I am always looking for good music, so what could be better than good music coming to me?

Ellie from Kentucky-based Indietronic band Fair Heron sent me some of their songs to share with you, and since their stuff is cool I am happy to feature them here.

Their sound is both melodic and progressive and reminds me a bit of Fever Ray or Ninca Leece. While I would normally say that this is more for listening than for dancing, Ellie told me that their live shows are “generally pretty dancey”. So I guess that’s one more reason for promoting them: To get them to tour internationally so that I can see them live.

Here are some songs from their “Now Carla EP” for download:

Fair Heron – Digi Quilt

Fair Heron – This Is My Mogley

Fair Heron – Empathetic As A Ghost

And by the way, if you play in a band, produce electronic music are if you are a DJ and you think your style fits to what I usually feature here, just drop me a line through the contact page.

This mix was created in a way that is similar to how I cook: Start with a few basic ingredients. Take your time. Start adding spices. Taste. Add more spices. Repeat tasting and adding spices until taste is good.

If you like slow and dirty grooves, then you will like this!

Nerditional information: With only around 118 BPM, this mix is slower than most club music. However, I don’t think it lacks energy. It just has a different groove.

When I started selecting tracks for this mix, I remembered Westbam’s “Loud&Slow” label that he started in the late 90s. The label didn’t really live long, but I still like the idea behind this: To explore the slower grooves in electronic music and show that you don’t always have to go hard and fast to make people dance.

Maybe that idea just came a little early. Most of the tracks in this mix were released in recent years, like the awesome “Cooler Coleur” by the Crookers and Yelle. While the Crookers have become very successful producers in the last few years, probably not too many people have heard of french singer Yelle – which is a shame because she plays such a pleasant and energetic Electropop sound that you don’t have to understand the vocals which are typically in French.

paniq from Hamburg is in this mix with a great rework of the Knight Rider theme. I was a huge Knight Rider fan when I was a kid and that track reminded me of that.

By the way, he runs a project called “The Most Remarkable Album On This Entire Planet” right now in which he tries to get an album financed in advance through web-based fundraising. The donation deadline hasn’t run out yet, but paniq already collected all the money he needed to produce the album. Respect! And even more respect for releasing so much great music under a Creative Commons license!

Tracklist:

1. paniq – Psy Rider
2. Crookers feat. Yelle – Cooler Couleur (Junkie XL Remix)
3. ACDC – Back in Black (Dirty Funker Powerpack Vocal Mix)
4. Daft Punk vs. Gorillaz – 19-2000 Funk
5. Midfield General – Disco Sirens (Chicken Lips Dub)
6. Westbam meets Can – …and more
7. Plastique De Reve – Lost In The City
8. Filthy Dukes – This Rhythm
9. Munk – Back Down (Cut Copy Jackmaster Remix)
10. Drums of Death – DODFUCKSUPANESCOTTUNE

This mix is hard-beating, fast-cutting and takes no prisoners – just like a ninja. I selected some truly banging tracks and forced myself to mix faster than usual. Sorry for some transitions being not as smooth as they’re supposed to be, but this level of energy just wouldn’t work with too much planning.

Oh, and by the way, you can also hear my first remix in this set: A dirty house version of “New Noise” by Refused.

Tracklist:

1. Heads We Dance – The Human Touch (Sideschains Remix)
2. La Roux – Bulletproof (Hyper Crush Remix)
3. Ladybox – Cookies Fly (Prod. AC Slater & B.Rich)
4. Who Da Funk – Shiny Disco Balls (Sex On Monday Remix)
5. Jan Delay – Disko (So Called Friend Remix)
6. NAPT ft. Louise Marshall – Make My Day (Jack Beats Remix)
7. Timid Tiger & Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way ft. Ludacris & The Notorious BIG
8. iPunx – Dizzee Busta
9. Shodan & Fatman D – And The Beat Goes (Sonz of Mecha Mix)
10. House of Pain vs. Micky Slim – Jump Around
11. Refused – New Noise (Sweet Headache Remix)
12. The Prodigy – Everybody in the Place (AC Slater Remix)
13. Geht’s Noch? – Horny
14. Cyberpunkers – I Needed To Go
15. SebastiAn – Killing In The Name

Nerditional Information: For the international visitors of this blog, Jan Delay’s “Disko” might sound somewhat strange. Jan Delay is pretty big in Germany and has successfully proven that the German language can actually sound soulful (as in Soul music). The remix I used is a lot rougher than the original though.

I really like the remixes that Hyper Crush release, but I can’t really decide if their own productions are still cool or already too cheesy. Anyway, it’s refreshing to hear some good electronic pop music, and I got a feeling that they’re gonna be big.

Timid Tiger is actually a rather tame-sounding Indie Pop band, and I don’t know why they released such a banging remix of Lenny’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way”. Well, obviously they did, and they did it well.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gi/1689138/ // CC-by-sa

I recently visited Chris Summer in his studio in a small town near Cologne. We spent a fun evening together over a few beers and pizza, and of course we talked about and listened to a lot of good music.

I didn’t really do a formal interview, but over the course of that evening I learned a lot about Chris Summer, and I think this is worth sharing.

Talking about sharing: Here is a bangin’ DJ set that he gave me to share with you.

Tracklist:

1. Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix) – Metric
2. Poison Lips – Vitalic
3. Don’t go – Puzique
4. Cheap and Cheerfull (SebastiAn mix) – The Kills
5. Look what you have done to me – Voodoo Chilli
6. En direct de la côte (Alavi Rerox) – TEPR
7. Almost Cut my Hair – Cassius
8. Easy Love – MSTRKRFT
9. Allthegirls ( Yuksek Remix) – Siriusmo
10. Gimme what you got (Pull the Trigger)[Alex Metric Mix] – Black Daniel
11. Nil By Mouth (Knightlive Remix) – Bag Raiders
12. Boys & Girls (Les Petits Pilous Remix) [feat. Dragonette] – Martin Solveig
13. Caller – Alex Metric
14. Escape – The Toxic Avenger
15. Sunburnt – Das Glow
16. Won’t You Listen To What The DJ’s Spinning! – Deee-Lite

Chris Summer is a really relaxed and friendly guy, and it is hard to imagine that the first party he organized ended in disaster:

“I was still at school, and I had organized a party for my schoolmates and some alumni. It seemed to go really well at first: A lot of people showed up, a band played, and everybody was in a good mood. I started my set at around 10pm, and I hadn’t even played my second record when a few idiots started a fight and I had to stop the party.”

This disaster didn’t remain the last in Chris’s DJ career: Fire extinguisher abuse, broken arms and retarded drugheads are just a few of the obstacles he encountered at parties. However, his love for music kept driving him and with more than 10 years experience in DJing and producing, Chris Summer certainly knows what he is doing.

“I got hooked to electronic music in the early 90s, but I have tried out lots of different styles since then. For example, I was the DJ and beat producer for a HipHop project for quite a while. I really liked turntablism, but my beats were always a little too electronic for the MCs, and their vocals were a little too much gangster-style for me. I even produced the music for a cinema ad once that  ran nationwide, but I always kept coming back to electronic music.”

Apart from a few commercial releases and remixes, Chris Summer is an active member of the Creative Commons (CC) community. The idea behind Creative Commons is to release music under a license that makes it legal to share and build upon those releases.

“I stumbled over the CC community when I was looking for some nice vocal samples. I was surprised how much great material you can find, and I think that CC releases are a great way to connect and promote yourself. For example, I had very positive feedback on my CC releases from all over the world, and it really blew me away to know that people from Australia or the USA liked my stuff and even played in their radio shows. However, I still release some of my music under commercial licenses. Being a multimedia producer, I just have to live off of something, and if I put in a lot of effort into producing a track and do commercial mastering and all that, I just can’t give it away for free.”

Even though Chris clearly enjoys DJing, he wants to focus on producing music in the near future.

Apart from an upcoming release on Puuhh Records, his network and experience seems to start paying off.

“I got to know some really great musicians, and I am planning remixes and productions with them right now. For example, I got to know a really great singer from a Cologne-based Rock band. She is used to a totally different style of singing than what you hear on most electronic music releases and I think this could become a very interesting collaboration.”

I got to know Madame Summit through an online forum that we both are members of. She was looking for like-minded DJs, and it turned out that we did share quite a few views on how good music is supposed to sound like.

Asking her to do a feature for Sweet Headache was pretty much a no-brainer, and I am happy to present an exclusive DJ set by Madame Summit:

Tracklist:

1. T.Raumschmiere – 111 kg DNA
2. Zoot Woman – Lonley by Your Side
3. Datarock – Robots in Disquise
4. Punks jump up – Dance to Our Disco (headman club mix)
5. Le Tigre – After Dark (Morel’s pink noise dup mix)
6. Zombie Nation – Worth it Part 1
7. The virgin – Rich Girl (le castle vania’s rmx)
8. Reverend & the Makers – Silencee is talking (Alex Metric rmx)
9. Bloc Party – One More Time (Alex Metric rmx)
10. Miike – Animal (Fake Blood rmx)
11. Gossip – Heavy Cross (Yuksek rmx)
12. Malente – Music Forever
13. Justice vs. Simian – We Are Your Friends
14. Fakebeat – Jellyfish
15. Plastique de Reve – Lost in the City

“I started as an Indie Rock DJ in 2007. I had organizied a party back then, and the DJ I had booked for the event didn’t show up. I didn’t want to cancel the event, so I just took over, and people really liked it. That got me interested in DJing, and I started applying for other parties and clubs after that.”

While Indie Rock was her first love, it didn’t stay her last. Madame Summit is still well-known for great guitar-tunes, but also got a taste for electronic music, especially Indietronic or rough distorted electronic sounds.

“I had this vision of really mixing songs into each other, but that doesn’t work too well with most Rock songs. However, I found most typical Techno tracks too boring, so I am glad to have found a kind of music that’s in between Rock and electronic music. I just like to have different styles in a set. Most Indie DJs just stick to a certain style, but that would be too boring for me.”

Having found her very own style, she also likes to combine different genres in a unique way. While most Rock DJs do not mix songs at all on the one hand and most electronic DJs try to blend tracks as seamlessly as possible, Madame Summit has found her own way of combining different genres.

“I do know how to mix songs seamlessly, but I sometimes find clearly audible breaks between songs interesting. I also like using samples to fill the gap between two radically different songs, like alarm sounds or dog bark. I love it when people stop for a second, listen and then continue dancing. Confusing people can be a lot of fun – both for me and for my audience.”

It’s no coincidence that she names The Prodigy, The Whip, MSTRKRFT and Boysnoize as her favorites. These artists also influence her beginning activities as a producer.

“I want to play music that makes people want to tear their clothes off. I am just starting to produce my own music, but this is definitely something that I want to pursue further.”

Madame Summit is a resident DJ at Blue Shell (Cologne) and Emergency (Münster).

This mix is all about electronic music with a rock attitude. Expect headbanging tunes with a dancefloor appeal!

Tracklist:

1. Make The Girl Dance – Baby Baby Baby
2. The Qemists feat. Mike Patton – Lost Weekend (Killer on the Dancefloor)
3. Mando Diao – Down In The Past (Moonbootica Remix)
4. Bloc Party – One Month Off (Filthy Dukes Remix)
5. Cassius – Youth Speed Trouble Cigarettes (Cassius Reset Trouble Remix)
6. Moguai – Tonight
7. Klaxons – Golden Skans to Interzone (So Me Remix)
8. Goose – British Mode (Jester Remix)
9. Nu Coalition – Born For The Nightlife (Aston Shuffle Remix)
10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Head Will Roll (A-Trak Remix)
11. S’Express – Stupid Little Girls (Eon’s Blacklist Remix)
12. Justice – D.A.N.C.E. (MSTRKRFT Remix)

Nerditional Information: Do you remember S’Express? Yes, that is the dance music act that had a major hit with “Theme From S’Express” in 1988. I didn’t even know they were still active, but apparently they released a single called “Stupid Little Girls” on Kitsuné in 2007 – and that one’s actually pretty good!

Another artist that I hadn’t heard from in a while is Mike Patton, former singer of Faith No More. After leaving Faith No More, he released a couple of interesting, but also very strange records from Mr Bungle, Phantomas and other obscure projects. Nevertheless, he is a truly great vocalist, and I was happy to hear his cooperation with the truly talented Qemists .

Oh, and there is also a very interesting….errr…..”social experiment” by Make The Girl Dance that was “documented” in video form (NSFW!).

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29051967@N03/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

There is one particular style of electronic music that I kept picking up again and again throughout my life as a music lover: The combination of typical rock music elements (distorted guitars, real drums etc.) with electronic beats.

For a few years, this combination has been known as Indietronic – or at least that’s how people typically refer to it here. And this is the real reason why I am writing this blog post: I somehow got the impression that Indietronic is not yet understood as a style of its own by many people. For example, try searching for Indietronic DJ sets on platforms like play.fm or mixcloud. You will probably find something, and there actually are quite a few DJs who have specialized on this, but just compare it to other electronic music genres like, say, Tech House. See what I mean?

Let’s listen to a few examples: The obvious way to create Indietronic sounds is to remix songs from Indie Rock bands. There are quite a few good examples for this, like this Bloc Party-remix.

There are also quite a few artists who don’t need a remix to sound like that.
Example: Goose – “British Mode”.

The interesting thing is that Indietronic seems to appeal to both fans of rock music as well as electronic music – but the DJs who are playing that sound are (based on my personal impression) mostly coming from a  rock background. This is not a bad thing, it just means those DJs have a different attitude towards DJing.

While seamless mixing is absolutely critical to many electronic DJs, many rock DJs just try to play good music, one song after the other. From my point of view, this is perfectly ok, but it means less recognition from people with a strong electronic music background.

So getting back to my original question: Why is Indietronic not as universally recognized as other electronic music genres, even though there are many good releases and DJs playing that sound? I think it’s just the mixing. Indietronic is harder to mix for DJs, because tracks are typically shorter and do not always come in DJ-friendly extended versions. As a consequence, many Indietronic DJs do not mix at all, get less attention from the electronic music scene and therefore get less visibility.

However, I can only speak based on my impressions from Cologne and what I read and see on the internet. Do you agree with me? Or have I missed something?

Anyway, let’s just listen to some more music.