Erol Alkan & Boys Noize - Waves / Death Suite EP

Salt n' Pepa. Mel and Kim. Diplo and Switch. French and Saunders. Jigga and Bouncy.

How I enjoy a famous coupling. How's about everyone's favourite electro-tech wizard Boys Noize and seminal scene establisher Erol Alkan? Although their working relationship goes a long way back, this EP is the first time we've seen them go fully beat to beat on production duties together. Suffice to say, it's an absolute monster.

What with the ever increasing prevalance of harder edged tech-house slowly swooping in and brushing more commercial electro to the side, these leaders of the scene have put together a release with an almightily rugged kick.

Death Suite is marginally less strong than Waves. Seemingly taking their cue from The Chemical Brothers 'Electronic Battle Weapon' series, it's a rough and ready acid techno number. Utterly relentless and completely unforgiving it ploughs on despairingly with acid squiggles, tiny vocal snippets, occasional snares and even a little bit of cowbell. If this is what to expect from death, I'm quite excited.

Waves is the big one from this EP. Clearly destined to be whipped out by all sorts of DJs in all sorts of scenarios, I can see it being highly auspicious in the Bestival dance tent come September. Although still pretty tough, it has a little more melody going on, mainly built around arpeggiated synth patterns. The track also brings in some pretty gnarly tribal disco percussion before dropping out to nothing around the 3 minute mark. From there we get a gradual ascent into more synths, drum patterns, the sound of jumping into the ocean (no, really) and lasers zooming by in the background. Fantastically overblown and somewhat ridiculous, it seems we have an anthem in the making.

Exciting news too, Bristol's very own MonkeyKnifeFight! will be hosting an album launch party at the Thekla for the new Boys Noize album 'Power'. For those not in the know, The Thekla is the-best-boat-that's-also-a-club the UK has to offer and puts on all sorts of amazing parties all the time. Check the facebook event HERE.

And finally, check the video below of Erol and Alex rocking Germany's Melt festival with Waves.

BACK FROM THE DEAD

IT'S TRUE.

WE ARE ALIVE ONCE MORE.

WATCH YOUR BACK.

MEN - Simultaneously

MEN are not men. Well, mostly not. In their first incarnation, MEN were primarily a DJ collective dabbling in a little bit of remixing and production, comprised of JD Samson and Johanna Fateman, two thirds of cult lesbian dance-punk band Le Tigre.

MEN have now expanded to a full live band with their own original songs, no longer featuring Fateman (although she's helping out behind the scenes) and including Ginger Brooks Takahashi and Michael O'Neill. The music they're producing isn't especially groundbreaking, being punk-funk and slotting in comfortably alongside much of Le Tigre's back catalouge, as well as similar bands like LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture and !!! (Chk Chk Chk). However, since Le Tigre were so good at what they did, the production on MEN's material is top notch.

Of the several tracks the collective have released into the blogosphere, Simultaneously is the clear stand out. It's a combination of gently pounding beats, touches of tropical percussion, restrained strummed guitars, and a melancholy melody that shares alot in common with 80's post punk. All the different elements of the song are quite subtle, and it's the way they interplay with each other that makes the song so special. At six and half minutes long it's fairly lengthy, but due to a gradual build and a lovely vocal, it flies by.

Check the brilliant Ohh! Crappp... blog HERE for a free download of the song along with two others. MEN's newest track Make It Reverse is also to be featured on the forthcoming Kitsune Maison 7, a trailer for which can be watched below.

Salem - OhK

Somewhere in the void between My Bloody Valentine, Burial, The Knife, Three Six Mafia, Mazzy Star, Flying Lotus, The Cocteau Twins and Prefuse 73 lies Salem. Whilst that might seem like a far too disparate list of artists to place a group in it's the best I can offer you. Salem make dark, distorted and disturbing pop music. Still sound a bit wrong? Well it is. Incorporating various genres (Shoegaze/Electronica/Goth/Instrumental hip-hop/dubstep) and mashing up terrifying waves of feedback, spooky snythesizers, delay effects, crunk beats and vocals digitally altered to sound like Satan himself they've created a sound that is wholly their own. "That's not pop music!" you scream. Well, lurking beneath the surface of the majority of their songs are very beautiful melodies, breathy vocals and solid song structures. So not pop music in any traditional sense, but it's there all the same.

New track OhK is, appropriately, the poppiest track they have unleashed upon the public. It shares more with disco than any of their previous numbers, with more regular and faster beats, a tangible bassline and (relatively) straightforward vocals. It's not dissimilar to semi-odd electronic popsters Telepathe, their closest musical contemporaries. It's very good too, and might gain them some exposure outside of Muso circles. Interestingly a previous single, Redlights, closed Sinden's recent Fabriclive, a long running CD mix series.

The Salem EP is available from all the usual places, including iTunes where it retails at a very bargainous 1.99 for 4 tracks. Check them out on myspace HERE, where there are a number or tracks in their player. Also, watch a frankly quite terrifying garage-cum-strip-club-cum-sci-fi-film video for their track Dirt below. If I had to sum Salem up in a sentence, I think it would be something like 'The wrongest, whitest, darkest hip-hop you've ever heard'. But I'm not sure that's even getting close...

Beats and Pieces - Back on air tonight!

The easter eggs have been eaten, most of the hardcore deadlines have been reached or are within touching distance and the sun is shining gloriously over London town. Was there ever a better time for Beats and Pieces to return to the airwaves of Smoke Radio? No there wasn't! I've acquired an abundance of shockingly brilliant music in the last month, so expect a particularly rambunctious show this evening as we go into the home straight before the summer holidays. On between 7-8pm (GMT) and featuring music from the likes of:

Altern-8
(as part of the 'One For The Aging Raver' - likely to blow the bloody doors of your room / house / building)

Peaches
(new material where she's gone all soft in the centre)

Grace Jones
(Given a very alluring dubstep makeover)

Dusty Kid
(Melodic techno producer takes a trip through the Pyrenees and picks up a renegade Spanish folk band along the way)

Sound good? Of course it does. Add into the equation some delightful banter, ALL-NEW beds, shout-outs and love to the listeners and much more music than just that mentioned above and you're well away. The best hour of music you're likely to hear for....the hour it's on at the very least. Do it, you know it makes sense. Listen live at Smoke Radio's homepage, HERE and be sure to get on the shoutbox during the show. You have until this evening to prepare yourself for the party onslaught...

Major Lazer - Hold The Line

Major Lazer is the new project from Dave Taylor and Thomas Wesley Pentz, AKA dance music demi-gods Switch and Diplo. To say that they've got the hype machine buzzing is something of an understatement. All loosely in the genre of dancehall (with some more dancey and world influences), they've been working with people including Elephant Man, Mr Vegas, Amanda Blank, Crookers, Turbulence, Ms. Thing and Vybz Kartel. On friday evening the UK's very own Annie Mac had the worldwide exclusive play of the first single Drop The Line.

Drop The Line features Mr Lexx (dancehall legend) and Sanitgold (still continuing with her very unnecessary name change) on vocals, and a 'surf rock ragga thingamajig' instrumental, in the words of Diplo himself. What this means in slightly more detailed terms is that they've taken Dick Dale's Misirlou, probably the most famous surf guitar song ever, chopped and screwed it to a fragment of it's original form, then raped it with some devastating dance hall beats and sounds of vibrating mobile phones. I'd never claim to be very knowledgable about dancehall, beyond really enjoying the handful of tracks I'm familiar with, but this is the kind of stuff I can get very excited about. With it's slick production, clever sampling and the presence of Santigold on vocals it's likely to be bothering dancefloors worldwide this summer.

Diplo's giving the track away for free (along with accapella and insturmental versions for all you bedroom DJS) over at the essential Mad Decent blog HERE, so make sure you head on over to collect it for yourself. Major Lazer are touring their live show internationally this summer, including to Bestival where I'll be in the front row dutty windin' like the best of them. If footage of their recent show at SXSW is anything to go by (check that HERE), it's going to be quite a spectacle.

One thing to remember troops, GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, LAZERS DO!

Deadmau5 - I Remember (Caspa Remix)

Blissed out balearic dubstep? That's a new one in the world of ridiculous crossover sub-genres. But it's arrived, in the form of a remix from Deadmau5' (pronounced Deadmouse, pictured above) forthcoming EP. I Remember, in it's original format, is a cheesy commercial electro-house track with a breathy female vocal, sounds like it's from 2001 and is destined to appear on 'Best Summer Dance Anthems' compilations until the end of time.

However, throw Caspa into the mix and the track becomes an altogether different proposal. Retaining the summery feel, melodic backing and an acceptable snippet of the vocal, Caspa then chucks in some restrained dubstep beats and a whole load of warped bass in his traditional style. It's still very poppy, but will win over discerning dance music listeners as well as those just starting to get their heads around dubstep as a genre. What with the Skream remix of La Roux's In For The Kill getting several daytime plays on Radio 1 it seems we could be on the cusp of dubstep's explosion into the mainstream. And like it or not it's remixes like this that will lead the way.

Listen to the remix over at Caspa's Myspace HERE .

The Temper Trap - The Science Of Fear (Herve / Mistabishi Remixes)

When it comes to launching a new artist, remixes can often be key in gaining exposure. Working on the principal that a well-known remixer will get you exposure across more than just your traditional platforms (gigging / interviews / radio play within your genre), many new indie bands are keen to pursue this route. The Temper Trap, who hail from sunny Melbourne, are one such act. They're a fairly straightforward prospect, with a slightly electronic touch and sound that owes a little to U2 (in a good way) as well as 80's new-wave dancey beats. That's not to detract from these boys talents of course, as the music they're making is very good, with lovely catchy melodies and soaring vocals.

So it is they've roped in the talents of Herve and Mistabishi to run riot with their first major release, The Science Of Fear. Herve (AKA The Count of The Count and Sinden fame) starts his remix off with a fuzzy, distorted and rewound homage to the original, then brings in a little vocal before a huge drop into some sickening dubstep flavours. That gives way to a breakdown with a little more vocal and some trancey synths, before bringing back the bass, in bassline house form. The dubstep beats return (minus most of the bass) towards the end of the track to leave quite a subdued flavour as it fades. Throw in a few gun-cock sounds for good measure and quite frankly, you're well away. Probably not big and not clever, but brilliant nonetheless. No doubt this will get rinsed by ol' favourite Annie Mac in her sets which are currently straddling the line between dubstep and electro very nicely.

The second remix comes from Hospital Records' current wunder-kid Mistabshi. Having just dropped one of the best drum & bass albums of recent times (and best tracks ever in the form of the insane Printer Jam), things are looking good for him. His remix manages to keep the original vocal in tact, keeps the same melancholy feel to the song whilst simultaneously turning it into a melodic D&B monster. Quite how he has managed this I do not know. The beats owe a certain debt to old school jungle and he also layers on some lovely reverb-ey twinkly piano chords. Beautiful and banging, in equal measures.

Check out The Temper Trap on Myspace HERE, download the amazing Mistabishi for absolutely nowt over at London Elektricity's blog HERE and watch a very clever video for their track My Sun below.

Amanda Blank - Might Like You Better

As I write to you, it seems like my prayers have finally been answered. Amanda Blank, one of my favourite artists of all time, is back with new material! Blank, a close cohort of Baltimore electro hip-hop collective Spank Rock, is famed for her incredibly fast rapping abilities and filthy mouth. And might I add, she's utterly amazing.

Amanda rose to fame off the back of her Spank Rock ties, principally her album-stealing verse on their track Bump, which was without a doubt my favourite song of 2006. Since then she's been releasing sporadic material as well as guesting on a number of tracks and remixes. The best of these since the aformentioned Bump was Diplo's excellent remix of Santogold's I'm A Lady. One of the highlights of 2008, it saw Blank spitting the first verse and chorus of LL Cool J's I Need Love over a more electronic version of Santogold's subdued weepy number. She's also appeared on tracks by Britney, Pase Rock, N.A.S.A and Plastic Little.

Following the news that Blank's album I Love You (originally due last summer and postponed for mysterious reasons) is finally going to be released on the 14th of July, we've been given the long awaited gift of some new material. Might Like You Better contains everything people love about Amanda. Saucy lyrics delivered with panache, bad-ass electro beats and a wicked bassline. The track's been produced by Spank Rock's XXXChange which explains much of the excellent, crisp and tidy production.

Even better, it's free! Download it from the essential RCRDLBL site HERE . In case you're unfamiliar with the site, RCRDLBL hosts hundreds of officially endorsed free MP3's as well as information about new and independent artists. This is all in the name of finding some equality in the murky legality surrounding music sharing on the web, whilst also aiming to promote the sales of the artists it features. Watch a video for the amazing Santogold remix below, as well as a live performance of the timeless Bump. All of that should wet your appetite nicely for the album, which I for one, can barely contain my excitement about. Amanda Blank, I love you.

Funk Mundial Compilation

Baile funk. Are you familiar with it? Perhaps not. A brief intro. A genre emanating from the favelas of Brazil, principally Rio, incorporating miami bass, electro, tribal Brazalian rhythms and Portugese hip-hop vocals (Portugese being the principal language of Brazil of course). Championed initally by Diplo, then various other DJs including Sinden in the UK. Reached the cusp of going mainstream with the poppiest and brightest representatives of the scene, in the form of Bonde Do Role. Never quite happened....

Despite this Baile funk has been bubbling under nicely in the dance music underground and continues to do so. Germany's Man Recordings has been the principal label pushing it on this side of the Atlantic, and has continued with a stream of regular releases for nearly five years now. One of the highlights of this has been the 'Funk Mundial' series, marrying European electro, house and techno producers with Baile funk MCs and rhythms.

After reaching 9 volumes, Daniel Haaksman, head of Man Recordings has now released a compilation of the best of the series so far. It features many highly talented and influential artists, including Italy's Crookers with their bass driven electro, wonky-fidget-tech head Jesse Rose and techno producer Oliver S representing Berlin, San Fransiscan tech-house kid Riva Starr, French electro wizard Feadz and the UK's very own old school garage revivalists The Count and Sinden.

With nearly every track of a supremely high caliber, this is definitely one worth investing in. Included in the collection too are three Cumbia tracks, the latest world genre threatening to go global. Essentially grounded in folk music, it's main components are fairly slow percussive beats, accordions, brass instruments and chanty vocals, and it's not a million miles away from Reggaeton. No wait, come back! It's actually quite good. The new breed is known as 'digital Cumbia' as it's largely produced electronically. Only time will tell if this does any real damage to the musical landscape.

Available on iTunes in pretty shiny 256kb quality, as well as from Beatport, DjDownload and Juno in even shinier 320kb, make sure you get your hands on it. Check the Man Recorder blog HERE for fairly regular postings, news and download links for obscure Baile funk tracks. Download a copy of the newest track by Feadz from the Ants In My Trance blog HERE. And as if that wasn't enough, watch a short and incredibly interesting documentary about the genre below, featuring one of it's biggest stars Deize Tigrona.

A1 Bassline

A fairly quick update today, but one to inform you about someone quite brilliant. A1 Bassline is another young upstart (although not quite as fresh-faced as Louis La Roche) riding a wave of approval for his massively popular productions and remixes.

He takes the pop and old school garage sentiments of bassline house, mashes them with harder electro and produces an overall sound that has the fun of more commercial bassline with the dirty grooves of electro. Also now branching out into some dubstep tunes, expect big things from this young lad during the summer including a speight of European festival appearances. It's also worth checking out his Girl Thing EP, which whilst released quite early on into his career and veering towards the cheesier side of bassline (H two O, T2) shows real promise.

A1 has already remixed Yo! Majesty, Frankmusik, Kid Cudi, The Qemists, Cadence Weapon and unleashed upon the world a cheeky bassline bootleg of Daft Punk's Harder Better Faster Stronger (knowingly titled the 'It's been done a million times but never like this remix').

Check him out on myspace HERE , see a list of tracks and remixes (with links to download) on the Hype Machine HERE , and finally, watch a video of him smashing Brick Lane's 93 Feet East with JME & Tempa T below.

Den Haan

Disco. It's great, isn't it. Even if you're not the most discerning music fan, you can't fail to enjoy the classics. Boney M, Chic, Giorgio Moroder, Sister Sledge. All amazing artists that still sound fresh and joyous today.

For a while now, things have been bubbling under in the land of disco. A few years back, assorted producers, often people making techno primarily, started fiddling around with more disco-laden sounds. Revivalists seemed to grow in number significantly. Indie bands also started pushing things forward into disco-punk, the breakout moment being The Rapture's Echoes. In the five years since that album entered music fans collections, we've seen an explosion in punk funk and full-on disco productions. From Scandinavians like Lindstrom, Prins Thomas and Todd Terje, to bands like !!!, LCD Soundsystem (the doorway to the whole DFA label, a megalith in the scene) and Out Hud and finally to the nu-Italo (electronic disco) trailblazers like Heartbreak, Little Boots and The Juan Maclean.

On this basis, say hello to Den Haan. A duo, Creme De Menthe and Gardi (not their real names one assumes) come from Glasgow, are signed to Optimo and produce dark pumping electronic disco. It's the kind of music that sounds like the soundtrack to a sleazy leather club, that smells like amyl nitrate, that's incredibly moody but is undeniably funky. Their sound is characterised by low growling vocals, chants, retro synths, string crescendos, vocoders and arpeggios. Some of their material is also a little more new-wave, like the New Order sounding Looking For Love, as well as some other tracks which are more glam-rock. This is the kind of disco that's both retro sounding and forward thinking. Not particularly pop, but very accessible it's also the kind of disco that's a good starting point for those with a grounding in the genre but who want to begin looking deeper.

Download the Release The Beast EP (featuring three tracks, Release The Beast, Metamorphosis and Looking For Love) in shiny delicious 320kb quality from Boomkat HERE. Investigate their myspace HERE where there are a number of tracks to listen to. Lastly, download a copy of Release The Beast from the ridiculously good Waves At Night blog HERE, also an excellent place to start idulging yourself in nu-disco. Turn the lights down, the bass up and let yourself go.....

Tiga - Essential Mix Analysis

Looking at images of Tiga I often feel a little disturbed by his appearance, but my, his music does excite my ears. After a brief mention of his Essential Mix for Radio One a couple of posts ago, here is a more in depth look at the magnificent beast itself.

This is a mix which seems to be aiming to achieve two main things. Firstly, to act as a sampler for Tiga's forthcoming Ciao! and also to act as a showcase for his label, Turbo Recordings (very soon to be the ripe old age of ten). That's not to say there isn't a variety of other record labels and artists featured within the two hours, in fact there's lots of that lovely stuff too.

There's four quite defined 'acts' in this mix, going roughly in half hour segments. The mix starts with some pretty four by four techno, but unsurprisingly of the more leftfield genre, perfectly handled and blended by Tiga. This continues into harder-edged electro, which then segues gradually into a more restrained section quite heavy on vocals. The final section winds down perfectly into some nu-disco, which very pleasingly is heavy on the cowbell.

A number of tracks in this mix are exclusives, not hard to tell as nearly every blogger hosting a download link has been hit by a stern notice from the ever ominous 'Web Sherriff'. Highlights amongst these exclusives are the Mr. Oizo remix of Tiga's Shoes, a track off the new Peaches album called Lose You (As remixed by Turbo's UK representative Matt Walsh), and a stunning and previously unheard Tiga track named Overtime, to be featured on his new album. The latter is the highlight of the mix in my opinion, managing to combine electro, techno and disco seamlessy in one track. Situated slap bang in the middle of the mix, it also seems to hint at what we can expect overall from the new Tiga release.

A few slightly older songs feature in the mix too, including The Proxy's excellent remix of Moby's I love To Move In Here, Yo Majesty's Club Action, LCD Soundsystem's minimal percussive masterpiece Too Much Love and the utterly amazing, warm and generally lovely Prince Language remix of MGMT's Electric Feel, arguably the finest bit of nu-disco from 2008. Quite impressively and controversially, he even includes the Uffie featuring Steroids by Mr. Oizo, and succeeds in making her extremely tired sounding vocals fresh again.

A brilliant mix all round, many of it's finest moments lurking within it's more secretive and underground moments. Certainly one of the best Essential Mixes in recent times, and showing the new players to the game (Herve, Marc Romboy and all the others, I'm talking to you) just how to do it. Well done Tiga.

No longer available on the iPlayer, you'll have to track it down yourself. Worry not however, the mix is lurking down the back of many metaphorical internet sofas. Check the tracklist HERE.

Louis La Roche - Me & Her EP

Talented young people make me feel sick. And by young, I mean the type that at 16 are turning out creative products that rival that of people who are 25 years their senior. Louis La Roche is one such upstart. In the space of two years, Bret Ewels has gone from turning out average (but surprisingly technically accomplished) remixes of popular electro acts, to being mistaken for Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter, to now releasing the finest 4-track EP of French house that most people have heard this decade.

His previous release The Peach EP featured the track Love, the one which got blogs burning as to whether this was a secret Bangalter release, under a pseudonym. The whole EP was impressive in it's mastering of the filter-house sound, but it's his latest effort however that is likely to push Louis La Roche (Ewels alter ego) into the big time.

Already being championed by Annie Mac, Kissy Sellout and Andy George on Radio 1, Sunshine Hotel is the best track here. It features a disco-ey vocal sample, spliced up with jackin' beats, funk-laden guitars and a gloriously groovy bassline. A proper summer house record, it has real potential to crossover into the mainstream, but remain a track enjoyed by dance-heads as well.

Me & Her is more of the same, and although not quite as brilliant as the previous track, still carries some devilishly funky licks and kicks pretty hard. Be Brave is an almost entirely instrumental number that has more of an 80's electro feel to it, whilst still retaining a strong disco edge. Distant Lovers is a slightly different beast to the others, with a melodic vocodered vocal, trancey synths and being genreally a more subtle proposition. Chromeo comparisons are obvious, but this is arguably better than anything Chromeo have ever produced (a controversial statement no doubt!). If this is what young La Roche is capable of at 18, I'm very excited about what's to come.

Check his official website HERE for info on performance dates, pictures, links to buy his music and much more. Finish yourselves off, pardon the pun, with two lovely videos below. One features a remix of Michael Jackson's timeless Thriller, the other an interview with the man himself after performing at Lincoln's Moda night. Kids these days ay? Taking over the world.

The Black Ghosts - Full Moon EP

Film soundtracks can be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because sometimes music and film work seamlessly together (in the case of Purple Rain and O Brother Where Art Thou), a blessing because sometimes the soundtrack can become a seperate entity to be assessed on its own merits (Paris Je T'aime, Brokeback Mountain) and a blessing simply because of the wondrous music they offer (Baz Lurhmann's Romeo & Juliet, arguably the finest soundtrack of all time in every way). However, whilst soundtracks often give much deserved exposure to underground artists they also sometimes endanger music by stamping the brand of the film all over it and detracting from the music itself.

Twilight (a film that admittedly, I guiltily enjoyed) has done this to Full Moon by The Black Ghosts (DJ Touche AKA Fake Blood & ex-Simian singer Simon Lord's musical project). Hopefully though, discerning music fans will not be blinded to the brilliance of the song by it's ultra-mainstream teenage associations.

Full Moon is one of the more straightforward pop moments on The Black Ghosts debut album, although is by no means a conventional pop song. Its mixture of chilly strings, twangy country guitars, jazzy hip-hop beats and a mournful vocal certainly add up to more than the sum of it's parts. It sounds like the sort of song that Radio One might latch onto unexpectedly, sounding incongrous on the playlist but doing very well nonetheless, not unlike what they achieved with Noah And The Whale last year.

Following on from the sublime remix of Some Way Through This by Plastician and Skream last year, the two remixes on this EP are both in the dubstep camp, one more loosely than the other. The first is from Komonazmuk (Common-as-muck, you see?) and Appleblim, associated members of Skull Disco, a Bristol record label pushing the techier, deeper side of dubstep. In terms of BPM, this certainly leans more towards house, however the stripped down beats, atmospherics and bass keeps it pretty darn dubby. It's a subtle remix, but one that's very enchanting, the instrumental perfectly complementing the vocal.

The second remix comes courtesy of Marlow, a relative newcomer to the dubstep arena, but one whose been garnering much attention due to his complex, hard hitting and classically tinged productions. His remix removes most of the vocal, instead leaving the strings of the original to lead the track. Layering on devastating bass and keeping in tact the chilly feel to the song also works brilliantly. This is definitely one for the dancefloor.

The EP is available now in all the usual places (iTunes, Beatport, 7Digital, Emusic, etc.) as is their self-titled album. Download a short edit of the Applieblim and Komonazmuk remix from the excellent Curbcrawlers blog HERE, and watch a slightly odd video for the song featuring a journey around Berlin below.

Copacabana Club

Continuing on a Brazilian theme, it's my pleasure to introduce you to your new favourite indie pop band, Copacabana Club:


Remember when CSS were good? It was a happy time. Then in 2008, after two years of riding a monumental wave of success, they unleashed upon the world the horribly forgettable Donkey. Music fans were sad.

Well, praise be, as Copacabana Club have picked up where CSS' success tailed off. Hailing from Paraná, they've perfected the sunny, disco-led punky pop that our favourite Brazilian exports used to be so brilliant at. As if that wasn't enough good news, they're also giving away their first EP away for free! Download it HERE.

The King Of The Night EP features 6 tracks, all within the same vein, but none the worse for it. Just Do It and Come Back are probably the best, being the most disco/funk led tracks. King Of The Night is a bit punkier, sounding similar to early material by The Rapture. It's Us is a little more raw, but still retains the same sound of the other material on the EP. Throw in a couple of danced-up remixes of It's Us and Just Do It respectively (the former being particularly dancetastic) and you've done pretty well given the price, i.e. nothing.

Bonde Do Role endorsed newcomer Bo$ In Drama has also remixed Just Do It in his trademark 80's synth disco style, and it's quite something. Download that from the ever brilliant Bigstereo blog HERE.

Finally, watch the sparkly, glittery and stop-motion video for their single here. Copacabana Club, the soundtrack to your summer.


Just Do It from copacabana club on Vimeo.

Gui Boratto - Take My Breath Away

Gui Boratto (Pronounced Gee, like the Indian clarified butter), for anyone who doesn't know, is a techno, house and electro producer from São Paulo in Brazil. In 2006, he released the stunning album Chromophobia on legendary German techno label Kompakt. It topped many a dance critic's end of year list, and produced one of the finest pieces of electronic music in recent years in the form of Beautiful Life.

Now he's back with his new album, Take My Breath Away. A few releases in the last two years have threatened to be the first techno releases to go overground and enter mainstream conciousness (the Supermayer album springs to mind, also on Kompakt) but never quite managed it. Could this be the one to finally do it? Maybe. Boratto has a knack for producing really catchy melodies and hooks, whilst still retaining techno's more restrained dynamics. The most obvious example on this album is No Turning Back (the closest thing to his masterpiece Beautiful Life), a lovely vocal track with a poppy sentiment, but that still sits firmly in the techno camp, rather than selling out and becoming an electro-house banger.

Gui's real skill lies in his ability to produce a range of different styles that have enough in common with each other to stop anything ever sounding out of place. Essentially, never sounding samey, but never sounding confused either. As well as melodic and stripped back minimal tracks including the title track, Opus 17 and Atomic Soda, there's also a handful of harder-edged somewhat pounding tracks. Ballroom and Eggplant are the best, which whilst sounding tougher, still retain Gui's deft production touches. The other string to Boratto's bow is some wonderful electronica tracks, which feature more obvious live instrumentation in the form of guitar and piano, including the sublime Besides and gentle closer Godet.

Is it as good as Chromophobia? Not quite. However, assessed on it's own merits this is still an excellent album by anybody's standards, and one that stands out in the often homogeonous world of techno. Although sometimes too poppy for some minimal heads, and too techy for more populist dance fans, Boratto's efforts here should please those who just love music, full stop.

Stream the whole album on Gui's MYSPACE, and check out his homepage HERE, where you'll be able to find out more about the man himself, as well as locate links to buy his CD's and 12"s. He also recently recorded a rather amazing Essential Mix for Radio 1, the tracklist to which can be found HERE.

Finally, watch an unoffical video below of his best piece of music, the previously mentioned Beautiful Life.


My Radio Show

If merely reading my words isn't good enough for you, be sure to check my radio show as well, where you'll be able to hear my dulcet London via Manchester via Leeds via Bristol tones. Beats and Pieces is an entire media brand, oh yes.

Not content to tell you about the music, I like to play it to you too. We're currently relaxing during the Easter hiatus, that's vacation to all my American chums:



However, you can usually find the show between 7-8pm (GMT) on Wednesdays, on Smoke Radio, the University Of Westminster's absolutely brilliant student station.

We'll be back on air from the 22nd of April, and after the holidays I'll have a multitude of magical musical masterpieces for you.

Join the facebook group HERE, for previous tracklistings, further information about the show and to be kept up to date with all the latest goings on in the world of Beats and Pieces. See you there kids!

UNKLE - Heaven

BLIMEY.

It's quite rare that a song comes along and sweeps you off your feet, immediately creating a deep need to listen to it again and again and again.

UNKLE's new single Heaven has had this effect. As an act, I've never quite understood what UNKLE are trying to achieve. From their original DJ Shadow / James Lavelle incarnation through to their 'let's go full on rock, slack off 95% of our hip-hop and electronica leanings and get Josh Homme to growl over most of our album' Restless, their output has been inconsistent to say the least. However, seemingly also working on the basis of producing so much material that you'll eventually make something good means they occasionally strike upon a winner.

Heaven is undoubtedly a winner. It's won first prize, gone platinum, claimed the gold and topped the polls. It's a stunningly beautiful track, taken from their latest album End Titles...Stories For Film, a collection of offcuts from their previous year's recording efforts. Featuring gently strummed melodic guitars, quiet layers of feedback, choirs and synths, subtle percussion and an amazing Jeff Buckley-esque vocal from Gavin Clark, when the soft pulsating electronic beats hit half way through, it's quite something.

Combine all of this with a Spike Jonze directed video of pro-skaters navigating exploding obstacles in slow-motion, and you have a music and video marriage made in, yep, you guessed it, Heaven.

The King Unique remix is also quite spectacular, changing the track into something closer to deep house, with harder beats, an extended length and more emphasis on the synths than guitars. Vitally though, it doesn't fiddle with formula of the song too much and leaves the stunning vocal in tact. This isn't a remix that beats you over the head, rather one that gently leads you to the dancefloor to experience something contemplative.

A summer song, if ever I heard one. Well done UNKLE.

Heaven (Fully Flared Intro Video Remix)
Uploaded by UNKLE_UK

Parallels

It seems a little obscene quite how much ridiculously good electronic music North America is throwing out at the moment, compared to us Brits at least. Whilst we seem incredibly good at producing wave after wave of wonky-fidget-bassline, jump-up dubstep and deep house and techno, where nu-disco is concerned, its the Scandinavians, the New Yorkers and the Canadians that seem to be leading the way.

Parallels are a delicious band emanating from Toronto, who've recently been garnering much attention due to their stunning (in looks and sound) new vocalist Holly Dodson:

Striking exactly the right balance between vintage italo synths, modern pop hooks and up-to-date production techniques, Parallels are pushing things forward rather than looking to the past. Dodson's vocals sound a little like Cyndi Lauper, although with a much softer tone, and when layered over the beautiful slow-mo instrumentals of the band's devilishly handsome electronic whizz-kid (whizz-man?) Cameron Findlay, something pretty magical happens.

On Wednesday this week (8th April), at The Mod Club in their Canadian hometown, they're even playing a gig with Sebastien Tellier, everyone's favourite sexy, aging and balding French man (think Serge Gainsbourg for the modern age, produced by half of Daft Punk). That's bound to be a cracker.

DOWNLOAD some of their new material (including the amazing Vienna and the remastered version of older track Reservoir) at the ever wonderful Discodust blog. Then go and say hello, look at some pictures and watch some of their videos on MYSPACE.

Parallels - big things happening in 2009.

Welcome!

This is a blog dedicated whole-heartedly to music within the dance spectrum, the music I love so much.

Every day I'll review a new artist, a new album, a new track and occasionally take a look back, from genres including:

Nu & Retro Disco

Electro

Techno

Baltimore Beats

Alternative & Classic Hip-Hop

Leftfield Pop

Electronica-Infused Folk

Reading this will reap you many rewards, keep you clued up to the freshest music around and hopefully entertain you. Please leave comments on what you like, what you don't and any similar new music that I might have failed to mention.

Prepare to set sail on a voyage of musical discovery..........