One of the most difficult solo piano works by a noteworthy composer, Rudepoêma was written for pianist Arthur Rubinstein. Rubinstein was a virtuoso who, like Richter, was interested more in breadth than in a particular specialty. He not only singlehandedly recorded a huge part of the romantic repertoire, he also knew much of it by heart, thanks to a photographic memory. Here he plays Chopin's Barcarole in a grand and very embellished fashion:
To Rubinstein, a man who was fully enjoying his genius, Villa-Lobos' Rudepoêma must have seemed to be a cumbersome gift: needlessly difficult, obscure, and with little reward.
Several decades after Rudepoêma was composed, Canadian virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin would prove to be the piece's rightful performer. Hamelin was a child prodigy who was exposed by his father to obscure and difficult composers such as Alkan, Sorabji, and Godowsky. He would eventually specialize in this sort of virtuosity and become an unrivaled authority on difficult and obscure solo piano works. His interpretations of more popular works can be disappointing. For instance, Hamelin falls flat performing Scriabin, but playing Leo Ornstein he is dazzling. Watch him perform Rudepoêma:
Mashups are not a trend. Mashups follow the same principle that virtually all modern music follows: arrange and master a collage of samples. Rather than sampling individual sounds, a mashup takes a lazier approach. Put hip hop acapella X with looped instrumental Y. The mashup, being the laziest modern music form, is also one of the most entertaining. Take away the cloying singing and godawful lyrics of Owl City, and "Firefiles" becomes a damn good electro pop song, with The Postal Service plagiarism less apparent. The Hood Internet takes an even lazier approach with "Blowin' Money At The Deli" -- is there any hip hop acapella that would sound bad over that Delorean track?
I feel you, Reni. Sometimes all you need is a place for you and your "hot-to-trot" to be alone at last. With this remix by Monsieur Adi, Reni's voice has been altered to sound like she's singing trance, and with the string intro you might think it's trance. But no! This is pretty, well-produced house. Good for headphones, or when the crowd is getting romantic ...
This is the best electro banger I've heard in a LONG time. I thought electro bangers were pretty much dead until I heard this monster. A spooky keyboard build-up finishes with an absolutely insane drop of pulsing hard electro and chiptune. Did I mention Ludacris is in it? This is serious, throw your drink in the fucking air and start dancing. The Filth is a new producer out of Boston, so new his myspace at the time of writing has just a single post. A very creative remix. I hope to hear more from him.
No album is planned for 2010, and their recent "leaked single" turned out to be a fake. If Justice is going to come out with new material, it has to sound different than Cross. As I'm sure most people felt about 80's music in the early 90's, I just can't groove to it any longer.
This soulful rendition of D.A.N.C.E. by Hawa, on the other hand, hits the spot.
