I know it’s nothing new, but I wanted to pay respects to the blog-scene so decided to hype Bigstereo‘s first release a bit: Baby Monster. Of course, this is not the act’s only hypeable aspect. The Oregonian band dives into the super-fashionable mix of electronica and indie, creating a nice dreamy soundscape that I could describe as inbetween Cut Copy and The Big Pink. They have a pretty great sound that taps right into the vein of the era. Melancholy and half-smiling happiness, MGMT-esque innocence and experience of many frustrations characterise their sound. “She Comes Alive” is gonna be a huge summer hit and their remix of Ellie Goulding‘s “Under the Sheets” is gonna make it to my top remixes which is a huge thing since she’s super-remixed (just rewind a couple posts). I’m really curious to hear an EP or an LP, my prognosis is that it’s gonna be great. Support them!

Baby Monster – She Comes Alive [mediafire] // [ysi]

Baby Monster – Ultra Violence and Beethoven [mediafire] // [ysi]

Ellie Goulding – Under the Sheets (Baby Monster remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

I know, I know, most of you will think how old these news are. However, I discovered Chew Lips for myself just a couple months ago. I found myself playing the Two Door Cinema Club remix of their second single, Salt Air nearly in every one of my sets. Chew Lips are from London and they play this sexy electro-pop with a sometimes punkish girl behind vocals. They aren’t your typical dance-pop band and that Kitsuné being the ones who signed them supports this. Somehow, the whole thing seems more original than the La Roux, Little Boots stuff. And Tigs, the singer, is more like a Beth Ditto. I mean for the ears, for the eyes she’s much more pleasing. With Chew Lips, it’s not only about the vocalist anyway. The 8-bit, minimalistic and dry aesthetic of the music is interesting enough in itself. Well, nevermind, I won’t find any arguments to support why I like this more than Florence and The Machine for instance. It’s a matter of instinct, ear and taste. The nuances of disco sound, the production, the manners and attitudes are not translatable into reviews I guess. The remixers are also more appealing that with many others: TDCC was mentioned and there are reworks by Jupiter and Tepr too. With the originals as well as the remixes, Chew Lips are ready for worldwide dancefloor domination. The more important questions is of course that will they be able to make an exciting debut LP, more exciting than the ones from the same genre we had this year because everyone had good singles and good remixes. Check the new dreamy and surreal vid for Salt Air meanwhile and follow them on Twitter for the news!

Chew Lips – Solo [mediafire] // [ysi]

Chew Lips – Solo (Tepr remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Chew Lips – Salt Air [mediafire] // [ysi]

Chew Lips – Salt Air (Two Door Cinema Club Dui remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Chew Lips – Salt Air (Jupiter remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

As many of you are well aware, The Sounds have returned with a third album (get it here). I have two favourite tracks from it, one is No One Sleeps When I’m Awake, the other is Beatbox. Both are high powered fighting-marching songs, that’s what I like about them. Especially the latter, it got me associating to Wagner combined with Rocky movie soundtrack. That’s the new wave rock part of the summer atmosphere. Chicago’s Hey Champ guys made a remix for this one. Now the remix is summer smoothness. I’m very surprised about the direction they made this song go. I mean, it’s such a perfect fit with a totally different soundscape. It’s relaxing, a bit funky, some Prince, even MJ (who’s alive btw), bit of soul and rnb… How is that possible? Hey Champ guys know the answer but if I were them, I’d keep the secret to myself. Going to follow them from now on, they are up in our alley with their synthy electro and indie. I kinda like these summer tracks. Summer in itself is sweat, the gas-smelled heat of the city, headaches, ugly people barely dressed and other wonders. These tracks make it look cool. I mean they are constructing the summer everyone wishes for and they conjure up tween memories which are romanticized and unreal to begin with. This is the fantasy summer and it only exists in the songs, books, etc.

The Sounds – Beatbox [mediafire] // [ysi]

The Sounds – Beatbox (Hey Champ remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

I think I wrote quite a lot about Bloc Party. Interesting band. I really hated their 1st album. If we’d had a blog then I would’ve totally written a hate post about it and all the indie kinds could’ve started throwing rocks. Nevermind, Intimacy was awesome and they follow it up with this single, One More Chance. It already has a buzz and with remixes floating around (speaking of a remix-wise very conscious band) it’ll get more and more attention, more and more chances, haha. Check the music video below. I think this video is supposed to be ‘funny’ while being ‘serious on a different level’ and making the funny sad. The song is about the doomed attempts for the ‘one more’. Looking forward to seeing the band this year at Sziget festival.

Now, Alex Metric who played here recently at a Kollektiva Rave, took the song and fabricated a really cool club-friendly edit from the track. The original is already dancey in Bloc Party’s way, Alex Metric’s is just destined to be a dancefloor-faveourite. The main part is the often returning piano stuff and that’s where every tension bulding and vocal-standout ends. Awesome summer track for open air clubbing. Pay attention to Alex Metric (unlike we did until now) the guy is really something. The recent edits of Lisztomania as well as his own EP stuff is great, we’ll be following him in the future post-wise too.

Bloc Party – One More Chance (Alex Metric remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Great UK-indie four-piece, The Cribs are back with a new single entitled We Were Aborted that preceedes the album coming out in September. After the first couple dancey indie hits, their sophomore record was brilliant in 2007. They are pretty cool live as well, I saw them the same year at Pukkelpop festival. Full of energy and from heartbreaking tunes to guitar tornadoes, they are capable of creating many-many sounds while keeping their integrity. With Johnny Marr of the legendary Smiths (the band I personally don’t like) joining them, they are destined for British success I guess. (They look funny with the old bro, check the pic.) On the musical side, We Were Aborted is a quite straightforward song and it is really a nice tune to raise an anticipation for the record. Determination and the power of desperation combined with cynical and humourous half-smiles as I perceive it. ‘Masturbation’ is one of the few words I could catch from the lyrics. Well, the guitars-whirlwind, punk vocals and heavy drumming carries it anyway. Follow the guys on Twitter so you get the updates!

The Cribs – We Were Aborted [mediafire] // [ysi]

Actually, I’m following BBYYY through Bigstereo it seems. They were off the radar for some time and didn’t create much blog hype since Fuck Friend but they are back now with a new single and video. The new single is really heavy in the bass and beat areas and the vocals are kinda sick…like The Knife and stuff. It sounds like it could’ve emerged from the 70s New York underground. So bow down to the dark disco of BBYYY once again.

Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya – Super Rick [mediafire] // [ysi]

Wanna hear an official proof that summer’s here? That is definetly Pony Pony Run Run‘s new tune: Hey You. France gives us the best mood-setters for summer on the indie-electro wave. After Phoenix’s album, PPRR will be the audience’s reminder of that. With this track PPRR is still going strong after previous Kunk-guest, Anoraak left them. It was a year ago that Kunk was totally absorbed in their Boy/Girl Surrender‘s summer edit. We even selected it for a French summer-blog-playlist at Streetkiss! It’s safe to say that PPRR is definetly a summer-vibe act. Hey You is elegant and fun, it’s subtle and energetic. Of course, it has a hint of grief for youth and love. Check the video below and see for yourself the summer-smoothness in Asia.

As for sayCet, I don’t think we have to introduce him to Kunk-readers. This time he brings a remix of Hey You (PPRR made a remix competiton out of it, ran by Fairtilizer) which is a really fit transformation of the original sound and mood. sayCet has the talent to make something very different look like that it could’ve been the original, if you know what I mean. His fingerprint epic-melancholy makes the remix a great pair for the original: we could like label the original ‘day/happy/dusk mix’ and the sayCet ‘night/sad/dawn mix’ or something like that. (The whole matter is not that simple, both versions are full of ambiguity but both are playing on the smiling sadness, sad smiles scale.) Echoes and jingling synths make up this unique rework which ends in sorrowful silence. Amazing.

Pony Pony Run Run – Hey You [mediafire] // [ysi]

Pony Pony Run Run – Hey You (sayCet remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

We’ve written a couple posts about Leeds’ Heads We Dance and we’re not going to stop cause they are pretty much on fire these days. They sent us their b-side from their upcoming single, When The Sirens Sound, entitled Work It Out, featuring underground star, Little Boots. In addition:

“There will be two versions of ‘When The Sirens Sound’. The first is a digital only release through This Is Fake DIY Records which includes the exclusive b-side ‘Work It Out’ featuring Little Boots. The second is also a digital only release through Gash Digital and features remixes by Don Diablo, Russ Chimes, Hot Pink Delorean, Geek Chic Soundsystem and more tbc.”

The 3-piece are on their way to stardom. Look at these names! They should call the single a double a-side, actually. Work It Out is a brilliant pop song with great guitars, the dancey angle is lovely and Little Boots is great. It’s like a hidden gem from the 80s. They should ask The Rapture for a remix, would pretty much be up their alley.

Heads We Dance – Work It Out (feat. Little Boots) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Like a fable title, isn’t it? Not really sure where to Polly Scattergood‘s album this year. Polly Scattergood is London’s new sensation. After Lily Allen and clones, the alternative is now coming back. There are a couple songs on the album I quite like, there are others that annoy me. This whole Bjork-esque smart-artistic-female-music is just somehow not attractive as an atmosphere. On the other hand you can’t not fall for the sometimes-cute vocals, lyrics, the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter girl… So there are ambiguities but she’s never gonna be as cool as Neko Case for example. Ok, Please, Don’t Touch is a great track. It’s nice and playful and everything with only a few moments of the irritation high-voiced vocals. Now, the remix by The Golden Filter is amazing. It transforms the original into an ‘authentic disco’ hymn. Of course, along the lines of Hercules & LA-aesthetics. Well, actually they made 3 remixes, a Vocal, a Dub, and a Pop. I’m gonna share the pop one, just cause we love pop. Haha. In case you’re not familiar with The Golden Filter, they are from NYC and they are playing the mystery-card, so not much to know about them right now. Just listen to Solid Gold (video) and the Cut Copy+Little Boots remixes. (Thanks to the Yellow Stereo.)

Polly Scattergood – Please, Don’t Touch (The Golden Filter Pop Mix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Polly Scattergood – Please, Don’t Touch [mediafire] // [ysi]

The Golden Filter – Solid Gold [mediafire] // [ysi]

Cut Copy – Far Away (The Golden Filter remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Little Boots – New In Town (The Golden Filter remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

I know CFCF‘s new song is flying around blogs a lot lately. I can completely understand it, it’s amazing stuff. I wouldn’t normally post it because there’s already a huge coverage but we received such a nice email from Acephale, the label behind the single, that I felt I have to write this. I’ve been on and on about CFCF, this Canadian guy has some hyptnotic power and I realized it at the HEALTH remix, anything he touches instantly gets his trademark sound, this weird combination of dark 80s synths-stuff and sick pop disco. His musical territory is huge, from metal to rap or rnb to indie and electro… The strange thing about this atmosphere is that it’s kinda pop on the surface but you know, you can feel the tension and something unknown but dark and creepy going on underneat. For example, in You Hear Colours the guitar and keys are just fun to listen to, they are monotonous but some variation is always added so no boring parts only you feel hypnotized and transferred to somewhere else where the rivers are flowing backwards, flowers grow in the air and every star is an angel of death. Now, the disturbing stuff is there from the beginning with the the almost-tribal drums, it’s just so subtle and hidden that you don’t realize it. The single is a double A-side featuring You Hear Colours and Invitation to Love and you can watch the Tommy Boy directed video for the first one. I also decided to share the remix of Cassie’s track (featuring Lil Wayne) because it’s such an interesting hybrid. Told ya, Canada was crazy. Buy the record here!

CFCF – You Hear Colours [mediafire] // [ysi]

Cassie – Official Girl (ft. Lil Wayne) (CFCF remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]