mixtape maestro (2.0)

Nothing more but a bunch of cover songs that have been bubbling around in recent weeks. Enjoy!!

Tanya Morgan “Breakadawn”/ Skillz & Colin Munroe “Baby Phat” (De La Soul Covers)

Two highlight entries pulled from Mick Boogie & Terry Urban’s latest mixtape collabo, a multi-artist tribute compilation to De La Soul’s twenty-year strong legacy entitled Le Da Soul (download the full set here): the MJ-sampling groover “Breakadawn” see the unmistakably DLS-influenced Tanya Morgan cleverly weaving in their own spin to Pos and Trugoy’s script, while Skillz (assisted by longtime MM fave Colin Munroe) gives the curvalicious female sect a nice shout-out (“I like chicks thicker/ Imagine me dating a lil’ stick figure”) in a revamp of “Baby Phat”.

DL: “Breakadawn”

DL: “Baby Phat”

Ellie Goulding & Erik Hassle “Be Mine (Robyn Cover)”

In which two current blog-pop phenoms take a break from their respective on-the-rise careers for an acoustic guitar-backed duet rendition of Robyn’s 2005 single (best known for it’s drama-tastic spoken word bridge and one of the most heartwrenching opening lines ever put to pad-”It’s a good thing, tears never show in the pouring rain/ As if a good thing ever could make up for all the pain”).

Of course, for those who have heard Robyn’s own stripped-down take, Goulding and Hassle‘s re-read won’t be that much of a mind-blower, but oh does their vocals meld beautifully when harmony time comes around.

DL: “Be Mine”

Snow Patrol “Ray of Light (Madonna Cover)”

True, the folk-y swing that Irish alt-rockers Snow Patrol build to on the hook of this Top 5 Madonna smash kind of feels pathetic when compared to the explosive epiphany Maddie brought to the table, but we must be honest with at least this much: hearing “Light”‘s heavy verses under the band’s earnestly melancholy arrangement catches a pleasant lullaby-like mood we wouldn’t mind being soothed with at the end of a long and hard work-day.

DL: “Ray of Light”

VV Brown “Miss You (Rolling Stones Cover)”

Though England-born indie pop-punk/ soul-ster VV Brown was given a major hype push earlier this year when she was recognized as a Top Ten finalist in the BBC’s “One To Watch” poll, Sounds of 2009, she has so far struggled in earning much pop chart love (Out of four singles released, only one has managed to chart in the UK Top 40).

Still, we say keep following her. Not only because her critically-acclaimed debut album, Travelling Like The Light, has plenty of quirked-out, retro-pop/ rock/ soul goodies to offer (contrary to radio support), but also because she’s proven to be a hoot with her on-the-fly YouTube cover creations (check out her renditions of “Crazy In Love”, “Day N Nite” and “Best I Ever Had”).

There’s nothing silly about her take on the Rolling Stones’ 1978 classic “Miss You” though, which trades in the original’s bluesy-disco strut for a despair-drenched Southern-fried soul vibe.

DL: “Miss You”

Mumford & Sons “I’m Not Alone (Calvin Harris Cover)”

Part of the same London folk scene that has birthed the likes of Noah and The Whale and Laura Marling, the four-piece Mumford & Sons caught plenty of ears with their debut single, “Little Lion Man”, an enrapturing cut seething with self-loathing (“I really fucked it up this time/ Didn’t I my dear?”) and an edge-of-apocalypse hoedown rattle.

That same pluck-heavy furor is called upon for their surprisingly decent Live Lounge rendition of Calvin Harris’ ’90′s-dance tribute “I’m Not Alone”, their woodsy slant working wonders in an impressive mimicking of the same soft vocals/ loud music dichotomy that made the original so enticing.

DL: “I’m Not Alone”

Slim Twig “Behold A Lady (Outkast Cover)”

Toronto-based indie label Paper Bag Records turned seven this month (Happy birthday PB!!), and to help celebrate this event, they’ve unleashed the covers compilation, The Seven Year Itch, for free from their site.

Amongst it’s twelve-song tracklisting, plenty of fascinating grabs can be found (including Josh Reichmann’s rustic campfire take on Bat For Lashes’ “Daniel” and CFCF’s ’80′s new wave & vocoder-baked treatment of OMC’s quirky international fave “How Bizarre”), but the one perched atop our highlight picks would have to be a cover of Andre 3000′s The Love Below-housed tribute to the classy female, “Behold A Lady”, as handled by Canadian-born noise-art eccentric Slim Twig.

Sludging up the original’s lean digi-funk with a dense garage stomp and kooky, vampiric vocals that sound like they’re being emitted from a broken-down loudspeaker, Twig charmingly re-brands the song with a brush of his own unique “ice cold” cool, providing belated props to an oft-overlooked Below gem.

DL: “Behold A Lady”

Pixie Lott “When Love Takes Over (David Guetta/ Kelly Rowland Cover)”

Where David & Kelly’s original aimed to split open the heavens from it’s opening moments with all of it’s big dance diva grandeur, this Live Lounge version by English singer-songwriter Lott goes for a more organic lift-off.

Opening on a slow and meditative tip that plants a pleasant spotlight on the grainy squiggles of soul embedded in Pix’ pipes, the remake makes a better play at illustrating love taking over, growing more and more bold with each added layer of (mostly Coldplay-nicked) instrumentation and upgraded tempo notch until it explodes in a fireworks-like display of romantic euphoria.

DL: “When Love Takes Over”

The fourth release lifted from The Noisettes‘ excellent (and nowhere near as big as it should be) Wild Young Hearts album, “Every Now & Then” sees the London band staying in line with previous singles “Wild Young Hearts” and “Never Forget You”, doling out another magnificent fusion of ex-lover nostalgia with a ’60′s soul-pop-inspired musical frame.

But whereas those tracks hid frontwoman Shingai Shoniwa’s regrets over past romances behind perky arrangements, illustrating a sensibility that she had for the most part healed with the passing of time, “Every Now & Then” follows an opposite route, finding her still handicapped by an enormous heartache with moody guitar and swirling strings depicting her inner despair with a moving dramatic flair.

“You see we were never through/ I never said I loved you/ Even when we said goodbye/ I never thought it was the last time,” a down-in-the-dumps Shingai recalls, a single moment of solitude or a certain song being played on the radio instantly filling her mind with tearjerking memories of secret kisses in a certain former love’s bedroom and the postcards he would send inked with “stories (that) would excite me”.

With her yearning for a gust of wind to bring him back into her life and light up “this empty room” she dubs her current depressing existence, Shoniwa’s sorrow cuts so deep, you can’t help but be pulled into the doldrums alongside her, especially once the arrival of a stunning Bond theme song-like climax of swollen orchestration and piercing cries of being “down, down, down” come into play.

Catch the song’s music video below, then take a listen to one of our favorite cuts from Mick Boogie and Terry Urban’s must-have Noisettes vs. Kanye West mash-up mixtape Wild Young Heartbreak: “Saturday Night Paranoia”, Chicago production duo Christian Rich‘s metallic-sleek marriage of the Noisettes’ revenge fantasy “Saturday Night” with West’s whip-crack heavy, new wave jaunt “Paranoid”.

DL: “Saturday Night Paranoia (Christian Rich Remix)” (alt)

Tucked away in the closing third of Peter Bjorn and John’s Living Thing lies the underappreciated treasure “Stay This Way”, a lackadaisical reflection on one’s existence (“In my ridicule I thought that I was something special/ In spite of ordinary dreams/ But you end up getting tired of doing psychoanalysis of yourself”) that simultaneously brews a faint flickering of being a touching love ode (“You can only do as much in little time/ If you’re up for sharing I can split up mine/ ‘Cause it makes me happy”).

Geeky Valentine sentiments aside though, the track’s main pull lies in it’s production: a drowsy, snap-accented doo-wop arrangement (think a sluggish “Stand By Me”) that treads along so heavily, even the pregnant pauses between it’s punctuating bass plops feel like they weigh a ton. Despite that unappealing description, it’s a great sublime groove, one you could easily lose your thoughts in…and one that (with a little remix tinkering from producer DJ Jazzy Jeff) surprisingly comes across quite pleasantly when supporting a trio of emcees respectively wishing that they could have stayed ‘Toys R’ Us kids’.

The latest cut to leak from Mick Boogie’s highly-anticipated mixtape re-imagining of Living Thing (due August 27th), this Jeff-helmed revamp cleverly splices together original lines “I don’t wanna grow up” and “‘Cause it makes me happy” to form a brand new hook and inspire some fond childhood-recalling memories (including references to Nintendo 64, “Knight Rider”, lunchboxes, Hot Wheels, “TGIF”, sneak viewings of BET’s “Comic View”, freeze tag and, yes, “Do You Like Me?” notes) from featured rappers Big Pooh, Phil Nash and Chaundon.

DL: “Stay This Way” (alt)

DL: “Stay This Way (DJ Jazzy Jeff Remix)” (alt)

Remember The Fugees’ cover of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly”, and the mystifying hold it had over you with it’s odd blend of Lauryn Hill’s chocolate-y soul wail against that sparse “Bonita Applebaum” drum loop (itself a sampling of Little Feat’s “Fool Yourself”)? Well, the Mick Boogie team tap somewhere close to that spirit in their latest mash-up project, Adele: 1988, which fixes nine cuts from the Grammy golden girl’s acclaimed debut opus 19 to the familiar beat skeletons of hip hop’s late ’80′s heyday.

For the soaring heartache ballad “Melt My Heart To Stone”, one of those songs that many turned to in ’08 while whimpering into a half-swallowed vodka bottle late at night, Adele’s self-berating of being “the only one in love” floats o’er worming guitar and the light drum tickle of Al Green’s oft-referenced “I’m Glad You’re Mine” (borrowed on MC Lyte’s ’88 fave “Paper Thin” amongst so many other rap titles). Trading in some of the original’s depressing weight for a toe-tapping midtempo lilt (and including a brief mid-song verse from Little Brother’s Big Pooh), this Kickdrums Remix should have you falling in love with the “Chasing Pavements” songstress all over again.

DL: “Melt My Heart To Stone (Kickdrums Remix)” (alt)

Snatch up the nVMe remix of Maestro 19 favorite, “Right As Rain” (now backed by the classic instrumental to LL’s “Goin Back To Cali”!!!), below:

DL: “Right As Rain (nVMe Remix)” (alt)

Pick up the rest of Adele: 1988 via Press Play Fashion Forward.