Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry K'mas



Here's a Christmas mix I did for the place & entity I spend most my days at; what people would usually call making a living. Leaning more towards the fun-gimme-the-sunshine kind - well it's the festive season after all - with less beats & bass and more guitar janglings & sing-alongs. So have a Merry Christmas!


Max Lane's K'mas Mix


K'mas Tracklist
01. The Stoned Revivals - The New Way
02. Ex-Otago - The Rhythm of the Night
03. Panda Riot - Paper Planes
04. Ra Ra Riot - Can You Tell
05. Stars - This Charming Man
06. Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance
07. Yppah - Again with the Subtitles
08. The Go! Team - Doing It Right
09. Jahcoozi - Flatline (ddpesh Remix)
10. Radiohead - Reckoner (LoveTongueAttack Bmore Remix)
11. MGMT vs Soulwax vs Yeah Yeah Yeahs vs Peaches - Fuck the Kids
12. Tegan & Sara - Back in Your Head (Stop Die Resuscitate Remix)
13. Alias - Well Water Black

Thursday, December 11, 2008

The Year That Flew

Well since a friend requested for a Top 10 release list of 2008 via e-mail from across the globe, I guess I should run it here as well. Before I go into that and to recap for this year that just flew; bass is getting heavier & world music is rampaging on a twisted path.

Thanks to Mary-Anne Hobbes, the ever-rising post-rave-neu-bass kids like Benga, Skream & Burial plus dubstep remixes of relatively more commercial stuffs such as Ian Brown & Sia, low end frequencies are just getting louder and heavier. Who needs snares & hats anymore?! They just occupy too much aural space for the bass to rumble! And as I experienced the Kode9 gig first-hand here last March (yes, where I am, we are deprived like that), it's definitely a physical experience. So if Kanye is now into 808 & synth-stabs, lets hope Timbaland cranks into dubstep.

In the post baile funk & M.I.A. era (there are rumours of her quitting), world music seems to be taking a new route and shedding a lot of the oh-so-simplified-&-sanitized WOMAD baggage. We have the Angolan Kuduro sound spreading like wildfire on the dancefloors fueled by Buraka Som Sistema. 'Township Funk' by DJ Mujava is definitely one of 2008's anthem. Still around that region and my favourite discovery this year, we have South African art-rockers BLK JKS. And who would have thought of putting punk aesthetics and middle-eastern beats together; Rainbow Arabia. Matt Shadetek however has some words of precaution over this new 'underground' craze/rave/wave of global sounds; Babel (Dancing in Tongues). Music-makers, please do have a read.

Ok, enough of me ranting. Let's go into the Top 10:

1. Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
The return of quality glitch beats.


2. Santogold - Santogold
Move over M.I.A.


3. The Bug - London Zoo
Simply subliminal.


4. Portishead - Third
The great English comeback.


5. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Attack of the electro hippies.


6. Alias - Resurgam
Trigger (pad) happy.


7. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
Sweet Swede.


8. Black Kids - Partie Traumatic
I'm still not convinced they are from Jacksonville, Florida.


9. Benga - Diary of An Afro Warrior
Bass, bass, bass.


10. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
No better name, both band & album.



One last note and rounding up upp/circular this year; myself, Screwface & MC Masterpiece from Pushin'On & Lion City Orchestra are currently attempting to have a go at 2 tracks and we hope to release this new collaboration sometime around the New Year. So watch out for that.