Working on a Review System

This is mainly for Hip Hop Music, but I just wanted to get this written down.

I'm thinking of reviewing albums by this way:

Before The Listen

- 0/10 Album Cover
- 0/20 Guest Appearances

During The Listen

Production
- 0/60 Quality, Basically, is it dope?
- 0/40 Creativity, Is it something that I don't hear much of or exciting?? Or is it boring?

Lyrics
- 0/60 Creativity, How unique are the lyrics?
- 0/50 Skill, In terms of rapping, how good is the emcee or group?

After thoughts

- 0/20 Timeless?
- 0/20 Power of the Singles, do the singles speak good enough for the album?

Put On hold

Day 3 is put on hold for a few days as I find myself. This blog will be back tho, so stay up! (max 2-4 days until I make a new thread)

Trance Tuesdays Edition 1

To spice up the blog I decided to hold Trance Tuesdays here. Pretty simple concept, but to start it off right Im'a post up Armin Van Buuren's A State of Trance, the 300th episode, part 1.

1st Hour Tracklisting:

01. Intro
02. Sarah McLachlan - Fear (Hybrid Sumtin Remix)
03. Dave Gahan - Dirty Sticky Floors (Junkie XL Remix)
04. Jose Amnesia feat. Jennifer Rene - Louder
05. BT - Mercury & Solace (BT 12" Mastermix)
06. Holden & Thompson - Nothing (93 Returning Mix)
07. Nathan Fake - Outhouse
08. Markus Schulz pres. Elevation - Clear Blue w/ Andy Moor vs. Orkidea - YearZero (Accapella)
09. Cass & Slide - Perception
10. Salt Tank - Eugina
11. Three Drives - Sunset On Ibiza
12. L.S.G. - Netherworld
13. Robert Gitelman - Children Of The Sun
14. Tranquility Base - Razorfish (Above & Beyond Bangin' Mix)
15. Jan Johnston - Calling Your Name (The Thrillseekers Vocal Mix)
16. Sarah McLachlan - Fallen (Gabriel & Dresden Anti-Gravity Mix)
17. Bossanova - Stonecold
18. Solar Factor - Urban Shakedown
19. Fictivision vs. Phynn - Escape (Fictivision Mix)
20. Above & Beyond feat. Zo? Zohnston - No One On Earth (Gabriel & Dresden Club Mix)
21. Aria - Dido (Armin Van Buuren's Universal Religion Remix)
22. Rank 1 - Such Is Life
23. Kansai - Remember This Night
24. Vincent de Moor - Fly Away (Cosmic Gate Remix)
25. DJ Ton T.B. - Dream Machine
26. Marco V - Loops & Tings Relooped (Marco V's Original Mix)
27. Marco V - Tolerance
28. Push - Strange World (2000 Remake)
29. Paul Oakenfold - Southern Sun (Ti?sto Remix)

Second Hour:

Menno De Jong Guest Mix:
01. Menno de Jong - Nolthando (Original Intro Mix)
02. Kimito Lopez - Sub Runner

Marcel Woods Guest Mix:
01. Marcel Woods - ID
02. Solee - Impressed
03. M.I.D.O.R. - Intellectual

Sean Tyas Guest Mix:
01. Sean Tyas pres. Logistic - One More Night Out
02. Vincent De Moor - Fly Away (Sean Tyas Remix)

Aly & Fila Guest Mix:
01. Andy Prinz - Quiet Of Mind (Aly & Fila Remix)
02. Mark Eteson & Jon Prior - Dynamic Stability (Aly & Fila Remix)
03. Aly & Fila pres. A&F Project - Uraeus (Frase Remix)

Download Here

Armin and DJ Tiesto were the first DJ's I knew from the Trance scene, so this is/was a must peep for me. ASOT runs free on DI.FM 2pm EST every Thursday!

Enjoy!

Day 2: The backlash of Part 1

After re-watching the documentaries (Well, Part 1 right now, other parts coming up later) giving on day one, I am seeing some direct relations between Hip-hop and House.

-Both started underground.
-Both had reporters leeching the fuck outta the music when it got big.
-While in Hip-hop a lot of the industry died of getting shot, while in house, instead of getting shot, it was drugs.
-Both originally at least, were meant to have a good time, dancing, etc.
-Both genres music production consist of manipulating vinyl, and diggin' for vinyl.
-Both are dope! haha

Anyway, with the history lesson outta the way, while searching for some songs I fell across this mix:

TRAVELLER: CHICAGO
GENRE: CHICAGO/ACID HOUSE
PRODUCTION EDITED
TIME 79.53 MINUTES


TRACKLIST
Bam Bam - Where’s your child?
Phuture - Acid Trax
Adonis - No Way Back
Phuture - Your Only Friend
Maurice - This Is Acid
Jungle Wonz - Bird In Guilded Cage
Robert Owens - Bringing Down The Walls
Frankie Knuckles - Bad Boy
Tyree - I Fear The Night
Chip E - Time To Jack
Hercules - 7 Ways
Adonis - The Poke
Tyree - Acid Over
Kevin Irving - Ride The Rythm
Marshall Jefferson - Move Your Body
Ralphie Rosario - You Used To Hold Me
Jamie Principle - Waiting On My Angel
Dez - Boom Boom
Lil Louis - French Kiss
Mr. Fingers -You Can Feel It
Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley - Jack Your Body
The DJ Fast Eddie - Can You Dance
Sleazy D - Lost Control
Wally Jump jr. - Turn Me Loose

Download here

I fell upon it looking for Chip E. - Time To Jack. God, I fucking love that tune.

Random download for day 2 is Acid Tracks by Phuture, download Here

That brings me to the first in a series of future reflections for the blog. What this is, is future questions that I want to be able to answer intelligently in terms of house music.

Future Reflection #1:
What the hell is the difference between sub-genres? In Ishkur's Guide he has tons of sub-genres of house. Someday in the future I will answer this question of what is the EXACT difference between them, and I want to be able to listen to a new house track and identify what sub genre it falls under.

Hip House

Hip hop cats weren't sleeping on the house sensation either, in Ego Trip's: Book of Rap List, it has 2 list of 10 Hip House Songs That suck, and 10 that don't. Since my quest through music started through Hip-hop, its nice to fuse things over and get into Hip-House. So without further ado, the two lists:

10 Hip House Songs That Don't Suck. . .
1. Adding On - Lakim Shabazz
2. Come Into My House - Queen Latifah
3. Do It To The Crowd - Twin Hype
4. The House That Cee Built - Big Daddy Kane
5. I'll house You - Jungle Brothers
6. Kicked Out The House - De La Soul
7. Lyte As A Rock (House Mix)- MC Lyte
8. Planet E - KC Flight
9. Rhythm Is The Master - DJ Chuck Chillout & Kool Chip
10. We Got Our Own Thang - Heavy D

10 Hip House Songs That Don't Suck

. . . & 10 More That Really, Really Do

1. Dance All Nite (House Mix) - Poison clan
2. Get Wild go Crazy - K-9 Posse
3. Hip House Attack Positively Black Style
4. It Ain't A Hip Hop Record - MC Shan
5. It's Time To Party - EPMD
6. Slick Rick The Ruler - Slick Rick
7. Soul Man - Kid 'N Play
8. Traveling At The Speed Of Thought (Hip House Remix) - Ultramagnetic MC's
9. Turn This House Into A Home - Craig G.
10. We In This House - J.J. Fad

What'cha Think? Any dope ones in the ones Ego Trip didn't care for?

Edit: In the process of making the songs that were supposely terrible, I realized the first few I listened to - were terrible, thus giving me no reason to sit here and find all the rest and put your ears through hell as well. haha

Hopefully hit the blog up tonight after work for Day 2..
Peace

Day 1: Rekindling my past excursions into House Music

Ah, the excursion begins 11:20pm on September 22, 2008. To say the least, I'm a bit excited how this blog takes off, maybe it will be a hit for a few electronic music heads out there, or maybe it's only purpose will be for my lonesome.

Enough with the intro's tho, lets get to the akshion.

In the past years electronic music has always been something I've had an eye out for, it always seemed like an amazing thing to be involved in. Being the Hip-hop head I am, I knew how a simple musical genre can rearrange and change your life beyond belief. To prove this all you'd have to do is look at my life projection. Before Hip-Hop: Unhealthy, TV/Video games/Radio nonstop, Ignoring self, Doing stupid things, etc. After Hip-Hop: Vegetarian, exercise, no idiot-box/whack radio, preservation of self, doing things for my future. See, what Hip-Hop brought to me was the knowledge of self, the love of life. What I look for in House/Electronic music is the fun aspect, the crazy dance like a muthaphucka element of life. Back to the story - my eye was always keen to anything I saw that was EDM related, so over at the DI.fm message boards I had stumbled across a House documentary post. Bear in mind when watching documentaries, there is a big difference when you already have knowledge of a genre and its orgin compared to when you watch a documentary and you are learning for the first time. I have watched this documentary about 4-5 times in total in the past years, and everytime I learn something that I didn't know, or remember from before. (This is due to my small knowledge in house music). So what I have here for yall is THE documentary that I watched years ago, that triggered the fire in me.

Part 1: Here
Part 2: Here2
Part 3: Here3

I will be re-watching it tonight, and early tommorow to begin my journey on the right foot. I am a believer in the element of knowing where you've been, to know where you're going. So knowing the history of things is important to me, thus which is why I continue to watch this over-and-over until its nailed in my head. For you big time house heads - What do you rate this documentary? Good representation?

Along with this documentary I will post my current favorite House track, Black Box - Ride On Time.

Black Box - Ride On Time: Ride On Time
(By the way, if anything is ever needed RE-UP'd just hit me up with a comment.

It's interesting to note that the song's name came to be because of their bad English. Haha.

Along with Ride on Time, a few more songs from the documentaries that really uplifted me were:

A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray: Voodoo Ray
Marshall Jefferson - Move your body: Move Your Body

Honestly, those are the only songs that I remember REALLY hitting me, I will now be re-watching it, and getting some more information/tunes, and hopefully can hit up the blog tommorow for Day 2 in the life and times of House music and me :).

Peace Peace Ya'll

Welcome

Hello, if you've stumbled upon this blog, you have stumbled across my adventure throughout the genre known as House music. This blog will be a discussion point for anyone who is interested in my journey in learning electronic music, more specifically - House music. To begin, this blog will work as a calender of learning processes that I inquire throughout the genre. I will post songs that I really feel, for historic purposes of the genre, or for flat out being dope.

Some history of myself which should help the reader understand my situation: I'm 19 years old, just out of high school, planning on going to college in the future, as of right now? Grocery job paying something around $200 a week that I mainly spend on records. Speaking of records, that is why I am here in the blogosphere. Recently I purchased 2 Technic 1210 MK5 Direct drive turntables, a Rane TTM56 Mixer, and some other things to get going in the DJ world. I have been a long time underground/true-school hip hop advocate loving the sounds of J-live, Jazz addixx, KRS, Tribe called Quest, De La Soul, and others. I have very little understanding of electronic music past Ishkurs guide (http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/). But from what I've seen/heard, it's an amazing thing to be apart of.

Thus brings me to my journey, take a seat read up, hopefully you can learn a thing or two, as I know I will be blown away by the things I encounter throughout my House Journey.


PS. From time to time you will see other parts of EDM taking part of this blog, house is what has affected me the most early on in this genre, however I wouldn't put it past me to think this might end up in "Breaking down Trance," or something:).

Thanks for being here,
Ron.