Dance and house remixes from about 2003 til around 2008 were bountiful. EDM while still a niche market back then was growing steadily and most popular music had a least a few “dance” remixes. The Lindbergh Palace Remix of Fall Out Boys “Dance Dance” is a great example of dance re-makes popular of this era. I highlighted a similar remix of Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl“ in a previous post.
Fischerspooner, mentioned earlier for his music in SSX 3 (which also had the simply epic prog. house track “Tribulations” from LCD Soundsystem) produced an alternative/house track “Happy” that was featured in the DDR series as well. The songs alternative rock/electronic sound gives you the feeling of “skiing down a mountain” then “walking along a nighttime beach” and is also quite indicative of this era.
Last, but certainly not least is the fresh and funky “Hearts on Fire” from Australian electronic band Cut Copy. This song’s hark to the 80s is apprarent in its sound, a theme that resonates through their whole album, In Ghost Colours. Cut Copy could likely be said to be an ancestor, or at least an influence to American electronic-alternative duo MGMT. In Ghost Colours(2007)is a great listen all the way through. I remember stumbling upon the album (I would’ve been around late high school/early college) through one of the various ways I used to find such elusive music back then: mtvU, torrent album rankings, iTunes top 100 dance/electronic charts, Yahoo! Music, or through friends. I have to admit, it felt way more like quest back then.
Cut Copy’s “Time Stands Still” could’ve almost been dubbed “future house” as well, far ahead of its time:
Throwback 1 [R&B]: Keri Hilson’s hit single “Change Me” featuring Akon, one of the calmer tracks off Hilson’s EP In a Perfect World… The blend of hers and Akon’s voices make an interesting R&B track. It was hard to find the song period so do yourself a favor, and get a high quality version of this song or buy it on iTunes!
Throwback 2 [FESTIVAL TRANCE / EPIC TRANCE]: Sleeper-hit off Armin Van Buuren’s weekly trance music megamix series A State of Trance560 is trance artist Thomas Ulstrup’s “Autumn Evening Star“. One of the most entrancing, energy-raising tracks from that ASOT edition, “Autumn Evening Star” begins with driving melodies, bass and snare hits giving way to a small breakdown before a quite rapid build-up into the synth-filled climax and best part of the song. The feeling it gives off is somewhere in-between wandering the Sahara or Mediterranean mountain ranges at night combined with images of Ibiza or raving off the Australian/Bahamian coast. Enjoy!
Japanese romaji with English translation undernearth:
anata wa taitei
zuibun ogenki desu ne?
tenisu no boifurendo
totemo ii desu yo!! [repeat 2x]
You are usually
very lively, aren’t you?
[My] tennis boyfriend
[It/You] are very good!! [repeat twice]
anata to… [You and…(I)]
anata wo… [You…]
anata to [you and…(I)]
Te, tai-taitei [usu…usu…usually]
tawa, tawa, tawa, tawa [no meaning chop up of taitei – usually]
tawa, tawa, te, te (anata wo) [anata wo lit. “you at least are” / “regarding you…”]
anata wa taitei [Lit. You, yourself are usually (and no one else)]
zuibun ogenki desu ne? [very lively/healthy right/aren’t you?]
tenisu no boifurendo [Lit. boyfriend of Tennis -> Tennis Boyfriend [my]]
totemo ii desu yo!! [Lit. a lot, it’s good I say / assert. // it’s very good!!]
(Original production for PS2 game Harmonix’s FreQuency) Science Genius Girl
DJ Hero 2’s deadmau5 Megamix feat. Kaskade
Second Feature, DJ Tiesto’s Megamix in DJ Hero 2:
Freezepop’s popular music video for TENISU NO BOIFURENDO
As a gamer (when time permits) I can’t not highlight music inspired by, from and featured in video games. In fact, there are several games of days past that I can solely attribute to accentuating my love of EDM (electronic dance music) [for a list of good music video games check below].
SSX Tricky and more notably SSX 3 on GameCubefeatured a wide variety of artists including many British EDM acts as well as hip-hop. This game was the first to introduce me to artists such as, The X-Ecutioners, LCD SoundSystem, Audio Bullys and Jason Nevins’ remix of N.E.R.D.’s “Rockstar” with a soundtrack that featured a lot of electronic and UK house music.
Underground sleeper-favorite, blur, a racing game released by the makers of Geometry Wars on PS3 and Xbox 360, had an incredible EDM-filled soundtrack as well. The game sadly went under, probably due to a lack of a good marketing, but its concept was revolutionary, combining the weapon firing elements of Mario Kart with the sports-car inner-city racing thrills of Need For Speed Underground or Midnight Club, blur was way ahead of its time. Check out the blur soundtrack starting with Spank Rock’s “Bump (Best Fwends Remix)
Notables: Shades of Blue, Everyone Says Hi, Cherry Lips] For this feature I am highlighting a song out of the Playstation 2 series of music games, “FreQuency” and “Amplitude“. Revolutionary for their time, these games combined elements of rail shooters with music production, where the player would control tracks (such as bass, drums, vocals, FX, etc.) and by successfully tapping the notes the actual tracks would play and be added (or skip or get silenced if you mess up) as you successfully clear the stage. Someone playing S.C.G. by Freezepop in Rock Band
Freezepop was a well-known band through the games alone where they contributed some original music productions that could be called sci-fi techno, trance or just early EDM music. They also created another song called Super Sprode for Harmonix’s sequel to FreQuency, Amplitude, a fan/cult favorite music game that was way ahead of its time. With the song-creating elements of the first game and online interactivity Amplitude is known as one of the greatest music games of all time. There is currectly a KickStarter campain to create a sequel to Amplitude for PS4.
EDM giant deadmau5’s Megamix featuring House legend Kaskade
Next, from another popular, but also sadly defunct music game series, comes a stunningly-good megamix of songs by DJ Tiesto featured in the game DJ Hero 2, also produced by Activision. This game was very similar to their other music series, Guitar Hero but featured an actual turntable peripheral used to play the game, scratch and cut-up audio tracks. Though the game was immense fun, it’s very mainstream songlist, huge jump of difficulty from Hard to Expert (much harder than in GH) and lack of support for online play and DLC (though there was a lot of DLC upon first release) led to its eventual demise. DJ Hero by far however was not the first game to use a turntable peripheral, neither was Guitar Hero the first to use guitar add-ons. These medals below to Konami, Japanese video game publisher who’s BEMANI music video game series (started back in 1998) and the obsession of my life from about age 10-19 with their breakout series beatmania, it’s follower beatmania IIDX, and their most popular series to date, Dance Dance Revolution. Video Games with Popular or Prominent Soundtracks: The entire Dance Dance Revolution series Final Fantasy series (notably VII, IX, X, XI and XIII) Audition (Korean PC free-to-play music series) The entire beatmania IIDX series Guitar Hero (3, World Tour, 4) Pump It Up SSX Tricky, and SSX 3 Grand Theft Auto Series & Sleeping Dogs FIFA games and many other EA titles
Check out ARULE’s amazing remix of Sevyn Streeter’s “Don’t Kill the Fun” featuring Chris Brown. Combining elements of trap, future house and dance music this remix is club and dance ready and one of the more expertly polished remixes of Streeter’s single. You can download it for free on the Soundcloud page.
Second, we have Young Thug’s “Flava” featuring fellow rappers Rich Homie Quan & Birdman off the Rich Gang: The Tour Part I EP. This track has just the right amount of hip-hop sound combined with a pinch of futuristic, chilled-out spacey sounds alongside a smooth echoing piano chord. Check out the Official video above.
This Remix Feature is on one of my favorite singles from California-based R&B songstress and dancer, Tinashe. “2 On” featuring Schoolboy Q is considered by many to be her break-out single that put her into the mainstream. I highlighted the song when it was first released, Drake’s “remix”, and the [at the time] a few select listenable EDM remixes shortly after it’s release. Chiefly, Wax Motif’sfloor-filling dance remix, and TOKiMONSTA’s classy, seductive remix, which some fans very expertly choreographed in the link below.
By far two of the best remixes of Tinashe’s top 40/radio debut are by Jersey house DJ and producer, DJ Irresistible (check out another nice Jersey House remix here from DJ Poppa Dubb). Of note also is the Future House andalternative remakes by LUCA LUSH and DJ Q respectively.
We’ve got two new Futureclassics for you today from EDM artists, DJs and producer Cash Fargo along with Class-X.
Our first is Los Angeles producer, Fargo’s “Undo Your Love“, atransfixing smooth blend of house-y male vocals, much akin to Disclosure or Tchami, but with that indie, fresh, hipster feel (and I mean that in the best way possible). If songs like this are indicative of Cash Fargo’s work and overall sound, it’s safe to say we can expect him to be a rising name in the alternative EDM scene, slated to appear at alternative EDM venues and festivals (if he is not already).
If you’re looking for something a bit trappier Fargo’sremix of Future’s “Covered ‘N Money” is great as well (see below:)
Next up (link below) is the chillwave progressive-house mélange of sounds in Netherlands DJ, Class-X’s “Away“. With simply beautiful, relaxing piano arpeggios and a back-beat with elements grounded in house, but flirting between the lines of sounds more characteristic of Trance. Give the song a listen below and download it for free on Class-X’sSoundcloud.
LUMiNOUS Musings 