You! are a Parisian duo made up of Romuald Boivin (I Am Un Chien) and José Reis Fontao (Stuck In The Sound) who released their album of quirky Indie-SynthPop late last year.
Their new single, taken from their self titled début is ‘Heart’, and it has a strong line up of reMixes to accompany it. The UK’s Blue Satellite smother the track in a thick layer of funk bass on their deep, addictive grooved, Disco mix while Robotaki’s cut-up Nu-Disco Pop mix hit all the right buttons with a bit of Disco, a bit of ElectroPop and a bit of Chip Tune.
This week we received, in the post, a copy of ‘Drive Time’, Chromeo’s new record.
And it’s a new record in more ways than one.
First, it is a record. I know I call everything ‘a record’, but that’s just ‘cos I’m old, ‘Drive Time’ is actually a vinyl release and secondly it is a new record in the sense that it has absolutely smashed any and all previous world record holders for the smallest record ever made!
Tiny!
That’s just the promo! The full album will clock in at just over three minutes and a mind boggling 55 tracks. With those kinds of numbers ‘Drive Time’ laughs in the face of the previous smallest record’s length. That of Cattle Decapitation’s ‘Human Jerky’, a yawn inducing 12m36s.
Also, for the first time the album sees Chromeo’s music taking on a political theme in the lead track, the thoughtfully titled ‘Turn Left’, albeit rolled up in their Electro-Disco-Pop-Funk.
Take a look at this video of the guys and legendary producer Dave Bascombe working on the project. Dave and P speak about their motives and inspiration.
So, what does it actually sound like?
Well, it’s good, short, but good. It’s amazing how in, sometimes as short a time as a few seconds (or the lead track, ‘Turn Left’s ONE SECOND!), each track is unmistakably Chromeo.
Each track could have quite easily been a joke. I have never heard the previous record holder but I presume it was some kind of Death Metal album and each track was just a brief noise, well with ’Drive Time’ each track has actually been written. Take ‘Follow’ for example, in it’s seven seconds, there is a distinct bass riff, vocal harmonies, a chord progression and a lead line. In seven seconds!
You’ve gotta’ love Girlfriend Records, not only are they consistent in putting out some of the finest 80’s inspired Electro around, but they tend to do it for free too!
Their latest release come courtesy of Le Prix, who’s ‘Eyelash OK’ single is full of everything you want from a Dreamwave tune. ‘Eyelash OK’ is all about the melody, a melodic bassline reminiscing of late 80’s Pet Shop Boys rides the Disco drums leaving the rest of the track to be dominated by the interweaving melodies of the lead lines. This is inner-city ElectroPop, the soundtrack to the lives and loves of night dwellers and insomniacs everywhere. Nightdrive Electro, both optimistic and pensive at the same time the combination of FM bass and reverby leads carrying you through your late night adventures.
Katy B is REALLY growing on me! I’ve said before I have a big soft spot for female vocals with a bit of a uniqueness, a quirkiness to them and Katy totally fits the bill. There’s some awesome tunes there too. Her new single ‘Broken Record’ has been on repeat here most of the morning and luckily enough the video has just been premiered.
So have a gander:
Broken Record” drops on 27th March with remixes from Zinc, DJ Fresh, Jacques Greene and Todd Edwards.
Madcap French ElectroPop trio Yelle (‘cos they are a trio really!) have released two music videos in one. ‘Safari Disco Club’ and ‘Que Veux-Tu’ share the eight minute clip, which is really two videos with a little joining montage.
Stall, makes us exited for the release of the new Yelle album!
The video was directed by Jérémie Saindon.
The ‘Safari Disco Club’ album is released 14th March.
Here’s the smooth new track from La Disco duo Classixx.
Released for free by Green Label Sound, ‘Into The Valley’ feature the soulful vocals of Karl Dixon (last seen on Holy Ghost!’s Monarchy reMix) and, alongside that trademark Classixx piano, features a sweet horn section. In fact, the horns are really late 80’s/early 90’s house horns which sit really nicely with the Disco drums and analog bass. the who track works just as well as easy listening music as it does as a dancefloor shaker.
I looks like they are really pushing this re-release of the single, which is a good thing, it really didn’t get the attention it deserved last summer. Directed by Jemma-Lee the clip the is pretty much a visual representation of what I’d expect the Melbourne duo’s world to be like! Weird, huh?
‘Jona Vark’ single is taken from Gypsy And The Cat’s album ‘Gilgamesh’, out now.
The release of Anoraak’s ‘Crazy Eyes’ single has been a long time coming!
Valerie’s top ElectroPop producer finally drops the third single from his awesome ‘Wherever The Sun Sets’ album. Alongside a nice looking reMix package he lets loose this Disco version of his own. Anoraak will always be here to see in the long, dreamy, nights as we start to hit some warmer weather and ‘Crazy Eyes’ defiantly does the trick. Slick, laidback ElectroPop with a Dreamwave feel from one of the pioneers of the genre.
You really could be looking at the ‘next big thing’ here.
Quirky ElectroPop act AlunaGeorge have all the qualities needed to see them in a double page spread in NEM in six months time. Deep Electronic music that takes queues from Indie, BedroomPop, Electro & Dubstep perfectly compliments some of the sweetest vocals you’ve heard in a while. On first listen their forthcoming double A-side 7” ‘Analyser’/’We Are Chosen’ comes across like Crystal Castles, but without all that tedious shouting and some actual songs. That may seem a strange comparison to make after hearing AlunaGeorge, but the duo have the same kind of edge, and could be massive with the same kind of crowd, but with the added bonus of having songs you can actually sing along to.
Both ‘Analyser’, an Indie-ElectroPop track awash with 16-bit sounds and the deep Garagey ‘We Are Chosen’ show the duo have a diverse repertoire of electronic music to draw from while remaining uniquely AlunaGeorge sounding. We’re going to hearing a lot more from these two in the coming year.
‘Analyser’/’We Are Chosen’ is released on limited edition white 7” and digital on 18th April. Until then, be the first of your friends to ‘like’ AlunaGeorge on Facebook, then in six months time cash those cred chips in!
It’s gotta’ be said, both The Human League and OMD are really upping their game in terms of their choices of reMix artists for their recent singles. Gone is their vague, yet uneducated, nod to modern electronic music to be replaced by a real insight into what is happening on ElectroPop friendly dancefloors these days.
Case in point; Krystal Klear’s reMix of OMD’s new single, ‘History Of Modern’ is a straight-up dancefloor Nu-Disco jam awash with New Jack Swing vibes. Dropping a deep jacking bass, vocoded vocals and huge 80’s Disco chords seems so far away from OMD’s SynthPop sound yet works so well.
electronic rumors 