PREMIERE: Sleep Party People - Heavy Burden (Young Midnight Remix)
And in today’s 'giving you nightmares forever' news, is Sleep Party People’s press pic. Sleep? Ha! I’ll never sleep again after looking at that. It’s like the Velveteen Rabbit mated with a cult from Portlandia. Good thing their weepy Danish dance is so fun in the hands of Young Midnight (neé Russell from Twin Shadow) on “Heavy Burden.” It’s twenty-something, high-just-kicked-in, city-lights-ablaze electropop in the vein of early Cut Copy. A super salve for a weekday mental hangover and a nip of what new record We Were Drifting On A Sad Song is all about. Keep waiting for that Young Midnight record though; it’s not out yet.
DOWNLOAD: Van She - Idea Of Happiness (SebastiAn Remix)
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Having already extolled the island virtues of Van She’s original “Idea Of Happiness” single, how much more stoked can we even get for the SebastiAn remix? Just watch us. Techier, flashier, smashier, it is! The instruments now sound as crumpled as kindergarten construction paper, with the boys tearing them to shreds with round scissors while blithely singing their angled dance anthem. Good stuff: enough for the creators to dream up a fan video contest for which you can enter here. No good with the hand-cam? You can still buy up the remix package or album on Modular, come July 6.
DOWNLOAD: Superhumanoids - I Wanna Be Sedated (Ramones Cover)
(Photo: Garret Curtis)
Last time we heard a cover of the Ramones seminal “I Wanna Be Sedated” was a shameful adulteration during an otherwise dope episode of My So-Called Life. Lucky for us, that memory has faded to dust with Superhumanoids’ glacial take, which veers so far from punk rock that it slips in the gentle folds of dissonant slumberland; the vocals like hypnotic flutes, the synths like lapping waves, the end result a soporific tumble into an bedroom pop safehouse. Curl up while you await the arrival of LP Exhibitionists, later this year.
DOWNLOAD: The Golden Filter - Kill Me (Leo Zero Remix)
A little twinkle, a little drumkit and a little siren song make for a nice electropop plea from The Golden Filter and prolific remixer Leo Zero. The track’s title “Kill Me” totally belies its infectious danceability; it’s kind of like a muted, downcast “I Will Survive.” Liquid and breathy, shimmering and sinking, this one blows through with a quiet strength and lives on the Kill Me EP, along with the original and other turns by John Talabot, Fusty Delights and more.
DOWNLOAD: School Of Seven Bells - The Night (Rewards Remix)
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It’s just pure, unadulterated dance when Rewards teams up with School Of Seven Bells. Scratchy bass fades into songbird vocals and piano clangs before dissolving into a disco-esque snap’n’clap daydream. Then there are (what sounds a bit like and we pray are) electric violin samples from that one scene in Revenge Of The Nerds. Then things spin into tribal land with maracas and jet beat downturns. "The Night" is so weird, so right.
DOWNLOAD: Pat Jordache - Get It + Phantom Limb
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Not to sound all fanboy, but Pat Jordache and his tropical Joy Division modeling was one of the best stage shows we’ve seen all year. Dude can sing; dude can shake. Let his uncanny baritone tremble through you as sunburnt riffs glint on in “Get It” before splashing into the ghostly hum and ecstatic cacophony of “Phantom Limb.” And then pick up the rest of Future Sounds before seeing Jordache yourself, who’s out touring with tUnE-yArDs as we speak.
PREMIERE: Miracle Fortress - Immanent Domain + Raw Spectacle (Pantha du Prince Remix)
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Dual gifts this morning from one of Montreal’s finest and most generous: Miracle Fortress first enchants with the rump-shaking “Immanent Domain” (an electropop gem slick with clean guitars, quirky looped beats, and candied dance vocals) and then with Pantha du Prince’s dulcet rework of “Raw Spectacle,” which pleasantly thumps along for two minutes before allowing Graham Van Pelt’s beachy breath to penetrate its chilly techno fortress. Both totally different, both totally great. Was I The Wave? is the name of Miracle’s LP out now on Secret City, and you should definitely go buy it.
Miracle Fortress - Immanent Domain
Miracle Fortress - Raw Spectacle (Pantha du Prince Remix)
Get More Pantha du Prince Music Here
DOWNLOAD: James Vincent McMorrow - Shells of Silver (White Sea Remix)
Setting White Sea’s ghostly foam atop James Vincent McMorrow’s emotive Dublin folk accomplishes what all great remixes should: it colors the original entirely anew. Now “Shells of Silver” (at first a fluttery collabo between JVM and The Japanese Popstars) has turned into a frosty electropop tundra crackling with purposeful syncopations, ice floe melodies and heartbreakingly intimate vocals from both Miss Kibby and Mr. McMorrow. Their only misstep? That they've not yet completed an entire LP available of songs like this and only this. Get on that, guys.
James Vincent McMorrow - Shells of Silver (White Sea Remix)
Get More James Vincent McMorrow Music Here
