Category: Song Of The Day

SONGS OF THE DAY: Starkillers vs Inpetto “Game Over” and Starkillers & Tony Junior “Total Destruction”

Tracks inspired by video games are not something new, think back to deadmau5’s take on the Legend of Zelda theme, which became “Sofi Needs a Ladder.” For “Game Over,” Nick Terranova (aka Starkillers) teams with Inpetto, and rather than covering a video game theme, starts with an 8 bit-ish melody that sounds familiar and could easily be an ’80s video game soundtrack. The beat behind the soft and pretty melody gradually increases with intensity until a massive drum fill leads to the spoken “Game Over,” and the aggressive beats that you expect from Starkillers hits you dead on. The drop to just the pretty 8-bit melody comes as a bit of surprise and makes for a nice change from the elongated beatless dropouts that are currently de rigueur. Starkillers’ new track “Total Destruction” stars off with a similar video game vibe as the melody feels reminiscent of an old Mario game with the pseduo-Italian triplet beat. The melody fades away as a pounding drum beat builds the intensity and a single note is repeated, with a bit of glitch added, until the words “Total Destruction” are uttered and the expected Starkillers aggressive electro beats take over. Both “Game Over” and “Total Destruction” share a similar DNA, with Starkillers’ playfulness and sense of humor coming through loud and clear where he works with legendary German producers (Inpetto are behind the classic Fragma “Toca’s Miracle”) or rising Dutch talent (Tony Junior). With these two releases, it makes me wonder how incredible a full video game score done by Nick would sound…

Images courtesy of Spinnin and Doorn records.

Starkillers vs Inpetto “Game Over” and Starkillers & Tony Junior “Total Destruction”

SONG OF THE DAY: Yves V – “Manga”

When circuit music turned from eurotrance to tribal, the focus was either on pots and pans or the tribal drums. Yesterday, I wrote up Westfunk’s remix of Little Nikki’s “Yo Yo,” which brought back the pots and pans. Today it’s all about the tribal drums with “Manga.” Belgian producer Yves V follows up “That Big” (with Blasterjaxx) and “Umami” with this big room monster, bringing the tribal drums to 2013 with a sound so fresh it’s as if it has never been done before. It feels like the peak hour track played during a festival held during Brazilian carnival. Though, I can totally hear Kevin Aviance shouting “Din Da Da” on top of it.

Image courtesy of Doorn Recordings.

Yves V – “Manga”

SONG OF THE DAY: Little Nikki – “Yo Yo” (Westfunk Remix)

Whenever a remixer/producer says they are going in a new direction, it always catches my attention. Recently, Bimbo Jones unleashed an insanely aggressive electro mix of Zedd’s “Stay the Night” which sounded more like a Beatport big room workout than anything they’ve done since “Questions.” The original version of Little Nikki’s “Yo Yo” sounds like vintage Rihanna (in her “Pon de Replay” mode) with a bit of drum and bass in the mix. Westfunk somehow manages to revive the ’90s pots-and-pans tribal/X-Beat sound (think Razor-N-Guido or “Junior Vasquez”) by infusing it into big room electro and making it sound better than it ever did before… This is coming from someone who detested pots-and-pans the first time around- so for me to say this offshoot is good really is saying something. The vocals sound pristine and the playful theme of the lyrics fits better than you could imagine over the scorching production by Westfunk. I have to admit that pots-and-pans tribal was the one dance music genre that I hoped would not be brought back as part of this current ’90s revival but leave it to the Brits to make it sound better the second time around.

Little Nikki – “Yo Yo” (Westfunk Remix)