Karl Francis, aka Dillinja is one of Drum & Bass’s most respected DJ/Producers.  The bass in his productions are earth shaking if played on the right sound system.  Fed up with playing on second rate club sound systems which he felt didn’t do his tracks justice, he decided to build his own.  This thing is rediculous!  The mighty Valve Sound System made its mind blowing club debut at London’s Fabric nightclub in May 2001, and since then it has extensively toured the UK.  Some day I am going to have to witness it in person.  Been a fan of Dillinja’s stuff for many years. His Test Recordings records were always in heavy rotation when I was a Drum & Bass head back in the day.  Sharing a track here that is soulfull, dark, and grimey all at the same time.

J Magic Feat. Kathy Brown - Love Is Not A Game (Dillinja Remix)

As I have mentioned before, there is an explosion of stuff coming out of France as of late like Justice, Sebastian, Uffie, Feadz, Busy P, and the rest of the Ed Banger crew.  Kavinsky seems to have taken the most creative approach at least visually.  His Miami Vice/Beverly Hills Cop/electro house sound seems to fit nicely with this dark comic book take on his persona.  Some cool 3D work in these videos.

Kavinsky - Testarossa Overdrive (Video)

Kavinsky - Testarossa Overdrive (Video 2)

Young Love hail from NYC. Loving the single that is doing the rounds called “Discotech”.  Some Google action will lead you to some streams of the orginal.  They are coming out to LA for a couple of shows next week.  Check them out if you are in the area.  In the meantime peep out the Weird Science remix.  Mr. Aoki and friends did a decent job with this one.

Young Love - Discotech (Weird Science rmx)

The Futureheads are a group of lads (Barry Hyde, Ross Millard, Jaff, and Dave Hyde) from the UK that have had a good level of success abroad.  Slowly but surely building a buzz here in the states.  From what I hear they have a good live show. Another addition to the dance-rock movement as of late.  In continuing my public display of affection for the remix work of Switch, I present you with a remix he did for them. 

Futureheads - Worry About It Later (Switch remix)

Credit due to Basement Jaxx for kicking house music in the ass and getting me interested in it again about 6 or so years ago.  They have since strayed away from, but not completely abandoned the 4 to the floor beat structure for a more pop inspired sound that is a bit more accessible to the masses but Simon Ratcliffe (left) and Felix Buxton (right) will always be associated to the genre.  Cant say enough about these guys.  Not only due to produce great music, they can bring it in a live setting as well.  The Jaxx have just wrapped production on their new album entitled “Crazy Itch Radio.”  Pete Tong previewed the first single ”Hush Boy” on the Essential Selection a couple of weeks ago.  Bring on the remixes!!  Back in March the Jaxx did a 5 minute mini mix for Annie Mac’s show on Radio 1.  Check it out.  Jaxx your body!

Basement Jaxx - Mini Mix  

Otherwise known as Aphex Twin. The acid house inspired drill and bass stuff that most people attribute to his sound is only a sliver of the overall spectrum of his discography.  Sharing a track here that is one of my favorites. It can only be described beautiful and emotional.  I can invision this song being the soundtrack to my life as it flashes before my eyes when I am heading toward that bright light someday.  Throw your headphones on, close your eyes, and enjoy.

Aphex Twin - Flim

So I am officially in love with Cassie.  This could be Bad Boy’s best investment in many years.  Production is hot, video is hot, song is hot, Cassie is hot.  Great production from a guy named Ryan Leslie.  Tommy Mattola signed her to a management deal on the spot.  Then of course Diddy wanted a piece of the action.  Making the Band was not paying the bills I guess.  Peep out the video.  Think Janet Jackson “Pleasure Principle”.

Video

Love me some French house musice.  From the techno inspired early years of Daft Punk, to the filtered disco house that followed, to the gritty electro house of the new french movement coming out of Ed Banger Records.  Justice, Parisian DJs turned remixers, turned band, turned hype are leading a new movement.  Justice are Parisian duo Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay. These guys have been pumpin out some solid remix work for a while now and now have a new full length of original works.  Peep out the launch party, looks like it was off the heezee! Justice foregoes the standard house music blueprint for hipster-friendly electronic music that indie-rock people who claim to not like dance music seem to enjoy.

Justice - Let There Be Light

I would sit in front of this thing for hours! The Monome is a reconfigurable grid of sixty-four backlit buttons.  Buttons can be configured as toggles, radio groupings, sliders, or organized into more sophisticated systems to monitor and trigger sample playback positions, stream 1-bit video, interact with dynamic physical models, and play games.  To really get a sense of what this thing can do check out the link below. 

Demo

A lot of hipsters just missed out on owning a piece of electronic music history… Kraftwerk’s Vocoder used on “Autobahn.”  If i had an extra $12k laying around… well, nevermind.  But still, if whoever just bought this thing wants to invite me over to fiddle around with it, drop me a line.  Please.