Hey there, Beatery faithful! It’s sure been awhile, hasn’t it? You’re looking good; glad to see you’ve been taking care of yourselves. Well, enough chit-chat, I know why you’re here. We’re long overdue for a new podcast.

It’s taken me eight damn months from the time I promised I’d have a podcast of electro swing “soon” to finally deliver this one. No excuses for the delay, I’ll just say that since the genre is still relatively young, and the pool of tracks relatively small, it was pretty hard to for me find a nice eclectic mix of tracks that work together. But lo and behold, I have finally prevailed.*

*And somehow I managed to do so with nary a track from electro swing’s #1 man, Parov Stelar.

Anyhow, consider this an electro swing introduction course. A sample platter. We’ve got some trip-hop, some breaks, a few wobbly baselines for the kids, and of course, good ol’ house… all of it swing-style. Dig in! I hope you enjoy yourselves, and I’ll try not to let as much time pass before the next one. No promises though.

THE SWING MACHINE (right-click to download)

Track list after the break.

TRACK LIST
1. Chinese Man - Architaut
2. Kid Kasino - Sugar Plum Funk
3. Caro Emerald - Back It Up (Kraak & Smaak Remix)
4. JFB - Social Knowhow
5. Featurecast (feat C. Reid) - Going Going Gone
6. J-Roc - Nickelodeon
7. AlgoRythmiK - Andrew’s Break
8. Caravan Palace - Maniac
9. Paul Carpenter - Minnie the Moocher
10. Stereo Express - Shadoorack
11. Sound Assembly - You (Follow them! http://soundassembly.co.uk/)
12. Abel Spandabel vs Ray Noble - Booty Blues (Wolfie’s Mix)
13. Caravan Palace - Clash
14. Enzo Sifferdi & JFTH - Jungle Dancing
15. Benny Berigan - Snake Charmer
16. Nicolas Repac - The End of a Love Affair (Billie in the Sky)

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:

A La Modeliste (Bonobo Remix)

Breakn’ A Sweat (Zedd Remix)

Speaking of comebacks, blog favorite Gramatik is back with a hot new EP on the Pretty Lights label! And while I love “Talkbox Intended” like this cat loves him some boxes the rest of the EP left me thinking: “Et tu, Gramatik? Et tu??”. Yup, our down tempo/hip hop hero has fallen prey to that wicked temptress know as “dubstep”. No one, it seems, is beyond her seductive reach.

So, if you like dubstep you’re gonna LOVE this EP. If you don’t, it might be worth a listen anyway. Some of the tracks are a bit more “glitch-hop” than pure dubstep, and no matter the genre Gramatik always brings top notch production a touch of soul to his work.

Gramatik - “Talkbox Intended”

Gramatik - “First Up”

Gramatik - “Illusion Of Choice”

Gramatik - “23 Flavors”

Buy these tracks of the whole EP!

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I know Cor’s gonna freak out, but what do you think of Gramatik’s new sound? Natural evolution or sad pandering to the hot sound du jour?? If you forgot what Gramatik used to sound like, check out Cor’s full break down over here.

Hello Beatery faithful! I know we’ve been in an epic dry spell around these parts (I haven’t posted since Thanksgiving? Really??), and I apologize. There are real world reasons for that: huge independent web project (I built this!); babies; my recent two month work/holiday to Bolivia & Brazil; etc… but honestly the biggest reason for my personal hiatus was probably my “little hater”.

I’ll let Jay Smooth explain:

Now that I’m back from SA and done with the epic web project it’s time to slay the little hater and get back to posting more tracks, mixes, videos and the general new hotness!

Wait, did someone say new hottness?? It just so happens that I’ve got some new electro-hottness right here! It’s good to be back.

New Hottness

New Indi-Hottness from power house group Foster The People.

Foster The People - “Don’t Stop” - TheFatRat Remix

New Genre Defying Hottness: It’s electro house! No, It’s French house… wait no it’s trance!

PrototypeRaptor - “Drive Hard”

New Hlectro Eouse Hottness from one of 2011’s hottest new artists Mord Fustang.

Mord Fustang - “We Are Now Connected” - Buy it on Beatport!

New Mid Tempo Hottness from my personal musical heart throb, Dillon Francis.

Dillon Francis - “IDGAFOS 2.0″

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House Keeping Items

1. If you haven’t noticed we’ve been hacked. No, it wasn’t our idea to have unsightly block of adds down there on the bottom of the page. I’ll get that cleared up soon.

2. I have a bunch of podcasts lined up! Be sure to subscribe right here to get them delivered straight to your itunes.

3. I’m excited to announce we’ve got a new blogger joining our Beatery crew! More details to come.

4. As always, we love hearing from you! If you’re diggin the music please take a minute to let us know about it (a comment, a facebook like, stars… there are so many ways!). It helps all of us keep our Little Haters at bay.

What’s this? A new post on the Beatery? Yes, dear readers, despite that fact that we’ve all been epically busy of late, I simply couldn’t let this week’s Caravan Palace release go by without giving it some love on the ol’ blog here.

Caravan Palace has long been one of the few heavy-hitters of electro swing. Their self-titled 2008 album stands as one of the defining works in the still-young subgenre. The new album, Panic, raises the bar by incorporating their distinct gypsy-swing sound into a variety of different electronic genres, from electro house to downtempo, with top-notch production the whole way through. It’s been on repeat in my headphones for the last two days, which is already more than I’ve listened to any single album in the last year.

Enjoy a few highlights and then grab the album from your online mp3 purveyor of choice…

Maniac

Clash

Dramaphone

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Get it! iTunes | Juno

UPDATE: Oh, also check out the awesome video after the jump. Aliens and robots, what’s not to love?

Get a move on it!

Damn, it’s been pretty cold in Tokyo this February. Had a couple of days last week with real snow, even.
Because it’s Tokyo, it doesn’t really pile up, but it sure looks cool in the air.

My reseller’s office that I work out of here is in Aoyama (next to Shibuya), on the 11th floor, so I got a great view of the flowing white crystals all day long. Even though Japanese offices usually work long hours, I made sure to stay sane as the picture above shows ^_^.

Another thing that makes me sane is good progressive trance, and we’ve got some epic progressive cuts this month that straddle the line between house and trance but keep it super atmospheric. Got some fresh Japanese prog in there with a totally weird cut from Akugawa-sensei, and some Bay Area love with local favorite SNR.

And with that, have at you with some fresh cuts —

Derek Ryan - Sake Flight 10 - Aoyama (right-click and save-as to download)

Tracklist after the break!

Tracklist:

1) Arnej & Cosmic Gate - Sometimes they come back
2) Kyohei Akugawa - Drawl
3) DNS Project and Fast Distance - Kickdown
4) Mr. Pit - Shana (Duderstadt progressive dub)
5) SNR - Punta Foradada (Apartment 10 remix).

Note — For all you producers out there, SNR has just started his own label as well, so if you’ve got fresh cuts, go check out the new vibes.

Aww shiyat. This had to happen sooner or later — we come to Shibuya - the prime jewel of the young generation Tokyo experience for many. From the absolute crazyness of the infamous “scramble” street crossing, to the insane 9 floors of candyrave driven shopping at 109, to the booming beats down in Dogenzaka clubs like Womb, this place is alive.

So for this month’s Sake Flight - a tasting of the whomp - got a selection of stompy, stabby, trance picks culminating in Gareth Emery’s recent hit Tokyo. Let it roll!

Derek Ryan - Sake Flight 8 - Shibuya (right click and save-as to download)

Tracklist will be added tomorrow when I wake my sorry ass up!