sunny songs for a rainy day

I can't think of anything more enjoyable on a shitty rainy day than sitting here basking in the loving glow of my iMac, as I hunt down some new choons, with the Olympics happening in the background.  So thank you rain. Maybe that can be my new excuse for not blogging lately...? its just been too damn hot!

Going to kinda ease my way in with this cute little remix from Ron Basejam.  He's appeared here before, at least once.  So far most of what I've heard from him is a little bit soulful and a little bit playful.. and this one is pretty much right on both of those marks. Plus theres a line about the sun and warmth etc and thats kinda what I want to hear you sing about on a rainy day.

The White Lamp - It's You (Ron Basejam Remix)

Do you know who John Barry is? I really think you should. Especially if you're a movie fan, a music fan, or even more so a fan of the way music is used in film.  John Barry scored the Bond films(as well as countless other films)...actually a master at setting a mood with a haunting score.  I'm not sure how it's never dawned on me before but Gui Boratto is so similar it hurts. The style, the sound...very few people, and I've heard a lot, can give chills with dance music the way Gui Boratto can. Exhitbit A: this remix of the Battles track "Wall Street".

Battles - Wall Street (Gui Boratto Remix)

So I show up at my friend Charles's house last week and as I walk in i see a flyer for a party in a couple weekends. Lee Foss, Matthew Dear, Soul Clap, Juan MacLean, Nitin and a few more that'll probs be the undercard.  Thats easily the tightest lineup I've seen not at a dance music festival this year. Even better was he fact that as I was looking at it I was actually listening to Matthew Dear... who I completely love. On top of making pretty much every kind of music you could think of and making it well.... hes not exactly hard on the eyes.  Plus his label has one of the cuter logos out there (Ghostly International).  The guys responsible for this remix of Matthew Dear's "Her Fantasy" have appeared before as well...from remixing Neil Young(amazing) to their own productions they turn out stuff that sounds exactly how you'd expect someone by the name of Poolside to sound like... sun soaked, breezy summer beats.

Matthew Dear - Her Fantasy (Poolside Remix)

And now what a rainy day really sounds like.... Another find courtesy VisionQuest... and the rather whacky names of their seasonal collections... this one from the Teen Collection Hot Jam 96.  The title doesn't exactly make me want to run out and buy it but once I knew it was VisionQuest I was fully on board. It sounds a lot like Trentemoller who I was a titch obsessed with back in the day... only a bit more dancefloor friendly.

QBeck feat. Julia Govor - Alice

JuJube Eyeballs.

So in my last post it was Pride weekend here in Toronto. A weekend of, to quote Pirupa, "party non-stop".  It also coincides with the annual dispersal of NPAP(No Pots and Pans), an annual collection of a hundred or so of the years best dancefloor ready tunes and remixes and a few hour long sets from some local and sometimes International DJs put together by my friend Charles and disseminated to the masses via flash drives to the couple hundred of us lucky enough to get our hands on one....before passing it on to others to keep on "playing it forward".  I thought thats in this post I would give NPAP a shout out and drop my favourite off of this years collection.  It has quite literally been on repeat on my iPod since I heard it. 

Crazy P have had a few different incarnations and I remember coming across them for the first time about 13 years ago on a John Acquaviva mix when they still went by Crazy Penis....its a bit of an attention grabber. This is pretty far removed from that sound... having said that, I havent heard the original.. but well.. just enjoy it. Its a good'un.

Crazy P - Beatbox (PBR Streetgang Remix)

And secondly, one of the best tracks of the entire weekend... after the Frankie Knuckles one from the last post of course.  Dj Jamal dropped this lil beauty which actually wound up being officially the last track of Pride weekend as he wrapped up Gay Day (or Canada Day to some) at CZ on the Monday following Pride.  It took a little while for it to sink in what we were actually listening to.  You know those times your there singing along to a track and you have no idea what it is.... or why you know the words... but for some reason you do.  It takes a lot of balls to do a remix or a cover or any kind of rendition on a Beatles track.  When you've got a catalogue like they do of popular music that is engrained in the conscience of pretty much everyone from just about everyone spanning 50 years, its kind of hard to better it. I won't say this betters the original.... but it is easily the best dancefloor interpretation of any Beatles work I've ever heard.

South of Roosevelt - Over Me (Original Mix)