Enlightenment For Your Ears

This past Friday (October 30th), Grandtheft finally released his much anticipated Quit This City EP on Diplo's Mad Decent label. Ever since his performance at Bestival on Toronto Island this summer, it was clear that Grandtheft was sitting on a bunch of unreleased gems, the first of which he premiered via a recap video. Of course, I've been a fan of both Grandtheft and Sleepy Tom for years now, so the thought of these two working together was something I could have only dreamt of. When I first saw the video I immediately reposted it on my friend's wall with the caption "best collab ever?" I think we have our answer. These guys are incapable of disappointment.

While "Hold On" was the lead single, and standout track from the EP, the second single and title track is simply amazing. With flawless vocals laid-down by Lowell and the combination of atmospheric synths, Grandtheft's inimitable drums and badman bass stylings all wrapped around seemingly biographical lyrics, "Quit This City" is a picture perfect illustration of the ethos and sound of this brilliant release from one of Canada's biggest and brightest DJ/Producers. Enjoy the video for Quit This City below.

Summæry Steel Drum Special - Now Downloadable

With winter on the horizon and the temperature dropping steadily I quickly found myself gobbling up tracks with a more summery feel. Originally, this gave me the urge to simply create a playlist compiling those types of tracks that I most yearned for. This, in itself, was quite the task and I ended up with upwards of 200 tracks, totalling nearly 15 hours of music; a hugely daunting playlist now sat in my library begging to be cut down to an appropriate and manageable size. I then set out to find a more clear sound and theme for this playlist that was quickly becoming more and more important to my daily music consumption, and therefore my happiness quota. I found myself unable to cut the playlist further than to 120 tracks and nearly 9 hours of music; still more than one could possibly jam into a two hour mixtape.

Luckily, I had been inspired by the rapid-fire DJing skills shown off this year's Red Bull Thre3Style DJ World Championships held right here in Toronto. The amazing talent and mixing made me believe that anything was possible in terms of what genres and styles of music could be jam packed into a small span of time (check out my favourite act of the finals Trentino among others). Following the inspiration taken from the RB3Style DJ World Championships and armed with the warm feeling from some of my favourite instruments (the steel drum, chimes, bells and so forth), I slowly began creating what is now called the "Summæry Steel Drum Special" invoking both the summer I most desired and the idea of a summary (year in review) mix.

As is the case with a free Soundcloud account, 2 hours is always my target length for a mixtape. As was also the case with RB3Style there were often audio clips strewn together so as to fashion an introduction as well as conclusion, and with all the great clips available from the infamous Rob Ford, mayor of this great city, I would have been remiss were I not to include and take advantage of our most beloved crack-smoker.

Enlightenment For Your Ears

Links to Mixes

Wednesday, November 04, 2015

Bump In The Hump: November 4 (Season 2, Episode 7)

Tuesday, November 03, 2015

Grandtheft - Quit This City EP (Review)

Friday, November 29, 2013

Summæry Steel Drum Special - Now Downloadable

Search Enlightenment For Your Ears

Total Pageviews