Friday, August 31, 2012

Dirtybird BBQ Trax

Barclay Crenshaw aka Claude VonStroke's label is on fire these days. With the success of Justin Martin's album, Ghettos & Gardens http://jackhadagroove.blogspot.ca/2012/04/buzz-buzz-bzzz-justin-martin-ghettos.html, the label has been gaining momentum and spearheading the San Fran bass heavy sound, creating a refreshing take on dance music that sets itself apart.
The label has released an EP called BBQ Trax. The Dirtybird crew is notorious for holding summertime parties that involve a BBQ and spinning tracks, so the title is pretty much self explanatory.


The standout track for me comes from 19 year old Justin Jay. Take a listen to the track in its entirety by clicking this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvkGEd0Al-k&feature=channel&list=UL

I'm pretty excited because Justin Martin and Claude VonStroke are coming to Montreal. Hopefully I will get to catch them!

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Duke Dumont - The Giver

Talk about a buzz! First, it was Brodinski singing its praises. Then it was the label boss Tiga. Finally, a month later, I finally tracked down this much anticipated track!
When I first heard Huxley's Let it Go http://jackhadagroove.blogspot.ca/2012/04/huxley-let-it-go.html, what stood out was that the vocals were so sultry. Same thing goes for Duke Dumont's latest "The Giver." The track goes like this: "you're that special someone who makes me want to give it." Whoa whoa whoa! What are we talking about here?! Hot hot hot!
The Giver comes off Dumont's (real name Adam Dyment) latest offering to Turbo Recordings. His first instalment, For Club Play Only Vol.1 http://jackhadagroove.blogspot.ca/2012/05/sinden-keep-it-1000-duke-dumont-remix.html was definitely a little harder, but equal in its top class quality. Vol.2 consists of "The Giver" and "No Money Blues" which features UK band Extra Curricular.
If you go to the Turbo Recordings Soundcloud, they describe The Giver as "an ecstatic vocal house anthem that would fit seamlessly alongside the most uplifting MURK classics." 
I've seen Turbo head Tiga tweeting about MURK recently, so I'm not surprised they are referenced here. But when I think MURK, I think of soulful female vocals or bass thumping accompanied by hard male vocals. The Giver is a bit more subdued for me. Not sure why but it reminds me of this track from the 90s:
I think it has to do with the male vocals....I dunno! Anyway, enjoy The Giver. Its going to be a big one!

Side note: This is so irrelevant, but is Duke Dumont half Asian? Cause he looks half Asian...I can't tell and its bothering me!

Twitter squabbles: SHM vs Hardwell

Hello!
Its been a minute since I last blogged. I've missed the probably 2 people that read my blog ;)
Today I noticed a small tiff between two of SHM's members, Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso, and Dutch producer Hardwell, which prompted me to return!
Watch:

So where did this all come from?  After a bit of googling, I noticed that Hardwell made a bootleg called "Show One Love." I'm assuming that he had a post to obtain likes to get a free download of a mash-up of SHM tracks, which in essence are just their music mixed by someone else. What is strange is that the bootleg is from at least a year ago, so not sure how only now it is getting attention from the Swedes.

Haha to Eric Prydz for trying to make light of the matter, and kudos to Steve for staying out of this one. I'm glad they accepted Hardwell's apology, although I don't know why 1) they would even take this issue to social media, especially after "SneakGate" 2) Why Hardwell would apologize then make a back-handed comment that its "all about the love for music" 3) Why Axwell would respond, further escalating a minor disagreement that could have been done through private messaging.

A lot of people have taken to Twitter to criticize the SHM guys because they interpret it as them wanting to protect their music from being given out for free instead of making money off of it. I can understand the guys point of view. When a small time, relatively unknown producer makes a bootleg, chances are the distribution of it won't be that extensive. But Hardwell is a pretty mainstream act, and the bootleg literally was made to capitalize on others' music, not his own production. And I think Axwell's point was that it was like "whoring" out music for the sake of social media visibility that is what did not sit well with him. Bah, another day, another EDM drama...

Speaking of "SneakGate" I saw Angello respond to a Twitter user about a recent comment Sneak made about him, which I thought was pretty funny!
 After the Twitter user showed Angello the comment:

Haha "he has a crush on me!" I mean, it would seem so, wouldn't it? Only because Angello was the most vocal when Sneak spoke ill about SHM did Sneak make it his personal vendetta against Angello. And the obsession is so strange, a crush could be the only explanation ;)
But really, Angello has been using his Mescal Kid moniker long before the Sneak-SHM tweet-off.
Maybe one day Sneak will realize he's gained 14 000 more Twitter followers and a lot more gigs as a result of his razor sharp tongue and focus on all the good that has come his way.
Or maybe he'll continue the madness to see how far it takes him...

Update 31/08/12:

Haha at Diplo weighing in. He's one of the busiest people in dance music these days, and yet has the time to somehow see a minor Twitter row play out. Funny stuff!

Man, this thing is being blown out of proportion!
I think Kaskade likes to get involved! Which is fine, but he does not address that Ax & Seb didn't approve it nor did they like how it was being used as part of a social media gimmick.
 Remember Sandstorm? Darude wanted to weigh in, and I have to agree with what he said.
I've seen Laidback Luke, who I still think is one of the nicest industry guys, agree with those who don't with SHM. I wonder if there was ever a falling out, or he actually is someone of integrity that will call out people when he genuinely thinks its right. If the latter, then I have even more respect for the guy!
Oh dear, Hardwell feeling the need to defend himself again. What I don't understand is that his music probably appeals to the same audience as SHM, so why not give a mash-up of, for example, Cobra and Spaceman? In that respect, what Kaskade said about using one of his tracks for a mash-up is what I think would be the legit thing to do as well.
Oh Zedd...


Chocolate Puma are not that mainstream and I don't understand why. I see that they are being facetious by referencing Steve Angello's edit on "Show Me Love" which really contributed to his success, but I think its true, if you're gonna do a bootleg, mash-up, edit, whatever, do it with an unknown artist and do it big! Don't take already mainstream acts and try to ride their coat tails.

I hope Steve stays quiet throughout this one.

Update 20/09/2012: Kaskade still feels the need to weigh in and posted about it in his blog: http://thisisadynasty.tumblr.com/post/31761554999/politicking