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I’m so late to this party, it’s beyond embarrassing.

I don’t know where I was for the release of this album -- maybe in a cave somewhere in Timbuktu? Maybe I was kidnapped and held captive for all of 2006, in the jungles of the Amazon, only to be rescued by the CIA, who then erased all my memories, and implanted new, false ones.

Because how else do I explain the fact that I managed to miss this?

I’m talking, of course, about Eagle Seagull’s eponymous debut.

On first listen, I got very, very, very excited. I thought, “Oh my god, it sounds like some mangled, mongrel marriage between The Cure and Supertramp. Which should sound awful. But it doesn’t. Oh no -- no, it sounds so, so good.”

And then my brain fizzed. And there was a party in my head.

Sometimes it’s fun to be out of the loop. You come to things late, and then the wait for the next "whatever" is not so long. There are already new songs on Eagle Seagull’s MySpace, for example. And their second album is rumoured to be out early 2008.

Lookit: Only about a hundred more sleeps to go!

Eagle Seagull - Photograph

Labels: Indie, USA

Bloc Party’s debut album Silent Alarm

Perhaps lesser known, however, is the remix version of the same album, where such electro-luminaries as Ladytron, M83, and Four Tet have a bash at reconfiguring the Bloc’s tunes for ‘em.
made a huge splash when it came on the scene a couple of year’s back.

Labels: Dance, Electronica, Indie, Remix, UK

More gorgeous, catchy-as-hell summer pop.

This time from Germany.

"Mein Geheimnis" is from Klee’s 2005 album, Jelangerjelieber.

I confess, I have no idea what lead singer Suzie Kerstgens is singing about. But when it sounds this good, who cares really?

Fair warning: One listen and you will have this song stuck in your head for days.

Must. Be. Played. Loud.

Labels: German, Pop

Because I was late jumping on ye olde bandwagon, but I am making up for lost time.

And because it's summer, and these guys are more catchy than a case of herpes.

Unlike a case of herpes, however, they will leave you feeling happy, joyful, and young again.

Oh. To be young again...



[Apples in Stereo - MySpace]

Labels: Indie, Pop, Rock, USA

They’re storming the gates!

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have just released their latest EP, and it’s glorious.

Clocking in at around 20 minutes, this is a lean, mean, muscled explosion of noise. Every track is a blast of coruscating buzz-saw rock.

This is a band at the height of their game. They never put a foot wrong.

Needless to say I am fairly gagging for the album.

(And is it just me, or do these guys have a definite thang for word repetition?)

Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs - "Kiss Kiss"



[Yeah Yeah Yeahs - MySpace]

Labels: Indie, Rock, USA

Deadboy and the Elephantmen is, essentially, a bloke named Dax Riggs.

In early 2006, he and (then) bandmate Tessie Brunet put out the album We Are Night Sky.

It's an impressive album -- hard-edged swamp rock, but of the highly expressive, cerebral variety.

Rigg's gravelly voice is a raw, fragile thing of beauty, often swinging from a low growl to a howl in a heartbeat. He’s been variously compared to Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie, by way of the banks of the Mississippi Delta.

Brunet left the band in late 2006 and Riggs is releasing his solo debut on August 21.

In the meantime, here’s "Dressed in Smoke", from We Are Night Sky:

Labels: Indie, Rock, USA

The first impression of War Stories, the third release from UK outfit Unkle, is one of awesome power: a towering juggernaut of sonic beautastic-ness.

Wily and hard-bitten in places, lush and orchestral in others, War Stories strains and snaps at its leash like a feral, wholly unpredictable beast.

Repeated listens, however, begin to reveal a crack or two in the savagery. The album seems less bite, more whimper. Somehow, someway, the whole is not quite equal to its parts.

But, oh, the parts.

The first single, "Burn My Shadow", is like a warped, cracked-out version of Revolution (from the Cult’s Love LP, circa 1985). Ian Astbury is amazing here, managing to sound both menacing and plaintive at the same time. It’s a treat to hear Astbury in such fine form, and he shows up not once, but twice, gracing the albums’ final track as well.

Unkle has had no shortage of big-name guests in the past: Thom Yorke and Ian Brown, to name but two. And their latest line-up is an intriguing mix of some of rock’s more interesting vocalists, including Gavin Clarke, Liela Moss from The Duke Spirit, Josh Homme and, of course, Astbury.

Not all guest tracks work – Gavin Clarke’s "Keys To The Kingdom" is one of the weaker songs on the album. It’s Astbury who is the standout here, no question. His deep, mellifluous voice perfectly suits Unkle’s dark, volatile grooves.

When it works, it works: War Stories' highs are spectacularly high. Certain parts verge on tired retreads of Unkle's older work, however, and this is, ultimately, what makes the album a flawed one.

Unkle - Burn My Shadow:



[Unkle - MySpace]

Labels: Dance, Electronica, Rock, UK

I don’t know if it’s a Southern Hemisphere thing (a New Zealand thing?) but I’d never heard the song "Born To Be Alive" by Patrick Hernandez.

Never heard it. Never in my life.

Everybody knows it here, though.

It’s a disco great, it seems. In the pantheon of really-cheesy-tunes-you-dance- to-with-glee-and-abandon-when-you’re-falling-down-drunk, it rates right up there.

Not having had a history with the tune, I can’t really get into it.

But I am loving the remix of the remix: Felix da Housecat remixes The Disco Boys remixing the Hernandez original...

Labels: DJ, House, Remix

Anyone remember Bronski Beat?

Three UK lads who took the world by storm in the early 80s with a string of dance hits that went on to became huge gay anthems?

Remember wee Jimmy Somerville, with a face like a potato (a very cute potato), and a voice like an angel?

I had their album Age of Consent on vinyl, back in the day. I think I may have even worn a hole in it.

I'd all but forgotten about these lads, when I came across the remix "Tell Me Why" by Supermode.

Supermode are a Scandinavian group, apparently, who also like to be known as the "Swedish House Mafia". Go figure.

The song is a remix of two Bronski Beat songs, with music sampled from "Smalltown Boy", and lyrics taken from both "Smalltown Boy" and "Why".

It's magic. Listen:

Labels: 80s, Dance, UK

Allaying my vague disappointment with the new releases from The Chemical Brothers and Unkle -- both of which have some outstanding tracks, but which are, overall, a bit inconsistent -- Idealism, from German duo Digitalism, is killer.

It’s a driving, angular, thumping, damn fine example of electro-kraut-dance-punk-rock.

And while the single Zdarlight has been a favourite of mine for ages now, I’ve been delighted to find that the album more than lives up to the single’s early promise.

Here’s Zdarlight and I Want I Want:

Labels: Dance, Electronica, German