DOWNLOAD

 

MIX NOTES

Every now and then I feel compelled to make a straight up party mix. Something you can throw on when your drunk friends come over to eat your Tostitos and wake up your neighbors.

Can I Kick It – This is the best of the three new remixes commissioned for the re-release of tribe’s first album. Mr Cole kept it simple and let the spirit of the original shine through. Even better, they’ve also released a double vinyl copy of “People’s Instinctive Travels & The Paths of Rhythm”, which has long been needed, because back in the day Jive albums were pressed at a painfully low Db level. So, playing Tribe album cuts in a club was always sketchy. This is an easy way to start your house party, because it’s mid-tempo and thus easy to casually dance to. And besides, you shouldn’t be friends with anyone who doesn’t already love this song. I’m being totally serious too.

The Barenuckle Revenge – Green Street are DJ M80 and DJ High Jack from Columbia, SC. This has a good slick but still 90s trip-hop-ish vibe. It came out in 2012 on the Manchester label Nocturnal Recordings.

Cream on Chrome – This is the lead off single from this year’s 5th album by Brooklyn’s own Ratatat (Crown Heights, to be specific) – who are Mike Stroud and Evan Mast. It sort of has a Justice vibe, and it does seems to move a party. I threw on the acapella to Biggie & Tupac’s “Runnin’” just to keep things interesting. Unlike a lot of posthumous collabo tracks, often pieced together from vocal out takes, this one was actually recorded purposely by both of them for a track Easy Mo Bee produced.

Girls I Got Em Locked (DJ Peabird Spotlight remix) – This came out under a different name, but when you use this much of the original vocal, you should stop frontin’ and call it what it is: a remix. DJ Peabird is a Detroit native that runs his own turntablist record label Breakz R Uz. Superlover Cee has a bouncy flow that still sounds fresh almost 30 years later (yes, 30. Whoa).

I Like It (Corn Flakes) – One of the dopest and earliest Miami Electro records, from way back in 1983. The Extra T’s were Freddy Stonewall and Henry Stone, music vets who founded the famous Miami disco label, TK Disco. If you dig this, check out “E.T. Boogie”, heavily sampled by Busta and resulting in a lawsuit from Steven Spielberg LOL.

King Kunta (Island Riot & Casual Connection Rework) – Two Ozzies got together and made a simple yet very dancefloor-friendly edit of Kendrick Lamar. These bros are Perth DJs Matt Hall and Lukasz Ru-Kasu, respectively, and they’ve gotten mad cyber-props for this shit. Check out their Soundcloud page for more hot edits, all FREE!

Can’t Feel My Face – This dude continues to hold down the spot once occupied by cats like Usher and R Kelly and even Maxwell before him. Try not to dance to this. I dare you.

Rose Quartz / Like Crazy – Jazz Cartier is 22 year old rapper Jaye Adams from the T Dot. I only call Toronto the T Dot because I listened to too much Kardinal Offishall in 2001. This is from his 2015 debut mixtape “Marauding in Paradise”, produced by Michael Lantz, that he put out for free, like all the kids do these days. A weird trend but I guess the game is the game.

Rose Quartz – Digging deeper, I discovered Jazz Cartier had jacked Toro Y Moi’s entire song from 2013, so I figured why not let a little bit of the original vocals get some love. It’s groovy and will keep your house party moving. You should be several drinks in by this point, so there’s no excuse.

Rock With You (Reflex remix) – Yes I’m aware I put this at the end of my HOUSE THEN DISCO mixtape but it’s just so fucking good. You can never hear this song enough, to be honest. And when you hear the strings solo’d out here it’s just like OH GOD YES!

Mink & Shoes – This has really been Psychemagik’s year. The UK duo went from bootleg edits to legit remix work for respectable cats like Paul Weller, Haim, and Noel Ghallagher (not dead, apparently). This song was originally commissioned by Smirnoff in 2014 but recently got a proper release in 2015. I really love that techno synthy sounds like this have thoroughly infiltrated mid-tempo nu disco. This is a party mover, for sure.

Trini Dem Girls – When Nicki wants to stop collaborating with shitty pop stars for 5 seconds and make a real outer-boro record, she can and does. Exhibit A. I even edited out the lame diva chorus because I simply can’t stand those kind of pop breaks.

Frontin’ (Disclosure rework) – Just when you forgot about this song, the Hardy Boys of house, Disclosure, come along and make it work again. I call them Hardy boys because, well, they are brothers, barely 25 years old, and they bring what sounds like a very clean-cut, polished vibe to their house music. They’re missing some very important funk and sweat and even soul. That said, I give them a pass, because their shit does works in small doses, like on a mix just like this.

WTF – Missy’s back HELL FUCKING YES!

On The Regular (Joel Ford edit) – By now, you and your house party should be turnt the fuck up. Now you need to keep it going. 21 year old Vegas kid Shamir has just the song. Goofy. Silly. Bouncy. And a thumpy electro baseline that will sound good even on your shitty home speakers.

Subtube – If I’m DJing, you know I have to squeeze in some moody, minor key deep house. You bring the room up to a peak, and then you smooth it out a little, letting mofos take a sip of their drink and look at their phones for 5 seconds. Parisian DJ Joss Moog fits this bill. I feel like DJ Fudge sort of laid the groundwork 15 years ago for what is now a consistent slew of Parisian DJs that channel Kerri Chandler and Bobby Konders in just the right way.

Be Together – Hard to go wrong using Mr Al Green as your foundation. A simple house groove built on that, with some easy on the ears soulful vocals. This is the kind of shit they eat up at Burning Man.

Sing Sing (fabiolous barker edit) – A Salsoul disco classic of the highest order, that you can play anywhere in NYC and get thankful kisses from older women that work at the Transit Authority. Gaz are a bunch of Icelandic studio musicians that worked with Giorgio Moroder, Silver Convention, Donna Summer, and Grace Jones – to name a few. And if that’s not enough, check out their album cover. If this doesn’t need to be air-brushed on to the side of a conversion van, I don’t know what does. Thanks for coming to my house party. Or was it yours?