The Weekly Froth! With Crazy P, Panama and Chris Malinchak

Crazy P - 'Changes' (Mario Basanov remix)

By Stef Siepel

The Weekly Froth! A weekly take on six tracks, most of which have recently popped up somewhere in the blogosphere. Bit of a mixed bag with a slight leaning towards house, disco, and remixes, but generally just anything that for some reason tickled the writer’s fancy.

Track of the week: ‘Changes’ by Crazy P (Mario Basanov remix)

I like the start with the heavy bass and what I think are strings actually. Really puts the mood in place. After that the beat comes in to make sure it is going to work on the dancefloor as well. I don’t know Crazy P, but I like the vocals, and they go with that softer mood from the start. Not that the vocals are fragile mind you, they have enough spunk in them. Love what happens around the two minute mark, that really makes it friendly for the dancefloor as well. The song keeps on rolling, very smooth, and when there is a change-up it really is kind of undercover, but it sure will get the dancers in motion. I would fall for it anyway. The slow down at 4:20 is nice, though I would’ve doubled the vocal repetition, but I’m a sucker for vocals so yeah. One can argue that the build-up after the 4:30 mark is a tad timid, but who cares, Basanov really delivers a stellar and lovely remix, even if the end isn’t all aces and strikes.

‘Magic’ by Panama (Midnight Magic remix)

I love Midnight Magic (when is that album coming out already, or did I miss something?), so that aesthetic and that sensibility they put into their songs I really fancy. The question is, can they also infuse that into this track by the for me unknown Panama. The song, in any case, sounds very disco-ish and Midnight Magic-ish. Especially with the instruments and the echooey vocals in the beginning singing things like “when you are neeeeaaaaaar”, which is always a suitable disco line I reckon. It is catchy, has a nice mid-pace to it for the dancefloor, and the main vocals (though not entirely disco) are nice enough, though they are especially lovely when they go falsetto, which also suits the song really well and make the chorus all the better. Very nice remix indeed.

‘There I Was’ by Chris Malinchak

I like the way this starts actually, with the light drum sounds and the ooh-hoo-ooh vocal lines. Instantly makes it pretty easy on the ear. After that a heavier bass comes in which is a bit too heavy for my liking as it seems to have a bit of reverb on it or something. Its heaviness seems disproportionate to the rest of the sound, which makes this track a bit of a strange one. I really like most parts, but that bass and those crazy space sounds that accompany it around the 2:10 mark, those really make the song take a different turn from what it had established early on, which makes it a bit of a schizophrenic listen. The vocals I really like again, so yeah. It’s close, but not quite there in my opinion.

‘Tropic Fruit’ by Polographia (Frames remix)

I love that short sound that you can hear between the beats, that is the thing that adds the atmosphere to the song. I get an instant French connection, but I’m not sure why exactly, but it just sounds French to me. You can hear the build-up, and then the pay-off at 1:08 when they kick the song into a slightly higher gear. It’s all the synth sounds that make it happen, that make this song get a bit of atmosphere, and all the other sounds and the beat just make sure you can do a bit of dancing to it. And if the song both creates its own aesthetic, and it gives you the opportunity to move a bit, then it’s job accomplished, no? At 2:50 the pace goes down a notch, but you already feel the simmer underneath. You are exported into another world via these synth sounds, that is, until they kick it all back up again at 3:38. I really do like this remix, very nice very nice.

‘Swans’ by The Deadstock 33s

Hmm, immediately I’m thinking, this is going to be slightly too hard for me, but when the actual music starts around eight seconds in, I kind of like its frantic pace. It gets a bit too spacey for me after 45 seconds or so, though I don’t think spacey is the right word. It just goes out into an alternate universe, and one that is pretty drug filled I reckon. The vocals are kind of new wave speech more than anything. Very dystopic, which goes with the drug filled perhaps, and with the sentence “swans are dying”, which the heavily altered voice seems to be saying, though it is kind of a tough one to make out. Ultimately it is not my cup of tea, but if you are looking for a dystopic soundtrack with lasers and a kind of dark-ish voice over, this might be for you.

‘Bette Davis Eyes’ by Kim Carnes (Kasper Bjorke remix)

This is a recent remix of a Kim Carnes song from the ’80s that is inspired by the distinctive eyes of Bette Davis, a Hollywood actress perhaps best known for films like All About Eve (1950) and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962), though she won her Oscars for Dangerous and Of Human Bondage (1935 and 1934 respectively). The Kim Carnes song is driven by those husky vocals of Carnes, which are tremendous. The song has a nice beat to slowly shuffle to, head down preferably. Bit discoey, but not extravagantly so, just enough to suit the vocals really well. Not to mention how smoothly the song struts forward. I love old school edits well done, and I would definitely put this one in that category. And just in time for the Oscars, which were last Sunday of course.

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