Tegan and Sara

I was quite slow off the mark with this duo, but after five studio albums over a 10 year period, I finally found out about them through my housemate (Double-O S) just a couple of months ago.

Tegan and Sara are two lesbian twin sisters (seeing other people of course) hailing from Alberta, Canada. As I mentioned above, they've already released five albums and thankfully I was pointed towards the better releases from their back catalogue, which I have in turn supplied for you all to download.

'Walking With a Ghost' and 'Back In Your Head' are top notch, but after listening to them, I wouldn't recommend running out and buying all their albums at once - this is as good as it gets.

I have also uploaded alternative mixes of the songs which add a bit more energy to their laidback sound. Tiesto has also remixed ‘Back In Your Head’, but I’m sure I don’t need to tell you to stay well away from that version...

Check out their myspace here and buy their music here

Tegan and Sara – ‘Walking With a Ghost’ [Right-Click and Save Target As]

Tegan and Sara – ‘Back In Your Head’ [Right-Click and Save Target As]

Tegan and Sara Vs Mylo – ‘Walking With a Ghost in Paris’ [Right-Click and Save Target As]

Tegan and Sara – ‘Back In Your Head’ (Tyler Fedchuk’s 1/2ALIVE Disco Remix) [Right-Click and Save Target As]

Duck Sauce

As the last of the Ibiza clubbers arrive home, they usually bring with them an underground tune that has been the soundtrack to their summer and is ready to brighten up our nightclubs during the winter months. Looking back over the past ten years or so, there have been some classics, and some ones you’d wish they had left behind. Below is a look at some of the heavyhitters that have emerged from the island over the past few years.

1998: Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You

1999: Moloko – Sing It Back

2000: Modjo – Lady (Hear Me Tonight)

2001: Roger Sanchez – Another Chance

2002: Tim Deluxe ft Sam Obernik – It Just Won’t Do

2003: Room 5 ft Oliver Cheathem – Make Luv

2004: Shapeshifters – Lola’s Theme

2005: Bob Sinclair – Love Generation

2006: Bodyrox ft Luciana – Yeah Yeah

2007: Yves LaRock - Rise Up

2008: Eric Prydze - Pjanoo

2009: ??

As you can see, since 2005 the quality of music has been pretty poor. I really struggled to find anything worthwhile mentioning from '05 to '08. There has yet to be a clear one this year either. Maybe ‘Holiday’ by Dizzee and Calvin, but that doesn’t really count considering it was a hit before the summer started, and both acts were already household names after releasing ‘Dance Wiv Me’. Maybe nothing might make it back. However, one song I’d love to hear churned out in nightclubs for the next few months is ‘aNYway’ by Duck Sauce.

Duck Sauce is made up of the unusual pairing of New York house pioneer Armand Van Helden and world champion turntablist A-Trak (who won his first title at the tender age of 15!). The 40 second intro is a little bit tedious, but please listen the whole way through – it’s got a great soulful club sound with quite a catchy little chorus. Let's hope this is the beginning of a new era similar to that of '98 to '04...

Duck Sauce - aNYway [Right Click and Save-Target-As]

(If anybody wants any of the other tracks mentioned here available to download, drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do.)

Boys in the Hood

I’m not the biggest fan of mash-up artists; they sometimes try too hard to blend songs from opposite sides of the tracks just for the sake of their diverse sounds (i’m sure you’ll know what I mean if you have ever had the aural displeasure of listening to The Prodigy’s ’Smack My Bitch Up’ mixed with Enya’s ‘Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)’ – if you must, click here!). The likes of Girl Talk and 2ManyDJs do the genre great justice, but if I was to be really anal, there isn’t enough length in their individual mixes.

This brings me to Chicago based mash-up duo The Hood Internet, who’ve been knocking out mixes since 2007, and bridge that gap between quality and quantity. They’ve had five mixtapes to date, all of which can be downloaded for FREE from either their myspace or official homepage. From here, they continually upload new mixes they lay down, the best of which make it onto their mixtape volumes.

There’s a lot to dig through, and it’s not all top drawer, but there are quite a few gems in their catalogue. So to give you a feel of what they’re all about, I’ve supplied a few of my favourite mixes below. If you like what you hear, I recommend downloading ‘The Mixtape Volume 2’ first. They rocked out Lollapalooza this year, warming up the crowd before MSTRKRFT and Simian Mobile Disco took to the stage - watch out in case they ever decide to cross the Atlantic...

Dr. Dre vs Fujiya & Miyagi - The Next Collarbone [Right-click and Save Target-As]

Montell Jordan vs Arcade Fire - This Is How We Go [Right-click and Save Target-As]

Genesis vs Justice - Genesis Squared [Right-click and Save Target-As]

Whitney Hou?

I never thought I would actually be forced to write a post on Whitney Houston, but the first sneak preview of her forthcoming album has warranted this. It's almost a decade since the release of her Greatest Hits and rumours of drug abuse and her constant unreliability to turn up has meant that her career has taken a serious downturn in the last 9 years.

However, after splitting from her bad boy hubby Bobby Brown and battling through the lengthy divorce proceedings and custody battles, she is about to make her comeback.

I orignally mistook the song for an old nice n' smooth Motown record, and that's pretty much what it is. Alicia Keys co-wrote the song and also supplies backing vocals. Oh yeah, and there's no key change. Brilliant.

Check out her official webpage here and buy here tunes here.

Download:
Whitney Houston – Million Dollar Bill (Ft. Alicia Keys) [Right click and Save Target As]

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

New material from Cut Copy

Cut Copy are a band from Melbourne, Australia that i've been into for a few years. Their last album 'Bright Like Neon Love' was a mix of shimmering electro, house and indie with bitter-sweet vocals from frontman Dan Whitford that really deserved a wider audience.

They've been working with producer Tim Goldsworthy (DFA - see post below) to put the finishing touches to their second album 'In Ghost Colours' which is due out early next year. Along with the new Hot Chip album this is something i'm really looking forward to. Anyway the first single from the new record is due to be 'So Haunted' which they've been playing on tour in Australia at the moment. It's a real grower I must say and you can see Goldworthy's influence in the stomping electro riff. See what you think.

Download: Cut Copy - So Haunted