Our weekly look into the blogosphere where we talk about six tracks we found out about in the previous Wednesday-to-Wednesday seven-day period.Track of the week:
‘When Your Love is Safe’ by Active Child (Classixxx remix)
That’s one nice voice Active Child has got there. And the good thing about this Classixxx remix is that the voice comes out perhaps even better than on the original, as he gives it something extra on occasion. And that works pretty well as far as I’m concerned. Classixxx saw the qualities of this song and basically put a bit of eyeliner on that to accentuate the eyes, so the best comes out even better while the rest sensibly stays in the background a bit more. I also love the understated instrumental additions by Classixxx, which makes it a sort of italo like 80s synth track, which is always good in my book. Just a smart remix of this track, not overhauling it like a buffoon, but instead just some changes in the right places without overshadowing the strengths of Active Child. And I will take such an approach over anything that just puts a heavy beat on it and tries to change it by just making it bigger and bolder.
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Active_Child/track/When_Your_Love_Is_Safe_Classixx_Remix
‘Daughter’ by Yuck
“I have seen my daughter / and the future of the world”. Now, this might be an adoring ballad to some, and I reckon if you have kids this may resonate. It has a nice piano line, the singing is sweet, so there isn’t much wrong with how it sounds. Also like the kick it gets from the drumming in the second half. The thing with ballads I guess is, does it resonate? Does it pull your heart strings? This doesn’t, really. Which isn’t too say that musically it is no good, it is just that I don’t have a daughter, and I don’t care much for children (fancy me being a high school teacher, eh? Which I am, but with children I mean >10). So I rather hear something by The National which does tick my boxes in terms of interest and in terms of where I am now in the world then I hear an ode to someone’s daughter. Either way I probably think it kind of is the easy way out to sing about a subject as mundane as children as those are, I guess, easy kind of emotions.
http://www.myoldkentuckyblog.com/?p=7391
‘Dreaming of Another World’ by Mystery Jets (Lindstrom & Prins Thomas remix)
You know what this is going to sound like, don’t you? Lindstrom + Prins Thomas = Scandinavian disco delight! And you know it’s smooth, you just know it. Lindstrom is probably one of the best, and him teaming up with Prins Thomas on this kind of dancey catchy thingy has never hurt a track I know of. After two minutes the bass takes over in a sick way. A minute later there’s again a change-up, this time on the synth, which is very worthwhile. A minute later (What are they, Swiss clocks?) they bring in the vocals and leave room for the vocals to come on. And the vocals actually work very well with the Lindstrom & Prins Thomas bits, funny to see how they so seamlessly seem to gel. Then again, it is Lindstrom, so I guess being surprised at that is quite the same as being surprised at seeing a bear in a zoo (omg, it’s a bear! A bear, in a zoo! Well I never…) And yeah, I have time to write this, the track is almost ten minutes you know. But deservedly so. That bit where they start working to the end at 8:30 is nifty as well, and that just bass to end it is a DJs dream to mix another song in.
http://soundcloud.com/eskimorecordings/mystery-jets-dreaming-of-another-world-lindstrom-and-prins-thomas-remix
‘Real Love’ by Delorean
I kind of have the same beef with this as I have with some tracks of Caribou, so if you love Caribou, ignore what I’m saying and just have a listen. The thing is, it is a summery, catchy track you can dance to (preferably on a beach party). However, it kind of has the same aesthetics as Caribou. And it kind of has this experimental vibe where they try to do something extra with instruments which makes it sound too busy, too much going, which impedes on me either dancing or sitting back and just enjoying this track. To take a page out of Amadeus, it has too many notes for me. Silly that, isn’t it? But unfortunately silly things can still be true.
http://soundcloud.com/matadorrecs/sets/delorean-real-love
‘Am I Real’ by Nite Jewel
Well, it is easy enough to do this column when you either like or dislike a song, because then you just say so and that’s that. This, I have no idea, honestly. I have no idea whether or not I like it, and I have no idea what it is all about. Sometimes it sounds like those fairly mind-numbing female synth songwriters. Obviously, this track has more going on than I’ve ever heard out of those artists. The other side of the coin is, at times I find this an equally frustrating listen. Sometimes I’m thinking, oh, that’s clever, while at other times I’m thinking, really really? There is something annoying about the drumming and the bass for me, which seem to randomly come and go (which they don’t, there is a pattern, but that pattern isn’t designed to give you something to hold onto in my opinion, it does more to alienate). Perhaps that is it, perhaps it is too alienating, too cold and deliberately strange for me to feel affiliation with it. Kudos for the horns though.
http://blog.22tracks.com/2010/07/20/nite-jewel-mighty-real/
‘Collector’ by Here We Go Magic (PVT remix)
At one point Pivot (or PVT as they are now called) were kind of the heir apparent, weren’t they? Quite the darlings they were. Their re-emergence under the new name doesn’t have quite the impact I think, or perhaps I’m just missing it. This remix is a bit too herky-jerky for my liking. Kind of sounds like a botched up Vampire Weekend track or something. I like the drumming at one point, but the vocals somehow seem off in delivery and pace. Not that it picks up sans the vocals, unfortunately. At times it even seems as they are just free jazzing it. Not the best thing I’ve heard this week.
http://stereogum.com/446172/here-we-go-magic-collector-pvt-remix/mp3s/
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