This afternoon HURTS appeared on Jo Whiley’s ‘Live Lounge’ on BBC Radio 1, as well as well as an epic acoustic performance of their current single ‘Better Than Love’ the guys also covered Diana Vickers’ recent single ‘Once’.

Citing an underlying sadness in the Cathy Dennis & Eg White penned track as the reason for their choice of cover, the band (complete with, not only their opera singer, but cello and violin) belted out an intense rendition. The song had previously sent Diana Vickers (who has also worked with Ellie Goulding and Starsmith) to number one in the charts.

The band also talked about summer festivals, influences and not having a title for the August released album yet.

♫ HURTS – Once (Diana Vickers Cover (Live @ BBC Radio 6 Music)) (Radio Rip)

You can listen to the whole performance and interview on the BBC iPlayer or at the Live Lounge site.

HURTS @ Beatport

HURTS @ Juno

HURTS @ Amazon

May 29 2010

OMD and Grum on BBC 6 Music’s ‘Back To The Phuture!

OMD ‘‘

This Monday’s (31st May) instalment of Wall Of Sound label boss and Electro guru Mark Jones’s BBC 6 Music radio show Back To The Phuture will feature not only Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark but Grum too!

OMD’s Andy McClusky and Paul Humphries will be chatting to Mark about getting involved with electronic music, their influence on the charts and their forthcoming album, ‘History Of Modern’ and in the final hours Nu-Disco master Grum will be busting out a special 80’s influenced mix of SynthPop new and old.

To wet your appetite check out OMD’s classic ‘Bunker Soldiers’ and Grum’s blog destroying 2009 monster ‘Runaway’:

♫ OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark) – Bunker Soldiers

♫ Grum – Runaway (Radio Edit)

It’s gonna’ be a great show, details here, and you can tune in on iPlayer.

May 29 2010

New SynthPop from Modular’s ceo

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ceo is Modular’s new SynthPop signing and one half of Modular licensed Swedish ElectroPop act The Tough Alliance.

It’s so good to here some new, interesting Electro coming from the Modular house and the half of TTA that is Eric Berglund has carved a unique niche for himself in the ElectroPop field. Creative use of samples sets ceo’s music apart from the pack and the mysterious visuals will certainly keep people intrigued. Keep an ear our of ceo in the coming months.

♫ ceo – Come With Me

‘Come With me is released June 7th followed by the album ‘White Magic’ on Modular Recordings, 28th June.

ceo @ Amazon

May 27 2010

Major Lazer & La Roux partner up to release mixtape

MajorLazer&LaRoux ‘‘‘‘

While in the studio in Jamaica, Electro-Dancehall masters Diplo & Switch A.K.A. Major Lazer put together a mixtape for La Roux, dubbing it ‘Lazerproof’.

Consisting of 14 mash-ups of La Roux’s SynthPop gold with various Dubplates, Blends and Diplo & Switch’s beats featuring the likes of Amanda Blank, Candi Redd and Matthew Hemerlein. If you’ve ever wanted to hear a Dancehall/Electro/Dub/ElectroPop/Hip Hop/SynthPop/Dubstep/Ska collision album then this is the one for you. The whole album works amazingly well and handled masterfully by Major Lazer and all given to you for free via ‘Lazerproof’s mini-site. It’s defiantly different and a perfect way to kick off the summer, in fact in the first 24 hours of release 200,000 seemed to agree and crashed Diplo’s label, Mad Descent’s servers forcing the label to backup the album download at this zShare link!

Here’s some of our favourites from the mixtape:

♫ Major Lazer & La Roux (Feat. Matt Hemerlein) – Bulletproof (Nacey reMix)

♫ Major Lazer & La Roux – Colourless Artibella

♫ Major Lazer & La Roux (Feat. Amanda Blank) – Quicksand (Mad Decent 2010 Rerub)

♫ Major Lazer & La Roux (Feat. Candi Redd) – Independent Kill

Oh, and the mix has an awesome cover featuring an Iron Man armour clad Elly!

Head on over to the Lazerproof mini-site to pick up the mixtape.

Major Lazer @ Beatport

Major Lazer @ Juno

Major Lazer @ 7Digital

May 26 2010

Short Circuit’s new single

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Andrew Verner A.K.A. Short Circuit is fast becoming the king of Robo-Pop. Coming out of L.A.’s Binary family, the go-to gang for forward thinking cotemporary ElectroPop, Short Circuit has been responsible for some awesome reMixes of late, but the time has come for him to release some original material into the wild.

Setting himself apart from the pack with his heavy use of vocodered vocals, his début single, ‘Let Go’, is a robotic love letter set to a soundtrack of warm synth leads and burbling basses. The single is backed by the kind of reMix package that has fans of electronic Pop music grinning like idiots all day after hearing it. Fellow Binary act, the reliably amazing, NightWaves bring a bit more of a Dreamwave flavour to the track, although heavier than you’d expect from these guys They bring the robot to the Disco with some thick bass sounds and screaming synths. Small Pyramids take ‘Let Go’ to a more chilled, atmospheric, place with a deep electronic groove while Popskarr reveal themselves as one to watch after turning in a blinding, funky, late night House mix.

♫ Short Circuit – Let Go (NightWaves reMix)

♫ Short Circuit – Let Go (Small Pyramids reMix)

♫ Short Circuit – Let Go (Popskarr reMix)

♫ Short Circuit – Let Go

‘Let Go’ is Short Circuit,’s first single and will be followed up by an EP later in 2010.

Short Circuit @ Beatport

Short Circuit @ Juno

Short Circuit @ 7Digital

Short Circuit @ Amazon

May 25 2010

More Heaven 17 news

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SynthPop legends Heaven 17 are continuing their current busy schedule, adding to the recently announced tour dates and DJ appearances with a bunch of radio slots.

First up, yesterday they performed alive session, consisting of two tracks from ‘Penthouse And Pavement’ and ‘Temptation’, for Absolute Radio. you can check out a podcast of the session here. Then, on 12th June Glenn Gregory will be the special guest on The Liz Kershaw Show on BBC 6 Music speaking about the 30th anniversary of ‘Penthouse And Pavement’. Finally, on Absolute Radio’s sister station, Absolute 80’s, both Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory will be hosting the Happy Hour show between 12:00 – 13:00, Monday 31st May to Friday 4th June. the guys will be picking their favourite songs from the electronic 80’s, you can listen in here.

♫ Heaven 17 – Penthouse & Pavement

Keep an eye out for news of the special 30th anniversary reissue of ‘Penthouse And Pavement’, full of extras!

May 25 2010

Martyn Ware, Rusty Egan, Howard Jones and Kids On Bridges play tonight’s Back To The Phuture event

BackToThePhuture ‘

There’s still time to pick up a FREE ticket for tonight’s Back To The Phuture event.

As a warm up to their series of live events over the summer, culminating in the opening night of Bestival 2010, Wall Of Sound boss, BBC Radio 6 SynthPop head and all round electronic guru Mark Jones and crew have put together this little line up headlined by a DJ set from Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware! Joining him will be Howard Jones playing a live set, and Mark himself DJ alongside one half of Visage, and the legendary Blitz club’s decks man, Rusty Eagan. Indie-Electro newcomers Kids On Bridges complete the bill with a live set of their poppy Synth Indie.

♫ Kids On Bridges – Check Your Head

Pick up a FREE ticket here, and check Kids On Bridges on MySpace!

Kids On Bridges @ MySpace

May 22 2010

2010 tour from OMD

OMD ‘

Another classic ElectroPop act hitting the road this year is Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark who will, in last October and November, take in most of the UK and a big chunk of Europe.

The ‘History Of Modern’ tour will feature the classic line up of Andy McCluskey, Paul Humphreys, Martin Cooper and Malcolm Holmes and will showcase the bands forthcoming new album, again, titled ‘History Of Modern’ which Andy McCluskey has called “our best album since ‘Architecture And Morality’”.

Here’s one of our favourite OMD tunes, ‘Electricity’:

♫ OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark) – Electricity

The tour will take in a gruelling 17 nights in November across Europe.

UK
29th Oct – Brighton @ Dome
31st Oct – Bristol @ Colston Hall
01st Nov – Nottingham @ Royal Centre
02nd Nov – Glasgow @ Concert Hall
04th Nov – Liverpool @ Arena
05th Nov – Ipswich @ Regent
07th Nov 11 – London @ Hammersmith Apollo
08th Nov – Birmingham @ Symphony Hall

EUROPE
11th Nov – Cologne @ E-Work
12th Nov – Hannover @ Capitol
13th Nov – Leipzig @ Haus Auensee
15th Nov – Stuttgart @ Theatrehaus
16th Nov – Munich @ Tonhalle
18th Nov – Berlin @ Tempoddrom
19th Nov – Hamburg @ Docks
21st Nov – Luxembourg @ (venue TBC)
22nd Nov – Brussels @ Ancienne Belgique
23rd Nov – Amsterdam @ Paradiso
25th Nov – Casino De Paris

OMD @ 7Digital

OMD @ Amazon

May 22 2010

The Sound Of Arrows reMix Lady GaGa

LadyGaga03 ‘

It’s not Lady GaGa’s best song, but it is her new single, and it is elevated to the lofty heights of ‘fucking awesome’ by Swedish SynthPop masters The Sound of Arrows.

‘Alejandro’ is given a complete, smooth SynthPop makeover the way only The Sound Of Arrows can becoming a slice of pure 80’s Pop with the lightest touch of Nu-Disco!

♫ Lady GaGa – Alejandro (The Sound Of Arrows reMix)

The Sound Of Arrows reMix is currently available on ‘The reMix’ and is part of the ‘Alejandro’ single, released 15th June.

Lady GaGa @ Juno

Lady GaGa @ 7Digital

Lady GaGa @ Amazon

May 22 2010

Heaven 17 take ‘Penthouse And Pavement’ on tour

Heaven17 ‘

Hot on the heels of the successful performance of their seminal album ‘Penthouse And Pavement’ in Sheffield (and accompanying BCC documentary), ElectroPop Legends Heaven 17 are taking the show on the road.

Taking in eight cities performing, arguably, their best album in its entirety (plus a few extras), fans in the UK can get a taste of what to expect as the BBC recording of the Sheffield début of the show is available to watch on iPlayer. The tour will expand from that performance to include a six piece band and LED banks showcasing artwork, specially commissioned, from top UK design houses inspired by the classic 1981 album.

Also still available on iPlayer is the documentary screened in conjunction with the gig, ‘Heaven 17: The Story Of Penthouse And Pavement’, it’s a fascinating watch with some great contributions.

To get you in the mood here’s Heaven 17’ 1981 début, and still awesome, ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thing’:

♫ Heaven 17 – (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thing

The tour kick off late December in Edinburgh.

22nd Nov – Edinburgh @ Edinburgh Picture House
23rd Nov – Glasgow @ Glasgow ABC
25th Nov – Manchester @ Manchester Ritz
26th Nov – Birmingham @ Birmingham Institute
28th Nov – London @ London Forum
29th Nov – Oxford – Oxford Academy
30th Nov – Brighton @ Brighton Corn Exchange
01st Dec – Bristol @ Bristol Academy

All this to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album’s release! And there’s more! EMI are putting together a ‘special luxury edition’ of the record for release later in the year!