I’m a little too drunk right now to write anything clever for this video for “My Girls”, a cover of an Animal Collective song by Tears for Fears. I’m a little too drunk right now to even know if this song is any good. What I do know is that right now I’m completely digging it pretty hard. This is catchy as hell, and it’s making me pretty damn happy.
Leave it to a bunch of French robots to tell an emotional love story involving two mannequins who fall in love after seeing each other from across the room in a Natural History exhibit. It’s really a testament to how great this video is in that it makes you feel like these inanimate objects are alive and have feelings, despite the fact that their expressions never change.
“Instant Crush” is of course from Daft Punk’s album of the year, Random Access Memories, and it’s kinda the first real proper music video for the album. I think it works though. “Lose Yourself To Dance” and especially “Get Lucky” could get away with just showcasing their incredibly infectious dance-y vibes, but “Instant Crush” really benefits from the emotional weight that this video provides.
This isn’t David Dean Burkhart’s most technically proficient video. I’m not even sure there’s a single edit in it. But there’s just something beautifully nostalgic and magical about how perfectly the bright, bouncy melody of Liquid Passion’s “EAC 4EVA” matches up with this rather impressive perfect run on Mario Kart 64. Not only does this song sound like it could have come from a game like this, but it also has the right kind of energy a track in a game like this needs to inspire you to greatness. It’s definitely a whole lot of fun.
I’m not 100% sure if this is the official music video for “Vulnerable” or if it was just something they cobbled together from rehearsal footage, (the title at the beginning of the video makes me believe the latter; the strobe footage at the end of the video makes me think the former) but either way, it’s a pretty killer song. I recently discovered Tinashe’s new Black Water mixtape and it’s pretty spectacular, filled with dark R&B that sounds like what might have happened if Aaliyah ever got to work with The Weeknd.
Upon visiting her website I discovered that she’s actually already released a decent amount of music on several mixtapes and–for now at least–she seems to be giving it all away for free. Check out “Ecstasy” from her Reverie mixtape below, and if you want to hear more you can go to her website to download Black Water, Reverie and more.
Just in time for the holidays it’s C’est Non Un Blog mixtape time! And in the spirit of giving I’ve got a doozy of a mixtape to share with you. After I put together my last double-shot of mixtapes to help celebrate the launch of the new website I started my usual ritual of collecting a new batch of songs for the next one and before I knew it I had way more songs than I needed. Since things went so great the last time I put out two mixtapes at once I figured why not just make one big mixtape and split it into two parts? Because, let’s face it, music matters.
You can download part one here and part two here. (Or if you want to be all fancy, just click on the album covers.)
This mixtape takes its name from the oldest track of the bunch. Buried deep in the mix you’ll find Faithless’ fantastic song “Music Matters” from their album To All New Arrivals released in 2006. That song pretty much answered the question bouncing around my head of why I bother to go through all the time and effort necessary to put these mixtapes together: because music matters.
I’m the kind of person who needs to have music constantly playing in the background where ever I am. I’m not sure what my life would be like without new music. It always irks me when people say that there’s no good music being put out today. Just because Top 40 radio sucks (and has pretty much always sucked) doesn’t mean there aren’t hundreds of talented people out there putting out new and interesting music that you should be listening to. I scour dozens of Bandcamp, Soundcloud and YouTube pages every week looking for that next big new thing because I know it’s out there, waiting for someone like me to find them. These mixtapes, like all of the music videos I also write about, are just my way of bringing back all the little treasures I’ve found so that I can share them all with all of you.
65 tracks in total. Over 4 and a half hours of music. If you can’t find a new favorite song in this eclectic collection of noise then I’m not doing my job properly, because there are some properly amazing songs in here. As always let me know what you think and give me a shout if any of the links aren’t working. Enjoy!
Tracklisting after the jump:
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything new from Syron, and while the new music is fresh, this video feels a little stale. Her stylist appears to have tried to create an amalgamation of Britney, Christina and Miley that doesn’t really work for me, but the song is still pretty great. Ironically the song is suppose to be about “wanting to be brought to life, back into colour and out of the shadows,” but there’s not a lot of life to be found here. Still, any new music from Syron is reason enough to rejoice, so enjoy.
From the Russian who previously told you to “Let the Music Fuck You” comes this, his latest piece of 90’s rave house magic, “Dreams Come True”. Apparently club culture is alive and well in Russia. I really like that DJ Orguretz doesn’t take himself too seriously. Both video feature a guy from humble origins trying to make it and struggling, but all that matters is a love of the music. On a completely unrelated note, every time I hear the title of this song I think of this one.
It’s been a great year for French Horn Rebellion and their mission of making band geeks look cool, with “Dancing Out“, “Johnny Smash“, their collaboration with Le Couleur, and now “Caaalifornia”. This fun ode to California from a couple of brothers from Milwaukee matches the jubilant vibe of their earlier videos by featuring them wandering around San Francisco shrunk down to pocket size and then falling in love with their own pink-haired California girl. It’s exactly the sort of whimsy you’d expect from guys who got their start Photoshopping french horns onto pictures that weren’t suppose to have french horns in them.
I’ve already written about the album version of Charli XCX’s “SuperLove” here and honestly that video’s a lot better than this one, which seems to be composed entirely from outtakes of a fashion shoot. That said, when I first heard Yeasayer’s remix I immediately fell in love with its quirky twist on the original and when I saw that Charli posted an unlisted video for the remix on her YouTube page I just had to share it with you all, so enjoy:
When a lot of people think about electronic music the first image that pops into their minds is of a guy standing alone hitting buttons while soulless, artificial, synthetic noises come bleating out of the speakers. It’s easy to forget that with just a sequencer you can make beautiful, magical and transportive music that can take you away to another place with its warmth and elegant ease. Monster Rally’s Ted Feighan juxtaposes those two ideas by placing himself front and center in this video while Bollywood dancers dance and twirl around him. The video may have been shot on the cheap in a loft apartment, but in your mind you’ve already left the building and traveled to some romantic gondola ride Florence.
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