In case you missed this Slum Village track that served as PSA for Safe Kids USA, here’s a little known fact. Detroit producer Nick Speed made “4 Steps” using sampled seat belt functions, and SV penned their lyrics over the mechanical beats, which tied in with the Detroit hip-hop outfit’s Chevy campaign.
“These tracks were completely made from car sound effects. Every sound you hear, including the drums, are made of seat belt clicks, car doors closing, tires screeching and police sirens,” said Nick Speed. “I electronically programmed them on a Akai MPC 2000XL and Slum Village added vocals and used it for a Chevy campaign about seat belts and booster seats. They called it “4 Steps” (Sit, Pull, Cross, Click.)”
Here’s a catchy video made by a group students using the track. We’re calling for re-release. Genius:
In an ad that avoids controversy, Hyundai goes for the drive –running the ball with consistent offense and a surefire quarterback sneak peek. The rising car company opts for elegance and virtue with it’s Super Bowl blitz. The Hyundai aesthetic will seem familiar with a total of eight airings for the Super Bowl XLIV Sunday.
“Paint” features the strokes of the new 2011 Sonata, and cues in on the visible design of the car with lush imagery.
The golden quarterback and everyone’s favorite sage quarterback Brett Favre shows face for Hyundai as the 2020 MVP, imagining a future where Hyundai reigns safe and supreme as Favre ages like wine on the field. The NFC North champion Minnesota Vikings QB is the NFL“iron man” for most consecutive games started. It’s all to highlight Hyundai’s 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty. Clever, clever.
If you want to get your heart pounding, then may I suggest you make a date with Animal, the debut full-length album from autoKratz. Yes, they are London based. Yes, they are said to be ringing in the new wave of British electro. Yet, beyond the hype, this album had me at the drop of the first bass line. These are beats made for dancing. David Cox and Russell Crank have created a concentrated menagerie of synthetic sounds that is sure to motivate even the stoics. Influenced by precursors of new wave such as Depeche Mode and New Order, they have taken the history lessons to heart, and have produced an album full of synthesizer-based sounds layered over and around a voice that is both tenebrous and inviting. ‘Can’t Stand Without’ and ‘Human Highway’ show much more restraint, making me believe they are about to rage at any moment, but never actually climaxing; an appreciated change of pace in an album that keeps you moving even though your feet are tired.
Looker and Monahon-Ward of Extra Life at Small Beast
Photographer/Gotryke contributor Priscilla Vazquez checks in with Extra Life.
Extra Life is an experimental quintet born and based in Brooklyn, NY. They have been called “avant-rock,” dark, and beautiful and of course I had to check them out.
Last week, I had the opportunity to catch two unique incarnations of the band. The first was at the Small Beast Music Salon, were two members of the group performed an acoustic set of their work. They turned the lights down low, playing mostly by candlelight. With this romantic atmosphere, they stripped their songs down to bare intimates: guitar, violin and mandolin. Lacking most of their heavy metal components, the more classical sensibilities within their set were almost tangible. It was a pleasurable, relaxed set worthy of a late Monday night rendezvous in the city.
Charlie Looker of Extra Life at Small Beast
Later that week I headed into Brooklyn to witness the full ensemble. As a quintet, their complex instrumentation born out of their many influences is much more evident. Heavily influenced by Gregorian chanting, Look’s throaty singing is layered over a rhythm section more a tune to Godflesh. The violin, that can sound like daggers at times and Bach at others, melds with their keyboardist, who traverses from electronica to jazz and beyond. I was struck by quintet’s precision, and the passionate energy each member displayed on stage. Players attacked their instruments with all their might during the performance. They floated from conventional melodies to atonal noise rock while managing to stay perfectly synchronous.
Extra Life at Union Pool
I appreciate their profound experimentation. Trying to relate discordant genres, all the while maintaining a high level of technical difficulty. This band is worth a view in either manifestation, but if you’re not a fan of hardcore or heavy metal music you might want to catch their acoustic set.
Charlie Looker of Extra Life at Union Pool
Monahon-Ward and Gedrich of Extra Life at Union Pool
Carl Craig is known for his electronic musical wizardry, sophisticated DJ skills and curatorial ear that play out on his Planet E Communications label in classic tracks like “Bug in the Bassbin” and “Throw” and high profile collaborations/remixes with Herbie Hancock and Tori Amos. A visionary in his own time, Craig was brought back on board as creative director of the upcoming 10th-anniversary Movement Festival in Detroit.
But what most people don’t know about Carl is that he loves to drive fast cars, unless of course close attention is paid to the intro of his 1995 album
“> Landcruising.
“I did an album called Landcruising and the first note is the 318i and it goes into the track,” he says sipping from a glass of white wine in his Michigan kitchen. “I took microphones and turned on the ignition.”
Carl called me last summer with an interesting objective — he wanted to document his search for a new car. A longtime BMW loyalist, the lease on his 7-series was winding down, and he wanted to explore the world of speed. And so Carl and I set forward on a journey through the particulars of his car buying aesthetics. The search took Carl high and low, from the fast to the furious, as he navigated through the particulars of financing his car taste.
One of the highs was at 180 mph, when we spent on the race track with Carl Craig, test driving Aston Martins at the Ford Proving Grounds in Romeo, Michigan as a guest of the British manufacturer. Read the story in the February issue of Hour Magazine about Carl’s affair with the Aston Martin DBS, DB9 and V8 Vantage at the newly opened performance driving school with top-notch instructors.
We’ll bring you more of our story of what happens when Detroit techno and cars converge, and how Carl narrowed down a shopping list that included an Aston Martin DB9, BMW 750i, Mercedes-Benz CL, Mercedes-Benz E class, Porsche Panamera and Maserati Quattroporte. Decisions are the worst, (but so much fun to watch other people make.)
Fixin’ to Thrill is Canadian electropop quartet Dragonette’s third album. Showiness reigns supreme throughout, balanced out by danceable melodies. Unabashedly catchy lyrics are sprinkled throughout and help to pull together the hot mess of synthesizers, electric guitars and percussion instruments. This album is much slicker and poppier than Dragonette’s previous album, Galore, which was charmingly sordid. My favorite songs of the album have Martina Sorbara’s high-pitched vocals hinting at the darker regions of human fantasies. “Now I’m all better, just thinking about/ When you come home, I’m gonna knock you out,” she imagines in Stupid Grin, even though she knows in the end she won’t. Oh well, maybe she’ll leave him after the party.
It’s a holiday treat specially delivered to us from super producer Salaam Remi (Nas, Amy Winehouse, The Fugees) “The Man with the Golden Ear.”
We like this Ford T-Bird holiday card so much from Press Here Publicity (White Stripes, Mos Def, The Kills, Noisettes, Arctic Monkey), that we’re sharing it with our favorite car lovers. Go see their artist’s shows on New Year’s Eve: David Gray in Atlantic City, NJ, Maroon 5 in Vegas.
The days of the rattling trunk are no more. Car audio has made leaps and bounds, as the download finds its home on wheels. Tune into Mark Levinson in Lexus vehicles, Lexicon in the Hyundai Genesis and Bowers & Wilkens in Jaguar, and listen how the audio bar has reached new decibels. Here’s what drivers are listening to in their MP3 systems according to Top Downloads from iTunes in 2009. The frenzy over the new Sade single might make a last minute sales run. Here are the contenders as of Dec. 7.
The LA Auto show media paused to throw up the Roc. Or at least they wrapped their heads around news that Jay-Z adds his considerable swagger to one of the first half-dozen 2010 Jaguar XJs — well before the vehicle goes on sale in April.
The coveted sedan will be feature in the video for his next single “On to the Next One” from The Blueprint 3 album.
Jaguar previewed a 60-second trailer in the making of the XJ’s role in the video at the Jaguar XJ launch party at Milk Studios Los Angeles.
JAY-Z fans and auto enthusiasts will be able to log onto www.InteractiveJaguar.com and www.Jaguar.com to see the video. J certainly adds the X to the J.
The latest fun stats on Sean Carter’s msic, who celebrates his birthday today:
On to the Next One,” produced by Swizz Beatz, is the fourth single. Debuting at #1, The Blueprint 3 sold over 475,000 copies in its first week and remained in the #1 position for 2 weeks. The album became JAY-Z’s 11th # 1 on the Billboard albums chart, propelling him past Elvis as the solo act with the most # 1 albums in Billboard’s history.
Redolent with “the unruly spirit of bands like Suicide and Nirvana,” all of the songs from Kap Bambino’s third album Blacklist are a little dark, very fast and under three and a half minutes. I could see myself dancing to most of its songs at 3 a.m., bouncing my way through a sea of thrashing limbs. Songs like “Human Piles” and the title track stir up nightmares of being chased through a video game, with its high-speed percussion and ample use of synthesizers. In fact, the whole album could be the soundtrack to the next Tron, if it was relocated to the Lower East Side in 1984. The full-length album is out now, as well as their Batcaves Ep, both available on iTunes. Fitting, considering the first single Batcaves mentions vampires more than a few times, and that just happens to be the fourth most used word in 2009, according to the Global Language Monitor.
For a listen and a look at their videos, check out Kap Bambino on Myspace
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