Author Archives: Clint Hoagland

[Electronica] Kartell – Panterra

Despite its 90s metal moniker, Kartell’s “Panterra” is no speed freak.  No, here Kartell starts with some atmospheric filter house, cuts it up with some nifty fidgets, and then slows it down.  Way down.  94 BPM!  The resulting slow mash is what I’d expect to hear while drinking the finest gin with The Most Interesting Man In The World.  “Pantera” is an enveloping swirl that reminds you to dress up when you go out.

Incidentally, Kartell’s Soundcloud page graciously allows downloading of this and several other tracks, at least for the time being.

Kartell – Panterra

’Kartell – Panterra’
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[Electro] Punks Jump Up – Blockhead (Hey Today! Remix)

Hey Today!‘s remix of “Blockhead” wisely keeps things focused on the Punks Jump Up original’s arcade racecar hook (“prepare to qualify!”).  Instead of adding extra material to their remix, Hey Today! creates a different kind of dancefloor sensation by dropping beats from almost every bar, turning every 4th beat into a little hook that literally forces me to do a little head-tilt every time (followed by a quick glance around to see if any of my coworkers are noticing this new tic I’ve got).

It’s a subtle difference but it adds a whole new layer of fun to an already great track.

Punks Jump Up – Blockhead (Hey Today! Remix)

’Punks Jump Up – Blockhead (Hey Today! Remix)’

Previously: Boys Noize – Nerve (Hey Today Remix)

’Nerve (Hey Today Remix).mp3′
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[Electronic] Christoph Andersson – Metropol

Louisiana wunderkind Christoph Andersson returns with “Metropol,” a slinky house number that slides on (and slips off) like a silk kimono.  Andersson’s resampled vocals create a formant-shifted choir around a rubbery funk  bassline, while an Eastern-flavored synth line rings out like a koto above it all, as if New Order had been remixing songs off of The Cure’s Japanese Whispers.  JAPANESE WHISPERS CAME OUT TEN YEARS BEFORE CHRISTOPH ANDERSSON WAS BORN.

An engaging and polished track, “Metropol” went instantly into my own personal playlist.

Christoph Andersson – Metropol

’Christoph Andersson – Metropol’
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[Experimental] Salva – Wake Ups

San Fransisco producer Salva injects some desperately welcome sultriness into “Wake Ups,” a wobbly half-time creeper from his upcoming album Complex Housing. Reminiscent of Jimmy Edgar’s records on Warp, the track’s whooshing filters frame lush extended chords, hanging above a stop/start bed of retriggered beats and robotic basses. To coin a phrase, it’s swanky sexbot music.

Salva – Wake Ups

’Salva – Wake Ups’
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[Electronic] The Toxic Avenger – ANGST:ONE (Black Strobe Remix)

On “ANGST:ONE”, Paris’s Black Strobe take The Toxic Avenger‘s relatively straightforward original into a very different place. By resampling the original’s piano backing and forcing it to follow a bionic bassline all over the chromatic map, they’ve created a wholly new track. It zooms away from electro house and shoots past electroclash into the kind of unblinking funky weirdness I’d expect to encounter on an Ersatz Audio compilation. It’s definitely not boring.

I just wish it were longer.

The Toxic Avenger – ANGST:ONE (Black Strobe Remix)

’The Toxic Avenger – ANGST:ONE (Black Strobe Remix)’
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[Dubstep] Deadmau5 and Wolfgang Gartner – Animal Rights (Dylan Sanders Re-Blast)

This remix (ahem: “Re-Blast”) starts things out straitlaced, the intro letting everybody know what’s coming, and then it turns those expectations on their head with a wobble so big it will crush your bones to make its bread. Just enough of the original track is preserved to keep things a little funky, and thankfully it doesn’t go overboard with the rhythmic surprises. It’s impossible to listen to this track without visualizing huge columns of air vibrating in front of giant speakers.

Deadmau5 and Wolfgang Gartner – Animal Rights (Dylan Sanders Re-Blast)

’Deadmau5 and Wolfgang Gartner – Animal Rights (Dylan Sanders Re
Blast).mp3′
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[Electro] Pendulum – The Island (Steve Angello, AN21 & Max Vangeli Remix)

Remixers have a lot of options. They can add extra stuff to a song: by adding instruments; by making the track longer; by adding stutter effects… but a lot of times the best way to add to a track is by cutting stuff away. This remix of Pendulum‘s trancey “The Island Pt.I (Dawn)” (not to be confused with Pendulum’s electro freakout “The Island Pt. II (Dusk)”) demonstrates the virtues of addition-by-subtraction. Paradoxically, the remix is a more exciting listen despite the fact there’s a lot less in it.

Here, San Francisco-based DJ/producer Max Vangeli teams up with Steve Angello and AN21 (both of Swedish House Mafia fame) and improves the track dramatically by cutting away all the nonessentials.
The remix takes a goosebump-inducing left turn into silence at the drop, announcing its intentions to make the synth the centerpiece. Pendulum’s more meandering verse-chorus-verse structure is discarded in favor of a more economical (or should I say obsessive?) repetition of the song’s synth hook and a snippet of vocals. Add in a few subtle electro-flavored production touches (a glitchier opening hook, more pumping against the kick), and the whole thing just seems… tighter. More purposeful.

Pendulum – The Island (Steve Angello, AN21 & Max Vangeli Remix)

’Pendulum – The Island (Steve Angello, AN21 & Max Vangeli Remix)’
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