March
18th

Overthrilled

by brandon

overthrillOverthrill just shared a few new tunes and they are splendid to our ears. The first by the German duo is called Brahma — with that title you can surmise it’s got a little Indian subcontinent vibe going — and indeed you’d be right. A moody intro gets followed by a lil’ epic synthi-ness which later gets amended by vampiric-flavored bollywood beats. Altogether, a dark and lovely creation.

Adam 1, on the other hand, takes a more playfull approach perhaps vaguely reminiscent of a Breakbot track… It’s light, and anticipatory of an approaching summer.

Overthrill recently released an EP, Bolt, which you can pick up on iTunes or other major outlets. Go love, and buy!

mp3Overthrill - Brahma [mediafire] // [ysi]

mp3Overthrill - Adam 1 [mediafire] // [ysi]

March
18th

Fear of Tigers and Monsieur Adi

by brandon

Two things we like: Fear of Tigers, and Monseiur Adi. Fittingly, together they pack a delightful punch. Well, perhaps in this case not a punch so much as a blissful repose. Nevertheless, this M. Adi slowdown of the urgent original, I Can Make the Pain Disappear, totally succeeds. Thoughtful, however not melancholic, strings create the back-fabric of the track, which feels as if it’s elegantly meandering through a river valley headed toward the Mediterranean. Upon arrival, you’ll feel compelled to strip down and take a dip.

monsieur adi

As you can surmise, this track is by no means a banger — but for an Erasure-esque (in a good way) summer journey, keep this one at the ready.

Previous posts on Fear of Tigers; Monsieur Adi.

mp3Fear of Tigers - I Can Make the Pain Disappear (Monsieur Adi Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

March
14th

Anticipating the New National Album

by cigi

After watching The National perform on Jimmy Fallon the other night, I couldn’t be more eager to hear High Violet, their new album. They performed “Terrible Love”, the opening track. This song is just amazingly beautiful. Love these kind of songs that have a really subtle way of building up and they elegantly and melancholically explode at a certain point. Of course, The National are one of the more depressing bands out there and thus this song is oximoronic manifestation of romantic ambiguities and frustrations that drive mankind toward it’s end in a worldwide insane asylum. The chills arrive when a bit after 3.00 the drums start to roll and drag you until the epic ending. It will be a long wait until May 10-11 when the album will be out. Thanks for the track to Deaf Indie Elephants.

the national

mp3The National - Terrible Love (Live @ Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) [mediafire] // [ysi]

March
13th

Thinking Machines

by cigi

I’ve recently discovered Philadelphia-based indie rockers who go by the name Thinking Machines (probably got the name from Dune). I’ve instantly fell in love with their new album, Work Tapes. They play the kind of music inspired by Dinosaurthinking machines Jr, Pavement, Guided by Voices and other giants of American indie. This means heavy and screaming guitar noise, disharmonic feel, creative drum patterns and the vocals which sound dry and honest, burned-out, desperate and full of tragedy without anything cheesy. They cleverly move along the borders of shoegaze, lo-fi and post-hardcore (I especially love how they remind me of Hot Snakes and Les Savy Fav). Sensitivity also plays a large part, the jingling guitars and slower stand-outs are in nice contrast with the blitzkrieg of power-driven guitar-whirlwinds. The fuzzy overdrive of the album is an awesome proof that there is a huge non-mainstream source of rock music from previous decades that’s still worth preserving and drawing on. Give the band some myspace-love and buy the album when it comes out early April.

mp3Thinking Machines - Parallax [mediafire] // [ysi]

March
12th

Justin Faust, Silk Cocoons, and Montauk

by brandon

On the upstart Brilliantine label via amaxing.fm is a track by Sweden’s Montauk, Holiday. Among that single collection is a pretty rad remix by fave of Kunk, and party guest last month, Justin Bieber Faust. We’re consistently pleased with Faust’s admission that he ‘leaves the banger-making for others’, since this track makes no apologies in continuing his tradition of silky-smooth, synth-infused disco romps. Straight, smart-electro dance from a dude at the top of his game right now.

justin faust

US-peeps will be super pleased to have the chance to see the aforementioned February Kunk guest, along with March Kunk guest, Xinobi, together in New York on April 24. How sweet is that!?

And, for a little more info, check out our Justin Faust lil’ interview, made last month.

mp3Montauk - Holiday (Justin Faust Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

March
11th

Russ Chimes Not Vanished Yet

by brandon

Another Russ Chimes edit is floating its way across the internets, this time done of Hold On by upstarts, The Vanish. This time around, Chimes keeps it pretty smooth-edged from start to finish, and refrains from unleashing the megadrop which signatures/headlines many of his edits, including the recent Elle Goulding mix. Which, however, is all the finer, cos if you release the beast every single time, does it continue being a beast? Probably not. Or at least, so says wisdom of Kunk. Nevertheless, the result is choppy, groovy, and eminently danceable, as you would expect.

the vanish

The Vanish are a pair of Aussie dudes who now reside in the US making some nu-wave and electro flavored tracks, and are releasing Hold On as a debut single. It’s already gotten picked up by XFM and Radio1, so i’d call it an auspicious kick-off.

You can pick the track up on iTunes, Beatport, and Juno.

mp3The Vanish - Hold On (Russ Chimes Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

March
10th

MMM Calls It a Night

by cigi

Despite the whole fading of Ed Banger’s glory, Kavinsky’s new EP is already under pretty heavy rain of hype. The heavyweights of French house are collaborating to make Pacific Coast Highway a super-product: mixed by SebastiAn, mmmatthiasNightcall produced by half of The Daft Punks…so it’s hardcore. If we add that this track even features CSS’s Lovefoxxx with vocals then no one should be surprised about the hype. The original is dark, La Boum disco-esque French house. First comparison might be Danger.

I wouldn’t personally give a shit about all of the above but since one of our favourite German producers sent us his remix of Nightcall, I decided to write a post. MMMatthias grabs the track, enhances the darkness, makes the whole into a heavier rolling experimental dream-disco anthem. Sounds much more original than the original itself.  Love the chopped-up feel and vocalwork is perfect. It just drives me crazy what the synth melody which comes to the forefront at 0.56 reminds me of.

Btw Australia, catch MMMatthias on tour between 9th to the 19th of April with Trashbagskids. And you can pick up his James EP here.

mp3Kavinsky - Nightcall (MMMatthias remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

March
6th

Short Circuit Has Beaten It

by cigi

Brandon is my witness, I can be quite a purist when it comes to remixing and covering classics. This doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate the taste and the effort, I just think it’s really hard to adequately touch a classic. On the other hand, I’m all for pop and easygoing stuff, still, it’s hard to be easygoing. Binary’s Short Circuit went for a huge fish with an attempt at remixing Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”. Binary’s dreamwave ‘brand’ pays off here: “Beat It” sounds weird and energizing at the same time. The synths are freshly retro and the whole disco pulse goes very well with the vocals that are among the most amazing of all times. So I’m quite happy to be happy with this remix. Since “Beat It” is a song I’ve been loving since I was 6 and even played out when I was djing for the first time, I could’ve been full of preconceptions and could’ve raised the bar impossibly high. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that The King would’ve loved this remix but it is certain that in a strange way it’d be a nice soundtrack for some heavenly moonwalking.

short circuit

mp3Michael Jackson - Beat It (Short Circuit remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

March
4th

The Plants Continue to Be Plural, and Happy

by brandon

We’ve done quite a few previous posts on We Plants Are Happy Plants, and understandably so: first, as he’s producing soaring electro dance-ish tracks that are quite easy on our ears; and second, because he’s a Hungarian, sharing a home base with the Kunkers. Twilight of the Dawn builds up with a trance-hazed pastoral landscape, and sends you out to memory bliss, before gently nudging you back into moment with a splattering of autotune and a fluctuating beat. It never transforms into banger material, but that’s okay — think Mediterranean coast and sunrise.

we plants are happy plants, uitc

The song is part of a 13-track collection of his music from the last 3 years (UITC), serving as the definitive summary of his work so far. He plans to take a departure from this style in the coming months — we’re eager to hear the result!

Our cut below is a choice one, but only 160 kbps. Pick UITC up in full 320 glory on iTunes or Amazon.

mp3 We Plants Are Happy Plants- Twilight of the Dawn [mediafire] // [ysi]

March
3rd

Redial Recharged

by cigi

Not that his battery was ever low, but Aussie-land’s epic-synth magician returns with two such remixes that are superheavyweight dancefloor-destroyers. The older one is redialBarretso’s “We Won’t Stop” which - as everyone notices - is synth car-race in the Russ Chimes-esque vein. Redial here adds his heavy drumming and own synth-banging to make it a great instance of post-banger grandeur. The newer one was exlusively premiered on also at - where else? - Trashbagskids a couple days ago, and I hope they won’t mind me sharing it, I felt compelled since this remix of Miike Snow’s “Silvia” is so undeniably epic that a dictionary could feature a sound sample as an illustration next to the definition. The Swedish band were remixed by huge names like Fake Blood, Passion Pit and Crookers but so far this is my favourite. The minimalistic keys-vocals parts are substituted with the ultra-heavy synth-banging right after the tension is sufficiently built-up. Huge fucking explosion. One could argue that it’s cheesy, well, whatever, it got me. Expect it to appear in every Kunk set from now on. And watch out, Euro-land, Redial is on tour here from March. Also, tomorrow catch a preview of Redial’s new EP on Trashbags.

mp3Barrettso - We Won’t Stop (Redial remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

mp3Miike Snow - Silvia (Redial remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]