Masaki

Masaki is a local Sydney bloke who has been around for a minute. I first met him at a gig where despite playing back to back, we threw down completely different styles and I was thoroughly impressed with his tropical tech house set despite knowing absolutely nothing about it.

Turns out the kid can produce as well. He's been at it for a little while, and after a recent name change, he's beginning to enjoy his first bit of success with his latest single enjoying some radio airtime on Triple J courtesy of other Sydney bros, Yolanda Be Cool. This led to support from other artists including Tom Piper, Blaze Tripp as well as Camel all the way from Italy. Short story is that it's a great single, and at a young age and with passion to boot, Masaki just might have what it takes to go places in this biz.

You'll like him if you like Mowgli, Solo, Renaissance Man or any other tropical bros. Get involved.

Bussare Groove (Original Mix) w/ Pop The Hatch by Masaki

Weather Report #3

Time for another swag of quality tracks from the world of SoundCloud. Get on board!

Kamps! is a band out of Poland, somewhere between disco, pop and house music. Simply quite stunning. Not unlike a groovier Cut Copy. Check out their entire discography on their SoundCloud.

Heats by Kamp!

Distance of the modern hearts by Kamp!

Become a fan on Facebook.

This video came in from an Italian man by the name of Scuola Furano. Don't know too much about it other than it's apart of a 90s house tribute EP he has recently made, and that in the past he's remixed Sweat It Out's Act Yo Age. It's really really dope. As soon as I have more details on this I will share them with you. Perhaps they're at his website. www.scuolafurano.com.

Scuola Furano - Tribute ep teaser from Scuola Furano on Vimeo.

FlashBack by Scuola Furano

This and other tunes all available for free download on his SoundCloud. What a dude.

Obligatory post for this smooth gem. Sydney's Moonchild's take on We No Speak Americano.
Yolanda Be Cool + DCUP - We No Speak Americano (Moonchild Remix) by Moonchild

Obligatory post for this classy gem. By Britain's own Go Go Bizkitt! Gotta love this guy.
A Taste of Honey - Rescue Me (Go Go Bizkitt! Edit) by Go Go Bizkitt!

That's enough for this post I think. I'd hate to turn my SoundCloud weather reports into a big info-less music drop. But I really like these four acts and you will too.

Peace.

What Nepotism?

One of the guidelines for a music blog to be incorporated on Hype Machine and its search engines is to 'not use the blog to promote the word of the blogger'... or something to that effect...

Ey! Max Smart and 3Hundreds jumped at the most recent Sweat It Out remix competition. This year it was the joyful, albeit run into the ground, We No Speak Americano. Here is the end result. Bit raw with simple edits and samples but very bouncy. I like it because it is not the original. FYI, Max recently got his hands on a MicroKorg and someone who knows how to use one. Remixes a plenty.

We No Speak Americano (3Hundreds & Max Smart 'Bit Dirty' Edit) - Yolanda Be Cool and DCup

Max's Facebook.

Peace and Love

Main Thang

There are a lot of genre's of music that I don't like. In particular I'm not really a fan of dutch house. I find it repetitive and unimaginative.

People argue that it has it's place, which it does, but why all of a sudden last summer did every bloke and his sidekick decide that to play big room bangor tunes, it had to be dutch? Gross. Afrojack is terrible.

For years, before all these myths starting popping up onto the worlds radar with their clogged monstrosities, artists such as Herve dominated with their heavily congo influenced songs which were electro laden but at the same time had enough structure and talent behind them to still be called songs. While his style does reflect popular trends worldwide, it's probably more appropriate to suggest that Herve has set trends worldwide. Afrojack is terrible.

So anyway... On the 12th of April, Herve released his latest compilation CD called Ghetto Bass 2, and amongst a grocery list of talented UK and international artists such as Jack Beats, Fake Blood and Voodoo Chilli was a new group out of Sydney known as Mane Thing. Mane Thing was the marriage (musically speaking) of Steve Lind from The Hump Day Project and Jax from Deckhead, who according to rumour hooked up (musically speaking) one night to put this track together without much thought on it's potential beyond perhaps their own CD wallets. As fate should have it however, 9 months after hooking up (musically speaking)(may have actually only been 6 months) a beautiful baby was born in terms of the Mane Thing's bootleg of His Majesty Andre being included on Herve's new compilation.

Love a good love story.

Peep Thong (Mane Thing Bootleg) - His Majesty Andre 192
Buy it in 320 at BeatPort

This is how you make a big room track without going dutch.

BONUS
We No Speak Americano (Spenda C Edit) - Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP

Steve was also nice enough to drop over his latest edit of THE party jam du jour, We No Speak Americano.

You're welcome.

A Worrying Trend

I always found it a bit of a concern when you hear of a DJ or producer who use their real name on stage. A quick glance at the biz and at any interview with an artist and it's obvious that pseudonyms and stage names are a fantastic part of the industry. Using a stage name adds character and personality to your bio and any one who uses a stage name usually has a decent story behind the name. There are some great names, there are some absolutely terrible names but rest assured at least the appearance of an alter ego usually denotes one important thing... that they don't play crap music.



The sad truth of it all is that most DJ's who perform using their real name usually play crap house music, most commonly of the 7 minute variety that they used to play at Tank in between all the headliners who were actually decent. The other side of the coin is that a lot of these people who perform under their real names are old, losing their hair or simply just house music artists, at which point they probably need to consider a career change if they tick any of those boxes.

Please... for music's sake... if you come across a flyer or event that suspiciously looks as if it may contain a plausible artists name, think hard before you commit to attending as the event will most likely be terrible.

Ahem here is a song from some dudes with great names, Australia's own Dcup and Yolanda Be Cool. Their pairing together in the remix of Afronuts last year produced one of the best songs of 2009, and while the tropical/afro-beat genre of YBC is in stark contrast to the boogie/techno work from Dcup, this original song is definitely one of the stand out tracks already of 2010.

I'm posting this track in 192kbps so if you want full quality then please buy it from itunes/beatport. On top of that, the pair have also made a mixtape to commemorate the release, which you can listen to over at their Sound Cloud by following the link.

We No Speak Americano - Dcup & Yolanda Be Cool 192kbps

Sound Cloud - We No Speak Americano Tour Mix

p.s Exceptions to the rule regarding DJ names are if you have a really sweet/unique full name
p.p.s I will also accept people who use their last name only.
p.p.p.s House music is generally terrible.

Here's a song

So the good news is that I'm now living the dream. The problem is however, that the dream takes a lot of time to live. So amidst my euphoria and hand claps I'm quite pressed for time. Despite this, I've found time to make a cheeky little mixtape which I will post up here tomorrow for you. In the meantime, I thought I'd just drop the bomb on you to see what you thought. Here's some songs on a Monday night to help you get through to the weekend! I'll get you!

I'll get you (Douster Remix) - Classixx feat. Jeppe

You should all know this original by now, but here is a tasty tasty remix from the amazing Douster. This name has been on the scene for a few years and always brings to mind a very tribal sound, call it afro beat. I never used to be a fan, but hearing this remix and also his remix of Australian duo Yolanda Be Cool made me change my tune. The combination of eclectic summer synths in the original classixx tune against the zouk and rhythm of douster is like having pizza for breakfast: almost wrong but oh so right.

Afronuts (Douster Remix) - Yolanda Be Cool

Fun Fact: Surkin dropped this massive tune at Sterosonic. I wasn't there buuut by all accounts it was massive. This song sounds like an orgy in carnivale The more you listen to this one the more you'll wanna take up capoeira. Think about it.

Set me free (Tanzanian Disco Stampede Mix) - Phonat

Didn't know this song until last night when a chap by the name of Adam Bozetta dropped it at Cargos. Since then I've noticed in heaps of blogs best of '09 lists. It's a bit of a disco monster, filled with loops and filters in glorious proportions designed to make shapes throw. Phonat is italian, and lives in London. Been around since '07 but definately worth taking notice of. Wait for the drop building up from 2:30. Watch out Carmen's.

The Motion - Duck Sauce

Wasn't sold on Duck Sauce's first song. Catchy but not necessarily awesome. I kind of got the feeling that of the partnership, A-Trak was the partner bringing all the fantastic old records to sample, the chorus' everyones singing and the talent while Armand Van Helden made really shit intro's and outro's that are effing difficult to mix with. In all honesty I think I've only heard one DJ in the past 3 months play aNYway and mix it smoothly. Seriously what the fuck. But ahh this song's pretty good. Wish it was in better quality but I've honestly got no idea when the album is going to come out with decent quality versions of all the other songs floating around. Tune!!!

That's it for now, but stay tuned for a Cassian post and the release of my mixtape tomorrow.

Get some in ya.