- Madeon feat. Nicholas Petricca - Finale
- Krewella feat. Diskord - Beggars
- Perturbator - She is Young, She is Beautiful, She is Next
- Le Matos* - Like Faith or Some Shit
- John Carpenter - Night
- Hedway* - At You
- Sabota feat. Charles Damara* - Next Time
- Humans* - Avec Mes Mecs
- Snowday* - The Seventh String
- Mark de Monoloq* - MK 320
- Hudson Mohawke - Scud Books
- Gotan Project - Diferente
- Purity Ring* - Push Pull
- MØ - Final Song
Thanks so much to Chris Spangenberg (former host of hip hop/downtempo show No Channel for Old Men) for co-hosting this final episode of PulsarSounds!! This selection showcased electronically-oriented artists/songs that held quite a lot of significance for me throughout my time at CJSF.
"Brace yourself for the grand finale!" Walk the Moon vocalist Nicholas Petricca opens the set singing this very fitting line in this Madeon track. After Krewella's epic track from their newly-released EP Ammunition we get into Chris's picks!
Chris has brought on a bunch of really cool dark synthwave tracks. 3 of them are showcased tonight, starting with Perturbator, a French artist which was actually also requested back in February for my show by Dustyn! Quebec's Le Matos follows - they've composed the soundtrack to the sci-fi/action film Turbo Kid, and I believe this is from the companion album to the soundtrack, Chronicles of the Wasteland. Another film composer, John Carpenter, follows with some similar synthwave sounds. Very 80s, but was just released last year.
Local artists get some love and mentions for the next 5 tracks, including two CJSF affiliates, drum-and-bass producer Hedway (aka Mike Heath) and the more ambient/experimental Mark de Monoloq! The three in between are affiliates of local indie electronic label Hybridity Music, though the Humans and Snowday tracks I've played are releases from before they were signed to the label.
Chris and I also got to talking when we were listening to the Humans track, talking about party anthems...'Avec Mes Mecs' is one of those which would really fit a house party setting, given that its signature line is 'who knew that all we had to do was party?'. It sort of reminds me of quite a few party anthems released around that time, like Kesha's 'TiK ToK' and the Black Eyed Peas' 'I Gotta Feeling'. (Hey, I lived at SFU's first-year Residence around that time, where I was exposed to a ton of mainstream party tunes. I could go on about being exposed to certain types of party pop during my experience as a Residence Orientation Leader/participant, but I won't get into that now.)
The three that follow have a special place in my heart due to their composition: 'Scud Books' remains one of Hudson Mohawke's finest compositions to date with its fuller, symphonic approach to trap; 'Diferente' is a long-time favourite from my teenage years from this tango/hip hop/electronica-influenced French-Argentinian trio; and Purity Ring's 'Push Pull' is a beautiful progression to a brighter, fuller sound from their Shrines-era material, making use of glitchy polyrhythmic riffs to back Megan James's airy vocals.
Danish indie-popster MØ closes out PulsarSounds with a track that ironically cries out, 'don't let this be our final song'...well, PulsarSounds has come to a close after 20 episodes, but this blog will continue. It just will take on a new URL, and the title of the blog will change around the beginning of June.
Thanks always for listening to PulsarSounds! :D I hope to continue exploring and sharing music after this. And thanks so much to CJSF 90.1FM for providing me with this opportunity :)
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