As if “Titanium” could get any bigger, Alesso has done it. The 20-year old producer last night let loose this preview of a brand new mix for the Sia-featuring hit track. (DoML)
David Guetta – Titanium (Feat. Sia) (Alesso Remix)Alesso 
(Facebook) (Soundcloud)
Rating 8.1
By: Chris Gedos
Rhode Island native Abraham Orellana performed under his moniker araabMUZIK on Friday night, 11/11/11, as part of The Mondrian Sessions at the hotel of the same name on the Sunset Strip. Although the LA scene has long since moved to Silverlake and Echo Park, The Mondrian Sessions are making The Strip relevant for lovers of independent MUZIK.
AraabMUZIK’s highly regarded Electronic Dream was released over the summer. It shocked and even upset some of his admirers, for on his LP the producer oftentimes sits back and allows the original song to play through for seconds at a time. However, araabMUZIK’s previous beats for Cam’ron and others are more heavily spliced, which I view as a simple issue of producing a single song vs. an entire LP, a transition which araab handled with ease. These are big boy beats but also stand alone songs, not an easy feat for a producer barely of drinking age.
The set was performed inside, to the left of the main entrance of the hotel. It would’ve been cool to see it outside by the pool (where I saw Dirty Beaches back in August), but ten foot ceilings and a tiny bar add to the house party vibe. The crowd (50% hip-hop, 50% hipster) wilds out- the same people that sway gently at concerts in Echo Park are losing themselves in a way they’d make fun of in a different environment. The music weaves its way through several genres in several seconds, too pop for hip-hop and vice versa, infectious music flaunting conventions. It’s so packed I can only catch glimpses of his fingers furiously tapping at the MPC which he’s wholly dependent on. My friend asked, “Where is the musicianship?” He wasn’t a fan. Oh well, beauty is in the ear of the beholder.
My main fault with the experience is more of a misgiving regarding the culture that has proved fertile ground for this current DJ/Dubstep/MPC/Protools (one big umbrella) revolution: it epitomizes self aggrandizement at its most unadulterated. To believe one is the purveyor of a musical revolution is dangerous naiveté. I ran home to put on the second side of Bringing It All Back Home, as I craved a slice of Dylan’s master social commentary:
Advertising signs they con
You into thinking you’re the one
That can do what’s never been done
That can win what’s never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you
(From It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding)
araabMUZIK – Let It GoaraabMUZIK $$$ (Twitter) (Facebook)
RATING: 8.4
NO CEREMONY/// bring us their latest with “DELIVERUS”. The track tries on a singer-songwriter feel proving that underneath all of those washy layers and groove based arrangements, and of course hype, there must be an internal consensus for quality writing. Pick up the track below and be on the lookout for more to come from NO CEREMONY///.
NO CEREMONY/// – DELIVERUSNO CEREMONY/// 
? (Official)
Rating 8.6
We caught a snippet of Rihanna’s Jamie XX-produced “Drunk on Love” a few days ago. Now the full length CDQ surfaces. One the of the most anticipated Talk That Talk tracks, “Drunk On Love” continues the trend of indie R&B merging into the mainstream pop. Like we alluded to in a recent post about Lady Gaga (and what went wrong with Born This Way), successful pop stars stay relevant by embracing what’s not quite yet mainstream, what’s still sort just under the surface, and making it mainstream. Like Drake and his collaborations with The Weeknd and Jamie XX, Rihanna is trying (and on “Drunk on Love” succeeding) to maintain relevance by hoping on a sound, that while maybe all too familiar to most blogoverse denizens, is only just surfacing into the mainstream.
Rihanna – Drunk On Love (Prod. Jamie XX)Rating 8.4
Rest in Peace Heavy D.
Heavy D & The Boyz – Nuttin’ But Love (Cookin’ Soul Remix)Cookin’ Soul 
(Official) (Twitter)
Rating 8.2
Indie-gazers The Horrors go in on Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” from her forthcoming Born This Way: The Remix LP . And…..surprise! It’s actually really good. Cheers, chaps. (SG)
Lady Gaga – Bloody Mary (The Horrors Remix)The Horrors (Official) (Facebook) (Myspace)
Lady Gaga 
(Official)
Rating 8.4
GRMLN, a project by an Orange County college student named Yoodoo, is the perfect music to pass that interminable afternoon in the library or cubicle. These sunny melodies will be most assuredly stuck in your head at the end of a brief listening session. The breathy vocals are more atmospheric than anything, but I do hear a catchy line or two steal the music’s soft thunder. It would be cool to have some elaborate beats counter the melodies- it’s really the only thing keeping me from going gaga. But fans of Seapony through Beach House now have a new love for the weekend. Contributed by Chris Gedos
GRMLN – Relax Yourself (Dolphin Cry)GRMLN 
(Bandcamp)
RATING: 7.88
Little Boots is back with the new single for “Shake”. On the track, great pop melodies/hooks frame classic-sounding dance pop with a 2011 feel. Very good, Ms. Boots.
Little Boots – ShakeLittle Boots 
(Official) (Facebook)
Rating 8.2
“What Tomorrow Brings” is featured off of E-TRAINS forthcoming WRATH OF ROXANE + release. The deluxe reissue of his debut by the same name [-] is expected later this November, of which will also include a collection of unreleased bonus tracks. More new material expected before 2012 leading up to the debut of his new “Glow So Hard” video.
E-TRAIN – What Tomorrow Brings *E-TRAIN – Animal (Remix ft. Switch X Ke$ha)E-TRAIN (Facebook)
Rating 8.3
Crushed Beaks are a sharp duo out of London that play noisy melodic rock and roll. They’ve got a single for “Close-Ups” out next week on Too Pure. Visceral, urgent, raw in all the best ways “Close-Ups” is an exciting jam that’s rhythmic and kinetic enough that it might even make you move a little bit.
Crushed Beaks – Close-UpsCrushed Beaks (Facebook) (Soundcloud)
Rating 8.1
San Fran sunman Giraffage flips a Slow Magic track for the second time. The result is yet another step to the next level for the track, it’s broader, it’s grander, it’s more harmonious. It’s big.
Slow Magic – Feel Flows (Giraffage Remix)Giraffage (Official) (Facebook)
Slow Magic (Facebook)
Rating 8.3
The Milk have all the ingredients to be the next great UK guitar band. A “back to basics” yet still modern referencing sound, great songs, a great frontman, the support of UK radio (including spins from Zane Lowe, and an evening playlist slot on XFM). “B Roads”, the band’s latest single, is the sort good time/feel good shit that the indie rock and roll genre seems sorely short on in the year 2011. Catch a little good time below.
The Milk – B RoadsThe Milk (Official)
Rating 8.1
