Tag: Jeremy Sole

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Music Remixes

Femi Kuti – Tell Me (Jeremy Sole’s Musaic’s Remix feat. Ticklah)

Free education
Free medication
Food, light, water to drink.”

Let me be the one to say it out loud on EMPT, even though I know Hector has mentioned it before — Jeremy Sole knows how to spin a tune. And with style, might I add. I’ve brought you guys a few Jeremy Sole edits and remixes over the past year or so, but I am so glad that Femi Kuti entered his musical sights. This track is solid gold and it makes me so happy on this day. Today was the most beautiful day, especially after the disaster that was yesterday. And man, I have to say it. But if we all could just sit back and realize for a moment that every time we have a terrible day, it’s so the good days can be so much better. Because what is a good thing without feeling the bad? The only reason things are good to begin with, is because they are not bad. 

The feeling is this: you wake up feeling not like yourself, a little stomachy maybe, depending on where your stress goes. You decide to ignore it, despite the fact that everything in your apartment is attempting to stop you from leaving. You disregard the signs, you leave your apartment and go to work where you feel strangely miserable. Work is fine, but your brain isn’t. In New York, I find that I am surrounded by people much like myself, who attempt to diagnose whatever it is that they are feeling especially when it has to do with emotions. It’s such a dumb thing, especially since like, who do we even think we are? Regardless, your mind races: am I depressed? What’s this feeling of doom that I have? Why is every interaction that I have fake? 

Here’s the thing: this happens. A lot. But maybe not all that often to one person in the span of six months. I’m just saying, that it’s so like us to assume that the day we wake up and don’t feel like ourselves is the day that we probably end up depressed. Ultimatums get us nowhere when we apply them to the way we live. I personally, love to assume that waking up weird is a new thing that has never happened to me before, when in reality, it happened a lot especially in the past year. Those bad days, fortunately, are overshadowed by happy days and that is why we forget. But maybe next time you’re feeling down, keep two things in mind: you will be that much happier on a day that is not that day, and that you have felt this way before. Guess what? You’re still alive. That’s beautiful.

Anyways, this track is very real. The message is driven right at the flaws of a society that Femi Kuti wishes were different. And we can definitely all relate to that. But besides serving a dose of realness, it’s a sonic masterpiece of happy notes and sexy rhythms. So without further ado, enjoy.

Femi Kuti – Tell Me (Jeremy Sole’s Musaic’s Remix feat. Ticklah)

Categories
Music Remixes

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put A Spell On You (Jeremy Sole’s Zombie Stomp Remix)

Man, I haven’t been so stoked on a track in a couple of weeks. That’s a fair estimate right? If you guys have come to know me at all, you know that I am easily excited by good music. But this track breathes a new fire onto the old love that is our screaming Jay Hawkins. Some claps and a beat that plays chase with the pitter patter of a bongo type drum give this song a whole different dimension.

After the tumult of this day, a track like this offers itself as the perfect pick me up. Life baffles me when days like today, because the second you stop to acknowledge that it’s been a pleasant and productive day, something crosses your path in an ungrateful attempt to ruin the entire thing. And then the anger sets in. Maybe a few tears, if you’re really lucky. Whenever it gets to this point, I almost feel like I may as well go all out with the extreme emotions. There’s no point in holding it in, because I don’t know when the next release will be. It could be tomorrow, it could be a month. Just as we pride ourselves on never holding back when it comes to new experiences, risks, living a fulfilling life, I think the same should be said for our moments or days of sadness.

The best part about being angry or sad is knowing that it will pass, and that you will eventually return to a feeling of calm. I think that’s what egged on my anger today, knowing that I deserved it because of the calm that I had remained all day and would resume later on. At some point. I don’t feel angry or sad anymore, and I’m thankful for that. Because there are reasons to be angry and sad forever, but a lot of us are capable of living in flux. We don’t have to be angry forever. We are the controllers.

Anyways, here is a track that is ready to take you to a new level of emotion. Enjoy!

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put A Spell On You (Jeremy Sole Zombie Stomp Remix)

Categories
Music Remixes

Marvin Gaye – Anger (Jeremy Sole Edit)

I’ve taken immediately to this song because of its melody and sweetness, but I think more importantly, because of how it made me almost instantly look inwards. What are the things we do in rage? I love the ease of this song while simultaneously allowing us to contemplate. The bongos introduce a sultry edit to this Marvin Gaye track, which leaves me wanting and craving more until the other instruments make their important appearances.

As someone who praises and appreciates zen and calm, I think there is something incredibly important to be said about the appearance and inhabitance of anger in one’s life. Calmness is something to be grateful for. Some people go through their daily motions in constant anger, and I understand that. It’s a way of living certainly, for some. These are the people we encounter everyday, who make us shake our heads and wonder at their sulky unhappiness, ever present in every aspect of their demeanor. Although, I find during the times of calm in my life, a certain amount of thought and self-awareness must be devoted to understanding the ways we act when angry. My anger tends to come out in different ways around family, than with friends. I’m sure it is the same for many of you. This is said to be reasonable, because we have higher expectations for the ones we cherish, who happened to surround us for the larger, more formative years of our lives. That isn’t to say that the years we spend alone or in the presence of independence are not formative years — not at all. I’m saying, we can attribute many of our independent qualities to those who saw us during our worst, our best, our most awkward, etc. It is a combination of these people’s support, and our own will, that creates a final product.

Having been on winter break for the last couple of weeks from school, I’ve had a lot of time to think about these things. About why I get particularly angry around family, what the source of my rage is. Indeed, I am still a ways from fully grasping and understanding why it is that this happens, though I have made some headway. With higher expectations for people, come larger disappointments. Generally, we like to assume that we are the sort who don’t “expect”, attributing higher expectations to larger disappointments…this is all very clear. But those who have seen us at our worst, best, awkward, desperate, etc. tend to have a certain amount of patience as time passes. We live in the comfort of knowing that they will accept our rage and anger, because they must. Living like this, I think, is healthy. We need people like that in our lives, because we censor ourselves otherwise. And rage, anger, sadness even, all embody the opposite spectrum of the emotional scale. While we crave devout happiness, we must also live and fully immerse ourselves in anger when needed. I think the same can be said for all of life’s emotions that we experience, something I’ve certainly talked about before. Why do you think people who suppress grief tend to experience radical health problems after a certain amount of time? Acceptance is key.

To ground things, I have this song. This is just what I think about when a song talks about anger, particularly, when Marvin Gaye talks about anger. We tend to hear a lot of songs that are all about happiness, emotional ecstasy, love…but rarely do we hear a musician croon and casually discuss a subject we all like to deny. So much effort is maintained in assuming the calmest lifestyle, having others perceive us in this way that we know isn’t true.

I’m currently reading Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace, and there’s a bit that takes place in a sort of rehabilitation house. One of the staff members who used to be a drug-user, now sober, says something about cliches, particularly those offered to users suffering from intense withdrawal. His words aptly relate to my aforementioned points.

“…The thing is that the cliched directives are a lot more deep and hard to actually do. To try and live by instead of just say.”

Truer words have not been spoken, as I unearth upon you guys these words of cliche: acceptance and allowance. Unto oneself and others. Allow the emotions to flood you, cry if you have to. Enjoy this track all the while, perhaps you were in need of some self-reflection.

Marvin Gaye – Anger (Jeremy Sole Edit)