Best.Of.2010 Honorable Mention - Lazerproof

I find La Roux to be really boring. True story. All their electro-pop ditties sound exactly the same to me. However like another big name indie group (The Gossip), they coast by because they have a female lead singer with an amazing set of pipes on her and as a result can sing the house down.

Enter the Major Lazer boys, Switch and Diplo. Hated on (mostly Diplo here, Switch seems to not to have received the same treatment) for cultural appropriation, apparent douchebaggery and seemingly just having too much fun, they defied the haters and created one of the most strikingly different and charismatic dance music albums of 2009, Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do. The debate on Diplo and the rest of his Mad Decent crew can wait for another time, but lets cut to the chase and say in my eyes they keep club music fresh and fun by promoting and using elements of dance music from around the world and in this case the focus was on dancehall and reggae.

Love or hate it, their diverse production and selections for the remix tape Lazerproof, they show just how striking a singer Elly Jackson really is. With a constantly shifting sonic background that ranges from reggae to dancehall, dubstep, top 40 rap and beyond, the songs come into their own, no two sounding quite alike, yet all intrinsically linked. Switch and Diplo’s pop experience also play a roll, with catchy samples that will get stuck in your head for days. (Seriously, there was a two-week period where I couldn’t get their dubplated “Mad Decent big up all di fallen soldiers” hook out of my head.)

The end product is a fun, catchy, not super serious mixtape that’s displays the full talents of both Major Lazer and La Roux. It’s not a slap dash cash grab, but rather something that defies the expectations of the listener for how good said collaboration would be on paper. And I’m willing to bet like other Diplo tapes Piracy Funds Terrorism and Top Ranking, it will still be getting many spins long after the blog hype is gone.

Major Lazer & La Roux - Lazerproof
BONUS
Major Lazer - Cash Flow (Classixx Glass Bottom Dub Mix)

Lemon in the Shade with my Feet Up

Every now and again I become absolutely obsessed with a song. The last instance of this happening (and frankly its still going) was while I was traveling, when I became obsessed with Gucci Mane's ode to all things yellow, Lemonade. What gets me isn't so much the lyrics, which by the way are almost hypnotic, but rather the genius beat from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh, who rose to prominence for his beats for Lil' Wayne and others, has crafted this beat which upon first listen, is just annoying, but upon repeat, is sheer brilliance. It's deceptively simple with repeated keys, gradually building with a clap/kick combo and what sounds like an actual bass guitar. But when the keys and bass finally start spiraling upwards with children singing about lemonade, I'm totally geeking out.

Since it sounds completely unlike anything else in rap at the moment, like A milli before it, its become the beat of choice for all rappers to try their hand at free-styling over. Particularly choice is the recent Major Lazer mashup/remix of it with La Roux, which totally shouldn't be this good, but is. Also killer and unexpected is the White Lions remix of the original which slows it down into a total disco jam.

My recommendation, just let yourself go and get sucked into it. Those keys will rule your life from now on.

Gucci Mane - Lemonade
Gucci Mane - Lemonade (White Lions Remix)
Curren$y - Lemon Kush
Major Lazer and La Roux - I'm Not Your Lemonade + Heroes n' Villains Remix
Yelawolf - Lemonade Freestyle
The National - Lemonworld(Has nothing to do with Gucci, but hey, all lemon everything! BURRRRRRRRRR)

LINKS REMOVED AS PER REQUEST

GUCCI X M.I.A X THE XX

When i first saw the link for this i balked. While I'm a big fan of both The XX and M.I.A. and hell i enjoy a bit of Gucci from time to time, I'm really over mashups. The days of when the Hood Internet was blowing up and Girl Talk was king seem like a distant memory. I remember the times when i would here two songs ingeniously put together and I'd lose my proverbial shit.

It's not like that these days. Songs put together seem way too forced in order to just captialise on the success of those who've come before and done it way better. Maybe it was just more surprising back in the day, so when we're given an album of xx and notorious B.I.G mashups and it seems like a good idea, the effect is underwhelming.

This is not a mashup despite what the title track title would suggest. Whoever jDats is, hes done a good job here, chopping up an XX sample, working it into a fun southern beat and putting that classic M.I.A. manifesto sped up for the chorus. And theres that Gucci Mane for fun. This is whats called sampling people, it works better these days.

High Like Planes - ft. Gucci Mane,M.I.A., the XX ( Produced by JDats )byjoeydats