Today HURTS premiered their brand new video for the upcoming third single from their début album, ‘Happiness’
The ‘Stay’ (an excellent choice for a single BTW!) video is a beautifully shot Bergman-esq clip that features some stunning landscapes.
I sincerely hope those barefooted dancers has some kind of mat to dance on ‘cos that looks like some nasty sharp volcanic rock!
‘Stay’ is released 15th November, the album ‘Happiness’ is out now.
OK, we gave you a taster of Echoes last week with their ‘Ice Cold’ video, now we reckon the time has come to drop some of their music on you lot.
I’ve got no problem saying straight away that I’m pretty exited about this London based ElectroPop duo, the guys inform me that this is an exclusive, electronic rumors are the first (I expect, of many) blog to pick up on them, I hope they’ll remember us when they are famous!
The two friends got together to make music in November of 2009 and have spend the last 10 months in secret working on their craft the fruits of which are now starting to see the light. Shrouding themselves in mystery (for the time being), Echoes say they want the music to speak for itself and man, does it!
They’ve only released one original track so far, ‘Ice Cold’, and it’ll have you hooked. It’s quite a contradictory tune, awash with the melancholy of the traditional SynthPop of Depeche Mode and Ultravox et al, yet with the upbeat production of the best contemporary Electro. I want to say it’s a like a darker Dreamwave but I’m loathe to use the word Dark here, or sombre, or even gloomy because the track is too uplifting and, indeed, powerful. I suppose you could compare them to HURTS, not so much musically but in the sense that they make the pensive seem fun and danceable! Whatever they’ve done it’s they’ve nailed it. The track is, from a production point of view, some of the best ElectroPop that has crossed our path in a while.
Check out ‘Ice Cold’:
Right, on to the reMixes. I was gonna’ choose one, or two mixes to post here but I really couldn’t choose between them. I’d very loosely call all three Nu-Disco, but each displaying different styles and influences. And all three are of some of electronic rumors favourite artists too! Our Bristol gal Florrie’s ‘You Wanna’ Start Something’ gets a full on Piano driven Pop workout while they drop one of the best reMixes of The Good Natured, managing to turn it into an 8 minute hypnotic dancefloor epic without ruining the actual song (which some of the other reMixes kinda’ did). Finally Canadian keytar goddess LIGHTS’ ‘Second Go’ gets a proper Nu-Disco (in a Russ Chimes piano breakdown stylee) makeover with completely addictive results, reMix wise this is where Echoes truly shine.
Enjoy:
♫ Florrie – You Wanna’ Start Something (Echoes reMix)
♫ The Good Natured – Your Body Is a Machine (Echoes reMix)
♫ LIGHTS – Second Go (Echoes reMix)
We wait with baited breath for more from Echoes, until then I suggest you give them some of your hard earned MySpace love.
Brighton based Indie-SynthPop act Mirrors have premiered the video for their new single ‘Hide And Seek’.
Directed by Simon Pollard, he who directed their previous video ‘Ways To An End’ and features some touching but melancholy stop motion animation.
The ‘Hide And Seek’ single is taken from their forthcoming debut album ‘Lights & Offerings’ which is due out in February 2011.
LectroLips are British duo Leo and Ant who revel in their love of ‘80’s synthesizer music.
It’s not all ElectroPop though, their début EP, ‘Exempt From Classification’s, opening track shows a massive nod to ‘80’s electronic funk and sets their EP up for a quite diverse journey through retro electronic Pop. ‘This Recorded Sound’ is a boarderline Modern SynthPop track but with more funk going on and and injection of ‘90’s dance production and ‘Ordinary Conversation’ is pure dancefloor slickness, throw that on in a club and even the most adamant wall sticker is gonna’ have to bust out his moves.
♫ LectroLips – This Record Sound
♫ LectroLips – Ordinary Conversation
All-in-all, LectroLips EP is a confident meeting of ElectroPop, Pop and Electro-Funk. The duo defiantly have a clear musical vision, unapologetically Pop and unapologetically synth funk and we here can’t wait to hear more.
On a website about, let’s face it, a lot of 80’s influenced music to say a band sounds really 80’s seems a bit moot, but Brooklyn’s Selebrities sound really 80’s!
And I don’t mean in a Dreamwave, 80’s soundtrack, way, more in the back of a dingy SynthPop/Goth club way. From the sweeping analog synth sounds to the Peter Hook inspired bass to the boarderline Siouxsie Sioux vocals this is real Post-Punk synth synth. Saying that though, it also manages to be poppy as hell, setting it apart from the similarly influenced Coldwave/Minimal Synth sound.
The track ‘Audition’ from their début EP, ‘Ladies Man Effect’, is a perfect example of how they inject a touch of glamour and catchiness into, what is, quite a dark sound.
The ‘Ladies Man Effect’ EP is out now as a free download from Cascine.
Seattle band Jupe Jupe are looking forward to the release of their début album ‘Invaders’ in October.
The track they dropped of in the electronic rumors Inbox, Something About Love’ is a, slightly Indie influenced, traditional SynthPop jam. It’s the kind of Depeche Mode influences you’d expect from Modern SynthPop but has more of a individual vibe with it’s nice 80’s-esq lead line which plays off the jangly guitars.
♫ Jupe Jupe – Something About Love
‘Invaders’ is released 5th October.
As you know, Où Est Le Swimming Pool have decided to go ahead with he release of their début album, ‘The Golden Year’, after the untimely and sad death of lead singer Charles Haddon.
The lead-in single for the album will be ‘The Key’, the video for which has premiered over on their YouTube channel. Filmed during their performance at Pukklepop in Belgium mere hours before Charlie took his own life the video is a tragic reminder of the great heights this band could have soared to, they were easily well on their way to becomes the best male fronted SynthPop act in the UK.
‘The Key’ is out 10th October preceded by the album on the 3rd.
Oú Est Le Swimming Pool @ Beatport
Oú Est Le Swimming Pool @ Juno
Oú Est Le Swimming Pool @ 7Digital
Oú Est Le Swimming Pool @ Amazon
Van She’s resident ElectroPoping bassist Matt Van Schie has put together a video for his track ‘Two Love’.
‘Two Love’ is one of the more Van She-esq offerings from his solo ‘Balmy Nights’ EP and he’s make this video using chunks of Dario Argento’s 1977 classic horror flick Suspiria.
Check out the rest of the videos he’s made for the EP tracks on his YouTube channel.
‘Two Love’ is taken from the ‘Balmy Nights’ Ep, out now.
The almighty Alphaville are back with a new single and album! Next month sees the German SynthPop pioneers releasing their first studio work for 7 years. Now down to just frontman and foundering member Marian Gold, Alphaville have been a staple of the SynthPop scene since ‘84’s chart monsters ‘Big In Japan’ and ‘Forever Young’.
The problem, really, with the comeback material is Gold’s choice of collaborators. The lead single ‘I’d Die For You Today’ is actually an excellent song but the production, by Sebastian Komor (formerly of EBM/FuturePop outfit Icon Of Coil and several small projects since IoC’s demise), sounds so dated and stagnant. At the height of FuturePop’s success, in the late 90’s/early 2000’s this would have gone down a treat, but here in 2010 it just sounds almost musically naive, which is a shame as it hampers an otherwise excellent song. You have to wonder with Alphaville being so influential, and acclaimed, there must be countless contemporary and relevant acts who would kill to work with Marian Gold, why they went in this direction?
Anyhoo, the reMix package is also an odd crop of rather samey sounding old trance artists, this reMix by euphoric stalwarts Blank & Jones shows off song best, it’s a tiny bit cheesy trance, but mostly a nice 80’s leaning ElectroPop track with an epic feel that really supports the song, on multiple listens its really quite good, worth picking up the single for!
♫ Alphaville – I Die For You Today (Blank & Jones So 80’s Extended Mix)
‘I Die For You Today’ and Alphaville’s forthcoming new album are due out in October, until then you could do a hell of a lot worse than checking out their awesome back catalogue.
UK Indie outfit Chapel Club are celebrating the release of their next single ‘All The Eastern Girls’ by giving away this reMix by Breton.
Breton turns the track into a full-on synth stomper yet preserves the vocals which should make a combination appealing to readers of this site. The retention of the, almost crooning, Indie vocals over some furious synth work results in quite a unique slice of SynthPop.
♫ Chapel Club – All The Eastern Girls (Breton reMix)
‘All The eastern Girls’ is due out October 11th.
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