Best of Bootie +2
I've gone through the Best of Bootie 2014 mixes and have four to talk about. If you just want to stream or download the whole thing you can get it at that link. Fair warning: the Bootie links are MP3s that will probably start playing on click.
http://bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2014/Best%20of%20Bootie%202014%20(Unmixed)/DJs%20From%20Mars%20vs.%20DJ%20Surda%20-%20Jammin%20Good.mp3
http://bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2014/Best%20of%20Bootie%202014%20(Unmixed)/DJs%20From%20Mars%20-%20We%20Will%20Breate%20In%20The%20Name%20of%20Bangarang.mp3
DJs from Mars make several appearances in the Bootie list and I think I like the first in this pair best because the source material is James Brown and Bob Marley. Kind of hard to go wrong with that, and this mix doesn't disappoint, mixing soul and reggae and the DJ's signature stomp beats.
The second track is pure fan service, putting together Queen's beloved "We Will Rock You" with Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name". That itself is well done, but then the DJs reach again into the popular closet and come up with some Prodigy and some Skrillex to give everything a racing fast harder edge. It's still a love anthem to rock, and when it kicks into high gear around 2:35 it's a hard rock on meth mix.
http://bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2014/Best%20of%20Bootie%202014%20(Unmixed)/Loo%20&%20Placido%20-%20All%20Night%20(Don't%20Stop).mp3
Loo & Placido have two entries in the set and this one is the better of the two for my money. It's a high-energy bounce-and-rock opening that has some real surprise change-ups in it. The transition from piano to piano-and-vocals caught me by surprise and actually made me laugh out loud at its cleverness. This is the sort of track I'd open a club set with - enough energy to get people moving and enough variety to catch attention.
http://bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2014/Best%20of%20Bootie%202014%20(Unmixed)/Lobsterdust%20-%20Anaconda%20Action.mp3
Lobsterdust makes an appearance with an eight-way juggernaut of a mix. This one is clearly done for the humor value, as there are both lyrical and musical juxtapositions that are done just to say "isn't that funny". I suspect if you don't like the humor you won't like this mash, but I don't recall Lobsterdust ever doing a humorous mix before so I flagged this one. His other entry is a standard A|B pairing that's fine but unexceptional.
https://soundcloud.com/eskimorecordings/eelke-kleijn-lovely-sweet
I can't remember the sequence that landed me on Eelke Kleijn (http://www.eelkekleijn.nl/) but his compositions are an interesting atmospheric palate cleanser. They're mostly instrumental, or use voice-as-instrument, and his work has started appearing in media such as TV/movie trailers. His style, as here, is often ethereal and I like it as background while I'm working on other things.
http://thissongissick.com/blog/2014/dzeko-torres-2014-in-10-minutes/
You know there are going to be any number of end-of-year mashes and I'll probably blog the ones I find interesting, but I wanted to pull this one first as it's something I've not seen before. Dzeko and Torres have put together not a single mash track, but ten full minutes showcasing EDM tracks - 62 to be precise - of 2014. There are some big names in here (Tiesto, Hardwell) but the majority are lesser-known producers doing interesting things. At 600 seconds to cover 62 tunes you're rarely getting more than a tiny snip of anything before the track moves on, but there's a listing you can use to track things down (if you're crazy like me).
http://bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2014/Best%20of%20Bootie%202014%20(Unmixed)/DJs%20From%20Mars%20vs.%20DJ%20Surda%20-%20Jammin%20Good.mp3
http://bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2014/Best%20of%20Bootie%202014%20(Unmixed)/DJs%20From%20Mars%20-%20We%20Will%20Breate%20In%20The%20Name%20of%20Bangarang.mp3
DJs from Mars make several appearances in the Bootie list and I think I like the first in this pair best because the source material is James Brown and Bob Marley. Kind of hard to go wrong with that, and this mix doesn't disappoint, mixing soul and reggae and the DJ's signature stomp beats.
The second track is pure fan service, putting together Queen's beloved "We Will Rock You" with Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name". That itself is well done, but then the DJs reach again into the popular closet and come up with some Prodigy and some Skrillex to give everything a racing fast harder edge. It's still a love anthem to rock, and when it kicks into high gear around 2:35 it's a hard rock on meth mix.
http://bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2014/Best%20of%20Bootie%202014%20(Unmixed)/Loo%20&%20Placido%20-%20All%20Night%20(Don't%20Stop).mp3
Loo & Placido have two entries in the set and this one is the better of the two for my money. It's a high-energy bounce-and-rock opening that has some real surprise change-ups in it. The transition from piano to piano-and-vocals caught me by surprise and actually made me laugh out loud at its cleverness. This is the sort of track I'd open a club set with - enough energy to get people moving and enough variety to catch attention.
http://bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie2014/Best%20of%20Bootie%202014%20(Unmixed)/Lobsterdust%20-%20Anaconda%20Action.mp3
Lobsterdust makes an appearance with an eight-way juggernaut of a mix. This one is clearly done for the humor value, as there are both lyrical and musical juxtapositions that are done just to say "isn't that funny". I suspect if you don't like the humor you won't like this mash, but I don't recall Lobsterdust ever doing a humorous mix before so I flagged this one. His other entry is a standard A|B pairing that's fine but unexceptional.
https://soundcloud.com/eskimorecordings/eelke-kleijn-lovely-sweet
I can't remember the sequence that landed me on Eelke Kleijn (http://www.eelkekleijn.nl/) but his compositions are an interesting atmospheric palate cleanser. They're mostly instrumental, or use voice-as-instrument, and his work has started appearing in media such as TV/movie trailers. His style, as here, is often ethereal and I like it as background while I'm working on other things.
http://thissongissick.com/blog/2014/dzeko-torres-2014-in-10-minutes/
You know there are going to be any number of end-of-year mashes and I'll probably blog the ones I find interesting, but I wanted to pull this one first as it's something I've not seen before. Dzeko and Torres have put together not a single mash track, but ten full minutes showcasing EDM tracks - 62 to be precise - of 2014. There are some big names in here (Tiesto, Hardwell) but the majority are lesser-known producers doing interesting things. At 600 seconds to cover 62 tunes you're rarely getting more than a tiny snip of anything before the track moves on, but there's a listing you can use to track things down (if you're crazy like me).