I decided to post some of the best songs of the albums I’ve been listening to recently. Still not prepared to write a full post and it’s still cold out there, snowing like the next ice age is gonna come.

New Hot Chip is amazing. Their melancholic, slower tracks are more and more elegant. I Feel Better is beautiful and love the nu-disco romance that explodes from it after the intro.

Hot Chip – I Feel Better [mediafire] // [ysi]

Xiu Xiu‘s Dear God, I Hate Myself is brilliant. The whole record takes you down a road to damnation. Opening track Gray Death grabs you like a whirlwind with the soft, tortured vocals and experimental theatricality.

Xiu Xiu – Gray Death [mediafire] // [ysi]

Russian Circles play the kind of instrumental metal that is one of the few metal genres I can tolerate. Geneva is an awesome example of heaviness and density. The horsemen of apocalypse are getting closer.

Russian Circles – Geneva [mediafire] // [ysi]

Los Campesinos! are a British indie pop band, and though I couldn’t mention any super-original features, their album is the only output of the typical NME-British indie rock scene that could grab my attention. I don’t know, it’s honest and powerful.

Los Campesinos! – Romance is Boring [mediafire] // [ysi]

The Flaming Lips and I go way back. Ok, not so waaaaay back since I was 4 when they had their debut out but still. And that’s my point: after more than 20 years, to make an album like Embryonic, you have to be a genius of some sort.

The Flaming Lips – The Ego’s Last Stand [mediafire] // [ysi]

I don’t know too much about Freelance Whales. I just love the acoustic sensitivity combined with the Peter Pan-never-wanna-grow-up attitude and the sweet nostalgia for an innocence that never was.

Freelance Whales – Broken Horse [mediafire] // [ysi]

Totally aware this ditty is not the newest but there’s a particular reason i’m posting today. First, cos have had Hot Chip on brain recently for various reasons, and second, due to Brooklyn’s Gang Gang Dance playing close to us next week, upstream in our sorta sister city, St Gallen. Poor guys had a devastating fire not long ago, so kudos to them to getting things together and still hitting up some shows!

Always loved this mix as it works as either a rainy day or sunny day jam, kinda morphs into whatever you need it to be.  Kinda jangly yet regimented and beat-ful, just as you’d expect a hybrid of GGD and Hot Chip to be.

Gang Gang Dance – House Jam (Hot Chip Remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Hiya! Short explanation first. Kunk’s best albums of the year posts start now. Top 20 albums will be shared in 4 days and will be followed by the 40 best tracks+remixes on the last day. The list isn’t totally personal nor is an official list of our blog but balanced somewhere between it. It’s really hard to decide on the criteria of bestness: close to the heart, banging the dancefloor or both? Well, we don’t live in a perfect world. Nevertheless, I had to choose some things so I chose to mention some favourites in every aspect of the word. Take it as a list of artist that I thought deserved to be mentioned among the bests. Naturally, I had to leave out a lot of stuff.

Since I’m only capable of putting together a list from 20 to 1, I have to mention a few albums that are left out. During this great struggle, I felt like I have to regulate my chaotic music-listening habits. I could put together something like 40-21 but that’d be a pain in the ass. So I’m just gonna act like I was easy-going and casual and mention a couple of artists now. Many electronic stuff couldn’t make it to the top 20. Like The Presets. They made an awesome album, full of darkness and evil-evoking tribal-dance stuff, still, somehow it started to bore me. Or The Whip. Great singles and they are on the most loveable side of their genre. Their debut, unfortunately, isn’t that exciting after a couple listens. There’s Ladyhawke who is cute and bringing back the 80s as we like it but it seems it’s not enough for a superb album, only a great one. I’m not doing justice to Late of the Pier. Obviously, we really love them and nearly everything that came out from the guy is pure gold, only to listen to it for more than a couple songs in a row, it can’t keep up the energy. Hercules and Love Affair should’ve been on the list too, I don’t have a proper explanation for leaving them off, maybe personality disorders. Sebastien Tellier made one of the best ‘concept albums’ this year but it’s somehow too funny to give it a number and put it in a list. Or how do you put the playful electro-pop of Air France in a list? Also, The Black Ghosts album didn’t get in cause I realized it’s much better for a dancefloor than for listening at home but still, their debut is more than promising.

So as you can see, I left out a lot of stuff that we usually blog about or rule the HypeM charts. Of course, I had to rape my weirdo side too and leave some records out from the ‘weirder’ genres to make room for my pop-y choices. I really loved the No Age‘s fresh dirty and experimental sound. Much like Times New Viking, they keep up the noise of the 90s and the spirit. Gang Gang Dance consistently keep up their accomplishments and reach for something interesting with every album. The Notwist‘s melancholical charm is undeniable on The Devil, You + Me. Brooklyn’s Love as Laughter is very very close to my heart still and with every album. I don’t think I need to mention Stephen Malkmus and Real Emotional Trash to anyone with a little interest in US indie rock. And, staying in the US, this years Castanets album beautifully keeps your mind on the border of dream and nightmare sounds. Nine Inch Nails, one of the greatest stuff of all times, deserves a shout out too for the amazing The Slip. The Mae Shi and Forward, Russia! are somehow similar and somehow made great records on the experimental-shouting-screaming edge of indie music. The Young Knives are one of the bands who still have courage and balls to go on in the non-NME era, and Superabundance is worth a lot of listens.

Fleet Foxes are left out on a very determined purpose. That album is a theatrical piece of overhyped shit.

Best Albums of 2008: 20-16

20. The Teenagers – Reality Check

The severe criticism that hit the debut of The Teenagers is, of course, understandable. On the other hand, we think they made one of the funniest, wittiest and totally danceable weirdo/postmodern pop record of the year.

The Teenagers – Starlett Johansson [zshare] // [ysi]

19.  Does It Offend You, Yeah? – You Have Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into

Underrated once again, DIOYY is heavy, fierce and full of energy. I don’t know, I kinda like when someone makes serious fun of electronic music by ridiculing it with making a banging electro-rock album. Screams and chainsaw guitars are the most enjoyable part of this electronic post-punk explosion.

Does It Offend You, Yeah? -  With a Heavy Heart (I Regret to Inform You) [zshare] // [ysi]

18. Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire – Lost Wisdom

A beautiful folk-pop record with infinite sadness and the desperate impression of “everything will be allright”. Mount Eerie originates from the legendary Microphones, Julie Doiron is a Canadian singer-songwriter with a haunted voice and her guitarist Fred Squire. Lost Wisdom is deep in mourning for something none of us totally gets but the music is evoking it in the most adequate way.

Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire – Lost Wisdom [zshare] // [ysi]

17. Hot Chip – Made in the Dark

Hot Chip‘s new album is better than the debut. Colourful and diverse, Made in the Dark set an awesome new direction for this band. Disco and melody, sometimes broken, sometimes smooth, perfect for clubbing. Slower songs are on the other hand create a great atmosphere and make the record enjoyable for a long time.

Hot Chip – Ready for the Floor [zshare] // [ysi]

16. The Sea and Cake – Car Alarm

Hailing from Chicago, The Sea and Cake are among the many post-rock bands of the 90s, like the legendary Tortoise. Their new one, Car Alarm is smooth indie-pop with underlying twists: experiments in rhythm, structure and noise. Surfing on the noisy guitars, vocals are like Thurston Moore and the whole record meant to be a river of sound that you could listen to all day long.

The Sea and Cake – Weekend [zshare] // [ysi]

Back tomorrow…

I’ll quickly do a second post. It’s gonna be about Late of the Pier who I’m crazy about since the first time I’ve heard Space and the Woods and stuff pre-release. Their album is one of the most anticipated LPs of the UK this year. Entitled Fantasy Black Channel it’s gonna come out on the 11th of August. You should definetly buy it.

All the singles have been brilliant. From Space and the Woods (video) until the latest, Heartbeat (video). The full-lenght is produced by Erol Alkan which is a good thing and helps with the experimental electro parts. The whole record is ambitious and the Liars-esqe edge is there, full of styles and complexity from the avantgarde pop of The Bears Are Coming to the synth-metal of Whitesnake (awesome title, I love band titles) and the post-punk of Bathroom Gurgle. The aesthetics and image is like inviting Dali to create a series of paitings about the 1980s. Late of the Pier belongs to the new UK-generation beside Foals and Friendly Fires who are mixing indie, electro, hardcore, synths and post-punk, etc in an interesting new-ish way to create a unique and really progressive atmosphere. I’m not sure that the album is a great listen as a whole, it’s not perfect, it doesn’t have a controlling concept but the variety is amazing. It’s just not a perfect pop record. Listen to one of my favourites the hurrican-like VW (why is there a reference to a German car brand?) and the awesome*10 remix of Heartbeat by Hot Chip.

Late of the Pier – VW [zshare] // Late of the Pier – VW [ysi]

Late of the Pier – Heartbeat (Hot Chip remix) [zshare] // Late of the Pier – Heartbeat (Hot Chip remix) [ysi]

For those of you who had that nagging feeling in the back of your mind for so long about why D.A.N.C.E. didn’t feel R.I.G.H.T., the answer has finally come: it was actually a track from the late 1990s that missed the cut on Diddy’s tribute album to the late Notorius B.I.G. That’s it! How could you have missed the signs for all this time?! Do you think Justice could’ve come up with  the all-caps acronym-style song title all on their own? Hell no. Biggie was doin that shizz waaaay back in the day and they hopped on that bandwagon over a decade later. The problem, I hear, is that Biggie couldn’t actually dance that well, so the title just didn’t seem appropriate. Luckily Wale dusted off the mothballed track and re-released it as yet another homage to the original BigDancer. Or, at least, i’m pretty sure that’s the story of this song. You’ll never dance the same again, I’m sure.

A just-as-forced, yet somehow working for me precursor to WaleDance in hip-hop co-opts hipster history was the Diplo remix of Hot Chip’s Over and Over. Which is more right? Which is more wrong?

Wale – W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E. (Justice cover) [zshare] // Wale – W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.(Justice cover) [ysi]

Hot Chip – Over and Over (Diplo Remix) [zshare] // Hot Chip – Over and Over (Diplo Remix) [ysi]

New Hot Chip album is on the way. ‘Made in the Dark’ will be out on DFA/Astralwerks at the beginning of February. Huge hype is going on.

Somehow I never really liked ‘Over and over’. Of course, it was a hit and everything but it was somehow mediocre. Too sophisticated for disco, too disco to be a ‘laid back’ post-punk hit.

Ready for the Floor was much better. 80s fits these guys. However if you want pure disco throughout the album you’ll be disappointed. Insted there’s a song that reminds me of George Michael’s ‘Outside’, ‘Touch Too Much’ of TV on the Radio. In addition, there are ballads. Made in the Dark itself is a sad song. Piano-dominated songs full of melancholy close the album. This is a brave thing to do. There were some tracks that pointed in this direction on The Warning as well but everything was too electronic somehow.

The song I decided to share is the first one. It’s a danceable song, reminds me of Over and over but it’s much better than the latter and it shows how Hot Chip’s music became better for the dancefloor and for home listening as well. This album is more diverse and there are a lot more colours to enjoy here in the dark.

Hot Chip – Out At The Pictures

So, we’re in budapest. And, things are okay. But, could be better. There’s this party, KUNK, that’s being upgraded from its previous informal operation, into a fully fledged monthly. The resident djs, and authors of this blog are brandon (american) and cigi (hungarian). We like good music, which can be at times, difficult to stumble upon in these parts. So, if you’re an artist, dj, or just passing through town, check us out!

As a first step, a woefully inadequate introduction to KUNK flavor:

Justice – DANCE (mstrkrft remix)

Late of the Pier – Space and the Woods (neon plastix mix)

Crystal Castles – 1983

Datarock – Fa Fa Fa (shakes remix)

Daft Punk – Da Funk

L7 – Pretend We’re Dead

Hot Chip – My Piano (diplo remix)

Billy Ocean – Loverboy

(yes, that last one is Billy Ocean, mad props for the BO!)