Tegan and Sara

I was quite slow off the mark with this duo, but after five studio albums over a 10 year period, I finally found out about them through my housemate (Double-O S) just a couple of months ago.

Tegan and Sara are two lesbian twin sisters (seeing other people of course) hailing from Alberta, Canada. As I mentioned above, they've already released five albums and thankfully I was pointed towards the better releases from their back catalogue, which I have in turn supplied for you all to download.

'Walking With a Ghost' and 'Back In Your Head' are top notch, but after listening to them, I wouldn't recommend running out and buying all their albums at once - this is as good as it gets.

I have also uploaded alternative mixes of the songs which add a bit more energy to their laidback sound. Tiesto has also remixed ‘Back In Your Head’, but I’m sure I don’t need to tell you to stay well away from that version...

Check out their myspace here and buy their music here

Tegan and Sara – ‘Walking With a Ghost’ [Right-Click and Save Target As]

Tegan and Sara – ‘Back In Your Head’ [Right-Click and Save Target As]

Tegan and Sara Vs Mylo – ‘Walking With a Ghost in Paris’ [Right-Click and Save Target As]

Tegan and Sara – ‘Back In Your Head’ (Tyler Fedchuk’s 1/2ALIVE Disco Remix) [Right-Click and Save Target As]

Duck Sauce

As the last of the Ibiza clubbers arrive home, they usually bring with them an underground tune that has been the soundtrack to their summer and is ready to brighten up our nightclubs during the winter months. Looking back over the past ten years or so, there have been some classics, and some ones you’d wish they had left behind. Below is a look at some of the heavyhitters that have emerged from the island over the past few years.

1998: Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You

1999: Moloko – Sing It Back

2000: Modjo – Lady (Hear Me Tonight)

2001: Roger Sanchez – Another Chance

2002: Tim Deluxe ft Sam Obernik – It Just Won’t Do

2003: Room 5 ft Oliver Cheathem – Make Luv

2004: Shapeshifters – Lola’s Theme

2005: Bob Sinclair – Love Generation

2006: Bodyrox ft Luciana – Yeah Yeah

2007: Yves LaRock - Rise Up

2008: Eric Prydze - Pjanoo

2009: ??

As you can see, since 2005 the quality of music has been pretty poor. I really struggled to find anything worthwhile mentioning from '05 to '08. There has yet to be a clear one this year either. Maybe ‘Holiday’ by Dizzee and Calvin, but that doesn’t really count considering it was a hit before the summer started, and both acts were already household names after releasing ‘Dance Wiv Me’. Maybe nothing might make it back. However, one song I’d love to hear churned out in nightclubs for the next few months is ‘aNYway’ by Duck Sauce.

Duck Sauce is made up of the unusual pairing of New York house pioneer Armand Van Helden and world champion turntablist A-Trak (who won his first title at the tender age of 15!). The 40 second intro is a little bit tedious, but please listen the whole way through – it’s got a great soulful club sound with quite a catchy little chorus. Let's hope this is the beginning of a new era similar to that of '98 to '04...

Duck Sauce - aNYway [Right Click and Save-Target-As]

(If anybody wants any of the other tracks mentioned here available to download, drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do.)

Boys in the Hood

I’m not the biggest fan of mash-up artists; they sometimes try too hard to blend songs from opposite sides of the tracks just for the sake of their diverse sounds (i’m sure you’ll know what I mean if you have ever had the aural displeasure of listening to The Prodigy’s ’Smack My Bitch Up’ mixed with Enya’s ‘Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)’ – if you must, click here!). The likes of Girl Talk and 2ManyDJs do the genre great justice, but if I was to be really anal, there isn’t enough length in their individual mixes.

This brings me to Chicago based mash-up duo The Hood Internet, who’ve been knocking out mixes since 2007, and bridge that gap between quality and quantity. They’ve had five mixtapes to date, all of which can be downloaded for FREE from either their myspace or official homepage. From here, they continually upload new mixes they lay down, the best of which make it onto their mixtape volumes.

There’s a lot to dig through, and it’s not all top drawer, but there are quite a few gems in their catalogue. So to give you a feel of what they’re all about, I’ve supplied a few of my favourite mixes below. If you like what you hear, I recommend downloading ‘The Mixtape Volume 2’ first. They rocked out Lollapalooza this year, warming up the crowd before MSTRKRFT and Simian Mobile Disco took to the stage - watch out in case they ever decide to cross the Atlantic...

Dr. Dre vs Fujiya & Miyagi - The Next Collarbone [Right-click and Save Target-As]

Montell Jordan vs Arcade Fire - This Is How We Go [Right-click and Save Target-As]

Genesis vs Justice - Genesis Squared [Right-click and Save Target-As]

Whitney Hou?

I never thought I would actually be forced to write a post on Whitney Houston, but the first sneak preview of her forthcoming album has warranted this. It's almost a decade since the release of her Greatest Hits and rumours of drug abuse and her constant unreliability to turn up has meant that her career has taken a serious downturn in the last 9 years.

However, after splitting from her bad boy hubby Bobby Brown and battling through the lengthy divorce proceedings and custody battles, she is about to make her comeback.

I orignally mistook the song for an old nice n' smooth Motown record, and that's pretty much what it is. Alicia Keys co-wrote the song and also supplies backing vocals. Oh yeah, and there's no key change. Brilliant.

Check out her official webpage here and buy here tunes here.

Download:
Whitney Houston – Million Dollar Bill (Ft. Alicia Keys) [Right click and Save Target As]