As described at his SoundCloud page "Canadian-Berliner-French musical genius and piano virtuoso, workaholic Grammy-nominated producer, Guinness World Record holder, prankster rapper and movie writer / composer / actor & producer", it seems that Chilly Gonzales is versatile man. A master of a generation is the least that can be said about this man.
Laying in your bed in total darkness and listen to White Keys at the highest volume possible is by far the best way of enjoying music. No impressions of outward distraction, just you and the sound.
An interesting mix of hip-hop and electro beats combined with Chilly Gonzales wonderful piano and orchestral tunes in this piano mixtape. Featuring artists in the mix, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, Claude Von Stroke, Clipse, Daft Punk and Kelly Clarkson. Enjoy!
PurePurp stated a while ago, "A star is born" and was referring to the swedish singer Miriam Bryant. Since then her reputation has grown bigger, and now you can hear her brilliant song Push Play remixed in the last episode of Tiëstos Club Life Podcast, 308.
Both the original and the remix are great tunes.
Miriam Bryant - Push Play
Miriam Bryant - Push Play (Filip Jenven & Mike Perry Remix)
This track was brought to my attention by Felix Da Housecat during his guest apperance on BBC radio 1 last friday night with his Essential Mix. Great sunday lounge material!
I also recommend you to listen to the entire mix, truly the handwork of a legend!
The first one is a remix of the legend Felix Da Housecats classic track "Silver Screen" made by the french producer Oxford. Soothing stripped-down funky vibes!
The second one is a remix by Art Of Shades of the amazing Phoenix song "Lisztomania" which was included in the Grammy awarded album "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" from 2009.
The last one is an original produced by Eurocrats (Dimitri from Paris and Aeroplane), released on the Belgian record label "AeroPop records". Got this 90´s vibe to it that made me feel nostalgic!
Here´s a new great (but extremely weird) song and music video by the almost certainly acid influenced producer Janine Roston, better known as Planningtorock. Freaky stuff!
The Swedish pop band Lucknow Pact was established in 2002. The first time hearing this song was in a ski movie called Teddybear Crisis and after that I was obsessed with it. Fortunately for you, I am nice guy and therefore sharing this with you. Enjoy!
Old time classic. The Postal Service one of my favorit bands in 2000s has released a new single; A tattered line of String. Please listen to Such Great Heights finding below, that is the best song they've made (my opinion). Enjoy!
Such Great Heights and We Will become Silhouettes.
Here is one of my favorite tracks of 2013 so far, "More for the less" produced by Mario Basanov accompanied by the soulful singer Jeremy Glenn. Amazing song with distinct contemporary house-, disco- and R&B- vibes. A great way to fight the monday agony!
Now it´s time for me to post my first house music post on this blog. I am sort of an omnivore when it comes to music genres, however the last ten years of my life has mainly been dominated by house music in terms of listening habits. As you all know the house music scene have had an enormous breakthrough the last couple of years. This has resulted in a "mainstreamization" of the music produced. This development has both its ups and downs, a huge amount of newcomers produces extreme amounts of material. I believe this results in poorer " good song ratio" than before. Therefore, it is now harder to find those really amazing tracks in the never ending numbers of blogs, forums and social medias. I have no doubts about these tracks still being produced, however you need to know were to look for them. I will now try to help you in the quest for incredible house music.
My first recommendation will be the norwegian DJ-duo Carl Louis & Martin Danielle, often refered to as CLMD. I strongly believe that CLMD are two of the brightest new talents of the entire house music scene and they have been demonstrating that by continuously releasing great tracks, play at bigger and bigger events and getting more and more recognition among house music legends such as Pete Tong and Tiesto. CLMD started producing as early as 2007, however their real breakthrough wasn´t until in 2011 when they released the amazing song called "Little bit" featuring vocalist Colonel Red.
The year before they released "The Message" which now also got the attention that it deserved.
After "Little Bit" you stumbled over their production more frequently, but Carl Louis & Martin Daniells real triumph was in 2012 when they released "Black eyes and blue". I am completely honest when i tell you that I have been listening to this track at least 500 times over the last year. It completely blew me away and I still haven´t grown tired of it. For me it is total perfection. This song embodies to me what house music is all about, pure and limitless euphoria. With its catchy and incisive vocals combined with progressive house synth strings creates a sound that is being slung right into your soul. Not to forget is the beautiful music video shot in Los Angeles!
"Black eyes and Blue" granted CLMD a gold record in Norway and reached the top 10 rank of best songs of 2012 on Norwegian national radio. It also became the opening track of the Ultra Music Festival 2012 after movie. When the single was released thay had been colaborated with the extremely talented norweigan visual artist Jonathan Varcoe who designed the amazing "Black eyes and blue" single cover.
CLMD continued to tour the entire world and produce some great remixes during the rest of 2012. They also moved away from Norway and established themselves in New York. In Januari they finally released another original track. Not easy to live up to the massive amount of expectations that was generated after their previous success however i think they manage to do a good job. The song "Fallin like angels" really gave them a kickstart of 2013 and I am sure that they will keep on producing great music and play even bigger shows and festivals this year. So look out for them and make sure you don´t miss them if the show up in your city!
Why would you need drugs when you can listen to CLMD?
As a valentines day treat for you I am going to share a couple of tracks produced by one of the bigest breakthrough acts of 2012, Purity Ring. Purity Ring are a Canadian duo from Montreal consisting of the vocalist Megan James and Corin Roddick on instruments.
Their music can be described as a mixture of post-dubstep, indietronica and synth-pop, genres that traditionally often overrides the importens of elaborate and thoughtful lyrics, however Purity Ring has find a way to infiltrate great vocals into their meaty indie-, electro- and dubstep- clashing tracks in the most unique way. In June 2012 they released their debut album called "Shrines". The album includes great tracks such as "Fineshrine", "Obedear", "Belispeak" and "Ungirthed".
There is no doubt that the vocals of their songs are odd and sometimes purely disturbing. The song "Fineshrine" includes lyrics with sentences such as: "Cut open my sternum and pull my little ribs around you" and in the track "Obedear" Megan James sings that her grandma should "Drill little holes into my eyelids".
As you can hear from these songs the vocal elements are often strange, delivered with sort of a spooky vibe to it. These are the reasons why I have grown so attached to "Purity Ring". Their songs are embraced by a spiritual aura and the down tempo melodies are easily accessible which makes them really comfortable to listen to. I also have a huge amount of respect for producer that dedicates time and energy to thoroughly develop tracks were vocals and instrumentals compliments each other instead of just putting all the effort into the instrumentals. More producers should copy this strategy!
As my first blog post I would like two recommend two great hip hop tracks. The blog seems to lack this genre.
1. Oldie - Odd Future
Odd Future (OFWGKTA) is a hip hop collective from Los Angeles that consist by several artists, producers, rappers and such. Please, clic the link for full wiki. Among them, Frank Ocean is presumably the most household name. His last album, Channel Orange got six Grammy noms this year. So I guess his pals in the collective are rooting for him on sunday when the Grammys are held. This 10 minute track features almost every member of the group, and they all bring certain qualities to it that defines there part. All and all together it becomes a really good track.
2. Chum - Earl Sweatshirt
Earl Sweatshirt is one of the members in the collective, Odd Future. The track was released in november last year, and is rumored to be a part of his second album titled Doris that is going to be released later this year. Apart from the album release he will perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in april this year, together with a bunch of other great artist. So for all you guys that will attend the festival, I am really jealous of you.
I'll hope you guys enjoy the recommendations, and have a great weekend. By the way, don't forget to check out the Grammys on sunday.
The young bloke from London is back with a new single. James Blake breakthrough in 2010 releasing three EPs and was a forefront person to the early pause-dubstep music - the heavy-bass, electronic dance music from south London. Later on the music developed into more soul-alike music as James Blake bagan singing in his own songs. In 2011 he was nominated to Mercury Music Prize for his self-titled album. His music is molded in the style of The XX and Bon Iver.
The new single Retrograde is played on BBC Radio 1 (direct play 1:09). Looking forward to the upcoming album (Overgrown) release in April this year.
I Break Horses is a Stockholm, Sweden based indiepop band established in 2008 by a duo consisting of Maria Lindén and Fredrik Balck.
My first contact with this band was during a gig at a music festival called "Way Out West" in Gothenburg, Sweden. One of my friends was very eager to watch them in action, however when we (the other members of the group) asked her to describe I Break Horses, she could´t do it. She told us they were indescribable. This was a smart move by her, since all of us suddenly got genuinely interested. The gig started, and it didn´t take long until I was completely blown away by their performance.
Their spine-chilling "out of this world" electro strings matched with classic indiepop elements grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and didn´t let go. My friend later told me that I looked like a child in a candy store for the entire set, and I certainly felt like one. This was definitely my live performance highlight of 2012.
My favorite I Break Horses song is without a doubt "Winter beat". It is completely genius, however while writing this blog post it strikes me, I have the same problem as my friend had. Their sound and characteristics are simply to hard to define. So, instead of me telling you how it sounds, have a listen!
This song was included in their first and presently only album called "Hearts". This album contains several amazing tracks such as "Hearts", "Cancer", "Wired" and "Load Your Eyes". The album also gave them the opportunity to tour with one of my favorite bands "M83" all over the world as opening act.
Funny story: The duo first met on a medical information forum were questions regarding deceases is answered directly by doctors. It seems like they both share some sort of hypochondria, which also was the origin of the song "Cancer". The song was written during a period of time when both of them were sure that they were terminally ill. Maybe not that funny, however I am happy as long as that makes them continue to produce amazing songs on the same lavel as they have been doing so far!
The other day I stumbled over this great feel-good track called "Club Ace" by someone named MXPN. With its stripped down sound consisting of a smooth melody with sort of a fairytale-vibe combined with minimalistic basslines really caught my attention.
As usual when I discover a track that I like I started to look for more songs by the producer and some background information about him/her. Well, this was a lot harder then I thought. After scanning Google, the MXPN Facebook group and Soundcloud profile I could summarize the information like this: Two guys from Gothenburg, Sweden. Not much to write a blog post about, right?
Anyhow, at least I could find another couple of tracks that I really liked, all released in the past three months. This indicates that the duo MXPN probably started producing recently.
Maybe I didn´t just stumble over a great track, perhaps MXPN will have a breakthrough in 2013 and become the producers on everyone’s lips. In that case, don´t forget who wrote about them first!
I rediscovered one of my favorit artist of all time, Moby! His music has had a major impact on me and basically formed my tast in the music I listen to today. Probably the best artist in the 90's, revolutionary for his time and producing amazing tracks such as Natural Blues and Porcelain makes Moby a legend!
In 2008 he released his album Last Night and it was after the track Alice was randomly being played in my music player that I rediscovered him. Haven't listen to any of his songs for a long time but when I heard the track again I was like "damn, this is still good!". Recently I have been into hip-hop and rap music and maybe the rapping perfomed by the featuring artists MC Aynzil and members of the Nigerian group 419 Squadwas the reason I got one of those halleluja moments listen to it again. Enough writing, here it comes.... ALICE!!!!
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs aka Orlando Higginbottom, currently signed by the classic record label "Polydor" is a British DJ, producer and vocalist. He is often referred to as the guy with the odd costumes, however there is a lot more to him than just the costumes.
His debut album “Trouble” was released on June 11th 2012. The album contained amazing tracks such as Trouble, Household Goods, Stronger, Tapes & Money and one of my all time favorite, Garden.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (TEED) has a unique sound that is extremely hard to define in just words. A huge variety of House, Electro, dub-step and dance elements are put together in a most original way, creating a mixture of heavy bass lines and catchy melodies. TEED is for sure one of the most interesting artist of the entire electronic music scene.
Further, he is one of the best, if not the best, live performer I have ever witnessed. He bounces frantically between laptops, keyboards, drum machines and samplers while providing live vocals, often together with the female vocalist Luisa Gerstein. This creates a massive euphoria amongst the audience, while TEED radiates a huge amount of energy. The extreme variety of musical impressions combined with the visual impact of pyrotechnics, lasers and LED-screens together with TEEDs awesome dinosaur and Native American influenced costumes, results in a show refined into total perfection.
As you might understand from this blog entry, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaur have had an enormous impact on me during the last two years, and I hope that his songs will have the same effect on you guys!
Steve Angello and the rest of house mafia is diggin' to Cjaym's bootleg of Thrift Shop. Cjaym is a Stockholm based electro-house producer and DJ. If you like take a look at his sounds at his soundcloud. Enjoy it as Angello does!
New York City based electro-house DJ/producing duo The Chainsmokers consisting of Andrew Winter and Alex Pallcame up with this great remix of Jónsi's Around Us.
Also like to recommend Erase (Original Remix) that is an own production featuring Priyanka Chopra!
Tropical Disco has become one of my favorite genres. This genre had its breakthrough in 2012 when loads of new producers with elaborate and fresh sounds started to appear on various blogs and music sites.
Rotkraft was one of those producers that caught my attention. The track “Never give up”was one of the tracks most frequently played on my stereo system in the fall of 2012. With its distinct 80´s feeling to it, combined with heavy baselines and soothing melodies, it really is a great song.
Rotkraft has continued to release great tracks in the beginning of 2013 and especially “To Love You” grabbed me. It gives me great summer vibes, and I am sure that Rotkraft, a duo consisting of George Japaridze & Lasha Margiani from Georgia, are an upcoming duo that will have a massive breakthrough in 2013.
Swedish electro house duo Dada Life consisting of Olle Corneer and Stefan Engblom. Kick out the epic motherf**ker is the least that can be said about So Young So High and itgives me epic summer vibes! Enjoy motherf**kers!!!
My first
music post in this blog contains two tracks by one of my favorite
producer/producers of 2012. Major Lazer. On February 19th they will
release the highly anticipated album “Major Lazer Frees The Universe” which I
have been looking forward to for abut a year now. This post might give you an
idea of the size of this record release.
Major Lazer
is a music project devolved in 2009 by the Philadelphia based DJ Thomas Wesley
Pentz, better known as DJ Diplo and Switch (David Taylor), the guy behind the success of M.I.A. Switch was replaced in
2011 by the producers Jillionaire and Walshy Fire. Together with a variety of
genre-breaking producer and artists such as Snoop Dogg, Tiga, Wynter Gordon and
Vampire Weekend they are set to release their second album later on this month.
The song
Get free featuring vocals by the American singer Amber Coffman is one of my
favorite tracks of 2012, in addition the music video filmed in Kingston is probably
one of the best I have ever seen!
The next
track is Major lazer’s remix of the great Hot Chip song ”Look at were we are”,
which combines a number of different genres into a seductive almost hypnotic
melody. The mixture of dub step, drum n bass and minimal together with a sharp
reggae vibe almost turns this song into perfection.
