August 13 2008
Make sure you dancing shoes have thick soles, ‘cause Matthew Dear’s four-hour DJ set on Thursday night at Ete D’Amour in New York is sure to burn them down to nothing. We’ve got two pairs of tickets to give away to the Ghostly signee’s epic throwdown, happening in the magnificent upstairs room at new downtown spot Santo’s Party House (partly owned by Andrew W.K. and packing probably the best soundsystem in the city, trust us). To enter to win, sign up for our MP3 of the day newsletter and then e-mail contests@rcrdlbl.com with the subject “MATTHEW”. We’ll holler at you if you’re chosen. Just hurry up, deadline is tomorrow at 3PM!
Download: Matthew Dear - Don't Go This Way
Download: Matthew Dear - Future Never Again
Download: Matthew Dear - Making Out
Stream: Matthew Dear - Pom Pom / Midnight Lovers
Matthew Dear's RCRD LBL Page
True; the Ting Tings' drummer Jules De Martino and singer Katie White resemble 'rocker' Ken and Barbie and carve infectious beats to which even a blind-folded-beerponger-10-beers-in can't resist head-beating. It’s little surprise these hotshots are winning Billboard’s popularity contest.
But leave it to slick DJs LA Riots to inject a bit of danceable darkness to the track “That’s Not My Name.” They've overlaid classic electro-house beats and twisted in a trusty techno stutter so Katie sounds like she’s got dance-induced Tourette's Syndrome…This shit is fierce; it'll have you disco-balling till dawn.
SOUNDS LIKE: Seamus Haji (i.e. Last Night A DJ Saved My Life), The Pipettes, LA Riots
Exclusive New Download: The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name (LA Riots Remix)
The Ting Tings @ Myspace
The Ting Tings' Website
LA Riots @ Myspace
Treasure Fingers’ debut single “Cross The Dancefloor” (out now on Fool's Gold) rolls all our footwork necessities into one twenty-first century disco burrito: Vocodered call-and-response chorus lines, roller-rink grooves, slimy moog dashes, frolicking on shag carpet with your boo (ok, maybe I just imagined that), it’s all there. So we’re excited our FG partners hooked up a fantastic exclusive remix of the track from Lifelike, heir-apparent to the Braxe/Falke/Falcon throne of French-touch house. Dude chops the original’s sample up into tiny elastic shards, scattering them around a solid low-end thump and finishing it with the familiar French sounds of funk guitar swipes and jaggedly edited fills. It’s addictive as hell, so be careful you don’t unknowingly tell your boss to “Shake it cross the dancefloor,” when you’re jamming this on the iPod in the elevator. Also, if you're down under, be sure to check the Atlanta native on a short Aussie tour he's got going on next week. Dates are up at his MySpace.
Sounds like: DJ Falcon, K.I.M., Justice
Exclusive Download: Treasure Fingers - Cross The Dancefloor (Lifelike Remix)
Treasure Fingers' RCRD LBL Page
Fool's Gold's RCRD LBL Page
Buy the "Cross The Dancefloor" single at Beatport
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The Parisian trio, dOP took on its current form after personal tragedy, the sudden death of their guitarist. But rather than let their mourning affect the tone of their music, Dam, Clement and Jo embraced a sort of wary optimism, as well the structural templates of dance music. But their free spirited approach to music in the first place (aided by the mentoring duo of French pranksters, Noze) meant these "constraints" were actually be great opportunities. Now the group often skronks, slinks, slouches, slugs and sates in their jazz-inflected style to a swinging beat. This rather unique sound has landed the band spots on Milnor Modern, Circus Company and Orac Records.
The two tunes we have for you display both ends of the dOP spectrum: "Between the Blues," from the EP of the same name, finds the trio channeling the Neptunes' Pharrell Williams, cobbling together a drippy/blippy hip-hop beat over which Jo launches his slant rhymes. By contrast, "Cum With Me" is the band's twisted take on straightforward house, heavily pocked by sax blurts, ostinato synth riffs and helium-breathed vocals. It's easy to grapple with the titular double entendre while letting your hindquarters decide what's best, a trait dOP makes maximum use of. Their birth may have coincided with tragedy, but dOP's open-minded, malleable sound seems to predict a bright and quirky future.
Sounds Like: Noze, Gnarls Barkley gone house, Outkast
Download: dOP - Cum With Me
Download: dOP - Between the Blues
dOP's website
dOP @ Myspace
dOP @ RCRD LBL
Buy dOP releases
August 12 2008
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This year, RCRD LBL attended the Oya Festival and was shell-shocked by the amount of indie talent there. Bundled in the mix was a new-comer, Lama, (i.e. Nils Martin Larsen) who performed live with a 6-piece band. While the live show is meant to shock the senses, the track below portrays a softer side of Lama. It's woozy and dream-like, evoking the computer wizardry of Radiohead and atmospheric tendrils of Sigur Ros.
SOUNDS LIKE: Radiohead, Sigur Ros
Download: Lama - Innocent Bystander
Lama @ Myspace
It's not every day that you hear a rapper rhyme about "hundred-dollar" jeans. That's a pretty modest boast, and Common Market seem like humble dudes, rapping about CSPAN, elitists, and rap's history over a beat of filtered Moogs and snappy drums in "Crucible". I like that. Grab the track below and watch for some solid record cutting at the end, making us wonder whatever happened to rap songs with scratching? I know: autotune.
Sounds like: Atmosphere, Aesop Rock, Spank Rock
Download: Common Market - Crucible (feat. Geologic)
Common Market's RCRD LBL Page
Four-on-the-floor kick drums in rock songs are, to me anyway, the holy grail of percussion. Who doesn’t love stammering along, looking like Joe Strummer caught in a discotheque, all poised upper body and constantly jacking legs. The heartbeat metaphor is too easy, but it’s also hard to avoid, the drum's constant pulse infecting the veins of those listening or watching like a rhythmic disease. Tussle’s “Night Of The Hunter” rocks one of the best four-on-the-floors I’m jamming too right now, buffering it with two-note bass drone, sampled piano and reversed bites of sound. Halfway through, the beat cuts and all that’s left is the echoing feedback of looped samples, which drift away until the drums come back, the bass goes lower, and the song turns into a shuffling disco freak out. It’s one hell of a journey—and an instrumental one at that—but it’s a healthy preview to the San Francisco troupe’s Cream Cuts, due August 26 on Smalltown Supersound. As the headline on their MySpace says, “Give the drummer some <3”.
Sounds like: Nisennenmondai, Battles, Crystal Antlers
Download: Tussle - Night Of The Hunter
Tussle's RCRD LBL Page
London producer The Bug (born Kevin Martin and fka GOD and Techno Animal) makes trippy, rotund bass tracks, songs that bend and sway like the late DJ Screw making dubstep beats. His new album London Zoo is a bruising headphone masterpiece, flipping from high-energy dancehall bombs to slower sample-heavy jams that sound like the soundtrack to a slo-mo shootout scene in a neo-noir flick. Today we have “Flying” an EXCLUSIVE unreleased track that wears its dub on its sleeve—sampled downtempo hits echoing around and an tenuous but optimistic reggae vocal (“My music makes people smile”). I don't know about smiling, but there is some serious head-nodding going on here right now. And while The Bug’s tunes might find acceptance amongst the Rizzla-rolling youths of Brixton, this is still music for everyone, even those without a hoodie in the closet.
Sounds like: Flying Lotus, 77Klash, Lee "Scratch" Perry
Exclusive Download: The Bug - Flying
The Bug's RCRD LBL Page
