Jul 3 2013

[Audio] The Swiss reMix Breakbot

OK, so we quite like Breakbot, the early singles were mind-blowingly good at the time, but his début album was a little samey, if solid nonetheless. His latest single from the album is You Should Know, which came out last week and contains reMixes from the likes of Busy P & Boston Bun, Homework, Le Family and this cut from Australian groovers The Swiss which, frankly, blows the original out of the water.

This time the laid back live Disco is replaced with a storming bassline rolling underneath a huge Disco House tune that’s all about Rukazoid’s vocals and the piano. A killer piano hook and a brain melting synth solo are dangerous weapons in the right hands, and The Swiss certainly weld them with skill. The intertwining piano/synth solo is the track highlight in a track that is the highlight of the single itself. The Swiss really made this one their own.

♫ Breakbot (Feat. Ruckazoid) – You Should Know (The Swiss reMix)

Breakbot’s You Should Know is out now.

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Jul 3 2013

[Video] Protest Crayon’s ‘Floorboards’

Here’s the video for Bristol SynthPop duo Protest Crayon’s current single, Floorboards. It’s a cute, emotive slice of striped back Bedroom Pop that’s a lot more epic that first impressions would have you believe.

The video was put together by Bristol based collective I’m With Them Productions and has a pretty good kid’s party vibe going on.

Protest Crayon’s Floorboards is released 8th July.

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Jul 3 2013

[Audio] Miles Prower’s ‘Outatime’

Bristolian SynthWave outfit Miles Prower are set to follow up on April’s Pneumatic EP with a new release in the coming months. The new EP is titled Outatime, which we can only hope is a Back To The Future reference, if not it should be, and the title track sees the Prowers once again teaming up with Substatic’s Colleen Quinn for a little vocal spice.

Miles Prower lay down a driving Italo, slightly EBM groove here, all flying arpeggios and a gritty dark future mood. As with a couple of the tracks on their début EP, there’s a slight Trance influence going on here too, it’s all very rousing hands-in-the-sir stuff. Helped in part by Colleen’s moody performance that breaks into epicness in the choruses. Boosted by a multi layered arrangement, both musically and vocally, this is probably Miles Prower’s biggest song to date. We’re intrigued to hear the rest of the EP.

♫ Miles Prower (Feat. Colleen Quinn) – Outatime

Miles Prower’s Outatime EP is out soon.

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Jul 3 2013

[MP3] Shiny Toy Guns reMixed by Gosteffects

OK, so this is full-on cheesy. Unintelligent, uninspired, lowest common denominator dance music. But there’s just something about it that’s pretty infectious. Sure it’s the same old arpeggiated mid-90s Trance leads and really obvious builds, but this reMix of Shiny Toy Guns’ excellent single Somewhere To Hide, from their album III, by New York producer Gosteffects won us over.

Gosteffects keeps a good level of excitement and works the vocals well to deliver a pretty epic dance track. It’s not the kind of thing that would usually be to our tastes (at least not since the early 00s) and is probably what uninformed Americans would call ‘EDM’, but we just can’t help but like it. Maybe it is the big builds, maybe it is the cheesy leads, maybe we’re just not a cynical as we used to be (yeah, right!), but this has us wishing we were dancing in a field with thousands of others. Switch off and enjoy.

♫ Shiny Toy Guns – Somewhere To Hide (Gosteffects reMix)

Shiny Toy Gun’s III is out now.

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Jul 3 2013

[Audio] Annie’s ‘Back Together’

Here’s the first taste we’ve had of Norwegian ElectroPop songstress Annie forthcoming new EP. Titled The A&R EP, the release is so-called because of the A standing for Annie and the R for Richard X, who is on production duties for these new five tracks. The EP follows Annie’s last single Tube Stops & Lonely Hearts and looks set to be a lot more upbeat.

Little Boots has mentioned that she co-wrote some of the EP with Annie and if we had to guess, we’d say Back Together might just be one of hers. From a vocal arrangement point of view, it’s very Hands-like, Little Boots in full-on Pop mode. It’s a massive slice of ElectroPop with a brilliant 90s House piano riff, in fact it’s got quite a general 90s House vibe to it all over, but with Annie huskily dragging it into a more Pop territory. We’re looking forward to hearing the rest of the EP.

♫ Annie – Back Together

Annie’s The A&R EP is out soon.

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Jul 2 2013

[MP3] Avec Sans’ ‘Hold On’ reMix

London based ElectroPop bright stars Avec Sans current single Hold On is continuing to get a fair amount of play round these parts. Now the single is out, the duo are throwing their own reMix of the track into the freebie ring so if you haven’t picked up the release yet you can grab a taste of what you’re missing.

Avec Sans obviously had a lot of fun reworking their own track, outside of the confines of typical Pop song structure they’re free to play around with rhythms, sounds and samples in a way that has you imagining them cracking their knuckles before diving into their own pallet of sound. If you know the original track (which you should by now!), you can expect to hear it chopped up and stuck back together with sticky tape from the London club scene. A little experimental, but still keeping the groove going.

♫ Avec Sans – Hold On (Avec Sans reMix)

Avec Sans’ Hold On is our now featuring reMixes from Avec Sans and VS//YOUTHCLUB.

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Jul 1 2013

[MP3] Mereki’s ‘Blue Lake’

We first featured LA songstress Mereki’s Blue Lake back in November last year, when it was still in it’s demo form. The voice of Miami Horror drummer Aaron Shanahan’s Good Night Keaton‘s Next To Mexico and Goldroom’s Only You Can Show Me, not to mention the voice of Goldroom live and Josh’s long-serving touring partner, looks set to be generating quite a bit of interest with her solo offerings.

We’re not going to repeat ourselves too much about the track, you can read our initial thoughts here, suffice to say Blue Lake is a majestic slice of sing-a-long summery ElectroPop that brings to mind the excitement of those first Ellie Goulding tracks, before she got bland. This final version of the track sounds a lot tighter, the drums are a bit beefed up and the synths a little more powerful. Also, the addition of a wailing guitar solo came as a bit of a surprise, not sure how needed it was really, but there it is. Mereki is definitely one you should be watching.

♫ Mereki – Blue Lake

Mereki’s début EP is due out soon.

Check out more from Mereki on SoundCloud.

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Jun 28 2013

[MP3] Fear Of Tigers reMixes The Sound Of Arrows

One from the vaults, as it were. This one must be at least a two years old, but for “some reason of other” (Stefan’s words) this reMix of The Sound Of Arrows’ There Is Still Hope by Mr. Fear Of Tigers never saw the light of day, until now. The track is taken from The Sound Of Arrows début album, Voyage, from 2011 and judging from Fear Of Tigers reMix style, we’d place it around then, if not earlier (if it was originally destined for a pre-album single). But we don’t care, you’ll know that The Sound Of Arrows and Fear Of Tigers are kinda’ like electronic rumors extended family, so one reMixing the other, no matter how old, hits us with a bolt of excitement lightning.

We love it! It makes us so nostalgic for those couple of years when these guys both released their prémier albums. If you’re looking for that kind of epic ElectroPop, defined by powerful beats, huge sweeping synths, uplifting melodies and just a hint of retro cool, that made the tail end of the last decade such an exciting time then look no further. Stefan’s impassioned vocals and Ben’s ability to inject an emotional rush into dance music are on display to their fullest here. Makes us miss all these guys, we hope they come back to release something soon.

♫ The Sound of Arrows – There is Still Hope (Fear of Tigers reMix)

The Sound Of Arrows’ Voyage album is out now.

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Jun 27 2013

[Video] JBAG’s ‘Mogadisco’

This is the brand new video for one of London’s première ElectroPop duos JBAG’s Mogadisco. It’s a carefree piano House and Electro tune that features on the forthcoming Kitsuné Soleil Mix 2 compilation, which put together by JBAG’s Jerry Bouthier and Kitsuné Music’s Gildas.

Caio Zini put the video together, and animated affair featuring some robot shenanigans.

Kitsuné Soleil Mix 2 is released 1st July.

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Jun 27 2013

[MP3] Arcade High’s ‘Pixel Passion’ album

It was a year ago, almost to the day, that we reviewed Pittsburgh SynthWaver Arcade High’s début début album The Art Of Youth. We’re not sure if that’s a coincidence but this week, via the medium of label Telefuture, Ryan Boosel has unleashed his latest long player, titled Pixel Passion. Coming digital and physical formats (with the limited edition CD coming in a fancy, hand-crafted case mode from repurposed Nintendo cartridges) in packages that include treasures such as glossy posters and badges., Arcade High has really pulled the stops out for this release.

So, to the album. We really enjoyed his first outing, and especially his material with vocals, which luckily there is a few lurking about on Pixel Passion. In the last year or so Arcade High have risen to the top of the SynthWave pack, and that’s partly due to his originality. Rather than playing the same old Italo basslines and pseudo-80s tropes, Arcade High carves out a sound all of his own. Rolling ChipTune (in abundance), IndiePop and SynthPop into the SynthWave mix to create something instantly recognisable. As soon as the albums opening, title track launces into it’s retro synth/8-bit mixture, with frantic bitcrushed bass, gentle vocals and soaring vintage console leads, you know what you;re in for with the rest of the album. As the record moves onto One Year Ago you’re treated to how well Arcade High uses these influences. Where as the ChipTune crowd are content with recreating video game music of old, Arcade High takes those sounds and weaves them into beautiful, emotional, ElectroPop songs that take full advantage if the unique character of that sound pallet. But never lets the sounds control the songs, it’s always songs first. Without You, the Hannah Edwards featuring album centrepiece, is an epic, rousing slice of ElectroPop euphoria which a cool Indie vibe running through it, which leads into Outrun This! which seems to lean more toward the arcade cabinet than the genre. Running To You bring us back to more familiar SynthWave territory until Ryan busts in with some sweet vocoded vocals to deliver one of the albums highlights alongside the brooding, cinematic Electro of Night Of The Genesis. If you love the SynthWave sound, but are becoming a little burnt out on it and crave the same atmosphere but with a little originality injected into it, or if you love ElectroPop and have a fondness for 80s video games, or if you just love electronic music, well crafted with love, then you should definitely take this album out a spin.