In this episode, I get all grown-and-sexy with some house/garage/techy 4/4 mixing. I start off on some future-forward R&B cuts, then head off into House land!! I hope you likes!!
Just a Touch – Aluna George
110% - Jessie Ware
Bedrock (Djedjotronic Remix) – Young Money (Nicki Minaj, Drake, Lil’ Wayne)
What’s In Your Head – Disclosure
Tidal Wave (Shadow Child Remix) – Subfocus
Lovecrazy – Ossie feat. Black Orange Juice
Back Swipe – Tony Quattro
Au Seve – Julio Bashmore
Gabriel (Seiji remix) – John Goddard
Floor Excitement – The Busy Twist
Rush - Doorly Feat. Soraya Vivian
Black Eye – Zulu
Fatherless (T. Williams remix) – Breach
For this episode, I wanted to pull together music that was separate
(stupid racism) at the time of their airplay in the 80s. My hope is to show how
the music - no matter White, Black, or Latino - were actually quite similar in
their search for outer-worldly escapist vibes… Clean funky synths mixed up with
drum machines and vocodoers to make the music as plastic and out there as
possible. Much of it was still playing with pop styles, which made it quite
digestible and danceable. As you see, I stuck mostly on the NYC Downtown Electro/New
Wave/Hip Hop vibe, so my dream is Jean-Michel Basquiat would groove to this! Enjoy and check the soundcloud player for download or stream!
Part 1: Ummixed… boring chat and eccentric beats!
Get Into the Groove – Madonna
The Beat – ESG
Need You Tonight – Inxs
Show Em’ Whatcha Got – Public Enemy
Tribe Vibes – Jungle Brothers
I would Die for You – Prince
Computer Love – Zapp
White Mice – Mo-Dettes
Once In a Lifetime – Talking Heads
Pay to Cum – Bad Brains
Part 2: The mix!!!!
Electro, Funk, New Wave, House, Techno and Freestyle for
your Jelly Shoes!
I can’t wait – Nu Shooz
Genius of Love – Tom Tom Club
Safety Dance – Men Without Hats
Everybody Get Up – Salt N’ Pepa
Because I got it like that (instrumental) – Jungle Brothers
Set it Off – Strafe
I Saw You (Walking in the Rain) – Oran “Juice” Jones
Of course I gotta say Rest In Peace to the Godfather of Go-Go, Chuck Brown, as well as the Queen of Disco Donna Summer. Both represented somewhat marginal and niche-specific subgenres, indicating the sophistication and intimacy that can be created by a community of producers and musicians.
Maybe later I'll write about it. But my mood is more into this track by Spanish producer John Talabot... who obvious owes a huge debt to Summer and Moroder for making this tune possible; a nice, sexy, bounce House track.
A piece about one person's journey into Acid House - bumping along and making connections across House, Hip Hop, Electro, and all things during the 80s. Its quite cool as it speaks of a journey across genres, at a time where jumping ship and moving along was considered being a "sellout" from your tribe. A precedent set for all of us in Post-modern times...
With genres like Kuduro and South African House, and the turn towards House templates for UK Funky and Future Garage in the UK, and pretty much every mainstream Black artist in the U.S. doing House music (listened to Chris Brown lately)... House and Techno is the music of inspiration right now. Afropop Worldwide does a beautiful piece on Detroit Techno and Chicago House. They draw the connections between these 80s born, 70s influenced, genres and today's Juke and Footwork movements. They tackle the notion of race and electronic dance music... bridging the two and showing these supposedly "colorblind" musics as extensions of the Afro-Music diaspora. Plus, the show connects these genres to Europe and South Africa, showing a cultural imperialism, or transnationalism, taking place.
Techno and House = Open-minded Black music
What I enjoyed most was the comments from Underground Resistance of the denial of Black roots of Techno and House, in order to accommodate the colorblind, mainstream, and white masses; juxtaposed with House's mantra of family vibes, the groove, and moving your body. I agree with UR's statement as its of utmost importance to recognize the Afro roots of the genres. I do argue that it is highly possible (and has been done) that you can create a genre that speaks to various identity groups, and still maintain an identity-specific origin, which House represents.
House/Techno vs. Hip Hop: Racism all over again
I also enjoyed how Hip Hop took on an adversarial role as radio stations were eaten up by national syndicates and heralded as the "new voice of Black/urban culture". Such as stance is interesting to me as we can easily compare the "future," "otherworldly," "outerspace" and "everybody come together" of Techno and House, and compare to the "represent', "my hood", "where I'm from," street journalism in Hip Hop. I would even argue that the negligence of House and Techno as legitimate members of the disaspora, and the embrace of Hip Hop, is an act of racism in which elements of the ills of society can only be spoken of by African Americans and Latinos, whereas poor people trying to escape, leave, and find a new world through otherworldly sounds are muted and ignored. We can't have poor black folks making Juan Atkins's "UFO's" because it would be a recognition of the capacity of the poor to rise, and the labor force needed to fill those jobs middle and upper class do not want to sweat for. A wonderful quote was "Techno and House are R&B gone Punk, DIY (do it yourself)... having a community to build by its own means is just a scary thought... Instead, lets celebrate the music where the artists only speak of plights and not solutions...
U.S. ignorance of its own
The last piece that caught my eye is the observation that the U.S. still does not want to embrace or acknowledge House and Techno, history and all, as part of its musical cannon. It's an irony that genres of such creativity and simple pounding groove can be highly misunderstood by its own citizens. This brings to mind the need for contradiction and complexity to eradicate stereotypes. DC Go-go, Baltimore Club, Chicago Footwork, Bay Area Hyphy, etc. are vital components to the American electronic/dance/black/urban aesthetic as they keep Hip Hop in check and complicate the functions and subject matter of people of color in direct combat against racist attempts to box in our notion of what is American. Many young folk do not know much about these genres, referring them as just Dance music made for white people. I encourage you all to take a listen and see for yourself that 4/4 beats and acid sounds, which spawned Rave and Electronic movements, are just as much ours as Hip Hop, Jazz, and Blues... its Punk R&B.
Oh my oh my oh my... I'm bobbin my head as I type this! There is this new thing gwan' in the UK dance music scene. Its this place where Dubstep, Funky, House, and Garage are all meeting in the middle somewhere. And its sound absolutely gorgeous. I'll post a list of who is who and what is what on this "wot you call it?" Funkstep loveliness... In the end, its polyrythmic, dubby, skippy, syncopated, and innovative... pushing and pushing with interesting ideas.
Amongst the gorgeousness is Cooly G and she drops a mix for XLR8R podcast... so here you go, enjoy and happy head bobbing!
XLR8R Link with info and additional links here Direct MP3 download here
01 Cooly G "Intro" 02 Cooly G/DVA "Ol' Dirty" 03 DJ Gregory "Traffic" 04 T Williams "Hardcash" 05 Zander Hardy (exclusive) 06 Ben Westbeech & T. Williams (exclusive) 07 Martyn "Megadrive" 08 Artist Unknown "Glow" 09 O.B "ER" 10 Artist Unknown "Get Slapped Up" 11 Artist Unknown "Gain" 12 Artist Unknown "Dougsanna" 13 DJ Gregory "Work Me" 14 Sami Sanchez "Air Raid" 15 MA1 "Samurai Remix" 16 Wbeeza "Deep Underground" 17 Bowly (exclusive) 18 Major Notes "Friend of Mine Dub"
An ABSOLUTE stone cold classic... for the same reasons everyone else have given you...
1. Godfather of the 2 step choppy swing of kicks and hats 2. The cut up samples garbled together in a beautiful rhythm 3. The Christian themes that allude to the earlier notions of "House" as escape as salvation as 'a feeling', a 'soul thing'.
To celebrate the end of 08 and the start of 09, I made this 1hr mix for all my friends... its a mix of upbeat House, Baile Funk, glitchy Electro, party style Hip Hop, Baltimore Club, Disco, and 90's Electronica... classic journey style people!!!
Enjoy and Happy New Year!!!
(Warning: It does contain crude language... but boy does it make you shake dat ass though!!)
Tracklisting
Oxy's Anthem Feat. Roxy Cottontail & Amanda Blank - Aaron Lacrate (Edu K) Me Bota Pra Dançar (Crookers Edit) - EDU K feat. MARINA Calabria - Enur Yah! - Buraka Som Sistema Bamboo Banga - M.I.A. Switch - Switch Remix - Dubble D A Bit Patchy (Club Mix) - Switch Sound Of Kuduro - Original Mix - Buraka Som Sistema, DJ Znobia, Saborosa, Puto Prata Cowbois (Das Glow Remix) - Shadow Dancer Injecao - Deise Tigrona Demole o meu barraco -Tati Quebra Barraco Rap de Felicidade - Cidinho & Doca Helicopter (Diplo Remix) - Bloc Party Dancing Box feat. TTC - Modeselektor Old Skool (Pussyole) - Dizzee Rascal Sweet Talk - Spank Rock Me And The Gang - Hamilton Bohannon Bust a Move (Diplo Remix) (Instrumental) - Young MC Jeep Ass Gutter - Aaron LaCrate & Debonair Samir RMX Oh My Gosh - Gutter Athem Deep Inside - Hardrive The Bomb - Direct Hit Mix The Bucketheads Afro Left - Leftfield Paradise Island - Fatboy Slim Born Slippy - Underworld
