electronic rumors

♫ Cut Slack (Feat. Thunder & Co.) – Lana

Apr 17 2012

Cut Slack’s new EP

cut slack

The new Cut Slack EP is here! This Portuguese producer is someone we’ve been keeping close tabs on ever since he entered one of the standout mixes in Fear Of Tigers’ The Adventured Of Pippi Longstrump’ reMix competition. He’s got a slick, rich, SynthWave style that really appeals to us. Cinematic and rousing, his tunes notable kill. And his new EP is absolutely free.

This self titled collection sees Cut Slack mixing in a little Disco and a little 80’s guitar into his retro synth sound. The opener, ‘Daybreak’, is about as good as SynthWave gets, it’s a big powerful into that sets you up for a EP’s worth of synth nostalgia with a rock attitude. After the Nu-Disco and guitar solos of ‘T.M.H.S.R’, ‘Never Let You Down’ is a low down dirty Disco tune that exemplifies Cut Slacks style. a sexy Dancefloor groove with guitar shredding over the top, a strange combination maybe, but one that works so well and sounds like the soundtrack to the best buddy cop movie. ‘Lana’ brings the smooth with rolling vocoded vocals and lush electric piano. It’s summery vibe is a nice, chilled, middle point to the EP. A sunset respite before the party rap of ‘Move To The Beat’. For a first EP, Cut Slack has done an amazing job, at a brilliant price. This EP deserves your attention.

♫ Cut Slack – Daybreak

♫ Cut Slack – Never Let You Down

The ‘Cut Slack’ EP is out now, you can download it here.

Check out more from Cut Slack on SoundCloud.

♫ Radio INK – Who We Are Tonight (Muffin reMix)

Radio INK + Muffin + Rogue Vogue

Radio Ink

When Australian ElectroPoppers Radio INK returned to our consciousnesses in February with their with their ‘Who We Are Tonight’ single we welcomed them back with open arms. A massive comeback single for a band who get massive ElectroPop just right. Uplifting sing-a-long brilliance. Now they are doubling the excitement by dropping a reMix package and bringing some awesome talent with them.

Fellow Aussie Muffin is no stranger to reMixing Radio INK, but he released so rarely that we eagerly consume anything he puts out. The man is a Dreamwave genius who, with his version of the track, effortlessly merges the rich ElectroPop of Radio INK with with his own retro powerhouse. Perhaps more Poppy than Muffin productions we are used to, but this is no bad thing. Muffin brings an almost The Sound Of Arrows quality to the track in it’s pure euphoria, and when the solo kicks in, it’s enough to make a grown man weep with joy. Rogue Vogue take a deeper road with the track. First heard on The Magicians last Magic Tape, Rogue Vogue’s reMix is deep early ‘90’s House. The Sound of Chicago completely changes the cut-up vocals into a smooth jackin’ monster.

♫ Radio INK – Who We Are Tonight (Rogue Vogue reMix)

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Walter Sobcek’s ‘Hollywood Cries’ video

Walter Sobcek have just put together a video for the track ‘Hollywood Cries’, taken from their awesome ‘Miami’ EP of last year.

The B-side to the title track of the EP, ‘Hollywood Cries’ was no less impressive slick Dreamwave. Lazy La nights brilliance with a passing nod to Bronski Beat. The video, a homage to lives crushed by the Hollywood meat grinder is pretty brutal viewing.

Buy Walter Sobcek’s music from:

Punks Jump Up & Chromeo’s Dave 1 with Oliver & Mickey

Punks Jump Up

The new Punks Jump Up single, ‘Mr. Overtime’, as I’m sure you’ll have heard by now, is a blinding slice of DiscoPop featuring the dulcet tones of none other than Chromeo’s Dave 1, doing a little overtime himself we see. I think we can pretty much all agree that Chromeo are probably the best band in the world working today, and if you don’t agree see them live and come back to me. Whilst Dave lending his production chops isn’t that rare, hearing his voice on a non-Chromeo record is something particularly interesting.

So, can ‘Mr. Overtime’ live up to the be the sum of it’s parts. Why yes, yes it can! Slick and Funktastic with a slightly dark edge to it, the track comes with a package featuring some of the best reMix talent around. Alongside Gigamesh we get the almighty double Oliver combo of Oliver who layer on thick vocoding and the kind of sliding synth bass that you can get totally lost ing. Oliver’s awesome mix of LA Dreamwave with a French Touch flavour is simply perfect for this tune. It still sounds slightly edgy, but the squelchy Electro Funk riffs are going to slay whatever dancefloor it drops on. A man like Mickey is up next, bringing with him the essence of late ‘80’s discotheques. With a retro good-times bassline that seems to compliment Dave 1’s vocals Mickey starts to bring in a Tropical flavour, but with a twist. This is’80’s Tropical grooves. All the palm trees are inflatable here! A stunning, and highly recommended single that we’re going to be hearing a lot from this summer.

♫ Punks Jump Up (Feat. Dave 1) – Mr. Overtime (Oliver reMix)

♫ Punks Jump Up (Feat. Dave 1) – Mr. Overtime (Mickey reMix)

‘Mr. Overtime’ is released 30th April on Moda.

Buy Punks Jump Up’s music from:

Tommy’s new EP

tommy

Released this weekend was the new EP from French SynthWaver Tommy. Tommy has slowly been building up a strong reputation in SynthWave circles for pumping Italo influenced tracks with soaring solos and this new EP, titled ‘Tuned Into The Future’, is crammed full of space-age synthesizer heaven. Six tracks to lift your emotions and move your feet.

The whole of ‘Tuned Into The Future’ plays like a complete soundtrack, a full narrative, both thematically and musically. Each track seems to capture a section of a story unfolding and gently ease you into the next. From the intro track, ‘Highway Heat’, whose driven Electro beats and cosmic Vangelis-esque lead lines set you up for the coming EP experience to the gentle synthesized ebb and flow of ‘Plage Bleue’, each peice is quite separate, yet feels part of a whole. this is an EP that should be experienced, on headphones, from start to finish. As the tone shifts from the contemplative ‘Endless Desolation’ to the energized soundtrack of ‘A Town In Chaos’ you, as the listener, just tend to go with it, allowing your emotional journey to be led by Tommy’s expressive playing. It’s difficult to single out individual tracks within the ‘Tuned Into The Future’ EP, suffice to say the EP ends on the title track, which is a majestic synth epic that really sees the collection off on a high.

♫ Tommy – Highway Heat

♫ Tommy – A Town In Chaos

♫ Tommy – Plage Bleue

♫ Tommy – Tuned Into The Future

Tommy’s ‘Tuned Into The Future’ EP is out now.

Buy Tommy’s music from:

SaiR’s ‘Bright’

SaiR

It feels like ages since we heard anything from one of our favourite producers, Portugal’s SaiR, so it’s a good job he made his latest tune, ‘Bright’ an absolutely massive slab of synthesizer Funk.

Clocking in a six minutes, ‘Bright’ is a bit on an odyssey. An audio journey though blissed our Disco moods. SaiR really bring his A-game here in teams of musicality, the arrangement is intricately crafted here with various bass and lead lines weaving in and out of one another as SaiR channels a hint of Herbie Hancock and Moog Funk together with his own Dreamwave tinged Nu-Disco sound. Pure good-time summer vibes here, so grab your boom-box and take this track to the beach, if the weather is fine, if it’s not then just whack it on some headphones, close your eyes and be transported to somewhere sweeter.

♫ SaiR – Bright

Buy Sair’s music from:

Alpha Boy’s new album

alpha boy

I think it is fair to say the Berlin’s Alpha Boy has grown up in these very pages. He first sent us his demo track back in November 2010, where Norman’s love of synthesizer music, the ‘80’s and video games came across in every beat. Since then we’ve seen him evolve and grow more confident in his craft, seen releases on some of the scene’s coolest labels, and a constant output that boarders on the prolific. Each release stronger than the last.

Now Alpha Boy is gearing up for to drop his second full length record, titled ‘Blockbuster’. In part a collection of tracks from his almost factory like output in the last year, in part new tracks, all soundtrack influenced SynthWave that is always rich and emotionally resonant. ‘Follow Me’ is as good an atmospheric intro as it was on the ‘Follow Me’ EP and paves the way for a voyage though synthesizer moods, sweeping form high energy, post-Italo juggernauts such as the familiar ‘Lightstorm’ (Alpha Boy’s Homage to the TV show Life On Mars) to quieter, more mood inducing peices, as with ‘You Are My’, with effortless ease. If you’re at all familiar with Alpha Boy’s previous work you might notice that ‘Blockbuster’ almost moves away from the SynthWave/Outrun sound and more towards a new vision of SynthPop. In-fact, there are tracks on the album, like the Jan Hammer-esque ‘Magic Of Sound’ and ‘It Was All A Dream’ that almost sound like instrumental versions of vocal tracks, as does the Italo dancefloor gold of ‘As They Do On Your Mind’. Fellow SynthWavers Noir Deco and Jowie Schulner make appearances on the album and bring their distinctive styles to the tracks they collaborate on, the former lending a dark moodiness to ‘Abyss’ and Schuler and Alpha Boys collaboration being the huge soaring Dreamwave we’d expect. Alpha Boy’s ‘Blockbuster’ is a damn impressive second album, it sees a maturity of sound, a moving beyond his roots into new ElectroPop areas whist maintaining the ‘80’s soundtrack influenced Electro theme that had defined his career. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but it’ll be exciting to find out.

♫ Alpha Boy – Cassiopeia

♫ Alpha Boy (Feat. Jowie Schulner) – Lost In Space

♫ Alpha Boy – It Was All A Dream

♫ Alpha Boy – Follow Me

‘Blockbuster’ is released 10th April at Alpha Boy’s Bandcamp.

Buy Alpha Boy’s music from:

Futurecop!’s ‘Starworshipper’ video

At the end of last week we gave you a listen to Futurecop! new, and actually first, single. The Diana Gen and Starrset featuring ‘Starworshipper’.

Well, get your eyes around the video to. There’s a lot of Futurecop! clips on YouTube, but this is their first, official, especially filmed promo and director AJ Jackson does a really good job of capturing the essence of Futurecop!’s youthful, optimistic ethos.

‘Starworshipper’ is released 24th April on Keiz Beats.

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