Showing posts with label BLUFRANK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BLUFRANK. Show all posts

Thursday, 27 February 2014

SEMAINE MUSIQUE #2

Encore une autre semaine se glisse dans le passé; encore un autre article en français. Si tu ne sais pas de quoi je parle, écoute – je suis anglais, j'écris sur de la nouvelle musique une fois par semaine en français, je lutte. Ça me fatigue.

Mais la bonté de mon coeur me persuade d'écrire plus en plus en plus en français, en anglais, en n'importe-quoi-ais, afin de partager la musique avec de plus en plus en plus des gens dans le monde. Quel noblesse! Tu penses pas? Bof, alors, lis ce que j'ai écrit, écoute la musique que j'ai trouvée, passe un bon mais bref moment. À plus.


YES/NO Guest Mix 007 :: BLUFRANK's Driving Alone Mix
Le septième guest mix pour YES/NO, celui-ci vient d'un producteur BLURFRANK du Caire. Il s'appel «Driving Alone» (français: «conduire seul») Mix, qui montre ses influences musicales, allant de super ultime chillwave de Toro Y Moi, à la danse lisse du millénaire (c'est-à-dire, Moloko). Les deux sons habitent dans ce morceau de BLUFRANK, où il mélange des cordes chaleureuses et une ambiance hallucinante avec un rythme dure et une tendance pour danser. Sa chanson «TR-808 & A Babe» est un bon exemple.


Lindsay Lowend – Basement Dweller Overture
Mon dieu! Merde! Cette chanson est géante, sérieux – son créateur est un génie (toutes ses chansons sont incroyables) appelé Lindsay Lowend. Pas «Lohan» – LOWEND. Tu le connais? Si oui, bon, si non, c'est bon aussi, parce que maintenant tu va le rencontrer et sa musique. Dans «Basement Dweller Overture» (français: sous-sol-habitant ouverture) Lindsay Lowend, nom et prénom Antonio Mendez, évoque l'ambiance des jeux-vidéo sans leurs images pour créer une atmosphère imaginative et aventureuse. Presque en trois mouvements symphoniques, le morceau progresse de l'electro qui suinte avec le dubstep lourd et sa basse dodue, puis une rafale de piano frais, finissant avec electro-funk glitch-chargé. Les sons de Lindsay Lowend sont trop délicieux, introduisant le style urbain (hip hop, juke, dubstep, etc.) à la geekerie de la musique jeux-vidéo. Je l'adore.


SUNSET – Ava
Pour une fois, je suis en train de parler de musique française. Enfin. SUNSET est un duo qui vient de Paris: l'artiste Raphaël Siboni, et Franck Rivoire (mieux connu comme producteur/DJ, Danger). Dans leur nouveau morceau le cerveau est déchiqueté par les synthés épais, pendant qu'une voix ferme parle lentement sur quelqu'un qui est née sur la piste de danse, si c'est métaphorique ou non – c'est à toi de voir. Alors avec des paroles cryptiques et des synthés qui cassent les oreilles, le son deformé coupe avec précision bien produit, je suis sûr que SUNSET va gagner certains fans cette année.


Onra – Gonna Make You Mine
Maintenant un autre parisien: c'est Onra. Si t'es français tu dois connaître Onra: c'est logique, non? Si non, découvre Onra – c'est un beatmaker né en Allemagne, qui a habité entre la France et la Côte d'Ivoire depuis l'âge de 3 ans, mais il a habité depuis 2000 à Paris. Euh, maintenant il a crée pour la compilation Saint Valentin de Colette (appelé «French Kisses»), la chanson funky «Gonna Make You Mine». Pas exactement le hip hop traditionnel – et plus comme la «future funk» adoptée par vaporwave – c'est plein de guitares punks éclatantes et la basse pulsative et renflée, avec des samples vocaux expressifs et des melodies synthés rosées luisantes. C'est parfait pour la Saint Valentin: doux, lisse, savoureux.


Aux Jennings – Need Me
Le rap canadien. Et alors? Euh, ben, c'est le rap canadien. Et ce rap notamment – de producteur/MC Aux Jennings – c'est cool, très cool, et il semble d'origine. Avec le hi-hat ombrageux cliquetant et la sub-bass de la grosse caisse lente, le rythme se balance, du lourd, pendant que des cordes synthés simplistes flottent dans l'air répercutant. C'est la perspective nouvelle, avec de la musique totalement pleine d'entrain. Tu peux télécharger gratuitement ce morceau, et aussi le nouvel album «MuckAFolly».


House Of Tapes – Last Words
Viens d'un nouvel EP, qui s'appel «Last Words» aussi, j'aime bien ce morceau par le japonais House Of Tapes. Ce n'est pas pour le club, c'est pour nul part en fait, en partie parce que ce n'est pas crée à cet effet, mais aussi car c'est bizarre. Ouais, c'est bizarre. Il a un son foncé mais affirmatif, évitant du genre et à la place examinant les sons pour la création d'une atmosphère pseudo-cauchemardesque d'un autre monde. Tout les sons répercutent, comme des bruits dans une caverne secrète; les guitares font cliquetis, avec leurs cordes conjurant le coucher de soleil. Alors, enfin, c'est expérimental, débordant de facticité fantomatique.


Ben c'est ça, ok? L'écrivant en français est de plus facile, mais encore ce n'est pas parfait ni correcte, probablement. Lis-toi ici la prochaine semaine pour quelques choses nouvelles écrit par moi. Et merci encore pour l'assistance de Nicolas Barrois. Vive YES/NO. Ciao.

Listen to BLUFRANK on SoundCloud
Follow BLUFRANK on Twitter

Listen to Lindsay Lowend on Soundcloud
Follow Lindsay Lowend on Twitter

Listen to SUNSET on SoundCloud
Follow SUNSET on Twitter

Listen to Onra on Soundcloud
Follow Onra on Twitter

Listen to Aux Jennings on SoundCloud
Follow Aux Jennings on Twitter

Listen to House Of Tapes on SoundCloud
Follow House Of Tapes on Twitter



Monday, 17 February 2014

YES/NO GUEST MIX 007 :: BLUFRANK's DRIVING ALONE MIX

Here it is here it is. Here what is? It's another Guest Mix, that's what! It's the 7th one. And who is it from but BLUFRANK. This relatively mysterious Egyptian producer resides in Cairo, part of a scene that often DJs at downtown club VENT – a club that seemingly keeps on going whilst political and resultant social unrest shudders in Egypt's capital. By its very name, VENT appears to be a place of release, a speakeasy of sorts where dancing and new music and poetry and film screenings and of course good old-fashioned hedonism collide in a fusion of meaningful creativity and fun.

As for BLUFRANK, I've written about him a couple of times before. Firstly his almost brutally minimalistic 'TR-808 & A Babe' caught my attention last year, and more recently I went back to check a couple of his new tracks. Despite being hard and bassy, his futuristic dance-oriented tracks display a love of warmth and atmosphere, something that is evident in the tracks in his mix; the prime example is Toro Y Moi, whom we all know and love as a key component of short-lived-yet-still-definitely-alive-in-spirit chillwave, with surprise throwback hits from Moloko and Spiller demonstrating BLUFRANK's love of smooth sing-along cusp-of-the-millenium dance. Despite being dubbed his 'Driving Alone', this is something you could probably enjoy anywhere at any time of the day.


T R A C K L I S T :

  1. Cherelle ft. Alexander O'Neal - Saturday Love (Toro Y Moi Cover)
  2. Task – Intro
  3. Thomas Bangalter – Club Soda
  4. Toro Y Moi – I Can Get Love
  5. Clive Tanaka y Su Orquesta – Neu Chigaco
  6. Spiller feat. Sophie Ellis Bextor – Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)
  7. Moloko – Sing It Back


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Monday, 3 February 2014

BLUFRANK I FELL IN LOVE WITHOUT YOU :&: PILL FOUND / FIELDS OF NOTHING

Cairo's own indie dance producer offers up some new stuff. Maybe this time around I could just say that and that it's "sounding really good this evening" or something like that and just be done with it. I could but I won't. Good music deserves more words than you think they do. It's an extended compliment; a song-length description; accompaniment. Quick—! Steal the keyboard! Stop me waffling!

So anyway, this is a new (but not the newest) track from Egyptian musicmaker, BLUFRANK, whom I wrote about at some point last year for the first time. It's interesting to find out about someone in Egypt because, well, there was a revolution there last year (the second in as many years) and in such an atmosphere it seems that creativity continues (the internet probably helps in this respect), with BLUFRANK herself playing at a downtown-Cairo club called Vent for New Year's Eve just gone. It just surprises me.

In any case, let's have a little listen to BLUFRANK's penultimate track, 'I Fell In Love With You'.

Thumping along to a clean, allegretto hip hop beat throughout – complete with snappy snares and thud-pulse kicks – the track is a hypnotic trek through surreal club landscapes, walls dripping with sweat in slow-motion and the floor a bouncing mat of disorientation. Samples, some female vocals sung, are dropped throughout the song, as are snippets of vocal well after the halfway mark, combined with the ripping crash-crackle of water & bubbling bongwater sounds, as the drums go virtuoso with rapid-fire hi-hats. The thick jumble of sounds that creates the track's foundation gives it a heavy, mesmerising flavour, whilst the sharp drums and sample placement keeps it exceedingly fresh.

On the other hand, BLUFRANK's true latest track is a mix of acid house with a dark, almost icy disco-house tang towards the end, a mix of styles that indeed is reflected in its title, 'Pill Found / Fields Of Nothing':

Whilst in my opinion not as strong as 'I Fell In Love Without You', well actually that's not fair to say: it's not a strong STARTER but it certainly ends with a bang of disco-house beats. (Interestingly, the end of this track leads pretty much perfectly into 'I Fell In Love Without You' – a nice EP set up, perhaps…?) The second half of this track, 'Fields Of Nothing' I guess, is really great, dominated by its foot-possessing beat and muffled synth waves, enshrouding you with addictively comforting white-noise-esque sounds as you dance in a mindless fog. Void! That's why we dance yo.

So, get to know. I'm looking forward to seeing how BLUFRANK evolves in the future. Here's to creativity!



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Monday, 2 December 2013

BLUFRANK TR-808 & A BABE

It might just be me (but then again if ONE person does it then it's probably quite likely that another person or multiple people will also do the same thing) but I like a song title or artist name or whatever kind of thing that requires you to look further into what exactly it is. Being the innocent mind that I am, I had to google 'TR-808' – and what fun! It's short for The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, "one of the first programmable drum machines" (thanks Wikipedia) and "TR" is an acronym of "Transistor Rhythm". There may be some of you out there thinking, "omg what stupid is this guy! HA ha!!" but to others who were wondering what BLUFRANK's song title meant, there you go.

Hang on, wait—what? Who's BLUFRANK? Don't worry. BLUFRANK is a producer from Cairo, Egypt, who makes mostly house (to use a very general and very useful term) music. The stuff about the TR-808 refers to this song, titled 'TR-808 & A Babe' – I can only imagine or guess that this was a fun time. It has to have been, surely? Sorry for being male.

The track is a minimalist escapade of house music, complete with ticking hi-hats claps and gloriously subbed-out kicks which give the track a juicy bedrock that shakes your very brain. Slightly atonal synth chords dip in and out of earshot as long-horizon glittering synth melodies soar across the landscape of the track. It's filled with a cheeky funk from 2:00 for around a minute, taking a different theme and running with it, changing back to that liquid-like flow for the final third. It's simplistic stuff but it works exceedingly well, combining bassy kicks more typical in hip hop or even juke with a future-facing house beat. The retro sounds of the synth is an obvious love for BLUFRANK, who is "inspired by the 60's, 70's, 80's, Cairo nightlife, love, dance-floors, bars, summertime, beaches" as they say on their Facebook page.

It's nice to hear a different take on dance music, one not ultra-minimalist nor wholly experimental nor completely stuck in the 80s. And something from Cairo! Which is fun, because I've never heard anything from Egypt. Oh, by the way, BLUFRANK has a load of other really nice songs on his SoundCloud – two very good ones are 'MID(s)' and the very sunny 'Never Ending Summer'. Bye!



Like BLUFRANK on Facebook
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Follow BLUFRANK on Twitter
Check BLUFRANK on Tumblr
Watch BLUFRANK on YouTube