Mr. Jordan F has been quite quiet for a while now, but the man; one of our favourite Australian producers, hasn’t been sitting on his hands. He;s been hard at work on a new EP that’s due out later this year. In advance of that release, he’s dropping a new single this week, Falling Like Diamonds, featuring the vocals of fellow Australian songstress Rromarin, of Melbourne’s Deja.
A sweeping synthesizer epic, Falling Like Diamonds. Although many of Jordan’s reMixes over the past couple of years have taken an experimental approach to electronic music, breaking the chains of his SynthWave roots, this new single is pure 80s bliss. Vintage drum machine dance beats, old school synths layered thick and that crystal clear production that Mr. F is so good at. Rromarin’s chilly vocals cut through the mix like a knife, her ethereal tones flowing through the track and adding depth to the sound. And exciting return to retro electro for Jordan F, and an exciting taste for his forthcoming Freefall EP.
Released this week is the new single from Mexican Nu-Disco producer Future Feelings. The Simøne featuring Right There is double A-sided with The Disco Feeling and comes equipped with a whole host of reMixes. Including this one, from one of our favourite Brooklyn producers, Aimes.
Aimes keeps things deep and Cosmically funky on this one. He creates a sense of space, despite the tight punch of the track. Layered with Sci-Fi snyths and flourishes set amidst the driving Disco backing Aimes’ reMix delivers something for both the feet and the mind. Prepare for five minutes of galactic grooves and spacey vocals.
♫ Future Feelings (Feat. Simøne) – Right There (Aimes reMix)
Future Feelings’ Right There/The Disco Feeling is released 20th November.
Dreamwave heroes Futurecop!’s new tune, featuring retro ElectroPop’s man of the moment Patrick Baker on vocals, starts off sounding like Shiny Toy Guns. It’s doesn’t keep sounding like Shiny Toy Guns, but those opening few bars are enough to hook you in to this massive ElectroPop epic.
In fact, there’s a lot about Living In A Daydream that throwsback to that certain crop of early-to-mid 2000’s electronic Emo bands, but with added big room synths and Progressive House sensibilities. Big leads and rousing pads fill the track to bursting point while Baker eschews his usual soulful vocal take for something a little more energetic and Poppy. The end result is fun, youthful, slightly nostalgic, but utterly optimistic. Power ElectroPop at it’s finest.
♫ Futurecop! (Feat. Patrick Baker) – Living In A Daydream
Futurecop!’s new album, Hopes, Dreams & Alienation is released 31st August.
We tend not to make much of a secret round these parts that Russia Dreamwave ElectroPoppers Tesla Boy are amongst our favourite acts around today. From first discovering them deep in the Outrun community on MySpace they always struck a chord with us, combining out then newfound excitement in this (then) new breed of retro cool SynthWave and out love of vocal SynthPop.
After showing us all what they could do with a killer EP, their début album, Modern Thrills, cemented their reputation for being on of the most talented bands around, whether on the Disco, ElectroPop or SynthWave scene, combining all three styles into one form as catchy and Poppy as it was dancefloor friendly. Inspiring an army of Russian SynthWave acts and kicking off the Russian retro scene, Tesla Boy also brought their brand of vintage DiscoPop to the world on their own terms.
Massively successful in their homeland, with the release of the sophomore album, The Universe Made Of Darkness, Tesla Boy are widening their international appeal with a string of high profile US shows and collaborations with the coolest of House music cats. Tesla Boy head honcho Anton Sevidov to a little time out of their promotional schedule to chat with us about where Tesla Boy came from, where it is and where it’s going.
ER: Let’s take it right back to the beginning. We first became aware of Tesla Boy back in the 2009 MySpace days and your first EP, just prior to being picked up by Mullet Records, what had led you to that point? Had you been in bands before? What attracted you to your retro synth sound?
TB: I have been engaged in music all my life, starting as a jazz pianist. When I was 15, I brought together my first band, and it was so-called acid-jazz, the kind of music we played at that time. Further electronic music carried me away and I arrived at understanding that I really like the 80s sound very much. I began to style my songs in this manner. And next thing what happened – the public was ready to love it.
ER: Speaking of MySpace, the whole Dreamwave and Nu-Disco thing really took off there, do you feel like the social network was a big help to kick starting your career.
TB: Exactly, I really think that social networks made us well-known.
♫ Tesla Boy – Fantasy
ER: And now, you’ve just released your second album, The Universe Made Of Darkness, which had widened your international appeal. How are you feeling now that the album is out in the wild? Were you nervous about “the difficult second album” syndrome?
TB: I thought of the second album syndrome when we started our first tour. I was under the impression that everything is cool – everybody loved our music. At the same time I started to write new songs. And when everything was almost ready I said to myself – Stop it! What about the second album syndrome? You cannot just record it! And I was forced to rewrite it.
ER: We can hear a bit of an evolution of your sound in the second album. How has the way you write changed in the 3 years since Modern Thrills?
TB: I really wanted to add this sensation of a live concert. I did my best to work from my feelings, doing what I really love to do, without paying attention to the style.
ER: Were your influences for this record different from Modern Thrills? (A little more 90s perhaps?)
TB: That was the time of great change worldwide. In 1991 our state split, and freedom was the choice of the time. It was euphoric and painful at the same time. Change is always painful, although necessary. Those were my thoughts when I was writing 1991.
ER: There’s a couple of collaborations on The Universe Made Of Darkness. With Tyson and Fritz Helder From Azari & III. How did these come about and was there anyone you wanted to work with but it didn’t happen?
TB: I met Fritz when Azari & III came to Moscow. At this time it occurred to us to make a track together.
It was Martin who introduced me to Tyson. Marin also worked on his album.
I really would like to work with Erol Alkan. And write a track with Michael McDonald.
♫ Tesla Boy (Feat.Tyson) – Broken Doll
ER: How hook up with Martin Dubkka, your co-producer for the new album?
TB: Martin is a very good musician and our tastes are similar. I really love his style – he is not imposing al all, I like his ideas, and I am happy with our collaboration.
ER: You’ve been playing live a lot in the US recently, how does playing in America compare to playing in Russia? Are the crowds very different?
TB: To tell the truth, there is almost no difference. Probably, it is because the young people is our audience, who look very much alike and similar in different countries. Serbians and Mexicans stand out most of all – they are very hot.
ER: If you were to take us on a night out in Moscow, where would we go? What are the highlights of the Moscow scene?
Strelka-bar, La Boule, Simachev, La Lubanka, The Museum Of KGB, Butirka.
ER: We feature tons of Russian artists on Electronic Rumors (Hot Hot Hawk, 7he Myriads, Serj V, Cosmonaut Grechko, 5 Reasons, Lovinski, Quasars, Sohight & Cheevy, DZA etc…) what is it, do you think, that attracts so many Russian producers to the retro synth sound, and what is it that makes them so good at it (because they really are!)
TB: The Russians are a nation with a very good ear for music. Our heritage is huge – Tchaikovsky, Rakhmaninov, Borodin, Prokofiev. Their music possesses melodic beauty. This probably relates it to the sound of 80s. This background might produce this kind of effect.
♫ Tesla Boy – Another Light
ER: So what’s in Tesla Boys studio? Especially in terms of Synths and outboard gear.
The latest EP coming out of Yuksek’s Partyfine label comes from French producer Crayon, which is just confusing. So, we get that he appears to now have properly dropped the ‘Le’ from his name (as in, no longer ‘Le Crayon’), but I think they forgot to tell loads of people because this very new release is still listed in some stores (hello, Juno!) as being by. Le Crayon. If we were Crayons management we would have very much advised against the name change, it’s becoming a bit of a mess, but we guess he had his reasons and they are his own.
Anyway, on to the EP. So, we’ve got two luscious House tunes by the names of Downgraders and To The Moon, both decadently deep and both all too short along side the EP’s main even, Give You Up. Featuring Australian singer, Chookie Music’s awesome KLP lending a swoosh of 80s Electronic Soul vocal stylings, Give You Up is a blissful slice of Disco tinged retro Pop. With a rolling synth bassline and shimmering keys flowing onto, Give You Up, calls to mind the charts of ‘86/’87 and that breezy Pop R&B vibe (before R&B got into an abusive relationship with Hip Hop). Catchy as hell, there no way you can’t love this tune. The EP also crams in two fine reMixes from Yuksek himself, and reMixes from Blende and Darius, A flavour of Disco for every occasion.
We always love it so much when two of our favourite artists, and one who we though would never be working together, end up releasing something. It’s gotta be said, left-field ElectroPop princess Charli XCX seriously knows how to pick her reMixers, Goldroom, Lindstrøm, St. Lucia now dark futurist master Com Truise, who lends his Terminator synth work to Charli’s current single, What I Like, from her pretty awesome début album True Romance.
Truise applies his retro Sci-Fi synths to What I Like, completely flipping the mood of the track until it reeks of dystopian romance. Swirling BladeRunner synths and vintage drum machine beats rise and fall amongst soaring leads and Charli’s whimsical vocal. Com Truise’s music has a certain seriousness to it, which counterpoints the XCX flippantness to create something entirely new. Great beats, great synths, great vocals. Great reMix.
We posted about French electronic act Nova Nova collaboration with New Order’s Peter Hook,Low Ends, back in February and it’s still one of our highlights of the year. We can;t wait to bust this one out in the summer.
Here’s the video, directed by Olivier Pelcat. Hooky only appears in stock footage form, but it;s still a good excuse to post the track again, ‘cos we love it.
Nova Nova & Peter Hook’s Low Ends is out now with reMixes from Thierry Criscione and Slabb (Relax Beat).
French electronica act Nova Nova are gearing up for the release of their new single, Low Ends. Released in April, the track is a collaboration with legendary bassist Peter Hook from New Order. That’s right, I said “from New Order”, because no matter what beef Sumner has, or Hook has, New Order without Hooky really isn’t New Order. Believe me, I saw them last summer, they were good, but not New Order. Also, Sumner’s a hypocrite…but whatever. Anyway, this new track from Nova Nova & Peter Hook has a long and strangely fortuitous history, which we are not even going to try to paraphrase, here’s the twisting tale copy and pasted straight from the press release: “In 2002, Malcolm McLaren – the Sex Pistols’ former manager and a great admirer of French culture – had been living in Paris for several years. He was looking for a producer for his new solo album called Diorama, which was to be released by Tommy Boy Records as a follow-up to his 1994 album Paris. Swiss DJ Stephan Grieder – manager of Svek Records in Sweden – brought McLaren to the Relax Beat offices, an indie label managed by French electronic music artist Thierry Criscione. The latter was then working on a “chip” music album, made with vintage 8-bit Nintendo Game Boys. Enthralled by the new lo-tech underground scene and their DIY approach based on détournement, McLaren hired Criscione as the producer of his next record and soon everybody was working at the Relax Beat studios in Ivry-sur-Seine (a southern extension of Paris’ Chinese district). McLaren wrote an article called ‘8-Bit Punk’ in American magazine Wired, in which he enthused about the blooming chip music genre that Relax Beat was actively developing with such releases as the Boy Playground compilation, Koro Osanago’s Mini-Click EP and Slabb’s Instead EP. As the album’s recording took place in Ivry, Malcolm McLaren decided to get in touch with his old friend Tony Wilson, the well-known founder of Factory Records, as he wished to use the lead vocals from Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ in a new track called ‘Love Will’. Once the tapes had been received from Britannia Row Studios in England, Thierry Criscione asked his friend Marc Durif from the French electronica bandNova Nova to finalize the track’s production. The mix went to Stephen Hague, a long-time McLaren’s collaborator and the producer of a few New Order’s classics from the 80’s. Happy with the resulting song, Tony Wilson gave a copy to Peter Hook – the famously inimitable bass player of Joy Division and New Order. When Marc Durif heard that Peter Hook had included the track in his own DJ sets, he sent him an acoustic piano arrangement of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ he had done using the full Ian Curtis acappella, and a relationship developed between Marc and Peter. Marc having composed a new song asked Peter Hook if he would play bass and Peter agreed to play bass on that still un-named track which was to become Low Ends.” Phew!
On to the track itself. If you’re like us you find Hooky’s bass playing pretty intoxicating. The man combines melody and bass groove in one instantly recognisable, and pretty nostalgic if you grew up with it, sound. Imagine that rolling over a shuffling Disco beat and sweet, icy strings. The tracks got a real 70s Disco flavour that seems like it would be a head on collision with the dancey, but pretty post-punk bass, but it doesn’t. Both elements work together to create this blissful sunrise vibe, and when the diamond sharp lead synths and dramatic piano kick in, the track hits just the right emotional notes. Pretty amazing, we’re gonna’ be saving this one for the summer.
♫ Nova Nova & Peter Hook – Low Ends (Edit)
Nova Nova & Peter Hook’s Low Ends is released 9th April with reMixes from Thierry Criscione and Slabb (Relax Beat).
electronic rumors 