Nineteen Ninety Never

In the comment section of io9 a few months ago, someone suggested that t-shirts be made depicting a quote attributed to George Orwell:

“Back in the 1900s, it was a wonderful experience for a boy to discover H.G. Wells. There you were, in a world of pedants, clergymen and golfers…and here was this wonderful man who could tell you about the inhabitants of the sea, and who knew that the future was not going to be what respectable people imagined.“

Its a wonderful quote, and I completely agree with the commenter that shirts should be made, so I’m offering my design above, paraphrased from that quote (clicking on the image will give you the layered, PSD file should you wish to use it - I can’t remember where I got the template).

I’m certainly not a graphic designer, so if you make your own version, let me know in the comments or via email. It’ll probably be better than what I’ve come up with.

Keep the sci-fi dream alive, my friends…and while you’re at it, grok these future tracks:

Cut Copy - Future

Futurecop! vs. Ciara - Fast Forward 1 2 Step (props to Trash Menagerie for posting that one)

If you liked this shirt, check out more sci-fi shirts themed shirts on 199x

Its the beginning of March here in Toronto (actually, its probably the beginning of March in the whole world) and the weather is unseasonably warm. To celebrate, I ate lunch on a patio.

Is this the beginning of summer? I hope so, and to get in the mood I’ve been listening to these smart Beach Boys remixes.

Beach Boys - Good Vibrations (Stanton Warriors Remix)

Beach Boys - Wouldn’t It Be Nice (TheGirlsCanHearUs! Remix)

More love for TheGirlsCanHearUs! and a few more Beach Boys here.

The lovely girl in that photo? That’s Heather and she writes Toronto Uncovered.

Phase02 is one of those blogs that is the perfect mixture of design and music - you can tell that they’ve put some serious thought into the way they want the blog to look and how it fits with the sound they’re sharing.

They recently posted this track by RSD and I knew I just had to listen to it. I mean, the title of the track is “Naked Mario Kart.”

I love Mario Kart. I’m pretty sure that the original Mario Kart is one of the most perfect video games ever. Like chess, it is easy to learn the rules but you can spend a lifetime mastering it. When I lived in Japan, my roommate Ian and I would spend hours playing Kart. We’d enter a kind of zen-like trance, and stay up all night dodging red shells and sniping green shells.

That’s why I was slightly disappointed that the track “Naked Mario Kart’ wasn’t really about Mario Kart. I mean, one of the sounds might be sampled from it but that’s it. The good news is that it’s really got that etheral, spacey feel that I’ve been digging lately.

Someone also dropped me this Peo De Pitte rework of Telepopmusik’s Breathe, and its also worth a listen. Let them be the soundtrack to your Sunday evening.

RSD  - Naked Mario Kart (Graphics Remix)

Telepopmusik - Breathe (Peo de Pitte Remix)

Between this post and the earlier one with the Starfox image you’re probably thinking I’m getting nostalgic for the SNES days of yore (the Starfox battle mode being great, but nowhere near as good as classic Kart).

You’re right, but its not a new thing. I’m sure one small part of my mind is always thinking about Super Mario Kart.

For more video game themed tracks, check out this post with a Metal Gear Solid rap and this one with some more MGS and a track from the Ocarina of Rhyme album.

Satellite image via here

It’s not everyday that a Chicago DJ emails you to tell you that your write-up on Juke was great and that he’s stoked that the music he loves has reached such a global level:

“I think that juke will not end up like a flash in the pan style of music since there is a huge culture that is tied in with it (foot working, Midwest Loyalty, etc)…nothing is more diversifying and mass appealing as Juke music, its all about the rhythm and booty shakin’, and lets face it, fotworkin’ is exciting to watch!”

I don’t really know what he’s on about “midwest loyalty, but his name is STARFOXXX, and he also dropped me some choice Juke cuts. Check ‘em below and file them under Partying All The Time:

DJ Clent - Bounce

DJ Clent - K-Swiss Juke

Crucial Conflict - Hay (STARFOXXX Remix)

STARFOXXX - Work It

Anyways, STARFOXXX is also one part of the YAWN music collective - check their website or dig them up on Hype.

I haven’t seen it, but I’m pretty sure 1980’s GALAXINA is probably the most perfect movie in the world. Produced by Playboy, it stars the 1980 Playmate of the year Dorothy Stratten as a “voluptuous android who finds herself alone for many years, developing emotions and falling in love with the ship’s pilot as he and the other crew sleep the years away” after they’ve been placed in suspended animation (Parts of this actually sound suspiciously similar to Alastair Reynolds epic book House of Suns).

The tag line on the movie poster (via) is “IN THE 31st CENTURY MAN FINALLY CREATED A MACHINE…With Feelings” and its going on my must-watch list.

Speaking of machines with feelings, you can’t go wrong with remixes of Florence + the Machine’s You’ve Got The Love. I wrote about the XX remix of that track a little while ago (damn, I love golden robots), and I was glad to hear Adam Smith’s take on it.

The Secret Galaxies remix comes courtesy of T-dot ballers Borracho, who were kind enough to post it on their Myspace page. Its a little more mellow than some of their other stuff, and I definitely like it.

You can’t go wrong with a little Ellie Goulding, and when the theme of the day seems to be galaxies and robots what better than a space-disco track about getting starry-eyed (I’m just going to assume she’s singing about looking at the stars and dreaming about space). These Monarchy cats have done some other mixes, and I dig that they called this one the Horses Head Nebular remix.

Anyways, if you’re in a galactic mood, give ‘em a listen:

Florence + The Machine - You’ve Got The Love (Adam Smith Remix)

Cavaliers of Fun - Secret Galaxies (Borracho! Remix) (via Borracho!’s MysSpace)

Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed (Monarchy “Horse Head Nebular” Remix) (via DiscoDust)

I’ve never been a huge fan of La Roux, but someone sent me this track a few weeks ago and its been keeping me entertained. I just love the way you think its really going to drop just before the 2 minute mark, but then it goes all wobbly again.

La Roux - In For The Kill (Skream’s Lets Get Ravey Remix)

Check out more of that horror sound on 199X. Then hit us on on Twitter

On a lighter note, does anyone think La Roux looks like Fry from Futurama?

(Image via Brandon Sek via Ffffound)

I guess it’s St. Valentine’s day, and the popular thing to do is to write a post themed around it.

Here’s my take.

Amanda Blank - Might Like You Better

Autoerotique - Hey You Hey Me

Usher - Love In This Club (MSTRKRFT Remix)

Goldfrapp - Ooh La La

Ellie Goulding - Under The Sheets (KIDS AT THE BAR Remix)

Dominique Young Unique Vs. Yacht - I’m In Love With A Hot Girl (The Hood Internet Remix)

And if you still need a last minute gift idea for that special occasion, I recommend Shoes of Prey.

A little while ago, XLR8R put together a nice little mix-file of electronica to get you in the mood for Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel. I haven’t seen any episodes of Caprica yet, but I liked enough of Battlestar that I think I could probably get into this new series.

The XLR8R album is a little more mellow than my usual tastes, but there is some still some good stuff on it and I like their thinking.

The Field - I Have The Moon, You Have The Internet (Gold Panda Remix)

White Rainbow - Raw Shanks A Million

Download the full album from XLR8R

After listening to Dj Tuco’s all-Juke mixtape about three times today, I’ve fallen in love again with the music I know so little about.

I mean, what’s not to like about “minimal use of analogue synths, and short, slightly dirty sounding (both sonically and lyrically) vocals samples, often repeated in various ways. Also common are 808 and 909 clap sounds, and full “rapped” verses and choruses.”

Reading DummyMag’s love letter to Chicago Juke didn’t help matters. Pure Juke lives in the bedroom production studios and gymnasium dance-offs of Chicago’s high school kids. It’s constantly changing, and while it might just be a cultural blip it’s one that I can’t get enough of right now. Being a white guy in Canada probably means that I won’t ever even get real juke, either - just the scraps that I can pick up off the interwebs. And nothing says juke scraps like that Die Antwoord track, a Dutch/South African electro jam re-worked by a Prague-based DJ.

Catch these juke tracks, and don’t ever confuse them with jook music: the latter is from Trigga City, the former from the Chi (am I allowed to refer to those cities like that?).

Die Antwoord - Beat Boy (DJ Tuco Juke Remix)

DJ Gant Man -Juke Dat Girl

Props to Salacious Sounds for the Gant Man track.

Maybe its the cold weather (or maybe its because I’ve been using those Bose noise-canceling headphones instead of iPod ear buds) but I’ve really been digging that spacey electro sound these days.

Also - did you know that 2009 was the International Year of Astronomy? I only found that out the other day via post about Simon Page’s Astronomy posters on Sci-Fi-O-Rama. I guess that makes Twenty-Ten the Year After The Year of Astronomy.

Anyways, The Diogenes Club dropped me some of their tracks via email a week about, and while I don’t like all of them “Tie Ourselves Around” has sound I like. You can listen to a few of their other tracks here.

And Kenji Kawai? That’s some good scene-stealing background music.

Kenji Kawai - Unnatural City

The Diogenes Club - Tie Ourselves Around