29 November 2007






Here we have nothing less than amazing. Le Le write their songs in English, Dutch, German and French. The tunes they craft are pure pop genius. Insanely catchy and instantly memorable this electro-pop perfection will brighten up anyones grim day of mundanity. Just think somewhere along the lines of the poppier moments of a Kitsune compilation and you have a rough idea of where Le Le are at but still managing to stamp their own brand of magical genius onto proceedings, electro esperantology I think they call it. Their single is available HERE. Now an ode to jeans with ankles of 12 inches or less in circumference.








Le Le - Skinny Jeans (alt link)








Le Le - La Bouche








Le Le - Hard









You may or may not have heard Turzi, they've been getting noticed up and down the blogs for a while and with good reason, their album entitled 'A' features all sorts of songs that begin with the letter A. Expect some exquisite and consuming lo-fi synth laden psychadelic space indie.







Turzi - Amadeus (alt link)







Turzi - Afghanistan









21 November 2007






Mixtapes & Cellmates - I Left (alt link)
myspace



Slagsmålsklubben - Speedboats (alt link)
myspace



Pluxus - Perm (alt link)
myspace



Société des Admirateurs - When I Go Gymnastique

myspace




Back in sometime in December.




20 November 2007






Gay Cat Park's 'I Am A Vocoder' is touted by many as the essential Italo-Disco track. I wouldn't disagree. Early 80's lo-fi synth pop at its finest. It has just been re-released on Clone with a couple of updated versions alongside the original. Being a vocoder never sounded so good, apart from a hilarious interview with Chromeo that is on their myspace.







Gay Cat Park - I Am A Vocoder (alt link)







Gay Death Probe are a two piece from Southampton who make gabba pop with their sampler, the drum machine and the circuit bent toys.







Gay Death Probe - Return Of The 100mph Dog (alt link)








Gay Beast are noise rock! Point of reference - Load Records.







Gay Beast - What You Want (alt link)










19 November 2007






It's been a good while since i've listened to any Comtron and that's not a good thing. If you're not familiar with The Comtron Group they are anti-corporate Dutch businessmen who deal in illicit electro beats. Fellow Dutch duo Blokgolf have put their hand to one of Comtron's tracks and come up with a very very impressive remix which will remind you very much of yet another Dutchman - Alden Tyrell, as well as giving a bit of musical nod to the likes of Midnight Juggernauts etc. Great tune.






Comtron - Evil OS (Blokgolf Remix)
(alt link)







Comtron - M.O.N.E.Y.






Forgotten 8-bit treasure





Twilight Electric - Chewing Gum
(alt link)

myspace












18 November 2007







Today is a retrospective look at the pop music of Thailand and France.

I am intrigued by world music from times past, particularly the releases of Sublime Frequencies who specialise in distributing music from the remotest corners of the globe that was never well known enough in the first place to ever be forgotten. Sublime Frequencies is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. The fruits of their efforts inlcude the political pop music of Niger circa 1980, illegal electronic gang funk from Rio de Janeiro. And a collection of Thai pop music from the 60s-80s. Have a look through the Sublime Frequencies site - the info on each release makes for some interesting reading.


Here is a couple of Thai disco-pop nuggets from the 1970's







Chailai Chaiyata & Sawanee Patana - Kwuan Tai Duew Luk Puen (alt link)







Chalermpon Malakum - Pleng Show (alt link)





Better documented are the yé-yé girls of 1960's France. Think of the 1960s, back when pop music had only just begun. An explosion of youth, optimism and the breaking down of musical boundaries. The first generation of teenagers in search of a soundtrack to their new freedom. New artists became pop stars, riding high on a tidal wave of energy. The French, inspired by the sounds coming out of the US and UK, taking ideas from the great girl-groups, the beat-groups and combining it with the best of the French chanteuse traditions. The result became known as the yé-yé sound; classic pop songs with a French twist. I would have loved to be living in Paris at around that time.





Katy David - Plus Tard




Christine Delaroche - Des Tigres Et Des Minets





Stella - Pourquoi Pas Moi





Clothilde - Saperlipopette





Taken from the fantastic Femme De Paris compilations.







17 November 2007







Hey DJ's, do you want a dancefloor behemoth? Of course you do. Try
En Masse on for size. Hailing from Milan this two-piece will put your speakers to the test with their fantastic debut EP. The beats are of ridiculous proportions, matching if not surpassing those laid down by the likes of Proxy and D.I.M. What can I say, i'm a sucker for bass. Grab the EP HERE.






En Masse - Lime (alt link)





Now go!





Proxy - Decoy





Cause ructions!








16 November 2007






Tracey Thorn - Raise The Roof (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Remix)
myspace




Lost Valentinos - Nightmoves (Comets Valitalo Remix)

myspace




Trippple Nippples - PPP (Lowbrows Remix)

myspace




Hi-Jack - Hijackin' (Herve Remix)
myspace




Emok vs Ndsa - Harbour Candy (Soledad Remix)

myspace




Phil Collins - Sussudio (Triobelisk Remix)

myspace




And I know it's been covered by all the other cooler kids, but this tremendous take on Starlett Johansson is too good not to include in this hodge-podge of remixes for the weekend.




The Teenagers - Starlett Johansson (Connan And The Mockasins Remix)

myspace





May you have many witty and informative encounters throughout your weekend.






15 November 2007






Norway spearheads disco revival.





Bjørn Torske - God Kveld (alt link)





Lindstrøm - The Contemporary Fix (Bjørn Torske Remix) (alt link)






Bjørn Torske
is seriously good at crafting these warm electronica funk jams. His album Feil Knapp is one of the more innovative and interesting electronica albums of the year.




Bonus Beat


Giorgio Moroder - Utopia - Me Giorgio
(alt link)









13 November 2007






Don't be expecting those harsh tasty dancefloor beats. Today is about electronica's role in relaxation. Very different tracks - very similar result.




Console - Untitled (alt link)
myspace




Oliver Nelson - Stolen Moments (Telefon Tel Aviv Remix) (alt link)

myspace




FortDax - (as yet untitled) (Piano Magic Remix)
(alt link)

myspace




Denzel + Huhn - Kleiner Bruder (alt link)
myspace




A Lily - Lights Shone Brighter. My Delicate Sun Is My Sparklin' Sun
(alt link)

myspace




Isolee - Face B (alt link)
myspace




Alex Smoke - Left Drift (alt link)
myspace




Flying Lotus - Spicy Sammich
myspace






A mix CD I made with the above tracks on has made my work day more relaxing and less productive. A colleague described the music on the CD as "'get up and go' music........go out of the room'. I chuckled to myself then later on caught her singing along to some vacuous pop song on the radio. Each to their own.




9 November 2007







Beats For Beginners, pretty 2004? Nah, they're back resurrecting the DJ's they killed last time around with a new 6-track EP Lazer Beams For Eyes which features a remix from that Melbourne kid ZZZ. One for the weekend.








Beats For Beginners - Lazer Beams For Eyes (Beats vs ZZZ Remix)
(alt link)









Now for a musical equation.





Think About Life - Serious Chords



+



Sunset Rubdown - Swimming
(alt link)



+



Shapes And Sizes - Intro To Being A City



=



Magic Weapon - Fireflies (alt link)






Magic Weapon is the result of Shapes And Sizes' Rory Seydel, Sunset Rubdown's Jordan Robson-Cramer and Think About Life's Matt Shane combining forces to become Canada's premier lo-fi indie conglomerate. I'd even go as far as to say that the Magic Weapon EP is better than the latest Sunset Rubdown effort, but these things are of course subjective. Thanks to Transparent Magazine for bringing them to my attention.




8 November 2007






Genjini are my love of the day. They are from France and lie somewhere between, Whitey, Errors and Love Is All (i suppose). There's some tracks to listen to on their MySpace with Shake And Go being a particularly teasing to your feet.






Genjini - Shubbeez (
alt link)






Swede's remixing Swede's.
MPTP and Samuraj Cities the two bands in question. The track taken from THIS 7" which also features a remix by Zeigeist.






MPTP - Jim Morrison (Samuraj Cities Remix) (alt link)






Not posted any 8-bit melodies in a while. So here is the witty and informative
Mr. Spastic and the guitar-chiptune combination of The Depreciation Guild. From 8bitpeoples.






The Depreciation Guild - By Sundown (alt link)




Mr. Spastic - Ichi Ni San Cuatro (alt link)







Chiptunes are fun. So are the prehistoric electro carnivores that are Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - seriously check out their MySpace. The songs on there are double good! In related news, I heard all 46 Land Before Time films will be played on TV over Christmas and New Year.




7 November 2007






I've been meaning to post about Abe Vigoda for a while. I really enjoyed their Sky Route/Star Roof effort, then after hearing their follow up effort Kid City, my love for them grew elevenfold. Get with them, especially if you dig stuff like Mika Miko etc. There's some more ace songs for download on their page.





Abe Vigoda - All Night And Day (alt link)





Abe Vigoda - Coming In (alt link)







D.I.M. will be playing a set in The Zoo, Manchester on 30th November alongside none other than SebastiAn. And if you have lots of money and a truly exceptional taste in music you could make a real day of it and go see the ethereal Scandinavians Efterklang at the Roadhouse prior to checking in at The Zoo.







D.I.M. - Noize (alt link)





Efterklang - Maison De Reflexion (alt link)




5 November 2007






So, during a bi-annual tidy up of my car I uncovered many things. T-shirts, beer cans, magazines and lots of CD's, most without labels the result of hasty mix CD making. Here are a couple of absolute gems I uncovered off this one blank and very scratched yet still functioning Tesco CD-R.







Kevin Blechdom - Get On Your Knees (alt link)
(myspace)








Revolution 9 - Computer Girl (alt link)
(myspace)










I have raved about Skullening previously, but that was a year ago. Considering the massive uptake in the noise-punk stakes of late i'm surprised Skullening haven't created more blogwaves. I'll reiterate what I said back then, Skullening are a loud and trashy noise punk quartet. Sinister organ and pure bass distortion coming through your speakers at a squillion MPH.







Skullening - Rainboner (alt link)





Skullening - New AIDS (alt link)





Skullening - Bugs That 'R' Dead












4 November 2007






Hi! Let's listen to musics yeah.

Compilations don't really come much better than the Milky Disco, what to expect? Apreggiated discotronics from the likes of the genres key exponent Lindstrom and Luke Vibert's alter ego Kerrier District. Amazing stuff.






Black Mustang And Kerrier District - Mad As Hell (Dub) (alt link)






Kid Dub knows how to A) Name a track in such a way that it is bound to attract his target demographic, and then B) Build on that by turning out a wonderful tech-house anthem.







Kid Dub - Tetris (alt link)







Now for some early Ed Banger action, this Feadz remix of a Krazy Baldhead track dates back to 2004 but still sounds pretty fresh to me. Gotta love the cut up looping, point of reference here - The Field?






Krazy Baldhead - Bill's Break (Feadz Remix) (alt link)