Elevate Difference

Reviews tagged dance music

Bionic

Christina Aguilera has been a polemic figure since her breakthrough hit "Genie in a Bottle". She has a sexual aesthetic similar to a young Madonna’s, fashion sense like Cher’s, and raw vocal power comparable to a younger Whitney Houston’s. Her albums contain raunchy sexed-up tracks that appeal to sexually blossoming young adults and stately ballads that appeal to their post-menopausal mothers.

This Is Happening

This can go one of two ways. You can put this album on the loudspeakers of your choice and busy yourself with life until the best beats drop and you are unable to stop yourself from dancing around wildly, close to whatever said speakers you chose. Or, you can do as I do: ready the tunes, put on the headphones, and sit down. You’re going to need to fully absorb the genius before you try to dance to this record. How does one come to produce some of the greatest ironic dance music of the decade? As co-founding producer of DFA Records, James Murphy certainly learned from some of the best.

Keyboard City

Welcome to Keyboard City, a place where the sun is shining, the people are friendly, and everything is going to work out just fine. It’s a place created by Salvador Santana (son of ten-time Grammy winner Carlos), a young man determined to make his own mark on music.

The Beat Is...

For the same reason I celebrate my own existence—the idea of “getting out” of whatever dead-end birth town you once inhabited—Alphabeat make me cheer. Born and raised way off the major highway on Denmark’s lone peninsula (the country is otherwise fully comprised of islands), these young folks not only have the same Jutland accent as my partner; they took off for London after their first album, This Is Alphabeat, created a substantial buzz in the UK.

Fabriclive 49

I recently heard a clip from Fabriclive 49 and wanted to review it. Although I’m not too familiar with techno music (aside from the occasional club visit), I do like it, so off I went. Buraka Som Sistema’s album has a total of twenty-eight short club pieces that are very hard to separate. These songs overlap, interconnect, and pulse. There’s a definite dance vibe to the collection. At the same time, they are rather mellow and spacey in nature.

One Love

French DJ and producer David Guetta’s One Love is a dream come true for dance and electronica fans who like hip-hop too.

Limited Edition Demo

Pulling together some of the best feminist talent in dance music today, MEN should be requisite listening if you intend on moving forward in your life as a party-loving progressive. I understand that feminism is not always a celebration; I have often in my life been accused of being too serious. However, I like to shake it. A lot. It would be easy to write about my fan girl love for JD Samson.

Fabriclive.47

From what I hear, Sheffield England is not a bumping metropolis.

FabricLive 39

This record is sick. By 'sick' I mean off the charts wicked, all night booty-shaking, dance party-inspiring, screaming while you crash down the rollercoaster of noise sick. Woah. DJ Yoda, the mastermind behind this collaboration, hails from the UK and focuses on hip-hop turntablism, making a name for himself since the late 1990s with his How to Cut and Paste album series. Joining the ranks of Fabric DJs, he’s outdone himself.

Fabriclive.36

If you want to get the party started, here is the album to get the job done. Fabriclive.36 features James Murphy and Pat Mahoney on this release of electronic disco to minimal disco. The Fabriclive.X repetoire features a new artist release on a regular (if not monthly) basis out of the Fabric night club in London. These works are compliations of artists spun up for the night club dance crowd.

Blackout

Few will want to admit it, and even fewer actually will, but Britney Spears' Blackout is a scintillating, effervescent slice of post-millennium pop that will be a guilty pleasure for many in the coming months. Say what you will about the circumstances of Spears' personal life, which have certainly exceeded the threshold of outlandish, but those circumstances have no effect on her splashy radio and club-ready formula.

Fabriclive 34

I am of the opinion that party music is best heard live while at the party.

Remixed and Reimagined

Billie Holiday has been lauded along with Joni Mitchell, Judy Garland, and Aretha Franklin as one of the greatest female artists of the 20th Century. The appeal of Holiday was her pained and pinched vocals; she did not have a pretty voice, and the biggest part of her appeal laid in the rough edges of her whiskey-sour pipes. Because one listens to Billie Holiday for emotional truth, it is a little disconcerting to think of Billie Holiday dance music.

Momento

I’m not usually a headphones-in-the-outdoors type of girl, but I knew I had to take this one to the park. For real. This was an album requiring devoted listening.

Franchise Player 02

Joey Youngman’s Franchise Player 02 is an excellent collection of dance songs marketed for sophisticated urban hipsters, who prefer their dance music steeped in brainy jazz music.

Reminted

When I received this CD in the mail, I must say that I was disappointed. The Fort Knox Five, who claim they don't remix songs, they remint them, which kept with the theme and designed their CD cover to be reminiscent of a $5 bill. Clever packaging, but I thought I was actually being sent money, so to find that it was in fact a CD was a bit of a let-down. I felt better after I popped the disc in, though. Featuring 12 “reminted” tracks by various artists, the CD is thoroughly ‘70s, with funky retro beats that give the album a nice feel.

Lovers and Crypts

Straight outta Brooklyn, New York, Bunny Rabbit is a sound that is to be forgotten, at best. The music is drab and the beats predictable. Vocally, this is a woman who portrays herself as a sex object, who believes her only value is in being used for sex and nothing more.

Venus

The opening and strongest tracks on Venus. “Venus” and “Now You Know,” from this five-piece band from Ohio are catchy, energetic and fun, setting the atmosphere for the rest of this pop-punk album. As the title implies, the songs are about love, but so much so that it delivers a kind of monotony, which drives the listener away at times. “Blue Coat, Black Hair” reminds me of Billy Talent with its faced-paced, hardcore sound and screaming vocals.

Franchise Player 01

Dance music, by definition, is meant for dance floors, but it would be mistake to assume that dance artists are lazy or unskilled. JT Donaldson is known as an important house music producer and remixer who not only creates music that is enjoyable to dance to, but also is compelling and aesthetically intriguing. The work of dance music producers often is undervalued because they are lumped in with disposable genres, like disco or dance-pop, but Donaldson deserves the acclaim he’s garnered for his work.
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