Enjoy.
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
I’m incredibly proud to announce the second installment of my mix series Driving North. For those of you who are new to this series, the idea is pretty simple: I take the last song of my last mix, and use it as the first song in my new mix. It’s a pretty simple constraint, but it helps give direction and makes for an easy gimmick. If you haven’t heard it already, take a listen to my first installment of Driving North. As always, please feel free to tweet/post/blog about this mix. You can find me on Twitter or Facebook.
About Part 2: This is a dark and moody collection of house, garage, and dubstep. Though I have a really hard time with “brostep” (dubstep that sounds like a chainsaw), there are elements of the genre that are really just incredible. The moodier part of dubstep tends to have heavy R&B influences, something I’ve always appreciated. If you’re looking for more of this sound, I highly recommend you check out extrawater radio by my friend Joe Lzrz.
This is a pretty good mix of new and old, all tied together by more or less one constant: I’ve never been able to play them out. That’s not entirely true, I’m sure I’ve managed to squeeze a couple of these into a set somewhere, but these aren’t typical going-out songs so it’s been nice to finally give them a home.
Download: Ezra Mechaber – Driving North, Part Two (save target as)
Tracklist:
- School of Seven Bells – Half Asleep (Lusine remix)
- Florence & The Machine – You Got The Love (XX remix)
- Paul Kalkbrenner – Sky & Sand
- CWB feat. Tash Baxter – Into The Twilight
- Katy B feat. Ms. Dynamite – Lights On
- French Fries & Chaos In The CBD – With You
- Joy Orbison – The Shrew Would Have Cushioned The Blow
- The Count & Sinden – You Make Me Feel So Good
- Joy Orbison – J. Doe
- Addison Grove – Footcrab
- Disclosure – Linstigator
- Throwing Snow – Un Vingt
- XI – Light
- Gold Panda – Snow & Taxis (Throwing Snow remix)
- Skream feat. Freckles – Give You Everything
- Todd Edwards – I Might Be (MJ Cole remix)
- Maddslinky – Special (MJ Cole’s “Back To The Future” remix)
- Broken Social Scene – All To All (Skeet Skeet remix)
- Drake – Fireworks (Deadboy Slo Mo House Edit)
Production note: this was recorded in 3 pieces and then cleaned up a little (2 volume edits, tweaking a loop, and smoothing out a recording glitch). The original sounds good, but this is a little shinier.
Thursday, January 27th, 2011
Colin Munroe is a pretty talented guy – he’s toured with Wale, sung hooks for Donnis, been featured with Drake, and worked with plenty others. He’s known for using a pretty unique vocal pitching technique, something I hadn’t heard much of in other tracks until Skrillex’s latest release. As far as I know he’s using Melodyne and editing formants. I’ve seen him live, and he’s a lot of fun – plays the drums and keys at the same time as he sings, which is no small feat.
But anyway, back to the point. “The Only Exception” is a revox (like a remix, but not – you’ll see what I mean) by Colin Munroe and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve heard all week. He takes a Paramore track, strips it of nearly everything but the vocal, and sings around it. Vaguely haunting and totally awesome.
Colin Munroe – The Only Exception (Paramore Revox)
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Sunday, August 15th, 2010
Miami Horror – Sometimes (Shazam Remix)
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Saturday, June 5th, 2010
Unlimited bandwidth is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I am using gigabytes of bandwidth just to use it. That’s not totally true, but it may as well be. Anyway, here’s post #1 of the music I’ve brought back.
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One of kwaito’s early superstars, this is one of my favorites from him.
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Because somehow a track based around a Destiny’s Child melody just seems great.
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This one is big in the townships these days, though it’s been out for like a year. To the left, to the right, everybody say.
Friday, March 5th, 2010
Dave Nada took some dutch house and slowed it down, putting a reggaeton beat behind it. The first track he did this with was Afrojack’s Moombah, so out popped “Moombahton.” It’s groovy, and definitely worth a listen.
Just for fun I threw together my own “moombahton” track this afternoon, you can grab it right here. It’s not nearly on Nada’s level, but it’ll let you get your fix in. The original track is Mowgli’s “London to Paris,” and yes, that is a Cruel Intentions sample you hear in there.
Ezra Mechaber – London To Paris (Moombahton Edit) [mp3 download]
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Saturday, November 21st, 2009
With some new music. I’ve got a whole weird variety of things to share.
First and foremost, I’m (basically) on Thanksgiving break and it is wonderful: I’m re-reading Strunk & White, I only have one Theories of Religion book left for the year, and I have the chance to finish up another mixtape.
If you haven’t seen the new stuff Clipse has been up to you’re missing out majorly. This song has been going so hard, and the video is equally phenomenal.
Popular Demand (Popeyes) (feat. Camron) [mp3]
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Also floating my boat is this new Sting project, If On A Winter’s Night (see the album art above). There’s something so pleasant about an album that fits perfectly with Rochester’s weather without even trying. Though I suspect Sting was thinking a little more about dark european winter nights, but he really nailed it for upstate NY. The last album that did it this well must have been Fleet Foxes.
Sting – Soul Cake [mp3]
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Lastly, has anyone else heard the new John Mayer album? It’s phenomenal, but upsetting that one of my favorite songs happens to feature Taylor Swift. That is so not good for my street-cred.
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
There is a god, and his name is Calvin Harris.
Hopefully this won’t go down as one of those posts where I profess my love to something only to grow sick of it a week later. I hate those posts. I think this one will stand the test of time and my musical ADD. Anyway.
Calvin Harris, the UK producer responsible for “Dance Wiv Me,” is a cool guy with crazy sunglasses. His album, Ready For The Weekend, was just released and I have given it a listen. It is glorious. In fact, I enjoy it as much as Passion Pit’s Manners. (Sidenote: I am sorry for not blogging about Passion Pit, I just never got around to the monstrously long post it would have been).
This is synth/dance pop, with a little hip hop and rock thrown in for good measure. I don’t know where to start on this fantastic little creation, save that I listened all the way through 3 times tonight and it’s good. Take a listen to “The Rain,” the first track off Ready For The Weekend.
Calvin Harris – The Rain [mp3]
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Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Dear Sean Kingston,
Your music is terrible. There, I said it. I’m not tryin’ to start beef or anything silly like that, I just wanted to get it out of the way. First, because I’ve never brought this up with you before, can we talk about your first single?
Sunday, July 12th, 2009
Listen, I used to love Pitbull. Culo? Hot. Toma? Badass. I remember when that awful show “South Beach” was on, those tracks had just come out and nothing conveyed Miami’s crazy nightlife better than those two songs. And then Oliver (aka Gucci Vuitton), co-owner of Bodega, had this fantastic blend of Toma over a drum-line. And then I used the “Culo” acappella over a house track to great effect.
And then Pitbull started to suck. It started with Krazy. The rhymes were terrible, I wasn’t totally in love with the drums, and the rhymes were terrible. And then Calle Ocho happened. And it was also a disappointment. The beat was so good, and the chorus was decent, but once again the verses were so, so, so terrible. I had just about given up on him. While Miami’s other hometown hero Rick Ross had gotten better (We Shinin’, for instance), Pitbull had totally regressed. Well, except for that remix of the Rick Ross/Avery Storm track “Here I am.” That one was okay. Whatever, not the point.
And then I heard “Hotel Room Service.” The beat, essentially a re-edit of Night Crawlers’ “Push The Feeling On,” was hot, and when I listened I didn’t hate the lyrics. That was a shocker.
And then I listened again. And I liked it more. This song is fantastic, and I can only hope he continues to push in this direction further. Because if I have to hear “Krazy” once more, I will cut off my ears. Or smash the iPod responsible.
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
But I LOVE this track. This covers every aspect of summer, even up north. Windows down on a gorgeous sunny day, sunglasses on. Driving around the city at night, rolling into your favorite night spot. Partying by the beach, at a houseparty, in a club. This is one of those anthemic catch-all tracks, sort of a club-friendly alternative to The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” or MGMT’s “Time To Pretend.” Yes, I just made the comparison. Now listen, damnit.
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