My friends and I regularly challenge each other to making short playlists as a way of finding new music & introducing each other to artists we’ve never heard of.
After Hotness x Beatdown mixtape 1 came another challenge, for which I’m copypasting the rules below because I can’t find the original post:
It’s time for a new round of HOTNESS X BEATDOWN, kids
STANDINGS from HXB1:
3 pts BHen (First Blood Pin)
2 pts Bryan
1 pts WinocurDeadline: July 31st, 23:59
Requirement:1) 5 Tracks
2) All bands must be based in Europe (excluding UK and Ireland) or Africa or Central Asia, anything west of the Caucus mountains.Judge panel: (Updated as added)
Octa
TBDContestants:
Moi (CONFIRMED)
Winocur (CONFIRMED)
BHen (CONFIRMED)
PDixie (DECLINED)
David Martinezzz (CONFIRMED)
STEVIE XL (CONFIRMED)
AISHITENE MOOOOOTOOOOO MCNALLY (CONFIRMED)
STEVEN “BOTS” NICKESON (CONFIRMED)
YO KHO (He’ll repo your ho)
Anyone else want in?Reward Pts:
1 pt for the lowest
….
X people pts for the bestReward Pin:
Hoes In Every Area Code Pin
Read on for submission to HXB2 Fortress Europe:
DENMARK: Jesper Kyd’s “Prelude” off http://www.jesperkyd.com/music_alt.php — intro. TBH I’ve …played 100+ hours of Borderlands and never heard (or didn’t pay enough attention to hear) this track in it.
ITALY: Lacuna Coil’s cover of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx58hXh4pVA — warmup with a familiar tune
ISRAEL: Kutiman’s “Craftsman” mix at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAgyDhWk5tE
— say hello to percussion
HOLLAND: Foreign Beggars & Noisia – No Holds Barred (Excision remix): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwLfn9HZazA — Noisia brings it hard and heavy as always
Backup if Foreign Beggars disqualifies that track (they’re from UK):
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA: Protoculture’s mix of his Silver and Black Sun tracks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUWIzAPkbqs — might have to keep an eye on this guy, he’s already gotten Markus Schulz’ and Armin van Buuren’s attention
PARIS, FRANCE: Gotan Project’s “Tango Square” off Tango 3.0: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFvUQLUURHo — cooldown & get sexy.
I’ll put my commentary/critique on the fellow competitors’ submissions as either edits or comments to this post.
Critique of competing submission at http://justfuckinggiveup.blogspot.com/2010/07/kill-it-with-freitag-hxb.html
Radiodept: Strongest track on the mix.
Jean Claude: ehh…not a big fan. Overstays its welcome by at least a full minute, which is plenty for a track this short. Could see it doing okay as a radio single.
Whoop Whoop: makes me glad I didn’t put anything from the Banlieue 13 Ultimatum soundtrack into my submission, because it would’ve gone face-to-face against this one. Beat’s oversimplistic, but I can’t remember the last European rapsong I heard where the beat wasn’t. Tough to tell whether a track I would’ve put up against it would’ve won out or been defeated.
Rocketship: First 32 seconds makes me expect a much better song than it turns out to become. Despite that, I think you could toss darts at the seek timeline and find plenty of 15 to 30 second excerpts would make ideal remixfodder. One of the better tracks.
Mao Zeitung: easy to tell these guys would be a fun band to visit live in a smaller venue. As recorded, not a huge fan of the track.
B-sides:
5h dans ta peau: replace half of the male lead’s parts with more time for the female lead to sing instaed of rap, and I’d like it enough to say it belongs in the playlist proper. French women’s accents do that.
Singleton: If I were an advertising exec I’d have this on my shortlist of stuff to try as the background for an ad or series of ads. At 4+ minutes I was worried it’d be much too long for how repetitive it is, but somehow it wasn’t too bad (probably because of the shift in tone a little later than halfway through)
RIO: easily danceable, and the volume of the claps in the beat is just right. Could’ve made it onto the playlist proper.
Jungle Drum: first time I hear the Tolo remix of this track. Most exciting thing about it is that the way it handles the tune from 0:25 to 0:40 or so makes me think the vocals could be successfully mashed up with the backbeat of Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” chorus. Wonder how easily the rest of the track could be mashed up with early 80’s stuff.
Kids on Fire: can see why this ended up on your b-sides. I like that Juri knows what he’s doing when he brings a retro flair to a track, and that puts him well above, say, Basshunter (ugh, what’s happened to him?), but this track wasn’t strong enough to make it to the submission this week.
V got hacked: Gramophonedzie did a great job picking samples to put in this track, but somehow it’s not as good as the sum of its parts.
Deli: surprisingly listenable for a track that leans so hard on the Amen Break as a crutch. I’m aware the choral background bits are likely computerized/fake but they were still an excellent addition.
Critique of competing submission at http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/playlist/HXB2+playlist/32536990
Staygold’s “Backseat” – vocalist sounded almost too Justin Timberlake-y for me, but I started liking the track a little more as it went further.
Phoenix’s “Lisztomania” – not bad, but either I need to listen with a different soundsystem or the track is in need of a remaster. As is, a lot of the less interesting two-note looping by the guitarist gets more attention than his more varied bits, which get buried in vocals and more.
VNV Nation – bending the rules indeed; Wikipedia notes VNV’s a British/Irish band now based in Hamburg, Germany. The beat on this track is solid enough, but the vocalist makes me less of a fan than I could be.
Infected Mushroom’s “Shakawkaw (Vibe Tribe mix)” – I haven’t been following Infected Mushroom, but I can’t remember the last track I heard by them that wasn’t at least above average. Solid choice.
Machinae Supremacy’s “Sidology Episode 3: Apex” – first I hear of this band. Good change of pace form the rest of the playlist, and I’m automatically liking them already for putting most/all of their discography up as free-to-download FLACs on http://www.machinaesupremacy.com/webography.php
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