Recently, I’ve been taking lots of long walks. Podcasts are usually a great companion, but when you’re trying to lose yourself in thought, radio host chatter acts like a firewall. It’s pretty difficult, once you’ve been pulled back into reality after poking around in the deepest recesses of your brain, to find your way back to where you went astray in the first place. It’s sort of like waking up before getting to the really good part of a naughty dream: you struggle with going back to sleep, but you’re too focused on your fun bits, you forget what he or she looks like and you end up solving the Syrian crisis by feeding homemade grape Jell-O to beloved singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett instead. The point is, I rather listen to straight tunes relatively devoid of speech that aid in entrancing than Podcasts. Enter the mix compilation, a brilliant form of LP which has the artists sift through the bad music for you, compile the gems that are left and organize those into a mix that sends the listener on a voyage through his/her grey matter. Here are a few of the tracks from mix compilations that have enamored me the most over the past years.

     Featured on the 3rd installement of Anjunadeep’s yearly compilation, all attention was directed towards the heavyweights’ productions: Stephen J. Kroos’s “Micrsh,” Martin Roth’s “Deep Style” and Maro Levi’s “Devotion.” But when you first pressed play on Electrobios, Liluca and Interplay’s “Depends On You,” the wayward support synths and bold bassline hooks let you know it was something more than the veterans had done.

Electrobios & Liluca ft. Interplay – Depends On You (Original Mix)

Beatport – iTunes

Released through Anjunadeep on October 25th, 2011

     Today, when I sat in front of my computer to finish this post, the area in which I live was hit with a power outage. Everything before this was already written so even if I hadn’t provided this information, you’d still have ease in distinguishing the difference in quality between all previous and the rest. What I’m trying to say is I’d like to stick to our schedule and get this post out to you on Thursday, so the rest of this is scribbled down somewhat hastily. Feel free to ignore the weakness of the script and turn you focus to the music, which is what I’m sure most of you do anyways, in which case, HERE’S ANOTHER BLOCK OF TEXT IN CAPITAL LETTERS THAT’S YOUR NOT GOING TO READ.

     One of the strongest exclusives featured on Sied van Riel’s Rielism compilation from two years ago, here’s the tyDi remix that propelled the Australian DJ/producer to the next level.

BT ft. JES – The Light In Things (tyDi Remix)

Beatport – iTunes

Released through Black Hole Recordings on May 9th, 2011

     One of my first everlasting loves in electronic music was this track from the 8th volume of Anjunabeats’s yearly compilation, a truly amazing straddling of the line between trance and progressive.

Boom Jinx & Andrew Bayer – Keyboard Cowboys (Original Mix)

Beatport – iTunes

Released though Anjunabeats on July 19, 2010

     I didn’t even listen to this kind of music back in 2006. I simply figured that since they’re known as two of the greatest mix compilation-ers, I should probably include a track from both John Digweed and Sasha. First up is Digweed and to my surprise, I found one of my all-time favorite uncategorizables on the first of his Renaissance compilations: “On Spec” by Knights of Columbus.

On Spec – Knights Of Columbus (Original Mix)

Beatport – iTunes

Released though Renaissance on June 5th, 2006

      This track is from the most recent edition of Sasha’s Involv3r series. Everyone has already heard of his Ultraista, Little Dragon and The XX remixes, so I thought I’d include one of my favorites from the non-obvious bunch. Here’s his Involv3r remix of his own “Shoot You Down” with vocalist Kicki Halmos.

Sasha ft. Kicki Halmos – Shoot You Down (Sasha Invovl3r Remix)

Beatport – iTunes

Released through Ministry of Sound on March 17th, 2013

Here’s wishing you a happy what’s left of Independence Day and a great weekend!

Only a few weeks ago, my friends all started getting into the card game known as Magic, The Gathering. Although I was reluctant to join them, I ended up giving into the peer pressure, mainly due to the ample quantity of games being played while we all hung out, consequently leaving me playing with my thumbs for the entirety of a weeknight. Yay. Furthermore, when I have nothing to do, I tend to ramp up my cancer stick intake. In other words, not playing Magic was bad for my health. The day following the aforementioned epiphany, I drove over to a card store nearby in order to purchase an intro pack. Should I mention that intro packs include two booster packs? I most definitely should, because as a child, booster packs were the height of my day. The rush of the unknown 15 cards held in those magical plastic sleeves, one of which might be a mythic rare that would cost over 50 dollars in itself, was stuff of dreams to me many years ago. Point being, you could imagine my frustration when my booster packs yielded nothing but commons and a few rare cards. Oh well, at least I got to relive my childhood.

     Last time I took a shot at predicting the outcome of a sporting event, I was incredibly wrong. How can someone be incredibly wrong? Aren’t you either right or wrong? Is there such a thing as degrees of wrongness? When I wrote that the Habs would defeat the Senators in 7 games, not only had the Canadiens lost 2 in a row, they were losing at the end of the first period and were on the brink of elimination. In order to better focus on completing that Thursday’s post, I installed a media blackout: I turned off my phone, I disconnected from Internet and I let my family know not to disturb me with any news from the game. When I finally completed my work and uploaded those hopeful writings to the website, we were losing by 4 and were virtually out of the playoffs. Did Lars Eller make a miraculous recovery like I had postulated? No. Did he teabag Eric Gryba at center ice and score a triple hat trick? No way, Jose. Did Montreal defeat Ottawa in 7 games? Not even a little bit.

     The reason I am writing this is that tonight is the final game of the 2013 NBA Championship. While I don’t have an emotional stake in this game, I do have a small financial one. I’m rooting for the Spurs, so please do so for the Heat, as my prediction will certainly turn out to be false and the Heat will win. It seems a bit silly now, but I wrote all that just so that there would be a tie-in to this week’s theme, which is pairs: two songs from a single artist or from a single release. Bla bla bla, on with the music.

     Today’s first subject is a couple from a recent release on Kraftek entitled “Pleasurekraft presents: Kraftek Villains Vol. 1.” The first track comes from Canadian trio Return of the Jaded whose first professional output meshes elements of deep and tech house, resulting in a distinct sound and fitting well with Kraftek’s thinking outside-the-box image.

Return of the Jaded – Lolita (Original Mix)

Beatport – Amazon

Released through Kraftek on May 20th, 2013

Return of the Jaded - Lolita [Kraftek] by pleasurekraft

     The first pair of songs is caped by an edit from label boss Pleasurekraft. Sitting comfortably at number 2 on Beatport’s deep house chart is their latest rework, a piece of music whose dark instrumental seems at odds with it’s title and lyrics. The duo’s binational background is at work, as the influences from both Swedish and American house scenes sound great side by side.

Josh Butler – Got A Feeling (Bontan Remix) [Pleasurekraft Edit]

Beatport – Amazon

Released through Kraftek on May 20th, 2013

Josh Butler - Got A Feeling (Bontan Remix/Pleasurekraft Edit) [Kraftek] by pleasurekraft

     The next twosome comes from Raneem who is still our favorite Circus Afterhours resident. As I’ve seen written many times across many different social networking platforms, his latest trance release on High Contrast sounds a whole lot like Shogun’s “Skyfire.” In other words, the vocals are spoken, not sung. That’s the only commonality I hear. While Shogun’s epic drop may be better than Raneem’s, the Montrealer’s lead up to the climax is far superior. At the 1:39 mark, he introduces a seemingly unimportant 3-note synth that gestates for 30 seconds before taking over the track, carrying the bassline into an unexpected direction. This leads into the vocals, a soft-spoken recitation aided by sweeping synths and lovely lyrics. Then comes the peak of the tune, where the softer drop overwhelms with a relatively complex melody.

Raneem - Ray of Sunshine (Original Mix)

Beatport

Released through High Contrast Recordings on June 17th, 2013

     The 2nd Raneem track is his inclusion on “The Sound of Garuda: Chapter 3.” Like “Ray of Sunshine,” the 130BPM track “Carousel” is one you’d most likely hear him play in the beginning or at the tail-end of his sets, since Raneem reserves his peak-time for 140BPM. It seems as though for this production that Raneem slightly adapted his style to fit the compilation, as it carries more of a Garuda sound (hence the compilation title) than his usual work. Nonetheless, you can still hear his distinct touch and the tune pairs well with the other Montrealer’s production, Rob Naylor’s “Yes.”

Carousel (Original Mix)

Beaport – iTunes

Released through Garuda on May 20th, 2013

     STYLSS is a boutique electronica label based in Portland, Oregon. As you  would expect from a hipster label, they house lots of experimental electronic music, as well as songs from lesser known subgenres. Chill out, or “smooth electronica,” is the subgenre that encompasses the following tracks from San Franciscan artist Howlings, a virtuoso with vocals. First up is “Hold Me Close,” the title tune from his latest 4-track release on STYLSS. The main voice in his song plays the role of structural background synth and is so prominent that it seems to battle the bassline to see who is the true backbone of the ballad. The other vocal cuts are manipulated so that they don’t really sound like voices at all, but rather in-program instruments just like the drum and cymbals that they accompany.

Howlings – Hold Me Close (Original Mix)

FREE from BandCamp

Released though STYLSS on May 20th, 2013

Howlings - Hold Me Close (OFF OF THE "HOLD ME CLOSE" EP) *AVAILABLE NOW via STYLSS* (LINK IN DESC.) by HOWLINGS

     While still a masterful display of vocal manipulation, “Let Us Be” identifies as its leaders the piano loop and the purely digital kick drum that permeate the 2nd track from the EP. The other percussions in this track are quite bizarre: I can make out the sound of a racket making contact with a racquetball from a distance, waters droplets falling into a sink from different heights, hi-hat hits that are so tightly spaced that I’d liken them to cranking a wind-up toy car, and heavily reverberated sleigh bells. It reads weird to have all those sounds enumerated, but they are fantastic put together. All Howlings releases are free, so make sure to grab these two and check out his SoundCloud page for more goodies.

Howlings – Let Us Be (Original Mix)

FREE from BandCamp

Released though STYLSS on May 20th, 2013

Howlings - Let Us Be (OFF OFF THE "HOLD ME CLOSE" EP) *AVAILABLE NOW via STYLSS* (LINK IN DESC.) by HOWLINGS

     The amount of Disclosure we’ve been including in our recent posts is coming dangerously close to that of Eric Prydz. Regardless, the English duo recently released their debut album, “Settle,” and to call it an artistic success is an understatement. In very Prydz fashion, one of my favorites from the album straddles the line between mainstream and underground. Add to that the great voice of Eliza Doolittle and you’ve created a sure fire hit.

Disclosure ft. Elliza Doolittle – You & Me (Original Mix)

iTunes

Released through Universal Island Records on June 4th, 2013

You & Me ft. Eliza Doolittle by Disclosure

This week’s video is the 2nd track from Disclosure and in my opinion, one of the strongest tracks from “Settle.” Watch as they perform live their collaboration with Jessie Ware called “Confess To Me.”

Disclosure ft. Jessie Ware – Confess To Me (Original Mix)

iTunes

Released through Universal Island Records on June 4th, 2013

     Make sure you click those iTunes links for Disclosure and check out the rest of the album, because it’s an exceptional one. Have a great weekend and bonne St-Jean!