Track of the Weekend #30: Rhye - Open (Ryan Hemsworth Remix)
Ready for the weekend? We are. After the stresses of the week it’s time to slip into relaxation, and luckily, we have just the thing to facilitate that transition: Ryan Hemsworth is no stranger to the Track of the Weekend, having held the spot in August of 2012 when a pre-Harlem Shake Baauer remixed his track Slurring. This time it is his remixing of Rhye’s “Open” that has unclenched our muscles and minds. The quality of that track is like a Bordeaux at its peak: robust, soothing, and unapologetically full of flavor. Thanks to Oreille Musicale, a French music site that digs up some amazing music. Make sure to follow their founder Fabrice on Twitter!
Cantine California stops at the Incubator!
Wonderful little surprise today as the Americans from Cantine California rolled into the passage of the Incubator to serve up their well-known burgers and tacos. We took a break from the desks and went down for some grub. So how was the food? (All scores are out of 10, eatibility refers to how easy it is to eat the dish, very important for a food truck).
Loick:
Taste: 9
Eatibility: 6
Value: 8
Gilles:
Taste: 7
Eatibility: 7
Value: 8
Jie:
Taste: 8
Eatibility: 5
Value: 8
Tony:
Taste: 9
Eatibility: 5
Value: 8
Overall: we were impressed by the value, the quality of ingredients, and the taste of the burgers (and especially the fries) but the burger was a little sloppy, saucy, and hard to eat. However, when they come back we will happily enjoy another burger with them!
Want to discover 120 new bands in one playlist?
The never ending-dedication of the Whyd community to finding the best of the newest sounds comes in many forms. One of Whyd’s longtime buddies, UK-based music blog Music Like Dirt, has consistently been among the most prolific sources for brand new tunes, having created a playlist for their top 200 tracks of 2012 to take just one example. This time, they have absolutely outdone themselves.
Enter the Glastonbury Festival. One of the biggest music events in Europe, the Glastonbury Festival near Pilton, England, is a showcase of talent ranging from contemporary music to cabaret and other art forms. It has been going on for over 40 years, created by an English farmer who was inspired by the progressive movement of the 60’s and 70’s and especially the worldwide effect of Woodstock. Today, Glastonbury is a staple scene for established bands, and at the same time a springboard for the best new artists.
In order to select which emerging groups perform, the festival rounded up the top 40 UK music blogs (Music Like Dirt included) and put it to a vote. The raw results came out as the Top 120 artists, which will be whittled down to a mere 8. The 120 artists themselves represent only 1.5% of the total number of groups nominated. That means there is a LOT of great music here already. And luckily for us, the kind folks at Music Like Dirt put all 120 of those groups into one mighty Whyd playlist for our listening enjoyment (though only 50 are in the embed below). A big thank you is needed for these guys!
Glastonbury Festival 2013 takes place from June 26-30. Most of their proceeds go to help charities like OxFam, WaterAid, and GreenPeace, so make sure you check it out and see how you can help. Also definitely subscribe to Music Like Dirt on Whyd, follow them on Twitter, and like their Facebook page too.
Images courtesy: glastonburyfestival.co.uk
Playlist of the Week: “Freshly Squeezed” by LEMONADE
The sunshine has cracked the deep freeze in Paris and the stirrings of a long-awaited spring can be felt in the breeze. This interminable, rotten winter permeated every nook of our beings, and it is finally coming to an end. Yesterday we celebrated the 100,000th track added to Whyd, and today we start to get in a summery mood with the Playlist of the Week. “Freshly Squeezed” by LEMONADE is a cool beverage of music that delights in the sour and pleases with sustained sweetness. It’s about as refreshing as playlists get, so it is best enjoyed with sunshine. Make sure to also check out Lemonade’s site Rooftop Visuals, but be careful, it will erase all productivity, so maybe don’t check it out while at work…
100,000 Tracks Shared on Whyd!
There is much cause for celebration today, as Whyd reaches a very important milestone. Yes, the sun is shining and spring seems not that far off here in Paris. Yes, Gilles’s famous beard is finally down to a normal level after his razor woke up from its hibernation. But the real reason why the champagne will be popped this afternoon is simple: the amazing, hip, warm, and music-addicted community on Whyd has just added its 100,000th track!
We remember when Whyd was just a little prototype early last year, swimming in a goo of messy programming and linked only to the real world by a digital umbilical cord. Now, so many outstanding tracks later, Whyd is growing up before our very eyes. It’s joyful for us to look at Whyd with this much pride. Thank you to everyone who added tracks and helped to make Whyd what it is today!
You are also helping what Whyd will become tomorrow, but for that we must wait and see ;)
Tracks of the Weekend #29: Yuksek x 2
In the long tradition of the Track of the Weekend, we painstakingly select only one great track to feature from the bushels of delicious cuts that get brought to market every week on Whyd. While it crimps the edges of our souls to not mention some of the other deserving music, we have stayed true to the singular title Track of the Weekend.
Well, fuck that. This week on Whyd saw the uncorking of Yuksek, a French electro producer from Loick’s home town of Reims. There must be something in the champagne out there that generates a bubbling beat in its inhabitants that begs to be mixed into dirty electro and blasted from your speakers. Yuksek’s cut of “Greifjoy - Touch ground” stayed atop the Hot Tracks the longest but his remix of C2C’s “Genius” just peaked at #1 and is in every way deserving of the title of Track of the Weekend. Both of these tracks were shared by our darling blonde music ninja Laurène, who has essentially taken up permanent residence atop the trending tracks on Whyd.
So we will let you select which one you like better, but one thing is for sure: Yuksek is the Artist of the Weekend!
Playlist of the Week: Lectronica by Saw Saw Zweet
Some people love music. Some people love good music, and Saw Saw Zweet is one of those people. The playlist Lectronica could be a sampling of the most popular music on Whyd, a sort of cross section of the amazing music that represents what our community, and the other people like Saw Saw, post everyday. You need to subscribe to them on Whyd, in the meantime, here is your Playlist of the Week!
Listen to radio show Génération ihecs tomorrow to hear about Whyd!
Tomorrow, on the media news radio show Génération - ihecs radio from Brussels, the hosts Guillaume Woelfle, Fanny Ruwet, Maxime Delrue and Tom Salbeth will spend a few minutes discussing Whyd! You can tune it tomorrow from 18h30 to 19h30 (Central European Time) or you can download the podcast later.
Make sure you Like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter to stay up-to-date about their program line up!
Interview with Adrien: Do You Like That Song?
1. First, can you introduce yourself? When did you start Do You Like That Song?
Hello guys, I’m Adrien from France, I’m 21 years old. I’m studying business in France, but I’m currently talking to you from Finland, where I’m studying this semester!
I started Do You Like That Song? in 2011. At the beginning it was just a Tumblr page to gather my music discoveries and share it with some friends, I was not updating it very regularly. But after seeing the number of followers increasing little by little, I decided to put more effort into it, and post daily. So the actual start of the blog was in fact at the beginning of 2012.
2. Can you tell us about the different sides of your personality and how they show up in your site Do You Like That Song?
Of course, the most obvious side is my passion for music. I started to be interested in music quite early, going through different genres and artists that I won’t cite here. ;)
When I listen to a song, I am usually curious to know more about the band: where they are from, on which label they release their music… That’s one thing I try to communicate in my articles, so that readers can understand the background, and discover more music they like. But I still keep the posts quite short, as music is mainly about listening and feelings, right?
The only criteria to post a song is that I like it: it’s that simple and straightforward approach that I wanted to communicate when I chose the title of the blog. And of course, the title is also related to the likes on Facebook, as it is an essential place to gather followers and share music.
I usually listen to artists that few people are aware of among my entourage, I aimed to keep the same with my blog. It’s harder to do it on the internet, given the huge number of music blogs sharing music daily. But I think it’s the best way to differentiate my blog, find good music that is not already on the biggest music blogs. Again, I just post what I like without taking care of the “hype” or the most popular names that will get the maximum likes on Facebook. I really hope people will discover new artists by visiting my blog and think “Yes, I do like that song!” after they click play.
Finally, I like the fact to have my own space that I can personalize and organise the way I want. I’m often thinking of what I can do to improve the blog, and did several changes already, based on new ideas and suggestions I receive. I lived in different countries for my studies, and this blog is a project I can pursue anywhere: I started it while I was studying in Japan, probably as a way to re-affirm my musical tastes while being confronted daily by Japanese pop.
3. You focus on Electro music, but what specific types of electro do you like and what do you think of the scene today?
Indeed, the term electro is very large. I really like nu-disco, I like the groovy and melodic side of it, and the vocals. I also enjoy house, deep house, synth-pop, chillwave… I mostly post nu-disco, but I try to vary the genres.
The scene of today is very interesting and full of new talents. We just need a little effort to find them, and that’s why music blogs are here! Before launching my own blog, I was visiting music blogs daily, especially Golden Scissors, and that’s how I discovered so many good artists, that are the essential ones in the nu-disco scene, but are not known on a more global level. So, I mean that anyone can access to this type of music easily.
There are really good artists, but also some that, after getting some hype, repeat again and again the same formula without evolution, and it becomes boring. I try to stay objective in my choices: if an artist that I regularly feature releases a song or remix that I don’t like, I won’t talk about it. I also wish there was less remixes for a single song: the biggest trend in 2012 was remixes for Lana del Rey, in 2013, it will probably be for Kavinsky and Phoenix.
The major part of the electronic scene, more mainstream is EDM. I used to listen to it, but my tastes evolved and will probably evolve again. As we say in French, “all tastes are in nature”, so I won’t start the debate about the EDM scene here. I don’t mind that the music I listen to is not played on radio stations, I think that taking time to look for new artists is part of the fun.
But, when you’re tired of listening to EDM, come visit Do You Like That Song!
4. You just celebrated your one year anniversary for the site, how did you you mark the occasion, and how would you sum up this year?
To celebrate this first anniversary, I decided to make 3 mixtapes, summing up the main genres that I share: House, Chill and Nu-Disco. These mixtapes were aired on the webradio Aquarium Radio, during the week of the anniversary. This webradio supports me by airing my monthly mixtapes, and I naturally thought about them as a partner for this event. For those who missed it, don’t worry, they are now available for streaming and download!
I would say it was a great first year for my blog! When I started, I had no idea if it would work, and how long I would keep on running it. But today it gathers hundreds of readers, and I regularly receive positive feedbacks about it. I tried to make the blog evolve little by little, by changing the design, and opening new sections, like interviews and monthly mixtapes.
I’m also very satisfied with the relationships I could develop around the blog: I enjoy being able to get in touch with artists, labels, as well as other bloggers to discuss about music… or anything else. The American blog Upside Sounds and the French one Beware! asked me to contribute on their blogs, so it is a great opportunity for me to learn from different techniques, and reach different audiences.
One of the interesting projects of this year was the flashmoblogging, initiated by Sodwee: around 20 French music blogs collaborated for a big post, shared simultaneously, and featuring the new artists on who you should keep an eye in 2013. We received positive reactions to it, and I think it’s nice to have this type of collaborations between blogs. We are a couple of French blogs, quite complementary in the genres we share, and I always discover great music by visiting these blogs. I hope we will have other similar projects, I trust Sodwee for that.
5. In terms of new, emerging music, how has technology helped music lovers in your opinion?
I’m old enough to know how it was before having all this technology, so I have a point of comparison to answer this question! I think that technology definitely helps music lovers!
Obviously, now, anyone with a computer and an internet connection can listen to any songs he wants. When I discovered Youtube, I was really amazed to be able to listen to any song. I also created an account on MySpace and really enjoyed the fact to look for new bands, and interact with them. It is something I keep on doing today with Do You Like That Song?, via the different social networks. Now, Soundcloud enables to follow your favorite artists and discover their newest songs as soon as it is published, without any intermediaries.
To discover new, emerging music, many great resources are available, you just have to find the good ones that correspond to your tastes, otherwise it takes too much time. Personnally, the updates from my favorite blogs and artists on Facebook, Soundcloud and Youtube are all I need to find new music!
Another big advantage of internet is the fact to find a community of people sharing the same tastes: when you listen to non mainstream music, it is harder to find people around you with who you can talk about it, and this can be frustrating.
Frustrating indeed! Thanks Adrien! Make sure you follow Do You Like That Sound on Twitter, like his Facebook page, and definitely subscribe to him on Whyd!
Party Time, Excellent!
This past week saw a lot of partying, but for very, very good reason. Whyd’s pride and joy, our lead software engineer and occasional Garth from Wayne’s World impersonator, turned 30 years old. Friends from far and wide dressed in rock and roll style came to his party on Saturday night at Les Tonneaux Parisiens. There was punch, beer, guitar cakes, awesome hair, and even childhood pictures. It was great party for a great man, one who we are extremely lucky to call “coworker.”
Happy Birthday Adrien, it’s the last time people will come to party with you on your birthday for 10 years, and by then we will all have kids, so it wont be much fun anymore :)
Triple flavor homemade guitar cake made by one of Adrien’s good friends from Monaco! And something from the past: Backstreet Boy Adrien!!