popround / free mixtape collective » electronica

Last nights of freedom? Evolve, Oakland: here I come

harry covert — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 05:01:27 +0000

Heading off to check out what the East Bay house scene has to offer. Big life changes on the way… is this the end? Never!!!

State of independence

kiterae — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:15:11 +0000

Scouring through the blogs once again on this mix. It’s summer so leaning more in the direction of trance and blissed out beats, setting the scene with an airy reworking of a Florence and the Machine track before traversing a path towards Agoria’s strung out Grande Torino. Tom Stephan beefs things up a little (twiddling Laidback Luke’s knobs) before making a b-line for one of my guilty pleasures: Pryda. Not a big fan of his more effusive chart-aimed offerings (often under the Eric Prydz moniker), I’m surprisingly drawn to his more drawn out tribal journeys. Blaze were a New Jersey duo that came to prominence on the deep house scene in the early 1990′s. I never really took the time to explore them, but ‘Lovelee Day’ is throbby uplifting house at its best.

Once again I turned to the simplicity of Mixmeister Fusion, occasionally turning to mixing by chords but really having fun with the one-touch looping and channel knobs. One laptop and a pair of headphones was all this took. Hope you like the results…

Tracklisting

Cosmic Love (Short Club Remix)- Florence and The Machine
Superhero (Luke Solomon Dub Mix) – The Glass
Raw – DJ Donna Summer
Jungle MCs (Original Web Version) – MarkLam feat MCFreeFlow
Grande Torino – Agoria
Mingpark – Art Konik
My GOD (Tom Stephan Remix) – Laidback Luke
Let’s All Say Hey! (phantim mashup) – Dennis Ferrer vs. Laidback Luke & Diplo
The Kids (feat. Janelle Monae) – B.o.B/Janelle Monae
Dancemachine – Recast DJs
A War Zone (Club mix) – Maestro
Wakanapi (Original Mix) – Pryda
Jeffer (Modeselektor Remix) – Boys Noize
Lovelee Dae – Blaze
BRKLN CLLN – Joy Orbison
I Get Lifted – George McCrae

(BTW, this photo is from our first night in New Orleans wandering down verdant other-worldy Magazine Street. I tell you, you never quite know what to expect in this city. Oh, and the blog post title is a tentative nod towards July 4th… a holiday with mixed emotions for an English man in the US).

Have you caught the June bug?

kiterae — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:21:47 +0000

Feeling that the year is disappearing inordinately quickly? Life slipping you by? One minute you were toasting in the new year and next it’s June?

Take a deep breath and if you can’t make it to your local watering hole, slip on a pair of ear buds and take this mix around the block. I’ve thrown together a mix of new and old using the wonderfully, elegantly simple Mixmeister Fusion (thanks Natalie for the suggestion to bin Ableton – way too powerful for my humble needs).

It’s been a tough week, but be-bopping around Lake Merritt in Oakland to this selection helped me usher in the weekend with a fresh glow. Along the way I managed to catch this fabulous mural hanging out in an underpass.

Let me know how this mix works for you…

Tracklisting

Harry Flowers – William Orbit
Molten – Digital Mystikz
The LSD User – Stagga
Warrior (The xx REMIX) – Magic Wands
Anything’s Possible (Xrabit Remix) – Zero dB
Stories – Izit
Rock The Bells – LL Cool J
Makeout Stakeout – David Last
Let’s Start (Messengers Remix) – J.Period & K’NAAN
Rockit – Herbie Hancock
Acperience 1 – Hardfloor
Ondulation – Shonky
Justify (Will Saul And Mike Monday Remix) – Ramadanman And Appleblim
The Magician (Thomas Schumacher Remix) – Johannes Heil
By Your Side – CocoRosie

Jubilee throws down some serious jump-up jive

harry covert — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:25:51 +0000

I’ve been sitting on this mix for a little while now. I just keep getting pulled back into it. I’d go as far as to say it’s redefining the music I follow and play.

Jubilee is a young turk from Brooklyn who is building up a reputation for serving up some of the rawest beats out there. Picking on producers as diverse as Bok Bok, Wiley, Roska, DJ Eastwood and Schlachthofbronx, the mix starts at pace and just keeps on sizzling.

I love the raw clanging of the French Fries’ Predator (Tomb Crew Remix) as it bleeds into the atonal warblings of WILDLIFE!’s Jumbie. I did start investigating French Fries and came across this stunner on Youtube from the Frenchman:

For more on Jubilee and the full tracklisting, check out XLR8R.

Beyond the fjord

yari — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:47:18 +0000

This was fun – I went on a little mission to find out what’s been going on in Norway, and found heaps of really interesting stuff. In particular there’s Gisle Martens Meyer, a kind of… musical David Lynch? On this compilation he’s behind Ugress, Shadow of the beat, Pixxel Tyger and Spokelsekladden. And these are just some of his projects. Highly recommended, as is Ralph Myerz’s album Ralphorama! Most of these are available on Spotify if you want to check them out further.

Kjempeflott, as my Norwegian colleagues would say.

Tunes:

Intro – Ralph Myerz
Juliuss – Bermuda Triangle
Innerthieves – Shadow of the beat
Dead eyes – Pixxel Tyger
Cthulhu’s night out – Ugress
Kalaallit nunaat daquiri – Shadow of the beat
Heatwave (summersong) feat. Caro – Ralph Myerz
It was a great year (movies with robots) – Ugress
The dancer – Ralph Myerz
Hatten Passer – Bjorn Torske
In transit – Bermuda Triangle
Kapteinens skjegg – Bjorn Torske
Kommisär kontemporär – Ugress
Kyoto 02 AM – Shadow of the beat
Evil jeans – Ugress
My darling feat. Christine Sandtorv – Ralph Myerz
Manhattan sapphire – Ugress
Fembussen hjem – Bjorn Torske
Follow up – Spokelsekladden
Amz 1974 – Ugress

Sety in the mix at Kontrol SF tonight

kiterae — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:55:42 +0000

Not sure if I’m going to make it down tonite. My excuse is too many tasters among the fine wines of Calistoga.

And just in case you don’t make it, you can listen to Sety AKA Circus Company doing his thing on Resident Advisor. Expect a mix delving into the jazzier end of the techno spectrum. Clocking in at over 2 hours, this mix is a true smooooth journey through steamy dubby otherworldy beeps/clicks.

Sit back, light one up and relax. Or shadow dance like it’s 1994.

J Period Dancehall Soundclash Vol 2 Part 2 boyee

harry covert — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:52:33 +0000

Well, one day we’ll be back in the sizzling hot sun of summer – stoop parties, hoards at every ice cream parlor, hanging out in parks with boom boxes blaring a boisterous roughneck soundtrack. Well, here in SF we’re still not quite there yet, but let’s start getting in the mood.

I originally posted part 1 of this J Period Dancehall Soundclash mix last year, and due to demand am offering up part 2 here. There’s no let-up in intensity, and we find ourselves once more engulfed in a heady concoction of dancehall, reggaeton, ragga, hip-hop and a spattering of jump-up pop classics.

Here’s the track names:

Lil Jon Interlude
The Workout
Yeah Remix
Elephant Message Remix
Elephant Message
Galang Girl
Get Busy/Egyptian Interlude
Sweet To The Belly
Milkshake Remix
Jook Gal
Move Your Body
Pull Up
Tamale
Killing A Sound Boy
Sound Bwoie Buriell
Look Into My Eyes
Shake That Thing
Enemies Remix
Paid Not Played
Paid Not Played Exclusive
No No No
Oh Yeah
Bad Boys
Wine Up
Champion Lover
69
The Chronic
Like A Rock Remix
Neva Scared Remix
Neva Scared Remix
Outtro

Listen to part one of this mixtape

Jesus Christ, Har Mar Superstar

harry covert — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:00:19 +0000

I’ve had this category called ‘all over the place’ on this blog for a while… finally I’ve found the perfect subject matter. Last night at Benders for the opening of Noisepop, our man Har Mar was not just ‘all over the place’, but quite simply all in our face (one of our friends narrowly missed a teabagging). This indie court jester/rock hobbit has a stage act nonpareil.

To be honest, I’ve sampled his recorded music before and have never been that enthused. For the same reason I’ve passed up tickets to his show in the past. But the music really isn’t the point. It’s a prop along with the spandex cloak, the African tunic and, erm, his underpants. Not one to blush at pretentious ideas like artistic integrity, there’s even a spell of ‘yelling at the soundman’ drama, where HMS makes it clear the music player dishing out the backing track (including vocals from the likes of Beth Ditto and Karen O) is his fourth band member. The other two floppy-haired fellas being a bassist and drummer, both play it relatively straight as Har Mar pounces and preens through his dance/funk R&B, undressing at will.

Finally, the crowd has what it wants – HMS sporting little more than the garb that brought him into the world. And there, within his ‘barefaced cheek’ lies the crux of my enjoyment: Har Mar exults and adores us humans at our basest, most sordid, most ironic. Like a 40-year old accountant fantasizing about winning gold at the 100 meter sprint and getting it on with a supermodel. Har Mar just brings this fantasy to the stage as an urban yank version of the laughing Buddha. One that gets the last laugh.

More on Har Mar Superstar

A selection of hits from the sleek Har Mar Superstar website (I guess we’re still awaiting his release of a clothing line):

Surprisingly downbeat whilst being interviewed in a launderette:

Dirty Laundry Presents: Har Mar Superstar from Dirty Laundry on Vimeo.

You’ll find a collection of his ‘works’ on YouTube and he’s not too prouo to Tweet.

Rock and roll meets techno and dubstep on Jason Forrest mix

harry covert — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:21:03 +0000

We start in rock fringes with raw fuzzed out guitar chords leading to Nick Cave’s bastard punk croonings. Before we know it, we’re up to our ears in fringe dance, or as the man Forrest puts it:

“it’s like dubstep finally embraced it’s suburban IDM roots and the result is a freedom of sound that only happens really infrequently”

That man Forrest is an interesting being. According his Wikipedia entry (oh god, is any of it true?), he’s one and the same as Donna Summer and runs the Nightshifters label with DJ Jubilee.

Maybe I’m slow, but this mix was a real grower on me. Much of its charms were lost on my first breeze-through. I’m feeling it stronger now. It’s worth it just for the quite beautiful shake-down into Piotr Kurek’s ‘School Boy’ about 27 mins in.

Just in case you’re interested in any of these sharp tracks, there’s a detailed tracklisting here.

Strange love in Moscow

kiterae — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 03:16:38 +0000

Well, it all started with this remix of the MJ track ‘Stranger in Moscow’ which was unfamiliar to me as by the time History came out, I’d largely lost interest. Well, that track didn’t even make it onto this mix in the end. I ended venturing a little further leftfield into more tribal territory. Don’t despair, black heart day is only around the corner and I couldn’t resist the Sandcastles remix of that old Robin S Euro-thumper ‘Show me love’. Forgive me, all you purists out there.

For the trainspotter:

Mind Reader (L-Vis 1990 Remix) – Kingdom + Shyvonne
Burning Up – Skream
Trollsta (Egyptrixx Remix) – Dubbel Dutch
Timewarp Dub – Stagga
This Sound Is (Homework Sound Bootcut) – Kid Kaio & Lucky Charmes
Kill 100 (Carl Craig Remix) – X-Press 2
Lucy & Ercolino – So the Nothing Grows Stronger
T’a surdou Dakunt (Lorcan Mak remix) – Dakunt
Radio Slave – Orchestrating Maneuvers in the Dark (M.in & Patrick Lindsey Remix) – Radioslave Patrick Lindsey M.in
Flonko – Version 1 – Steve Angello, AN21
Summertime [Extended Vocal] – Jamie Jones
Grand Central, Part I (Deep Into The Bowel Of House) (MCDE Bassline Dub) – DJ Sprinkles
Love Dub – Cooly G
Sandcastles vs Show Me Love – BORN TO FUNK Edit
1992 – Original Mix – Mendo
Flutesnoot (Brodinski’s B-Live Mix) – Edu K
Erupting Light – Hildur Gudnadottir