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Along with the operas I can’t seem to get enough of, I’ve been gorging my ears on all the Romantic Era compositions I can get my grubby little hands on. Classical, Romantic Opera, and Ballet has been tearing up my iTunes for the last few weeks and I feel like sharing. For those that don’t know the Romatic hey days were the mid to late 1800s, a period that has fascinated my forever. Without the events of the late 1800s our current society would be drastically different including the occurrences of the two World Wars, the rise of Capitalism and Communism, and the exploration of the globe that has resulted in today’s globalism. Music of this time likewise was significantly changing through exploration and rapid cultural changes occurring in Europe. Russia emerged as a musical powerhouse as one of its few oddly strong areas of talent with such names as Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and later, Shostakovich.

The music of the era is charged with national pride, exploration, world influences, and internationality that I adore. Despite hyper competitiveness amongst the nations, talent was encouraged to travel to enhance the name of the fatherlands and inevitably cultures clashed in the form of unparalleled experimentation. It was the time of Neitzsche and Marx and Mill in philosophy and ideology made a huge impact on musical composition. Instrumentation also moved out of religious traditions and harpsichord, organs, and tabernacles were replaced with percussion, brass, and wind instruments that upheld military and international motifs better. Arias and hymns were replaced with turbulent choral shouts and hedonistic story lines. Music became modern and the world changed.

1. De Falla - Magic Of Love Introduction & Scene

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2. Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op.95, From the “New World” - Allegro con fuoco

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3. Gliere - The Red Poppy, Ballet Suite, Op. 70 - Heroic Coolie Dance

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4. Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite No.1 Op.46 Anistras Dance

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5. Kodaly - Duo for Violin and Cello, Op.7 - Allegro serioso, non troppo (Recorded in Japan 1978)

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6. Lizst - Czardas

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7. Shostakovich - Symphony No.10 in E Minor, Opus 93 - II. Allegro

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8. Strauss - Persian March, Op. 289

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9. Stravinsky - The Firebird Suite - Infernal Dance

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10. Verdi - Overture The Force Of Destiny

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I don’t like to admit when I’m wrong but there is definitely an album that arrived in 2008 that I completely missed in my “Top 20 Albums of 2008,” Ladyhawke’s self-titled debut album. Just reading about Ladyhawke’s one and only member Pip Brown catapults her to #1 of my Living-Musician-I-Want-To-Meet list, sorry Jay Kay. Suffering a battery of illnesses, coma, and autism in her youth, it’s just unbelievable how talented and versatile Pip Bron is as a musician. For her debut album Pip recorded every instrument herself, and while on tour she sang and played guitar. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Pip Brown the person is her choice of only wearing men’s clothes down to the knickers, although she pulls it off in a most stunning way. I don’t know where to start if I ever got an interview.

But enough about the singer and on to the songs. There’s a general 80s feel to the whole album, especially in the synth heavy songs “Dusk Till Dawn” and “Crazy World.” If a modern Breakfast Club were released today Ladyhawke would definitely be one of the soundtrack leaders and that would be perfectly fine with me. Mixed in with the 80s is a bit of 90s grunginess in songs like “Professional Suicide” that almost reminds me of early No Doubt. For the most part the album is electro rock and synth pop with powerful femme vocals that stands out easily as one of the best albums of 2008. In it’s apparent retroness there’s enough modern style to make it not just a New Wave copy, but something new and fantastic. Ladyhawke has definitely succeeded in her goal for the album, to make any listener feel nostalgia, and it just does overwhelmingly. Enjoy.

1. Ladyhawke - Another Runaway

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2. Ladyhawke - Back of the Van

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3. Ladyhawke - Better Than Sunday

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4. Ladyhawke - Crazy World

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5. Ladyhawke - Dusk Till Dawn

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6. Ladyhawke - Magic

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7. Ladyhawke - Morning Dreams

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8. Ladyhawke - My Delirium

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9. Ladyhawke - Paris is Burning

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10. PNAU - Embrace ft. Ladyhawke

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I’ve been on a bit of an operatic binge lately so I’d like to share my favourite modern opera album with you, Oceana and Three Songs by Osvaldo Golijov.

Release in 2007 and the second operatic piece written by Golijov, the album is separated into three parts. The bulk of the album is Oceana, an operatic piece styled after Bach and performed by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and vocals by Luciana Souza. The piece is both classical and profoundly Latin and Jazz sounding. The opera is brilliantly accessible with non-traditional operatic instrumentation including guitars, drums, and a large portion of Latin wood instruments including rainsticks, marracas, and clap sticks, in addition to the standard orchestration. The vocals empower the emotionally laden music drawing the listener deep into the turbulent story and rhythm. Playful winds contrast the robust choral performances filling the sound with life like few other modern works. Stunning solo performances by Souza further the melancholy attitude of the first call and then turn around abruptly wit the classical guitar driven second call that has a playful exuberance of a Brazilian Bossa club. The aria’s guitar instrumentation lends itself to a film-score like sound that would rivalry and mystery or thriller’s soundtrack.

The rest of the album is split up between the Three Songs and Tenebrae which on their own would make an excellent album. Deep writing emotions in the music are brilliant and so powerful that even just listening will move you. The attitude of the Three Songs and Tenebrae is profoundly depressed accomplished with significant use of string instrumentation. As stand alone pieces they rivalry any modern classical music and are a testament to the brilliance of Golijov.

Below is a selection from the album and I recommend picking up the album for yourself along with Golijov’s numerous other works. I am a fan of Ainadamar and Ayre but would recommend any of his albums. Enjoy.

1. Osvaldo Golijov - Oceana - Call

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2. Osvaldo Golijov - Oceana - First Wave

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3. Osvaldo Golijov - Oceana - Second Call

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4. Osvaldo Golijov - Oceana - Second Wave

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5. Osvaldo Golijov - Oceana - Third Wave

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6. Osvaldo Golijov - Tenebrae I

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7. Osvaldo Golijov - Tenebrae II

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8. Osvaldo Golijov - Three Songs - How Slow The Wind

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9. Osvaldo Golijov - Three Songs - Lua Descolorida

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10. Osvaldo Golijov - Three Songs - Night of the Flying Horses - Doina- Gallop

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Welcome back to me! It’s been a long long time since the last post but since then I’ve completely redesigned the TotalPanic website and and my Dad had a heart attack, but things are starting to get back to normal-ish.

I’d like to tell you about an album that I picked up last month that totally blew my socks off. Australian hip hop, dub, funk, jazz, indie rock, and soul artist Katalyst released What’s Happening back in 2007 and it’s one of the best albums I’ve ever heard. I’ve never heard a single artist with a sound as versatile or inspired in modern forms of music. Each song seems to pull influences and sounds from different music fields and blend it all together to make a solid album of astoundingly good quality. Recently there’s been a rash of amazing artists from Australia in the indie electro rock genres but Katalyst is showing me again that hip hop isn’t dead, that there are still hip hop artists with a real connection with the roots of the music, and sadly it isn’t an American again.

As I mentioned almost every song on the album has its own style and sound. “Loaded Gun” sounds like it came straight off last year’s Modern Guilt album from Beck with a Southern Indie Acoustic melody and monotone vocals. “I Know a Place” reminds me of the soulful funk rhythms of Mark Ronson. “Step Up” manages to work its way right into my heart for old school Hip Hop. Perhaps it’s the great lyrics full of political and social motivation, but it’s more likely the guitar riff from Jesus Christ Superstar. The song rocks and that’s all there is to it. “Over and Over” brings a renewed dub/reggae style and “How Bout Us” is classic 70s soul.

To call Katalyst a hip hop artist would be a travesty when he’s so much more than that. Amongst similar artists of which there are few (mainly Danger Mouse and Mark Ronson, kind of) none have come close to the versatility and complete vision on a single album. Alone, none of the songs on the album stand out as the best hip hop or soul or rock song I’ve heard, but together in a single album by a single artist the blend is a prime example of cross genre musical mastery.

Okay it’s been more than a few days, more like a month and a half but I got the music for you. Enjoy.

1. Katalyst - Bladewalker

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2. Katalyst - How Bout Us

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3. Katalyst - I Know A Place

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4. Katalyst - Killing Ya Self

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5. Katalyst - Loaded Gun

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6. Katalyst - May Have Been James Brown

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7. Katalyst - Over and Over

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8. Katalyst - Say What You Feel

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9. Katalyst - Step Up

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10. Katalyst - War

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Well it’s another awful rainy day and I like to celebrate awful rainy days with mellow and melancholy beats, either downtempo electronic, blues, jazz, or like today, trip hop. Trip hop is an unusual genre since it blends the electronic drum beats of hip hop and instrumental flows of jazz quartet, two sounds that sound excellent together despite the obvious modern day culture clash. Hip Hop also originated its backing tapes in resampled soul and motown songs and the offshoot of electronic based beats that later became known as breaks doesn’t sound like something that would be well acquainted with the classy almost anti-street culture that jazz has a connotation for nowadays. But I love it as I do most music that is new and challenging and a blend of cultures.

Today’s selection of trip hop comes from the notable Japanese hip hop artists Tsutchie, Nujabes, Fat Jon, and Force of Nature, which collaborated to develop the trip hop sounds of Samurai Champloo. I tend to dislike anime music since most shows rely heavily on jPop or jRock artists with little regard for melody and the most awful lyrics imaginable. Most notable for being stupendous though are the works of Yoko Kanno, especially in the shows Cowboy Bebop and Turn A Gundam, the Pillows for the show FLCL, the RZA for Afro Samurai, and of course the music of Samurai Champloo. Each episode features six original songs culminating in the release of six albums after the series’ completion and as a score I would have to recommend it as one of the best. Each of the artists brought elements of their own style to the album and the only thing I could have asked for would be a few more hip hop styled songs since the albums tend to be more on the jazzy side of trip hop. Either way, take a listen and tell me this isn’t one of the best scores ever. Enjoy.

1. Force of Nature, Nujabes, Fat Jon - Death Wish

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2. Force of Nature, Nujabes, Fat Jon - Sanctuary Ship

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3. Force of Nature, Tsutchie - Death Chamber

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4. Force of Nature, Tsutchie - Judgement On

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5. Force of Nature, Tsutchie - Pretending to…

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6. Force of Nature, Tsutchie - Sincerely

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7. Nujabes, Fat Jon - Aruarian Dance

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8. Nujabes, Fat Jon - Mystline

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9. Tsutchie - Flip

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10. Tsutchie - Thank You

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It’s been raining for weeks here in California and nothing goes great with a gray Monday like the Blues. Blues as an art form is one that I appreciate almost speechlessly in its ability to evoke emotions and unlike country which has stories about pickup trucks and America, blues songs are almost always about the most important subject of all time, broken hearts. My friend hit it right on the head when he said that the best music is sad music and it’s totally true. Secretly I’m sure that’s why I despise modern pop songs full of bubble gum love intrigues that would set a thirteen year old girl on fire. What we really need is music that describes what love is really about and that’s usually unrequited, blisteringly painful, heartbreaks with a hole where the heart was and a stain on the ground where it got stepped on.

Of the two major styles of blues, I tend to prefer the more downtempo “coffee shop” variety that focuses on an acoustic sound with only minor accompaniment if any at all. Piano or acoustic guitar led blues is by far my favourite and I tend to focus more on lyrics with these less stand out instruments. I also thoroughly enjoy blues jazz perfect since it’s popular with female blues singers. What I can’t say I’m much of a fan of is the more upbeat electric guitar and full band blues style of legendary BB King and Eric Clapton, although a few of their songs are pretty good.

Today’s release includes a number of my favourite blues songs. My number one male vocal blues song is Staggolee featured on the Death Proof soundtrack, and my number one female vocal choice is Black Coffee followed very closely by the heavily jazz influenced River of Crystals. When it comes to classic blues Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and T-Bone Walker have it covered and there’s nothing bad I can say about any of their songs. Most surprising for most on this collection is Dick Dale and Frank Zappa, both musicians that I love primarily for their electric guitar skills that temporarily left their regular styles to pay homage to one of the most fundamental building blocks of all rock music, Blues. Soulwax, the indie electro rock band from Ghent said that in order to be a great DJ, you have to be good at playing punk music first. And I add to that that in order to be a great punker you’ve gotta know your blues. Blues is where it all started and that’s all there is to it. Enjoy.

1. Buddy Guy - First Time I Met the Blues

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2. Dick Dale - Front Porch Blues

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3. Frank Zappa - Merely A Blues in A

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4. Howlin Wolf - Back Door Man

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5. Kimiko Itoh - River of Crystals

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6. Muddy Waters - Hoochie Coochie Man

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7. Otis Spann - What Will Become of Me (Lost Sleep in the Fold)

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8. Pacific Gas & Electric - Staggolee

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9. Patricia Kaas - Black Coffee

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10. T-Bone Walker - Stormy Monday

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Another Friday night and to follow in last week’s footsteps I’ve got something for a crowd with a little more taste but an equal lack of knowledge than the mainstream listeners. This second group of people are what were once emo kids and have since moved on to be as they call themselves “indie.” Some of these indie kids are hipsters while others are just rebranded emos but all share a lack of understanding of where the music they listen to comes from. Lucky for them their choice in music is slightly better than the mainstream listeners, but that doesn’t mean they know anything outside of the bands they listen to and the bands that those bands mention as influences. I’m talking about the generation that thought the music in Juno was brilliant. Yes Patti Smith and the Stooges were cool and good and did much for music but I wonder if fans of the indie genre also have an appreciation for Verdi, Coltrane, and John Lee Hooker. All I’m trying to say is every genre is amazing and should be explored and appreciated instead of always living in the here and now.

And without further a do is the release for this Friday. I’ve collected quite a bit of music from the big names in the indietronic world and the big omission that I just didn’t have room for is Hot Chip, a band that has a few stellar songs but for the most part are over rated in my books although not as overrated as TV on the Radio. Bloc Party primarily is the big label brand that somehow got mixed up with the indie movement even though they’re signed with UMG and they’re sound is the quintessential form of indie rock pop, but there are some great remixes from DFA1979 and the Villains and I have one here for you. Of course, Britney Spears belongs in last Friday’s release, but this remix by master Felix Cartal is so good that no mainstream listener would like it. Cardinal Sound is another follower of the emo gone indie movement with a nice electro sound and classic emo vocals. Finally the inclusion of the biggest indietronic names - Ladyhawke, Shiny Toy Guns, Cut Copy, the Faint, and Chromeo - are the back bone of tonight’s gripe. Enjoy.

1. Bloc Party - Hunting for Witches (Villains ElectroBanger Remix)

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2. Boys Noize - Arcade Robot

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3. Britney Spears - Outrageous (Felix Cartal Remix)

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4. Cardinal Sound - Least We Could Do

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5. Chromeo - Bonafied Loving (Eli Escobar Remix)

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6. Cut Copy - Going Nowhere (Sebastian Remix)

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7. Digitalism - Pogo (Blake Miller Remix)

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8. Faint - Geeks Were Right

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9. PNAU - Embrace ft. Ladyhawke

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10. Shiny Toy Guns - Le Disko

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Happy rainy Monday. I’m still recovering from my awful sickness and paired with the rain I’m feeling quite cagey. So to burst out musically I’m pulling out an oldie but goodie, my favourite indie rock band, Death From Above 1979. Started in Toronto back in 2001, Death From Above’s music was punctuated by a blending of styles including a heavy metal high-feedback guitar, rock and roll drums, punk vocals, garage production, and electronic melodies. Most intriguing to me about the band was the lack of a lead guitarist since all their songs are guitar heavy, but both lead members played bass/synth and drums along with both doing vocals.

Describing DFA1979’s music is a tricky thing to do at first being labeled metal would be incorrect and being labeled electronic would equally be wrong. Their sound is best described as electronic melodies with metal methods and garage post processing. But with all the mumbo jumbo it really is just about sounding good and DFA 1979 sounds great. Unfortunatly Death From Above 1979 only produced one full length album, You’re A Woman, I’m a Machine, a remix album, Romance Bloody Romance, three EPs, with the last record produced in 2005. For a short run, the band had a large influence of rock and electronic artists to come and were amongst the pioneers crossing the rock electro genre. Following the dissolution of the band due to differences in opinion regarding the direction of the band the two genres uncrossed, with member Sebastien Grainger going solo with a more rock sound on his LP Sebastien Grainger and the Mountains and collaborating with French artist Data for the amazing Rapture EP, and Jesse Keeler forming the now more successful than DFA1979 MSTRKRFT which is one of the top remix artists today and solo work as JFK.

The selection of DFA1979 in the release is primarily from their studio album You’re A Woman, I’m a Machine. Enjoy.

1. Death From Above 1979 - Better Off Dead [Le Peste Cover]

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2. Death From Above 1979 - Black History Month

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3. Death From Above 1979 - Blood On Our Hands

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4. Death From Above 1979 - Cold War

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5. Death From Above 1979 - Go Home Get Down

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6. Death From Above 1979 - Going Steady

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7. Death From Above 1979 - Little Girl

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8. Death From Above 1979 - Romantic Rights

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9. Death From Above 1979 - Sexy Results

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10. Death From Above 1979 - You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine

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Back from a few weeks of hiding is the Friday Night Out series and this fabulous Valentine’s Day/Friday the 13th is going to be amazing. For today’s release I’ve got a mainstream mixup, all of my favourite mainstream inspired songs for those readers of mine that think I’m a little too extreme and a music snob always putting the big guy down. Well, it’s harder than putting the little guy down and people call you a snob for it, but it has its merits, too. I just wanted to say a little bit about mainstream music first.

The biggest reason I don’t like mainstream music isn’t because of the music, although that is a major part. It’s the people: the artists, the fans, and the labels. What’s wrong with the artists is their lack of spirit and soul. Most don’t write their own music, many don’t sing well or play instruments, some can’t dance, and a few aren’t even good looking. That’s a pretty tall list of short comings for a pop star. Even with a great voice and beautiful body a singer needs words that aren’t rubbish and more importantly a background that entertains and gets the juices flowing. My two votes for worst song of all time not surprisingly are both modern pop songs “If U Seek Amy” by Britney Spears and “Live Your Life” by TI and Rihanna. The first uses grammatical retardation to sound like FUCK, but it comes across like a 6th grader that just learned a new naughty word and I would have thought you couldn’t sell a CD which made you look like a retard out of shame but apparently it can be done and can even be a comeback. The latter is a song about the principles of old school hip-hop or at least a new school redefinition set to the NSync of Romania, O-Zone. What would Quincy Jones think or Dr. Dre for that matter?

What gets me the most of the whole mainstream deal is the fans. It appears to me that many people, whether they listen to pop as old as the Beatles, Barbara Streisand, Rick Astley, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, or Britney Spears have no appreciation for music outside of the era of pop music they like, worst of all being current pop music. It would be okay to say I love pop music and listen to the #1 on the Top 100 Billboards from the 50s till today (I do that and enjoy a lot of it), but most current pop fans listen to no more than 15 artists (total) that are highly publicized and sculpted into a strange world of celebrity idolatry. I feel like modern pop fans have no concept that there is other music out there that is possibly good or better than what they are forced to listen to by the radio, magazines, and television. I had an argument with my friend that ideas have intrinsic power (he argued that ideas are powerless) but the labels are very strict in destroying the idea that there is better music out there out of their control and it seems to be working and turning the pop audience into celeb gossip feeding zombies. If people stopped listening one day to Britney Spears and instead picked up Patti LaBelle or Debbie Harry I’d probably just die because I’d be living in a world devoid of a need for someone like me.

But I want to reiterate that not all pop is bad and much of it can actually be nice to listen to once in a while after you remove the celebrity scandals, fans with no idea what they are listening to, and drink a couple beers. What I especially like after listening to far too many canned pop songs and remixes at sub standard bar/clubs in San Luis Obispo are fresh new takes on the same songs I and everyone else has heard a million times. Just as a I love a good remix or cover for a great song, I love a good remix or cover of a bad song and the fight to make it better is even easier.

I’ve selected then some of my favourite new pop songs that have been redone well, some songs I hate that sound much better, and some songs that are famous that I don’t really know at all that but I have remixed versions that sound amazing. Data’s “Rapture Part II” is an amazing mainstreamized version of a more indie tronic sounding song and somehow it still sounds great. Fergie’s “Glamorous” I legitamately like and I like this remix just as much. And the Britney Spears song “Gimme More” has always been one of my most despised of her songs and somehow is tolerable to dance to after Barlett’s remix. Enjoy the mainstream beat this week.

And lest I forget this weekend in the Bay we’ve got two major parties going on! Blow Up is hosting their Valentine’s Day Massacre tonight Friday the 13th. And on Valentine’s for all you lovers of Mashup is the Bootie SF Valentine’s Party at the DNA Lounge. If you can’t make this week they always play every 2nd and 4th Saturday so check it out. And in LA Friday are the Eye Candy Twins at Foxtail followed tomorrow by Jet Set Society at the Standard Purple Lounge.

1. Ashlee Simpson - LOVE (Felix Cartal Remix)

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2. Britney Spears - Gimme More (DJ Barlett Remix)

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3. Data - Rapture Part II

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4. Erykah Badu - Honey (Captain Planet Remix)

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5. Fergie - Glamorous (Treasure Fingers Remix)

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6. Flo Rida - Get Low (GT Remix)

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7. Jay Z - 99 Problems (Tenderloins Remix)

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8. Lady Gaga - Just Dance (Wild Things Remix)

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9. Rihanna - Don’t Stop the Music (LAZRtag Club Mix)

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10. Sebastian - HAL

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Sorry for the late release today, but I’ve been sick and am starting to recover today. I’ve been pretty downtempo for a while and wanted to spice things up a lot so here we are with electro rock riot Peaches. Peaches is the creation of Canadian born Merrill Nisker and her lyrics focus on the redefinition of gender models through overt bisexuality and word plays that emphasize her self proclaimed “hermaphrodite envy.” Her album released in 2003, Fatherfucker, was entitled as a rejection of the word motherfucker as sexist and desensitizing. Peaches originated as an elementary school music teacher while living in Toronto with Leslie Feist, releasing her first album in 1995 under her given name, after which she created the persona Peaches.

Peaches writes and performs all the instrumentation for her albums and in the past few years has recruited help from many well known musicians, especially for her tours. In 2006, her touring band was entitled the Herms and in 2007 a new band was entitled the Sweet Machine. Peaches retains a definite style and in her earlier albums heavy hip-hop bass lines constituted much of the background melodies to her songs. Her last two albums, Fatherfucker and Impeach my Bush, relied heavily on late 1970s punk rock sounds garnering her a reputation as a rocker equally as an electronic musician.

Of her three albums I have heard I admit I am a major fan of the overt sexuality and political nature of the lyrics. I consider Peaches to be the second most “dirty” musician only out done by Uffie and followed loosely by Louis XIV. Fatherfucker is my favourite album of hers and is well worth tracking down at your local record store. Her new album I Feel Cream is slated for release later this year and I’m looking forward to it.

1. Peaches - Bag It

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2. Peaches - Do Ya

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3. Peaches - Fuck the Pain Away

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4. Peaches - Hit it Hard

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5. Peaches - Hot Rod

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6. Peaches - The Inch

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7. Peaches - Rock N Roll

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8. Peaches - Stick it to the Pimp

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9. Peaches - Sucker

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10. Peaches - Tent in your Pants

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