Posted by: Cor

Spencer & Hill have been popping up all over this year with a number of bumpin’ electro singles. Despite the fact that Matt’s podcast last week beat me to the obvious highlight track, the Star Wars-sampling Cantina, I thought we should give the camera-shy German duo their due propers with their own Beat Du Jour post. While Spencer & Hill’s no-frills electro house style isn’t exactly groundbreaking, they’ve got a solid track record of churning out wave-your-arms-in-the-air crowd pleasers, and there’s something to be said for consistency. Here are some of their highlights from 2010…


Sunbeam

Back2Back

But wait, there’s more…

On a related note, here’s Krafty Kuts’ latest single, which is essentially just a booty-rap vocal over a breaks remix of an older track named Housebeat by, you guessed it, Spencer & Hill. You can check out the original version of Housebeat on a past set of mine, The Stanford Sessions Vol III.

Krafty Kuts - Shake Them Hips

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As always, you can find the vast majority of Spencer & Hill’s work at Beatport.

Posted by: Matt

I started to write up an epic post about how much I heart L.A. breakcore pop band Captain Ahab, about how they have a new album out in a few weeks and are touring the West Coast right f*cking NOW but the Wikipedia article pretty much sums up everything I wanted to say about them:

Captain Ahab is an electropop duo based in Los Angeles, California. They refer to their sound, a DIY take on dance music, as ravesploitation. The band is made up of Jonathan Snipes and Jim Merson. A typical Captain Ahab live performance consists of playback of recorded beats from a computer and vigorous singing by both members of the band. While performing, members of Captain Ahab are usually partially undressed, covered in sweat, and constantly forcing themselves into physical contact with members of the audience. While their lyrics are satirically misogynistic, their live performance is thoroughly homoerotic.

In June 2006, Captain Ahab won the Snakes on a Plane music contest, with their song “Snakes on the Brain”.

On September 28th, 2006, the song “Girls Gone Wild” was played briefly in “The Convention”, the second episode of the third season of The Office.

Their single “Was Love” was written for and played in the first season episode “Gravedancing” on the Syfy series Caprica.

Jonathan writes and performs the music. Jim gets naked and dances. Jonathan also teaches at UCLA and contributes music and sound design to several television shows. Jim rubs his sweat on you.

I’ve seen them twice at the Hemlock here in San Francisco and had an absolute blast both times. As luck would have it, they are playing there again this Friday (3.19), and I highly recommend you all go with me. Seriously.

Videos with music after the jump.
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Posted by: Matt

Hey party people! Not since the glorious days of the Comet Club have I had a recurring night to call my own. Until now that is!
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Posted by: Matt

Enjoy your day off, American Beatery readers. This rap is an oldie to be sure, but so good it should never be forgotten.

Posted by: Matt

One of the trickier club DJ techniques to learn is how to tastefully switch tempos between songs. It’s always an option to just do it; clubbers have short memories, and while a jarring switch may raise some eyebrows, five minutes later no one will remember. However, the momentum will definitely be broken and whatever vibe the DJ had been building will likely be set back a few tracks.

While it is totally possible to finesse a dramatic tempo change so that feels like a part of the flow instead of a rock in the middle of it, occasionally producers like to help us out. By building a BPM bump (or drop) into a track, the change can happen while the sonic elements remain steady, softening the blow by only making one leap at a time instead of two.

These tracks can come off as gimmicky though, which I think is why they aren’t made very often, but they can definitely be handy at the right time to shift styles or just give the floor a bit of a goose:

Atlantic Connection  - Rocksteady - LA Riots ‘Shake It All Night’ Mix

Calvertron, Banga - Whoop (Rudder’s There It Isn’t Remix)

Phonat - Learn to Recycle

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