Her Dark Materials: Silk

I'm on fire. Three posts in less than a week? The Singapore bots must be enjoying all the raves.

So, here's the next installment of the Her Dark Materials set. Silk. A bitch of a fabric and a bitch of a list. It took me forever to try to pinpoint the mood and different tramlines that made sense between themselves and with the whole.

I'm not really pleased with the overall result. It's the horse meme where it starts off really detailed and ends up being dogshite. 

Silk is a fancy material and as such it's a fancy event. I don't know how to explain it, but it needs to sound clean, regardless of whether it's loud or fast or whatever, it has to sound like diamonds clinking together. It's an exclusive party in a London penthouse. Not with those shoes love. 

Here it is. No shuffling or so help me, yadda yadda yadda. 

So. As I said, I enjoyed making the start and had a very clear trajectory for it. I don't know when it started to derail but let's just go through it together and see, shall we? 

We hit it off in the limo, we haven't even got there yet. DWIG's One for Good to me sounds like a slow moving car. I can see the silver wheels turning smoothly and the flashing streetlights as it passes. You're feeling done up and you still smell of the artificial scent you sprayed on your chest. Nice little exuberant Uber ride. 

This compilation has a very slow burn and you don't actually reach the party until you get to Mixed Emotions by Chase & Status and Clementine Douglas.  I said it was a party in London so we need the signature drum and bass sound. Who better for that than the iconic duo who have been dropping the same friggin' beat since 2003 (not a compliment). I normally don't listen to stuff like this, but I admit that I loved the No More Idols (2011) album. If I have to pick an artist that sounds similar but better, I'm more of a Magnetic Man girl myself (even though they only released the self-titled Magnetic Man album in 2010 and then disappeared forever). 

But enough d&b, it gets so boring after a few minutes. This Feeling by Eden Prince and Alex Mills also sounds like you're in a car, so chronologically in my little made up party, it doesn't fit. Anyway, you're a manga styled cartoon and you're cruising down a neon highway. That's what this sounds like. By now the tempo has picked up (drum & bass doesn't count) and you can actually dance a little to the music. Woodpecker by Castelle is slightly sexy but still chaste enough to be clean and sparkling. He just wants a peck on the cheek. For some reason I see twinkling lights, girating platforms, lipgloss and platinum highlights for this section. 

Is it actually a fancy party if you don't have a 2000's Destiny's Child song remixed? No. I listened to My Breath by Adam K and my bank account balance magically grew a couple of zeros on the right. The sound of jewels, the peak of your evening where everything is aligned for a few minutes. 

There's a small little two-song tramline after that moment of perfection where I wanted to bring down the energy and give my fictional party atendees a moment to sit down, catch some air, or catch some smoke from one of those long cigarrettes as they're covered in their fake-feather coats in the terrace overlooking the city. 

That balance is broken with Lithium by Odd Mob, it couldn't be more 2010s UK only it's not even as old as it sounds (2017). But I'm all down for this type of sound, it reminds me way to much of teenage years not to feel nostalgic. In a way, it gives me the sensation of sounding childish, superficial and mainstream, but still sleek and lush. It's very odd (no joke intended). It wouldn't be my first pick at a party yet it's one of my favourite tracks on the list. 

It's not my favourite though, that comes two tracks later with Dancefloor by Puppy Mountain. I can't really say why because it has the exact same energy as the rest of the tramline, I guess that in a way it sounds a little more like hope? Yeah, that's a question since I'm not entirely sure if that's true. It also feels so simple but I stopped to listen to it in detail and I realised it has a lot more layers than what I initially perceived. That's always a treat, to try to peel them off one by one and then being able to hear them all at the same time but separately. 

You might think the next track is better, especially if you consider what comes after it. I did not have a clue what to do with the ending of this list. No jockey at the disc on this one. Those last two track make no sense. They still sound UK but they don't really fit the rest of the mood if I think about it and they're too upbeat for it to be the end. I've dubbed it my own coïtus interruptus.

The most annoying thing is that on its own, Knees Up by Obskür, is an insane track. It's objectively the best track out of the whole goddamn list, I just didn't know what to do with so much power in my weak little hands. 

Blast it.

More materials soon in blogs near you. 

Her Dark Materials: Spandex

As Olivia Newton John said back in 1981, let's get physical. And that is what we're going to do today in her dark materials the spandex edition. 

We all know that the material is used for working out, it's a heartrate of over 150 and jumping on the pads of your feet indefinitely. 

Rest is for the weak and shuffling songs is for the foolish. 

Like walking into a spinning class for the first time, there is a certain element of fear that goes into making/listening to this playlist. There will be no mercy or silence for the next hour and a half and you will struggle to keep up. This is because spandex represents the electronic music that reverberates in your chest and that gets confused with a splitting headache (in the most positive way possible). 

It is for this reason that I wanted to start with something familiar. For my sake, not for anybody else's, I'm the one that was feeling queasy about hitting it off loudly. You know what it is! by Jerb has this great sample of Wiz Khalifa's Black and Yellow. It's meant to make listeners think that although it is unknown territory, there is communion between this and the most mainstream music ever created. The song doesn't even start off that hard, it has this excellent build-up that acts as a warm-up for the next one. 

The first subset inside the set is made up of music I've been discovering recently, that is the electronic music which uses vocals from rap songs over the melody and works a treat. At times, I'll find full verses in the song so I've decided to dub it rap techno. Another subgenre of the Leviathan that is techno music. 

As I was making the list I realised how much easier it is to connect with some of these songs when they have at least some lyrics in them. Maybe it's the fact that it's such a machine-made sound that hearing something familiar and organic as a voice can bring it closer to us. This is not to say that I don't enjoy purely "instrumental" (that's so not the word) electronic music. 

Keep On by X CLUB. is particularly enjoyable for me because we're still in the part of the playlist where the aggressiveness is being turned up gradually and everything is still feelgood. In the middle it has these wave-like loops that are so fluid you can't help your shoulders moving along with them. If it's making me want to dance, it's a keeper. 

The feelgood vibes end immediately after that song and we enter the oh my word where the hell are we? part of the playlist. Samba Soccer 2001 by KETTAMA wouldn't have made the cut were it not for the fact that it samples a very popular yet very Spanish song. If you don't know it, it's fine, go on YouTube this instant and type in El Baile del Gorila - Melody. You're welcome. KETTAMA had the INDECENCY of using the English version. My brother, if you're going to sample such a track, use the original. By all counts, the combination of such an ugly loud sound should not work with Melody's artificially high-pitched pre-teen voice, but it does. So I added it. 

Once we reach TEKKNO we all know something is wrong. meet her at the love parade tekkno sounds so corrupt it should be illegal. Corrupt, in decomposition, just bloody wrong. Yet, it's screaming spandex at me and is at the heart of the list. The dj usually takes mainstream songs and just turns them poisonous with his terrifying techno, I was particularly obsessed with the version he made of A$AP Rocky's Praise The Lord. Have you ever jumped for 4:35 minutes non-stop? No? Give that a go then.  

What comes after that are a sequence of nightmarish hellsounds that reach their end in Rave Energy by Jhorman Peña, Niotech. I tried to keep it dark but bouncy although some parts are so dark that it gets a little daunting to keep bouncing. For example, MASSAGING ME by TRAYVP would've been put at the start of the list because it's perfect for describing this rap techno subgenre I was on about before but it's to fast paced and primitively loud that I couldn't fit it. It takes Massaging Me by Future, and in my humblest of opinions, makes it so much better. This is what the original should have been from the outset.

It doesn't get considerably lighter after that though, we're still not out of the woods. Nevertheless it's definitely a bit of a comedown. Songs get a tad more melodic and with SLIGHTLY less aggressive bpms. I wanted to finish on a more ethereal note (as ethereal as spandex can get) and added songs that had a bit of reverb and female vocals to them. Want U So Badly by KLOE just made the cut because at times I think it's too sweet for spandex, despite sampling vocals from the Black Eyed Peas. It's possibly my favourite out of the playlist which goes to show I haven't got a dark bone in my body and it's all persona. That harp in the middle of the track is the kind of quiet endorphin rush you feel when you're done working out.

More materials up soon. Rest yer ears. 

Her Dark Materials: Leather

Now that I'm done writing annoying Instagram posts* full of cheap philosphy and childish observations to hide the fact that they're just mediocre photographs I can get back to what really matters, writing annoying blog posts full of cheap analysis and childish observations. 

I've recently started a new playlist set and decided to do a little recap once I'm done with them. The folder is called MATERIALS and each list will have its own fabric assigned (a little wordplay with a massive techno club in Madrid - Fabrik). Each material will represent a certain type of electronic music. Kind of like word association but with clothes and beats. If you don't agree with what the material sounds like, tough, that's literally what it sounds like and I won't consider changing my mind. 

So, here is the first one. Leather. 

This goes without saying but I'm going to say it anyway: No shuffling or skipping, there's a reason why they're lined up in the way they are.

 

Leather is a hot fabric, in every sense. You're going to be sweating your arse off the second you move in it and that is what this music feels like to me. Leather can also be quite stinky. This in my head translates into music that sounds a little dirty. 

Therefore, with this in mind I decided to kick it off slow and what I wanted listeners to feel was: Where are we going? Just so I can grab them by the ear and run towards the fantastic subgenre that mixes reggaeton music and repetitive harsh electronic beat. This is the new spawn of techno**. The ultimate club genre.

The CHIBI remix is the start of that little tramline. Esty can make the sweetest sounds that remind me a little to Billie Eilish only with more sass. She is the real latin urban ROSALÍA (I love her but she's from Barcelona, I don't care how much time she spends in Miami). Esty has that same softness to her voice but can kick you in the gut with a plotwist mid song that will floor you. I particularly like i 4got ur birthday. For the remix what they did was double that sass expresso. 

I tried to build on that same mood and reached a peak with Traaa by CRRDR. I listened to most of the stuff by the artist and it really is the heart of this subgenre. I decided to give it my all and turn up the heat with this slayer. It's fast, sexy and if you have the skill, twerkeable. I'm gonna ask for it the next time I go out and if I don't get my way I'll boicot the DJs night. 

Moving on from reggaeton but still keeping it a little nasty I added y u look so hawt by Bad Boombox and MC Young Lil. Self explanatory. Hawwwt. But I'll explain. It's quick, it's fun and the lyrics are always trying to seduce you with large pupils that gawk at you over a pair of grey 2002 plastic sunglasses. There is a call for sleeveless black t-shirts, long white socks and visible G-strings. Similar artists are MCR-T and Brutalismus 3000. 

One of my favourite tracks of the list is actually a little breather. Love's No Crime by Tino Troster is frankly excellent. Perfect for toning it down but still upbeat enough to make you stomp on that beat while the vocals tickle your neck. It could seem quite linear but it really is a joy to get through. 

After a few excellent tracks that serve also as a transition to a harsher electronic sound we arrive to a well known name in this subgenre of nasty techno. Partiboi69 as a must for this list and HOE has the perfet energy that fits in another little climb in speed and volume. The DJ is probably one of the first that I got to know that sounded dirty. It is less seductive than prior tracks but has a  badder energy. I feel in general, lyrics go very well with this kind of vibe and not many songs without them would fit the list. The vocals on this are the prefect contrast between a deep voice and a statement normally reserved for women. That beautiful duality you find in this nasty genre. Where genders mix and sexuality oozes in the music but it's all surrounded by a harsh beat that doesn't offer a single lull. 

The peak in volume and speed comes after that with Give Me Base by Noimage. I wasn't ready for these bpms and suddenly my little electronic session turned into a criminal aerobics class. But that's what it is. Nevertheless, for some reason it still feels dirty in the fun sense of the word. It's totally "leathery" and skintight. It's a good 5 minutes of skintight heat. But easy, you can calm down after this and breathe. 

Post almost throwing up a lung comes a few acid sounds here and there (still respecting the mood though). I love that sound beyond what I am capable of explaining. I cannot distinguish good from bad when it comes to those acid loops. Is it good or is it just really addictive? I am not going to lie I really needed to feel comfort after Noimage so I went to familiar sounds and slower bpms. The worst is behind us, sadly. 

I finish off with DJ in Berlin by 3LNA and P.vanillaboy which is still sexy but at the same time adorable in some form. It's what you want from goodbyes, to leave you with a good taste in your mouth and the affirmation that you had a good time. It's also meant to leave you wondering how the hell you clean sweaty leather. 

More materials up shortly. 

*I said I was done writing them, not posting them. Sorry. There's like six more to go.

**Techno is like the Greek god Zeus. Gazillion babies everywhere.