Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 - June 25, 2009)

I remember seeing Michael Jackson live at the Maifeld in Berlin when I was 10 years old. I will never forget the girl next to me who was having a nervous breakdown, crying while singing along to "Man in the Mirror". Never seen anything like it. MJ truly had a god-like impact on whatever soil he laid foot on.

On stage from the age of 6, Michael Jackson had four straight number one hits by the time he was 12, making him the youngest member of a group ever to reach the number one spot (at 11 yrs). As a solo artist, Michael went on to win 13 Grammy Awards and had another 13 billboard number one singles, with record sales topping 750 million world wide (approx. 110 million through the "Thriller" album alone - his next five albums would go on to sell a combined 115 million). An additional 197 major awards throughout his life/career (including artist of the "Decade", "Generation", "Century" and "Millenium"), 13 entries in the Guiness Book of Records (one for "most successful entertainer of all time") and two inductions into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame make Michael Jackson the most successful solo artist of all time.

Off the stage, Michael Jackson was a committed humanitarian who broke down racial barriers, gave over 300 million dollars to charity and has been formally honored for his contributions by two US Presidents.

This tribute post is in remembrance of Michael Jackson, "The King of Pop", without whom music would not be what it is today.
An homage that reflects how we at Drinkmusik will remember one of history's most talented and charismatic artists, the likes of which we will never see again.


Jackson Five - Big Boy (1967)

Jackson Five's first release, recorded for Steeltown Records. One year later they would be signed by Motown Records.

Jackson Five - Ben (1972)

Theme song for a movie about a rat of the same name. This song made him the third-youngest solo artist (at 14) to score a number-one hit single. Younger: Stevie Wonder (13) and Donnie Osmond (almost 14).

Some rare, but timeless songs from his first solo albums:

Michael Jackson - We've Got A Good Thing Going (taken from the album "Ben", 1972)



Michael Jackson - Up Again (Taken from the album "Music & Me", 1973)



Michael Jackson - Too Young (Taken from the album "Music & Me", 1973)



Michael Jackson - We're almost there (Taken from the album "Forever, Michael", 1975)



Michael Jackson - Interview on Soul Train (1975)

A day in the life of 13-year-old Michael Jackson.


Jackson Five - Let Me Show You The Way To Go (1977)



Jackson Five - Blame it on the Boogie (1978)




Michael Jackson - I Can't Help it (1979)



Michael Jackson - Rock With You (1979)

Definitely one of my personal favorites


Michael Jackson - Girlfriend (1979)



Michael Jackson - Burn This Disco Out (1979)



Jackson 5 - Can You Feel It (1981)



Michael Jackson - Walt Disney Medley (1981)

Rare Walt Disney commercial


Michael Jackson - Starlight (Early demo of "Thriller")

A snippet of an early version of the song "Thriller", originally named "Starlight". Michael Jackson is one of the few artists who wrote most of his own music. Quincy Jones was responsible for his unique sound, but the tunes, the melodies came from Jackson's genius mind.


Michael Jackson - PYT (1982)



Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 Live, Motown (1983)

Michael performing with the Jackson Five


Michael Jackson - Beat It, live (1983)

Famous live performance, many of you will recognize this.


Michael Jackson - Thriller (1983)

The complete mini-film. This 14-minute music video, directed by John Landis, was the most expensive of its time ($500,000). The Guiness Book of Records lists it as the most successful music video of all time, at 9 million units sold.


Grammy Awards 1984, Pt I

MJ would go on to receive a record 8 Grammys that year for his uberalbum "Thriller". By the time of the award show, Thriller had already become the most successful album of all time.


Grammy Awards 1984, Pt II



Grammy Awards 1984, Pt III



Making of "We Are The World" (1985)



Captain EO - Pt I (1986)

Walt Disney film starring Michael Jackson


Captain EO - Pt II (1986)



Michael Jackson - Leave Me Alone (1987)



Michael Jackson Retrospective (1987)

A look at what he accomplished before the release of the "Bad" album.


Michael Jackson's Moonwalker - The Movie (1988)

Classic. Features a collection of films about MJ and movie versions of music videos for his album "Bad".


Michael Jackson's "Bad" - The Story Version, Pt I (1988)

The full length 16-minute movie version


Michael Jackson's "Bad" - The Story Version, Pt II (1988)



Michael Jackson - Grammys 1988 live performance



Michael Jackson receives Heritage Award (1989)

This is the first time Michael Jackson is referred to as "The King of Pop"


Michael Jackson - Man in the Mirror, live at Grammys (1989)



Michael Jackson - You Were There (1990)

The only time he ever performed this song


Michael Jackson's Moonwalker - Sega Genesis video game (1990)



Michael Jackson live at Superbowl XXVII - Part I (1993)



Michael Jackson live at Superbowl XXVII - Part II (1993)



Michael Jackson - Boss Act 1 (1994)

In 1994, Sega hired MJ to produce the soundtrack for "Sonic The Hedgehog 3". This track was produced along with his producer team. However, due to his child molestation charges at the time, he was withdrawn from the project. Only his team's name, "Boss Act 1", remained in the credits.


Michael Jackson live, MTV Music Awards (1995)

Stylish performance to "Dangerous"


Michael Jackson - private footage from the "History" world tour (1997)



MJ & Friends - live in Munich (1999)

With a little help from Slash


Michael Jackson & The Jacksons - 30th Anniversary Jackson Five medley (2001)



Michael Jackson receives "Artist Of The Millenium" award (2002)

"David Blane - your magic is real and I believe in you."


Michael's birthday bash (2003)

Song: "Dear Michael" by Michael Jackson


Michael Jackson - One More Chance (2004)



Michael Jackson at the World Music Awards, introduced by Beyonce (2006)

25th anniversary of "Thriller"


Michael Jackson visits the troops in Japan (2007)



The impact of Michael Jackson's death on the music world is uncanny. His record sales have multiplied drastically in the hours following his passing.

He currently has 51 songs in the American iTunes Top 100 download chart.

Nine of his albums are featured on the American iTunes Top 10 chart. 27 of his albums and compilations are in the Top 100.

In the UK, where Michael Jackson would have performed in 2 1/2 weeks, thirty-nine of Jackson's songs were in the iTunes Top 100 best selling songs list on June 26th, in addition to four Jackson 5 songs.

His albums occupied 14 of the top 20 places on the Amazon.co.uk sales chart.

Google, Twitter, Youtube, Wikipedia and AIM crashed as a result of user overload in the hours after his death.

This is simply unheard of. Michael Jackson is a legend. He will be missed by the world.


"Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through it, my music, I know I will live forever." - Michael Jackson (Aug 29, 1958 - Jun 25, 2009)


Michael Jackson - Music & Me (1973)

Video taken from "Michael Jackson's Moonwalker - The Movie" (1988)

Vektorkat - Evil Woman

Love this track. Vektorkat, one of my favorites at the moment, are still unsigned..

Vektorkat - Evil Woman (download)

Check out Vektorkat's blog for lots of sweeeet mixes, interviews, tour dates etc.

Show these guys some love!!!

The Others - Bazooka

Quick post - check this track OUT, from their Monster Mash release.

The Others - Bazooka

Be in MAJOR LAZER'S Next Video!!!

Major Lazer (aka Diplo + Switch) are shooting their next video for the upcoming single "Keep It Goin' Louder" at Studio B in Brooklyn this Saturday. If you look above, you gotta be there early to get it and make sure to RSVP to the email provided.

YES&NO will be playing a small gig in Brooklyn Friday night (email drinkmusik@gmail.com for deets) and then on to the music video shoot on Saturday. Hope to see you there!

When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth...

I'm lucky this video features music by The Knife, otherwise it wouldn't fit the code! But I wanted to share it, as it was made by a friend and he deserves some cred for such hilarity!



The song is 'Na Na Na' from the album Silent Shout, released on Rabid Records in 2006.


For the sake of more content, here's an interview of The Knife with Pitchfork (also from 2006), as well as a few vidz:

'Like a Pen' - from Silent Shout


'Heartbeats' [live]


'The Captain' [live]


'Kino' [live]


'Silent Shout' [live]



All the live videos are from the concert where Silent Shout: An Audio Visual Experience was recorded

Dizze Rascal - Bonkers

East end visionary Dizzee Rascal's latest track is a bomb and has a very cool video to go with it. This beat will be on heavy rotation in clubs worldwide, also thanks to a little production assistance of Armand-the-man-van Helden.

Dizzee Rascal can claim this the second chart topping release of his new album "Tongue N Cheek", out in September. "Bonkers" went straight to no. 1 in the UK, following the footsteps of its predecessor "Dance Wiv Me", which remained at the top for four weeks. He announced his next two singles, "Road Rage" and "Dirty Cash" at Newcastle's Evolution Festival.

Dizzee's sound has become much more mainstream, but it is still as innovative and original as it was before. It just means you'll hear more of it!

Pre-order "Tongue N Cheek"

Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers

Download
Buy on Beatport

Dizzee Rascal - Dance Wiv Me

Download
Buy on Beatport

Dizzee Rascal - U Can't Tell Me Nuffin'

What's your favorite DAW?

Just watched a half-hour clip of Dubstep's A-lister Benga, going through his process of making a beat.

He uses FL Studio (formerly known as Fruity Loops) and Logic to produce his tracks, two of today's most commonly used DAW's. But while Logic is found in most professional production studios (frequently substituted according to preference by Pro Tools and Cubase), FL Studio is often bashed by producers as a "beginner's software" that produces a complementary sound. These people are usually surprised to hear successful artists of all genres (like Boy 8-Bit, Beastie Boys, Timbaland or Benga) working with it and creating crisp results. Yes, it is a simple program and anyone who uses its on-board samples will always recognize them in other songs. But combined with a controller, synthesizer, external plugins, own samples or other DAW's, FL Studio provides limitless capabilities. It remains the most user-friendly DAW on the market, which was always FL's key to success. Anyone who has an idea, can just sit down and realize it quickly. And you don't have to be Timbaland to do it.

Personally, I love Fruity Loops and the concept behind it. But since I came across Ableton Live a while back and Native Instruments' Maschine more recently (which has a very similar software setup to FL Studio), I've just been losing touch.

What's your favorite DAW? Any tweakers out there, let us know what you think!

Watch Benga working on a beat here.

Benga - Pleasure

Ida Engberg

Sweden's queen of house Ida Engberg has been a busy gal these past few years, producing and djing all across the globe. Many of you have probably heard her track "Disco Volante", which was a massive club hit, still is a crowd favorite almost two years after its release, and was remixed by a handful of different artists, including Sebastian Leger.
This lady produces a very fat sound indeed, one of the reasons she'll be a big name at this year's Sonar Festival. She's also planning 3 gigs in the states for mid July, but has not yet announced where these shows will take place. We'll keep you updated as soon as we know more.
I added an interview where she talks about her early days, her inspiration and John Dahlback.


Ida Engberg - Disco Volante

click to download

Ida Engberg - Supercluster

click to download

Ida Engberg & David West - The Giant from Nibiru

download on Amazon


Ida Enberg Interview


Ida Engberg releases on Beatport

SubscapeZILLA

Here's some youtube audio of one of my favorite producers as of LATE: Subscape. You may remember a track called 'Transaction' I posted about a month ago, well here's some more:








If you want to buy some of his tracks or just see what else he's up to, check out his beatport page

Klickety Klack

Was the motto of this year's annual modular synthesizer meeting (Happy Knobbing) in Fischbach, Germany. Access was only granted to contributors of a modular system and 20 Euros, which had the effect that only very interested visitors gathered around the miniature power plants. Freaks and nerds were given their yearly opportunity to present their robots, talk about their kids at home, get inspiration through other systems, and repair of fractured parts. Too bad that the only extensive article I found is in German, but you'll still find some awesome pictures. Found an interesting site for modules, it's title is pretty obvious. Wuawuawuawuawuawappwappwappwapp!

Tracks To Chew On

These are some of my favorite tracks recently - I bet you'll understand why. Give them a listen...



Joker & Ginz - Re-Up



Dub Child - Take Me [Reso remix]



AC Slater - Calm Down



Suspicious Stench - Mega



Benga & Walsh - Military



Bass Clef - Opera


...and to top it off, here's a little bonus remix, spicing up and older fav:



The Streets - Blinded By the Light [Nero remix]

Reboot

Reboot of Cadenza Records has been claiming more and more success lately, mainly due to his banging club track "Assign the Source", which was released fall of last year. For the next few months he'll be touring Europe, however he will be stopping by for one exclusive stateside gig at NYC's Studio B on August 1st , before going on to Japan and then Israel, so definitely save the date. Yep yep, Reboot is a busy man these days. Makes sense though. See for yourself why he's so high in demand.


Reboot - Assign the Source

Download

Reboot - Ronson

Download

Reboot - Be Tougher

Download

Reboot - Pra Dizer




Buy Reboot's music here

Pierce & Jerl

Though they're largely unheard of, Pierce & Jerl, from Cologne, Germany, have come to produce some serious stuff over the past couple of years. Their track "Cuvee", which was released in early 2008, has an incredible signature sound and quickly became a must-play for minimal DJs throughout Germany and the UK. You'll still hear it here and there and it still is a favorite.
I'm not sure if they're plan is to stay underground, but they're doing a pretty good job at it. Well, our plan is not to keep them from you any longer, so here it is..

Pierce & Jerl - Cuvee

Buy this track
Download

Pierce & Jerl - Amourette

Buy this track
Download

Pierce & Jerl - Amourette (M In Remix)

Buy this track
Download

Pierce & Jerl - Blanc

Download

One Man Dance Party

If you're someone who hasn't seen this video yet, then check it out. It is pretty hilarious and unbelievable. Please come to our next dance party, Mr. One Man Dance Party!

Bacardi presents B-Live @ House of Blues

Bacardi is taking their B-Live show to Boston June 18th and has quite an exciting line-up to go with it. The House of Blues will be hosting the party with Switch and Diplo throwing it down as Major Lazer, along with Kanye West's fast-handed Canadian tour DJ A-Trak, Steve Porter and NYC's popular synthienuts Matt & Kim. I've been to a couple of Bacardi sponsored parties myself and they were all pretty wild. On top of that, $10 for four acts is quite a bargain.
Get your tix here.



Major Lazer - Hold the Line (feat. Mr Lexx and Santigold)


Steve Porter - Control


Architecture in Helsinki - Heart it races (A-Trak Remix)

Everyone needs a little Maschine in their lives

This is an awesome video from the MATRIXSYNTH blog of a remix of 16bit's Chainsaw Calligraphy on Native Instruments' new Maschine controller. This thing is ILL. The guy is definitely just messing around, certainly not following any choreographed button-pushing, but it works. According to his blog post at MATRIXSYNTH, "FX on the pads and twisters, bar progress on the top 8 buttons, track section on the 8 buttons to the left of the pads."

Starkey in BOSTON!!

I probably shouldn't let the cat out of the bag - as the news has still yet to be officially released to the public - but I don't think I'll dash too many dreams in letting you know that Starkey will be playing at Bassic's 2-Year Anniversary at Good Life on Wednesday, June 24th! The best part is, I'm guessing he won't be the only big gun behind the brick pillars - but we shall see.

In celebration, I've put up this awesome live Starkey mix for everyone to download and bump until he rolls through:




Starkey - Live Mix from Branx (Portland OR), 04.11.09

Tracklist:

01 Starkey - Fidelio
02 Ray Keith - Something Out There [DZ remix]
03 AC Slater - Calm Down
04 Starkey - Gutter Music [feat Durrty Goodz]
05 DZ & Kozee - Crack
06 Blackheart - Jupiter
07 Starkey - Pressure
08 Starkey - Beatingz
09 Starkey - Gritty
10 General Midi & Foreign Beggars - 4 Million Ways [Ginz purple
interpretation]
11 Joker & Ginz - Re-Up
12 Tempa T - Next Hype [Starkey remix]
13 Starkey - Dementia
14 Jamie Vex'd - Radiant Industry
15 Starkey - Creature
16 Pinch - Attack of the Giant Killer Robot Spiders!
17 Starkey - Pleasure Points
18 MOVES!!! - All Skate
19 Scarlet Harlots - Backlash [Raffertie remix]
20 The Brown Acid - Try Humanity [Starkey remix]
21 Numan - Skull Crusher
22 Stagga - Timewarp [remix]
23 Starkey - Dark Alley
24 Joker & Gemmy - Electric Wow
25 Nocturnal - Factory Settings
26 Stature - Gardener's World
27 EPROM - Humanoid Dub
28 Starkey - Murderous Words
29 Starkey - Starting Gates
30 Slugabed - Ultra Heat Treated
31 Starkey - Miracles [Jamie Vex'd remix]
32 Joker & Ginz - Purple City
33 Starkey - Striking Distance
34 Kito - To the Floor
35 J-Sweet - Kerb
36 Starkey - Club Games [feat Cerebral Vortex & Buddy Leezle]
37 Starkey - Swollen Glands
38 T-Pain - Chopped & Skrewed
39 Starkey - Gutter Music VIP
40 Slugabed - Sun Too Bright Turn It Off

If you like WOBBLY BASS BANGERS...

He is a legend in his own country, and now Rico Tubbs is definitely gathering a following in New England. The Finnish producer and DJ really started getting played here last summer/fall through the likes of Boston fave B.Rich and other acts from the Northeast (AC Slater, Udachi and crew). His work reflects his taste, with lots of 80's claps and break beat breaks. Most intriguing, though, are the NASTY bass lines that highlight nearly all of his tracks. Take a listen for yourselves:

Rico Tubbs - Boom Riddim


Rico Tubbs - Hip Rave Anthem (Original Mix)


Rico Tubbs - I Like It Raw


Tubbs, aka DJ Infekto, was voted Best Electronic Music DJ in Finland in 2006 and again in 2007, and has had a long history of music production going back to the early 90's on devices like the Amiga. His production skills continued to progress as he collaborated to create Finland's first hiphop record with the Skillsters, and was a part of the internationally reknowned Bomfunk MCs. In case you don't remember:


Bomfunk MCs - Freestyler

He continued producing under DJ Infekto (and still plans to release some more downtempo tracks under that Moniker), however his newest alias, Rico Tubbs, is beginning to take over. Keeping in constant production-contact with sweet popular acts like Hervé, Heavyfeet, the Trouble & Bass crew, Party Like Us, Tubbs is sure to keep killing the club floors and providing inspiration to other like-minded dance-floor-shaker-beat-makers!

Rico Tubbs - Born To Bounce (Supra1 Remix)

PARTY PARTY PARTY!!!

2nd installment of Drink Musik series at the Milky Way.

featuring:

YES&NO

with special guest JOHN BARERA

Visuals by V.KA$H