Friday, January 30, 2009

Kareem Abdul vs. Bruce Lee?!


Too Busy Looking Good
i love this mix, i cant say that about all my mixes, but after repeated plays, i still think this is good, so i have chosen it for first mix out the gate. i love the sample at the beginning of the mix, "Enter The Dragon" shizz. i have this excellent sample record called "Fractured Breaks" its a battle record and one of the first records i got when I started dj'ing 11 years ago. i have no recollection how the record came into my hands. i do remember breaking it though. i was at a gig and by the end of my set i was pretty drunk, i was putting away the record in my bag, back when i had to lug around crates of records to get a party going. thank god for laptops, i for one am NOT one of those dj's bemoaning the end of wax at parties; dont get me wrong i love rocking the lone turntable in my living room when the wife and i sit down to entertain guest - an LP has no substitute during a dinner party - but there is immense freedom gained from showing up to the gig with my old school, manhattan portage, bizzle that i have been using as a dj bag for a decade, and plugging in to the serato box, and boom, im off to the races. so as i was putting away the record i grabbed it upside down, sleeve side down, and it fell out of its protective cocoon, bounced once on the floor and then landed on its side. broken. a huge chunk taken out of outer edge. i continued to spin it anyway since i mostly used it for the awesome and ubiquitous samples on the end of side A. Last year a student of mine borrowed it and recorded the samples and the salvageable breaks on it, to mp3 and sent me a copy of the file. i let him keep the record itself. after all if you love something you should let it go right?


the mix is, as usual, unconfined to genre's, speaking to you through the shifts in drum patterns and melodies. you've got your nu-funk, your house music lite, your breaks; i even break out two edits for this mix. like all my mixes, there is deep interplay between the song being mixed in and the song being mixed out. i like to think of it as an edit-on-the-fly, old school dj's call it "deep mixing". is this made to make you dance? not on purpose, but it cant hurt if you do. is it designed for maximum chillaxing, oh, most def.....



track list :
Alienation (Alias Remix) - Lali Puna

Harrison Reverse - Lali Puna
i am crazy for lali puna right now. major crush on valerie trebeljahr, and her voice which is itself an incredible electronic instrument. i just love how she plays within the bass lines. ooh so seductive...

Hold On - Holy Ghost
big big ups to mark, from electrik cokaine, be on the look out for those dudes, on the real they are going to be killing it soon. as for this track - i love how the synths sound so 80's and yet the arrangement is definitely post-ableton, the hook is cheesy but in a i'm-drunk-lets-dance-and-pretend-we-know-the-words, sort of way

Return To Paradise (Mark De Clive-Lowe Remix) - Shirley Horn
there is a glut of "soul" remixes out there and boy am i sick of them. for every 100 "rmx" there's 1 good one, this is an example. here is an example of one that is norm, and thus, awful, just awful

Long Way (Sun Orchestra Remix) - T'boys

Sunrise On Fujiyama - Lemongrass
i have been into lemongrass for a minute now. real laid back almost new-agey sound. toes the line between house, downtempo, and yoga sountrack

Pink Funk - Lumiere (Mosart212 Edit)
an edit where i sent the first couple of notes to my oxygen pad and then played them in different arrangements throughout the song, then messed with the middle section by looping and unlooping in 4 to 8 bar increments

Good Morning - Fred Everything
check out any remix by this dude, very good

Keep On Pumping It Up (DJ Anonymous Edit)
ok, so here is where i start to indulge my way lame love of old hip house, remember hip house? terrible raps, repetitive drum patterns, poor production, fun

Fuk Dat - Sagat
classic for real

The Definition Of A Track (The Back Room Mix) - Back Room
1989!

I'll Follow You - Captain Hook

Fairytale Of A Working Day - Electric Brother (Mosart212 extra city Edit)
i love the ambient city sounds mixed into the background of this song, makes me miss nyc

Slowdown - Eyereel Allstars

Forever - Gold Lust

Everything is Changing - Groove Collective

Keep You Hird (Plej Remix)
- Hird
every remix of this particular song kills. all the time. the original is killer as well. yukimi nagano doesnt really get into the full lyrics on this version, but she still brings the soul to the mix. hird is another band that i think is lumped into house music, but is so much more than your average-guido-backing-soundtrack

So Far - Miguel Migs
old school dude, still out there doing his thing, this one has it all, chunky bass line: check; disco diva just coming off of a night of studio 54 inspired debauchery: check, lame lyrics cribbed from 10th grade poetry class: check

Alone - Tennis Hero
based out of sweden, electronic duo, great name. is everything good right now coming from sweden. norway, and germany? discuss!

Just Waiting (Chillhouse Mix) - Wooden Man
i only play a minute off this track before sliding the mix volume down, but the synth-play is incredible. this is to me, the sound of late 90's early 2000's house music. i am a sucker for those "best of lounge" collections, and that is where i found this one

set list said and done. we hope yalls enjoys this one, as usual we worked hard and we dug deep to bring it on the La MoDa tip.

word.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

1977....Back to the Future


1977 is the year of our birth. Its when it all began. SO we thought it would be fitting to start our blog, and our first mix with the date. 1978, 1979, and the rest will follow.

For this mix we pulled out some of our faves, some came from the vault, others just popped last year. One of our specialties, is the faux-capella edit. We use the AEM 100i (big up to elliot!) to strip away beats from vocals, we can get pretty close sometimes, and then drop them onto a beat in real time. Everything is real time. All the time.

Check out 1977 and let us know what you think. 1978 coming up in a few….

La MoDa - 1977


Multipitch - Jel
Rolf Royce - Fila Brazila
Something For Windy (La Moda Dirty Hair edit) - Bonobo
Freeze Explode - Cassettes Won't Listen
Go Left (ft. Lateef the Truth Speaker & Gift of Gab) - E da Boss
Good Times - Strange Fruit Project
DJ Food Style (La Moda Makin Dollas edit) - DJ Food
Kalimba (Flute Mix) - Freakniks
Chicken in a Box - Krafty Kuts
Notion - Flevans
Nothin Goin' On But the Rent - Gwen Guthrie
Athena - Hercules & Love Affair
Venom (ft. Joe Dukie) - Dutch Rhythm Combo
PPP (PEACE & Rashaan Ahmad) - J Boogies Dubtronic Soundsystem
All I Do (U-Turn Remix) - Stevie Wonder

Friday, January 2, 2009

Greetings Earthlings

(pic:  cloxboy)

Allow us to introduce ourselves.  We are La MoDa, AKA Mosart212 and Mantisounds. Combining two diverse music collections and backgrounds, La MoDa is militantly opposed to the "flavor of the week"-ism that has infected much of the "underground" or "music blog" culture of late. If a song was dope 1, 2, 5, or 30 years ago, it should still be dope today, right? Our mission for this blog, like our dj sets every Tuesday night at the Independent in Somerville, is to defy convention or categorization, and the mixes we drop will span the spectrum of funk and all the bastard children it has spawned over the years, perfectly illustrated with our debut mix posted above.  Come in, make yourself at home, and enjoy...