Archive for April, 2009
What’s dance music, and what isn’t?
The title of this posting is something I’ve pondered a lot over time, and it’s been on my mind a bit more lately.
The primary reason for this is that as PD for iDanceRadio.fm, as our audience grows and awareness of us builds, I find myself being the target of more promoters and record labels who are presenting product to us for consideration. That’s a good thing, of course, as it lets me hear an even broader array of music. But it does tend to make this particular question pop-up a bit more frequently.
One example from a few months ago was Creamer & K’s remix of Tom Geiger’s Can One Day Change Your Life. We played it on the station, and I even used it in some DJ sets. It was apparently a big club hit in South America, but was it dance music? Well, I don’t know. It had dance music producers doing a remix. The tempo was in the range of dance music. But the song still had a very laid back, very AOR feel to it.
I just added a track this week from Hey Champ titled Cold Dust Girl. I really struggled with this one. There’s a remix available, but I felt the remix was a bit dull to put into rotation on the station, plus it wasn’t all that much more “dancey” than the main mix. Is the main mix dance? I still don’t know. I would consider the track to be more synthpop, but then, where’s the line between synthpop and dance? Both tend to use obvious four-on-the-floor beats, and both are “electronica.”
Another recent example along the same lines is The Best Revenge from Fischerspooner. A good friend of mine has been a huge Fischerspooner fan for years, and despite his pleading, they’ve just not even done that much for me. But Revenge is a fantastic track that’s amazingly well-produced. I took to it pretty much immediately. Is it dance? Well, I always ask myself, “Can I picture myself dancing to this?” Yeah, I could, so I added it. But here too, the song is not the usual club-style dance music, it’s more broadly electronica, and certainly after listening to more Fischerspooner lately, I’m not sure how I’d categorize their music other than “experimental.”
Just this week, I received a promo CD from Angela Latti, which was expressly being promoted as “dance.” When I listened to it, I don’t hear “dance” at all. On the contrary, it’s reggae in my view. Can you dance to reggae? Well, yes, people do it all the time. Does it make it “dance music?” You could certainly make a case for that. But unlike Fischerspooner, or the Tom Geiger track, I don’t think it works in the context of the rest of the music that I play as a DJ, or that we program for the station. So as much as I liked some of the songs on Angela’s CD, I won’t be adding the focus track to the station.
What I struggle with sometimes is that I have a pretty broad definition of dance music, and I like a lot of sub-genres, from filter house to techno. And with the radio station, our mission is to deliver the broadest array of “dance music” possible, while still having a cohesive, listenable end result. Hopefully it works, but I suspect I’ll always question where the boundaries are located. And from time to time, I’ll look to push them a bit.
1 comment April 30, 2009
Is it a booger?
I have no idea where I first heard the term, but back from my days doing print and advertising design, or perhaps it came from my writing endeavors, I learned that there’s almost always an error lurking someplace that, despite your best efforts, is discovered only after it’s too late. A typo is the most common example, of course. For example, you design a business card… Everyone checks it… And it’s only after you have 1,000 of them printed does someone notice the person’s name is misspelled. Even the guy whose name appears on the card didn’t see it.
Anyway, the term I learned for this is booger.
There are boogers in music, too, although most of the time they’re only noticeable by the artist or producer who let it through without doing that one last tweak or whatever. This past week, however, I thought I found a booger in a new track that I found a bit surprising, but also, frankly, humorous. The more I listen to the track, the more convinced it’s just the vocalist voicing the part in a slightly sloppy way, but my ears just can’t keep from hearing it the wrong way. (The track originated in Germany, so perhaps some of this is the probability that the singer isn’t a native English speaker.)
In any case, the track Stay from Plasco, a cover of the country song from Sugarland, is the source. Just past the 5:00 mark on the main extended mix, the vocalist (credited only as “Natalie”) seems to sing, “Why don’t you stay? Blah blah blah knees.” I love this track, so when I got it, I listened to it several times, and every time, that’s what I heard.
The lyric at that point should read, “back off my knees,” and given how clearly the vocalist enunciates the rest of the lyrics, I just couldn’t believe it wasn’t a booger.
Just yesterday, I received a promo CD single from Radikal Records, the label behind the track. Among the mixes is a “ballade” mix that’s quite mellow, and the vocals are quite clear. I listened again. You can barely make out “back off my knees” even in this mix, and then, only if you know what you’re listening for.
So, booger or no booger? Probably no booger, but I have to confess it made the song even more interesting than it was for its musical qualities alone. Regardless, as I said, it’s a great track; check it out.
Add comment April 29, 2009
Chart update 4/24/09
I finally got last Friday’s chart posted to the web site last night, and I suppose in a way, it’s nice to see some things moving around a little finally.
- I’ve mentioned the Danny Saucedo track in previous posts, but All On You takes the #1 spot this week. I’m just wild about this track for some reason. The kid has a great voice, the song is nicely put together, it sounds fresh and unique, and well, for me, it just works.
- Carol Hahn stays in the top three, which is hardly a shock. Showing vividly that dance music doesn’t have to be songwriting pap, this well-written song (I Can Stop the Rain) is apt to continue to get strong favor in my sets.
- Speaking of well-written songs, the #3 spot is held by another great example of this: Vertigo pres. Peyton. All That Matters is a beautiful song, well-sung, and well-produced. It is mellow in feel as dance music goes, mostly due to the warm vocals, but it’s a current fave.
No real surprises for me on the rest of the chart, frankly. The one hot add for the week is the upcoming release from CAPP Records, Numb. This incredible rock cover from Jan Wayne and RainDropz! will be out in the next couple of weeks, and I really love what the guys did with it. Expect it to be played quite a bit in the weeks ahead.
Have a good rest of your week.
Add comment April 28, 2009
Playlist for Friday Night House Party Mixshow #26 (4/24/2009)
Here’s the playlist from last Friday’s mixshow, my 26th installment:
- Pepper MaShay – Freeway of Love (Oscar Salguero Club Mix)
- Benny Maze – Lucid Dream (Original Mix)
- Mischa Daniels vs. De Nuit – All That Mattered (Extended Radio Mix)
- Jan Wayne vs. RainDropz! – Numb (Re-Fuge Electro Club Remix)
- Girls Aloud – Untouchable (Bimbo Jones Club Mix)
- Gathania – Get It Out (2009 Extended Mix)
- Erika Jayne – Give You Everything (Dave Aude Club Mix)
- Danny Saucedo – All On You (Extended Version)
- Clearcut – Breathless (Ortega & Gold Vocal Mix)
- Carol Hahn – I Can Stop the Rain (Twisted Dee Club)
- Liz Kay – You’re Not Alone (Dave Darell Club Mix)
- Damien J Carter & Damien Heck – Glacier In The Sun (Extended Radio Mix)
- David Tavare feat. 2Eivissa – Hot Summer Night (Oh La La La) (Extended Mix)
- David Archuleta – A Little Too Not Over You (Jason Nevins Club Mix)
- Pleasure Center – If I Sound Excited (Original Club Mix)
- Tod Miner – Luv N Music (Tod Miner’s Rubber Mix)
- Eleze – Teardrop (Aaron “Fonzerelli” McClelland Remix)
- John Kano feat. Sarah Mattea – I’m Done With The Pain (Bella Trax Mix)
- Overnite – Where Is The Love (Hi Tack Remix)
- Andi Vax, DJ Romantic & Erik feat. Nika Lenina – I Feel You (DJ Felix Club Mix)
I also send this playlist out each Monday night by e-mail. If you’d like to be on the mailing list, just let me know.
See you this Friday at 7:00 West, 10:00 East.
Add comment April 28, 2009
An interesting self-observation
I’m assuming it’s not just me when I make this statement, but it’s funny how one can live with one’s brain, and in one’s body, for quite some period of time and still have these sorts of “d’oh!” moments when something strikes you about yourself you never really saw before. I had one of those moments on Saturday.
Before I get into that, the observant will notice that this blog posting is in the Production category, my second post here. The intent was to blog about a project I’d started and follow it along. In addition to having trouble with the vocal I’d sung and recorded, I just couldn’t seem to get the project moving in the right direction, and I think for now it’s best to table it for later.
The more interesting thing is that I’ve started working on a project, a collaboration, that definitely is going someplace. It’s too early to talk much about it, but it’s been both fun and interesting to work on it so far.
Which brings me to the observation: Music, I’m suddenly finding after all these years, is more a process of discovery, than of creation. Or, it certainly feels that way.
When I was working on Butterflies late last year, I had this same sort of feeling but didn’t quite realize it in the same way. I started out that project thinking that I was going to make a thumpy, clubby track, and that’s not at all where it went. While Butterflies can work alongside other club tracks, and I’ve played it in a mixshow a couple of times, it’s more ambient chill with an unusually fast beat. But that’s really where the song and the vocal took me when I was working on it.
With the current project, when I listened to the original rough recording, Latin immediately came to mind. I envisioned putting some brass with it, some nice piano in a place or two, and a beat that emphasized that Latin feel. That’s what I tried to do at first, but it was almost like the song was fighting me, and it wasn’t really working out very well. When I let go of that, and starting playing with some other ideas, things started to come together, which is where it sits right now. I’m anxious to get back to working on it this week.
In both cases, it felt more like I was on a mission of uncovering something than creating it. Of course, that’s not really true, but it does seem like it. And it makes me start to wonder if the project I just tabled for now wasn’t a case of the same thing working against me… Maybe the song wanted to go someplace I wasn’t letting it, or wasn’t seeing.
In any case, now that I’ve had this “a-ha moment,” I’ll see if I can use what I’ve learned to my benefit as I continue work on this current project. I’ll keep you posted. 
Add comment April 27, 2009
I still don’t want to open Pandora’s box
Shortly after it launched a few years ago, I signed-up for Pandora. What’s not to like about a service that purports to know more about the music you like than you do?
The concept is actually pretty cool (on paper). Using their “Music Genome Project,” individual songs are analyzed by a musician for a specific list of attributes, such that each song attains its own “gene” that embodies all those attributes in a coded, computer-digestible manner. Algorithms can then be used to feed you, the listener, music that is “genetically compatible” with a specific song or songs that you tell Pandora when you sign-up for an account.
The problem is—it just doesn’t work very well, at least not for dance music.
I’m uncertain whether it’s an issue of the Music Genome Project not having enough of the right attributes to properly and thoroughly assess dance and electronia, or if it’s an issue of Pandora, as a service, having sufficient inventory of dance music that’s been analyzed.
But when I tried Pandora a few years ago, I found that the music it provided me was one dimensional (I don’t think I heard a single male vocalist), old (many tracks are quite old), and… This is hard to articulate… Very narrow in sound, pretty much all 135 BPM or higher which is where most trance and techno tends to sit. While it wasn’t all trance and techno, it was all vocal (probably “right” for me), and had “inspiration” from techno and/or trance, let’s say. Artist examples include Cascada (LOTS of Casada; ugh) and Ian Van Dahl; there’s nothing wrong with the music, it’s just that I don’t want to hear only that type of dance music, all, day, long…
The other problem is that the mixes programmed struck me as very odd choices, and were often quite incompatible with one another. While I understand it’s not a non-stop mixshow, if Pandora is supposed to be genius about song picks, it should probably know better than to pair a dark, edgy, harsh mix of one song next to a more mainstream, pop-friendly mix of another. You don’t see goths and jocks hanging out with each other at the average high school, and it doesn’t work any better with dance music.
So, earlier this week, I received an e-mail from Pandora announcing that they had just released a mobile version for BlackBerry. (Why should iPhone have all the fun?) It had been months since I’d logged into Pandora, so I figured I’d check it out anew and see if anything had improved. I promptly downloaded the application, logged-in, and listened for a bit while driving around yesterday.
Let’s just say that it’s the same old Pandora that I found wanting in so many ways the first time I used it. Nothing has changed. It still sounds like somebody’s marginal, and overly small dance music collection stuffed into an iPod and set to shuffle. You’ve heard it all before a hundred times. Your friends have heard it a hundred times when you’ve provided music for the party. Someone desperately needs to hand you an iTunes gift card so you can get something good. Something new. And hurry. Please.
My nephew Ted is a trance-head. We talk about music all the time, and I asked him if he’d ever tried it. Let me just cut to the chase and say his impression of Pandora was the same as mine… Too narrow, too old, too uninspired. Neither Ted, nor I, listen to dance music this way, or for this reason.
I’ve often wondered if there can’t be something like a Music Genome Project for dance music so I can objectively assess one song vs. another; know for sure that this track is “tribal house” and not “progressive house,” for example,and be able to do better, more compatible choices when mixing a set. But alas, at least with dance music, I’m honestly thinking it’s best to leave the analysis and choosing to the humans, whether that’s yourself (and what you put on your iPod), or the PD’s or DJ’s at radio stations (who certainly aren’t perfect either, but at least have access to new music).
Add comment April 24, 2009
Do I have to like Hannah Montana?
I’ve said in this blog on several occasions that I’m a sucker for pretty songs. I think I’ve mentioned that while I love dance music, I also love music, period. And what constitutes a “pretty song” can vary between things that are aesthetically pleasing in some way, to those that touch me on some level.
Last night, a good friend of mine sent me a link to a YouTube video with some lyrics to accompany the song being performed. No, it wasn’t Internet sensation Susan Boyle, it was, of all things, a video of Miley Cyrus’ latest song from the Hannah Montana movie. Honestly, I groaned for a moment or two. Just long enough for her to get the first line or so of lyric out of her mouth, and then I think I started tearing-up a little bit.
The song is titled The Climb, and the reason my good friend sent me the link is that he thought of me when he heard it, and sure enough, the lyrics absolutely speak to me.
The theme is practically universal; maintaining perspective in the pursuit of life, and trying to remember the point that it’s about the journey, not the destination. Suffice it to say that it’s a message I could use to hear right now, which is why it resonated so much for me.
It’s an extremely well-written song on pretty much every single level, and the fact that Cyrus performs it in a pop-friendly, semi-country style takes nothing away from it.
The song was written by veteran songwriters Jon Mabe and Jessi Alexander, both of whom have been very prolific, and while I don’t realize it, I’ve probably heard their respective material before. I didn’t bother to try and find out who wrote which part (music vs. lyrics), but that doesn’t matter either; it’s the whole that counts, and what an amazing job they did putting this one together.
I sort of resent being sucked-in by the Disney entertainment machine and all their factory-produced pap. But just like good food can come both from factories and from small one-man restaurants, Cyrus deserves credit for picking a great song from some great songwriters, performing it well, and touching someone. And isn’t that what music is supposed to be all about?
You can watch the official video on Hollywood Records YouTube channel.
Add comment April 21, 2009
Playlist for Friday Night House Party Mixshow #25 (4/17/2009)
Here’s the playlist from last Friday’s mixshow, my 25th. I noticed that I didn’t get the prior week’s playlist posted; if you’re interested in it, please contact me through my web site.
- Danny Saucedo – All On You (Extended Version)
- Leah Renee – IBF (Imaginary Boyfriend) (Mike Rizzo Funk Generation Minimal Club Mix)
- Tod Miner – Luv N Music (Tod Miner’s Rubber Mix)
- Carol Hahn – I Can Stop the Rain (Twisted Dee Club)
- Justice – D.A.N.C.E. (Joe Bermudez & Perve Mix)
- KJ – Shakin’ That (Jason Nevins Extended Re-Mix)
- De-Grees vs. The Real Booty Babes – Apologize (Sunloverz vs. Michael Mind Club Remix)
- Damien J Carter & Damien Heck – Glacier In The Sun (Extended Radio Mix)
- Ultrabeat – Never Ever (Riffs And Rays Remix)
- A.R. Rahman feat. The Pussycat Dolls – Jai Ho (Soul Seekerz Vocal Mix)
- Girls Aloud – Untouchable (Bimbo Jones Club Mix)
- Calvin Harris – I’m Not Alone (Deadmau5 Remix)
- Junior Caldera – Sleeping Satellite (Junior S Club Mix)
- Vertigo pres. Peyton – All That Matters (Original)
- John Kano feat. Sarah Mattea – I’m Done With The Pain (Bella Trax Mix)
- Pleasure Center – If I Sound Excited (Original Club Mix)
- Cybersutra feat. Jacinta – I See Fire (Asi Givati Extended Mix)
- Bobby Blue – In a Song (Tim Letteer Mixshow Mix)
- Andi Vax, DJ Romantic & Erik feat. Nika Lenina – I Feel You (DJ Felix Club Mix)
- Lady Gaga – Poker Face (Glam As You Club Mix)
- Benny Maze – Lucid Dream (Original Mix)
“See” you this Friday for #26!
Add comment April 20, 2009
Losing your originality (or over-extending it)
I was having a chat the other day with my buddy DJ Romeo in Kansas City. I always enjoy talking to him about dance music, because he has a different focus and a slightly different set of musical interests than I do, and as such, he’s often got a different point of view that forces me to think about things.
Which was precisely the case the other day. I’ll leave the names out of this because it’s not even relevant, but we were talking about a new song that had come out recently, and I mentioned I’d liked a particular mix by a particular remixer. I’m pretty sure Romeo threw-up in his mouth a little the moment I got the producer’s name out of mine.
He proceeded to explain that the producer I’d named had lost his originality; that all his mixes sounded the same. No sooner than Romeo got that out of his mouth than another new song came on my iPod (I was reviewing new music), from an entirely different remixer, and I was struck immediately that two of the elements were identical—not just similar, but identical—to another popular song the guy had remixed before, as if he had just dropped the vocal stems from the new song into the software project he’d used for the song I was remembering, and then called it done.
The effect is sort of like photographing someone against a particularly stunning backdrop, and then another person wants a really nice photo of themselves, so you just Photoshop them on top of the original photo. The person is different, and the background is perhaps only slightly less beautiful than it was the first time. But it’s disingenuous, in my view, and when I see that same backdrop start to show-up in a remixer’s body of work time and again, it starts to lose its beauty (not to mention sticking out like a sore thumb).
I’m not suggesting that big-name remixer/producers all do this, or that they lack passion. But I can agree with Romeo, as someone who listens to a lot of dance music, that there is both a lot of room for originality in this game, and there are a fair number of remixers out there who seem to have lost their edge and just crank-out mixes through some sort of template.
Of course, there are business realities at play here. Some of the biggest names in the business right now seem to crank-out remixes at a pace that must surely be in the neighborhood of once a week. At what point do you cease being an artist, and start being a music factory? (I don’t know the answer, but there probably is one.) And I also know what most of these guys make to create a remix, and let’s just say it’s not a great way to make a living. If you’re gonna do a lot of remixes, and you’re gonna try and make a living doing it, spending weeks on each one is just not gonna work.
There’s also a fine line in my view between having a style, and using a cookie cutter. I will name one name here: Scotty K. This LA-based DJ/producer stands out in my mind as someone who has managed to find a style, an identifiable sound of his own, without having every single remix sound the same. His projects stand out in my mind as nearly always having a swirling sound that I refer to as “the calliope.” The actual synth patch used for it changes a little song-to-song, but it’s nearly always there, and it’s trademark Scotty K. But at least the tracks I’ve heard from him don’t suffer from sounding like the came from the same formulaic template.
Add comment April 16, 2009
The wait was worth it
The #1 song on my top 50 dance songs of 2008 is Filo & Peri’s Anthem, a renowned and hugely successful track that worked in large part because of Eric Lumiere singing the brief yet inspiring lyrics.
Lumiere’s MySpace bio has indicated he’s been working withFilo & Peri on additional dance tracks; Lumiere is ordinarily the folksy, rocky, guitar-toting singer/songwriter type. In any event, we knew something would be coming, and it just has.
Shine On is the song, and while I’m not sure it’s as powerful or emotionally-charged as Anthem, it’s no slacker by any means. As was the case with the latter song, the lyric of Shine On is one of inspiration, almost spiritual in nature, that gives it a nice emotional element that I really enjoy in music… As rare as it might be that you hear a song and your head and heart just go someplace, it’s awesome when it happens.
I wish the guys had picked a different name, although it is pulled from a central theme of the lyric. There are probably six other completely different songs in my Traktor library with the name Shine On. Apparently shining and moving forward are popular themes for songs.
I also wish that the remix package I was provided had more variety. One of the things that I liked about Anthem is that each remix treatment was pretty different… Fast trancey to slower progressive, and each one had a slightly different use of the vocal (although some trimmed out too much of it in my view).
The three mixes I have of Shine On are just not very different from each other. They’re all about the same length. They all use the same basic template (in terms of how the vocal is used and arranged). I would label all of them “vocal trance.” There’s just not any variety to them. But perhaps additional mixes are in the works, or perhaps they’re available and I just don’t have them. I hope so.
Be that as it may, the Club Mix (presumably Filo & Peri’s own production work) sounds best to me, and the well-engineered use of breakdowns highlight Lumiere’s vocal nicely, while contributing pretty much entirely to the fact that the song takes you on that emotional journey I mentioned.
It’s great stuff, and I suspect this track will be as big (or at least nearly so) as Anthem was.
Add comment April 15, 2009
