Pools - Woods and Trails

If you haven't heard of Pools yet, you need to get yourself a Soundcloud account - as that seems to be where Pools has gained the most traction (Pools also has twitter and instagram accounts, but neither come close to the 13,000+ followers on Soundcloud). I came across Pools a while back as there was early support from Louis The Child, and I am glad for that.  There has been a ton of quality material on Soundcloud, though there are very few tracks that extend even past the 2:00 mark.  The short track length is partially what kept me from posting much of the material before, but definitely check the previous material.  They're all great productions, albeit short on time.

Woods and Trails is another example of this, clocking in at only 1:46.  Even in that short amount of time though, there are some really great places explored, with a really mellow and chilled back soundscape and an interesting vocal sample. It's got a bit of an electronica/hip hop vibe to it, but it's hard to pin down.  It seems that all of Pools' work has a strong experimental vibe to it, which is quite refreshing.  Check out the body of work available here.

- KJ

Mellow Monday Mix

This Monday is a holiday here in Saskatchewan, so I decided to make a chill but funky mix for Mellow Monday.  Here it is, with the tracklisting below.  Hope you enjoy.

Tracklisting:
1. Midnight (Downlow'd Remix) - Coldplay
2. We Can - Zuri Akoko
3. Do Anything - Feki
4. You Know - Derlee
5. A Little Bit Of Love (Souleance "C'est La Fête" ReEdit) - Brenda Russell vs. Souleance
6. Home By Now (Louis The Child Remix) - Bombay Bicycle Club
7. Certified Freak (Jailo & Yung Wall Street Refix) - Baby Bash
8. Breathe - Rubee Rayne
9. Everyday Poppa - Slynk
10. TBIM - Josh Pan
11. Don't Say ft. Tyga (Beshken Remix) - LIZ
12. Fine (LeMarquis & FAB Remix) - Whitney Houston
13. Need You 100% ft. A*M*E (Boean Bootleg) - Duke Dumont
14. You're So High (LoftyLows Rethink) - Eli & Fur
15. Rainy Dayz - Hernene
16. Vogue - Mad Villains x Holt Blackheath
17. These Heights (Detroit Swindle Mile High Club Remix) - TCTS, Shivum Sharma
18. Hurt Your Back (Extended Mix) - Full Crate
19. Where You Belong (Dave Luxe Edit) - The Weeknd

- KJ

SoySauce - Broken Record (ft. Joni Fatora) (Louis The Child Remix)

What style would this be classified as? Electro Pop? Future Beats? Chilled Bass Music? Whatever style you try to pigeonhole this one into, it's hard to deny the fact that it's super enjoyable on so many levels.

The intro threw me off a bit I have to say, it sounds kind of like a lo-fi digitally distorted synth, and I was already wondering where this was going to go. Enter Joni Fatora on vocals at 0:32, and the track went from what I thought was going to be just a happy, different sounding instrumental, into full blown sugar pop territory - and I say that in all the best ways. If this one had me hooked when the vocal dropped, I was long gone when the drop came, still under a minute into the track.

Check out Louis The Child's Soundcloud, and hit the shopping cart in the player below to get to the free downloads page, where there are a bunch more remixes for free as well.

If you want to hear the original from Soy Sauce, I also have to give it a full plug, if only for the awesome way that they released it.  Broken Record is available both as a free download, and as a paid track through iTunes. However, if you purchase it through iTunes with Soy Sauce's Lunch Money EP, all proceeds from the EP are going toward setting up school lunch projects in some of the world's poorest communities through the project Everybody Eats. It's hard to concentrate fully at school on an empty stomach, and many kids who have this issue are also faced with other difficult issues that affect their ability to be successful in school. If you decide to purchase through iTunes, you are helping to feed a child and enable them to succeed in school by lowering at least one of their barriers. Check out the original below and watch for the iTunes release sometime in February to help out with the cause.

- KJ