Readers of this blog will of course be aware of the Nightwaves/Binary crew. We’ve just fallen a little bit in love with their recent song and accompanying video, Sweet Carrie. Follow the young ladies as they traverse the sun-drenched industrial and suburban inevitabilities of southern california — locomoted by their automobile (naturlich) — and inspired by the plaintive call of the song. Audio and video are both wonderfully executed. We’re feeling both of the remixes as well. Alfa’s is a pretty much straight-up attractive electro-fied version of the original, while Beaumont’s takes the reverb-loop route and does so elegantly.

For those in the Socal area of the universe, you’ll be able to catch the Binary crew at a friggin’ sweet party in LA with Kunk faves Moulinex, Xinobi [kunk interview], Futurecop!, and Keenhouse at the end of April [facebook event].

NightWaves - Sweet Carrie (Alfa Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

NightWaves - Sweet Carrie (Beaumont Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

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.

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

You’ve undoubtedly got some serious full court press-ness about Binary’s LA Lights release. It’s chock-full of romance electro aka dreamwave aka however you wanna slice it. In fact, the very last post on this blog referenced the stellar Mmmathias remix of NightWaves‘ “Fascination”. Well, we Kunkers say one good turn deserves another, so we’d like to debut another remix of the very same track. This one hit especially close to home as it’s laid down by a Hungarian who is part of our local Ektiv management crew, We Plants are Happy Plants – or WPAHP if the first is too much of a mouthful for ya.

A typical WPAHP track can be identified by its soaring build-up and dreamy, creamy middle. This edit won’t disappoint those expecting similar. The vocals have been lushed up and the song as a whole is elongated into blissful melodic meditation. Not a dancefloor banger by any stretch but nonetheless sublime. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, We Plants is on an awesome upward trajectory and leading the way toward little ‘ole Hungary making waves amongst the more established Western European and North American markets.

We should also point out that WPAHP is to have his video for his “Sell Your Soul” track made as part of the ongoing Red Bull ‘Made In Garage’ talent quest. It’ll be playlisted on Hungarian MTV, premiering soon. Right on!

NightWaves - Fascination (We Plants are Happy Plants Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

One of Kunk’s favourite German producers, MMMatthias just sent us some tracks. One original and two remixes. His own track, Lies, is an awesome broken/sliced/chopped-up weird post-disco tune, following the Ed Bangerists like Justice and SebastiAn. Of course, Ed Banger is kinda under the radar now, not nearly as cool as it was 2 years ago but a comparison still can’t hurt and MMM’s track is from late 2007 anyway. Still sound fresh and new. Newer stuff includes a remix for a track on Boys Noize’s Power. Haven’t heard the original yet cause never was a big fan of BN but the remix is really surprising. It’s abstract spacey stuff. I mean, it’s not surprising because of MMM cause he can do things like this but wondering how is he able to transform the basically banging industrial electro of BN. As a result, it made me curious about Power. Third track is a remix of NightWaves which is on Binary’s LA Lights compilation that you can buy anywhere on the net now. Fascination is the weirdest of the 3 tracks I’m sharing now. It sounds even a bit tribal with the congas and the undecipherable vocals and has these strange otherworldy synth emerging from stellar dust. Actually, I could imagine this track for a Spore soundtrack. So all hail MMMatthias, he deserves it, this is truly unique and exciting production.

MMMatthias - Lies [mediafire] // [ysi]

Boys Noize - Heart Attack (MMMatthias edit) [mediafire] // [ysi]

NightWaves - Fascination (MMMatthias remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Btw. if any of you are interested in a good spot for tonight in Budapest, tonight is the night of the Room magazine’s release party @ Merlin. It’s an anniversary, we’re going to celebrate the 10th issue. Music-wise, DJs include Waxman, Zagar, Cécile Togni (FR), and our humble selves, Kunk. Flyer below.

It’s long overdue for us to give some shouts over to the Binary crew’s efforts of late. Especially since they’re doing the party thang with former Kunk guest Thieves Like Us, this weekend. Exciting! They’ve also just released the Nightwaves Dreamwave Hour 2 (go pick it up here at Massive Stereo) with a whole bunch of new goodies. Exciting x2 Most readers of this blog should be pretty familiar with Binary — they’re the LA-based assembly of artists who have taken loving inspiration from the Valerie guys.

Nightwaves’ Invincible has been around for a while but this mix by Canada’s Snow Picnic is pretty stellar, and is included in their latest compilation. Keenhouse has also fairly recently made an already beautiful song by College (previous Kunk posts on College) — that much more so — drives through the smog filled LA-basin won’t be quite as annoying provided this smoothness is rocking the speakers.

This crew has been pretty active so expect to see more collabs on the horizon with Valerie and perhaps someday a trip out to Europe-land. Hope so!

Nightwaves - Invincible (Snow Picnic Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

College - I Think About It (Keenhouse Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

There’s been umpteen 1901 remixes floating around but a pair put out by some from the Binary crew are standing out. Both are of course synth-layered gems which you would expect coming from the LA-based crew — but their takes diverge after that. The Fabian edit keeps a tighter grip on the original (in terms of song length) while NightWaves stretches things out into more of a soundscape direction. Each of them work well in their own way, definite dance-floor fodder … with the crew adding “both tracks center on the vocals but unlike most of the remixes out so far, they turn the original on its ass and make something brand new”.

Kunk is always in approval of ass-turning edits… so consider this…er… two thumbs up!

Phoenix - 1901 (Fabian Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Phoenix - 1901 (NightWaves Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Fare Soldi are a pair hailing from Italy, putting out some happy-dance modern, er…, italo tunes that call upon a number of different influences. They’ve got the whole music-image-party package thing down pat. Survivor is their latest track to hit the webs and it’s accompanied by a couple remixes — the Keenhouse edit stands for me. Probably because it’s such a natural fit. The LA-based Binary artist has already done some revved up versions of italo-disco classics so the sound is coming second nature at this point.

Even though it’s only February, the track definitely has that ’sound of summer’ feel, so perhaps you should freeze the track and unthaw it just in time for your good times on the Lake Como house this coming July.

Fare Soldi -  Survivor (Keenhouse RMX) // [ysi]

I have this strange recollection of being in a play called the Music Machine when i was in elementary school. It was about some strange jukebox-like contraption that would play music if you fed it stuff like fruit or whatever, rather than money. The play sucked, but Binary’s latest boy, Short Circuit, is making some nice tunes. If i had to describe in one word: throbbing. Music Machine employs a darkish groove to keep you moving, whereas the Digitalism uses a variation of the same formula to reach a pretty good result, notwithstanding the glut of other edits of that track.

According to the LA-based crew, Short Circuit is an updated name for a previous act, who is now working on his next EP to be released in summer 09, as part of the Binary collective and all that good stuff. Wish i was in LA next week for the Valerie show, btw!

Short Circuit - Music Machine // ysi

Digitalism - Taken Away (Short Circuit Remix) // ysi

I must admit i go totally boner for this song (in addition to keen, of course). Not taking away from the rest of the crew, but certainly the flagship song thus far by the LA-based Binary boys is the 70s/80s disco-electro-house blender Feel the Drive, by Keenhouse. Yes it is super gay but if it’s not super gay, it isn’t eligible for heavy rotation on the ‘ole Brandon iphonepodthing. I don’t know what that says for me, but nevermind.

Binary seems to be lining up the parties these days, both in SoCal and SF. If I were out there i’d be checking it out!

Actually, I will be in SF Thanksgiving week, so if any suggestions please give a shout…

We’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that their artwork is done by none other than the Zonders himself. Homeboy sure can bust them out, non?

Keenhouse - Feel the Drive // [ysi]

Haha, witty title! NighWaves who are responsible for the Valerie-like Binary collective (with ALFA and Fabian) are organizing an event to celebrate the dreamwaves, themselves and the Binary artists. October 6th in Hollywood. Since we’re couple thousand miles away, rotting in Hungary, we can’t be there, we can just urge everyone who has the option to attend. Not far from our very own Kunk-aims, they’ve set out to open a new space for electronic music and djing. Usually we don’t advertise LA parties because of obvious reasons but with this one we can make an exception: we really like Binary, we seem to share some common motives, it’s a kickoff party and we’re just starting our own proper season so it’s sympathy all around. And they’ve sent us songs! Dreamwave, their own genre, meaning 80s, synths and smooth disco. Take a look at the (small) flyer on the right and here’s some listening material from NightWaves.

NightWaves - She’s Electric [zshare] // [mediafire] // [ysi]

NightWaves - Even Money [zshare] // [mediafire] // [ysi]