Monthly Archives: March 2010
Stopmakingme reMixes Marina
When this reMix by Stopmakingme of Marina And The Diamonds’ ‘I Am Not A Robot’ landed in the electronic rumors inbox, I though “here we go again”, but I’m SO glad I gave it a listen.
Firstly ‘cos i discovered that ‘I Am Not A Robot’ is being rereleased as Marina’s next single and secondly ‘cos it’s a storming reMix, Stopmakingme really does take the song in a completely new direction. Fittingly, for the title, that direction is vocoder laden robo-Disco. The London producer has crafted six minutes of hypnotic, other-worldly, Electro that messes with Marina’s vocal melodies for it’s own gain!
♫ Marina And The Diamonds – I Am Not A Robot (Stopmakingme reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
‘I Am Not A Robot’ is out on 26th April.
Marina And The Diamonds @ PureGroove
Desire
Are we in for another Italo summer this year? Sometimes I do wonder what a lot of these artists from the 2008 ‘wow Italo!’ explosion are doing now (we could really do with a new Heartbreak release!)
Italians Do It Better signees Desire are currently touring with Glass Candy right now so why don’t you check out three tracks from their 2009 album ‘II’ and then check Glass Candy’s MySpace for tour details.
The Canadian’s trio produced some of the best Italo inspired ElectroPop in the last few years, just the right combination of House, Disco and SynthPop with just the right amount of edgy darkness. They almost exclusively write love songs but despite making Disco songs about love they retain a slightly mournful twist to their tracks.
♫ Desire – Mirror Mirror (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Desire – Under Your Spell (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Desire – Don’t Call (zShare) (MediaFire)
‘II’ is out now:
Gypsy And The Cat
I’ve only just stumbled across Gypsy And The Cat, despite them being around for a while now. They have a track on the forthcoming Kitsuné Maison compilation which prompted me it dig a little deeper.
The Australian duo had a bit of blog attention last autumn with the track ‘Jona Vark’, a sweet, chilled, acoustic guitar/Dreamwave clash. Lazy comparisons to Empire Of The Sun seemed to have cropped up on most of the blogs who wrote about them but beyond the use of rich synths and acoustic guitar I think Gypsy And The Cat have a style all of their own.
Both that tune and ‘’Til Tomorrow’ are dreamy summertime Pop songs that show both depth of emotion and a cheeky sense of humour and some laidback soulful electronics.
♫ Gypsy And The Cat – Jona Vark (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Gypsy And The Cat – ‘Til Tomorrow (zShare) (MediaFire)
Gypsy And The Cat are planning to release their début album this year, hopefully in time for summer!
Wahlström & Valiant
Hailing from the home of S.P.O.C.K., Malmö, Swede, come Wahlström & Valiant, a ChipTune crew who are branching out in to world of Electro-House, and, man, have they done a good job.
Keeping an 8-bit feel they have now added big Nu-Disco leads and some killer vocoding. Fast paced cut-up arpeggios keep up the energy while the smooth vocals give the track some depth.
Great stuff!
♫ Wahlström & Valiant – Keep Up (zShare) (MediaFire)
You should check out, not only Wahlström & Valiant’s MySpace but their You Tube channel too!
Penguin Prison; The Worse It Gets
It’s hard to say which is better between Penguin Prison’s ‘Something I’m Not’ and this track, it’s B-Side, ‘The Worse It Gets’. ‘Something I’m Not’ is more infectious, but this track is more upbeat and poppy. Tough call!
Listen for yourself, along with these two remixes by R.A.C. (reMix Artists Collective) who give the track a lightweight funky overhaul and minimal neo-classical electro artist ELOF who turns the track into a cute Lo-Fi SynthPop masterpiece.
♫ Penguin Prison – The Worse It Gets (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Penguin Prison – The Worse It Gets (R.A.C. reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Penguin Prison – The Worse It Gets (ELOF reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
‘The Worse It Gets’/‘Something I’m Not’ is out now from Neon Gold:
Sometimes Miami Horror
A whole mess of reMixes of Miami Horror’s excellent SynthPop jam of last year, ‘Sometimes’, have come flooding in this week.
The mysterious Universe from Sydney make a big entrance on the scene with a fantastic smooth Dreamwavey mix, all slap bass and spacey chords. Universe will be a name to keep an eye on. Brazil’s Boss In Drama turn in a reMix that is a battle between Funk bass and cool leads while G.L.O.V.E.S., as always, don’t disappoint with a full on Disco track which drops some female vocals into the mix.
♫ Miami Horror – Sometimes (Universe reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Miami Horror – Sometimes (Boss In Drama reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Miami Horror – Sometime (G.L.O.V.E.S. RadioCut) (zShare) (MediaFire)
‘Sometimes’ is available right now!
Sunday Girl, as mixed by Russ Chimes
The tide of catchy female fronted ElectroPop continues to rise and washed up on the beach today is Sunday Girl. Coming from out of the blue (her MySpace is barely a month old) she’s already gearing up for her début release for which she’s bagged reMixes from Russ Chimes and Diplo!
Russ works his usual magic here, vastly improving on the original (which I found promising, but a little lacklustre) really bringing out something special in the vocals that wasn’t initially apparent and setting them over some serious Disco arpeggios and a sweet electric piano breakdown.
♫ Sunday Girl – Four Floors (Russ Chimes reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
‘Four Floors’ is released 20th March, until then:
Spectral Empire
THISISNOTANEXIT have been by the electronic rumors Inbox again, this time showcasing George Thompson and Kyle Martin A.K.A. Spectral Empire, with these two tracks only previously available on a very limited edition 12”.
Spectral Empire create some seriously dark, epic, soundtrack-esq music but still seem to be able to work a groove in there. Elements of it reminded me of very early instrumental Skinny Puppy but with more of a contemporary House backing. ‘Innerfearence’ comes across like a post-punk, New York Disco, take on Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack, racing arpeggios and sweeping analog synths share the space with New Wave Disco drums while ‘The Minotaur’ is a deep industrial Electronic march that keeps from being to rigid with waves of freestyle synth noodling.
♫ Spectral Empire – Innerfearence (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Spectral Empire – The Minotaur (zShare) (MediaFire)
There something pretty special about Spectral Empire, there not many bands that can be experimental and danceable at the same time. The guys are taking up residency at THISISNOTANEXIT’s new night at The Drop (London, N16) starting 278th May.
Go hunt down their releases!
Keenhouse Vs. NightWaves
Ahh, Keenhouse, his ‘Deep In The Forest’ is possible my favourite track on last years amazing ‘Valerie And Friends’ compilation and NightWaves, well, they’ve been rockin’ my .mp3 player for a fair few of months now.
The two of them together is Synth gold! Sweet analog lead lines and chilled vocals, this is everything Binary is about!
♫ Keenhouse – Ari-es (NightWaves reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
‘Ari-es’ is originally taken from the amazing ‘Binary Presents: LA Lights’ compilation.
Florrie + Fred Falke
Florrie, well, for a start she’s the in-house drummer for the production team responsible for pretty much all of the good ‘proper’ Pop music in the charts in the last decade, Xenomania. She’s also a singer/songwriter in her own right and is débuting classy Pop tune after Pop tune.
As with the last track to surface ‘Call 911’ this latest song, ‘Panic Attack’ has also been given the reMix treatment by none other than Fred Falke.
It’s a, frankly, infectious slice of electronic Pop that has a really strong (and obvious) Xenomania influence with seems to work well with Falke’s trademark bassline.
♫ Florrie – Panic Attack (Fred Falke Extended Mix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
You can hear some more from Florrie on her MySpace:
