J Dilla :: 'Last Donut Of The Night' video

Beautifully filmed and utterly strange video for the late J Dilla's classic track from the essential Donuts instrumental hip-hop album. Here, a love of donuts brings about some pretty odd behaviour in two Finnish policemen. The video is part of Stones Throw Records' video contest which is receiving submissions from amateur filmmakers for any song in the labels back catalogue.

M83 album teaser

It's been a full 3 years since M83 dropped their excellent Saturdays=Youth album. Their follow-up record is due in October and here we have a brief snippet of one track with some suitably lush visuals. It's as grand and orchestral as you would hope and expect from Anthony Gonzalez and co.

Young Montana? :: Limerence LP

It may be the most superfluous question mark since Jonatton Yeah? graced our screens but UK producer Young Montana? is making some damn good beats at the moment. His debut album Limerence is out now and is getting a lot of attention from the likes of BBC's Mary-Anne Hobbs. Like Manchester beat-maker Star Slinger, though less prolific (who could keep up with him?!), Young Montana? dips into in the same post-J Dilla pallette of sounds but with a restless tendency to chop and twist them for his own amusement. Head on over to his Soundcloud page for some of his remix work.

Young Montana: Sacre Cool by ALPHA PUP

Young Montana? - 'Limerence' Album Sampler <<< OUT NOW by Young Montana?

New Star Slinger video

Following up on Brian's last post, here is the new, suitably radiant video for Star Slinger's Mornin'.

Introducing... Little Loud

One of my favourite new artists of 2010 has been the Brighton-based Little Loud, who has produced a string of consistently great remixes for high profile acts like Yeasayer, HEALTH and Goldfrapp this year. 'Chill-wave' is a term that has been thrown around a lot recently but is an apt description for his bright, cosmic sound and warm, delicate synths. The Goldfrapp remix is particularly beautiful and can be downloaded via the 'down arrow' on the right hand side.

goldfrapp - believer (little loud remix) by little loud

health - nice girls (little loud mix) by little loud

memory tapes - bicycle (little loud remix) by little loud

yeasayer - madder red (little loud remix) by little loud

Glasser :: 'Home'

Glasser is the alias of LA-based Cameron Mesirow and her laptop copy of GarageBand. Her debut album Ring is out tomorrow and is generating lots of attention for its' rich, multi-textural sound and the dramatic atmospheres she creates. At times stark and gothic, tribal and elemental, comparisons to School of Seven Bells, Telepathe and Homogenic-era Bjork are deserved if insufficient.
'Home' is a useful introduction to her sound, progressing from a tumbling child-like rhythm in the beginning to a glorious wave of synths, strings and aching vocals.

Download: Glasser - 'Home' (via Pitchfork.com)

Buy the album Ring here.

Aeroplane remix their remix

Aeroplane have had a succession of impressive tracks and remixes over the past year, none more so than this perfect intersection of disco, house and pop. Having already remixed Friendly Fires' Paris a few months back they were clearly impressed by the beautiful vocals on Australian group Flight Facilities' superb single 'Crave You' and saw an opportunity and the two fit together perfectly.

Stream and download the track below by clicking the little downward arrow on the right-hand side.

I Crave Paris by Aeroplane (Official)

Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner. Stream entire album!

Lucky Shiner is the debut album from London electronic producer Gold Panda and is streaming in it's entirety online. It's a really thrilling piece of work that's part minimal techno, part chill-wave electropop. Imagine the hypnotic loops of The Field meeting the hazy warmth of an Air France record. Lovely.

Jay-Z mashup part 2

Picking up where Brian left off a few weeks ago here's another fine Jay-Z mashup, this time with the hotly-tipped Javelin. The mashup comes courtesy of Dave Wrangler and its a pretty inspired combination of Jay-Z's Roc Boys and Javelin's Intervales Theme. Fans of this tune should head straight for Javelin's album No Mas which is full of funky jams like this.

Download: Jay-Z vs Javelin - Roc Boys (Dave Wrangler mashup)

The photo features Bill Gates and Jay-Z in an equally odd mashup. What the hell could they be talking about?

Introducing... Javelin

If you've been enjoying the feel-good, lo-fi sounds of Neon Indian or Memory Tapes or even The Avalanches (any sign of a comeback, lads?) then you'll surely dig this. Javelin tick all the right boxes for success in 2010. Obsessive record diggers? Tick. Signed to a cool label? Tick. Collage-style artwork? Tick. From Brooklyn? Tick. They're currently supporting Yeasayer on their UK tour and finally get round to dropping their debut album No Mas on the 20th of April.
Opening track 'Vibrationz' is 2 minutes of wobbly electro-funk that gives a small hint of Javelin's eclectic sound.

Download: Javelin - Vibrationz

Chromeo - Night By Night (Skream remix)

Chromeo have always moonwalked along the fine line that exists between irony and guilty pleasure, armed with a suitcase full of cheesy hooks that in any other hands would be the preserve of porno movie soundtracks. That bag of tricks is in full effect here with Giorgio Moroder synths, liberal use of the vocoder and a carefully placed guitar solo or two. Dubstep poster boy Skream turns the sleaze up to 11 by slowing it all down and adding a throbbing, rolling bassline. You may need a shower after this one!

Download: Chromeo - Night By Night (Skream remix)

Different Strokes...

The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas releases his solo album Phrazes for the Young on the 2nd of November, filling the lull before a rumoured 4th Strokes album next year. The first track from the album will be 11th Dimension and shows a marked departure with Casablancas striking out and embracing bold, high-gloss electro. Casablancas' pop sensibilities are in full effect here, with hints of Phoenix's 1901 amid a flurry or gleaming 80s synth action.

Download: Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension

Something for the Weekend

Just had a few minutes in the airport to write a quick post...

Most people should be familiar with his name by now, but Deadmau5 has been creating a bit of a stir in the dance music world over the last year or so. He's already had one very solid minimal electronic album, but I can only really recommend it to those who are into their instrumental dance music - if you like Booka Shade, you'll love it.

This song was officially released last week, but has had a lot of airplay on Radio 1 in the UK since Pete Tong showcased it first back in July. The track is called 'Ghosts 'n' Stuff' and features Pendulum frontman Rob Swire on vocals. You can really hear massive improvements in Deadmau5's production skills on this track, which no doubt means there is much more work to come from him. I wasn't aware that Mr. Swire was such an accomplished singer - do I detect the use of auto-tune? T-Pain and Cher would be proud...

Check out Deadmau5's slick website here. Buy his music here.

Deadmau5 ft Rob Swire - Ghosts 'n' Stuff [Click on link and follow download insturctions]

Miike Snow

So the blog has been lying idle for longer than I dare admit but it's back! The long, wet days of this summer have given me ample time for the vast amount of new music 2009 has given us so far. One act that I've had my eye on recently is Sweden's Miike Snow. I was introduced to the gleeful, marching electro-pop of their single 'Animal' a couple of month's back. This was followed about 8 weeks ago by the release of their debut, self-titled album which is an exciting, if patchy, affair.

In a previous life Miike Snow were the production team behind Britney Spear's guilty pleasure Toxic so as you might expect the production here is flawlessly polished from start to finish. However in the leap from the shadows into the sharp focus of creating their own music an element of their pop effervescense was lost. Having said that there are still absolute triumphs in the form of Black and Blue, Silvia, Song for No One and Animal, at times reminiscent of Hot Chip or Peter Bjorn and John at their most bitter-sweet.

Speaking of which, step forward PB&J who knock it out of the park with this awesome remix of Animal. Then Spank Rock's Benny Blanco rescues Burial from mediocrity by giving it some balls with added vocals and heavyweight beats.

Download: Miike Snow - Animal (Peter Bjorn and John remix)
Stream: Miike Snow - Burial (Benny Blanco remix feat. Neon Hitch)

New Hot Chip + Album News

I've been listening to Hot Chip's breakthrough 2005 album The Warning for the last 2 years pretty solidly and I still love every track on it as much as day one. Since then they've released their excellent DJ Kicks compilation which showcased the song My Piano and gave us a taster of what sounds they've been working on.

Well their new album, titled Made In The Dark, is ready for release on the 4th of february and features 13 tracks including My Piano, Shake A Fist and a new track i've been hearing on the radio called Ready For The Floor. It's trademark Hot Chip, with a bouncing electro beat, twinkling electronics and Alexis Taylor's unique vocals and all together they make up the best pop song I've heard in ages.

Ready For The Floor will be the first single off the new album and comes out a week before, on the 28th of january. The CD features a great Soulwax remix of Ready For The Floor plus a Diplo mix of Shake A Fist.

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Pre-order the album Made In The Dark here

Download: Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor

Miami Horror

Hola amigos. Sincere apologies for the lack of posts recently. Rest assured that normal service has resumed.

To say sorry here are some lovely pieces of Aussie electro-disco. There seems to be no end to the quality dance music coming out of Australia (especially Melbourne) these days from the likes of Cut Copy, The Presets, Midnight Juggernauts, Van She, Riot in Belgium and the excellent label Modular.

Miami Horror is Ben Plant from Melbourne who's been generating a bit of heat with some great remixes over the last year. Giving two fingers to those who say electro is played out, Miami Horror brings you an unashamed 80s synth disco attack taking in the heavily compressed French house of Alan Braxe and Cassius along the way.

A debut album, titled Bravado, is due some time soon. In the mean time get your ears 'round this lot.

Download: Codebreaker - Exiled (Miami Horror remix)

Download: Miami Horror - Don't Be On With Her

Tim Goldsworthy & Tim Sweeney (DFA Records) @ Ri-Ra

It's Ri-Ra's 14th birthday this week and they've got Tim Goldsworthy and Tim Sweeney flying in from New York for the celebrations on friday night. Goldsworthy has popped up in lots of places over the years. He was drummer in U.N.K.L.E., co-founded the Mo' Wax label, was in LCD Soundsystem with James Murphy and now together they are DFA, a much sought-after production team and record label. He has also produced albums for The Rapture, David Holmes and Cut Copy.

Tim Sweeney did an internship with DFA (how cool is that!) and ended up doing mix tapes and dj sets for them. The Ri-Ra show is the first time Sweeney and Goldsworthy have played in Europe as a duo so it should be a pretty cool night.

11:30pm Friday. Entry €10/€12

Here's a couple of great remixes to get you in the mood.

Download: Le Tigre - Deceptacon (DFA remix)

Download: Soulwax - NY Excuse (DFA remix)

Girl Talk!!

Anyone lucky enough to be at Whelan's in Dublin on the 13th of december is gonna get an ear full of the force of nature that is Gregg Gillis aka Girl Talk. Every picture i've seen makes his live shows look like the most fun place to be on planet earth. Just put 'girl talk' into google images and you'll see what i mean. Like a good house party just seconds before the police get there. Thanks to Nialler9 for the tip off as this gig had completely crept under my radar.

Anyway Girl Talk mixes old school hip hop, house, cheesy r'n'b and top 40 hits and whatever else is lying about. One of his tracks puts Notorious B.I.G. up against Elton John's Tiny Dancer so that should give you an idea!

I first heard about him through his remix of Peter, Bjorn and John's 'Lets Call It Off' where he laid on a nice bouncing beat and some gorgeous twinkly xylophone/glockenspiel(?) action with echoes of Hot Chip about it. Definitely one of my favourite tunes of the year.

Download: Peter, Bjorn and John - Let's Call It Off (Girl Talk remix)

also here's a nice mashup courtesy of Good Weather For Airstrikes which should give you a taste of his more usual stuff.

Download: Girl Talk - Digital Hustlin'

Jape Is Grape

Some new material here from one of Ireland's finest acts. Jape has been on a steady rise since the slow-burning success of the blissful 'Floating' and it's great to see he's able to keep churning out interesting stuff. Jape has just polished off his second album and before it's ready for release he's giving us the 'Jape Is Grape' EP. It features 'Floating' and a handful of remixes (though not the excellent Prins Thomas mix) plus two new tracks so it's more of a prelude to the album than anything else.
The real highlight is 'Christopher and Anthony' an incredibly hypnotic piece of electro pop which deserves to be as big as 'Floating'.
He's playing three gigs in Dublin this weekend before he heads off around Europe. Then he returns for shows in Cork, Limerick, Galway, Derry and Belfast in December. Check out his myspace for details.

Download: Jape - Christopher and Anthony

Buy the EP from 7 Digital or iTunes