Artist Profile: Simian [Mobile Disco]
NOTE: Ezarchive was being awesome yesterday, making it impossible for me to post by refusing to allow any of my uploads to complete, so I only made it halfway through Gonzalez’s videography. The rest of the videos (there are five) will come scattered over the course of the rest of the week, presuming ezarchive gets its shit together.
I don’t know how an album as awesome and so right-up-my-alley as Simian’s 2002 electro-rock masterpiece We Are Your Friends existed for four years without my knowledge of it, but it happened and it’s a small-scale tragedy considering how relentlessly excellent it is. It wasn’t until I arrived at VICE this summer and everyone there was freaking out over Justice’s remix of Simian’s 2002 single “Never Be Alone” that I was introduced to the band, as the unparalleled glory of the remix made finding the original an immediate must for me. I’ve already discussed the merits of the Justice remix – which was released as a single this summer as “We Are Your Friends” and credited to Justice vs Simian – here at length before, so I’ll just focus on the original for now, which is quite a departure from the new re-worked version we’ve all come to know and love. The original opens innocently enough with a sunny, almost tropical synth and a fairly nondescript first verse, but then those big drums and that chorus (THAT chorus), perhaps the catchiest and most undeniable in the history of sound (hyperbole?), hits and it’s game over; Simian have just owned everyone in a fifteen mile radius of the song. Even those outside the blast zone will be reminded of the chorus for years to come in the birth defects (inability to stop dancing, irrepressible tendencies to drop it likes it hot) of their offspring – it’s just that good.
Surprisingly though, “Never Be Alone” wasn’t even Simian’s biggest hit, thanks to Peugot’s choice to soundtrack one of their best-ever advertisements with “La Breeze”, which propelled the band into the public awareness, if only for a few fleeting moments before they vanished back into relative obscurity. “La Breeze” sounds like a remixed John Lennon track - a shimmering, sunny slice of heavenly indie-pop with an electronic twist, and it thoroughly owned my summer, getting more plays than the rest of Simian’s library combined.
MP3s:
“Never Be Alone” – Simian ((highly recommended))
“La Breeze” – Simian ((highly recommended))
“We Are Your Friends” – Justice vs Simian ((HIGHLY recommended))
Tragically, Simian broke up in 2005, but as proof that every cloud has a silver lining, from the ashes of the band rose splinter group Simian Mobile Disco, comprised of former Simian ringleaders James Ford and Jas Shaw. That silver lining proved to be worth it’s weight in gold, as SMD’s most recent single, “Hustler”, has shown itself to be one of the year’s elite electronic singles, a crash course in dancefloor hotness for the uninitiated. Released on vaunted French label Kitsune Records, “Hustler” is one of the most badass tracks to have ever graced my ears, featuring a shit-talking verse from NYC singer Char Johnson and a monstrous fuzzed-out bassline that’ll obliterate any speakers not worthy of its presence. Just under four minutes in the instrumentation begins to die down for a moment or two and Johnson asks with a sneer, “What the fuck is you gonna do?”. SMD let it linger for a few beats before dropping the pressure and unleashing an unrestrained barrage of glitchy crescendos, reducing the final two minutes of the track to a veritable electronic free-for-all in which everyone’s a winner. With a more dancefloor-oriented, less poppy sound, Simian Mobile Disco have generated serious buzz with “Hustler” and their excellent remix work, and I’m hotly anticipating their as-yet-unannounced debut LP. What is announced, however, is their next single, classily-named “Tits & Acid”, which will be backed by another new track, “Animal House” and will see a limited white label only release sometime in November. You can get your first taste of that hotness below, along with “Hustler” and a slew of SMD’s bangin’ remixes.
MP3s:
“Hustler” – Simian Mobile Disco ((highly recommended))
“Tits & Acid” – Simian Mobile Disco
Bonus Remixes:
“Ladyflash” (SMD Remix) – The Go! Team
“Mona Lisa’s Child” (SMD Remix) – Keith
“International Dateline” (SMD Remix) - Ladytron