Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Verse City 2010



Photos courtesy of the youth from Verse City and Say Word (2010)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Brihan and his Youtube: Soreal Cru

I cut the cable and sold my tv a while ago so a lot of you know that I don't know what's going on in the television world anymore.

Didn't care so much for television, I think the only things I've missed out on are CBC content - news, documentaries and The Hour.

But this week was huge, not only did Glee come back to the air (I'm a gleek...but I'll save that for another post) but if I don't find someone with a tv - I'm gonna miss this all-star special on ABDC!

I've been waiting for this to happen since season 3 ended - then the show wasn't so good...not worth the time to look for generous people on certain sites to watch season 4 and 5.

Quest Crew and Jabbawockeez will be amazing to see how they stack up against each other on the abdc stage, but it's going to be a shame that stand-outs like Kaba Modern and Soreal Cru won't be there.

Lately, I've been watching a lot of Soreal and if you check out their youtube channel, I always felt like, 'Whoa! Why didn't I see THIS when they were on ABDC?'

I ain't no professional dancer or anything, but it's hard not to highlight the similarities between Soreal Cru and Kaba Modern. Both crews are really precise and detailed with their movements. But stylistically, there's a huge difference in their dancing. I think a lot of it can be attributed to where these two crews come from and the music that they use is evidence of that. Soreal Cru is from Houston and (not to generalize people from the South) but they've got more love for the slower, smoother hip-hop/r&b music. Those songs mixed with an array of heavy bass, 808 tick-tackin' hip-hop beats, the music they use represents where they come from a lot - and that's awesome. The dancing they produce is sexier without having to be raunchy or half-naked. It actually takes a lot of skill to keep up with the choreography they produce.

But other than looking at the group as a whole, check out some of the members on their own - particularly Andrew Baterina, Brian Puspos and Jackie Lautchang - search 'em up and you'll find a lot of choreographed pieces that they teach in workshops and whatnot.

Here are some of their choreographed pieces that I like (almost all the videos here are from their channel Soreal Cru TV):

BRIAN PUSPOS









JACKIE LAUTCHANG







ANDREW BATERINA



Sunday, April 11, 2010

Brihan with TheSixtyOne

Allow me to share some of the musicians/songs that I've loved since I discovered The Sixty One.

If you don't know what this site is, it's like myspace but with more adventure and discovery because you get to stumble on some great music. Check it out, my favourite thing to do is to surf through the moods that generate playlists based on the mood you selected - I usually go with mellow and party. 
Passion Pit is pretty popular right now. They've got a great single out right now, Sleepyhead, and I first heard it because I saw a really great choreography done for it by Andrew Baterina (Soreal), Pacman (Sytycd/Marvelous Motion) and Jordan Kolar. 
I'm the kinda guy who watches a great piece for a song and then falls in love with it - this is a good example of that.


BEARBOT is another favourite of mine. She's a New York DJ that does a lot of mash-ups and electronic beats. She mixes a lot of mainstream rap vocals on top of artists like MGMT, Daft Punk, and a lot of other samples that I can't really name, etc. 
A lot of her mixes have been pretty consistent and I haven't found myself skipping through too many of her tracks - there's maybe one or two that irk me a bit, but I'd say let all the songs play out while you're doing your computer bidness. Either way, I'll list off the ones I'd recommend (and they're free tracks so go DL them) - Mixtape - Your Friends- Wow - Technocrips - Poloroid - Danger Girl





Hey there Obidiah Parker, if you ever read this, I just want you to know that you make great covers - especially this Hey Ya cover. Great voice, and really great sound and style change for such a fun song that I haven't heard in a long long time. 
Acoustic guitar and a nice upbeat folksy rhythm for that drive out to California that we gotta take some time in our lives (you know who you are mr. kimchix and friends)




Ady Smith - Just Dance This is my favourite remix of the song right now - it's free, go check it out here.



That's it for now, stay tuned for more. For now, you can check out my sixtyone page and see what I've been listening to. Go to History or see what I saved on my playlists.