DHS - a Spotify adventure

DHS is all about music - specifically music chosen, on Spotify, by D, H & S.

The three of us choose five songs at a time, add them to a Spotify playlist, and explain why we've chosen them. Once we've done that six times each we close the list and open the next one. Occasionally we review what we've picked and add it to 'the best of' playlist and once in a blue moon we each select an entire album.



Sunday, 23 September 2012

DHS 10 - Part 15 (D)

Greetings mere mortals and fellow denizens of the world of escapism - it seems one of our number is getting into his films at present and this is long overdue IMO, we shall try to guide the young padowan through the plethora of bad films and take him to the righteous place of DH's amazing good taste and film knowledge.

However we know that music is of course our first love and if we could take a projector or a stereo to a desert island then the projector is staying at home - anyway you'd also need a white sheet and nails and thats just too much effort. So as ever an eclectic and enjoyable selection from you both - my comments are as follows...

Pass Out - Not for me at all. Improve the lyrics and then we'll talk as the rest of it is ok.

Wildest moments - I agree this is really nice mate, although since when was 'into it before my daughter' a badge of honour ? It should be the other way around surely.. great voice and while I think she has more to offer, this peaks at 'nice'

Pixelated People - Yeah this is good, and the subtle rob base sample is cool.  Agree with Hodgson, its very well produced and a great vocal - Jess Mills is one to watch.

After Light - See what you mean about the car thing, this is a track that gets better the louder you play it. Would have preferred less minor keys myself, but hey without the bitter the sweet aint as sweet - great break in the middle and the comeback is ENORMOUS ! Excellent.

Limit to your Love - James Blake is quite clearly a cunt. He makes a beautiful soulful record with a beautifully melancholy piano line and mourning voice and then pronounces it 'wa'erfall' which grates like you would not fucking believe. Its like being in the record shop and hearing an amzing record that has stuck in a vocal stab for no good reason. Would have been a best of possible, but if I never hear it again that will be fine as its just frustrating.

No One - Is there such thing as a bad Alicia Keys record ? Great voice as ever and faultless production, top tune.

Close - first time I was listening I thought this was still the same record that had just gone a bit left at the traffic lights all of a sudden. Its ok, but some of the keys sound out of place to me, not musically, but just the format they are on - cant describe it any better than that im afraid and its not a patch on Keys.

Straight to Hell - wow - so this is where that amazing hook is from ! Recognised it immediately as the next tune - but not being a fan of the clash didnt know about this. The Clash just dont do it for me - I think its the guys voice, doesnt work for me when slowed down. London Calling and Should I stay are both where he's at vocally for me. Again its ok, but nothing more for me. Not really interested in music getting political personally.

Paper Planes - I always judge records after a few listens by how I feel whenthey come on the shuffle and this one always lifts me up. Technically it shouldnt, I dont want to like it - not a fan of sound effects and I think that 'all i wanna do is BANG ! BANG ! BANG !' is verging on glorifying guns. But they have taken the sample and improved it and her vocal is ace. The track Jay-z appears on is very poor could have done a lot more with this.

Footsteps in the Dark - ha ha ! Love that hook, Cube was a very wise man to use it and have heard it was a good day hundreds of times, so much in fact that this original doesnt sound right - I did exactly what you said Hodge and the Cube lyrics were going through my head. This one is a bit lachrymose for me and Im gonna stick with the O'Shea.

As ever gentleman, my thanks.

My 5 picks are:

Mt Eden 'Oh that I had'
Totally dont classify this as pop AT ALL Kev, be interested what makes you think that it is ? I could wax on again but I wont 'I JUST NEED ONE MORE FUCKING HIT' !!

Clint Mansell 'Requiem for a Dream'
Loved this so much, the film is ace (one for you Kev) if very bleak - reminds me of Santa Monica as I tracked it down in LA when I was there for a couple of gigs back in 2004. Been done to death since then - was used in another film (which I didnt know you could / should do) and sky used it too. Huge.

Felix da Housecat 'Silver Screen (Shower Scene)'
If ever there was 'music noir' then this is it - extremely atmospheric for what is essentially a banging electro track. And boy does it bang, play it loud. Great vocal hooks and changes in the track.

The Dream Academy 'Life in a Northern Town'
I remember when I was trying to track down 'Sunchyme' that Paul 'Homer' Stubbs in swag mentioned it sampled this record but i couldnt have cared less - he didnt have it. That hook makes this record and takes it away and lifts it up, would sound good in any record but the contrast to the minor vocal is spot on and im loving this. Not sure which is better actually.

Rose Royce 'Love dont live here anymore'
Oh my what a vocal ! The rest of it i can take or leave, but that very first line is just immense and I couldnt listen to this woman sing all day long. Marvellous.

Hope you like

One love

Saturday, 15 September 2012

DHS 10 - Part 14 (H)

Some powerful records being added - good work.

Jnr Parker - reminds me of the sort of stuff AIM starts his sets with. It's a smokers record. It's tripped out soul - a proper "grower" to my ears.

Sky - I remember listening to this stuff in my mums Fiesta in the 80's!  This one is not really for me.  Can see how it's relevant again now due to pacing - it's the guitar that fucks me off.... strip that out and you could play it as a DJ tool, set progresser.

Guido - something in the construction of this makes me feel like I don't need to listen to another prog tune ever again and that is saying something..that's the way I felt about Cass & Slide the first time Sasha started playing them.. the fact that this was written in 2010 only serves to make me love it more.... it feels like peak time Sheffield, the former "Music Factory" nights.  My first ever Pink Versace.  Melt down.  Straight into best of potentials.  Strong.

Bicep & Ejeca - well Bicep didn't miss a trick on their name did they/he/she/it ?!  Fuck me hard.  The production on the vocal is absolutely mindblowingly epic.  Don't even get me going on the beats.  Oh yeah - the bass aint bad either, is it??!

SR - hehehehe - many fond memories of being ordered to listen to this LP top to bottom by Sully when I was doing my professional submission document only to tell him to "fuck off, I'm pulling back to back all nighters in order to finish it - I NEED TECHNO not fucking chillout!!!!"  In the end I was so intrigued, played this album and was totally distracted... long story short I finally (I promise this is true, despite it sounding totally OTT/melodramatic) finished my final piece of the 150 page submission and placed each of the four copies together in order as this LP drew to a close.... then the last 4 minutes of this track came on at 5:05am and I just lay down on my office floor upstairs and wept "I've done it... jesus christ thank you christ I've finished" hahahahaha - what a tw@.  Their best overall LP - not a bad track on it imo.

TT - been on my 'potentials' list for years.... likewise I wanted to leave enough time to pass prior to adding.  MASSIVE record.  The seminal record that really anounced to the world that UK hip hop could cross over (truly, truly cross over) and bomb the shit out of US music whilst at it - big track world wide.........love the jam that ends with "CLC Kompresser just in case that don't impress her" - genius.  The d'n'b conclusion just takes the piss.  Have some of that you septic w@nkers... Don't tell us how to do hip hop, we just blew you out the Atlantic.

Jessie Ware - I've had a track of hers on my list to add for a few months now.  Not heard this before.  Lush - smashing vocals - please keep going - you and Emile Sande are the future of this genre.... and the young lady below of course....

Jess Mills..... where's the techno??  Oh JESS Mills..... sorry couldnt resist.  More of the same - high quality vocals with someone who knows what they're doing on the mixing desk.  Cracking pop music with soul and high quality beats.  More please.

Rustie - MAKE THIS LONGER.  IMMEDIATELY.  Serious beats.

Blake - this was CANED on Radio 1 for a while back there.  With good reason.  Lovely melodies - amazing voice (stop saying "wa...erfaaaal" though).  Proper dangerous bass, distortion and overall production.  The rough with the extremely smooth - works incredily well.  It very muc reminds me of the old King Tubby soundsytem stuff but then I guess that's the blueprint for all modern Dub/Dubstep.  Great stuff.

INLUENCES PT.2

Keys - wow this kid can really sing.  She makes me feel weird.  First time I heard this tune I was out shopping (help me god)... swear down I was straight to the checkout "What's this CD???..... the track playing now.... find out NOW".

Hackman - What da?!? Who thinks of doing this?!  Is it by accident do you reckon?!  3 months it took me to work this out........ drove me mental; "I KNOW IT - I KNOW IT.....".  Couldn't for the life of me place it.  Then it just clicked in.  Sounds so obvious hearing them next door to each other.... believe me when I heard this track last year I hadn't heard Keys' track for AGES.  Big record, bought it on Beatport, love it.  When the 4:4 drops it's buzzing.

Clash - I don't really wanna get too political on here - google this and read for yourselves.  God love 'em - what a band. No-one even comes close these days. 
(Still fucked off that my "Straight to Hell" t-shirt got 'lost' in the move out of London ... deep suspicion my missus threw it out due to too many holes.... disappointing behaviour)

MIA - another one that drove me insane when it came out .... "Why can't I remember that 'kettle' sounding effect?!??!".  Very clever referencing the Clash in this tune; immigration links etc etc.  Never heard anything else she's done.  When I heard this I was just hooked.  And of course to add to the theme Mr Jigga and K-West clipped the "No-one on the corner have swagga like us" for their monstrously popular "Swagga like us".... The biggest US hip hop star sampling an up and coming UK hip hop artist... who would've thunk it??

Isley Brothers - intro..... if you don't give it "Just waking up in tha mornin' gotta thank God" then you are not normal.. That is official.  What a smashing record.  My mates old man used to play Isley Brothers tapes every morning on the way to school so when Cube sampled this we were just throwing eppy's.  Cube's track has already been added to our lists by one of you boys, so my work here is done....

Until next time,
H





 


Friday, 7 September 2012

DHS 10 - Part 13 (S)

Compuphonic - Sunset - 'tis slightly camp isn't it which in itself is no bad thing - listened a few times now and just not sure I'd play it out which, rightly wrongly, is the test I apply to this kind of music

Simplicity Is Beauty - Telemachus - I went through a stage of just buying Mothersole tracklisted stuff blind - if I could afford to I'd probably still be doing so.  You're right, he does know how to pick a tune. I'd definitely play this.

Andhim - Wallace - yeah, easy to see how this works.  Large.

Throbbing Gristle - Hot On The Heels Of Love (Ratcliffe remix) - really like how it starts but it wanders after a while and never quite returns...

Underworld - And I Will Kiss - you're lucky to have got this 'cos I damn nearly put it straight into the Best Of DHS but the slightly OCD part of me didn't like the breaching of protocol that that would've required.  As Duffy and I sat and watched the pastoral scene giving way to an industrial revolution and this tune began to unfurl in front of our ears I turned it up a bit.  Then a bit more.  The quite a bit more.  Then I quite bravely proclaimed to Duffy, 'this is fucking immense'.  And so it was.  And so it remains.  The Isles Of Wonder CD1 hasn't left the stereo in my Mum's car since I gave it to her in the Lake District almost 4 weeks ago and she pretty much plays track 4 (this) on a loop.  I have to say I'm not entirely comfortable with that but there you go - a very real testament to what happened in those 15 minutes in that stadium.  Absolute magic.  I am genuinely looking forward to being regaled by H's views on it when next we meet.

Junior Parker - Tomorrow Never Knows - I tried really hard with this - it ticks a lot of my current boxes - 70s, funky blues, etc - even listened to the whole album (upon which River's Invitation has got to be THE most accurate facsimile of the James Brown sound ever) - but after all that effort the best I can say is I'm glad I heard it (genuinely) but won't be going back.

Sky - Westway - picking up on your posted comments - not many 'kids' get the fact that 'progressive-rock' existed as a completely accepted genre from circa 1970 - it was the genre that took the guitars and the keyboard elements of 'rock' and spun them out - out of all seeming control in some cases.  And THAT is what the original intention behind the journalistic coining of the term 'progressive-house' was meant to reflect.  Anyway, I digress - this track is entirely new to me although I'm aware of the band - one has only to look at the track lengths on the album to see that this lot were very much part of the 'prog-rock' cannon.  Reminds me very much of the Ozric Tentacles stuff which, if memory serves you weren't keen on - a revisit required perhaps?!

Guido Percich - Greenwich - I believe you called this 'Guido' in your blog post - you nutter you - but yeah - very familiar from our mixing weekend - and nice too.  The sort of thing that Beatport can legitimately label as 'progressive house' in amongst all the utter dross that really shouldn't be...

Bicep & Ejeca - You - what's not to ADORE?!  Probably my two favourite producers of the year (although both Huxley and Trevino would run them close) - and they get together on ONE record.  It's like someone got off the carpet off Studio 54 the morning after it closed and had musical sex with the whole 90's UK Garage scene and then gestated and birthed this fantastic hybrid sound of 2012 disco-tech-step.  Kind of thing.  The whole EP is MASSIVE. 

Sigur Ros - Untitled 8 - Frankly disgusted that we're closing in on 900 tunes on DHS and this is only the second Sigur Ros track.  All I can really say about this is that I stood open-mouthed and openly crying first time I saw them do this at Brixton.  And I was one of dozens, probably hundreds, in the venue doing the same.  When it came to an end there was no applause for 2 or 3 seconds - no one knew what the hell to do.  Absolute shellshock.  The drumming when all hell is let loose (9m26s) is fantastic - even if it's not as dynamic on this album as it is live.  Staggeringly beautiful piece of music.  Thank YOU mate.


So, my five. 

There have been two or three of pop/dubstep tunes I've had on the list for a while but I needed a couple of others to 'bind them' into a selection of five - those tunes arrived recently so, without further ado...

Tinie Tempah - Pass Out - don't care what anyone says this is quite probably THE best dance/pop tune since Beyonce's Crazy In Love.  I'd've picked it two years back but it was ubiquitous - but never once did it, or has it, got on my nerves. Lyrically it's remarkable - superficially it's utter dross but it's actually quite clever 'dross' - the lines about Scunthorpe and,  '... I bet your daughter knows...' make me chuckle everytime I hear them.  And the drop 3m23s is quality.  Top. Pop.

Jessie Ware - Wildest Moments - saw this Doris singing live to a remix of her latest single ('Running' - Disclosure remix) on tele recently - slung it straight on the DHS list - then listened to the album and just got caught up in this track.  She's new.  She's up and coming.  Her album is genuinely really, really, nice.  And I was into her before Ashleigh was...

Jess Mills - Pixelated People - according to my list I added this as a possible on 21st August - but I can't remember for the life of me how I came across it.  Oh no - hang on - it's come back to me...  That's right!  I recently discovered that 'Nocturnal Sun' is a production pseudonym of Maya Jane Coles - so I was digging around on Spotify to see what was there - found the 'Nocturnal Sun' remix of this tune and then fell for the original.  Pop with a hint of dubstep and a huge Rob Base & DJ Ez Rock sample thrown in.  D - in light of your recent 'conversion' to the poppier end of the dubstep sound might I suggest you give both the Nocturnal Sun (more of a dubby techno feel) AND Wilkinson (pretty much a dictionary definition dubstep remix) mixes a blast - they strip a lot of the 'pop' out of this original and detonate some proper bass on it...

Rustie - After Light - this works best in a car, at speed, with the top down, at night with volume induced ear-bleeding.  Say whatever you like about this - I can't fault one single second of it.  Absurdly brilliant.

James Blake - Limit To Your Love - cover version (original done by a band called Feist) that took a rather lovely, melancholic, downbeat lyric and DRENCHED it one of the biggest basslines you've ever heard.  Again, been on my possibles for a good long while but wanted to include it with some sympathetic choices 'cos it absolutely deserves it.  This fella was tipped for HUGE things a couple of years back - they haven't happened for him yet but this remains a fabulous piece of upfront British pop.  The video is beautiful too if you ever see it.