Author Archive

Kaskade
Strobelight Seduction
Hussle

San Francisco based DJ and producer Kaskade puts together some smart and savvy electronica on this, his fifth album with Strobelight Seduction, a mix of dependable beats and hook laden, soft trance style. The opening track Move on Me is not too bad and the collaboration with Deadmau5 is, at times, gorgeous and lush. What it lacks in low end thump it makes up for with a pace that simply demands dancing. Another top notch track is Pose, with its drawn out lyrics that pour over several bars while the bass line pumps hypnotically beneath. Kaskade is more of a remix specialist these days, having officially re-tinkered Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Seal in this year alone. Strobelight Seduction proves he doesn’t need the extra star power to demand global dancefloor respect and a good long listen. (more…)

CUT COPY - In Ghost Colours - Modular

Infectious as any release this year, In Ghost Colours succeeds, not due to its originality, you’ve heard this before, but because of its timing and measured approach. This isn’t a hookfest, all soaring guitars and trying-to-be-anthemic posturing, nor is it repetitive, the same pattern playing out for seven minutes at a time. The Melbourne outfit tempers one extreme with the other, reverberating guitars balancing out warm synths and, yes, a handful of gigantic hooks, hung like gaudy neon signage on several songs, most notably ‘Lights’ and ‘Music’, which radiates a hollow righteousness via dynamic twiddles and a few well-placed, angular guitar riffs. (more…)

Various - Onelove: Mobile Disco - Sony

It doesn’t really get bigger than this at the moment. Australia’s searing club brand Onelove, along with Sony BMG, is ready to do it again. Hot on the trail of the gold selling and A.R.I.A chart topping success of Smash Your Stereo and Your Disco Will Eat You compilations, Onelove gets moving with their latest release, Mobile Disco. As always they’ve called in the big guns to mix this one. On the first disc titled ‘Midnight’, Melbourne’s Disco Mafia gets the party started with funky disco house tracks. Kaz James from the multi-award winning Bodyrockers fame steps up and puts his hand to the ‘3AM’ disc, choc-full of electro house smashers. Meanwhile, the incomparable and somewhat rebellious boys Acid Jacks return with their over-the-top anything goes party mix on the ‘Backroom’ disc, bursting with surprises. Mobile Disco is the seventh instalment for Onelove’s winning series of popular dance compilations. (more…)

Various - Discovered: A collection of Daft Punk samples - Rapster

Parisian duo Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (a.k.a. Daft Punk) quickly rose to acclaim by adapting a love for first-wave acid house and techno to their younger roots in pop, indie rock, and hip-hop. Their albums: Homework, Discovery, Human After All, Musique and Alive have all had huge critical and commercial success. What their legions of fans and dance music lovers may not be aware of is their love of a good sample. The best of Daft Punk’s sample library have been rounded up on this crucial collection of original tracks that form the basis of Daft hits, including ‘Da Funk’, ‘Around The World’ and ‘Harder Better Faster Stronger.’ With a major world tour on, including a stop in Perth next month, and the release of their debut film Electroma, Daft Punk continue to win new fans. Be you new fan or old, these tracks are essential listening. (more…)

Boys Noize are in fact one man, the Berlin-based 24-year-old Alex Ridha, and with his splendidly titled debut Oi Oi Oi, he’s certainly made a run for dance album of the year, that already have seen sterling efforts from LCD Soundsystem, Justice and a resurgent Chemical Brothers. Rightly cited as completely amazing by contemporaries such as Soulwax, Tiga, Erol Alkan and Tiefschwarz, you might have also heard his work on remixes for Bloc Party, Feist and Kaiser Chiefs. (more…)

In Between is filled with over 70 minutes of fast paced techno beats. That’s a lot of music for the average CD. Each song has a unique set of beats created from an assortment of instruments ranging from pianos to the many variations of the synthesizer. Paul van Dyk has the unique gift of being able to create amazing electronic notes from instruments that wouldn’t fit into that category. There are 18 songs in the album that are sewn together to basically form one long composition. The transition between the individual songs is seamless. You cannot tell when one song ends and another one begins. They then go into their own unique style of techno/trance. That is what makes this album so great; the uniqueness of each song. Many other albums have the same style of music throughout the CD, which usually ends up being boring or dull. In Between is an excellent example as to how unique and different each song can be, yet still retain that special something the makes you think ‘Paul van Dyk’.

Felix Stallings is not alone in the electronic music circles of Detroit and Chicago in being rather partial to a pseudonym, but unlike his peers in the rather sober Underground Resistance circles, Felix (or as he’s most popularly known, Felix Da Housecat) has always been quite partial to a more cartoonish, light-hearted dancefloor vision. Here, Stallings adopts the persona of Virgo Blacktro, an electronic entertainer plotted in the mould of Prince, Sly And The Family Stone, and perhaps rather less predictably, George Michael and the Pet Shop Boys – electro in spirit, yes, but with a vocal presence and production gloss that places Felix more in step with modern disco revivalists like Armand Van Helden, Alan Braxe, or Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter than any slamming techno idiom. Many of the tracks here are compacted and quite short, giving Virgo Blacktro the quick, skippy feeling of a neatly-selected mixtape rather than an artist album that rather outstays its welcome. There is space for one epic, though, in the shape of Tweak a five-minute disco stomp that builds to a thumping climax, like Josh Wink’s Higher State Of Consciousness recreated on the disco floor with a synth that squeaks like a deflating balloon. Going on this, one suspects the name Virgo Blacktro is one you’ll hear again and again.

To internet music geeks everywhere Robyn needs absolutely no introduction. Queen of the blogosphere in 2006, the self-titled Robyn has been imported from Sweden and analysed time and time again. But then, even the casual music fan probably knows who she is - after all her big 1998 hit Show Me Love is a stalwart of every 1990s compilation, and little did we know Beverley Knight’s Keep The Fire Burning is a Robyn classic. Now almost 10 years after her original success, Robyn finally returns to the UK celebrating her new found independence as CEO of Konichiwa Records with the fierce Konichiwa Bitches. Like Peaches, but more goofy, it’s the first of two rap-laden tracks on the album, the second being a sweet cover of fellow Swedes Teddybears STHLM track Cobrastyle. Where Robyn’s skills really lie is in creating the perfect bittersweet love song. Be Mine! is emotionally choking. An agitated cello and an urgent drumbeat accompany the description of a feeling we can all relate to, loving someone who doesn’t love you back. There’s no time to wipe the tears away with the rather sublime With Every Heartbeat following, produced by Kleerup (former member of Teddybears and the drummer in Robyn’s live band). The fact that we’ve not even left room to comment on how the mighty Knife produced the glistening steel-drum ridden Who’s That Girl, the perkiness of the cute Bum Like Me or how Jamelia would kill for a ballad as elegant as Handle Me shows quite how magnificent Robyn is. Whether the public end up welcoming her back is quite a different matter, but if you’re after pop with feeling – you won’t want to miss this.

It doesn’t seem so long ago that Muscles was first being pushed by FBi, but now he’s been picked up by Modular and the label has allegedly promised him that he’ll outsell Wolfmother. And on the back of the success of the singles Ice Cream and One Inch Badge Pin, his debut full-length album is in with a shot. He’s definitely got the whole ‘hip to be geeky’ thing well and truly nailed. His songs come coated in layers of cheese, and he makes no apologies for this. The result is an album that is immensely and indeed infectiously enjoyable. His trademark vocal imitation of a siren is initially bloody annoying, but you always end up singing along. And beneath the distinct vocals is incredibly well crafted electro pop. My Friend Richard is irresistible Italo-tinged synth pop while Futurekidz is Muscles’ take on a vocal, almost trance-like, epic. And guess what? Like much of his stuff, it works even though it probably shouldn’t. The fact is this kid has become an essential part of the music scene over east, and his sound is fresh and fun. You can’t really ask for more than that.

Justin Crawford and Luke Cowdrey first came to prominence as the Unabombers and attracted quite a following at their club, Electric Chair in Manchester, a sweaty basement club that cornered the market in dirty underground music. Their first album as Elekrons seeks to reinvent themselves and attempt to shake up the dance scene by bringing their underground sound to the mainstream. In doing so, they’ve attempted to draw from the likes of Massive Attack, Basement Jaxx and Jurassic 5 to create a diverse collection of dance tracks that cater for a wide number of tastes. Much like Groove Armada’s Soundboy Rock album earlier this year, Red Light, Don’t Stop thrives by keeping the mix eclectic. If one track doesn’t wash, then you can all but guarantee another one will have you up and dancing. It’s a melting pot that incorporates the finest contemporary British sounds, from East End grime MCs to Northern Soul sulphuric soul and futuristic disco, albeit with rare groove and acid house thrown in.