Q-Picks 2010

It's been a couple of years since I posted my yearly favourite music picks. I'm not sure why I didn't post one last year, but here's my favourite picks of songs and albums that were released in 2010...

Favourite Mash-up Songs

1. LeeDM101 - Roxanne's Tainted Fly [link]
2. [MMM] MadMixMustang - You Rock My Rock [link ]
3. DJ Lobsterdust - Steady Romance [link]
4. DJ Clive$ter - Mas Que Amor [link]
5. Simon Iddol - We are in the Go-Go Club [link]
6. G3RSt - I've Seen That Paranoid Face Before [link]
7. KrazyBen - Hypersonic Sweet Music [link]
8. Tweylo - Personality in Bloom [link]
9. PiotreQ - Good Times Bite the Dust [link]
10. Stay Away Music (S.A.M.) - Boiled Hamma [link]
11. mARKYbOY - The Rain Thief [link]
12. Chocomang - One Chair [link]
13. DJ Morgoth - Stylo It's No Good [link]

Favourite Commercial Songs

1. Laurie Anderson - Only an Expert
2. Diane Birch - This Corrosion
3. k.d. lang - Hallelujah (Vancouver Winter 2010 Version)
   
4. Laurie Anderson - Transitory Life
5. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Save Me
6. Holy Fuck - Red Lights
7. Laurie Anderson - Lost Art of Conversation
8. Goldfrapp - Rocket
9. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Pulse
   
10. Bryan Ferry - Alphaville
11. Ok Go - This Too Shall Pass
12. Goldfrapp - Head First
13. Sarah McLachlan - Loving You is Easy

Favourite Albums

1. Laurie Anderson - Homeland
2. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - History of Modern
   
3. Diane Birch - The Velveteen Age (with the Phenomenal Handclap Band)
4. Goldfrapp - Head First
5. Mashup Industries - Café del Mash Vol. 2 [link]
6. Holy Fuck - Latin
7. CjR Mix / Bynar - Dangerous Power (The Boot EP) [link]
8. Tangerine Dream - Booster III
9. Bryan Ferry - Olympia
10. Sarah McLachlan - Laws of Illusion
11. Sound Unsound - Chillax [link]
12. Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back

Oíche Suaimhneach, Fir Caoin (HD Video)

Oíche Suaimhneach, Fir Caoin HD from BorisB High Def on Vimeo.

BorisB is working on a new-ish video project these days... He's taking his best mash-up videos of all time and reproducing them in stunning HD video. The first video out of the gate, and just in time for Xmas, is the video for the Xmas mash-up I had produced a couple of years ago, Oíche Suaimhneach, Fir Caoin. (Note: You'll have to watch it from the vimeo web site to get the HD quality video.)

Here's the remastered version of the song file in high-quality 320 kbps stereo for your listening and downloading pleasure...

Oíche Suaimhneach, Fir Caoin
Mediaeval Baebes - Umlahi
Loreena McKennitt - God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (Abdelli version)
Loreena McKennitt - God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (Instrumental)
6:05 / 320 kbps / 14.1 MB

World's Greatest Pop Mashups - A Sound Unsound Compilation

Sound Unsound just released an awesome mash-up compilation digital album, World's Greatest Pop Mashups.

If you love pop tunes, there's 18 pop mashups on this album with pop tunes spanning the 80's, 90's, and the last decade. You'll also find a track produced by me containing a little something from the 80's and a little something from this past decade...

You can also visit Sound Unsound to get more details about the album release.

Chillax, Come Down..... A Sound Unsound Compilation

Sound Unsound just released the awesome mash-up compilation digital album, Chillax, Come Down.....

As the title suggests, it's filled with music that you can chill and relax with. Containing 23 chill tunes produced by various mash-up/remix producers, you will also find one chill tune produced by me...

Northern Half Life
Imogen Heap - Half Life
Enigma - Northern Lights
Running Time: 5:24

You can preview my track using the Official.fm player above.

If you want to download the track for your music library, you'll have to download the digital albums from the people at Sound Unsound using the links found on the following Chillax release postings (fyi, my track is on Disc One, but you'll want both awesome discs):

mARKYbOY Mash Ups: Chillax, Come Down

Groovey Time with DJ Useo: Sound-Unsound's CHILLAX Come Down

You can also visit Sound Unsound to get more details about the album release.

Continuum 08: the Music & the Mixes

Continuum 08 is a collection of remastered mashup singles and mixes that I had originally produced in 2008, plus a collection of mashup videos produced by myself and a few other producers. It commemorates my commitment to continuously trying to improve my production skills as well as my continuously growing interest in music mashup production (and now mashup video production as well).

I spent several months this year learning how to improve my audio extraction and mastering techniques, and what better way to do that than figure it out on pieces I've already completed. Thus, all the music in this collection has been remastered in 320 kbps audio.

My original intent was to have this project completed by April 2009, but a few personal situations delayed the project. My sincere apologies go to the other producers (BorisB, Guv'nor, and The Reborn Identity), who produced videos for this project back in February/March and had to wait until now to see them released. I thank them for their immense patience.

Continuum 08 is contained within 3 albums for your listening, viewing, and downloading pleasure:

1. Continuum 08: the Music
2. Continuum 08: the Mixes
3. Continuum 08: the Videos

Consequently, there are 3 download packages - one for each album. Each album download package includes the music tracks (or video tracks), a digital booklet (in PDF, which can be added to your iTunes library), a paper CD case (in PDF, with printing and folding instructions), and some digital cover art.

As part of this release, all the cover art for each mashup single has been recreated in 3D and only included in the digital booklets contained within the download packages.

You can listen to and download the individual tracks using the Fairtilizer music players below. Or click on the album download links to download the music tracks with all the extra goodies. Note that the Videos album package is not listed below because it will be presented in a separate blog posting.

Download the Continuum 08: the Music album package. (112.87MB)

Download the Continuum 08: the Mixes album package. (216.85MB)

Also check out Continuum 08: the Videos.

Continuum 08: the Videos

Continuum 08: the Videos is a collection of mashup videos produced by myself and a few other producers based on my mashup singles from 2008.

My original intent was to have this project completed by April 2009, but a few personal situations delayed the project. My sincere apologies go to the other producers (BorisB, Guv'nor, and The Reborn Identity), who produced videos for this project back in February/March and had to wait until now to see them released. I thank them for their immense patience.

Besides uploading the videos to YouTube and Vimeo for people to watch, I've created 2 download packages. One package includes higher quality, higher bitrate videos. The second package includes videos that have been optimized for iPod, iTouch, and iPhone. The iPod versions can also be played on AppleTV or from the video output on iPod, iTouch, and iPhone.

Both video download packages include the video tracks, a digital booklet (in PDF, which can be added to your iTunes library), and a paper CD case (in PDF, with printing and folding instructions).

You can watch the individual videos using the YouTube or Vimeo video players below. Or click on the appropriate download link to download the videos with all the extra goodies.

Continuum 08: the Videos
Total number of videos: 8
Total running time: 43:02

Watch the videos with the YouTube player...

Note that the video, A Little Piece About Death, has been removed by a music label from YouTube and is not available in the YouTube player above. Please watch this particular video using the Vimeo player below, or watch the video on Vimeo.

Watch the videos with the Vimeo player...

Download links:

Continuum 08: the Videos with high quality videos:
	Download complete package in a single file. (zShare 624.72MB)
	If you're having problems with the above zShare download, try these smaller downloads via sendSpace split into 3 parts... Download part 1. (sendSpace 231.89MB) Contains the extra artwork goodies and the following videos:   01 Thinking About Pumping Up the Volume   02 The Jig is Never Up   03 Fleurs Soutenues du Mal Download part 2. (sendSpace 229.65MB)   Contains the following videos:   04 Working Class Stigmata [iRadio Edit]   05 The Principle Look of Twin Lust #14   06 A Little Piece About Death Download part 3. (sendSpace 163.21MB)   Contains the following videos:   07 Oíche Suaimhneach, Fir Caoin   08 Feedback Inside the Robots (Morekraft-Lesswerk Mix)

Continuum 08: the Videos with iPod optimized videos:
	Download complete iPod video package in a single file. (zShare 359.13MB)
	If you're having problems with the above zShare download, try these smaller downloads via sendSpace split into 2 parts... Download iPod videos part 1. (sendSpace 218.70MB)   Contains the extra artwork goodies and the following videos:   01 Thinking About Pumping Up the Volume   02 The Jig is Never Up   03 Fleurs Soutenues du Mal   04 Working Class Stigmata [iRadio Edit]   05 The Principle Look of Twin Lust #14 Download iPod videos part 2. (sendSpace 140.43MB)   Contains the following videos:   06 A Little Piece About Death   07 Oíche Suaimhneach, Fir Caoin   08 Feedback Inside the Robots (Morekraft-Lesswerk Mix)

Note: If the above links for the zShare downloads are no longer available (due to no download activity for 60 days) and you wish to download that video album package, please contact me so I can re-activate the download links.

Also check out Continuum 08: the Music & the Mixes.

A Little Piece for Halloween - Remaster + Video

Last year, I had produced a mashup song for Halloween, but only managed to release it the day before Halloween, so it didn't get much exposure. If you've never heard it, this mashup has a distinct Tim Burton movie style to it - a whimsical, slightly corny, high energy rock sound.

Now it's Halloween time again and I thought I'd promote the mashup once again for those of you who missed it. But I couldn't just offer you the exact same thing as last year, so there's a few little bonuses with this new 2009 release...

First, I've been working on some of my remastering skills, so I remastered this song a bit and offer it to you in 320kbps haunting stereo. Most of the audio was pretty good in the original release, so it basically received a little audio cleanup and a little more compression.

Second, for a little in-your-face Halloween fun, I created a 3D version of the album art (as shown above), so strap on your 3D glasses and bugger up your eyes & brain (click on the image above for a larger version). For best results, use the 3D glasses with the green and magenta (pink) lenses. I got mine from the 3D version of Coraline. You should also get some decent results with blue and red lenses.

And third, everyone's favourite producer, Guv'nor, produced a video to accompany this mashup. I hope you enjoy this healthy little Halloween treat - no sugar added!

BTW, there is a LANGUAGE WARNING - what's a good Halloween song without a li'l cursing?

A Little Piece About Death from Guvnor on Vimeo.

A Little Piece About Death (A Rockoween Love Story) - remaster
Avenged Sevenfold - A Little Piece of Heaven
Sixx:A.M. - Life After Death
Sixx:A.M. - Intermission
Oingo Boingo - No One Lives Forever
Excerpts from Darwin Chamber's 3D Halloween Sound FX 2006 album
8:21 / 320 kbps / 19.3 MB

A Little Piece About Death (A Rockoween Love Story) [clean]
** CLEAN LYRICS version **