"Shout loud, breathe in... won't you Drown In The Now"

Now, I've spoken briefly before about my love for the American duo known as The Crystal Method before... but in the coming weeks you'll start to understand just how far that love stretches. I've been a devoted and avid follower of TCM since I was introduced to four tracks from their first material courtesy of the game FIFA 98 (I owe you so much EA). These tracks were called 'Busy Child', 'More', 'Now Is The Time' and 'Keep Hope Alive'; the first the last being among my all-time favourite tracks. I've only ever seen the duo play once... a DJ set at Fabric last summer. They were confirmed for a DJ set at last year's Rockness festival and Fabric saw an opportunity to snap up a rare performance. They played a two hour set of some amazing breaks/big-beat bangers including some of the remixes from the 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of their debut album Vegas.

Last Monday TCM released 'Drown In The Now' the first single from their fourth studio album Divided By Night which is scheduled to be released worldwide on May 12. The single features vocals from up and coming rapper Mitasyahu and is available to download now on iTunes

Here's a youtube video in HQ, that was captured a few weeks back and an MP3 of the tune... in low quality of course for reasons we all know about... if your digging the tune... you can buy it from the iTunes store... and the video for the song is available for pre-order, which will be released tomorrow.

The Crystal Method Feat. Mitasyahu - Drown In The Now

Sunday Morning Hangover 3

For some reason Google decided that the second installment in this series was a breach of copyright... oh well... you can't always please everyone!

Anyway, cracking on... I hope everyone has had a sick weekend, as ever. I unfortunately am beached into my room at University with copius amounts of assignment and essay work. With the money I didn't spend out and about, I decided to spend my hard earned cash on some new headphones :D, as I appear to have broken my Fake HDJ-1000s...

In the spirit of everything 'chilled' here's a selection of tunes that I regularly listen to the 'morning after'!

The Crystal Method - Bound Too Long

This, until very recently, was the last single to be released by the American duo, back in 2004, which featured on their third studio album Legion of Boom, a very firm favourite of mine.

The song features vocals from Soul and Hip/Hop singer Hanifah Walidah. To me there is no other track that speaks to me in such a powerful way, it's the tune that I continuously come back to in tough times, or times when I just need a little break or 'pick-me-up' to keep me going. [Squeaky Bleeps Highly Recommended]

DJ Rolando - Knights of the Jaguar

If there is one techno song from years gone by that you must listen to, it has to be this. Composition wise this tune is argubly one of the best ever made... its the sweeping intricateness of the synths in this tune that make it really stand out. If you took the kicks out of this song... it would still be one of the most uplifting electronic songs that you'll ever come across.

BT - 1.618

Now I did say that one thing we wouldn't be posting on this blog would be Trance music, purely based on my lack of knowledge of the genre... however I decided to make an exception here.

Now although this track is not trance in essence, to completely reject BT's past as a true pioneer of the trance sound, would be an insult to his unquestionable talent as a music producer and as a multi-instrument musician. This track weighs in at 11:34, and can be summed up as ambient electronic music, with Glitch undertones, but I feel that kind of takes away some of the genius of it. This tune is a true masterpiece that can never be recreated... and I feel absolutely gutted that I missed his recent headline performance at Ministry of Sound this weekend... he is God in my eyes. [Squeaky Bleeps High Recommend]

Massive Attack - Teardrop

Now this song needs no introduction... You all should know what to expect here. One of the tune I continuously go back to, saturday and sunday morning after saturday and sunday morning on a train home from London. I won't go into the whole which cover version is better and all that bollox... what matters is the power that this music ensues, and this is no exception to that claim.

Moby - Porcelain

Despite what everyone else thinks, this is Moby's best track to me. By just closing your eyes... you can paint a whole landscape and setting with just the sounds being given to you. This is the sort of music I really love... music that can transport you and really take you away to a better place. The vocals just really add to the whole feel of the tune... I also believe there is a version over 10 minutes somewhere, although I've never heard it... sad times!

FC Kahuna - Hayling

One of my favourite tunes of all time without a doubt... its such a mellow and uplifting track, but it also posesses a real power that gives you such a warm feeling... well either that or you've just messed yourself looking at Hafdís Huld in the video. I believe this is the version found on the 2002 album 'Machine Says Yes', which is so medodic near the end it makes my teeth hurt!

I also made a music video for this song for my Media Studies A-Level coursework, which I've embedded below.

Apologies for the low quality, however at the time I didn't have a youtube director account and needed it keep the file under 100MB... drat!