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MIX NOTES

Sometimes it’s just about a dance party, nahmean? This is a sequel to an equally eclectic and houseparty-ready mix that you can peep HERE

All Night (Kaytrananda remix) – Hip Hop’s “it boy” Chance the Rapper released his “Coloring Book” mixtape in 2016. Kaytranada did the original mix of this track, then released a very fattened-up compression-heavy version on his Soundcloud. I mixed in both here, to bring the verse vocals a little forward, which get pretty buried under the sub bass of the remix. Seemed like a good song to get a party started.

I Wanna Be Down (Le Marquis remix) – Yes, this is another version of the very-over-remixed Brandy tune. This happens to just about any half-decent R&B track from the 90s that had an acapella on the 12”. This was floating around the internet in 2014. It’s not re-inventing the wheel, but it does have a nice bounce to it. What are you waiting for?

Chocolate – You’d think this was some big club remix of Big Boi’s 2017 album cut, but no, this is the version he made his damn self, and put on his own damn record, as is, cuz dude has always been one step ahead of the planet. True to form, his most recent album “Boomiverse” is solid af. Outkast forever y’all!

H.S.K.T. – This came out in 2015 and I kept hearing it in Williamsburg bars, but it took me a few years to take the 3 seconds it takes to actually track it down. Sylvan Esso are Amelia Meath and producer Nick Sanborn, a duo from Durham, NC. The tone of her voice kinda reminds me of Feist meets Joni Mitchell, but her phrasing is kinda David Byrne, ya know? You tell me.

This Must Be The Place (Psychemagik remix) – I have long resisted the urge to put this Talking Heads song on a mix, probably because my next-door neighbor played it at every god damn party he had for about 6 years straight. But it truly is a great song, and the Psychemagik guys made it even a little better with some extended edits, some synths, and a live breakdown from some very inspiring kids.

Losing My Edge – The 2002 debut single for LCD Soundsystem. It gets inside the mind of a DJ pretty accurately, and has some funny-ass lines and references. My favorite being:

Art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered Eighties

When the hipsters started appearing in Brooklyn, I was always fascinated by their little fake leather or jean jackets. The sleeves only ever came down 3/4 of their arm, which they would then push up to their elbows. I always wanted to watch one of them thrift shopping, trying them on in front of a mirror going “It fits. Nope. Next!” over and over again until they found one that was painfully small. Buncha try-hard weirdos…

Hip Hop Drunkies – I’ve always wanted to put this ODB acapella over something, but it took some real edit work to cut around his random ranting. Tal M Klein is an SF-based DJ and producer. I am a sucker for the old acid sound, and he gets it mostly right. Peep more of his music HERE

Shake Your Body (Moplen remix) – What would a dope party mix be without some Michael Jackson? This deconstruction is courtesy of Moplen, an Italian DJ who prides himself on doing remixes like this with strictly original drum sounds, from the original stems. Makes for a much less cheesy remix IMO.

Aforsa – Some funky broken beat from the Bruk Boogie Kru, a Swiss trio of producers who released this back in 2014. It’s a pretty straightforward loop with some timbales here and there. Simple and dancey.

The Rain Break – I have always been a big fan of LA’s Claude Von Stroke. He makes party records that are bouncy as fuck and don’t take themselves too seriously. Here, he vocodes the shit out of an Oran Juice Jones impersonator, over an updated loop of Raze’s “Break For Love” – truly one of the great club baselines of the late 80s. Cheesy. Fun. Bumpin’.

Dirty Talk – A real deal electro throwback from 1982 from Klein & M.B.O. aka Mario Boncaldo (Italy) and Tony Carrasco (USA). This was a smash hit back in the breakdance days, and is considered by many to be influential in the forming of the Chicago House sound. Hard to deny that, really.

Language of the Bass – Some funky ass bass music from Dirk Leyers and Nomad, two Berlin cats who make up the production duo Africaine 808. They released an album of their digital African rhythms last year on NY’s Gold Channel imprint. If you dig it, buy it HERE

Anxious Party People – Giles Peterson’s Brownswood Bubblers compilations never fail to deliver some joints. Case in point: this loose, jazzy, rawkus party rocker from Blood, Wine or Honey, a Hong Kong trio made up of two brits and an American. They released this song on their first EP that came out in April of 2017. By the sound of things, this is exactly the kind of party I want to be at.

Bounce – More cheesy fun, this time from the UK’s Weiss, who in my experience, is all about a simple loop that works. This one works too. Don’t overthink it.

I’m A Man (Rub N Tug Edit) – A fuzzy funky Spencer Davis cover from Chicago Transit Authority’s 1969 debut. These guys were basically the white Santana back then. Long loose psychedelic jams with sparse vocals and wailing guitars. They’re on that short list of bands that started out absolutely fucking great (Kool & The Gang, Jefferson Starship, etc), then at some point figured out how to write sappy pop songs, and abandoned all of their roots to drive that train all the way to the bank. I suppose you can’t blame them, but it was all downhill after 1972.

Where It’s At (Johnny Aux remix) – Leave it to Reggie Watts to take the piss out of all those cheesy club records where some guy with an incredibly deep voice is struggling to say very profound things to people high on drugs. Knowing Reggie, he just ad-libbed this entire thing, and it’s hilarious. And the beat just bumps along. Again, don’t overthink it.

Keep The Faith – I really love this record. Zach Witness is an Atlanta-based producer down with the Outkast crew. He co-produced Eyrkah Badu’s “But You Can’t Use My Phone” mixtape. Now he’s released his first EP, a 5-song joint called “Electric Revival: Rise of an Outkast Nation”. This track is all over the place. Gospel foot stomping. Acapella breakdowns. A very-Vanity 6 break towards the end. It has it all, with mad energy too. I think we are seeing the beginning of great things here. Don’t sleep.

Grand Steppin’ – If you’re trying to move a mixed crowd, you can rarely go wrong with OG’s Armand Van Helden and A-Trak aka Duck Sauce – the Canadian club veterans who made that incredibly silly and catchy “Barbra Streisand” song that you couldn’t escape in the summer of 2010. This is just a punched up loop of MSFB’s “T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia)”. Not to be over-thought, ya’ heard?

Attitude – Mysterious ski-masked Brooklyn rapper Leikeli47 did her thing on this. Simple. Catchy. To the point. I usually cringe when artists adapt some very particular signature look that they will invariably be stuck with for life. Just ask Dr Fink in Prince’s band if didn’t dread putting on that stupid doctor outfit every damn day, but hey, the sista can rhyme, so you do you.

Bam Bam (king kong remix) – UK producer D-Dots hooked up with Ft Lauderdale rapper Tt the Artist for this likkle slice of jump up. They call this music “tropical bass”. I call it fun.

Sweet Lucy – I just discovered this manic disco number a few weeks back, on some blog thread about George Duke arrangements. This thing just blazes along at like 140bpm. Raul de Souza is a Brasilian trombonist who was down with Sergio Mendes in the 60s, as well as Milton Nascimento and Cal Tjader, to name a few. This was his first foray into disco, from 1977. It kinda reminds me of another great George Duke disco arrangement, Dee Dee Bridgewater’s epic “Bad For Me”

Mind Power pt. II – Slowing things back down a bit, this is James Brown in his 1973 prime, from the Payback LP. The song has two parts. I brought it in after the breadkdown, cuz I’ve always preferred that second groove instead of the first one – especially because it starts with just the guitar. You can hear the whole 12 minutes HERE

Mary Jane (live) – A thunderous live recording of Rick James from Long Beach California, 1981. Truth be told, Rick was always pretty cheesy, but he really had some joints here and there. I like the way he plays with the crowd, and the Bob Marley shoutout is hilarious. Rick always borrowed pretty liberally from P-Funk, and I think George Clinton considered him to be kind of a sucka, but he had his place, and he’s partially responsible for solidifying my love of funk with his 1979 “Bustin’ out of L Seven” LP – that my best friend’s older brother would let us listen to when I was 10 yrs old. Also, FUCK YO COUCH.

Voices Inside My Head – I first heard this when David Mancuso played it at The Loft in NYC. At first I assumed David had some secret extended Police 12” acetate, but soon discovered it was a 12″ from a one-off cover band called Common Sense that came out in 1980 and quickly made its way into the underground NY club circuit. The drummer lacks Stewart Copeland’s unparalleled tightness, but it bumps along nicely anyway.

Gett Off (Flutestramental) – This might be Prince’s song, but this is sure-as-shit Steve “Silk” Hurley’s signature 1991 house sound. I think it’s pretty much the only house remix of a Prince record that’s worth a damn, and I actually find it more listenable that the original track. I wish there was more Prince vocals, and less of Prince’s (painful) rapping, but I did my own edit here to shorten it up and piece together at least two verses.

Stuff Like That – The first time I heard this in a club, I thought it was some lone Rufus song I had overlooked. But that didn’t seem quite right, because the production and arrangement was so damn precise and perfect. Then I discovered it was actually Quincy Jones with Chaka Khan on lead vocals, and it all made perfect sense. The writing credits also include Ashford & Simpson, Steve Gadd, Eric Gale, and Ralph MacDonald. Not a bad day in the studio. This is just a year before Quincy produced MJ’s “Off The Wall”, so it’s a little less disco poppy, and a little more mid-70s funky.

Hey Nineteen – Another flawless Steely Dan tune, from their final studio album, 1980’s Gaucho. This was on regular rotation in my freshman dorm, particularly because of the bridge’s ode to Cuervo and Colombian, which naive me thought was a reference to weed, not blow (LOL). Oh well, better to learn that lesson a bit later, yes? I think of fellow freshman Tim Ryan in particular, belting this out with great aplomb, as he prepared to school us in various partying techniques honed in his hometown of Belmore, Long Island. Good times.

RIP Walter Becker. You gave us so much music. We are forever in your debt.