elecTONIC

Mezz’s summer tracks

// July 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

I’ve listened to thousands of electronic songs in the last few months, here’s my favorites at the moment:
(set the youtube to at least 480p for decent sound quality!)

This is the biggest song out there right now. Skip the vocal version and lose yourself in this riff
One – Swedish House Mafia

Fedde takes us to the future with a sound you’ve never heard before
Back & Forth (feat. Mr. V) (Fedde’s Future Funk remix) – Fedde Le Grand

Afrojack and Chuckie have a new contender in the Dutch House scene, Angger Dimas
Pass That Dutch (Angger Dimas Bootleg) – Missy Elliot

Angger Dimas, Vandalism, and Jack Hammer with a KILLER electro house track
She Got It (Jack Hammer remix) – Vandalism & Angger Dimas

Trippy, groovy, creepy. You have to check out Tobacco!
Backwoods Altar – Tobacco

Hardcore from an artist named after the neurodevelopmental disorder that makes people act like elves. Pseudonym of Kasparov of Noisecontrollers.
Secrets – Williams Syndrome

SonicC transformed My Guns On Display to something a lot quicker, maybe a machine gun. I loved the sound of the original, but it was way too slow to keep my interest or get me dancing. SonicC fixed all of that.
My G*O*D (SonicC remix) – Laidback Luke

Remember the video or Christopher Walken dancing to this song? Yeah. It’s been Electro House’d by Lazy Rich for your nostalgic party purposes. A monster track in its own right.
Weapon Of Choice (Lazy Rich remix) – Fatboy Slim

Disco & Funky House exists for songs like this.
Groove In You – Steve Angello

Tech Trance is keeping things alive with some great sounds
Perpetual Sunrise (The Tribal Re Rub) – Will Atkinson

Very Popular, a year old, but still beautiful
Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition (Axwell & Dirty South Remix)

The 1920s meets electro house? Something like that, anyway. WHoaAa
Make My Music (Zodiac Cartel remix) – Emanuel Kosh

Something by Uffie that I can actually get people to dance to! It’s about time. Death to Ke$ha, Uffie was there first.
ADD Suv (feat. Pharrel Williams) (Armand Van Helden Club remix) – Uffie

And finally:
Deep at Night (Adam K & Soha remix extended) – Ercola vs. Heikki L

In This Post I Talk About Hardcore

// September 9th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Uncategorized

I know a lot of you might hear the term “hardcore” and immediately think of the “happy” style that initially earned the genre it’s perpetual stigma in the mid 90′s. I’m inclined to think it did so because it turned cheesiness into a crusade, causing ravers and clubbers who projected a tougher image to become ludicrously defensive and insecure (Read any thread on the subject at ravelinks.com and you’ll start to see a lot of douchebags come out of the woodwork with the sole purpose of making sure everybody in the thread knows that they hate Kandi Kids).

I personally think happy hardcore was awesome because it was often shamelessly inane and, at times, somewhat subversive as a result. However, most people won’t bother touching the greater hardcore genre with a ten-foot pole because of happy hardcore’s enduring legacy.

Since the death of happycore, hardcore has diversified itself immensely, yet this phenomenon has been largely ignored in the states. What is now called UK Hardcore has been successfully exported from the United Kingdom to Australia, which is currently brimming with its own fresh talent and a vibrant scene. Many of SKILLS’ larger events have started to feature top UK Harcore DJs in recent years. The most recent POP featured Raverbaby Records boss DJ Hixxy and MC Storm, alongside other prominent DJ’s associated with the label. ETD Love featured Scott Brown, one of the most consistently lauded producers and DJs in the scene. 2008′s POP introduced Sharkey, the original pioneer of the freeform hardcore sound, to a handful of U.S. ravers. Youtube these names; you might be pleasantly surprised at what you’ll find (Just keep in mind that all of the guys I mentioned were immensely prominent in the 90′s, when happy harcore was the dominant sound).

It’s good to know who these guys are, but I intend to use this blog as an opportunity to write about artists who I think of as doing especially interesting things with the UK Hardcore sound. Relatively speaking, I’m a bit of an outsider and I definitely wrote the above blurb from the narrow perspective of an American raver. This blog isn’t the place for an in-depth discussion of hardcore’s roots and development, and I don’t think I’m in a great position to lecture anyone nor is it likely that any of you want to hear about it anyway. However, I feel that I’m in a unique position as a relatively new and young fan of the music because I’m exempt from what I perceive as a lot of bitterness and inertia bogging down the scene in the UK. I’m not going to indulge in nostalgia and yearn for the scene of yesteryear. Instead, I’m going to focus on guys like Oli G, Darwin and Jon Doe and hope that you Berkeley electronic music enthusiasts are at least marginally entertained by my latest obsession: kick-drum driven dance music that happens to be really fucking fast.

Here’s a teaser. The track is called “Mood Music;” the artist is Devastate, the remixer is Oli G.
Keep your eyes peeled for it’s release on www.hardbeatsdownload.com, and while you’re there, check out the other tunes from the ReBuild Music catalog. It’s currently one of the freshest and most exciting labels in hardcore.

-DJ Koolkat