Sunday, December 30, 2007

Every Christmas

Christmas has passed and New Year is upon us, but I can't let December end without a post on Christmas-songs.

The comming years I'm sure I'm going to comment on lesser known and forgotten Christmas-songs, but I have to start with "Last Christmas". This unavoidable Wham classic have been covered numerous times and of course by dance-acts as well.

As some of you may know just released this Christmas is Cascada's version of the song. Actually one of the better covers of the song if you ask me.



Just as good is Whigfield's version from approximately ten years ago (I'm thinking of the "Major Cut" version below).



I personally can't decide which of the two i prefer. Probably because they are both very close to the original, just a bit faster paced and with a female singer. So I'll let you decide.

Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Happy Nations?

I kind of promised to be back with a review of the Ace Of Base concert in Copenhagen. Today it's excactly 1 month since the day of the concert, so what could be more obvious than to write it now...

All things concidered it was a good show! But I'll start with the negative critic. The concert was way to short, only 1 hour including the encore. With a ticket price around 70 EUR (for the cheapest ones) that sure gave some disappointing comments among the audience. And they didn't give one single song from the "Da Capo" album!?!! I know the show was part of a tour and the album wasn't released in that many countries, but still.

But what they did give was great. A set full of all their hit-singles as it should be in a comeback concert. And almost all of them spiced up with new arrangements. Most notably a ballad version of "Don't Turn Around", an electro version of "Wheel Of Fortune" that I'm sure would be a hit on the dancefloors if they released it now, and a version of "Lucky Love" very close to the original but slightly more energetic which gave a huge response in the audience.

Here is the original European video version of "Lucky Love" (the US version of the video was different):

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Free mp3 downloads

I've just added a new link-list on the right with free mp3 downloads.

There you'll find links to pages from where you can download the listed tracks all legal.

I will update the list as I find new ones, so come back and read my posts and check for new downloads.

Please drop a comment with links to other legal downloads and I'll add them to the list to help others find eurodance, house and trance mp3's.

I'll let you know

Just a quick update on Basic Element:
Rumours have it they are back in the studio working on new material to be released in 2008.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

A band that is fantastic

Continuing with a classic 90's eurodance act which has been somewhat forgotten by the general public even though they had some quite big hits back in the days.

Basic Element best known for tracks like "This Must Be A Dream" and the #1 hit in most of Scandinavia "The Promise Man" but also "Move Me" and one of my personal favorites of theirs "Touch".



After releasing 4 albums from 1994-98 they disappeared. But returned last year and got some well deserved attention especially in home country Sweden, but also elsewhere. The 2007 album "The Empire Strikes Back" gave them a couple of hits with great singles like "I'll Never Let You Know" and the amazing "To You"!



Why they didn't got a pan-european hit is beyond me. But hopefully they'll want to strike again soon.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Anything more I can do for you?

Back to the 90's eurodance. One of the bands who helped create the genre is Culture Beat. I'm sure I'm going to write about them several times as their albums just kept getting better and I keep going back to them.

They are the name behind one of the best known songs of the 90's eurodance scene: "Mr. Vain".



"Mr. Vain" is from their breakthrough second album (the first only made minor impact at the clubs). The album "Serenity" spawned many hit-singles and made Culture Beat a well known name both on tv, the radio and at the clubs.

One of the singles "Anything" probably have the musicvideo I've seen the most times.



It was on heavy rotation on all the major music-channels MTV, MCM, VIVA etc. and on national danish tv. No matter which channel I turned to, it was playing. I actually watched it so much I started to dislike the song.

Different nowadays, I love it like I love everything from Culture Beat. And how I would love to see it played on the tv now instead of all the RnB cr*p that's on.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Remember the one

Strongest contestant DJ Encore faces for the "best album of 2007"-title have to be Swedish The Attic and their album "Remember Tomorrow".

Even though it's a re-release of the album "The One" with 5 new tracks. More than one third new and really strong tracks should make it count as a new album.

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(The video-version of "A Life To Live", the album-version is even better!)

"The One" was nominated for best club/dance album in the Swedish Grammy Awards and with tracks like "A Life To Live" and "In Your Eyes" it had deserved a win. But even a nomination tells something.

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For now I cant decide if DJ Encore's "Unique" or The Attic's "Remember Tomorrow" will become my personal best of 2007 album. But I have played them both continuous for almost half a year now, and still find them both to be fantastic.

Finally I have to share The Attic's great video for the song "The Arrival":

Unique again

Time for a recommendation of some new material. One of the top candidates for best album of 2007 have to be DJ Encore's second album "Unique"!

Finally DJ Encore returned with a new album of his own after the successful 2001 debut album "Intuition" best known for the huge hit "I See Right Through To You".



The new album shows DJ Encore isn't stuck on one sound, the album are less trancy and a bit more mellow which makes it perfect for party as well as laid back enjoyment at home. The album both haves classic DJ Encore-sounding tracks like "Point Of No Return" and first single "You Can Walk On Water".



But also slower and more acoustic tracks showing new sides of DJ Encore. But his strongest card are still present in all the songs, namely the fantastic melodic and catchy tunes. This makes "Unique" an album again from his side with no fillers!



Best representing the new sound must be tracks like "Wanna Fly?" and "Nobody Wants To Try". If you liked his first album, you will love this one as well. Even though 6 years has changed DJ Encore it is not for the worse.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Come to me and play

Yes I know, it's only some posts ago I mentioned Ace Of Base.
I promise the blog isn't gonna be all about them.

But the latest news on Ace Of Base is too good not to mention. They are going on tour here in november/december and one of the stops are in Copenhagen and I am going! (which means I'm probably going to write about them again after the concert, but that's it. Promise).

Rumours has it the concerts are a warm up tour for a new album in 2008. I truely hope it's true! Until then I'm quite sure I'm not the only one who would warmly welcome an Ace Of Base b-sides compilation, with all the single bonus-tracks, previously unreleased tracks and other non-album tracks.

Tracks like "Come To Me", "Mercy Mercy", "Love For Sale" etc. are absolutely good enough to fill an album, and all the Acers (Ace Of Base fans) would buy the compilation without hesitation.



"Love For Sale" above, "Come To Me" below.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Rise up and rock the generation

Well, it's not only gonna be about the classics. So here's a new one I've been enjoying lately:



Yves Larock "Rise Up" a track that have gotten some attention from the dj's all over Europe but haven't been quite the chart-topper it deserves. Only Italy and southern Europe have really embraced it and down there it's probably a big candidate for being the club-favorite of the year.

They are actually calling it the "Love Generation" (by Bob Sinclar) of 2007 ... Well it's not going to be the instant classic "Love Generation" proved to be and will never have the same crossover mainstream appeal, but I'm quite shure that in ten years you will still once in a while hear "Rise Up" being played at clubs around the World.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

More unlimited

Before anyone else points it out I have to admit getting some inspiration for this blogs name from more than just Ace Of Base and 2 Unlimited.

I had already written the two first posts of my blog (but didn't really have a name for it yet) when I came upon Acerben's excellent Pop Unlimited.

With a quick edit of the two posts they now fitted the new name Base Unlimited perfectly. Hope Acerben don't mind me being a copycat. Promise I'm not going to copy his posts as well :-)

A dream come true

A classic 90's eurodance track I have to include in this blog is
2 Brothers On The 4th Floor's "Dreams (Will Come Alive)".



I clearly remember this as one of the songs I freaked about when I in my late teens started going out to party. Nowadays it isn't remembered by many people, but at that time it was quite a hit and one of the favorites at the club I went to.

I was sold from the first listen and haven't got count of the times I've walked home from the city, drunk and singing it out loud. And it is still one of the all-time favorites of mine.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Fly Viva

Does anybody remember how fantastic the german music-channel VIVA used to be? Of course you would have had to live in or nearby Germany to recieve the channel (or have it on cable or something).

Well nowadays all european countries have their own local MTV and at least one other local music tv station. And basically they are all the same! Back in the 90's they had their own individual profiles and in the mid 90's more than 50% of the videos on VIVA where Eurodance. Now you have to be lucky to find a House-video if you watch on a friday or saturday night. No matter which music station you watch.

Well, back to the music. When I lived at home we didn't have cable or anything. So I had to settle with the weekly music video show on national tv. But the first place I moved to on my own I had cable and both MTV and VIVA. I only lived there for half a year, but VIVA quickly became my favorite tv-station and I had it on almost 24/7.

I clearly remember two videos which was on absolutely powerplay on VIVA at that time. One was Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo "Wonderfull Days" and most vivid the second one which was Haddaway "Fly Away".



Both great tracks. And "Fly Away" is still one of my favorite Haddaway songs. By the way, did you known he is still doing music? Releasing new albums and doing concerts.

Monday, September 24, 2007

All that we want is another album

The second reason for the blogs name is Ace Of Base. I was quite late getting a cd-player, until then I was doing the mix-tape thing like everyone else. But finally I got a discman and could start getting cd's.

My first cd was a dance-compilation I had won a few month before I got the discman. And actually a quite good compilation, but that's not the story here. My first real cd-album was Ace Of Base's "Happy Nation" (the original version). I like everyone else was crazy with "All That She Wants" and I also quite liked the other singles "Wheel Of Fortune" and "Happy Nation", so when I got the offer to buy the album from a friend I didn't hesitate.

The album was and still is amazing! Every single track rocked my musical world. Even though I got other cd's I think that album was stuck in my discman for more than a year. I especially liked "Waiting For Magic" (the "Total Remix"-version of the song which is on the US-album isn't as good).

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It didn't took long for Ace Of Base to hit it big time all over the world and when they released the singles "The Sign" and "Don't Turn Around" which was only on the US-version of the album it just confirmed how much I liked the music. So I had to get the US-version album as well.

After waiting for what seemed to be forever, they finally released a new album. The first single was good, but I was still a poor teenager so I waited to hear the second one before deciding. It was "Beautiful Life" and I went bananas! Bought the album imidialy and was amazed again. I actually think that album was stuck in my cd-player for almost two years (still a record of mine).

Since then I've just bought every album/compilations Ace Of Base has released and has never been disappointed! And even though "All That She Wants" is still their biggest hit and it has probably been played to death, I still think it's an amazing track like every single song of theirs.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

How amazing the facets of music can be

First off I want to give a reason for the blogs name. One reason belongs to 2 Unlimited one of the main acts that got me into eurodance! Being a little kiddo at the end of the 80's I didn't really had my own musictaste yet, allthough I did listen to a lot of the more mainstream hip hop like Run DMC, Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Fatboys, Ice-T and so on.

Suddenly music started to appear with a harder beat, still with rap and with oh so catchy refrains. It got my attention as it got everyones at that time, and I liked it. But I never took much notice of the artists or songnames untill I heard "Faces" by 2 Unlimited.



I was hooked imidealy! I had heard "No Limits" and it was still a huge hit when a friend of mine played "Faces" on his stereo. But this new one also by 2 Unlimited just knocked me down. At that exact moment I knew what kind of music I liked!

During the same time the eurodance-scene exploded and most of the biggest and best known songs of the genre are from the same days. But it took quite some time till another song hit me as much as "Faces" did!