Weekend Warm-Up No. 18: Soundtracking
–Words & list by Kevin Madert
Film scores and original soundtracks are ideal pump-up fodder – hell, these are pieces of music designed to evoke specific emotional responses to whatever visual media they’re attached to. Sure, it’s not all that difficult to get excited when Russell Crowe enters the Roman Colosseum, or Andy Dufresne escapes from Shawshank Prison. But musical accompaniment ensures even out-of-the-loop viewers understand what they’re supposed to feel; even if it’s an unconscious response, those epic crescendos and frantic notes get the blood pumping and the heart racing all the same.
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Weekend Warm-Up No. 16: Hip-Hop’s Golden Age
–Words & list by Kevin Madert
After developing quickly in the late 1970s and early 1980s, hip-hop hit what most music historians consider its pinnacle in the middle of the decade. With honed, intelligent lyricism, complex interior rhyme schemes, innovative production styles, and a steady diversification of subject material, hip-hop saw itself expand in explosive fashion. In Rolling Stone‘s accurate assessment, “it seemed that every new single reinvented the genre,” during the Golden Age, which persisted well into the 1990s.
This week’s warm-up is just as much a history lesson as a tool for the fabrication and proliferation of psychitude. You’ll hear intricate narratives detailing everything from the struggles of black youth in America (“Temperature’s Rising”) to the minutiae of everyday life (“The Jam”), not to mention the occasional chest-thumping soliloquy (“The Rep Grows Bigga,” “Gz & Hustlas”).
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Weekend Warm-Up No. 14: Mixed Bag #2
–Words & list by Kevin Madert
Sometimes it’s good to take a step back and remember getting amped up doesn’t require a specific genre or style. Snoop Dogg, Jack Beats, Tipper, and Goldfish all know plenty about the topic – even if they have different ideas about how one gets there. Now, I’ll stop talking so you can start listening.
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Weekend Warm-Up No. 13: We Love The ’90s
–Words and list by Kevin Madert
Perhaps no decade in the last half-century is as nostalgized and obsessed over than the 1990s. Sure, we still enjoy many things from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, but the ’90s possess some inexplicable, unquantifiable hold over us. Nowhere is this more evident than in the decade’s contributions to the world of music. For me, that made constructing this playlist a hell of a task, so I made an executive decision. Rather than pick ten upbeat tunes to encapsulate my relationship with the entire decade, I picked the first ten tracks of what in my mind is a much larger list – one you’ll see more of if you continue tuning in for our Warm-Ups.
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Weekend Warm-Up No. 12: Anjunabeats
–Words and list by Kevin Madert
Few labels sport as much potential for warm-uppitude (copyright pending) as Anjunabeats. Founded and operated by Jono, Tony and Paavo of Above & Beyond and trading primarily in trance & progressive, the label has released hundreds of songs in its nearly 15 years of existence, so picking ten wasn’t easy. We don’t stray far from the build-release-build-release formula here, but that doesn’t mean there’s not diversity. From the stabbing riffs of “Bullet Catch” to the more traditional soaring synths on “Irufushi” and “Dreamcatcher,” there’s something for steady-beat lovers of all tastes.
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