80's Sax Solos

There was a time in the 80's when every rock song had to have an epic, wailing saxophone solo in it. Obviously this was a terrible, terrible thing for popular music, but until now as far is I know no one had conducted a musical analysis of the phenomenon.

This site devoted 80's sax solos fills that void. It features audio clips of just the sax solo parts of many 80's pop songs, analyzing the specific sucktastic qualities (such as "vibrato overuse", "middle school level", "blaring", or "solo to fade out") of each one. I know this sounds like a bad idea, but it's actually a lot of fun to listen to these solos divorced from their original context. Or maybe I just want you to have the solo from Wham!'s Careless Whisper stuck in your head too...

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

RIP Jack-o

segways + fire + Philip Glass = ...

I don't know quite what to do with this, but they certainly spent a lot of money and time doing it.

Podcast: Mudd Up! with DJ/Rupture

Mudd Up! is a weekly radio show broadcast Mondays from 7pm - 8pm on WFMU in New York. Hosted by DJ /rupture, Mudd Up! features an expansive, eclectic, globe-spanning sound:

New bass and beats plus live guests (musicians, DJs, poets) and an ear for the global south. Cumbia. Dubstep. Gangsta synthetics. Sound-art. Maghrebi. International exclusives.

Also recommended is /rupture's associated Mudd Up! blog.

I've been a fan of DJ /rupture since I stumbled upon his epic, genre-spanning mix gold teeth thief many years ago, so it's a real treat to get a weekly dose of his brand of sonic creativity.

Weapon X - Time for a Change

Iranian-American rapper Weapon X put out a new song about the events in Iran. Watch the video:

Death to Autotune

Good, it's not just grumpy music bloggers like me who are sick to death of all the Autotune (AKA "The Cher Effect") RnB and Hop Hop tracks flooding the airwaves. Jay-Z enters the fray with a diss track:



Perhaps the best use of Autotune:



Producers: Autotune was old after Cher abused it in 1998, it's time to move on.

Waveformless

I recently came across this awesome music-gadget blog called Waveformless, you should check it out:

Waveformless

Freeform discussion of electronic music and the techniques and gear used in making it

If pictures like the above make you go all soft inside, you will definitely love it.

We're always looking for more like minded bloggers, if you have any suggestions please leave a comment here.

The Kids call it Fidget House, I Call it Hardcore

I recently noticed that Hardcore has made its latest comeback, which seems to happen every 2 years in some form. This time it's called Fidget House, but I'll just call it Hardcore:



It comes complete with Amen Breaks, stabs, hoovers and over the top vocal samples.

Just to reinforce the cycle of Hardcore that I mentioned... Jake pointed me to this article from Simon Reynolds about the "Hardcore Continuum":

The Wire 300: Simon Reynolds on the Hardcore Continuum: Introduction

And here's some classic hardcore:



(thanks to waveformless for the downlow)

FEEL THE POWER OF THE DRONE MACHINE

DRONE MACHINE DOES NOT CARE HOW MUCH YOUR EARS BLEED



(from engadget)