Five For Friday

With another weekend of big spending and even bigger partying coming up, I thought it was about time to post some suitably big tunes. 'Pixelated', from my new favourite Phonat (teaming up with Super Mal), is your standard party vibe - all flashy synth work and hard-hitting bass drum - with some tasty vocal chops and a funky bassline. (It goes a bit funny at one point, but the production team bring it back under control in good order). Bit of a tune. Moulinex provides a more soft and consitent sound, and his remix of College's 'Fantasy Park' is probably one of my favourite songs of the moment. A pretty revealing achievment, considering I only got hold of it about ten minutes ago. The weird vox-synth pattern sucked me in immediately. (His remix of Tellier's Kilometer is also none too shabby.)

Slightly more hardcore is Modeselektor's dubsteppy version of 'Blazin'. I've pretty much included it purely out of a hunger for powerful dubstep bangers, but it is suitably strong in the bass department, and pleasantly violent. Does get a bit repetitive though.

But still worth getting hold of.

And last, but not least, is Kavinsky's remix of 'Roche'. Where Moulinex uses funky, almost pornographic bass (and actually pornographic vocal samples) to capture the essential Sebastien Tellier 'sexed-up' vibe, Kavinsky goes for a more subtle approach - slowing the whole thing down and bringing out the vocals nicely. The strings give it an almost cinematic atmosphere and it's pretty much the perfect song for napping to. (In a good way.) I'm definitely off Kavinsky-hunting after this post.

Super Mal & Phonat - Pixelated Buy
College Feat. Anoraak - Fantasy Park (Moulinex Remix) Buy*
Ghislain Poirier - Blazin' (Modeselektor Remix) Buy

And a couple of bonus Tellier remixes for more of a laid-back weekend:
Sebastien Tellier - Kilometer (Moulinex Remix) Buy
Sebastien Tellier - Roche (Kavinsky Remix) Myspace

*With regards to the Moulinex 'Buy' links, I haven't been able to find purchasable mp3's of the promos I've put up. However, he's got some good stuff on beatport and itunes, so I've sent you in their direction.

Hangover

Everyone loves High Contrast. And everyone loves Kanye West. And I love unbelievably bad quality bootleg rips.
I can't remember who I nicked this particular bit of magic from, but god bless them. It's off a London Elektricity essential mix, as far as I can tell, and it may or may not be Mr. High Contrast. But either way it is a HUGE bit of tasty liquid D'n'B.

For those who aren't into that kind of thing, though, I've also been listening to a bit of Arctic Urgency as well. The vocals on their remix of 'I Wish I Was A Polar Bear' are a bit funny, which is pretty much a given as the song is about polar bears, but the rest of the track is undeniably ... good. The Damn Arms remix of 'Far Away' is pretty decent too, Cut Copy have inspired a few good remixes with that particular song.

I've thrown in Phonat's remix of 'Fire' for good measure. It puts a spring in your step.


Actually I've just listened to it again. What a tune.

The Young Punx - Fire (Phonat Remix) Buy
Kanye West - Flashing Lights (High Contrast Remix) Buy
Ted & Francis - I Wish I Was A Polar Bear (Arctic Urgency) Buy
Cut Copy - Far Away (Damn Arms Remix) Buy

What Comes Before Part B?

Obviously I haven't posted in a while, mostly courtesy of an essay deadline that saw me sitting at my desk around 5 in the morning wired on coffee and hearing voices. Good times.

Anyway, I was on a Part A bus last night sipping a few cocktails and wrapping people in cling film and it suddenly occurred to me that my afternoon was missing one thing.
Incredible electro bangers and cheerful electro pop.
Feeling surprisingly refreshed and alert this morning, I decided to compile a playlist which would ensure my bus journeys would never be so lacking in tuneage again.

Private got the ball rolling with their enjoyable, 80's retro sounding pop jaunt 'We've Got Some Breaking Up To Do'. The chorus is literally amazing, as are the funky synth stabs. I decided that the only way to take it up a notch after that was to return to my old favourite's: The Bag Raiders. There have been a lot of 'Far Away' remixes flying around the web lately but their effort is definitely a cut above, bringing the epic party sound they've perfected to another level.
Moving on, Leeds lads Heads We Dance provide a more hard-bitten, grinding bit of electro power with their recent single 'The Human Touch' - cheerfully doing their bit for the English scene. 'Ninja Gaiden' is similarly rough-edged, with all the distortion you would expect from a Calling In Sick track. And just to round it off, i threw in a bit of Toxic Avenger madness which is so incredibly fast-paced and pounding it would probably make any bus driver in the world start doing doughnuts and screaming abuse out of the window. Amazing.

Private - We've Got Some Breaking Up To Do Buy
Heads We Dance - The Human Touch Web
Cut Copy - Far Away (Bag Raiders Remix) Buy
ART WHIPLASH - Party, Sex and Bullshit (The Toxic Avenger Remix) Myspace
Calling In Sick - Ninja Gaiden Myspace

I mentioned TEPR's remix of Yelle's 'Ce Jeu' in my last post. And having spent all day listening to while supposed to be doing work, I thought it might provide a nice distraction for other people. Also, it doesn't seem to be on hype machine - which either means this post is going to be removed by blogger in a matter of seconds, or that It's an exceedingly lucky spot on my part. Anyway, the remix is surprisingly house, rather than straightforward raw electro. As you might expect, or even hope for. But I'm always open to a bit of classic dance and TEPR has nailed the good old piano chord progression, the breakdown into fuzzy base and the ever-popular weird distortion sound that really makes a good club track.

Slightly less consistently incredible is the Bang Gang Deejays remix of 'Drugs In My Body'. Their use of the vocals is pretty lazy, and at times annoyingly distorted. Having said that, when it drops into the funky bass pattern and shiny, crystal clear snyths its a pretty pleasant club tune. Definitely worth a listen.

If you're a fan of the art of distortion and grinding, chopped up vocals though, give the We Are Terrorists take on 'Ironical Sexism' a listen. It's got a bit of a rock sound, although it's still comfortably electronic and pretty powerful. Not bad fighting music. It's the kind of track that makes you feel like you should be smashing stuff up and shouting along to the words like some kind of rave-crazed nutter.

And if that's too hardcore then I've also posted Citizen Cope's 'Sideways'. This song has literally picked me up and laid me quietly to rest every single night of the past week, mumbling softly along to the lyrics. Definitely highly recommended for anyone who hasn't already heard it. And thanks to Scrubs for alerting me to an old favourite.

Yelle - Ce Jeu (TEPR's Club Remix) Buy
Thieves Like Us - Drugs In My Body (Bang Gang Deejays Remix) Buy
Revolte - Ironical Sexism (We Are Terrorists Remix) Myspace
Citizen Cope - Sideways Buy

TEPR Eff

I've been listening to some flipping HUGE tunes lately, courtesy mostly of two producers. First up is London boy Bill Eff, competing with the French electro crowd and not coming off to bad at all. Fittingly, his remix of Yelle's 'Ce Jeu' is the best I've heard, thanks most to it's simplicity and epic use of reverb. A lot better than The Twelves attempt, which is usually saying something. Although in this case it isn't because their version wasn't particularly spectacular at all. As well as that, I've had Eff's tune 'Hate You' on repeat. It carries strong overtones of a kind of 'Flat Beat' tune, but a little more dubsteppy and with a few more levels. You can imagine it influencing a drug-related burst of paranoia. (Which is a good thing).

As well as Eff, I've been listening to the ever-popular TEPR. No idea what it stands for, or where TEPR is from. And I've put zero effort into finding out because as far as I'm concerned his remixes tell you all you need to know. Which is that he's pretty good. His version of Ironik's 'I Wanna Be Your Man' is kind of excitingly rectro in its use of sliced-up chipmunky vocals, but the real banger is his old remix of 'Dangerseekers' (which has already done the rounds on the blogosphere, but I thought I'd revive it in the interests of good music). It's a pretty straightforward track - some good old synth stab rhythms and a thumping dance beat. Plus a bit of harmless fidget here and there. Well done, Mr (Mrs?) TEPR.*

And also, Calvin Harris's remix of See The Light may start off as slightly annoying and ridiculous - but for some reason I played it 5 times in a row today. It cheered me up. Great use of vocals and nicely playful with the melody. Definitely a good one so I thought I'd throw it in.

Bill Eff - Hate You (See Below)
Yelle - Ce Jeu (Bill Eff Remix) Myspace
Kap10Kurt - Dangerseekers (TEPR Remix) Buy
Ironik - I Wanna Be Your Man (TEPR Remix) Myspace
The Hours - See The Lights (Calvin Harris Remix) Myspace

*By the way, just checked the French (apparently) producers myspace and there is an incredible remix of Ce Jeu on there. Very clubby, and competition for Bill Eff's.

Tune In

So, basically, I need lunch. I'm thinking ... less talk, more music.

Classic old school head-banging jazzy Hip-hop. The kind of thing cool indie kids wearing straight-peaks listen to.

A Tribe Called Quest - Keeping It Moving Buy

Powerful, grinding, thumping Dubstep. Painful unless you're in one of those moods when you just want to shock out and stab things in time to music. F*cking awesome.

Bassnectar - Heads Up Myspace

Popular on good old Hypemachine. Interesting, bouncy remix of a Justice banger. Electro 4 life and so on. Nice bit of a break from the norm by Breakbot as well.

Justice - Let There Be Light (Breakbot Remix) Myspace

And also ... because you can't really have enough banging electro anthems:

Deadmau5 - Ghosts 'n' Stuff Myspace

Ditto:

Midnight Juggernauts - Road To Recovery (Miami Horror Remix) Myspace


Have a good week.

Work Not In Progress

I’ve got an essay due soon, so I thought it was high time I wrote a blog. (Fault the logic).
And speaking of blogs, for some reason my posts keep disappearing. If I had the time and the inclination, I might try and find out why. But seeing as I don't have the inclination, I'll just have to live with it.

Anyways, I was off raiding the intranets for tuneage this morning and I stumbled on Ekleroshock records myspace. Seeing as they are currently looking after the almighty Danger and the only slightly less amazing DatA I thought it would be worth looking into their other artists. The apparently insane Crunc Tesla has a kind of interesting dubsteppy electro thing going on, but it isn’t really interesting enough for me to waste more than a sentence on. More promising is the work of Leonard De Leonard (so good he named himself twice). The remix of ‘Bad Girls Need Love Too’ is a bit of a banger, although it feels a bit too fast and there’s not really enough variety. Still, you can get about 30 seconds of good stuff from it.

Starskee’s ‘This Time’ also started fairly promisingly, and I thought I was on a bit of a roll, but around 18 seconds a more than slightly annoying vocal sample crops up, the funky synths disappear for a while, and the song never really recovers. The first 18 are worth a listen… but if you’re looking for something a bit better Starskee-wise, then try Danger’s remix of ‘My Way’ (which I won’t bother posting, because it’s all over the place anyway). I slagged off the remix before, but having listened to the original I can see that Danger has actually done a fairly good job. It’s a grower.

So yeah, really my raid wasn’t that successful at all. DatA’s ‘Rapture II’ provides a bit of a pleasing contrast to ‘Rapture’, and I like the whole funky electro/hip-hop vibe, but his remixes are a bit more exciting. Nothing else really caught my eye (ear?). In fact, the only new electro song I’ve had much time for is the Damage remix of Grum’s ‘Go Back’, which is nicely epic. Although not really amazing.

All in all, I’m posting a bunch of tracks that I don’t have that much time for – although I’ll be keeping an eye on the artists in case they turn out something truly amazing. I feel like I need to provide something a bit more special though, so I’m including one of my favourite ever remixes: Boys Noize version of ‘Lights and Music’. I could evaluate the song but it wouldn’t be a particularly critical evaluation, as I basically love everything about it.

Cut Copy - Lights And Music (Boys Noize Happy Birthday Remix) Buy
GRUM – Go Back (Damage Remix) Myspace
DatA - Rapture Pt.II Buy
The Toxic Avenger - Bad Girls Need Love Too (Leonard De Leonard Remix) Buy
Starskee – This Time Myspace

Streets Ahead

If you don't like The Streets, then look away now. Because you are a bellend.

Recently saw the mighty Mike Skinner. And it was incredible. He played pretty much the whole of his first album, which just goes to show that he knows good music - even if his 3rd album was pretty poor ('Never Went To Church' was the only one he bothered doing from that, and he mixed it in with a tasty little cover of 'Daddy's Gone' by Glasvegas).
So anyway, I'm going with a Streets theme for the post but I didn't want to put up too much of his actual stuff.

Because that would be theft. And theft is wrong.
Sometimes.

So it's mostly remixes.
More importantly, I have to say that Skinner is immense live. There was one chav in front of me who refused to show any kind of emotion, but I know he was loving it. He thought it was Burberrylicious. He definitely liked the, unfortunately brief, cover of 'Pjanoo' Mike's pianist cooked up. And yes, I can call him Mike. We're basically friends.

Seriously though, I highly recommend getting a ticket for his next gig.
Enjoy.

The Streets - Pranging Out (Skepta's Grimey Vocal Mix) Buy
The Streets - Weak Become Heroes (Royksopp's Memory Lane Mix) Buy
The Streets - It's Too Late (High Contrast Remix) Buy
The Streets - Blinded By The Lights Buy

And some banging, dancey electro for the anti-Streets brigade.

Mansion - Body Myspace

Goody Bag

I just found out that if you enter the name of this blog and the exact details of my last post into google, this site comes up top of the search (!). Amazing. I can feel the intraweb hooking its shiny metal claws into me.

Moving on... every time I've loaded up iTunes this week I've made a beeline for 'Shooting Stars'. I'm pretty sure that its the greatest song ever made. Or pretty close. It's the only tune currently competing with Designer Drugs' stuff for playtime on my computer, anyway. Or at least it was, until I finally managed to find The Twelves remix of 'Rich Girls' this morning (Thank you Hype Machine).

I think the amount of bangers coming from those electro stalwarts is just about making up for my dissapointment with Danger's latest offering, his remix of 'My Way' not being quite as inspired (and banging) as most of his other work.

Also ... because life can't be all hardcore bangers ... I've been a bit keen on Lo-Fi-Fnk. 'Want U' is a surprisingly good cure for a hangover. And TV On The Radio might be horrifically commercial (in blogging terms at least), but 'Staring at the Sun' is an amazing song. And its about sex. I think. I hope.

Bag Raiders - Shooting Stars Myspace
TV On The Radio - Staring At The Sun Buy
The Virgins - Rich Girls (The Twelves Remix) Buy
Lo-Fi-Fnk - Want U Myspace
IAMX - Spit It Out (Designer Drugs Remix) Myspace

Bangers & Lash

Karl Marx always supported the idea of share & share alike, and so i share my musical adventures with you... Poor connection? yeah... gutted. See below.

If there's one thing I like more than getting hammered, it's listening to electro bangers while I do so. This past week has been a healthy one with respect to pre-lashing, and there's about 4 or 5 tunes I've been listening to in order to get happily drunk.

Needless to say, Pjanoo is one of them (forgive me, I'm a student), but that needs no posting here. I saw High Contrast live the other night and he dropped his remix of Pjanoo (which is fucking awesome), so I feel like I'm allowed to like the tune.

Slightly more unknown, although not by much, I'm sure, is Kris Menace's remix of Heartbreaker. It's pretty much the best anthem of the moment. I don't really want to say much more than that, nor do I need to. It's literally incredible. One of those tunes you put on just before you head out, perfect preparation for a cheesey trance night.

Moving on, Designer Drugs are a recent, i'll admit, discovery of mine. And a happy one. Basically, they are like ecstacy and crack in music form. I've included two of their best remixes below. The FLOU tune is full of crashing, dramatic synths and a grinding, angry bassline which accentuates the slightly aggressive vocals. The thumping bass drums and clap-ish (is that a word?) snare set the tune off nicely.
Second from them is their remix of a Mariah Carey song. I have no love for that particular pop princess, but I have a lot of love for what DD have done to her song, turning it into a bit of a rave anthem (i'm partial to that word), which is just harsh enough to offset her vocal sample. It's a bit more of the ecstasy, and less of the crack, but it's still pretty good.

Last, but not least, is the Calling in Sick remix of Bag Raiders' classic 'Fun Punch'. CIS have given it a mix that reeks of Justice influence on electro, but not in a bad way. A few synthed-up guitar solo's, some string chords and the typical electro-funk bassline make this one into another banger. As overused as that word is (particularly by me), there's no other way to describe it. Except maybe anthem, but I've used that one a good few times already.

Whatever, it's amazing.

Metronomy - Heartbreaker (Kris Menace Remix) Buy
FLOU - Les gens pour ce qu'ils sont (DESIGNER DRUGS Remix) (?)
Mariah Carey - I'll Be Lovin U Long Time (DESIGNER DRUGS Remix) (?)
Bag Raiders - Fun Punch (Calling In Sick) Buy

Designer Drugs - Myspace


(?) As per usual, those without 'buy' links are to be considered promotional material. Basically, I can't find anywhere to pay for them, so they must be. That's what I'll tell them in court.

Blog Me Tender

So I though I'd take a break from the electro bangers and listen to some alternative/indie stuff over the weekend. First up, I was skimming through Micky Green's debut album, White T-Shirt. The lead single 'Oh !', is an above-average pop release, which strolls along pleasantly enough - using a deep synth and some powerful piano stabs to give it a bouncy, slightly dark, rhythm. The only other stand-out song, for me at least, is the album's namesake 'White T-Shirt'. The track starts with just some simple, beautifully gentle, backing vocals and a slow soul click supporting Green's floaty, melodius singing. It softly rises to a climax, with a smooth bass thump and some relaxed drumming coming in over time to lend some support, before it finishes with about 5 seconds of funky guitar and heavily reverbed drums. Overall, it's pleasant, mellow and captivating in it's simplicity. I can't really say much for the lyrics, though.

I discovered delphic. about three days ago, when I was searching for The Streets' hidden tracks on myspace. The hidden track itself, Never Give In, was a bit of a non-event. Surprisingly though, delphic. himself was a bit of revelation. All the songs on his page were good, but I highly recommend the powerful electro/rock anthem 'Submission'. Light, rhythmic, almost dancey synths and strings are married to some heavy guitar chords and banging drums. The result is nothing short of epic. The man's vocals also display impressive range and pitch (probably computer aided, but who cares?), and they are just powerful and anthemic enough to match the tempo and atmosphere of the song. Pretty bloody good.

Last but not least, London indie rockers' Captain caught my attention. The band have yet to make a real splash on the commercial market, but they seem to be heading in the right direction. On 'Keep An Open Mind', Rik Flynn's almost aggressive vocals are accompanied by some powerful drumming, heavily manipulated guitar and energetic, if plodding, piano chords. The track rebounds vibrantly between the loud, and particularly catchy (if pretty meaningless), chorus into mellow piano riffs and soaring strings, giving it a nice balance between light and dark. It's a pretty handy attempt at some good old indie-pop, don't let that desctiprion put you off, and probably the band's most commercially viable release. (But it's still ok to blog about them, because they're not mainstream yet.)

Oh yeah, and here's a banger from The Touch. I didn't take that much of a break, obviously.

The Touch - Le Night Dominator Buy
Captain - Keep An Open Mind Buy
Micky Green - White T-Shirt Buy
delphic. - Submission Watch*



*As far as I can ascertain, there's nowhere you can buy delphic.'s material. However, if you're interested in seeing him, he's performing at the Manchester 'Night & Day Cafe' on the 29th November. The amazing Islands are performing at the same place, on Wednesday 24th September - I'd highly recommend them as well.

Space, Time & Matter

The scientists of earth are truly a mad race. Refusing to bow to media uproar or public indifference, they've gone ahead and created a Doomsday Machine. Even Dan Brown couldn't change their minds, despite pointing out that the Large Hadron Collider will create 'dangerous antimatter' (possibly to be used as a weapon against the Vatican). The fools!

I am, of course, talking about the recent activation of a large particle accelerator, hidden under the Swiss mountains in an Evil Death Bunker (probably). It's been all over the news, just after the stories on Big Brother and Our Boys In Iraq.

Interestingly, 02 have decided to use this example of science gone mad to boost their new venture - South East London's Matter club night. (They haven't really, but I have employed my prodigious skill with the English language to link particle's and matter together. Hence creating a link between these two completely unrelated topics.) The club will feature both a 'Live' night (usually Fridays), and a 'Club' night (Saturdays). So far, the upcoming lineups look more than impressive. Justice present their 'A Cross The Universe' venture on the 25th of October, and are bringing Electro heavyweight DJ Mehdi along for the party. It should be a good one. Prior to that, hardcore electro favourite OCELOT performs alongside Mylo on the 26th September. They've also managed to bring together Deadmau5, Pnau and Chris Lake on the 2nd of October (a night that would probably turn me into a raving nutter, fueled only by his passion for more electro). My personal favourites - the Mystery Jets - are also performing there in October. Along with various others, who i can't be bothered to list - although Riton deserves a special mention. For more info, see This Is Not London (it actually is London, but whatever).

Anyway, don't ask me why I'm promoting the 02. I guess I just love encouraging corporate bodies to horribly commercialise my favourite artists. Ciao.


We Are Scientists - Chick Lit (Danger TV Remix) Buy
Mystery Jets - The Boy Who Ran Away (Riton Re-Dub) Buy
Ocelot - Our Time (Tom Neville Remix) Buy
DJ Mehdi - Signatune (Thomas Bangalter Edit) Buy
Mark Ronson feat Lily Allen - Oh My God (Chris Lake Edit) Buy

Justice - Myspace