Finding the Rhythm

OK, well, maybe the chart wasn’t updated on the 9th, but the Top 25 Dance Chart for the week has now been posted for your enjoyment.

I’m a little surprised that the top two slots are still holding for Elena and Velvet, but they are unchanged from last week.

Moving to #3 is the amazing Love Resurrection from Aurora feat. Amanda Wilson. I simply love this song, and audiences seem to enjoy it as well. As I have blogged previously, it’s a great remake of an old Alison Moyet song, and the production work from Aurora is just amazing.

Another song making a big jump is Australia’s Raen with Dramatic Fanatic at #5. It’s a fun song, I think, with interesting lyrics and great production. This track apparently hasn’t been signed to a label in the US that I can tell, so it’s tough to find.

With the availability of some new mixes for Freemasons’ Uninvited, the tracks has reappeared on my chart at #12.

Nothing else particularly shocking on the chart, other than the reappearance of Basshunter’s Now You’re Gone after a temporary drop-off.

In the new adds department, a new song from CAPP, as yet unreleased, is DJ Skillmaster with Summertime. The underlying song from Skillmaster is actually a couple of years old. It was a good track on its own, but Dany Wild’s new remix is why I’ve started playing it. The track has a whole new feel and energy. The song will be released with a newly-filmed video this summer; I’m just getting an early start with this one.

Among the hot adds this week are CoCo Star’s fab new single, Kick Yourself, along with Michelle Williams’ soulful and groovy We Break the Dawn, and perhaps my favorite of the bunch, Robbie Rivera feat. Denise Rivera (no relation!) with Back to Zero, which is particularly strong on all front (lyrically, vocals, production).

Enjoy…

Wes

I’m bombarded with new music almost daily, and while that’s a good thing, I find it’s taking more and more for a track to really grab me right off the bat these days. One track that has done just that is a new one from French producer Frederic Faupin, under the alias “Jack in Da Box” (credited by some as “Jackindabox,” all one word).

The song is titled Feeling Naughty, and it’s got a great, grungy, gritty production that has at the same time got a sort of classic house feel to it, while sounding quite electro overall. I think it might be the soulful vocal (uncredited female) that sort of tilts this one off balance and makes it difficult to pigeonhole. She sounds like something out of a 1970s B-movie, perhaps, but somehow everything just sort of works together nicely.

As of this writing, you can hear the song in the music player located on the Jack in Da Box MySpace page. See what you think, but this is one I’m having trouble getting out of my head at the moment.

I was a bit late this week with the chart processing, but the latest Top 25 Dance Chart has been posted. There are a few surprises this week in terms of movement.

Elena’s sad but well-produced track Before I Sleep has jumped to #1. The heart-wrenching lyric notwithstanding, I just love this song, and audiences are responding well to it too. With Velvet at #2 with Fix Me, this gives the top two slots to Robbins Entertainment, and I have to say, they’ve nailed it with some really strong single releases in recent months.

Unsurprisingly, Leona Lewis is now at #3 with Bleeding Love. This is one of those songs I liked at first, sorta wondered about, but that came back strongly for me. Audiences seem to have responded in kind. There’s a range of good mixes of the track, and it’s just superbly well done.

Oddly enough, #4 and #5 are held by the same artist: Andrew Spencer on my own label affiliate, CAPP Records. I’ve been spinning Zombie since I got the first rough cut of the track for U.S. release back in August of 2007. It did a soft hit late last year on the Bounce! compilation and had an official release back in February here. So for me, the song is hardly new, but I still really love it. I might be biased since it’s a CAPP track, but I think it more speaks to the incredibly solid production work on the track, and it continues to chart strongly with pools and mixshows.

As for the other Spencer track, To Be With You is a pick from the 50 Techno Electro Tunes compilation. It’ll be released as a single sometime later this year (stay tuned), but it stood out for me the moment I heard it. Another incredibly strong set of production work there.

Also noteworthy is DJ Bill Bennett with Breakaway. This is, simply put, an amazing electro house track. Inaya Day is a great vocalist, but I’m still amazed at how well this track is put together, every time I hear it.

I could go on and on with this blog entry, but let me at least mention a couple of stand-outs.

At #15, Aurora gives us Love Resurrection, a remake of a classic Alison Moyet song. Amanda Wilson does a great job with the vocals (I love her voice!), and again, the production work is superb. And at #16, Australia’s Raen delivers solidly on Dramatic Fanatic. I really dig this funky, kitschy track and its clever lyrics.

Have a great week.

Wes

I finally got my new web site launched yesterday. You can, of course, get there at http://www.djwesley.com.

It probably won’t be winning any Webby awards, but I am particularly pleased to get the new logo rolled out on a web site design that is at least not embarrassing anymore.

As I mention on the home page of the new site, I’ll be better leveraging the blog moving forward. It’s a pain working with a regular web site when it comes to posting news, etc., and frankly, that’s really what a blog is for. So when there’s something timely to talk about, I’ll be putting it here, instead of a “news” page on the site.

There are still a few tweaks to come with the web site, so stay tuned.

This blog is now functioning at a new URL: blog.djwesley.com. The old URL still works too, but it’s nice to have the site at a more appropriate address.

The latest Top 25 Dance Chart was up a day late this week (oops), but here’s a quick look at the notables.

Britney’s Break the Ice moved up to the #1 spot. I’ve mentioned it before, but she can be as much of a mess as she wants if this is what her producers and handlers manage to come-up with after her day in the studio. Eye Witness feat. Charlene Oliver continues moving up with I’ve Never Been to Me. And Elena leaps-up to #3 with the beautiful but lyrically heart-wrenching Before I Sleep.

It seems there are a number of tracks on the chart that are losing steam at the same time. Ron Perkov, Idina Menzel, OneRepublic, Basshunter and Jesse McCartney among them.

One interesting item here is that Jordin Sparks’ No Air makes a new entry at the very bottom of the chart. This is an anomaly of the approach I use to make these charts (which I’ve written about before and won’t dive into again now). But the bottom line is that other songs have more total plays in the period covered, despite No Air being hot right now and played a lot. This causes a sort of damping effect, but in general, it’s one I’m not disappointed about because it prevents the “flave of the week” effect (songs debuting at #1 or #2 like you see in so many other charts, notably Billboard and BBC Radio 1).

Another anomaly of the approach is that songs that fall off can quickly re-debut with just a few spins, like Filo & Peri who are back at #13. Of course, Anthem is not a new entry at all.

But enough database head scratching. Velvet’s Fix Me, a strong new release from Robbins, popped-in at #12, and Natasha Bedingfield at #21 with her latest. The rest of the new entries have bubbled-up from recent Hot Adds. A few of those are worth mentioning too.

Sam Sparro’s Black and Gold is a strong new track that once again, through a set of superb remixes, brings a non-dance artist into the dance realm. I’d never heard of him, but Sam is apparently a soulful singer-songwriter, and while he currently calls L.A. home, the Brits in particular seem to really be digging him right now. Speaking of the UK… UK-based producers H ‘Two’ O got added with What’s it Gonna Be, an R&B infused gem that’s getting a lot of attention on their home turf.

As usual, you can check it out on my web site, and click to buy tracks if so inclined as well. Enjoy.

The role of a DJ is multifaceted. We’re probably mostly “entertainers” providing “entertainment” to an audience. But another facet of being a DJ is promoting music, and I take that roll pretty seriously. In my online sets, I have the chance to talk about artists, tracks, and labels, and I do. I like making music personal and intimate; there’s a story behind every song, and when I know it, I like talking about it. And through this blog, my chart, and other avenues, I certainly talk a lot about what’s new, what I like and don’t like, and why.

In doing so, I try really hard to stick to objective aspects of the music. Is the production good? Are the vocals on-target? Is there too much compression? Are the lyrics redundant? But no matter how much you stick to supposed “facts,” at the end of the day, art is subjective. Some people like lots of compression, some don’t. Some people like redundant lyrics, and some don’t. And some people just plain like a song, and others just plain don’t.

Anyway, my friends have sort of come to depend on me to turn them on to good music, and I like that, too. But I was reminded only this morning of the flip side of all this: When a recommendation just doesn’t work out.

One of my good friends in Chicago recently decided to pick-up a copy of Above & Beyond’s Tri-State, which I’ve blogged about clear back in August of last year. While I’m really a house DJ, and that’s “my” music, Tri-State is a favorite from the trance realm. (You can read that blog posting for more about my thoughts on the album.)

In any case, my friend has heard me go on and on and on about Tri-State, so he finally broke down and ordered a copy of it. He got it yesterday, and I heard the news today: he was “underwhelmed,” and felt that only one track was really repeat-worthy. Well, crap…

Sure, I’m disappointed, especially since this particular friend is a real trance-head, and I figured it’d be right up his street. But music is deeply personal, and while we (as music fans) do collectively tend toward being a bit lemmingesque, blindly following one another like a herd (can you say “Billboard chart?”), what works for me just isn’t always going to work for you.

I guess I’m OK with that. I’d like to believe I have an ear for music in general, and dance music specifically. I think to be successful as a DJ, you have to. But I’m not always going to get it right.

So if you pick-up a copy of Tri-State, or anything else I talk-up for that matter, and you hate it, I’m sorry. I’ll try to make better recommendations next time. But you’re always welcome to comment back here, whether you agree with me—or not.

As for the friend in Chicago? I suggested he take it to a used CD store and get at least some of his money back… Or perhaps, white elephant gifting?

Once again this year, the good folks at DJ Times will be endeavoring to name “America’s Best DJ.” While it’s only in its third year and perhaps doesn’t have a hugely long track record, I appreciate one of the key motivators of the effort: to celebrate the DJ talents of US-based DJs, since it seems our brethren in Europe get most of the global recognition (Tiësto, Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, etc.).

The contest comes with its own summer tour, featuring many of the DJs up for the award. Everything culminates in Las Vegas in September for a blow-out closing party and the hand-out of the award itself. Voting apparently opens on May 1st at http://www.americasbestdj.net.

I certainly applaud DJ Times’ work on promoting dance music and the DJ art in the US, and I’ll be watching the contest with interest. But searching for the best DJ is a little like searching for the best motorized vehicle; from the tiny Smart ForTwo to the sensible Corolla to the extravagant Hummer to those monstrous dump trucks you see on obscure television shows on the Science Channel, “best” sort of changes contextually depending on who you are, what you’re trying to accomplish, and myriad other factors.

Similarly, “DJ” has way too many meanings. Are you a radio DJ? A dance DJ? A hip-hop DJ? A producing DJ? A wedding DJ? That of course isn’t DJ Times’ fault, but it does point to the difficulty in naming one, singular “best” in a category that has a dozen very different shades of meaning.

At the end of the day, it probably doesn’t matter much. Like any awards show, there are the people who get nominated, and there are those that don’t. There are those who win, and those that don’t. And there’s likely to be a lot of overlooked and perhaps unhappy people in DJ circles. (I hasten to point out I’m not one of them.) But anything that shines more light on an art form that seems in my mind to be a little too underground than it probably should be is a good thing.

I’ll keep you posted as this unfolds over the course of the summer months.

As a designer wannabe, I’m a bit of a sucker for good visual design and well-executed branding. Such is the case with System Recordings, a dance label out of New York.

Honestly, I know next to nothing about these people aside from getting their promos and that I like some of the songs their artists are releasing these days. But one thing for sure: They have their design and branding act together. From their web site to their MySpace page to their online store, they sure seem to “got it going on.”

What prompted this post, frankly, is their t-shirt line-up in their online store here. They’ve taken their cool logo and done-up a couple of brand shirts that use it to good effect, especially the black one… What looks like a tire track across the front of the shirt is actually a mosaic of their logo. Pretty clever, and yeah, I ordered one just because I think it’s hot looking.

It’s sort of gotten me thinking that I need some DJ Wesley shirts once my new web site is up (speaking of branding and all that). Might be fun.

And speaking of branding, look for my all-new web site to be launched in the next week or two. I’m pretty stoked, but still a lot of work remains before it’s ready. Stay tuned…

The chart’s up a day early (click here to see); no Thursday gig this week, so no need to wait, right?

Idina Menzel holds the #1 spot again this week with Gorgeous, which still receives tons of requests. And not a shock that Britney moves to #2 with Break the Ice, her latest dance remix (and a real favorite of mine).

One big mover this week is Eye Witness feat. Charlene Oliver with I’ve Never Been to Me, the remake of Charlene’s own song, originally recorded and released in 1978 and again in 1982, when it became a big worldwide hit for her. I still think it’s pretty cool that she re-recorded the song 30 years after she did the first time… A true “remake” vs. a “cover” release. (Wouldn’t it be fun to hear Madonna re-record Material Girl or Holiday as a new dance track? Someone mentioned that to me, I think my friend Reece, and I totally agree!)

Two new entries that popped-on mid-chart include DJ Bill Bennett and Inaya Day with Breakaway. Frankly, about anything with Inaya’s vocal is likely to get my attention, but Bennett did a superb job bringing it all together on this. A gritty, dirty, high-energy production that complements the vocal well, I find it mixes quite well in a lot of directions. The audience response is really strong as well.

The other is Elena’s Before I Sleep, one of the newest Robbins releases. Elena hails from Romania, and the song is an English version of Privirea Ta (which is also included on the CD single). I love the beautiful vocal, the mixes available are strong, and the song’s emotional, heart-felt lyrics are something most any of us can relate to. I just all comes together nicely, and is just the latest in a string of good release out of the Robbins camp.

Some strong new adds this week. Zentribe and Linda Newman out of Spain are back with the really strong Feels Like Heaven (which is a totally different song than the recent Cam Tyler release of the same name), and this time, Zentribe is grittier than their recent Superlove (which I did also like). Alison Moyet’s new single, A Guy Like You, finally jumped across the pond from Europe; it’s great to hear her slick vocal again on some new material. And Australia’s Raen offers Dramatic Fanatic which is sorta funky but very nicely produced.

Shirley Bassey’s Get This Party Started was active in Europe months ago, and some of the Euro listeners in my online sets requested it “way back when;” well, it’s bubbling-up here now, and the unlikely pairing of Bassey’s James Bondian vocal with a remake of that particular song just works for me. And finally, Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown’s No Air is going to be with us for a long time I suspect; Jason Nevins did a remarkable job of bringing all that together for the dance release.

You can check it out on my web site, and click to buy tracks if so inclined as well. Enjoy.