jacques lu cont: can do no wrong....defend/refute

Wall of Sound is surely an ailing untrendy label by now, I think the project was quite light-hearted and never really claiming to be hardcore dancehall, it is called "Two Culture Clash" and to be honest I think the result is just a quirky and slightly odd mash up of some fairly incongruous sounds.

I don't rate the record very highly, alot of it was just boring for me. But I did enjoy one of the Jacques tracks and I thought the Jon Carter one was ok too, to be honest. The Jacques one with the male vocalist fits the quirkiness I mentioned above, it sounded like one of his own productions really.

I don't see the record as greatly cynical or sinister though, most of it sounds like a fairly off the cuff partyish project. I didn't see it reviewed as "real dancehall" either but if it was I can understand how that'd be annoying.

Much more fascinating, however, is this: baby got book

"The ideals and vision of this project is to assimilate leading artists from both genres into a face-to-face environment and create an album that brings experimentalism and accessibility, the world famous and the underground together, ‘live’ in Jamaica. This is a record that has to be made, for musical history’s sake."

now "assimilate" has a pretty icky ring to it in this case. anyway, we're way off-topic here and for the record, i have enjoyed a few things lu cont has done, just not this stuff.

To say that the Mr. Brightside remix annihilated everyone there would be a gross understatement. I was absolutely not the only person jumping and singing like a jackass. I was actually in line to go to the bathroom but BOLTED to the dancefloor when I heard that synth intro.

I am very much a fan of that mix now.

So, my POV would be:

1. 'It's My Life'
2. 'Avalon'
3. 'What You Waiting For?'
4. 'Hey You (What's That Sound?)'
5. 'Four To The Floor'

I'm interested in hearing the Killers mix, and some of the others have their moments. I'd like to hear him in a 4-min pop song environment (outside Zoot Woman anyway). Some good rights and some dull wrongs, but I'm always open to change.

I've come to the conclusion that maybe "Four To The Floor" is his most all-round, um, successful mix, which is odd because at the time of the chart success of the other similar electro remix over here I tried to convince myself I was unfazed by it. Listening back to it now (partially helped by hearing the crappy original), it just seems like such an amazing balance of groove and tears and blustering and just a huge sense of cosmic loneliness.

I feel that way about the 'Breathe On Me' mix - definitely prefer the original there (possibly lack of an extended outro aside). Also, I like my prog sweetened to taste.

I think all the aliases have very very strong moments of success, Paper Faces mix of "Living In A Magazine", and "Gem" are really amazing.

The Felix mix is far and away my favourite of all the remixes and I think the best, but his style has changed since then and maybe I'm inclined to agree with Tim as regards recent stuff/Starsailor.

It is a very persistent track, the Starsailor one, doesn't seem to lose its lustre.

I've only heard "Just Let Go," "Breathe On Me," "Mr. Brightside" and that Bloc Party remix. The first two are brill.

Hey did anyone download that "In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up" mix DJ Xiu put up? The second half was all like this!

I'm gonna write something about Lu Cont I think.

I think the only thing I like I've heard of jlc's so far is his "what you waiting for?" rmx, and then I like tim f's story abt felix da starting off his set with the interminable stefani tick tocks even more.

stevem: only if jlc rmxs it.