Record Pool Picks, April 2008

After going through the April DVD from the Richmond Record Pool, I’ve picked the following as my favorite tracks:

Live Sets:
- Dfuzhion, “Unidentified”
- Hypnotic Haldex, “Crazy Bass” (Chris Tall Remix)
- KT, “Riders On The Storm” (Original Journey Mix)
- Mark Norman feat Celine, “Be With You” (Original)
- Michal Poliak, “World Republic” (Bryan Cox Remix)
- Mohawk, “Celestia” (Noel Sanger Remix)
- Noel Sanger, “What Are You Looking For” (Original)
- Steve Haines, “Takin U Back” (Abel Riballos Walking Tall Remix)

Mainstream Club Sets:
- Mark Norman feat Celine, “Be With You” (Myon Remix)
- Fabio Olarte, “The Final Countdown”

Studio Mixes:
- Dfuzhion, “Multigrain”
- DJ Bia, “Deep” (More Deep Mix)
- DJ Tsepech & Naveed, “Breathe” (Summer Sessions Remix)
- Haken Ludvigson, “Trollflojten” (Soundank Remix)
- Moti Brothers, “Control”
- Moti Brothers, “Mystic Night”
- Noel Sanger, “What Are You Looking For” (Darin Mix)
- R-Tem, “Cloud Of Sound” (Natlife Nu School Remix)
- Sonic Division, “Time Machine” (Original Mix)
- Underwater, “Sleeping Under The Stars” (Sonic Division Remix)

Warmup Tracks:
- Bjoern Small, “A Sense Of Occasion” (Clockwork Mix)
- Chavi, “Otono” (Poyraz Remix)
- Diegopericles, “1994” (Jay North Remix)
- DJ Bia, “Pharma Trainer”
- Mohawk, “Celestia” (J-Soul Remix)
- Moti Brothers, “Dream”
- Stuart C, “Project 009”
- Stuart C, “Unbreakable”
- Tony Arzadon, “Super Punch”
- Tony Arzadon, “Secrets”

My favorite track for the month was the Noel Sanger track, “What Are You Looking For.” I’ve enjoyed Sanger’s production pretty consistently in the past couple of years (tracks like “Trapped” and especially “My Prayer”). This Florida resident is relatively unknown in the traditional mass media musical world, although in the electronica world, he’s certainly made a huge impact over the past decade. Touring frequently with Tiesto certainly hasn’t hurt his image, but it is his production that caught my attention. If you want to check out his DJ’ing skills, check out his Summerbreeze mix comps, especially Summerbreeze 2.

To hear "What Are You Looking For," click on the player here (visible only in the original Blog post, not in the Facebook Notes feed). Sorry, no downloads are available.

Record Pool Picks, March 2008

For those of you who follow my blog and read my monthly electronic music picks, you're probably wondering what's happened to me lately. Well, I've been pretty much swamped since the start of the year, so I haven't kept up on my music ratings. Since I don't really DJ in the summer, because of my seasonal forestry work, it's not a big deal. Usually I can catch up on several months' worth of ratings in August. However, I just bought a new device for my truck last week, which lets me play my iPod while I'm driving around. You can see it sticking out of the cigarette lighter on the right side of this photo:




The device is called a "TuneBase" FM transmitter. Probably a lot of people know how these work: they broadcast a very-low power FM output from the device, so your car FM stereo can pick it up and play it. It's sort of like a low-powered portable radio station. This particular model is extremely impressive. It has different spacers and mounting sleeves so it can handle every different size and type of iPod securely, and it has a flexible arm so you can position the iPod where it is easy for you to see while driving. I've used different FM transmitters in the past, and this one is the clearest that I've ever used (probably because it has a push-button function whereby it picks the FM frequency with the least external interference).

Anyway, so I've decided that since I drive around a lot while working, I can start to slowly catch up on my music ratings. I haven't posted any here since last fall, but since I don't have all those DVD's here, I'll just go back to March of this year and then try to catch up to the present over the next several weeks. Here are my picks from the March DVD that the Richmond Record Pool distributed:

Live Sets:
- Artificial Dreamer, “Dusted” (Part 1 Mix)
- Kaskade, “Sorry” (Dirty South Mix)
- Tegma, “Who Stole My Oscillator”
- Toby Emerson, “Rapture” (Chad C Remix)

Mainstream Club Sets:
- All Stars, “Thriller” (12-Inch)
- Des Mitchell & Chr Sarah Jane Scott, “Alive” (You Make Me Feel Full Mix)

Studio Mixes:
- DC Project & Alex Hentze, “Miss You Less” (Mix 2)
- First State, “Your Own Way” (First State’s Analog Reconstruction)
- Incognet Project, “Plastict”
- Macutchi, “All In A Day’s Work”
- Progression, “Different Day, Different Light” (Reward Remix)
- Quasar, “Road Network"
- Solarstone, “Rain Stars Eternal” (Original Mix)
- Tegma, “What The Fuzz”
- Voglemann, “Angelic” (Karim Haas Remix)

Warmup Tracks:
- Darin Epsilon pres Mimoori, “Green Destiny” (Original)
- Darin Epsilon pres Mimoori, “Green Destiny” (Section 75 Remix)
- Noel Sanger, “Natural Perfection” (Manuel De La Mare Mix)
- Tegma, “Circles”
- Tegma, “East Block (CCCP Mix)
- Tegma, “Monday Star”
- Tobias Hoppe, “Gentle Noises” (Original Mix)

I'm also going to add a new "feature" to my monthly record pool selections, the "top pick" of the month. This month, my favorite track from the DVD was the Toby Emerson track, "Rapture" (Chad Cisneros Remix).

To hear "Rapture," click on the player here (only visible in the original Blog post, not in the Facebook Notes feed). Sorry, no downloads are available.