Firstly if you haven’t seen Birdman’s new tat check out Blik’s latest post in the QuickSound bit. I must be honest, I really don’t get it. I mean, it just doesn’t represent anything or look good. Anyway the other day I posted Nas’s hero and stated how much I loved the song. I still love it, however it doesn’t look like it was as hard to produce as I first thought. Heres how to do the main synth bit – However I’m not disrespecting Polow. The song has a lot more going on and obviously if nobody else had used it, why not?

Anyway a couple of remixes up for you today. The first one is by Cut Copy and is a remix of The Juan Maclean’s “Happy House.” I have to be honest the only song I’d heard of theirs was VIKING’s remix of Hearts On Fire. They chose a great song to work with in Happy House, the vocals were just asking to be remixed with a bassier and harder sound. I really liked the original however Cut Copy have managed to create a worthy remix, the bass element and the synths which have been added certainly add a different edge to the track. Check it out below.

The Juan Macleans – Happy House (Cut Copy Remix)

The next song is a remix by one of my favourite producers, Troublemaker, his latest remix is of Nina Simone‘s classic Feeling Good. It’s not too dissimilar for the original if I’m honest, a slightly different drum beat and a few keys added here and there. Considering only the stereo was available for a rework though it’s not a bad attempt. Towards the beginning, where there was no instrumental previously, some beats have been added which I’d like to see a bit more prominent throughout. The song should featured in EAs upcoming game however, The Saboteur, and based on the name it should fit in well. I may have to look into getting it.

Nina Simone – Feeling Good (Troublemaker Remix)

Last thing I want to say is that Saboteur game is produced by the same people who made Star Wars Battlefront just 5 years ago. Firstly haven’t graphics come a long way in that time?  Secondly, even though I’m loving Modern Warfare 2, any chance of a Battlefront III?

Some news – The Sugababes line-up has changed! Keisha has left the group and has been replaced by Jade Ewen, who I think will be quite a good replacement. However, for me Keisha added something to the group that the others didn’t. Her voice was just different to Amelle’s and Heidi’s and added some variety. It’s good to see Amelle still there though – I really liked her in “Never Leave You” and she should have a good career ahead of her.

First up today is a new remix of La Roux’s new song “I’m Not Your Toy,” by Nero, one of the best dubstep producers out there at the moment. It’s a great remix, I just love what Nero has done with it and it sounds insane. The limited vocals work well with the hard dubstep production. The remix is exactly what you’d expect from Nero really.

La Roux – I’m Not Your Toy (Nero Remix)

I’m Not Your Toy is out 28th September. Buy the album version here.

One song which has firmly lodged itself in my head the past week is Cobra Starship’s “Good Girls Go Bad.” Being totally honest, it’s not even that great a song. It’s quite fun, upbeat and electro-poptastic but that formula is becoming all too common nowadays. Stills seems to be working however, as the song managed to get to #9 in the US. Anyway I heard the Mike Rizzo Funk Generation Club Mix of the track a couple of days ago and quite liked it. Obviously, it’s got a club feel to it. The instrumental was already a good base but I like what Mike Rizzo has done with it. The instrumental towards the end is especially good. Check the remix out below:

Cobra Starship – Good Girls Go Bad (Mike Rizzo Funk Generation Club Mix)

Good Girls Go Bad is out 19th October. Pre-Order it here. If you can’t wait, flick through the music channels. It’s on a fair bit.

I was waiting for some new hip-hop to post and as soon as I was about to give up, I got sent this new joint produced by Troublemaker. The song is by The 87 Stick Up Kids and is called “Lights, Camera….” It sounds really good, although I love all of the stuff that Troublemaker does. This is some raw hip-hop production though, which I love. Great drums throughout and I just love the whole song really. The rapping is good and manages to fit well with the beat, I even like the hook on this. The future could be big for these guys, and I hope I hear more from them based on this.

The 87 Stick Up Kids – Lights, Camera… (produced by Troublemaker)

Pretty retarded of me to’ve only heard of Matt & Kim yesterday. Not a clue how I missed them, but thank god for Troublemaker! We’ve posted some of his stuff before, my favourite of his being the ‘Nothing To Worry About’ remix with Adam Tensta, U-N-I and the 87 Stick Up Kids. Very nice remix. Anyhow, yesterday we got this little remix in our inbox. Well its not little actually, its amazing. But anyway, its Troublemaker’s remix of ‘Daylight’, by Matt &  Kim, with hip-hop pioneers De La Soul on the top. I hadn’t heard the original before (somehow), so I checked that out immediately after having heard the remix. Gorgeous pieces of music (both the original and remix), something so positive and upbeat about them. The original was on a Bacardi ad (which I haven’t seen.. though as they had Herve’s Kidda remix on before it would seem they have good taste..) much to some people’s distaste but regardless, its an amazing track, so get it if you haven’t already, and definitely get the remix also, which as a matter of fact is gonna be on NBA 2010, so a big congrats to Troublemaker.

Matt & Kim – Daylight ♥♥♥♥

Matt & Kim – Daylight (Troublemaker Remix feat. De La Soul) ♥♥♥♥

Only a week now and I’ll be on holiday so I have some stuff to organise before I go. I hurt my ankle playing football as well so that’s not looking great. Anyway, news. Biffy Clyro have released the video for their new single “The Golden Rule.” It’s an interesting video, bizarre for the most part however the light effects in the instrumental near the end are pretty cool. Also Jay-Z performed part of his new track “Run This Town” during an interview with Tim Westwood. The final track will feature Rihanna and Kanye West, and I think the 3 of them are bound to make a brilliant track. Can’t wait to hear that.

First track today is the latest release off Nelly Furtado‘s new album, “Mi Plan.” I haven’t posted about the album yet because I haven’t really been aware of it. I don’t think Universal are promoting the album very much in the UK at least. The first song off the album, “Manos al Aire” was released a couple of weeks ago which I completely missed and the next single, which was released 2 days ago, is called “Más,” which can be translated to “More.” It’s a really nice song, I can’t comment much on the lyrics as I don’t speak Spanish but the production is very nice and the song has a predictably Mediterranean feel. It’s also quite summery which is good now, however the album is due to be released in September and by then summer may be a distant memory. Check it out below.

Nelly Furtado – Más (US)

Mi Plan is released September 15th. Pre-Order Here. (US)

There’s also a new Villans remix out which I think is very nice. I posted their remix of N.A.S.A.’s “Whatchadoin” which you may remember although it was a good 3 months ago. Their new remix is of Dragonette‘s “Fixing to Thrill”. The remix is very nice. It’s pretty raw and it works really well with the vocals. The pulsing bass throughout sounds really good as well. Personally I prefer this to the original. It just has more of an exciting edge to it and is a really good electro song. Hopefully I can hear more from Villans as I don’t want to wait 3 months for another of their brilliant remixes. Looking at Amazon, Don Diablo also appears to have done a remix. Sadly I haven’t heard it so i can’t compare the two.

Dragonette – Fixing to Thrill (Villans Remix)

Fixing To Thrill is out now. Preview Here and Purchase Here.

Last track for today (as I’m going on) is a new Troublemaker remix. The e-mail described it as “hard as nails dubstep” which was enough for me to put it near the top of my priority list. It’s a remix of Mastodon’s “Oblivion” and OMG I love it. For those of you who don’t know (me included before I researched this post) Mastodon are a heavy metal band. I like many genres of music, however one genre I can’t stand is heavy metal. However, this heavy metal meets dubstep remix is absolutely brilliant. The guitar which has been left in works brilliantly with the dubstep beats and the result is just brilliant. One of my favourite dubstep tracks this year.

Mastodon – Oblivion (Troublemaker Remix)

And that’s it, I may be changing the site around a little in the coming days so if everything looks bizarre, hold tight.

An album that seemed to breeze by me was by a hip-hop artist called “Scratch” – who was formerly a beatboxer in “The Roots” (who also have a new album out in October). Anyway one of the songs off his album was played on Gilles Peterson’s show on Radio 1 yesterday and I had my first listen of Scratch’s material. The song features Damon Albarn and Talib Kweli and its pretty good. Some good laid back vocals from Damon and some nice rapping from Talib make for quite a good song. I may have to check this guy out.

Scratch – Too Late (Feat. Damon Albarn & Talib Kweli)

Hmm looking through Mistajam’s show and he played a new Chase & Status remix (well, I think it’s new). It’s of Nneka’s “Heartbeat” and I really like the instrumental on it. Vocals don’t really fit in places in my opinion but the guitar and piano work well. The original is quite nice as well, I’d probably say RnB but there’d be some who’d disagree with that. Anyway I can’t find it anywhere so here’s a rip off Mistajam’s show. Check it out below.

Nneka – Heartbeat (Chase N Status We Just Bought A Guitar Remix)

I’ll finish with a couple of tracks that we got sent to us recently. The first song is from Troublemaker and is a remix of Big B’s “Sinner.” The vocals don’t really seem to fit the song for me however the remix isn’t bad and has some nice trademark electro beats which Troublemaker uses. Also up is a Don Diablo remix of The Roots’ “The Seed 2.0″ which I really like. The electro beats work well with the RnB-esque vocals. It feels quite summery actually. Check it out below.

Big B – Sinner (Troublemaker Remix)

Don Diablo vs The Roots – The Seed 3.0

First thing tonight is one thing which we got sent which I’m really interested in. It’s from Troublemaker who has a track up for download at the (minimum) cost of 60 cents (roughly 35p or something in UK terms). You can read more about it below:

On May 22nd I headed to Nairobi, Kenya with HOPE (Helping Other People Everywhere) for the experience of a lifetime. We were there to bring our artistic abilities and knowledge to the locals, share with them, and work with them. As part of the trip I DJed at the Sawa Sawa Festival, participated in interviews, taught kids about DJing and how to use Serato, as well as recorded music with Kenya’s biggest hip hop emcee.

In addition to donating my energy and time, I am offering an advance download from my upcoming album, The Maestro (out in July), to benefit the HOPE Campaign.

The song is called “Work It Out,” and it is very fitting to my journey, and is one of my favorites on the album.

http://djtroublemaker.com/hope/

The donation price is set at a minimum of 60 cents and all the money goes to the HOPE Campaign (minus 10 cents to PayPal).

Please download it, enjoy it, and know that all the proceeds will go to incredible projects for the advancement of the arts in Kenya.

You can also preview the song before you download it so check it out below. I urge you to buy it as the song is good and the money goes to a great cause.

Troublemaker – Work It Out (feat. Naptron and Phoenix Orion)

Next song is from Haddaway and it’s a remix of his song “What is Love?” by Klaas. It’s a really nice remix, big bassline and a nice synth throughout. The radio edit has been around for a while but I haven’t seen the club mix for a while. Check it out below. Also on the electro front I’ve found a long version of Chicane’s “Poppiholla” which I recommend you check out. It’s a really good song which I’ve really grown to (cheers Eko) so check out the original mix below.

Haddaway – What Is Love 2009 (Klaas Club Mix)

Chicane – Poppiholla (Original Mix)

Last song up today is a remix of 3OH!3′s successful single “Don’t Trust Me.” The remix is by none other than Benny Blanco so you know it’s going to be good. It also features Kid Cudi who I actually really enjoy on this song. Moreso that his recent tries anyway. I thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend you check it out.

3OH!3 – Don’t Trust Me (Feat. Kid CuDi) (Benny Blanco Remix)

I can’t remember where someone linked to auto-tune the news. It may have been over at It’s A Rap but I really can’t remember. All I know is that I absolutely love it. It may even come above T-Pain as my favourite use of auto-tune. If you haven’t seen it you can check out the “latest” (well, a couple of weeks old) video here. I love it.

First up today is another remix of 1901 which was sent through to us. This time the remix is by Tatelarock and Troublemaker and like all their remixes, this one is very good. I’m getting a little tired of the song but remixes can keep it fresh and this take definitely does. Check the remix out below.

There’s also been a couple of video stills released today. The top image is of the video shoot and you can see the rest of photos from the set at The Boston Phoenix. Another video that’s been shot (well, quite a few years ago) is a video for Kanye West’s song “Spaceship” off of his debut album “The College Dropout.” I have found a liking for this song recently having got The College Dropout at the beginning of the year. I love the sample and the verses from GLC and Consequence. You can check out the stills from that video on GLC’s blog. God knows why the video was never released.

Last song it a remix of N.A.S.A’s “Whatchadoin?” by Villans. I really like this remix, it’s fairly raw which works really well and I just love it. Props to Pigeons & Planes and you can check the song out below. Apparently it’s a bit old but I never posted it at the time so here it is again.

Toddla T’s album got leaked a while back as well but I never noticed. I’m expecting this to be on my albums to buy list as it has some big guests and I absolutely love Shake It. I’ll give my opinion on it on Friday. I’m expecting big things.

Phoenix – 1901 (Tatelarock & Troublemaker Remix) Listen on zShare

N.A.S.A. – Whatchadoin? (Villans Remix) Listen on zShare

I’m sure most of you will know Peter Bjorn and John from their 2006 single Young Folks, which to be fair was a decent song, just incredibly overplayed and annoying (the whistling, anyway). But their latest single Nothing To Worry About is simply fantastic to be fair. I didn’t take too much notice of it when I first got it in January but heard it on the radio last week and realised how good it was. Like Young Folks, its really really catchy, but this isn’t half as annoying. Have a listen below.

Also what caught my eye today, thanks to Sheena Beaston, was a rap remix of NTWA. The remix itself is done by Troublemaker, but it actually features some quality up-and-coming rappers, namely Adam Tensta and U-N-I, as well as The 87 Stick Up Kids. Its a nice remix, not amazing or anything but adds a new dimension to the track at least. Also have a listen below to a remix of Young Folks with Kanye in (Plain Pat whatup!).

Peter Bjorn and John – Nothing To Worry About Listen on Zippyshare

Peter Bjorn and John – Nothing to Worry About (Troublemaker Remix featuring Adam Tensta, U-N-I and The 87 Stick Up Kids) Listen on Zippyshare

Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks (Remix feat. Kanye West) Listen on Zippyshare