December has to have the highest concentration of holidays in the fewest number of days. I mean… Hanuka, Christmas, Kwanza, New Year’s Eve, Boxing Day, and of course my birthday, which happens to coincide with New Year’s eve. That’s a lot of holidays! So I’m posting this ahead of time since I will probably be consumed with festivities on December 31st as I’m sure many of you will as well. So here is my birthday/new year’s gift to you, a mix of some of the best remixes I’ve heard this year. Bon nouvelle année et joyeux anniversaire à moi! Lykke Li – Breaking It Up (Punks Jump Up)
Well here it is, the wrap of the best albums of 2008. Here are the links to part one and part two.
30. Black Kids – Partie Traumatic
Black Kids were kind of the Gnarls Barkley of this year, except… without the high powered up and coming producer and and dependable veteran performer. They did however come out of nowhere with a killer single named I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You, despite the title being ridiculously long and well… ridiculous as well, it caught on like wildfire and the kids ate it up like hot cakes. The band uses a bag of tricks including funky guitar solos, warbly synths, cowbells and a Robert Smith-like warble. The rest of the album is full of rich pop tunes and a Robert Smith-esque warble detailing tales of adolescent woes and throes of passion. If you’re looking for a non-stop androgynous dance party look no further than Jacksonville Florida’s own Black Kids.
Speaking of Gnarls Barkley, Beck teamed up with that prodigious producer DJ Danger Mouse for his latest release Modern Guilt. The atmosphere that Danger Mouse brings to the album fits perfectly with the multi-layered stylings of Beck. In fact, many are calling this album Beck’s first album that’s moved forward stylistically since his seminal release “Sea Change”. While “Guerro” and “The Information” did look back back for inspiration I felt that there was some innovative work there that marked progression. The fact that Modern Guilt doesn’t use too much superfluous instrumentation or loops and for the most is composed with ample reverb and less is more composition makes the album Beck’s most raw and intimate release since Sea Change.
Bloc Party’s latest release Intimacy is something of a return to form for the band from their experimental conceptual sophomore album A Weekend in the City. Its like the catchy tunes off of Banquet fused with the jarring emotional content from A Weekend in the City with a pinch of electronic wizardry that can be traced back to the Chemical Brothers and even the Bravery in some spots. There are arpeggios fueling ultra fast ticking drum beats, and even keyboard horns fueling stuttering vocals. There are a few songs where the formula works out a delicate balance of ferocity and melody like the perfect song for the subway Your Visits are getting Shorter and the Cure influenced melody of Letter to My Son. This is the most aggressive collection of songs Bloc Party has ever released. I could see many of these songs playing over loudspeakers during heated UK Soccer games.
27. Flight of the Conchords – Flight of the Conchords
Think “Tenacious D” for the indie rock crowd. Brett and Jermaine bring something special to the table here with their high low harmonies and clever songwriting. All the songs here have been played before on their hit HBO series, but they’re here with renewed vigor. Some songs even have new parts. Like on the homage-hit “Bowie” the end of the song explodes in a “Let’s Dance!” fashion. Likewise, “Robots” puts on it’s dancing shoes for a “Robo-Boogie” segment. They rifle through a lof different genres and crazy ideas and are talented enough to pull them off musicall and lyrically. If you’ve never heard of the before, prepare to listen to nothing but them for an entire month. For real.
Ruby Isle is the flagship property of the Kindercore record label. The lineup is composed of the all-star cast of former beat maker for “We are the World Trade Center”, Dan Geller, rock wild man Mark Mallman, and drummer Aaron Lemay. If you’re looking for an album to get the party started regardless of the crowd Ruby Isle has something for everbody. It’s true it’s dance music, but the ever present guitar riffs and and crazy synth is enough to even get grandma to do the twist. There’s a couple uses of great guest vocals, like the uber low voiced youtube phenomenon Tay Zonday, and the powerful reworking of “Solsbury Hill” featuring Amy Dykes. If you’re looking for a band to play a kicking set during the apocalypse, look no further than Ruby Isle.
I recieved Desmond & The Tutus album “Tuckshop” in my inbox and was immediately intrigued. First off they are named after a famous African holy man that I was not aware of (Thanks Wikipedia!). Secondly, the band is from South Africa. Although all the members are white. This was kind of a let down until I listened to their music. There are few releases that I listen to all the way through beginning all at one time, but the uplifting nature of their guitar rock compositions and borderline satirical lyrics made me listen to this thing the whole way through. From criticizing electro loving geeks (hm) to the best song about swimming I have heard ever. There’s a lot to love here.
The Kindness Kind is a new band out of Seattle, Washington who employs careful guitar work over beautiful piano melodies topped off with the excellent vocals by Alessandra Rose and a pinch of electronica to make some of the most listenable indie pop this year. The Highlight of their self titled album “Houndstooth” starts off with gentle feedback before the jazzy keys and bendy synths are rocketed forward by the paced drums, that navigate the song through several soaring melodies. If you’re looking for a complex but extremely listenable new indie rock band to love, The Kindness Kind should be first on your plate.
If you’re looking for an album released this year that was as filled with youthful elation as much as it was filled with talented instrumentalists and vocalists, look no further, Unicycle Loves You is for you. Each one of their songs explodes in catchy accessible pop with layers of guitars and keyboards atop bangin’ beats. If I had to use other bands to describe their sound I would say they’re like all the fun songs by the Arcade Fire, channeled through The Cars and the Stokes all peppered with a pinch of Lou Reed. That said, there are so many rocking pop songs here that it would be a crime if these guys didn’t get more popular. Long live Unicycle Loves You!
The Slingshot Orchestra has made a distinct progression from their previous release. This time opting for a more lush sound rather than the minimalist german techno sound that people might know them better for. But fear not, there are beats and synths galore here. In addition to those glorious tones, there are also strings, piano, and plethora of other instruments that might sound completely natural but are actually synthesized and played by the band, but you’d be hard pressed to know that just by listening to them. In short, if you’re looking for a tasty slice of electro/synth pop pie, you better order up The Slingshot Orchestra.
Cut Copy’s 2004 release “Bright Like Neon Love”, became one of the sleeper hits for me in the year following. Which led me to be really anticipating their new release “In Ghost Colours”. On “Neon Love”, they showed that they were capable of combining garage rock and electro in a powerful way, but on “In Ghost Colours” they’ve somewhat abandoned that idea in favor of some really poppy electro songs. It marks their progression as a band that they use guitar more for melody than for a slamming riff. All this talk about style changes and guitar might confuse you as to whether or not you can dance to the album. The overwhelming answer is “Yes!”.
It’s kind of funny, during the entire summer I didn’t go to any concerts at all, save for The Faint in Philadelphia. Then when school starts (i.e. when all my free time disappears) I’m going to concerts almost every weekend. Why might this be? Well the number one reason is that I’m currently unemployed! So carting my jobless butt around the greater New York area has never been easier!
This past weekend I once again made the tumultuous trip to Rochester, NY to see Walter Meego and Ra Ra Riot at the Bug Jar. Whose owner, I must add, is a very kind gentleman. There was an opener who went by the name John Moses, who played acoustic guitar and harmonica, he was decent, but not the flavor I was looking for in Roc city. Such is the plight of the opening act.
Walter Meego soon took the stage, adorned with Mickey Mouse T-shirts. They launched into a noisy rendidition of “Wanna Be a Star” that was largely devoid of drum machine, so I feared that I was viewing a repeat of the White Williams show where the band would sound nothing like the CD. Not always a bad thing, but when the Band’s CD is amazing, it’s kind of a let down. Luckily as soon as the guitar reverb faded, Justin Sconza stepped out from behind a tower of Korg keyboards and stood behind a table that had what looked to be million little gadgets. He started gyrating behind the table, indicating that, yes ladies and gentlemen, the beats were about to drop. And they did, and it was good, amen.
The band unleashed some great songs from their debut album “Voyager”, including; “Lost”, their Heinekin hit “Forever”, “Girls”, my brooding favorite “Letting Go”, and the show highlight; the face-melting club destroyer “Keyhole”. Seriously, when I heard the break before the guitar solo, I turned to my girlfriend and said “Oh snap, it’s on!”. For real. The band ended with the slower song “Your Love”, which kind of surprised me considering that they are an electronic/dance/pop act, but their sound was fantastic, and I didn’t mind having my eardrums soothed with some sweet sweet synthesizers. Ra Ra Riot the “Upstate New York Heroes” were next on the ticket and they literally came in the backdoor and brought their equipment with them. The drummer even had to push through the crowd to get to his kit. You’ve got to admire that kind of Pragmatism. Once all the equipment was on the stage, the band sound checked all of the instruments, allowing us to hear some of the violin and cello chops of the band’s lovely ladies. The amicably charming Wesley Miles (Hey, nice name) took the stage and politely apologized for taking so long, and then the band roared into some energetic songs off of their new album, “The Rhumb Line”. Their songs seemed to cast a magic spell on the kids who had, oddly, stood still with their arms crossed occasionally pushing thier black square framed glasses up their noses during Walter Meego. The kids were now actually bobbing their heads. Very Strange. Highlights of the show included, a stirring version of “Ghosts Under Rocks”, Their new single “Dying is Fine” (To which a green shirted bearded man seemed to be testifying to with his hands in the air, reciting the song lyric for lyric), and my favorite song of their set, “Too Too Too Fast”, whose lyrics of frustration over love and eyes (What a great combo), a great violin riff, and of course ample use of John Hughes era keyboards. Despite some equipment malfuntions (Cello amp broke), Ra Ra Riot returned to play an encore of “Hounds of Love” originally by Kate Bush. They put on a fitting warm up show for their high profile hometown gig Sunday at Syracuse University’s Juice Jam opening for Bloc Party. Walter Meego – Keyhole
Yesterday, I was “In the Club” with White Williams. Alfred University’s Knight Club to be exact. After enduring a pretty generic rock band playing pretty generic rock songs and freshmen who had a bit too much energy and a bit too much inclination to mosh to absolutely anything, White Williams arrived. With very few lights on the small Knight Club stage, it was hard to see, but he looked particularly elfish with his button up shirt and rolled up dress pants. He and his two cohorts began what seemed like a sound check at first before launching into a sonic assault of electronic noise and bass explosions. White Williams was armed with what looked like a suitcase with a keyboard, lap top and some mean electronics, while one of his cohorts wielded a guitar with ample effects pedals and the other wielded a high hat, a snare and a sweet looking drum trigger pad.
Whether it was due to the Knight Club’s muddy sound, or the stripped down nature of White William’s live performance, each song off of his debut LP “Smoke”, was transformed into sublime noise rather than sublime electro-pop. His relatively well known singles “New Violence” (The version he played featured samples of Alfred’s Bell Tower) and “Violator” were transformed into throbbing kick drum and snare affairs with a synth loop squiggle here and a guitar lick there. Even though the tight, clear sounding, grooves of his album were pretty indisquishable, the songs were still enjoyable, transformed into noise band type remixes. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but you have to have to commend an artist who surprises his audience, even if it is to mixed results.
Chicago based electro pop-group Walter Meego is comprised of Guitarist/singer Colin Yark and Keyboardist Justin Sconza. Imagine a quirky singer songwriter fuzed at the hip to a keyboard and drum machine; that comes pretty close to what Walter Meego sounds like. Just add in some sweet guitar riffs, some vocoder, and it becomes pretty clear that Walter Meego is a winner.
I had been aware that the Presets had a new album coming out, but not until I listened to it did I know how great of a new album they had. Their first album, Beams, finds the Melbourne duo thrashing through a series of dark lo-fi electro rave-ups and a few surprisingly melodic tunes, most notably “The Girl and the Sea”.
Their new album, Apocalypso, builds on all aspects of their sound.Whereas Beams was unabashedly raw and punky, Apocalypso is more refined. Julian Hamilton’s vocals have never sounded better especially on lead single “The Boy’s in Love”. Another standout track is the Michael Jackson informed “Yippiyo-Ay” which single handedly blew my mind and eliminated the competition for #1 dance song of the summer. The duo have crafted more dark romance into their club anthems reminiscent of the dark lord Sauron commanding an army of undead to dance into the night. The Presets – Yippiyo-Ay
Melbournes’ finest, Cut Copy, return with a new album, “In Ghost Colours”, that plays like a DJ set. The elements of their songwriting have definitely been beefed up. The acoustic guitar is more than a few times front and center and their lyrics have never been so distinguishable. Remember when the Rapture released “Pieces of the People we Love” and how it sounded so much more polished and more coherent than their previous work? “In Ghost Colours” is like that, but Cut Copy were always pretty polished from the beginning, now it sounds like they wrote a song, played it, recorded it, and then remixed it.
Those expecting the raw ferocity of “Twilight” from “Bright like Neon Love” aren’t going to find it here. They will find, however, many jams ready to roll out for an outdoor festival. Even though the guitar doesn’t show up and dominate the music, it does often show up and provide nice melody and rhythm for the most fully formed song structures so far in Cut Copy’s career. Often times Cut Copy uses cheeky sonic references and tricks reminiscent of more traditional club music. It’s like they’re winking at the audience when they pull out a quick house chord progression loop. Using elements like that they manage to turn something that is so easily tacky and cheesy into something that elevates the fun of the music as it is channeled through their sound. Another interesting approach to the production of this album are the ambient sound breaks, where the official songs chill while drones and pleasing hums spiral about until the next song kicks off. This is a little tiresome when listening to the songs on shuffle, but in the order of the album, it makes the anticipation for the next song even greater. I imagine they’ll definitely do the interludes like that live.
With their new release, Cut Copy will gain a wider following, more recognition, and if all was right with the world at least one car commercial licensing deal.
Kimono Kops have realeased 2 new remixes, one of Cut Copy’s “Hearts on Fire” and Goldfrapp’s “A & E”. The Cut Copy remix has all the playfulness of a video game soundtrack while the Goldfrapp remix infuses the psyachadelic original with a thump that’s more reminiscent of her ‘Supernature’ work, the last 40 seconds are gold.
I apologize for the lack of posts in the month of April, due to some academic/social activities the blog was put way on the back burner, but guess what? I’m back. Also, a new Wesley cartoon. Could life be any sweeter? Well, if school was over and the summer was here… all in good time.
December has to have the highest concentration of holidays in the fewest number of days. I mean… Hanuka, Christmas, Kwanza, New Year’s Eve, Boxing Day, and of course my birthday, which happens to coincide with New Year’s eve. That’s a lot of holidays! So I’m posting this ahead of time since I will probably be consumed with festivities on December 31st as I’m sure many of you will as well. So here is my birthday/new year’s gift to you, a mix of some of the best remixes I’ve heard this year. Bon nouvelle année et joyeux anniversaire à moi!
