Posted by: Jay

I don’t think it’s gonna make quiiiite as much money as The Avengers, but there’s another movie out that throws together established superheros into some kind of ad-hoc collaboration, hoping that the sum of their parts will turn into something transcendent, something greater than any of them could have achieved on their own. In “Re:Generation”, a documentary brought to us by The Grammys and directed by Amir Bar-Lev*, our five superheros are Skrillix, DJ Premier, Pretty Lights, Mark Ronson, and The Crystal Method and their mission is to reinterpret five traditional genres of music with their on unique style and flair.

* I had no idea “The Grammys” presented anything besides The Grammys. And Bar-Lev also directed “My Kid Could Pint That” & “The Tillman Story”

As a big fan of genre bending in general I was all in when I heard about the project, and with one exception* all the tracks turned out great. As for the movie itself, it ranges from “well worth watching” to a “must see!”, depending on how much you follow these modern day musical superheros. As a super fan of all these guys it was thrilling watching them so far out of their element and really having their sound pushed to the limit.

*Crystal Method, I’m looking at you.

I appreciated all these tracks more after I watched the whole movie so really I hope you’ll make the time to do that, but let’s just take ‘em for a quick spin:

Skrillex vs. Rock (and featuring the living members of the Doors*) - “Breakn’ A Sweat”

Mark Ronson vs Jazz (featuring Erykah Badu, Trombone Shorty, Mos Def, Zigaboo Modeliste, and Members of The Dap Kings) - “A La Modeliste”

DJ Premier vs Classical (Nas and The Berklee Symphony Orchestra) - “Regeneration”

Pretty Light vs Country (featuring LeAnn Rimes and Dr. Ralph Stanley) - “Wayfaring Stranger”

To watch the movie and get all these tracks check the official website:

http://regenerationmusicproject.com/

Trailer and re-mixes from Bonobo and Zedd after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by: Derek

From the depths of the archive comes one of my favorite pieces of atmospheric melodic DnB.
I first heard this on a compilation called “Legally Stoned”, which I’d highly recommend if you can find it, though I think it’s out of print.

At once beautiful, exotic, and neuro-deep, this piece definitely shows where that comp got its name from. It’s 10am, and I feel high just listening to it. I seriously wish they made more jungle like this still…

Mmm…tasty….

Posted by: Cor

For the last couple years I’ve been quite keen on a subgenre of electronic music that gets it character by incorporating samples of old 30s-era swing music. The genre’s still too small to have an official name, but I’ll go ahead and dub it electro-swing. Just recently I discovered that several of the tracks in my electro-swing collection all sample the same 1939 Billie Holliday song “Swing Brother Swing.” It’s pretty cool to hear how different artists have chopped up and repurposed the same source material. Have a listen to the original recording in the youtube clip above, and then check out how it was sampled below.

Bonobo - Sugar Rhyme
This isn’t the first time I’ve posted this sexy downtempo classic. It’s the first Bonobo track to ever grace my ears and it’s still one of my favorites. Not much sampled from the original other than Billie’s voice.

Parov Stelar - Wanna Get
The undisputed king of electro-swing ignored the original vocal and instead grabbed bits of the saxophone and piano instrumentation as the basis of this chill house number.

Dirty Dubsters - Swing It Brother
And lastly we have a much more straight-forward breaks remix of the track form the Dirty Dubsters. They take the original track and layer on the requisite thick bass and breakbeats.

What do you think of electro-swing? I’ve been laying low on the DJing for a while now, but you’ll be hearing more of this stuff from me, as I attempt to carve out a new sound for myself. I’ll get a podcast of electro-swing out soon.

Posted by: Flicker

A year or so ago, a Half-Life 2 mod called “Neo Tokyo” was finally released after being in development since 2004, when it was to be an Unreal Tournament mod. I know that this isn’t a videogame blog but just deal with it. I also know that when most people hear the words “video game music,” they either think of MIDI chiptunes, or maybe some absolutely horrible J-pop theme song. Wait, that’s every J-pop song. But stop thinking about how appalling that Japanoise is! That’s not the point.

The point is that the score to Neo Tokyo is good. And I don’t mean it’s good for a video game. It’s actually an incredibly solid release.  I mean, I have music from Punchout, Excite Bike and Rygar on my computer, but I don’t actually listen to them. And while I could see myself running around Tokyo shooting soldiers to this music, I much more enjoy it as a backdrop to daydreaming on the train, which is where I come up with all of my brilliant ideas.

I couldn’t possibly categorize the music on this album accurately, as it is a hodgepodge of styles. There is everything from ambient to drum & bass. From trip hop to post-rock.

Which reminds me. Can the internet PLEASE get over the novelty of old Nintendo themes performed by kazoo or jug-band, or whatever. It’s not clever anymore. It’s every week with somebody getting praise for their cello and spoons rendition of the Kraid battle in Metroid. Granted, internet praise lasts for roughly three days before the next Tom and his giant floor piano Zelda theme, but that’s longer than they deserve.

Ed Harrison has only released this one album, which is frankly far higher quality than the mod that it was written for. The entire album is 26 songs in length, and all of them well done. Here are a few:

Tin Soldiers

Automata

Scrap_IO

Footprint

*****

PLAY ALL

*****

You can listen to more or purchase the whole thing at Amazon or CD Baby.

Posted by: Cor

Perhaps some of the more astute Beatery listeners may have noticed I haven’t posted my usual mix of funky dance music in quite a while. Well, for those waiting… I’m sorry but you’ll have to wait a bit longer. Over the last six months or so, as my work life has gotten much busier, and as I prepare for significant changes on the home front, the heavy beats have taken a backseat and I’ve found myself drawn more and more towards the calm.

So, in line with my tastes of the moment, I bring you this mix of soothing ambient pieces. These are some of my favorites over the last few years. I’m aware this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea*, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend listening while driving or operating heavy machinery; but for anyone looking for some music to study to, meditate to, or simply fall asleep to, this just might be your thing.

And as a side note, I want to welcome our new contributor Flicker by saying that I don’t think we’ve ever had as stark a musical contrast between two posts as Wednesday’s and today’s. It’s great to see the Beatery expanding to cover the entire wide spectrum of electronic music. This stuff can truly take you anywhere, and it’s wonderful to see the variety reflected in our little blog here.

The Calm (right click to download)

Tracklist:
1. Air - Night Sight
2. Global Communication - 14:31
3. Benn Jordan - Looking Upwards
4. Helios - Halving the Compass
5. Jon Hopkins - Campfire
6. Benn Jordan - Looking to the Past
7. Jon Hopkins - Cold Out There

* And even if it isn’t your cup of tea, at least listen to the Helios track that starts at about 21:00. That song is so beautiful I want it playing at the end of my life.