A Town Press

I’m very excited for this month’s installment of Discovery. Our little disco party is still going strong and I couldn’t think of a better crew of DJ’s to keep Santos basement full of awesome music.

Based out of Chicago, Le Principle caught my attention last year and have been cranking out some amazing singles on the regular. Most of them were released for free during the holidays via their SoundCloud.

Ghosts Of Venice is the new project of Lee Dunn, one half of Youth Attack from Leeds, UK. He’s taking a new direction with his solo stuff, it’s awesome and I like it…

Many of you have had the pleasure of hearing Cullen Cole spin in Atlanta for years, and he’s put together a special disco house set from his amazing vinyl collection.

As usual it’s free before midnight with RSVP here. After midnight it’s 5 bucks with RSVP / 7 without..not too shabby for NY I’d say. Enjoy the songs, hope to see you Saturday!

Le Principle – The Music

Ghosts Of Venice – I Learned From the Best

Con Funk Shun – Too Tight (Free Magic Edit)

Janet Jackson – Make Me (Ghosts Of Venice Edit)

Le Principle – Ever Since (Original Mix)

Bookmark to:

Excuse this tangent…

Bookmark to:

OK… a quick introduction to this series. I wanted to start posting a lot more music to show my influences both past and present. In particular, I’ve been reminiscing about a period of time between 1999-2001 where I got into techno.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the 1,452 genres and sub-genres of electronic dance music… techno is a specific genre of electronic dance music and not just a common catch all term that it ended up becoming.

In particular, during this time I was most taken in by Italian techno producers like Marco Carolla, Mauro Picotto, and Gatano Parisio. In turn this led me to other like minded producers like Adam Beyer, Marco Bailey, Cristian Varela, and many more. Over the next few weeks I’ll give you samples of the producers and their works during this period.

Gaetano Parisio

Gaetano Parisio – The Preface 1

Gaetano Parisio – Suprema

Gaetano Parisio – 19-99 b2

Gaetano Parisio – Bendigo

“Born in Naples on the 30th of November 1973, Gaetano Parisio has risen in the world scene as one of the most influential producers around, since the late 90’s.

Gaetano grew up in Naples at the foot of the Vesuvius, the volcano from which Naples gets its energy from. He began listening and buying records when he was 14 creating his own musical background from early age. During the early 90’s he went to many alternatives parties in Naples with a limited number of friends. Here he starts to taste a passion for mixing records with a minimal sound and imposing himself immediately in the club scenes of the city, becoming a leader and pioneer in Naples, which led to a movement of many artists, above all Marco Carola.

Meeting Marco, his best friend, encourages Gaetano to develop his own musical sound and to buy instruments and set up his own recording studio, a foundation for the growth of his own artistic style.The collaboration and synergy between these two artists has opened the way to many other Neapolitan artists. In 1996 Gaetano starts to produce his first record that brought a good reaction in the international scene.

In the same year he appears on labels of great prestige such as Design music, Prime Records and Planet Rhythm and begins to be recognize for his particular sound. By the end of 1997 G. creates and develops his first project “Conform records”. This first label is the result of his need to be able to develop without condition the work he had begun, thus being able to produce other artists such as A.Beyer, the Advent, Ben Sims, Rino Cerrone and Marco himself.

In 1998 G. affirms himself as a DJ succeeding in his first tour overseas in Australia and America and so becoming very sought after. By the end of 1998 he’s the protagonist of the outcome of the second label, this time in collaboration with ELP Medien of Frankfurt (G.Izzo and M.Carola): ART. This limited project, and the number of copies produced, becomes a sort of cult for fans for the quality of the product and the difficulty in finding in record shops. 1999 sees the war of Kosovo and G. particularly shocked by the event and for his geographical vicinity decides to concentrate the energy on a unprecedented in the world of electronic music: he creates a collaboration of major exponent in the Techno scene to bring to light a record whose profits were revolved to charity to the refuge children of disaster areas; leading to Techcommunity for Kosovo involving artists s.a. Sven Vath, Laurent Garnier, Surgeon, A.Beyer, The Advent, M.Carola, J.Ruskin, C. Lekebush and Ben Sims. In December 1999 he goes back to studio productions appearing on the Drum Code of Beyer with the E.P.1999 recognised as one of the best records of the year by many specialized magazines.”

Bookmark to:

Today, I’ll be piggy backing off of Ryan’s introduction to The Numero Group that he posted yesterday. In particular, the Antena (see Isabelle Antena for more information) track caught my ear instantly with it’s part bossa nova/part italo, dark, and seductive melodies, but as I listened I couldn’t help but to think “God, this would make a great dance remix.” Considering it was originally released in 1982… I knew I couldn’t be the only person who thought so and went digging.

Turns out, I was just a bit behind… Germany label Permanent Vacation released remixes by Joakim and Todd Terje in 2006.

The Joakim mix is good… going with a slightly updated Detroit sound, but for me the Todd Terje mix is perfection. One of the things I love about Terje is how authentic his remixes sound. If I didn’t know Terje had only started releasing in 2004, I would be quite convinced that this mix had been done for the original release in 1980.

Also, I wish more tracks would implement unexpected bass boosts in the last 2/3rd of a track. I almost spit out my coffee when it came in.

Make sure you read the description of Atena’s Camino Del Sol that I found (below the mp3 links).

Antena – Camino Del Sol

Antena – Camino Del Sol (Joakim Remix)

Antena – Camino Del Sol (Todd Terje Remix)

“Bebel Gilberto eat your heart out — Antena explored the same electric-bossa territory you did, nearly 20 years before your first big record! The group were a short-lived French outfit who were one of the shining jewels in the crown of the lovely label Les Disques Du Crepuscule during the early 80s — and were a real breath of fresh air in the post-punk years with their light and jazzy approach to the groove. As you’ll hear in this set, Antena’s style borrows a lot from the bossa, but also throws in some wonderful poppish touches — including jangly guitars recorded in a similar mode to some of the other French/European indie groups of the time, and a slight darkness in production that almost gives a Martin Hannett-like undercurrent to the whole set. The group’s album Camino Del Sol has been lovingly reissued with a great set of notes, as well as a series of bonus tracks from an additional ep — making for a beautiful 14 track package that will really help you rediscover this nearly-lost group! Titles include “Sissexa”, “To Climb The Cliff”, “Camino Del Sol”, “Bye Bye Papaye”, “Noelle A Hawaii”, “The Boy From Ipanema”, “Seaside Weekend”, “Frantz”, and “Ingenuous”

Bookmark to:

The Numero Group was founded as an archival record label in 2003 by Tom Lunt, Rob Sevier, and Ken Shipley. Their mission… ” to dig deep into the recesses of our record collections with the goal of finding the dustiest gems begging to be released from their exile on geek street. No longer would $500 singles sit in a temperature-controlled room dying for a chance to be played. No more would the artists, writers, and entrepreneurs who made these records happen, go unknown and unappreciated.” Their forte thus far… soul, rock, folk, pop, and disco. Not convinced just yet? Allow me to continue…

Consisting mostly of compilations, TNG justifies it by doing all the dirty work for you, allowing only the “cream of the crop” to be heard.  Their series include.. Eccentric Soul with the obvious focus being on ill exposed soul, Wayfaring Strangers bringing to light the lesser known folkies, Cult Cargo exposes the foreign diamonds in the rough, Good God! seeks the higher spiritual being, while Local Customs investigates mom-and-pop style recordings. TNG also has subsidiary labels… Their Asterisk Label focuses on reissuing complete original LP’s while Numerophon has taken on the task of releasing extremely rare finds such as Niela Miller’s Songs of Leaving which claims to have the first rendering of “Hey Joe”… yes, THAT “Hey Joe“. Still Not enough? Okay okay… listen for yourself, you ingrate.

Ada Richards – I’m Drunk & I’m Real High (In The Spirit of God)
Master Jay & Michael Dee – T.S.O.B. (Vocal)
Antena – Camino Del Sol

Bookmark to:

Back in December a friend sent me a message with a link to U-Tern’s Brooklyn Radio segment that said “You have to hear this song”. When I got around to the song he wanted me to hear, I was an instant fan of POPCOP. I was even more excited to play this song at Discovery, as Aaron and I have a subtle ch00n competition every month.

“Whenever You’re Ready” is a fantastic dance tune. For me it’s a perfect example of a dance song standing out not because of 20 elements but rather a few key parts, which in this example are an amazing bass line and catchy vocal. Many classics have the same formula, showing me as a producer that amazing songs are built on the quality of the elements, not the quantity. That may sound really obvious, and when standing back from a project makes perfect sense; however, it’s pretty easy to lose oversight when “in the zone” on a song, to stop and say, wait… why would someone play this again?

POPCOP’s subsequent releases have shown me that he’s obviously been consuming whatever the fuck they’re handing out at the Scottish Department of Choons, along with CH and Mylo. He was kind enough to sit down with Kiss Atlanta for an intarweb interview to talk about production, DJing, and carbonated beverages. He’s also bestowed us with an exclusive mix tape.   

KA: Thanks for sitting down with Kiss Atlanta. We first heard your songs on U-Terns radio show, and were immediately blown away with “Whenever You’re Ready”

KA: How long have you been producing music?

PC: Ive been messing around with electronic music for about the last 4 or 5 years

KA: Where are you right now, and what time is it?

PC: Im currently sitting in my cold flat in Glasgow, the time is currently 00:17…. its snowing outside

KA: How old are you?

PC: Haha, i always hate that question, im 31

KA: It’s cool, we’ve been 24 for some time now…

KA: We’ve seen several amazing Scottish producers the past few years, what’s the scene like in Glasgow and Scotland for electronic / house music? Do you get to play out much?

PC: Its like anywhere really, there are so many ‘bedroom producers’ here and none of them really get a proper chance, which is a shame. Glasgow is a bit of a strange place when it comes to giving new producers/djs a chance. Ive not played in Glasgow ( yet )

KA: What instruments do yo you play? What was the first? Any funny / embarrassing side projects or bands?

PC: I used to be in a band around the time of ‘Britpop’ here in the UK, slightly embarassing but hey. I play the guitar and bass but i have no co-ordination when it comes to drums, thank god for drum machines. I own about 7 guitars and 1 bass

KA: Your bass lines are amazing, do you bathe them in unicorn tears or virgin blood?

PC: neither, they take bloody ages though, im a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my basslines, i can spend about 2 solid days working on just 2 bars of a bassline….. sad i know

KA: You’ve mentioned that many of your songs are off and on the shelf for a while, does it take you a while to finish a song because of perfectionism? Inspiration?

PC: i lose interest very easily on things im working on, i think i have about 200 unfinished ideas on my hard drive just now, ill get round to them eventually though…..honest

KA: When people ask you what your music sounds like, how do you normally answer?

PC: ive never really been asked before but id probably say i was aiming to create funky electro disco with a slice of lemon & lime

KA: When did you decide you wanted to create dance music? Any specific Artist or movement that inspired your sound?

PC: Mainly from the whole french scene, not so much daft punk though, i was more inspired by the big bassline tracks, the one track that springs to mind would be ‘Sedat The Turkish Avenger – Take Me Ce Soir’

KA: I love that song…

PC: Classic track

KA: What’s been on your stereo recently?

PC: ive been listening to lots of GRUM recently

PC: Although i had the Best of Fleetwood Mac on in the car today

KA: Nice

KA: Favorite song of all time? Song you wish you could delete from history?

PC: Hmmmmm…..tough question

PC: ill need to come back to that one

KA: no prob.

KA: What do you use for production, why?

PC: I use FL Studio 9, ive been using it since i started making music and im just really sticking to what im used to, ive tried cubase, reason, and ableton but i just dont enjoy using them as much, its a very underrated bit of software

KA: When you DJ what’s a song you can’t live without?  When you produce what’s a plugin you can’t live without? Staples… if you will.

PC: Stardust – music sound better with you

PC: Pro-53

KA: Awesome… yeah they tried to remove that from the Komplete set, I wasn’t happy about that.

PC: i have stashed away on a hard drive somewhere

KA: So what were you going for with this latest mix?

PC: nothing special really, its a bit of a mixture which i prefer doing, too much of the same thing gets very boring, you only need to go see the Ed banger guys djing to understand what i mean :S

KA: haha

KA: So you’ve been giving away a lot of your music for free lately, but some is still on juno. Is it due to sample clearance or some other reason? What are your thoughts on blogs, out of hand, good, bad?

PC: Superstar was a freebie because the chances of getting the sample cleared would have been very very slim, im glad it was released that way though. Im planning to release most of my future stuff like that as well. I love blogs, id have never have discovered half the music i listen to now if it wasnt for them so its thumbs up from me

KA: How did you pick your name? What’s it mean to you?

PC: it was the name of song from my mates band back in the 90’s i thought it was pretty clever so i thought to myself… ill be having that thank you very much

PC: http://eil.com/Shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=301178

KA: haha, excellent.

KA: What’s coming from you this year?

PC: well im working on an EP just now, hopefully ill have that finished in the next week or two, im due to work with Hugo van Dyck soon, Im working on some remixes, but i really want to start doin more djing thats my aim

KA: Any touring planned? (aka come to New York and play Discovery WINK WINK)

PC: New York is number one of my wishlist of places i want to go to, not just to Dj but to actually see… get your people to talk to my people and its a done deal

KA: coke or pepsi?

KA: answer carefully….

PC: haha

PC: neither, we drink Irn Bru in Glasgow

(Kiss Atlanta does not endorse or repel you trying Irn Bru)

KA: sounds….tasty

PC: ill send you over a can, you’ll love it

KA: Ok last question, why do so many people in the UK use MSN!!!? Mac haters?

PC: haha… we’re all brainwashed.

KA: Thanks so much, have a great night!

PC: my pleasure see you soon hopefully

Here’s some of POPCOP’s releases as well as the mix tape for Kiss Atlanta, I highly recommend all of them. Everything’s in 320 except for “Whenever You’re Ready” – you gotta grab that on Juno. ^_^

POPCOP – February 2010 Mixtape for Kiss Atlanta

Ellie Goulding – Starry Eyed (Russ Chimes Remix)

Super Mal And Phonat – Pixelated

Ali Love – Love Harder (Mighty Mouse Remix)

Magistrates – Gold Lover (Grum Remix)

Strip Steve – Breakin’

Boris Dlugosch – Bangkok

Janet Jackson – Make Me

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix)

Lorenz Rhode – Like A Player

Popcop – Superstar

Ghosts of Venice – I Learned from the best

Pierre De La Touche And Norman Doray – Dance All Night (Distorded Remix)

POPCOP – Whenever You’re Ready

POPCOP – Superstar

Attack Yourself – Far Away (POPCOP Remix)

Bookmark to:

I’ve never been a huge fan of covers. I feel like they can have good results if done in the right setting of a live show but I usually don’t want to hear them on a studio album.  However, there are always exceptions to every rule…

Nouvelle Vague is a French musical collective led by Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux and their name pretty much sums up what you’ll hear, new wave.  Formed in 2003, Nouvelle Vague has released 3 albums.. all of which are entirely made up of bossa nova style covers of punk-rock, post-punk, and new wave songs. They’ve gained an impressive amount of exposure recently, appearing in Fox’s Glee, Nip/Tuck, TLC’s LA Ink, and then notably in the 2007  film, Planet Terror.

Their current tour, which started in September, comes to an end soon.. fortunately though, their 2nd to last stop is in Atlanta, Feb. 18th, at The Loft. It’ll make for a great Thursday.. I might even suffer through work the next day to start my weekend early.

Nouvelle Vague – Heart of Glass (Blondie Cover)

Nouvelle Vague – The Killing Moon (Echo and the Bunnymen Cover)

Nouvelle Vague – Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division Cover)

Bookmark to:

While Preston was tearing up over the cloudscape, I was jamming out to Dynasty. I’m definitely no disco expert, in fact if I could get a grade it would probably be C-. However I do love digging for samples, and it’s fun to find the the building blocks for the songs I play, and most of the time the originals are amazing. I used to love the Sample Wednesday post on Palms Out, wish it were still around.

When I came across this Dynasty record (Adventures in the Land of Music) I was blown away at how many songs had been sampled into many of my favorite songs, disco house and hip hop alike. Fucking treasure trove… Enjoy

Dynasty – I’ve Just Begun To Love You

Andrew – If You Want Me (Original Mix)

Dynasty – Do Me Right

Discokris – Do You Right Baba (Original Mix)

Dynasty – Adventures in the Land of Music

Camp Lo – Luchini (A.K.A This Is It)

Dynasty – Groove Control

Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars (Shazam Dub Mix)

Bookmark to:

Honestly, I didn’t plan my previous posts at all.. I just opened up a word document and started typing.. just as I am now.  Of course, I have a song or artist that I want to bring attention to but as for the subject of my post or the relation to that particular song or artist, I haven’t a predisposed agenda.  Not that I’ve truly enlightened anyone.. I’m just saying, I fucking type endlessly like an idiot.  I’m essentially using this opportunity with kissatlanta as a form of self-therapy, if you will, to help me understand this perfunctory funk that I’ve quickly fallen into.

I’m not a dj, I’m not a musician, I’m not a student, I’m not married, I don’t have kids, I don’t have pets, I don’t use illegal drugs, I don’t exercise, I don’t own a home, I don’t save for the future, I eat like shit, I smoke like I’m French, I drink like I’m Irish… wait, I am Irish.  My version of “going out” usually consists of driving to the one bar that I frequent, I can count the number of real friends I have on one hand, as well as the number of times I’ve been happy in my life.  All in all, I’m your average nobody… and I’m cool with that. Being just a random thought in peoples’ head’s is kind of awesome. There’s no pressure to consistently perform.  I’m in and I’m out.  I’m like a good version of herpes… “Hey everyone, it’s been a few months but guess who’s here? It’s Ryan!”

That rant may be construed as pessimistic, but it’s also entirely true. It’s becoming clearer every day that I haven’t fallen into depression as much as I’m just coming to a realization of who the hell I am and what I’m doing with my life. Call it a quarter-life crisis, whatever… I call it, reason to eat xanax.  And trust me, this isn’t a cry for attention nor is it intended to read as some lame pity party… anyone who knows me can confirm that I’m a cynical bastard.  So please, if you do happen to read this, don’t attempt to console me as it will probably result with you feeling as if you’ve accomplished something good and me realizing how much I didn’t like you to begin with.  Instead, buy me a shot of whiskey (because I actually DO like you) and then we can talk about cool stuff such as film and music.

For example…. the Swedish group, Fredrik.  Trilogi, released last week on The Kora Records, is compiled of 3 EP’s that were released throughout 2009; Holm, Ava, and Ner.  ”Ner” and “Locked in the Basement” are the two of several tracks that really stand out to me. However, Trilogi is best when heard from beginning to end in it’s entirety… the lyrics tell a great story while the music paints beautiful images in your head.  We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of 2010 but I can already say that Trilogi will definitely be on my top 10 albums of the year list. Also, if you want to buy a round trip ticket to NYC, I will gladly be your valentine to see Fredrik at Mercury Lounge on the 14th.  Additional Trilogi Tour dates are listed on their website.

Bookmark to:

Robert Allen Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan, is one of the greatest musician/song writers to date.  Nashville Skyline is one of my all time favorite albums.  However, in some weird way of balancing out the universe, Dylan has also released some albums that I wouldn’t even consider worthy of being heard during a morning crap.  Seriously, have you heard the recent Christmas In The Heart?

“Sometimes… I go to the artist and say, ‘What do you hear on the drums?’ Because sometimes when people write songs they can hear it completed, they hear everything they think’s gonna be on it”, says drummer Ken Buttrey. “I went over to Dylan and said, ‘I’m having a little trouble thinking of something to play. Do you have any ideas on ['Lay Lady Lay']?’… He said, ‘Bongos’… I immediately disregarded that, I couldn’t hear bongos in this thing at all… So I walked into the control room and said, ‘Bob [Johnston], what do you hear as regards [to] drums on this thing?’… [He] said, ‘Cowbells.’… Kris Kristofferson was working at Columbia Studios at the time as a janitor and he had just emptied my ashtray at the drums and I said, ‘Kris, do me a favor, here, hold these two things… hold these bongos in one hand and the cowbells in the other,’ and I swung this mike over to the cowbells and the bongos… I had no pattern or anything worked out. I just told Kris, ‘This is one of those spite deals. I’m gonna show ‘em how bad their ideas’re gonna sound.’… We started playing the tune and I was just doodling around on these bongos and the cowbells and it was kinda working out pretty cool… Come chorus time I’d go to the set of drums. Next time you hear that [cut], listen how far off-mike the drums sound. There were no mikes on the drums, it was just leakage… But it worked out pretty good… To this day it’s one of the best drum patterns I ever came up with.”

Bookmark to: