Sep 10 2010

New Alphaville single!

The almighty Alphaville are back with a new single and album! Next month sees the German SynthPop pioneers releasing their first studio work for 7 years. Now down to just frontman and foundering member Marian Gold, Alphaville have been a staple of the SynthPop scene since ‘84’s chart monsters ‘Big In Japan’ and ‘Forever Young’.

The problem, really, with the comeback material is Gold’s choice of collaborators. The lead single ‘I’d Die For You Today’ is actually an excellent song but the production, by Sebastian Komor (formerly of EBM/FuturePop outfit Icon Of Coil and several small projects since IoC’s demise), sounds so dated and stagnant. At the height of FuturePop’s success, in the late 90’s/early 2000’s this would have gone down a treat, but here in 2010 it just sounds almost musically naive, which is a shame as it hampers an otherwise excellent song. You have to wonder with Alphaville being so influential, and acclaimed, there must be countless contemporary and relevant acts who would kill to work with Marian Gold, why they went in this direction?

Anyhoo, the reMix package is also an odd crop of rather samey sounding old trance artists, this reMix by euphoric stalwarts Blank & Jones shows off song best, it’s a tiny bit cheesy trance, but mostly a nice 80’s leaning ElectroPop track with an epic feel that really supports the song, on multiple listens its really quite good, worth picking up the single for!

♫ Alphaville – I Die For You Today (Blank & Jones So 80’s Extended Mix)

‘I Die For You Today’ and Alphaville’s forthcoming new album are due out in October, until then you could do a hell of a lot worse than checking out their awesome back catalogue.

Alphaville @ 7Digital

Alphaville @ Amazon

‘

Sep 9 2010

Breton reMixes Chapel Club’s new single

UK Indie outfit Chapel Club are celebrating the release of their next single ‘All The Eastern Girls’ by giving away this reMix by Breton.

Breton turns the track into a full-on synth stomper yet preserves the vocals which should make a combination appealing to readers of this site. The retention of the, almost crooning, Indie vocals over some furious synth work results in quite a unique slice of SynthPop.

♫ Chapel Club – All The Eastern Girls (Breton reMix)

‘All The eastern Girls’ is due out October 11th.

Chapel Club @ Juno

Chapel Club @ 7Digital

Chapel Club @ Amazon

‘

Sep 9 2010

DEVO receive Moog Innovation Award

This year the recipients of the newly titled Moog Innovation Award are none other than New Wave pioneers DEVO! The award, handed out by Moog Music to artists who’s pioneering work exemplifies the innovative spirit of Bob Moog, her previously gone to Keith Emerson, Herb Deutsch, Gershon Kingsley, Jan Hammer and Bernie Worrell (under the title the Moog Award). DEVO will receive the accolade at this years MoogFest in the last weekend of October in Asheville, NC where they will be presented with a special synthesizer, of which more details are to come.

“MoogFest is about shunning limitations, opening your mind and rejoicing in what’s next. MoogFest is about celebrating the marriage of technology and art, fearlessly embracing the future while respecting the genre-definers of the past. That’s why we created the Moog Innovation Award, to celebrate artists that helped to catapult pop music into the future and commemorate those artists that boldly burst through established norms to pave the way forward. That’s the spirit of Bob Moog and that’s the essence of the Moog Innovation Award.

The first recipient of the Moog Innovation Award is DEVO and we feel that they are a perfect representation of innovative sound-sculpting and genre-defying electronic music. Like Bob Moog, DEVO enthusiastically charted their own course and thus dramatically affected pop culture because of it. Not to mention the fact that they used Moog instruments to create their inimitable sound. MoogFest and the Moog Innovation Award is the perfect way to pay homage to Bob Moog and his adopted hometown of Asheville, NC where he raised his kids, gave birth to some of his greatest inventions and where he re-established the company that bears his name and carries on his legacy, Moog Music.” – Emmy Parker, Moog Music

Congratulations to DEVO, well deserved!

You can check the goings on at MoogFest here and DEVO’s new album ‘Something For Everybody’ out now!

Sep 2 2010

French Horn Rebellion reMix new OMD

So we’ve heard Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark eagerly awaited forthcoming single, ‘If You Want It’, we’ve heard the VillaNah reMix, now it’s time for French Horn Rebellion to take the stage and show off their reMix of the track.

From it’s seemingly never ending build to the eventual beat and bass drop it’s clear that the FHR guys had a lot of fun reMixing this track. It kinda’ takes classic OMD and puts it through an eclectic Electro meat grinder and manages to put it back together in a coherent, and catchy way.

♫ OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark) – If You Want It (French Horn Rebellion reMix)

I love the fact that SynthPop pioneers such as OMD are getting such hip names in the current Electro scene to reMix for them, it shows they are still enjoying, and keeping up with, electronic music.

The ‘If You Want It’ single is released 6th September with ‘The History Of Modern’ slated to be released later this year.

OMD @ 7Digital

OMD @ Amazon

‘

Sep 2 2010

The Sound Of Arrows synth up The Naked & Famous

Sweeden’s kings of SynthPop, The Sound Of Arrows, have worked serious wonders with Neon Gold‘s The Naked & Famous and their recent single ‘Young Blood’.

A few new reMixes of ‘Young Blood’ are starting to come in but it’s the Swedish duo’s that really stands out mixing the New Zealand Indie-Electro with some hardcore synths which gives a whole new energy to the vocals. For something a little more chilled, try Pink Ganter’s traditional Japanese Dubstep mashup.

♫ The Naked & Famous – Young Blood (The Sound Of Arrows reMix)

♫ The Naked & Famous – Young Blood (Pink Ganter reMix)

‘Young Blood’ is out now.

The Naked & Famous @ Neon Gold

The Naked & Famous @ Amazon

‘‘

Aug 23 2010

Frankmusik’s tribute to Charlie Haddon

In the wake of Friday’s tragedy, the news that Charlie Haddon lead singer of Oú Est Le Swimming Pool, one of the UK’s most promising SynthPop acts, had taken his own life after the bands show at Belgium’s Pukkelpop festival, Vincent Frank A.K.A. Frankmusik has recorded a soulful piano tribute in the form of a cover of Oú Est Le Swimming Pool’s biggest hit ‘Dance The Way I Feel’.

♫ Frankmusik – Dance the Way I Feel (Oú Est Le Swimming Pool Cover)

Thank you Vincent.

Frankmusik @ Juno

Frankmusik @ 7Digital

Frankmusik @ Amazon

Oú Est Le Swimming Pool @ Beatport

Oú Est Le Swimming Pool @ Juno

Oú Est Le Swimming Pool @ 7Digital

Oú Est Le Swimming Pool @ Amazon

‘

Aug 23 2010

LexiconDon – Pink + Blue

LexiconDon have come on in leaps and bounds, production wise, but haven’t seem to have lost any of their raw energy.

This week finally sees the release of their début long player, ‘Pink + Blue’. An album I have been listening to for around a week now and I’m still impressed how they have managed to distil numerous slants of ElectroPop into one rad package. Firstly there is the vibe of early LexiconDon tracks. I always thought they had quite a British, almost post-punky element to their tracks, a raucous, live feel. The first tracks we heard from them, both included on this album, ‘SWMY (Staying With My Girl)’ and ‘Heart Attack’ are almost ElectroPunk tunes with chant along choruses, and yet the recent songs to come from the LexiconDon camp ‘December Sunset’ and ‘Student Body’ revealed a slicker, more mature sound. From the dreamily introspection of ‘December Sunset’ to the smoother Disco sound ‘Student Body’.

So where does the rest of the album sit? Are LexiconDon a gang of rowdy Electro troublemakers or sharp dancefloor lovers?

The answer, thankfully, is both! And that’s the most impressive thing about this record. It flows, so effortlessly, from high energy, buzzsaw synth laden, anthems to smooth late night SynthPop jams without seeming in any way jarring. Thanks, in part, to Alex Koons vocals and lyrics. The man is a story teller, weaving tales of everyday lives and loves that, at the same time, feel relatable yet exiting (kinda’ like, and I’m sure this is no accident, watching an 80’s teen movie). This is done in such a distinctive stylistic voice that, whether the songs are related or not, it feels like a complete narrative.

Musically, there is something for every Electro fan, from the noisy synths of ‘Hollywood Sound’ to the synthesizer Funk of ‘Student Body’ to the retro SynthPop of ‘Boy Vs. Girl Pt. 1’. And, of course, there is a healthy dose of Dreamwave in the mix, ‘Hot Love’ in particular has some awesome huge Dreamwave-esq 80’s chords.

Honestly (and this is in no way meant as a dis to the early LexiconDon tracks) I really liked ‘Heart Attack’ and ‘SWMY’ when they first came out, but I would have never expected an album this good, this varied, this slick, to come from the same band. LexiconDon’s ‘Pink + Blue’ is defiantly one of the albums of the year.

♫ LexiconDon – December Sunset

♫ LexiconDon – Student Body

LexiconDon’s ‘Pink + Blue’ drops tomorrow on dubFrequency/Binary, and keep it locked to electronic rumors for our forthcoming Binary event!

LexiconDon @ Beatport

LexiconDon @ Juno

LexiconDon @ 7Digital

LexiconDon @ Amazon

‘‘

Aug 21 2010

Title track from HURTS début album

Over at Amazon.co.uk they’re giving away the title track from HURTS, insanely eagerly anticipated, début album, ‘Happiness’. But if you can’t be bothered to go grab it you can have a listen to it right hear.

Having heard the whole album I would have to say it’s nothing short of stunning, practically encompassing every influence I’d want to hear on a record. It’s very 80’s. but never once does it feel like some kind of cheap retro sideshow, just genuinely harkening back to a time with a different style of songwriting.

The title track is a bombastic Pop epic, listen and watch the hairs on your arms stand up!

♫ HURTS – Happiness

‘Happiness’ is released 6th September. Not Long now!

Aug 14 2010

Ninthwave Records celebrates 10th anniversary; releases Synthetic Dance Music Vol. 02

The mid-90’s were dark, dark, times for SynthPop fans. All that existed was this thing (amusingly) called ‘Modern SynthPop’, a stale, stagnant regurgitation machine that sounded like vocal trance by people who with little clue about vocals or trance. General MIDI 4/4 beats and badly produced, unimaginative (read: four layered arpeggios) music met Dave Gahan karaoke vocals. It was all so contrived, so formulaic, so boring and so not relevant. For these reasons it remained the smallest of music scenes, but for a time, it was all we had.

There was, however, one beacon in the darkness. A record label that, whilst still really being a Modern SynthPop label, tended to actually respect the history of SynthPop as well as looking beyond the dross to the future. With a roster of artists that seemed a little more exclusive, a little more hand picked than certain other labels, Ninthwave Records kept us in interesting, well crafted, releases. Picking up European bands (rather than just licensing existing releases) including Heaven 17 and (as they were then) The Modern and cherry picking the ‘good stuff’ in the Modern SynthPop scene they were always a mark of quality over quantity.

Ninthwave stopped us all going mad.

So, with that in mind, I’m pretty chuffed to see they are still going. This year is their 10th anniversary and in celebration of this they are releasing the second volume in their ‘Synthetic Dance Music’ series. The 25 track album reads like a who’s who of Ninthwave. The line up, that includes Heaven 17, Katsen and The Garland Cult, is too long to go through here so get your ears round four choice cuts.

Matinee Club (they of the being ex-The Modern) are probably known to most New Wave fans here in the UK as one of the best live acts around, check ‘Fool In The Name Of Love’, there one of the best on record too. Scotland’s Electroluvs push things into a more ElectroPunky arena with the Hyperbubble reMix they have featured while Filterhouse Boys’ reMix of SynthPop jokers Spray is pure dancefloor material. Empire State Human (the first band we interviewed here at electronic rumors!) also appear with Digitize deep Electro reMix of their ‘Melancholic Afro’.

♫ Matinee Club – Fool In The Name Of Love

♫ Electroluvs – Teenage Timebomb (Hyperbubble reMix)

♫ Spray – Love’s Been Particularly Cruel To Me (Filterhouse Boys reMix)

♫ Empire State Human – Melancholic Afro (Digitize reMix)

That’s just a taster of what the album offers.

Alright…I’ll admit it…there is still room for improvement in the Modern SynthPop scene, frankly there is some awesome talent there that needs grabbing by the scruff of the neck and dragging into the 21st century but if anyone’s going to do it’s gonna’ be Ninthwave.

Happy Birthday!

‘Synthetic Dance Music Volume Two’ is out right now, and at the crazy low price some of these retailers are selling it you’d be crazy not to check it out!

Synthetic Dance Music Volume Two @ Juno

Synthetic Dance Music Volume Two @ 7Digital

Synthetic Dance Music Volume Two @ Amazon

Aug 13 2010

OMD video premiere ‘If You Want It’

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark have premiered the video for their forthcoming single ‘If You Want It’.

The first single from their ‘The History Of Modern’ album, their first studio album in 14 years, the track sees a return to a more classic (and right now, very in-vogue) OMD sound.

The ‘If You Want It’ single is released 6th September on limited edition yellow vinyl 7” and a digital reMix bundle with reMix from the likes of French Horn Rebellion, We Have Band and VillaNah, with ‘The History Of Modern’ slated to be released later this year.

OMD @ 7Digital

OMD @ Amazon