• A track count totaling 12, three-minute songs
• An opening track that’s better than most of the other tracks on the album
• A track that really doesn’t take itself seriously. One where you can reasonably assume the artist/band members were struggling not to laugh while recording/producing it
• A track that’s a little too short
• A track that should have been left off and would have been, had the first guideline not existed

If an artist puts together an series of recordings that follow the above layout, it’s guaranteed to, well, be an album. But that’s about it. And the unfortunate truth is that most people who put out albums stop here. Ever wonder why when you go to a record store, neither you nor any of your friends have heard of 95% of everything on the shelves? Well now you know. Making an album is the easy part. Making it yours is where things tend to get a little more difficult.

There are a billion approaches to what comes next. Some people like to add longevity to the listening experience by designing “concept albums” that tell a continued story throughout, using the music to convey the emotion. Others make full length pieces in which all the tracks combine to form one master piece. But even those tactics have become a bit overplayed. After all, who the hell wants to hear even two consecutive Top 40 tracks, much less a full 12 track album?

Onra

France’s Onra has taken a fresh approach to adding flavor to his (gasp) 32 track epic, Chinoiseries. Instead of sitting down in a studio, he travelled to Vietnam (where his grandparents live and are from) to get in touch with his heritage, and returned to France with over 30 pieces of dusty vinyl, off which he built his entire album. It’s got a theme, it’s masterfully produced, and best of all the culture clash that fuels it allows him to present to us a lost sound that we would otherwise likely never have uncovered in a way that is still, somehow, astounding easy to approach.

Onra – Introduction

Onra – War

And a little something off his latest release. Different approach. Same genius.

Onra – Long Distance ft. Oliver Daysoul

Normally when an artist returns for a followup album, that album does one of two things: It either picks up where the debut album left off and sounds exactly the way you expected it to, or it branches off in an entirely new direction, and draws on a completely new set of influences. MSTRKRFT’s Fist of God sounded nothing like The Looks, both Simian Mobile Disco’s Temporary Pleasure and Boys Noize’s Power sounded more or less the same as Attack Decay Sustain Release and Oi Oi Oi respectively. Keep in mind, though, this applies only normally.

Skream’s followup to his 2005 self titled debut was released just shy of a week ago, and without even hearing it, I think we should all be able to agree that this Bristol-based producer is just about the farthest from normal one can get. Would you have thought to do what he did to La Roux’s “In For the Kill” vocal? Neither would I.

Had he been in compliance with the above pattern, there are two things we could have expected from Outside the Box. The first would have been twelve tracks of wobbling, abrasive, disgusting computer noise, and the second would have been something similar to the deep, minimalistic dub of Skream!, but like I mentioned, Skream didn’t get where he is today by simply meeting listeners’ expectations. After all, though it may never have occurred until now, one can assume the album is called Outside the Box for a reason.

To say the least Outside the Box surprised me. But I’m not going to say the least. I’m go to go all the way, and say that Outside the Box is the most innovative thing to come to the dubstep world since Fabric Live 37. Not only does Skream manage to cater to fans of both his heavy grime and his deeper, truer dub styles, but he simultaneously brings aboard an entirely new sound, perfectly crafted to nestle up close to the other two. What sound might that be? I’ve heard funky, I’ve heard poppy, and I’ve certainly heard 90’s ravey, but personally, I think it’s all that and more.

What do you think?

Skream – Perforated

Skream – How Real Ft. Freckles

Skream – Reflections

Ah, horns. What a wonderful group of instruments. What a wonder group of sounds.

The sound of the queen walking to her throne; the sound of the entire army base being lulled to sleep with Taps; the sound of a legendary jazzman just doing his thang.

But horns are really hard to sample. And they’re so loud & powerful that they often dominate a track. Good thing there are still a few artists are keeping the sound of horns alive. Let’s tip our hat to those producers whose songs include the overlooked, underused sound of the horn.

I declare today (inter?)national Horn Appreciation Day. Pause whatever you’re currently playing in iTunes and listen to these.

Bill Conti – Gonna Fly Now (DJ Barletta Remix)

Per QX – Blow My Trumpet

Is it good, is it bad? I personally think it adds a whole new realm of flavor and grove into the dance music scene that the driving beats of house music were never quite able to tap. It’s not often you’ll find a track that’ll please an entire crowd at once; All too frequently you’ll hear the complaints from hip hop fans that house moves too fast to dance to, and the house fans get upset that hip hop doesn’t move at all, but when you’re playing house rhythms down at 95-105 BPM, well, it’s enough to pry just about everyone’s eyes open a little wider.

The style has got to be something special, if only due to the fact that some of the scene’s greatest producers have quickly adopted it.

See for yourself, and let us know what you think!

Aeroplane/Friendly Fires/Flight Facilities – I Crave Paris

The Chemical Brothers – Swoon (Lindstrom and Prins Thomas Remix)

Air – So Light Is Her Footfall (Breakbot Remix)

Washed Out – Belong

Jewel – Who Will Save Your Soul (Questions Reevaluated Edit)

A friend of mine from high school only listened to soundtracks from what he dubbed “epic movies”– Braveheart, Gladiator, Troy (basically any movie where the main character uses a sword instead of a gun). We all thought he was weird. But he defended his CD collection (remember those?) with a simple line of reasoning:

1: Music affects how I feel. Listening to sad music makes me sad; happy music makes me happy.

2: By listening to “epic movie soundtracks,” I’m able to vicariously experience the triumph of, say, fighting King Edward I or leading a Roman army.

The logic holds. The first point is definitely true: music does have an effect on our emotions. And the second point is really just an extension of the first, an application of the rule. So what’s the problem? The fact that my friend even has a line of reasoning behind what he listens to. His intense cathexis behind selecting music is, at best, misguided; at worst, it’s downright retarded.

I’m not sure it even counts as your “favorite” music if there’s so much logic behind it. If you defend your music choice with anything other than “I love the way it sounds,” then I feel bad for you. It’s hard to describe why we love the things we do–music, movies, art, people. So stop thinking about it. Listen to what you love; watch what you love; spend time with who you love. Life’s pretty simple.

Here are two songs that I love. I won’t explain how or why I love them. Just trust me on this one. They’re both from RuN RiOT, a rising London-based producer whose bass-laden remixes have been climbing Beatport charts for a few months now. He sent these over about a month ago. I should’ve posted them then; I’m posting them now. Better late than never, right? Turn that shit up.

Audio Bullys – Kiss The Sky (RuN RiOT Remix)

Double 99 – RIP Groove (RuN RiOT Remix)

I really didn’t think it possible that someone might ever match the bar that Modeselektor set in the field of all around ingeniously original and creative electronic dance music, but I stand corrected. Take a look at Siriusmo; This guy came straight out of nowhere, and in a matter of months, has managed to match climb to a point where there really is no credibility difference between him and any of the other big leaguers out there. In fact, I’d even argue that’s his production quality and overall mastery of the sonic spectrum exceeds that of most other signed and credible producers out there. So how did the guy find his sound so incredibly fast? I’ve got no idea. All I know is that about six months ago, he had a remix or two on the Hype Machine, five months ago, he had TWO of his tunes featured in Modeselektor’s Body Language Volume 8 mixtape, and that now he’s got FOUR EP’s out! All of which were released between 2008 and 2010. What!?

The only thing I do know is that I need to find whatever magic fountain Seriusmo is obtaining sustenance from, and I need to get me some of that juice!

Siriusmo – EinmalIn Der Woche Schreien

Siriusmo – Katharsis Impossible

Siriusmo – Nights Off

I know I’m not really saying anything new here; it’s just an observation. An artist’s canon is always a work in progress. Make one awesome thing awesome and you’ll be forgotten. Creativity doesn’t stop.

Leg-No

There are a lot of “regulars” in my inbox, people who keep sending me stuff on a monthly/weekly basis. Many of them are talented, but Leg-No is hands down the best. Every time I get an e-mail from him I know it’s gonna be something dope. I love that his style keeps evolving– sometime he sends over dubstep, sometimes it’s Baltimore, sometimes it’s electro. The genre doesn’t matter much; he’s insanely talented at producing them all. This studio wizard makes music you’ll want to blast at full volume, so make sure you’ve got a pair of quality speakers to capture the depth of the drums.

His new EP, a collaboration with Germany’s EMMA, comes out on July 16th.

Yes, I’ve heard the whole thing.
Yes, it’s awesome.
Yes, you should get it.

I’m not allowed to share the whole thing, but here are some other Leg-No tunes. Consistency 4 lyfe, y’all.

Leg-No & EMMA – Outdated (Mendel Remix)

Ludacris – Girl Gone Wild (Leg-No Remix)

Zebra Baby – +1 (Leg-No Remix)

Sure it serves other purposes. We live in a world where speakers are so widely and cheaply available that they’re cramming mini ones into greeting cards, so to say that music isn’t and essential part of life would be a whole different argument, but to say that the music that takes the awkward out of a two-man elevator ride or the beats that turn a gathering into a party are the same as the music that “moves you” (for lack of a better grasp on what verb a poem would choose to describe its act of being) is a sorry way of a looking at life.

Some music is different. Some music actively makes the choice to stop speaking about the size of its penis, and to instead tell a story about the world and all it’s surprise and wonder without even utilizing a single spoken verse.

The Three Minute Novel

Here are a couple of tunes that poked and prodded around inside me to the point where I felt I could write an entire book on just three minutes of audio. If a tune can tap so deeply into my own personal nostalgia that it unlocks memories from my childhood that I did not even know I had, that’s what I call poetry.

Nosaj Thing – Aquarium

Scribbled Paper

The Clonious – One At A Time (Funked Up) ft. Muhsinah

Seeing as I live in Southern California, it doesn’t often strike my fancy to turn on the radio (for those of you who’ve never had the pleasure, the music on air in the town that hosts a huge chunk of the world’s biggest record labels turns out to be significantly underwhelming), but on the rare occassion that it does, I am almost without fail, greeted rather warmly–that is of course assuming that by “rather warmly” I mean by some nothing special nobody using autotune and a nauseating 808 emulator to tell me precisely how they’re going to nail this chick they’ve found in “tha club.”

Let’s start with the autotune. If you’d asked me a year or two ago how I felt about it, I would have told you I didn’t mind it, so long as it was used properly. That is, the technology was invented to help singers who might not quite be able to hit that high note touch up the quality of their tracking, and if I’d heard it used as such, it was all go in my book. And you know what? Two years ago, even modest abuse of the effect could fly if done with dignity. Remember Cher’s Believe? You can take your best shot at it, but come on, that tune was brilliant. Unfortunately, 2010 begged for a line to be drawn, and we’re drawing it. Over the last decade, autotune has stopped fixing good singers’ mistakes, and has gone on to to fix straight up bad singers. It’s no longer being applied to spotty notes, but rather to entire vocal tracks, and as a result, singers don’t sound like people anymore. They sound like freaking pots and pans robots. It used to be you could dismiss a funny sounding autotuned vocal track as one amongst many not-so-corrected tracks, but this is no longer the case. People even found a way to wreck the Cher effect. And no, not just by using it too often, but by doing it flat out wrong. You can’t just throw it on any generic rapper’s voice and expect it to sound cool: Autotune corrects PITCH. Rappers are called rappers because the vocals they do have nothing to do with pitch, and because of that that we end up hearing the plugin struggle to find a pitch that doesn’t exist, which sounds a little bit like what I imagine Helen Keller would have come up with, had she become a Top 40 artist. Bad. Notice how Beyoncé’s Single Ladies won song of the year AND Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the Grammys? Maybe it was because she’s the only artist in the entire category that doesn’t need to autotune her voice. (Okay maybe I won’t go that far, but you get the point)

You know what it is? Autotune takes the uniqueness out of a voice. It takes people who, by nature, all sound different, and produces vocal tracks that all sound exactly the same. A Casio keyboard could produce more original sounds.

Believe it or not, autotune isn’t the only thing wrong with radio music. When did we decide that lyrical creativity was no longer a necessity? I mean, as if autotune doesn’t make everyone sound identical enough, now they’ve got to go and limit their lyrics to “in da club,” synonymes for woman (bitch, trick shawty), and phrases only a step or two shy of “I’ma fuck the shit out of you.” Did anyone ever stop and wonder whether these girls even give a damn whether or not you can make their bed rock?

Or how about rhythm? Does music need rhythm? Apparently not. All you need to do is inform people that there are, in fact, “Way too many people here that I didn’t know last year,” in a plain old conversational voice, and you’re all set. That beat in the background? Oh that’s nothing, you can just ignore it. We’re not even really sure why it’s there anyway.

Does anyone else find it sad that the most popular music in the country right now is comprised of a group of people that can’t sing and probably couldn’t tell you what a downbeat is or how to use one? Do people honestly like this crap, or is everyone just too much of a follower to say anything? I mean, I’m all for the school of thought that says anyone can be a musician, but just because you’re a musician doesn’t mean you need to be picked up by WMG. Producers used to be able to hide the fact that their artists weren’t quite as talented as their recordings might indicate, but we’re getting to a point where even an entire arsenal of DSP plugins can’t make an artist sound decent, and to be quite honest, it’s sad.

Hip hop used to be poetry. Hip hop now consists of a dude picking a single phrase, and vomiting it sloppily all over a weak-ass beat. Need proof? Compare:

Lyrics to Notorious BIG – Hypnotize
Lyrics to Usher – OMG

Mega fail.

Katy B. Lends a Helping Hand

The upside? Being forced to listen to these mountains of crap makes the last remaining natural-born, non-robot singers sound that much more beautiful. This one pulled hard on my heartstrings, and though it’s only a Rinse.fm rip, I’ve had no problem giving it the repeat treatment for the better half of today.

Benga feat. Katy B. – Katy on a Mission

Praise be to you, Katy B. And a nod toward Benga for giving her the means. One day you two will rule the world.

This post is going to take a few different approaches to refuting his observation.

1: The Talent Argument

Software doesn’t replace talent. Rather, software is a means to an end. We don’t look at Mozart and say “he’s the one who got the piano,” because there were thousands of other people playing the same instrument at the same time. It’s just that, well, Mozart was more talented. The piano didn’t matter; the person playing it did. Yeah, more people are making music today. But some people are still more talented than others; those people will still rise to the top. And just for the record: it is possible to make really bad music with really good software. Shoot me an e-mail if you need some mp3s as proof.

2: The Innovation Argument

More people using the same software means that there’s an incentive to innovate. If you’re the only one making music, it’s easy to get complacent. If everybody’s making music, you’ll need to find new ways to distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack. Competition drives innovation. Innovation keeps music exciting.

3: The Numbers/Probability Argument

Even if the truly talented musicians don’t rise to the top (see Argument 1) and nobody does anything innovative (Arg. 2), probability theory tells us that more people making more music means something good is going to get made. All those monkeys on typewriters? Give them synthesizers and a sequencer.

It’s a numbers game, really. If ten people each make a song, there’s a good chance we’ll get ten bad songs. If ten thousand people each make a song, we’re more likely to get something good. Yeah, it’s a depressing and foolish way to look at creativity. But the logic still stands: more songs to choose from raises the chance that we’ll get something good. If you’re choosing between a fully-loaded 10GB iPod or 160GB iPod, you’ll probably pick the latter because there’s going to be something on there that you’ll want to listen to.

4: The Existential Argument

I’m of the personal opinion that creativity enriches one’s life. It’s important to be creative. Yes, there’s a lot of terrible creative shit in the world– bad poetry, boring movies, unfunny jokes and shitty drawings. But if the process behind all that was fulfilling to the author/artist, then I’m happy. Ignore the shit you don’t like. Let the artist enjoy creating it. Win-win.

5: The Inevitability Argument

Not really an argument, per se. More of an observation. Music-making software is getting cheaper; it’s getting easier to use. I don’t think either of those trends will reverse anytime soon. More people are going to make music next year than made music this year. It’s a fact of life that you’ll either welcome enthusiastically or reluctantly learn to accept. (Also worth noting: music is unique it that it’s always been popular. The way we listen has changed, but that’s about it. I’m pretty sure that we’re never going to stop enjoying music the way we might, say, stop playing poker or stop watching baseball or stop skateboarding or–gasp!–stop reading novels.)

Now get back in the studio and make some music. Haters gon’ hate.

Casino Gold

These guys e-mailed me about a week ago with some new stuff they’ve been working on. Casino Gold is DJ/Producer team Luke and Zack Matsuk. The’re from (where else?) LA and in the process of recording their first EP. These songs are made for Friday nights at 2AM, that point in the evening when the softies go home but the rest of us turn the music even louder. These are solid additions to any party playlist.

(By the way, to anyone who’s thinking of e-mails to music bloggers: we can totally tell when it’s a blast e-mail sent to your contact list of fifty different blogs. At least take the time to change the opening line or something. Maybe even write some bullshit like “you have the best website in the world” even if we know you’re lying. Complimenting us won’t make us any less likely to listen to your music. This has been a passive-agressive public service announcement from Uh Oh Disco.)

FUBAR (Original Mix) UhOhDisco.com

Juke Dem Hoes (Casino Gold Remix)