Below is a live DJ set from Beatery favorite Zodiac Cartel, shamelessly reposted from his Soundcloud page. It’s full of the techy, funky, sloppy-clap goodness we’ve all come to expect from the man. If you’re a regular Beatery listener, you’ll surly recognize more than a few of the jams in this epic two-hour tech-funk throwdown. Enjoy.
It seems like it’s been a long while since I’ve posted any proper electronic dance music, so today I’d like remedy that by to introducing you an unsung favorite. Meet Sam Hell. He’s quickly becoming my go-to producer for ass-shaking funky electro, now that the Plump DJs have gone all rave-wobble on me. And while he doesn’t seem to have as many different tricks up his sleeve as the aforementioned duo, he consistently delivers bouncy beats that get a reluctant dance floor moving. Let me give you a taste of Hell…
Cosimo
An older breaks number, this is the song that made me sit up and take notice of Mr. Hell. It reminds me of the Plumps of yore… especially when it gets around to that funky melodic hook near the end of the track.
Algebra
This is his latest single. Not much more than a syncopated bassline and some techy stuff on top, but sometimes that’s all you need in a club track.
Mothership
And rounding out the sampler we have this rolling progressive house cut. I love the breakdown in this one. That dramatic piano and synth combination almost has a Muse vibe to it.
PLAY ALL
For those of us with shit to do.
If you like what Sam Hell’s got going in these tracks, you can pursue more of his work on Beatport and even Amazon.
Below is a 36-minute piece of ambient music. If you asked me to describe it after hearing for the first time, I’d likely use the words ethereal, watery, haunting… adjectives that bear no resemblance to the ones I’d use to describe the piece’s original source. Give the track a listen, enough to experience its lulls and swells (go ahead and skip around if you don’t have half an hour to spare) and then hit the link to learn what you’re listening to.
Thanks to the new blood here on the Beatery, we’ve experienced a recent influx of some great progressive and drum and bass music. And while it’s a wonderful and refreshing change of pace, it has also has left me itching to get some good ol’ house music up here. Enough so that I went back and dug up a old set that even I hadn’t heard in nearly a decade.
I recorded this one while living in the deep house epicenter known as San Jose. It’s just a casual swim through some waters I don’t normally tread. I just wanted to get a few songs out of my system that I couldn’t fit anywhere else, and then I didn’t really circulate the mix to anyone. I suppose you could call this a DJ Cor rarity. It’s fun to hear it again. Really marks a moment in my early DJ “career.”
This last weekend, while pursuing one of San Luis Obispo’s many fine specialty shops, a song came over the store speakers that I recognized instantly. I began singing the lyrics for the Scissor Sisters’ song ‘Harder You Get’, recently featured on this very blog.
But wait… this wasn’t Scissor Sisters. Nope, I actually knew this song from the soundtrack of GTA 4; it’s Skatt Brothers’ dark-disco anthem ‘Walk the Night’ from 1979. There’s no surprise I found myself singing the Scissor Sisters’ song, however. The two tracks are strikingly similar, with their simple four-on-the-floor beats, low menacing vocals, vaguely threatening (and totally gay) lyrics, descending chords on their respective bridges… all the way down to their chorus of “do-do-do’s” at the end. (There has to be a better way to say that, but you’ll know what I mean when you hear it.)
Well, this is a perfect opportunity to kick off a feature I’ve been wanting to start for a while, which I believe I’ll call “Hearing Double.” Here’s how it works: we present you with two songs that seem to us to be too musically close to be a coincidence, and you, dear readers, tell us if you think the latter artist was inspired by the former. Jay actually wrote a similar post a while back for his “I’m Not in Madagascar” mashup, so go back and check that out for another fine example.
I assume in most of these too-close-for-comfort cases, we won’t know whether or not the more recent artist actually meant to rip-offpay tribute to the preceding one. However, in this particular case Jake Shears, Scissor Sisters’ front man, has taken some of the fun out of it for us. His quote is below. (NOTE: Not that I think the Beatery has any underage readers, but the following is definitely for adult eyes only.)
I was at a sex party in Mannheim, I was on the dancefloor. It was six o’clock in the morning. I was wearing a little rubber wrestling singlet. I was having a great time. There was a cloud in the room, this cloud of man sweat, cigarettes, spilled booze, shit because people were getting fisted, and poppers. And piss! It was disgusting… The most vile place I’ve ever been. And I was dancing, and the DJs put on ‘Walk The Night’ by the Skatt Brothers. It’s one of my favorites. It was one of those revelatory moments for me when I realized what I wanted the album to sound like and how I wanted it to make me feel.
So there we have it. No mystery to this one, but it’s still fun to hear how one artist has been influenced by another. Have a listen yourself, and please, drop us a comment if you have other nominees for the series.
And lastly, while we’re once again on the subject of the Scissor Sisters, I’ll remind you that they are coming to town in September! It’s a bit pricey, but this band ROCKS live. If you can swing it, come bring it. Information HERE.
