Dekker is pretty much the man. Founder of the Apocalypso club night at the Old Queen’s Head in Islington, he’s been making a name for himself on the tables around London for a few years (including his regular stint as Miss Odd Kid’s touring DJ) and is about to take it to the next level with some original material of his own. He’s also one of the nicer dudes I’ve ever met, having been kind enough to put on Fresh Prints back before they were world famous and even taking us into his flat for some private tutelage on top of that. I had the pleasure of dancing my balls off to his sets throughout the semester everywhere from the cozy confines of the Old Queen’s Head to Fabric, London’s electro mecca, and now he’s ready to drop some tracks of his own on us with the help of his sound engineer sidekick Johan.

“Brooklyn” has been killing it on London dancefloors for a minute now, and at long last I’m able to drop the freshly-mastered finished version on you. Chopped up vocals, all manner of glitchy bells and whistles and an arpeggiated breakdown and vocal lovingly sampled from Death In Vegas’ “Rocco” all converge to create a dark disco vibe and bring to mind what it might sound like if Burial decided to go all jacking house on us. With “Brooklyn” Dekker & Johan bring to the table intensity and depth generally absent from the flavor-of-the-week electro oversaturating the blogs these days, and with significant A&R interest already swirling around them, you can expect big things from the duo in the months to come (yes, even in the face of the Impending Electro Recession).

MP3: “Brooklyn” - Dekker & Johan [exclusive]

Like MGMT, Boy Crisis make highly danceable electro-pop that’s so brutally hip and “now” that it hurts. Like MGMT, Boy Crisis went to Wesleyan (were they were like bffz or something), currently reside in Brooklyn and are into all sorts of sprightly psychedelia. And like MGMT, it took me the better part of six months to get over my initial dislike for them and, just like MGMT, they’re making me realize how fucking wrong my original judgment of them was. In the same way I wonder how I ever disliked pop behemoths like “Kids” and “Electric Feel”, listening to Boy Crisis’ “Dressed To Digress” now makes me wonder if my ears were even working when they first crossed my radar back in January. I’m now aware that the hype and rampant A&R buzz surrounding them is more than justified, and I hope you’ll feel the same way.

MP3: “Dressed To Digress” - Boy Crisis

Then there’s Amazing Baby, who I still haven’t quite come around on, but then again it’s only been a few weeks since I was tipped off on them and given my track record, I really can’t write them off just yet. Most of the above similarities between Boy Crisis and MGMT apply here, only Amazing Baby didn’t go to Wesleyan, rather they’re principally comprised of the former members of Stylophone and MGMT frontman Andrew VanWyngarden’s supermodel girlfriend. You can expect more of the same in the psychedelic tribal space-pop department though, and as is the case with any band with even the most tenuous link to MGMT these days, they’re getting no shortage of A&R attention of their own. Worth the hype? You decide.

MP3: “Head Dress” - Amazing Baby

Holy shit, it’s Passion Pit. Far and away my most listened to band of 2008, the creators of the best song to grace these ears in fucking forever (that’d be “Sleepyhead”) and the most exciting band to come out of the States in as long as I can remember, Passion Pit are about to fuck shit up for real. The brainchild of frontman/creative force Michael Angelakos, they sound like they’ve taken the best (read: most euphoric) parts of MGMT, Black Kids and The Go! Team, and on the new material they’re currently working on it sounds like Ratatat are very much in danger of being beaten at their own game. We’ve got some seriously exciting news to announce next week regarding the band, but in the meantime take “Sleepyhead” for a spin and don’t forget to pick your jaw up the floor. Yeah, it’s like that.

MP3: “Sleepyhead” - Passion Pit

Give it a week or so and Pitchfork will be shitting themselves.

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.

Back from paradise, back down to business. The Adriatic’s nothing but blue skies and sunshine this time of year, so it’s fitting we get back into the swing of things by talking about Wave Machines, whose debut single “I Go I Go I Go” brings summertime in spades and then some. Released next week by our friends at Chess Club (so you already know it’s a winner), “I Go I Go I Go” is all bouncy guitars, glitchy basslines and catchy-as-fuck vocals, all converging to create what’s more or less the perfect summer single. The track sounds like the best song Architecture In Helsinki never recorded, but lest you think Wave Machines are a one-trick pony, hit their MySpace and take likely follow-up single “Punk Spirit” for a walk, which replaces all the buoyant optimism of “I Go” with a darker, more brooding vibe. Like the Chess Club singles for White Lies and Post War Years before it, this limited-to-500 release might not even survive pre-orders, so act fast and get on this shit.

MP3: “I Go I Go I Go” - Wave Machines

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

Sadly, less than a year after this was originally posted, Snowfight In The City Centre called it quits. The announcement of their break up via their MySpace assured that “various members of the band are currently working on other projects”, so there’s still hope for more brilliance from this bunch, but they will be missed nonetheless. Their initial double A-side single “No Light Left”/”My Saving Grace” remains one of my favorite debuts of all time (it was named our #7 single of 2006 after all), and given their defunct status, I’ve no need to hesitate in sharing both tracks, along with some of the other highlights from the group’s brief career.

Mancunian six-piece Snowfight In The City Centre have released what is easily the most impressive debut single of 2006 with “No Light Left”, an absolutely untouchable piece of pristine, shimmering indie pop. The principle core of Snowfight formed last year under the name Lisa Brown (sometimes referred to as The Lisa Brown), and they were quickly snatched up by up-and-coming Manchester imprint High Voltage Sounds, who put out the double A-side “What’s That Sound”/”Anna” shortly thereafter, though the impressive release went largely unnoticed in the crowded UK indie-rock scene. “What’s That Sound” was a little slice of dance-rock heaven, seemingly plucked straight out of the 80’s with that ridiculously retro “What’s! That! Sound!” refrain, slick production, catchy hooks, and discotheque-ready vibe. As immediate and accessible as anything that Franz Ferdinand or the Killers can lay claim to, the song had me sold a mere twenty seconds in with those four angular guitar jabs that alternate between the right and left channels and the things only get hotter from there. Still, it remained tragically overlooked. The B-side was an acoustic version of this song “Snowfight In The City Centre”, which isn’t really worth mentioning if not for the fact that, after confusing the shit out of new listeners who consistently expected Lisa Brown to be a solo female artist, the band chose to take this song title and take it for their band name. Now they introduce said song as “Lisa Brown” when they play it live, which I think is clever and endearing.

Now playing under the new Snowfight moniker, they unveiled a whole new sound when they released “No Light Left” last July. Gone is the overwhelming 80’s vibe and in its place are skyscraping melodies and soaring choruses, a new sound that’s self-described as “the Arcade Fire only more anthemic”, which - audacious as it may seem - seems fairly accurate here. “No Light Left” serves up a hefty dose of unadulterated indie-pop perfection, seemingly coming out of nowhere to become one of the elite indie-rock singles of 2006. Seriously, I’m not lying when I say this song has the catchiest chorus of the year, hands down. They warm you up with that first “angels and ghosts” chorus before dropping the proverbial bomb on the second time out when the song really takes flight and shoots towards the heavens. Sure, they have the potential to turn into another Coldplay or Keane sound-a-like (just check out “My Saving Grace”, though I won’t front like I don’t love it), but only time will tell. Their follow-up single, “Listen”, hits shelves in the UK on October 16^th, but you can stream it on their MySpace now, along with a few other unreleased tracks that show a good amount of promise as well. Long story short, this is a band to get very, very excited about.

MP3s:
“What’s That Sound” - Lisa Brown
“Anna” - Lisa Brown
“No Light Left” - Snowfight In The City Centre
“My Saving Grace” - Snowfight In The City Centre

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

Iglu & Hartly are just a blog hype explosion waiting to happen. In fact, it’s a bit ridiculous how little coverage (read: no coverage) the LA-based quartet has received around the blogs, considering they had all kinds of people buzzing here after SXSW. So much so, that word on the street has it they’ve locked down a ridiculous contract from a major label here (who will remain unnamed for the time being) that’s fully down to sink a shit-ton of money into the band and currently has them in the studio recording with sound engineer Mark Needham of the Killers and Bloc Party fame. All this for a band whose sound has to be described as extremely polarizing at best. That said, they’ve got a hell of a single in “Violent & Young” and a label determined to make superstars out of them, but hey - this is still only a few degrees of separation (or, uh, no degrees of separation) from rap-rock, and hasn’t Linkin Park pretty much ruined that for everyone by now?

Like MGMT going through a Crazytown phase, there’s no doubt Iglu & Hartly have a unique sound, but there’s also no doubt the whole hip-hop element and nasally hipster flow is off-putting as shit upon the first few listens. Plus, they’re so fucking LA it makes me want to vomit all over my party pix, but god damn these kids know how to write a hook, and if the chorus of “Violent & Young” doesn’t make a believer out of you then you need to get your ears checked. One of the best debut singles of the year? I can’t really believe I’m saying this, but yeah, pretty much.

MP3: “Violent & Young” - Iglu & Hartly

MP3:

“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!

It’s hard to write objectively about music your friends make - which is why you’ve not seen any mention of Santa here before - but I’ve been spinning their new EP a lot recently and think it’s time to spread the word to the masses. The five-piece have amassed a significant following in their home state with extensive gigging around the Champain area, and now they’re ready to take things to the next level with the release of their sophomore EP, My Bones.

Led by the two-headed cousinly attack of guitarists Stanton and Mack McConnell, the EP is a lovely little affair full of laid-back summer jams that evoke reminiscences of late afternoons on the beach and the long light of summertime. “Hashish” is all breezy keyboard tones and stories of young love lost but not forgotten, while songs like “Over” and the EP’s lead-off track “The Crumble” showcase the exceptional songwriting ability of the former McConnell (that would be Stan, for those of you keeping score at home). The recordings are tight and polished thanks to fine production from Brian Zieske, and the whole thing is a decidedly professional outing for a band decidedly still a bit wet behind the ears. Here’s “Hashish”, the would-be single off My Bones, in all its summerloving glory. Feedback welcome, y’all, don’t hesitate to share your thoughts in the comments.

MP3: “Hashish” - Santa

Speaking of Brian Zieske, dude’s calling card in the immediate future will most likely become the production work he’s done with Sars Flannery on his forthcoming debut LP, Sale of the Century. There’s been a bit of buzz swirling around the up and coming Chicago singer-songwriter for a minute now (including a rumored offer on the table from Top 40 kingmakers Fueled By Ramen), and while most of his oeuvre isn’t really my cup of tea, “Empty Gun” sounds like a surefire American radio hit to me, even if it’s slightly reminiscent of the kind of thing that could have enjoyed much more success had it come around in the late 90’s. Major label A&R folks take note, this shit is tailor made for the US charts.

MP3: “Empty Gun” - Sars Flannery

Those of you in the Chicago area would do well to hit up the Abbey Pub this Sunday for Santa’s Chicago debut, where they’ll be taking the stage and pushing their wares alongside a bunch of other Chi-Town bands they’re probably significantly better than. I mean, it’s a Sunday night and - let’s be real - you really don’t have anything better to do.

“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

After months of keeping us waiting not-so-patiently, Wale’s finally dropped the proper edit of his Justice bootleg on us and while the go-go drums in the song’s final third are sorely missed, it’s nice to finally have a cleaned polish version to rock on the headphones. That said, this just gives amateur DJs everywhere (who, me?) another excuse to beat “D.A.N.C.E.” even further into the ground in indie discos around the world, but y’know what, I’m okay with that.

MP3: “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.” - Wale

In other genre-mashing hip-hop news, I’ve finally tracked down this awesome bootleg of Royksopp’s “Remind Me”, courtesy of shit-hot Brooklyn MC Mickey Factz. I first heard this like a year ago at Major in DC and all the brothers working the counter were all “Who dropped this beat?”, and I was all “Royksopp, mannnn”, and for a fleeting moment felt accepted by the DC hip-hop heads who populate Major. Now, thanks to a mention in the most recent issue of SPIN, I’ve finally copped this shit and it’s most excellent. I’m loving this new direction hip hop’s going in more and more everyday.

MP3: “You Remind Me” (ft. Jesse Boykins III) - Mickey Factz

After an improbable rise to superstardom in his adopted home of Australia over the past few years, Gotye finally made his UK debut last week in London. Monday things went down at the Metro, but as I was still dealing with the maelstrom of shit that was finals week, I had to postpone my gratification until his Hoxton Bar & Grill show Wednesday. Absolutely worth it though, as his Hoxton show was by all accounts the better gig, with a sold out crowd and amazing support in the form of the lovely Marina & The Diamonds and the afrocentric fingerpicking of Nick Mulvey. There were also some extremely hot jams dropped by Fresh Prints in between sets and after the show. I read somewhere they’re gonna be the next Justice or something.

Marina was up first for a brief, but brilliant twenty-minute set. She’s got one of the best and most unique voices I’ve heard in ages, and her powerful vocals easily won over those lucky enough to be there earlier enough for her set, tracks like “We’ve Got Obsessions” and “Simplify” standing out as some of her more awe-inspiring highlights.

MP3: “We’ve Got Obsessions” (Demo) – Marina & The Diamonds
MP3: “Simplify” – Marina & The Diamonds

Next came criminally unknown up-and-comer Nick Mulvey, who’s one of the more special talents I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live this semester. I first caught him at Cross Kings pub (the closest you can get to Brooklyn in North London) in February, but this was the first full-length set I’d heard him play. Given the nigh-on unfathomable hype surrounding Vampire Weekend and the current music climate, you could be forgiven for passing off any indie act rocking an afrobeat influence as mere bandwagon jumpers, but tagging Nick Mulvey as such would be doing the young London troubadour a significant injustice. For starters, he just finished a degree in ethnomusicology focusing on African music and has been making a name for himself as a percussionist in award-winning modern jazz four-piece Portico Quartet for a few years now. Then there’s the small fact that he’s fluent in Congolese… yeah. He’s also one of the more gifted guitarists I’ve ever seen in a live setting, so yeah, it’s safe to say Mulvey’s one to keep an eye on. All of Mulvey’s talents are on display on “I Didn’t Have Time”, which bounces along on sunny guitar melodies and his unique bilingual charm, and it was easily the highlight of his thirty-minute set last Wednesday.

MP3: “I Didn’t Have Time” – Nick Mulvey

Finally, it was time for Gotye to take the stage and fuck if he didn’t put on one of the more amazing shows I’ve taken in during my time here. Easily the most impressive one-man show I’ve ever seen, Gotye bounced back and forth between keys, a sampler and his drum kit, with captivating visuals (like this and this) projected behind him all the while. The drums were and always will be his first love, a point made obvious during his hour-plus performance, in which he frequently returned to the kit to pound out drum solo after awe-inspiring drum solo to take his songs to a whole new level of brilliant intensity. Singles “Heart’s A Mess” and “The Only Thing I Know” were incredible early highlights, but it was underrated album track “Thanks For Your Time”, which stole the show during the main portion of his set with its streaking strings samples and Wally’s piercing “Oh, oh!” backing vocals.

MP3: “Thanks For Your Time” – Gotye
MP3: “Hearts A Mess” – Gotye

For the encore, Nick Mulvey returned to join Wally on the stage for a collaboration the duo had spent the entire day working on in the garden behind the office. A Mulvey-enhanced acoustic version of “Puzzle With A Piece Missing” was a change of pace from the rest of the set and lacked the energy that made his main set so stimulating, but it was more than made up for by his collaboration with Mulvey on a brilliant cover of Paul Simon’s “Gumboots”, which also featured the talents of Gideon Brazil on saxophone. Rounding out the night, Mulvey left the stage as Gotye and Brazil launched into a truly awe-inspiring rendition of future summer smash “Learnalilgivinanlovin”, on which Wally just destroys the drums and unleashes his most impressive vocal performance to date, and it provided the perfect end to one of the best nights of music one could as for.

MP3: “Gumboots” – Nick Mulvey

Dude is a special talent, folks - remember the correct spelling because the rest of 2008 belongs to one man, and his name is Gotye.

All Tomorrow’s Parties is exactly that: a fucking party. It feels unlike any festival I’d ever been to - everyone seems to know each other, and it’s one of the few large-scale music events I’ve ever attended where it seems as if the majority of punters are with the band, both of which add up to create an atmosphere of familiarity and makes for one hell of a three-day bender. The venue is ridiculous - there’s really no American equivalent to Pontin Sands Holiday Centre, the best I can do is to describe the rundown middle-class family resort as a supersized Chuck E. Cheese. There are mascots painted all over the walls, a shitty arcade, go karts (sadly not in service during the festival) and lots of cheesy restaurants and too much wordplay. Suffice it to say, taking in some of the world’s most rocking bands in this environment is considerably strange. Regardless, we had an awesome time.

We’d been planning on skipping Friday, as Les Savy Fav were set to play a warm-up gig in Oxford that night and we were just going to hitch a ride down to Camber Sands with them, but at the last minute everything fell through, as their booking agency somehow forgot to submit their working papers. I’m still not sure how they sorted it so that they could still do ATP, but we met Syd and company at Camber Sands Saturday, the only band of significance missed during the opening day of the festival being Vampire Weekend, and considering I’ve seen them nearly 20 times now, it wasn’t that big a deal. Saturday totally ruled, but as all the bands I saw I’ve already reviewed in these pages for (or you’ve surely read countless reviews of elsewhere), I’m gonna be sparse with the details (do you really need me to go on about how good Les Savy Fav are live again?). Yeasayer was an unexpected highlight, with “2080″ going down as the best song of the festival and one of the best songs you will ever hear in a live setting. That chorus, those shouts, that energy… shit was unreal. The only letdown of their set was the absence of the visuals that have been taking their live show to new heights over the past few months. The man responsible for said visuals - which are unbelievable, by the way - is my main man and good friend Sam Muglia, so to say we were bummed when the extension cord came up like two feet short is an understatement. Still a great set and one of the highlights of the festival though.

MP3: “2080″ - Yeasayer

Beyond that, the festival was everything you’d expect. Hot Chip ruled, Of Montreal ruled, Les Savy Fav REALLY ruled, the Hold Steady ruled and Black Mountain were decent but threw a damn fine party at their chalet Saturday night. Aside from the highlights, I wasn’t really feeling the Black Lips, whose antics were decidedly tame considering the legendary stories of golden showers and broken equipment I’ve always heard surrounding their live reputation. Also, we overslept because we’re fuck-ups and missed Bon Iver on Saturday (and then Jens Lekman on Sunday), and we tragically had to leave before Caribou’s festival-closing set Sunday night, as my roommate (who moonlights as the better half of Fresh Prints) and I both had finals the next day and needed to catch the last train home. Thus, there’s no real reason for me to post this, but I’ve been listening to it too much recently not to give it some love.

MP3: “Melody Day” (Four Tet Remix) - Caribou

All in all, it was easily the best weekend I’ve had yet in England. The beach (the “sands” in Camber Sands) ten minutes from the holiday centre was unreal, the largest stretch of sand in all of England, and the weather was the best I’ve ever experienced in Britain. 80 degrees and sunny, and people are swimming in mid-May. In England. Crazy. Granted, I’ve never seen more frighteningly pale bodies in my life, but it was nice just to take in some cosmic rays and get away from the city for a little while. More live reviews from the past wee (including Gotye’s debut UK gigs and the Great Escape) to come as I recover from finals and get back on track.

THINGS TO MAKE THIS POST SUCK LESS
I’m really not a fan of my live reviews, so here are some bonus jams to keep you coming back for more. Kicking shit off, here’s a collaboration that remarkably few blogs have picked up on, given the immensity of the names involved. Fresh off last summer’s chart-topping megahit, “With Every Heartbeat”, Kleerup’s back again, swapping Robyn for her shit-hot understudy Lykke Li on “Until We Bleed”. It doesn’t immediately stop you in your tracks like “Heartbeat” did, but it’s refreshing to her Lykke’s vocals in a new sonic context and “Bleed” is a damn fine single in its own right.

MP3: “Until We Bleed” (ft. Lykke Li) - Kleerup

I’ve been searching for some Fyfe Dangerfield solo material for as long as I remember, and now James has done us all a SOLID solid and brought this into the collective consciousness of this here blogworld. While not an original composition per se, this here cover is a fucking gem. I’ve never been much of a Larrikin lover, and was significantly less sad than many of my contemporaries when they broke up last year, but the original version of “Well, Love Does Furnish A Life”, featuring Mechanical Bride on backing vox, was the closest thing I had to a favorite track on their first and final record, The Freedom Spark. Fyfe’s interpretation treats it with a gentle introspection that seems more fitting of the lyrics, and it stacks up quite nicely with any of the more sentimental moments on Red.

MP3: “Well, Love Does Furnish A Life” - Fyfe Dangerfield

At the polar opposite end of the sonic spectrum, here’s the bangin’-est remix I’ve heard in a minute. I’m not exactly trailblazing here, as this has been making the rounds for a good bit now, but if there’s one track that’s absolutely destroyed dancefloors during our sets, it’s when we mix from the Robyn remix of “Sexual Eruption” into this bad boy and lay waste to anyone in a 40-foot radius of the DJ booth.

MP3: “Lights & Music” (Moulinex Remix) - Cut Copy

You have been appeased. I’m out.