The frenetic world of electronic music is full of distractions and diversions, hindering the ability to find transcendent music. Let Oggie James be your guru and lead down the path to musical Enlightenment.
Album, song and event reviews, mixtapes, and radio shows, light the way to Enlightenment, conveyed by Oggie James.
There's no debating A-Trak's spot on the Mount Rushmore of DJs. You could literally spend days, if not weeks, enjoying his wide range of sets and mixes. Back in October of 2015 he dropped his "Bloghaus Revival Mix," with the followup coming about about six months later, here. While he didn't directly reference the Erol Alkan forum, it no doubt played part in the track selection as a hub for electronic music aficionados from around 2007-2009. Last night he released a recording of a September 28th set in Philadelphia entitled "Hollerboard Redux Set."
As he mentions in the description, this Hollerboard Redux party arose from the message board of the same name, based around Diplo and Low Budget's Hollertronix parties. Before Soundcloud and EDM, it was message boards and forums like Erol Alkan's and Hollerboard where DJs and fans alike shared mashups and "lesser-known regional styles," bringing incredible creativity and experimentation to DJ sets. The result below, a mix of tracks from the Hollerboard Era and new songs with the same spirit, is one of the widest ranging sets you'll ever hear. Where else are you going to get Billy Joel pitted against A$AP Rocky & Skepta in the same hour as Justin Timberlake, Parliament, Bloc Party and Kraftwerk.
The back and forth in the mix is incredible. One minute you're popping off to Cajmere "Percolator" the next your gliding across the floor to A-Trak's ABBA aided "Voulez-Vous" or pumping up the jam before releasing the beast on Hall & Oates. That said, A-Trak's made all of those transitions fit together better than PB&J. Like Kid Sister's "Pro Nails," which he helped write, this mix is dressed to the nines, "toes done up with her finger nails matchin'." Just one look at the massive tracklist, almost as wide as it is tall, and you'll realize what kind of treat you're in for. It's some serious "Laffy Taffy" as A-Trak's journey is sure to leave your head spinning.
Finally, as writing this A-Trak tweeted out a list of his DJ sets from Hollerboard to Bloghaus to Rap and Cut It Out (here). If you've missed any of these, make sure to save or download for your holiday parties! FOLLOW A-TRAK: FACEBOOKSOUNDCLOUDTWITTER
For this week's installment in my Throwback Thursday series, it's with great pleasure that I take a stroll down memory lane to enjoy Alex Metric's magnificent remix of Bloc Party's "One More Chance."
Lately, I've been enjoying Bloc Party's triumphant return to the world of music, through their new album Hymns. It's also spurred some nostalgic re-listening to much of their masterful back catalog, especially my favourites: the raucous "Hunting For Witches," the undeniably awesome "Banquet," the torturous beauty of their cover of Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right," the inescapable groove and funk of their version of Chromeo's "Needy Girl," and of course the topic of this post, the injection of energy that is "One More Chance."
My first foray into Bloc Party came back when I used to like "How I Met Your Mother" before its disastrous and alienating final season. During the season one finale their track, "This Modern Love" plays through one of the more dramatic scenes. As is the case with television and film the music can play an integral part, invoking the nostalgic feeling whenever you hear it. In fact, there are only five tracks in my iTunes with over 100 views, and two of them hold this sentimental value, of course, "This Modern Love," as you'll see below, and the incredible power of Blonde Redhead's "Elephant Woman," as it appears in the film, Hard Candy.
But back to Alex Metric and his remix of "One More Chance." I was inspired to write about this track in part, as I said above, because of Bloc Party's new album, but also because we are nearing the five year anniversary of Alex Metric's Essential Mix. The first time I heard Alex Metric was when Pete Tong premiered his collaboration with Steve Angello "Open Your Eyes" as essential new tune and declared that it need a festival named after it, it was so large. And quite rightly so, I believe it to still be one of the best tracks to open up a set, and even one of the best tracks of all time. The chords, the uplifting nature, the acid tinged twist, and then the insanity inspiring drop complete with whirling effects and tremendous tweaks, that in turn team up for syncopated psychosis, make it a force to be reckoned with, even after more than five years. But I'll let Pete and the chune speak for themselves below:
Once again I've fallen off track, this post is supposed to be about his "One More Chance" remix. Put bluntly, Alex Metric's Bloc Party remix is all of the best parts of his repertoire. It's got the necessary electro elements, punchy piano, sweeping strings, heart throbbing basslines, and masterful vocal usage, that is only amplified by Kele Okereke's inimitable style and grace. Metric adds, subtracts and manipulates elements the way a mad scientist conjures an invincibility potion, and boy did it work. "One More Chance," sounds as good and fresh as it did when it first came out. It's like he says in his Essential Mix intro: it's his past, present and future, filtering the attitude and feeling of big beat, the anything goes ethos, no genres, just good music. That philosophy run through his remix of "One More Chance," and is precisely what makes his Essential Mix, one of my favourites of all time.
The storytelling inherent in his mix is only made possible through his incredible tracklist. Whether it's old school funk from Chaka Khan or Colonel Abrams, genius combinations like The System and Daft Punk, brain busting remixes like Style Of Eye's dub of "Open Your Eyes," the freshness of Light Year's "Zzafrika" remix, the acid of King Cosmic and Djedjotronic's "Hot Mess" remix, the arching progression of Marc Romboy and Stephan Bodzin's "Triton," the awesome exclusivity of Yuksek's remix of Katy Perry's "Peacock" so brilliantly mixed with LCD Soundsystem's "You Wanted A Hit," the obligatory inclusion of New Order's "Blue Monday," his production credit on the Infadels' "Black Sky" leading to the fearsome finale of Toto's "Hold The Line" and fitting Beatles "The End." His mix hits on a cylinders and delivers in so many ways. It is perfect listening for just about any situation, doing school work, pre-drinking or after-partying. The blog "Blah Blah Blah" has a full tracklist and download link attached that you can find here. Highly recommended listening, that I'm sure you'll find inspires you to search for more Alex Metric of your own.
