June 11 - electronic with a bit of rock

Songs played (* Cancon):

• Madeon feat. Passion Pit - Pay No Mind
• Passion Pit - Lifted Up (1985)
• Humans* - Over Again
• Braids* - Letting Go
• Purity Ring* - Flood on the Floor
• Milk & Bone* - Watch
• Tei Shi - Go Slow
• オワリカラ (Owarikara) - サイハテソング (Saihate Song)
• Doldrums* - Hotfoot
• METZ* - Acetate
• Digits* - Rachel Marie

Catch up time!

Apologies for the massive delay in posting the tracklists over the past three weeks!!!! I'll post them, but without commentary (for now). I'll add the mp3 links to podcasts at a later date. I'm currently in the process of deciding where to commit more of my time radio wise: getting my own (more specialized) show? Production, which I've always been interested in? Contribute more arts/music reviews?

I hope to figure it all out by the end of July.

June 4 - Mixing it up real nice

Songs played:

• Bella Cat* - Corrupted
• Alex Cuba feat. Ron Sexsmith* - Half a Chance
• Atlantis Airport - Hikari to Kage no Aida (光と影の間)
• Aero Flynn - Dk/Pi
• Weed* - Muscles
• Needs* - Clowns to the Left of Me, Dzhokhars to the Right
• Geographer - Need
• Purity Ring* - Begin Again
• Prinze George - Upswing
• Holobody* - Ninnyhammer
• Helena Hauff - Drowning Demons

We kick off this set with some classic bluesy-sounding Bella Cat, followed by some Cuban-influenced sunny track by Alex Cuba and Ron Sexsmith. Keeping with the 'world' theme I introduce one of the bands from Next Music From Tokyo, Vol. 7: Atlantis Airport. Some nice mathy rock.

Then we get onto the funny part where I try to link four artists together. Aero Flynn and the lead singer of Weed are both from Eau Claire and both know Justin Vernon of Bon Iver!
Then I link Weed and Needs, due to the fact that I used to confuse these two...haha. :P
Then a band called Needs and a song called 'Need'...isn't that awesome?

By the way, I don't believe Needs actually is performing on June 12. Sorry for the misinformation if that is the case!!! Brass is though. Go check them out at the Astoria!

I realized I forgot to announce the Purity Ring track, after Geographer...but at this rate I'd think a lot of people would have recognized it's a Purity Ring song, given a lot of people like to play the electronic duo (and me especially, having played them almost every week these days).

After Purity Ring is one of my favourite songs in the CJSF playlist right now: Upswing by Prinze George. So much, that I made a station ID out of it. XD It's perfect alt-pop, sounding like a mix of latter-day Kelly Clarkson instrumentals with Lana Del Rey-like vocals and the xx-like choruses.

We wrap it all up with two quirky electro tracks...first is by a Montreal-based electropop duo, Holobody, with a track that sounds like a combo of Milk & Bone and Grimes. The last was a house-influenced but VERY dark instrumental with lots of heavy percussion/beats from German producer Helena Hauff.

Audio links!
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_June_04_20_00.mp3
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_June_04_20_30.mp3

May 28 - sneak peek of NMFT, and plenty of electro

Songs played:

• otori - Gakushuu (学習)
• PENs+ - Tabi ni detai, to itte (旅に出たい、と言って)
• Joywave feat. KOPPS - Tongues
• Humans* - Faith
• Longwalkshortdock* - Choked by Robots
• Saxsyndrum* - Maceonectar
• Madeon feat. Dan Smith - La Lune
• Purity Ring* - Sea Castle
• Braids* - Taste
• Project Pablo* - The Feeling

I've got some exciting news: I'm reviewing the Next Music From Tokyo concert Vol. 7 for CJSF! I'm super, super stoked for this. As far as I know all are within the indie rock umbrella, with otori and mothercoat being super mathy while PENs+ is more like standard J-rock (from what I know anyways right now).

It's a way to educate myself on the Japanese indie music scene, since I actually don't know much at all about emerging talent in my own country, having only really lived there for 5-6 years. I'm actually learning more about Japanese music through CJSF! Strange how things work in this rapidly globalizing world right? :P

It's on at the Biltmore Cabaret, June 17. Tix only $10! Sweet deal, right? ;)

The rest of the set are some really awesome electronic stuff, starting with some awesome alternative electropop from Joywave (who was featured on that Big Data hit "Dangerous") and Humans (my favourite Vancouver-based electropop duo).

We then go into some really glitchy dystopian-sci-fi-meets club beats in "Choked by Robots", from East Van Digital artist Longwalkshortdock. I hadn't actually heard LWSD's newer stuff prior to showcasing the track on air so that was a very weird but extremely intriguing discovery! They're charting on the CJSF charts as well, at #3 (for the week ending May 26).

After that was another electro instrumental from Montreal duo Saxsyndrum...this time a lot prettier but still captivating synthy track. "Maceonectar" is a featured track on the Oh Hi vol. 1 compilation album that *should* be added next week...stay tuned for that folks. I'm reviewing it for the station, and I think the compilation's the best I've gotten from the review bundle.

Afterwards it's a lot more electropop-oriented...starting with what sounds kind of like a house remix of a Bastille track by French producer Madeon and Bastille singer Dan Smith. Then we move on to two awesome Albertan electro artists, Purity Ring and Braids.

We then wrap up the set with some house-influenced track from Project Pablo, quite a popular one here at CJSF. Project Pablo is signed to Vancouver-based label 1080p, though the artist is based in Montreal.

I'm kind of trying to make my Jumbalaya sound seamless by learning how to crossfade songs at well-timed moments so it sounds like the tracks play into one another. The transition between Joywave's and Humans' track worked well, for example - percussive ending of the former track into the percussive beginning of the latter. Oh, and Alt-J's "Bloodflood Pt. II" and Hozier's "Take Me to Church", with the piano cadences. (Though this example isn't very ideal, given that the latter is a Top 40 hit. :P )

It was influenced by one DJ workshop I attended about a year back. I now treat the mixing board as an instrument, and I often try and find two songs that would play well together...kind of like being a club DJ!

Hopefully that'll make my show stand out...somewhat. :P

May 20 - Clubs Days Mix

So I decided to take up a DJing gig for the SFSS clubs days, complete with some KAOSS pad sound effects with the help of DJ Monoloq!
Monoloq is one of the DJs for The EDM Show by the way, that's on from Fridays 10pm-12:30am at CJSF 90.1FM. Check out some sick EDM mixes then! ;)

Songs played:

• Caribou - All I Ever Need
• Until the Ribbon Breaks feat. Run the Jewels - Revolution Indifference
• Until the Ribbon Breaks - Perspective
• Until the Ribbon Breaks - A Taste of Silver
• Joywave feat. KOPPS - Tongues
• Humans - Faith
• Joywave - Now
• Humans - Tell Me
• Humans - Over Again
• Humans - Ennio
• Humans - Watusi
• Hot Chip - How Do You Do
• Tei Shi - Bassically
• Prinze George - Upswing
• Radar Cult - Found a Way
• Jungle - Busy Earnin'
• Purity Ring - Begin Again
• Austra - Bass Drum Dance
• Alison Wonderland - I Want U
• Purity Ring - Dust Hymn
• Alison Wonderland - Lies
• Mord Fustang feat. LIINKS - Pop

Most popular was Alison Wonderland's "I Want U". I got a lot of positive feedback for that one! :D
And yes, lots of Humans tracks. But the best thing about the Noontide album is that all the consecutive tracks play into each other in such a way that they sound like one very long continuous track! I've listened through the album since about February or March and I'm yet to get sick of it.

If you liked Alison Wonderland, she has a new LP out. It's called Run. Check it out if you're into the club-ready EDM stuff!

Also, if you like Humans' Noontide as much as I do, check out Shout Out Out Out Out! Aside from having the best band name ever, the SOOOO frontman Nik Kozub has produced the Humans album I so love to play, and thus share a similar sound of semi-distorted vocals, lots of melodic synths and synth bass, and well-crafted mix of electronic- and organic-sounding beats.
Kozub's also produced stuff for the Wet Secrets. They're great too. They won Alberta's Peak Performance Project, and they're coming to Fortune Sound Club on Wednesday to kick off the 2015 PPP with BC winners Good For Grapes!

May 14 - SOCAN mix!

Apologies for the very late posting!! This is from last week; today I didn't have a Jumbalaya since I was out at a networking event, which went well :)

Here's what I've played. All tracks Cancon. (Not all tracks clean.) :P

• The Dirty Nil - Cinnamon
• NEEDS - The Only Good Condo is a Dead Condo
• BRASS - Monolithic
• The Zolas - Molotov Girls
• Humans - Watusi
• Milk & Bone - Coconut Water
• Braids - Miniskirt
• Tei Shi - Bassically
• Purity Ring - Dust Hymn
• Mord Fustang feat. LIINKS - Pop
• Ill Tone - Everybody BAILED!
• Joel Plaskett - The Park Avenue Sobriety Test

The mix that night fell on a SOCAN survey day, when the writers of the songs the radio programmers play get awarded royalties...as long as they're registered with SOCAN.

In order for tracks to qualify as Canadian Content (and thus eligible for SOCAN royalties), they must satisfy the MAPL criteria:

• Music - music is composed by a Canadian
• Artist - artist is a Canadian citizen, or a non-citizen who has lived in Canada for the past 6 months
• Performance - recorded or performed in Canada
• Lyrics - lyrics are written by a Canadian

I wasn't too sure if Tei Shi qualified since she's now Brooklyn-based, but she's labeled as CanCon in most radio stations across Canada.
Mord Fustang is an Estonian living in LA, but since LIINKS contributed some portion of music and lyrics and recordings in their home base of Victoria, BC, they qualify (as far as I know).

May 7 - All the loud stuff

Songs played:

• Big Dick* - Crawl
• Oromocto Diamond* - Osamu
• Zoobombs - Funky Movin'
• Mothercoat - In Bathtub
• Sleater-Kinney - Fangless
• Screaming Females - Rose Mountain
• NEEDS* - We Forgot the Records to Our Record Release Show
• Cancer Bats* - Arsenic in the Year of the Snake
• I am Machi* - Torpedo
• Dead Soft* - Everything
• METZ* - Eyes Peeled

One of my favourite things about hosting an open-format music show such as the Jumbalaya is that I have the option to play any genre I want...electro, indie pop, world music, folk, and (for this one) punk and garage rock.

We're getting NEEDS' self-titled release this week I believe. Super stoked for this one!!! Also check out the video for the song I've played you in this set. I was there when they shot the live clips! ;)

METZ's second album is awesome!! If you like NEEDS then you'll most certainly like METZ ;)