RePost: News And Reviews

RePost: So... I've taken down the track links in an effort to please those lords and masters of mine, Blogger Corp. Which might make you think - what's the point of this post?
Well... Fair enough.

But it took me ages to write, so I'm bloody well going to re-post it anyway.

Pet Shop Boys are awesome. That is what I, years later than everyone else, have finally realised. I got their new album Yes the other day, and despite the lead singer not being particularly gifted at either writing or singing, the record itself is pretty much awesome. The production is as tight as you could hope for, and brings together the best bits from pop, dance and (just about) electro, to form an LP that is consistently happy, upbeat and good. I'm not going to claim that they are amazing musicians or artists, but they make good music. In particular, try the track 'All Over The World'. The chorus is probably the worst on the whole album, but the beginning of the song is pricelessly feel-good, using some awesome strings and a (shock!) nice little vocal harmony to set up a pretty powerful drop, which unleashes some synthy melody bits and an epic head-nodder of a beat to push the track along. Great stuff, and fairly reflective of the best bits off the rest of the album - 'Love Etc' and 'Beautiful People' are also worth a listen.


Still Night, Still Light, however, is my favourite album of recent weeks. It's effortlessley beautiful, eerie and atmospheric.Au Revoir Simone are a trio, but the album sounds completely cohesive and well-balanced. The opener, 'Another Likely Story', is all strings and hi-hats, and echoey, ethereal piano. The vocals, as on every track, are gorgeous and airy - sounding almost like a choir in some places, but without losing a certain folk influenced charm. It's difficult to pick a single song from the album, as it's consistently well produced and well-written, but I've gone with 'Shadows'. The song sounds a little bit like the legitimate child of Saint Etienne and Imogen Heap (thats probably a complete misdirection, but I like coming up with these combinations, and the vocals have a similiar style and sound to them). Either way, it trundles along at a nice pace, it's fairly catchy, and the build to the chorus is lovely. Well worth a listen, and highly rated.


I've gone in a different direction with my next artist - Chris Joss, who has (hilariously) called his album Sticks. Joss, sticks, Joss-sticks... get it? Regardless of the punning, Sticks is a fairly good album. It's Lo-fi Funk, with occasional oriental Sitar influences, and random rocky guitar bits which are unquestionably Western. It's an interesting mix, although not interesting enough to make the album a complete winner. Instrumentals can get fairly boring most of the time, and as the album is predominantly instrumental, it suffers that problem throughout. 'Rififi Rococco' is probably the best song off the LP (it sounds almost purpose built for a car advert), it has some cool breakdowns and different funky bits: jazzy guitar and a few vocal exclamations ... even some nice flute action. Just enough variety to make it a consistently engaging listen. Worth a try if you've got a particular penchant for Lo-fi Funk, it's well paced and good-humoured, but not a must-have.


In all my excitement about the Filthy Dukes album, I neglected the recent Fischerspooner effort, Entertainment. To be honest, thats because it's simply not as good. 'The Best Revenge', 'We Are Electric' and 'Door Train Home' are my three top picks from the album, as they seem to have the most to them (the vocals on DTH are particularly cool, and there's some great slidey guitar bits). Out of those, 'The Best Revenge' - which most people will already know - is probably my favourite. It has that mix of playful and serious that the rest of the album seems to be striving for, and has some great individual moments - particularly the chorus, which makes use of horns and trumpets to good effect, accompanying the fuzzy synths and thumping drums nicely. A few of the songs go for that blend of real (I use that term nervously) instruments and computer-based effects and samples, but 'The Best Revenge' carries it off the most effectively as one sound. The reverbed, higher pitch vocals fit in nicely as well, but are quite common on electronic records these days.

I was going to do a full on review of Apple Jelly's Na Na Na Club here, but I've decided that the album doesn't really appeal to me that much. Of the whole LP, 'Desperado Junkie' is the only song I've listened to more than once. It's got some nice Thom Yorke-esque vocals on the chorus, and has a heavily modulated analogue bit over the verse which is pretty cool. It's a nice track, but not hugely impressive, and let down on the whole by the rest of the album.

For me, anyway, but what does that matter? I'll let you make your own mind up.

The Hitchcock Rules are a new band for me, discovered when i heard the opening burst of 'Miss Julie', which starts with that treble-rich guitar sound I like and some cool, story-teller lyrics ('I stole a fortune in Stockholm') before breaking into a nice melodic solo bit. Unfortunately, the chorus to the song lets it down a bit, being a bit too horribly American sounding for a Cornwall-based band. However, the rest of it is well worth listening to (especially the bridge that comes right after the chorus, funnily enough), so try their myspace. 'Faking It' - one of their singles, is available for download free of their website, and is also worth a listen. The guitar at the beginning sounds like a louder, electric version of that Wannadies song I posted the other day, which is interesting if not particularly relevant. (The guitar melody also sounds a lot like that Rogues song, 'Not So Pretty'). Again, the chorus is a bit out of place and cheesy compared to the rest of the song, which has some better lyrics and brings out the lead singers voice a bit more (he's fairly good, considering). Overall, there's a nice tone too both tracks, and they're a better than average indie/rock band. I expect they'll do fairly well this year - they're already lined up to play Beach Break Festival in the summer.

Pet Shop Boys - All Over The World Buy
Au Revoir Simone - Shadows Buy*
Chris Joss - Rififi Rococco Buy
Fischerspooner - The Best Revenge Buy*
Apple Jelly - Desperado Junkie Buy
The Hitchcock Rules - Faking It Buy

*Not direct track purchase links.

Surkinly Hot

It's a bright and glorious day in London. The April sunshine woke me up this morning with a big stick and said, 'It's April, Fool!'. And then it forced me to play Surkin's remix of 'One Day'. Basically, if a video was ever made for this song, it would feature people having a BBQ on the beach and drinking some deliciously intoxicating beverages. Like all Surkin's tunes, it has that bouncy vibe to it (accompanied by some straightforward piano chords and awesome string snippets on this particular song, and an awesomely summerish vocal work) which forces you to jump up and down in your seat. As well as reminding you how gay it is that you're in a seat, and not in Ibiza. Or some such party island. In truth, it's my favourite Surkin effort of recent times, reaching the level of 'Chrome Knight' and 'Next of Kin' in the way that some of his other stuff... hasn't. That sentence petered out towards the end. Anyway, download it.

Moving on. How about Kokuz, aye? Or This Is Kokuz to give them their full title. I am eternally grateful to that mysterious masked blogger, Pelski, for posting about this particular duo. They sound a little bit like a faster paced, more aggressive Surkin, although completely different, obviously. Scrap that. Their remix of 'Float My Boat' sounds like something of an Ibiza Annual. Very catchy, quite simple, but with some cool thrills and spills and breakdowns that make it pretty awesome. Their remix of 'Get Off' isn't much different, but you need to be able to feel the bass - tinny speakers won't do the track any kind of justice. Think Fake Blood vs. Aston Shuffle and you're probably on the right lines. Could be huge.

I've posted about Rogues before, but god damn it if I won't just post about them again. Or rather, about Wire and Example's remix of them. It's one that most people will have heard, but well worth another post because:
A) Example is awesome, I saw him last year and he's genuinely a good performer, unlike some rappers I could mention. (You know who you are, you b*stards).
B) This tune is awesome. The dubstep scene is going from strength to strength at the moment, and this particular gem is an absolute banger that sums up everything that's good about the scene. They've chucked out the original vocals for the most part, but when they do feature they have an eerie, wailing feel to them that suits the dark atmosphere of the track perfectly. Aside from that, the new vocals are pretty cool, but the emphasis is on the heavy bass, and a very powerful kick drum and snare - sounds a lot like 'Sensi Samurai', slightly simplified and perhaps more powerful for that.

I like it a lot.

The Juan MacLean - One Day (Surkin Remix) Buy
Sharooz - Get Off (Kokuz Re-Chop) Buy
Rogues - Not So Pretty (Wire & Example Remix) Buy

HC

Just a quick plug for this awesome new tune from Mr. High Contrast. It's a radio rip but it still sounds amazing. I love what he's done with the original sample, reminds me a little bit of 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'. Can't wait for the new album!

Villainous Riots Broke One's Lips

I noticed the Villains recent remix of Lykke Li is top of Hype Machine today. Which isn't particularly surprising, considering the two names involved on the track, and the awesomeness of the track itself. But seeing the 'Little Bit' remix reminded me of another gem - the Villains distortion heavy power remix of 'Ares'. I'm fond of this song mostly because of the way they've sampled Kele Okereke ... his occasional plea for the audience to 'get fucked up' is pretty cool, and the chopping and slicing off the vocals over the whole track is artfully done. The Villains give it a tempo and force that suit the lyrics perfectly, and the original track (which was maybe one of the worst on Intimacy - too much of an Art Brut copy in places) pales in comparison to the remix. Out with the snare rolls, in with the pounding rave drums.

Another amazing remix team of some renown are the duo LA Riots. I'm a bit of a fan of chopping and cutting vocals (can you tell?), and although the 'Ares' remix has a fair bit, LA Riots offer a bit of a masterclass in it on their remix of 'Love & War'. In fact, the whole remix is something of a masterclass, and is my favourite from them, just topping their mixes of 'Switchblade' and 'Trouble in Daylight'. They manage to combine quite trebley, almost R&Bish, vocals and sparkly piano bits with distorted siren-sounding synths, a grinding electro melody and a funked-up, but fairly heavy, clubby drum pattern. Overall its a recipe for success, and all condensed into about 3 minutes so you don't get bored. They just walk up, punch you in the ear, and walk off.

(LA Riots and Villains actually teamed up a while ago to do a remix of Hot Chip which is fairly good, but not as class as their individual stuff. )

These last two songs won't be news to anyone who's particularly clued up on the blog circuit, but they're still worth posting because ... because I really like them. So nyah.

First up - Broke One's partyriffic remix of 'Exterior'. Anyone who's a fan of Justice or Breakbot/Pnau, and would like to see what their children would sound like, should probably check out this one. It starts off all mellow electric piano chords and hand claps, and then brings in a tasty bit of robo-voice action. After that some distinctly Cross sounding strings and a bit of a crunchy electro synth, thats a bit like a (very) watered down version of 'Waters of Nazareth', join the party. All together, they make a lovely blend of hard and soft electro sounds, and the track moves along at quite a gentle (can I say this?) groove pace. I like it. His remix of Elke's 'Blue Dream Lover' has a similiar style to it - quite funky and chilled. (The end of that mix has a great little 80's sounding solo on it, just before the last chorus).

Chew Lips were on BBC6 Music the other day, which makes me think they must be the new big thing. But what makes me care about their new status is the fact that they've been remixed by Tepr, whose incredible mix of 'Ce Jeu' I posted a while back (mentioning that - Tepr is actually part of Yelle's band, I think). His take on 'Solo' goes in a slightly different direction. It's still pretty housey, but more Fakebeat/Popof-ish than Chris Lake or Deadmau5-ish. Those comparisons are possibly (probably) terrible. Either way, it's an awesome song. To be fair, the original is fairly good, but Tepr manages to bulk it up and give it a bit more presence, dancefloor-wise.

Actually, I've listened to the original all the way through and decided I really like that as well.

Just to round off, I wanted to mention Redial, who I posted about a while back. Blogger, in their infinite wisdom, took exception to that particular post and have since removed it for 'offences'. Of what kind, I couldn't say, but they possibly pertain to my single-handed and wanton destruction of the music industry by virtue of reckless promotions and reviews. Sad times.
Anyway, a friend of mine introduced me to Redial a few weeks ago, and now I recommend him to you. He is awesome, and anyone who is a fan of Danger or Designer Drugs, as I am, should probably go to his myspace right now.

Bloc Party - Ares (Villains Remix) Buy Villains
Photek - Love & War (LA Riots Remix) Buy
The Nerd Follia - Exterior (Broke One Remix) Buy Broke One
Chew Lips - Solo (Tepr Remix) Buy

Wild Things

New post on the way soon, but for now:



Looks amazing! I've been searching my shelves for that book for ages. Great idea to use the Arcade Fire song as well. Congratz to whoever picked that. A nice bit of epic Alt-rock, but with that touching twang lent to it by the lyrics that suits it perfectly to the film. The change to the more upbeat/intense section is awesome as well, very child-like (I almost said 'childish' there, but that would probably be a bit of a disservice.)

I've been listening to Funeral all day.

Arcade Fire - Wake Up Buy

Dream On

I walked home tonight, and all I could smell on the way back was delicious barbecue smokiness, which tells me - ignoring the calender - that it is officially summer.

There are a few songs that say summer to me almost instantly - 'Love Shy', 'Summer Jam', 'Long Hot Summer'... all the obvious ones. But I've recently gone through a spate of unearthing equally sunny pop gems from my happily mainstream-oriented youth.

Leading the pack, is The Wannadies classic 'You And Me Song', which just managed to top 'Dancing In The Moonlight' when I was deciding what to post. I'm still quite surprised that a band with such a depressing name could have produced such a happy song, but I'm certainly not dissapointed. Declarations of ever-lasting love are very summer, as are epic, crashing, uptempo choruses - especially preceeded by quite mellow verses. The You And Me Song meets all those requirements, and rounds the whole thing off with a little electric drum pattern, which sounds like its been through a million compressers and bitcrushers. Awesome. In a formulaic, poppy kind of way.

'Don't Fight It' - from The Panics - is less generally positive, but when the horns and the drums drop at the same time it becomes almost heroic, and has just enough of that summer vibe. The ending is particularly nice, with the vocals becoming almost R&B'ish and very melodic. Overall the song is a fairly average indie-rock number, but there's just enough of a wait between the incredible bits to make them seem even better when they come - it's catchy, laid-back and well produced.

Tahiti 80 are about as French and as 90's as it's possible for any indie/pop band to be. Most of their songs sound like a condensed form of almost gay happiness, delivered by an emphasis on trebley guitar bits and simple, regular drum patterns, overlayed at times by slightly more distorted guitars and cheerful, staccato, piano chords. Once again, these guys aren't incredibly musically talented - the guitarist is no Erik Mongrain - but they have a style which is difficult to dislike. 'Dream On' sums it up.

From Monument To Masses are a different kettle of fish, and 'Defeaning' isn't quite a summer song, although the guitar is quite reverbed and jazzy at times.

In reality, though, it's not actually summer anyway, so I guess that's OK.

The track starts off almost like an Aeroplane song, with DJ Shadow on the drums (I've already made it sound too good, I think, but I'll push on), and becomes progressively more and more rocky towards the end. It ends up almost like grunge, actually, but up till that point the song's fairly chilled so don't be put off. The guitar at the beginning is pretty special, very Lemon Jelly sounding (as is the initial drop), and it's a pretty cool song overall - nice and experimental.

The Wannadies - You And Me Song Buy
The Panics - Don't Fight It Buy
Tahiti 80 - Dream On Buy
From Monument To Masses - Defeaning Buy

Midnight

Need something to help you sleep?

One man getting a lot of press recently is Deadmau5 - due mostly to his much publicized remix of 'I'm Not Alone', which is fairly good, but not one of his best. If anyone's interested, look up his vocal remix of 'I Remember', or the more bangerific and popular 'Ghosts 'N' Stuff', for a proper taste. They are probably my two personal favourites.

However, sometimes even listening to those bad boys is too much effort, and only synth-addled, highly-reverbed piano can send me off into that euphoric state of music induced drowsiness that I love so much.

This particular remix provides the above in pretty much ideal quantities.

Night.

Energy 52 - Cafe Del Mar (Deadmau5 Remix)* Buy

*The new link should let you preview the track before you download. I was going to embed a player but... it proved to be a bother; have to make do with this for the time being :-(.