Dec 28 2010

The electronic rumors awards: electronic rumors’ top 20 albums of 2010!!!

See, we told you we were going to tart up our end of year lists! Welcome to the electronic rumors awards!

I really have a love/hate relationship with these lists. On the one hand I love looking back at the very best music that was released in the past 12 months but I hate sifting them down to just 20. So I make a list, give it a couple of days to settle, see if there’s anything I missed or if I want to change my mind, to make sure I have ranked things ‘cos I loved them, not ‘cos it would be cool to say so, a couple of days to be happy with my listing. But I know the moment I post this I will remember some awesome music from January that I have forgot.

So I’ve just got to close my eyes, bite the bullet and commit. Here goes..

Starting with electronic rumors top 20 albums of the year, including our ‘best album’ award. Pretty happy with this list even though there is a lot left out. There are a couple of bodges in there (Futurecop!’s album is only available on import right now, it’s released domestically in 2011, but it’s SO awesome and I desperately wanted Parallels’, Minitel Rose’s and Anoraak’s albums to be included) but on the whole it is a fitting list of the records that rocked out worlds this year.

So, the winner is…

electronic rumors’ best album: 2011

01: CHEW LiPS – Unicorn (Family)

♫ CHEW LiPS – Play Together

…and the rest of the list:

02: LexiconDon – Pink + Blue (dubFrequency/Binary)

♫ LexiconDon – Boy Vs. Girl Pt. 1

03: Ellie Goulding – Lights (Polydor)

♫ Ellie Goulding – This Love (Will Be Your Downfall)

04: Chromeo – Business Casual (Atlantic Records)

♫ Chromeo – Night By Night

05: Fenech-Soler – Fenech-Soler (B-Unique Records)

♫ Fenech-Soler – Golden Sun

06: Futurecop! – It’s Forever, Kids (Cluster Sounds (Import))

♫ Futurecop! – TransFormers (Into The Future)

07: HURTS – Happiness (Major Label/RCA/Sony Music)

♫ HURTS – Sunday

08: Robyn – Body Talk (Body Talk Pt. 3) (Konichiwa Records/Island Records Group)

♫ Robyn – Hang With Me

09: Bag Raiders – Bag Raiders (Modular Recordings)

♫ Bag Raiders – Sunlight

10: Où Est Le Swimming Pool – The Golden Year (Fire And Manoeuvre)

♫ Où Est Le Swimming Pool – Answers

11: The Golden Filter – Völuspà (Brille Records/Dummy Records)

♫ The Golden Filter – Stardust

12: Goldfrapp – Head First (Mute Records Ltd.)

♫ Goldfrapp – I Wanna’ Life

13: Grum – Heartbeats (Heartbeats)

♫ Grum – Fashion

14: Michael Cassette – Temporarity (Anjunabeats)

♫ Michael Cassette – Shadows Movement

15: Freezepop – Imaginary Friends (The Archenemy Record Company)

♫ Freezepop – Doppelganger

16: Marina And The Diamonds – The Family Jewels (679 Recordings)

♫ Marina And The Diamonds – Shampain

17: Tesla Boy – Modern Thrills (Mullet)

♫ Tesla Boy – Electric Lady

18: Ali Love – Love Harder (Back Yard Recordings)

♫ Ali Love – Smoke & Mirrors

19: Shy Child – Liquid Love (Wall Of Sound)

♫ Shy Child – Open Up The Sky

20: Alice In Videoland – A Million Thoughts And They’re All About You (Artoffact Records)

♫ Alice In Videoland – Take Me With You

Honourable Mentions:
ceo – White Magic, Daft Punk – Tron: Legacy Soundtrack, Parallels – Visionaries, Minitel Rose – Atlantique, Miami Horror – Illumination, Anoraak – Wherever The Sun Sets, Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles (II), Magnetic Man – Magnetic Man, Groove Armada – Black Light, Mighty Mouse – Song With No Words, OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark) – History Of Modern, Broken Bells – Broken Bells

As always, you should defiantly pick up some of these albums, they are all highly recommended and most can be purchased here:

Beatport – Juno – 7Digital – Amazon

Dec 24 2010

Saint Etienne at X-Mas, ‘A Glimpse Of Stocking’

I have been saving this post for X-Mas eve!

Recently SynthPop legends Saint Etienne released a full-on X-Mas album, ‘A Glimpse Of Stocking’ containing 15 tracks of ElectroPop and Indie-Electro with varying degrees of X-Mas cheer and X-Mas depression. The album is already becoming a rarity, which is a pity as it should be everyone’s compulsory X-Mas day listening, Sarah’s vocals lend themselves perfectly to seasonal songs.

So, this X-Mas eve, check out these two tracks from the album. ‘Through The Winter’, a mid-tempo synth ditty reminiscent of mid-90’s Etienne and the deep dance groove of ‘No Cure For The Common Christmas’ and make sure you have a good one!

♫ Saint Etienne – Through The Winter

♫ Saint Etienne – No Cure For The Common Christmas

‘A Glimpse Of Stocking’ is completely sold out, but there’s still loads of Saint Etienne to check:

Saint Etienne @ Beatport

Saint Etienne @ Juno

Saint Etienne @ 7Digital

Saint Etienne @ Amazon

Dec 24 2010

New Metronomy material

This week Zane Lowe dropped the first material from Metronomy’s forthcoming new album on his show.

The track, ‘She Waits’, comes from Metronomy’s sophomore LP proper, ‘The English Riviera’ which is expected to drop in April. The track is more laidback Indie than previous offerings and whilst I’m not totally sold on every lement of it there is enough good stuff in there to make the album promising.

We’ll have to wait and see.

♫ Metronomy – She Waits (Radio Rip)

‘The English Riviera’ is due out April 2011.

Dec 22 2010

CHEW LiPS’ X-Mas present to you

CHEW LiPS have had an amazing year.

Right at the start of 2010 their début album was released and it’s been twelve months of promotion and gigging since, and I can vouch for that having seen their awesome live show a few times this year myself.

As an X-Mas present to their fans for making their 2010 what it was Tigs and the guys have recorded a special X-Mas song for free. ‘When You Wake Up’ is one of the more X-Massy X-Mas songs I’ve heard this year, it’s all sleigh bells, plucked strings and fireside imagery. I reckon if they had released this for money it would have had a shot at X-Mas number one!

♫ CHEW LiPS – When You Wake Up

CHEW LiPS are looking to release their second album late next year.

Dec 22 2010

Fenech-Soler Vs. Drums Of Death

The reMix package for January’s release of Fenech-Soler’s ‘Demons’ single is nothing short of stunning.

We’ve already unleashed the Yuksek reMix on you, now check out this pretty minimal mix from London’s Drums Of Death. Walking a like between minimal Techno and 90’s House the track builds up a pretty irrisiatable groove and provides an very different, but interesting, task on one of the best tracks from Fenech-Soler’s début album.

♫ Fenech-Soler – Demons (Drums Of Death reMix)

Fenech-Soler release the ‘Demons’ single on 24th January, their self-titled album is out now.

Fenech-Soler @ Beatport

Fenech-Soler @ Juno

Fenech-Soler @ 7Digital

Fenech-Soler @ Amazon

Dec 21 2010

DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy reMixes Cut Copy

If you’re a fan of ElectroPop and haven’t been living under a rock for the last 5 hours you’ve probably already heard this, it’s a reMix of Cut Copy’s ‘Take Me Over’ by DFA man Tim Goldsworthy in his Thee Loving Hands guise. Tim was producer on Cut Copy’s ‘In Ghost Colours’ and has given the track a deep electronic workout that really kicks things up a gear halfway through.

I’m still on the fence about the new Cut Copy material. It’s not bad, what I’ve heard so far isn’t quite as exiting as their previous tracks, to me anyway. I could be completely blown away but the new album though, I’ll have to wait and see. Either way I’m defiantly looking forward to finding out and, like this Thee Loving Hands track, you can be sure there will be some amazing reMixes in the coming months.

♫ Cut Copy – Take Me Over (Thee Loving Hand reMix By Tim Goldsworthy)

You may have noticed we’re mucking around with a different player and different file hosts, let us know if you have any problems, also I’m trying to wean myself off strictly using letterbox images, I don’t know why I started cropping pictures like that, I just liked the aesthetic. But they got thinner and thinner, and harder and harder to find landscape promo shots of bands so I’m forcing myself to use bigger images whist trying to keep to the overall design.

Anyway, the new Cut Copy album is due out 4th February in Australia, 7th in Europe, and 8th in North America.

Dec 16 2010

ceo–‘Illuminata’ video

Eric Berglund from The Tough Alliance’s current project, challenging ElectroPop act ceo have dropped the video for their track ‘Illuminata’

The clip was directed by Marcus Soderlund, who tales a tale of night time competition to the funky Synth track.

‘Illuminata’ is taken from ‘White Magic’ which is out now.

ceo @ 7Digital

ceo @ Amazon

Dec 15 2010

electronic rumours mixtape: Pop-Fu 08

Ho ho ho! Being full of X-mas cheer today I’ll dish out the pressies early!

Here’s the latest Pop-Fu mixtape, it’s so full of rad ElectroPop and Nu-Disco that it’s stuffed more than your X-mas turkey!

01 Daft Punk – The Game Has Changed
02 Anoraak – Crazy Eyes (Mr. Mæn reMix)
03 Douze – We Got The Love
04 Kid Kasio – Not For Turning
05 Michael Cassette – Shadows Movement
06 Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls (Grum reMix)
07 Aeroplane – Superstar (The Krays reMix)
08 Vandroid – Master & Slave (Yuksek reMix)
09 Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Household Goods
10 Panda People – Sophisticated Girl (Ride The Universe reMix)
11 Human Life – Wherever We Are (Grum reMix)
12 Short Circuit – Let Go (Popskarr reMix)
13 Super Mal – Rock The Night (Diamond Cut reMix)
14 Futurecop! – Venice Beach (4TrakZ reMix)
15 The Human League – Night People (Cerrone Club Mix)
16 OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark) – Sister Marie Says (Monarchy Twin Galaxies reMix)

Don’t forget my mince pie and glass of port!

EDIT: Well, for the sake of less than 30 seconds of a Daft Punk track in a mix which is, arguably, promoting their music, Walt Disney Records/Universal Music’ have seen fit to kill Pop-Fu 08.Seems a bit pathetic singling this mix out for infringement when a simple search of SoundCloud would reveal (at this time ) at least six illegal uploads of the whole track, but who are we to question the insane logic of a major record label.So Pop-Fu 08 is dead (and, not that I’m that bothered, but the play stats and comments too), lovg live Pop-Fu 08 (Redux)!Yes, it’s the same mix with the offending track removed and a whopping great fade in! I suppose you could pretend the intro is not longer made up of a Daft Punk track but a recording of John Cage’s 4’33”!

Dec 14 2010

Icona Pop

Swedish Electro girls Icona Pop are giving their new single away for free!

First appearing on Kitsuné’s ‘Maison 10’ album with ‘Manners’ the duo’s new single ‘Still Don’t Know’ is a slice of noisy, post-The Ting Tings, ElectroPop. The heavy live drums and vintage synth sounds give the track a garage SynthPop feel with some raucous vocals tograb your attention. I can see Icona Pop getting pretty big next summer.

We shall see…