Good Weather For Airstrikes

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

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 6:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.