remix

Coachella Band Preview: Matoma

We are officially 10 days away from Coachella 2016! Get hype! With the festival beginning next weekend, there’s only so much time to preview artists for this year’s event. I seriously hope you’ve been listening to your favorite Coachella 2016 acts for the last several weeks or more because it’s so much better when you know all of the songs during a set instead of a couple. I have more tunes for your Coachella prep this week and an in depth preview of an EDM DJ that I briefly spoke about in my Coachella 2016 lineup release post.

Matoma a.k.a. Tom Stræte Lagergren is an EDM DJ and producer from Filsa, Norway. He was involved in music from a young age as a classical pianist, but eventually wanted to get into some different aspects of music. After buying a computer and software for basic music production, he started producing his own music. He came on to the club scene in 2014 with a few remixes, but his biggest hit so far has been his remix of The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Old Thing Back”. The remix was a charted single in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and New Zealand. Since then, Matoma released his debut album, Hakuna Matoma, in November 2015 and has created plenty more remixed songs.

Matoma’s music fits into a particular category on the EDM spectrum, tropical house. Tropical house music is a subgenre of deep house and ultimately house music. The music uses synth and a 4/4 beat which is standard for house music. What sets it apart is the more uplifting, relaxing, airy type of sound. The instruments used have that island vibe hence the “tropical” aspect of it. It’s also a bit slower than deep house and doesn’t have the pumping beat associated with house music.

As I said in my earlier blog post, I first heard of Matoma because of his “Old Thing Back” remix. It was one of the first EDM style song in addition to RAC’s music that I actually enjoyed. I don’t listen to Matoma’s other stuff at all, but if I were heading out to Coachella this year, I would definitely want to catch his set strictly because his music fits the Coachella vibe perfectly. In fact, the tropical house style is the genre that captures the essence of Coachella best.

Matoma plays Coachella on Saturday. The set times and stages haven’t been announced yet, but my perfect version of a Matoma set would be as the sun is setting on an outdoor stage. With the palm trees, desert breeze, and the ambiance of the entire festival, I feel like that would be the perfect setting for his music. He’ll probably just end up in the Sahara tent though. Either way, I have a feeling his set will be fun, chill, and filled with dancing. To get you ready for the Matoma set, here’s a few tunes you should know:

  1. Old Thing Back (Matoma remix)
  2. Find Love (feat. Dboy)
  3. Running Out
  4. Knives
  5. The Wave (feat. Madcon)
  6. 2 AM (Matoma remix)
  7. Stick Around (with Akon)
  8. Feeling Right (Everything Is Nice) (feat. Wale and Popcaan)

Coachella Band Preview: RAC

Within the past 10 years a music style known as EDM or electronic dance music (can also be referred to as club music), has grown in popularity through artists like Daft Punk, Skrillex, David Guetta, Deadmau5, and Aviici. This style of music is mostly created through the use of electronic equipment and played by DJ’s as opposed to the standard musical instruments. Sometimes these acts will have other artists come in and sing over the tracks they produce thus creating more of a song feel rather than just electronic music.

I’m not into EDM. Never was. LCD Soundsystem might be the only group I like and listen to that’s even close to what you would consider EDM. Last summer though I heard a song that was so catchy and so unlike other club music that I didn’t even realize it was by a DJ type artist. The song was called “Cheap Sunglasses” and it was by a band or should I say artist called RAC.

Formed in 2006, RAC used to stand for Remix Artist Collective. It was an indie project started by Andre Allen Anjos where him and a few others would remix indie songs into something more danceable. Sounds kind of like EDM but not the case. Unlike club music, the remixes created a “unique aesthetic based around emotion and nuance”. To me that means there’s a more whimsical, flowing vibe. RAC created remixed songs by plenty of indie artists including Lana Del Rey, Tegan and Sara, The Shins, Foster the People, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, etc. (the list goes on and on). Nowadays RAC is just RAC and has become Anjos’ solo project. In 2014 RAC released an album called Strangers which uses original compositions and features other artists singing on many of the tracks.

This year RAC is playing Coachella and it’s a set that I’m highly anticipating. I’ve downloaded several other RAC songs besides “Cheap Sunglasses”. I really dig all of them. I tried to purchase the album locally but it was unavailable. I’ll probably end up buying it online. It’s that good. A lot of the songs remind me of something I’d listen to while cruising the California coastline. The sound really is more indie than electronic though. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much without ever realizing that RAC wasn’t a band. Even after I found out, it didn’t turn me away. I have a feeling the Coachella set is going to be so fun and upbeat. I even think my cousin who is more of a Pitbull fan than anything indie rock is going to love it. I guess you can say that RAC is probably the closest I’ll get to liking EDM, but that’s fine by me.

Song recommendations:

1. “Cheap Sunglasses” (feat. Matthew Koma)

2. “Hollywood” (feat. Penguin Prison)

3. “Repeating Motion” (feat. Karl Kling)

4. “Let Go” (feat. Kele & MNDR)

5. “405” (feat. YACHT)

6. “Hard to Hold” (feat. Tegan and Sara)

(Quote source: http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2008-03-12/news/e-mix-andr-eacute-anjos-and-the-remix-artist-collective-leverage-initiative-ingenuity-and-the-internet-into-an-online-music-force/)