Since I'll be drinking overpriced drinks in NYC this Saturday and celebrating the birth of Sarko's and Justice's RF, I want to leave a little something in the middle for those who feel a little left out: a pre-Bastille day send off for the uninitiated. I'll be back Sunday to fly the colors, posting some non-German tracks for your audible enjoyment. French or not, we should all say 'joyeux anniversaire la republique francais'.
I discovered Armand Van Helden for myself by complete accident a few months ago, a fortuitous download from a compilation list of influences to a certain DJ Sta, (if you don't know him meet him here). Since 1988 Armand Van Helden has been making great, face-melting music for club rats and dance freaks all over the world.
Van Helden is a non-smoking, apparent workaholic partier whose bed-time is 5AM. He's reached a level that few can claim to have achieved in the music world, and done it without selling himself to the mainstream, unwilling to box in his style, tastes, or attitudes. Own terms, own rules, own music, something for everyone, even the little kids. From the DJ Times (2005): “I’m a producer looked at as an artist, which is the weirdest thing to this day for me,” he says. “I never considered myself an artist.”
I started back from Killing Puritans, his 2000 album release, the very title of which is suggestive of the man behind the cover art. A solid millennial album I knew nothing about until now. It kicks, you see the genius between the eclectic vocal sampling, solid beats, and gritty edge he puts to his tracks. Producer, artist, or something altogether his own, from here and now and then, his work only gets better and remains the way he seems to have intended it: present, unafraid to stand out without saying so, and not mainstream flashes in the cosmic pan of pop culture, the kind of stardom easily lost and forgotten.
I hope the British people make it through this time of terrorism without losing the freedoms that made this music possible.
I don't have that much else to say about this post. Mostly because I don't want to spend that much time writing it. So the music will have to do. I hope you don't mind, but I have other things to do.
And finally, I have to thank all the artists and the blogs I borrow, especially Chaz and Leif from Chazology. Thanks.
so these bastards at the Copyright Royalty Board have decided that they aren't making enough money off the internet. to remedy this great evil they've planned to jack up the licensing fees for internet radio streams, a move that would potentially force a lot of independent radio stations to close permanently. in protest, radio stations across the country, including the tremendous wrmc 91.1FM, refused to broadcast regular programming.
head over to savenetradio.org and find out how to tell your senator to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act. If we get enough senators behind the bill, we can legally tell the Copyright Royalty Board to go fuck themselves, royally;)
I'm feeling pretty basic, and need some anthem against corporations, Saturday work schedules, telephone conversation, and anything else to disengage, separating myself from chosen economic slavery during what's left of my weekend. I'm turning to TTC, not a radical leftist group pushing the revolutionary message, but the French hip hop group proving once again that French culture isn't dead (stupid Freedom Fries). The group defines themselves as such: "We make rap for people who love rap more than anything else in the world, and who fucking love many other things too." I like rap. I like other things, too. A mantra we can all appreciate.
These guys are stuffed with talent like a fat, French kid eating pastries two handfuls at a time. Comprising Institubes finest (Tacteel and Cuzinier, and even DJ Orgasmic on the 1s and 2s) with Texi Latex and Tido Berman backing them up, as well as producer Para One, a DJ synonymous with the Institubes label as well as the infamous Ed Banger, TTC should be busting your headphones soon. Buy their new album, 3615, if you like what you see and hear. And for a track from the new album, check out the single "Une Bande de Mecs Sympa" over at wrmc 91.1FM.
mashups remind me of that old saying: two tracks (or three) are better than one. ElectroSound, un homme from Besançon, France, does it right. Highlights. Keeping it in the UK, light pyramid robots bringing sexy back or communing with animated Gorillaz, updating Eurythmics sweet dreams...enjoy.
make sure to check out ElectroSound on his myspace page.
yeah its friday, but you shouldn't be thinking about going out. you should be waiting with excitement and anticipation for monday's (june 18*) release of the outlines' album - our lives are too short.
outlines who?
outlines are these three french guys (of course), two are mcs and one is a former internationally renowned graffiti artist turned dj (how fucking cool is that). i heard about these guys for the first time this spring over on analog giant, when k. posted their remix of "Lucky Boy" by DJ Mehdi.
after listening to it incessantly for a good month (understandably) i finally got to hear their new album, and as i've already stated, it was so good i punched my mom in the face. in a time when all we really find ourselves listening to is good remixes, its rare to hear a full solid album from a dj. our lives are too short is just that. the samples and production alone are ridiculously tight, and coupled with haunting, soulful r&b vocals and guest mcs like the RZA and Beat Assailant, these tracks are fairly epic. as far as i'm concerned, this is already top 5 albums of 2007, and it hasn't even come out yet.....
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