Here’s the new video for Grimes’ Genesis, one of the best tracks off her Visions album.
The internet seems to hate it, but I can’t figure out why. It’s actually pretty standard video fare these days. I wonder if the internet would like it better if we said Romain Gavras directed it rather than Claire Boucher herself?
Visions is out now.
Buy Grimes’s music from:
Right then, by now I think you all know our opinion of reMix contests. They aren’t good for anyone. But we’re not going to go on about it again, but like we said we’re only going to do round-ups of reMix competition entries from now on, because, don;t get us wrong, reMix competitions do churn out some absolutely wicked tracks. This week’s tiresome competition comes in the surprising form of legendary smoothster Barry Manilow in a transparently lame attempt to seem relevant, or something. The upside of this is it’s given some very talented producers access to that unmistakable croon.
So here’s the first batch of reMixes of Manilow’s new single, Everything’s Gonna’ Be Alright. These guys are way ahead of the pack right now. American Disco producer Blue Satellite comes out of hiding to drop an absolutely massive Nu-Disco mix of the track. Seriously, this one is huge. Loading the track with bright synths and a solid Disco groove was exactly the way to go with this track, and Blue Satellite nailed it. Waling a different path if Ireland’s Figure Of 8, who gets a little Techy, a little Electro and a little Experimental with his all-too-short, atmospheric, reMix. His pulsating synth sounds and robotic beats shine a light on a whole new dimension for the song. Greetings Program plays around with Disco and SynthWave for his reMix, injecting the track with a little Electro Boogie. This probably isn’t the last Manilow round-up we’ll do, we are hearing whispers of some huge entries incoming. But this will do for now.
♫ Barry Manilow – Everything’s Gonna’ Be Alright (Blue Satellite reMix)
♫ Barry Manilow – Everything’s Gonna’ Be Alright (Figure Of 8 reMix)
♫ Barry Manilow – Everything’s Gonna’ Be Alright (Greetings Program reMix)
Buy Barry Manilow’s music from:
Last week boerd, side project of Stay Ali’s Bård Ericson, impressed us with his third EP Velocity.
Now the EP’s first track, Wavelength, has got itself a suitably calming video, Directed by Swiss filmmaker Kommak.
Velocity is out now.
Buy boerd’s music from:
Here’s the new video for Notts Indie-Electro outfit Moscow Youth Cult’s Love>Lore. It;s a track we’ve featured before and we do love it when tracks we like get nice videos.
Hayley Watchorn directs this study of interesting bits travelling that seems strangely fitting.
Moscow Youth Cult’s Happiness Machines is out now.
Buy Moscow Youth Cult’s music from:
Swedish funky electronic act boerd’s third EP was released this week. A side-project of Stay Ali’s Bård Ericson, boerd allows him to experiment with electronic sounds, bouncy grooves and atmospheric textures outside of the confines of traditional song arrangements.
The Velocity EP is the prefect nexus of all things boerd so far, effortlessly combining the experimental, the ambient, and the hella funky into four blissful tracks. The EP kicks off with the smooth other-planet-beach-chill-fest of Wavelength before descending into Shuttle, a track that layers electronic R&B beats with space-age, alien, synthetic textures and stabbing retro melodies. It’ll soon have you feeling misty eyed nostalgia for a future you only imagines in the ‘80’s. Flimmer bring things back a little, allowing the cosmic chill-out to continue amidst broken beats and haunting electric piano. Ericson once again plays to his strengths here, deep grooves and melody. And he knows melody! The EP plays out on it’s title track, Velocity, which adds a little Dub flavour into the mix before building toward a crashing saxophone finale. It’s a beautiful, space-age, musical trip boerd has conjured up. Artwork by DW Design too, which is always nice to see.
♫ boerd – Shuttle
♫ boerd – Flimmer
♫ boerd – Velocity
Buy boerd’s music from:
It’s been a while since their pretty stunning Apparitions EP but now London Experimental SynthPop duo Labyrinth Ear are once again ready to treat our ears to some of the most interesting electronic music around. It’s been nearly a year since their last EP, but their new track, Urchin, let’s us know they haven’t been sitting on their laurels.
A mixture of chimes and deep synthetic bassline greet you at the beginning of Urchin, sounding not unlike something from BladeRunner. Such futuristic connotations are soon shed, thought, as Labyrinth Ear launch into a moody, organic SynthPop dream. Industrial percussion and ghostly synths lay out the tracks atmosphere, threatening to take the song into Goth territory, but Labyrinth Ear refrain from things from getting too pompous by keeping a very human, emotional, feel to the track. Both in Tom’s gloomy Italo dungeon music and Emily’s haunting vocal performance. Hopefully a precursor of things to come.
Buy Labyrinth Ear’s music from:
Deep Electro beats abound on Dallas, Texas based Electro outfit Cygnus début release. It’s the first release of new Sheffield imprint Central Processing Unit that joins the dots between B-Boy Electro and the myriad bass heavy electronic experimentalisms that have come out of South Yorkshire, from Cabaret Voltaire to LFO. Although American, Cygnus create a robotic, analog, groove that fits perfectly with a label based in the Steel City, with their album, titled Newmark Phase.
The album comes in two forms, a ten track digital release and a three track 12”. It’s hard to know what order to review the album in, as the tracklist is both in alphabetical order and numbered in binary, but the binary starts at 0000, or zero, for track number (we presume) one. So you end up with the eighth track on the album numbered 0111 (or seven), the ninth numbered 1000 (or eight) and the tenth 1001 (or nine). I think we’ll just stick with alphabetical for now…these crazy Electro kids these days, eh? So, the album kicks off with Atari Lovers and it’s the prefect introduction to what you’ll be treated to for the next hour. Deep kicks, snapping snares, robot rock beats and a sheer revelling in synthetic sounds. Most of the album revolves around old school Electro beats, layered with rich tones and atmospherics that are sometimes complimented, sometimes juxtaposed with gritty, piercing lead lines and ringing melodies. This is best exemplified on tracks like Bedroom Activities, Icasean Mutant Police or Red District Girls, but there are occasion when Cygnus veers off into Minimal Techno in the likes of Hungry DJs gets close to SynthWave on track such as the haunting District Nights. The title track is one of the standouts and available on both versions of the album, a machine led science fiction soundscape, evocative of urban dystopias. The combination of body pooping beats and strange, otherworldly melodies is at once both unsettling and comforting, like Incunabula era Autechre. Also one of the highlights is Private Feelings, a relentless yet warm analog workout and a joy for fans of synthesizer music. If you like your B-Boy Electro, or your atmospheric electronics, or happen to need a soundtrack for your dark future, then look no further and get your ears round Cygnus.
♫ Cygnus – Private Feelings
Cygnus’ Newmark Phase is released 24th September on vinyl and digital.
Buy Cygnus’s music from:
Obviously not happy with the state of Olympic music as is (and, to be fair it is mostly cringe inducing cash-ins) Norwegian left field ElectroPop gang Casiokids have decided to give away their track, Olympiske Leker, for free along with a brand new version. The whole thing is odd, it’s probably the least sporty track ever, but that’s probably a good thing.
If you haven’t already heard the track, it was one of the standouts from their Aabenbaringen Over Aaskammen album, it’s typically Casiokids eclectic. Lo-Fi, but not sparse, the synths are cheap, but there’s lots of them. It’s a juddering, and insanely catchy track with a deceptively majestic melody. Quirky ElectroPop with an ice cold exterior but a warm heart. The V.2 take on Olympiske Leker, is a bit more dancefloor aimed (but only a bit) which adds energetic beats to the mix. Casiokids are launching their own Olympics in Twitter, the winner of the best suggestion for a new sport to be included in the Olympics will receive their album and a Gullbrød (Golden Bread) chocolat. #casiolympics on entries.
♫ Casiokids – Olympiske Leker V.2
Casiokids Aabenbaringen Over Aaskammen album is out now.
Buy Casiokids’ music from:
This week SynthWave superstar Com Truise released his interim record In Decay on Ghostly International. We say ‘interim’, as it’s not his next album proper, it’s a collection of rarities that have only been available online in demo form, or not at all. Most of the track come from the pre ‘Cyanide Sisters’ era. While we wait with baited breath for this master of retro synthetics’ new album, this is the perfect way to pass the time.
The album’s opener, the appropriately titled Open, is one of the collection’s standouts and paves the way for a record that despite it’s original, isn’t some group of rough tracks, this is a proper Com Truise album. As skilfully executed and slickly produced as anything you’d expect from the Seth Haley. There’s no-one around really who’s doing SynthWave quite like Com Truise. There’s a lot of atmospheric SynthWave artists right now soundtracking a dystopian future, but there isn’t many producers mixing that up with a real vintage, gritty feel with influences that range from experimental electronica and B-Boy Electro. It’s quite a unique niche in the SynthWave pantheon that Com Truise has carved out for himself. Following Open is the blissful ‘84’ Dreamin’, a laid back, nostalgic, jam driven by heavy LFOs. The album dolls out, in equal portions, heaps of Cosmic Funk with the likes of Controlpop and Smily Cyclops and lush Dreamwave as head on Colorvision and, particularly, Alfa Beach. At times Haley descends into his own dark future world resulting in harsh electronic grooves such as Yxes, but overall the album is washed in those Com Truise right synth tones and soaring leads that we love him for. There’s even a hint of Synth/Post-Punk hybrid in the mix with Dreambender. In Decay does sound like older Com Truise material, but that’s no bad thing, merely a reminder of the Com Truise magic, and all the more reason to eagerly await his next move.
♫ Com Truise – Open
♫ Com Truise – Colorvision
♫ Com Truise – Alfa Beach
♫ Com Truise – Yxes
Com Truise’s In Decay is out now.
Buy Com Truise’s music from:
Royal Horticultural Society is the début EP from Dutch producer David Douglas. Although at eight tracks it weight in more as a mini-album. Douglas draws from myriad sources of inspiration to weave various styles of electronic music into his beautiful, rustic tunes. the natural and synthetic working in perfect harmony.
The EP (album?) kicks off with California Poppy a blissful, hazy track with sets the tone for the Disco tinged Chillwave proceedings. Lazy grooves and reverb washed Funk, dreamlike vocals and half heard vocal samples make up the truly organic use of electronics on this EP. The EP’s blurb explains: “David Douglas (1983) is a Dutch producer of electronic music.David Douglas (1799) was a Scottish plant hunter who explored North America collecting seeds of plants and trees unknown to mankind at that time. Inspired by the Scottish botanist, David from ’83 started looking for his own musical seeds. The greatness of nature the sublime mountain landscapes, Icelandic lupine fields, arctic coastlines, Californian fir forests invigorate his music.”. And that kinda’ makes sense when you hear the record. It’s very natural sounding, like the tones and sounds are evolving throughout the tracks. Dreams has all the elements of a big Disco tune, vocal snatches, a solid groove but prefers to use them in a more fluid fashion. Lo-Fi and grainy, David Douglas’ music is hard to categorise. Warm, and enveloping like smoke, the emotional electronic soundscapes are complimented by beats that come from all over. Broken beats, B-Boy beats, Disco beats, all have a place on this record, assimilated into David Douglas’ musical garden.
♫ David Douglas – California Poppy
♫ David Douglas – Dreams
♫ David Douglas – Douglas Firs
The Royal Horticultural Society EP is out now.
Buy David Douglas’ music from:
electronic rumors 