‘You can’t just give it away like it means nothing’, is the lead line in today’s Free Friday Favorite from an English electronic music producer that features beautiful female vocals.
The heavy bass and drum kick up a motivating flat at 87 rpm’s. The original version is 3:47, with an additional 4 remixes immediately available on Spotify & Deezer, varying in length from 4:10 to 6:28. I am currently using this tune right after warm up, as we launch into steady state aerobic work.
A Belgian producer of modern drum’ n’ bass gives us today’s Free Friday Favorite. The original version has a lovely soft 22 seconds in the beginning for us to cue an intense and driving flat road at 87 bpm and 4:10. The free Sound Cloud version is also 87 bpm but goes immediately into an intense and driving flat and is 2:56 long.
Choices abound- use the free track flat in your profile where you’ve already set the tone and expectations, and don’t need cueing time- just a driving and motivating force. If you want a little ‘talk time’ and then the force; go for the original version of ‘Come Alive’ by Netsky from his self-titled 2010 album.
Here is the original version:
There is a limit to many things…but not this song!
In the last few weeks, I have been asking my class to bring themselves to the point where they are willing to work from, and then add 20 watts. We then hold those watts for the ENTIRE class, regardless of the terrain. It has proven to be quite a challenge and has eliminated any notions that consistent aerobic base work is ‘easy’!
This is a great medium grade climb that allows for reflection and hard, concentrated work. The original version by this English electronic music producer and singer-songwriter is 70 rpm’s and 4:37. Here is James Blake — Limit To Your Love from his self-titled album:
I love this funky band from Belgium. Their sound is a nice mixture of electronica/alternative and rock. The original version of this week’s FF is at 90 rpm’s and is 3:44. I also found a smooth re-mix for this week’s Free Friday Favorite that is 6:34.
You’ll have to let me know which one you like for your class. I‘ve been using the longer re-mix version as the last flat push before my cool down and a few members have asked what the song is (I always take that as a good sign).
Enjoy Hooverphonic’s ‘Mad About You’, from their The Magnificent Tree album:
I've been trying to find a movie for “date night” and heard this awesome track from Snow Patrol I wanted to share with you. It's from the movie Epic. Not right for movie night, but looks cool for a Red Box rental in the future.
Big gear. Big pedals. It could have easily been the soundtrack for Peter Kennaugh's huge effort in the Tour today, chasing down the break over the top of Port de Pailh̬res and then dragging team leader (and stage winner) Chris Froome down the back side. At times he simply rode away from everyone, even his own team. I had the privilege of interviewing his father Peter Kennaugh Sr. back on Podcast #234 and I'm sure this was a proud day for him Рalthough Jr's winning a gold medal at last year's Olympics was probably a special day for any father who's also an accomplished cycling coach.
The Deezer iPhone App is very similar to the Spotify App. No, make that darn near exactly the same. While there are a few very small differences between Deezer and Spotify, there's one positive and one negative that will affect how you use Deezer in your class.
I love how the Deezer App allows you to change the track order on your phone, instead of needing to make changes on a computer like Spotify. Clicking the pencil icon bring you to edit mode where you can reorder to your hearts content.
Note: neither service lets you change someone else's playlist. If you want to switch/change/substitute tracks you need to create a new playlist and copy/drag all the tracks into it.
Both Deezer and Spotify offer an “offline” mode so the music is actually downloaded to your phone vs. needing to rely on a wireless connection for streaming.
Note: we hear frequently from Instructors who are confused by both Deezer and Spotify being advertised as “Streaming Music Services” – which they are… but for your class you should only use the “Sync” (Deezer) or “Available Offline” (Spotify) modes to ensure uninterrupted playback. Android devices say simply “Download”. This is very important because both Deezer and Spotify display “local” tracks (from iTunes) when you're creating a new playlist. If your new playlist includes a local track it'll skip over / won't play if you try to stream your class using the club's wireless. Syncing your iPhone, using the same wireless network as your desktop, ensures all your tracks will be there.
With Spotify you need to open each playlist before you can toggle the “Available Offline” option. With Deezer you can set a playlist to “Sync” at both the playlists screen and once you've opened the individual playlist.
Here's the “Now Playing” screen. Disappointingly Deezer has chosen to use the same tiny font as Spotify for the playlist timer. Obviously all of their developers are all young, with young people's eyes 🙁
So what's the negative difference between Deezer and Spotify?
Deezer doesn't appear (I can't find it) to offer a crossfade option. I really enjoy a seamless class, especially when it doesn't take any time to create, so I would miss not having this feature. Beyond that they're almost identical and either could make a huge improvement to your class.
We're in the process of adding a one-click Deezer playlist link to each Audio PROfile and plan to have this completed by tomorrow. We are doing this specially for all of our Canadian ICI/PRO members who can't access Spotify.
If you are in Canada you can click any of the Deezer links like this one to Krista's playlist shown above and sample each track – Deezer will open and you don't need to sign up in advance. Those of us in America will need to wait until whenever they get here.
