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.)

Bigstereo just came up with a new Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya track! It sounds really great. Vocals remind me of French singer-songwriter girl SoKo. This artificial cuteness. Fuck Friend (video) was a somehow like this though I can’t explain how. This song is heavy on drums and rhytm and the whole thing is quite clean. Makes me feel claustrophobia like in a hospital room or whatever. The sound is darkish disco. We await the debut on Kitsuné. Singer girl must be awesome live.

Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya - Love Beauty #1 (zshare)

Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya - Love Beauty #1 (y. s. i.)

We’ve posted about both of these acts. One is Does It Offend You, Yeah? (post), the other is LIFELIKE (post1, post2). The Epic Last Song, the last song of DIOYYs’ album got remixed by the French guy Laurent Ash. This remix sounds so great…i can compare it to CFCF (like i did with his Presets remix). It’s a laid back summer love song for hot nights, when you can run on green fields, watch stars, etc, when everything feels nice and easy and only the air is heavy. It has a discoish angle like the slower songs of The Teenagers or whatever.

Does It Offend You, Yeah? - Epic Last Song (LIFELIKE remix) (zshare)

Does It Offend You, Yeah? - Epic Last Song (LIFELIKE remix) (y. s. i.)

Trashbagskids just posted an awesome remix. On the raped side are Valerie membersMinitel Rose, taking the rapers role are Fckn Crew.

Minitel Rose are a 3-piece 80s, future disco, sci-fi retro electronic act from France. They are gonna have their first release out on the 28th of May entitled The French Machine.

Fckn Crew are from France as well and they are kinda on the banger side of the scale. Their stuff is played by Les Petits Pilous and their favourites are The Bloody Beetroots. This is remix is very heavy and fits amazingly with the vocals.

Minitel Rose - Continue (Fckn Crew remix) (zshare)

Minitel Rose - Continue (Fckn Crew remix) (y. s. i.)

Poni Hoax is a five piece band from Paris, France. Well, they are electro but they rock as well. Arty post-punk with catchy electronica. Their song Budapest made quite a buzz in 2005. It was remixed by Joakim. (I know him since the Hearts on Fire remix, seems now he co-produces their new LP and owns their label.) Now, with their second album entitled Images of Sigrid (TigerSushi records, 28th April) they are gonna triumph. Antibodies starts like a Blondie song and (video) was their previous single in 2007 and the next one is Pretty Tall Girls which is quite awesome. When the chorus hits in it kinda blows anyone’s head off.

Poni Hoax - Pretty Tall Girls (zshare)

Poni Hoax - Pretty Tall Girls (y. s. i.)

We’ve already written about the LP of Sebastien Tellier which is an ode to the bodily form of eternal love. One of the songs representing this eternal aspect on the album is Divine which is a funnily strange mixture of a stupid pop song, Pink Floyd and a rock opera. There’s a blogging buzz about a remix now made by Midnight Juggernauts from Australia. It completely restructures the original and blasts the whole song off to space. Soundtrack for the green, big-headed aliens lovemaking activities? Soundtrack to let God know how it feels to have passionate affections? Soundtrack for the International Space Station to grow a heart, eyes and shed some tears of loneliness? Another evidence of France and Australia having an affair? That’s for you to decide.

Sebastien Tellier - Divine (Midnight Juggernauts remix) (zshare)

Sebastien Tellier - Divine (Midnight Juggernauts remix) (y. s. i.)