Dead Banger
Written by pistachionut on Monday, 15 of September , 2008 at 7:27 pm
ATTN: This was written for the school newspaper, and subsequently was written a month ago, but I kept it from appearing here until the paper came out this week. Due to that, Justice’s Planisphére, a work that I really like, had not been released and was not mentioned.
Ed Banger Records is starting to lose its credibility. Act in a violent rage if you wish, start a riot if it suits you, but consider the facts. The label, founded in 2002 by ex-Daft Punk manager Pedro Winter (musical alias Busy P) was once the premier dance label that everyone could agree upon. Funny how quickly the times change.
That time was the summer of 2007. Justice had just released their debut album, †, and off that got a chart topping single in “D.A.N.C.E.” SebastiAn was churning out top notch remixes left and right. Busy P’s Rainbow Man single was getting played on dancefloors all over the US and the UK. And they started to tour. Oh how they toured. All around the country they went. Endless touring.
Snap back to the present. One year later. Summer 2008. Justice has been touring all year, almost inactive on the production side except for a mediocre remix of MGMT’s “Electric Feel.” SebastiAn is prepping an album, but songs like “Dog” and “Momy” are only a slight glimmer of previous tracks like “H.A.L” and “Ross Ross Ross,” both of which contain much more innovative material. Busy P’s latest single, “To Protect and Entertain (feat. Murs)” is an absolute joke. An entire song about how hard Pedro and Murs (real name Nick Carter, no not the Backstreet Boy) party when they come to Los Angeles. Full of name dropping people and places, Murs’ lyrics can barely be considered a rap. Busy P’s latest EP, Pedrophilia featured only two new tracks, but four remixes. It appears as if the whole Ed Rec crew spent too much time touring and not nearly enough time working on quality material. Ed Rec Vol. III was a huge disappointment, with no new track from the label’s biggest name (Justice) and lackluster tracks from Busy P, DJ Mehdi and Feadz.
The label’s other artists aren’t exactly anything to write home about either. Uffie is a female singer. If you can call what she does singing. In a hybrid between singing and rapping, Uffie stumbles her way through electronic beats produced by boyfriend and labelmate Feadz. Relatively new singing DSL are a French rap group with unimpressive beats. Their style has been compared to French rap frontrunners TTC, who do the same thing, but much better.
Without the dancefloor jams coming from the French Ed Banger crew, the rest of the world has done more than make up for it. Budding scenes in Italy and even the United States are taking over electronic music. Chicago’s A-Trak (Alain Macklovitch), Flosstradamus (Josh Young and Curt Cameruci) fill up dancefloors with less “bangers” and more of a fun, party vibe with many hip hop/rap influences. Philadelphia’s Diplo (Wesley Pentz) and DJ Sega have the same mentality. All four of the aforementioned artists are also closely associated with the Baltimore scene, best known for the “bmore beat,” a rhythm with syncopated kick drums, many shakers and hand claps instead of snares. In Italy, most of the noise is surrounding the Bloody Beetroots and Crookers. These two DJ duos have produced some absolutely fantastic remixes and original tracks, but also many that completely fail. The Bloody Beetroots will be playing in L.A. at the Detour Festival in October.
In all reality, all Ed Banger needs to do to regain the cred they’ve lost is to stop touring and hit the studios. A few quality tracks and remixes and they’ll be right back on the map.
Bloc Party- I Still Remember (SebastiAn Remix)
Justice- D.A.N.C.E. (Benny Blanco Mix Feat. Spank Rock and Most Def)
Flosstradamus- Act A Fool (Ravestradamus)
Crookers- Embrace The Martian (Feat. Kid Cudi)
A-Trak- Running Man (Feat. Lupe Fiasco)
DJ Sega- Smells Like Teen Spirit
The Bloody Beetroots- We Are From Venice (La Serenissima)
Category: Electro
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Comment by A
Made Monday, 15 of September , 2008 at 8:47 pm
I think this is the problem with music these days though. Everyone needs things way too fast. You have to get that one year is such a short amount of time, and the fact that people expect justice to put out a new album so fast is exactly what will make them suck. Most of my friends no longer like Justice, because all they have is Cross which is “so last year”. Thats bullshit. Even though I’m mixed about the new record, Radiohead would never be able to release product at such a high quality if they were rushed like this. I’m not expecting the record industry to slow down, but I would like it if the fans could have a little patience. It just feels disrespectful to the idea of music as art, not industry. Quality tracks take time, and I would be surprised if artists like justice haven’t been working on their new material while on tour. It’s a process that begins long before the studio. They had their whole life to write their first record… the second ones always the hardest.
Comment by Nepo
Made Monday, 15 of September , 2008 at 10:50 pm
I abosolutely agree. Ed Banger also recently signed artist Mickey Midnight, whose new track called “Big Ship Passing By” is litteraly a big ship passing by. Boring, Ed Banger, learn something from Institubes, you can throw rockin’ parties BUT don’t sacrifice production work. I’m glad Vicarious Bliss stayed off the new Vol. as well.
Comment by gzabriel
Made Tuesday, 16 of September , 2008 at 5:16 am
Oh my god Mickey Moonlight is genius. So uninspired and so boring.
Comment by SVNTHLTTR
Made Tuesday, 16 of September , 2008 at 8:36 am
Ummm, no new tracks from Justice? Did Planisphere(1,2,3 and final) fly under your radar? Those tracks can be considered in some circles as some of Justice’s best work to date.
Comment by Soundofair
Made Wednesday, 17 of September , 2008 at 11:47 am
Nice article - “starting to lose its credibility” might even be a bit too giving. “Planisphere” isn’t (aren’t) bad tracks…but they’re far from some sort of life-raft to keep Ed Banger afloat. They simply haven’t put out any strong releases in a long while. Regardless of the artistic merits of Planisphere, it would be a stretch to call it a strong, breakout track.
Comment by jax
Made Thursday, 18 of September , 2008 at 3:38 pm
i totally agree, with the production and music side of this about ed banger. Fools gold also have treasure fingers, the dude is creating a brilliant disco/electro sound which is coming in!
Personally, I don’t really rate planisphere, consider this, if it wasn’t justice would it be as popular as it is?
btw feadz and uffie have been broken up for a year or so lol!
Comment by tongue
Made Thursday, 18 of September , 2008 at 7:15 pm
cmon
planisphere is great
Comment by absentees
Made Friday, 19 of September , 2008 at 10:27 pm
great post, i agree with a lot of what you said, but i want to disagree just because of what we all know ed banger can produce. time will tell.
Comment by Diane
Made Saturday, 20 of September , 2008 at 10:31 am
I agree with you that they’ve been lacking in creating new material, but maybe it’s just all part of their plan to make a greater comeback.
Touring around to let people know who they are (you’d be surprised how many people still don’t know who Justice is…), get into their music, then wabaam! they’ll be sitting on top of the world again.
Comment by james
Made Wednesday, 24 of September , 2008 at 4:16 pm
A-trak is not from Chicago - he’s from Montreal… Canada. Canada - just like MSTRKRFT and Deadmau5.
Comment by Gregory
Made Sunday, 5 of October , 2008 at 10:32 am
wth, it’s only been a year since that summer of 2007… Ed Banger isn’t that big… You can’t expect that artists can make new brilliant dancefloor killing material every year. Gotta give artists some breathing time to regain inspiration. How many albums does daft punk have in comparison to the time they have been in the music industry?
And now you are saying Ed Banger is almost dead? guys…
am i the only one thinking like this?
Comment by vivikat
Made Tuesday, 14 of October , 2008 at 9:37 pm
sounds like someone’s terribly, terribly impatient. it’s people like you that have inspired the ADD danceparty thing. atrocious.
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Made Wednesday, 29 of October , 2008 at 1:50 am
[...] Ed Banger ist inzwischen eher Dead Banger, Sebastian sollte sein Album lieber mal ein wenig knallen lassen, um noch ein bisschen was zu [...]
