Saturday, May 21, 2011

For real this time, guys.

Let’s put Green Lantern, Portal, Guild Wars, video games, comic books and other things you have little interest in aside for a while. Change of pace. And by that I mean things I actually used to post that mattered to most people.

By that I mean a MUSIC POST, oh my what?!

The Kollection is a website. With music, oddly enough. A lot of music, actually. And guess what, you’ve probably never heard most of this music. Because most of this music is assembled, produced, scoured or sponsored by the people behind this website and posted for your listening pleasure, and they make sure most of it is special, unique, and creative. Mash-ups, remixes, mixtapes, collected albums, it’s all there for you to download.

Give it a click, and it’ll save me some explanatory effort. But what I can say if you’re too lazy is that most, if not all, of these mixes are very well done. I’ve listened to a few, and this site has some pretty stellar quality control. That whole correlation between artists that are unknown and their quality of music has some validity here. Rightly so, because some of these remixes are absolutely ridiculous. Some of these indie artists and great finds, and some of these mixtapes are tailor-made for your specific situations, moods, and troubles so you have a soundtrack to your life for a while.

It’s a damn civil service. So check it out. It’s your duty as a citizen. Of good music.

ALSO, recommendations. I feel like doing recommendations. You feel like being recommended music? Good. I love you, because you love music and being recommended some by me. I love music because I get to recomme—

ALRIGHT,

1) Starfucker – it’s electropop with an indie style; dream-poppy, raw vocals, some high, pulsing beats on most of their tracks. Their sound is chilled out but still energetic. You like melodic electro? Check ‘em out. Even if you like the glitch or dub sounds, these guys have some sonic references to those genres as well. Also, that band name. I mean, come on now. Reptilians is a good album to start.

2) Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats – Remember the Red Hot Chili Peppers (and how they ‘broke up’—fuck the doubters)? Well, they’re still here. They just took a break. Their drummer looks like Will Ferrell, and this side-project funk rock collective is his version of ‘taking a break’. Don’t let ‘funk rock’ deter you, some of their tracks off their debut Meet the Meatbats are pretty versatile in style and genre. Some sound post-rocky, some even grungy, but with Chad Smith banging those drums with that familiar RHCP rhythmic control, it’s still got groove and flavour. Dig funk rock? Dig rock? Dig 90’s? Dig into these guys. Also, there’s a theme going on with these band names. Guess what it is.

“Drummer swag.” Definition: Chad Smith.

3) All India RadioJus chilllllllll. Describes them pretty well. This band’s been here for a while under the radar of mainstream and pumping out album after album of steady trip-hoppin’/ambient/electronica grooviness. The vocalist has that soothing, ethereal feel to it, combined with the atmospheric and interesting beats, it gets you into another place. Wonderful genre, wonderful band to represent it. Good for soundtracks, discovering one’s purpose in life, falling in love, and slow-motion. I lied about the theme, kind of. India’s pretty epic though. Lots of shit happening there. Echo Other is a good starter for this band’s rich and broad discography.

4) Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Fun as hell indie pop. If you dig Vampire Weekend, they have sort of the same vocal sound, and a arguably more epic band name. Crisp vocals and up-beat, clean instrumentation make for a pleasing ear-massage whenever you want them for one. Good cheer-up music too, especially their album Let It Sway. Nothing’s in-your-face. It’s laid-back rock pop, approachable, and enjoyable. Melds genre codes, but still gives you exactly what you want to expect from a band name like that.

5) Guitar – Well, this is just deceptive. It’s not a rock band. Not even a band, just a music producer with a very unique sound. It’s trip-hop at its core, maybe—an artist like this doesn’t bode well with categorization. It’s just what it is, and what it is down-tempo beats combined with guitars (accordingly) and other strings; even some cultural traditional instruments from Japan. Again, it’s chill music, but with a nice twist. The classical feel of the guitar against the trip hop/ambient beats provide a damn interesting sound to absorb in. Only album I have right now is Tokyo. Planning on getting to some more. It’s worth it, trust me.

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I know there’s no rap, no death metal, no jazz (full-on jazz at least), and no tribal music, but I do try to be broad with recommendations, buy its my first one so cut me some slack. If you want some more recommendations, The Needle Drop is where to go. I took a page from his book for the post he did today:

My album recommendations aren’t debuts, but still, check them out. I download my music illegally, because its cheap. But I don’t recommend doing that. If you have the money, and the motivation, buy on iTunes or go to a music store. Gives you hipster cred, and you get to support artists worth supporting. Downloading music is a shameful thing. But I’m a shameful person, so it works out.

I might be expanding on one of these artists, audaciously. If anything, there will be more of the good ol’ days of music posts. Been binging on chill music for the past week. Going to need a lot more. If you don’t already know why, you’ll have to keep checking in for the big reveal. That’s right, you’re gonna have to read more. But in the future, I might proofread, and write more concisely, but I sucked at English in first year, so maybe not.

Stay tuned, and happy listening.

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