Empire of the Sun is a relatively new project of PNAU guy Nick Littlemore. Yes, Australia, again. The other guy in EOTS is from The Sleepy Jackson. I known this latter for quite a while now: 2006, Personality was an awesome indie-pop record back then. I think the glam-esque aesthetics come from this side. For EOTS, this means like future-glam or sci-fi glam like…umm…certain parts from The Fifth Element can come to mind, you know, when guys with weird make-up travel on spaceships. Even better, Velvet Goldmine, it’s the story before the movie takes place how Brian Slade was born on a star!

The music is just great. Australian MGMT? Oh, yeah. Everyone loved Walking on a Dream (video). Van She and Sam La More remixed it. I suppose the album’s going to come out this month, titled the same as the single. It’s a bit more psychedelic pop and less electro and stuff. It’s elegant, has an awesome concept, has unity… Actually, it’s a dream-pop/indie-pop record. Seems like this is the other-than-disco line of Australian music that really is on the cutting edge now. I’m thinking of the Van She album. So, to conclude, I really love this record. I don’t like the MGMT, if I have to compare, but I like this. More soulful, better concept and diverse music with unity, very nice stuff. Definetly a must-buy!

Empire of the Sun - Standing on the Shore [zshare] // [ysi]

Fred Falke (on the right) and Miami Horror. Very fucking nice, isn’t it? We’ve posted Embrace a while ago, now the first notable remix arrived.

To say that it’s cool is not surprising cause Fred Falke and Miami Horror are both Kunk darlings. Funny, this track is like a multinational collaboration between Australia guys, New Zealand+London girl and a French producer.

Get ready for a long song name and PNAU’s next single is gonna come out soon, be sure to pick it up. I can’t really say anything new about the aformentioned gang, read the previous posts. This mp3 btw was an exclusive premiere at Who The Bloody Hell blog, credit goes there.

PNAU feat. Ladyhawk - Embrace (Fred Falke and Miami Horror remix) [zshare]

PNAU feat. Ladyhawk - Embrace (Fred Falke and Miami Horror remix) [ysi]

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)