Archive for January, 2011

Rainy Day Pop

Monday, January 31st, 2011

On dreary dismal days like today its nice to have something that cheers you up or takes your mind somewhere else.  Its hard when you wake up and outside its rainy and overcast.  the cold and wet makes you not want to get up and great the day.  Then when you finally convince yourself that it isn’t prudent to lay around in bed all day and watch Netflix, you get up and all you hear about is shit popping off all over the world that brings your mild gloom full circle and makes you realize how shitty it is to sometimes be a human on Earth.  These type of days can get under your skin quicker than you expect, and then the next thing you know, you’re just a giant mopey mess for the rest of the day, as you walk around trying to make sense of it all.

I know this happens to everyone from time to time, and when it does its important to find a way to quickly alleviate yourself and snap back into reality knowing that life will eventually work out.  In times like these, I find that really fun poppy music can be extremely infectious and get inside you while transforming you for the better.  That’s why I’m finding Shugo Tokumaru so helpful on a day like today.  This Japanese singer/songwriter has created some really nice, fun happy sounding music that, while I don’t understand a word of it, makes me think he’s just singing about butterflies and puppies dancing on rainbows.  There’s something about his music that can just make your head starting nodding and a smile creeps on your face.

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Shugo Tokumaru – River Low

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Shugo Tokumaru – Malerina

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Shugo Tokumaru – Lahaha

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Nowhere Without the Bass

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Someone once told me they didn’t like Top 40, but that they also didn’t like house music because there wasn’t enough bass to it. At the time, I thought that was weird. It seemed to me like when it came to music, there were only two groups of people: Those who liked Top 40, and those who shunned Top 40 for more underground dance music, which at the time tended to be house music and all it’s derivatives. It didn’t seem possible to me that someone might not like either of them. But after having heard the music that’s springing forth from the post-dubstep era, it’s becoming more and more clear to me what she meant.

Dubstep has been hugely influential in the development of a new direction for future dance music. While the enormous and sometimes excessive use of bass in the genre may not necessarily be a lasting aspect of future music, we have dubstep to thank for the knowledge that bass can be more than just a 4/4 kickdrum, and that it is an infinitely important (perhaps even more so than we previously thought) component to dance music (and yes, that includes house music).

House music used to be great. It made people groove and caused emotions to run high. But thanks to our redefined perception of bass, house is becoming capable of so much more. How do these ones make you feel?

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Mercury – Spiritual

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Craig Bartley – Birdshell (6th Borough Project Shell Toe Mix)

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