Aug 4 2011

AlunaGeorge reMix Baby Monster

babymonster

We’ve not heard enough from AlunaGeorge recently, but Baby Monster new single ‘The Fear Of Charlie Sunrise’ is the perfect track for them to reMix.

Doing that thing they do where the make thing experimental, yet melodic. Deep and dubby, yet bright and poppy, AlunaGeorge create a richly textured soundscape that showers you with snatches of vocal and waves of lush synths.

♫ Baby Monster – The Fear Of Charlie Sunrise (AlunaGeorge reMix)

‘The Fear Of Charlie Sunrise’ is taken from Baby Monster’s self-titled début album, out now.

Buy Baby Monster’s music from:

Follow @electronicrumor

Jul 26 2011

Björk’s ‘Crystalline’ video

Here is the video for Björk’s new single ‘Crystalline’.

It’s nice, in that it reminds me of 90’s Björk videos. Well done Michel Gondry!

Björk’s new all encapsulating multi-media project (or as we call it, ‘an album’), ‘Biophilia’, is released 27th September.

Buy Björk’s music from:

Follow @electronicrumor

Jul 20 2011

New material from LIGHTS

Lights

‘Everybody Breaks A Glass’ is the new track, and the first airing of material from her hew album, from Canadian ElectroPop goddess LIGHTS.

It’s a surprisingly noisy affair, but that’s to be expected considering experimental electronica outfit Holy Fuck’s involvement. The meeting of LIGHTS’ sweet voice and epic scope with the distorted bass of Holy Fuck actually works really well, even an appearance by follow Torontonian rapper Shad seems to sit well in the track, although the Dubsteppy breakdown feels a little tacked on. Overall it’s nice to hear new LIGHTS material, and nice to see her experimenting more in her music. Definitely looking forward to the album.

♫ LIGHTS (Feat. Holy Fuck & Shad) – Everybody Breaks a Glass

Buy LIGHTS’ music from:

Follow @electronicrumor

Jul 17 2011

80’s Synth T.V. themes

streethawk

Or, 80’s Synth T.V. themes redux! This is a total rehash of a electronic rumors post from about three years ago, but I wanted to redo it with a few more tracks and some better quality version of a couple of the tune we featured last time. Also, back in the day it was all MediaFire and zShare and shit, and no-one likes that!

So, here we have something a little different for this Sunday. Back in the 80’s, 2011 seemed like the far, far, future and although we still have no jetpacks, flying cars or robot butlers we do have the internet so I can sit here and write to you about the 80’s. The 80’s was the first decade since the 50’s where the future seemed like it was just around the corner. The optimistic felling that any second now we would be living in a Sci-Fi world. That’s where the neon, the chrome and the shiny plastic so associated with the 80’s comes from, and, of course, the synthesizers!

So if your T.V. show had anything to do with optimism, or futuristic tinged action (which, let’s face it, pretty much every 80’s T.V. show did!) you had to have a synth based theme tune.

If you read electronic rumors, you’re probably aware that most of the music you like is highly influenced by synthesized T.V. and Movie themes from the 80’s. Whether it’s ElectroPop, Dreamwave, Electro-House, Dreamwave, Nu-Disco, Dreamwave, Minimal Synth, Dreamwave, or that Dreamwave stuff (which is particularly influenced). They all take, if not musical cues then thematic, cues from entertainment themes from the 80’s.

So here’s a small collection of some of the best to fuel your nostalgia.

Beginning with possibly my favourite TV theme of the 80’s, Tangerine Dream’s theme from ‘Streethawk’ (also on their own ‘Le Parc‘ album), taking in the classic arpeggio fuelled theme’s from ‘Airwolf’ and ‘Knight Rider’, the rockin’ aspirations of Miami Vice, the proto-Daft Punk-esque theme from the French/Japanese cartoon ‘Ulysses 31’, the electronic dread of V, the T.V and French single versions of Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors and some classic Doctor Who.

I’ve tried to source the best quality copies I can find but mof these are a bit crappy, as if some kid in the 80’s held a Tandy (that’s Radio Shack for you Americans) tape recorder to the T.V. speaker to tape the music….just like I used to do!

Enjoy!

♫ Tangerine Dream – Le Parc (L.A. – Streethawk)

♫ Midge Ure – Max Headroom T.V. Theme

♫ Jan Hammer – Airwolf Theme

♫ Glen A. Larson & J.A.C. Redford – Theme From Automan

♫ Dennis McCarthy – ‘V’ The Final Battle- Main Title (Version 1)

♫ Barry De Vorzon – ‘V’ The Final Battle (Version 2)

♫ Glen A. Larson & Stu Phillips – Knight Rider Theme Song

♫ Jan Hammer – Crockett’s Theme (Miami Vice)

♫ Jan Hammer – Original Miami Vice Theme

♫ Lionel – Ulysses 31 Theme

♫ Nick Carr – Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors

♫ Nick Carr – Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors (Jayce Et Les Conquérants De La Lumière) (Extended Version)

♫ Bernard Hoffer – SilverHawks Intro.

♫ Anne Bryant – TransFormers Season 2 & 3 Theme

♫ Shuki Levy & Haïm Saban – M.A.S.K. (Extended)

♫ Peter Howell – Doctor Who 1980 Theme (Tom Baker, Peter Davidson)

♫ Keff McCulloch – Doctor Who 1986 Theme (Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker)

♫ Stewart Copeland – The Equalizer (Extended) (via Mindscramble on Twitter)

♫ Lisa Lougheed – Run With Us (The Raccoons Theme Song)

♫ Shuki Levy & Haïm Saban – Pole Position Intro. & Closing Credits (via Mindscramble on Twitter)

♫ Al Jarreau – Moonlighting (Theme) (via Nicky Savage on Twitter)

♫ Sylvester Levay – Otherworld Intro. (via Jules Schimmer on Twitter)

We’re gonna’ keep this post open and sticky it somewhere (possible on the sidebar) so if you have any suggestions hit us up on Tiwtter (@electronicrumor).

Also, If I got any of the artists wrong, I apologize, whatever…

Some Information can be hard to track down, even with our futuristic internet!

Follow @electronicrumor

Jul 5 2011

Goin’ Old School: Kraftwerk – Trans Europe Express

Time to remedy the not having had any Kraftwerk on Goin’ Old School yet, with 1977’s ‘Trans Europe Express’, it was so good Afrika Bambaata and Arthur Baker took it an invented Electro Hip-Hop with it!

Buy Kraftwerk ’s music from:

Follow @electronicrumor

Jun 15 2011

Ursa Minor (Little Bear)

Ursa Minor (Little Bear) are a London based outfit consisting of Little Bear, Yoshee, Evee and KTP who set about creating a kind of live, House influenced, synthesizer soundscape.

It’s really hard to pigeonhole Ursa Minor (Little Bear), I can definitely hear a root in the heyday of 90’s House and, more specifically, DancePop but they have taken that basis and moved it to a raw, live place. Like a garage Dance act there is an excitement, and urgency, about the real drumming and analog synth riffs and something almost freeform and jazzy in the musicianship. All this makes for a cosmic and compelling backing for the Post-Punky vocals. This is space age stuff but at the same time really down to Earth and, in a world of machine beats and quantized riffs, really human.

♫ Ursa Minor (Little Bear) – Delight

Check out more from Ursa Minor (Little Bear) on SoundCloud

Follow @electronicrumor

May 10 2011

Torpedo

OK, this is a bit of an odd one for us, Torpedo class themselves as “Krautrock influenced…Electronic Alternative Rock”, which would normally make me run a mile (or delete the email immediate) but I gave it a listen, and it;s really grown on me.

I have no idea what their other tracks sound like but never would I have described ‘Islands In Eternity’ as “Electronic Alternative Rock”. There’s a definite Krautrock” influence going on but there’s very little Rock in this (thankfully!). What it actually is, is a cosmic, almost Proggy, electronic track that…actually, no, I see their point, it is pretty hard to describe. Suffice to say that of you like synthesizers and a big epic feel to your music you should give this a listen. ReMixes come from, amongst others, Wahlström & Valiant who turn the track into a big room Electro-House tune laden with ‘wohoop’ sounds and giant stabs!

It surprised me how much I likes this track, but I did, check it:

♫ Torpedo – Islands In Eternity

♫ Torpedo – Islands In Eternity (Wahlström & Valiant reMix)

Buy Torpedo’s music from:

Mar 14 2011

College & Stephen Falken

I wanted to quickly share this College track that went up on the Valerie site recently.

It’s Stephen Falken’s reMix of College’s first single ‘Answers’, which has pretty much been the soundtrack to my chilled weekend. It’s an organically evolving synthesizer Dreamwave treat. Not a party tune by any means, but chuck this on your headphones, sitback, and enjoy!

♫ College – Answers (Stephen Falken Loyal reMix)

Check out College’s back catalogue right flippin’ now!

Dec 28 2010

The electronic rumors awards: electronic rumors’ Hall Of Fame 2010!!!

As soon as we had the notion to do a yearly Hall Of fame award it was a pretty forgone conclusion as to who would be the first recipient (actually, the first four years were pretty obvious!). There was never any doubt.

If you read electronic rumors, if you’re into electronic music, whether it’s some brand of Pop, whether you’re a Dubstep fiend, whether your preferred method of musical enjoyment is stroking your beard to the latest experimental release, whether you’re all glowsticks and euphoria or a Funk loving lover, the music you love probably wouldn’t exist without Kraftwerk.

To call them electronic music pioneers seems like an understatement. Were they the first to make music from synthesizers? Of course not, but pre-Kraftwerk the synth was either the tool of pompous Prog Rock banks or noise mongers who cared little for songs. While Kraftwerk resided heavily into the world of the latter the difference they made is the unison of experimental electronics and repetitive rhythms and melody. Which is essentially electronic Pop. They were a direct influence on the first generation if SynthPop artists and synthesizer Disco and Hip Hop producers who, in turn, went on to influence everything we know and love.

Four German technicians, who had no interest in becoming music stars, are signally the most important band I can think of.

♫ Kraftwerk – Showroom Dummies

♫ Kraftwerk – Metropolis

♫ Kraftwerk – Radioactivity

Kraftwerk’s back catalogue has an album for everyone, from the early, more abstract material, to the mid-period ElectroPop, to the Techno-Pop of recent years, all of it is essential.

Dec 13 2010

Error: Operator covers ‘Enjoy The Silence’

Depeche Mode’s ‘Enjoy The Silence’ is probably one of the most covered tracks in the world, so it’s nice when someone brings something new to the track.

ElectronicaPop artist Error: Operator has teamed up with Harry Lee of recent Kitsuné signing Waylayers to produce this chilled, rolling cover version that captures the emotion of the track but presents it in an almost electro-acoustic new form. Error: Operator brings his intricate programming which makes for a constantly interesting backing for Lee’s rendition.