Nekksttizzdaaaeeeeee

Stepping out of the door, sliding down on it, bursting into tears. The cretin everyday men of my army base are trying to cheer me up, but back then, when she left me, I didn't know that their truly silly attempt at making me feel better, as a men brotherhood gesture of empathy was so unexpected and had such a miraculous positive effect on me, that, looking back, it made me realize great things may happen to you when you least expect them to occur. "Life is full of surprises", our cynical way of thinking made this sentence sound so old, but maybe that's what enhances the effect when good things do happen arbitrarily, like a shady case of multiple coincidences you just have to stop and ask "Hey, how the hell did I get here?". So ya, that was then, and now I hear my hero Juan Maclean is coming to play in Israel, and when I first heard it I got so ecstatic I felt my year is clearly and undoubtfully going to be excellent, but then even something less predictable happened (remember Juan is coming to Israel, out of all the goddamn places in the world, and middle-fucking-east especially) - I am most likely going to meet my hero *in person* and show him around in Israel (say Humus!)!!! How awesome is that?

I think thorough research on the sociological impact "the internet" has done to the world needs to be carried out, like the internet made it possible for artists and their crowd to get so close (see the Myspace case, which allows you to be a "friend" of your idols), which completely blurries the borders between artists and their crowd. Moreover, thanks to "blogging" and being able to live your life in a distinct exhibitionist manner, it is obvious one would rant about their "special" anecdotes about their quasi-distant heroes. So you get a shitload of information which brings you even closer to the artist - you know more about them since the internet generates some sort of a profile. This blog is no different than the others, and I just shared with the world the fact that I will meet one of my personal techno legends.

Speaking of techno legends, I was listening to a Justus Kohncke live set from a month ago, and he had some amazing covers there (Oye-style), like singing over the International Pony's Our House organ with no vocoder, covering Chic's Good Times with the Elan background beat and a piano, and re-editing Timecode in a funkier fashion. That kind of made me nostaglic for old techno classics and I quickly downloaded 808 State's In Yer Face, which is just phenomenal. Some moments later, I recalled one of the tracks that as a child left such a HUGE impact on me I couldn't stop thinking about it till I found out what it was, and for a child with poor to no English knowledge, no internet (think 10? years ago, wow, it sounds so far away) and no other way of getting music it is definitely a hard task. Imagine the joy once I found out it was Moby's 'Next Is The E (Club Mix)'. So ya, grabbed that pretty quickly and listened to it again. Wow. Nothing changed. Just knew better how to appreciate it than the last time. It does sound 'old' but in a great way. So who cares. Played it again. And again. Over and over, like a monkey with a miniature cymbal. Yes, you know, the joy of repetition really is in me. And Hot Chip is in me too, that's understood. But you know, as an old self-confessed rave zealot Mr. Sontag ironically respects one of his mentors in a remix to one of his pretty boring tracks on his last LP, Hotel. So, I think it's both nice and sad. Tiga knows how to cherish the hardcore rave contractors he grew up on (i.e Moby), and it's just sad that great techno guys "lose" it after some time. Like, I could stand Play, a bit, and 18 just pissed me off but I didn't even bother listening to Hotel. Why would someone who knows he's so good at one area wanna desperately succeed in some other one, and not that he didn't succeed, he did, but disappointed many a technofreak crowd. Oh well, we can only rejoice with the old tracks and newcomers' (soon in the post) works.

Moby - Next Is The E (Club Mix)





From old classics to new classics, whoa, what an elegant move. I usually have one or two songs looped for a while is all that I can handle musically (which is pretty mp3 blog compatible, if you think about it). The other one is The Lift Boys' Liftvooyzzzz, first dropped by Optimo, released in a very limited number of copies, completely and utterly amazing, heavily inspired by influential Jean-Michel Jarre's Equinoxe series (Equinoxe Pt 5). Don't call it off just because it's "inspired", it's a totally new interpretation and is to be taken seriously as a modern techno classic in the premium line of tracks like Mental Cube's Q among others. The boys added the cruical drums to raise the speed a bit, sped up the original and used a happy whistle and siren effects that contribute to the rave mood. Oh god, it's so good.

The Lift Boys - Liftvooyzzzz

Here's the original masterpiece for the extension of your great musical knowledge.

Jean-Michel Jarre - Equinoxe Pt. 5

On some other hands, Erol's remix of Hot Chip (Boy From School) has been talked about in many places and as you know me I am not the one to be ignorant about these hot types of chippies. The news: it is great. I don't have much to say about it except a billion of things, but seriously, I think Erol should focus on remixing and DJing. I'm not saying songs entirely produced by him wouldn't be good, they might be great, but I don't really think he needs that. The expectations from an artist who's both a DJ, a remixer and a producer are far greater than from just a guy who DJs and "re-edits" stuff. So just stick with what you do best, and the credit shall follow. It is kind of like MSTRKRFT who are great remixers but what if their album isn't everything it's all hyped up to be? That will make them appear pretty shameful, and people tend to forget the past achievements, but I'm not people, so please, if you haven't, check out their BRILLIANT remix of Metric's Monster Hospital. Also, Simian Mobile Disco's offical best work of date is 'Hustler', the lyrics and vocals are fresh as shit, the beat is huge and the song is packed with goodies, it's delicious. Just when I thought SMD were boring me a bit with 'Clik', this song changes my entire perspective on them. Best work, should I reiterate? The DJ Funk remix of Justice's Let There Be Light demonstrates some impressive sampler work completely converting the song to the miami bass/ghetto tech dome. And also, a little tip: if I were you, yes, you, the little guy reading this text now-- I'd definitely keep an eye on New Young Pony Club. I mean, everyone needs their own little indie pet band, and this one deserves some serious caressing. You all got Mystery Jets already but please, open your hearts, this is for a good cause!

Oh, right, almost forgot, please check out the shit hot DJ mixes at Skull Juice, those kids (seriously, kids) do know what they're doing. They run a great blog too, and DJing influences seem to be The Glimmers, 2 Many DJ's in their ascetic period, uhhh The Outlaws.. too, whatever, it's great.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very intersting post. good luck.

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha it's omer tal!

Alex Egan said...

great post, for some reason didn't comment til now! we appreciate the props as well :) i agree with you about 'clik', probably my favorite SMD track so far...can't wait for the vinyl