Feb 12 2013

[Audio] Viceroy reMixed by Wax Motif

viceroy_thumb1

San Francisco’s master of the Disco, Viceroy, and Chela’s Dream Of Bombay turned out to be one of the surprises of the year so far. An amazing summery vocal Nu-Disco tune that’s going to get a lot of play in the coming months, not least because there’s a host of reMixes on the way, the first coming from LA producer Wax Motif.

Wax Motif’s take on Dream Of Bombay is a huge, uplifting floorfiller. Proper main room stuff, the reMix keeps the vocal intact but swaps the summery, Dreamwavey, Disco for pounding dancefloor sounds. Pumping synth bass and frantic undulating leads whisk themselves around the track, awaiting the massive hook. This one is all about big beats, big synths and big builds, and it all works perfectly with the song. Hands in the air time.

♫ Viceroy (Feat. Chella) – Dream Of Bombay (Wax Motif reMix)

Viceroy (Feat. Chella)’s Dream Of Bombay is out now.

Buy Viceroy’s music from:

Feb 12 2013

[Mixtape] Follow Me’s ‘Winter 2013’ mixtape

Follow Me

Follow Me – Winter 2013 = Ready for some beautiful, and sometimes funky, synthesizer love? Follow Me’s new mixtape captures the winter mood perfectly with piercing synth tune throughout, accompanied by warming Disco tunes.

♫ Follow Me – Winter 2013

The tracklist:

01. Mille – Shitstorm
02. The Killers – Runaways (RAC reMix)
03. Joey Chicago – It’s You
04. Lessovsky – Cherish Any Time (Monitor 66 reMix)
05. Benoit & Sergio – Bridge So Far
06. Erkka – Excommunication
07. Marco Darko + Mykel Haze – Computer Love
08. Sonny Fodera – All The Things
09. Moon Boots – No One
10. Follow Me – ???
11. Pool – Flex (Aeroplane reMix)
12. Millennium – ICU
13. Jesse Ware – Sweet Talk (Cyril Hahn reMix)
17. Miguel Campbell – Dedicated Music

Buy Follow Me ’s music from:

    

Feb 12 2013

[Audio] Classixx’s ‘Holding On’

classixx

Classixx are back! An unexpected, but most welcome turn of events. Not only are this LA Disco duo back with a new single, but they’ve also just announced their début album. To be released mid-March, the album, titled Hanging Gardens, with hold twelve tracks of laid back funky goodness including one or two favourites, such as Far From The Beach. Holding On is the first (new) single to be taken from the album.

The track is a lush beach groove. It’s everything you’d expect from LA Disco. Keen ears may recognise the track from a particularly old edition of The Magician’s Magic Tapes, where an early form of the track was featured. Holding On is sunshine in musical form. Tropical keys and rolling Disco basslines build up a no-worries party mood that’s paves the way for big vintage strings and an infectious vocal sample. Definitely one for pool parties.

♫ Classixx – Holding On

Classixx’s Holding On is released 19th  February with remixes by Lifelike and Jerome LOL amongst others with their album following 14th March.

Buy Classixx’s music from:

      

Feb 12 2013

[Video] Goin’ Old School: Kraftwerk & Laid Back

Goin’ Old School isn’t a trip down music memory lane, it’s a mugging in the dark alleyway of nostalgia:

In honour of Kraftwerk’s Tate Modern series of shows, which we completely failed to get tickets for, here’s 1986’s Musique Non Stop.

And classic 1983 SynthPop from Germany’s Laid Back and White Horse.

You can buy most of this  music from:

 

Feb 12 2013

[Audio] Ajello’s ‘Kalimba Tune’

Ajello

Out at the end if this month on Ruben & Ra’s Retrospective imprint is an ecclectic slice of Disco and House in the form of the Kalimba Tune single, the latest offering from DJ Rocca and Fabrizio Taver Tavernelli’s Ajello project. If you’re looking for something a little different to get your butt shaking, then you may have come to the right place, the Kalimba Tune serves up a fresh, ethnic instrument driven, take on Disco-House.

Kalimba Tune itself, the single’s lead track, is a big ol’ melting bot, into which Ajello a little late 80s Acid House, a little Cosmic Disco, a hint of Italo and mixes it all up with some smooth Tropical sounds as a garnish. The the whole affair is given a world Music feel with some beautiful (apparently) Sub-Saharan thumb piano. This track could be huge over the summer on the festival circuit, it’s got just the right left-field Disco attitude. The B-side, Saturday Morning, is a warping, cheeky, slice of Cosmic Disco with a bit of a Scandinavian feel. An analog synth workout, Ajello drop what sounds like a live Disco jam. you can just imagine them rocking around banks of wooden ended analog snyths, slipping bubbling LFO’ed sounds in and out of the track. Of course, amongst the single myriad reMixes comes a groovy little tune from Ruben & Ra themselves. The duo’s Cosmic Jam  version of Kalimba Tune turns the tune into a late night, laid back track for strictly the sexiest of dancefloors, loaded with added House piano and what sounds like added Q-Tip. Intelligent Disco at it’s finest.

♫ Ajello – Kalimba Tune

♫ Ajello – Saturday Morning

♫ Ajello – Saturday Morning (Ruben & Ra’s Cosmic Jam)

Ajello’s Kalimba Tune is released 25th February on 12” with the digital release following in March. it’ll feature reMixes from Hardway Bros, Chris Massey and Verdo too.

Buy Ajello’s music from:

       

Feb 11 2013

[Audio] Douglas J. McCarthy’s ‘Kill Your Friends’

Douglas J. McCarthy

It was released last November on CD and Vinyl, so it’s not exactly a new release, but it’s about to see a digital unleashing and it’s was on our playlist toward the end of 2012, so let’s have a little revisit with Kill Your Friends, the début solo album from one of our favourite artists of all time, Douglas J. McCarthy. Doug is, of course, one half of the legendary Nitzer Ebb, of whom we have been fans since we were crazy teens, having first seen them live in 1991. It’s not unconceivable to say that in some mirror universe where we didn’t discover Nitzer Ebb through Bong, the official Depeche Mode fanzine, that electronic rumors, the website, the record label, might not exist. They were, particularly the Showtime and Ebbhead albums, a massive influence.

That said, Douglas’ Kill Your Friends is actually a more satisfying record than Nitzer Ebb’s 2012 comeback album, Industrial Complex. Where Industrial Complex seems to be pandering to the expectations of black clad, stomping fans (something that Nitzer Ebb had never done, just look at Big Hit), Kill Your Friends feels like a much more personal and authentic affair. From the album’s opener, Death Is King, the album deliver what I would have like to hear from Nitzer Ebb, not trying to be Nitzer-Ebb-by-numbers, but producing something with real passion, and musically, making EBM for grown ups. Take The Last Time, one of the albums standouts. Fresh beats and shimmering stabs are paired with the expected synth growl allow McCarthy’s voice, probably one of the most recognisable in electronic music, to shine. And it’s his voice, the Essex-Americana drawl that made Nitzer Ebb so special, that ties the record together. Waxing lyrical on his favourite topics, control, religion, dysfunctional relationships, freedom, Douglas appears as a introspective co-pilot on a road trip through the seedy backstreets of electronic music. Backstreets that lead you through myriad influenced, from the Dubbed-out Evil Love to the Deep Acid House of Taken. Of course, the jackhammer EBM still rears it’s head in the form of All Kinds Of Wrong and Move On, both classic EBB, but on the whole Kill Your Friends is an album for everyone who grew up with, but grew out of, EBM. If you love Nitzer Ebb, but really can’t be bothered with distorted kick drums, arpeggios and shouting anymore then this is definitely the album for you.

♫ Douglas J. McCarthy – The Last Time

♫ Douglas J. McCarthy – Nothing After This

♫ Douglas J. McCarthy –  Death Is King

♫ Douglas J. McCarthy – Taken

Douglas J. McCarthy’s Kill Your Friends is out now on CD and Vinyl and released digitally 18th February.

Buy Douglas J. McCarthy’s music from:

    

Feb 11 2013

[Video] Pyramid’s ‘Wolf’

Here’s the video for French SynthWaver Pyramid’s awesome new single, Wolf, and epic slice of SynthWave brilliance.

The video was directed by Etienne Perrin and is an action packed romp loaded with Pyramid’s abstract logo.

Buy Pyramid’s music from:

Feb 11 2013

[Mixtape] Awkoder’s latest mixtape

Awkoder

Awkoder – Mixtape #2 = Our SynthWave friend Awkoder has just dropped his latest mixtape. It’s a whole hour of laid back Disco and retro beats to kick off your week with.

♫ Awkoder – Mixtape #2

The tracklist:

01. Chordashian – Illusion
02. Pool – Flex (Aeroplane reMix)
03. Sanza & Phunktastike – Locovox
04. Grizzly Bear – Gun Shy (Lindstrom reMix)
05. Strange Talk – Cast Away (Reflex reMix)
06. Lafayette – Mauvaise Mine (Jupiter reMix)
07. Bufi & La Royale – Paris
08. Charli XCX – You Ha Ha Ha (Goldroom reMix)
09. Plastic Plates (Feat. Simon Lord) – Things I Didn’t Know I Loved (Bufi reMix)
10. Shindu – Just Go (Reflex reMix)

Buy Awkoder’s music from:

Feb 11 2013

[Audio] Mitch Murder’s ‘Stages’

Mitch Murder

Swedish SynthWave master Mitch Murder is getting his groove on, his 80s groove, with his latest offering, Stages. We’re pretty steadily getting about a track a month from Mitch, it’s like being in some awesome music subscription club. We know he’s got a lot of cool stuff coming up, so we’re not sure how long the regular new track schedule will hold up, but for now let’s just enjoy.

Stages is a blindingly funky piece of soundtrack work. Remember how around 1985-86 everyone was rocking the fast-fingered digital basslines in American movies? Well this is that, done with style. The rapid-fire, percussive, FM bassline drives the track ever onward on a journey where the twisting leads feel like passengers. Chirping out their melodic narrative as they flow on top the bassline. Weaving just the right amount of Pop-Funk into his soundtrack style, Mitch delivers both a story, and a pretty infectious dancefloor track too. Also, nice bit of Macross artwork.

♫ Mitch Murder – Stages

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Feb 8 2013

[Zen] Synthesizer Zen

This week’s capsule of Synthesizer Zen, to carry you into the weekend, comes from a dude and his Moog Liberation, has a more beautiful synth ever been created?

Video courtesy of YouTube user peff .com.