Good Weather For Airstrikes

After over a year’s worth of snowballing hype and critical adoration, shit hot singer-songwriting sensation Florence Welch has officially arrived with “Kiss With A Fist”, her debut single and the latest addition to the vaunted Moshi Moshi Singles Club catalogue (it’s out in the US via IAMSOUND as well). With laudatory features popping up everywhere from Nylon to Q Magazine, the NME declaring her one of the best live acts to see this summer and an opening spot on MGMT’s sold out European tour (not to mention a freshly-inked deal with Virgin), she could release whatever she damn well pleased as her debut and still be doing pretty well for herself. Fortunately she’s chosen to grace us with “Kiss With A Fist”, a perfect display of her left-field pop sensibilities and eccentric style. It’s not her best track (that’d be “Girl With One Eye”) and is a bit of a departure from her typically stripped-down approach, all loud guitars and raucous percussion clocking in at under two minutes, but it’s still an extremely solid (if brief) debut.

The real story here, however, is Florence’s show-stopping cover of “Hospital Beds” on the flipside, easily the most thunderstealing B-side of 2008. She’s at her best when she lets her powerful voice shine over sparse arrangements, and that’s exactly the case here as she drops a jaw-dropping vocal over a rudimentary drums-and-guitar instrumental. The Cold War Kids original is undoubtedly a modern classic and one of the more transcendent tracks of the last few years, but Florence completely makes it her own, taking things to new levels of visceral emotion. Fucking amazing, folks.

STREAM: “Kiss With A Fist” - Florence & The Machine

MP3: “Hospital Beds” - Florence & The Machine

Elsewhere, Imran Ahmed of Abeano Music (the XL Recordings subsidiary responsible for bringing you Vampire Weekend, To My Boy, I Was A Cub Scout and now Magistrates) and PUSH fame has started a blog, and a damn fine one at that. Not only is he offering up Magistrates upcoming debut single “Make It Work” for free download (and in lossless AIFF at that), he’s also got some hot tips as well. Imran’s got a pretty solid track record in the industry having covered music for the NME and The Guardian (so he writes all good-like, you know), hosted a few different radio shows for the BBC, and redefined the indie club night in London with FROG at the Mean Fiddler, the predecessor to the current PUSH night he runs with the lovely Young & Lost Club girls. He also claims to have been the first person to ever play Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” on the radio, but that’s debatable at best. Either way, keep an eye on his space; it’ll be worth your while.

Also, as long as we’re on the topic of UK blogs worth giving a fuck about (of which their are sadly very few), I encourage you to revisit the fine gentlemen over at Transparent Magazine, where they’re consistently pumping out the jams (including another fine Magistrates cut here) and keeping things interesting with all manner of fancy words and pictures. Sahil and Jack Shankly are (quite frankly) two of the best writers in all of blogland (kind of like Said The Gramophone, only with, y’know, actual good music), so do show them some love and drop by their page from time to time.

I’d tack a few more jams of my own onto this post if I could get that motherfucking Miley Cyrus song out of my head, but there’s no hope for that, so check out our UK blog friends in the meantime.

NOTE: After six months abroad, I’ve finally left London and am currently cruising around the Adriatic on a charter with some friends. I won’t be back in the states (or in front of a computer) until the 13th of June, so until then I’ve cued up some reposts of older content featuring bands who have gone a bit overlooked but are still fully deserving of your attention.

A year later and the Moths, well, are no longer the Moths. Somehow they found an even more unfortunate name in Me My Head, and have gone back to square one. They’re still at it though, gigging around the UK and building buzz, but sadly they’re definitely no closer to making it now than they were at this time last year.

Their band name may be less than ideal (deal with it, you’ll get over it the second the music starts), but holy shit these kids have talent. The Moths unfuckwithable debut 7″ features a triple threat of near-flawless British guitar-pop gems infused with synths and a drum machine to give it an electro-punk flavor. It’s rare enough that you find a debut single with a B-side good enough to rival its spotlighted counterpart, but to come across a debut with two B-sides every bit as good as the A-side is fucking unheard of. But that’s exactly the case here, with “Wild Birds” and “Valentine” proving to be every bit as good as – if not better than - “Games”, no easy task considering the extremely high quality of the headline track in its own right.

The tricky thing is, there’s nothing of overwhelming academic merit about these songs and the whole affair isn’t all that groundbreaking per se, but at the same time you’d be hard-pressed to find a single band that you could convincingly argue the Moths were ripping off here. Sure, the huge synthy parts in “Games” have a very Killers feel about them and frontman James Fox’s diction recalls that of Interpol’s Paul Banks at times, and yeah, that bouncy synth riff in “Wild Birds” is straight out of Gnarls Barkley’s “Gone Daddy Gone”, but none of these instances give off the impression that the band consciously took notes from any of those bands at any point. Furthermore, you can’t really point to one specific thing the band does truly spectacularly. The lyrics are thoroughly enjoyable most of the time (“a joy and a pleasure to listen to” as Rya might assert), but choruses like “All just a game in my head!” (“Games”) and “I’m never gonna let you go!” (“Wild Birds”) aren’t exactly breaking new ground or anything. The guitarmanship here is pretty routine, ditto for the drums (which are actually programmed on a drum machine), but shit – when everything comes together, the final package just cannot be denied.

The synth work takes the tracks to a whole new level while remaining subtle enough not to steal the show completely, and nowhere is this more evident than on “Games”, the single’s actual A-Side despite some significant thunder-stealing on behalf of “Wild Birds” and “Valentine”. The chorus, while admittedly generic, hits as hard as anything you’ll hear this year and the track is a joyride from start to finish, bursting at the seams with an unflinching vitality. “Wild Birds” is more of the same with a bouncier synth riff (”Gone Daddy Gone” anyone?) thrown into the mix and with Fox’s incredibly endearing lyrics and vocal structures taking center stage, it’s a real grower that will stick around in your head for weeks if you let it. But the real showstopper here is “Valentine”, a shining example of how unbridled optimism, youthful exuberance and clever lyricism can converge to create one of the best tracks of the year.

In fact, the band’s knack for simplistic yet incredibly addictive and endlessly enjoyable guitar-pop, with its youthful vitality and endearing lyricism, recalls the Wombats more than anything else I’ve heard in the last year, even if the two possess marked stylistic differences. So it’s fitting then, that as the Wombats’, the best unsigned band in Britain until they’re recent signing with 14th Floor Recordings, star rises from the obscurity of the realm of the unsigned, the torched is passed on to the only other band in the UK at the moment with the chops to beat them at their own game. Only time will tell, but with three tracks good enough to shine as singles in any other band’s repertoire on the Moths’ first-ever release, it’s safe to say it doesn’t get much more promising than this.

MP3: “Games” - The Moths
MP3: “Wild Birds” - The Moths
MP3: “Valentine” - The Moths

NOTE: After six months abroad, I’ve finally left London and am currently cruising around the Adriatic on a charter with some friends. I won’t be back in the states (or in front of a computer) until the 13th of June, so until then I’ve cued up some reposts of older content featuring bands who have gone a bit overlooked but are still fully deserving of your attention.

A year after this went up last June, Sonny Jim has shortened his moniker to Sonny J and signed a deal with EMI (seems I was a bit off with all that “underground classic” nonsense), with his debut album Disastro set to see release June 16th. “Can’t Stop Moving” remains his finest work, though the album version has been considerably edited due to copyright issues. Still an impeccable summer jam and a solid gold hit though.

Sure, “D.A.N.C.E.” is hard to fuck with, but in Sonny Jim’s “Can’t Stop Movin’” we just might have a darkhorse for the jam of the summer. Released on Rough Trade last week just in time for summer to break into full stride, “Can’t Stop Movin’” is an underground classic in waiting. And a truly underground classic it will stay, as the amount of copyrighted material in play here should be enough to make Sonny Jim hope the track never strays too far into the public eye. “A legal minefield”, I believe my boss called it.

Legalities aside, “Can’t Stop Movin’” is a severely amazing pastiche of classic samples featuring vintage strings, the Jackson 5 in spades and awesome 70’s television samples (”Can we play that again?”, “No that song’s too special.”) that has already received considerable radio play from with-it DJ’s across the UK. There isn’t much more to say on the matter, just make sure to file this under ENORMOUSLY FEELGOOD and thank Sonny Jim for making your summer that much better.

MP3: “Can’t Stop Movin’” - Sonny Jim

Formed less than ten months ago, it took Team Waterpolo but six weeks to catch the ear of the UK music industry when they threw up a demo of “Letting Go” on their MySpace page. Since then, they’ve earned a spot on NME’s New Noise tour and an opening slot on Black Kids’ upcoming sold-out jaunt across the UK, not to mention extensive praise from industry heads and Radio 1 DJ’s alike, as well as Single of the Week honors from the NME for this here release on Moshi Moshi. To some it’s old news by now, but with the triumphant arrival of summer on these fair shores, “Letting Go” has taken on a new life as a warm weather anthem in waiting. Timeless summery pop at its finest, the track is all jangly guitars and synths as sprightly as the Roy Lichtenstein pop art the band has built their personal brand around. It’s true, Team Waterpolo owe a massive debt to Abba having blatantly aped the vocal melody to “Mama Mia” here, but if you can get your head around that (easier said than done, I know), you’re in for a treat.

MP3: “Letting Go” - Team Waterpolo

“Letting Go” is just one of many excellent cuts off of Moshi Moshi’s recently released singles compilation, which chronicles and celebrates two years of the Moshi Moshi Singles Club. Joining Team Waterpolo are the likes of Lykke Li, Kate Nash, Late of the Pier and Friendly Fires, all of whom have been championed in these pages (some more than others) in that time span. One of the finer, lesser-known tracks comes courtesy of Pacific!, who’ve remained remarkably uncelebrated in the UK despite the undeniable excellence of their debut album, Reveries. “Break Your Social System” was their contribution to the Moshi Moshi Singles Club last summer and is a solid cut of Hot Chip-goes-Beach Boys pop in its own right, but it’s “Sunset Boulevard” that’s the real show-stopper on the album, all ice cold synths, pristine harmonies and 80’s nostalgia. Owing serious debts of their own to pop stars of platinum records past, they’re a perfect fit next to Team Waterpolo on any summertime mix, and “Sunset Boulevard” is enough to brighten even the bleakest London afternoon.

MP3: “Sunset Boulevard” - Pacific!

Gotye (that’s “Gore-ti-yeah” to you, bro) is no secret in his adopted home of Australia, having risen to surprising fame over the last two years on the strength of his album Like Drawing Blood, racking up countless awards (including the Australian equivalents of the Mercury Music Prize and the Brit Award or Grammy for Best Male Artist) and rampant critical adoration along the way. Remarkably, he’s done this all without any formal record label involvement, shocking the entire Australian music industry and establishing himself as a completely self-made indie hero in a day and age where such a feat seems nigh-on impossible. Now, a worldwide deal with Lucky Number is bringing his brilliant tunes to the international masses beyond Australian borders, and with the breathtaking grace of debut UK single “Hearts A Mess” leading the way, it seems there may be no stopping Gotye in 2008.

“Hearts A Mess” is a pastiche of borrowed sounds and samples culled from record store bargain bins and passed-down vinyl heirlooms, yet the result is a remarkably unified sonic vision: swirling strings, atmospheric percussion and a heartwrenching chorus for the ages all converging to result in the most majestic single you’ll hear all year. A cinematic pop masterpiece just begging to be plugged into any number of primetime network dramas (you feeling me, Alexandra Patsavas?), the track soars and swells into an orchestral gem the likes of which haven’t been heard in pop music since Sebastien Tellier made eyes water across Europe with the stirring beauty of “La Ritournelle”. Similarly, “Hearts A Mess” sounds like nothing else out there right now, a timeless pop classic unrestrained by genre or critical expectations, and it’s the kind of special, once-in-a-lifetime single that rarely comes along in this increasingly homogenized indie scene.

As if the track itself weren’t enough to send you scrambling down to the record shops, the single comes backed with some top-notch remixes as well. Lull continues to establish himself as one of the most underrated talents in the remix game here, adding some glitch, crackle and ice-cool pop to the original and placing it in an even more otherworldly sonic context than before. A pulsing, throbbing bassline gives the song a solid backbone, but it’s the impeccable synth line that squiggles back and forth across the mix starting at the 1:31 mark that really takes the track to a whole new level of ethereal beauty and emotion. Melodramatic sonic textures and feelings not so much your thing? Then try the Ocelot remix of the track on for size. It’s the kind of thing that comes on as your leaving the club at dawn and forces you to race back inside and rage for three more hours, and the half-Texan/half-British duo drop the beat so hard this might not be legal in some midwestern states. Seriously.

Alright, that’s enough hyperbole for one afternoon. At the end of the day, this was my #3 favorite track of last year (my unpublished year-end list would testify to that, but… yeah), and I’m just thrilled its finally seeing a proper single release and getting the chance to touch lives outside of Australia. It’s time for the rest of the world to catch onto what Australians already know: Gotye is a special, genre-defying talent (”the Australian Beck”, if the UK press is to be believed), the likes of which are rarely seen in this modern age of bandwagon-hopping indie bands, overly-pandering to the flavor-of-the-week tastes of the NME, and if that’s not something to be thankful for, then I don’t know what is.

MP3: “Hearts A Mess” - Gotye
MP3: “Hearts A Mess” (Lull’s Radio Edit) - Gotye [exclusive]
MP3: “Hearts A Mess” (Ocelot Remix) - Gotye

Beyond the music, don’t make the mistake of overlooking the music video, which shines as the best animated video I’ve ever seen, and I say that without even the slightest hint of doubt. Brendan Cook does a masterful job here, and the video has since become a prominent component of Gotye personal brand and style. Literally, the perfect cinematic accompaniment to the track, it’s the reason I first stumbled across Gotye in the first place and is almost certainly my most-viewed music video over the past two years.

Video: “Heart’s A Mess” - Gotye
Director: Brendan Cook (interview with SRO regarding the video here)
Watch: [Daily Motion]
Download: [Quicktime]

In the interest of full disclosure for those of you who might not have been reading all that closely over the past few months, yes, I am employed by Lucky Number. However, the biggest reason I wanted to work here was the opportunity to work with Gotye, so yeah, don’t you dare think the above perfect score is the product of any professional bias. Furthermore, those still in doubt can refer to this, my original post on Wally from nearly a year and a half ago. One nice thing about my position is it gives me insight into the behind the scenes shit that goes on, and a recent issue unfortunately gaining even more blog attention so far than the original track is the Supermayer remix, which we were sadly unable to release. There’s been much shit-talked about how we were fools for not putting it out, but as our artists have complete creative control over their songs (we’re not major label douchebags, remember), Gotye himself had the final word and preferred not to release it in its current form, as he felt it didn’t add enough to the original. And though we dropped some dollars commissioning Supermayer for the mix and may have slightly soured the relationship with Kompakt in terms of future collaborations, thats just the way it goes sometimes. Regardless, we feel we’ve got a superior remix in a very similar style in Lull’s extended mix. Personally, I think both mixes are excellent, though I give a definite edge to Lull’s version. We’ll leave you to be the judge though, and you can hear Supermayer’s take on the track for yourself below.

MP3: “Hearts A Mess” (Supermayer’s Supermess Remix) - Gotye

What we were hoping for was something more along the lines of the German duo’s mind-blowing interpretation of Rufus Wainwright’s “Tiergarten”. “Supermayer Lost In Tiergarten” is perhaps the most technically impressive remix I’ve ever heard, and is in itself a brilliant platform on which to make a case for the remix as a legitimate artform, so obviously we weren’t expecting their work on “Hearts” to eclipse it, we were just hoping for something similarly bold and experimental. The final product, however, plays it a bit too close to the cuff, a good, but perhaps overly safe and faithful interpretation of the original, keeping the same principle beat (albeit a bit more dubby) and just upping the atmospherics a bit. Impressive if you hadn’t heard the original Gotye version but when you have, well… it loses some of its luster. For comparison’s sake, here’s their awe-inspiring take on “Tiergarten”. Through all this, I mean no disrespect to Supermayer (or Kompakt, for that matter) as I still hold them in the absolute highest regard as some of the most talented artists in the electronic music medium, and “Supermayer Lost In Tiergarten” is a pretty obvious reason why.

MP3: “Supermayer Lost In Tiergarten” - Rufus Wainwright

Upon the original release of “Space and the Woods” as Late of the Pier’s debut single in early 2007, I passed it off as nothing more than a directionless mess from a band making a last-ditch effort to throw their hat into the ring of the rapidly-fading “new rave” craze. It was too schizophrenic, too derivative – Klaxons already did the whole science-fiction thing and I’m pretty sure Gary Numan’s got a copyright on those synths – and too cloying, that glorious 80’s synth riff the only thing worth even considering writing home about. But here we are one year on, with new rave six feet under and Late of the Pier’s Erol Alkan-produced debut album the subject of white-hot anticipation around town. On the strength of subsequent singles “Bathroom Gurgle” and “Bears Are Coming” and an epic performance opening for Justice last Valentine’s Day, it seems Late of the Pier have actually made a believer in me. Their schizophrenic song structures have actually become one of their major selling points, setting them apart from their by-the-book contemporaries, and between his work with Late of the Pier and his LA Priest side project, frontman Sam Prest is slowly establishing himself as one of brightest talents in all of England.

Now here we are revisiting “Space and the Woods”, which will see a re-release as a double A-side with a shiny new production job from Mr. Alkan, along with long-time live favorite “Focker” in mid-May. And GOD DAMN if this isn’t the biggest record of the year, if not longer than that. Erol’s gone and made this shit huge, that synth line standing out as one of the hottest moments in music this year and Prest actually sounding confident enough to sell lines like, “I’m shit-hot, so say what you think about me”. In fact, shit-hot would be a damn fine way to describe this song, which just might be the best dance-rock single this side of 2005.

Not content just to polish up a previously released track, the single comes with a second A-side in the form of “Focker”, the band’s most electro offering yet and fully worthy of a full-fledged single release in its own right. Erol works his magic again here, but they hold out until the song’s epic final moments to really lower the boom, getting all LA Priest on your ass and obliterating everything in sight with an all-out electro freak-out of epic proportions. Literally, this shit is incredible and might be one of the few singles I’ve ever heard where I can actually enjoy the instrumental every bit as much as the original (seriously, try it for yourself below). A double A-side automatically implies you’ll be getting more than your fair share of hotness on both sides of the record, but this is just absurd. Top marks, Late of the Pier, you’ve proven me wrong in so many ways.

MP3: “Space and the Woods” (Radio Edit) - Late of the Pier
MP3: “Focker” (Instrumental) - Late of the Pier

“Divine” is summertime, surfboards, drinking on the beach and tanlines, and it’s the triumphant pop moment of Monsieur Tellier’s career. An unabashedly obvious nod to the Beach Boys records that influenced the Frenchman growing up, the track bounces along on an infectious strings of “nah nah nahs” and “oh oh ohs” and should be the perfect soundtrack to the warm weather and long light of summer ‘08. Furthermore, “Divine” will be the track that Tellier hopes to ride to success in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest that takes place a week after the single’s release, and it could prove to be a major turning point in his career with the international exposure that the competition will undoubtedly yield.

Beyond the original track, the single release makes itself that all that more enticing with a crop of top notch remixes from the likes of Midnight Juggernauts and Danger, the latter of whom is proving himself to be increasingly unfuckwithable in this here remix game. Further establishing themselves as the electro kings of Down Under, Midnight Juggernauts take the track and rework it into a blissed-out, synth-drenched masterpiece, turning up the atmosphere and replacing the carefree bounce with the original with an ominous intergalactic drone. Basically, this is what you want playing on the sound system as you and your crew make your final descent into the uncharted territories of some newly-discovered planet in 2056 AD. The REAL jam, however, is the Danger remix, in which our hero takes the blueprint laid down by Tellier and absolutely obliterates it, glitching it out, cutting up the vocals, and taking it to hell and back before he’s done with it. It’s easily the best Tellier remix since one Mr. Dan Carey attempted to conquer Mt. Ritournelle with his magic wand back in ‘05, and the single’s worth buying three times over on the strength of Danger’s masterpiece alone.

This review’s a bit premature as the single version of “Divine” is to be a bit different than the one found on the album, but if anything that’s just more incentive to buy the record and with a triple-threat package like this you really can’t go wrong.

MP3: “Divine” (Album Version) - Sebastien Tellier
MP3: “Divine” (Midnight Juggernauts Remix) - Sebastien Tellier
STREAM: “Divine” (Danger Remix) - Sebastien Tellier

Seb will make his triumphant return to London after his sold out show at the ICA last month when he takes the stage at the Scala April 28th, this time with support coming from none other than the brilliant Lykke Li, everyone’s favorite Next! Big! Thing! and likely heir to the Swedish pop throne. With a line-up like that it’s a show you really can’t miss, and as it’s almost sold out you’d be wise to get your shit together and secure tickets before it’s too late.

GOTYE GETS THE REMIX TREATMENT, MAKES INTERNATIONAL DEBUT
I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, but today I’ve finally gotten clearance to share an absolute burner with you courtesy of blog superstars Ocelot. With Gotye’s European debut single due out May 26th, we commissioned a few electronic types to remix the track, with Lull and Ocelot hitting it out of the park their first time up with two equally brilliant mixes. The Lull remix goes the chill, atmospheric route, dressing Gotye’s melodramatic pop masterpiece up in all manner of swirling synths and pulsing basslines in what might be the London producer’s best work yet. As expected, Ocelot’s rework falls at the exact opposite end of the spectrum, as the transatlantic duo drop obliterate the languorous pace of the original and turn it into one of the finest rave anthem’s of the new year. This is the sound of Ocelot taking the jump to the next level and it’s fucking amazing.

MP3: “Heart’s A Mess” (Ocelot Remix) - Gotye
STREAM: “Heart’s A Mess” (Lull Edit) - Gotye [exclusive]

FRESH PRINTS TOMORROW NIGHT AT APOCALYPSO. HOT JAMS WILL ENSUE.

And no, it has nothing to do with the freshly-leaked Presets album of the same name. But if you come down, you just might hear something off it.

Finally: Who that good looking lady in Vice Magazine? Why it’s Rya Backer, hipster periodical superstar!

In the weeks leading up to the unveiling of Guillemots’ new single, buzz around the industry was that the band had penned the perfect pop song. And guess what, they done did it.

To quote a breathless Zane Lowe after the conclusion of the first-ever radio play of Guillemots new single, “Get Over It”: “Did you see that coming?” And to be perfectly real with you, no I did not. To say “Get Over It” exceeded my already high expectations would be a significant understatement; this is some “Trains To Brazil” next-level shit right here. “Get Over It” unequivocally marks the pinnacle of the band’s commercial viability to this point in their career, while in now way suppressing their seemingly endless fountain of ambition.

Driving guitars, oscillating synths and the union of Fyfe and Aristazabal’s soaring vocals converge to create a track that, like all great Guillemots songs, is equal parts timeless and forward thinking. And just like “Trains To Brazil”, the message is beautiful: Don’t let anything get you down - get over it. But in the same way the euphoric optimism of “Trains was tempered by overt references to terrorism and the anxiety of life in a post-9/11 (or post 7/7) society, Dangerfield doesn’t hesitate to admit that his advice is not the easiest to follow, even for him. “I want you, I want you like I’m 18″, or hero confesses, before going on: “In another life I’m drenched in sweat with you”, alluding to a past love gone but seemingly not forgotten. It’s this lyrical depth that makes Dangerfield such a special songwriter - the brilliant instrumental and basic lyrical sentiment of “Get Over It” ensures it success from square one, but as always, Guillemots refuse to settle for good enough. It’s this desire to push boundaries and achieve perfection that make them such an exciting band to follow, and the single is all the better for it. An immaculate lead single then, and if the rest of the songs on Red, its parent album, are half this good, then Guillemots just might be usurping Bloc Party in my pantheon of favorite bands before the year is out.

MP3: “Get Over It” - Guillemots

Seriously, the first time I listened to this song the clouds parted, everyone around me broke into synchronized dance and I was sliding down rainbows and riding unicorns and shit. Granted, that could have been all the LSD, but I’d like to think this track has some serious magic in it.

MYSTERY JETS VS EROL ALKAN VS SWITCH
In other British indie-pop news, Mystery Jets released my frontrunner for album of the year last week with their sophomore effort, Twenty One. Singles like “Young Love” and “Two Doors Down” are guaranteed to be huge records in the UK, but lead-off track “Hideaway” is the real stunner of the bunch. One of their darker, more rocking efforts to date, it’s my current favorite track on the album and the news that a Switch remix will be dropping soon and this trailer have me beyond pumped. DJ Neoteric also debuted the remix in his latest mix, but according to the Jets the track doesn’t exist as a lone MP3 anywhere outside of Erol, Switch and Neoteric’s respective hard drives. Keep an eye on this space though…

MP3: “Hideaway” - Mystery Jets

Finishing up the last of my finals, so here’s a quick one.

Equal parts heavenly and dispensable, “Paris” is throwaway pop at its finest. Guitars be shimmering like it ain’t no thing, the percussion’s all over the place and the chorus is huge (just try to look past the cliche-ass lyrics); this is about as pop as indie gets. In fact, it’s a shame to see such a fine slice of summery pop perfection going to waste in the dark days of winter, but you can pretty much count on a major label snapping these guys up and re-releasing the shit out of this come next spring. For now though, it’s a good introduction to the band and a great way for them to generate some solid buzz heading into the new year. So yeah, I like this song, but I’ll like it a whole lot more when I’m rockin’ it with the top down on the way to the beach next summer.

MP3: “Paris” - Friendly Fires [Alternate Link]

The song’s great and all, but Price James went ahead and totally upstaged it with one of the most perfect videos I’ve seen for any song this year. Think of it as a tuxedo in music video form, if you will. So so classy.

Video: “Paris”
Artist: Friendly Fires
Director: Price James
Watch: [YouTube]
Download: [Quicktime • 49 MB] [follow link]

Why am I reviewing a single that dropped two years ago? Because I fucking can. I cordially invite you to deal with it.

Röyksopp changed my life a little bit when I was first introduced to “Eple” and Melody AM by my then-girlfriend in the spring of 2005. Then, two months later “Only This Moment” dropped and provided the first taste of the duo’s second long-player, The Understanding, and the rest is history. While Melody AM showed me I could truly shit myself over a record on which guitars were nowhere to be found and “Eple” proved that I could rank a wordless instrumental track among my all-time favorites, “Only This Moment” established Röyksopp as one of my favorite bands in the world and planted the seeds for what would develop into a full-fledged obsession with electronic music within two years’ time.

I can distinctly remember listening to “Only This Moment” on repeat for hours on a sun-drenched beach off the coast of Massachuesetts that summer, shutting myself out of conversations with my friends and getting sunscreen and sand in my headphones just so I could hear it a few more times. It would prove to be a prominent soundtrack for the rest of my year and ended up at #16 on our Top Songs of 2005 list, and Everett wrote the following in our year-end review way back when he still existed: “The first thirty seconds alone solidify the track’s place on this list, and the male/female trade-off vocals pose a wonderful contrast. The hushed male verse is followed by a digitized female chorus, with the backing instrumental remaining superb all the while. This song is evocative of feelings of pure, unadulterated bliss, and the almost childlike glee exhibited herein leaves me wholly unable to feel sorrow in the wake of the music. This is the most emotion I’ve heard captured by an electronic group.” He pretty much nailed it, especially with the “pure, unadulterated bliss” part, though repeated listens reveal a paradox of emotions on display on the track. That element of “childlike glee”, while it pervades throughout the instrumentation, is offset by the hushed, almost somber tone of the vocals, which were contributed for the first time by the duo themselves. Thus, it works in any context, whether happy or sad, uptempo or low-key, and is a shining example of Röyksopp’s effortless brilliance in the electro-pop arena.

Nearly two years have passed and I’m still totally fucking smitten with the track, but my interest was re-sparked by the unearthing of two hot remixes of the song done by Röyksopp themselves. Both of the titles, “Forsiktige Massasje” and “Hissige”, are foreign as shit, but the “Massasje” works more like an alternate version of the original while the “Hissige” kills it with some seriously bangin’ dark disco shit.

MP3s:
“Only This Moment” (Radio Edit) - Röyksopp ((highly recommended)) [Alt. Link]
“Only This Moment” (Röyksopp’s Forsiktige Massasje) - Röyksopp [Alternate Link]
“Only This Moment” (Röyksopp Hissige) - Röyksopp [Alternate Link]

Finally, I’d be considerably remiss if I didn’t mention the UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE music video for the track. That I got high with my friends and watched this video multiple times pretty much every night of my freshman year should paint a pretty good picture of just how incredible this video is, but I’ll go into further detail just to make sure you’re absolutely sold. Röyksopp has a pretty fine music video pedigree to this point in their career, and “Only This Moment” is easily their best. Shot using archival footage and incorporating actual shots of the Paris 1968 protests in addition to a slew of mind-fucking after effects, this video grabs you by the proverbial balls and doesn’t let go until its conclusion. Keep an eye out for the shot with the hands on the table and that totally unreal part with the birds flying overhead towards the end, as they’re both pretty brilliant and are in themselves enough to warrant this video the highest possible recommendation for anyone, but those of you with a passion for getting high as balls will definitely get the most out of this. Sadly, I can’t find it in terribly high quality, but whatever, it’s still totally worth your while.

Video: “Only This Moment”
Artist: Röyksopp
Director: Brendan McNamee & Robert Chandler
Watch: [YouTube]
Download: [Quicktime • 12 MB] [direct link]

Elsewhere, Monsieur Headphonesex echoes our love for Big Face and keeps it hot with the gloriously scratchy new track from the Damn Shames and the epic debut single from LA’s The Mae Shi, both of which you’d do well to check out.

Oh and both the Lightspeed Champion and Hot Chip full-lengths hit the internet today, which is, y’know, awesome.