Weekend music - Borrow, steal, or honour the originals

It's the weekend and it's time for you to listen to some music.

I like listening to electro music that takes samples from old songs and turns them into something new. To me, this is not stealing (although some would disagreew ith me on this point) but, rather, an homage to one's sources of inspiration. I have noticed that I tend to mostly listen to house music that takes samples from old disco- or soul/funk tracks, thus it is often labelled 'nu disco' (a broader term for what characterises French house music, the genre of which I am blatantly and indiscriminately a fan). 

Here the other day I re-discovered an old 'guilty pleasure' of mine, Room 5 with the track 'Make Luv' (Of course complete with cheesy spelling of the title, but I guess this sort of thing was considered cool in 2003). Room 5 is a project by Italian producer and DJ Junior Jack who collaborated with Oliver Cheatham, bringing his old classic 'Get Down On A Saturday Night' back into the charts.

First have a listen to the original. 

Then here is the version that most people might recognise (Personally I would ignore the horribly garish and tasteless Hed Kandi-style music video, or rather Barbie-esque cartoon), the 2003 hit by Room 5.

I have to share another version with you, if not solely for the hilariously brilliant music video (to make up for the tacky original). This is how I want to strut through my weekend! You would OWN the dance floor with these moves... The remix itself is not anything to write home about, as it basically puts a cheap-sounding drum machine under of the original track. Still, the song is good enough to listen to again.

If you haven't noticed already, the part starting from approximately 2:45 in the original song might sound familiar to you? It served as the basis for another chart hit from 2004, this time by British producer and DJ, Michael Gray. He changed "I can't wait for Saturday to begin" to "I can't wait for the weekend to begin". A poetic genius, in other words... 

Still, Oliver Cheatham was again credited as co-writer, thus gaining two chart hits with two different songs in two years with two different producers, from ONE song! Not bad... Such is the magic of nu-disco! Or would you rather say the repetitiveness and lack of creativity? I wouldn't blame you. I can see why house music often gets criticised for being easy, dull, repetitive, and unvaried. However, I just wanted to show you that one song, or mere sample, can spawn many songs which to a musician must be quite fascinating and flattering...! 

So I hope you enjoy your weekend!

Get Shredded, Get Playful, Get Inspired, Get Lucky.

In the wake of this upcoming Daft Punk album (I trust you've already heard the single? If not, then I admire your skill at willfully staying away from music, entirely.)

Daft Punk are "going back in order to go forwards", according to Nile Rodgers, one of the main collaborators on the album. Trying to re-invent the magic of the 70s and 80s dance floor era. Personally, I think it's a noble (read: awesome) mission. Who doesn't like a bit of disco? Even though it might not be your genre of choice, one almost can't help but move, as if stirred on some unconscious, instinctual level.

Anyways, I have given Daft Punk and the upcoming album sufficient fawning hyperbole (reading my blog lately must be like watching an excessively infatuated couple who can't keep their fingers, tongues, and tentacles off each other. Somewhat sickening, but also enviable in the sense that having such euphoric feelings does feel fantastic). What I wanted to do was simply share some videos and music with you.

Here's a so-called 'shredded' version of the Get Lucky music video. Funny as hell! I expect this is what people will sound like when they're singing/humming along to the track through headphones.

Someone discovered that if you sped Get Lucky up to 128bpm, Pharrell Williams ended up sounding eerily much like Michael Jackson! Another guy made this version in which he kept the original bpm, but pitched it up and added some MJ trademark 'noises'. The result is quite remarkable. It makes you think that had Michael Jackson been alive...

Since Nile Rodgers is such an essential collaborator and source of inspiration on this album, I have listened to a lot of Chic's music lately. Through Youtube I found some very cool and true-to-the-original 'edits' made by a Norwegian electronic artist called Todd Terje.

Lastly, I'd like to share some rare 'memorabilia' from the Discovery album. The famous voice from the tracks "One More Time" and "Too Long" belongs to DJ/singer Romanthony. This is him improvising an unplugged version of Daft Punk's trademark hit, One More Time. It's so simple, unpolished, and soulful. I really really like it (and I know that doesn't surprise you). Hope you enjoy it too!

Someone's trying to be funny...

This little track popped up on my facebook feed... A supposed leak of Daft Punk and DJ Falcon's collaboration for the upcoming album, a track called "Contact". And in case you're thinking "Can it be...?" Then let me relieve your mind of unnecessary neuronal activity: No. Fake fake fake all over.



Daft Punk - Contact (Feat. DJ Falcon) by daftworld

We didn't Get Lucky, but these collaborators are worth the wait

So today was supposed to be the day that the French dance music radio channel Fun Radio allegedly would play Daft Punk's new single Get Lucky. Seems they 'trolled' us all. Instead they played a half-arsed remix of the soundclips that have been circulating the web for days already. Nothing but a cheap PR stunt on the expense of hordes of tormented and impatient Daft Punk fans.

The amount of hype this release is creating is incredible. Remember last time I wrote a blog post about the rumours of Daft Punk's new album being called "No End" to be released on the 13.03.13? The rumour was created by this little music blog whose poor servers crashed and burned as a consequence of all the traffic. Insane. But fun!

So while we wait I thought I'd give you a little presentation of the confirmed collaborators on the upcoming album. Just one look at the names of collaborators and you know that this album will be very interesting. Some of the collaborators have already had interviews released on Daft Punk's official website, including Giorgio Moroder, Todd Edwards, Nile Rodgers, and Pharrell Williams.

Giorgio Moroder is an Italian producer who revolutionised and 'electrified' dance and disco music in the 70s with his synthesizer production. Most famous and groundbreaking for the time was Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby". Here is another of his most iconic tracks, "Chase" from the movie Midnight Express.

If you have listened to Daft Punk's Discovery album, you might recognise the name Todd Edwards. An American house and garage producer who co-wrote and produced one of my favourite Daft Punk tracks, "Face to Face". He may not be a mainstream name, but here is one of his tracks that you might recognise if you have listened to a lot of house music.

If you haven't heard of Nile Rodgers you sure as hell have heard one or several of his songs. A legendary producer, the mastermind behind Sister Sledge's "We Are Family", Diana Ross "I'm Coming Out" and "Inside Out", Madonna's "Like A Virgin", Duran Duran's "Notorious", David Bowie's "Let's Dance", and many, MANY more. And not only that. He also co-founded the legendary disco band Chic, responsible for some of the most defining songs of the disco era, such as "Le Freak", and "Good Times". No wonder Daft Punk wanted to work with him on this album. A brilliant guitarist who masters that feeling of dance music played by dynamic, organic, and live instruments. So obviously I have to share with you one of his most famous hits (and most sampled tracks in music) "Good Times"

Another producer who appears on this album, who also deserves the status of 'legendary' in my view, is Pharrell Williams. Part of the producers duo The Neptunes who pretty much owned the hit lists in first decade of the 2000's, and vocalist and drummer in the hiphop band N.E.R.D. He does the vocals on the upcoming single "Get Lucky" and another track called "Lose Yourself to Dance". His collaboration interview of the Daft Punk website is definitely worth a watch. This is not the first time Pharrell has worked with 'the robots', as he calls them, as they co-produced N.E.R.D.'s "Hypnotize U" back in 2010.

And the last collaborator I shall tell you about is one of my favourite artists/frontmen, Julian Casablancas. A man who oozes of rock'n'roll and sex appeal. I'm absolutely buzzing about this collaboration, and although it might be a somewhat surprising one, it does make sense as Julian's solo album from a couple of years back had some great futuristic synthesizer sounds. Here is his most popular track, which also happens to be my favourite, "11th Dimension"

"It's been much too long, I feel it coming on..."

If you have read my blog in the past, you might have noticed that I am somewhat of a Daft Punk fan, and thus it may not come as a surprise to you that I'm all of a sudden 'blogging' again after a looong break. (A break caused apathy. Apathy and studies. They often go hand in hand. And I am sorry, for you must have missed me so! No?)

This timely reboot of humanafterall.net coincides with the much-longed for return of Daft Punk. The news, rumours, leaks, and teasers have offered that missing spark to my motivation, and these last few days in particular have turned that spark into a roaring fire.

As is often the case with the hyperactive rumour-factory of the internet, there will be many misleading and exaggerated whispers (or rather hysterical shoutings). But some surprising facts have been revealed.

1) The entire album will premiered in front of a 4000 strong crowd at an agricultural fair in Wee Waa, Australia, on the 17th of May (The official album release is on the 21st of May.). This fact is so bizarre, funny, and wonderful that I have no further comment. Sometimes art does not necessitate opinion. Good on you, Wee Waa, you lucky bastards.

2) Tomorrow (April 20th), Daft Punk will premiere their new single "Get Lucky", featuring legendary producers and artists Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams, on the French radio channel Fun Radio. In the meantime, I suggest you enjoy this teaser that fans all over the world have been going crazy over for a couple of days now, ever since it was sprung on an unknowing Coachella audience, with the Daft Punk guys and Pharrell Williams looking on in the background. The new single is going to be a summer hit by the sounds of it!

3) The rumour of Daft Punk's presence at Coachella, immediately led to rumours about Daft Punk making another surprise appearance with their French brethren in Phoenix, who headlined yesterday's lineup. I bet the live youtube stream from Coachella has never been so crowded as during their gig. I watched it live myself this morning:
Phoenix plays a brilliant and energetic set, the crowd is wild with both excitement from the concert but also with anticipation of the rumours...
The music ends and the lights go out on stage...
The crowd starts screaming, most likely from the assumption that THIS IS IT.
And then, who appears on stage? R. fucking Kelly... That's right. R. Kelly joins Phoenix on stage with a rendition of "Ignition" combined with "1901". The mixture of surprise, shock, disappointment, disbelief, and general what-the-fuck'ness can best be described by R. Kelly himself

Ah well, maybe it was unfair of everyone to expect such a thing from Phoenix. Are Phoneix never going to be able to play another show after the Madison Square Garden gigs in 2010 without people screaming from Daft Punk? I actually think it was rather cool, in that unexpected way, that they invited R. Kelly on stage. Maybe they did it as a joke? Maybe they were completely genuine? Either way, it was an amazing concert.

And no matter how you look at it, Daft Punk are achieving amazing and mind-blowing things by simply not doing much. A simple teaser here and there and the rumour mill will do the rest to create the craze and hype around them, thus strengthening the concept and idea of Daft Punk as anonymous, artistic, powerful robotic deities, rulers and lifters of dance music. I may be a sycophant, but I think you have all reason  to believe that this album will be something big.

Daft Punk - "No End" to the rumours... (Edit)

(Edit:
After posting this blog last week I had a little exchange of tweets with the maker of HarderBloggerFaster who informed me that these rumours started circulating after Lady Gaga's photographer said he had been booked to take pictures of Daft Punk's tour next year...! Now now, then! This makes it all the more interesting and it also makes Even seem like a rash and ill-informed blogger who does poor research. However, it was never my intention to completely rule out any possibility of an upcoming return of Daft Punk. I only meant to be skeptical about these supposed 'leaks'. 

Nevertheless, the supposed album cover has yet again been appeared on twitter, this time by a French singer called Yelle. HBFblog speculates on an early 2013 album release and a subsequent tour. I'm starting to be convinced that something is stirring in Daft Punk-land, but choose to maintain my skepticism until other more convincing news appear on the surface. Either way, I can't tell you how excited I am!)

So recently a headline on the internet ripped the eyeballs out of my head and roundhouse kicked them back into place while my heart jumped out of its allocated place in my thorax and decided to throw a two second rave and all my other organs were invited. Then they all fell quietly and disappointed back into place.

The headline read "Daft Punk album cover leaked. Possible 2013 tour?"

Oh lawdy, have mercy! Like so many other converts to electro and house, my house-revelation came in the divine form of Daft Punk. I heard the light! And the smallest little whisper of a rumour that anything new might be granted unto mankind by the French holinesses of house REALLY gets my house juices pumping!

Now a little lecture on how to get views on your little interwebs site: Create an insane but plausible rumour about something insanely popular. Say, for example, Daft Punk. The mysterious robot recluses, who give no hint whatsoever about anything happening, ever. You know they won't confirm it, but neither will they deny it, they will just be Daft Punk: Quiet. So it's a win-win for the website. The internet rumour mill is already glowing red hot and the music press is running out of internet ink.

So what caused this rumour in the first place? Well, this is the alleged 'leaked' album cover, which critics (and photoshop-adept internet peeps) quickly realised was simply the cover of Daft Punk's first album 'Homework' with inverted colours... *slow sarcastic clap* You need a better trick than that up your sleeves to trick an army of cybergeeks.

Alas! This rumour is fake. Fakedy-fake-fake. Like unicorns, horoscopes, and democracy... (*Bam bam BAAAH* Dramatic music! Relax, this is not a place for political views. I don't have any. And obviously no good jokes either...)

But the internet rumour mill didn't stop there! Even an alleged ' new album' (yes, the entire album!) appeared on youtube! If the leaked album cover didn't fool anyone, how could the maker(s) of this tripe even begin to imagine that the soldiers of cyberspace would believe this to be a genuine Daft Punk album? They probably didn't... Again, it's just about getting hits and views on your site/video, fueled by desperate fans wanting to see/hear for themselves. You be the judge:

No, no, no. When the time comes for the deities of house, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, to release new material, it will far surpass some cheap, unimaginative, and derivative attempt at Justice. The world will know when Daft Punk is ready, the pillars of the earth will tremble from the bass not yet heard within the four dimensions of reality, and the Tricolore will radiate in neon colours. It will be glorious and riots and civil wars will probably break out over concert tickets.

To conclude: We know nothing certain about Daft Punk's future material. The supposed 'leaked material' is 99.9999999...(continue till the 9-key wears out)...% fake. The only thing we do know, the only little teaser that has been revealed so far is that the legendary producers Nile Rodgers and also Giorgio Moroder have collaborated with Daft Punk on some material. They reveal very little, except for praising the musical genius of the two French house-gods. Take a look and feel excited!

Electric Copenhagen, featuring Henrik Schwarz and a fanboy

This week Copenhagen turned electric, music-wise, thanks to the electronic music festival Strøm festival.

I know what you must be thinking: 'Some blog this is, telling me about a electronic music festival AFTER it has taken place?' Well, to be honest I barely just found out about it myself. And in the nick of time, because as fate would have it one of my favourite electronic artists, the deep house connoisseur,  Henrik Schwarz, was playing!

So on the Friday I made my way down to Enghaveparken in Copenhagen where they had put up a mini festival with two stages. The entrance fee? 20kr! Let me say that again, more emphatically: 20 KRONER! How's that for an awesome festival?? That is a ridiculously low price considering the artists they had on: Ritchie Hawtin, Octave One, and of course my favourite Henrik Schwarz.

I only went for a couple of hours, on my own... But Oh Lawdy was it worth it. And look who I ran into while waiting for the gig to start! The man himself, Henrik Schwarz! (You'll have to apologise for the poor picture quality but I had to get a snappy picture using the front cam on my phone)

What a gentleman and what an awesome gig it was. One hour of staggeringly beautiful, pumping, neuron firing, first class mixing of deep house. You could give this man a sound sample of an acid jazz sax solo, Tibetan throat singing, Irish folk songs, a four year old banging on a toy xylophone, anything, and Mr. Schwarz would still be able to make an awesome electronic mix out of it! He is one of the most wanted names on the (deep) house scene at the moment because of his musical flair and ability to push and cross boundaries between musical genres.

 If you haven't heard any of his stuff yet I wholeheartedly recommend you do! (Alternative music source)

(And join me in Copenhagen next summer for the next Strøm festival, if they haven't raised the cover charge to 25kr... Which would create an uproar...)