How to Dress Well x Elite Gymnastics: Advanced Vulnerability

I have been wanting to write about Elite Gymnastics for a long time now but have procrastinated because there is SO much to cover. So I'm going to start small. Stay tuned for more on what may be my favorite new artists. They recently released a double album Ruin 1&2 featuring two versions of each of the songs, one a total dance banger and one a screwed down ambient bliss-out. They are soon going to release Ruin 3 which will be re-interpretations of songs on the album by such ADVANCED favorites as Physical Therapy, CFCF, and How to Dress Well! Yesterday Elite Gymnastics record label Acephale posted HTDW's cover of "Here in Heaven" on Soundcloud and it is the kind of soul-cleansing beauty that I've come to just expect from him. Crazy that I can just expect that level of honest, gorgeous emotion from an artist. The original "Here in Heaven" is an awesome dance track that has uses the friction between the rollicking-upbeat jungle beat and looping sample and the lo-fi sad, confessional, vocals to a great effect. How to Dress Well totally remakes the track, using the original lyrics, swathing them beautiful ambient church organs. He highlights the emotional honesty that is a true part of Elite Gymnastics work. Listen to and download both below:

elite gymnastics - h e r e i n h e a v e n 3 (Cover by How To Dress Well) by Acéphale

Elite Gymnastics - Here in Heaven.mp3

Games: Advanced Playcounts

Ok, so yesterday I posted all about Oneohtrix Point Never and I am going to touch a little bit on some of the other insane, fun and awesome music he has produced under various other names. First there's Games which is his project with co-conspirator Joel Ford, which is now known as Ford & Lopatin and making music in a different vein. The two releases as Games Everything is Working and That We Can Play have held the many of the top 20 most played songs on my ipod for the past YEAR. With the title track holding the number one spot for an ENTIRE YEAR. Crazy Stuff. Anyhow I thought the Games moniker and sound was dead but a few days back they released this woozy, screwed and chopped take on the Manhattan's "Crazy" (which I have now learned is the jam) and I was a very happy man indeed. Listen and you will smile too.
GAMES - No Disguise by Ford & Lopatin

AND. Here's my number one most listened to song for the past year. I don't really need to say too much more. It's like being a beautiful bath of sound that you want to last forever. Listen closer.
Games - Everything is Working.mp3

Here's another couple tracks that stayed in the top twenty most played for a year as well. They make me feel like I'm in the movie Rad which is an amazing feeling. But all vintage refences aside, music didn't sound like this in the 80's. Games uses a similar palette but paints a far more detailed, tweaked, and exciting picture. Both of these are so so good.
Games - Planet Party.mp3
Games - MIDI Drift.mp3

Also do yourself a favor and check the video for "Planet Party." Sure, this was WAY back in 2010, and now its 2011 and we are reviving different things these days but this is still a whole lot of fun.

Oneohtrix Point Never: Advanced Oblivion

Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never is a true favorite of mine. He makes some of the most mind-blowingly beautiful, brilliant music I have heard in years. Awhile back I was stuck in a place where the only escape was internally--into your own mind--memories, reflections, imagination, creativity and meditation . While there, I got the first (official) Oneohtrix album, Rifts, and all of the sudden I had a portal to a special meditative state of oblivion. The spiraling, interlocking keyboards are intensely entrancing. His music offers engaging, complex webs of sound that can be listened to as intently as you would like but are simultaneously hypnotizing to the point that you can just relax and lose yourself in them. Quickly after that he released Returnal,which introduced quite a bit more song structure but was equally excellent, if not better. The title track is a transcendent piece of songwriting that incorporates his own pitch-shifted vocals (don't say it sounds like the Knife/Fever Ray...they're great and all but don't touch the pathos and desolation captured here).  The emotional nature and excellent songwriting of "Returnal" was caste in stark relief in the remix (mp3), featuring Antony Hegarty, that stripped the song down to piano and Antony's heartbreaking vocals.

Lopatin has released a ton of VERY diverse material under many different names (Games, Ford & Lopatin, Chuck Person, KGB Man, Sunsetcorp--check back soon for more of his amazing music), but his next official Oneohtrix Point Never album Replica drops November 8th. I'm pretty excited and that excitement is only heightened by the first single "Sleep Dealer" (a song title that truly speaks to me--I have a pretty intense love for sleep). The album is "an electronic song cycle based around lo-fi audio procured from television advertisement compilations." How that sounds on "Sleep Dealer" is chopped and looped samples that shouldn't work together but do after about 20 seconds, backed by beautiful drones. When what seems like a chorus of voices comes in, the whole thing morphs into a new level of beauty. It reminds quite a bit of Oval or Fennesz who have made some of the most stunning ambient music of all time. Good company to be in. Check it out below.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Sleep Dealer.mp3

Dam-Funk: Advanced Lack of Irony

So i've written about Dam-Funk before and I'm a huge fan of his "modern-funk" compositions...which is really what they are...not so much songs as mini-suites composed in the sounds and format of electro-funk. If you want to hear what I mean check out "Inside of U" below which is part of the new EP InnaFocusedDaze  being released as a free download from Scion A/V (UPDATE: you can download the whole thing at the end of the post). It's a beat-less song where he spaces out his sound and almost removes all of what one would traditionally think of when hearing the word "funk" (he has written that he makes "#NotIronicFunk" and you can totally hear it in the music). Yet it is totally Dam-Funk and totally funk. Just next level.

Dame (short for Damon, and how you should pronounce the "Dam" part or Dam-Funk) was kind enough to also share to more songs from InnaFocusedDaze. Listen to "Forever" which showcases Dam-Funk's slick loverman vocals, his complex web of squirming synths, and a taste of his ability to rip it up on the keytar when the occasion calls for it. Play this for your lady.


On "Don't You Know (That This Funk Iz Real)" Dam lays down some ground rules about his funk. At about the 3 minute mark he totally blows it out on the keytar. It's pretty awesome funky shredding in a style that we really haven't heard since Prince's heyday. He even goes so far as to break his consistent veneer of smoothness with some noisey (!!!) squall.



UPDATE: The whole EP is now available for download here:

o F F/GR†LLGR†LL: Advanced Tears

If you have been paying attention to ADVANCED then you know I love oFF and GR†LLGR†LL's solo work and their recent collaborations have been excellent. Broken, ambient R&B that is lovely, sad and haunting. oFF was kind enough to send me this new track of theirs. Which is more abstact than their last few songs but still gorgeous and leaves you wishing it were longer. Listen close to the layers of voices filtered through a haze of screwed-down auto-tune. Their lonely, forlorn sound speaks directly to my mood of late, but I think it touches something universal in human experience so it connects no matter how you feel. Listen and download. Enjoy the sadness.


I apparently slept on this release from oFF Disenchanted Fairytale  which showcases a cleaner, lighter sound. Looping pianos and echoing voices build on each of the short tracks into a a polyphony of heartbreak. oFF is not messing with any light emotions. The tracks all end too soon as always, which is both a complaint and a compliment. I generally will just listen to some songs on repeat. Once he gets me in the mood I want to stay in the solace of oFF's sound.


Also, here's a lovely video of "Let U Know" which is a track from the outstanding Secret. This appears to be footage of some old boy band...appropriate for the kind of over-the-top feelings in the song.

Chad Valley/House x Active Child: Advanced Seduction Options

Awhile back (one of my first posts) I wrote about Active Child's "Playing House" which features How to Dress Well and has been in my top most played tracks ever since then. It is a sweaty indie-loverman come-on of a song. Active Child has some soaring vocals and when HTDW comes in you know it's time to get it on.

In the past few days two remixes have emerged. One by Chad Valley and one by Houses. Both slow the original down but in different ways, and I am a fan of both. Chad Valley takes things into a softer, romantic, almost plaintive realm. He strips the song down and highlights the vocals laying down a pretty piano track and adding a lot of space to the mix. A ways in he drops a metronome beat in and lets things build with some keyboards. Really beautiful.
Active Child - Playing House ft. How to Dress Well (Chad Valley Remix)

Houses turns things into a shimmering slow-motion dance track. He slices and loops the vocals into a beautiful ecstatic moment towards the end. When I wrote this there was a Soundcloud link and download for this song...but I guess they removed it. It seem the song is a Spotify exclusive. Which is ok because you should get Spotify anyway. If you don't already have it, or don't know what it is...get ready to be happy.
Active Child – Playing House - Houses Remix- Exclusive Bonus Track

And here's the O.G. jam once again. Buy the album.  It is definitely worth it.
Active Child - Playing House (Ft. How To Dress Well) by Vagrant Records

Miguel x Physical Therapy: Advanced Hopes

 

So Miguel's "Sure Thing" has been one of my favorite jams for a few months now. I first became aware of Miguel watching BET in a place where that was my only access to pop music. His video for "All I Want is You" transfixed me with it's smokey soul sound. It reminded me a bit of Burial. Which is not something you expect from 106 & Park. Also I really liked how he bit his lip and made curvy hand motions in place of saying "that ass." Watch and see, it's pretty awesome. Anyhow, "Sure Thing" is maybe even better, with it's screwed-down vocal hook and insanely catchy melodies. It's a hopeful, positive love song. Offering some true love. Yesterday, ADVANCED favorite Physical Therapy posted this sick sped-up remix. He put some latin flavor in there...it sounds like he dropped the whole song inside of a maraca. Like everything Physical Therapy touches it's dope, ethereal and totally danceable. Check and download below.

Miguel - Sure Thing (Physical Therapy Bootleg) by PHYSICAL THERAPY

Here's the aforementioned original which is seriously one of the best singles of the year:
Miguel - Sure Thing mp3

And an official remix featuring Pusha-T of the Clipse who still sounds cold and menacing but is in an uncharacteristicly lovey mood:
Miguel - Sure Thing (remix ft. Pusha-T)

Supreme Cuts: Advanced R&B

Supreme Cuts have been circulating in my radar ever since their sick Holy Other remix (mp3) caught my ears on Holy Other's incredible mix for Altered Zones a few months back. Since then I've been trying to track down whatever I can by them. The Chicago-based (check the Jordan nail-job above) duo term their sound as "future R&B" so you know I'm all over it. They make vocal-sample heavy dance music that is simply gorgeous. They have tight beats and ecstatic breaks but keeps things laid back with pretty vocal samples and tons of melodic flourishes. A little over a week ago they released their first EP entitled Trouble on Small Plates Records. You can grab the vinyl there. Digital release is available on iTunes. And you will need to know this info after you hear the beautiful, detailed tracks below.

Listen to "Issues", my favorite song by them so far. It uses sliced and sped-up soul vocals and amazing snare-rush builds to approximate bliss pretty accurately.
Issues by Supreme Cuts

"Amnesia", another cut from the EP has precise hand-clap and glass bottle percussion underneath distorted and chopped vocal samples, and an insane beat.
Amnesia by Supreme Cuts

And check "Fools" out too. Which rocks an extended moment of R&B ecstacy.
Supreme Cuts: "Fools" by alteredzones

Grab awesome the non-EP track "Jacy", which is sexy, mournful and so, so good.
Supreme Cuts - Jacy mp3

There's also this insane remix of Enigma's "Return to Innocence" which turns the New Age classic into a scewed-down brain massage. Shout out to Claire for being up on the same New Age game.
Enigma - Return to Innocense (Supreme Cuts Edit)

And listen to/download their fabulous "Significant Other Mix" which mixes R&B, screwed hip-hop and post-dubstep beats with deadly efficiency. Shout out to Joanclair for calling Kelly Rowland's "Motivation" as one of the hottest tracks right now. Supreme Cuts agree.

Tracklist:
1. Jagged Edge- Forever My Girl (Supreme Cuts Edit)
2. Falsetto- The Dream
3. Motivation- Kelly Rowland
4. Far Nearer- Jamie xx
5. Papa New Guinea- FSOL
6. If I Ever fall in Love (Remix)- Shai
7. Don’t Go There- Bad Bwoy Beatz
8. Heartbroken- T2
9. Rare Tap (2000 and One Cut)- Sandy Hunter
10. Shorty Swing My Way- KP & Envy
11. I’m Shady (Chopped & Screwed)- Eminem
12. Xs and Os (Supreme Cuts Edit)- Jeremiah
13. Jacy- Supreme Cuts

Finally here's another mix from them that was just posted a few days ago. They continue to bring it with screwed and stuttered R&B madness but add some madness to the mix with some juke and (current Bjork collaborator Omar Souleyman). Pump up any party you are at instantly. I mean, they have "I Got the Hook-Up" by Master P on there too. SO RAD. I love them.
Trouble: Club Paradise Mix by Supreme Cuts

How to Dress Well x Holy Other: Advanced Heartbreak

If you've read this blog before you know how I feel about How to Dress Well. He is pretty much the most ADVANCED thing going these days. And Holy Other has been on the rise as one of my favorite electronic producers out there. Here he takes HTDW's gorgeous, and overwhelmingly sad, orchestral version of "Suicide Dream 2" from the Just Once EP. Holy Other is not one for melodrama so he takes the sadness into an isolated, lonely place but keeps the heartwrenching beauty. Listen to it below. Perfect company for a broken heart.

How to Dress Well - "Suicide Dream 2" (Holy Other Remix) mp3