKE REMIX)
11. Psychic Chasms – NEON INDIAN (ANORAAK REMIX)
12. Little Man – LITTLE DRAGON REMIX (TYCHO REMIX)
13. Escape City Skyscrapers – MONO IN VCF

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To anyone who has listened to Gotye’s Making Mirrors album, I found this 10 minute documentary truly inspiring since the viewer is able to grasp the musical ingenuity of his creative process. After you listen to the Making Mirrors album, Gotye’s refined sound illuminates an incredibly distinctive musical journey of eclectic tracks which in turn, presents a truly engaging listening experience.

I was lucky enough to snag tickets to Gotye at the El Rey in LA next week and I haven’t been this ecstatic in quite some time, for good reason. Enjoy the weekend everyone. Till’ next time.

French kids take on The Motto beat, these kids are nice. Check out their EP “La Source”

1995 – The Motto Remix (Nekfeu x Sneazzy x Alpha Wann)

Sup folks, we’ve got something very special for you all today… A very exclusive cover of Madonna’s Celebrate from LA’s Capital Cities. To put it simply, the track is fresh. The band has just finished touring South America and they are 98.7′s band of the month and after listening to this and their new self-titled EP there’s no question why. The production is top notch and they make a breezy, mature and refined brand of electro-pop that’s hard to resist. All 5 tracks on the EP are on point so it’s safe to say these guys will catch fire in the next few months for sure.

Holiday was Madonna’s first hit single and regardless of how you feel about pop music you’d have to be a terribly miserable and jaded individual to not feel good when the track is on. It charted top 20 in billboard while also doing very well in Europe so it goes without saying if you’re going to cover an international smash hit you better know what you’re doing. Capital Cities gives the track a beloved nu-disco make over while faithfully capturing the songs celebratory disposition in a way that just makes you feel fantastic. The hook explodes with those synths and irresistible guitars – these guys know what they’re doing.

I played this at a gig at a Malibu beach house last weekend and I dropped this right as the sun was setting and man did it feel good. On my way back I ended racing a Gt3 on Pacific Highway with this in the background and I warn you all, don’t play this while you’re driving fast because when that hook kicks in you’re going to floor it and go into a state of pure uncontrollable joy.

Now more than ever I find myself in a passionate love affair with working, creating and contributing. Nothing, I mean absolutely nothing good can be achieved without focus, determination, passion and hard work. If you think differently you’re in for a big surprise. That’s why it’s so important to love what you do because you have to be able to dive in at an almost spiritual level in order to be exceptional. Going that hard makes those moments of relaxation, those times when you hang with friends, those occasions with your family, those holidays that much more worth it.

Anyways, the band is playing their Close To Home Show at the Viper Room this coming Monday January 30th, so if you happen to be in the Los Angeles area you should definitely go check the technique, enjoy.

Capital Cities – Holiday (Madonna Cover)

What’s up EMPT nation? So for this Thursday I decided to give props to an upcoming band I’ve been digging a lot the last few months. Urban Cone hails from Sweden, yet again the Nordic country produces another gem, not sure what’s in their milk up there but they’re producing artists out the yin-yang lately. This band showed promise on their EP this past  summer so I’m assuming they’ll make noise when an album is released in the near future. I stumbled on a few remixes of the track Freak which are stellar so had to share with you all. The first remix comes from Mr. Nelson and the second remix is from Adventure of Mashup. Both remixes win you over in different ways. Till next time.

“I’m living in the shadows, I’m in the street
If you try to get me, I’ll fight you back
They treat me like a monster, they treat me like a freak
Don’t try to get me, I’ll fight you back

Don’t leave footprints in the snow, footprints in the snow
Cause they will track you like a freak, track you like a freak”

Urban Cone – Freak (Mr. Nelson RMX)

Urban Cone – Freak (Adventure of Mashup Remix)

I’m in Cali, the weather is nice, I’m renewing my love for the grind, so many pretty girls, feeling healthy and I’m flying up and down these streets in my A5 with the…

Top like a rock star, I got a fast car 

We can cruise the city, doin’ a buck-sixty … – Jay-Z

To top it off Steph just sent me a new the first LMDM of 2012 – sometimes you just gotta take it all in…

So it’s no secret, I’ve been MIA lately. The move to LA has been nothing close to easy. The first night I set up all my  equipment 4 separate neighbors in my complex complained and my landlord was kind enough to give me the option to move out (1 week after moving in). It’s hard out here for a noisy musician but it’s all good now, I signed the lease on a house in West Hollywood so now I can make all the noise I want. There’s never a valid excuse but with everything finally settling down you can expect EMPT to be back to it’s regularly scheduled programming in no time.

What can I say about this months installment of LMDM that hasn’t already been said about a Michael Jordan, it’s clutch, amazing, the best. As usual Steph turns her own style upside down and brings a flavor and twist to the series we’ve yet to see, I love it. LMDM is always an eclectic experience but this time around theres a very interesting blend of acoustic and electric that you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else. I’m the biggest fan of all these tapes but this one is special folks, don’t miss out. I’ll let her tell it…

I dont know if its because its winter or what but the slow ones really hooked me for this month. Although there’s something to be said to flip that, slow tunes for warm weather are very fitting sometimes, as well. And this is coming from a girl that prefers to be put to sleep by techno blasting from my speakers, true story, ever since I can remember (since age 11/12 at summer camp…). Anyway, this tape needs to be played with appreciation. Appreciation for the slower ones. As an impatient person wanting everything now now now fast fast fast,  Let it go…it might even start sounding faster and faster, even at the pauses. – Steph

Le Miel du Mois at work? That’s much better than work at work! Download

Tracklisting:

1. Barretso – Mirage
2. Porcelain Raft – Unless You Speak From Your Heart
3. Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)
4. Zambri – To Keep Back
5. Youth Lagoon – July
6. Labyrinth Ear – Humble Bones
7. King Midas – Goodbye Girl (Kuedo Rework)
8. The Dø - Too Insistent (Trentemøller Remix)
9. Giraffage – SLO
10. Intergalactic Lovers – Fade Away
11. Nujabes – Dawn on the Side
12. Polica – Lay Your Cards Out
13. Pale Seas – Amour

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EMPT nation… it’s been far too long since I’ve posted which is inexcusable, so I apologize for my absence. Given the new year of 20-12, I’ve reconnected with what I love to do most and that’s share the gems of the music world to you all. Ah, it feels so good though to be back on here posting so I’ve reached back to 2010 to find a suiting track to complement my post for today. I recently listened to the track, Can’t Shake this Feeling from Scotland’s Grum and this track hit all the right notes for this Wednesday and I hope it does the same for you. FYI, to all the readers who are attending Coachella, this Friday tickets will go on sale and I hope we will catch you there! Enjoy your Wednesday and I’ll be back more frequently sharing tunes alongside the rest of EMPT crew. Much love.

Grum – Can’t Shake This Feeling

I just watched this documentary called Being Elmo about Kevin Clash, you might not know his name but you certainly know his work, he’s the guy behind universally renowned Sesame Street Elmo character. Now this may sound odd to all you jaded old folks but the story is absolutely inspiring. I won’t say much about it but it’s great story about a guy who never let the insignificant normalities of society hinder his limitless imagination. We ALL have this power but for some reason or another many of us stifle our unique dispositions to fit in, we suppress our questionable natures by learning to take things as they are and I couldn’t think of a greater crime to an individuals self-realization. Anyways, watch the movie and be reminded of what that’s like.

She’ll catch me in my zone, she’ll catch me in my dreams…

Jesse Boykins III’s Zoner couldn’t be more appropriate for this subject. At face value the song is about an artists trying to protect his most intimate and vulnerable self from his lover because he doesn’t want to have explain it and be misunderstood. Ironically, I’ve never quite heard someone explain it like Jesse did in tho song and if you make music, paint or whatever this is going to connect with you. We own our thoughts yet how many times do we redirect our own inclinations considering how others will feel about it. How crazy is that? We haven’t even developed the thought and it’s stopped dead in it’s tracks because of what other might think. Can you imagine how many great ideas and revolutionary concepts never came into existence because of this insecurity. We all have the same mental capacity but the so-called norm is literally made to suppress that, I can’t get with that. Almost everything great has come from some sort of free spirited rebellious thinking so never fear your own mind, believe it or not thoughts are things and what you think, chose not to think or think negatively of will completely shape your reality. Fear not the zoner in you my friends, enjoy.

Jesse Boykins III – Zoner

There’s not much to say here, this is one of the best covers I’ve heard in 2012. My little (not so little) brother showed it to me, and I’m so glad he did. I used to show him all of the good music when we were younger, and now more often than not he ends up showing me all the good tunes. So cheers to covers and 2012! And a big thanks to Dean Hefnawy.

Enjoy!

I have got to keep my distance
The pounding of my heart can’t be disguised
I feel electrical resistance
Oh how I want your touch, I want your touch

Hold all the crazy inside yeah
Don’t want to have to rewind no

How do I get you to feel what I feel for you
I will hold on to you like a fool till my hands go blue
But you don’t want to dance with me
You don’t want to dance with me

I had pictures of you lying
Underneath the cotton sheets with me
I can see this dream is dying
Give back your magic touch, your magic touch

Hold all the crazy inside yeah
Don’t want to have to rewind no

How do I get you to feel what I feel for you
I will hold on to you like a fool till my hands go blue
But you don’t want to dance with me
You don’t want to dance with me

Stop don’t make your decision
On just this chance you disqualified me
You stole my true ambition
Got nothing left to gratify me

How do I get you to feel what I feel for you
I will hold on to you like a fool till my hands go blue
But you don’t want to dance with me
You don’t want to dance with me”

Wow! I couldn’t have connected more with this track.  I think everyone has felt this way at one point or another, you know that feeling where your tugging and tugging and all you get is dead air.  Some times we spend too much time tugging on those things that just aren’t going to tug back and we get lost in the effort.  I am learning that its important to be a little selfish and worry about your self before you get so caught up in others, so on that note I am going to go out into this beautiful weather that we are having in Cali and have a little me time.

Press play and hopefully you can have some time to be alone with yourself as well today…Enjoy!

Monarchy – You Don’t Want To Dance With Me (ft. Britt Love)

Patrick Watson – Fireweed

Its the beginning of a new year and it feels really good already, this New Years weekend was really long, and lots of fun don’t get me wrong but I was ready to get going with 2012! What better way to start off 2012 but with the seductive and kick ass Dragonette, this song explains exactly how I feel right now, there is definitely a fire that’s gettin’ me moving in every way possible.

While I light a fire in your new shoes If you should smile and look so surprised While I light a fire in your new shoes Let’s hope that your soles don’t burn to the floor

 

I light the fire

I light the fire

 

Buttons are busted we’re decorated We make an ornament with gold and silver plating So whats the latest we raise a fever We’re just all red inside that’s all to see here” 

A lot of people seemed in a daze on this first Monday of the new year, almost as though they didn’t know what to do with themselves.  I suggest to those of you that don’t know how to get the new year started to press play on this jam and get that fire growing inside of you until your burning in the right direction!

Enjoy!!

Dragonette – Fire In Your New Shoes ft. Kaskade

It’s New Years Eve, I can’t believe how fast this year went by, not sure if anyone else feels this way, but it seems like every year is going by quicker and quicker.  That’s why I am grabbing 2012 as hard as I can and flying FU*&^ING higher then I ever have and I suggest you do the same.  For some reason I feel everything right now, my senses are better then they have been in years, and I think 2012 is going to bring some pretty amazing and great surprises upon us.

This track seemed pretty damn close to perfect for New Years Eve.  All I want to do is dance tonight and I can’t wait to see what the New Year brings.  If your one of those people who thinks the world is ending soon, your sadly mistaken because its only beginning.  I am so pumped for tonight and this track just keeps pumping me up the more I listen to it, so on that note I have to go Doll myself up for this beautiful night.  Press play on this baby and get your pre-partying started.

Happy New years everyone from all of us at EMPT, we wish all of our fans a healthy and amazing 2012!!!!

ENJOY!

Sigur Ros – Saeglopur (ENiGMA Remix)

Worth repeating…

Make no mistake I don’t do anything for free
I keep my enemies closer than my mirror ever gets to me
And if you think that there is shelter in this attitude
Wait til you feel the warmth of my gratitude.

One, I get the feeling that it’s two against one.
One, I’m already fighting me, so what’s another one?
One, The mirror is a trigger and your mouth’s a gun.
One, Lucky for me, I’m not the only one.

And if it looks to me like you in your reflection
Plan to add your own fight to this dimension.
Then tell it that this ain’t no free-for-all to see,
There’s only three
It’s just you and me against me.

One, I get the feeling that it’s two against one.
One, I’m already fighting me, so what’s another one?
One, The mirror is a trigger and your mouth’s a gun.
One, lucky for me, I’m not the only one.
Lucky for me, I’m not the only one.

And if your foot’s on to sick a thousand “yes men”
Brand or brake into the middle of this little plan…
Then there’s your plan to hear me say,
That I won’t play around the way, anyway
I plan to plan around them.

One, I get the feeling that it’s two against one.
One, I’m already fighting me, so what’s another one?
One, the mirror is a trigger and your mouth’s a gun.
One, lucky for me, I’m not the only one.
Lucky for me, I’m not the only one…”

Danger Mouse – Two Against One (feat. Jack White)

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