The Saturday Club presents... Instant Gratification #01: Me and My Friends Are Classier Than You and Your Friends

Tracklist:

01 Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
02 Ada - Eve
03 Jurgen Pappe - So Weit Wie Noch Nie
04 United State of Electronica - Umbrella of Love (Ron Curty Mix)
05 Sophie Ellis Bextor - Mixed Up World
06 Bloc Party - Banquet (Phones Disco Edit)
07 Coldplay - Clocks (Royksopp's Trembling Heart Remix)
08 Electric Six - Future Is In The Future
09 M.I.A. vs Mylo - U.R.A.Paris (Erik Pearson's Remix)
10 The Knife - Heartbeats
11 Architecture In Helsinki - Like A Call (Two4K's THX Mix)
12 Kylie Minogue - Slow
13 Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue (Postal Service Remix)

So here is the mix I promised last week, the first Instant Gratification. This happened because about... well, probably a year ago now, I started thinking about how I'd rather lost touch with what was going on in electronic music. See, I used to be all down with all the DJs and all, initially as a result of all that big beat Fatboy Slim/Chemical Brothers deal that went down in the late '90s, but later on due to all the good house music that was coming out round that time. Eventually the dance music focus shifted to electro and bastard pop and glitch, which all ended up acting as a a sort of musical torniquet; I lost my patience for broad, sprawling seven minute throbs and became only interested in the short term satisfaction offered by artists like Peaches and Miss Kittin and Chicks On Speed. The bottom fell out of electro pretty quickly, and with plenty of interesting things going on in indie rock and hip hop and modern rock and pop and country and well, everything else, I began to pay less interest in the Euro-geeks-making-blipping-noises scene. Everyone was talking about micro-house, but that genre didn't really have a mainstream arm operating as an easy entry point the way drum 'n' bass or house or trance or any previous genre had, so I didn't really pay much attention to it. I always thought that I should, but that was a responsibility I never followed up on.

Eventually, though, I slsked a bunch of Kompakt releases and resolved to put together a compilation aimed at redressing my recent neglect of electronic music. it didn't actually work; my short attention span quickly piled in all this other stuff I'd been listening to, like Jacques Lu Cont remixes and Scandinavian pop and all this other stuff, and it turned into the compilation posted above. I also decided that the set would work best mixed into an hour of continuous music, all proper club style, and... never one for expedience, I ended up doing that just this past week.

So, OK, it isn't by any means the micro house primer I intended it to be. If anything, it's a mix of vaguely trendy acts that if you weren't paying much attention at all, you might still think were real cool. For this mix, I recommend playing it when you bring all your friends over for one of those fancy-ass dinner party get-togethers I know all you kids are into, one of those dos where you want music that doesn't overpower the conversation, but isn't so bland that you can't convincingly pretend you're listening to it if you need to get away from someone who needs to tell you about their latest property investments in Arizona or something.

Since it is a year later, I should probably make another bid at putting together a proper electronic revisitation, but in all likelihood, it will just turn out like this one again. I can't say I'd mind that too much, though; this has some absolutely fantastic songs on it. I don't think I'll ever get sick of "Mixed Up World" or the incredibly underrated "Future Is In The Future." And if I should ever want to genuinely check out what the dance DJs are doing, I know I can always start reading Stylus' Beatz By The Pound, and its accompanying Podcast.

Until that day comes though, I'll just keep putting together comps like this. In the future though, I may be thinking about tempo as well as awesomeness, which will mean less awkward moments like the super-speed version of The Knife's "Heartbeats" with which this mix is saddled.

Cross posted with Screw Rock 'n' Roll