Apr 26 2013

[MP3] Earl Gray’s début EP (+ Thrillionaire reMix)

I never know whether to spell grey, grey or gray. Is there a difference? I mention this purely so you’ll forgive me if I spell it wrong at any point in this post, as Danny Ashenden, better know as one half of The C90s, has chosen to spell it grey in the moniker of his new solo project, Earl Grey. We’ve already heard a few of his reMixes in the months just gone, but it’s high time we turned out attention to his début EP, released next week on La Belle, which we have been rocking to in the past couple of weeks.

The EP’s titled Not Everyone’s Cup Of Tea, which may be referencing Earl Grey’s departure from The C90s upbeat Disco sound into something a bit deeper, more thoughtful and, dare I say it, a little more avant-garde. But as you know this is a departure that is right up our street, so as Danny busts out the brooding space Italo and synthesizer prog. The EP kicks off with, we would say, it’s strongest track, Through The City. A track that blends SynthWave with the mood of Moroder’s more introspective material, vocoders and analog warblings blend together with rich chords to create an imposing, yet familiar, mood that flows into Jus Clap, a track with more House in it’s DNA. Jus Clap takes an intoxicating warehouse vibe to the extreme, slowing down the Chicago vibe until it’s utterly hypnotic. Regent’s Park’s blend of Tropical percussion and live electronics is nicely intersected with the occasional B-Boy beat in a track that calls to mind the freestyle synthesizer experimentalism of the early 80s. The EP plays out with it’s most accessible, and probably the most DJ friendly, tune Pong. Pong is an undulating slice of Cosmic Disco with hints on Minimal Synth and a sprinkling of House. Delivering a sound not dissimilar to Scandinavian Nu-Disco in it’s perfect blend of the galactic, and the very human. Pong balances icy tones with quirky, playful melodies creating something for your mind and your feet. Not Everyone’s Cup Of Tea is definitely worth investigation for pretty much anyone with an interest in electronic music.

♫ Earl Grey – Pong

While you’re here check out Earl Grey’s new reMix for LA’s Thrillionaire, and their single of last year, Wie Gehts? (a title that can’t help but remind us of GCSE German), for more of Danny’s warm, enveloping electronics. Folding the gently vocals into the track as another instrument, this reMix wraps the listener in waves of swirling, surprising, sounds.

♫ Thrillionaire – Wie Gehts? (Earl Grey reMix)

Earl Grey’s Not Everyone Cup Of Tea EP is released 29th April.

Check out more from Earl Gray on SoundCloud.

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Apr 5 2013

[Audio] Chrome Canyon reMixed by ATTAR!

Here’s the next track from the reMix companion to Brooklyn synth wizard Chrome Canyon’s utterly amazing album Elemental Themes. Elemental reMixes is out next week and having heard the Chateau Marmont reMix of Elemental Themes big single Generations, we can now wrap our ears around this version of the mind warping Memories Of A Scientist by Belgium’s finest ATTAR!.

The track is a really interesting blend of ATTAR!’s robo-Disco House sound and Chrome Canyon’s proggy synth excursions. If fact, we’d go so far as to say that ATTAR! leans somewhat toward the latter for his adventures in 70s synth music. With all the drama of majestic SynthWave the reMix builds and builds, both musically and the tension, before launching into a Moroder-esque late 70s electronic Disco workout. Taking Chrome Canyon’s flair for vintage synth opuses and running with it, taking the originals Sci-Fi mystery straight to the dancefloor, and the result is stunning. Part vintage synth Disco, part 70s Sci-Fi TV theme, part prog rock solo, we’d be quite happy if all electronic music sounded like this.

♫ Chrome Canyon – Memories Of A Scientist (ATTAR! reMix)

Chrome Canyon’s Elemental reMixes is released 9th April on Stones Throw Records.

Buy Chrome Canyon’s music from:

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Mar 27 2013

[Audio] Makeup And Vanity Set’s ‘Praxis’

OK, are you sitting down? This is going to get a bit confusing. Nashville based SynthWavers Makeup And Vanity Set are about to release a new EP, 7.25.2148, which is a prologue to two concept albums to be released in the coming months. In advance of the EP they released one of the tracks, Praxis, as a single with new track A Prologue as it’s B-side, but you get the full Praxis single featuring reMixes from Pilotpriest, Magic Sword and Sabrepulse if you by the CD version of the EP. Got it? Rather than give ourselves a headache we’re just going to look at the Praxis single and it’s reMixes single today, the one you get free when you buy the 7.25.2148 EP. It’s all good.

So then, Praxis? As well as being 7.25.2148’s standout track is a storming slice of synthetic futurism. Loaded with twisting synths and a pounding Italo beat, Makeup And Vanity Set conjure an enigmatic mood. Intertwining melodies and lead lines sparkle like starlight amidst the warm glow of the rich pads. it;s a track full of mystery and optimism that’s can still get you shaking on the dancefloor once it’s dominant riff kicks in. The best of soundtrack inspired SynthWave and up-all-night Italo in one tune. The amazing Pilotpriest delivers a suitable epic mix of the track. Wrapping Praxis in his trademark emotional electronic orchestration Pilotpriest takes the listener away to far off galaxies. Injecting the track with a little digital funk is Magic Sword, who’s reMix is a marching robot Disco tune is as unsettling as it is funky.. The 7.25.2148 EP itself is a magical synthesizer oddessy through different moods and soundscapes and, frankly, the Praxis reMix package with worth the price alone.

♫ Makeup And Vanity Set – Praxis

♫ Makeup And Vanity Set – Praxis (Pilotpriest reMix)

♫ Makeup And Vanity Set – Praxis (Magic Sword reMix)

The Praxis single is out now, the 7.25.2148 which the Praxis reMix package come free with is released 28th March digitally and on limited edition CD that also comes with all kinds of goodies.

Buy Makeup And Vanity Set’s music from:

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Mar 11 2013

[Video] The Knife’s ‘A Tooth For An Eye’

Following on from Full Of Fire, Swedish ElectroPop Experimentalists The Knife’s second new video from their forthcoming Shaking The Habitual album is A Tooth For An Eye. It’s an undulating avant-garde workout, blanketed in warm tones and percussion.

The video, challenging gender roles, was directed by Roxy Farhat and Kakan Hermansson, gets their point across whist managing to me both mysterious and funny.

A Tooth For An Eye is taken from The Knife’s forthcoming album, Shaking The Habitual, released 8th April,

Buy The Knife’s music from:

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Feb 25 2013

[Video] White Blush’s ‘Juice Of My Heart’

Here’s LA ElectroPop experimentalist White Blush new video for her tracks Juice Of My Heart.

Carol Rhyu herself directs the clip, which is pretty brutal, but I won;t spoil it for you, just watch.

White Blush’s self-titled début EP is out now.

Buy White Blush’s music from:

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Feb 25 2013

[MP3] Zagar’s ‘Space Medusa’

Space Medusa is the new single from ecclectic Hungarian live-electronics outfit Zagar. The eastern Europeans generally create a left-field, jazzy, mix of live electronics and real instruments, but this latest release is a little tighter, a little more electronic and a little groovier.

There’s a lot of Cosmic Disco in Space Medusa, as the name might suggest. A sprawling analog workout with a solid psychedelic groove. Hazy vocals seem to call across a vast distance as sweeping synths rush in and out of the track. Spikey arpeggios play against a deep bass riff creating the tracks core, allowing for a seemingly freeform synth jam to erupt on top. An excellent piece of retro Sci-Fi weirdness.

♫ Zagar – Space Medusa (Single Edit)

Zagar’s Space Medusa is released today.

Buy Zagar’s music from:

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Feb 20 2013

[Audio] Keep Shelly In Athens’ new single

Acclaimed left-field ElectroPop outfit Keep Shelly In Athens have announced their signing to Cascine for the release of the début full-length record. To celebrate the occasion they have unleashed the first single from the album onto an unsuspecting world.

Madmen Love is four minutes of brutal beauty. Deep, ominous bass synths and fidgety, industrial percussion. It’s a track that has a lot in common with much Minimal Synth, dark synthetic pulsating, kling-klang beats and tormented vocals that are pretty relentless, giving way only briefly the the dreamiest of breakdowns, just to build toward a cacophonous climax. Taking in influenced as varied as UK bass the more avant-garde Goth, Madmen Love is modern Post-Punk done right.

♫ Keep Shelly In Athens – Madmen Love

Keep Shelly In Athens’ Madmen Love is out now, the album is due July 2013.

Buy Keep Shelly In Athens’s music from:

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Feb 19 2013

[MP3] Chrome Canyon reMixed by Chateau Marmont

Last month we raved about Brooklyn synth magician Chrome Canyon new video for Generations which is taken from his jaw droppingly good album of last year Elemental Themes. It’s a gorgeous slice of Sci-Fi synth work that has now been given an eclectic workout by French analog adventurers Chateau Marmont. The meeting of these two yields an amazing, nostalgic, evocative synthesizer excursion.

To be released on Chrome Canyon’s forthcoming Elemental reMixes EP, which, as you can probably guess, holds some killer reMixes of tracks from Elemental Themes. Including this one. Imagine the BladeRunner melody from Generations, paired with eccentric percussion and, just a revelling in analog synths. Injecting the original with an exotic edge only highlights the culture mashing Dystopian feel to the track. The EP will also include work from Peaking Lights, Tomas Barfod, Gavin Rusom, Mike Simonetti, ATTAR!, Matthewdavid, Airbird, Eclectic Method, Saarid and Freak You

♫ Chrome Canyon – Generation (Chateau Marmont reMix)

Chrome Canyon’s Elemental Themes album is out now.

Buy Chrome Canyon’s music from:

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Feb 14 2013

[Audio] Mild Peril’s ‘Voyager 2010’ EP

This week London based Italo Experimentalist Mild Peril released his latest EP. Well, latest as in ‘just released’, the tracks themselves date from 2010 (hence the EP’s title, Voyager 2012), but sound as fresh now as ever. Running the gauntlet from Italo to Minimal Synth to EBM to Cosmic Disco, Voyager’s three epics deliver vastly different styles, but are neatly tied together in Mild Peril’s rich analog atmosphere.

Separated into Sequences, the EP kicks off with Sequence I-II, an immediate attention grabber. It’s an evocative slice of Sci-Fi synth with a nostalgic Italo-Disco vibe. Whilst the pulsating Disco bass groove would be easy to get lost in on the dancefloor, the real joy of this eight minute odyssey is just sitting back and listening to the playing. The layers of intertwining melody sweep about the track carrying the listener through a music narrative with some hair raising solo moments. Sequence III is Minimal Synth meets SynthWave affair. Punchy drums, undulating arpeggios and a surprisingly sweet organ deliver an upbeat, driving exploration of live synth works. The EP closes on Sequence IV which sees the organ return in a much more ominous capacity over a track with classic EBM in it’s DNA. Considering this EP was pieced together out of older oddities in Mild Peril’s repertoire, it leaves us pretty excited to hear what he’s got planned going into the future.

♫ Mild Peril – Voyager, Sequence I-II

♫ Mild Peril – Voyager, Sequence III

If you’re in London this weekend you should check out Mild Peril’s EP release party, also featuring Soft Riot and A Terrible Splendour, details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/323188217785131

Voyager 2012 is out now.

Buy Mild Peril’s music from:

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Feb 1 2013

[Audio] Mmoths featuring Holly Miranda

Irish producer of spacious beats and The XX support act Mmoths is gearing up for the release of his new EP, Diaries, the lead track of which is a beautifully abrasive slice of edgy and atmospheric Electronica featuring the vocal talents of new XL Recordings signee Holly Miranda. All These Things.

It’s a smokey composition where drill-bit industrial sounds are morphed into something ethereal and magical, intertwining with a post-Chillwave, post-Dubstep soundscape and Miranda’s silky smooth vocal. Inhuman sounds suddenly become organic and flowing as the track seems to evolve naturally over it;s course. Like a song grown, rather than created. We can definitely see All These Things earning Mmoths a great deal of attention.