Gaspard Augé - Force Majeure

Last week, Ed Banger boss Busy P spun a DJ set as part of Brut.club's ongoing series that recently featured Vladimir Cauchemar, Jean Tonique and others. Sharing some exclusives from friends Myd, Metronomy, and SebastiAn, Pedro Winter's hour-long set is chock full of gems. While SebastiAn's take on Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer's classic "I Feel Love" is indeed ear candy, the sonic craving I came out of this set with comes from Gaspard Augé. Recently appearing alongside Victor Le Masne for a remix of Myd and Mac DeMarco's "Moving Men," Augé is spreading the gospel of Justice, even without Xavier de Rosnay. "Force Majeure," the track in question here, could easily be passed off as a Justice production as it reeks of their fabulous and forceful electroclash/space-disco sound. Exceptional and exultant, its energy radiates triumphantly throughout, filling its listeners with an unfounded fearlessness. Like a sonic forcefield, its electro intensity instantly makes you invincible. I'm even hearing that French chemists are working on a way to synthesize it into their COVID-19 vaccine. Obviously, I'm joking with the last bit, but "Force Majeure" is no farce but rather a force to be reckoned with. Check it out below (as ripped from the set and edited by Kwaak) or catch it in the full set here.

Backstage with Elazion and Odesho

Thursday night marked two firsts for me as I joined Elazion on his podcast. It was both my first podcast and my first time as the guest in an interview. In the nearly hour and a half conversation we touched on several subjects, mostly around my role as a radio host and blogger, but of course we dive deeper into a wider swath. There's a fair amount of insight into my process and history, as well as a ton of recommendations which I'll detail below. Get the episode on iTunes, Stitcher, Castbox & others here.
Recommendations, in the order they arise in the episode...

DJ Flipout/Skratch Bastid/Red Bull 3Style: DJ/MC associated with both Virgin Radio Vancouver and the Red Bull 3Style DJ competition. DJ/Global Ambassador for the Red Bull 3Style DJ competition. Both great Twitter follows.

Repost-Toggle for Soundcloud: An Chrome extension I use to streamline my feed.

Nero - Symphony 2808: My first encounter with electronic music re-imagined in an orchestral/symphonic format.

Pete Tong, Jules Buckley & The Heritage Orchestra - Ibiza Prom: The start of Pete Tong's venture into the orchestral realm, with a studio album of this concert (here) and two more after (below).

Pete Tong Ibiza Classics: A second orchestral album of re-imagined Ibiza classics.

Pete Tong - Chilled Classics: A third orchestral album with a mix of original productions and classic re-imaginings.

Ed Banger 15: Orchestral versions of classic Ed Banger releases celebrating their 15th anniversary. See live concert here.

Yanni: An incredible composer/producer/etc. Countless fantastic tracks and albums, but his live The Concert Event album was the one that hooked me, even better enjoyed if you watch the live videos.

Skratch Bastid & Afiara Quartet - Spin Cycle: A brilliant experiment combining scratching and strings. Also best enjoyed with accompanying video. See full concert at Koerner Hall here.

Skratch Bastid - Kenny Rodgers Tributes: Pretty self explanatory. Turntable tributes to The Gambler. First video here and a followup here.

Porter Robinson Monstercat Showcase: My peak Porter enjoyment. One of my favourite mixes of all-time.

Knife Party Essential Mix: One of the most incredible debut sets/Essential Mixes. Peak Knife Party.

Score: A Film Music Documentary: A fantastic doc on some of the major players in "the world's most widely known music genre" with interviews from John Williams, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, etc.

Queen Of The South: One of my favourite TV shows, scored by Giorgio Moroder.

Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul: Incredible music direction. Particularly in the montage scenes. Two stand out in particular, at least in recent memory, both from Better Call Saul. BADBADNOTGOOD - Can't Leave The Night and Todd Terje - Alfonso Muskedunder.

The Wire: Every time I think back to the month or two it took me to binge it, I'm filled with nostalgia and the desire to relive what is widely considered to be the best TV show ever.

Explained - Music: Incredible, informative and logic-based mini doc on music. Narrated by Carly Rae Jepsen and featuring TOKiMONSTA.

The Nature Of Things - Sonic Magic: The Wonder and Science of Sound: Another incredible documentary, detailing the magic behind music and its multi-sensory qualities.

It's All Gone Pete Tong: The 'true story' of a DJ who goes deaf, but continues to produce through vibrations.

Daft Punk, Nile Rodgers, Pharrell, & Stevie Wonder: Perhaps my favourite ever Grammy performance.

The Night: A Nero 'side-project' between Alana Watson and Dan Stephens. Meanwhile Joseph Ray is doing solo work under his own name.

RIP Philippe Zdar

You likely know by now, as news broke late last night, one of electronic dance music's most influential people has passed. Philippe Cerboneschi, more widely known as Philippe Zdar, fell from a building in Paris, dying at age 52. However, his presence will remain with us forever. A true pioneer, he was perhaps best known for his part in the duo Cassius, but his masterful mixing skills and undeniable ear sent his musical fingerprints in seemingly infinite directions. His production credits range from Franz Ferdinand and Kanye West to Chromeo and Phoenix. And while his time on this plane of existence is complete, we can expect more new music from him as two albums lay in wait for tomorrow as he contributed to Hot Chip's A Bathful Of Ecstasy and indeed Cassius' first album in three years, Dreems.

While waiting for those final bits to be released, I did a little Throwback Thursday by retracing some of my favourite Zdar in the playlist below. I'll leave you with that, encourage you to read an insightful piece from Laura Snapes on The Guardian here, and, if you feel compelled, do some digging of your own - the reach of Philippe Zdar is, as I said, seemingly infinite. RIP Philippe, thanks for everything...

Enlightened Listening for November 23

Whether it's with unexpected gems in the return of Grandtheft or anticipated releases like that of Culprate's Others, Fridays never disappoint. Today's Enlightened Listening includes an epic orchestral tribute to the first 15 years of legendary label Ed Banger, the second single from Haywyre in as many weeks, an A-Trak remix on Defected, Boy 8-Bit on RKS, a brilliant Night Bass package, what seems like Booka Shade's dozenth quality release of the year and another ingenious EP from Djedjotronic.

Orchestre Lamoureux & Thomas Roussel - Ed Banger 15

Haywyre - Storyteller

Ferreck Dawn & Robosonic - In Arms (A-Trak Remix)

Boy 8-Bit - Back 2 Back

Sinden & LO'99 ft. Capo Lee - Natural High

Booka Shade - Rosebud

Djedjotronic - Cruising

Culprate - Others

Grandtheft - Jackson Pollock (ft. Cadence Weapon)

Breakbot - Mystery

The latest upload of Busy P's Ed Banger label is titled "Breakot - Mystery," but we can safely assume that's merely a typo, as the description below credits Breakbot. Musically it's clear that this truly is a Breakbot production, it's got his trademark electro funk, bass grooves amidst shimmering synths that pair perfectly with beautiful vocals from an un-credited singer. Indeed this is classic stuff from the French powerhouse, it's a hell of a production. The first two minutes or so are a rapturous dream. The instrumental magic is a rocking, roller-coaster ride in itself. It makes whatever you're doing an absolute delight. But when the vocals come in Breakbot finds himself the author of a slice of sublime storytelling. How he's able to combine the masterful music bed with the simple yet smart lyrics is beyond me. He proves once and for all the utter allure of "Mystery." Get it as part of Ed Rec 100, due out May 12. FOLLOW BREAKBOT: FACEBOOK SOUNDCLOUD TWITTER

Justice's Essential Mix POSTPONED, Woman out Friday

UPDATE: Justice have postponed their Essential Mix, as a result of being too "busy." Regardless, the release of Woman is still slated for release Friday, therefore the rest of the post remains true and intact.

We're sorry to announce that Justice have had to postpone tonight's mix as they're very busy and were unable to complete it in time. pic.twitter.com/3UafYLeyyl

— essential mix (@essentialmix) November 11, 2016

This is a big week for the french duo of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, otherwise known as Justice. Tonight they'll make their triumphant return to "the world's favourite mixshow" BBC Radio One's Essential Mix, their first since 2007. That will be followed by the highly anticipated release of their third studio album, Friday the 18th. With Woman's immanent release in mind, today is the perfect time to ratchet up the hype machine, by revisiting their first Essential Mix and giving the first three tracks of the album another round of plays. Depending on your preference of streaming sources, you have your choice from youtube, soundcloud or mixcloud, the latter you can find below.
I've compiled "Safe and Sound," "Randy" and "Alakazam," the first 3 tracks from Woman, in a spotify playlist below. Pre-order the Ed Banger and Because Music backed album from multiple sources here.

Cheat Codes x Kris Kross Amsterdam - Sex

The massively debated and previously unidentified Spinnin' Records track, that's racked up over 623 thousand plays in just over two weeks has finally been revealed as a collaboration between trios, LA's Cheat Codes and Dutch Kris Kross Amsterdam, and is available for download today.

Aptly titled "Sex," has Spinnin' flexing it's label strength, procuring the rights to sample Salt-N-Pepa's "Let's Talk About Sex." The line "all the good things and bad things" immediately called me back to Akon's use of that line in Kid Ink's "Rewind." That's not the only similarity between the two either. The vibes of each elicit a warm floating feeling. Where "Rewind" leans more on DJ Mustard's synth sound, "Sex" is significantly more tropical, very similar to Major Lazer and DJ Snake's "Lean On." Furthermore, the first twenty seconds have a distinct resemblance to What So Not's "Touched." One commenter called it a rip off of Where Are U Now, Lean On, Sorry and What Do You Mean. While "Sex" no doubt seems to borrow facets from all of these tracks, it is its own distinct production. It is, at worst a mere mashup of covers, and at best, a finely crafted combination of some of the best pop music from the past year.

Of course this isn't anything new for Spinnin' Records, being the host label for chronic recyclers Vinai. A quick survey of Vinai's catalog of releases makes it seem like they've only ever started one project file and just keep minutely changing each production before sending them to Spinnin'. This seems all too common for the Dutch label which continually churns out repackaged, commercially leverage-able music, whether it's from Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Oliver Heldens or the Lost Kings, the other act many commenters thought might have produced "Sex." This isn't to say that Spinnin' is without merit, it certainly holds a different footing, philosophy and purpose than Dirtybird, Ed Banger, mau5trap or even OWSLA. Whatever the case, you can now get your copy of "Sex" now.