Well waddya know? We did find some more mixes, in fact I found a whole bunch of them, although some are quite long so I don’t know how may will be posted online – do you really want to download a file 100mb plus file?
Anyway, this is one of three R&B mixes that I found on a CD, so you can reasonably expect the other two parts to follow some time soon. On this mix are some of the usual suspects – PussyCat Dolls, Ciara, and the ubiquitous Girls Aloud. Another track not infrequently used is “Call My Name” by Charlotte Church. The first two singles from her ‘pop’ album (this one and ‘Crazy Chick’) were very solid pop efforts and I’m surprised that she hasn’t bothered following them up. Guess she’s too busy trying to carve out a career as a chat show host now, doubtless trying to keep her husband in hair product. Anyway, enjoy this live-vocalled Top of the Pops performance of “Call My Name”:
The Calico Sessions R&B 2222:
Format: mp3
Size: 30.8Mb
Audio Player:
Tracklisting:
1. Ciara – 1, 2, Step
2. Chaka Khan – I’m Every Woman
3. Charlotte Church – Call My Name
4. Justin Timberlake – Like I Love You
5. Mis-Teeq – Can’t Get It Back
6. C+C Music Factory – Things That Make You Go Hmmm
7. Cheryl Lynn – To Be Real
8. Stereo MCs – Step It Up
9. Pussy Cat Dolls – Don’t Cha
10. Michael Jackson – Bad
11. Dynamix II – Give The DJ A Break
12. Girls Aloud – Graffiti My Soul
This is the very last of the short mixes in The Calico Sessions series, unless others happen to turn up on some old CDs that I’ve forgotten about! Also, these aren’t technically mixed like the others are – this is more of a Radio 1, Chris Moyles-style mix, in that we raise the volume of one record whilst the other goes down! It’s because this is full of much slower records. I can’t remember doing the mix and for some reason I haven’t created a proper tracklisting, but there are tracks from (amongst others) Liberty X,Ciara, Kanye West, Wyclef Jean, Pharrel Williams and Gwen Stefani, and Mariah Carey. This video sees Mariah performing “It’s Like That“, “We Belong Together” and the track that’s featured on this mix, “Shake It Off” live on New Year’s Eve in Times Square:
So, we return at last to the R&B mixes in The Calico Sessions series. The R&B mixes generally feature faster mixing and less full tracks, which is how we manage to pack 12 tracks into just nineteen minutes. In contrast to almost every other mix that I’ve ever done, the tempo of this mix actually ends slower then the opening tempo. The final track on the mix is this track by Christina Aguilera from the album ‘Stripped’ – this is called “Get Mine Get Yours“:
And, just because I can and I think it’s another fantastic live performance of a terrific track, this is the live video (from the Mobo Awards) of “Sumthin’ Scandalous” by Mis-teeq, which is a remix of “Scandalous” and features extra vocals from Redman:
The Calico Sessions R&B 1924:
Format: mp3
Size: 17.8Mb
Audio Player:
Tracklisting:
1. Digital Underground – Doowutchyalike
2. Usher – Yeah
3. Amerie – 1 Thing
4. Notorious BIG – Hypnotize
5. Mis-teeq – Scandalous
6. Lumidee – Never Leave You
7. Beyonce – Naughty Girl
8. Beyonce – Baby Boy
9. Rihanna – Pon De Replay
10. Mariah Carey – We Belong Together
11. TLC – Waterfalls
12. Christina Aguilera – Get Mine Get Yours
Ah, the pop mixes. Sometimes – especialy on a Friday night – the bar had a slightly older clientele and they preferred more records that they already knew, i.e. the contents of the Radio 1 and 2 playlists. Therefore I produced a couple of pop mixes for just such occasions.
Regular readers to the blog know that I have a bit of a pop music fetish. Currently it manifests itself in acts like Girls Aloud and The Saturdays; in days gone by the torch was held by bands such as Steps. Yes, I know it’s too terrible to comprehend, but there it is. Remember thought what I always say: a good pop record is like a good kebab – it should take about three minutes to get through, make your fingers sticky and leave you feeling both guilty and happy at the end. Steps did the pop thing extremeley well, and very, very briefly, so did some of the former Steps members in their solo careers:
The Calico Sessions R&B 1833:
Format: mp3
Size: 17.0Mb
Audio Player:
Tracklisting:
1. Gorillaz – Dare
2. Lisa Scott-Lee – Electric
3. Jem – They
4. Amerie – Touch
5. Les Rythmes Digitales – Jacques Your Body
Welcome to the new series of downloadable mix tapes, House Rules.
The Shenanigans mixtape series are starting to evolve a very “cut & paste” approach where only snippets of a particular record may be used, and there are lots of records crammed into one mix. House Rules takes the opposite approach, for people who like to hear the full record (me, I have Attention Deficit Disorder and I’m always bored by the end of the first chorus!).
I will be varying the styles and themes of these mixes. The only thing that they will have in common is that they will all be house music. The mix is split into four parts which will be published each Wednesday in November, so keep coming back for the full mix! FYI, the full mix tracklisting looks like this:
Part 1 (published Wednesday 5th November)
1. Solu Music ft. Kimberlee – Fade (Grant Nelson Big Room Vocal – Wez Clarke Re-edit)
2. The Saturdays – If This Is Love (Moto Blanco Club Mix)
3. The Ting Tings – Great DJ (7th Heaven Remix)
Part 2 (published Wednesday 12th November)
4. Jonestown – Sweet Thang
5. Freemasons ft. Katherine Ellis – When Yout Touch Me (Original Mix)
8. Martin Solveig – Rocking Music (Joey Negro Mix)
9. Booty Luv – Some Kinda Rush (26th Heaven Pure Joy Remix)
Part 4 (published Wednesday 26th November)
10. Masters At Work ft. India – Backfired (Joey Negro Mix)
11. Blaze ft. Barbara Tucker -Most Precious Love (Ian Carey Mix)
12. Asha – J. J. Tribute
As you know I like to accompany my posts with a music video, and House Rules will be exactly the same. Accompanying today’s final installment is the animated video for Blaze’s “Most Precious Love“:
House Rules 01 – Part 3:
Format: mp3
Size: 15.8Mb
Audio Player:
Tracklisting:
10. Masters At Work ft. India – Backfired (Joey Negro Mix)
11. Blaze ft. Barbara Tucker -Most Precious Love (Ian Carey Mix)
Welcome to the new series of downloadable mix tapes, House Rules.
The Shenanigans mixtape series are starting to evolve a very “cut & paste” approach where only snippets of a particular record may be used, and there are lots of records crammed into one mix. House Rules takes the opposite approach, for people who like to hear the full record (me, I have Attention Deficit Disorder and I’m always bored by the end of the first chorus!).
I will be varying the styles and themes of these mixes. The only thing that they will have in common is that they will all be house music. The mix is split into four parts which will be published each Wednesday in November, so keep coming back for the full mix! FYI, the full mix tracklisting looks like this:
Part 1 (published Wednesday 5th November)
1. Solu Music ft. Kimberlee – Fade (Grant Nelson Big Room Vocal – Wez Clarke Re-edit)
2. The Saturdays – If This Is Love (Moto Blanco Club Mix)
3. The Ting Tings – Great DJ (7th Heaven Remix)
Part 2 (published Wednesday 12th November)
4. Jonestown – Sweet Thang
5. Freemasons ft. Katherine Ellis – When Yout Touch Me (Original Mix)
8. Martin Solveig – Rocking Music (Joey Negro Mix)
9. Booty Luv – Some Kinda Rush (26th Heaven Pure Joy Remix)
Part 4 (published Wednesday 26th November)
10. Masters At Work ft. India – Backfired (Joey Negro Mix)
11. Blaze ft. Barbara Tucker -Most Precious Love (Ian Carey Mix)
12. Asha – J. J. Tribute
So, on with the first part! As you know I like to accompany my posts with a music video, and House Rules will be exactly the same. Accompanying today’s installment is Booty Luv’s “Some Kinda Rush“. This is the first original composition released by the female duo, who are signed to Hed Kandi records:
House Rules 01 – Part 3:
Format: mp3
Size: 17.6Mb
Audio Player:
Tracklisting:
7. Deepgroove – Fascinated (Original Club Mix)
8. Martin Solveig – Rocking Music (Joey Negro Mix)
9. Booty Luv – Some Kinda Rush (7th Heaven Pure Joy Remix)
This track, “Curious“, was scheduled to be the second single from the album “State of Mind” by Holly Rachel Vukadinovi, better known to you and I as Holly Valance.
Holly Valance "State of Mind"
The first single from the album, the title track “State of Mind”, did moderately well in the the UK but the album went down like a porn star on overtime, spending only one week in the UK charts. As a result this single was cancelled, despite early promotional work such as this appearance on the Des and Mel Show:
I always thought it was a shame that the single was cancelled because this is a decent slice of electro-pop and probably better than the previous single. It was a little slow for general club use, so I increased the tempo and borrowed some effects from a single on Hed Kendi to extend both the intro and outro. It’s another early one so therefore not done using Ableton LIve, and I think at times you can tell where the cheaper software has trouble with the time-stretching effects.
You can listen to the track using this audio player:
I’ll be honest, I don’t really know much about this record or the band who call themselves London Elektricity, beyond what I read on Wikipedia ten minutes ago. And listen people, I did the hard work in bringing you this great record, if you’re really that freaked about knowing all the trivial crap on Wikipedia you know where to find it.
What you should do is just listen to the record. I suppose technically it’s drum and bass, but it’s a proper cross-over record with bits of beat beat and jazz, sixties pop, big band, there’s a proper rock’n'roll guitar solo, a mad preacher type … in short, it’s a record you should be listening to. Even the video is the dog’s floppy and danglies, so just get on and hit play already!
Welcome to the new series of downloadable mix tapes, House Rules.
The Shenanigans mixtape series are starting to evolve a very “cut & paste” approach where only snippets of a particular record may be used, and there are lots of records crammed into one mix. House Rules takes the opposite approach, for people who like to hear the full record (me, I have Attention Deficit Disorder and I’m always bored by the end of the first chorus!). FYI, the full mix tracklisting looks like this:
Part 1 (published Wednesday 5th November)
1. Solu Music ft. Kimberlee – Fade (Grant Nelson Big Room Vocal – Wez Clarke Re-edit)
2. The Saturdays – If This Is Love (Moto Blanco Club Mix)
3. The Ting Tings – Great DJ (7th Heaven Remix)
Part 2 (published Wednesday 12th November)
4. Jonestown – Sweet Thang
5. Freemasons ft. Katherine Ellis – When You Touch Me (Original Mix)
8. Martin Solveig – Rocking Music (Joey Negro Mix)
9. Booty Luv – Some Kinda Rush (7th Heaven Pure Joy Remix)
Part 4 (published Wednesday 26th November)
10. Masters At Work ft. India – Backfired (Joey Negro Mix)
11. Blaze ft. Barbara Tucker -Most Precious Love (Ian Carey Mix)
12. Asha – J. J. Tribute
So, a quick video aperitif before we get on with the main course, and this week we have the lip-smackingly good Freemasons‘ mix of Faith Evans‘ “Mesmerised“:
House Rules 01 – Part 2:
Format: mp3
Size: 16.4Mb
Audio Player:
Tracklisting:
4. Jonestown – Sweet Thang
5. Freemasons ft. Katherine Ellis – When Yout Touch Me (Original Mix)
Welcome to the new series of downloadable mix tapes, House Rules.
The Shenanigans mixtape series are starting to evolve a very “cut & paste” approach where only snippets of a particular record may be used, and there are lots of records crammed into one mix. House Rules takes the opposite approach, for people who like to hear the full record (me, I have Attention Deficit Disorder and I’m always bored by the end of the first chorus!).
So this is the very first episode in the House Rules series! I will be varying the styles and themes of these mixes. The only thing that they will have in common is that they will all be house music. The mix is split into four parts which will be published each Wednesday in November, so keep coming back for the full mix! FYI, the full mix tracklisting looks like this:
Part 1 (published Wednesday 5th November)
1. Solu Music ft. Kimberlee – Fade (Grant Nelson Big Room Vocal – Wez Clarke Re-edit)
2. The Saturdays – If This Is Love (Moto Blanco Club Mix)
3. The Ting Tings – Great DJ (7th Heaven Remix)
Part 2 (published Wednesday 12th November)
4. Jonestown – Sweet Thang
5. Freemasons ft. Katherine Ellis – When You Touch Me (Original Mix)
8. Martin Solveig – Rocking Music (Joey Negro Mix)
9. Booty Luv – Some Kinda Rush (7th Heaven Pure Joy Remix)
Part 4 (published Wednesday 26th November)
10. Masters At Work ft. India – Backfired (Joey Negro Mix)
11. Blaze ft. Barbara Tucker -Most Precious Love (Ian Carey Mix)
12. Asha – J. J. Tribute
So, on with the first part! As you know I like to accompany my posts with a music video, and House Rules will be exactly the same. The first video up is the very first track on House Rules, Solu Music’s epic “Fade“:
House Rules 01 – Part 1:
Format: mp3
Size: 17.6Mb
Audio player:
Tracklisting:
1. Solu Music ft. Kimberlee – Fade (Grant Nelson Big Room Vocal – Wez Clarke Re-edit)
2. The Saturdays – If This Is Love (Moto Blanco Club Mix)
This is a shorter (17 minutes and 50 seconds) mix consisting of six dance tracks from around 2005. The tracks on this mix are generally played out in full rather than the ‘bits and pieces’ approach that the ‘Shenanigans’ series uses.
My favourite is the track featured on video below, “Give It” by X-press 2 featuring Kurt Wagner on vocal duties:
The Calico Sessions Dance 1750:
Format: mp3
Size: 16.4Mb
Audio Player:
Tracklisting:
1. Tiga ft. Jake Shears – You Gonna Want Me (Extended Vocal)
2. Xavier – Gimme The Night (Freemasons Mix)
3. Pussy Cat Dolls – Don’t Cha (Kaskade Club Mix)
4. Mylo vs. Miami Sound Machine – Dr. Pressure
5. X-press 2 – Give It (Full Club Version)
6. Cloud 9 – How Shall I Rock Thee (Original Mix)
A bumper post of downloadable music and videos for you this Halloween! I decided to post the final two parts of the Shenanigans 03 mixtape together and start a brand new mix for the new month.
Part 5
Part 5 brings together artists as diverse as Terrorvision, The Three Amigos, Cornershop, Bodyrox and Girls Aloud. The Three Amigos track is their cover version of “Louie Louie“, mixed by The Wiseguys and sounds a lot like The Wiseguys own track “Ooh La La”. The Girls Aloud track is “Swinging London Town“, an album track taken from “Chemistry”, and one that showcases the band’s willingness to try something different and far less commercial within the confines of an album. There’s a track like it on every album and they often turn out to be my favourite. “Graffiti My Soul” from the album “What Will The Neighbours Say?” is another example:
When you download Shenanigans 03, please note that it comes in iPod friendly m4a format, not mp3 as the other mixtapes have been.
Shenanigans 03 – Part 5:
Format: m4a
Size: 12.9Mb
Bodyrox – Yeah
Cornershop – Brimful Of Asha
Terrorvision – Tequila
The Three Amigos – Louie Louie
Girls Aloud – Swinging London Town
Part 6 contains one of my favourite parts from any of the Shenanigans series. The ending starts to get quite fast, as far the BPM is concerned. The first of the final trio of records is the brilliant “Superstylin’” by Groove Armada, which always used to get an amazing reception in the old days of The Inspiration in Chesterfield of a Saturday night. This video is of the band’s performance at Glastonbury:
Halfway through that, the mentalness that is Leftfield’s “Phat Planet” comes in. Rich Turner and I once went to see Leftfield live at Sheffield Octagon, and it was fantastic! “Paht Planet” was the last track that they played, as an encore. It was so dark that you couldn’t see the band come back on, and at first you couldn’t hear anything either. Then this really weird thing started happening – my adam’s apple started to vibrate, it was the most bizarre feeling ever. As far as I can tell, the band had already started playing “Phat Planet” but the frequency of the bassline was so low that at first you could only feel it, not hear it. Then I guess they must have raised the frequency and eventually you could hear it, and then the drums kick in and MC Top Cat starts toasting, everyone takes their tops off and it all gets a bit sweaty and dirty. This video, of Leftfield performing live at a festival in Brazil, will hopefully give you some idea:
So, back to the mix. Halfway through the track, I decided it needed something to give it a bit of an edge, so I looped the intro guitar riff from The Kinks‘ “You Really Got Me” over and over with “Phat Planet” still in the background, and they go amazingly well together! Eventually I bring the vocals in too and let The Kinks’ play out to the end of the CD. That’s all the excuse I needed for some live footage of the band doing “You Really Got Me” and “Tired Of Waiting For You” at the NME Award Winners’ Poll in 19656 – introduced by the terribly mad and clearly whizzing-off-his-tits Jimmy Saville:
And that’s your last video for today!
When you download Shenanigans 03, please note that it comes in iPod friendly m4a format, not mp3 as the other mixtapes have been.
Shenanigans 03 – Part 6:
Format: m4a
Size: 10.4Mb
Tracklisting:
The Streets – Turn The Page
Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy
Groove Armada – Superstyling
Leftfield – Phat Planet
The Kinks – You Really Got Me
So, the girls’ third live DVD arrives, following on from the Carling Academy and Wembley Arena gigs, and from the moment the concert states the continued evolution in the girls’ live performance is immediately obvious. Long gone are the tentative opening steps from the Carling Academy; now, the fivesome descends from the ceiling wearing capes and superhero outfits in one of the most dramatic, drawn-out concert openings I’ve seen.
The band arrive onstage
The O2 is a massive arena and the girls have a correspondingly massive set-up incorporating five huge video screens, three of which display the back-drop and two concentrate on the band. Just like The Rolling Stones’ Bridges to Babylon concerts, halfway through the gig a bridge descends from the ceiling and the girls cross to a much smaller, more intimate stage right in the middle of the audience to perform a couple of slower numbers. These have always been my last favourite parts of the concerts, and this one is no exception – I’m just not a fan of “I’ll Stand By You”, and the girls do a cover version of “With Every Heartbeat” that reduces it to a drawn-out and overblown ballad, stripping away what little charm the song possessed in the first place. It’s the one and only bum note of the entire concert.
The B stage
Elsewhere, when they hit the heights, they do prove themselves to be consumate entertainers. They still aren’t the world’s best singers, and their dancing can still be quite ropey and has an enjoyable ‘we’re making this up as we go along!’ kind of air, but for me that’s always been part of the bands’ charm. They never pretend to be the best at anything – they just want to sing and dance, have a good time, and make sure everyone else does too.
The band onstage
They always include a couple of covers from leftfield, which in past years have included “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus and the Kaiser Chiefs’ “I Predict A Riot” and they follow suit in this set. As mentioned, “With Every Heartbeat” is not a rip-roaring success, and the other full-length cover version here is “Push It” by Salt & Pepa. It’s a curious track; not much of a song, and here the lead guitarist really lets rip with an axe solo, making it a curious hybrid of rock, rap and pop – just like “Walk This Way” in fact, which is segued here with “Wake Me Up”.
Kimberley
There’s a point I need to make about the band here. Some of the songs have been slightly re-interpreted, which I put down to the Musical Director, who is also part of the band. For example “Biology” no longer has that rip-roaring, Kinks-esque sixties opening, it’s all a little more stripped down and possibly even subdued.
Nicola
That’s not to say the songs are any worse for it, and I think there are actually less musicians than previous tours. All I’m saying is that the songs are not note-for-note reproductions of the album versions and you should be aware of that.
Nadine
The low point I have mentioned above; the high point, for me at any rate, is “Black Jacks” from the most recent album. There’s a point on the documentary on the DVD (more on the extras later) where the girls are asked to pick their favourite parts and no-one selects this song. And yet, when I watch, they all really seem to catch fire on this one and you can hear from the strength of their vocals and the way they dance that they are really into this song. It’s just one of the moments when they click and they prove, much to the chagrin of their detractors, that they really are the top pop band on the planet.
Black Jacks
No, they don’t write their own stuff or play instruments, but pop is all about entertainment – pure escapism, which, whilst we’re in the midst of the recession that Labour seems to be pulling us into, is for me at least very welcome. So, “Blacks Jacks” is the video that I’ve posted to go with this review.
(It may be that YouTube take it down, but if so then c’est la vie. I’ve only posted it so that I could post this review and hopefully other people will be inspired to buy the DVD and if the record company don’t want that to happen, then fair enough!).
Sarah
Extras on this DVD are, as per the others, relatively thin on the ground. The promo videos rom “Sexy! No No No …”, “Call The Shots” and ” Can’t Speak French” (this latter another highlight of the live show); two TV ads; and a ‘behind the scenes’ documentary which is surprisingly entertaining. Each of the band members presents their own little section and from the looks of it they’re all ad libbed and done on the fly.
Something Kinda Oooh
Cheryl in particular is in good form. She shows the camera around the tour bus (they’ve come a long way from the first tour, when they had to do their own make up etc!) and I’m not going to give away any secrets, but lets just say that one of the girls hasn’t slept in her own bed on the tour bus once!
The band's entrance to the arena
And there’s a part where she finds a vest top and a half-finished bottle of vodka in the girls’ area, and by smelling it she can identify that it belongs to Simon, one of the regular backing dancers – quite how she identifies it from the smell, I’m not sure. She sees Simon passing by the bus as they’re filing and she goes out to confront him, leaving the other male dancers laughing at him.
Nadine not concentrating
Verdict? Probably the best concert DVD they’ve done so far and well worth the fourteen quid or so that you’ll have to shell out for it.
Black Jacks
Tracklisting:
1. Sexy! No No No…
2. Girl Overboard
3. Sound Of The Underground
4. Close To Love
5. Can’t Speak French
6. Love Machine
7. Black Jacks
8. Biology
9. Whole Lotta History
10. With Every Heartbeat
11. I’ll Stand By You
12. Fling
13. Push It
14. Wake Me Up / Walk This Way
15. Control Of The Knife
16. Call The Shots
17. Jump Live
18. Something Kinda Ooooh
Part four of the Shenanigans 03 mixtape brings together Space Cowboy,Girls Aloud, Mason vs Princess Superstar, New Order and Gwen Stefani. I’m a big fan of Gwen Stefani’s first solo single, although I think all the ones that come after it have been chavtastic identikit numbers for 17 year old girls to drink VK to, and not worth the time of day to comment on. I was going to use the video of her performance from the MTV Awards, but then I tought it would be better to give a bit of publicity to an underrated and consistent artist who never gets the press his efforts deserve: Space Cowboy.
Space Cowboy – known to his mum as Nick Dresti – is a Parisian DJ and producer who had a hit in 2002 with a cover version of Prince’s “I Would Die 4U”. He has done sterling work remixing artits as diverse as Sir Paul McCartney, The Darkness and Fergie. The video I have picked comes from 2007 and features female vocalist Nadia Oh, and is called “My Egyptian Lover”:
When you download Shenanigans 03, please note that it comes in iPod friendly m4a format, not mp3 as the other mixtapes have been.
Shenanigans 03 – Part 4:
Format: m4a
Size: 8.9Mb
Space Cowboy featuring Nadia Oh – My Egyptian Lover
Girls Aloud – Wake Me Up
Mason vs Princess Superstar – Perfect Exceeder
New Order – Blue Monday
Gwen Stefani – What You Waiting For?
Welcome to the third in my series of modern pop songs that are really, really rubbish. For those that don’t understand the metaphor (or know what a ‘turd’ is, but for that I can only point you to this Wikipedia page), the meaning of the phrase is this: no matter how much you shine up a pile of shit, put it in a pretty box or tie a big pink ribbon to it, it’s always just gonna be a pile of shit.
And shit is absolutely apt when applied to this record: Basshunter’s “Angel In The Dark“, the follow-up to their massive (and not really much better) “Now You’re Gone”. Apart from yawning chasm when any musical talent should be, what really marks this record out are the vocals. I don’t know who told this chap (Jonas Erik Altberg) it would be a good idea for him to sing on his won records, but they are the lamest, most insipid and tuneless vocals in pop music today (and yes I do include Madonna in that. She might sound like a narwhal being branded by a hot poker, but at least she has some volume and can project her voice).
Clearly there are only two reasons for the popularity of Basshunter’s records: one, a general decline in IQs in recent years; two, the presence of ‘actress’, ’singer’ and ‘model’ Aylar Lie. With titles like “Throat Gaggers 3″, “Cum Dumpsters 3″ and “18 And Nasty Interracial 2″ it probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise when she fails to keep many clothes on in Basshunter’s videos.
Yes, it’s my birthday today but that hasn’t stopped me posting you the next section of the Shenanigans 03 mixtape, and that’s probably because I wrote this post days ago and used the “Scheduled Publish” feature to make it appear on my blog today. So there you go, another of my professional secrets revealed.
So what’s in Part 3 you ask, or would ask if you could get a word in edgeways, which you can’t, so I shall save you the trouble of asking the question and answer it for you. Part 3 features Basement Jaxx’s “Romeo” (but not the original version – some remix that appeared on their singles album); Free’s “Alright Now” makes another appearance on a mixtape; and winding its way around that is the Jacques Lu Cont mix (I think, if memory serves) of Goldfrapp’s terrific and ever-so-slightly filthy “Twist“:
When you download Shenanigans 03, please note that it comes in iPod friendly m4a format, not mp3 as the other mixtapes have been.
Shenanigans 03 – Part 3:
Format: m4a
Size: 7.2Mb
Basement Jaxx – Romeo
Free – Alright Now
Goldfrapp – Twist
Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy – Kiss Me
Sugababes – Round Round
You’ve all heard my analogy saying how a good pop song should be like a kebab: it should take about three minutes to get through, make your hands kind of sticky, and leave you feeling either happily guilty or guiltily happy at the end. However, it’s an anology that works both way; a bad pop song is aso like a bad kebab. You know straight away that there’s something wrong. There’s a bad taste in your mouth. And at the end, you’re running for the toilet.
With tham I give you the second in the series “How to polish a turd“. Viewers outside England may not recognise the metaphor here (or understand what a ‘turd’ is, but for that I can only point you to this Wikipedia page). The meaning of the phrase is this: no matter how much you shine up a lump of poo, put it in a pretty box or tie a big pink ribbon to it, it’s always just gonna be a lump of poo.
The Pussycat Dolls – where do you start? Like the previous entrant in this series, Britney Spears, PCD have acttually produced one or two decent pop/r&b records. But with the release of their recent album “Doll Domination” the quality control dial seems to have dipped way down, whilst the tackyometer has gone through the roof. Clearly only one of them can sing, and yet she’s reduced to some vocal ad libs at the end. The rest of the time it’s like watching a bunch of Playboy bunnies sing and dance (and I’m aware of PCD’s roots – we can all read Wikipedia – so don’t bother pointing out their burlesque origins). And talk about sack the stylist – have these girls no shame? There’s no combination of accessories or Ann Summers outfits that these girls won’t throw on if it means they appear in one more magazine or sell one more unit.
What really, really upsets me about this record, and this is just a personal point of view, is that one of the co-writers of this “song” is Lucas Secon. He’s a bit of a hero of mine, on account of his 1994 single “Lucas In The Middle” with it’s award winning video shot by Michel Gondry, which you can see by clicking here. I guess they must have parked a dumper truck full of cash outside his house for Lucas to be involved in this project.
You’ve all heard my analogy saying how a good pop song should be like a kebab: it should take about three minutes to get through, make your hands kind of sticky, and leave you feeling either happily guilty or guiltily happy at the end. However, it’s an anology that works both way; a bad pop song is aso like a bad kebab. You know straight away that there’s something wrong. There’s a bad taste in your mouth. And at the end, you’re running for the toilet.
So, welcome to my sporadic and probably short-lived series “How to polish a turd“. Viewers outside England may not recognise the metaphor here (or understand what a ‘turd’ is, but for that I can only point you to this Wikipedia page). The meaning of the phrase is this: no matter how much you shine up a lump of poo, put it in a pretty box or tie a big pink ribbon to it, it’s always just gonna be a lump of poo.
Hence the expression “to polish a turd” has come to represent the example we have here: “Womanizer“, the 24th single from Britney Spears. Spears has the single worst voice in pop music history – a nasal whine that sounds like a squirrel being put to death by an electric drill. And when they turn on the vocal effects, like they have done far too much in this song in an attempt to make it sound like she can actually sing, she just sounds like a robot doing an impression of a squirrel being put to death by an electric drill. And it doesn’t matter how many sexy outfits she wears, how many times she tosses her hair or thrusts her groin at the camera; you can’t see the video on the radio or when you’re playing the CD. All you have left is an achingly dull song that sounds like lots of the other dire stuff that has gone before. This isn’t to say she hasn’t produced some terrific (if badly-sung) pop records before now – it’s just that this isn’t one of them.
This single last for 3minutes 43seconds but trust me, you’ll be praying for the squirrel to expire long before that.
Here’s another all-in-one mix I did some time ago. Listening back to it, I can’t remember doing it, but I can trace an evolution directly from this mix to the Shenanigans mixes that I’m producing now – tempos that go up and down mid-mix, eclectic track choices and so on. I haven’t included them in the tracklisting because they’re only samples that last for a bar or two, but there are some rock tracks that you wouldn’t expect to find in this mix, like The Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?” and AC/DC’s “Back In Black” – they are the two that come to mind, but there were others too.
I’ve decided to go with something a little different for my video choice this time – this is the Nike advert that used the Elvis Presley track that starts this mix. It’s cheesy, it’s choregraphed but it’s a lot of fun and it’s got Eric Cantona in it being a nutter. Considering it’s not that old as adverts go, it’s amazing to see how some of these footballers have completely dropped off the map (there’s only one Denilson now, eh Gooners?):
The Calico Sessions R&B 2323:
Format: mp3
Size: 32.2Mb
Audio Player:
Tracklisting:
1. Elvis – A Little Less Conversation
2. Gadjo – So Many Times
3. De La Soul – Say No Go
4. Jackson 5 – I Want You Back
5. LL Cool J – Phenomenon
6. Indeep – Last Night A DJ Saved My Life
7. Mariah Carey – Last Night A DJ Saved My life
8. Sugarhill Gang – Rapper’s Delight
9. Cypress Hill – When The Shit Goes Down
10. Beyonce – Crazy In Love
11. Amerie – 1 Thing
12. Stevie Wonder – Superstition
13. Kanye West – Gold Digger
14. Fatman Scoop – Be Faithful
15. Jamelia – Superstar
16. Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock – It Takes Two
17. Kelis – Milkshake
18. Britney Spears – My Prerogative
19. C+C Music Factory – Gonna Make You Sweat
20. Bomb The Bass – Beat Dis
21. Beyonce – Work It OUt
22. Britney Spears – Slave 4U
The new singles from Girls Aloud and former Mis-teeq MC Alesha Dixon are both Xenomiania productions. Brian Higgins, Miranda Cooper and the team down there in Kent are the UK’s permier pop producers at this time and it will be interesting to see how these two 60s-tinged efforts do in the chart head-to-head, considering the proximity of the two singles’ releases.
Both songs have, this weekend, had their live UK TV debuts. Girls Aloud performed “The Promise” on the X-Factor – hardly surprising considering that Cheryl Cole is a judge on the show …
whilst Alesha Dixon performed her single “The Boy Does Nothing” on Strictly Come Dancing:
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