Giorgio Moroder: the Italian unspoken legend/subterranean stream/soundtrack maker to our lives while we didn’t even know it. At least, growing up i didn’t know who was actually behind all the awesome sounds dominating my little television existence. The theme to Battlestar Galactica transfixed me and first tuned my tiny ear to his vibe. Meanwhile he was collaborating with just about every artist in the known world and dropping themes like Elizabeth Taylor did husbands. As a part of that ‘branching out’ he teamed up with Phil Oakey of Human League, who at the time were massive… and busted out a couple singles that in some senses stayed under the radar. Together in Electric Dreams was the first, followed up by Goodbye Bad Times, the 12″ version of which you can scoop up below (cut a bit short but contains all the meaty bits).

Still today, Moroder is revered and was nearly ubiquitous for a two decade span… but despite that ubiquity there is still an underground feeling about his following. Over the past couple years and especially in the last year there seems to be another groundswell of Moroder-influenced tracks bubbling to club- and blogga-land. Will italo-disco reign supreme after decades just under the radar of most? I hope it won’t get too conspicuous for fear of an undeserved backlash, however the little Battlestar Galactica watcher in me couldn’t be more pleased. We’ve given Lifelike some love before and once again they deserve with this remix of the Energies. Viva la Moroder!

Giorgio Moroder and Phil Oakey - Goodbye Bad Times (12″ Remix) [zshare] // Giorgio Moroder and Phil Oakey - Goodbye Bad Times (12″ Remix) [ysi]

The Energies - Born Again Runner (Lifelike Remix) [zshare] // The Energies - Born Again Runner (Lifelike Remix) [ysi]

The new single from Cazals gets heavy attention. Kitsuné did a really nice job getting artists to work on this one. On the single there’ll be remixes from many Kunk favourites: from Blamma! Blamma! and LIFELIKE till Moulinex. What an awesome release! Go and buy it.

I’m gonna post the Moulinex remix because we’ve been posting about the others recently.

Moulinex is Louis, an awesome dj guy originally from Portugal but he lives in Munich, Germany now. He grew up on great music not like idiot oldschool house or techno. He was listening to Pink Floyd, Moroder, Kraftwerk, Sun Ra. Of course he’s influenced by French stuff like Daft Punk as well. However, he is way ahead of anything Boys Noize ever made. He remixed kap10kurt, SymbolOne, Cut Copy, Xinobi and Cryptonites, lot of the bands that Kunk are fond of. Seems like they are gonna tour Austrialia with Xinobi. I suppose they are gonna have a big fanbase there. He must be huge this year.

If you wanna get into it start with the Cut Copy thing, continue with Xinobi remix, listen to the Cazals one and then move to his own songs, first Break Chops and then everything else.

Cazals - Somebody, Somewhere (Moulinex remix) (zshare)

Cazals - Somebody, Somewhere (Moulinex remix) (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.)

From time to time it’s good to take stock of your surroundings methinks. The Ektiv boys [post in Hungarian language] recently woke me up to the fact that I hadn’t checked in lately on Matt Modny in Vienna. His superfun MyBitchKlubb has been rocking for a couple years now, and it seems just this year he has a new venture starting up by the name of Numu (Kunk gives full approval of the logo font selection, btw ;)).  I’m liking the direction both MBK and Numu are going in terms of both guests acts and atmosphere, so keep it up Matt! Incidentally for an amusing set of pics from a mybitchklub party from last year checkout the page on my rarely-updated personal blog here. Kunk buddy Damian from Prague’s Heartbeats party was djing that night, which is why we made the trip up the Danube to be there.

Speaking of Heartbeats, it’s also gotten some traction in the past few months which is great to see. The bleep bleep revolution is in full swing Czech-side! Pete Carvell will be the upcoming guest dj there and they’ve had some killer recent acts as well, like Hostage and Tyskerhar.

To sum, I’m really happy to be rocking it here in the Central Europe these days. What we lack in a sea front, we make up with foresight, you see?  There is only one place for the future to be, and that is ahead of us. (On that tip, check back real soon on our event list as the Kunkers have a treat in store as well.)  In the meantime, we leave you with some future taste via a remix of the Cazals upcoming release, Somebody Somewhere, lovingly edited by Kunk faves Lifelike. Recent Kunk guests Blamma! Blamma! also have a remix on the release, as do homeboy from Munich, Luis, aka Moulinex.

Whew! My linky fingers are all tired out.

Cazals - Somebody Somewhere (Lifelike Remix) [yousendit]

The Presets‘ album Apocalypso is out really soon now, exactly on the 12th of April. (How awesome is this cover below?) Greatly anticipated follow-up. Remixes are already floating around. Lifelike, D.I.M., Juri Hulkkonen are working on their songs. They had a remix album out in 2006 featuring Digitalism, The Juan Maclean, Simian Mobile Disco, etc. I’m gonna post my favourite of the songs I heard so far. Might not be the most user-friendly one (that’s probably Talk Like That) but who cares

The Presets - Kicking and Screaming (zshare)

The Presets - Kicking and Screaming (y. s. i.)

Apocalypse as a theme seems to work well with the band. The expression of ‘haunting vocals’ is like instantly appliable for Julian Hamilton’s voice. They had this ‘dark side of the 80s’ image from the start and they are great adding disco sounds to this concept. Extravagance & decadence.

Of course, you’re surely aware that they are from Sydney. The French scene seems to have their eye on the aussies cause Lifelike (from Paris) grabbed This Boy’s In Love and added some nice dream new-wave base to it. Feels like CFCF. Alan Braxe picked up one of their tracks (Discopolis with Kris Menace) and he’s gonna release it with remixes, etc. In the meantime they did stuff for Cazals and Chromeo so they are pretty cool.

The Presets - This Boy’s In Love (Lifelike remix) (zshare)

The Presets - This Boy’s In Love (Lifelike remix) (y. s. i.)