Posts filed under ‘Dance Music’
Lettin’ the cat outta the bag
On the heels of the release this coming week of Carol Hahn’s Take Me and Dance, which includes a remix from yours truly, I’m pleased to let the cat out of the bag on the next remix… The Reason, from New York’s Vincent Medugno.
Medugno (pronounced “muh-DOON-yo”) is a new artist whose first release, We Are Meant to Be, hit the Billboard charts within the past few months. He’s got a strong tenor voice, and a bright future.
This next release is a cover of a rock ballad, originally from Hoobastank. The Reason is a lyrically beautiful song, and it struck me as a very unusual choice for a dance cover when I first received Vincent’s acapellas. In fact, my first reaction was something along the lines of, “What the heck am I gonna do with this?”
But, it didn’t take long to sort it out, and I’m very proud of the end result. Reason takes a different route from Dance, and while still very much dance music, you could say it’s mellower and perhaps more mainstream. The arrangement is rich, and Vincent’s amazing vocal shines through the mix nicely.
You’ll hear it show-up during the DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party mixshows starting today (September 4th), and I’ll be posting previews soon. It’ll be out in the next few weeks on Casa Records, and as always, I’ll keep everyone posted here on the blog, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
I hope you enjoy it.
Playlist for Friday Night House Party Mixshow #43 (8/21/2009)
Here’s what played on last week’s DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party:
- Gia Bella – Back it Up (Dave Aude Club Remix)
- September – Until I Die (Dave Ramone Club Mix)
- Gathania – Blame It On You (Wideboys Club Mix)
- Pepper MaShay – Freeway of Love (Dany Wild Club Extended)
- Jada – American Cowboy (Mike Rizzo Funk Generation Club Mix)
- Bellatrax feat. Tina Cousins – Can’t Hold Back (Original Club Mix)
- Carefree – Broken Strings (Sebo Reed Electro Mix)
- MSTRSS feat. Deborah Lee – Danger (Extended Mix)
- Novaspace – Dancing Into Danger (Groove Police Club Mix)
- Vincent Medugno – We Are Meant to Be (Georgie Porgie Extended Mix)
- Ash – True Love 1980 (Timothy Allan Remix)
- Bananarama – Love Comes (Wideboys Club Mix)
- Pink – Funhouse (Digital Dog Remix)
- Sneaky Sound System – It’s Not My Problem (Stockholm Syndrome Club Mix)
- Rico Bernasconi – Love Deep Inside (Original Club Mix)
- Bad Boy Bill – Do What U Like (Dave Aude Club Mix)
- Agnes – Release Me (Cahill Club Mix)
- Beatnik Castle feat. Francillia – Will U B Mine (Lenny B Extended Club Mix)
- Avalon Superstar feat. Rita Campbell – So Alive (Vocal Club Mix)
- Lazard – Your Heart Keeps Burning (Stefano Sorrentino Remix)
- David May feat. Moises Modesto and The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” – Superstar (Phonatics Remix)
Tune-in this Friday for another two hours of great dance music, mixed live!
Chart update 7/31/09
I just posted my Top 25 Dance Chart for the week on my web site. You can read the whole chart by clicking that link, but here’s the Top 10 this week:
| TW | LW | Artist | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Ameerah | The Sound of Missing You | Robbins |
| 2 | 3 | Divine Brown | Sunglasses | Warner |
| 3 | 4 | Jessica Jarrell | Armageddon | Mercury |
| 4 | 2 | Gia Bella | Back it Up | Xtreme NYC |
| 5 | 5 | Just Jack with Phil Garant feat. Matina Parisi | Smoke | Moda |
| 6 | 9 | Tod Miner | Totally Numb | Music Plant |
| 7 | 6 | Vincent Medugno | We Are Meant to Be | Casa |
| 8 | 10 | Ann Lee | 2 People | Off Limits (Italy) |
| 9 | 7 | Lauren Hildebrandt | Boyshorts | Red Wallet |
| 10 | 19 | Rico Bernasconi | Love Deep Inside | CAPP/Starshit |
Added this week are three great new tracks:
- The UK’s Carmen Reece is getting a lot of play with the track Right Here, and I’ve really warmed-up to this one. (Thanks, Carson!)
- The voice behind hits from Kaskade, Deadmau5 and others, Haley is added this week with a single credited to her directly, This is How it Goes. I really love this one!
- Hailing from Cambridge, Mass., Passion Pit get an add and a chart spot this week with The Reeling, a great track with a really unique sound and feel. While I’m playing a dance remix, it still has the sound of something different that’s hard to put my finger on.
Once again, check out the web site for the full chart.
Feeling slighted? Write a song.
Toronto singer, songwriter and actor, James Collins, felt slighted. And in the fashion of country artist Dave Carroll (whose United Breaks Guitars has been a viral sensation), Collins responded by writing and recording a song.
Collins’ slight might not have had the broad appeal of an airline throwing around multi-thousand-dollar instruments on the tarmac, but it was significant to him nonetheless. In short, he went on one of Rosie O’Donnell’s “r Family” cruises, where one of the guest performers was none other than the inimitable Cyndi Lauper. As expected, there was a fair amount of interest from guests in being photographed with or getting autographs from Lauper, but as the story goes, when Collins asked to be photographed with her, she apparently said “no,” and walked away.
I wasn’t there and can’t vouch for the veracity of the story, but that James Collins was motivated to pen a song about the experience lends it some credibility, and certainly expresses how the simple snubbing made an impression. Why Lauper would be prompted to rebuff an adoring fan (especially in the captive surroundings of a cruise ship) is beyond me. But given the brouhaha that developed last year when Lauper was to appear on CBS Television’s Early Show, one wonders if Ms. Lauper isn’t getting a little full of her diva self as she gets older. Or, perhaps she was just having two notable and publicly documented bad days. Regardless, it’s probably not the sort of publicity one might ideally want to get for a recording artist whose peak of popularity appears to be behind her.
Don’t get me wrong—I have been a Cyndi Lauper fan since the 1980s, and I think her newest work is among her best. But we all like to believe that our idols are kind, and generally respectful of their fans; that being held to a higher standard, they respond accordingly. Alas, it would seem that Lauper is just like the rest of us, and not only has her bitchy side, but isn’t afraid to let it show. Perhaps she’s entitled.
In any event, I find Collins’ song, Cyndi Lauper Said No, to have a bit of a novelty element to it, not at all unlike Carroll’s United Breaks Guitars. “I have a grievance, and let me tell you about it.” It’s probably not the stuff from which ASCAP songwriter awards are made. But that being said, Collins did a good job with the track, and the dance remixes that are available are ready-made for a number of audiences, many of which will appreciate the groovy dance beat as well as the sardonic lyric. Collins’ delivery is certainly capable, but stylistically sort of underscores the derisiveness of the words.
Despite what might seem like my doubts about this song, truth be told, I like it, and I both respect and admire Collins for taking his case to the public, and translating his slight into unique way to get the last word.
Well, we assume it’s the last word; no news from Lauper’s camp as to whether she’s heard the song, what she thinks of it, or whether she’s bothered to apologize to Collins. Stay tuned.
Taking the wraps off
I’ve alluded for the past few months about a remix project I’ve been doing, but it’s been a little premature to talk much about it. But today, it’s time to take the wraps off.
Back in May, I started working with Carol Hahn on a new track titled Let Me Go. The remix was pretty well completed, but for a number of reasons, Carol decided in June not to release Let Me Go right now. While I was pleased with my mix, the song is a bit “dark,” and the mix itself ended-up being a bit dark as well. In any case, it’s been shelved for now. Hopefully at some point it’ll see the light of day.
The good news is that last month, Carol wrote a different new song, Take Me and Dance. When I heard her own rough of the track, I fell in love with it immediately, and started work on a remix of the song. It came together quickly, and I think, very nicely. It has a nice sort of grungy element to it that, as Carol said, “has good energy, power, and attitude.” I hope everyone likes it when they hear it.
Also providing remixes on the release are the renowned Lenny B., who I think has remixed just about everyone under the planet, and my British-expat friends from Spain, Jamie Exley and Peter Hayward who are better known as VisionX, and who also did a really strong remix. Between the three mixes, Take Me and Dance covers some broad sonic territory, and I’m stoked about the release. I believe it’s going to be a successful track, so thanks in advance for keeping your eyes open for it and snagging a copy on iTunes or AmazonMP3 once it’s available (sometime in August).
For those anxious to hear, you expect it to show-up in this week’s DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party, and I’ll be posting it to my Facebook and MySpace pages as well soon.
Now that this track is in the can, I’ll be starting a new project here in the next week or so for another artist. I’ll post details about that as soon as I have them.
Miner uncovers a gem
A couple of months ago or more, I blogged about a then-still-new track from producer Tod Miner, Luv N Music. As I explained at the time, I absolutely couldn’t stand the track the first 10, 20 or 30 times I played it. (Literally.) After being encouraged to give it yet another chance, I did, and ended-up warming-up to and really liking the track… Proving that first impressions might well be important sometimes, but they are not always accurate. (This also happened recently with amberRose Marie’s Wanna Be a DJ, which I also just hated the first several listens.)
In any case, I’m pleased to report that Tod’s latest track didn’t quite play out this way. The track, Totally Numb, made quite the first impression. There are a large number of mixes available, and I warmed-up rather quickly to Georgie Porgie’s take on the track, which is richly programmed and well-structured.
Part of the difference this time around is that arguably, Totally Numb is simply a better song than Luv N Music (in my opinion anyway). It’s nicely written, and the vocals, performed by Michelle Watt, are nice, and pleasant to listen to.
While the Georgie Porgie mix is not among them, you can hear some of the other mixes on Tod’s MySpace page.
With chops like this, there’s no need to “back it up”
Last week, I received a promo for a new track from both an artist, and a record label (XtremeNYC), I’d never heard of. I’m always a little skeptical when I get total unknowns, but I dutifully slipped the CD in my player, and was very pleasantly surprised.
The song is Back it Up, and the artist is 16 year old Gia Bella. The photos on her MySpace page convey a look that’s far more mature and mischievous, but be that as it may, she has a great voice that paired with a decent song and the strong production work on this release, is a combination that works.
Dave Audé’s name might be plastered on every other dance release these days, but his mix of Back it Up is incredibly solid; it’s got the perfect funky feel for the song, and a nice, dark, gritty percussion that just begs for you to get on the floor.
You can hear a sample on Gia Bella’s MySpace page (link above).
The sound of a new Belgian import
Belgium may stick out more in my mind for great chocolate than for dance music, but Robbins Entertainment picked a particularly strong track to bring to the US from that European country in Ameerah’s The Sound of Missing You.
As I’ve written here several times, I always pay attention to lyrics, and I love a well-written set of words that tell a story, convey emotion, and generally make me feel something. And The Sound of Missing You delivers.
The song was written by Swedish producers and brothers Sebastian and Didrik Thott, along with Carl Björsell and Ameerah El Ouiglani herself. The Thotts have penned songs for Celine Dion and Lindsay Lohan among others, and certainly brought their talents to bear on this project.
Ameerah’s vocals, however, are perhaps the main reason this song works so incredibly well. They are silky-smooth, heavy with emotion, and just plain beautiful.
There are only a couple of different mixes on the release; the original, plus one from producer Dave Ramone, each in a radio and extended versions. But it doesn’t need any others; the production on the original version is polished and flawless, and both radio- and club-friendly. And the reception to this track has been strong so far.
It’ll be interesting to see how this release does, and what’s next from Ameerah.
It’s Med-oon-yo
One of my favorite recent releases is a great track from a newcomer, just put out a couple of weeks ago on Casa Records. The song is We Are Meant to Be, and the artist is Vincent Medugno.
With my decidedly mutt genetic roots, that include a total absence of any Italian, I had no idea how to pronounce this guy’s name, and when faced with the need to say it on-mic recently, I totally botched it.
Freddy Retro, a New York producer who worked on the release, set the record straight for me recently. It’s pronounced, “Med-oon-yo.” So easy and seemingly obvious once he told me. *sigh*
Anyway, check out the track… You can hear it in Vincent’s MySpace player. I’ve been playing the mix from the incredible Georgie Porgie, but there’s a number of great mixes to choose from, including Freddy’s own.
With a debut this strong, I’m gonna wager this isn’t the last we’re going to hear from Med-oon-yo. 
A storied song gets a dance treatment
The controversial Sinéad O’Connor is fairly well-known, but I’d be hard-pressed to recall any of her songs, with one exception: Nothing Compares 2 U.
I was surprised to find out that Nothing was penned by Prince back in 1985, but it was Sinéad’s cover in 1990 that propelled her (and the song) to worldwide recognition.
I wouldn’t have seen the song as a good candidate for a dance cover, but that’s precisely what we have now from Consoul Trainin, one of the names used by Greek producer John Efthimiou (a/k/a John Stephanel), with vocals provided by Joan Kolova, whose has graced other Consoul Trainin projects.
Released under the modified title Nothing Compares to You, and finding its way to the US on the Redstick label, it’s a competent, inviting reinterpretation of the song. A number of mixes are available that go from chilly and loungey, to pretty “out there.”
Kolova’s vocals don’t attempt to replicate O’Connor’s distinctive sound (a strategy that is perhaps too-often used in dance covers), but rather, gives the song a cool, new sound that is at once familiar, and fresh.
Efthimiou chose remixers for the project that are, to me anyway, unfamiliar (which is a great opportunity to find some new sounds). My preferred mix is from another Greek producer, Agent Greg, but you can check more of them out on Consoul Trainin’s MySpace page (link at the top of this entry).
