Monthly Archives: March 2009
That Pet Shop Boys and Phil Oakey track!
There is so much that makes me smile about this track. For a start you have Chris Lowe singing! Not only is the song brilliant, but it also feels like a SynthPop in-joke (in the best possible way).
Neil and Chris’ parts are nostalgic, slightly lamenting and very English (great use of “bloody”), then the analog bass drops and Oakey crashes the party as a doom and gloom merchant. It’s like a late 80’s PSB track invaded by a very early 80′s The Human League song.
Just hearing a Pet Shop Boys track and suddenly listening to Phil Oakey is pure SynthPop gold!
Brilliant…just brilliant!
♫ Pet Shop Boys (Feat. Phil Oakey Of The Human League) – This Used To Be The Future (zShare) (MediaFire)
That was a low quality taster, the track features on the limited edition double cd version of PSB’s new album ‘Yes’, entitled ‘Yes Etc…’. The whole album is classic Pet Shop Boys in a way we’ve not seen for a couple of records. A worthy investment:
The Vault: Cabaret Voltaire
The Vault: The classics of Electronic Music. The influential and the groundbreaking. The pioneering and the music we grew up on…
I somehow always knew that electronic rumors’ first The Vault article was going to be about Cabaret Voltaire, it had to be really, not only are they highly influential to me, personally, but to every strain of electronic music.
From the early use of synthesizers and tape loops with punk ascetics to pioneering the early dance scene (via being emblazoned on Ferris Buelller’s bedroom wall!), Cabaret Voltaire have done it all…first!
Richard H. Kirk and Stephen Mallinder (initially along with Chris Watson) formed the Cabs in 1973 in Sheffield (ground zero for all things synth) as a way to experiment with sound creation and processing. Strongly influenced by the Dada art movement, they quickly became associated with the burgeoning Industrial scene.
The group’s first (proper) releases were on the legendary Rough Trade Records label and from the early, experimental noise-pop works to the 808 and 303 laden later records Kirk and Mallinder were always ahead of the pack, and, indeed, Kirk was instrumental in the early life of legendary experimental electronic stable Warp Records.
One of the first artists to really embrace using non-musical instruments or found sounds to create music, Cabaret Voltaire influenced all things Experimental & IDM, SynthPop & New Wave and later Bleep House & Dub heavy Techno.
Electronic music just wouldn’t be the same without Cabaret Voltaire.
Here we have a sampler of the Cab’s back catalogue, some obvious, some not. From 1979’s ‘Mix up’, ‘No Escape’ and from the seminal ‘Red Mecca’ (1981), ‘Spread The Virus’. Moving into a more ElectroPoppy area ‘Crackdown’ from ‘The Crackdown’ in 1983 and, probably Cabaret Voltaire’s biggest hit, 1984’s ‘Sensoria’ from the album ‘Micro-Phonies’. ‘I Want You’ comes from their last Rough Trade album ‘The Covenant, The Sword, And The Arm Of The Lord’ (1985) and showing it’s Bleep House influences ‘No Resistance’ is taken from 1991’s ‘Body And Soul’
♫ Cabaret Voltaire – No Escape (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Cabaret Voltaire – Spread The Virus (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Cabaret Voltaire – Crackdown (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Cabaret Voltaire – Sensoria (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Cabaret Voltaire – I Want You (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Cabaret Voltaire – No Resistance (zShare) (MediaFire)
Whether you’re into SynthPop or Experimental, Dub or Dance, Indie or Industrial, Cabaret Voltaire helped shape the music you love. Much of their back catalogue is still available including a few best of compilations:
New Danger!
Danger is back with the soon to be release follow up to his début 12″, ‘09-14 2007′, and it was well worth the wait.
Coming like a clubbed up Jean-Michel Jarre, ’88h88 (Stage 3: the Club) is an emptive Disco journey, like the soundtrack to a retro-future. This stuff is seriously my favourite kind of Electro-house.
♫ Danger – 88h88 (Stage 3: The Club) (zShare) (MediaFire)
Entitled ’09-16 2007′, the single is out March 30th via Ekleroshock Records.
[Via TrashBags Kids]
The week in Bangers: 22:03:09
The week in Bangers: While electronic rumors isn’t strictly an Electro-House blog, we do cover a lot of Electro-House that crosses over in to our realm. So many good club tunes and reMixes surface each week we can’t (and wouldn’t) cover them all, so this is a round up of some of the best from the week that we didn’t have time to dedicate individual posts to…
datA & Sébastien Grainger’s hit from last year, ‘Rapture’, got a noisy Electro working out from Kids At The Bar this week and Le Castle Vania took on indie hot-tickets The Virgins giving them a Disco overhaul. Fresh from reMixing Tigersapian, Kolt13 work their tricks on Girl And A Gun and we have new material from Daroc and Bloc Party with some tracks from their forthcoming reMix album by Villains and Filthy Dukes. The Fire And Reason closes this week’s The Week In Bangers in sleazy electro style with a reMix by The R.O.A.R.
♫ datA (Feat. Sébastien Grainger) – Rapture (Kids At The Bar reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ The Virgins – Rich Girls (Le Castle Vania’s Spring Break No Parents reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Girl And A Gun – Send More Cops (Kolt13 reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Daroc – A Bout De Souffle (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Daroc (Feat. DW) – Hypnotic France (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Bloc Party – Ares (Villains reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Bloc Party – One Month Off (Filthy Dukes Vocal reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ The Fire And Reason – So Electric (The R.O.A.R. reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
Most of these artists can be picked up here:
Photo credit: Graffiti Research Lab
College never came back
College are back with some brand new 80’s synthesized Electro-House goodness.
As to be expected with anything bearing the Valerie stable seal of approval, College’s ‘She Never Came Back’ is a soaring Electro odyssey that wraps you up in layers of FM synthesis featuring vocals from Electric Youth Here treated to reMixes by fellow Valerie crew members Russ Chimes and The Outrunners.
♫ College (Feat. Electric Youth) – She Never Came Back (Russ Chimes reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ College (Feat. Electric Youth) – She Never Came Back (The Outrunners reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
I love the fact that, along with Kavinsky and Danger et al., the Valerie lot seem to be putting the musician ship back into Electro-House.
Love all The Zonders artwork too!
You can also catch the video for ‘She Never Came Back’ here.
Go check out some College, then work your way through the rest of the Valerie gang:
No shit, Sherlock!: Eskimo Disco – Japanese Girl
No shit, Sherlock!: A chance to enthuse about music from the last few years that pre-dates electronic rumors, this stuff has probably already been blogged to death years ago, but we need a chance to get how much we love it off our chests. We already love it, you already know and love it…and are probably bored of it, but we’re going to blog about it anyway…
Eskimo Disco, eh? A bit chameleonic. Sometime Indie band, sometime Electro band. The describe themselves as ‘”Party Music”, and that’s probably as good a description as any. From their début single ‘7-11’ each release held something new.
But we’re here to talk about ‘Japanese Girl’, their third single from 2007. ‘Japanese Girl’ is pretty close to being perfect. For me, personally, it’s got everything I’m looking for. It’s electronic. It’s SynthPop, but the live drums and analogue synths give it a raw edge. It’s Indie-electro without the need for jangly guitars. It’s got vocals you can sing along too and vocoded vocals. It’s catchy and it’s got Ooooo Ooooo’s!
What more do you want?
Oh yeah…
♫ Eskimo Disco – Japanese Girl (Radio Edit) (zShare) (MediaFire)
Whether you like ElectroPop, Electro-House and Indie-Electro, there’s something for everyone in this song and the single came with a reMix by none other than Fred Falke!
The singles and their album, ‘Robots And Laptop Dancers Make Good Friends’ are still available:
We Have Band cover Pet Shop Boys
London’s We Have Band continue to turn out interesting electronic music, this time they have covered Pet Shop Boys classic ‘West End Girls’.
For an oft-covered song they have done a bloody good job. Keeping a similar bass sound was a good idea, the opening three notes of the bassline are integral to the track and We Have Band have made the song their own whilst retaining that signature bass. The rest of the track is very well done, the band have managed to conjure the atmosphere of the original, something I don’t think any other cover I have heard has managed to do.
♫ We Have Band – West End Girls (Pet Shop Boys Cover) (zShare) (MediaFire)
What do you think?
Frankmusik gets the funk
This tune hit the electronic rumors Inbox a few days ago buy I’ve only just got ‘round to listening to it.
Here we have Frankmusik’s latest single ‘Better Off as Two’ as reMixed by producer UtTeRs when he heaps on the 80’s synthesized funk. It’s got a Five Star thing goin’ on, pretty cheesy, but clocking in at just under three minutes it’s pretty fun also.
Get it on!
♫ Frankmusik – Better Off As Two (The Better Off With Uttermix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
Still waiting to hear the vocal version of the Fan Death reMix, though!
‘Better Off As Two’ is out April 2nd.
UPDATE: Reader StereoMover has mashed up the Fan Death Instrumental and the Accapella to create a kinda’ bootleg Fan Death Vocal Mix, it’s good stuff. Check the comments for this post for the download link.
Oizo reMixes Oizo
The godfather of noisy French House Mr.Oizo has just propped his new EP, Pourriture, on Ed Banger Records. The EP features reMixes from the ‘Lamb’s Anger’ album including this one of Oizo reMixing himself.
The track, ‘Steroids’, featuring the Uffster, is a lot dancier, less abstract, than the album version with some kickin’ stabs
♫ Mr. Oizo (Feat. Uffie) – Steroids (Mr. Oizo reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
Whatever happened to Uffie? What happened to this album that was always supposed to be coming?
‘Pourriture’ & ‘Lamb’s Anger’ can be procured from all good record stores.
Calvin Harris Vs. Deadmau5
So…Calvin Harris’ new single then? All a bit hands-in-the-air trance really.
This reMix by Deadmau5, however, takes it in a pleasing plinky-plonky Electro/Progressive House direction. Oh, it’s still got the euphoric chord progression, there’s just not so many big stacked pads going on.
Pretty chilled for Deadmau5 really.
♫ Calvin Harris – I’m Not Alone (Deadmau5 reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
‘I’m Not Alone’ is released April 13th. There’s a Hervé reMix too!
