Deckhead 2.0

Lately Australian (mainly Sydney) based producers have been killing it lately, names such as Cassian, Flight Facilities, Aston Shuffle are names that immediately spring to mind, with most of these artists dominating various genre’s beatport charts. There is one track that stands above all however, and that is Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP’s We Speak No Americano, it is currently sitting number 2 on the Beatport top download list.

The thing that makes the original track so special is the fact that YBC & DCUP both have different styles of music, on one hand we have a tropical party tech flavour and on the other hand we have one of the kings of Australian Nu Disco.

Spank Records and Sweat It out have just announced that the second annual Spank! Records remix competition and the track that has been chosen this year is non other than We Speak No Americano and on offer is a swag of prizes worth more than $5000.

Full details with how to enter, as well as the list of prizes up for grabs, sponsors and partners will be released at http://www.spankrecords.com.au/sweat-it-out-comp/ on Friday the 23rd of April. The competition will begin the same day.

As a little treat for you today I have a Spenda C edit of the track to give you a little taste of what people are doing with it. He keeps the quirky hooks and main themes of the original and has edited it by chopping up various drops making it a more Bmore/Dutch House/ Uk Funky vibe on the track

♪ Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP – We No Speak Americano (Spenda C Edit)

After a series of cheeky mash ups and killer mixtapes, Elmo Is Dead has finally finished his first remix and its pretty special! He chose to remix The Party Squad’s debut release CrazyFunky Style which was released in 2007 through Mad Decent. For a while this fun track flew under the radar and wasn’t noticed by many Australians, but recently many deejays have been using this as a kind of secret weapon to keep their crowds moving. The main man who has been promoting this track heavily is the king of cool Ajax, who even included it in his April chart of favorite tracks for the month.

Anyway back to the remix by Emoh, he has made it even more of party anthem adding additional horns drums and sirens to turn it into a “Ghetto Glam” (his words) remix. Let’s hope that this is the first of many remixes by the man.

♪ The Party Squad – Crazy Funky Style (Elmo is Dead Remix)

Jax

Back in the Day I wore Von Dutch

Today’s post is focusing on two of my favorite rappers of the modern generation, these being Mos Def & Talib Kweli. In the late 90s & early 200s these artists helped develop socially aware rap music and helped in the movement away from the harder gangster rap which was popular in the early 90s. They used their reputation and popularity to rap about issues of the time and be a good roll model to the kids who loved and worshipped their music.

Socially aware hip hop focused on various topics such as religion, anti violence, the struggles of people who love in the projects or ghetto, and the advancement of African American culture. Mos Def has used his reputation and popularity to become very active on social and policital issues throughout the past decade and was rather vocal after Hurrican Katrina in 2005.

One of the earliest examples of socially aware/conscious hip hop is Grandmaster Flash’s The Message which comments on the poverty, violence, and the lifestyles of kids of the time.

♪ Grand Master Flash – The Message

Mos Def and Talib Kweli first started to gain respect in hip hop circles thanks to the formation of the duo Black Star. Their debut self titled release achieved little commercial success, however they were one of the pioneers of hip hop in the late 90s and bring it into the mainstream eye, mainly as a result of the movement away from gangster rap. Defiantly would have to agree with them that they are one of the “best alliances in hip hop”.

♪ Black Star – Definition

After the fall of Rawkus Records both artists decided to use their new found success to launch what would prove to be very successful solo careers.

Mos Def first found commercial success through his debut solo album Black on Both Sides which was released in October 1999, as well as focusing on socially conscious lyrics, the album helped pave the way for a combination live instrumentation and studio made beats. Mathematics (funnily enough was produced by DJ Premier) to this day is still one of my favorite Mos Def tracks and it was featured on his debut album. The song combines Mos Def’s amazing lyrics and the production work of premier and the use of his famous scratch samples.

♪ Mos Def – Mathematics

Talib Kweli took a few more years for his solo project to take off, he first found some success with his 2004 album The Beautiful Struggle. The idea behind this was to combined more mainstream beats and production work (thanks to Kanye West) and stay true to his roots with socially conscious lyrics, the album received mix reviews from the mainstream media. Production on the album includes Kanye West, The Neptunes, Just Blaze and Hi-Tek who worked on the Black Star project.

♪ Talib Kweli – Never Been In Love

Jax

A few weeks ago I found out some pretty amazing news, it was that The Mane Thing remix of Peep Thong was being featured on Herve’s Ghetto Bass 2 CD. Well the mix has finally been released digitally and is ready to pre order if you want a hardcore copy of the CD.The mix contains a number of Herve’s very own remixes and original works as well as some of the biggest names in ghetto bass, tropical, dubstep and bangers today including tracks and remixes by Fake Blood, Jack Beats, Sinden, Douster, Joy Division, fellow Aussie’s Yolanda Be Cool plus a ton of others.

The mix is a showcase of well known heavy tracks that are known and loved by all as well as some predictions of tracks that will be huge in 2010, it is dominated by artists signed to Cheap Thrillz as well as other producers who are making waves at the moment.

Ghetto Bass 2 (The Sound of Hervé) magnificently mixes 34 tracks over 2 CD’s and includes five brand new Hervé tracks. Other highlights are Passion Pit’s “Little Secrets” (Jack Beats remix), Joy Orbisons’s “Hyph Mngo”, Four Tet’s “Love Cry” (Joy Orbison remix) and Orbital’s Lush (Hervé remix). It is an exhilarating collection of the most exciting tunes around and refreshingly shows them in a new light.

Usually I am not a fan of heavier bass, but without being biased this cd rocks! The balance of all the different bass sub genres works really well, the popular songs compliment the less known tracks to help build people’s appreciation of the genre as a whole. Both CDs flow really well, it is a musical journey into bass music and they individually shocase the various sounds that are dominating the world at the moment and the second CD showcases how the music has developed from the early days into what it is today.

The first cd starts with a bang which builds into a more party type groove, after this it builds towards a disco funk sound and then works into the tropical sounds that are taking the world by storm and finishes with some hectic wobbles. The second CD is much more experimental and harder, it explores more the evolution of the dubstep genre. With a mixture of garage and how this has evolved into future garage which is a bit heavier, which then turns into some heavy dubstep a mixture of commercial and underground sounds. The cd then moves into one of the pioneering genres of heavy bass music, Drum & Bass, this is the perfect way to finish the cd the tunes are so uplifting and inspiring which will keep you dancing til the early hours of the morning.

It is a perfectly structured compilation and does an amazing job at showcasing some amazing bass music and the popular sub genres at the moment. This CD is a must for any fan of heavy bass, wobbles and lovers of bass music! Once you get it pump it on some kick ass speakers because its no place to listen to on a laptop or on a desktop. Ghetto Bass is out digitally on Itunes & Beatport but if you want a hard copy of the CD you can pre order it from Amazon.

♪ Hervé’ – Hot! Drum Attack

♪ Yolanda Be Cool – Afro Nuts (Douster Remix)

My other favorite track on the CD is the Ghetto Bass 2 Edit of Voodoo Chilli’s Check Out Our Groove, it cuts it up nicely so it more appropriate for the cd (and it comes right after The Mane Thing). Voodoo Chilli is Herve’s latest side project, he focuses on making modern day disco jams by sampling and remaking its older cousins, so far there has been three amazing tracks in Check Out Our Groove, Get On Down and Love Songs!

Watch out Duck Sauce, Voodoo Chilli is coming!

♪ Voodoo Chilli – Check Out Our Groove (Ghetto Bass 2 Remix)

Jax

Top Billin are a dj / production crew from Helsinki, besides producing some monster hits they also have a highly successful record label with some amazingly diverse releases and one of the most informative blogs around. Two of the members Flipper & Koobra have recently started a new side project entitled Helsinki 78-82, their style is much more melodic, with a dreamy feelgood sound that I cannot get enough of, truly beautiful music. Today I have their latest remix of Kid Sisters Daydreaming track;

“Daydreaming had Helsinki 78-82 written all over it, but it was impossible to pull off any clean samples from the original so we ended up using only the intro part and building a whole new track behind it (that was the original Dub mix so don’t get confused)”

♪ Kid Sister – Daydreaming (Helsinki 78-82 Remix)

Bonus: I have a track from their debut EP to show you how good their original works are, the song is entitled So Lifelike which is a remake of Lifelike’s So Electric track with additional vocals by Villa Nah. The song is a synth inspired masterpiece, which will uplift your mood and I highly recommend you hunt down the full release on Juno or Beatport as there are two other quality tracks.

♪ Helsinki 78-82 – So Lifelike

Jax

Caution, this post is going to contain a lot of name dropping of various blogs and artists.

Today I have some tunes from UK based babe Florrie, she started out as the drummer in UK drummer with the house band at Xenomania and now she is releasing tracks as a solo singer and has been creating some serious hype in the blogosphere.

Her debut single 911 was remixed by the king of cool Fred Falke with the remix being featured at the LG Toronto Fashion week. Ever since the original was released the hype for her has been building, some of the raddest blogs around have already featured her including Discodust, StoneyRoads and TooManySebastians have already fallen in love with this new queen of the pop world. Discodust have gone so far and labelled her as “one of the most promising upcoming female pop artists”.

Her latest single is called Panic Attack and comes with free remixes by Justin Faust, Bit Funk and of course Fred Falke, which you can get over at Discodust. South Australian boys Def Starr have also been charged with doing remix work for her and they have come up with a funky remix and a pretty cool dub version. Def Starr might not be the one of the biggest names in Australian dance music, but based on their recent production, 2010 could just be the year that they start to build a name and reputation for themselves and the tiny town of Radelaide. The boys have been doing some pretty big parties of late having already hosted Classixxx at their Def Starr & Friends party, and soon will be hosting Breakbot at their second installment and djing all over the trap in Radelaide.

*Note: its actually called Adelaide, and it isn’t that small

♪ Florrie – Panic Attack (Def Starr Remix)

♪ Florrie – Panic Attack (Def Starr Dub)

Props to Stoneyroads & Toomanysebastians for jumping on the bandwagon first with these two fantastic remixes.

Jax