http://www.myspace.com/baileytzuke

Unbedingt mal bei “Turn and turn again” rein hören. All Thieves ist ein Projekt von ihr bei dem Altmeister Rollo Armstrong (Faithless Mastermind) seine Finger drin hat. Auch die anderen Songs von Bailey Tzuke sind nicht schlecht. Talentierte Songwriterin. Hoffe sie bekommt bald einen Plattenvertrag.

http://www.myspace.com/baileytzuke
Check out the song “Turn and turn again”. All Thieves is a project from her which features the great Rollo Armstrong (Faithless Mastermind). The other songs are beautiful too. BT is a talented songwriter! I hope she gets signed soon.

TITOLO: Uninvited
AUTORE: Freemanson ft. Bailey Tzuke
ALBUM: Unmixed (2007)
ASCOLTALA!: http://www.musicwebtown.com/jacopax/177454

Freemanson è un duo di dj proveniente da Brighton d’impronta tipicamente house che nel 2007 ha dato alle stampe l’album Unmixed. Uninvited, selezione odierna, è impreziosita dalla parte vocale della cantante londinese Bailey Tzuke, che ha contribuito così a catapultare il singolo tra le vette nelle charts Uk.

Questa canzone è di fatto una rilettura in chiave dance del singolo scritto e prodotto nel 1998 da Alanis Morissette per la colonna sonora di City of Angels: cambiano solo le parti vocali, in quanto l’artista canadese non ha concesso i diritti per la cover. Il video, quando non indugia troppo sulla bionda cantante, riprende bene l’idea di un soggetto “uninvited”, che cerca di celarsi e continuare a osservare la scena.

Thanks to Sirah for suggesting the song

Having recently got a brand new laptop to replace the ridiculous heap of metal I used to own kick around the room, I am spending a rather disturbing number of hours re-discovering fantastic songs.

So to share my aural (watch it) pleasures, here are a selection of 20 fantastic songs you should listen to, in no order (as a word of warning my taste in music is as random as this blog). I have plenty more but these will do for now.

Click on the song titles to play online (courtesy of You Tube)…

1. Faithless – “Addictive”

From the Cruel Intentions soundtrack…this song is very sexy. I love the film, too.

2. Freemasons Ft. Bailey Tzuke – “Uninvited”

Fairly recent – truly haunting and very beautiful vocals, I hope Bailey does more stuff like this.

3. Ultrabeat – “Pretty Green Eyes”

A big club classic this one. With good reason! And the girl in the video is so damn hot it makes me sick!

4. Lupe Fiasco Ft. Matthew Santos – “Superstar”

I’m not normally into hip-hop/rap stuff, but this song just has such a gorgeous chorus I just fell in love with it although I think that part is credited to Matthew Santos (see #11)

5. Elton John – “Tiny Dancer”

If you’ve ever seen the film Almost Famous, this is the memorable tour bus singalong moment and makes you want to group hug everyone around you.

Dave Grohl did an amazing acoustic version which is here - worth a look, he gets everyone to join in film-style, it’s great.

I love this film in a way I can’t describe, I think because I have been and want to be Penny Lane and really feel what this film is about, and so this song kind of encapsulates all of this for me.

“I have to go home”

“You ARE home..”

Rock on.

6. Letters to Cleo – “I Want You To Want Me”

Another movie song, this time from 10 Things I Hate About You. I just love this girlie rock band’s cover of the Cheap Trick classic

7. Vinyl Sun – “Angels”

This song is commonly listed as being sung by Nine Inch Nails as a demo song but in fact it’s sung by Vinyl Sun, I mean it doesn’t even sound like Trent Reznors voice, but either way its a really sexy industrial rock song. Go listen…

8. Gouryella – Binary Finary 1999 (remix)

There are so many remixes of this song it’s hard to pick a definative one, but the linked You Tube is probably my personal fave. 100% euphoric trance classic, this one.

9. Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Under the Bridge”

An old one, this, but still a beautiful and chilled out classic and famously murdered by All Saints who ponced around in their teenybop moments probably not understanding the songs sadder interpretations… sigh…

10. Ida Corr vs Fedde Le Grand – “Let Me Think About It”

I do like Fedde Le Grand’s stuff – this one being no exception. Funky and hot this is definately one to dance to…

11. Matthew Santos “Fill my Cup”

I found this accidently on You Tube looking for Superstar – and Oh.My.God this song is just…well… it sends shivers down your spine with its harmonies and his voice. Keep an eye out for this guy and check out his other stuff – I am limiting myself to just the one of his songs for this list otherwise it would turn into the Top 20 Matthew Santos songs heehee

12. Christina Aguilera – “Dirty”

OK, so you’ve heard this one before. And I don’t care if it is Christina Aguilera, at the height of her sluttiness, I do like this song and I think its fantastic to dance to – and damn her hair rocks in this video. Shame it spawned a multitude of cheap chav-a-like styles across Britain…

13. Britney Spears – “Gimme More”

OK, I couldn’t put Christina on the list without Britney. And despite her recent nutcase bad mother reputation, I can’t help but liking this song. My jaw dropped when I first saw the video, wondering just how much more she was planning to push the “slag” boundary, but then the tune began to catch. And I know I am not the only one…

14. When In Rome – “The Promise”

Film fans will recognise this as the closing song from one of the best recent cult films, Napoleon Dynamite. I love ND – it’s one of those movies that you can put on at any time of the day or night and then not be able to turn off – utterly compelling. And this song just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside since you know that Napoleon and his girl are going to have a happy lifetime of Ligers and Tater Tots.

15. Lily Allen -”Littlest Things”

It was a toss between this and Oh My God (Mark Ronson) but to be honest I love all of her stuff. Whatever you might decide about her as a person, she has a beautiful light voice and really pretty songs.

This one in particular is quite true to long term relationships where you reminisce about the ‘beginning’ when things were still fresh and full of spark, well at least I did, and this song meant a lot to me for that very reason. Pass the tissues, someone…

16. Nine Inch Nails – “Closer”

Dark, Heavy, Sexy but deliciously good.

With a line like “I wanna fuck you like an animal”, don’t be suprised that this song and video is not work safe.

17. Paul Weller – “You Do Something To Me”

Everyone has heard this one before – its another classic love song with a gorgeous melody

18. Craig Armstrong Ft. Liz Fraser – “This Love”

Another one from the Cruel Intentions soundtrack. This is haunting and really sad but beautiful. Reminds me a lot of the Silent Hill songs (I’m a BIG SH fan) – that kind of slow piano and vocals.

I’ve just realised that so many of these songs are sad/dark/depressing. I promise I am not trying to depress you, ummm next time there will be more happy songs, OK??

19. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – “I Love Rock N Roll”

OK, it was either this or another sad song, so I went with this!!!

True rock chick song so put another dime in the jukebox, baby

20. Nine Inch Nails – “Dead Souls”

Another NIN I’m afraid but they are a wicked band. This one’s actually a Joy Division cover, and featured on The Crow soundtrack. It’s a beautiful song, really dark but for me, a weird mix of depression and euphoria as well. Kind of like Manic Depression in a song.

And don’t even get me started talking about The Crow, being one of my favourite films ever………….

Enjoy…

I’ve blogged in the past about cover songs, and I guess I just find myself fascinated by this aspect of the dance music business. On my final day at the Billboard DMS (see other recent blog entries for more about that here and here), I was having dinner with my better half and some members of the CAPP Records team (Rikah and Dom), Tim and Ron from GoRainbowRadio.com, as well as artist Ohsha Kai, and this topic happened to come-up and got me thinking again.

The night before, we watched Marian Records recording artist Ella perform her new single, Missing, a cover of the Everything But the Girl song. Ella is young and attractive, and she has a terrific voice with tons of commercial potential. I found her stage presence in need of some work, but that’ll come with time and practice. I didn’t find a whole lot to dislike, honestly—except the song choice. I had made a remark that night, and again at dinner with the folks above, that the song was too recent to warrant a cover.

Today, I think I might well retract that remark. For starters, it’s disingenuous; one of my very favorite new songs right now is Uninvited from Freemasons and Bailey Tzuke, a cover of an Alanis Morissette song that, like Missing, is roughly 10 years old. While I still didn’t like her song choice, on reflection, I think my issues with the song are three-fold:

First, it was a dance/electronic style song to start with. Everything But the Girl isn’t really a dance act per se as much as a group that uses rich electronic arrangements, but they have had some dance remix hits of their own, so direct comparisons are a bit inevitable. Most dance covers are not of dance songs; some, like Hannah Jones’ Bridge Over Troubled Water are of songs so far removed from the dance genre that any halfway decent dance cover is apt to sound fresh and interesting.

Second, whoever programmed or produced Ella’s version did a good job with it, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t really add anything new, and didn’t really improve on the original in my view. This is related to the point I just made; for a cover song to actually work, and work well, it should bring something new to the table. Maybe that’s using an opposite-gender vocal (which itself can be a risky move and often fails miserably), tweaking the arrangement to a greater degree, departing more radically from the original (Eric Prydz’ popular pseudo-covers come to mind), or otherwise freshening things up a bit.

This was the main problem I had with the recent 9 to 5 cover which I blogged about; these overly-close-to-the-original covers can be intriguing at first, but they lose their interest after a play or two because the listener has “been there, done that.” In other words, they have essentially novelty value only.

Third, the song was just covered by another artist. ShakeTwo (feat. Nicola Fasano) out of Europe released a cover of it only this past summer. Now granted, lead times for producing new tracks will occasionally make it pretty much impossible to avoid this sort of thing from time to time, but going after a more obscure song or perhaps an older one might minimize the chance of encountering this potential dilution of a cover’s potential.

I’m not honestly certain what has driven the dance industry to churn-out covers left and right. I’ve talked to label folks about this some, and I’m not sure there’s consensus. Some say it’s about “search sales” (someone searches for the original, and stumbles on the cover), some say it’s because the songs of the past were so strong, some say it’s because 80’s music (perhaps the most popular choice for covers) lends itself so well to such treatment.

I suspect (though it’s not confirmed by any means) that it comes down to sales. Making a new hit song is tough in any genre. With dance music representing such a small segment of the music industry, coupled with the overall struggles of the broader music industry itself, making an original dance song succeed is pretty tough business. Pop remixes do well because they ride the coattails of the broader industry, and leverage the popularity of artists like Justin Timberlake. But a fresh song, in the dance format only, comes down to a labor of love. There’s no “name brand” artist to leverage, and no familiar song to ride the back of.

When you craft an effective dance cover, there’s immediate recognition, immediate familiarity, and the potential for an immediate sales burst. Good tracks, bad tracks or otherwise, every time I get a new cover song in a bundle of DJ promo music, there’s an initial excitement when I first play the track. It’s the second play, the third play, and so on where the chaff starts to get separated out from the wheat.

Back to my point… I’d really like to see producers and artists who do these cover songs start to focus more on freshness and quality, and less on novelty. While either might yield some airplay or club play, and either might generate some sales from familiarity alone, novelty is like a sugar rush: A short burst of energy followed by a crash landing. For the same reason that dietitians suggest complex carbohydrates over simple ones (sustained energy vs. short-lived bursts), taking the time to make a song your own is more likely to pay the sort of dividends any dance artist or producer is looking for.

For a terrific example of this, look no farther than Eric Prydz’ take on Call On Me. As dance songs go, this one was an international megahit. So was Benny Benassi’s take on Satisfaction. In both cases, the producers diverged quite far off the original course of the songs, and managed to make them resonate for a huge audience. Had either of them stuck as close to the original as the aforementioned 9 to 5, I would wager they would have had a lukewarm commercial reception at best.

I have no issue with cover songs per se. Les Adams’ Twist in My Sobriety and DJ Skotty’s take on Goodnight Tonight are just two recent examples of solid covers that may not diverge as far from the originals as Prydz and Benassi did, but nevertheless are not just déjà vu all over again (especially true of Goodnight Tonight). But in general, I think the dance community can—and should—do a much better job with them.

Turn up the volume. Wes.