HEARTSREVOLUTION is a girl+boy band from LA, now in New York. Their label is IHeartComix. They announced a remix contest for their upcoming remix single: C.Y.O.A (Choose Your Own Adventure) which will be out 11th March. Here’s the video. The 12” will feature a lot of remixes by big names (Brodinski, CFCF, etc). In addition Flosstradamus and LA Riots made remixes for their tracks as well. IHeartComix (obviously), Missingtoof and Discobelle are showing them a lot of hype and love. Plus they are in Nylon magazine’s Dec/Jan 2008 issue.

The couple met while working in a hotel. They started to make music together because the girl is in ice cream truck business (still in service) and she wanted music to play through the truck’s sound system. This is the fucking element of surprise to get discovered. This shows that they make the newest sounding electro stuff but they have the experimenting d.i.y. punk attitude without which electronica is just bpm.

Apparently there’s nothing new I can say about them. The upper stuff is written to be proof that you have to hear this band because they are going to be huge really fast.

The first song is a remix of CYOA. It’s by Lauren Flax who’s a DJ of IHeartComix. She also remixed Morningwood and Le Tigre. The original CYOA has some elements from electroclash, noise and riot grrrl vocals. The remix is kinda calmed by the synths (those sound like Matrix movie…freaky) and reminds me of the CFCF remix of Triceratops by HEALTH.

HEARTSREVOLUTION - C.Y.O.A. (Lauren Flax remix)

The other is Prism Effect. The original has Cory Kennedy, the internet celebrity highschool girl for a guest appearance. The remix is by Acid Girls who are like fucking cool bloggers/djs/producers from LA. It was on the bands self-released split single with Crystal Castles.

HEARTSREVOLUTION - Prism Effect (It’s Not The Size That Counts Acid Girls edit)

New Hot Chip album is on the way. ‘Made in the Dark’ will be out on DFA/Astralwerks at the beginning of February. Huge hype is going on.

Somehow I never really liked ‘Over and over’. Of course, it was a hit and everything but it was somehow mediocre. Too sophisticated for disco, too disco to be a ‘laid back’ post-punk hit.

Ready for the Floor was much better. 80s fits these guys. However if you want pure disco throughout the album you’ll be disappointed. Insted there’s a song that reminds me of George Michael’s ‘Outside’, ‘Touch Too Much’ of TV on the Radio. In addition, there are ballads. Made in the Dark itself is a sad song. Piano-dominated songs full of melancholy close the album. This is a brave thing to do. There were some tracks that pointed in this direction on The Warning as well but everything was too electronic somehow.

The song I decided to share is the first one. It’s a danceable song, reminds me of Over and over but it’s much better than the latter and it shows how Hot Chip’s music became better for the dancefloor and for home listening as well. This album is more diverse and there are a lot more colours to enjoy here in the dark.

Hot Chip - Out At The Pictures

For our Hungarian readers, just to make sure you know about this. We are going to be residents more or less each week at Trafo alongside Miss Lucifer (Death Disco), KittenKillers & Mario Bros (Gumipop).

This will be a party to fill the hiatus of thursday nights of your lives. It has some kind of Japanese/anime theme but…well…Japan is cool.

My favourite and trademark M.J. song ‘Beat It’ was raped by Boys Noize. (Thank you Missingtoof. The post there is called ‘Pop Remixed’ - awesome.) Or was it the other way around? I think I’ll go along with the second version.

Guilty pleasures are becoming cool. Everyone has them and everyone likes to deny. Just take a look at this picture and ask yourself: can you honestly say that it’s not superfucking hot? Natural selection is underway in bringing these pleasures to the light and surface. New artists take on songs from officially not-cool but in the ‘who the fuck cares about it’ sense they are awesome. Like M.J. Super hip djs the Villains did M.J. The Bloody Beetroots will get huge because of they are suprising! (Remixed Metallica, She’s a maniac, etc) Felix Cartal did Ashlee Simpson, Metronomy covered Toxic (it kinda sucks) and there’s a great remix of Kriss Kross’s Jump by D-L-i-d, etc. You might think that the remixers make these songs listenable but you are wrong. More likely, the remixers themselves are affected by the originals. Fun eats it’s way into the underground more explicitly.

The remix itself is forgettable. I’m not a big fan of Boys Noize. (Oi Oi Oi is ok but nothing more.) The last 2 and a half minutes are good but I think the dynamics are sorta lost and there should be more of the vocals. The effort is appreciated.

Boys Noize - Eat It (M.J. - Beat It)

Super-hyped band The Teenagers finally released their debut album entitled ‘Reality Check’ only in digital format and the real thing follows in March. Okay, everyone reported this, but nevermind. This had to be posted.

After a couple of listens the album is great. Not full of surprises though. More or less it’s the same sound you could anticipate from the singles. However, the concept is awesome. I think The Teenagers managed to get so huge cause of their imagery. Teen girls and boys, movies, music, drinking vodka, etc. It of course has the twist of ironic nostalgia. This perfectly fits the lo-fi sound, the stupidly simple electronica and spoken, monotonous vocals. This is the reason to love it. It’s elegant, innocent and dirty at the same time, funny and self-aware. The cover of the album, the title, the song titles, everything’s in its right place. It’s perfect for one shot but it’ll be boring on the next if they’ll do the same.

I chose a song that is the most surprising on the record: it’s the last one. It’s a sad one. It reminds me of something totally different. Like a song from a totally different genre or age. It’s fucking annoying that I can’t remember. Someone help me what is it?

The Teenagers - End of the Road

I have to make a statement:

fuck january

Thank you.

Now, let’s turn to music. There is a song from the last year that was something like D.A.N.C.E. from Justice. Everyone loved Pogo by Digitalism.
It had a funny video, it is beautifully crafted electro-pop of the new generation. And they are from Deutschland, ja, not France, haha. Actually I think (Forgive me Lord for I have sinned) Idealism is better “Cross”.

This Mano guy is from Chicago. He does hiphop stuff I suppose but this is the first time I heard about him. He remixed Pogo after Mentalism and Shinichi Osawa. And it’s awesome. He also remixed Lady from Modjo which is not good cause I really hate the original. Nevermind. We will probably hear from him in the future so it’s good to have this posted.

Digitalism - Pogo (Mano remix)

ps. Have an eye out for the weekly thursday parties @ Trafo

CSS: a band that’s remixed everyone, and been remixed by everyone. The last thing we need is another CSS remix of any sort, right? Well, I’ll hand it to New York-based Kill the Noise, they nailed this one. And with a website like this, it’s a clincher. Props at ya boys for hitting it straight on with enough edge, but not too heavy on the overused French glitch.

Cansei de Ser Sexy - Music Is My Hot Hot Sex (KILL THE NOISE Remix)

Speaking of overused French glitch, I just described Kunk right? Or was it another party? Or whatever i can’t remember. Just be sure to shuffle your feet over to Trafo next Thursday and beyond, for a weekly multi-headed party in which yours trulies participate. It’s this thing.

Over the past couple of years, so many subsets of the neo ‘rave’ genre have been annointed i’ve given up trying to keep up — nu rave, who rave, jew rave, blue rave, stew rave, poo rave, er.. — on second thought, you got me, i never bothered trying to keep up. And i don’t care if you’re Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, or whoever the fuck: if you’re wearing huge rimmed glasses with no lenses inside, you look like a clown, full stop.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, what else is there to do but anoint a new sub genre of rave! Woot! I present to thee: subtle rave. Ah, yes, the audience ponders, subtle rave. Kap10Kurt, out of New York but originally from Switzerland, seems to have added just enough whiff of the “forgotten field to the side of the M2 highway circa 1989″ to his sequencer brew to captivate, but not bludgeon the listener. The result, Dangerseekers, I must say, is refreshing and banging all at once.

I should add that Kap10Kurt will be around these parts in the spring, so keep your eyes and ears peeled!

Kap10Kurt - Dangeseekers (Rolf Honey remix)

And finally, apropos of nothing, a few weeks back BigStereo mentioned how it was about that time to mini-revive Darude. We couldn’t agree more. This’ll get ya started.

Darude - Sandstorm

And how awesome was that video with the lesbi couple* fighting for their love (which was contained in a briefcase) barreling around Helsinki… yeah.

* Yes in my mind they were a lesbi couple, so sue me.

AM radio. Backseat. Father’s car. Early 80’s. Southern California. That is: my upbringing.

How is it that the French seem to grasp the concept of that era better than Americans? I guess it’s that whole ‘perspective’ thang. I remember the Air video for All I Need blowing me away on how crazy accurate it was. Fast forward 10 years and Poney Poney are pumping out cassette deck rock as good as any Yank. I’m not even sure they’re doing it intentionally — but whatever — the result is sublime. A syrupy beautiful nostalgic dream for Brandon involves having a hazy lazy afternoon spent at the US festival (which I was too young to attend in reality), making out with some acne-faced girl, trying to touch her in inappropriate places, and totally getting rejected for that, and totally not caring, because Poney x2 was playing in the background (even though they weren’t alive yet).

She Began Telling Me Secrets is an amp raiser, and loving it that way.

And Genesis totally should’ve played the US festival… Woz, how could you deny them?!?

Poney Poney - She Began Telling Me Secrets (demo)

Genesis - Throwing it All Away

Okay, here we are, this guy is pretty cool. From the USA, Washington DC, he’s one of the coolest club djs now. Should’ve done this probably a year ago but Discobelle posted their series of ‘12 days of Titts’mas’ for the holidays and I suppose now is a good time to post these remixes. His own stuff is not really for me (80s, hiphop, turntablism, etc) but he has THE sense humour which I easily relate to. Remixing Suzanne Vega? Jesus F. Christ! Thunderstruck by AC/DC? Does it ring a bell? Yeah, of course, just a usual club hit after Klaxons’s Atlantis. Maybe this is too much (actually, for me, mashing up Nirvana with Felix Cartel was kinda weird). Okay then, here’s a remix of…umm…how should i put it? So for everyone’s sake, a remix of a very surprising song from a never-heard-of band this year: Justice. D.A.N.C.E. Obviously, the Kunk heart is especially close to the Girl U Know It’s True remix.

Tittsworth - Titts’mas Time (Paul McCartney - A Wonderful Christmas Time)

Suzanne Vega - Titts’ Diner (Tom’s Diner remix)

AC/DC - Thunderstruck (Tittsworth remix)

J. Y. B. - Sardines (Titts n Beans remix - fast mix + slowed down edit)

Underworld - Born Slippy (Tittsworth remix)

Ying Yang Twins/Switch - Jigglin’ (Tittsworth edit and tempo tool)

Milli Vanilli - Girl U Know It’s True (Tittsworth remix)

The Police - Rock Sand (Titts Rave remix)

Nirvana vs Felix Cartel - Territorial Man (Tittsworth edit and tempo tool)

The Cars - Just What I Needed (Tittsworth edit)

The Commodores - Easy (Like Sunder Morning) - Titts remix

Tittsworth - Posion (Bell Biv Devoe)

M.O.P. - Ante Up (Tittsworth remix)

Pitbull - Bojangles (Tittsworth remix)

Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (Tittsworth remix)