It’s been quite a while since the new album of M83 came out. I really like M83 but I haven’t written about it so now, with the DatA remix of the new single, Kim and Jessie, I have a reason.

The fourt studio album Saturdays = Youth came out on 15th April. Anthony Gonzalez from France always made beautiful melancholic music from coming from behind the veil that separates us from the other world. The overture You Appearing is one of his best songs ever. According to Gonzalez, the album is about the 80s, the wasted youth, teenagers. Hip themes. Buy it here.

The next single will be out July 21. Kim and Jessie in the original is a weird pop song with extraordinary waves of instruments. Great stuff and no compromises, the catchy sound is a product of post-rock and shoegazing aesthetics. My Bloody Valentine jumps to my mind. He got remix-attention from hip acts like Yuksek for the previous single, for this, the DatA edit really fits. It strengthens the original otherworldly feeling but gives it a La Boum-esqe twist. DatA is a great guy btw, his remixes of Big Face, Tepr and Chromeo could rule the dancefloor. France at its best.

M83 - You Appearing [zshare] // M83 - You Appearing [ysi]

M83 - Kim and Jessie (DatA remix) [zshare] // M83 - Kim and Jessie (DatA remix) [ysi]

I’ve had my eye on Breakbot since the cute little dancy number that was making minor waves last summer — the aptly-named Summer Party. I thought it would gain a lot more traction… its failure to do so was probably a consequence of the whole Justice juggernaut sweeping otherwise deserving artists underneath the carpet for several months.

Nevertheless Breakbot has been methodically churning them out over the past months — during winter his PNAU remix dropped and was caramel chocolaty sweet — almost, but not quite — too sweet. His edit of Arrow’s Does was also superbly crafted… a mellow fare which adds to the original without destroying it.

Just recently he’s gotten back to the original vibe with Iron Zombie, a solid walking-through-the-streets jam which, pleasurable indeed, even if the title somehow doesn’t fit to the track.

For a nice diverse and consistent collection of quality work, Breakbot is definitely worth giving some myspaces love and keep your ear to his track for more releases!

I feel all tender and sweet now, just like the sound and the photo…awww.

Breakbot - Summer Party [zshare] // Breakbot - Summer Party [ysi]

Breakbot - Happy Rabbit [zshare] // Breakbot - Happy Rabbit [ysi]

PNAU - Baby (Breakbot Remix) [zshare] // PNAU - Baby (Breakbot Remix) [ysi]

Arrow -  Does (Breakbot Remix) [zshare] // Arrow -  Does (Breakbot Remix) [ysi]

Breakbot - Iron Zombie [zshare] // Breakbot - Iron Zombie [ysi]

I like Pilooski. Primarily because you’ll never quite be able to predict who the French remixer will hit up next. His re-fresh of 50s/60s star Franki Valli last summer came out of nowhere and brightened up my feet (the video was a lot of fun as well). Not long ago he fast forwarded a couple decades and did a job on the Pointer Sisters. And finally, the last double decade push forward landed him squarely in 2008 and on the case of the Mystery Jets. Two Doors Down has been remixed by quite a few but Pilooski’s showed the most versatility in kunk’s oh so humble opinion. Where to go next? Reverse it 60 years: 1940s I say. The Glenn Miller revival is a monster waiting to happen.

Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down (Pilooski Edit) [zshare] //Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down (Pilooski Edit) [ysi]

Franki Valli - Beggin’ (Pilooski Edit) [zshare] //Franki Valli - Beggin’ (Pilooski Edit) [ysi]

Pointer Sisters - Send Him Back (Pilooski Edit) [zshare] //Pointer Sisters - Send Him Back (Pilooski Edit) [ysi]

Different parts of the Valerie crew just remix and remix each other. The Outrunners‘ track Cool Feeling was remixed a couple times and now i found the rework titled Another Cool Feeling and is done by Maethelvin. We’ve already posted about The Outrunners, now it’s Maethelvin time.

Maethelvin is one guy from France and he’s united with Valerie in the vision of a new sound and a synthetic universe. His world is narrowed down to a ‘dark miami’ type of stuff which is full of discoballs, cops with sunglasses (at night), drugs that teach you the language of the stars above the beach and heavy spaceships landing on piers. Check his interview on Hyperbole.

The Outrunners - Another Cool Feeling (Maethelvin remix) (zshare)

The Outrunners - Another Cool Feeling (Maethelvin remix) (y. s. i.)

We couldn’t agree more with discodust about young pair out of where else, Paris/London, whose first offerings are sublime. We don’t know much about Jupiter, but the young lad and lass have a couple of smoothly produced tracks kicking off their existence. Starlighter is an airy synthy disco quest for happiness, presumably on a planet other than earth. We at Kunk have to admit, that with with references to stars, light, and planets, you had us at hello, Jupiter… now keep it up!

Jupiter - Starlighter [zshare] // Jupiter - Starlighter [ysi]

If you’re MGMT or Rafale, you don’t need any help these days in creating les sounds de jour. But having the ubiquitous Justice and remixer-extraordinaire Tepr lay down some Ableton hijinx on your shizz certainly can’t hurt. Not long ago we blawgged about Rafale and their 9 minutes opuses that feel more like 3… well, Rock It, Don’t Stop It was recently touched up by Tepr and we’re liking the end result, never mind that the end result is half the length of the original (and how often does *that* happen?!)

Brooklyn neo-psychedelias MGMT and Justice at first sound like an awkward pair, and honestly this track does feel a bit like two unrelated universes colliding together. But the blend somehow strangely works… if you’re living in Central Europe or other locales where absinthe is easy to get hold of, I’d recommend downing a shot of it while listening to enhance the flavor. Aw hell, while we’re at it… i’d recommend an absinthe at the start of nearly any evening to enhance just about everything.

Rafale - Rock It (Tepr Remix) [zshare] // Rafale - Rock It (Tepr Remix) [ysi]

MGMT - Electric Feel (Justice Remix) [zshare] // MGMT - Electric Feel (Justice Remix) [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.)

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]

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]

Everyone loves Digitalism. They are so cool, even cooler than Justice. The Chewy Chocolate Cookies are from London/Paris with an awesome sound that is easy to recognize and they are so nice that they sent us their version of Idealistic which was the best track on Digitalism’s debut. The starting drums are soooo heavy, we’re gonna play this song a lot. CCC aren’t on the bandwagon of the French stuff, for me they are representatives of the more experimental and non-compromising trend of British new electro like South Central. It shows in the bands they mixed so far: CCC remixed Cazals, Genesis by Justice, The Whip, etc and Danger + Buy Now remixes are on the way. Their EP came out on Ekler’o’shock records in February entitled Pepites (buy it). Give them myspace love and check their blogs, you can buy their remixes and do other fun stuff.

Digitalism - Idealistic (Chewy Chocolate Cookies remix) (zshare)

Digitalism - Idealistic (Chewy Chocolate Cookies remix) (y. s. i.)