Steve Aoki-Pillowface And His Airplane Chronicles

By Conan The Destroyher


I personally don't like the concept of Mix Albums at present right now. I mean whats the point of buying a mix album when you can get it from a dedicated dance music fans blogsite instead, which is where I got my copy from. Its not that I personally don't want to buy the CD, its just in this day in age mixes are easy to find thanks to free server sites such as rapid-share, Zshare and mediafire (yes these are my favorites FYI)

The way that the media has view Steve Aoki is that you either love him or hate him, in which case I'm kind of on the fence with him when it comes to his associations with certain celebrities.

Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton,Joel Madden and Danny Masterson from "That 70s show" are personal and close friends of Steve Aoki. And bearing in mind that he also runs indie label Dim Mak Records which is home to such artists as Datarock, Bloc Party and Mystery Jets!

Now lets get to the review of this Mix Album. The track selection is fantastic, thats off course if you're partial to the music thats on offer from Aoki. The starter is Refused "New noise" which is a classic punk track to get things moving.

It also may have a dual meaning to some who are excepting a sissy like house selection.........NOPE NOT A CHANCE IN HELL!!!!!

Expect tracks such as Klaxons "Gravity's Rainbow (Soulwax Remix)", Justice's "Waters Of Nazareth (Erol Alkans Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr Re-Edit)",Green Velvet "Shake And Pop, Does It Offend You, Yeah? " We Are Rockstars " and Erol Alkan's remix of Franz Ferdinand "Do You Want To"


So basically this album is geared towards the Hipster sub-culture, Nu ravers ravers, and many a alt indie crossover fanboy or girl for that matter.

Now for the Cons about this album. First of all I should stop referring to this as an album, but a mix CD. However the way that Steve has been promoting it on his myspace page makes it like he's got a debut album. So to shatter those perceptions, its not an Album!

Another annoying thing about listening to this mix is the fact that there are Adlib moments from some of Steve's music friends such as Kid Sister (on "Shake 'N' Pop"), Spank Rock (on "Waters Of Nazareth"), Har Mar Superstar (on "Element Of Danger") and Hip Hop artist Mickey Avalon (on"Wet n Wild"), which at first works on some levels, but it just ruins the overall listening experience for me personally.

Also with the track selection it feels somewhat dated due largely to many blogs breaking in these tracks prior to the release of this mix CD. So this maybe a downer to people like me who have already heard the majority of these tunes from other mix compilations!

Now with what I've read from Pitchfork's scathing reviews on this CD, I would recommended this mix cd to anyone who are not familiar with Nu Rave or Nu dance as I would've coined it .

As it turns out there are other DJs who are at first not as mainstream as Aoki, but are in the same arena in terms of playing underground dance and Nu Rave within their Dj sets. And no we are not hoping this is the last mix from Aoki, but in the near future he should consider podcasting via Itunes for those who can't get the experience which is Steve!

So its a keeper. As for Steve, if the Blahs ever got to DJ'ed along side with Aoki at a hip LA club, we would not say no to it...........that's of course If Lindsay Lohan is thrown in as an incentive package (Hmmmmmmm blowjobs!)