Sampling Monsters of Folk -- the indie super-group with Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Bright Eyes, and M. Ward -- is a great call for The Roots. The Roots have some of the sickest mixtape material of any hip hop group, and this is no exception. Dark, smooth, and beautiful, this is great hip hop.
A-Trak just released the second installment of his freakish electro house and southern hip-hop hybrid experiment.
This is nutty stuff. I don't think it always works, but when it does, it's brilliant. It's well mixed, it's kind of weird, and it's a joy for a mashup, hip hop, and electro lover like myself. Hell, I've made hip-hop mashes with the Siriusmo remix of Bag Raider's Shoot Stars too!
Highly recommended if you're of my musical persuasion, but not for everyone. Then again, if you don't agree with my musical tastes, why are you reading my blog?
I've posted a couple Skrillex remixes just a few days ago, and I've posted the Bad Romance remix a while ago. But Skrillex, from LA, is one of my favorite electro producers right now, so I thought he deserved a post all to himself.
He makes wild electro bangers with lots of eclectic sounds, including 8-bit, dubstep, and yes, trance. Skrillex uses all those old trance sounds everyone thought had died in 2002. I think this is such an interesting direction, and it takes a lot to keep some of these songs from sounding cheesy. But overall I think he pulls it off.
The Alejandro remix, his latest, is a good example. The breakdown sounds like circa-2000 trance, with that cheesy little breakbeat during the build. But the drop....goddamn! It goes hard. Such a surprising track!
The Black Eyed Peas remix is more consistent. Sounds like it was influenced by Wolfgang Gartner to me, and that's a very good thing. The Bad Romance remixes are top notch, of course, being what Skrillex is most known for. Keep an eye on Skrillex this year, he's doing big things.
Punchy guitar chords, a drum machine, lyrics about heartbreak, DNA, and outerspace, and a quirky but loveable indie pop-rock voice that reminds me of Built to Spill's Doug Martsch, Midlake's Tim Smith, and Grandaddy's Jason Lytle are what make up Darwin Deez's awesome self-titled release.
Self-described as "happy music for sad people," "white music for black people," and "indie rock with a side of calisthenics." Listen below. So far, this is one of my favorite albums of 2010.
For today, we've got the latest Bruno Mars single and two mashups. And what do you think? John Lennon girl. Sexy or not?
In other news, I'm finally about to graduate from college. Being the age I am makes me wonder what kind of music I'll be listening to when I'm middle aged or older. Will I keep up with the latest music? Or will I resort to listening only to what I know and love? Time will tell.
