"1901"

I apologize for the lack of posts recently; my computer was attacked by a nasty virus and was out of commission until just recently. Anyway, I've been meaning to share a track off of Phoenix's most recent album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, with all of my followers.

Maybe you've heard it already since I'm sort of a latecomer to the Phoenix bandwagon, but the song is called "1901" and it's a perfect, danceable summer jam with catchy guitar riffs and one of the best choruses I've heard in awhile. It's just so much fun to sing along to all the "hey hey hey"s and "falling falling falling"s and I'm sure you enjoy it as much as I do. Here's a link to an mp3 of the track.

Shortly after I fell in love with the album cut, the Hood Internet posted a mash-up remix pairing Thomas Mars' infectious vocals with an exciting beat from Why?'s "A Sky For Shoeing Horses Under." It works so well that I can't decide which I like better, the remix or the real song. Here's the mp3 for that one. Enjoy the song(s) and enjoy the summer!

Greg's Mash-Up Guide, Pt. 1

Lately I've been listening to a whole lot of mash-ups, as they're fun to listen to while driving and I have an hour-long commute to my summer job. My unquenchable thirst for new music has driven me toward finding a lot of different mash-up artists on the internet, and so I'd like to share some of the ones I've found with all of my devoted followers.

First off, let me say that, at least in my view, there are two different kinds of mash-up. One is more album-focused and creates a lengthy mix of an enormous amount of small samples, trying to include as many popular hooks as possible (perfect for dance parties.) Another finds two songs that mesh well together and then, well, meshes them together. This second category encompasses both mash-ups of individual songs and mash-ups based around an entire album. This post focuses on the first type and a later post will more fully explore the second.

The most well-known of today's mash-up artists is, of course, Girl Talk. Though I do enjoy listening to his albums, something about Gregg Gillis' music always frustrates me. He always finds the perfect blend with which to draw me in, but then usually fails to capitalize on the moment and unleash the true potential of each mashed pairing of songs. His all-encompassing mix of radio hits, indie favorites, and vulgar rap does have a nice balance, though, and the artistic statement of his music is so powerful that it inspired many other mash-up mixes using the same material. Though the whole thing tries to recreate the incredible "Bittersweet Symphony" and "Tiny Dancer" moments from 2006's Night Ripper, his best and more recent effort, Feed The Animals, set the standard for the rest of what's on this list.

E-603's 2008 release, Something For Everyone (follow-up to be released any day now,) has just what the title says. He takes most of what Girl Talk uses on Feed The Animals and re-works it in his own way, pairing up different tracks but mostly trying to capture the same effect that Girl Talk strives toward. It's not too original, but it is just as exciting to hear as Gillis' work.

Easter Egg also uses similar samples on his first and only mash-up album, Jackin' For Beats. He, however, provides an interesting twist on the formula by adding more dance, house, and techno such as Basement Jaxx and Justice (which incidentally make for my favorite moments on the album.) Though I enjoy the diversity in his samples, some of his mashes aren't of as high quality as the others and are somewhat of a let-down.

My favorite mix-type mash-up album (and the one you should all download immediately) is Fuck Bitches. Get Euros. by Super Mash Bros. Maybe I'm partial to the use of DCFC and Modest Mouse samples, as those artists defined most of my high school experience, but I feel like SMB achieve the perfect mix by letting each individual track run its own course. Instead of immediately shifting to another clip from a completely different song, each element gradually emerges to take center stage, then retreats to the back at the exactly appropriate moment, letting another pop melody shine. Even though the album follows the same general formula of vulgar rap over innocent indie tunes, the team does more than just mash the songs together: they instead carefully manipulate each simultaneous track by altering the speed, reversing, or chopping it up to make it fit beautifully with the other. The prime examples of this are the two tracks that close the album, "D.G.A.F.L.Y.F." (based on "Soulja Boy" and the DDR hit "Sandstorm") and "Testarossas For Everyone!" (based on "Flirt" and "Lip Gloss" and set over "Better Off Alone,") which may be two of the most inspired mash-ups I've ever heard.

Another awesome thing about mash-ups: they're completely FREE! You can download each from its respective site with the links I've provided.

The Ocarina Of Rhyme

And now for something completely different: Team Teamwork, a blog group that prides themselves on "ghettotech" hip hop remixes, has recently compiled an album of mash-ups that take instrumentals from everyone's favorite game in the Legend of Zelda series, The Ocarina of Time, and overlay them with rap from some of today's better MCs. The Ocarina of Rhyme is available for digital download pretty much anywhere online, so get to it!
To some the album may seem lame or nerdy (and it might actually be a little of both) but fans of old-school rap and old-school video games, which I'm sure there are a ton of, will be really pleased. The editing is done very well and the separate elements of each song were carefully chosen to fit together surprisingly well. The first track, which mashes Clipse's "Virginia" with the Lost Woods theme, is especially ironic in its combination of the most playful tune in the game with some pretty serious lyrics. The team does interesting work with "Still D. R. E." and the brief 6-second sample that accompanies Link's discovery of a treasure by altering the speed, chopping it up, and flipping it around to make a pretty royal accompaniment to Snoop Dogg's and Dr. Dre's rhymes. The best tracks, however, use the more simple and repetitive rhythms that play in the background during the game (and are thus deeply ingrained into the player's memory.) These include the mix of Goron Village's somewhat tribal percussion-and-yelping theme with Aesop Rock's "No Jumpercables," Spank Rock's dirty "IMC" over the serene and subtle theme from Zora's Domain, and the "Still Tippin'" duet between Slim Thug and Mike Jones with the high-pitched fantasy-synth melody found in all four Great Fairy fountains. The album is short, sweet, and a ton of fun, especially for those nostalgic types like myself, so go make like Link and explore the depths of google.com until you stumble upon this hidden treasure.

The Very Best Mixtape

Released at the very end of last year, The Very Best Mixtape by The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit) went unnoticed by many, including myself. I just gave it a listen today, and the only phrase I can use to describe it is "really cool."Esau Mwamwaya is an up-and-coming London-based MC born in Malawia, and Radioclit are a European production team. The mixtape itself, which is available for FREE digital download on the team's myspace site, is a collection of tracks which take the instrumentals, beats, and backgrounds from popular recent songs and overdub them with African chants, rhythms, tribal vocals, and rapping. Sounds cool, right? My favorites are "Kamphopo," which uses the tropical percussion from Architecture In Helsinki's single "Heart It Races," "Tengazako," which uses the motif that M.I.A. borrowed from The Clash for "Paper Planes," "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," which spices up the Vampire Weekend afrobeat track by cranking up the speed and energy, and "Boyz," which does the same with my personal favorite of M.I.A.'s. Both she and Santigold also appear on another cool track found toward the end of the album, "Get It Up." "Kada Manja" and "Dinosaur On The Ark" are a couple of other tracks that, though I can't recognize any sample material involved, are still just as awesome, thanks to the genius of Radioclit. Other tracks of note are "Salota," "Funa Funa," and "Chikondi," though the whole album is worthy of your time. To cap it off, the mixtape closes with "Will You Be There," which throws some Michael Jackson into the mix and is so well-produced that it sounds like the Lion King-esque additions have always been a part of the song. Once Esau is done singing, he takes the opportunity to tell the listeners how much he loves them and makes a plug for a debut album, which already sounds incredibly promising.