It’s that time of the month again… So Kunked podcast #3 is in Das Haus. Just to break up the whole ‘guys locker room’ feel of the proceedings, we invited the Polish babymommy of a local Hungarian rockstar to shoot the shit with us. Was Kasia able to tone down the banal, faggy, and vaguely-sexist chatter that cigi and i usually partake in? Listen and find out! Apologies again on the occasional mic static… one of these days we’ll finally have it all ironed out!

My favorite track of today’s episode takes the form of a production by a Dutch semi-Italo-disco-ite calling himself Alden Tyrell.  It was uncovered (at least to me) by the recent DVAS passion communication mix up and is straightforward but stellar. Literally stellar: you know, a gay space journey to reveal science fiction fantasies that take place only after all the alien autopsies have been conducted… a cosmic homosex adventure which rides the waves of supernovas and… okay… you get the point. But really, it’s nostalgically awesome, which means it’s so so present day right?

Covered in this episode:

• Late of the Pier - Focker
• Cut Copy - Unforgettable Season
• Boys Noize -NeOhPen (Danger Remix)
• Teenagers in Tokyo - Very Vampyr (DCup Remix)
• Alden Tyrell - Rendezvous at Rimini
• Mates of State -  Now
• Baby Huey -Hard Times
• Opening Discussion - Hungarian Girls

So Kunked Podcast - Volume 3 [zshare]

Alden Tyrell - Rendezvous at Rimini [zshare] // Alden Tyrell - Rendezvous at Rimini [ysi]

I almost forgot. Today is the day that one of our favourite Valerie artists had their first release: The French Machine is out by Minitel Rose. You can listen to a song on the Valerie blog which celebrates the release with a MR week or check the awesome track titled Medley on MR’s myspace. (Magic Powder is not really my kind of sound…) Somehow the vocals remind me of the atmospheric Klaxons stuff. Buy it!

Papier Tigre is an indie band from Nantes, France. MR made them a nice little remix, grab it.

Papier Tigre - Concrete Residential (Minitel Rose remix) (zshare) // Papier Tigre - Concrete Residential (Minitel Rose remix) (y. s. i.)

Warning! Coolness alert! We’ve already posted about GRUM a couple times but I think we haven’t mentioned Le Castle Vania yet. I first heard about Dylan Eiland when he remixed Kill the Noise’s Hey You and that was some amazing gasoline on the fire. Umm…he was remixed by The Toxic Avanger and LA Riots so the hipness-o-meter is just rising and rising exponentially. And of course, opening for Steve Aoki can never hurt for a successful dj-career. Dj Dylan remixed Snowden, 120 Days and the newest stuff is this GRUM song. Thanks to DiscoDust.

GRUM - Go Back (Le Castle Vania remix) (zshare) // GRUM - Go Back (Le Castle Vania remix) (y. s. i.)

This tune bangs and everything. Not better than the original, maybe it’s just fitted for a bit more dancefloor-madness. The sad thing is that I can’t not like it. Why wouldn’t I want to? Take a look at this photo:

Now take a look at this one:

Am I the only one who thinks that there’s something wrong with the universe? First I thought this is a joke. I mean WHAT THE FUCK? And it’s not just about looks. Or it is only about that. I must say that I would choose darkness. The whole thing is so artificially cheesy, it gives me the creeps to think about the future celebrity events, by then everyone will have a button on his hand to trigger a electronic orgasm…Burroughs-style. BiBaBiDi was so right: “Hack DJs clutter out clubs pretending to be the voices of a generation, but have no idea what the hell their generation is, who don’t give a rat’s, and haven’t an iota of a clue as to how to become relevant. Let’s just mosh in the meantime, right? Next time you consider checking out Le Castle Vania or Steve Aoki or Guns ‘n Bombs, resolve to staying home and watching Jeopardy at 3 AM. It’s better than walking into a club, immersing yourself in the noise and confusion, and fooling yourself into thinking it’s music.”

So yeah, you can download this one and bang it with superbass (which is okay, I do it sometimes) or jump a post backwards for the Hammer of Gods track.

Too often the Kunk boys are looking outside their own borders for shizz we wanna blog about — mostly stuff we play at our parties. And by ‘too often’, i mean, ‘all the time’. And by ‘outside their own borders’, i mean, ‘France’. But in all seriousness, there’s some local stuff of late that’s worth having a listen to — today that takes the shape of a young jockey with the moniker We Plants Are Happy Plants, and the Hungarian version of a noise pop supergroup, Hammer of Gods.

We Plants is off to an auspicious start, laying down attractive melodic lines across a variety of tracks. He doesn’t destroy the originals but gives them a subtle enjoyable punch… i expect in the coming months he’ll be finding his feet and turning it up a notch. He’s a member of the local Ektiv crew who are on top of all things fidgety and ravey ’round these parts — with my fave edit to date being dropped on the ubiquitous Frenchies Daft Punk, Superheroes.

Daft Punk - Superheroes (We Plants Are Happy Plants Remix) [zshare] // Daft Punk - Superheroes (We Plants Are Happy Plants Remix) [ysi]

And with that, Cigi I hand it over to you for some more local love…

Well, thank you, Brandon. Now it’s almost like podcast in writing. We should publish a book.

But before we do, let’s turn to Gods. Not for sacrifice or salvation but for a unique highlight of the basically non-existing Hungarian good-pop music-scene. First Audio Broadcast is the limited LP which was completed last year and self-releasing on concerts, etc, you know how it goes. It wouldn’t have to be like that, of course. If we had been in a better world it would’ve come out on Rough Trade or something. The supergroup involves Gergo from The Moog, Arpi from EZ Basic, Mezo and Andris. They self-declared themselves as “funeral folk” which is nice. Their influences include Syd Barrett, Guided By Voices and Sonic Youth. For me, this could be the Hungarian Arcade Fire. The sound is like a blend of noise, pop, distortion and experimenting punk-attitude. As for mood, every song has a blurry atmosphere of childish playfulness with older melancholic half-smiles, drunken pseudo-happiness, and some summer love. But the whole thing swims away with giant guitar-waves and heavy drums. The album was finished in winter but could be a perfect summer soundtrack.

The LP has a girl side and a boy side. Exciting, huh? I’ve chosen the hit pop-gem from the girl side which is titled Top 40.

Hammer of Gods - Top 40 (zshare)

Hammer of Gods - Top 40 (y. s. i.)

“we were more than this
the whim of your first kiss
kiss burn the scenes the story we used to be
what we’ll never be again again”

Slow, dirty and heavy and recalling a different era that isn’t too removed from today but I can’t exactly place my finger on it, Tronik Youth’s new single shows how to keep a modest pace while not losing any hottness. Already there are several remixes of Laugh Cry Live Die floating around and undoubtedly there will be countless more — but I’m holding out and sticking to the original — in part because he deserves the credit on the back of the many deft remixes he’s put under his belt to date (Goose, The Gossip, and MGMT among other standouts).

Things are only on the up and up for Tronik so check him out live in London-town or on the festival circuit this summer.

Tronik Youth - Laugh Cry Live Die [zshare] // Tronik Youth - Laugh Cry Live Die [ysi]

How do we know Danger is dangerous?…it’s probably that he keeps the mask on for the interviews too … and, you know, his name is Danger, yo. Anyhow, we’ll forgive some of the pretense and mask unoriginality ‘cos kid’s got some skills and I like his transformation of We Are Scientists‘ Chick Lit into a sexy synth romp. Speaking of WAS i haven’t had my ear to them much in the past couple of years since the ‘my body is your body’ days. The bringing together of two universes that I would never associate with each other… aka Danger/WAS … is another reason I like the track, it’s just so genre-defying! And if there’s anything we hate, it’s genre typecasting, har har.

For shits and giggles, you *have* to check out the interview he gave with Australia’s Pedestrian TV a few months back. My theory is that Danger is actually the guy talking and he sherpas around a deafmute in gothic ski-wear ‘cos he’s shy and can only talk about himself in the third person, but would look too much like a twat if he did that alone. [click on image]

We Are Scientists - Chick Lit (Danger TV Remix) [zshare] // We Are Scientists - Chick Lit (Danger TV Remix) [ysi]

Okay, something must be going on in the cold North with the long winters, winds, and snow because they are just going crazy. Sweden is for the UK what Australia is for France…umm…or the other way around? Or not? So yeah, here’s Kleerup, Andreas. I think he was hyped first when he did the collaboration with Ann…I mean Robyn on ‘With Every Heartbeat’ (video) What is it with hearts, beats and music from North? Next big thing is gonna be that he got Lykke Li featured on his album along with other Swedish pop singers, including Lisa Milberg from The Concretes. Swedes do it to each other, nice “intensive farming”.

Funny thing is, I think the better part of the album is when he’s on his own. Then the atmosphere is like Neverending Story. Or maybe the obvious association could be La Boum-esque dancing with a headphone alone on a crowded dancefloor with 80s discoballs. But these songs are truly perfect for days full of ugly hangovers when you just wish to sit on a glacier above everything with cold winds clearing your aching head. Superman sitting on the icy top of the world, sadly holding and staring at some cryptonite in his hands.

Kleerup - Thank You For Nothing (zshare)

Kleerup - Thank You For Nothing (y. s. i.)

The Aussie revolution marches on with The Galvatrons, straight outta Melbourne, yo. The self described “four maverick, interstellar transformers from a future vortex … of disco fist-pumping, 80s prom night bashes and Hollywood endings for bespectacled misfits” are on the rampage down under, getting hype from all the prerequisite hype sources. Although i wonder, would the Galvatrons and the Killers agree that When We Were Kids takes place at the same time as When You Were Young? I’m not sure, other than to say there’s a lot of youth remembering these days.

Remixed by the Bag Raiders from rival Sydney-town — gives the original some extra dance punch and reinforces the notion that their music producers are now happy to go AUSSEE ON AUSSEE to trump France and facilitate World Music Takeover for the ‘roos (and yes i’m looking at you Midnight Juggernauts remixing Cut Copy… not fair).

The Galvatrons - When We Were Kids (Bag Raiders Remix) [zshare] // The Galvatrons - When We Were Kids (Bag Raiders Remix) [ysi]

Yeah, someone might remember, there was a band called The Subways with a big hit a few years ago. Its title was like Rock and Roll Queen and it appeared in an OC episode that made it an even bigger indie-hymn. Now, they should sign to Kitsuné change their name and a chorus like ‘be my tech-house queen’ would be awesome. Remixes would be on the way.

Nevertheless, here they are again with two new songs preceeding the album. The first one was Girls & Boys (video) which made some think about Blur but I don’t really get it. Who the fuck are Blur anyway? Actually I liked the previous single better, it had some really heavy guitars. Nevermind, the new single bears the fancy title Alright (video) and it sounds quite cool. I mean, yeah, obvious hooks like “aaahh-haaa” and the girl-boy duo vocals are sometimes cheesy but Nirvana-like guitars can be great and there’s some metal. Buy it when it comes out in June, the full-lenght will follow same month.

The Subways - Alright (zshare)

The Subways - Alright (y. s. i.)

One good Ra band deserves another… Ratatat put me in the groove so next on the radar is another goddamn good sounding outfit from France: Rafale. Yes, I realize Rock It Don’t Stop It clocks in at over 9 minutes, but whatever, shit is hot — smoothly gliding between atmospheric and glitchy-banger, but without letting either side claim victory. The end result is a trancy-in-a-good-way opus which re-solidifies the Gallic stranglehold on what shit sounds like today and *will sound like* tomorrow.

Comprised of one gentleman handling the synth/electro side, and the other on bass and other various percussion, Rafale is currently rocking gigs within France and, given their label affiliation, likely other countries before too long. Give them some love.

Rafale - Rock It Don’t Stop It [zshare] //  Rafale - Rock It Don’t Stop It [ysi]