Soundtrack of summer 09

Here are a few tracks that would probably be my soundtrack this summer. Hard to tell in advance but I have the feeling these songs will be on repeat for some weeks. Here’s the list and descriptions int the order you could play them starting late afternoon and going through the night.

Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks

Simply because Grizzly Bear are getting better and better, first single of their latest album “Veckatimest”. Just like a summer breeze over your shoulder.

The Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band – Pimp

Here’s the song from where 50 cents got his sample. Nice Caribbean feeling, chill out, better appreciated with some ice cubes in your glass, sun glasses, straw hat and a cosy chair.

Empire of the sun – We Are The People (The Golden Filter Remix)

Speaking of summer, here are the people from the sun. Australian duo “Empire of the sun” sent us their first album “Walking on a Dream” during the austral summer, offering us a warm sunshine at the toughest of the winter. Now seasons have changed, time for remixes, Here’s a remix by the Golden Filter from the second single “We Are The People”, nice relaxing at the beginning but still with a dancing feeling. Good for early evening soundtrack.

Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (Neo Tokyo Remix)

A bit later in the evening when it feels more like dancing, this remix of the Passion Pit’s hit will deliver the perfect combination of uptempo beats and nice mood.

Michael Jackson – Don’t stop ’til you get enough (1978 demo)

just discovered this very interesting tracks, this is the demo M. Jackson recorded in 1978 with sister Janet playing on cola bottle and brother Randy on keyboards, the recording took place in the basement of their grandparents’ house. So, this is what MJ’s music sounds like before the work of Quincy Jones, who will write some more songs for the album “Off the wall” (1979). Beware, this is extremely groovy! I really like this version, a bit more raw, I like the laughters at the beginning, I like the saturation on the mic, and the somehow chaotic end. It’s a bit like sitting with them in their basement and seeing them performing, like a private concert.
This version is available on the special edition of “Off the Wall”, released in 2001.

Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden – Bonkers

When the party is on, this is the track to play. The crowd goes nuts and wants more. Seriously, what else could you expect when Dizzee Rascal meets van Helden? A dancefloor classic! Bonkers! Put on your dancing shoes and turn up the volume.

Gui Boratto – Beautiful Life

Gui Boratto is a Brazilian architect, musician, composer and producer. Here’s an a track from his album “Chromophobia” (Kompakt, 2007). If you had left out the techno/house scene, here’s a good opportunity to come back to it, with fantastic synthetic melodic waves, slowly growing until the voice delivers the repeated message “What a beautiful life”. And at this point you can only agree and you just wish this atmosphere would transpose into your real life.
Gui Boratto’s latest release is “Take My Breath Away”, out last March.

Dapayk & Padberg – Island Feat Caro (Noze Remix)

Perfect for an after, relaxing but still with a beat. Those who still feel like dancing can still move on that slow moves with their arms in the air, while others, more tired, sit back and enjoy the last moments of this long night.

Songs available on request.
I’ll keep you posted for more tracks coming, don’t hesitate to share your summer songs.

The king of pop passed away

Big shock this morning reading the news, Michael Jackson is dead!

Now most people will remember his fantastic career and just mentioning his “complicated” private life, without judging or giving too much details. Because if you want to tell about his private life, which in the past years had taken over his music career, then you need to tell it from the beginning, since he was about 5 years old. This is the story of a child that did not decide what he would to become. He didn’t know it was impossible for a black person to be a worldwide acclaimed star so he became one.

I’m trying to think how to introduce MJ to someone ignoring everything about him. Where to start? What to tell? Maybe starting by the end, the reactions that his death is generating: former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said: “We lost a hero of the world”, “Lamentable news” according to Hugo Chavez (Venezuela’s president), TV programs being interrupted to announce the news, and the countless fans across the world spontaneously gathering when they heard the sad news. MJ was huge in Asia, in Southern America, in Europe, he was huge everywhere!. And now everybody remembers a concert, the craziness when he came to town, his impressive videos, his amazing way of dancing that inspired so many, the LPs bought in the 80’s… that’s for the reactions.

Now the career: started with the Jackson 5, aged 8, 1966-1984, huge hits with “I want you back”, “Can you feel it”, “ABC” and much more.

Solo career, excellent albums produced with Quincy Jones: Off the Wall, Bad, Thriller. MJ was also a lot about video clip, his solo career coincided with the emergence of MTV and the making of his videos were closer to big movies than to actual TV adds (both for their budget and the special effects involved). In the 90’s, despite still making music ahead of his time, his career became shaded by his commitment in various charities and his “complicated” private life.

Throughout the years, MJ became a monument of music, everything that had to happen in music went through him, he changed the way music videos were made, he changed the way live performance were given, with a special place for dance. Inspired by James brown, MJ is associated with famous moves such as the moonwalk.
I can’t think of another artist that performed as much as MJ did over his life span, he left us enough hits to remember him for a lifetime!
He’s inspired many artists in different genres and lately Justice wrote a song about him, the dancefloor classic D.A.N.C.E. “As easy as ABC, you were such a P.Y.T., under the spotlights, neither black nor white…”

The king is dead. Long live the king.

Start! Festival 09 – Interviews (2/2)

Start! Festival 09 – Interviews (2/2)

The Start! festival www.startfestival.dk is now over and I must say that it did not hold to the expectations. No questions that this festival is getting bigger and gaining in popularity but there was something missing in this year’s edition. The big names did not manage to bring lots of people, maybe this festival is in transition between two types of audience, from being quite underground to a more popular scene. The limited amount of people could also be explained by the CPH Distortion festival www.cphdistortion.dk taking place at the same time in the same town. Distortion is getting bigger as well, spreading rapidly in the underground scene and attracting all what Copenhagen counts as indie acts (not only music). I guess these two festivals should communicate more in the future if they want to avoid clashes.

To continue the series of interviews I made during the festival, I selected three of them: 

CALLmeKAT www.myspace.com/thisiscallmekat, whose second album came out last year and is definitely worth listening and buying. I’ll write more about her in a later post. I met her prior to the festival and asked many questions, this is only a 3 min excerpt of the interview (required for the festival radio). I’ll probably post the complete interview later on since it is quite interesting. Here’s for now: [audio]

C’est tout Martine www.myspace.com/cesttoutmartine is the band of Martine Madsen, happy pop in Danish, nice voice, nice melodies, here’s the 3 min interview: 

[audio ]

W’afande www.myspace.com/wafande is a tall French/Danish reggae/soul singer. I attended his concert and was really impressed by the good vibes that he and his band radiate. Short interview but check his music and concerts. [audio] 

The Start! festival  is now over and I must say that it did not hold to the expectations. No questions that this festival is getting bigger and gaining in popularity but there was something missing in this year’s edition. The big names did not manage to bring lots of people, maybe this festival is in transition between two types of audience, from being quite underground to a more popular scene. The limited amount of people could also be explained by the CPH Distortion festival  taking place at the same time in the same town. Distortion is getting bigger as well, spreading rapidly in the underground scene and attracting all what Copenhagen counts as indie acts (not only music). I guess these two festivals should communicate more in the future if they want to avoid clashes.

To continue the series of interviews I made during the festival, I selected three of them: 

CALLmeKAT, whose second album came out last year and is definitely worth listening and buying. I’ll write more about her in a later post. I met her prior to the festival and asked many questions, this is only a 3 min excerpt of the interview (required for the festival radio). I’ll probably post the complete interview later on since it is quite interesting. Here’s for now:

C’est tout Martine is the band of Martine Madsen, happy pop in Danish, nice voice, nice melodies, here’s the 3 min interview: 

W’afande is a tall French/Danish reggae/soul singer. I attended his concert and was really impressed by the good vibes that he and his band radiate. Short interview but check his music and concerts.

 

Start! Festival 09 – Interviews (1/2)

Start! Festival 09 Interviews (1/2)

First week of June in Copenhagen is time for the Start! festival (formerly Vesterbro Festival). Start! takes place about 3 weeks before his neighbour and big brother Roskilde festival. and it also works as the first place to start to get to Roskilde. Lots of bands have their first gig there and/or get signed here. This year’s edition offers slightly more big names than the previous ones, e.g. Diefenbach, Nephew, Mads Langer or Mike Sheridan.

This festival also hosts a radio, powered by Copenhagen university radio. In this regard I am meeting some artists and here are a some interviews I made during the festival.

Kings of Dark Disco http://www.kingsofdarkdisco.com/: Electro Disco House 

Mads Langer www.madslanger.dk: THE Danish male artist of the moment, very good songwriting and amazing voice, check him out. 

Télé Rouge www.myspace.com/telerouge: A funny Danish band singing in French 

Vinnie Who www.myspace.com/vinniewhoofficial: Hyped disco/house band

NB: all interviews are in Danish. 

First week of June in Copenhagen and it’s time for the Start! festival (formerly Vesterbro Festival). Start! takes place about 3 weeks before his neighbour and big brother Roskilde festival. and it also works as the first place to start to get to Roskilde. Lots of bands have their first gig there and/or get signed here. This year’s edition offers slightly more big names than the previous ones, e.g. Diefenbach, Nephew, Mads Langer or Mike Sheridan.

This festival also hosts a radio, powered by Copenhagen university radio. In this regard I am meeting some artists and here are a some interviews I made during the festival.

Apollo : a rock sextet from Copenhagen

Kings of Dark Disco : Electro Disco House

 

Mads Langer : THE Danish male artist of the moment, very good songwriting and amazing voice, check him out. 

Télé Rouge : A funny Danish band singing in French 

Vinnie Who : Hyped disco/house band

NB: all interviews are in Danish.

Nouvelle Vague – Master & Servant

 

Nouvelle Vague – Master and servant

Nouvelle vague is back with a new album on June 15th. This new release seems to be slightly different from the previous ones. “Bande à Part” in 2006 and their eponymous “nouvelle vague” from 2004 both contained cover songs from the 80’s and especially post-punk and new wave songs (Blondie, Echo and the Bunnymen, New Order, Depeche Mode…). Their covers were quite interesting since they offered a complete different atmosphere from the originals, much more relaxed, bossa nova style. Singing “love will tear us apart” with waves and children playing in the background is somehow adventurous but it made it

It seems that their new release is also a collections of covers but this time featuring some of the original artists, this makes things even more confusing for the listener. One example with the first single (exclusively available on Teardrum), Master and servant featuring Martin Gore from Depeche Mode. 

 

Nouvelle vague is back with a new album on June 15th. This new release seems to be slightly different from the previous ones. “Bande à Part” in 2006 and their eponymous “nouvelle vague” from 2004 both contained cover songs from the 80’s and especially post-punk and new wave songs (Blondie, Echo and the Bunnymen, New Order, Depeche Mode…). Their covers were quite interesting since they offered a complete different atmosphere from the originals, much more relaxed, bossa nova style. Singing “love will tear us apart” with waves and children playing in the background is somehow adventurous but it made it

It seems that their new release is also a collections of covers but this time featuring some of the original artists, this makes things even more confusing for the listener. One example with the first single (exclusively available on Teardrum), Master and servant featuring Martin Gore from Depeche Mode. 

You can enjoy it at home or on your favourite mp3 player by downloading the song (mp3, 3.1MB).