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Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Waulking Song

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Oh man oh man oh man I’m so stoked about this track. I don’t know when I first heard it, I think it was New Years Eve to the credit of one of my favorite people. But it also might not have been New Years Eve, all I know is that someone played this song at some point in my apartment and I got really excited about it and then forgot all about it until last week. It came up on Spotify somehow and now I’m a pool of happy. Not only is it the perfect song to start your day in a really happy and positive way, sounds wise, but it’s just fantastic when you’re walking in New York City. You know one of those days where all you want to do is smile comfortably at everyone that walks by you because the music in your ears is working so well with the thoughts and feelings of your current body, and for whatever reason, you know that this song will hold a special place in your heart whenever it comes on your headphones next. I feel that way about very specific songs, this being one of them. Rilo Kiley’s, Silver Lining, also has a similar affect on me. Pata Pata by Miriam Makeba is another one. You probably get it by now.

I had this really lovely moment the other day while listening to this song on the subway. Mind you, the subway car I’d chosen to take reeked of feet the entire ride, but besides that, there were some really beautiful people seated on either side of me. This is one of those moments where you’re really thankful to be a blogger because when else would you get to write about beautiful people and have others read about it? There was a beautiful man with green eyes and silver-black dark hair, taller, in a clean cut creative professional outfit. A woman sat beside me with dreads down to her knees, lighter eyes, and rings on every single finger.  Although no missed connections happened, a smile glued to my face as I exited the train car. Walking through Brooklyn felt like a floating on a cloud, and I mean that in the most literal way. I kept getting distracted and then when I would return to the moment, it just made me happy and further encouraged the goofy smiling. I haven’t been that inexplicably happy in a while. I mean, I like to think of myself as a generally happy person, but I guess it had something to do with the energy of the people that surrounded me, and the energy that I was putting out, because everything felt in sync.

I know that’s silly to say, but how can you not acknowledge when a moment like that happens? And furthermore, when it happens while TEED is playing in your ears? I hope this happens for you, too. I know the weather’s been lousy, it’s not what we want or expect right now in this city. But here’s the thing: you have so much more to be happy about! So be happy about it. You guys are incredible.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Waulking Song


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Island Fox – Things I’ve Seen

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

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The sound of hushed footfalls on concrete, coming from somewhere off in the distance. A specular city street, still wet from the days’ rain and reflecting back the luminescence of the orange-shining lamp light overhead and the moon in the starless sky above. The view from outside an apartment window, looking over rooftops and down alleys, with the street itself just outside of the frame and only the man-made expanse out in front of you, shrouded in the deep, deep dark of the early morning. Scenes devoid of corporeal forms yet vestiges of human life still hang in the air. Either out of sight or obscured by some physical impediment, the ghosts of the presence of others, or a specific other, linger on.

That’s the kind of vibe I’m getting from Things I’ve Seen. The cut come from a group by the name of Island Fox, a duo comprised of singer/songwriter Jessica “Jessa” Bartlett and producer Benjamin Abbott and oh! How I wish music like this was easier to come by in the states! For whatever reason, it’s the British that have the market cornered on these evocative and sensuous downtempo chillers.

The track opens up with a thunk-thud bass drum that might as well be my own beating heart slowed down a few BPMs. Then a backwards-looped guitar lick leads in Jessa’s pitched-down and heavily treated vocals. Her voice shimmers all over the mix, completely engulfing my auditory space and my mind.

You’ve been getting too close to my dreams
And I’ve been sweating more and more.”

Then the chorus hits and the sub-bass kicks in and the drums start kicking and I’m taken back to the romance of those dank urban vistas. The song rides out the head-nodding buzz for just long enough before switching gears. Light chiming tones and delicate, jazzy chords let Jessa infuse a bit more soul and humanity into the track. But then we hear the same refrains, restated from earlier in the track. Then the sub-bass comes back in and shifts the experience from a visceral one to a bodily one. Eventually feelings give way to movement, but isn’t that how it always is? The emotional dimension begets the physical forms and motions, the fuel for combustion.

Maybe I’ve just been spending too much time in the city. A breath of fresh air that isn’t leaden with the smells, sights, sounds, and subtext of urban living might do me some good. Or maybe the prescription is to turn Things I’ve Seen again? Immersion therapy, then.

I like the sound of that.

Island Fox – Things I’ve Seen


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Big Black Delta – Huggin’ & Kissin’

Monday, March 18, 2013

I hadn’t heard of Big Black Delta, the solo music-making moniker of one Jonathan Bates, until just recently, even though the project appears to have been a going concern for some time now. Oh well, the music side of the internet is far too vast. Things are going to slip by you. Best to remember that it doesn’t matter how old a release or a track is, that just because something didn’t just come out (or hasn’t even come out, yet you somehow find it in your possession) doesn’t mean that it can’t be great or vital. As the old saying goes, age ain’t nothin’ but a number.

Onto the music. Huggin’ & Kissin’ is literally riveting. It traffics in the same kind of romanticized melancholy and chic sonics as a lot of the material found on the Drive soundtrack. Not the song would slot in nicely with any of those tunes. It’s lacking for manners and it’s on a serious power trip, clanging and charging forward with each beat. Most of the dynamics are of the loud-soft-loud variety. It starts out strong, rocking a straight Robocop vibe in the intro and the chorus builds and takes off like a flying car sailing into the night air of some futuristic metropolis, with the undercarriage and the windows reflecting the bright neon lights from the buildings around and below. Right before the next verse kicks in, you’re allowed to breath for a second. But after the reverb decays into silence, Bates slams back into you.

I also hear a few nods to some pretty tasteful sonic touchstones. I don’t know if this is me reading too much into this or if Bates is consciously winking and nodding towards his inspirations. Either way, it works. The synth that peels out in the beginning could’ve been lifted from a Pictureplane production. Speaking of theft, New Order might want to look for the drum machine they used on Blue Monday. Bates might’ve snagged it while they weren’t looking. There’s even a glitched-out keyboard run that leads into the bridge, a display of rockist flash you don’t usually see in this kind of music. Which… I’m not even sure what to refer to it as. For all those cultural touchstones, Huggin’ & Kissin’ isn’t new wave, or electropop, or witch house, or chillwave. All of those classifications are close, but not quite on the mark. The song fails neat categorization.

All I know is, what could’ve been claustrophobic, desultory, and suffocating is instead grand, booming, and cohesive. Embrace this.

Big Black Delta – Huggin’ & Kissin’


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Viceroy — Chase Us Around (feat. Madi Diaz)

Sunday, March 17, 2013

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There are creators in this world, and then there is everyone else.  Viceroy is a creator; a creator of a vibe, a creator of a sound and simply a creator of life, although not in its most traditional sense, it still is, after all—life.

Sometimes we get caught up in the chase of something when we don’t even have a clue of what it is.  It takes three times the amount of time someone has been alive to get to know them fully.  Inside each and everyone of us exists a complex maze of safes and locked rooms that unless you were right next to us the entire time, you could not see or ever find.  The point is that we can sometimes get caught up in chasing the idea of what we think someone is as opposed to finding out who they are, and I’m here to tell you why today.  The answer is super simple: you, my dear friend, are being manipulated.

Creators, like master chess players, must always think 1,000 steps ahead.  While you’re busy chasing your own tails around, they’re busy mapping out the possible outcomes for you, so that when you’re finally done chasing, you think, that you have a choice to make.  These options might give you the false sense of free will, since it essentially has to be your choice to make, but that is only an illusion.  These options or choices have already been laid out for you, and you have already been beyond conditioned to make multiple choice decisions;  Haven’t you?

Chase Us Around feat. Madi Diaz is a fun summertime jam that boasts a sense of playful youthfulness and confidence through the vocals and its summertime instrumentation.  Viceroy does a spectacular job of encompassing everything that sounds and feels like a sunny summer day, wrapping it in his little golden mp3 boxes and delivering them so consistently over the past year to the world.  The supplemental female vocals by Madi only help to make the track sexier by gracing us with her presence in our circumference, and who here doesn’t love when a sexy female presence shows up to our beach party?

Rock out.

This is where we get to create.”

Viceroy — Chase Us Around (feat. Madi Diaz)

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Saturday, March 16, 2013

I Just Ride

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HAIM – Falling (Duke Dumont Remix)

Saturday, March 16, 2013

HAIM the must see artists at SXSW 2013 announced by Fuze TV.  I mean damn, I was at SXSW during 2012 and now these girls are heatin’ up big time!  I am always floored by the resemblance these girls have to Fleetwood Mac, I absolutely love it, but of course they have their own unique thing going on from their lyrics, vocals, and knowledge of the craft.  Oh no, this ain’t no silly little all girl pop band getting everything delivered to them.  These girls have a style all their own that is so mature for how young they are, it’s definitely an undeniable confidence and comfortability in their own skin.  Which brings me to what is on my mind:

You ever been really close to someone, shared experiences with that person good and bad, whether it’s a friend, family member or lover, and they turn around blame you for every little thing in their life, call you a liar, metaphorically spit in your face?  You feel really bad at first, especially if this is someone you would do anything for, and you question yourself like maybe I am this horrible devil that they are making me out to be.  Now hopefully you aren’t this lying horrible sack of you know what, that they are making you out to be.  So the light bulb finally goes off in your head because you are strong and confident and you know who you are, you know your truth.  You realize that this person you care about is probably harboring a lot of anger, insecurity, and most likely some lies of their own that they are fighting and delivering onto you.  Sometimes the mind is capable of turning anger and negativity into twisted perceptions.  Therapy 101, HA, your welcome!  But for real, this song and the girls of HAIM are a reminder for me at least to be comfortable with my beliefs and my truth, ‘don’t stop’, keep pushing, and never let anyone tell you who you are, because being confident and knowing your great gets you so far in so many different ways.  There are always going to be people trying to push you down and telling you who you are and who you are suppose to be.  F@*k em!

And they’re calling, 
Don’t stop, no, I’ll never give up
And I’ll never look up, just hold your head up
And if it gets rough, it’s time to get rough
They keep saying:
Don’t stop, no one’s ever enough
I’ll never look up, never give up
And if it gets rough, it’s time to get rough
But now falling, falling, falling
Falling, falling, falling, falling
Falling, falling, falling, falling.”

Duke Dumont never seizes to amaze me.  Never taking away from the original he gives this already lovely and uplifting track just the right progression and sound to make it dance and kick just a little extra for a perfect weekend track.  So since the original can stand on its own just fine I am throwing in the video for a double dose of what is starting to become one of my favorite bands.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend, much love!

HAIM – Falling (Duke Dumont Remix)


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Jahan Lennon – Can’t Ruin My Fun

Friday, March 15, 2013

Where’s your head at Jahan? Please let me know because I wouldn’t mind being there myself.

I know Mad Decent has a reputation for puttin out dem quality clappers and bangarangin’ beats. But that status might become more inclusive and less genre specific in the future, if this cut from Jahan Lennon is of any indication.

Eh, perhaps it’s best not to read too much into this. This is still dance music, albeit undercover. No, that’s not quite right. It’s dance music that’s inspired by music from times that came and went well before the wobbles of dubstep and the pure melody of big room house – elements that are that are so pervasive today – were figurative twinkles any nascent DJ’s ears. Then again, Lennon may have gotten himself onto Jeffree’s – the gratis release imprint for M.D. – just on the strength alone of the great pun that is his nom de guerre. You get it, right? I hope so. We here at EMPT don’t like to be in the business of schooling you too hard. Our mission is to share and share alike, and Can’t Ruin My Fun is something you gotta hear.

The track is white-hot mysticism of the highest order, meant to be cranked at the loudest of volumes. Barely letting up over the duration of its near four and a half minute run time, the thing runs ragged and sounds loose. Jahan‘s vocals never rise too much above laconic, even when he’s imploring us all to, “find a way.” This after Lennon talks of himself (or his friend? or maybe us?) surfing the sands and getting a tan in Pakistan. This is clearly a guy who knows that it’s about the journey, not the destination.

The ever-present drum loop keeps the movement brisk and popping; the clattering, four on the floor beat would get anything moving. There is some swirl found in the guitar lines. A twangy lead rings out over the gentle buzz of the bass. It has the effect of pulling me up and lifting me off the ground and, with the closing of my eyes, I’m taken exactly where I want to go. Audio escapism at its finest.

Stay trippy.

Jahan Lennon – Can’t Ruin My Fun

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EMPT Presents Indaba Music Weekly: Oriola 701 – Magical Mystical

Friday, March 15, 2013

Oriola 701

This week we’d like to introduce Oriola 701, a 4 man electronic music group from Latvia. They submitted a track to us which is one of the funkiest we’ve received. “Magical Mystical” is a textbook display of what a “catchy song” should be. The driving bass synth hook is contagious, the drums are smartly programmed to compliment the surrounding textures, and the subtle padding acts as a glue that ties the whole track together.

Like most of the artists we’ve featured, there isn’t much information about the group floating around out there, but you can check out a live performance of the tune here.

Magical Mystical

Check out the other submissions from this month’s Et Musique Pour Tous feature submissions on Indaba Music here.


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Miike Snow – The Wave (Flight Facilities Remix)

Thursday, March 14, 2013

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It’s always magic in music when everything just seems to fit. The way the lyrics move through the melody to personify the words; the way the production works to emphasize the dissonance;  the way the sound pulsates through your veins, into your bones to resonate in your gut before bursting through your every pore in dance. There aren’t many tracks like that out there in the music sphere, but this one right here is a needle in a haystack.

Miike Snow is already a gem of a band. Their tracks and sound aesthetic consistently impress me. I have proof in my iTunes song counter that I kept it on repeat for a healthy couple of weeks when the song dropped. The video, too, was glorious. Factor in Aussie duo, Flight Facilities infectious electro-pop vision and we’ve got ourselves a brilliant piece of sound. Any more words on the track would ruin the experience for you. This is one track that doesn’t need much to back it up; it’s power speaks for it self. No, it’s power does more than speak; it’s power is felt.

Plug in your headphones, tune in, and begin your Thursday properly. Welcome to the new day.

We’ll all be staring at the same wave.”

Indeed, we will be.

Miike Snow – The Wave (Flight Facilities Remix)

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French Horn Rebellion – Girls (Rogue Vogue Remix)

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Ah, well. I suppose the title of this song is truly appropriate. It’s a little bit hesitant, in that the sound of girls emerges in vocals that kind of linger but don’t punch. There’s an adorable tip toeing quality to the music that comes forth from here, like it creeps up on you and then all of a sudden it’s a banger. We’re talking a dance tune in a not so conventional midnight club, a song to listen to maybe with the ladies or maybe with a bunch of your best friends. Or maybe even while you’re dancing on top of a bar couch seat. This is the song that the sexy DJ has decided to put on next. So you’re waving your denim jacket in the air with one hand, simultaneously holding a whiskey ginger, while snapchatting pics/vids of yourself to potential lovers, exes, friends, enemies, whatever. You’re smiling at another life lover who has decided to join you on the pedestal. A bouncer comes up to you and tells you that it’s time to get down, they’re doing it in that hush hush kinda way where the music is really loud and their voice isn’t really speaking so much as their body language is, as if their size could talk. You blow them a kiss, maybe even attempt to kiss them on the cheek, seeing as your red lipstick is just begging to be smeared. You don’t even attempt to remember his name, but your unaware of the charm that you’ve somehow managed to give off. He leaves you alone after you eventually kiss his clean shaven bald head. Your hair is a mass of volume and thank god for some great hair spray and teasing, it’s still large and in charge tonight. Your eyes close. You imagine a warm place with tan people and crystal blue waves. That’s where your mind goes when you’re listening to this song, despite the fact that you’re in quite a happy place, physically.

The realness is that this song embodies our midnight dance love affair with ourselves. All of us, not just girls. It’s that point in the evening where you could be home, or potentially eating a burger with a kind hearted semi-stranger with smiling eyes, but instead, you’ve prevailed for some solo you time within the confines of a not so solo setting. You’re still participating, but it’s mostly for you.

I love me some French Horn Rebellion any day. This remix provides personality and character, while still creating a unique connection with anyone who listens to it. Play this song with that in mind.

French Horn Rebellion – Girls (Rogue Vogue Remix)

 


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