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)

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.