Album Review: “Kaskade Christmas” by Kaskade

So this will be my last post for Blogmas 2017! And I’m kind of happy about that because I’ve reviewed three Christmas-y albums and since I do these ahead of time, I ended up getting my fill of Christmas music all in one week basically. However, I have had a lot of fun rediscovering old favorites and then on top of that seeing what other artists can do to these traditional songs that we enjoy hearing over the holidays!

So we’ve had Celtic Woman, which is all female Irish group and then there was electric violinist Lindsey Stirling, and now we have a male artist to finish out the last week before Christmas. His name is Kaskade and he is an American DJ who tends to do house music, which is like a lighter form of dance music. I don’t know how to describe it other way than that is it mellow, almost chill but still upbeat in tempo to dance to. Kaskade has released several albums over the years, plus he’s remixed other artists and DJ’s tracks, one of my favorites is of Swedish duo Galantis’ “U & I” that came out in 2015.

I actually haven’t noticed other DJs’ creating new sounds to well known Christmas tunes, but if anybody was willing to do it, I’m glad it’s a veteran to try it out! Like with Lindsey’s album, I did not listen to any of the songs before writing the review, so we will be going on this little adventure together. I do not know how many of these will be instrumental, as he has quite a few guests on here, but the others that don’t feature anybody at the side doesn’t mean that nobody but Kaskade on the other side and as far as I know, he doesn’t sing on any of his tracks.

Are you ready to begin?

Since Kaskade is a well known house producer, I’m not going to lie, I was really curious but also hesitant to know what exactly was going to be blasting through my speakers. The first song is “Christmas Is Here” and the introduction has a very soft, full of strings, and you hear Late Night Alumni’s voice and she has a mellow, voice that meshes well with the upbeat sound of the entire song. It has a nice groove to it. The second is “Cold December” and it doesn’t say who the male singer is in the background, but it’s another great uptempo holiday themed track. I really like the addition of the horns, I thought they were interesting element to put into a simple beat. Next, there’s “Deck The Halls” with featured singer Erika. This should be a familiar song for everyone, but the sound itself is different of course. It has that nice playful, Christmas-y mood built into the beat. Erika’s voice has a low quality, where the lyrics but where it doesn’t feel overwhelming.

We have “God Rest Ye” and it instantly has this R&B and soulful sound. The singer lending her voice to this track is Debra Fotheringham. I don’t really like the full on hip hop remakes of Christmas, I think they can get too much, so to say that I enjoyed the crap out of this is an understatement I think. Next there’s “O Come Emmanuel” with Miss Skylar Grey and I liked the mysterious, chill beat to back her soulful vocals. I think she brings out so many emotions in anything she does. It’s almost sexy. Can I say that with talking about in holiday themed track? Especially one that you mostly sing out loud in church? My favorite “Silent Night” is after that and it features Ilsey, and I love her voice too! She has such a sweet, but electric tone. I don’t know if I liked this version so much though. I mean, when it’s just Ilsey and the slow drum beat, it’s not bad but whenever she stops, the tempo is gone and it’s weird. It’s hard to describe. I was a bit disappointed with it.

“The First Noel” with Gabrielle Current is on after that one. I enjoy discovering new music, but I’ve been having fun finding these Christmas or old hymns that I haven’t had in a while. I think Gabrielle’s voice sounds like Ariana Grande, just a lot less overwhelming. I have nothing against her, but she tends to go crazy with her vocals sometimes. Anyways, I like the mellow beat to this one. You can easily dance to it, but it still keeps you in that Christmas-y mood. We have “In The Bleak Midwinter” and this has Kayrae, another artist that I haven’t heard of before. I’ve actually only heard of Skylar and Ilsey, so as I’ve been listening to these songs, I’ve been discovering these new singers too! I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this song. My luck and this would be an original track! The beat for this song is very eternal and chill, the only way I can describe it is if you were having a Christmas party on the beach, this is what you’d be listening to on repeat.

Next is “Holy Night” and it features Erika once again. And everybody knows this a classic song for the holidays. so I think I’ve been quite critical to these tracks, but I think I approve of this one. Erika’s voice is gorgeous against the piano and humming beat that goes up in sound until it disappears after she’s ended that verse. The beat as a whole is set at the mild tempo, but more elements are being added towards the end. I really wanted more of that drums! “It’s Beginning To Snow” is on after that, and this doesn’t credit anybody on the vocals, but the holiday theme kind of takes a backseat on it. The beat is definitely more upbeat and what you’d sort of expect for any electric dance musician to do. And of course, it’s the shortest one on the album too!

We’re almost finished and we start with another classic “Santa Baby” is next and it features Jane XO and it has that modern feel to it, but it kind of also has this jazz-y sound to balance it out too. It’s fun and interesting! Next we have “Winter Wonderland” and everybody should know this one too! There wasn’t a featured singer on this, but you hear a mysterious male singer in the background in this echo-y effect. The entire track is weird, it doesn’t sound anything like the original but is this really a bad thing? The beat is nice. It has these playful notes in it, but I find it confusing. Lastly there’s “This Christmas Night” with Dia Frampton. I don’t know this song, so it could be a classic that I haven’t heard in a really long time or it’s an original, who knows? I like it though. It’s another one of those where you could play while you’re partying at the beach!

This was probably the most interesting reviews I’ve done! I’m all about finding music that isn’t played ten times in an hour on pop radio stations, so the fact that the last Christmas album I review is the probably the most outlandish was kind of cool! I don’t listen to Christmas music on full blast throughout the month of December like most people do. Anybody like me that is the same would probably enjoy this album more than other two, even though Lindsey’s wasn’t that “shove down your throat” type of records, I still think this was the milder version of them, if you get what I mean.

Are you the type that likes it when artists go all out on their Christmas albums? What did you think of “Kaskade Christmas” too?  

The Rise of the French House Scene | A Guest Post by The Life of a Thinker

It all started with Daft Punk’s galactic, robotic synth-pop. Since then, artists such as David Guetta, Martin Solveig and Madeon have warped the French house scene. So, with that in mind, what’s next for this genre of music, and how has it evolved over the years?

First of all, we have to start with Daft Punk. At the moment, they have been relatively quiet with their music since the release of Random Access Memories in 2013 and the success of their track Get Lucky with Pharrell Williams. However, despite them lying low nowadays, the majority of French and international DJs admire their work (including Madeon – more on that later).

Aside from their choice of wearing masks when performing causing them to stand out, it was the duo’s (consisting of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo) fusion of electro and funk which was one of the setting stones for the French electronic genre.

Since then, other DJs have added to the industry. David Guetta’s album Nothing But the Beat (and subsequently the 2.0 version) was, in my opinion, the album which brought the French DJ to the spotlight. For example, his track Titanium not only brought Sia fame, but was also a successful electronic ballad (almost) which a lot of people still remember today. As well as that, their other single together, Falling to Pieces branches out more into dubstep, and his latest tracks including Hey Mama drift more into the hip-hop genre.

Finally, we have Madeon, who – admittedly – is my favourite DJ at the moment. Last year, he released his debut album, Adventure, which saw the musician (real name Hugo Leclercq) collaborate with the likes of Kyan, Dan Smith (from Bastille), Passion Pit and Mark Foster (from Foster the People).

In terms of his style, Hugo still gives a nod to one of the original artists from the French house scene. In tracks such as Cut the Kid, Ok and Pay No Mind, Madeon uses imaginative and flourishing melodies in an off-beat fashion which develops upon Daft Punk’s original style.

But, at the same time, Leclercq brings something fresh and exciting to the French dance music industry. If anything, as well as making links to other music styles within his music, his ability to creatively tell a story through his songs is impressive. In his track, Imperium, Hugo tries something different and almost branches out into dubstep. Meanwhile, in his collaboration with Bastille frontman Dan Smith, Leclercq almost mimics their alternative style of music and in You’re On, the track is an electronic take on the euphoric pop songs of today.

So, as we enter another year of music, perhaps French DJs are about to make their mark? In terms of the genre of music, could it see a merge between pop, alternative and dubstep? Comment your thoughts below!

Liam
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Song Review: “Poison” by Martin Garrix

Martin Garrix.

 So I deeply feel bad for the guy. Here’s a young man, not exactly out of his teens yet and is apart of industry that only wants to create music for people, but with that people can take advantage of their power and sometimes they get hurt. As a blogger, I can get a lot of flake for talking badly about someone. I’m not that type of person especially to celebrities and musicians. I’m not here to talk about all that though. I’m here to talk about my love for his new track “Poison” it came out the day after my birthday but it took me about a week to hear it. Sorry! I really have to work on figuring out when to hear new songs the day they come out so I don’t feel like I’m being left out, but technically this is all my fault! I have nobody to blame here! Anyways, in the last post

I wrote up for today, I talked about different artists have signatures in their music. DJs are the same way! Martin Garrix has quite a few songs that do not have any vocals on it at all and I seriously love that! There’s no distractions, it’s just the beat. I feel like since he released his first track “Animals” in 2013 without any vocals too when he first started out that it’s almost fitting to bring out something similar to people to keep them interested. As much as I love it as a instrumental, it also makes my job as a reviewer ten times harder to talk about because I have no idea about beats, tempo and all that. I wish I did though! All I can say that it’s very light, there’s not much of it that would excite a normal person. If this song was a dance routine on DWTS there would be no lifts and tricks, however I have an uncontrollable wanting to jump up and down in different sections of it, so I guess that’s a good sign. It’s a great song for EDM festivals. Don’t let me fool you though, the song’s actually pretty good!

What do you think of Martin’s new single?