Under The Influence

For some reason I randomly downloaded three tracks off this album - I have no idea why (maybe I was low in emusic credits at the time). The three I picked all seem to be girl, or at least girl fronted, electro groups. And that's three more super cool sounding electro girl groups to investigate.

Dragonette sound like an electrofied Cardigans vs Waitresses. Robots in Disguise's Turn It Up is an expression of their love for their influences, from Teaches Of Peaches to The Smiths and Ping Pong Bitches' Rock Ya Body sounds like one of the better Britney productions.

After listening again I'm not sure which track I like most. They're all quite different and all very strong. Strong enough that I'm heading back to emusic to buy the rest of the album.

The moment I arrived back in London after my travels I asked my friend, Will, to give me a big musical dose of the new and interesting. This was the second album on the stereo. Now I'm hooked. Currently sitting on the train back from Bristol trying to jam as much of this stuff into my head as possible before the Dan Deacon gig at The End tomorrow night. I can't wait, looks like damn good geeky fun.

Synths running arpeggios, fat basslines, catchy hooks all bashed together in wonderfully cohesive poly-rhythms. And let's not forget the sing-a-longs for the whole family (which seem to be the basis for the live gigs).

I guess, to most it's just noise (though I'm not going to presume to know what's going through the head's of the masses). Wham City has it all covered (12 minutes long, you gotta let it build). If you ain't got it by the end of that pearler, well, I guess you never will.

Another Berlin outfit - though I think the vocalists are from all over the place. Fell in love with their sound after hearing their Fight Club mix on a trip to Berlin.

The vocalists are great. RQM features again on this album (as he does on the last Tolcha masterpiece) which I couldn't be happier about - he pulls out such interesting lyrics.

I believe this is a digital only release (it's on emusic) - making a point of sticking it to the record labels. I also read somewhere that they're planning to do several small releases of the work they're doing at the moment instead of a single long album.

I actually tried to see these cats several times when I was in Berlin one weekend but my efforts were continually thwarted. Who the hell holds a party at 7 in the morning?

Stumbled upon this little gem whilst pillaging Tolcha related material from emusic. It features Dallas (from Fat Freddy's Drop), one of my favourite vocalists. There are 3 versions on the album (um yeah, it's a single.... duh!), the original, Soulphiction mix and Tolcha mix. To be honest I've barely stopped to give anything other than the Tolcha remix a chance - I'm all about the Berlin grime.

As usual Dallas delivers a beautiful performance, and coupled with Tolcha's dark and dirty remix skills you get something quite special. A crescendo of broken beats and pulsing bass. I've been listening to it far too loud for altogether too many days now.

Would love to witness a Tolcha / Dallas jam session. In fact, I'd love to see Dallas jamming with lots of European musicians. A match made in heaven.

Again with the Berlin goodness. Another Goldmund related project I believe - though I'm pretty sure they're not playing at the upcoming festival (shame, though there are plenty of other great artists to keep things interesting).

Really cool mixture of all sorts of stuff - damn near impossible to describe really. Bits an pieces of foundish sounds, lots of bits draw towards an electro vibe but then again there are some acoustic pearls on here too.

Wrong Track! jumped out at me straight away. It almost feels like the point where the album decides it's going to allow it's electro under belly to poke it's head through. Very upbeat and rocky. After that it felt like it was happy to let the electro joy shine - some tracks (like Blair is in the Air) almost sound like old Fischerspooner productions.

Seems to be a good dollop of humour here too. Hopefully I'll get to catch these cats live soon enough.

No, Harris isn't some deluded 23 year-old who really thinks he created disco, but he has done a damn fine job of redressing it in slinky electro.

It's like Riton, but disco! Instant pop appeal. Merrymaking At My Place is such a loveable bit of drug taking music.

Acceptable In The 80's is the breakthrough track on here - apparently it did some time on the charts recently. Killer groove. Stuff like this makes me want to get off my ass and do some DJing again.

I get the feeling there's not much to explore here, oh well - just soak up the sexy fun dance vibe in the meantime.

Stomping electro beats, filthy beats, distorted, twisted beats. They've definitely gone for the big noise approach, and it really works. It's German I believe. The vocals are definitely German - though the overall sound is a strange hard European/ Brit-rock hybrid.

We get a deconstruction of The Cure's Fire In Cairo (hence the covers classification... though it's a bit iffy) - stuttering so brutally that it's almost hard to take (the following Departure From Cairo mellows us out again).

Very infectious sounds.

Feel like I've heard Parentheses before - very catchy little melody. Cute lyric too "And when you're holding me, we make a pair of Parentheses". Lots of the rhythms are really broken - almost dub step in places. Kicks are supplemented with lots of finger clicks and hand claps. The synth sound is almost New (Old) Wave.

Last track on the album, True Affection, really caught my attention on the first listen, though it's not necessarily typical of the sound. Actually, nothing on here seems to be typical of the sound. Oow, I like Fists Up now.

In some ways it feels really immature - but it's just so darn cute that you can't help but like it.

The UK's new kings of production. Everyone wants these guys to go to work remixing their tracks - and with good reason. They know how to sculpt a poptastic dance hit. Not like the cheesy hits we normally get bombarded with at this time of year.

Super high energy dance goodness. I believe the album was created on analogue synths, hence the Attack Decay Sustain Release.

I feel in love with these guys back when they were an indie rock band and I'm falling in love with them all over again. Just as well, no doubt we're going to be hearing this a lot over the next few months.

One of the dance highlights from Sonar 2007. Slicked up white suits, long flowing hair and keytars - they certainly have an ultra cool look... cool sound too.

The album itself is much smoother than I expected - when they played live the sound system was a bit quiet so I guess I figured the album itself would be more raucous. Great bit of work anyway. Silky electro beats with a jazzy edge.

Coupé is a stomping upbeat track, reminds me a bit of Leftfield. Cooper King has a really cool disco edge to it that then drops away into a funky 70s movie soundtrack vibe.

Great stuff.