Y'all better prepare for a long ass entry!

I know it's been almost two years since I posted in this thing.  I've always been meaning to review more stuff, but hey, life happens.  But now I'm back and I'm talking about the techno sensation that's been sweeping every nation: Daft Punk.

Personally, it's one of my favorite DJ duos ever.  But people say they copy.  Well, it isn't copying: its sampling.  Here in this entry, I'll give you all the samples I know of.  Some are blatantly obvious and some..ehhh... not so much.  I'm going to post the song that is sampled and the corresponding Daft Punk song.  Keep in mind these songs were made before the Daft Punk songs. Here we go.

There's a very small similarity between Daft Punk's "One More Time" and Eddie Johns' "More Spell on You."  It's mainly in the beginning in both songs that there is any sampling at all. 



Now this one is scary similar.  There's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby."  It's the backing that's sampled and boy is it obvious.  And yes, I posted daft bodies :D 



I find this one questionable.  But there are some similarities:  "Indo Silver Club" and Karen Young's "Hot Shot."



The whole first 8-9 seconds of this song was sampled in "Digital Love."  Here be George Duke's "I Love You More."



The beginning of this song was sampled as well.  Part of Little Antrhony & the Imperials's "Can You Imagine" was used for "Crecendolls."  



There's only one second stolen from this song.  It's the line "Something's in the Air" and it is used repeatedly in "Superheroes."  This is Barry Manilow's "Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed."  Offtopic, this ended a long debate I had with a friend.  I thought they said, "Jump in the air."  A friend thought they said, "Go into the air."  And another thought they said, "Gold things in the air."  It turns out none of us were right.



And this one started the whole sampling fiasco with me.  I was sitting in some shop and this song came on the radio.  As soon as I heard the backing, I was all like, "Holy shit! That's Robot Rock!"  And then I went home and started my search for this song.  In the process I found other samples, which led to the creation of this entry.  Well, the wait is over, here's Breakwater's "Release the Beast."



Don't let this rock your boat y'all.  This happens ALL THE TIME.  All DJs sample and you guys hear it everyday in popular music.  Kanye West sampled "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and  Shirley Bassey's "Diamonds Are Forever."  And he probably had other examples but I'm too lazy to think of them at the moment. Nujabes had sampled a song by Jose Feliciano.  A lot of other artists sample from Daft Punk too.  Busta Rhymes sampled "Technologic," Teriyaki Boyz sampled "Human After All," Substantial sampled from "Make Love," Will.i.am sampled "Around the World," and so on and so forth.

It is depressing in some way that a lot of things aren't original anymore.  But I still see these artists creating something different from the original piece.  And DJs REMIX,REMIX,AND REMIX.  We are mixers.  We take all sorts of music and mash them together for the hell of it and then put in our own stuff.  You may not like it, but it's how things are.


xoxo

Mannequin

I decided to review Ferry Corsten because I've announced on my myspace that I've met him and people were saying "OMG Whose Ferry Corsten" and I got tired of answering people and sending them stuff so now I can just direct them to this entry. To summarize everything, Ferry Corsten is a Dutch trance artist that reached a high peak of popularity in the DJ world and now goes around the world and the like. I always forget that most people don't already know that because they're too busy listen to their generic hip hop and boy band alternative groups to even know much about trance music. But that's what I'm here for, to introduce all of you to obscure music as well and bashing artists that I'm not too fond of.



Track Listing:
1. Fire (Radio Edit)
2. Fire (Extended Mix)
3. Fire (Ferry's Flashover Mix)
4. Fire (Ron Van Den Beuken Remix)
5. Fire (Dub Mix)
6. Fire (Bush II Bush Vocal Mix)

+++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++

Okay, I consider this more of a single album because this is entirely one song, just remixed a few times, though so may argue its an EP. I'm saying its a single and I'm sticking to it. Well anyway, Fire isn't his absolute best works, but I rather like it. The one thing consisent in all of the Fire songs is the featuring voice of Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon.

The single starts with the original Radio Edit. The beginning makes me think of an intense DDR song for some reason. I just want to hop around when I listen to it. Here I am bird-walking again, now back to the point. The same lyrics and melody is repeated over and over again. Though this is what trance artists do to make a song fun to dance to but the real skill is to compose the song in a way that isn't boring to listen to as well. Though everything is repeated and such, Ferry Corsten has managed to make it fun to listen to and reason why is still unknown to me.

Next comes the Extended version. Most extended versions are a pile of lard because all there is to it is the repetition of the original and the adding in of boring beats at the beginning of the track. This isn't boring per-say since it is composed in a way that isn't the same exact thing, but this is just the original radio edit with everything dragged out. I suppose this could be good for some people that want to listen to the Fire original forever but if you get bored easily or have a short attention span, like 90% of us Americans, then don't bother liking this.

Now the Flashover Mix is actually quite different from the original in terms of the synth used, though the vocals have the same melody as always. This makes a decent remix because it's alright to dance to and listen to. Its not perfect but nothing is.

No matter how neat the later part of the Ron Van Den Beuken Remix was, the beginning killed it. It was very dull and boring to just listen to. However things are finally spiced up a tad when the vocals are added in. The mood and even somewhat the melody is different. I actually heard this first before all the other remixes and was surprised that the original melody was nothing like this remix; though that is a good thing because its a remix in the truest sense. There is a very intense and very neat melody that arises from this and it never grows old. Its such a shame that the first half is so weak because this would've been one of the best remixes ever. However, nothing is perfect and if you were to choose a remix to listen to, I'd highly suggest this one.

A dub is a just a fancy word for an instrumental version of a song. This is almost exactly like the Extended Mix with slightly different beats in the beginning and less vocals. There isn't much of a point of this remix unless you just don't want to hear as much singing.

The next mix starts out differently than the rest. The beat sounds like the heavy club beats and synth textures are added to prevent the beat from getting too boring. It isn't until the vocal part that the song has the same melody. Again another successful remix for it changes the original composition song. It isn't anything exciting but look at it if you want. It isn't a complete waste of time to listen to.

Conclusion : The original is your best bet as in most of the cases of an album of the same song with different remixes. The remixes could be fun to listen to and could be useful for parties but it's the original that is most like what a song is supposed to be.

Here are some links to download the original if you're interested (multiple ones incase one doesn't work):

http://www.czarek.dolsat.pl/muza/210-ferry_corsten-fire.mp3
http://rapidshare.com/files/24713790/ferry_corsten_-_fire.mp3
http://www.wrzuta.pl/aud/file/2BL6aSuvT8/ferry_corsten_-_fire_radio_edit.mp3

Tell me if none of these work for you in that comment box.



And this is the music video and of course it has the original radio edit. I'm pretty certain that that was something symbolic with the whole melting that girl routine but I'm not sure how. Whatever the case may be, enjoy your crappy video.

That's it, there's Fire for you. Look forward to introducing you guys to more music soon.



xoxo

Mannequin (by Ferry Corsten himself in that picture)

Okay, I've officially plunged myself into the trend of blogging.  I'm a bit excited, you see, this blog isn't just going be my life on you internet screen (since my life is oh, so exciting, not really); it's going to be a review site for music.  Yes, you heard that right, its music.  What kind? All kinds.

So what's this going to be?  I said it's a music review, though inbetween, as a fresh new DJ, I'm going to let you in on what I've been doing, but that's just a little bit of this site.  So if I were going to describe the blog I envisioned, its going to be 90% music and 10% my life.

And this is just and intro, sorry no reviews.  I'll see if I can get something up tomorrow or so. Peace!

xoxo

Mannequin