Month: November 2017

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Top Male Feature Vocalists (Unofficial top 15 a.k.a. Top List 02)

I was trying to finish this list for November, but it probably won’t happen ever.

My new favorite feature vocalist is Khalid1 who sounds like
Calvin Harris2 to me on his album. Actually I wanted to hear Calvin sing on his latest release, but instead he chose mega-stars or soon to be mega-stars. Khalid has some of his own tracks, but sounds consistently unique on these features.

Since I started listening to this particular way of making music in this modern scene, I always pretty much liked Matt Koma3, though I haven’t heard him lately.

Also, Jonathan Mendelsohn4 needs to be on more tracks like ‘Open My Eyes’ by Tom Swoon.

Requesting more clean dark and true tracks similar to ‘Get Busy’ from Matisse & Sadko with featured vocalist Titus5.

Some others on the top list would be Alex Aris6 Instagram ,
A-sho7,
the singer from Mako8 (who should do features on others tunes),
Jake Reese9 from ‘Mad World’,
Giuseppe De Luca10,
Sanjin11,
Alex Joseph12 Instagram ,
Gavin Beach 13
and Rumors14 Instagram ‘Ghost Town’.

Finally let’s talk about the vocal on one of my favorite tracks: Marc Kinchen‘s ‘Piece of Me’ [Camelphat Remix]. The voice that was created unless I’m misreading something here. It says it’s featuring Becky Hill, but the voice they manipulated15 sounds male and an amazing one at that. I have been fooled since I first heard it. Usually when they lower the voice it ends up sounding like my Mom doing a bad fake-out.

Special thanks to Felix Cartal and Gareth Emery, the Procurers of Male vocalists, too. Gareth’s Soundcloud link Felix’s Soundcloud link

Most links on this post go to a Soundcloud search for that vocalist which are mostly accurate to the singer listed. Most Soundcloud pages have other social links to visit on the right sidebar or under the track with the information. These default to a track search, so another way to find their own profile is to click ‘people’ and look for the orange star or most official looking page in the results.

See the female top lists here.

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CKWAL MIX 2017020

I’m like a reader of this blog now because this mix will not load in Native Instrument’s Traktor completely and it will not back up much at all. I know it was good and could play back some this morning, but of course it’s frustrating to only hear track by track or while mixing it once. Probably worse to only see a MixList with iTunes previews. Sure it can wait, but can you? I’m giving a shoutout to Miss Monique because I bought three tracks from the end of her perfect Mix 74 and used them in a double overlay mashup to be a little unique. Also, a shoutout to Tiësto. I think it was one of his second hour mixes when I almost gave up listening to podcasts when I heard an updated version, surprisingly set-up of ‘Wanna Be Down’. The song re-lit a spark in my head that had gone out. Later, I searched for both the elusive version and found the original I remember from growing up. Both DJs share these types of tracks. One in particular was left out of Alesia’s tracklists and never responded about what track it is. Drives me crazy. Final shoutout to R3hab who made the first remake of Rihanna‘s song that saved the track I thought flopped when the original was first played in podcasts. So, here is this new 3X shoutout mix, picking up where we left off with Chevelle.

Ouija Board – Chevelle
U-RITE (Rynx Remix) – THEY. EXPLICIT
Bitch Better Have My Money (R3hab Remix) – Rihanna EXPLICIT
LYM – Curbi & Hasse de Moor
Kiera – Tone Depth & Jerome Isma-Ae
after beginning section mashes with all of…
Dark Heart – Paul Thomas & White-Akre
finishes blend from Kiera to…
Throaty – Rick Pier O’Neil
partial mash with…
Terminal – Wheats
Made For You (feat. Julie Thompson) [Radio Edit] – The Blizzard & Daniel van Sand
Good Vibes Only – Mahalo
Be Randy – Dom Dolla & Torren Foot
Faster Than a Bullet – Tiësto & VASSY
Silence (feat. Khalid) [Tiësto’s Big Room Remix] – Marshmello
I Wanna Be Down – Brandy
Sorry for Myself – CADE
Nintendo Blood – Julian Casablancas+The Voidz

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Vegan Thanksgiving LinksList

I didn’t realize that Thanksgiving was so soon. So if you are depending on my post for your plans, here are the selections and other ideas to get you started.
Also, see the Halloween Party post for the Vegan liquor directory as used in the cranberry sauce and notes about sugar usage.

​
November 23rd is Thanksgiving

Vegan Thanksgiving Links

Many recipes
greatist.com
delish.com
marthastewart.com
eatingbirdfood.com

From above; favorites and other finds from searching google:

Sides and salads
Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Cauliflower Salad

Traditional sides
Boozy Cranberry Sauce
Sweet Potato Shepards’ Pie
Stuffing(s) Direct link for the Stuffing

Main Center Dishes
Stuffed Seitan
How to Cook the Tofurkey
Glazed Lentil Loaf
Meatless Loaf

Individual Portion Dish
Balsamic Tempeh Bowl

List of other premade type roasts
Turkey Substitutes
Tofurkey

Desserts
Cherry pie
Avocado Chocolate Ice Cream
If you can find or make this stuff, but don’t want to bake dessert:
Pumpkin Pie Bars

While preparing try listening to this playlist from thissongissick:
Chill Playlist Vol. 35

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CKWAL MIX 2017019 Encore

There is a little bit more of me in this one than usual. The reason is because some time back at the beginning of Ckwal I got curious with numerology and found my number is 9. Actually with me it’s pretty straight forward. You add the pairs of digits three separate times and it adds up to three single nines. Every mix that is a nine in the past two years, I identify with strongly.

On another topic I met or hung out with Chevelle in Milwaukee backstage after going to a show with my friend before I knew the music. He was also a rock guitarist and basically repeated the lyrics to me while listening to one of their first popular releases earlier and I was hooked ever since.

Usually DJs have certain tracks to switch styles like this which is why artists like Skrillex exist, but here I am going with the darkness and gritty dance songs mixed with the saddest Drake rap and a track from the wedding album ‘Don’t Kill the Magic’.

Wednesday 15th November 2017, 7:52
42:29

Disintegration (feat. MING & Lena Wolf) – Le Castle Vania
The Damned – Chevelle
Omen – The Dø
Ride This Train (feat. Aniff Akinola) – Icarus
Breathe (Wordlife Remix) – Anna Lunoe
Intoxicated – Martin Solveig & GTA (original single artwork not available)
Our Story (Norin & Rad vs. Kevin Wild Remix) – Mako
Now & Forever – Drake CLEAN VERSION
Stupid Me – MAGIC!
Under the Knife – Chevelle

Link to CKWAL MIX 2017019
CKWAL MIX 2017009
CKWAL MIX 2016009

Sometimes I feel like we leave ourselves on the page with these mixes. So in a sense, if you are reading this, you’re too late. Another way of thinking is that these parts of us will never die. It’s annoying at first to see yourself online like a mirror and think it was stolen, but we are more similar to each other than we know in a lot of ways.

Update// Dedicated to: Mike Potesta

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J.Lauryn

I’m reviewing an encore to CKWAL MIX 2017019 I made early this morning. It’s a bunch of older songs, so I have to let it grow for at least a day. In the meantime this album by J.Lauryn is really positive and is curing this rare mood I am in. I discovered her as a featured vocalist on a couple tracks I’d like to play. One was from the Spinnin’ label, which consistently puts out singles I use in Mixes and enjoy listening to daily. You may recognize them as the big ‘S’ they put on almost every release.

Update 5.19 Buy album at this link (no longer on soundcloud).

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Ckwal Album Note

It’ll be a little while until the next MixList and a lot longer until the next CKWAL album. I sold, traded or donated almost everything last year and this year. I just listened to the mp3s of the debut CKWAL LP again which was the first album of mine to ever be professionally mastered (under any artist name). I already mentioned some album notes, but another secret was the ending of the second disc. It pays respects to a rock song by Disturbed called ‘Who Taught You How To Hate‘. I was in a challenging situation and listening to a lot of albums and mixes to get me through it. The lyrics go like this:

“Tell me now, who taught you how to hate?
‘Cause it isn’t in your blood
Not a part of what you’re made
So let this be understood
Somebody taught you how to hate
When you live this way you become
Dead to everyone”

The last track of CKWAL called “When you live like that…..”
hammers a similar melody. People live online lives that may hinder their healthy communication habits or treat others in a way that ostracizes themselves from their peers. Sometimes it isn’t their fault. Friends and family members stop responding because , at least how it was in 2013, everyone who had a social account thought they were in a competition for fame against their own friends. That is in my belief when social media has gotten out of control. Those with talent are sometimes pushed into the starlight even when they don’t want to famous while some change their artist name or stop sharing to stay underground. Others force themselves into popularity or buy it not knowing if they are walking through the right door. Anyways, not sure where this puts us going forward, but I wanted to share this story and how I keep a good album with me even when I can’t carry it in my luggage anymore.

Other notes on the album found here and here with some other notes and general Ckwal ‘re-generation’ found at this link.

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CKWAL MIX UNP09

The mix couldn’t be fully recovered in upload and I deleted it before I recovered the visual tracks, so it ends before the Wild Wild West track finishes and the rest of the intended mix’s songs or releases complete. Also, unpublished series due to an awkward pause after ‘Rush’. The transition from ‘Lush’ to ‘Raw’ is unmatchable though. I might try to do one more mix next week, but the next main mix of all new or fresh selections won’t be until the 18th of November at the earliest. Additional purchase quicklinks for reused tracks are on previous MixLists.

Thursday 2nd November 2017, circa 5:25

Pray That Our Love Sees the Dawn – Ben Harper
Men on Mars – HI-LO
partial overlap (using gater) with…
Water – Galantis
Scream – Dino Maggiorana
mashes with
Rush- Teo Mandrelli & UnoMas
—————-
Elixir – Ivan Miranda, Bonnis Maxx & Niccoxx
Without You (feat. Sandro Cavazza)[Notre Dame Remix] – Avicii EXPLICIT
Neiloj – Purple Haze
Lush (Extended Mix) – Tommy Jayden
Raw – Madison Mars
short pause/space
Everything Starts Again – Carpark North
Jewel (Pure Radio Edit) – Armin van Buuren
Wild Wild West (No Intro) – Will Smith, Dru Hill & Kool Mo Dee

Some links here are different for duplicate artists. i.e. Will Smith has been linked to three times in previous posts. So, on this post it goes to an imdb account where the other two share an instagram account or website.

Pages with a lot of social links (like this one) are updated with a quicklink page connected to on the right side, below the calendar (Social links and finders).

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Cold weather reads

I don’t read often as I have probably said before on this blog. Of course I read lyrics and other philosophical definitions of reading. Since I’m revealing all sorts of secrets to readers of this blog online; I have read two books during the past five years or longer. Starting last year and finishing this year I read this version of the Bible in compact easy-to-understand English. Before that, after I returned from Iraq and Thailand, I read Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I’d like to think they both define me to this day in ways I won’t forget. I tried to read the sequels to Red Queen, but never could get into them.

*Update 11.15.17
I almost forgot I read Lakota Belief and Ritual by James R. Walker. It is also a good one to start in the fall or winter instead of a mission or elsewhere, try out in a cabin.

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This year’s hottest New Year’s DJ Parties are:

DECADENCE: COLORADO, ARIZONA, UTAH
With Insomniac:
Dreamstate Australia (Hordern Pavillion) Sydney
Countdown 2017 (NOS Events Center) San Bernardino
Gareth Emery Extended Set (Exchange LA) LA
R3hab (Create Nightclub) LA
Other:
Calvin Harris (Omnia Nightclub) Vegas
Ludacris (Light Nightclub) Vegas
New Year’s Eve Soiree Michigan Ave, Various Kiss FM DJs (Hilton) Chicago
Rock Around the Clock NYE 2018, DJ Metro & DJ Ruen (Hard Rock Hotel) Chicago
Rafa Barrios, Chus+Ceballos & Fiin (Heart Nightclub) Miami
Feast of Sekhmet, Vegan NYE Party (REFAL Headquarters) Newark

This is a few to get you started. Book tickets now for most of these to guarantee your 2018 starts off without disappointment from a sold out. The second link if the listing has it will go to Instagram, while the first points to a ticketing page.

Also, this is one of of those Bangerz lists. It’ll add Dallas, Dubai, Edinburgh, Goa (This year the festival mentioned is in Pune) (this goes to the Sunburn multi-day festival, type in Pune for your city and buy a ticket), Paris and New York City to the major destination NYE festivals if they weren’t already in your ‘know of that one’ reputation. Links go to one option for that city. A lot of these are parties that are throughout the city. For example New York City has theirs outside in Time’s Square and you don’t need a ticket anywhere per say.

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CKWAL MIX 2017019

This is kind of two projects in one with an * by the Ummet Ozcan Mix tracks that I was going to use to re-do Innerstate 158 & then I mashed up one of his originals with ‘Feel Good Now’ by Mark Knight. I already used a different version of Axwell Λ Ingrosso‘s ‘More Than You Know’ in 2017018 & another remix of Avicii‘s ‘Without You’ in an exclusive mix. I did quite a few mix, listen, re-listen and delete mixes with notes. One of the best future combos was Men on Mars to Water by Galantis . The lyrics say:

“Can’t go back
Can’t fight this
Water, water
Teardrops are falling like rain
Daughter, daughter
Still hear you calling my name
I’ll see your light
In the water for all my life”

I know I already used ‘Rush’ in our Halloween DJ Set and it’s in the exclusive, so I did like a double overlap mash where part of the song mashes with one track and then the end mashes with a different track while somewhere in the middle it goes solo. (Like a lot of singers’ careers.)

Sunday 5th November 2017, 19:45
1:01:36

Don’t Kill My Vibe (Gryffin Remix) – Sigrid
Truth Be Told – THEY. EXPLICIT
tempo down to 62 and add delay/verb with…
Ironing Man – Mark Knight
Men on Mars – HI-LO
Scream – Dino Maggiorana
mashes with rush for at least two minutes
Rush – Teo Mandrelli & UnoMas
mashes with
*Elixir – Ivan Miranda, Bonnis Maxx & Niccoxx
mashes with approx 50s and loops first bars 10s
*Neiloj – Purple Haze
Dark River (Radio Edit) – Sebastian Ingrosso
A Mess Like This – The Dø
Younger Now (Burns Remix) – Miley Cyrus
Feel Good Now – Mark Knight
mashes most of song w/to…
Kensei – Ummet Ozcan
*Lush (Extended Mix) – Tommy Jayden
*Raw – Madison Mars
Not That Brave – BEAUZ & Lenii