This week saw the release of the new single from ecclectic Oxford based singer/songwriter Mr. Fogg. Headlock is the latest single from Fogg’s last summer second album, Eleven, following on from his acclaimed 2010 début Moving Parts. To celebrate the single’s release Mr. Fogg is giving away a reMix of the track from London producer Graphics.
Headlock is a heady cocktail of elements rolling over a metronome beat and VL-1 snare. Traditional instruments, cello, glockenspiel, play up against both dark, grinning electronics and bright, breezy, synths. Mr. Fogg’s introspective croon over the top give the track an air of grandiose BedroomPop. this is what you call real interesting Pop music. The Graphics reMix takes the track by the hand and leads it to some dingy warehouse party. Stripped down, but funky, House. Sparse beats and world percussion mix with rounded square basslines and for a track that is every bit as enigmatic as the original.
Out today! This very morning! Is the new single from Canadian Chillwave future-star and Box Of Wolves and the London singer/songwriter who’s name is on everybody’s lips Christa Vi. electronic rumors’ latest release is one we can definitely be very proud of, these guys are insanely talented and exude an effortless cool. Here’s some of the press release, which as we have now established, is fine for me to copy & paste because I wrote the thing in the first place.
Combining Box Of Wolves’ hazy synthesizer DreamPop sound with Christa Vi’s smokey voice, as she delivers an emotional and relatable refrain, was a stroke of genius. Bringing together the worlds of nostalgic analog synth music and thoughtful IndiePop with fantastic results. With a lead track destined for the radio and reMixes that will be packing dancefloors in the coming months, ‘Boy’ is sure to be many music fans’ soundtrack to the summer. Backed with a storming, Funk fuelled, Nu-Disco reMix from Toronto’s Cyclist and an ethereal slow-House workout from Tongan producer Summer Occasion, the ‘Boy’ single offers a catchy soundtrack to any mood.
I’d get used to this one, you’re going to be hearing a lot more of it in the coming months.
♫ Box Of Wolves & Christa Vi – Boy (Single)
Box Of Wolves & Christa Vi’s Boy is out now on electronic rumors.
It’s quite possible that Attracting Flies is the best thing London based EelctroPop/R&B duo AlunaGeorge have released singe Analyser. Catchy and fun, even the beats stick in your mind. It’s about time the duo got a decent, big budget, video. their music seems to call out for lavish and interesting visuals. Well, that’s been delivered with the video for Attracting Flies.
The new clip is directed by Emil Nava, and runs the gauntlet of fairy tales, giving each one a modern, inner-city, spin. For such a frivolous concept, the clip is really nicely, and moodily, shot. See if you can name each one.
Attracting Flies is released 10th March and is taken from AlunaGeorge’s forthcoming début album, titled Body Music. Released on 1st July.
Here’s the début video from new London artist Patchy. It’s called Picnic and is a marvellously fun slice of cheeky ElectroPop. It’s got everything that intrigues us about a track, Fizzing Electro beats, synthetic bass, sparkling leads and Patchy’s slightly quirky vocals (and, as you, know we have a long history of loving quirky vocals!).
Check out the track via the video, which is various bits of Undergrounds (although not sure where) and Patchy mucking about in the studio. Which makes for a nice introduction to her and her music.
Check out more from Patchy on SoundCloud.
Picnic is out now, and is taken from Patchy’s début album, Illuminations, released 3rd June on Manual Music.
The UK’s ElectroPop saviours Chvrches’ new single, Recover, also sees their first proper music video, and what a music video it is.
A Sci-Fi epic, fitting for a SynthPop song, particularly one so majestic, the clip has hints of 2001, BladeRunner, and a lot of mysterious cubes. Amazing stuff.
London Electro R&B duo AlunaGeorge have gone from humble beginnings to being a music blogosphere destroying juggernaut 9amusingly, the first sentence we wrote about them, two years ago now, was “You really could be looking at the ‘next big thing’ here.”, which I‘m sure earns us internet points, at the very least a ‘Tastemaker, First Class’ badge? Their forthcoming new single was premièred on Radio 1 last night and hit SoundCloud minutes later. We noticed blog posts about two minutes after it went up…it’s 3 minutes long! That’s clout (or magic)!
Anyhoo, the new track, Attracting Flies, is actually one of their best. It’s got the quirky R&B swing these guys do so well, this time with a heavier beat. A live favourite, Attracting Flies sees Aluna at her funniest. Not usually renown for her comedy skills, she spits (albeit in a velvety way) a razor sharp wit on this tune. Bringing a London Soul smoothness to the Electro loving masses, AlunaGeorge continue to have a storming 2013, if they keep knocking out tunes as danceable, catchy and filled with passion as Attracting Flies who knows how big they could become?
♫ AlunaGeorge – Attracting Flies
Attracting Flies is released 10th March and is taken from AlunaGeorge’s forthcoming début album, titled Body Music. Released on 1st July.
The wait is (almost) finally over. Little Boots has finally announced details of her second album. After months of teasing in the form of the singles Shake, Every Night I Say A Prayer and Headphones (two of which make the new records tracklist, the insanely infectious Headphones remains in single land) Boots has dropped the new records title and release date. Titled Nocturnes, the album is set for release in May and features production assistance from the likes of DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy, Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford and Hercules And Love Affair’s Andy Butler.
Our first (new) taste of what the album holds comes in the form of Motorway. We first heard Motorway back in summer last year when she played XOYO, at the time we commented that it would be a good album lead-in track (not that anyone will believe us), and it so obviously is, showing off perfectly what the new record is all about. Whether Boots is making Dance Music more personal, or personal music more dancy, she walk the line, here, between a deep, hypnotic, dancefloor groover and a gentle, haunting, SynthPop epic. Injecting a fragile humanity into dark, intoxicating, House beats, Little Boots delivers a spellbinding track, both musically and vocally. The big ominous, yet somehow uplifting, grand piano doesn’t hurt either.
Sally Shapiro first came into our lives way back in 2006. This duo, because Sally Shapiro is a duo, made up of ElectroPop producer extraordinaire Johan Agebjörn and an blissful unnamed singer whom we shall henceforth call Sally (to avoid (or create) confusion), have put out some of the most exciting, listenable, Italo-Disco tinged ElectroPop records in the last decade. Released today is album number three, Somewhere Else, that has already spawned the acclaimed singles What Can I Do? and Starman, the latter featuring a guest turn from Toronto’s Electric Youth.
The album is a thrilling excursion through poppy, dancefloor friendly electronic music with heart. Johan’s beats are always meticulously produced. Clean, shiny and pitch perfect whilst Sally’s sugar sweet, personal vocals tell tails in the most appealing way. This time around the pair have a little help with Anoraak, Le Prix and the aforementioned Electric Youth all doing turns on Somewhere Else.
Sally and Johan too some time out from their album release prep to chat with us about how this unlikely partnership hooked up and what the album holds:
ER: First off, how did you two get together?
S & J: We met in a youth environmental organization back in 2001 where we both worked at the office. But we actually didn’t discover our common interest in 80s disco until 2004!
ER: Did you both come to Sally Shapiro with the same influences, or do you each bring something different with you?
S & J: Johan is more the expert on various genres of electronic music. Sally has a good feel for what is a good and catchy pop song. She can’t really deliver a good vocal performance if she’s not into it. In the beginning, it felt like poppy 80s disco was the only thing that worked for both of us, but we think that we have broadened a bit since the start.
ER: I always feel that there is a 60s British Pop influence to Sally Shapiro songs, in a kind of Saint Etienne way. Is that the case or do you think there is just a 60s Pop influence in classic Swedish Pop in general?
S & J: We don’t think that the 60s are a conscious influence, but we listen to British pop like Saint Etienne and Belle & Sebastian for example. “What Can I Do” was very inspired by Belle & Sebastian.
ER: With so many good ElectroPop artists coming out of Sweden, and the music seeming to be the more dominant form of Pop there, do you think there is a reason for ElectroPop finding it’s spiritual home in Sweden?
S & J: We don’t know. When we grew up it was not like that, Sweden was a guitar country and far behind the UK when it came to appreciating electronic music. But Sweden was also early a very computerized country so maybe that’s a reason.
♫ Sally Shapiro – What Can I Do?
ER: Where does the name Sally Shapiro come from? Are we right in thinking Johan chose it? Is it named after anyone?
S & J: It was Johan’s suggestion to use a pseudonym in the tradition of Italo disco stars like Valerie Dore and Katy Gray. It’s not named after anyone, but we wanted a name that sounded English, with a surname that was not too common and not too uncommon. And then the first name should begin with the same letter as the surname, and it’s beautiful with names that end with a y, isn’t it?
ER: Sally’s said she has no interest in being a Pop star. When you originally wrote songs together was it with the intention of the public hearing them, or just for fun?
J: Well the goal was to make a track for fun and hopefully that someone wanted to release on a 12″ record. But we never thought it would reach out to more than the Italo disco fans and vinyl collectors to be found on various forums on the internet.
ER: Were you surprised with the reception Disco Romance received, and how fast it became a hyped record?
J: Yes, though it actually didn’t become hyped that quickly. At the very beginning, the distributor complained that it didn’t sell so well. Then Pitchfork rated it “best new music” and everything changed, it got re-released twice and licensed to different countries. But the whole process of re-releases and finally two remix albums based on the tracks took one and a half year.
ER: And now, three albums later. How would you say your sound has changed since the first record?
S & J: It’s a bit more varied, we’d say, but still grounded in 80s disco, which is still the ultimate genre of music. But these days we take influences also from trance, euro dance, IDM, jazz, electronic funk, indie pop etc.
ER: Is there a theme that runs through Somewhere Else?
S: There’s a theme in all our music, we think, about melancholic longing and hope. Hoping that something will be better, maybe in a different place, somewhere else.
ER: How did the collaborations on the new album come about?
S & J: Johan released the album “Casablanca Nights” in 2001 with a lot of collaborations, so he’s got quite used to working with other producers and he likes it. He works with Le Prix a lot, sometimes they meet in Stockholm but mostly via the internet as we live in Lund in Southern Sweden. The collaboration with Anoraak was originally Anoraak’s idea and a different version of that track appeared on his album a few years ago, we’re really happy with the track and wanted to release this version too. The collaboration with Electric Youth was our idea as we really like them. Both those collaborations were carried out through the internet, we’ve never met them…but it would be nice! Apart from the collaborations mentioned here, there are also lyricists, co-writers (frequently Roger Gunnarsson) and guest musicians involved on the album.
ER: How does the writing and recording process work for Sally Shapiro? Is Johan allowed in when Sally’s recording now?
S & J: No, Johan is still not allowed in. Johan is the composer and producer, sometimes together with other songwriters and producers. When he has something almost finished he plays it to Sally and gets some feedback. We then write the lyrics together, and the vocals are almost always the last things that are recorded before finally mixing the track.
ER: Is there a favourite synth or bit of studio kit.
J: Not really, it shifts. Yamaha DX-7 wasn’t used before this album, it can sound really smooth. Earlier there were a lot of sounds from the Roland Juno-60 and Jupiter-4.
ER: If money was no object, what synth would you love to own?
J: Elka Synthex.
♫ Sally Shapiro – Lives Together (Johan Agebjörn Dub)
ER: Are there plans for Sally Shapiro beyond Somewhere Else?
S & J: Not which are official right now.
ER: Are Sally Shapiro more of a full cooked breakfast, or bowl of cereal kind of duo?
S & J: Bowl of cereal probably. Sally drinks coffee, Johan drinks tea.
Many thanks to Sally and Johan for speaking with us.
Sally Shapiro’s Somewhere Else is released today in the UK and tomorrow in the rest of the world. It comes highly recommended.
Tomorrow, Sally and Johan will be hosting on online release party where you can chat with them and ask them stuff we was too lazy to ask, details here.
electronic rumors 