Nov 24 2011

Claps début album

Claps

Recalling early ‘80’s experimentation of The Futurists, Claps are a three peice Minimal Synth outfit from Minneapolis and have just released their début album ‘Wreck’.

Robotic beats and droning vintage synth sounds provide a cold and mysterious backing that both supports and juxtaposes catchy lead lines and heartfelt vocals throughout the nine tracks. The early Mute Records-esque rhythms and moody synthesizer tones may conjure thoughts of dark, experimental music, but it would be hard to actually call Claps ‘dark’, melancholy yes, but their is a strain of optimism shooting through their tracks and the otherworldly melodies and soft, imitate voice are far to Pop to really be called dark. If fact, at times ‘Wreck’ veers into ‘Speak & Spell’ era Depeche Mode fun territory and could quite easily be bopped to on a 1982 dancefloor. With the release of this record Claps have introduced a sprinkling of bass guitar into their analog synth set-up giving many of the tracks a slight Joy Division flavour, musically, on the tracks it’s introduced. Overall, if you love early ‘80’s SynthPop then this album is for you, it’s like Minimal Synth without the pretension.

♫ Claps – Across the Floor

♫ Claps – House

Clap’s ‘Wreck’ is released this week.

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Nov 24 2011

Goin’ Old School: The Jonzun Crew – Pack Jam (Look Out For The OVC)

It’s The Jonzun Crew in 1982 with ‘Pack Jam (Look Out For The OVC)’ “Paaaaackk Jaaaaammm!”

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Nov 24 2011

Space March’s ‘Monumental’

Space March

‘Monumental’ is the third album from Australian Modern SynthPop artist Space March.

The record is a collection of twelve tracks of melodic and lilting electronic Pop tracks that have a definite emphasis on hooks. There is a pure Pop sensibility at work on much here, especially the likes of the title track where synths, guitar and bouncy vocals work in tandem. That’s not to say, though, that most of the album isn’t pretty dancefloor oriented. From the pumping Italo Disco of ‘Get What You Deserve’ to the grandiose soundtrack dance epic of ‘Eye For An Eye’, Space march’s combination of machine beats and synths with a Sci-Fi twist with organic instrumentation and vocals with a hint of drama makes for quite a rousing experience and a SynthPop album that rings with a sense of narrative. Now, long-time readers will know how I feel about the so-called Modern SynthPop scene, and there is a strong strain of Modern SynthPop in this record’s DNA. What sets it apart, though, is the production. Everything is clean and sits together well in the mix, there’s not a hint of the amateurish, bedroom production (with no idea how to produce drums) that plagues the majority of Modern SynthPop, whether that has anything to do with input from Erasure/Depeche Mode/A-Ha/Tricky collaborator Mark Saunders in the mixing department I’m not sure, but whatever the reason Space march have made a Modern SynthPop record that is head and shoulders above it’s contemporaries.

♫ Space March – American Girl

♫ Space March – Get What You Deserve

♫ Space March (Feat. Electra-City) – Eye For An Eye

‘Monumental’ is our now.

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Nov 23 2011

Shook’s new EP

shook

Dutch synth wizard Shook has just dropped his long awaited, second, five track EP, ‘Rise And Fall’

From the opening note and accompanying drone of ‘Through The Fire ‘ you’ll know one thing about this EP, it’s big, huge in fact. Busy P can call Justice’s new album “Stadium Disco” all he wants, to me, this is what “Stadium Disco” sounds like. Shook’s musicianship shines though as he takes on ‘80’s Electro Boogie effortlessly working his way through complex Funk basslines and soaring melodies. As the EP progresses it begins to chill a little, bringing out the smoother side of Shook’s music while still retaining the same huge scope. Even the intimate electric piano of ‘Hold Tight’ is more ambitious a track than many of it’s contemporaries. Elsewhere, such as on ‘Rise And Fall’, the EP sees Shook channelling everyone from Herbie Hancock to Daft Punk with Jazz, Disco, Electro Boogie, Funk, House & Electro all being drawn on to make this musical masterpiece. A Stunning second EP.

♫ Shook – Through The Fire

♫ Shook – Rise And Fall

♫ Shook – Hold Tight

‘Rise And Fall’ is available now digitally or on limited white vinyl via Bandcamp.

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Nov 23 2011

Charlie XCX’s ‘Nuclear Seasons’ video

We dropped the track a while back, now check out the video for Charlie XCX’s ‘Nuclear Seasons’.

Although I’m a still not really getting the whole ‘Goth-Pop’ tag, the music rocks, and I like the way she is pinching all Witch-House’s aesthetics and making them Pop, that amuses me.

‘Nuclear Seasons’ is out now on Asylum Records.

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Nov 23 2011

Pat Lok’ ‘No Shame’

pat lok

On The Fruit Records’ second big release of the week comes courtesy of the slick synthetic Disco of Pat Lok.

The Vancouver DJ/Producers is dropping this single, ‘No Shame’, backed with ‘Yes Game’ and a stellar array of reMixes. ‘No Shame’ is an Italo basslined five minutes of some of the best, and most original, Nu-Disco we’ve heard in a while. Pat definitely brings something new to the Nu-Disco game as well as doing what everyone should do when they’ve write an awesome peice of funky electronic music…cover the thing in vocoded vocals. ‘No Shame’ is immense. The flip side, ‘Yes Game’ take a smoother route to the dancefloor with chilled synths and piano in the mix. Goldroom provides one of the mixes of ‘No Shame’. The ‘G’ word is already, after half a year, a stamp of quality, slightly Yachty, Nu-Disco beach tunes but this time Josh goes all out and contributes some vocals to the track which immediately gives the track something special, making it really cohesive. Bit Funk’s take on ‘Yes Game’ is funked-out bliss (or should that be blissed-out funk?) with heavy synth bass and slap bass intertwining to crate a low-down dirty groove and some dark dancefloor moments.

♫ Pat Lok – No Shame

♫ Pat Lok – Yes Game

♫ Pat Lok – No Shame (Goldroom reMix)

♫ Pat Lok – Yes Game (Bit Funk remix)

‘No Shame’ is out now with additional reMixes from OhYeah and Volta Bureau.

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Nov 23 2011

B-Xentric!’s ‘The December Jockey Club’

b-xentric

B-Xentric! – The December Jockey Club = It’s that time of the month again, One of the UK’s best Disco duos drop another hour and a half of deep House and Disco grooves.

♫ B-Xentric! – The December Jockey Club

The tracklist:

01. Noir and Haze – Around (Solomun Rmx)
02. One Auff – Heavy Heady (Tuff City Kids Rmx)
03. Discodromo (Feat. Hard Ton) – Build A House (Tensnake Rmx)
04. Omar – Feeling You (Henrik Schwarz Rmx)
05. Storm Queen – It Goes On
06. Sordo Balcazar – Wake Me Up
07. MaxxiSoundSystem And DRW (Feat. Royston) – Open Your Eyes
08. Shur-I-Khan – Staying In
09. Arthur James Denton – Lost In Dance
10. Eric Sharp – Hope Springs Eteranal (Roy Davis Junior’s Re-Edit)
11. Yakine – Last Harmony
12. L-Vis 1990 – Feel The Void (Paul Woolford’s After-Hours Rmx)
13. Friendly Fires – Blue Cassette (Tiga Rmx)

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Nov 23 2011

AXXE’s ‘Sweet Stuff’

axxe

Jet setting DiscoPop act AXXE’s ‘Sweet Stuff’ has been knocking around for a while now, as has some of the reMixes, so On The Fruit Records (in their firsts of two big releases this week) have made the smart decision to package them all up in one place, alongside some corking new versions. Won’t you join me for a peek inside?

The original version of the tracks is pure Dance-Pop excellence, with just the right balance between retro sounds and modern dancefloors. Doug’s slick beats and ear for hooks and Stina husky, powerful vocals work together perfectly for some big, but edge, ElectroPop fun. It’s hard to even start on the reMixes with out getting Ride The Universe’s version out the way, we’ve mentioned it before, suffice to say the combination of musicianship, studio skill skill and DJ’s ear amongst the four Riders makes up the perfect production team. If you were in the HR department of a Dreamwave/Nu-Disco corporation then these four skill sets would be the one your would be trying to fill. Dreamtrak is a man with his finger in a lot of ElectroPop pies right now, and his reMix here displays why, with an almost New Order-esque slice of retro SynthPop sprinkled with a hint of Disco. Neon Workout head straight for the dancefloor with their take on the track with a bit of Italo, a bit of EBM and a bit of Disco all finding their way into this rapid-fire mix.

♫ AXXE – Sweet Stuff

♫ AXXE – Sweet Stuff (Ride The Universe reMix)

♫ AXXE – Sweet Stuff (Dreamtrak reMix)

♫ AXXE – Sweet Stuff (Neon Workout reMix)

But that’s not all! But the single and get more reMixes from the likes of Stay Ali, Leon Zane and Arturo!

‘Sweet Stuff’ is out right now!

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Nov 23 2011

Munk’s new video

Here we have the new clip for Munk’s ‘So Close’, featuring Lou Hayter (who’s someone in New Young Pony Club who’s not Tahita).

The track is pretty chilled, but pretty infectious.

‘So Close’ comes from Munk’s ‘the Bird And The Beat’ album, out now on Gomma.

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Nov 23 2011

Siriusmo reMixes Bodi Bill (really, despite what it says!)

Bodi Bill

I’m not entirely sure why this track isn’t titled ‘Bodi Bill – I Like Holden Caulfield (Siriusmo reMix)’ (as opposed to Bodi Bill (Feat. Siriusmo), ‘cos it pretty much is Surismo reMixing Bodi Bill, and not for the first time.

‘I Like Holden Caulfield’ is a bit of a classic, it was pretty staple on any ElectroPop fan’s Walkman back in 2008 and Siriusmo does an excellent job of bringing it bang up to date but also adds a little nostalgic touch. Siriusmo’s evolving arpeggios and slightly Acid lead lines make me thing a little of old Van She Tech reMixes but with a cutting edge, raw, Deep House vibe to it.