Just a short one for Sunday. The Swiss dudes are back again with a track that could be easily nominated for the coolest electro song titles award: Revolver Disco. We haven’t mentioned them except for the Love Motel remix and the once in a podcast with Trippin. They have been up to a lot of great things, remixing the shit out of Coldplay and Frankie Goes To Hollywood for example. Their own stuff is on the banging side of the scale but somehow I find it more appealing than the bunch of latest Ed Banger-clones. Maybe it’s because they are not from France. Listen to the new song and make friends on myspace. Revolver Disco has an awesome vibe and aggressive tension that it manages to keep up until the end. If I wanted to make a genre out of it I would say it’s ‘cruel disco’. You can imagine space cowboys in the future walking in a space pub near Mars, inserting their dna-cards into the jukebox and choosing this track to start shooting at each other with laser.

Cryptonites - Revolver Disco [zshare] // Cryptonites - Revolver Disco [ysi]

Back on the same track as with the Johnny Foreigner post: new British indie stuff. Dananananaykroyd (awesome name, huh?) is a band from Glasgow. They exist since 2006 and are getting more and more attention as time passes. DiS even named them the “best live band in the UK”. You know how it goes. The 6 members of the band present an angst-ridden, noisy, post-hardcore shouting-feast which must look awesome on stage. They call it ‘fight pop’. Anti-popculture and the war between mainstream and underground seems to rise again. Of course, you can draw a wide picture of influences with the most notorious lo-fi bands but more obviously this new single Pink Sabbath is like Refused, At the Drive-in, Sonic Youth and Pretty Girls Make Graves. More US than UK sound. Is the band more than just another instance of the marginal wave of UK indie rock bands whose time has passed in 2005-6? Yes, they are definetly more. One of my friends said that 2009 will be the year of rock again and maybe after they’ve recorded their album in New York and it came out on Moshi Moshi they can be a part of it. Part of the process when young hipsters find their way back to the raw power (hi, Iggy!) of music which is now easily simulated in electronically engineered stuff. There’s a beauty in finding the hidden gems of the future today.

Dananananaykroyd - Pink Sabbath [zshare] // Dananananaykroyd - Pink Sabbath [ysi]

Just came knocking on our myspace door today and we couldn’t be more pleased. They hail from (where else) Australia and are serving up that dancy synth love we’ve been eating up here in Central Europa. Speaking of eating, in their email to us they highlighted the fact that they love the Hungarian cuisine known as goulash. Very nice Bonus points for that.

When is that through-the-center-of-the-earth-tunnel-between-Oz-and-Europe gonna be built to make arranging touring travel easier!?

My fave track of the lot is Lionheart which I believe the accompanying artwork represents. Go send some myspace props and get on board with the hundreds and thousands that are surely soon to be billions if Carl Sagan has his way.

Hundreds and Thousands - Lionheart [zshare] // Hundreds and Thousands - Lionheart [ysi]

Okay, here’s an older one. I couldn’t find it anywhere so I had to ask Maethelvin to send it to us and he was so nice that we have a 320kbps track.

We’ve already posted about Maethelvin (here) and of course, we are still fanboys of the Valerie sound. This song with the title and the atmosphere could be a hymn for these west-coasters of France. That’s why it’s so relevant just now. Such a perfect soundtrack song. Could be the background music for Solaris or the more lsd-d parts of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Not instead of Strauss haha. I don’t think it can be categorized as 80s retro. Of course it has the synth thing and the feeling to it but somehow I think that it’s more universal. Haha wordpay, not just universal but Universal. In the bigger picture, there are humanity’s dreams and hopes connected with stars and other worlds and galaxies contained in it, in a form of background tension just crawling and bubbleing up from the collective unconscious. That’s why it’s a perfect soundtrack for any sci-fi because it originates from the same source as the need for science-fiction. “Car-chase disco” as it says on myspace but those cars are riding the galactic highways of the Milky Way for sure. In a way back to chilldhood cause stars and stuff is so fascinating when one’s young and 80s star-y nights carry an interesting significance with all this glam-y space-popculture around. Really, this song is a short movie about a creepy night of a boy and girl who are watching stars and subtle but unsettling events happen both with their emotions and with never-to-be-found-out secrets in the outer world.

Make friendship on myspace, write nice comments and watch out for Maethelvin in the future.

Maethelvin - Night Love [zshare] // Maethelvin - Night Love [ysi]

ps. artwork above by The Zonders who are up to a lot of awesome stuff. check their space!

Mr. Fresco of the Disco Villains (or big The?) hit us up again with a new remix, to be precise a re-edit of The Faint’s super-popular new single: The Geeks Were Right. Due to some unfortunate laptop-circumstances this is the only new material in 2 weeks which is a lot in blog time. The remix is much better on the bass and in the low range than a lot of recent bass-heroes like the Crookers and stuff. Great waving between background and forefront.

There’s another song which we didn’t share the last time but I’m gonna now and it’s a remix of my teenage-and-still-favourite Nine Inch Nails. The Hand that Feeds is from my least-favourite single from my least-favourite NIN album, 2005’s With Teeth. First, when I downloaded the track from The Docking Station I thought I wouldn’t like it cause, you know, someone touches something that is close to your heart it’s hard to accept it. On the contrary, the remix is brilliant with the piano part standing alone from around 3:30. That’s what I call taste. We still don’t know too much about the Mexican-American duo but I have a feeling that we’ll hear a lot about them in the future. They have gigs lined up with the likes of Glass Candy and Treasure Fingers. And of course, if Justice, yeah Justice woo-hoo, you know do the dance-Justice plays one of your remixes on a BBC Radio 1 show that means a lot.

The Faint - The Geeks Were Right (Disco Villains re-edit) [zshare] // The Faint - The Geeks Were Right (Disco Villains re-edit) [ysi]

Nine Inch Nails - The Hand that Feeds (Disco Villains remix) [zshare] // Nine Inch Nails - The Hand that Feeds (Disco Villains remix) [ysi]

So yeah, one of the most anticipated albums of 2008 for the lovers of smart electro sounds was V of Australia’s and Modular’s Van She. This debut album is one of the bests this year. Not surprisingly beside Cut Copy’s second. I don’t think I can say anything new with fact-value. I think it’s beautiful and surprising.

The record manages to somehow combine club-feeling (LCD Soundsystem comes to my mind) with shoegaze aesthetics. My favourite is Memory Man with it’s grandeour and monumental structure. Not only shallow makes-you-dance stuff but real guitar-drum music with influences ranging from obvious ones like new wave and synth pop to strange stuff like singer-songwriter, acoustic and whirlwind-esque psychedelic sound like M83 or the now seemingly returning My Bloody Valentine. More indie pop than electro. I would say it’s spiritually closer to the aformentioned Of Montreal than to The Presets for example. It can move passions, mountains, get some tears in your eyes and shape a landscape for flying dreams. The reason I’m writing this now is that I got the Van She Tech remix of The Whip’s Frustration from Ohh! Crapp and it’s again a masterpiece. Have a listen and order V.

Van She - Memory Man [zshare] // Van She - Memory Man [ysi]

The Whip - Frustration (Van She Tech remix) [zshare] // The Whip - Frustration (Van She Tech remix) [ysi]

You must be aware that your favourite Kunkers have an undying love for a certain style of weird pop music. Like Architecture in Helsinki, Broken Social Scene or Of Montreal who are returning with a follow-up to last year’s Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? The new album is titled Skeletal Lamping and gonna come out in October. With fellow artist like The Apples in Stereo (Elephant 6, right) or The Flaming Lips, they constantly prove that ‘indie’ still has a real and style-related meaning and is relevant even in 2008.

On the new album, mastermind Kevin Barnes equips playfullness, celebrates experimental aesthetics and mixes up a lot of styles and traditions to create a complicated pop record. From the elements and schemes of soul and funk to The Beach Boys to Roxy Music and to more recent stuff like the Scissor Sisters are intergrated and it’s choreographed so it dances around how it supposed to be to shape the sound that is frustrating and enjoyable at once. I really like it, it is a good thing to listen to the songs. I’m not poeting an ode to art or anything but the art-y side of the music is just so lovely here (even with the avantgarde lyrics and sexual content) that you don’t wanna forget about it.

Of Montreal - Wicked Wisdom [zshare] // Of Montreal - Wicked Wisdom [ysi]

but it doesn’t. Yet again, Digitalism remixed. Now, the new song and by a talented German guy who goes by the name MMMatthias. Today after I posted the Crystal Castles thing I decided to do something relaxing, listened to the brilliant Walkmen album and read or stuff. Now MMMatthias was so kind to hit us Kunkers up with his latest remix that I thought I had to change my mind and go back to heavy electro with Digitalism. (Ok, the new song is light and nice like Hail Social or something.) Then I looked up what MMMatthias have been doing so far and I’m impressed. Actually Digitalism is the first banging electro he remixed. He’s done MGMT and Sigur Ros(!) Surprising stuff and great taste = can’t wait for more! The Digitalism remix has this strange atmosphere, perfect easy-disco for the end of the summer. Give MMMatthias myspace love and listen to the other tracks.

Digitalism - Taken Away (MMMatthias remix) [zshare] // Digitalism - Taken Away (MMMatthias remix) [ysi]

I know, I know who needs this song blogged for the 10th time… I can’t not post it. It was a long time ago since I’ve heard anything new by the Crystal Castles. Sadly, it’s only a remix now and I’m not particularly fond of White Lies who are just another band of the post-post-punk/Joy Division-esque/Interpol (good) - Editors (bad) heritage. Or if I want to be a bit cruel then… anyone has any memories about The Bravery? Yeah, right: “it was an honest mistake woo-huu” haha White Lies could easliy cover it or a Killers song.

On the other hand, the remix, done by the guy part of Crystal Castles, is much much better than the original! Nice work on the vocals and the synth makes it more interesting. The motor-sound reminds me of something, maybe SebastiAn. No, I know, Le Castle Vania remix of Kill the Noise’s Hey You. Nevertheless, a mediocre indie song became a cool, atmospheric disco-track.

White Lies - Death (Crystal Castles remix) [zshare] // White Lies - Death (Crystal Castles remix) [ysi]

Haha. Seriously though, those in Australia won’t need any introduction, but those in the US and Europe might not have had the chance yet to appreciate some more nice production coming out of the land down unda. I’m speaking about Redial and Nixon. The former of which generated quite the debate on discodust last month. I can see both arguments have validity but i gotta come down on the “lighten up, it’s awesome” side of things. Sure it has some hallmarks of ‘blabla french electro’ or what not, but shit is seriously fucking epic. When those piano/guitar/synth riffs are running i feel like i’m about to get skewered. Nothing like a good skewering from time to time to get ones priorities straight. Plus it seriously brings down the dancefloor — nice bonus!

Redial - 1985 [zshare] // Redial - 1985 [ysi]

Nixon is a local fave/part of the Trashbags clan and i love the first(?) track he’s put out. Bleedin Me is a hard hitting force of a number driven by a crisp guitar crunch and begs to be danced to. One of these blessed days i’ve gotta get myself down to Aussie land and hear this shit live.

And as for artwork, purple and black seems to be the rage!

Nixon - Bleedin Me [zshare] // Nixon - Bleedin Me [ysi]

In a quick admin note… Brandon’s been real busy of late and will be away this weekend which is why local superstar Cigi’s been picking up the slack for me. But from the middle of next week we’ll both be back in full force with some fun Kunk fall line-up announcements to make as well… Let’s just say it’s gonna be the autumn of Kunk here in central europa! (Get a sneak peek over at our Myspacess) Much love.