Kev Kharas
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Enthusiasm, falsettos, child choirs and the-falling-in-love-every-five-minutes - there's something about Passion Pit that just screams youth, so it's no surprise to learn that the latest kids to remix them look about 12 and are the youngest DJs ever to record an Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1. Ain't nothing dance-geek about Jaymo & Andy George - there's a little Moroder in there at the start, sure, but on the whole they're faithful to "Little Secrets"' carefree buoyancy, working it up into unabashed chart-house for you to smile at and make up funny dance routines to.
Sounds Like: Fenech-Soler, Spiller, Calvin Harris
Passion Pit - Little Secrets (Jaymo & Andy George Remix)
Previously:
Passion Pit - To Kingdom Come (Artwork Remix)
Passion Pit - Sleepyhead
Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (Landau 'Wake Up' Remix)
Passion Pit - Moth's Wings
Passion Pit - The Reeling (Shuttle's Super Club Mega Mix '99)
Passion Pit's RCRD LBL Page
London's A Mountain Of One are usually to be found wandering more astral planes, but this stripped down version of their desert-rocking, psych-funking, prog-haunted "Bones" gets to the heart of the matter, vocalist and pianist Zeben Jameson sounding like he's delivering this with all his bandmates passed out around him. My guess is there was a full moon and all the peyote had run out - catch them (presumably re-addled) with Glass Candy and other Italians Do It Better reps at Cargo in London this Saturday, November 7.
Sounds Like: Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Frankie Goes To Hollywood
A Mountain Of One - Bones (Acoustic Version)
A Mountain Of One's RCRD LBL Page
French name, German sound, London's Allez Allez take a break from releasing legendary Seventies bands to issue a single of their own that sounds like the national anthem for a new krautopian state. Buffeted along on a steady, driving beat, "Slump"'s curious synths find a home on the b-side of "Defeatist", the blogger/remix duo's debut single for Kompakt's Kickboxer imprint.
Sounds Like: Harmonia, Blondes, The Emperor Machine
Allez Allez - Slump
Allez Allez's RCRD LBL Page
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It's probably too late for ghoul puns now, but you suspect that for Zola Jesus it's Halloween all year round. Taken from recent album The Spoils, "Smirenye" is as haunted as anything else Nika Rosa Danilova's put her name to thus far, either alone or alongside Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart and Freddy Rupert in Former Ghosts. Former ghosts? What do ghosts become after they die? Where do they go? Do they weep? Zola knows. Just look into those eyes.
Sounds Like: U.S. Girls, Kate Bush, Trailer Trash Tracys
Zola Jesus - Smirenye
Previously:
Zola Jesus - Last Day
Zola Jesus - Sea Talk
Zola Jesus's RCRD LBL Page
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Whatever the nomenclature tells you, this is not the music of a Pariah. The young London producer's remix of Bombay Bicycle Club's "Always Like This" is pretty much unrecognisable, warped into something blissed out and Balearic, full-on social. If I was having a party, I'd want Pariah to be there. I think you would, too.
Sounds Like: Aphex Twin, M83, Teengirl Fantasy
Bombay Bicycle Club - Always Like This (Pariah Mix)
Previously:
Bombay Bicycle Club - Dust on the Ground (Banjo Or Freakout Remix)
Bombay Bicycle Club's RCRD LBL Page
(Photo: Fumi Nagasaka)
Kap Bambino aren't playing anywhere this weekend, which is pretty weird as their ghoulish, black-eyed electro is a perfect fit for the gore and tack of Hallowe'en. Jackson knows that, at least; romping with Kap in the "Batcave" catacombs beneath Paris. It wouldn't surprise me if you found them there this weekend, actually - if you lack the balls to investigate, you can catch Kap Bambino on a winter tour that spans three continents and starts at London's Old Blue Last next Tuesday, November 3rd.
Sounds Like: Crystal Castles, The Death Set, Supertramp
Kap Bambino - Batcaves (Jackson Remix)
Kap Bambino's RCRD LBL Page
Who would have thought it - Apache Beat, just as at home in Fabric as they are on Native American reservations. Cubic Zirconia have turned "Your Powers Are Magic" into something of a totem pole for club kids and chieftains alike, huge, whomping bass bins stacked high to rally around, vocals chopped and screwed into strange mantras.
Sounds Like: Matias Aguayo, Benny Benassi
Apache Beat - Your Powers Are Magic (Cubic Zirconia Remix)
Previously:
Apache Beat - Tropics (Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya Remix)
Cubic Zirconia - Fuck Work (Paper Villians & Jubilee Remix)
Cubic Zirconia - Fuck Work (DaM-FunK Remix)
Apache Beat's RCRD LBL Page
To be straight with you, I never thought I'd hear reinterpretations of the music Arthur Russell made - despite his entanglement in that world of disco edits and refixes, a lot of his music just seemed too personal and private for that. But it kind of makes sense if you think about it: if it seemed personal and private to me, then I suppose it must do for a lot of other people too. A lot of those other people - Faze Action singer Mary Moore, My Tiger My Timing and New Young Pony Club's Andy Spence among them - have banded together under the name Killer Whale to offer their own takes on some of Arthur's most seminal cuts. Here, it's the turn of Brooklyn's Pocketknife to chance his arm - along with new Rough Trade singer Joe Worricker and fellow Londoner Ray Burst. Personally, I think it works great - what do you think? Snap up the wax over at Juno or head along to the Killer Whale album launch party at London's Relentless Garage (November 27) to make your feelings known.
Sounds Like: ESG, Hercules & Love Affair, Arthur Russell
Pocketknife - Get Around To It (feat. Joe Worricker) (Ray Burst Remix) (Arthur Russell Cover)
Pocketknife's RCRD LBL Page
"A 'peephole'," Wikipedia tells us, "is a small opening cut in a door, typically to allow people inside to see outside without opening that door." OK - so quoting Wikipedia is pretty much the laziest thing that anyone can possibly do, but for Brighton duo Peepholes the definition's too apt not to use, "Airforce Trainer" so obviously the result of two lonely people making music in a bunker somewhere. The great thing about the track though is that it'd sound equally at home spinning around and around and around in a jet engine, such is its thrust and the roar of its electronics. Tell me that when those synths rise up from the song it doesn't sound just a little like "Virginia Plain" - "Virginia Plane"?! No, because that would just not be funny in the slightest.
Sounds Like: Gentle Friendly, Roxy Music, No Age
Peepholes - Airforce Trainer
Peepholes' RCRD LBL Page
This is early, early, early grime, but "Eskimo" still sounds righteous and alien after almost a decade's worth of plays, edits and imitators. Roll Deep may lack a bit of bite now that their star players have gone onto bigger and better (Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder have long flown the nest, while even founding duo Wiley and Flow Dan have forged more impressive paths elsewhere) but this, from two years before Dizzee's debut album was released, is a bracing reminder that the world would sound very different right now if it weren't for Roll Deep - listen to this mix by London's slather-worthy newcomer Jam City for proof of that. Chart their influence in full on Street Anthems, a retrospective of greatest hits and unheard gems out this week through Southern.
Sounds Like: east London
Roll Deep - Eskimo
Roll Deep's RCRD LBL Page
