Evening all, my first DHS update since I flew 4500 miles away and ascended a further 5000 feet, but more of that elsewhere. Suffice to say its good to be back, and the wonder that is DHS got me through a couple of 17 hour journeys through Abu Dhabi and beyond - good work chaps.
So lets review the previous 10, starting with Sully and his Todd Terry tribute. 'A Day in the Life' is simply a seminal club tune, a little date now perhaps, but everyone who was into house fromt he beginning is familiar with this one - a worthy addition to DHS. 'Dreams of Santa Anna' possibly less so, and this one with a nice tune I found ok, although what struck me was the intensity of TT's work, there is so much going on in a lot his records, particularly the early stuff, no doubt as he honed his sound. Talking of seminal records, they dont come more so than 'Can you party' with its iconic samples and this one one of the first house tracks for me back in 1989 - way ahead of its time and the protagonist for many a drug fuelled rave. Classic. Im not Bjorks biggest fan and so 'Hyperballad' was always going to struggle with me, although the production is good and you can hear TT had now moved to a more refined production style, which oozes quality. None more so than on the enormous remix of EBTG's 'Missing' which is a great record, nice strings, nice vocal but I detest the lyrics - SO depressing !! Great production which made this a club smash at the time. Great work Sully, a fitting tribute to the Toddster.
Hodge, kicking off with 'Got a reason' which Im not 100% sure on to be honest, have gone through periods of liking it more than other times. Nice strings which always get me, particularly later on, just not sure about the vocal. I think I do like it, but something just doesnt quite fit properly. 'Slum Room' however, is a really nice tune for me. Great understated build and a lovely melody that comes into its own in the second half. Nice. 'Its Only' has a cracking vocal on it, although the melancholic feel of it overall makes me unlikely to play it much, nice minimal use of the piano though, perfectly accompanying the voice, and a well produced, balanced track - love the major key changes. '44' however is a track that could have been more for me - it all gets very intense and there is the hint of a melody in there but im not sure it really works. You could have condensed all this into 1 minute of a bigger track and it would have worked really well I think. Not so sure on its own, but ite certainly original. 'Rainmaker' is clearly the sample for the immense 'Raincry' and its quite a powerful record once it gets going, really quite liked this one. Top work Hodge.
My first track today is from the early contender from film of the year which I saw today - 'The Place Beyond the Pines' which is a truly stunning and unexpected film, that doesnt go where you think it will and has top performances from Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes. There was a piece of music in it so amazing that immediately afterwards I hunted it down and here it is 'Snow Angel' by Mike Patton. Its very short and goes to shit after about 53 seconds, but I just HAD to share the minute of bliss, its immense. The best use of it is in the second half of the trailer for the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G07pSbHLXgg
On the subject of films, my next 2 whoch are in trailer #2 for 'Man of Steel' which I CANNOT wait for, as it looks immense and these 2 tunes have been put together to good affect on the trailer, firstly 'Elegy' by Lisa Gerrard who has a fair set of pipes on her, and then 'Armstrong: Storm' by Craig Armstrong - both epic pieces of music i hope you'll agree. Next up is a classic for which very little needs to be said 'Sweet Dreams' by the Eurythmics and Im finishing on a stone cold classic which came out int he year I was born and as Im celebrating my 40th birthday this month I thought it fitting, and thats 'Walk on the Wild Side' by Lou Reed. Enjoy.
One Love
Sunday, 21 April 2013
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
DHS 11 Part 8 - (H)
Some nice recent additions.
D
Mark Norman - I have to say this sounds pretty good loud, reminds me of the big stuff from late 90's.
SR - No real need to comment is there. Gobsmackingly beautiful gloriously accessible feel good lushness. That will have to suffice.
OMaM - like the vocal lilt/celtic influences. Grows with each play.
HoP - I loved this as a kid... then I went to uni and it just got battered to death and now I struggle to hear it at all. Sad that it got ruined really.
Jay - longevity tune to the max. Not played this for AGES and it's nice to have a break and come back to a track of this quality.... surprised myself with how many of the lyrics I seem to know. The Newport take off is utterly genius by the way.
S
Todd the God Terry. Prolific. Brilliant selection. Day in the Life - never knew this was him - got this on an old tape somewhere, class. Santa Ana - always made me smile with the spaghetti western rehash melody.... little did we know several people would go out and rehash others in the years to come... to my knowledge he's the first with that track; proper tune too. I guess Can you Party is esssntially a homage to the people and tunes he loved - bit busy at times but banging all the same. TOTALLY forgot about the Bjork remix... I used to drive my sister nuts by skipping her cd on when she played the single to this version (she was a bjork fan and loved the original)... what a cracking tune/remix this is; straight into my best of potentials.... Missing; wow - I was surprised at how this has stood the test of time, truly super production.... I've still got the cd single somewhere - caned this to death and so did everything we ever went to as kids - MASSIVE record and one that gauranteed some clunge on the dancefloor so it had that going for it too. Which was nice.
Been a funny old few weeks to be honest. Feel like I'm constantly moping over the past few years, but hey ho - the old ups and downs are to be expected in this weird and wonderful journey called life. One year on from a good mate's funeral and then a musical hero dies and really weirdly found myself taking it incredibly badly even though I never met the geezer... perhaps it was because he wrote one of THE most important electronic records of the 90's (imo)... maybe you feel bizarrely connected somehow - f@cked if I know. So here we go for another cathartic musical selection.
Two from jozif's recent beautiful balance mix, which was apparently penned to be a banger, but he changed after Dawson's passing. On DropBox I have already professed my love for Our Friends Electric (which jozif pitches right down - which is how I heard it being played in my head when I bought it last year) so I have picked a couple of my other fave's; one from the top of the mix (Got a Reason) as well as the final track. Both have melancholic elements to them, both are beautiful to my ears... first time I heard the vocal snippet/sample at the start of Slum Room with the start of the background melody underneath I knew I was in for something special. Absolutely lush tunes.
Herbert - this is an old fave from uni which I was reminded of when listening to TOU renaissance mix ...they use the Koze rmx which is bloody good but it immediately made me want to revisit the original, here it is. The LP is a bit too chin-strokey on the whole but I remember having about four absolute solid favourites and it was the first time I realised that jazzy/quirkily produced 4:4 music wasn't all tw@ish... some of it had real soul. I think the movements between moods is pretty well done in this record - it's as much an R&B track (in the old fashioned meaning) in that sense as it is a house tune.
Apparat - you know by now that I'm a big fan of this guy's stuff. I CANNOT for the life of me explain what it is that grips me about this - I suspect one or both of you will reprimand me for being mental and that it's just noise (as the title aptly points out).... it is however a superbly emotional production which I could talk about for a few minutes but won't. Suffice to say I think this is cleverly done, simply put: two big emotive waves of noise.
Hans Zimmer - This was saved for another of my "Influences" selections but there's no more appropriate time to post this than Scott Hardkiss's passing. He only needed the first three seconds of this wonderful record to create the apex sample for Raincry, the rest was just ace programming and knowing what drives a dancefloor. Nice to have this as a reference point which in itself is a pretty special piece of production and direction from Zimmer.
Embrace each day,
H
D
Mark Norman - I have to say this sounds pretty good loud, reminds me of the big stuff from late 90's.
SR - No real need to comment is there. Gobsmackingly beautiful gloriously accessible feel good lushness. That will have to suffice.
OMaM - like the vocal lilt/celtic influences. Grows with each play.
HoP - I loved this as a kid... then I went to uni and it just got battered to death and now I struggle to hear it at all. Sad that it got ruined really.
Jay - longevity tune to the max. Not played this for AGES and it's nice to have a break and come back to a track of this quality.... surprised myself with how many of the lyrics I seem to know. The Newport take off is utterly genius by the way.
S
Todd the God Terry. Prolific. Brilliant selection. Day in the Life - never knew this was him - got this on an old tape somewhere, class. Santa Ana - always made me smile with the spaghetti western rehash melody.... little did we know several people would go out and rehash others in the years to come... to my knowledge he's the first with that track; proper tune too. I guess Can you Party is esssntially a homage to the people and tunes he loved - bit busy at times but banging all the same. TOTALLY forgot about the Bjork remix... I used to drive my sister nuts by skipping her cd on when she played the single to this version (she was a bjork fan and loved the original)... what a cracking tune/remix this is; straight into my best of potentials.... Missing; wow - I was surprised at how this has stood the test of time, truly super production.... I've still got the cd single somewhere - caned this to death and so did everything we ever went to as kids - MASSIVE record and one that gauranteed some clunge on the dancefloor so it had that going for it too. Which was nice.
Been a funny old few weeks to be honest. Feel like I'm constantly moping over the past few years, but hey ho - the old ups and downs are to be expected in this weird and wonderful journey called life. One year on from a good mate's funeral and then a musical hero dies and really weirdly found myself taking it incredibly badly even though I never met the geezer... perhaps it was because he wrote one of THE most important electronic records of the 90's (imo)... maybe you feel bizarrely connected somehow - f@cked if I know. So here we go for another cathartic musical selection.
Two from jozif's recent beautiful balance mix, which was apparently penned to be a banger, but he changed after Dawson's passing. On DropBox I have already professed my love for Our Friends Electric (which jozif pitches right down - which is how I heard it being played in my head when I bought it last year) so I have picked a couple of my other fave's; one from the top of the mix (Got a Reason) as well as the final track. Both have melancholic elements to them, both are beautiful to my ears... first time I heard the vocal snippet/sample at the start of Slum Room with the start of the background melody underneath I knew I was in for something special. Absolutely lush tunes.
Herbert - this is an old fave from uni which I was reminded of when listening to TOU renaissance mix ...they use the Koze rmx which is bloody good but it immediately made me want to revisit the original, here it is. The LP is a bit too chin-strokey on the whole but I remember having about four absolute solid favourites and it was the first time I realised that jazzy/quirkily produced 4:4 music wasn't all tw@ish... some of it had real soul. I think the movements between moods is pretty well done in this record - it's as much an R&B track (in the old fashioned meaning) in that sense as it is a house tune.
Apparat - you know by now that I'm a big fan of this guy's stuff. I CANNOT for the life of me explain what it is that grips me about this - I suspect one or both of you will reprimand me for being mental and that it's just noise (as the title aptly points out).... it is however a superbly emotional production which I could talk about for a few minutes but won't. Suffice to say I think this is cleverly done, simply put: two big emotive waves of noise.
Hans Zimmer - This was saved for another of my "Influences" selections but there's no more appropriate time to post this than Scott Hardkiss's passing. He only needed the first three seconds of this wonderful record to create the apex sample for Raincry, the rest was just ace programming and knowing what drives a dancefloor. Nice to have this as a reference point which in itself is a pretty special piece of production and direction from Zimmer.
Embrace each day,
H
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