Measuring the San Francisco Bay Area's Pulse in Bars & Beats. Your home for all things related to Electronic Music. Member of the @TranceFamilySF and @Trance_Mafia
What's happening everyone? I'm sure most have had a chance to hear Armin's latest offering of ASOT: episode 484. I was a little lagging with catching up with it but had an opportunity to listen to the episode in its entirety. Here are some of the key tracks that definitely had my head bobbing from the new episode. Not only that, he hinted that Gareth Emery's "Sanctuary" will most likely win the tune of the year at the end of this year's episode. Predictable? Kinda. Not really how I would have voted but the song blew my mind nonetheless. Want to see how I voted? Click here. Till next time, here's the songs of episode 484 that I was digging most:
so in the last post I talked about Deadmau5's new upcoming album 4x4=12 and how I wasn't too impressed with the lead single off of the album...however, a new single has resurfaced and once again, I'm filled with excitement about the new offering from the mau5. Once again, it's nothing too incredibly impressive from the Canadian dynamo (nothing in the league of "strobe"), however, this is vintage Deadmau5 coming straight forward and back to his roots of how he got started. Nothing too ambiguous or experimental, just straight groove. This reminds me of some of the old stuff he's done with Melleefresh on the At Play vol. 1 album. I'm digging it for sure. Do you?
One of my favorite but highly regarded and slightly disliked producers, Deadmau5, is coming out with a new album called 4x4=12 and has released his debut single for it exclusively on iTunes. Here it is for your listening pleasure:
I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It seems kind of...bland? I don't know, I don't really feel a rising action out of it like most of Deadmau5's tracks that he releases as singles. This definitely doesn't seem like a crowd picker upper in anyone's sets. It's not bad by any means...but it doesn't really...excite? Yeah, that's the word. But in this day and age it seems like the mau5 man is doing his own thing and not really trying to please the crowd. Who knows though, maybe like all other Deadmau5 releases, it will grow on me the more I hear it in clubs and what not. If this is any indication of the forthcoming album, it might sound more like another At Play release than a full on compilation or artist album. What do you think?
For those that haven't had a chance to check out this gem of a track that you can find on Ferry Corsten's Once Upon A Night 2 compilation, check it out below. I really don't even know what there is to be said about this particular track. It brings you up while bringing you down at the same time. It sounds almost...evil? Makes you feel like something really big is about to happen. Like a big climactic kung fu battle or something. It's a really great dark track. Huge fan of Klauss Goulart now.
Hey what's up everyone. Sorry for the delay in the blogging. There was this little thing that's been happening in San Francisco for the past 2 weeks. You miiiight have heard of it... a little thing called the WORLD SERIES! And guess what? THE GIANTS WON IT! Needless to say, my week has been completely encapsulated by the San Francisco Giants reigning supreme and me soaking in the festivities and madness that has been happening all around SF and the bay area. But now it has all settled in, the booze has been drank, and the streamers have fallen...so let's get back down to business...
Vocals on trance tracks...this debate could go on FOREVER! Should we like them? Should we not like them? Do they enhance the song? The way I feel about it, is that vocals can enhance the song if the song calls for it. If the beat is simple enough and has a feeling of emotion to it that could be enhanced by a soothing vocal track, I'm all for it. Sometimes however, vocals can clutter the mixdown of a song and sound out of place. Aside from a studio aspect, while vocals can make a song sound more radio friendly, many times the beat could be intricate enough to where a vocal track is not needed and/or even entirely uncalled for. Paying attention to the lyrics of a song could make you miss entire parts of studio effort in creating the instrumental track...hence: making you miss all the real important stuff.
I decided this would be a great time to talk about this because the very talented 4 Strings has released a vocal version of their track titled "Safe From Harm", a re-work of their instrumental "Sundown". Do the vocals work? You be the judge:
Non-vocal mix: "Sundown"
Vocal mix: "Safe From Harm"
It is just me, or does that track have some definite Ashley Wallbridge-esque flavor to it? Might not be a coincidence that I discovered this track through his podcast eh? Anyway, my final verdict is that the vocals actually work for this particular track. While I was accustomed to this track originally as an instrumental, I don't necessarily think that the vocals drown any drastically important aspects. The breakdowns in the vocals happen with good enough time to supplement the important instrumental melodies. But honestly, it works both ways. What do you guys think? I think this debate first entered my head when I heard the vocal version of Deadmau5's "Ghosts N Stuff" and thinking that the non-vocal version worked way better. In this case, it works legit. Keep it up 4 Strings!
This baseball season has been awesome! In celebration of a great season of trials, tribulations, and triumph of the San Francisco Giants ultimately winning the world series, I found it very heartening that the entire Bay Area has been standing up big time for our favorite boys in orange and black in music. Below are some of more noteworthy selections of music to commemorate this great time in baseball and SF history. It goes to show how great this fanbase really is!
...what a great time to be living in the Bay Area!! Now if only there were some electro songs out there. If there is please post in the comments!
...words I didn't know that I would ever be able to say in my lifetime. This is a truly a blissful moment for Giants fans, the city of San Francisco, and the Bay Area as a whole. In my humble sports opinion, I don't think any team is deserving of the crown more than this 2010 Giants club. They worked hard, they made changes, they were determined, and they never took the doubters to heart. Every sports "expert" out there had the Giants losing every series they stepped up to. The NL West? They had Padres. The NLDS? They had the Braves winning in game 5. The NLCS? They had the Phillies winning in game 6 with one of the "best offenses in baseball" and the fearsome pitching of Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt. The World Series? Predictions of the Texas Rangers' batting hammering on the Giants and Cliff Lee walking all over the offense. Not bad for a band of "characters", "misfits", and "cast-offs" eh? In the end...the final strike was thrown by Brian Wilson and the Giants won the first world series to ever be awarded to the Giants franchise since moving to San Francisco. The party hasn't stopped, nor will it, and all I can say is...well, nothing. I'm speechless. Civic Center was out of control with emotional Giants fans and all that can be said now is still what we've been saying all along... "GO GIANTS!"
