.......................................RBMMM...........

Fever Ray - Dry ad Dusty

2009-02-17T06:28:00.001+11:00

Prepare yourself for the self titled album by Fever Ray, the impressive new project from Swedish songstress Karin Dreijer Andersson. Karin has taken time off from her other band, 'The Knife' to introduce us to 'Fever Ray'. It's dark and brooding and effortlessly emotive. Available now digitally and in hard copy March 21.

MP3 - Fever Ray - Dry and Dusty
Click her to buy the album on Itunes

Oh My Blast from the past! Q-Feel - Dancing in Heaven.

2009-01-20T23:43:00.001+11:00

This is for Paolo and Mel!

Q-Feel was a British techno group. They released their self-titled album in 1983, which included their only hit single, "Dancing in Heaven (Orbital Be-Bop)". Group member Martin Pagewent on to achieve success as a songwriter and solo artist.

"Dancing in Heaven (Orbital Be-Bop)" was an entry in the 1982 A Song For Europe, the UK's pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. It finished sixth (out of eight) behind eventual winners, Bardo.

The song was also featured in the 1985 dance film, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and the opening sequence of the 2007 retro comedy, Kickin' It Old Skool.

The outfit remain a one-hit wonder.

MP3 - Q-Feel - Dancing In Heaven (Orbital Be Bop)

Stina Nordenstam

2009-01-19T08:33:00.001+11:00

I understand that I went searching through my back catalog for the right song to fit my mood, and so I came across Stina Nordenstams' "Murder in Mairyland Park. Stina's peculiar and childish voice applied to an arrangement of violins and piano makes for a track that tickles your spine. - Johnnie

Stina Nordenstam - Murder in Mairyland Park

Hope Diamond - Costume Drama

2009-01-12T09:45:00.001+11:00

The northern hemisphere, summer of '07... Long time friends and musical collaborators Jed Palmer, Zoë Barry and Steve Griffiths are sitting on Pismo beach, California, drinking Coronas and gazing at the hotel where James Dean spent one of his last nights on earth... It was here Hope Diamond began, inspired by the the great American landscape they were experiencing, and a desire to write simple yet rich, haunting, beautiful and slightly unsettling music. They returned to a Melbourne Spring and began in earnest to write and record, Jed and Zoë sharing the melodic and lyrical duties, and practising their harmonies. They began to find their sound, with intricate, delicate yet strongly rhythmic guitar parts, the creation of layers of sampled keyboard parts and loops, Steve's trademark inspired drum patterns and Jed and Zoë sharing vocal duties.

Hope Diamond have been gigging in Melbourne for 6 months, and recorded their debut ep "Costume Drama" over a long, cold Melbourne winter. Costume Drama is inspired by America's Great Lakes, Death Valley and the rolling fog of San Francisco. It features beautiful evening hour harmonies, shoe gazing reveries and the multi-instrumental talents of Jed, Steve and Zoë.

Hope Diamond - Costume Drama
Hope Diamond - Colliding Ships

Myspace
www.thehopediamond.com.au

New Animal Collective - Your Love, My Girls (Frankie Knuckles Mashup/Remix)

2009-01-11T12:04:00.001+11:00

Now that we have our Merriweather Post Pavilion review out of the way, it’s time to post this mashup/remix. XXXChange shared this first on his blog:

Animal Collective kicked off the new year with a great album and also leg brought this to my attention:

It’s a mashup of their song “My girls” with Frankie Knuckles “your love” since they both kind of have the same synth melody.

Now, “My Girls” is my (and everyone else’s) favorite track off MPP, and I’d usually detest a remix of a track that is this amazing solo — but Frankie Knuckles’ “Your Love” (which is also amazing solo) is a fantastic mash-up partner for “My Girls.”

MP3 - Animal Collective - Your Love, My Girls (Frankie Knuckles Mashup/Remix)

MP3 - Animal Collective - My Girls

Buy it on Itunes

Tricky - Council Estate

2009-01-08T12:02:00.001+11:00

Who's not glad to have Tricky around? In 1995, he helped conjure trip-hop into existence with his classic debut, Maxinquaye. Ever since, his complex, wary cynicism has been a unique voice in black music, mutating and diversifying its way out of easy categorization. Knowle West Boy is a survey of Tricky’s sonic versatility — straightforward rock and oppressive, moody atmospherics all have a home here — and it is frequently gorgeous. “Coalition” illuminates a particular sort of 21st-century isolation like little else I’ve heard. As the beat marches ominously, a cello, played in light touches, floats in and out of the foreground, urging Tricky’s fevered rhymes on before leaving the scene. Gender, politics, religion, class, and race all speak across one another throughout the album, but Tricky refuses to settle, refuses to inhabit one identity rather than another.

MP3 - Tricky - Council Estate

Buy it on Itunes

MIXTAPE

2009-01-06T20:06:00.001+11:00

My Brightest Diamond - Inside A Boy (Son Lux Remix)

Sia - Breathe Me (Four Tet Remix) - Oldie But a GOODIE

M83 - We Own the Sky (Maps Remix)

Glass Candy - Geto Boys (Demo)

Glass Candy - Sugar and White Bread

Beach House - Home Again

Chairlift - Earwig Town

Gang Gang Dance Remix

2009-01-05T10:41:00.001+11:00

MP3 - Gang Gang Dance - House Jam (XXXchange Remix)
MP3 - Gang Gang Dance - House Jam (Hot Chip Remix)

Don’t hurt yourself trying to explain to someone what Gang Gang Dance sounds like. However, you can safely say that their latest album, Saint Dymphna, is probably one of the most highly praised records of 2008. Gang Gang Dance is that kind of band you’d expect from the NYC experimental dance scene; futuristic, vibrant, chaotic, tribal, and totally fun. It’s no surprise that they’ve been getting all this critical acclaim for Saint Dymphna, which is as bizarre as it is danceable. The band is will be playing at Santos Party House in downtown Manhattan on New Years Eve, then they’ll be off to Europe in February.

Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

2009-01-03T23:43:00.004+11:00

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ganggangdance

MP3 - Gang Gang Dance - House Jam MP3 - Gang Gang Dance - First Communion

Buy the album on Itunes

Gang Gang Dance's third album, God's Money, remains a revelation three years after its release. Pouring the muffled art-beats of 2004's Revival of the Shittest and the extended space-jams of 2004's Gang Gang Dance into structured songs, the record was starry and dreamy, yet also taut and focused. It made evident what was implicit from the start-- that these four hyperactive talents with underground pedigrees (see the Cranium, SSAB Songs, Angelblood, et. al.) could funnel their ideas into melodic pop without diluting them.

It also suggested that Gang Gang Dance might become an all-out pop band. But three EPs since God's Money have defied such expectations. Though gems like "Nicoman" did surface, Hillulah, Retina Riddim, and RAWWAR were mostly mysterious experiments akin to the band's earlier releases. Not that any of them were anything less than good-- but none were the pop epiphany the band on God's Money seemed poised for.

It turns out they had been working on that all along, and with Saint Dymphna their patience pays off. So clear and shiny it makes God's Money seem murky by comparison, this is predominantly a relative dance-pop album. But it still sounds completely like Gang Gang Dance, preserving their core of new-wave synths, tribal beats, otherworldly singing, and Residents-style loops. The biggest difference this time around is a lack of cavernous atmospheres. Here every sound and beat is laid bare, with no heavy reverb blanketing the songs like fog. The newfound clarity produces neither thinness nor tedium, but simply a direct, unadulterated power.

That power is clear immediately, when opening instrumental "Bebey" melts into the rhapsodic "First Communion". Here Lizzi Bougatsos' dreamy poetry ("Prisms have kissed my lids/ Sea salt has rubbed on my hips") and the band's coiled rhythms (particularly the beat-and-synth workouts of band MVP Brian DeGraw) hit on a momentum that could easily be the album's climax. But so many peaks pop up along Saint Dymphna's continuous stream that it's tough to catalogue them all.

Two moments in particular show that the more Gang Gang Dance change, the more they stay the same. After a lengthy synth opening, "Princes" becomes an actual hip-hop song featuring a rap from Tinchy Stryder. Sure, it's slightly jarring to hear his pulsing cadence paired with Bougatsos' ethereal howls, but the band's familiar elements-- especially Josh Diamond's wiry guitar line-- fit snugly around him. Even more surprising is "House Jam", a gleeful rip-off of Madonna circa "Holiday". But put the track on repeat and you might be more surprised that you never realized how well Gang Gang Dance's sound could work as 80s disco-pop.

Saint Dymphna ends with "Dust", a beatific instrumental that carries the band away like a magic carpet. Often when a group with avant-garde leanings flies close to the pop sun, the results can sound forced or off-key. But since accessible melodies have always bubbled beneath their music's surface, Gang Gang Dance's evolution sounds supremely logical. And anyone who thought that the cloudy sound of previous albums was a smokescreen should think again-- it turns out the band behind that curtain really is made up of wizards.

Happy New Year!!!

2009-01-01T02:50:00.006+11:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR

This is the song to be playing on your Ipod, or in your car on New Years Day. Driving by the nearest beach or pool or puddle...

It's weird but I try and play the best music in areas where I can get a smell to enhance the song.

MP3 - Air France - Karibien (Johnnies' Nose says - Listen to this by the ocean)

Buy on Itunes

Also thought I'd add this video clip which really reminds me of a Nordic Version of Picnic at the Hanging Rock. The Music in it is by Air France called "Windmill Wedding".

Bloc Party - Signs (MMMathias Remix)

2008-12-31T10:28:00.001+11:00

Something quiet and inspiring for a Wednesday morning...

Bloc Party - Signs (MMMathias remix)

www.myspace.com/blocparty
Buy Bloc Party @ Itunes

Caroline Weeks - Folk Explosion

2008-12-31T10:23:00.004+11:00

Caroline Weeks’ debut album, Songs For Edna, is to be made available on vinyl and for download in March 2009. This keenly anticipated collection will be released on the Los Angeles-based Manimal Vinyl, the same label that licensed the US vinyl release of Bat For Lashes’ Fur And Gold debut.

Having been a full time member of Natasha Khan’s Bat For Lashes for over three years, Caroline Weeks has now both cemented her position as Natasha’s right-hand gal and found the time to record her own stunning debut disc.

Caroline previously performed under the name Ginger Lee, but having discovered (via a somewhat shocking Google search) that a young American lady who appears to relish having her photo taken in the buff shared this particular moniker, Caroline has now reverted to using her family name.

Born and bread on the Sussex coast, Caroline comes from a long line of musicians: in the 1920s the fifteen-strong “Weeks brass band” was famed across East Sussex, while, more recently, her Grandfather can be seen playing the church organ in the movie of Stella Gibbons’ Cold Comfort Farm.

A classically trained flautist and effortlessly self-taught multi-instrumentalist, Caroline’s current weapon of choice is a three-quarter-sized classical Spanish guitar, which she uses to brew a heady mix of cantering finger picks and delicately decaying sound shapes, where the spaces are just as important as the notes. Add to this her own “secret” tuning (which has been known to flummox even the most competent of guitarists looking to have a quick strum in the Green Room) and you have a truly original sound.

Collected Sounds - Enjoy!

Caroline Weeks - Raven
Caroline Weeks - Renascence
Caroline Weeks - See Where Capella
Caroline Weeks - The Drowning Man
Caroline Weeks - What Lips My Lips Have Kissed
Caroline Weeks - Wild Swans
Caroline Weeks - Elegy

Royal Rumble

2008-12-31T10:12:00.003+11:00

most of you know of royal rumble the wwf video game, but royal rumble is also one of the rare species of 3-man dj/production team. this trio of los angeleans (is that a word?) have been building quite a quality reputation around these parts due to their quality musical selections, unpretentious 'hush hush' events, and their production work.

their latest effort was a glitched-up rework of aussie's bipolar badwise.

MP3 - bipolar badwise - entwined (royal rumble remix)

another benefit to living in los angeles is that when you make a good edit, it gets passed around to prominent dj's just like this week's dj groupie.

MP3 - soulwax - miserable girl (royal rumble edit)

the guys are going to be rotating residents at guns n bombs new 'house of no culture' night wednesdays at the echo in los angeles. the first show is january 7th featuring rong music's free blood!

Jay NaSTY - Xmas Mix

2008-12-30T11:12:00.000+11:00

Found this mix on this website Southside Discotech. Awesome summer mix. Enjoy!

JNSTY-Xmas Mix by JNSTY

MP3 - JNSTY - XMAS MIX - [Soundcloud]

Christmas EVE 2008 Mix

2008-12-25T16:29:00.000+11:00

Here is a mix of Christmas songs to get you all into the festive spirit. Ho Ho Ho!

The Knife - Christmas Reindeer

Sufjan Stevens - That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!

Of Montreal - Christmas Isn't Safe For Animals

El Perro Del Mar - Oh What A Christmas

Erland Oye - Last Christmas JOHNNIE'S FAVOURITE

The Kinks - Father Christmas

Polyphonic Spree - Carol of the Bells

Low – Just Like Christmas

FlyLo + ing + tus = Flying Lotus

2008-12-25T16:28:00.001+11:00

It’s 2008, this man, this man here, direct blood of John Coltrane (that’s newsworthy but not a reason buy the record) has produced a series of records for Warp (great label shite website) that are quite frankly fucking brilliant. The production skills of this boy are ridic. When Gilles Peterson talks about artists joining the dots - it’s this man he’s talking about. Hip-hop beats and jazz tempos are in his blood - yet it’s his love of electronica and dubstep that augment his super silky production skills that really excite me - it’s that lo-fi heavy beat, highly atmospheric 30’s gramophone crackle and super slick ode to dub that pricks my ear.

This man is a pure talent. Previous a PLUG RESEARCH artist this boy has done his time - and it’s time for a new heavyweight to take his natural place as top of the cherry tree. Yes Flying Lotus - time to kick 20pence and his loonytunetribe aside and eat cherrypie. Buy his records here and i recommend Flylo for listening during times of afternoon sexual intercourse.

MP3: Roberta Flack (with Dolly)
MP3: Kanye West - Love Lockdown(Flying Lotus Remix)

Johnnie's Note: This remix of Kanye West's song "Love Lockdown" is a fantastic dub remix, bringing in a production value very similar to Burial! Post Rave Bliss... :P

La Roux - Quicksand

2008-12-25T16:20:00.000+11:00

Came across this today. I've fallen in love with the videoclip - Johnnie

Also find the song here

MP3: La Roux - Quicksand (Chateau Marmont Remix) (ALT)

Bloc Party - Flux (MSTRKRFT JFK Remix)

2008-12-25T16:19:00.001+11:00

MSTRKRFT back again, significantly improving this song. They strip away the absurdity of the electronic/trance flavor of the track and bring it back to proper Bloc Party style with guitars and drums; basically making it more indie rock, yet leaving an electro flavor to it. It starts with a nice, bouncing piano melody that remains throughout the song and then added is the MSTRKRFT signature of distorted and choppy guitars and synths. That signature riff really drives this mix to the goodness that it is.
MP3: Bloc Party - Flux (MSTRKRFT JFK Remix)

Friendly Fires - Paris [Ft. Au Revoir Simone] [Aeroplane Remix]

2008-12-25T16:16:00.000+11:00

It is safe to say that Aeroplane are the big remixing surprise of 2008, the blogs' fondness initiated near the beginning of the year & slowly turned into an obsession as the months progressed, guaranteeing the duo a spot on the Hypem popular list for every remix dropped into the blog ring.

Turning electro & indie tunes to lux cloudy disco anthems is their signature sound & what were rejected remixes of Cut Copy/Grace Jones eventually demanded for a commercial release after the masses repeated the question "What the hell is wrong with the label?"; The magic peaked in my vision when they bravely erased out the original Friendly Fires vocals & replaced them with the healing glycerin like vocals of NYC chanteuses Au Revoir Simone that not only renewed my love for the track but made it a necessity for the original album version to be re-released with the new vocals as a stand alone production... unfortunately that doesn't happen often in this copyright & cash driven life.

This remix puts the original to shame.

MP3: Friendly Fires - Paris (ft. Au Revoir Simone) (Aeroplane Remix)

Happy Birthday

2008-12-25T16:15:00.001+11:00

Röyksopp are officially back!

♫ Röyksopp - Happy Birthday 320kbps

Air France - No Way Down EP [Get Ready For Summer]

2008-12-25T14:15:00.001+11:00

This feature may be called the “Top 50 Albums of 2008”, but the title alone does not give me enough justice to dismiss arguably the finest EP of the year in Air France’s No Way Down. Throughout the six tracks and 23 minutes that make up this fine EP, the Swedish duo crafts an audible world that is both magical and enlightening, with the effective atmospheric capabilities displayed being reminiscent of the Avalanches’ classicSince I Left You in its ambitious sample-led scope and sheer melodic aptitude. With twittering brass, sweeping strings, radiant synthesizers, and a variety of samples that are often comprised of pleasant sounds like the chirping of birds or the sounds of a seashore, No Way Down takes the listener to a world where relaxation and lighthearted innocence are at the forefront. A track like “No Excuses”, with its reflective keys and heavy chorus, sounds like it would be perfectly associated with the joyful state of a party-filled tropical island, while “Collapsing at Your Doorstep” invokes a similar fantasy world-setting that proves to be more emotionally resounding with a vocal sample and accompanying strings that are gradually accompanied by an evolving use of percussion, bass, and guitar. The prominent samples throughout “Collapsing at Your Doorstep” (taken from the ’80s TV series “Beauty and the Beast”) all feature the voices of children, a remarkably effective technique that perfectly initiates the feelings of that certain period in childhood when innocence allowed even the most trivial thing in life to utterly amaze you. The brilliant “June Evenings” sees the group increase their focus on pop music while still maintaining their atmospheric ingenuity. The instrumentation is more vigorous, but certain effects like the melodic whistling during the chorus, the subtly enriching bass line, and the calming female vocals that consume the verses make “June Evenings” one of the best tracks of the year. Forget the fact that No Way Down is too short to be a full-length; it is truly one of the most innovative releases of the year, EP or not.

Air France - June Evenings

Air France - Collapsing at Your Doorstep

MySpace

BUY from Itunes

2008-12-25T14:13:00.001+11:00

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/evangelicals

MP3: Evangelicals: Skeleton Man

MP3: Evangelicals: How Do You Sleep?

Mess is less on the second album from Oklahoma psych-rock band Evangelicals. There’s nothing wrong with a sprawling album, per se, as Pink Floyd’s Meddle and Blur’s 13attest to. But a sprawler is always a dangerous gambit for a band. It can easily trip over the line from cracked genius into failed experiment, as The Evening Descends does.

Evangelicals’ 2006 debut, So Gone, was already an eclectic affair, but it stayed anchored in stellar songs like “Hello, Jenn, I’m a Mess” and “The Water Is Warm.” There isn’t a similar standout to point to here. In fact, the record really isn’t song-based as much as it is a streaming cornucopia of music and noise -- in the form of old movie clips, band members mumbling, and, most insipid of all, Evangelicals staging little radio plays complete with mimed machinery noise.

The band does best when it sounds most like it did on So Gone, a debut that showed plenty of promise. “Snowflakes” unfolds over pretty, languid arpeggios. After an opening that really recalls a song off The Wall’s third or fourth side, “Here in the Deadlights” settles down into a brighter, breezier groove that much of So Gonesucceeded in. And “Skeleton Man” is the album’s most coherent tune, charging along on the type of pulsing bass line used so well in Arcade Fire’s “Rebellion (Lies)” and Electrelane’s “To the East.”

The song “Stoned Again,” and the overall druggy haze the album emits, got me thinking that the old Spacemen 3 equation “Take drugs to make music to take drugs to” only works out if both the drugs and the music are of high quality. Evangelicals must have gotten dealt some bad shit, because this isn’t exactly an enjoyable trip. At the end ofThe Evening Descends, on “Bloodstream,” lead Evangelical Josh Jones claims, “I was sleeping/ I must have been dreaming.” Maybe next time around this band will wake up to its true potential. Or at least get a better hookup on the pharmaceuticals.