Mozart was totally prescient when he named that number, wasn’t he? I mean, a little night music… isn’t that all we wanna hear when we go out? The names and faces tend to blur, as well do the songs and their titles. Just give me a little night music until the night is no more. I sense a good club night name just waiting to get picked up. Anyhow, I digress…

Eine Kleine Nacht Musik (no affiliation to Mozart) is freshly popped-out from Modular’s oven, and they produce a chilled out ‘kraut rock’ vibe*, complete with strings! What intrigued me the most was their take on Rondo Veneziano’s early 80s wonderfuly stringy-synth-o-rama: La Serenissima, which we touched upon before when the Bloody Beetroots hit it up with a remix. As for the EKNM version, it’s a hit — I like their take — it’s definitely grabbable.

And, considering that these days it seems Modular could use a few record sales, they would be more than grateful!

* Must everything out of Germany be labeled Kraut rock? In this case I would surely say no.

Eine Kleine Nacht Musik - La Serenissima [zshare] // Eine Kleine Nacht Musik - La Serenissima [ysi]

Eine Kleine Nacht Musik - Ertrinken [zshare] // Eine Kleine Nacht Musik - Ertrinken [ysi]

Eine Kleine Nacht Musik - Finster [zshare] // Eine Kleine Nacht Musik - Finster [ysi]

Cut Copy’s second album is gonna be on lots of end-year lists. It is THE summer album and a great electro sound which stands as milestone for anything new in the scene. The scene from France to Germany to Australia to Pluto. We were on and on about Aussie stuff here at Kunk HQ and Cut Copy is the prominent Australian act.

Hearts on Fire was the first thing I heard back in 2007 from the upcoming album and the laid-back 80s cool disco bulit on waves and sandcastles got my attention from the first time. Now, officially released as a single with a video right by its side remixers attacted it. The list is heavy: Midnight Juggernauts, Calvin Harris and Joakim among others. However, I didn’t like any of the previous. Somehow they took away the smoothness. Holy Ghost’s is kinda near the stuff I was looking for. They are from Brooklyn and on DFA (awesome). Their own track Hold On is great. The best remix, however, was done by a relatively smaller name: Knightlife. They are absolutely cool, remixing Bag Raiders, Alex Gopher (with Riot in Belgium) so they are supposed to become huge. Australia, yeah. Their label is Cutters Records set up by - surprise! surprise! - Cut Copy.

Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire (Knightlife remix) (zshare) // Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire (Knightlife remix) (y. s. i.)

Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire (Holy Ghost remix) (zshare) // Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire (Holy Ghost remix) (y. s. i.)

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.)

Remember PNAU from Sydney? Bigstereo says they’ll be huge in 2008. Does Ladyhawke (pictured) ring a bell? The girl from New Zealand moved to Europe named their favourite by The Teenagers. Basically, both of them are predetermined for a great amount of hype during this year. PNAU is one of the next generation of the Cut Copy dinasty and Ladyhawke is like a more original+rocking 80s version of Uffie. So, they did a track together together and it sounds quite cool. It was blogged a couple times and both artists will be a lot more in the future. (Thanks to Hipster Runoff for this one.) Everyone says it’s 80s disco, then it must be 80s disco, I guess. The verses remind me of electroclash without the feeling of being outdated and the chorus amazingly expresses a bit darkish tragical mood. Modular, again.

PNAU - Embrace (feat. Ladyhawke) (zshare)

PNAU - Embrace (feat. Ladyhawke) (y. s. i.)

Australia, ah what a beautiful country it may be! Kangaroos, platypuses, oceans and the best new bands. Cut Copy. They started off when The Presets did, both released the debut around 2004-2005. Cut Copy had a huge impact on the development of the country’s electro-scene. Take the Midnight Juggernauts for example or Van She or Muscles. And you can check our post about Pnau. Modular is one of the best labels around nowadays.

After three long years, Cut Copy’s follow-up is here. Smooth 80s influenced, synth/electro-pop with vocals like from New Order. Great soundtrack for the warmer part of the year. Actually it really feels like something I’d listen to on a beach with waves and everything… Nevertheless, Hearts on Fire, So Haunted, and Lights and Music are the three hits that were preceeding the LP. Each is like a perfect gem of smart disco sounds. Second albums are tricky but with ‘In Ghost Colours’ Cut Copy made themselves a record that is way better than their debut was. The title is awesome and it tells a lot about their music. Not scary but gentle ghost-like feelings float around in an empty electronic space full of tension. New synth-pop is here.

Cut Copy - Feel the Love (zshare)

Cut Copy - Feel the Love (y. s. i.)

Yes. It has finally happened. Tired of spending the past several years duking it out across thousands of miles using ‘airwaves’ and ‘the internets’, and riding the clarion call of Pnau’s Come Together, France and Australia have decided to cut loose from their tectonic plate positions and, er… come together… “in a warm region, roughly halfway between our respective musical ass-kicking nations,” according to an anonymous Ed Banger staffer.

Indeed, according to the latest satellite images, it now appears that France and Australia have picked up, left, and are close to merging off the African coast. The bold move emerged upon the back of Pnau’s latest blog/club hit, which successfully fused the happy ‘down under synth’ — elsewhere employed by fellow Aussie bands such as Cut Copy and Muscles — together with French Justice’s D.A.N.C.E. kiddie chorus. No word yet on whether the two countries will choose to adopt a third name, like Austench or Frail, to represent the new amalgamation.

A spokesman for Modular Records [Australia] elaborated: “This map reshaping makes perfect sense. For every life-changing, blog-quaking outfit the Frenchies can throw at the world, we have our own Southern Hemisphere equivalent. Sure, they’ve got the Teenagers. What-ever. We’ve got the Teenagers in Tokyo. And everybody knows that teenagers in Tokyo are the coolest teenagers in the world. They put on make-up and walk around Harajuku and stuff like that. What do plain old teenagers do? I’ll tell you: pop zits. And for God’s sake, Poney Poney. Are you kidding me? We have the New Young Pony Club. [UK band signed to Modular] That’s right, we have the club that all the poneys have to line up outside for, hoping to get admittance!”

He continued, “…and Justice thinks they changed the world by having kids singing? Come on, Pnau just handed that concept back to them on a platter. And there’s a lot more where that came from. We’re going to up the ante — with infants.” The spokesman then shed light on Australia’s plans to assemble the world’s first infant chorus. The 12-month-olds will be brought together “to record a variety of background gurgles and proto-language squeals that will be archived and made available for all of Australia’s recording artists to choose from for future song choruses.”

The Ed Banger staffer was more magnanimous: “…our Aussie brothers have talent, we’ll admit, but that’s why we wanted to undertake the move and attach our countries. This will give us the chance to outshine them right from their own backyard.” Adding, however, that “there may be some interbreeding.”

Ed. note: Oh yeah, the song kicks ass. Bring on the infants!

Pnau - Come Together (zshare) // Pnau - Come Together (YSi)