Flash

I've been on holiday, which is my excuse for the short sabbatical. But now I'm back, with an ipod overflowing with tasty tunes. (Huzzah!). Anyway...

I don't know who St Andrew are, but I know that I've spent the whole morning trying to find out. Apparently he is some guy called Andrew Swanson, he has studied film, some other boring stuff... and he makes nice tunes. 'Cosmic Terror' is his calling card and despite spending most of today listening to his stuff I can't think of anything better to post up. Its a punchy piece of laidback electro, very much in the mould of Nosaj Thing and Flying Lotus but with a bit more action - bigger synths, glittery electro shizzle plastered all over it, some great vocal work, etc. Well worth a listen for anyone who's a fan of the aforementioned two producers, or a fan of electronic stuff in general.

I've been waiting for a good quality copy of this next tune for a good month or so now. And here it is. The Chase & Status remix of Nneka's 'Heartbeat'. This is quite possibly the most obviously commercially-viable crowd-pleaser ever produced by anyone in the history of history (thats probably why they've labelled it so self-consciously) but... f*ck it. Because it is amazing. (In before underground people banging on about how they've sold out. It sounds good to me and thats all that maters).
The thing about crowd-pleasers is that they are pleasing, after all. Big guitars, big bass, massive snares, good times.
Expect this one to be going off everywhere. If it isn't already.

Speaking of commercial stuff, La Roux is very popular at the moment. It seems like anyone who's anyone, or noone (but wants to be someone), is remixing her tracks. 'Bulletproof' is the most recent single, and it's attracted everyone from Foamo to Tepr, but my favourite mix so far comes from the Barcelona duo Y A L L. It's attracted a lot of notice since they entered it for her remix competition by virtue of being brilliant. The Barcelona boys have thrown a load of electro stabs and synths on the song, with a bit of strings (a la Justice/MSTRKRFT/Neo Tokyo) and it sounds awesome. Very dancey, bouncy and cheerful. All the things the original was, multiplied by the power of electro. Definitely a must have.

Last up, how about some feel-good indie? I've posted about Two Door Cinema Club before but I feel like they deserve another mention. The band come from NI and they make very happy summer tunes. 'Undercover Martyn' is their first single and 'tis very nice indeed. You can see the video here if thats the kind of thing you're in to, or just give the track a listen. It's very sing-along, they change the pace up nicely, the guitars are all trebley and rifftastic. Think Delorean, Mew, a less-french Housse de Racket/Phoenix. Indie-pop stuff, basically. There are probably some much better comparisons out there, I just wanted to list bands I like. Ho hum. Check 'em out, they could be the sound of our 'barbeque' summer.

More tomorrow.

St Andrew - Cosmic Terror Buy
Nneka - Heartbeat (Chase & Status 'We Just Bought A Guitar' Remix) Buy C&S
La Roux - Bulletproof (Y A L L Remix) Myspace
Two Door Cinema Club - Undercover Martyn Buy

Grum(p)y

So, I've had a phenomenal amount of work lately, and because I've yet to do anything towards reducing it, I still have a phenomenal amount. Sucks to be me. However, I intend to have it all done by the 12th, so from that point on normal posting will resume.

Anyway, because it's been some time since I posted, I have a backlog of banging tracks and summer-type tunes to put up before they become too unfashionably old.

So, 5 tunes for today, varying from super-hype electro to acoustic-electronic fiddling, but all with the essential property of amazingness in common.

I have blogging powerhouse discodust to thank, as I so often do, for the first tune on my list: Ellie Goulding's cover of 'Black & Gold'. Now, 'Black & Gold' is obviously, like, soooo old now, but Goulding's cover adds some summer (this is a key word for today, I'm trying to destroy rain) freshness to it with a nice bit of clapping, some melodic acoustic strumming and an ... interesting singing voice. When I say interesting, I'm referring mostly to her accent, which is ...erm... unusual, and not her actual technique - she sings beautifully. But also weirdly. Anyway, the cover is very good, very chilled, and overall puts a very nice spin on the original. It's different - Goulding's style is fairly unique. She uses a combination of acoustic and soft synth elements (like a more laidback Friendly Fires, I guess, without the percussion) to create a sound which I imagine will get her all sorts of critical attention. Hopefully. The rest of her stuff is also worth checking out, for those who are interested.

Where to go from there? Let's go East, vaguely in the direction of Paris, where DatA hails from. Cheers to deathelectro for the heads up on this one. I imagine most people will know DatA either because of his tunes 'Aerius Light' or 'Rapture' (both laced with awesome), and his new track 'One In A Million' draws on both of those to make a very ear-friendly club banger. I've been listening mostly to the Club Remix, actually, because it's slightly more hardcore, and thats the one I've put below. However, the original, unadulterated version is there to see, for free, on his myspace. The video is pretty trendy, (some guy turns up to a house party in a wolf costume/ Partying ensues) and the song has all the elements of a good electro piece - funky bassline, bright synths, sing-along vocals, happy times.

Now it's dubstep time. Everyone loves dubstep! It's the new bandwagon. In an attempt to secure my seat upon it, allow me to point you in the direction of Caspa's 'I Remember' remix. It's good. I'm a huge fan of the original, and I was a little worried that Caspa wouldn't do it justice, but he keeps it fairly simple. And anyone who's heard the Caspa mix of 'Moments in Love' will know what I mean when I say 'simple' - he basically adds a cracking drum beat and a warbly dubstep bass, but it's a fairly decent take on a solid summer anthem. (Caspa and Rusko also did a fairly tasty mix of 'We Are I.E.' recently, which is worth checking out.)

To be honest, all the tracks above are solid, but they aren't quite summery enough for me. And what with clouds threatening to return again and make us all miserable, I need summer tunes. 'Something Good Can Work', by Two Door Cinema Club (you know they're cool, because they have 'club' in their name), is a step in the right direction. The guitar is nice and trebley (think Phoenix/Housse de Racket), with some lovely, chirpy wah-wah bits, the vocals aren't over-complicated, the drums patter along at a fairly decent and regular pace... they sample what sounds like a party halfway through... ... it starts with a bang...
I'm running out of descriptions, but basically it's very happy, very trendy indie.

But... still not summer enough. Friendly Fires were the sound track of last summer, alongside Vampire Weekend, so I feel like I should turn to them for help. Or rather, to Leeds-boy Grum's absoloutely incredible, super happy, super awesome electro remix of Friendly Fires 'Skeleton Boy'. I listened to the original 'Skeleton Boy' before Grum's version, and I couldn't help thinking that it lacked a funky 80's bass, a dance beat, and some shiny electro synths - I'm quite particular in what I want - so I was fairly happy when Grum came along and introduced all those elements. He starts it off all funky and cool, does wonders with the vocals, and then builds it slowly until the synths are ready to come in (after a classic, trance-style, reverbed breakdown, of course). The track has summer written all over it, in 50ft, flaming, neon-pink letters. I've listened to it every day for about 3 weeks.
Anyone who likes the track, and thinks that Grum might possibly be the best thing to happen to the English electro scene ever (or recently, depending on how hyperbolic you feel), should check out his myspace and tell him as much.

This post is too long! Why am I not working!?

Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy (GRUM Remix) Buy
DatA - One In A Million (Club Mix) Buy
Ellie Goulding - Black & Gold Myspace
Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work Buy
Deadmau5 - I Remember (Caspa Remix) Buy


After the 12th, some new shit off the 80Kidz album 'This Is My Shit' (ironically), and probably some Allure. Summer's coming!