This week on MC77, I had the chance to present one of my favorite trip hop bands, Pretty Lights. I apologize for my voice on the record, it was pretty bad (flu + too much party; am still laughing at it), sorry ’bout that (besides my French accent doesn’t help, and don’t ask me why I said Pretty Lights’ Derek name with the French/English accent).

Anyways without further due go here and enjoy.

PS: The third track of the show rushed old band memories from 2003. I hope the friends who listen remember that special day we played this song in Beirut.

Cheers

So now that I have a day off from compilations and house tracks, I decided to peak at an album that has been lying around my music library for a while, “The invisible insurrection” by Desolate released on Fauxpa’s vinyl-only record label.

Desolate is a German based producer with lots of, huge talents.

This album is a subtle blend between ambient and rhythmic patterns ranging from dub to more atmospheric sophisticated parts. The album transports you in great dimension, and projects you in a world of dreams and unconscious depth of your inner soul. The pads and delayed pianos give the tracks a certain finesse, it’s like seeing water drops in slow motion. In fact, it slows down time around you. The soft rhythm lays in the background as a secondary non intrusive instrument, giving way to a spacial and wide stereo experience. The dub influence gives every tune a contemporary personality leading to a successful marriage of genres.

The opening track “Imagination” starts the journey off with a complex trip hop rhythmic pattern, leading the way to a journey on a hip hill. “Follow suit” blends in and slows down the whole experience and definitely hooks you on board. What follows is a series of dub and ambient droplets, sounds meets lights. “Farewell #2″ is an amazing track bringing you a cinematic experience full of emotions and sensitivity. “Escape” is a breathing like track, with an out of this world bass drop, guaranteed to make your heart beat go as low as ever before! As the journey continues, “Endurance” re-awakes you into a dub rhythmic world with a soft delayed piano.

You would have guessed by now, this album isn’t just a mere Ambient/Chillout album, it is a rich experience of sounds and lights. It is best savored with a very good stereo setup or very good earphones to maximize the “immersive” experience. It’s a lot of feelings and hot/cold sensations. If you like ambient and dub melts, this is your album.

I will surely be listening to it for a long while!

Have a good Sunday.

Traffic jams can have many downsides but surely a great positive one, listening to music and flipping from one station to another. As I was running through my presets, I came across the one station that never fails to grab my attention “TSF Jazz”. The tune that was playing was “World Changes“, brought to you by “Giovanni Mirabassi“, a French based Italian pianist.

This tune is taken from his latest live album named “Live at Blue Note Tokyo”, a collection of amazing piano jazz with amazing melodies and grooves. “World Changes” is very interesting in its progression and melodies. It has such an intense groove as a theme, that you won’t be able not to stop anything and just focus on the beauty of the melody. The arrangement is absolute perfection and it’s quite a bliss to listen to it.

The album revolves around the piano, eventually, and the many wonders and constructions that can be built around such a majestic instrument. Groove and percussion are surely of the party, you won’t be disappointed. Giovanni has a very soothing and melodic approach to the tunes, surely you’ll need to be in the mood for jazz, but it won’t bore you a second.

So if you’re looking for a calm jazzy album to entertain your evenings, help your focus on work or bring some calm to your “heck-of-a-day” day, make sure to check this guy out.

It doesn’t hurt to listen to some jazz sometimes

Grab your copy of the album from Amazon here

It all started with a tune Luc Ringeisen’s “Les Trombonnes Du Caire” when I was searching for future track candidates for my next radio set. I was listening to Luc’s release since it was re-released recently when I stumbled upon “The Sound of the Underground”‘s album. I peaked a few listens from beatport, unfortunately it couldn’t give me the whole feel of an album. It wasn’t a problem since I was looking for inspiration and something new to listen to. I bought the album and decided to give it a try one morning on my way to work.

The magic operated the moment I clicked on play and I wondered how the hell did I miss such an amazing album back in February 2009 (Date of its release). Silicone Soul, a duo from Glasgow, had made of this album an amazing work of art! It’s an amazing journey into different sounds, ranging from ambient progressive house to more ranging tunes. It has the ability to make you ignore where you are and how long you have been listening. An immerse experience.

The technique behind the album is absolutely perfect, seamless experience, seamless transitions and a total control of every track’s harmonics. Needless to say I was enchanted by it, even after 15 runs.

So if you’re looking for a gem for your next trip, you know what to do

Anyhow, they recorded this cover of Coldplay’s “Violet Hill” within a series of videos called “The Donegal sessions”. The cover is pure and their 4 voices marry amazingly well together. The clip reminded me of the forbidden Catacombs in Paris, Violet Hill is one of my favorite songs of Coldplay, so I hope you’ll enjoy this cover as much as I enjoyed discovering the artists and their talent.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47rEwi8Iaxo

To tell you the truth, I stumbled upon it just a couple of weeks ago while watching the band promote their album on TV on the Taratata show. Shame on me. Levine was absolutely, hmmm, lovely, delightful, hmmm, it’s not the point Click here if you want to see the video.

So back to the album. After a quick tour on the iTunes library to buy the baby, I test drove it as I usually do for all the albums : Different listening conditions, static and on the move. My first impressions were surprised, a bit lost at first, impressed and then happily surprised. The album screams lots of known references yet it’s unique. It’s a melting pot of Pop and Funk, guaranteed to make you sing along.

To sum it up, the Maroon 5 sound from the last album I heard and the mythical “This love” that I had the chance to cover in my different acoustic gigs, changed! It matured and risks were taken in this multi genre album.

Maroon 5 are all about Pop and they claim it up and high and that’s GOOD. It’s the kind of music that drives people and they are good at creating such hits. Knowing that the AC/DC, Def Leppard producer worked on the album, was a not so useful information to me, since the album poured complex, researched and amazing songs. But props to the team

In depth impressions after heavy listening, made me want to sing along and go back on stage! The songs drive you forward with lyrics that are well written and easy to relate to, Levine did an awesome job talking about love, trust, betrayal and moving on. The melodies are exquisite and well arranged for polyphony and group singing. I had a “Glee” vision at some point with the famous series covering a couple of the songs. But Maroon 5 didn’t want to stay in the comfort of the Pop registry and took the risk to expand beyond this limit into Reggae like, Power rock as well as lots of in depth funk. Moreover, the country/bossa duet with Lady Antebellum is a great success and it brought freshness and sweetness that I’m sure the world is in need of.

I won’t talk about all the songs, since I think all of them are very promising hits. I will just talk about my personal ever bests.

“Misery”, in its original funky version is a Maroon 5 signature (another “This love” hit).

“Give a little more”, an amazing song with amazing melodies and soulful progressions. It’s a successful mixture of Pop and R’n'B (the good kind, that is). I felt it a little early Timberlake like, you could swing to it and smoothly move while singing along. A delight.

“Hands all over” is the sexiest tune of this year. Apart from the fact that the lyrics are exquisitely explicit and yummy, the build up of the song is an absolute perfection. The melody embraces the lyrics in a perfect imbrication. Yin Yan style.

“Stutter” was THE surprise, percussive and risky but quite enjoyable. Levine’s voice gave in to the interesting situation painted with the lyrics. The kind that makes the heart go way off reason.

The deluxe edition features acoustic versions of “Misery” and “Never gonna leave this bed” as well as an Alicia Keys cover “If I ain’t got you” that marries amazingly well with Levine’s soulful voice. It’s another personal favorite.

“Get Back In My Life” is my “Glee” song

Anyways, Maroon 5 won the bet of producing a successful album with interesting and surprising insights. They know what they are doing and they do it with proficiency and assurance. They have found a way to turn mere popular music into musical masterpieces that you could listen to over and over and over, whether you’re happy or sad or neutral

Enjoy it and Happy Music Monday

Grab your copy of Maroon 5′s Hands All Over

Maroon 5 Official website

Rock Dust Light Star

“Rock Dust Light Star” is the 8th album of Jamiroquai, “home” recorded after 5 years of a needed break (Quoting Jay Kay). Its cover screamed, no genre, no category, no boundary, take the old, remix with the new and play it from your heart. The result is a groovy, funky rendez-vous with Jazz and Rock.

The music flow from track one till fifteen is an absolute bliss and a journey into many worlds. It’s a musical gem to every musician searching for complex yet simple arrangements. It’s rich in melodies, bass lines and techniques, as well as interesting dimensions yet unexplored by the band in any recording yet.

There’s a notable jazz progression in all the arrangements, much more present than the older albums to my ears. You’d tell me it’s funk, yet there’s something more to it that I have to transform into words, and I can’t figure out how. The Rock approach is, to my taste, the cherry on top of this album. It’s like we’re back to the roots of things, well balanced saturated guitars and wild wah’s. Less electro-ish-ism and more acoustic approaches might be a winner combination.

Every track explores new horizons and changes the weather around you in seconds. The funky  grooves of “All things in the hood” meets mellow “Blue Skies” and “Never gonna be another”‘s beautiful wavy feel. “Lifeline” combines Lenny Kravitz with a Chicago-Musical-Like big band, who wouldn’t want to jam over that, smiling guaranteed. Jamiroquai’s touch and feel are always here, reminding us of the good old times in “A Space Odyssey”. “White Knuckles Ride” is one of them. “Hurtin” represents exactly what I stated about the Rock part of the album, it’s a minimalistic track that will make you want to sing along and clap your hands to.

I could write million of lines on this album, but I have to keep it short and concise. Overall, this album is just a must get, a must listen to even if you’ve never listened to any Jamiroquai before. It’s a brand new and fresh bowl of beauty that will make you groove, swing and explore new worlds. You’d be missing on a lot if you don’t.

This rainy Parisian day was the best day to write this review, since sunshine warmed up the room! I invite you to do the same and do share what you think of the album.

Grab your copy of Rock Dust Light Star

It’s been a while I haven’t listened to an RA podcast for the lack of time probably and maybe because what they offered in their past podcast didn’t fit what I was searching for. So as I wandered around the iTunes podcast folder and after reading the little description on Commix set, I didn’t hesitate.

I had no idea who Commix were until today. Their world revolves around Drums and Bass, a style that I miss listening to (again lack of time) but they decided to make a house and techno set for the RA podcast.

RA says

House and techno probably aren’t what you expect when you see the word Commix. But George Levings and Guy Brewer have been full of surprises of late.

This set is just pure beauty and a sure bet for an amazing journey into the meanders of your mind. It’s everything I was searching for today: Finesse, darkness and depth. It’s on the edge of deep house and techno with minimalistic elements, yet it fits in none of the genres.

Both of us have slightly different tastes in house and techno music, so we wanted both sides of what we’re into to be represented properly. We were also keen for the mix to have a good dynamic and flow to it

The dynamic is there and it shows in the continuous and coherent flow this set is taking. Their mixing skills is second to none, kudos for that.

You’re hooked onto the flow since second 1. You eventually snap out of it once you realize that the audio experience you heard should be shared and spread to others. No doubt you have to listen to it again and again (thing that I am doing while writing this post).

So if you’re searching for something out of the ordinary, trippy and brainy, you know what to do. It’s a set that fits this winter mood Europe is slowly getting sucked into, but it will also fit a nice sunset on the other side of the globe.

I thank RA for their inspiring little description that made me want to listen to more of Commix (and the other podcasts I have missed too). I’ll surely be checking out Commix’ work.

residentadvisor.com

Follow the link here http://soundcloud.com/junkiexl/jxl-inception-rmx-mix

An amazing blend of emotions and epic moments in this tune.

You can buy it on iTunes and it’s a classic already!

Check out JunkieXL’s facebook profile here

There’s no need to elaborate a lot on U2, since the band is a living rock legend. It’s one of the bands that I grew up with even though I didn’t understand the true meanings of their songs till a bit later. “With or without you” was my teenage anthem. My cousin and his friends (Hi to all, if you read me) played it over and over in the car.

After the release of “No line on the horizon”, U2 started their international (European and North American) stadium tour known as “360° Tour” referring to their 360-degree staging/audience configuration. It’s a unique and a premiere as a stage configuration where they are basically surrounded by their crowd.

The 25 October 2009 concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California was filmed for the concert release U2 360° at the Rose Bowl. This same concert was streamed to over 10 million viewers on U2′s official Youtube channel. I remember watching it live in the morning (Thanks to the time difference between Cali and France) then later in the afternoon, since it was available on demand. Well now, you can find it on DVD for an HD experience.

The show is flawless, giant and mind blowing. The center-like setup makes perspectives very interesting, I mean it makes them huge and uber giant. You can see how immense the stadium is, how small the stage looks like compared to it, and how much cheering people there was there. The visuals are colorful and “in-your-face” like. Marrying LCD screens and a laser show. No wonder they choose to experiment with a circle shaped stage, as it was the only solution to give their crowd an optimal feel of visuals and sounds. The latter must have been amazing, surrounding the whole stage, starting from the center and flying equally everywhere. Just talking about it gives me goosebumps.

The DVD was filmed over a single night, something that rarely happens. The recording camera’s and all the crew behind it were flawless again. Director Tom Krueger was behind the scenes.

Need I talk about the music ? Urm no, it’s U2, they are legends, their songs are too.

I am sad to have missed this gig in Stade de France, but it was quickly sold out.

So, if your father likes rock and you have no clue what to bring him for father’s day, go and crab a copy of this magnificent DVD because  it’s a piece of collection to play every time you feel good, down, blue, happy, energetic.