The Cold Cut

Justice vs Daft Punk vs Kanye West vs A-Trak vs Diplo- Fortisphère (Immuzikation Blend) (Link 2)

What happens when you take the songs below, splice them and force them into a shell of 3 minutes? 'Fortisphere'. In a time when many people are talking about the end of the world, this is the song that I would want to go out to.

• Justice - Planisphère Part 1
• Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
• Kanye West - Stronger
• Kanye West - Stronger (A-Trak Remix)
• Kanye West and Daft Punk - Stronger (Live at the Grammy's)
• Diplo - Work is Never Over
  

It's reassuring that some things never change. Even though the stock market is slowly dying, and the world is rumoured to end sometime soon, one thing has never changed. No matter what, I can always rely on a new track from Immuzikation gracing my ears every now and then. And that's why we love him so damn much.

The latest and greatest from Alfredo is 'Fortisphere', a truly epic piece of mash-up magic that combines most of the things I love and somehow manages to not screw it up. This song is destined for a live outing soon- no club, stadium or galaxy is too big for this song.

'Fortisphere' is just another string to Immuzikation's bow- if someone doesn't snap this guy up soon I might have to start my own record label and do the honours.

Myspace

Update 2: The fileden links went down due to popularity! You guys sucked up 5 Gb of bandwith in about 5 hours. I've re-uploaded all the individual tracks on zshare for your listening pleasure. Enjoy.

Update: The Lemur is turning 17 tomorrow- Blogstars have put together another completely original mixtape to celebrate the event. Make sure you take a visit, comment, and most of all say Happy Bday to the furry dude. The Lemur Blog

Yay! I'm 18 today (26th July)! How exciting! The plan for the day was wake up (after a late BBQ last night with some frivolity), take a run, have brunch, open a few pressies/cards and then go to see The Dark Knight. The evening was be topped off with a meal down at the beach. Perfecto. I'm not going to cover the day's celebrations yet, although I will say that The Dark Knight was fucking amazing. A full review will be posted once I have got over the emotionally draining experience that was the best film of 2008.

To tie in with my celebrations, a secret team of uber-bloggers (and a few DJs/musicians) have been working behind the scenes with myself to create a super-blogtastic 18th Birthday mixtape for you. And it rocks.

The Blogstars (remember that name- coming to an internet near you soon) have each chosen a song to be featured on the mixtape, bringing together a host of musical tastes and some of the best music blogs on the internet. Think of this as the Justice League of music. On the right of each song, you will find the blog which selected it- click through to see some more from each contributor. Oh, and enjoy, as I will be doing!

You can download each track individually, but to save time you can obtain the whole tape in singular files as a zip. Mixtape artwork is above/below- click through for mega-sized versions. The tracklisting is as follows:

Blogstars Presents Happy 18th Birthday Mixtape (Full).zip (Link 2)

1. Cut Copy- Lights And Music (Boyz Noize Happy Birthday Remix)... The Lemur Blog
2. Treasure Fingers- Come True Tonight (Dub Mix)... Immuzikation
3. Rihanna- Disturbia... Pretty Much Amazing
4. Grum- Go Back... Check The Availability
5. K-OS- Neutroniks... Party cmyk
6. VETO- Built To Fall... Where Did I Leave My Keys?
7. The Uglysuit- Chicago... Hypeful
8. The Game Ft. Lil' Wayne- My Life... Gordon DJ Stealth McGinnis
9. Cut Copy- Going Nowhere (Whitey Remix)... Ohh! Crapp
10. The Silent Years- The World's Worst Birthday Gift... Hypeful
11. Felix Da Housecat- Silver Screen Shower Scene... Neon Cool Kids, Yo!

Bonus Tracks:

1. Patton Oswalt- You Are Allowed 20 Birthday Parties

As one line of a Hard-Fi song states, I was truly 'living for the weekend'. Last week was taxing, but the work I put in has made the brilliant weekend even more enjoyable, although I already have to start working for the next wave of exams, commencing Wednesday. Fortunately, music isn't my only interest, and many of the things that I care about are reaching critical turning points this weekend.

Ahead of Wimbledon, commencing at the end of June, Roland Garros, or the French Open, has been a really enjoyable tournament. The rivalries in tennis are as strong as ever, and even Justine Henin's shock retirement couldn't detract from this tournament. The women's final was fairly tame, and Ivanovic had the game wrapped up from the end of the first set.

However, the proposition of another meeting between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer was what really excited me. It's an intense rivalry; few people beat Federer, and no-one beats him regularly. Apart from Rafa, that is. As was proved today: he dominated the match, winning 6-1, 6-3, 6-0. That final set represent the first love set that Federer has lost in over 8 years. An omen for Wimbeldon? Possibly.

The 2009 Formula 1 season has been amazing thus far; I am bitterly dissapointed with today's Grand Prix in some respects, but am also ecstatic for Robert Kubica, and BMW Sauber. To be honest, the track was sub-par, and Lewis Hamilton's mistake was unfortunate. The only thing we (and McLaren) can do is to take positives: Lewis took out Kimi as well, and although Kubica has been strong, I believe that BMW will struggle in the second half of the season. Therefore Lewis still has a strong chance of winning the championship. The penalty both he and Rosberg will suffer is a ten place grid drop at the French GP.

Euro 2008 kicked off with a few promising games. The earlier game saw the hosts beaten by the Czech Republic, which was a fairly dull game. Portugal were impressive, however, beating Turkey 2-0. Today's games are still being played (as I write this), so we shall have to see if the tournament continues to be interesting. My money is on Spain.

Apple's WWDC begins in a couple of minutes, and the rumor mill (which I follow) is at it's peak. From experience, no one knows what the iPhone looks like: if it was on the net, Apple would have removed it by now. They always do. And as always, Cupertino is water tight- the original iPhone was in development for years, and yet no-one had a clear photo of it until it was officially unveiled. Expect the 3G iPhone, shipping on 15th June (AT&T's 'black-out days'), with GPS, video conferencing, exchange facilities. It will be thinner, with the facility to turn 3G on and off, and will be available in three colours: black, white, and product (RED). Oh, and also expect a similar multi-touch device (possibly with a 2.8 screen, or much larger), although no solid news has been heard concerning this yet. New cinema displays, a black mighty mouse and the new .Mac (me.com) will be unveiled. My wildcard guess goes for new Macbook's, with the similar black keyboard/aluminium enclosure that is featured on the Macbook Air.

As ever, there is so much music being released. A few notable tracks (some old, some new) are available below:

The Stills- Being Here (Link 2)
Beyonce- Beautiful Nightmare (Link 2)
Sam Sparro- Black And Gold (Link 2)
Immuzikation- Highly Selassie (Immuzikation DangDiDiDangDadBlend) (Link 2)
Coldplay- Lost! (Link 2)

This is really a brilliant time for music: yesterday I got my hands on the new albums from m83, No Age, Cut Copy, Santogold and Phantom Planet. All of which are excellent. And yet, I don't really have time to dwell on their brilliance, because a new wave of music is coming through.

Rihanna- Disturbia (Link 2)

Rihanna has actually gone bad. Her recent album's title- 'Good Girl, Gone Bad'- suggested a new direction, but didn't deliver. I'm happy with the fact that it had a few tunes on it, and in chart terms, Rihanna can do no wrong. The first single from her re-release of 'Good Girl Gone Bad', 'Disturbia', shows signs that she might be trying some new styles. Okay, so she sounds like a robot. But that's more than made up for by the first sentence: 'What's wrong with me? Why do I feel like this? Oh, and the fact that she actually says 'shit'. Maybe things aren't going so great for the chart queen? Oh, and did anyone else make the connection between the song title and her purported connection with Shia LaBeouf?

Immuzikation- We're Gonna Have a Paaarty (Immuzikation GetTheFuckUpToniteBlend) (Link 2)

Immuzikation is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down. I've been chatting to him a lot lately, and all I can say is that both he and I have some treats lined up for you. Stay tuned, and listen to his latest amazing mash-up: the last few have shown some serious signs of progression... my personal favourites are Santo Mia, Fish Tacos, and this latest addition. Check his day-glo Myspace.

Jon Regen- Let It Go Live (Link 2)

Jon Regen has just finished his European tour. You might remember my post about him a few months back- since then, Jon has been getting loads of positive write ups in blogs and other meda, and an extremely strong response to his tour. He sent through a live recording of 'Let It Go', the first single from his recent album, 'Let It Go'. It's a nice version, and Jon, with the help of a two man band, switches things up. Visit Jon's website...

Wale- Roc Boys (Freestyle) (Link 2)

Wale's new mixtape dropped a few days ago. Easily as good as '100 Miles And Running', this sets the bar higher. The beats are more clean cut, the rhymes more sophisticated, and althogether the music is more polished. Download it here.

Kenna ft. Lupe Fiasco- Say Goodbye To Love (Link 2)

Kenna's 'Make Sure They See My Face', released in October 2007, is a truly excellent album. Hopefully, this remix with Lupe Fiasco will see some more commercial success than the album version.

Everybody Nose- CRS/Pusher T (Official Remix) (Link 2)

Oh yes. CRS have seriously proven themselves. Transforming a piece of coal into a diamond is a neat trick, and the strength of these three artists is unbelievable. 'Us Placers' was a brilliant piece of artistry, with a nice sample, good verses and, if this any indication, just a hint at what this trio is capable of.

In the hands of Child Rebel Soldier, N.E.R.D's 'Everybody Nose' takes on a new meaning, and a much darker disposition. The main thing this proves is that Pharrell is a much more formidable artist when coupled with Kanye and Lupe. Further to this, it's nice to see that the song's subtext actually involves cocaine, not waiting in queues at clubs, a fact which didn't come across in the original.

Usher- Love In This Club (MSTRKRFT Remix) (Link 2)
MSTRKRFT have also pulled one out of the bag, with a bottom heavy remix of Usher's 'Love In The Club'. A song like this should require a light touch, but MSTRKRFT have taken the opposite approach, bucking and beating the trend. This really proven their status as kings, transforming the originally slight track into something far more weighty.

Fish Tacos- Immuzikation Blend (Link 2)

This guy is a machine. Every email from Alfredo Lapuz Jr. starts with 'just got back from work, and put this together'. If that's the case, then he's a genius, gluing together random songs to create something entirely original. If you don't believe me, check out 'Fish Tacos', effectively a remix of 'Viva La Vida' blending in Weezer, Cut Copy, The Blow, M.I.A. and Reading Rainbow. I wasn't won over by the prospect of that many songs stuffed into one track, but this is the sign of a true master. He pulls it off effortlessly.

Visit Immuzikation's Myspace.