Also just heard from my pal from across the pond, DJ Supermarkt of the internationally-known DJ-team-extraordinaire, Berlin Battery. He made a neat little mashup (or “shredit bootie” as he likes to say) of my song “N.I.C.E.” with some awesome 70s disco, complete with extra-funky slap bass solo… Take a listen and/or download here:
Enjoy it, share it, BUMP IT! And in other news, finishing up a new remix for a cool band out of Australia – I think you’re gonna like it. Will be posting in the next week or so.
Had the distinct pleasure of seeing Esau of The Very Best perform a secret show @ Zebulon in Brooklyn this past weekend. It was total insanity – dancing, drinking, debauchery… good times!
And in related news, the blog results are in, and people are loving my little remix! Here’s a digest of what the bloggers are blabbin’, and if you still haven’t heard / downloaded it, check it out here:
Sheena Beeston “Discoliciously gooey pop/rock… Amping up the beat and playing with a ridiculously catchy undertone worthy of a “Paul Simon-esque” comparison, Wilkis makes the already cool track that much radder.”
Together in Digital Dreams “It’s like they went back in time, found their souls in the 80’s and joined Passion Pit in taking over the world. Well done.”
Danger Danger “When I listen to Alan Wilkis‘ tracks, may it be remixes or originals, I can but help to think ‘This guy has to be, or deserve to, get all the attention the world can muster…’ I love what he does, and in my eyes he’s close to a genius.”
Azltron “If you were looking for the jam of the summer, look no further… Transports all listeners instantly to a fantastic island themed party on the beech with all the bacardi and bikinis anyone could ever want.”
I’m extremely pleased to present my latest remix for your listening enjoyment. The song is “Warm Heart of Africa” by the group, The Very Best, and it features Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend on vocals. The band has been called “best new music” on multiple occasions by Pitchfork, they are adored by Stereogum, and you can read about them… well… just about EVERYWHERE!
The group is a collaboration between Malawian-born singer, Esau Mwamwaya, and London electro-producers, Radioclit. Their debut album came out digitally on August 25th, and I’ve been listening to it non-stop. It’s an amazing fusion of traditional African melodies with modern electronic synths, beats, etc… and the results are eeeeeeeeeeLECTRIFYING!
And when I was offered the chance to remix for them, I of course leapt at the opportunity. It was a total blast to work on, and I’m thrilled to share it with you here! By all means, PLEASE share it with your friends and fellow-music-lovers. Spread that ish like hot butter on your breakfast toast!
NEWS NEWS NEWS! I’ve just about completed work on two new fancy and “official” remixes of some delightful bands, and will be starting on a few more shortly thereafter… If all goes as planned, I should be sharing one of them with y’all within the next week or two! Stay tuned…
And some more reviews came floating in for “Pink and Purple” – hard to believe it’s been almost 3 months since I released that puppy, and even harder to believe that people are STILL reviewing it! But I ain’t complaining!
Indie Soup Runner – [Interview] “Aural and blissful decadence… This artist and funk-meister’s ear for precision in the studio and Philip Bailey-esque falsetto make you wanna dance until your ass turns into a mush of muscle.”
Green Owl Records Blog – [Interview] “Producer / multi-instrumentalist Alan Wilkis reminds me a bit of his namesake’s ’supernatural extra brilliant intelligent’ line from Footnote to Howl. Wilkis is a magnanimous mothaf***a, a friend of a friends, someone that probably knows people you know in Brooklyn.”
Concerning This – [Interview] “Electro-ish, funky, feel good music… It’s very good. Check his stuff out, seriously.”
Bon Ton – “Fan-frigging-tastic… Like being transported back to my teen years, only better… Chock-full of 80s vibe, but it’s not derivative at all… It has upped synth and beat to the next level, creating something as modern as it is retrospective. It’s a slim six songs long, so you don’t get bored, and I dare you not to at least chair-dance.”
And if you’re still reading at this point, here’s two things I’ve been loving this week (in case you missed ‘em on the old Twitter). The first is a delightful piece of glitched out electronic music from a gentleman named Wolfgang Gartner:
The second is a song and the accompanying 1979 music video for “The No. 1 Song in Heaven” by Sparks. If you’re not familiar with Sparks, they are SO weird and SO awesome… Very difficult to describe their music, but I’ll try: performance art, with a twisted sense of humor, yet deeply-rooted in pop music tradition and catchy as hell… Their career spans several decades, and they’re still making music nowadays, I believe, so they don’t really fit in one genre – they EVOLVE… This song is from a record they did with disco-super-producer, Giorgio Moroder – chock full of awesome disco and extreme falsetto super-cool-numba-one!!!! Enjoy:
Welcome to Wilcassettes, the home of everything Alan Wilkis. Alan is a Brooklyn-based music producer and remixer. His latest project is called "PRINTS" and can be found here: http://www.prints.fm
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