I mistakenly identified Fear of Tigers as a "bunch of London dudes" in my last post, when it is actually just the one London dude, a Mr. Benjamin Berry. "I Can Make the Pain Disappear" is the first track of his 2009 album Cossus Sufsigalonica. It's essentially a mainstream dance tune (You'd better believe that’s Robin Thicke on vocals). Monsieur Adi is an Italian DJ whose MySpace bio reads "sounds like dirty European aristocracy." I don't know much about that but I keep coming back to the way this mix sparkles, rises, trips, slows, ponderously picks itself up and finishes jumping and shouting. Sort of beautiful, really.
I haven’t been much into any of the reworkings by or of London’s The XX (I’ll even say that I just don’t think their Florence and the Machine “You’ve Got the Love” experiment is all that) but this is something else. Where the original is sweet, bordering on twee at times, Texan Matthew Dear gives us something kick ass. It’s like the song playing in the background of a really pretty alright house party in a movie while something nice and long-awaited is happening to a character everyone likes. The soft vocals meld with a layered set of funky kicks, claps and clicks building to a bashfully awesome, smile-inducing crescendo that really pays off. “VCR” in its inceptive incarnation is a terribly private, intimate song; the remix is a seamless translation of those sentiments, of that romance, into the world outside.
May68 are from Manchester and this here is their debut single, officially released last week, and remixed here by Parisian DJs Acid Washed, who are a nice contrast to the other textbook glam Frenchies featured this week. A pretty decent little banger, this is a must listen for its unwavering tension, rattling, empty-warehouse intensity and stark, echoing vocals.
Kavinsky, AKA France’s Vincent Belorgey, is back with a new EP out this Friday. The title track features Lovefoxxx of Brazil's CSS (remember them?) I couldn’t pick a favorite between these two mixes so I decided to share them both and let you decide. Breakbot is one of Ed Banger records’ darlings and has done remixes for "bloghouse" firstwavers Pnau and Ladyhawke. His take is decidedly French disco, sunny and upbeat without ever actually being uptempo—it’s subtly done and the song is the better for it. As a clever extra, Breakbot has replaced the original, titular night call--a lone wolf howl--with the ringing of a telephone. By contrast, German artist MMMatthias kicks up the beat and the meandering synths for a punchy zombie dance duet with a skillful fade-in/fade-out malignancy.
Contrary to what it says directly below this, this post brought to you by Amanda.
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