Tuesday, October 25, 2011

#12 : The List

I know it's been a long while.


I know, and I've not stopped in my quests to find good music. However, I can't find much time to blog about all these awesome tracks that released in the past 3 months, and the random finds. So this is more like a list, without my comments or reviews, I urge you to check all of these out.


Starting off with House, Dubstep and Trance. I'm still in that kind of mood, so yeah, majority of this post includes EDM in general.


EDM.

1. Above And Beyond ft. Miguel Bose - Por Ti (Myon And Shane 54 Summer of Love mix)
2. Skeptiks - Without A Name
3. Deadmau5 - Professional Griefers 
4. BoomJinx And Soundprank - Pieces of the Puzzle (Solarity mix)
5. Kaskade ft. Quadron - Waste Love
6. David Guetta ft. Sia - Titanium
7. Lange vs. Gareth Emery - This Is New York (Heartbeat mix)
8. Hannah - Falling Away (Armin Van Buuren mix)
9. Kelis - Milkshake
10. Marco V - Rokker
11. Porter Robinson - Unison (Knife Party mix)
12. The Flyers And Mike Sonar - Because I Wish To
13. Dirty South And Thomas Gold - Alive (Tommy Trash mix)
14. Modestep - To The Stars (Break The Noize And Autobots remix)
15. Myon And Shane 54 - Helpless (ft. Aruna)
16. Dirty South And Those Usual Suspects ft. Erick Hecht - Walking Alone
17. Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend (Kaskade mix)
18. Skylar Grey - Invisible (Kaskade mix)
19. Kaskade vs. DBN & Menck - Step One For Redemption (Sultan And Ned Shepard mix)
20. Kaskade And Tiesto - Only You Flash ft. Haley (Nicky Romero Mix - Kaskade mashup)
21. Kaskade - Turn It Down
22. Kaskade And EDX vs. Alex Gaudino - Don't Stop Kissing
23. Avicii And David Guetta Vs. Kings of Leon - Sex On Sunshine (Blake Jarrell mashup)
24. Tiesto - Maximal Crazy
25. Lange ft. Jennifer Karr - Songless - [ i) Original Mix ii) Mark Sherry's Outburst mix]
26. Spencer And Hill ft. Nadia Ali - Believe It (Club mix)
27. Kaskade And Adam K - Raining (PIXL mix)
28. Kaskade ft. Mindy Gledhill - Eyes [ i) Original Mix ii) Steve Aoki mix ]
29. Above And Beyond ft. Zoe Johnston - You Got To Go
30. Cosmic Gate ft. Emma Hewitt - Be Your Sound
31. AnjunaPeople.01 by A Squared
32. Foster People - Pumped Up Kicks (Skeet Skeet mix)
33. Nadia Ali - Fantasy
34. Nadia Ali And Chris Reece - The Notice
35. Tritonal ft. Cristina Soto - Still With Me (Club mix)
36. Eric Prydz - 2Night
37. Cazette - The Shining (Original Halloween Tour mix)
38. Serge Devant ft. Hadley - Ghost (Playmen Remix)
39. Dirty South vs. Evermore - It's Too Late
40. Public Enemy vs. Benny Benassi - Bring The Noise
41. Lange ft. Sarah Howells-  Let It All Out (Andy Moor mix)
42. Cygnus X - The Orange Theme ( Moonman's Orange Juice mix)
43. Sebastien Drums & Avicii - My Feelings For You
44. Avicii - Frozen
45. Basskleph - I'll Be Okay (Superskank mix)
46. 99.9 - Organ Donors
47. Michael Woods - Fruitcake
48. Trentemoller - Take Me Into Your Skin
49. Len Faki - Stranger To Stability
50. Tiesto - In The Dark (Dirty South Mix)
51. DJ Chuckie - Let The Bass Kick (Silvio Ecomo mix)
52. Dubfire - Roadkill
53. Samuel L. Session - Can You Relate
54. Trentemoller - Snowflake
55. Trentemoller - Nightwalker
56. Sebastian Ingrosso & Alesso - Calling
57. Arty - El Segundo
58. Armin Van Buuren & Nadia Ali - Feels So Good (Tristan Garner mix)
59. Bob Sinclar - I Feel For You (Anthony Ross And Lazy Rich mix)
60. Micha Moor ft. Terri B! - Keep On Rising
61. Avicii - Street Dancer
62. Korn – Narcissistic Cannibal (ft. Skrillex and Kill the Noise)
63. Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna - We Found Love
64. Stromae - Housellujah (Klass mix)
65. David Guetta - Little Bad Girl (ft. Taio Cruz)
66. Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed (AN21 & Max Vangelis mix)
67. Snoop Dogg - Sweat (David Guetta Radio Edit)
68. David Guetta & Afrojack - Louder Than Words (Ft. Niles Mason)
69. Serge Devant ft. Hadley - Ghost (Playmen Mix)


And a few screenshots from my EDM playlist on iTunes that has the latest and greatest tracks in recent times. There might be a few repetitions (I've mentioned some of them in the aforementioned list.. and a few these screenshots) so please excuse me.









EDM Artist in the spotlight :-
Bassnectar (Check him out) - (Dubstep)


Channels :-
1. UKF Dubstep (Youtube channel)
2. Giorgiosst (Formerly a Youtube channel, find this one on Dailymotion)

EDM Podcasts to check out :-
1. TATW
2. DJSlander
3. ASOT
4. iClub

5. Morgan Page - In The Air

Rock / Metal / EDM / Blues Artists - Rumours & Releases in 2011.

1. Eric Clapton (New Blues Album?)
2. Evanescence 
3. Dream Theater
4. Trivium
5. The Vines
6. Felguk - Blow Out : The Remixes [EP]
7. Black Stone Cherry
8. Mastodon
9. James Blunt
10. Mr. Big
11. Sonic Youth
12. Jeff Beck
13. Rise Against
14. Avril Lavigne
15. R.E.M.
16. Green Day
17. Saliva
18. Yellow Card
19. Sum 41
20. Wiz Khalifa (Black & Yellow)
21. Gorillaz
22. Silverstein
23. Uriah Heep
24. Seether
25. Prodigy
26. Death Cab For Cutie
27. Eddie Vedder
28. Arctic Monkeys
29. Depeche Mode - (The Mixes)
30. Incubus
31. Theory Of A Deadman
32. 3 Doors Down
33. Lil Wayne - The Carter IV
34. Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You
35. 12 Stones
36. Anthrax
37. Puscifier
38. Ziggy Marley
39. Chevelle
40. Lamb of God - Ghost Walking (Single)

Bollywood and stuff. (?)

1. Chetan Shashital - Saigal Blues (Delhi Belly OST)
2. 3 - Why This Kolaveri Di (Vocals by Dhanush)

3. Collaborations in a brilliant new TV series called 'The Dewarists'. Fusion at it's finest, combining artists of different genres from different parts of the world for one goal, and one only - make soul-stirring music. Fell in love with this show this year.
4. Punjabi MC - Morni (It's actually a December 2010 track but whatever).  





It's been a good year for music and there have been some absolutely stellar releases. I've got a lot of catching up to do. I'll try and post soon, and will come up with a less pathetic post next time.


Arrivederci,
Audiophile 93.





Tuesday, September 13, 2011

#11 : Hiatus.


Yet again. 

I'm pausing my blogging activity for a while. I don't have my own laptop in college yet, or my own internet connection, so I use others' laptops and the college network.
It's painstaking to use alternate methods to access blogger due to a idiotic server that doesn't allow me to download songs, access Youtube, Facebook or Blogger . I can tweet a little from my phone @ItsALilFuckedUp but that's just about it. 

I can only access some of these websites through loopholes in the browser, or by using a proxy that is slower than a thermodynamic quasi-static process. And all the tweets are obviously not music - related. I'm yet to try the Library wi-fi which I could use to download some of my podcasts, but the speed is an archaic 25 kb/s, 40 kb/s if I'm lucky.

Then there's the time factor. I'm getting no time to talk much to friends or family, let alone scrounge for new music in the dark dungeons of the interwebs. College is consuming most of my time and the T1 exams start day after tomorrow. 

So do bear with me, I'm a terrible blogger.

Arrivederci..
Wait a second. Did I post this on my blog? Yes, it's old. And it's got pretty popular. But still.


And if I'm not mistaken, I'm listen to the AN21 and Max Vangeli mix on DJ Slander's podcast (Newport House Mafia, Vol. 5). Check it out. It's been out since 2 months and I heard it only yesterday.


Wednesday, July 6, 2011

#10 : Full Circle


Hi guys, 

I guess I have sufficient matter for a new blog post. But first, a few things I need to tell you.

The banner has changed. Yes. No one gave me feedback, so I just took my own opinion - the new one looks better. Also, the blog is undergoing cosmetic changes, so excuse me if the fonts and headers look mismatched and unaesthetic for a while.
Second, clickity-clack that follow button, I'm nothing without your support, you're a douchebag without my blog (Okay,maybe not, but I do dole out some good music,don't I? ) so it's win-win.
Third, spread the love, I need this blog to be even more popular, and even cooler.

So I'm going to start with an album review of 'Sounds Of A Playground Fading', the new album by the Swedish melodic death metal band we know as In Flames. Though I have never felt that the vocals were stellar, I have always loved the music, constantly air-guitaring to hits like 'Come Clarity', 'Trigger', 'Alias' and others. So here we go.

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Artist: In Flames
Album: Sounds Of A Playground Fading
Release Date : June 15, 2011

A listen through this new album and it’s clear that In Flames is holding steady to the same path they’ve been on since 'Clayman'. The record is rife with the band’s signature drop C/D-tuned heaviness and smooth, melodic hooks. From the first attention-grabbing title track, they prove once more that they are the kings of catchy metal. There is no lack of infectious and memorable licks, vocal refrains and rhythmic pummeling. And, probably best of all, there are a lot of truly awesome guitar solos on this record - almost more than you’d expect. Add to that some really stunning production quality, and you have yourself another smash hit.

But I am somewhat ambivalent towards their approach : there’s no denying they sell lots of records and sell out concerts and are probably one of the most radio-friendly bands you can still confidently refer to as good metal. But the some of the songs such as 'Fear Is The Weakness' and 'Ropes' bring out a certain pop-punk like quality that purists (and I refer to out and out metalheads) may not appreciate. Make no mistake, the band is still conveys visceral feelings fiercely and aggressively, an essential part of the songs being power chord chugging. But some of the songs seem to deviate intermittently from the metal approach, more towards a cleaner rock sound. 

'The Attic' is a clear example of the softer side that other bands such as Metallica have shown in the past, whereas 'Darker Times' and 'Enter Strategy' represent the darker, irascible side, and 'A New Dawn' shows that In Flames is experimenting with the metalcore sound (The wailing electric guitars at the start remind me of Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold).

So does all this mean it’s a bad metal album? Not at all. All the tracks I mentioned are actually pretty good songs - if you think of them in terms of “will most people like this?”. 
I only bring up this observation because if the last In Flames album you heard was Whoreacle, you might be at a loss hearing some of the content on SOAPF. Overall the quality of this release is of the high quality you would expect from a band at this level. The song-writing is solid and a lot of the new bells and whistles turned out to be welcome additions. Though metal purists will bitch, loyal fans of the band will see and admire the direction and vision the band is going with in this new album.


Rating4/5 stars


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And then there was the trance, house and 'step I heard this week. A lot of bloody good tunes. Staring off with Dreamer,a fairly breezy electro house track and One Way Out of Love, which was fairly enticing in parts but otherwise generic.



The tune that blew my mind is a song by Yuri Kane called Right Back. I love the vocals, and I love the piano. Great trance music here. Currently ruling the playcount in my library.



There was also this great mix by Utku S., a relatively unknown figure in Electro, of a song called Party Days by Pulseless. I really loved how it started but the tech. house additions and Skrillex like "roboto" exchanges towards the middle of the song are subject to taste.


As funny as it sounds, dubstep and electro house producer Uppermost has named this track 'System32'. I don't know about his love for Windows (Pretty sure he carries a Macbook Pro, like all EDM producers do), but the track is really good.


And then there's Joe Garston. I first thought he was with mau5trap, given how similar is to Moguai, Wolfgang Gartner and Deadmau5 himself. Still need to do a bit of googling, he might just have been signed by Mau5trap. Clean, 130 bpm beat that has a lot going for it. I have no idea how those squeaky bits are made though - possibly through a monome or tenori-on.


Coming to this song called Bounce by Calvin Harris (The "I'm not alone" guy), featuring Kelis. Perfect summer tune, very, very chill. Best described by this line in the lyrics - "It's like I flicked a switch and now I'm feeling good." 


Adam K is back! Without Soha again. :( 
But there's Funkagenda. Really, really good progressive tune. Though I don't know where it fits. Neo-trance like in my opinion.


Also, Dada Life came out with this new track, but I like Disco Reason's mix a lot mroe than the original. Gets very electro.


There were a few other average tracks I heard, like When The Sun Goes Down (DJ Solovey Remix), Records Back '11 (Darth & Vader Remix) and This Is The Night by Guru Josh Project (Sounds too much like Infinity in my opinion).

The dubstep prodigy Skrillex launched 'More Monsters And Sprites', an EP with a few mixes of the songs from his previous album. The star seems to be 'First Of The Year (Equinox).


Also check out his mix of Benny Bennassi's Cinema, which has a massive drop.


Also, a blast from the very recent past, I heard a new dirty electro mix of 'Move For Me' by East Freaks. 


Then there are the chillstep and melodic dubstep numbers. Got linked to these awesome tracks, you need to hear them both. Right now. 



I happened to miss hearing this Seether track called 'Country Song' that came out in late spring this year. Heard it on the radio a few days ago. It's just what you want to hear from a post-grunge/alternative band.


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The playlist to the iPod on the right hand side of the blog has been updated, and I've made it public now so you can add music to it if you want to. But restrict yourself to EDM, atleast for now. I might make Rock and Metal playlists in the future.

Anyway, so I guess that's it from me for now. Please follow the blog @Audiophile93 on Twitter.

Arrivederci,
Audiophile 93

Thursday, May 26, 2011

#9 : The Return of Audiophile93


Pretty epic title, ain't it? Well, I'm back. (Say "Yay!") 

(Now,stop.)

Feels good to be back, the view counter's over a thousand, inspite of six months of inactivity. Aww you spammers. :) 
Follower count still stuck at a measly 37 though.
Anyway, so since it's been a while since I've posted, a lot of new music has come about. I'm not going to post a chronicle over here, rather the best of 2011 till now. More of House music though (again), I'm really not being able to find quality metal/rock songs, except a few. So let's get started.

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1. The Japanese Popstars - Song for Lisa (Benny Benassi Mix)

Have I posted about this track before? Dulcet vocals, great work on the turntables by Benny Benassi, who is, as always, a great choice for starting a party. A bit different from his usual stuff though, but I really like this track.


2. Calvertron vs. Qualver - Raw 2 Da Floor (Lazy Rich)

In short, the most fidget-ey house track I've heard in a while.


3. Fedde Le Grand ft. Patric La Funk - Autosave (Original Mix)

Two people getting together to make such a phenomenal track in a small room? Epic win.



4. Signum - Shamisan (Extended mix)

An unheard-of artist, an unheard-of track. But when it played on Trance Around The World, I was hooked. Great progressive trance track.


5. Justice - Genesis

Electronic music in general. If I'm not mistaken it's in the NFS Undercover soundtrack. The game released in 2009 so it's kinda old, but it's still very good. If you're the kind of person who listens to music  during Black Ops, this is for you.


6. Above and Beyond - Sun and Moon (ft. Richard Bedford)

Really grew on me over a while, the sweet spot comes towards the middle of the track. One of those few vocal trance numbers with a guy's vocals, and it's turned out splendidly.


7. Above and Beyond - Thing Called Love (ft. Richard Bedford)

Another track featuring Richard Bedford and the brilliant Above and Beyond.


8. Kings of Leon - Pyro

Surprise! Just wanted to fill a good rock song in between. The vocals. Man, I wish I had that kind of voice.


9. Matisse & Sadko - Hi Scandinavia!

I kind of liked this track almost as instantly as I stopped liking it too much. You can't get too many replays out of this. Could be different for you.
Good effort nonetheless, I'd not even heard of them before.

(Caution : You might fall in love with Scandinavian women after this video.)


10. Spor - Pacifica (Chasing Shadows mix)

A kind of different dubstep I'd never heard before. I got this from a YouTube channel called UKFDubstep, which I urge you follow as well if a molecule of you likes Dubstep.


11. Sonic Syndicate - Enclave

Surprise, again! A typical metalcore band, this song shows a deeper, emotional side of this band.
Karin Axelsson is the hottest bassist evar. Yes, evar.


12. Avicii - ID (Original mix)

You've probably heard of Avicii after hearing that fantastic mix of "Rapture" by Nadia Ali in my previous post. Well this is "W0t a t00n!"- liberating as well. Avicii's constantly releasing great progressive house tracks. I also recommend you give his iClub podcast guest mix a go, especially Part 2.


13. Nadia Ali, Starkillers, & Alex Kenji - Pressure (Alesso Remix edit)

I suppose this will be played in House parties around the world till the end of next year, Alesso's another newbie in my playlist, and what an impression he has made. Love this track to bits.
If you're in a hurry, skip a minute.


14. Deadmau5 - Raise Your Weapon(Madeon mix)

This 4x4=12 track has been given a disco house makeover by Madeon, Greta Svabo Bech vocals included.


15. Moguai - Optinuum (Original mix)

Moguai's an upcoming house/trance artist from the Deadmau5 label. Great progressive tune, will remind you of Deadmau5, but let me remind you Deadmau5 has probably schooled this kid.


16. Deadmau5 - HR8938 Cephei

Not quite sure how the name of the track got into existence, but it's hauntingly beautiful.


17. Tritonal ft. Jeza - I Can Breathe

Some great vocal trance from Tritonal, the last track I heard from him was "Forever".


18. Andain - Promises (Myon & Shane 54 Summer of Love mix)

MS54 have established themselves as pioneers of trance, and pair this duo with Andain's vocals and you have a winner. Currently ruling the playcount in my library.


19. Black Eyed Peas - Don't Stop The Party

Haha, you know I wouldn't link you to BEP if it wasn't good, right? I heard this track on VH1 and loved it. Since when did BEP get electro? iLike. Probably the best I've heard from them. Ever.


20. Incubus - Adolescents

I absolutely love Incubus because they've kept evolving. This is the next phase in evolution, and I like the slightly mellowed down rock (As compared to "Megalomaniac", anyway) they're into now.




21. Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again (Eric Prydz mix)

Pryda's got a lot of remixes of Depeche Mode's tracks, but this just happens to be my favourite. TATW just tunes up the BPM of the track by a notch, makes a huge difference though. If you can, use an audio player/editor to turn up the BPM by 5. Or download TATW #371. Or just stick to this.


22. Static Revenger ft. Vandalism - Vegas (Tonic Bootleg) / Vegas (DJ Solovey mix)

Wasn't so sure about which one to include. The tonic bootleg is your typical dirty electro, DJ Solovey's a more conventional kind of Electro which he's known for. Get both if you're like me!

The Solovey mix: 


Could have linked you straight up to the Tonic Bootleg as well, but I'd rather link you to Bl3nd if you're into dirty electro. The track's third in his playlist, but some other good electro is in there too. And some chicks as well.


And lastly, 23. TATW #370 and #373. 

What? No video? Yes. There are just too many songs! I thought it'd be better for you to download these 110MB podcasts, featuring Matt Zo, Arty, Andy Moor and others.

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I know the amount of Rock/Metal is a bit lacking in the post, as is the amount of real content, but like I said there were just too many songs so I offered my two cents on each of these tracks. I'm sure this amounts to atleast an hour of music, so this is pretty much like a podcast on its own. I'll add some more tracks to the iPod soon.

I might write about Rock/Metal more in the coming months because I'm getting this by the end of the month - 



A Dunlop DB-01 Dimebag Darrell Crybaby from Hell Wah Pedal! Awesomeness in a stompbox!

The Billboard Music Awards happened recently, but I hardly feel like telling you guys about them knowing it's the same old Britney + Rihanna + Gaga deal, and the biggest news seems to be a one-second kiss between Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.

So that's it for this month (I guess).

Arrivederci,
Audiophile 93

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Leave Of Absence


Yep, this blog is going to die. 
And then it'll COME BACK, TO LIFE!

Later, that is.
Kinda bogged my boards, entrances and other mindblowing stuff. [And I mean that literally, ofcourse]. I had thought of keeping the next post for the acoustic guitar aficionados,  but sadly, I think you'll have to wait for that one till after I go through this ordeal. Right now, I can only post about a few songs, and yes, again, EDM. I kind of find myself getting obsessed with Trance and House.


Starting off, something so commercial you'll have to like it. Sorry.

Chris Willis - Louder (Put Your Hands Up)




 It's produced by David Guetta [All hail]. So quite obviously it's going to be chart busting, hip turning, shoe-squeakingly good. Typically Guetta-House. And Chris Willis is the oh-so-soulful voice behind 'Gettin' Over You' and 'Love is Gone' [Other famous Guetta hits]. Characteristically has a very sinfully low bass that really can test the guts of your music system.

[Yes, dudes, play this in your car while you pass by a group of Hotties in Khan Market/GK I. Note : Brazilians, Argentinians and people of any other nationality. This is just a habit we New Delhi boys have.]

I also heard this great Wolfgang Gartner track called Illmerica on one of Epic Twelve's [YouTube DJ] mixes. Great track. Probably what was missing were vocals, and Axident came up with a brilliant mashup - adding La Roux's Bulletproof.



I think the next one has been heard by all of you.
T-Pain and Pitbull, you're familiar with them, right?



Also, I heard a mix by Avicii of Nadia Ali's , i.e. IIO's very famous EDM hit of the 90's
called 'Rapture'. After the vocals, there is a gem of a tune. Until then, it's spandex/
latex/ something-ex suits and a good looking Pakistani woman who sings. So yes,
you'll be entertained.



And so, we come to the last one? [OMG SO SOON, and all that.]
It's another mashup featuring Pendulum's "The Island". This time, instead of Deadmau5
we have Eric Prydz, a.k.a Pryda's "Pjaano" in the mix, which does well to create a slightly calmer vocal house track.




And that's that. I know, it's almost like I gave you a 5 minute crash course on what House sounds like. Sorry for that. But that's it for this week. Don't have much to say to you bums who still visit my blog [No I love you guys .. awwwww xoxo].

Arrivederci,
Audiophile 93


P. S. No, no. Wait. There's something more.




Finger Eleven - Living In A Dream

Their WWE association continues after Kane chose one of their songs for his theme. You might have heard this band from another track called "Paralyser", and this is much in the same vein. Fun. Rock. Roll.
The official track for the WWE Royal Rumble, 2011.