Guestation

Guest post!
Josh here, a good friend of Rob's, especially in the musical arena. As he's mentioned in past posts, we've had a music swappage ritual that's been going on for quite some time. In fact, shortly after Rob and I barely started hanging out (it must be 10 years ago now) we headed out to a party weekend at a friend's spot a couple hours north of Toronto and he presented me with a mix he'd put together for me based on what bits he'd gleaned from my taste in choons.  Pretty spot on with the added bonus of many new sounds I hadn't yet been introduced to.  So I returned the favour...and so it began. It's moved from CDs and memory sticks to Dropbox and Rob's music blog...the medium for sharing keeps changing but in this instance the medium isn't the message, the music is.

So clearly I'm a fan of Rob's blog and happy he can share the gems he finds with anyone else who arrives at this corner of the net.  But since this has become his de facto method of continuing to share music with me I can get a little impatient when it's not regularly updated.  And so was the case a couple months ago upon which I sent him a friendly reminder that it was due time to post some something new.  He's a busy bee and doesn't always have the time to organize his plentiful new music and words into a post.  I get it - but it pissed me off and it prompted me to tell him 'if you don't, I'll post it for you dammit'.  Well, Roberto thought this sounded superb and so the idea of a moonboots guest post was born.

It's taken a while for this idea to turn into a post...a while to make the time and let a few tracks and ideas gestate into Moonboots' first guest post, but here it is.


Secret Places - El Mundo & Satori
This track makes me realize how closely tied together music and memories are...very similar to smell.  Songs and albums can transport us to a very specific time in our lives and reference an emotion.  Secret Places reminds me of not one, but three distinct moments...the first being my initial listen in the middle of an Audiofly podcast while I was out on a cross-city walk with my camera. It's deep, pitched-down march-like rhythm paired with an echoed layer of brass (trombone, I say) was pretty unique... it was the soundtrack to my urban exploration that day.  Second: playing it for Rob while driving down St. Clair Avenue with Rob a few days later to a similar reaction.  And third: at a party hosted by our friend Cameron a couple years later when we were searching for a good early morning track and all Rob could muster was "oh, I know, the track you played...from a set...with some horns...you know how it goes: bah, bah, bah..." Funny enough, I immediately knew exactly which one he meant but neither Sahzam nor Soundhound were able to find the name of it. So that morning I tried to figure out what set it was in the middle of in the depth of my iTunes and finally, proudly, found it.  I stumbled upon that same set a couple weeks ago and Shazam was finally able to tag it. I was happy.
Movin' On - Mario Basanov feat. Monica Liu
I've been a fan of Mario Basanov's ever since I stumbled his double album 'Changed' over a year ago produced with regular collaborator Vidis.  This Lithuanian duo have since been putting out some of the best in electronic music.  They have a knack for maintaining a strong electronic sensibility in the backing track and choosing a great melody and vocalist that often pulls the whole product a different direction which makes it more interesting and song-like.  They also collaborate with a huge variety of amazing guest vocalists, all of which have their own very distinct style.  I love that I never know what to expect from these releases... like Movin' On's nice stripped down base of sounds with Monica Liu's sharp vocal.

Graveyard Tan (Version Two) - Konrad Black, Art Department
I first heard this track on the dancefloor at Stereol this past spring.  It's a dark and twisted stomper that Tiga also played at Footwork a few weeks back as well.  It's a good bridge track, able to move a party from one vibe to another.  I was nice to hear it on both occasions.