Record Pool Picks, November 2008

Earlier tonight, the power went out in my hometown (Sackville). Actually, a transformer exploded up the street and the power pole caught on fire, and NB Power ended up turning off the downtown grid for about four hours while they replaced it. During this time, I actually continued to cook at the Olive Branch. However, without electric power, I was limited to the propane stove and candlelight. At one point, I was trying to do dishes with a flashlight nestled between my head and shoulder. The light was shining into the dishpit, so between shining it into the slightly murky middle sink full of water, and then shining it into the left compartment where I was spraying steamy water, I suddenly realized that I should write a blog posting about the diffraction of light, and about how much I hate movies that purport to show laser beams in space.

However, I then remembered that I am weeks behind in my work, so a post like that should wait for Christmas Day, when I'm full of wine and sarcastic wit. So instead, once I was done cooking, I finished listening to the November shipment from the Richmond Record Pool, and here are my top picks of the month ...

Live Progressive Sets:
- Kurd Maverick, “All Over The World”

Mainstream Club Sets:
- Dfuse & Hiratzka, “This Is Our Time” (Obama Bootleg)
- New Order, “Faith” (Bootleg)
- Solange, “Sandcastle Disco” (Club Mix)

Studio Mixes:
- Addex, “Night Life”
- Benjamin Leung feat Amanda Sampson, “Don’t Care” (Original Mix)
- DQ’s, “I Want You Here” (Original Mix)
- Hibernate, “Feeling” (Original)

Warmup Tracks:
- DJ Borra, “Black Sun” (Andrez Remix)
- Duvar, “Parameter” (Bjoern Stolpmann Remix)
- Fei Xue, “Flying Snow”

My favorite track from this month’s shipment was unquestionably the “This Is Our Time” track. When I put together the first mix on my website ("I Await The Morning") about six years ago, I mixed a lot of political quotes over the top of some laid-back house tracks from Hooj Choons. Most of the samples that I used were from the immediate aftermath of 911, because they were the easiest ones to find at the time. Back then, the internet was a much sparser landscape than it is at the present time, at least for people looking for wave quality sound bites. “This Is Our Time” was done a lot better than my original demo mix was, and it was ironic to hear it, because when I was watching the US Election results and Obama’s victory speech at the Pub, I thought it was a very well-written speech and thought that it would be interesting to overlay samples over a track of my own (which is what happened to create this track). As one recent CNN interviewee said, Obama has what is arguably the first pop culture presidency. Unfortunately, the Pub was (and is) a bit of a disaster from the move that had happened four weeks prior to that night, so I never did have time to put this project into motion myself. Luckily, someone else did. Click on this player to listen (the player is not visible in facebook, only in my original blog):



I should also applaud the individual who put together the bootleg of REM’s “Nightswimming.” You would think that it would be impossible to successfully combine REM, a trebly version of the Amen Break, and vocal samples of a guy who sounds like he’s sticking his tongue out at you. Well, you’re probably right. However, for a few brief moments, I almost thought that this bootleg could work. I thought that it was "a good effort under duress," even though the bootleg definitely didn’t make my best tracks list. However, I'll let you be the judge ...

James Sadoway Artist Album Released

A friend of mine, James Sadoway, has just released his first full-length album of self-produced electronica tracks. And for a limited time, he's offering free downloads of the entire album here on my website:

http://www.djbolivia.ca/jamessadoway.html

The album itself has quite a bit of diversity, from deeper house to faster breaks-influenced tracks. For those who like remixes, he's got four tracks remixed from Holden & Thompson (Nothing), Ace Of Base (Cruel Summer), Gabriel & Dresden (Tracking Treasure Down), and Plummet (Damaged). Of those, I'm especially fond of the energy that James put into Tracking Treasure Down.

Of course, James also has a number of his original tracks on the album, many of which feature the vocals of Vancouver pop vocalist Armstrong Jr. Two that I enjoy in particular are "Shut Up" and "Float Like A Butterfly."

Anyway, if you enjoy electronic dance music, I suggest you download the full album and check it out. To listen to "Float Like A Butterfly," click on the player here (visible in the original blog only, not in the Facebook notes feed).