Aux-In

THE RANDOMIZER

Song Analysis: This is from Armin's Intense album. I get a strong rock vibe from "Won't Let You Go." Definite banger. At one part in the song, there is the line "I still believe in God, in love, and you and I." Generally, I avoid religious and political connotations in my music. Don't want it, don't need it. However, I am able to put myself in the position of a passive observer, and I can't shake the fact that that line is a powerful and uplifting addition to the overall sentiment of the track. So there's no confusion, this is top-shelf material.

Artist Info: For this song, Armin teamed up with Aruna Abrams, an American-born singer, songwriter, DJ and pianist. Stylistically, I think she is similar to Nadia Ali, although they each have their own sound. In checking Aruna's Wiki, I find that she studied classical piano as well as getting involved with jazz improvisation. What is interesting to me is that I have vetted every song from this journal upon first listen, and subsequent listens, without judging the material based off of the musicians', well, musical knowledge. In other words, the extent of an artist's musical training doesn't matter to me, as I have no problemo sipping on some home-brewed tunes, but it's increasingly clear that a lot of these producers and vocalists aren't just industry-produced hacks and wanton pop-tarts. Ergo, no talent in EDM? Horse hockey.

Apparently, Abrams is, or used to be, a metal head. For instance, her Wiki notes that "in 1996 she worked on the 'Portal' project together with members of the progressive metal band Cynic, providing vocals and keyboards."

It also notes this:

Read More: Aruna - Wikipedia


Song Analysis: Not much to say. Good, solid, ambient melodic dubstep.

The Cooks in the Kitchen:

Embrace One: Embrace One, also known as Liam Pitcher, is from Cape Town, South Africa. I checked his Soundcloud, Wikipedia, and his Facebook page, and can't find much of a bio on him other than the previous sentence. However, he is quite active as he mostly talks on Facebook about the gigs that he does, having worked with some of the major names, such as Xilent, Cosmic Gate, and Seven Lions, among others.

Shaz Sparks: This is the same Shaz Sparks that was featured on Xilent's "Universe," but until the next sentence when I start doing some research on her, I don't know anything other than that. Fast forwarding to sentence #2, and now that I've looked at both her Facebook and Last.fm accounts, I still don't know much as far as a bio because there's not much there to read. I skimmed her Facebook, and I do see that she has good musical taste; I see several "liked" tracks that are already on my list that I haven't yet talked about, even though I will be getting to those later. I like her vocals a lot, but based on what I'm seeing, it's hard to tell how active she is/isn't on the music front these days.

Serobliss: French producer and DJ. Self-taught musician. Not a lot of other information.

Madeon is a French DJ and producer. Male vocal track. I'm not super big on "Finale" or whatever, but it is well-produced and I wouldn't feel right leaving it off any comprehensive list of electronic music that's been released during this time period.

Some fun facts:

Read More: Madeon - Wikipedia


Song Analysis: This track is really cool. "Fearless Moments" is another one of those songs where vocal splicing functions as an instrumental. This is straight bass most of the way through. I bought this off of Bandcamp, and I couldn't pick up on any sound degradation when I played it in my car. The sound quality is that good.

Artist Info: Sub.Sound hails from the South East England county of Kent, and he appears to be just a dude and his computer, which I think is fantastic, because that's all that's needed to make a track that some bloke on another continent, like myself, is going to dig. To me, something like this is the modern equivalent of discovering a garage band that no one has ever heard of, whether it's just one person or a duo/multiple people.

I'd also be remiss not to talk about the incredible background art, which is derived from the DeviantArt account of Cyril Rolando. The piece is entitled "Jaded," and even though Rolando noted that he wasn't happy with the result for this, I am very impressed with the themes that it not only tries to convey, but does so successfully.

As Rolando described it:

Jaded by AquaSixio on DeviantArt

I look at stuff like this and I (sometimes) think back on the decision I made when I was younger to not pursue more of my artistic side at the expense of wanting to eat. I'm still not sure it was a good idea to leave so much of that undeveloped, but that doesn't make it any less inspiring when taking in the beauty of such a piece as "Jaded."

~ aux-in

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"All over a bowl of bitter beans."