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Mr. Lava's Trash Music Compendium Another round-up of the best, the worst, and the most intriguing trash of the past and present.
Sexy Liza is this volume's compendium model. :-) 
Flight of the Conchords - Foux Du Fafa2007 New Zealand's best folk outfit offers a romantic homage to France in a tune featuring lyrics that recall everything you actually remember from your French classes. Shanna - Il est interdit (Club Mix)2007 On to some folks who can speak French a little bit better. Another slurry two-note song, but bolstered by French-language exaltations from a dominatrix that recall Sash!'s "Encore en fois" and a slew of other good trash tunes utilizing the same formula. The high-energy video is pretty fun, too. Tosch pres. Sonic Monkey - Happy Song (The Sun) (Tosch's Electro Mix)2008 A contender for best song of 2008, this sunsplashed tune contains all the requisite booty-shaking elements, including pumping pianos, a cheery female vocalist, pan flutes, and a burbling 303 towards the end. Plus, this version has a slamming breakbeat. Get this now. Jimi Blue - Hey Jimi (Mozart and Friends Remix)2008 So-so German pop rapper drops lyrical, eh, wisdom on top of a re-tooled "Hey Mickey." This remix beats the original by a mile, thanks to the intrusion of some menacing organs to counterbalance the silliness. Like a Tim - Dolly Dots2003 The song titles on Like a Tim's Little Acid Tracks are a winky homage to pop music from the past. The strongest hint of Mr. Tim's true nationality is betrayed by the title of this jaunty little number, which references a popular 80s girl group from (drumroll please) the Netherlands! Cusmos feat. Joyce Muniz - Garoto (Steve Cobby Solid Doc Rerub)2008 Slinky house tune with Brazilian chick babbling away to accompanying wooo-wooo-wooos. Elena - Te ador2007/2008 Super-catchy updating of the 1980s freestyle sound, complete with Latin horns, electro beats, and 80s synth garnishes, offered by the talented Romanian singer. Alex Gaudino - Watch Out (Original Mix)2007/2008 This compendium's requisite Gaudino recommendation. Addictive and T2 - Gonna Be Mine (Simmons and Christopher Radio Edit)2007/2008 A good piano-pumping, Hi-NRG interpretation of this UK garage tune. DDR - On and On (4 Phase Remix)2008 A tuff track with crunching guitar sounds and a guy lamenting over and over that everything is falling apart. I'm certain you'll find yourself in the mood to play it one day! Namie Amuro - What a Feeling2008 I have deserted Europe's borders before in my trash quests whenever I felt that a non-European group tapped into the tru-trash spirit. Namie Amuro has been belting out pop hits in her native Japan for a while, now, but this shimmery, electro-ish reinterpretation of the chorus from "Flashdance" is the best thing I've heard from her. N.O.H.A. - Tu Cafe (Album Version)2006—2008 Released back a ways, but currently charting in Romania and, judging by YouTube video post dates, making inroads into other countries as well. It's a speedy breaks tune graced with hypnotic Spanish-language vocals which, I will guess, pay homage to coffee. Poni - Pritem O / Pritëm OUnknown; perhaps 2007 Mysterious and mournful-sounding Albanian pop. Gentiana "Genta" Ismajli - Nuk Dua Tjeter (Bekamix)Unknown; perhaps 2006 She's super hot and she belly-dances. Another Albanian-language tune (Genta is from Kosovo), this one is a real stormer. Genta is currently on tour in the United States and should be quite cozy here as she spent most of her childhood and teen years in Chicago. In fact, her next album will be entirely in English. Tosch pres. Sonic Monkey - Happy Song (The Sun) (Tosch's Euphorica Mix)2008 And finally we return to the cheeriest tune of the bunch with this alternative "Happy Song" remix, which features all the good stuff from the electro version except it replaces the breakbeat with a trancier boom-boom kick. Solid!
Stylish Lily is this edition's Ameritrasher in Europe. Édouard-Léon Scott - Phonautogram1857 This is the very first Eurotrash recording, available at the First Sounds website. This dude recorded pictures of sounds on paper using a device called a phonautogram. He could not play the sounds back. But a century and a half later scientists now can. Très Aphex Twin! Surkin - Next of Kin2008 Record noise is joined by a fat analog synth sound. A shimmering slab of keyboards of a distinctly Van Halenish quality fall out of the sky. And so opens "Next of Kin." Very strange. Wondrous catchy. Pool Up - My Jeans2006 This cute Italo tune from the dependable Bliss Co. crew finds itself halfway between 50s rock 'n' roll and nu Italo house. Monrose - Hot Summer2007 It's a hot summer here in the states and in Europe, so it's the perfect time to resurrect this tune. Monrose, like so many girl groups in Europe, was assembled on a reality TV show, this one in Germany. "Hot Summer" is as infectious a pop tune as you're ever going to find. It did brisk business in German-speaking countries (and a few others) in Europe last summer. Switch - A Bit Patchy (Eric Prydz Remix)2006 Sometimes I feel that Eric Prydz is a bit overrated (the last David Guetta album has played a role in shaping that impression; Mr. Guetta writes solid original tunes whereas Mr. Prydz has been dipping too much into the covers bucket [since Mr. Prydz's first big hit was once wrongly attributed to Daft Punk, I have always instinctively compared the Swedish-born DJ to various French house producers]). Well, here's another cover (this one offered by Switch), a reinvention of the classic brass-bolstered hit "Apache." But here Mr. Prydz rises above the occasion. He turns in a remix that sounds nothing like the original tune. An ethereal, breathy "woo-oo," which amounts to the merest wiff of the original melody, drifts through the song like a tumbleweed rolling across the dusty plain. DJ Deekline and Ed Solo - Handz Up (Stanton Warriors Mix)2008 Superb electro/breaks tune contains a heavy dose of chopped-up vocals and a funky keyboard bit perfect for performing windmills to on the club floor. The Maxx - Baby Wants to Ride (Electro Dirty Extended Radio Mix)2006/2007 Wasn't quite sure what to think of this at first; I was a big fan of the original Jamie Principle version of this song, a legendary house track from 1988. Tackling something of this stature always risks cries of scarilege. So, how did the Maxx do? Well, the coyness of the original has been replaced by a blunter "I wanna fuck you," but the pornographically suggestive original version still sounds way naughtier than this one. Nonetheless, this reinterpretation has grown on me over the last few months. It adds some surreal lyrics not present in the original version, and it certainly pumps. Éha - Touch Me (Radio Edit)2004 Estonian-born Éha looks like a Maxim model; the silly music video to this tune resembles a beachside photoshoot for that publication. But the song rises above that. This is due to the clever use of a seemingly out-of-tune bell sound repeated throughout the chorus that adds a surreal dash to the otherwise poppy proceedings. Get the original radio edit and skip the DRM-free 12" version on iTunes. For some reason that higher audio quality version is stripped of both that bell and Éha's spoken word chants—i.e., everything that makes the song interesting. Kalomira - Secret Combination2008 Here is the real winner of Eurovision 2008, after you dismiss the bloc-voting which resulted in Russia's and Ukraine's respective first and second place finishes. This Greek entry had broader appeal than either of those tunes; it marries traditional Greek sounds with a pure top-40 pop vibe. Kalomira's dancing and quick costume-change was certainly a highlight of the competition. Wikipedia notes that since the competition the song has done well in Greece (expectedly) and Slovenia (not so expectedly). Moguai - Sittin' on Chrome (Radio X)2008 Moguai is back once again with another tune that will fit comfortably into his canon of hard-hitting tracks (he seems to be assiduously assembling a perfect future greatest hits collection). The popular original extended version is a bit more stripped down than this radio mix, which adds some additional keyboard color. Kate Ryan - Ella, Elle l'a2008 One of the titans of trash is back, and she continues to maintain a solid track record started back in 2002. This is thumping dancefloor reinterpretation of a 1980s France Gall song. It deserves as much as success as any of her past singles. Music video is worth checking out because, well, Ms. Ryan has some smokin' legs. Vandalism vs. Chicken Lips - Do It Proper (Do You Really Want It)2008 Yet another entry in what has become the most tiresome sub-genre of dance music this past year: hard electro beats combined with chick with attitude vocalist. But this one is better than average. It's just a little catchier than such tuneless efforts as last year's inexplicably popular "Yeah Yeah." And "Chicken Lips"? Anyone calling themselves "Chicken Lips" gets my support any day. DJ Jurgen - A Higher Love (Extended Mix)2008 It has that familiar David Guetta quality to it, but the catchy hooks are all its own. Courtesy of a guy who knows all about crafting catchy tunes—Jurgen was an integral part of mighty Alice DeeJay's sound back at the turn of the millenium. This song is charting in his native Netherlands, but is deserving of setlists everywhere. CD single shrewdly offers remixes capitalizing on every current dance music fad, so you can find a home for it in any set. Plus, the DRM-free version of the entire single is selling for only a couple of bucks on American iTunes. Rango Tangoz - Disco Mission (Dj Gregory Kolla System radio edit)2005 Bliss Co. records recently released to American iTunes another good compilation of tracks plucked from their back catalog. Here we get a strong funk bassline combined with a stirring female vocal. It's all pop and all club at once, characteristics that typify the nu Italo sound. Nucvise - Wild Cherry Tree2008 The best "Cherry Tree" song since KT Tunstall's "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree." Soaring Eurotrance of the best old-school Gatecrasher variety, which is to say it sounds massive. And the melody, which unfurls gracefully over several measures, is a guaranteed goosebump-giver. From a 21 year-old guy living in Poznan, Poland. Dziekuje, Nucvise! Shut Up & Dance - Come to Turn It Out (CTRL Z Remix)2008 Shut Up and Dance have enjoyed a career spanning nearly two decades. They show no signs of slowing down. Today they are comfortably entrenched in and associated with the breaks sound. This CTRL Z remix's piece de la résistance is a 303 build in the middle that will have even the most passive personalities crawling up the walls with anticipation. The sample I have included here cruelly omits the orgasmic release of the beats, so you will just have to get out there and purchase a copy from djdownload.com. ;-) Alabama 3 (A3) - U Don't Danse to Tekno Anymore2008 Finally, a tear-in-your-beer bluegrass country tune that addresses what many people around the world are discovering: that they don't dance to techno anymore. Édouard-Léon Scott - Clair de la lune1860 Another groundbreaking 19th century trash track that would make a fine addition to the Warp! records catalog. I hear dead people! The compendiums: |
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