Under The Influence

What a surprise, another great album from Berlin. Apparently these guys are one of Thom York's favourite. He sings a track with them on this one.

Hyper Hyper is a shout out to the great electro artists of the past (and you can hear the influence in there). It even sounds like ... oh damn, what's it called? That classic dance track I can't remember right now but I always get confused with 3 Drives.

There are lots of other interesting collaborations going on here. Maximo Park and Apparat make an appearance, as do Puppetmastaz, Berlin's famous animal puppet faced hip-hop group. I'm not sure who Siriusmo is, but the track they help out on, Déboutonner, is definitely a standout piece.

So, I was amongst the lucky few that got to attend Goldfrapp's dress rehearsal at the Union Chapel last night. Mmmmmmm special. Intimate affair, amazing venue, great sound and well... Goldfrapp!

She played a bit of Felt Mountain and Supernature and a lot of the new material. Damn, I had shivers running up and down my spine the whole way through Paper Bag. So great to see it played with the string quartet and two harps. Needless to say her stuff has been on heavy rotation since this morning. How had I forgotten how amazing this was?

3rd time I've seen her play, 3rd time's the charm, they say.

Good stuff. The kind of dirty noise you want to be blearing while you're playing up at the sort of late night parties your mother told you never to go to. It's really dark - almost a tad sinister in places. Beautiful.

Their cover of White Horse is definitely going into my record bag. It's like the original, but with filthy filthy bass. High-Rise is going in the bag too for that matter. The songs seem to mellow out a bit towards the end of the album - then War Against Sleep brings things back to where they should be.

Got a funny desire to get mashed up at a dance party now.

Hey, it's Chromeo but cooler! Far cooler. To be fair I've only ever listened to Needy Girl but somehow this feels slicker. I guess the Chromeo comparison really comes from the over the top use of vocoderesk sounds. No, actually, the synth sounds are pretty similar too. This is much lighter and much funkier. It's pure dance goodness.

Where to start? It seems that every track is a disco-pop masterpiece. There are downbeat numbers but it's the dancer tracks that tickle my fancy. Arcade Love and Sturdy are the ones that are really doing it for me presently.

Oh yes, and it's called IV because every single song is exactly 4 minutes long. Go figure.

It's pretty hard to classify this stuff. I purchased a couple of tracks from their singles Center Stage and Sweat after one of the American lasses I met at the Dan Deacon gig pointed me their way. I think of it as a kind of cliché retrospective look at 90s dance music with all the emphasis on having fun. You remember those pianos right? They also incorporate more recent elements from electro music.

At about 3:40 Center Stage descends into an acid rave mashup... before it forgets itself again and slips into distorted digital noise.

They haven't really released a whole lot yet but they're definitely one to watch out for over the next year. I'm picturing one of their live gigs as a place to be.

In my mind these guys are another Nextmen or Unabombers; a DJing duo that put great lesser known tunes that make you want to dance before everything else. I accidently caught them at The Big Chill in 2005 and really loved what I heard. I think they Manchester based too.

They definitely swing more towards the soul / funky / disco side of the dance floor. The mixing is really simple - in fact, it's not really mixing at all, blending would be a better term. It's primarily a showcase of good tunes.

I've only heard a couple (consistently showing my ignorance, eh?) of the songs on here before (Word Up and Low Rider), though not these versions. Of course they're all killer. The music itself sounds like good old funk/soul stuff - but it can't possibly be. I need to do a bit of digging but I think some of these songs must be from the last couple of years (Lindstrom & Prins Thomas' Ballerina for example).

Yes yes, I have some friends that are about to find out they've been missing this all their lives.

A few moments in and I really wasn't sure about this (one should choose carefully what one listens to first thing in the morning - it can be a delicate time). At the end of the album now and I just have the typical complaint to make - far far too short. 18 minutes for Pete's sake - what a tease.

In some ways it reminds me of My Own Flag - another far too short work. This is a lot like a lighter (and heavier in some ways), more electro version of that masterpiece.

Each track is a glistening little pop beauty that hits you like a train and is gone again before you even get a chance to right yourself. It's not really 8-bit but the essence is there - that's all it takes to get me interested.

We were having a dinner party the other night and I had a mix on that I've been wanting one of my very well educated electro mates to hear for years. This track came on and those of us who had heard the mix before all agreed that it's one of the great moments of the mix. Said well educated Person identified it instantly as Hale Bopp (something of an old track as it turns out).

There are a number of phases that build and build during the track. It's the moment right at 1:43 where everything pulls together and it really kicks off. It's interesting how subtle the changes are throughout but somehow they give the whole thing a great momentum. Thanks to Gabriel and Dresden for throwing this on to their essential mix a few years back (and top work to the man that identified it). The rest of their album is downloading right at this moment.

This one is pretty close to my heart. It happens to be full of tracks that I love - that's not surprising really... given that I was involved in making it. It's basically the perfect mix for me; country, electro, pop, house, dnb, metal, everything really. A friend and I spent almost a year twiddling with knobs and dials in our respective countries sculpting a mix that we could really enjoy. There's something in there for everyone and something in there to offend most everyone (63 tracks 38 minutes).

I was reminded of it the other day after I meet someone who had been enjoying it of late. It was nice to listen to it again. It's great having a taylor made mix. Head over to the axis of cool to check it out - go on, find that moment in there that you really hate...

This certainly became one of my electro favourites of the (sailing) trip. I don't know the first thing about Apparat but of heard little bits and pieces of Allien before. I believe she's from Berlin. Turns out Apparat is a Berliner too. Oh, look at that, he owns Shitkatapult (the label T.Raumschmiere is on).

I'm glad this isn't like so much of the stuff you hear in the Berlin clubs (though I have come to appreciate that Berlin club sound a lot more in recent months). Really it has far to mellow of a vibe to make good club music. Bubbles is more about the shapes of the sounds than the beats. It really does sound like an Orchestra of Bubbles.

Mmmmmmm, Way Out is a silky little gem.