Erlend Øye - DJ-KiCKS (Original Version)

Erlend Øye is best known as one half of Kings Of Convenience and the leader of The Whitest Boy Alive, but he has also worked with a number of producers and written some wonderful music on his own. His only solo album to date appeared in 2003, named Unrest, and featured a number of collaborations with electronic musicians like Morgan Geist, Prefuse 73, Schneider TM and many more, although their productions were far more relaxed than their traditional output to fit with his style.

Shortly after the success of Unrest, the Studio !K7 label approached Øye to produce a mix for their DJ-KiCKS series, though Øye felt his mixing skills were not good enough for such a project and decided to take a different approach. Receiving assistance on the mixing side from producer Phonique, Øye chose the songs and added a truly unique touch to the collection by singing a cappella over several of the songs, making it almost as much an Erlend Øye solo album as a DJ mix. Add to that the overall vibe of the mix, European minimal techno that sounds of the eighties while remaining current rather than nostalgic, and Øye's mix is a fast classic. It's something you can dance with but just as easily relax to at home or wash the dishes to. It's living music.

Prior to Øye's DJ-KiCKS compilation's release, promos were sent out specifying that a song by The Rapture had not been cleared yet and that the final track would feature Øye performing an a cappella rendition of Feist's then unreleased song, Intuition, over Ada's Luckycharm. The notes didn't specify that the Luckycharm/Intution medley wasn't cleared but something must have went significantly wrong as it was dropped from the final release of the album. As great as the released mix is, it was a beautiful ending sadly muted from the final release.

Prior to the album's release, while surfing a budget bin in a used record store, a copy of the mix appeared to me and I grabbed it, assuming it would be the same as the soon to be released final version. Guess I got lucky that day since the version I have has that extra track on it. The mix isn't terribly different without that final track but it's just as wonderful with it, so I figured I'd present it to you for your listening pleasure today. I'm also including an unmastered advance of Øye's Unrest for you to peruse. It features a different track order and a slightly unfinished mix of the Prefuse 73 collaboration, Every Party (Has A Winner and A Loser), but is otherwise mostly the same as the released version. If you enjoy these you should definitely pick up the final, retail versions. Unrest has particularly great artwork and the vinyl issue of Øye's DJ-KiCKS features unmixed versions of several of his a cappella performances from the mix. Wonderful stuff. Enjoy!


Erlend Øye - DJ-KiCKS (Original Version)

01 Jürgen Paape - So Weit Wie Noch Nie
02 Erlend Øye - Sheltered Life (Remix) / Fine Night (A Cappella)
03 Cornelius - Drop (Kings Of Convenience Remix)
04 Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better
05 Jolly Music - Radio Jolly / Prego Amore (A Cappella)
06 Alan Braxe & Fred Falke - Rubicon
07 Avenue D - 2D2F
08 The Rapture - I Need Your Love
09 Uusi Fantasia - Lattialla Taas / Venus (A Cappella)
10 Justus Köhncke - 2 After 909 / Intergalactic Autobahn (A Cappella)
11 Erlend Øye - The Black Keys Work (Phonique Remix)
12 Jackmate - Airraid
13 Röyksopp - Poor Leno (Silicone Soul's Hypno House Dub) / There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (A Cappella)
14 Skatebård - Metal Chix / Always On My Mind (A Cappella)
15 Ricardo Villalobos - Dexter
16 Minizza - Winning A Battle, Losing The War
17 Morgan Geist - Lullaby / A Place In My Heart (A Cappella)
18 Ada - Luckycharm / Intution (A Cappella)


Erlend Øye - Unrest (early, unmastered version)

01 Ghost Trains (produced by Morgan Geist)
02 Sudden Rush (produced by Kompis)
03 Sheltered Life (produced by Soviet)
04 Prego Amore (produced by Jolly Music)
05 Symptom Of Disease (produced by Mr. Velcro Fastener)
06 The Talk (produced by Bjørn Torske)
07 Every Party (Has A Winner and A Loser) (not final mix) (produced by Prefuse 73)
08 The Athlete (produced by Minizza)
09 A While Ago and Recently (produced by Kilogram)
10 Like Gold (produced by Schneider TM)

N.I.C.E. Vinyl #5: The Rapture

It's been about eight years since this was released and three or four years since anything of real substance has been issued by The Rapture, but they're still going strong, working on their third full-length with Zdar of Cassius and hopefully picking up right where they left off. This though, this is the sound of DFA Records coming to life and everything changing. The dance/punk sound, so popular in the earlier part of this decade, along with the so-called "electroclash" genre, was coming from James Murphy, Tim Goldsworthy and their friends in The Rapture and other collaborators. This almost didn't come out though, as an argument between the band and their producers had stalled otherwise noteworthy progress which included their mostly finished full-length debut, Echoes. Luckily, whatever the cause of the feud, it was resolved peacefully and House Of Jealous Lovers finally saw release. It was the first record on the DFA label and was quite a success, eventually seeing reissue as a single upon the release of Echoes the next year, but the original single was a special release that doesn't seem to have been given a proper digital issue. The original version of House appeared on the DFA Compilation #1 as did it's b-side, the dub flavored Silent Morning, and House appeared on Echoes with a slightly altered intro, but the Morgan Geist Version appeared only on the 12" and a rare promotional CD. Geist, also of Metro Area, dropped all the vocals and added trumpet courtesy of James Duncan, taking the song from a dance floor destroyer to a slightly mellower jam that could fit nicely in the middle of an intense dj set or mix. I can't go into words well enough to describe how wonderful and classy Geist's version of House is other than to say it's easily one of my favorite remixes of all time, somewhere in an unwritten top ten. The original is utterly incredible, but the remix is just as strong in every way, which is incredible for something that sounds as if it were effortless. All I can say is that you should grab this without hesitation, put it on your iPod, burn it to a CD-R or whatever and go driving on the nearest highway with the first two tracks on replay for about twenty minutes. Silent Morning is something of a downer that was gladly left off the album, but on it's own it isn't that bad, it just doesn't hold a candle to House or anything off of Echoes. Afterward, get Echoes and continue the madness. So what are you waiting for? Download this and rock it!


The Rapture - House Of Jealous Lovers

FLAC

V0 MP3

01 House Of Jealous Lovers (Original)
02 House Of Jealous Lovers (Morgan Geist Version)
03 Silent Morning