Minitel Rose, those purveyors of the smoothest of French SynthPop & Dreamwave, are finally gearing up to drop their second album ‘Atlantic’ this June, and that (if you didn’t know) is an exiting thing! Their 2008 début ‘The French Machine’ still gets weekly play here and was an important record in terms of introducing a smoother French Electro sound to the masses and drawing wider attention to the Dreamwave movement being spearheaded by the Valerie Collective.

Listening to ‘Wild Birds’, the first track from the album, just wets the appetite even more. Their Electro-House tinged Disco SynthPop is in full effect on this energetic, anthemic track. It’s retro synth chords and uplifting vocals seriously bode well for this album being the soundtrack to the summer. electronic rumors fave Barretso give the track a shot of adrenaline with his reMix, busting out his best pumping percussion and shimmering synths to create a powerhouse of a reMix. Kolt13 brings a Disco/Chiptune soundclash to his version, and intricate mixture of Nintendo madness and Discoball funk.

Minitel Rose look like they are going to release an awesome album, with some awesome remixes. Can’t wait!

♫ Minitel Rose – Wild Birds (Barretso reMix)

♫ Minitel Rose – Wild Birds (Kolt13 reMix)

Minitel Rose’s ‘Atlantic’ is released 7th June digitally and 14th June physically

Minitel Rose – @ Beatport

Minitel Rose – @ Juno

Minitel Rose – @ 7Digital

Minitel Rose – @ Amazon

[Via Trashbags Kids]

Jun 1 2010

Zoot Woman new EP

ZootWoman ‘

Zoot Woman, that bastion of UK slick, ultra-stylish, ElectroPop release a new single today, titled ‘Just A Friend Of Mine’.

The single, from Stuart Price’s sometime band, is supported with reMixes by Dinamics, The Penelopes and SomethingALaMode and it’s the SALM mix that we can preview for you here. Melding dirty Electro with dramatic orchestration births a unique dancefloor tension, the distorted synths and violin clashing to create a nervous energy that really works as a counterpoint to the Poppy vocals.

Great stuff!

♫ Zoot Woman – Just A Friend Of Mine (SomethingALaMode reMix)

‘Just A Friend Of Mine’ is released today via Citizen Records.

Zoot Woman – @ Beatport

Zoot Woman – @ Juno

Zoot Woman – @ 7Digital

Zoot Woman – @ Amazon

May 30 2010

Kamp!; Polish SynthPop

Kamp! ‘‘

Kamp! are a Polish SynthPop act who have just released their new single, ‘Heats’, on Brennessel.

The single is an impassioned classic SynthPop tune with a touch of Nu-Disco in it’s bassline. ‘Heats’ is an intricate retro styles Pop song with a little hint of Spandau Ballet about it. The B-side, ‘Distance Of The Modern Hearts’ is more upbeat and an awesome collision between classic, pure 80’s Pop and Nu-Disco. Defiantly a band to keep an eye, or ear, on!

♫ Kamp! – Heats

♫ Kamp! – Distance Of The Modern Hearts

‘Heats’ is out now.

Kamp! @ Amazon

May 30 2010

sevdahBABY

sevdahBABY ‘

This track has been sat in the electronic rumors inbox all weekend, I initially wasn’t going to write about it but then found I was listening to it over and over, so here it is!

sevdahBABY is a Serbian Electro-House producer and this track he has dropped, ‘Don’t Look Back’ is (to me anyway) pretty addictive. Both it’s broken beats and it’s mixture of Electro sounds and sounds reminiscant of early 90’s Bleep House just hit the right spot! This is the kind of dance music I get lost in…

♫ sevdahBABY – Don’t Look Back (Znash Kad Meni)

sevdahBABY looks to have a couple of under his belt, go check them out!

sevdahBABY @ Juno

sevdahBABY @ Amazon

May 30 2010

Dato; ‘How Many Times?’

Dato ‘‘

Danish duo Dato dabble with both ElectroPop and Electro-House with interesting effects.

A while back we first introduced you to their track with Danny Andersen, ‘I Don’t Wanna’’ which we quite liked, it was a pretty energetic dancey ElectroPop track with some nice old school sounds. Now the guys are gearing up for the release of their first album next month and have dropped another track on us to wet out appetites. Featuring the vocals of Jannie Linnebæk, ‘How Many Times?’ is slightly more Housey but still wears it’s SynthPop influences in it’s sleeve. It’s a relaxed, dancey piece of electronic pop that makes really subtle use of a vocoder to create a smooth vocal effect.

♫ Dato (Feat. Jannie Linnebæk) – How Many Times?

♫ Dato (Feat. Danny Andersen) – I Don’t Wanna’

Dato’s début long player will be out in June.

Dato @ 7Digital

Dato @ Amazon

May 29 2010

Limited edition We Have Band/Topman CTRL T-Shirt competition winners!

topmanctrlwehaveband

Congratulations to Twitter users @disco_naivete, @theconceptmk, @Greenelk. @sophiarichards and @glme, they’ve won our competition in association with We Have Band and Topman CTRL. Limited edition T-Shirts designed by the band are on it’s way to them!

The TopmanCTRL Student tour has drawn to a close now, but keep an eye of http://www.topmanctrl.com for news of future events!

We Have Band’s début album ‘WHB’ is out now!

We Have Band @ Beatport

We Have Band @ Amazon

May 29 2010

HURTS cover Diana Vickers’ ‘Once’

HURTS04 ‘

This afternoon HURTS appeared on Jo Whiley’s ‘Live Lounge’ on BBC Radio 1, as well as well as an epic acoustic performance of their current single ‘Better Than Love’ the guys also covered Diana Vickers’ recent single ‘Once’.

Citing an underlying sadness in the Cathy Dennis & Eg White penned track as the reason for their choice of cover, the band (complete with, not only their opera singer, but cello and violin) belted out an intense rendition. The song had previously sent Diana Vickers (who has also worked with Ellie Goulding and Starsmith) to number one in the charts.

The band also talked about summer festivals, influences and not having a title for the August released album yet.

♫ HURTS – Once (Diana Vickers Cover (Live @ BBC Radio 6 Music)) (Radio Rip)

You can listen to the whole performance and interview on the BBC iPlayer or at the Live Lounge site.

HURTS @ Beatport

HURTS @ Juno

HURTS @ Amazon

May 29 2010

OMD and Grum on BBC 6 Music’s ‘Back To The Phuture!

OMD ‘‘

This Monday’s (31st May) instalment of Wall Of Sound label boss and Electro guru Mark Jones’s BBC 6 Music radio show Back To The Phuture will feature not only Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark but Grum too!

OMD’s Andy McClusky and Paul Humphries will be chatting to Mark about getting involved with electronic music, their influence on the charts and their forthcoming album, ‘History Of Modern’ and in the final hours Nu-Disco master Grum will be busting out a special 80’s influenced mix of SynthPop new and old.

To wet your appetite check out OMD’s classic ‘Bunker Soldiers’ and Grum’s blog destroying 2009 monster ‘Runaway’:

♫ OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark) – Bunker Soldiers

♫ Grum – Runaway (Radio Edit)

It’s gonna’ be a great show, details here, and you can tune in on iPlayer.

May 29 2010

New SynthPop from Modular’s ceo

ceo ‘

ceo is Modular’s new SynthPop signing and one half of Modular licensed Swedish ElectroPop act The Tough Alliance.

It’s so good to here some new, interesting Electro coming from the Modular house and the half of TTA that is Eric Berglund has carved a unique niche for himself in the ElectroPop field. Creative use of samples sets ceo’s music apart from the pack and the mysterious visuals will certainly keep people intrigued. Keep an ear our of ceo in the coming months.

♫ ceo – Come With Me

‘Come With me is released June 7th followed by the album ‘White Magic’ on Modular Recordings, 28th June.

ceo @ Amazon

May 27 2010

Major Lazer & La Roux partner up to release mixtape

MajorLazer&LaRoux ‘‘‘‘

While in the studio in Jamaica, Electro-Dancehall masters Diplo & Switch A.K.A. Major Lazer put together a mixtape for La Roux, dubbing it ‘Lazerproof’.

Consisting of 14 mash-ups of La Roux’s SynthPop gold with various Dubplates, Blends and Diplo & Switch’s beats featuring the likes of Amanda Blank, Candi Redd and Matthew Hemerlein. If you’ve ever wanted to hear a Dancehall/Electro/Dub/ElectroPop/Hip Hop/SynthPop/Dubstep/Ska collision album then this is the one for you. The whole album works amazingly well and handled masterfully by Major Lazer and all given to you for free via ‘Lazerproof’s mini-site. It’s defiantly different and a perfect way to kick off the summer, in fact in the first 24 hours of release 200,000 seemed to agree and crashed Diplo’s label, Mad Descent’s servers forcing the label to backup the album download at this zShare link!

Here’s some of our favourites from the mixtape: