R-r-r-r-rihanna

Yes, I do have particular tastes when it comes to what I listen to. I accept that others may not share my tastes, so I’ve decided to find the middle ground between today’s popular music and my remix style of choice: DUBSTEP. I know that a lot of dubstep can sound the same…

Time to bust-a-moose..er, I mean bust-a-MOVE!

Basically add “overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns.” to a song and voila you’ve got yourself a dubstep remix. I looked up the top ten Rihanna songs  and these are the dubstep remixes of them I liked the most. Make sure to check the comments underneath if you like the tracks as a lot of people provide links for free mP3 downloads!

Umbrella: Not a fan of the laugh, and the DJ could have used more of the vocals, but the tunage is solid. Getchya groove on! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib09BFKo1zI

Russian Roulette: All the remixes of this song I found had trouble matching the slowness of Rihanna’s original with the intense bassw-blastin’. This one’s not too bad though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rgn9EMPVuo

Love The Way You Lie : A hard one to find a good dubstep version, way too many versions out there with people just wanking away on the bass. Not the greatest audio quality, but hey this is the Youtubes… deal with it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX07fcJTmlg

Unfaithful : WhooooaaA Nelly! Dirty, dark dub! This remix fits the mood of the song and sounds sick to boot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwWIUb-ZBbA

Love the Way You Lie, Pt. II : Not too many remixes out there for the Part II of “Love the Way You Lie”… and by now you may be getting sick of the Wub-wub-wubba-wub of fdubstep so here’s a remix that’s almost the complete opposite. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzyOLawZ0_8

Rude Boy :  Chrispy is one of the more prolific dubstep DJ’s on Youtube. This track is a good showcase of his skillz. You one Ruuuuude Boi, Chrispy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kv3BkWnhIc&list=PL53D5D5AEB539C857&index=2&feature=plpp_video

Disturbia : Not sure how I feel about this track, but it’s getting all the props from other Youtubers so I’m willing to go with the flow on this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3bJFVARlo8

What’s My Name : Blackmill’s remix of this song was the one getting most of the attention, but I opted for Catalyst’s version as it has a little more jazzyness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NeZuhfLIag

S&M : CLAAAAASIC dubstep remix! Employs all the standard features; the Wub-wub, the grinding sub-bass lines, tha DROP. Dubmixes may be bad, but this DJ’s perfectly good at it 😉 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Q2Xp4ZBw4

Don’t Stop the Music : Like a lot of her songs this track already has a pretty good beat. I couldn’t decide between these two remixes, as they are two of the few I heard that actually keep true to the songs main beat of the original song. They’re both pretty “brostep”-ish; ie. the focus is more on producing  earshredding bass than on  creating unique beats. Those who can’t critique, eh 😛 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfc6gdldmL8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfc6gdldmL8

Anywho that’s all for me today. Hope you’ve found something you like and worked up a nice, healthy layer of  dance sweat!

PS – Not a fan of Dubstep, well how about these two shots at the genre.

What Dubstep sounds like to your parents

Hank Hill’s opinion of Dubstep

How do you like them apples!?!

Lady Gaga – Oh lala

I bet that anyone who has heard at least five Lady Gaga songs will be a fan of at least one (probably two) of them. Whether they are open with this or stubbornly feign superiority, only to return home and submit to a personal Youtube dance party, the bond will be there. Her debut The Fame is a party waiting to be played. Despite the (over)exposure of songs like Pokerface and Lovegame I will never tire of those opening bars. Her new album, Born this Way still won’t be released for a few days yet, but thanks to the magic of the internet I’ve already been able to hear a quarter of it. Nothing’s jumped out at me yet, but it has got my foot tappin’ and I must admit that kind of makes me even more eager to hear the album.
In addition to being a brave artist Stefani Germanotta/Lady Gaga/Mother Monster is also a really nice person. This personal address by Lady Gaga is a perfect example of why lady gaga deserves to get respect and at the same time will also provide you with the live performance of two of her new tracks Judas and Born this way.

Another weird sign of Lady Gaga’s popular appeal is this ad for Gagaville bthat has been appearing in the sidebar of my Facebook page recently:
Finally, Grannies and Gaga together at last!

Whether you like or not (but secretly do like her anyway) you’ve gotta let a person grow! She’s come along way from writing lyrics for Britney Spears and that’s a good thing (maybe not so much for Britney, but that’s not the fish I’m frying right now).

Adele & My obsession with Youtube remixes

I friend of mine recently sent me this link on Facebook, and to be honest I took my time getting around to listening to it. I’m glad I took my time beause it has allowed me to be able to talk to you about an important subject: The expansion of enjoying your favourite songs by finding remixes of them on Youtube. I have been doing this for a while now (and loving it!), but I’d never heard of Adele before and was pleased with the quality of the remixes I was hearing online. I am a fan of dub, music. This is one of the finest contemporary dub songs ever made…EVER: Witness Dub by Roots Manuva!

In case you’re not familiar with her, here’s the low don on Adele. SHe’s from Britain and in 2007 she gained fame with the opening track, Daydreamer, of her debut album, 19. Way to go Adele (even though you’d look a lot more powerful without the smoke)!

Anyway, the point is that after I heard the remix my friend had sent me I did a search for some dubbier versions of Adele’s song.
This one is my favourite, nice dirty base, with a decent depth of sound: Dubstep Bondo Remix.

As a runner up I’m including this track: Dubstep Remix. The reason this remix is second is because it may sound alright at first, but after you’re heard ten dubstep remixes you’ll realize how formulaic this remix is. It is a nice effort I will give it that, but remixes are ( I feel ) about asserting creativity and this song sounds like a musical version of connect the dots.

For anyone interested in what the orginal album version of Adele’s Rolling in the Deep sounds like check it out here, and enjoy it… it’s good!

Artemis Fowl: The Arctic incident

Colfer, E., & Parker, N. (2004). Artemis Fowl: The Arctic incident. New York: Listening Library.

Listening to this audio book was my first dip in to the ocean of the Artemis Fowl empire and I am glad that I finally got my feet wet! I think a lot of guys will especially enjoy rooting for Artemis Fowl because he’s a good guy, for the most part, but is forced by the circumstances of his life to play that bad guy… until the REALbad guys show up! Action, emotion, a whole lot more action, some gripping characters, and then even more action is what one should expect from reading/hearing this book (and, I suspect, others in the series).

Nathaniel Parker’s narrate’s in a good range of character voices which is a bonus to the fact that he has a great speaking voice in general. So, I was pleased to see that he narrates other Artemis Fowl audio books.

However, when I do get another Artemis Fowl book (which I will be doing soon!) I will be getting a paper copy…unless I am going on a road trip, or out to a cabin in the woods. Why? Well, personally, I am very easily distracted. I listened to most of this book on my computer which means that after about 30 minutes I was listening to the book and playing Euchre or poker online, checking my e-mails, Facebook, and Twitter, and surfing around the web. The parts I listened to on a CD player lead to me sweeping the floor, folding my laundry and cooking. The story was interesting, but the format was the gateway to distraction… which means if I might want to reconsider using it as road trip material 😛

For a taste of the story and of Nathaniel Parker’s narration go to Youtube