Soy Como Soy

A friend turned me onto this song by Viennese electronic producers, Mokossa & Megablast (featuring vocals by the amazing Cleydys Villalon), and, I haven't been able to stop listening to it since. It's also a real dancefloor pleaser. It got people acting realllllll tribal when I played it out.


Watch the video:




Makossa & Megablast - Soy Como Soy

Another amazing song by Cledys & Makossa/Megablast:

Soul Clap

I first heard about the Boston-based dj/production duo, Soul Clap, from their AMAZING edit of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams." I'm a HUGE Mac fan, and, besides providing us with probably the ONLY non-cheesy Mac edit/remix EVER, the track is actually really nice to listen to and I, for one, would love to dance to it (but I'll dance to almost anything, read below). The MIND-BLOWING part of this edit comes in at around the 5:25 mark. Basically, the music slowly fades and we are left with ONLY thunder and rain sounds for 15-20 seconds. There are no beats, there is no instrumentation, only thunder and rain! Like you're outside in nature! What? It's like you're anywhere but California and you got stuck in a storm with Stevie Nicks. I am not kidding! When I first heard it, it was very late at night and I had my headphones on, and, I literally got the chills. WHO DOES THAT?! Two guys with vision (and some balls), that's who.

Now...with all of that said, will I play this in a club? I DON'T KNOW!! I have the vinyl and it comes with me anytime I dj, but, then there it sits in the bag because I'm scared. Wouldn't you be?? What will people do when they hear thunder and rain for 20 seconds with no beat!? Would it be like they're eating at the Rainforest Cafe at the Mall of America? Will they get mad? Excited? Confused? Will it invite interpretive rain dances? I just don't know. I can only control my own reaction to things, obviously, and, all I'm saying is, if someone played this and I was dancing, I would either faint, cry, or do some seriousssss nature stomp. I think Stevie would be proud.

Anyway, someday I will either hear it played out or play it myself, but, in the meantime, please listen with headphones.

Soul Clap - Dreams Edit

Below is another favorite, re-contextualizing Stevie Wonder's "Love Light in Flight," one of Stevie's best songs of the 80s (not to mention it's from the riveting film, "The Woman in Red").

Soul Clap - Love Light Edit

PS, Soul Clap has a ton of other amazing music, edits of Aaliyah, Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game," Marvin, and on and on. Buy their music!

Always Dancing

I've had a dancefloor addiction since my early 20's when I started going to gay clubs in Minneapolis. My friends and I had a rotation of several nightclubs we would hit up on any given weekend, and, although the players were different (or were they...), the music was largely the same (verrry deep house and cheesy diva "homohouse," as I like to call it). I would dance for hours along with the shirtless men. I had no worries, and no intentions, other than to dance. I didn't meet people, I didn't drink (lie), I didn't do drugs, I just danced. How pragmatic and Lutheran of me. And, although my taste in dance music has changed and evolved over the years, my love for getting sweaty and losing myself on the floor has not.

When I'm feeling particularly old and like I've wasted my life, I like to think about what would've happened had I tried djing at a much younger age. With my suspect taste in music at the time, I would've LOVED djing at the local gay clubs. They would've had to drag me out of there, ranting about trance, waving my glo sticks around like a fool. Had I stayed on that path, I would currently have frosted tips, wear lipstick, and play music at White Parties in Miami and Palm Springs. It's never too late, I guess.

On that (frosted) tip, I've got a few songs to share that I've really been into the past month. The Hot Toddy jam is new, and is from the UK producer's debut album, on Om's sister label, Smoke & Mirrors. It is so niiiice and synthy with a hook that sounds very familiar (read: a slower Daft Punk). The other tune is from half of Rub-n-Tug, Dr. Dunks, and it's a Dolly edit, which is GENIUS. He highlights the bass, brings out the dance jam elements, and trims the fat from the original. I love it!!

Are we over disco edits yet? I sure hope not because I love them and want my fellow Norwegian, Todd Terje, to still have a job, so, please dj's and dancers, support your local disco edits!

Hot Toddy - Won't Let Go
Dr. Dunks - No P's

And, here's the Dolly original performed "live" on Solid Gold in 1983. I love Dolly, and, Dolly doing a disco-esque number? So cute! I particularly love the line "leave us alone tonight, if things don't work out right, he's all yours." Ha. Better keep your hands off my...

DJ Bobby Viteritti & The Trocadero Transfer

San Francisco's Trocadero Transfer was THE city's disco venue in the 70s and 80s. It was of the caliber of the large New York disco clubs (Studio 54, Paradise Garage), but, because it was in SF, it had a more bohemian "anything goes" vibe (maybe less coke, more poppers and shrooms?) with a choreographed light show to add to the journey. The venue and its cast of characters shaped gay dance culture in SF and across the country. Icons like Sylvester, Cheryl Lynn & Martha Wash performed at "The Troc" and the stories of what went down on a typical weekend night are legendary. As with any successful nightclub, The Troc had its share of successful dj's, and, I've become enamored with one in particular, Bobby Viteritti. Viteritti was an East Coast transplant who could mix his way through a 5-hr set so seamlessly, you couldn't tell when one song ends and the next one begins. Viteritti has talked in interviews about how he would start a song in the middle, play it til the end, maybe go to a new track then start the old track from the beginning just to mess with the crowd, to throw off their expectation of what was coming next. He was also known for using rotary knobs instead of faders, and, considering the mastery of his mixes and the equipment he was working with completely blows my mind.

I've tried in vain to find mp3's or cds of Viteritti's mixes, and, it looks like his website is under construction with promises of samples in the near future. In the meantime, the following blogs have posted his work: Discoworkout posted this absolutely mind-blowing 1st hour of a 5-hour 1979 Trocadero set; and, one of my favorite blogs, Beat Electric, posted this 1980 set.

If you love dance music or disco, gay culture, or San Francisco history, check out all you can on Viteritti.

**9/18/10 UPDATE: I JUST FOUND SOME DISCO MIX GOooooOOOLD! BAM!

Gigamesh

One of my favorite producers and remixers of the past few years is Minneapolis (soon to be Miami)-based Gigamesh. Gigamesh is a man of many synths blessed with a golden ear, and, he can turn any tune into a gorgeous stomper brimming with warm analog and chunky bass. He is part of the remix group, Discotech, which has released some of my personal most-played-in-a-dj-set edits and remixes of the past few years (Radiohead, The Police, The Stones, Foo Fighters, Zep, M.I.A., to name a few). He is also in the electro group, Senor Stereo, which released their debut ep on Slow Roast Records (also home to DJ Craze and Kill the Noise). Lately, he might be most well-known for producing Mike Posner's hit, Cooler than Me. If you've heard the Gigamesh version and the one Posner originally started with, you will believe what I'm saying about the Gigamesh magic touch. One of my favorite Gigamesh remixes, however, is of the Minneapolis band, Estate, and you can download it via Rcrd Lbl: Write to Make.

To commemorate his move from the land of ice and snow to the land of flamingos and thongs, Gigamesh just released a 14-song mixtape called Moving Cities featuring an excellent selection of disco, electro, hip hop, and, even some Gigamesh originals that were previously unreleased. My favorites from the mix are Jacques Renault's remix of Midnight Magic's Beam Me Up, Azari & III's remix of the Voltage dazzler, One Night, and of course a Gigamesh remix of Marching Band's, Another Day.

Download the mixtape here.

Also, the Midnight Magic remix is so good, I just have to share:

Tommie Sunshine Tackles Urban Sprawl with the Arcade Fire

The new Arcade Fire album, The Suburbs, just came out and I haven't given it proper attention yet, other than the iTunes snippets. I HAVE listened (and listened and listened) to Tommie Sunshine's disco remix of one of the stand-out tracks, Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), and, he absolutely nailed it. It's a gorgeous epic with pulsating disco beats that tie the laces of your favorite dancin' shoes, and, might even buy you a drink if you bat your eyelashes. If you're a real music person, I also recommend listening to this in headphones. On his Soundcloud page, Sunshine says he "heard the disco in it" and I can't think of a better way to put it. There IS disco in the original song, and, Sunshine coaxes it out of its dark hole for everyone to hear. What I like about the original song is it doesn't sound like an Arcade Fire tune - it's straight-up electro, and, God bless 'em for it! What Sunshine did with his remix, however, absolutely floors me. It's soooo beautiful. And, that bass? Come on. Sunshine proves once again he is the true master of midi and he remade this song into something all his own, and, in my opinion, it surpasses the sound of the original.

Download Tommie Sunshine's remix FOR FREE here.

UPDATE: Tommie gave us a little shout out on his soundcloud page. i can die now.