What a relief it is to have a group like Holy Ghost, DFA Records‘ newest hit producers/remixers.  For me, it is great to hear this new trend is dance music heading back to it’s roots of upbeat, fun disco/house, instead of distorted, heavy, overbearing, electro/house.  We are still waiting for their full-length debut, but Holy Ghost have kept us interested by remixing tracks in their image at a fanatical pace. So, as a special treat, today we have not one but two of their recent standout remixes. Enjoy. 

MGMT-Of Birds, Moons, and Monsters (Holy Ghost! Remix)

Curses!-The Deep End (Holy Ghost! Remix)

I am extrememly excited to share the news that a serious taste of Philly is going to make it down to the WMC this year… in the form of a sunday afternoon pool party featuring legends of the Philly scene as well as some up and coming dj’s and producers.  And best of all, its FREE! 

Sunday March 29th

Featuring: King Britt, Rich Medina, Oscar P, Jay J, Nickodemus, Sat One, Cash Money, residents Lee Jones and DJ Dirty, Micha on Violin, Master Jay on percussion 

The South Seas-1751 Collins Avenue  11:00 AM - 10:00 PM 

And if that wasn’t enough to get you excited… 2020Vision and Oslo Records will be throwing down their annual WMC party, “Synchronize,” the night before at the Electric Pickle.  This event will go all night from 9-5am, and feature all the all-stars from their respective lineups.  Come and check the cutting edge of sounds of house music with Johnny D, 2020 Soundsystem, Ralph Lawson, Jamie Jones, Burnski, Moodymanc, and more!

Saturday, March 28th

Electric Pickle-2826 N Miami Ave, Miami, FL

Continuing with my research into the best neo-soul/hip-hop of the last two decades, I found this dope track from singer Joss Stone, featuring Lauryn Hill.  It is a straight hip hop beat, complete with timely scratches and motown style soul instrumentation, with Stone and Hill dropping verses about their complicated relationship with music. Special thanks to Cosmo Baker of The Rub, who put this track on his Raphael Saadiq mixtape. (Saadiq produced the track)  

Joss Stone (with Lauryn Hill)- Music

Here are some excerpts from two articles about the future of the music business; one from marketing genius Seth Godin, the other is a write-up about the lack of uncertainty regarding a concrete deal for streaming internet radio. (especially sites like last.fm, or pandora, who make money from advertising revenues)  Without a plan to compensate artists and labels, the future looks grim for internet radio, which is now being freed from your computer and headed to your phone.  We are all the dj. We are all the programming director of our own radio station. What’s next?

Digital is about to surpass the CD, and once it starts to happen it’s going to happen faster and faster and faster. The more interesting thing to me is who is going to control the playlist. If there is an infinite amount of music available – and I would argue that as soon as the amount of music available exceeds the amount of time you have in your life, that’s infinite – somebody will have the leverageable spot of deciding what to listen to next. And it’s unclear whether someone will charge to tell me that or will pay to tell me that. It’s still up for grabs in every one of these vertical silos. Who are the tastemakers and how do these ideas spread?  (Read the rest of this interview with Seth Godin here)

“The disagreement is over the per-song fee, set to increase to 0.19 cents a song next year, that the Copyright Royalty Board has mandated that the Web sites must pay. The Web sites have argued that the rate would put them out of business. Instead of a per-song fee, many have argued, they should pay record labels a percentage of their revenue each year.” (Read on here)

Well, this week has been marked by a long, steady binge of New-Rave/Electro Pop/Blog House sounds for me… and even though Crystal Castles are probably old news to some of you, this track has been slaying me. It is something of an anomaly in the dance music world to hear a song that touches somewhere so much deeper, darker, so much more emotional.  I looked around online to find out more, only to find out that the members of Crystal Castles are themselves not into dance music.  Hmmm..

“Which brings us to the biggest Crystal Castles contradiction: they make music for dance clubs but don’t actually like dance music. They see themselves as a punk band that happens to use synths, but you’d swear some moments on the record are gritty underground house music from the early days of Chicago. To add to the strangeness, Crystal Castles have had considerable critical success crafting dance remixes for other indie bands, the last thing you expect from a pair you’d have a hard time dragging to an actual dance club.”

Check the full interview here for some more insight… 

And listen to “Vanished” right Here. 

Much love to Okay Player for posting this track yesterday. This is from Canadian-Somali hip hop artists K’naan, who is about to drop a new disc next week… 

“7 more days until K’Naan‘s album Troubadour hits the shelves. I’ve heard more than a few cuts from K, but none have impressed me more than this track, “America.” The Dusty Foot Philosopher brings Mos Def and Chali 2na along to say some words on the U. S. of A.”

K’naan (w/Mos Def and Chali 2na)- America

Check this track from downtempo masters Tosca.  Long after the glory days of this genre have passed, Tosca continues to give up their brand of dubbed out, sparse, deep soundscapes.  Also, they are planning a stop at the 2009 Winter Music Conference.  This will probably be the first post of many chronicling the myriad of events surrounding this year’s conference. 

“Tosca, the Vienna-based duo of Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber, is back with a new album, No Hassle, to be released this spring—and the guys will be stopping by Remix Hotel Miami for an exclusive Q&A about the production behind the record.”

“Tosca’s Remix Hotel artist session happens Friday, March 27 at 2 p.m.This will be Dorfmeister and Huber’s only stop in Miami during the WMC madness, so make your plans to attend now!”

Tosca- My First

Mmmm… you know what time it is. Valentine’s Day. Awww yeahh…. Business Time. Take some time of your time this Valentine’s day with this mix from The Rub’s Cosmo Baker.  Featuring the likes of the Delphonics, Aretha, Stevie, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, the Isley Brothers… mmmm…. you get the idea. Get it here.

“Here’s a mix that I did for Valentines Day. It’s pretty much just songs, no fancy tricks and minimal mixing, but it’s 2 and a half hours of some of my favorite love songs. This one is dedicated, as everything else I do is, to my wonderful wife whom I love very much. I’m thankful to have the life I have with her, so this one is for you babe. But I hope you all enjoy it as well… once again, hope y’all make some babies!”

After reading recently about Puff Daddy calling out producers, hip hop artists and Dj’s who “don’t expose you to the newness,” and get caught in their comfort zone.  He called out Q-Tip as being the best in the game. All opinions about Puff Daddy aside, the man does have a point. And more importantly, who knew Q tip was a dj?

So, I scoured the internet looking for a recording of his sets, and could only find this. It is an officially sanctioned mixtape from Tip and J. Period.  Also, as soon as I get back to the northeast I am headed to Santos Party House in NYC, where Q-Tip spins alongside Philly favorite Rich Medina.

Exciting announcements from our Philadelphia role models (heroes?) at Ropeadope Industries.

"Over the years we’ve worked with dozens of artists and designers that have helped us craft and create our (now) famous line of t-shirts. Now we are turning creative control over to (drum roll please) – YOU. So here’s the call out to all the designers of the world – hit us with your best shot, that one ill design in your portfolio that needs time to shine. We’ll put out two new designs per month, cooked up fresh by you, or you or you. Send your ideas to Words to be considered."

And… if that wasn’t enough…

"Announcing the Ropeadope BUY ONE GIVE ONE deal – for every shirt that we sell in our store we’ll give a shirt to charity. So, if you’ve had your eye on a Ropeadope tee now is the time to heed the call and help out"