Jason Forrest “New Religion”

About a decade ago this enthusiastic music nerd (it takes one to know one) wandered into the record store I was working at in Portland; he was making some sort of documentary on the DIY electronic music movement at the time and left me with a cassette labeled “DONNA SUMMER”. I was a bit confused about the name at the time, not to mention weird thrashy, cutup tuneage he was spinning (spinning like a tall tale, not spinning like a DJ). I’ve continued to run into this fellow many times over the years DJing parties in Berlin, running his Cockrock Disco label, releasing records on Mouse on Mars’ Sonig label, and all around keeping things fun. Jason Forrest keeps refining his all-genre, sampledelic beat music that still retains this fervent excitement for music making and sound in general. The crazed mashup has long since become its own genre as well as a part of mainstream music culture, but I find more refinement in Jason’s music than, say Girltalk’s string-of-hooks style of production.

I was excited when I stumbled into this track the other day, combining so many of my favorite things these days: Herbert “Moving Like A Train Smith and Hack Remix” style horn house, DJ Mujave style shuffling snares, prog rock breakdowns, a Bollywood-esque vocal hook, an Aphex Twin style snare rush, awkward tempo changes, and even a Wet Ones style bell sound effect! This one is going into my next DJ set (Fri May 6!), no doubt.

(buy via iTunes)