Space-age electronic soul R&B with gargantuan hip-hop undertones and an experimental palette. Isn't 2012 so 2012? It is for AlunaGeorge, who push all my buttons (other than dad rock) once again with "Your Drums, Your Love." It's a great balance of way weird and pop potential for the London duo with an eye-dilating chorus and enough electro-screwiness to tweak your face out. This one is gonna be huge.
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Talk Talk’s ten-year reign as Britain’s coolest amorphous rock band, with styles shifting from new wave trailblazing in the early ‘80s to post rock conclusions in the early ‘90s, was a great one, and we’re sad it’s over. So, too, are acts of today who’ve also been deeply touched by Talk Talk’s work: Grandaddy, Arcade Fire, members of Depeche Mode, Bon Iver, The Verve, Guillemots and more. To pay tribute they’ve compiled a blango double LP called Spirit Of Talk Talk and wrapped it in the band’s scrapped sleeve art from 1983. Today’s taste? Zero 7’s rendition of “The Colour Of Spring” (feat. Only Girl), an electronica aerial swirl crucial for anyone in need of a reset. Fall in, then pre-order away.
Who’s “Too Young For Love”? Not you and not me, surely. But for Superhumanoids, that’s the problem, and floor-scraping reverb, marathon synths and space bongo hooks are the answer. Gusty lament meets buoyant futurism in a dreampop anthem so infectious and pulpy, you’ll be picking at its pretty strands for weeks to come. Actually, you’ll be holding close even longer, as debut Exhibitionists doesn’t drop until next year, though show dates are available now.
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The story goes that after Alpines was jettisoned from Planet Fairest Of Them All for having unsurpassed bone structure, they landed upon a bed of pearls and fireflies, gathered berries and silk chemises and then devised how to beget their beauty in other ways: namely creating cumulous milkpop. “Chances” is the cream of the leaked crop (others being the also-excellent “Cocoon” and “Empire”), cinematic, soporific and R&B if it weren’t so avant-pop. Fall into the stream below, watch the video and await with bated breath the Early Hours EP, slated for October 8.
My gushing over Frank Ocean’s “Thinking About You” has been well-documented on this site, as well as my love for Nite Jewel. Well today, everything’s coming up Kaylor with Nite Jewel and Nicholas Krgovich’s lounge cover that casts a red velvet and martini light on the original’s falsetto chill. This one’s a warm duet: a little swingy, a little campy and a whole lot of lovely. I need these two to sing at my imaginary wedding. How much do you think it would cost? Likely much more than Nite Jewel’s first album, soon to be reissued through the good people at Secretly Canadian.
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Nothing but BBQ music this fine day from righteously named funk-rockers Theme Park and discopop manhandler Gigamesh. “Jamaica” has all the makings of a well-deserved Saturday night (handclaps, juicy synths, cowbell) and all the sentiment of a lazy Tuesday afternoon (boat shoe vocals, easygoing bridges, warbling lyricism). Peep the original here while you await that Talking Heads-leaning debut from the band next year.
Not that seminal rockers Duran Duran (coined Brit-rock forefathers, New Romantics, tropical-poppers, ‘80s overlords, pretty boy synth kings and a hundred other monikers that don’t encapsulate their true impact on the music world) need an introduction. So, we won’t even try. What we will do is gift an elegant, hardcore and wildly mellifluous club refit of "The Man Who Stole a Leopard" by Gosteffects who imparts his usual brash menagerie of Dutch house, kick drums and a dash of dubstep. More info on what's next for the band, right here.
Lookie here. Ben Cook aka Young Governor aka the guitarist from Fucked Up, has a new synthpop project called Yacht Club, which is just as instructionally named as his other band. While the former is hardcore, the latter is decidedly softcore, so gushy in fact, that the group’s adjoining video for its Nonnavera Mixtape is a ‘80spolsion of shoulder pads and sideways glances, Vaseline lenses and suspect décor choices (red and green lights, smoke machines, a checkerboard floor). But unlike most other musical homages to the era of New Romanticism, this one gets it right. Download it through Pretty Pretty and Bandcamp for the sweet price of ‘name-your-own-even-if-it’s-nothing,' load in and then march thee to a white suit shop.
(Photo: Thea Hermansen)
Why does every great Norwegian pop tune sound like it could soundtrack the credits of The Last Unicorn? Where does one harvest such rocketing synths, syrupy crashes, strings and woodwinds that sway and fall like dandelions in the wind? Surely the answers lie somewhere in the liner notes of Highasakite's “Indian Summer,” a quintessential heartbreak gem that’ll knock the air from your lungs, note by note. But until the release is pressed on August 20 via Riot Factory, you, like us, will know nothing of why and only of what is. Which is not bad, considering you, like us, get to splash in this mpfree as long as you have ears.
"Look At Where We Are" is one of those Hot Chip songs that will define the beginnings and ends of relationships – from pure elation to staring-at-the-ceiling-forever defeat. Oh, and it's also prime for remixing because it's a real song. Here, Four Tet does his thing, tapping into the emotion of the original and eventually grinding it so far down that it just becomes an awesome Four Tet track. Hot Chip's new one, In Our Heads, is out now on Domino.
