If you missed the release of Sleigh Bells’ debut singles and album a few months back now is the time to get on it, just in time for summer!

They are a male female duo who have come up with a seriously unique album with “Treats,” a great contrast between the smooth voice of singer Alexis Krauss and the rough effects, production and guitar work from t’other guy, Derek Miller.

Featured track here “Tell ‘Em” was their debut single and yup, it’s pretty sweet.

Sleigh Bells – Tell ‘Em
[See post to listen to audio]

Spotify Album Link
Sleigh Bells – Treats

That said, when I first became aware of him with his clever, but slightly haunting tune What We Made, I didn’t think his mainstream breakthrough would be coming in the shape of the club friendly efforts we’re hearing from his soon to be released new album.

“Watch The Sun Come Up” and “Won’t Go Quietly” have been followed up by the more relaxed “Kickstarts” of which I don’t doubt that I will be hearing a lot of this summer . . .

Example – Kickstarts

By the way, if you’re into your dubstep, it’s ‘Bar9′ on the pretty ferocious remix

Example – Kickstarts (Bar9 Remix)

The Polish Ambassador is jumpsuit wearing David Sugalski, self billed on his myspace as ‘half diplomat, half groove generator, all asexual cyborg. Indeed it’s not merely his music, but the make-up of his entire character and back-story which help create an intriguing and unique listening experience.

The Polish Ambassador – Earth vs The World
[See post to listen to audio]

His facebook page lists his hometown as ‘The Infinite,’ and Sugalski commonly references his early days in outer space long before he came to earth to spread his electronic beats to the masses. Currently residing in Our World (more specifically California USA) The Polish Ambassador does not do much ambassadoring (-adjective, doing ambassadorry stuff) these days, he simply makes varied and interesting electro beats for us to listen, and dance to.

The Polish Ambassador – The Electro Kids Just Want To Dance
[See post to listen to audio]

To date he has 3 full length albums; Dimplomatic Immunity (2007), The Phantasmal Farm (2007) and I Found Him, Now I Must Kill Him (2008). Each one blends together elements of early computer game music with intelligent drum beats designed to make earthlings dance, each track is layered with synthesized bass and futuristic melodies which pay homage to his upbringing in the far reaches of the universe.

Space shenanigans aside, in a time where many electronica artists are blasting our ears with heavy bass and pounding drums, the The Polish Ambassador provides a much lighter melodic sound. Some may find this boring, but the beats are very danceable in a head nodding way and his ability to evoke mood in his lyric-less pieces is something that is much harder to create than it is to listen to.

The Polish Ambassador -  Infiltrating The U.N.
[See post to listen to audio]

Spotify Links

Diplomatic Immunity
The Phantasmal Farm

With Muse established as one of the biggest bands in the world we take a look back at some remixes of their biggest hits. Some are good, some are bad, and some are just plain weird.

A retro remix

Muscle Museum – Soulwax Remix

[See post to listen to audio]

First up is a retro remix from the genius’ that are Soulwax. Muscle Museum from Muse’s first album Showbiz is given an uplifting errrm… uplift from the belgian mixing masters. The mix stays true to the original song’s format, but replaces guitars for electronics and ups the tempo , the result is a, blistering, very danceable 3:45 seconds, even if it does compromise on some of the epic power of the original.

A newer remix

Uprising – Does It Offend You, Yeah? Remix

[See post to listen to audio]

Uprising, the band’s first single from 5th album The Resistance, some people dislike it, others think it’s decent but sounds too much like something kylie should have released. Well, this remix for the noisy 5-piece Does It Offend You, Yeah? This fantastic effort is one of the few mixes that is better than the original and is considered good enough to appear on the Uprising single. Stick with it through the first minute and you will be rewarded (if you like that sort of thing).

A genre bending remix

Supermassive Blackhole – Emre B remix

[See post to listen to audio]

Up next is a great genre bending remix from Turkish born Emre B (no, it’s not the footballer).

Now, those of you reading this are likely to be Muse fans, and if that’s the case there is a fairly good chance you won’t be into your electro house dance music and hence, probably will think that he has murdered this track with the remix. However, we try not to be genre prejudice and can appreciate a good remix when we hear one! I have to admire the way he completely overhauls the track yet retains the elements which give the song it’s identity.

A ridiculously boring trance remix

New Born – Paul Okenfold Mix

[See post to listen to audio]

Ok, so maybe we are genre prejudice, but come on, this is truly boring.

A stuttuterry remix

Knights Of Cydonia – Ocelot Remix

[See post to listen to audio]

American electro house mixers Ocelot  have come out with okay effort.  Vocals aside, it really retains next to nothing of the original track. It has a decent build up, but it doesn’t take too long for all that stuttering to get on your nerves, after the first minute, the next 4 are pretty painful listening.

A ‘what what they thinking’ remix

Unintended – MG Remix (Jirob)

[See post to listen to audio]

I’ll have what he’s having. I mean, clearly, the less said about this the better.

A mashup, not a remix

When You Were A Starlight – team9

[See post to listen to audio]

Yes, we’ve branched out to name and shame an annoying mashup. team9 is the work of producer Neil Mason who comes from Perth, Australia.

In all fairness, technically it sounds quite good, it flows well and even has a bit of a wah wah wah  wah wah noise around 1m35s, so, what’s the problem? Well, to put it in colour terms: red and green are both lovely colours, nice and vibrant and enjoyable however, when you mix them together you get a shitty brown.

An outstanding remix

Map Of The Problematique – Does It Offend You, Yeah? Remix

[See post to listen to audio]

Does It Offend You, Yeah? are here again with their take on Map of the Problematique. Once again, like their Uprising remix, this appeared on the single of the original, and once again, retains most of what makes the original charming, but transforms it into something you just have to pull some shapes to.

There are other remixes out there, if you know of any you think I should have included let me know in the comments!

image from Brixton academy show on the tour

So, we packed our bags, ticked off our checklist (tickets – check, dancing shoes – check) and Clio-ed our way across the pennines where 2 Many Djs were playing The Manchester Academy (Saturday 6th June 2009). On the way, we passed signs for the Oasis ’supergig’ which was taking part at Heaton Park in the city the same night, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the 70′000 poor buggers who were going to be stuck there instead of the 2 Many Djs gig!

The support on the night came in the form of JDH & Dave P, Zombie Nation (of kernkraft 400 fame), and Riton. We arrived part way through Zombie Nation’s set and he was warming the already large crowd up nicely for the main event. Riton too was laying down some nice beats to get the crowd going but to be honest, we were using this time to top up our alcohol levels before the brothers from Belgium hit the decks. And so it came time for 2 Many Djs to enter the fray, and they did so dressed in tuxedos which left me wondering if they got them dry-cleaned after every show?

I had heard beforehand that this tour was to include a brand new visual aspect from the guys, and that came in the form of a big screen directly behind them which was displaying animations based on the original art works of the tracks they were sampling. This vj-ing was a great addition to the their live performance, the simplistic yet clever use of artwork mashup complimenting the tracks the guys were spinning.

The set started in blistering fashion with the soulwax remix of The Chemical Brothers’ Hey Girl, Hey Boy (youtube link). A subtle change to the lyrics superbly set the scene for what was to come: “Hey girl, Hey boy, 2 many djs, here we go!” And go they did, at around 1m30 into the track the powerful fuzzy bass line kicks in and resonates through your body, it was at this time when the screen lit up and the crowd went ker-ay-zee!

The Chemical Bros. gave way to the popular soulwax edit of The Gossip’s Standing in the Way of Control and again, this went down a treat. Check out the youtube vid for how the manipulated the artwork for this one. (Video is actually from the Brixton Academy show on the tour.)

You can see towards the end of the vid how, instead of dropping in a an audio sample of the next track, they drop in the visuals to stir crowd. The track following on from this was David Guetta’s “Jack is Back” which merged into Dizzee Rascal’s Bonkers which was recieved well with it being the buzz track of the moment.

By this time, I was starting to get a sweat on but there was no sign on the pace slowing, the guys blasted through some top mixes just like you’d expect, amongst the one I recognised (yes, pretending to know stuff about music will only get me so far, there was a good mixture of tunes that were news to me!) were Zombie Nation, Eurythmics, Mr. Oizo, Depeche Mode and Deadmau5 but going down particularly well was the remix of MGMT’s Kids (stream below).

At the three quarter stage I was sweating and my ankles had taken a pounding from my uncontrollable springing, but they raised the bar once more with my personal 3 highlights coming in the latter parts of the set.

To my delight they dropped in a mix of Aphex Twin’s Windowlicker, and using all their audio visual skills mixed the sound and the visual’s in with Major Lazor’s Pon di Floor:

Just when I was wondering if they had another level to get to the got the crowd in full rave mode with The Prodigy’s Out of Space, this time the art work oscillating between Prodigy’s own and their logo for the upcoming online streaming site Radio Soulwax. (video from Brixton Academy show on the tour)

They saved possibly my favourite visual for the night til near the end, and even better than that, it accompanied one of my favourite tunes of the passed few years. Here is the original artwork for Justice’s Phantom:

And below is what they managed to turn it into, genius! (And yes, I’m aware it’s Phantom pt. 2!)

I’ll be honest, the end of the set is a bit of a haze, i’m not sure how it went down but I do think that it wasn’t as strong a finish as I they could have put in, of great disappointment was the fact they didn’t come back out for an encore despite the chants from the sold out crowd. On reflection, the show they didn’t need an encore, they had already wowed the crowd and indeed our group which included myself who had not seen 2 many djs since Leeds Festival 2004, and then 5 handsome folk who had never seen them before.

By the way, the songs referenced were in the approximate order played, but probably not exactly, I had had a few double whiskeys before the set and that stuff ain’t exactly memory juice!

MGMT – Kids (Soulwax Edit)
[See post to listen to audio]

First, for those of you who need to catch up, a little background, concentrate because it get’s a bit messy!

(To skip the background and go straight to the gig review get your click on here.

2 Many Djs are made up of Belgian brothers David and Stephen Dewaele who first found international fame as part of Soulwax, their full on alternative electro-rock band who have album releases spanning back to the mid 90s. Soulwax releases “Leave The Story Untold” (1996) and “Much Against Everyone’s Advice” (1998) was followed by 2002’s first release under the 2 Many Djs guise, “As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt. 2.”

“As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt. 2.” is a fully licensed mash-up album whose tracklisting can be found here. A lot of 2 Many Djs remixes failed to make the album due to problems obtaining the rights to the original tracks, but many of these have cropped up on the unofficial releases (As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt. 1 and Pt. 3-11) which are in fact, bootlegged radio shows they have performed for various stations throughout their time. There was also a bootlegged recording of a mix for BBC Radio 1 in 2005 released under the moniker “50′000′000 Soulwax Fans Can’t Be Wrong.”

Ok, so, after 3 more official Soulwax releases, “Any Minute Now” (2004), “Nite Versions” (2005) and “Most of the Remixes . . .” (2007), there followed a documentary release “Part Of The Weekend Never Dies.” Of course, in between these were the countless number of remixes, radio stand-ins and live shows they performed all around the world, and with that, we should be just about up to speed, well, sort of.

And so, to the present (which will be the past when you read this!) and the June 2009 tour of the UK. We caught them at the Manchester Academy on Saturday 6th June 2009, click here for the review.

Also a word on their immediate future, they have said they plan to release 24 new compilation albums which will be put out their via their own online radio station called, strangely enough, Radio Soulwax. At the time of post this has yet to go live but I have heard on the forums over at soulwax.info that it is expected to launch this month.

Ok, peace out, i’ll leave you with the soulwax edit of MGMT’s Kids. Remember, check out my gig review for these guys here!

MGMT – Kids (Soulwax Edit)
[See post to listen to audio]

Of course, when play is your work, you can have as much fun as singer has Tigs has fronting her band.

After standing through a pretty awful thrash metal band at Brighton last month, my spirits needed lifting and my ears were in need of some vocal medicine. Chew Lips were next up and they were able to succeed on both fronts.

Chew Lips are a 3-piece electro-pop outfit from London who make music to dance to, not in a smack my bitch up way, it’s more of a Hot Chip vibe, or a more chilled out CSS. Infact, debut single Solo (see below) gets carried along by a wave of beeps, blips and beats much like Kylie’s Slow, only it’s much much cooler.

Of course, it’s inevitable (and probably fair) that they are compared to another female fronted 3-piece in the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, but I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. Tigs is every bit as enthusiastic as Karen O and Chew Lips’ music has a slightly more electro sound than YYYs which suggest there’s certainly room for the both of them.

At the Brighton show singer Tigs got excited enough to climb on to a speaker set before realising she couldn’t get down without utilising the ‘jump off and fall over’ maneuver, great stuff. I then spent the latter half of the show wondering if she had an actual beauty spot or it was stuck on, it was only when I bumped into the band at a nearby chippy afterwards I realised it was a little heart drawn on her cheek.

These guys are not sneaking by too unnoticed. Steve Lamacq has already tipped them to succeed in 2009, a quick listen at their myspace should help you see why. Check out debut single Solo below.

Chew Lips – Solo
[See post to listen to audio]

A quick look into the band shows that I appear to be pretty late to the game, they apparantly had a number one track on Hype Machine over a year ago. So, did they fail to live up to the hype? Maybe, or maybe they have spent the time refining their sound for an assault on the mainstream.

Andre Anjos from the band has musical pedigree after founding the Remix Artists Collective (RAC) and subsequently putting out many remix’s to an appreciative web audience. Having said that, I did not appreciate The Pragmatic’s murderring of Justice’s Phantom found on their myspace.

They have recently released a free EP which you can download from here, this EP is led by the title track Cirlces and includes 4 more tracks which show good versitility in their use of synths and loops.

In truth, although this EP is a solid listen, I’m not holding my breath that they will come over to the UK and make an MGMT sized splash anytime soon. But, if they can capture the finer points of EP tracks Circles, You Blame Me (see media player below) and Academy, and work these in to a full lenghth album, then I for one would welcome them with open arms.

The Pragmatic – Circles
[See post to listen to audio]

The Pragmatic – You Blame Me
[See post to listen to audio]

For the rest of you, imagine a sound somewhere before the skittish melodies of Holy Fuck meets the chaotic mess of a sound from Sikth, that’s where you’ll find this unsigned UK 3-piece.

Their debut release is the self titled EP which contains 5 tracks simply named “untitled 1,” “untitled 2,” … and so forth. In truth, each track could be a mini album in it’s own right, moving from edgy guitar, through apprehensive synths, to hectic, agitated beats and back again, and again, and possibly again before the song is over.

Each section of the songs sounds great on their own, but that’s only half the battle, with the varying styles and tempos within each song the arrangement is the key to making an listenable experience. Great news! They’ve pulled this off with aplomb!

Their work is something that needs listening to, I wouldn’t recommend that you use it as background music while you do the washing up, my guess is that this will probably result in some broken crockery. I would, however, recommend that you purchase this EP, leave yourself free from distractions, plug in some good quality headphones and play this through with the attention it deserves.

The band itself comprises of Tom Rogerson on piano, keyboard and occasional vocals, Matt Calvert on guitar, synths and electronics and Adam Betts on drums (and a bit more electronics). As talented as they collectively are, my attention was drawn to drummer Betts when I saw them as part of this years Great Escape Festival in Brighton. The live drummer gave the guys a presence that few electronic artists I’ve witnessed can match, and Betts keeps up the pace and intensity superbly.

You can listen to the EP at their MySpace or get a feel for them with the lead track below (untitled 1).

Three Trapped Tigers – 1
[See post to listen to audio]

Futurecop! creator Manzur Iqbal reveals the inspiration behind his musical project in an interview with oohcrapp.net music blog. So, did he succeed? Absolutely, on so many levels!

These guys put out a sound that places you slap bang in the middle of the 80s, although it’s not the 80s I heard the first time around, it’s almost a modern (or futuristic if you will) reincarnation of the decade that is everything I wish my local 80s night was but isn’t.

Current favourite track ‘Karate Kids’ (below) begins with a soft synth sound not too unlike the intro to Petshop Boys ‘West End Girls,’ this quickly gives way to epic sounding bleepery which captures the mood of the movie the title refers to, go on I challenge you not to imagine a bit of wax on wax off as you listen!

I saw them live as part of the great escape festval in Brighton this year (2009) and, despite catching them by accident, they happened to be one of my highlights of the weekend. So much so infact, that after sitting at the back of the room with my whiskey and coke, I was quickly risking death clambering on stools and tables to see who was making that sound. Turns out it was Futurecop! and they deserve a listen.

Check them out on their MySpace or check out the tune below.

Futurecop! – Karate Kids
[See post to listen to audio]