Good Weather For Airstrikes

Tragic, but the beat must go on.

Lykke Li will be huge. Like, it’s not even a question. Basically Robyn only younger, hotter and better(?), Li takes the best elements of Annie, Peter Bjorn & John and the new breed of British female singer-songwriters to create her own unique lo-fi pop sound. Our first taste comes via “Little Bit”, currently only available on 10″ vinyl in Scandinavia and digitally through Swedish iTunes. But despite her lack of available material, Li’s already causing a stir internationally among A&R types the world over. One listen to “Little Bit” (or one run through the video below), and you’ll see why; it’s one of the most endearing pop debuts to surface in as long as I can remember. Copping that lo-fi-but-not-too-lo-fi pop sound popularized by Peter Bjorn & John last year thanks to production from PB&J’s Bjorn Yttling, “Little Bit” is a lesson in minimalist pop brilliance. Li bears her heart and soul on the track: “And for you I keep my legs apart/And forget about my tainted heart… I would do it/Push a button/Pull a trigger/Climb a mountain/Jump off a cliff/Cause you know baby I love you, love you a little bit”. And between her earnest lyrics and hushed delivery, she’s more like one of those British singer-songwriter types than a true pop star, but you better believe she’ll pull some serious pop star money from whatever major label ends up winning her hand.

Charming B-sides “Everybody But Me” and “Time Flies” only further cement her status as the Next! Big! Thing! to come out of Sweden, and there’s no denying this girl will be taking over European airwaves sooner rather than later. With her debut album in the final stages of the mixing process and primed for a 2008 release, there’s no telling how what kind of damage she can do on the European charts next year, but something tells me it’ll be pretty significant.

MP3s:
“Little Bit” - Lykke Li ((highly recommended)) [Alternate Link]
“Everybody But Me” (Demo) - Lykke Li [Alternate Link]

I first came across Li by way of Mattias Montero’s simply incredible video for “Little Bit”, which is easily one of the year’s best and an absolute gem from start to finish (what is it about those Scandinavian directors?). Watch this and do your best not to fall in love with this girl. No seriously, just try.

Oh and that’s Swedish superproducer Kleerup (see: Robyn’s “With Every Heartbeat”) rockin’ out at the piano in the clip, even though you totally thought it was Sebastien Tellier.

Video: “Little Bit”
Artist: Lykke Li
Director: Mattias Montero
Watch: [YouTube]
Download: [Quicktime • 43 MB] [direct link]

I generally try to keep my passion for sports and, more specifically, the Washington Redskins, removed from these pages, but today one of the single greatest tragedies in National Football League history befell my beloved hometown team. Sean Taylor, perhaps my favorite defensive player of all-time, was shot in the leg at his home during a break-in in the early hours of Monday morning and died this morning in a Miami hospital after losing massive amounts of blood sustained from the wound to his femoral artery. No NFL player has died during the season since 1971, let alone one as critical to his team as Sean Taylor has been over the past four seasons.

Taylor was the heart and soul of the Redskins defense and was one of the most talented defensive players in the NFL. Drafted fifth overall in the 2004 NFL draft after a dominant collegiate career at the University of Miami, Taylor immediately established himself as one of the NFL’s most promising defensive talents and could have gone down as one of the greatest safeties of all time. His presence alone could shape an entire football game, and as a Redskins season ticket holder (and having attended the 2003 National Championship between Miami and Ohio State) I watched him establish himself as one of the most brilliant defensive talents football has ever seen. His absence over the last two games due to a knee injury sustained against Philadelphia two weeks ago is a primary reason for the Redskins current three-game losing streak, and this an unfathomably crippling blow to the team both on and off the field.

Surrounded by off-field controversy during the early years of his career, this season saw Taylor mature both as a person and a team leader after the birth of his first child. “It’s hard to expect a man to grow up overnight,” Redskins running back and Taylor’s college teammate at Miami told ESPN. “But ever since he had his child, it was like a new Sean, and everybody around here knew it. He was always smiling, always happy, always talking about his child.”

Words cannot do justice to this unspeakable tragedy (nor can music). I had my fill of DC this break and there’s a lot going on in New York this weekend, but I’ll be driving down for the Skins home game against the Bills this Sunday to pay my respects. Today the world lost one of the greatest athletic talents I’ve ever had the privilege to see perform, and he will be sorely missed by all those who ever had the pleasure of watching this young man play.

Their self-proclaimed “sketchy attempt at Christmas number one”, “Flakes” would never be able to reach that mark for obvious reasons, not the least of which being that you can’t purchase the single even if you wanted to (they’re giving it away for free download starting Wednesday). That’s not to say, however, that it doesn’t embody all the essential qualities of your classic Christmas number one, before the honor came to be routinely claimed by conveniently-timed debuts from your X Factor winners and larger than life pop stars dropping novelty one-off Christmas singles. Like “Mad World” in 2003, it’s everything Christmas number one should be - epic, powerful, timeless - but unlike Gary Jules surprise megahit, “Flakes” would hardly make a dent in the charts even if it were to see a formal release in the next month. That’s just the way it goes though, and it doesn’t mean “Flakes” isn’t one of the best songs you’ll hear all year.

Most of all, it reminds you what a weak year its been for quintessentially Britpop singles; it’s more affecting than anything since Guillemots bestowed the retro-pop masterpieces of Through The Windowpane unto the world in the spring of 2006. It’s slow to reveal itself, it’s brilliance shrouded in a delicate vulnerability (Stereogum cites the song’s “Buckley-ish vocals”) that gradually builds to an epic swell of “oh-oh-oh’s” that recalls the mood of Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House (could this be their “Knife”?) more than anything on the Jets’ 2005 debut. It announced itself to me as something Definitely Special from the start, but it wasn’t until last night during an errant venture through the Financial District that everything clicked. “Flakes” was playing as I crossed a rainy street near the seaport and rounded a corner directly into the shadow of 30-foot Christmas tree, and it suddenly become apparent that yes, in some utopian parallel universe, this really is Christmas number one.

MP3: “Flakes” - Mystery Jets ((highly recommended)) [Alternate Link]

And all that without a single mention of Erol Alkan’s production work on the track. I know, right? That’s mainly because regardless of production, “Flakes” would likely be able to stand alone as one of the year’s triumphant tracks even in its rawest form, but the cavernous mix of the vocals is a subtle touch that makes it just that much better. Mystery Jets upcoming second album will be Erol’s first full album production credit, and while he’s not terribly ostentatious on “Flakes”, it’s not the kind of track that needs a producer to make their presence known; subtlety is the name of the game here. That said, his nigh-on impeccable pedigree as a producer - both as a remixer and in rock music (”Fulwood Babylon”, anyone?) - suggests we have a lot to look forward to on the band’s upcoming LP. Between “Flakes” and last winter’s first taste of “Umbrellahead” and the “Elizabeth” demo, Mystery Jets’ as-yet-untitled sophomore effort is shaping up to be a potential classic in waiting.

MP3: “Half In Love With Elizabeth” (Electric Demo) - Mystery Jets [Alt. Link]

On a completely serious note, may Sean Taylor be in our thoughts tonight. ST21

Things have been slow here this week, but I’m home for the holidays and that’s just how it is. As much as I loathe Thanksgiving itself (the result of a general disdain for both turkey and the vast majority of my extended family), it’s definitely nice to get away from New York for a minute. DC has never been better and there’s honestly nothing more enjoyable than going around your room and accidentally stumbling across all the stuff you had to hide from your parents in high school (read: cigarettes, drug paraphernalia, condoms, illegal immigrants, etc.), but the best thing about being back in the Chocolate City is being reunited with my car and its iller-than-ill soundsystem. Gary and I took the Chariot 2.0 on a mid-atlantic university tour through Virginia and North Carolina over the weekend and you better believe I was rockin’ this mix the whole way.

Comprised predominantly of slammin’ rock and electro tracks that are ideal for driving at absurd speeds on dark highways, M3 Volume 16 is undeniably the hotness. With a nice array of tracks including well-established cuts from Test Icicles, the Strokes and Bloc Party, and more recent favorites from the likes of Danger, Fortune, and the Author, the mix is dropping heat all over the place. With Les Savy Fav bringing the fucking rock on “Slugs In The Shrubs” and “Raging In The Plague Age” at one end of the spectrum and Ghosthustler, Calvin Harris and Danger keeping it shit-hot at the other end with some bangin’ electronics, Vol. 16 has got it all. Looking past the more recognizable names on the tracklist, definitely don’t sleep on the excellent cuts from These New Puritans, Damn Shames and Late of the Pier either, and those of you who already wrote “Flux” off weeks ago (yeah, that was me too) would be wise to give it another chance because the 12″ version is 100% off the chains, owning the original in every possible way.

High Resolution Artwork: [Front Cover] [Back Cover]

Download: M3 Volume 16 [follow link]

M3 Volume 16:
01. “Circle Triangle Square” - Test Icicles [Alternate Link]
02. “Slugs In The Shrubs” - Les Savy Fav [Alternate Link]
03. “Heart In A Cage” - The Strokes [Alternate Link]
04. “Raging In The Plague Age” - Les Savy Fav [Alternate Link]
05. “Bully” - Fortune [Alternate Link]
06. “Taxi” - The Author [Alternate Link]
07. “Reactor Party” - ShitDisco [Alternate Link]
08. “Elvis” - These New Puritans [Alternate Link]
09. “Luno” - Bloc Party [Alternate Link]
10. “Dancing In The Aisles” - Damn Shames [Alternate Link]
11. “Busy Busy Busy” - Ghosthustler [Alternate Link]
12. “Bathroom Gurgle” - Late of the Pier [Alternate Link]
13. “Merrymaking At My Place” - Calvin Harris [Alternate Link]
14. “Flux” (12″ Version) - Bloc Party [Alternate Link]
15. “11h30″ - Danger [Alternate Link]

2006 was a huge year for the French, with talented electro-house acts breaking out all over the place, but things have quieted down a bit in 2007. Sure, all the usual suspects (Justice, SebastiAn, Kavinsky, et. al) are still dropping fire on the regular, but we haven’t had a new French act to lose our shit for since Kavinsky burst onto the scene with “Testarossa Autodrive” late last year. That’s all about to change though, with two new talents on the verge of breaking into the public consciousness, both with their own unique take on the French electro sound that’s become so huge over the last 18 months.

While Pedro Winter and the Ed Banger collective have more or less dominated the French scene for the last two years, 2007 sees a new generation of artists and labels making a name for themselves outside of the Justice/SebastiAn/Uffie crowd. Kavinsky led the way with his signing to Air’s Record Makers label last year, and now labels like Disque Primeur and Elekroshock are beginning to make some serious noise as well. It’s Elekroshock who have the honor of putting out newcomer Danger’s tracks, and what an honor it is. Borrowing elements from everything that’s hot in electronic music now, Danger’s 9/14 2007 EP is an incredibly promising debut and suggests that Danger just might be the closest thing the French have to an heir to the Justice thrown of hype. Danger represents himself as an animated action hero, names all his songs after times and dates and his single, “11h30″, just might be the best electro-house track of the year not involving a children’s choir and disco strings. Remember how you felt when you first heard “Waters of Nazareth”? Yeah, it’s kind of like that.

Incorporating a pastiche of influences from across the European electro scene, Danger brings together glitchy pop sounds, electronic power chords, Klaxon-esque backing vocals and an incomprehensible chorus to create an absolute banger in “11h30″ and it totally slays. Working with the same dark edge that runs throughout the French-house scene these days, you can draw a lot of parallels between Danger’s sound and that of SebastiAn, Kavinsky and Justice, but as the literature accompanying the EP correctly asserts, he’s not just another nu-disco act jumping on the electro bandwagon. “This is about emotions. His music has meaning, it’s both personal and universal; he is a true composer working in his own universe,” the press release goes on, and I have to say I agree. “11h30″ is truly immense, a visceral listening experience on par with “Waters of Nazareth” and “Ross Ross Ross”, and the track joins said predecessors among the ranks of the best electronic singles in recent history. So listen people, Danger is definitely someone worth getting really excited about, and you best be ready for him to do some serious damage in the new year.

MP3: “11h30″ - Danger ((highly recommended))

Moving away from the purely electronic and into the realm of electro-rock is FORTUNE, who’s ready to takeover the France with a new sound of his own. While still embracing the heavy electronic influence of his contemporaries, he brings live drums and (*gasp*) guitars into the mix for a refreshing new take on that so hot right now French sound. “Bully” is the first and only track he’s currently got available, but it’s a total banger and a freshly-inked deal with Disque Primeur will supposedly yield a debut EP from FORTUNE before the year is out. Sounding like Phoenix if they took a more bangin’ direction or the Ed Banger dudes if they left their distortion knobs alone for a minute and picked up guitars instead, “Bully” is an amazing first track and has me desperate to hear more. I hope you feel the same.

MP3: “Bully” - FORTUNE ((highly recommend))

Elsewhere, the latest issue of the NME brought with it quite the bonus package on Wednesday, in the form of a free CD of “Flux” remixes. While opinions (including mine) are still extremely mixed on Bloc Party’s latest single, they rarely let us down in the remix department and this time out it’s no different. With MSTRKRFT’s JFK (seriously, dudes must have some serious disdain for vowels) and GoodBooks both throwing down some interesting takes on the tracks, this is definitely a remix EP worth purchasing. Oh wait, it’s free. Fuck yeah.

MP3s:
“Flux” (JFK Remix) - Bloc Party
“Flux” (GoodBooks Magnetism Mix) - Bloc Party

ALTERNATE LINKS
• “11h30″ - Danger
• “Bully” - FORTUNE
• “Flux” (JFK Remix) - Bloc Party
• “Flux” (GoodBooks Magnetism Mix) - Bloc Party

It’s been ages since I’ve been motivated to post a live set, but this is some seriously hot shit. Anyone who’s seen Girl Talk in 2007 knows that his live shows are completely off the chains, thanks in large part to his pro-stage invasion stance and his tendency to flesh out his sets with completely new remixes and mash-ups alongside his officially released material. I’ve seen Girl Talk thrice now, in three different cities along the Eastern seaboard (Boston, NYC and the Chocolate City, naturally), and have been completely owned on every occasion. That said, Girl Talk is best enjoyed in the company of absurd amounts of alcohol, so memories of exactly what was played are a bit hazy. Fortunately, one Brian Connolly was on hand at the Seattle show last January and was able to lock down a near-flawless soundboard (not soundboard?) recording of the show. Not only that, but he also took the time to at least attempt to give us some sort of coherent tracklisting by creating titles for each of the tracks. So yes, let’s all take a minute to thank him. Alright, we good? Cool.

Now feast upon this masterpiece of a bootleg. I made some artwork for it which you’ll find above, or in high resolution at the link below, as per usual. I’m not gonna bother with uploading all the individual tracks since we all know the individual downloads don’t work anyway, but I’ve upped the whole thing as a .zip file to a couple different file hosts to make sure everyone can access it. There’s no real point in discussing the set’s highlights as the whole thing’s just one big highlight in itself, but “Digital Hustlin’” (Rick Ross’ “Hustlin’” and “Digital Love”), “Whoomp Wit It…” (”Carry On My Wayward Son” gettin’ cosy with “SexyBack” and “My Love”) and the moment when he drops “Call On Me” and “Drop The Pressure” in “Bounce That” and “What A Fool Know About That” (respectively) are pretty fucking exciting to say the least. I’ve uploaded “Digital Hustlin’” and “Whoomp” as individual MP3’s, but you’d be wise to just go ahead and download the whole thing from the links below.

High Resolution Artwork: [Front Cover]

Download: Girl Talk: Live In Seattle [follow link] [Alternate Link]

Girl Talk Murders Seattle:
01. “Give me like, three minutes.”
02. (Crowd Noise)
03. “Girl Talk” (Radio Chatter Intro)
04. “SPOON MAN!” (Introduction)
05. “Ring The Alarm Once Again”
06. “What It’s All About”
07. “Stuntin’ By The Lights”
08. “Doin’ It Bossy”
09. “Pump This Party”
10. “Work It”
11. “Need You To Set It Off”
12. “Loving Changes, Hating Changes”
13. “What A Fool Know About That”
14. “Kryptonic Train Ride”
15. “Whoomp Wit It, Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It” [Alternate Link]
16. “Digital Hustlin’” [Alternate Link]
17. “Run This Motherfucker”
18. “Just Need To Stay Fly”
19. “Galang-nologic”
20. “Ain’t No Other Love Triangle”
21. “Bounce That”
22. “Smash Your Head”
23. “I finally feel like I’m Spoon Man!”
24. “Nuckin, Buckin, Gettin’ Some”
25. “Lay It Back And Drop It”
26. “Pump That Pussy, Don’t Back Down”
27. “Peak Out”
28. “From The Muddy Banks Of Seattle”

So there you have it, one of the illest live recordings I’ve ever come across. Once again, massive thanks go to Mssr. Connolly, as this is something seriously special.

Villains are the fucking truth. It looks like America is finally stepping up to the plate and putting out some electro masterminds of its own, and Villains are easily the best US DJ’s I’ve heard in a longgg minute. Missing Toof has been killing it recently and all credit goes to them for the discovery, but the gospel of Villains needs to be preached far and wide, so I figured I’d throw them up on here too. Naturally, my introduction to the LA-based duo came as a result of their immense “Hunting For Witches” remix. “Witches” had truly amazing remix potential, but neither Crystal Castles nor Fury 666 (both of whom were commissioned to remix the track for the official single release) really got the job done. The RAC remix was a big step in the right direction, but nothing can top Villains’ Electro-Banger mix. Shit is out of control.

MP3: “Hunting For Witches” (Villains’ Electro-Banger Remix) - Bloc Party

All that said, their “Witches” remix is only the tip of the iceberg. Already churning out solid original productions, Villains are proving themselves to be viable contenders in the electro scene even at this early stage. Anyone not sold by that Bloc remix will be believers as soon as the needle drops on “Thrilla”, the duo’s electro-fucked rework of the Michael Jackson classic. Closer to an original production than a remix, as it only samples a very minimal portion of the vocals and a few other instrumental flourishes, “Thrilla” is the stuff dreams are made of. Considering the original’s status as one of the greatest dance singles of all time, you’d think there’d be all kinds of hot remixes of the track floating around the internet, especially given the flourishing remix culture catalyzed by the electro explosion of the last few years. But as far as I’m concerned, Villains are the first to step up and really hit it out of the park. That part when the vocal sample crescendos to the breaking point, and you’re all ready for the “Thrillaaaaaa!”, but then they switch it up and drop their own chorus of glitchy synth beats and chopped up vocal excerpts… I mean good god. This is dangerous stuff, folks.

MP3: “Thrilla” - Villains ((highly recommended))

As if that weren’t enough to get you totally pumped for the Villains takeover, they just threw up a brand new remix onto their ‘Space yesterday. This time they take on another essential classic in “Around The World”, and once again they do it up right. I’m starting to think they can do no wrong, but only time will tell. Don’t sleep on this.

Moving on though, there’s plenty more electro-heat to go around in this one. Below we’ve got two songs originally engineered by European production maestros and released in 2005, only to be reworked into viable chart-toppers with the help of female vocalists in 2007. First up is Christopher and Raphael Just’s “Popper”, which dropped in 2005 before getting the Kistune remix treatment and seeing a re-release in 2006. The highlight of said re-release was Shinichi Osawa’s Distortion Mix, which totally killed it on the second Kitsune Maison compilation that year. Taking the original and completely reinventing it on a monumental scale the Shinichi Osawa mix ups the tempo and tricks it out in cowbells and immense production effects, all the while making the most of the original’s essential element: that endlessly addictive, super-poppy synth lick that weaves and in out of the mix from start to finish. It was Euro-house gold, and there’s a reason it melted dancefloors across the continent in 2006.

MP3: “Popper” (Shinichi Osawa Distortion Mix) - Chistopher & Raphael Just

Now Christopher’s taken the defining element of “Popper”, that aforementioned cascading synth line, and applied it to a brand new track he’s produced for Austrian pop vocalist Mel Merio. Not only that, he’s also built the track around the “Around The World” guitars from Nicky Van She and Dangerous Dave’s “Around The World Again”. So yeah, there’s a shit-ton of appropriation going on here, but you can’t argue with the results. I’m actually not all that into Mel Merio’s vocal, but I can’t really complain when the instrumental context is so incredibly bangin’. Keep an ear out for the totally 80’s, Beverly Hill Cop-esque synth freak-out around the three and a half minute mark.

MP3: “Domino Dancing” (Extended Mix) - Mel Merio ((highly recommended))

In 2005, Dutch electronic mastermind Mason crafted a house monster in “Exceeder”, which eventually saw release in the UK in 2006. But it wasn’t until he teamed up with Princess Superstar that the track truly blew up. Pairing the vocal from Princess Superstar’s “Perfect” with the “Exceeder” instrumental proved to be a match made in heaven, and the track shot to #1 on the UK dance charts. Princess Superstar’s verses are her typical vapid, self-aggrandizing fare, but it works in perfect harmony with Mason’s original track. Somehow all of this went down unbeknown to me, as I only just now copped this when my man Stephen (the Bangalter to my Guy-Manuel, if you will) sent it my way this weekend. And yeah, there isn’t much more to say on the matter; this shit kills.

MP3s:
“Exceeder” (Original Edit) - Mason
“Perfect (Exceeder)” - Princess Superstar vs Mason ((highly recommended))

I guess it would have been ideal to have had the opportunity to grab these before the weekend, but things don’t always go as plan. So just throw these on your ‘Pod and rock them all week long, that way you can have your moves down in time to hit the dancefloor next weekend and look extra baller. Enjoy.

ALTERNATE LINKS (via zShare)
• “Hunting For Witches” (Villains Electro-Banger Remix) - Bloc Party
• “Thrilla” - Villains
• “Popper” (Shinichi Osawa Distortion Edit) - Christopher & Raphael Just
• “Domino Dancing” (Extended Club Mix) - Mel Merio
• “Exceeder” (Original Edit) - Mason
• “Perfect (Exceeder)” - Princess Superstar vs Mason

Searing riffs! Angular chords! Dance beats! It’s 2005 all over again! Except, unfortunately for the Author, it’s not. That said, you can forgive the lads for being a bit behind the times, after all they hail from Jersey in the Channel Islands (closer to north France than England), a locale better known for being the only British territory occupied by the Germans during WWII than for its cutting edge music scene. In fact, the Author’s press release touts them as the first and only band ever to come out of the area, so here’s to the best band in Channel Islands history then. But yeah, the five-piece possess all the trademarks of the British dance-punk sound that defined 2005, sadly they’re just a bit too late to the party to get the same critical reception as their predecessors. That’s not totally fair though; a hot jam is a hot jam any way you look at it and “Taxi” is an excellent debut single, regardless of its temporal setting.

With their hometown in mind, the song’s title and lyrics (”sleepwalking children escape from their lonely village”) take on a greater significance. This is a band desperate to break free from their isolated, ocean-locked setting, and a single like this should have them playing under the bright lights on the mainland in no time. Embracing that Klaxonic future-rock sound with state-of-emergency riffs and shouty group vocals, the track falls somewhere between the manic pacing of “Helicopter” and the spastic abrasiveness of Klaxons’ “Bouncer” cover. It gets your heart racing and your blood pumping, the kind of encore track that could reduce an audience to smoking rubble in a live setting. Even when they slow things down in the bridge you can sense the guitars just waiting to roar back into the frame for the final kill, always ready for some serious shredding at a moment’s notice. The vicious instrumentation and frantic, desperate energy converge to create a damn fine debut single, and while it’s nothing groundbreaking, they’ve definitely got a good thing going and it’ll be interesting to see where the Author go from here.

MP3: “Taxi” - The Author ((highly recommended)) [Alternate Link]

Chistmas has come early again this year in the form of the Wombats long-awaited debut album, A Guide To Love Loss & Desperation. Nearly a year after my initial love affair with the band, they’d begun to slip off my radar a bit after the luster of recent singles “Backfire At The Disco” and “Let’s Dance To Joy Division” wore off much faster than anticipated and the unveiling of an LP tracklist comprised almost entirely of tracks I’d heard before. My expectations weren’t low per se, but they definitely weren’t high, especially after a year in which bands with promising early singles consistently produced disappointing debut records (see: the Maccabees, Good Shoes, Air Traffic, et. al). But fucking fuck motherfuck, this is an amazing record.

The Wombats early singles established them as an endearing guitar-pop trio who made their money on wonderful three-part harmonies, playful anecdotal lyrics and blissful melodies, but somewhere along the line they apparently decided to evolve into a band of the motherfucking ROCK variety. I never would have classified them as such prior to the album, but the fact of the matter is, this shit does indeed rock. The amps are turned up to 11, the guitars are placed at the front of the mix and processed through heavy fuzz, and the three-piece generate more noise than you ever thought they had in them. These elements converge to give the tracks a truly visceral edge and inject the album with more vitality than perhaps any Britpop record since Silent Alarm. The mixing and production work is flawless, with the band’s new, heavier approach nicely complemented with just enough synthetic flourishes to give the band a polished, unique sound without overdoing it. Elements that would be overly-cute, even cloying (a capella intros, childrens choirs, Bridget Jones references) in another band’s catalog sound perfect and endearing in this context; the Wombats can do whatever the fuck they want as long as they keep kicking out jams of this caliber.

The brilliant production work and new recordings makes the fact that there are only three new tracks here a complete non-issue. Old favorites (”Moving To New York”, “Lost In The Post”, “My First Wedding”) take on wonderful new life in their reincarnations, promising demos (”School Uniforms”, “Dr. Suzanne Maddox”) come alive in technicolor in their finished versions and even aforementioned singles “Backfire” and “Joy Division” (which appear unchanged from their single releases) take on new worth and enjoyability in the context of the full record. Throughout the album, frontman Murph will win you over with his anecdotal lyrics of his romantic misadventures, and though he’s singing of failure and despair, there’s always a hint of a smile or a tongue planted firmly in cheek. Having experienced nothing but the album’s nominal themes of love, loss and desperation as a result of the opposite sex, it seems a whole cast of female antagonists (Laura, Susie, Patricia, Dr. Suzanne Maddox, even Bridget Jones) are conspiring against him. Rest assured though, he’ll have the last laugh. The trio’s uncanny ability to write harmonies in which backing vocals pop in and out of the mix with a mechanical precision at exactly the right time, coupled with the band’s combination of accessible riffs and addictive hooks, should bring them massive success in no time (and with massive success, of course, comes fly-ass honeys). All in all, this is the complete package… the Wombats have arrived. Debut of the year? You better fucking believe it.

MP3s:
“Moving To New York” (Album Version) - The Wombats ((highly recommended))
“School Uniforms” - The Wombats ((highly recommended))

Once again, alternate links for those of you having difficulty with the direct ones.
ALTERNATE LINKS (via zShare)
• “Moving To New York” (Album Version) - The Wombats
• “School Uniforms” - The Wombats

Moving away from the folk sound that’s been ruling these pages recently and to the opposite end of the sonic spectrum, let’s get back into some of the bangin’ electronics that have been owning the iPod as of late. And what better place to start than with Daft Punk, the uncontested kings of electronic music in 2007. This year may have seen stellar debut releases from the likes of Justice, Simian Mobile Disco, Digitalism and more, but there’s no question that Daft Punk owned 2007. It’s a rare feat for a band to reign supreme over the entire music world in a year in which they released no actual new studio recordings, but the French electro maestros managed to accomplish this with flying colors, leaving an indelible mark on a year that was already a breakthrough period for electronic music. Their Alive world tour left audience after audience in complete awe, and no doubt changed more lives this year than “New Slang” could ever hope to do.

This brings me to the first single culled from their upcoming live album (a possible contender for my album of the year), in which they mash up “Harder Better Faster Stronger” and “Around The World” in an incredible union of two of the most essential tracks in the history of electronic dance music. I’m tempted to go ahead and name it my song of the year, but as there’s still two months left for other contenders to present themselves in 2007, I’ll refrain… for now. But seriously, this shit is unbelievable.

MP3: “Harder Better Faster…” (Alive 2007) - Daft Punk ((highly recommended))

The best part about Daft Punk’s return to the limelight is the number of bangin’ remixes it’s catalyzed and here’s one of the best courtesy of Red Foxx. The beauty of it lies in the fact that the original track is left completely untouched for the first two-thirds of the song, with Foxx only stepping in to take its golden moment (the killer guitar breakdown, possibly the best part of any track on Discovery) and make it all that much more amazing. This will kill in the right club setting.

MP3: “Digital Love” (B-More Surprise Edit) - Daft Punk ((highly recommended))

Calvin Harris slipped on and then very quickly off my radar with the first two singles off his 2007 debut, I Created Disco, but I’ve found myself quite fond of the third cut off the LP. “Merrymaking At My Place” rocks a “Tribulations”-era LCD Soundsystem bassline and a repetitive verse that’s addictive as fuck, and it only gets better when Kissy Sell Out takes over on the remix. Drug taking!

MP3s:
“Merrymaking At My Place” - Calvin Harris
“Merrymaking At My Place” (Kissy Sell Out Remix) - Calvin Harris

Carrying the torch for Kissy Sell Out’s glitched-out pop sound, Boy 8-Bit has emerged on the scene as another promising electro artist coming out of the UK this year. I haven’t been terribly moved by anything UK grime sensation Lethal Bizzle has dropped to this point, but in the context of Boy 8-Bit’s aggressive itch-and-glitch its pretty glorious. As for Boy 8-Bit’s original productions, he’s not quite there yet, but “Suspense Is Killing Me” is a promising-ass start.

MP3s:
“Selfridges Girl” (Boy 8-Bit Remix) - Lethal Bizzle
“Suspense Is Killing Me” - Boy 8-Bit

Then there’s this one, and even though it’s been circulating around the web for a minute now it’s still way hot. I heard this about a thousand times from various DJ’s at different venues during CMJ, but it’s understandable. Soulwax has brought the fire once again.

MP3: “Get Innocuous” (Soulwax Remix) - LCD Soundsystem

Bloc Party’s got a history of working with excellent remixers and the results have consistently been great, and now they’ve teamed up with Diplo for the NME’s Love Music Hate Racism compilation. It’s a great compilation with a bunch of excellent cuts, and the Diplo remix of “Where Is Home?” is good enough I guess. I’ve never really been fully on the Diplo bandwagon, so my opinion could be a bit biased, but Bloc have definitely inspired better remixes than this. It’s still worth your while though; after all, this is Bloc Party we’re talking about.

MP3: “Where Is Home?” (Diplo Remix) - Bloc Party

Finally, we move into the mainstream pop realm with a remarkably excellent new single from Kylie Minogue. Kylie has a history of surrounding herself with talented producers and remixers on the cutting edge of the music scene, and it looks like her upcoming tenth album, X, will be no different. She’s collaborating with the aforementioned Calvin Harris on “Heartbeat Rock”, and then there’s “2 Hearts”, the amazing lead single featuring production work from the previously unheard of Kish Mauve. Apparently signed to Sony ATV with a debut album in the works for a 2008 release, the British electronic duo wrote and produced “2 Hearts”, taking the blueprint established by Feist’s “My Moon My Man” and drenching it in sugary pop goodness until it was ready for the top of the charts. And as Minogue’s triumphant comeback single after beating breast cancer last year, you better believe this will be going straight to #1.

MP3: “2 Hearts” - Kylie Minogue ((highly recommended))

As usual, she’s got an elite crop of remixers on the single. Headphone Sex has Studio’s minimalist take on the track here and you can cop Alan Braxe’s uptempo remix in the Blue Walrus’ latest electro compilation here.

Those of you who are unable to download the tracks from the links above will find zShare links below. More importantly though, does anyone know what it is wrong with my server that could be causing all the downloads to time out? I mean, what’s the point of a site like this if you can’t actually hear the tracks? Unfortunately, I can’t contact my host company to figure out what’s wrong for fear that they’ll just up and shut my shit down for hosting “illegal” downloads, especially considering I use the same host that Oink was on and I’d imagine they’re being especially cautious of servers enabling illegal filesharing considering the international scandal that’s resulted from all this Oink business.

ALTERNATE LINKS
• “Harder Better Faster Stronger” (Alive 2007) - Daft Punk
• “Digital Love” (Red Foxx’s B-More Surprise Edit) - Daft Punk
• “Merrymaking At My Place” - Calvin Harris
• “Merrymaking At My Place” (Kissy Sell Out Remix) - Calvin Harris
• “Selfridges Girl” (Boy 8-Bit Remix) - Lethal Bizzle
• “Get Innocuous” (Soulwax Mix) - LCD Soundsystem
• “2 Hearts” - Kylie Minogue