This is my favorite video of the year so far and one of my favorite songs of 2012. I first saw this video Niki & The Dove on MTV2’s 120 Minutes with Matt Pinfield. Yes that show still comes on.. so watch it! Niki & The Dove hail from Sverige. Leave it up to the Swedes to make great female driven pop-electronica, for example the Cardigans, Concretes, the Knife, Lykke Li, Robyn, Little Dragon et al. It’s what they do. This duo just released their debut album earlier this month and will be touring later this year. Not sure why they’re not coming to LA though. So add that shit to your schedule Niki & the Dove. What you to good for LA?
CLICK HERE to buy their full length album from nikiandthedove.com
Nina Kraviz is a Serbian DJ/Producer who specializes in “Privat House” according to her Facebook page. She makes some sexy, deep, dark house beats and I fucking love her for that. Turns out she’s pretty good looking too. An added bonus which I’m sure will help her in her search for stardom. But it’s actually her music that has everybody a buzzin’. This track was selected as the #1, that’s NUMBER ONE, track of 2011 by the curators at Beatport. No small accomplishment. She will be spinning at the excellent electronic music festival Sonar in Barcelona next month. So if you are anywhere near Spain, be sure to go to Sonar and check out this lady’s wonderful music.
Fun.’s “We Are Young” has been blowing up the charts and airwaves all year. It’s been in advertisements, in movies, spoofed on Youtube and played at every Bar Mitzvah of 2012. It’s just everywhere. I really like the song, but I tried play it in the club the other week and it was just a little too corny for my set. Well in step Party Ben and MyKill. Their remix gives the jam that perfect edge and danceability it was lacking. Props to Fun. and Janelle Monae for recording a great song, but Party Ben and MyKill are making this the party jam of the summer. It’s groovy enough for the pool party but it is DEFINITELY ready for the Dancefloor. Hey, they don’t call them PartyBen for nothing. And MyKill must be short for MyKill the dancefloor. Loving this track.
CLICK HERE to check out more hotness from MyKill’s soundcloud page.
Fun. ft Janelle Monae – We Are Young (Party Ben and MyKill Remix)
Ubiquity artists Jed and Lucia just released their “It’s A Wonder” EP this week. The lead off single of the same name is a soulful chill-out track with some spooky ambigious vocals. Jed and/or Lucia’s vocals seem to be slowed down, which is exactly what you want to do while listen to this song. The lyrics kind of just falls over you like a dark snow fall. This shit is even past chill-out, I’d have to call this track icy.
A current and somewhat recent obsession of mine has definitely been Baile Funk, which roughly translates to Brazilian Booty Music (not really). I love the fusion of Hip-Hop, Dance, and lady vocals. Diplo originally opened my ears to Baile Funk when he produced some tracks on Bonde Do Role’s debut album With Lasers. Now the two are back at it and this time Diplo has produced their whole album Tropicalbacanal. The video for the first single “Kilo” is a wild, fruity sexual fantasy. Is it NSFW? Maybe. Depends where you work I guess. But I’m hyped for this new album which drops June 26 on Mad Decent.
And if you want to grab some more Baile Funk gems CLICK HERE to check this older Kool Ethan mix I recorded.
Some people love Lana Del Rey… some people hate her… I just can’t get over her strange, large fake lips. But her music is aurally pleasing. We love our slow girl here at Golden Bloggen, and Lana’s soothing, monotone voice over a good dance beat is exactly what I want to hear when I’m lounging. Granted un-remixed Lana sounds like she’s singing a lullaby. But thanks to UK duo AlunaGeorge for funking up her latest single “Born to Die.” It’s not dance music mind you, but it’s a trip, it’s got a funky beat and I can bug out to it.
Today is an unbelievably sad day. Adam Yauch aka MCA from my all time favorite group, Beastie Boys, has passed away after succumbing to a long bout with cancer. I can’t possibly express how I feel in words. I’ve been broken up all day. Beastie Boys are the group most responsible for making Hip-Hop the biggest artform in the world. 3 white guys impressively rapping over authentic, yet rock inspired hip-hop beats, helped bring rap to an immeasurable amount of young, impressionable suburban teens. The most important thing was that they were not a gimmick. These guys; Mike D, Ad Rock and of course, MCA, were great. They were immediately accepted by Hip-Hop heads including Run DMC and Def Jam founders Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin.
MCA was always the most reserved of the trio. Maybe even the silent bad boy of the crew. His deep, gravely voice was a stark contrast to Ad Rock and Mike D’s high pitched flows. But his differences didn’t end there. He was also the biggest film geek of the three. Something I always appreciated as a film fanatic myself. He directed a number of their videos, including “Intergalactic”, under the fictional moniker Nathanial Hornblower (his lederhosen sporting imaginary Uncle). And in 2008 he directed hoops documentary Gunnin’ for That #1 Spot. A year prior to that, Beastie Boys released their most ambitious album yet, a full-length instrumental jazz album called The Mix Up. Once again showing us how talented these 3 white kids from New York actually were. I say white kids affectionately, because after all their success, we all stopped seeing them as white kids rapping. They were simply Hip-Hop pioneers, alongside acts like Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash and Run DMC. Literally my favorite group of all-time. A very sad day for me. I will never stop celebrating your genius MCA. You will be incredibly missed.
Golden Bloggen 