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After 14 Years Cat’angelo Dropped His New Album. The Vanguard : Cat Messiah

December 20, 2014

“If y’all need to get at me, too bad… I can’t hear you over this #BlackMessiah”
– Justin Timberlake

headphones chromemusic

There would be so much to write about this album right now and so much to say since it dropped this monday, but i will only post a couple of quotes and tweets to undermine how important this album really is. We had all these constant remixes of past soul music, then the neverending emergence of “new club music” (duh) in the form of bmore, twerk, trap, baile funk, future bass  but besides of a few genuine inventors it has always been a trainwreck filled with copycats. And when you get to originals there are only a few that stand the test of time. One of these is and always has been D’angelo who single handedly changed the game a few times. Everywhere you look for the next couple of days/weeks it will be like Everyone Is Freaking Out About D’Angelo’s New Album, Black Messiah and rightfully so… This is probably the only album worth getting on vinyl and that’s saying somehting. Ps it goes hand in hand with my classical Marvin, Bob, Donnie, Minnie, Prince records and, and, and…  And besides all the excitement surroinding this album, it wouldn’t even be a brilliant album in a perfect world, but the mainstream music has gotten so bad, i mean SO BAD that even this album in comparison appears to be a stroek of genius and it definitely isn’t his best one. But in all fairness D’angelo own this whole segment that was once called neo-soul and we are all glad to finally have an album in that vein. Good solid music with a bit of a dark touch.

Pretty much the way Quest said it in a 2003 interview:

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From his Twitter Feed

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Here is the Soundcloud player that has to be attached to every blogpost even though you are limited to the music that’s up on Soundcloud, and there is a lot missing…

Follow the man: D’angelo ist still relatively new on Twitter – Soundcloud — & on his facebook

So i’mma keep it like it used to be in the mid 2000’s when the real music discovery took places via the then new blogosphere and people were posting new material, new formats and different media players all the time – just to make sure their handful of readers would get the best possible music they could dig up. And now everythings being spoonfed via Soundcloud. I guess music died the easy way, death by simplifiction (iciocarcy larping). I guess if it’s not on bloody Soundcloud we do not post it and the monkey gets his gratification in the form of grapes and bananas, just like the blogger gets his shares and his social high fives – or even a few bucks by some tech savy online promoters ‘breaking’ their artists. Nope, i have to convince you to get this album, so here are a few of the most brilliant tracks found on D’angelos The Vanguard & the Black Messiah.

Cat’angelo : Cat To The Future

Cat’angelo : The Door (aka Catflap)

Cat’angelo : Ain’t that Easy (The Kitten Mitten Song)

Go get it here:

iTunes: http://smarturl.it/BlackMessiahIT?IQi…
Amazon Music: http://smarturl.it/blackmessiahamazon…
Spotify: http://smarturl.it/BlackMessiahSp?IQi…

James Bay “Let It Go” (Boehm Tropical Remix)

December 18, 2014

Well as we all know the tropical sound is here. As the musical blogosphere has come to make you believe it’s everywhere around you…  and according to club nights, dj sets, radio shows or simply mainstream media i would have to disagree even with Kygo’s first self-produced song topping the iTunes charts. But there is one thing certain and that while the tropical sound is creating a fresh young scene by and for itself it is certainly nowhere near its peak, since besides the obvious pop remixes it has not gone mainstream, in the traditional sense. So with new producers being bred every minute of the waking hour, especially in Scandinavia, it has been picked up by other folks. One of those mentioned is the much praised Leex , hailing out of germany, who by now has become a close friend of ChromeMusic and another one is a man called Boehm (don’t even try to spell it – i figured i was dead wrong after talking to him) from the eastern part of europe. Would you believe Romania?!?  His productions are on point, and he brings a certain linear dance floor aesthetic to the table which is more dance friendly than most other tropical producers. I sincerely like his reworks – especially this one by James Bay, even though it’s been around for almost a month, i figured people need to know about it. One of those tunes that’s making your life as a deejay a lot easier, since it’s playable to every crowd, except the hardcore ones -but that’ s a minority i always despised ‘catering’ to since i do not like to live my life or play my sets by certain distinctive dogmatic, narrow-minded rules. That’s what i truly like about the whole tropical thing, the remix literally everything, from the crooniest singer songwriter to some hardcore rap acapellas to some long forgotten gems or even the cheesiest of pop tunes. They just throw it in the blender and add their little special sauce on top to fit their needs.

I agree with everything Boehm remixed even though, some like Snoop have literally been ‘mixed to death’ and i simply cannot take them in any form or fashion. You see every time a new trend pops up like Baltimore, trap, dubstep, melodic house, the chill wave movement, future bass or whatever else comes to mind there are a handful of tunes that get reworked – Snoop is one of those. Just a hint for producers everywhere. Go on Soundcloud or the Hypemachine and check for remixes. The most indexed ones throughout the years should be your red flags – don’t work on those. Take long forgotten jams that people used to love and make these work with your new way of reworking them. If you scroll down Boehms Soundcloud you will also notice there is a remix of Maroon 5 which is of course cringeworthy, and even though, to me their are on the same rick rolling side of life as Nickelbag is, he somehow made it work. And i guess w/o Maroon 5 and Snoop his followers would be twice as many as his current count. But seriously, work out those flaws, the remix material and the image selection or even the symbolism the images transport, which is the gateway drug of music consumption these days, and you have a rock solid producer whose tracks stand and work on their own… and there are not many who can claim that for themselves in this day of symbolism and imagery.

Follow Boehm on Soundcloud ::: Facebook :::

People Should Know About Lisa Mitchell

December 1, 2014

 Feed the fertile ground where the flowers are blooming!

lisa mitchell chromemusic

I have known about Lisa Mitchell for some time now and I thoroughly enjoy her songs. Some are too “folky” for me but in general she strikes the right chords. She has a few outstanding tunes that have been part of my playlists for the longest. Her 2006 release that never blew up… anyone? N0? A good solid remix would help, indie/folk/singer songwriters know about the power of the remix but most of the time they go for their new material or some lame assigned remix suggested by some A&R who can’t tell meat from fish and will probably hand over his seat to the next temp in a few months time.

lisa mitchell chromemusic

Anyways, artists these days are scared to remix old tunes in order to promote their new music, since their management tells them that they don’t want to be known for that one song and be reduced to that. They all heard about Asaf Avidan & fellow Australian Emma Louise … Yeah two examples of that sort of thing, but in rad contrast what about the countless others who received a serious bump and boost because of that kind of remix? Thus making them more known or simply blowing up their recognition and getting people interested in the artist in the first place and all of a sudden packing up their live shows and coping their music. Just to drop a few cool names… what about Bon Iver, Daughter, Of Monsters and Men, Woodkid, Sufjan Stevens and so on.. I could go on for at least another 50 names of some of the darlings of the webs that come to mind right now. I am by no means an advocate for remixing everything, but that’s how people outside of Australia and the BBC territory found out about Lisa Mitchell in recent times.

Time to reshape that business model in the mind of the management. And time to drop 1 or 2 remixes to open her up to a bigger audience, and it doesn’t matter if you agree with remixes in general or not – I for one still do not agree with CDs – it is just a fucking necessity, just like CDs used to be. Bob said: The times, they are a changing. Change with them or perish. Just on a side note: Even one of the guys in charge of Warner Germany didn’t know about her, before he got told her new album is about to drop. He just has too many artists handed to him every single day. It’s too much information for anyone except maybe the kids that grew up on the top part of the information pyramid that has split even the smallest social entities in two. Ps look up the digital divide on Wikipedia. [no link!] LMGTFY

Drop that remix that I am talking about, the one that’s being handed from Dj to Dj, Warner Records knows which one, and then she will have people at least knowing about her and they maybe will go looking for her. I guess it’ll even be a huge success!  That’s how music in this day and age of overflow and cognitive surplus works, the artist needs to exist first, be associated with something that’s familiar, or why would you does a show calls “like a version” exist or why would you pick an artist out of a sea of names you haven’t heard of? I don’t have time for suggestions or ads or anything at all with my smart phone keeping me busy with all kinds of unnecessary stuff, so why ‘waste’ my time with stuff that I wont like 99% of the time. This is probably the last time I am explaining this to you guys.

Please don’t let this artist go by unnoticed just bc you are dealing/thinking in old patterns. And don’t give me that – that’s the old label structure that i am caught up in, or “hooray we are on soundcloud“, or better “we’ll soon own soundcloud“ shit. Just like any other service it’ll become meaningless if all involved parties don’t find a way to monetize it while still being able to offer the entire palette. I guess some smart label pantsies are thinking about that right now, but it won’t work w/o the other labels (all other labels). Aaaand Ps blogs do not need soundcloud. You need us.

The Love You’re Given By Jack Garratt

November 24, 2014

bruce - can you teach me how to fight?

This guy’s taking over the airwaves, internets, all series of tubes and so forth pretty much like the show Gotham is doing (hence the gif, besides Alfred showing young master Wayne a whole lot of love). Being picked to open up Ben Howards new tour pretty much is an equivalent of being knighted, so check out Garret and you’ll see what i mean.

We Are Sure Glad Our Buddy Wolfskind Finished His Song: “Build You A Castle”

November 24, 2014

angry hamster

This hit us like a german Blitz… and those are notorious for being efficiently harmful. Sorry just picking up on the many lines my british folks are constantly mocking us with. Damn, i though these days were over ;) Anyways, here is Wolfskind, a friend of our family & clique (suggested by Lakechild!) and besides having already put out a considerable and definitely noteworthy amount of quality releases via his Soundcloud, i think it’s safe to say that his original tune (meaning it’s not sample based) is by far his best work to date. Not to lessen his previous efforts, but sincerely how many of the Remixer-turned-producer Soundcloud-celebrities have a good solo offering that doesn’t rip another song? Yep, in case you didn’t know, my sarcasm possibly made you guess it… It’s pretty much tends to < 5% (a rough but still friendly estimate). Wolfskind aka Lucas is now my prime example for a prominent 5%er (besides the Wyclef Jean and the Poor Righteous Reachers :). “Build you a castle” will stick with you and if that’s a glimpse of what’s to come – i for one salute this young man!In his own words the production of this tune must have been quite the journey: “I have started this track 4-5 months ago, I don’t really remember, but I hated it when it was finished… 1-2 months ago I was so sad that I didn’t finish it… so I reworked everything and this came out. I give it away for free as always and I would love to get your support!”. In the immortal words of the prophetic J.Geils band “Love stinks!” And those who like to play that game are mentally challenged to say the least and possessed by roleplaying entities. I am so glad Wolfskind is over that phase and we can set sail for new shores. Looking forward to more material.

So go grab this free download, released a mere 8h ago,  and in case i forgot to mention: “NO WOLVES WERE HARMED IN THE PRODUCTION OF THIS SONG.”