Out With The Old

OK, so F***uck a top 10. My top 3 albums of 2008:

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

This album came out around January, and I refused to listen to it until December for reasons I have forgotten. Anyway, I eventually took notice of the hype (about 10 months after it died down) and spent the whole of Christmas listening to it.
And Christmas came early. Because it's probably the 2nd (see below) happiest album I've ever listened to. The combination of vibrant string progressions (that sound like they're from an old children's film) and playful pianos (that sound as if they would be more at home in the circus) with upbeat, exotic sounding drums is something quite special. Somehow all the elements are pulled together and gently hammered into a sound that isn't the slightest bit ridiculous. Apart from the lyrics which are sometimes... random to say the least

"the ground beneath their feet, is a nautically mapped sheet/ as thin as paper wallets, slips away from you"

"why would you lie/
'bout how much coal you have"

What? ?
I don't know what. But they are amazing, anyway. And definitely deserve a top 3 finish despite being absent for 90% of the year. My recommendations: 'Walcott', 'Campus' & 'Oxford Comma'

Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight

I hated FR the first time I heard 'Head Rolls Off', mostly because they are (at times) almost aggressively Scottish. But Scotland is producing a lot of good bands at the moment - see We Were Promised Jetpacks for another promising example - so I've had to get used to it. Frightened Rabbit are quite simply fucking amazing. Their song-writing ability is unbelievable - the lyrics throughout the album are some of this century's best.

"Are you a masochist?
You love a modern leper on his last leg,
And you're not ill, and I'm not dead,
So doesn't that make us, a perfect pair?"

Need I say more? Quite possibly, but their album pretty much does the talking, and has been in pretty much everyones' Top 10 and Top 20 lists across the indie/alternative blogosphere. Deservedly so. They mesh a particularly lamenting, Scottish sound with anthemic choruses and brash, gripping lyrics - all in all, producing one of the best album's of 2008. Without question.
I reccommend - 'Keep Yourself Warm', 'Modern Leper' & 'Fast Blood'.

Mystery Jets - Twenty One

OK, so I'm not going to suggest that the Mystery Jets are the most original band ever, or the most challenging lyrically, or the most excitingly alternative and new. Because, probably, none of those things are true. But their album literally makes me so happy its unreasonable. Almost every song has a chorus that is slightly catchier than the other, without any song being too disgustingly 'pop'. It's pretty much indie at its finest (for me, before anyone gets upset), and is unashamedly upbeat. Like a less gay, annoying Alphabeat. And Alphabeat are already pretty good. Also, lyrically the album isn't bad - 'Flakes' and 'Veiled in Grey' have some of my favourite phrases and lyrics ever, and capture a tone that is slightly darker and deeper than the rest of the album. Overall, its very nicely balanced, very intelligently done, and excellently produced by Erol Alkan. Well done that man. I could probably bang on about it all day but anyone who likes them already doesn't need to read it, and anyone who doesn't won't want to. Ho hum.

"If I'm wrong,
then dust me off and put me in my place
but drop a bombshell
you blow me away without even a trace"

It's the way he sings it. And he can sing. I've seen them live.

They were fucking AWESOME. Recommended - everything, with the possible exception of Umbrellahead, for being unnecessarily badly recorded and wasting some good lyrics.
Happy 2008

BTW, I like all these bands too much to go giving away their best stuff. But it's all on hype machine anyway. So happy hunting. ;-)


And the more exciting bit, my Best Remixes. Because I love remixes.
I'll let them do the talking:

SymbolOne - Love Juice (Danger Remix) Buy - Quite possibly my favourite remix in the history of music. Nothing else is this incredibly epic. Can't wait to get a copy of his Empire of the Sun remix.
IAMX - Spit it Out (Designer Drugs Remix) - Sounds like an electro Rocky theme. Incredibly.
Cut Copy - Lights and Music (Boyz Noise 'Happy Birthday' Remix) Buy - Much more chilled out than the last two. Still amazing. Makes me feel sad and want to dance at the same time.
Bag Raiders - Fun Punch (Calling In Sick Remix) Myspace - Bag Raiders can provide banging remixes, or bangers to remix. Calling in Sick provides the latter, god bless him. Her? Them?
The Tough Alliance - Neo Violence (SHAZAM Remix) Buy - Again, slightly more chilled, but has an incredible dance vibe to it. The vocals are managed perfectly, and the drums and piano push the song along at a pretty much perfect speed.

Obviously, I could bang out a list of about 200 remixes I love, but I won't bore you with it. None of them are particularly original choices.

Here's hoping that 2009 brings more of the same.

BONUS
Private - My Secret Lover Buy

Prequel

2008 has ended. 2009 has begun.

Which is pretty much as expected. But what else can be expected? The unexpected?

Probably not.

But in terms of music... well... I expect that Coconut Records and Air France will get a bit more notice from the media at large, and start to prosper even more greatly in the blogosphere. The Script will hopefully die. Or just quit, I'm not bothered either way. Frightened Rabbit's rise to fame will no doubt deservedly continue, as will The Hold Steady's, and My Morning Jacket's - perhaps slightly less deservedly considering how unbelievably (frighteningly) good the Rabbit are... but nevertheless...

I suppose I could use this post to sum up my favourite songs/albums/bands from '08 and make some predicitions on gems for '09 but I think I'll save that for a special day when I have nothing but a hangover to deal with. In the meanwhile, some musical news:

Kris Menace is now masquerading as 'Jaunt', but hes managing to be as consistently awesome as ever so fair play I guess. The Twelves have started releasing pretty average tunes by their standards (the recent couple of tracks they did with Cicada were a crushing disappointment, I won't bother posting them). Designer Drugs have continued to be amazing, although in a slightly different (more bassy) way, as have Fake Blood (see below). Bag Raiders are still great. Hooray.

...

Also, I think that rambling nonsense has filled up enough space to warrant me posting all these amazing songs. Hooray again.

Coconut Records - Nighttiming Buy
UNKLE - Restless (Fake Blood Remix) Buy
The Black Ghosts - Lets Get Physical Buy
Modjo - What I Mean (The Crayon/Aloud Remix) Awesome

How did I miss this one?
Bag Raiders - Nil By Mouth (Knightlife Remix)

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

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.