Kev Kharas
RCRD LBL BLOGGER
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The Prodigy and Plan B. Two acts who, at the start of their careers, you couldn't have imagined winding up in the mainstream. But wind up there they have, both possessing the ability to snare a large amount of ears with music that, to put it bluntly, is often as rough as hell. Here, The Prodigy remix Ben Drew's "ill Manors", which means breakbeats and guitars together in the kind of harmony enjoyed by sheets of sandpaper and beds of nails. The original is out March 26, and is taken from Plan B's forthcoming album ill Manors. The LP is out May 14, and has the same name as Plan B's new film, which is out May 4. Got all that? Well I'm glad that you do, because otherwise I may have had to kick you until you weren't able to move any more.
As much as this Jakwob remix of Jakwob's "Electrify" (that's what a VIP Remix is, dummy) might honk and scream and clang and generally behave like a bull after too much Red Bull in an antique china shop, it's interesting to note that vocalist Jetta is emoting pretty hard. I don't know what she's so upset about, but the bass seems to know, somehow, wub-wub-wubbing along like Gazza's wobbly jaw. It's all high drama, so I'm glad it's arriving on a Friday, because I wouldn't want you to hear this on a Tuesday and spend days with the rave equivalent of blue balls. The original version of this arrives February 27.
Though they started their recording careers decades apart from each other, in many ways The Duke Spirit and Gary Numan are kindred spirits. They both seem to enjoy extracting moments of soaring joy out of music that, in any other hands, would sound like doldrums. Maybe it's because of that that they share another characteristic: the ability to take the musical equivalent of pleather and turn it into musical velvet. The sexiness on Numan's remix of The 'Spirit's "Surrender" is unsettling, but in a nice way, like having a dream about ridiculous sex that you in no way can be blamed for because, well, it was a dream.
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Atari Teenage Riot have only ever done one remix before this, but it remains no surprise to find Salem shining in the sludge of it. For starters, ATR's Alec Empire and the Michigan drag trio are more than vaguely kindred spirits, reveling in the same musically murky and emotionally ambiguous spaces. And then there's the fact that Salem often sound like this by themselves anyway; pretty and horrible, weird and familiar, desperate and aloof all at the same time. Just like Alice Deejay.
Everyone better leave Lana Del Rey alone or I'll get real mad and tear up the place. And by 'place', I of course mean 'the Internet', which is in thrall to LDR again today after this ridiculously stunning performance on Letterman last night. This Guxxi Vump remix of "Born To Die" finds its drama in different places, reining in Lana's vocal refrain and then unleashing it in rapid-fire button-punch-combos that'll leave you staggering all over the club without the aid of overpriced intoxicants this evening.
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(Photo: Steve Gullick)
It's not immediately clear what's making The Do feel so peaky on this club-rock Mylo remix of "Gonna Be Sick." I feel like I vomit when I drink too much sometimes, or I try to read a book on the bus, or when I decide to smoke before I get out of bed in the morning. After a few listens, The Do's nausea seems to stem from none of these things, but from a certain emotional condition. Love, maybe? I don't know, I don't want to talk about feelings all that much, it'd just make you puke. The Do's album is out now, and the original of this arrives as a single on February 6 through Village Green.
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Hey everyone, Fair Ohs is finding its own groove! I gotta admit, for a while I thought the London band had spent a bit too much time listening to Abe Vigoda, but on "Gold Hill" they show me up for the idiot that, deep down, I truly am: lithe vines of guitar cascading over the kind of rhythm that makes me wanna see dogs dance. You're all dogs, right? Then go sick this on the B-side of Fair Ohs new single "Salt Flats", which is streaming here and out now through X-Ray. Better still, pick up a flexi-postcard featuring both tracks and personalized messages from the band for way cheap. Flexi-postcard? Yeah, it's a postcard you can play on a record player. Don't ask me how it works. What do I look like, a fucking prophet?
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Everyone knows who the Scissor Sisters are, but who's Krystal Pepsy? It's Azealia Banks, silly, looming over this track she co-wrote with Jake Shears and his mates. As you'd expect, given Ms Banks involvement and Silkie's remix skills, this version of "Shady Love" is club: snares pushing the melodies on as synths drizzle over the top like crystal bliss melting in the pit of your belly.
Recently confirmed as main support for SBTRKT's forthcoming headline tour, you don't have to squint too much at all to see Disclosure making similar strides towards the ears of daytime radio listeners. This Amusement remix of "Flow" flutters and bubbles and pulses in ways that seem made to lure in gifted young vocalists – let's say: if gifted young vocalists were fish, this would be the tastiest maggot in the box. And it's not often you get to say that about... anything, really. Find the original of this alongside "Tenderly" on Disclosure's new double A-side single, out February 6 through Make Mine.
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People look at how flippant pop stars are today, and they blame it on the 1980s. "The 1980s," they almost always think to themselves, "were a simpler time – but not in the same way as the 1930s were a simpler time. It wasn't a golden age, people were just sociopathic wankers. That's why they listened to synthpop then and every pop song now has a synth in it because everyone now is a sociopathic wanker, just like they were in the 1980s." And then you listen to Silver Swans' Ann Yu using the clear, sparkling lines of "Let It Happen" to try to find a pathway through the mazz of her own emotions, and you realize who the real sociopaths are.
