November 1, 2011
-
Jack’s Song Picks November 2011
I’ve been waiting for days to post this. Didn’t find too much gold this month, I only pick out the BEST that I find in the hours of researching I do every day of my life. A lot of this month was spend checking out older music because Beatport had an end-of-summer sale where they slashed the prices for most of their songs in half. I spend a shitload of money and then it took me like an hour to download all the tracks afterward. I’ll include some of those timeless classics that I picked up near the bottom of this post. I’m currently typing this on my laptop, connected to a 200ft power cord to a house down my street because our entire block lost power from this stupid Halloween blizzard that downed a record number of trees and left us with like 7 inches of snow. On to my top picks for November!
1 – Kaskade – Lessons In Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meZfzx7UP0EI fell in love with this song the second I heard it. Kaskade’s new album Fire&Ice comes out a week from today, but luckily it got leaked last week and I was able to preview most of the tracks. This is by far the best one, even better than “Eyes” in my opinion. It’s such a banger, the chorus makes me flex my jerseyshore fist pumping muscles. The singer from mainstream pop group Neon Trees lays the vocals, and Kaskade drops his signature highs and lows. This one is even poppy enough that I can play it during trivia nights.
2 – Flo Rida – Good Feeling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OnnDqH6Wj8&ob=av2eThis song is a total ripoff of Avicii’s “Levels”, which samples a 50s/60s song by Etta James. Then again, theres so many ripoffs of classic songs nowadays, I feel like everything that hits the radio is a sample of some sort of previous banger. That’s the mainstream we live in today, and Flo Rida takes the gold medal in ripoffs with four GOOD songs that he sampled and threw his bullshit Busta-Rhymes style lyrics onto. He’s copied the likes of Inna, David Guetta, Dead or Alive, and now Avicii. This song is basically an excuse for me to post Levels up again because it’s a fucking awesome song. It’s also good in a way because it makes Avicii that much more mainstream and familiarizes people with the song enough for me to play it in my top40 gigs (which I do anyway because I love the song). “OooOOh sometimes, I get a good feeling. I get a feeling that I NEVER felt before.” But right now, that feeling is of disgust because mr Florida is a sellout.
3 – W&W – Twist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnhS5JNtiHkThis group has been out for awhile, and has stayed surprisingly hidden behind Armada records and the like. This progressive house song makes brilliant use of a cut in the sidechaining method that produces a blue-balling effect on your average fistpumper. I still think the stop-and-go melody style is unique, and gives the track a good array of energy and solid building. Listen at your own risk
4 – Gaia – Stellar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJesce6OXo0This is pure Armin Van Buuren, and pure awesome. He builds you up in classic trance fashion, into a SUPER EPIC breakdown to get you ready for the sick high-energy melody to send the blood coarsing through your veins. I wish I could see him perform this live, but I’m not about to drive down to DC. This song is a perfect example of the stuff I love to play, it’s faster than typical house music and it’s more of a rave dance than a sloppy grind that I see at every house club I go to. You can really enjoy music like this at the club, and there’s no need to have a dance partner when you’re listening to uplifting trance.
5 – Nero – Crush On You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWK6dQOdri0&ob=av2eNero’s album finally came out this month, I’ve only been waiting like a year and a half for this. There’s so much good stuff that I’ll be able to put at least one of their songs on my chart every month until 2012. Nero samples a song of the same name by The Jets and throws a dubstep twist onto it. I like what they tried to do, but they really fucked it up by dropping the dirty LFOs in the middle of the lyrics lines. If they cleaned it up a little bit I’d play it live a lot more often, but it’s just too dirty for me. Maybe you feel differently, check it out!
Here’s a list of tracks that I picked up at the beginning of October. They’re all songs that I’ve had on compilation CDs but never owned the original versions of, so I took advantage of them being on sale to grab some unaltered originals. I have the opportunity to listen to music in the car and at work for 40+ hours per week, so these are my most abused tracks for this past month. I posted enough of them to keep you busy for awhile, because you’re only reading this because you’re bored as hell right now and need new music.
Filo and Peri – This Night (Dash Berlin remix)
This is such a heavenly song, and Dash Berlin’s uplifting mix makes me want to jump up and down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft9gKBzCmZM&ob=av2eIio – Runaway (Ford Remix)
I am in love with her voice, I saw her perform a few weeks ago and it was amazing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r4b23J-OdgShiny Toy Guns – You Are The One (Gabriel and Dresden remix)
Great song, Gabriel and Dresden are one of the kings of remixes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzXTwCek4-YSolarstone ft JES – Like A Waterfall
The first time I heard this song, I actually cried up during the breakdown because it’s so beautiful, 5:10 for reference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlFVptOSAW4Ellie Goulding – Lights (Bassnectar Remix)
Self explanatory, this song is one of the greatest dubstep/DnB tracks of 2011, hands down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imixg3jrJS8Above and Beyond – Sun & Moon (Kim Fai remix)
I didnt like this song when it first came out, but it really grew on me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qmm8DzcefALa Roux – In For The Kill (Skream remix)
If you cant appreciate this, you dont know shit about dubstep/DnB.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2XmLcnYSwQArmin Van Buuren – Burned With Desire (Rising Star remix)
Absolutely beautiful song by a dude who’s starting to lose his touch on euphoric vocal trance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awHcgkb4Ha0ATB – 9PM Til I Come (Original Mix)
I finally replaced my bootled Kazaa downloaded version with the real thing. This still rocks the dancefloor in 2011, true story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri6Efk1SPJcMarco Denmark – Tiny Dancer (Camel Rider remix)
I had the bartender and general manager both dancing to this at one of my last venues. Timeless classic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWfXblTqv58
