Blog Archives
The Tapeaters’ new album
So, if you’re a long-time reader you’ll already know that Russian Nu-Disco/ElectroPop outfit The Tapeaters are amongst our favourites. We’ve been writing about them for years and, particularly, the latest crop of single have been pretty rad. Yesterday they released their latest album, which in part collects their recent tunes, and whist we loved the tracks individually when they are packed together in a complete LP it really highlights what an impressive body of work The Tapeaters have amassed.
‘Remembering Next Summer’ is a cleverly apt title for the record, it’s pure forward thinking nostalgia. Combining elements of Disco, Electro, Pop and Indie with some absurdly catchy songwriting, The Tapeaters kinda’ make me think that this is what the excellent Dirty Vegas would have sounded like if they had embraced Disco a little more than deep house. Funky basslines and massive retro synth sounds play against dancefloor beats and softly sung vocals with the occasional Indie guitar lick for good measure. The album kicks off with a new track ‘Umbrella’, which sets the tone for the record with a laid back, beach Disco vibe and an enticing sound which is closely followed by’ ‘Echo’, a track that wears it’s ‘80’s influences on it’s sleeve. That double whammy of Disco and ‘80’s pretty much sums up the album, and that’s two things we love, but it’s The Tapeaters genius songwriting, with their sing-a-long choruses and infectious hooks, that really seal the deal for us. Don’t be surprised if this album reared it’s head in our end-on-year ‘best of’ lists.
♫ The Tapeaters – Umbrella
♫ The Tapeaters – Waiting For a Sign
♫ The Tapeaters – The Real Deal
The Tapeaters’ ‘Remembering Next Summer’ is available right now from a stupidly cheap price. You can pick up the .mp3s from their official website from a tweet or a ‘like’, or pic up lossless copies from their Bandcamp from as little as $1!
Buy The Tapeaters’ music from:
Lissi Dancefloor Disaster’s new video
This is the new video from Swedish ElectroPop nutcases Lissi Dancefloor Disaster. It’s for their awesome, growling, new single ‘Singing My Heart Out’.
The clip was directed by Tim Erem, who takes the heart out motif literally and makes the whole thing look dreamlike and intoxicating.
‘Singing My Heart Out’ is out now, well take a look at the single later in the week.
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Chromatics’ ‘These Streets Will Never Look The Same’ video
Here’s the latest clip in the recent string of videos from Chromatics highlighting tracks from their new album, ‘Kill For Love’. This time it’s ‘These Streets Will Never Look The Same’ that’s treated to visuals.
The video was, once again, directed by Alberto Rossini and was shot on videotape live in Las Vegas, Mexico City and Montreal.
‘Kill For Love’ is out now on Italians Do It Better.
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Aaron Alexis’ ‘Saboteurs’
Introspective ElectroPop producer Aaron Alexis is back with a new track to haunt your dreams. Not loosing his particular unique style of ElectroPop based, Chillwave leaning Indie-Electro, Aaron’s new track is, at the same time, both warm and chilling.
‘Saboteurs’ is a throbbing electronic soundscape that draws lines between, Industrial, Chillwave and raw SynthPop. Reminiscant of parts of the recent M83 album and washed in the kinds of reverb usually reserved for Neon Indian, the contrast of the brittle synth bassline and the lush pads and LFO heavy organ sounds create a soundtrack where the instruments weave in and out of each other in a dreamlike way. Atop this sit Aaron’s trademark croon. Part seduction, part lament, part hipster drawl, the vocals glide across the track, ingratiating themselves as another instrument.
♫ Aaron Alexis – Saboteurs
heck out more from Aaron Alexis on SoundCloud.
The Magician reMixes RAC & Penguin Prison
So, we’ve been fans of RAC reMix work for a few years now, they generally tend to release high quality tunes, and long time readers will know we’ve been supporting Chris Glover A.K.A. Penguin Prison since day one, so these idea of these two entities making a tune together was pretty exciting stuff. The end result, ‘Hollywood’, was surprisingly, gangly guitar laden, Indie. We were kinda’ disappointed, it was actually a really good song, but far too guitary to grace these pages. Enter The Magician to make things all better.
The Magician strips things back al little with this mix. He makes the decision, we think the correct decision, to let the highly melodic vocal carry the track musically. Which is a good move, to many melodies would have cluttered the track and keeping things to a simply riff allows the track room to breathe. Basically, we’ve been dying to hear this track with a dance beat and synths, The Magician has delivered.
♫ RAC (Feat. Penguin Prison) – Hollywood (The Magician reMix)
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Bluebell’s new video
We featured London Indie-Electro duo Bluebell and their forthcoming début single ‘Normal Heights’/‘Cinderella’ earlier in the month, now check out the brand new video for ‘Cinderella’.
Put together from footage submitted by fans, the clip is a heady mix of, well, everything.
Bluebell will be launching the single 20th June in a live show at Ballyhoo in London (formerly Bowery).
‘Normal Heights’/‘Cinderella’ is released 11th June on Killing Moon.
Check out more from Bluebell on SoundCloud.
Errors reMix letthemusicplay
It’s always with some degree of trepidation that I approach email that mention Errors. When they are good, they are very good. Lush, moody ElectroPop that channels the best of Sheffield and Manchester in the ‘80’s, when they aren’t so good, it’s Indie dirge and contrived lyrics. Thankfully they normally fall into the latter category, but every new song is still a gamble. So let me put your mind at rest, their reMix of letthemusicplay’s forthcoming single is good. Relax.
‘All I Can Give You’ marks mysterious producer duo letthemusicplay’s third release and features the vocal stylings of Cardiff’s Until The Ribbon Breaks. Combined with Errors’ smokey Northern synth sounds it makes a track that revels in it’s melancholy, without going to far over to the dark side. Like the best Italo, Errors reMix darkness is shot thorough with a bolt of optimism, mostly played out through the driving arpeggios and work to counter the minor tones. Errors reMix of letthemusicplay instantly hits you with the best of early Yorkshire SynthPop, late ‘80’s Italo, Factory Records back catalogue and the tiniest touch of Disco in there for the dancefloors. Quite a feat, quite a reMix.
♫ letthemusicplay (Feat. U.T.R.B.) – All I Can Give You (Errors reMix)
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tEPr reMixes Woodkid
This week saw the release of the new single from last years king of blog-hype, Woodkid, ‘Run Boy Run’. It’s a typically introspective slice of avant-Pop, the kind we have gotten used to from Woodkid in the past year, the man has a skill for crafting really thoughtful tracks, both musically and lyrically. Remember how huge ‘Iron’ was last year. While the internet is bound to get all excited about the fact that there is a SebastiAn reMix on the single, to be honest it’s kinda’ mediocre. The easy highlight of the bunch comes from one of our favourite producers, and one third of one of our favourite bands, Yelle, tEPr.
It’s not the first time tEPr and Woodkid have crossed paths. Woodkid, A.K.A. Yoann Lemoine, directed Yelle’s ‘Ce Jeu’ video in his other guise as video creator, so maybe this is him returning the favour. tEPr’s reMix of the track is a deep throbbing slice of Electro-esque House. Highlighting Woodkid’s intimate vocal style and ‘Run Boy Run’’s primal percussion, tEPr applies then to a rock solid robotic beat and some nice Chicago stabs creating an interesting contrast of machine music and Woodkid’s incredibly human song. Not quite as Disco as we’re used to from tEPr, but he’s got this House thing down. It’ll be interesting to see whether this style was adopted just for the rEMix of if we’ll see tEPr heading down this path in future.
♫ Woodkid – Run Boy Run (tEPr reMix)
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The Penelopes’ ‘Charts April’ Mix
The Penelopes – Charts April 2012 = Despite the Shoegazey intro track, this month’s mix from ElectroPoppers The Penelopes is an awesome 32 mins of interesting, and unusually pretty bouncy, Poppy electronics. There’s just a hint of Disco thrown in for good measure too. Enjoy.
♫ The Penelopes – Charts April 2012
The tracklist:
01. Bushwalking – Visual Jam Doughnut
02. Dana Buoy – So Lucky
03. Peter Nilsson – Home Tonight
04. Lana Del Rey – Blue Jeans (RAC reMix)
05. Alex Metric – Anybody Else
06. Charlotte Gainsbourg – Anna (Moonlight Matters reMix)
07. Tanlines – All Of Me
08. Unicorn Kid – Pure Space
09. Korallreven – Sa Sa Samoa (Elite Gymnastics reMix)
The Penelopes’ ‘Sally In The Galaxy’ is out now on Pour Le Monde Records.
Buy The Penelopes’ music from:
Goin’ Old School: Kraftwerk, New Order & DEVO
Goin’ Old School isn’t a trip down music memory lane, it’s a mugging in the dark alleyway of nostalgia:
We’re breaking the ‘Goin’ Old School’ rules a little today by featuring tracks we’ve featured before and tracks that aren’t strictly ‘80’s, but in celebration if the late, great, Bob Moog’s birthday, here’s some of our favourite Moog tracks. Starting with Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ from 1975.
And we had to feature New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ again, from 1983. Moog Source anyone?
DEVO 1980 hit ’ Whip It’ is covered in MiniMoogs!
You can buy most of this music from:
