Jeremih’s “Late Nights with Jeremih” set the internet ablaze when it dropped a few weeks ago, and, like everyone else, we couldn’t resist the guilty pleasures found in the R&B posterboy’s relentless and unabashed carnal pursuits. If you read our August’s Best feature last Sunday, you know that we particularly enjoyed “773 Love” for the way that the indulgent production, courtesy of Mike Will Made It, sets the mood for Jeremih’s earnest crooning. This week, Oslo-based producer Cashmere Cat (whose track “Mirror Maru” was a highlight of Rustie’s acclaimed Essential Mix) released an edit of the track, upping the energy just the right amount with more persistent, club-leaning rhythms. He also fills the track with waves of feel-good astral vibes by manipulating the synth chords from the original in creative and dynamic ways – close your eyes and you can imagine a dreamy atmosphere glowing with vibrant hues of pink, blue, and purple. Make no mistake, though: this is still a bedroom-eyed production centered around Jeremih’s smooth, cocksure vocal performance.
Stream/download: [wpaudio url=”https://truantsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/773-Love-Cashmere-Cat-Edit.mp3″ text=”Jeremih – 773 Love (Cashmere Cat Edit)”] via SoundCloud.
Anthony Naples, the maestro behind Truancy Volume: 48, has returned this time with a remix of New York based band Lemonade. From our chat we know he’s an ambitious fellow who’s moved past the success of his debut and is ready for the next hurtle. His remix of Lemonade’s “Soft Kiss” gives us a glimpse into the areas he’s been exploring sonically since “Mad Disrespect”. If “Mad Disrespect” was a novice trying his hand at dance music this remix represents someone whose steel gaze is coming down straight from the DJ booth. Gone is the naivety that led to, as mentioned in a previous interview, a bassline introduction four minutes into a track. Right from the start distorted kick drums let us know this will be straightforward. They slowly fizzle out into a much more subtle kick with a rolling bassline that gallops through the mix. In terms of drum programming all the usual suspects make their way into fray creating a seductive groove. Lemonade sites early rave music as a heavy influence on their production and Anthony channels that aspect more clearly than the original. Only fragments of the original appear to have been used with Callan’s voice being the most obvious. He did steer away from the typical untouched vocal over the top of random instrumental, instead opting to chop and screw his voice into wordless stabs. Anything else is sampled and heavily distorted so much it’s near impossible to distinguish. For six minutes he works the loop into a dizzying concoction of ravey house music. This gets the Truants stamp of approval, filed in the remix category.
Stream/Download: [wpaudio url=”https://truantsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Lemonade-Soft-Kiss-Anthony-Naples-Remix.mp3″ text=”Lemonade – Soft Kiss (Anthony Naples Remix)”] via SoundCloud.
Back at the turn of the millenium, Warp records was turning ten years old and now that we’ve found out how they celebrated, the phrase “party like it’s 1999” has taken on a whole new meaning. We get a little lump in the throat when we try to imagine a party with Boards of Canada, Autechre, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and Mira Calix all in the same night. Never fear, we’ve already set to work on a time machine to get us all there, but Machinedrum has taken on a different approach – making this recording from the party as real as he possibly can. This untitled track is the closing piece played by Boards of Canada at that gathering, and is to this day untitled and unreleased. He essentially took the bootleg recording (original here) and re-produced it by laying new instrumentation over top, being as faithful to the original as possible in every way he could. The result is similar to the Hollywood effect of taking the nerd glasses off the girl next door or having someone really eloquent edit your essay – by removing the rough edges of the ancient bootleg, he’s exposed an absolutely incredible gem underneath. As if we could love Boards of Canada more, or Machinedrum for that matter. We cannot stress enough how worth your time it is to pay attention to this one.
Stream/Download: Boards of Canada – Untitled (Machinedrum Edit) via Soundcloud.
We suffered a minor heartbreak when long-time Truants faves Huntsville, Alabama duo G-Side announced the end of their prolonged partnership that extended over the past eight years. The duo, comprising of ST 2 Lettaz and Yung Clova, told Spin that their parting was amicable and simply a case of growing apart as a result of different creative mindsets. ST 2 Lettaz announced that he’ll be staying with Slow Motion Soundz, a familiar label for those who have followed G-Side over the years, and will be releasing his solo album produced by Block Beattaz at the end of the year entitled “G… Growth & Development”. Since the news of the duo’s split, ST has slowly been giving away previews of what’s to come through his performances at live shows and by releasing a handful of new music online. We saw a video for his track “Wishing Well” at the start of the month and a track entitled “Trill 2 Da Bone” that followed has us excited to hear what tricks the Alabama rapper has up his sleeve for the future. Starting off in an almost eerie manner with minimalistic but pressing production by Block Beattaz, the excessively catchy chorus lets us know ST remains serious. It might be the end of an era for G-Side, but like sunshine after rain ST has provided us with enough to look forward to.
Stream/Download : ST 2 Lettaz – Trill 2 Da Bone (Prod. by Block Beattaz) via Hulkshare.
Written by: Sam Billetdeaux, Jonathon Alcindor, Cayley MacArthur & Sindhuja Shyam.
Check out past installments in the Sunday’s Best Archives.
