#41: Polar Opposites

Let's go from one extreme to the next here.

Number one was heard on the radio the other morning. Stayed in bed for a few minutes longer than I usually do (which is usual), deciding "I'll get up after the next song" - which just happened to be this one. After the song, however, I couldn't get up. I had melted. Simply melted away at the beautifulness of Bat For Lashes and this probably best ever song from their lineup. It even beats out the haunting Daniel. I'm also going to say this is gonna be in my best songs lineup for a long time, as well as a song that I really want to learn how to play myself. The song, seemingly about a superstar who just wants to be human, has echoed and resonated in me like nobody's business. For different reasons, obviously, since I'm no superstar. But hell... I ain't complaining. Anyway. If you want to melt, this is probably my Melting Song Of The Year. Also, have a Gem Line award: "you're the train that crashed my heart". Mwah. So much love. And speaking of love, let's jump to the other end of the scale for a bit.

I AM A NINETIES BITCH. I CRASHED MY CAR INTO THE BRIDGE, I WATCHED, I LET IT BURN. I DON'T CARE. I LOVE IT. Can you imagine anyone more badass? No, because Icona Pop are just as badass as Nathan Fillion, Morgan Freeman and the fucking honey badger. I fell in love with this song and it has just been playing nonstop on my speakers for the last hour. Non. Stop. Hurry the hell up and get your album out Icona Pop, because I seriously want to hear more of this amazing stuff. This may be a short, sharp shock of a song, but hell if I'm complaining. Sometimes all you need is short, sharp shock. At least they don't drag crap out - it hits you, then instead of being all "ooh, lookit me, I'mma hugely popular song so I'll make a longer version of myself and outstay my welcome", it leaves you aching for more. And more you shall receive, as you play the song non-stop for an hour like a crazy sumbitch of a song should be played. I don't think I'll get sick of this song either.

#40: Beng - Rob Pix

@0'0": Dafuq is this? This song is brilliant!

@0'30": Dafuq is this? This song is shit!

@1'54": Dafuq is this? This song is brilliant!

@2'24": Dafuq is this? This song is shit!

You get the picture. This song is quite obviously two songs rolled together in the space of one, and unfortunately Rob Pix has decided to take the worst elements of one song (the hard electro) and make it the minority of the final product, while relegating the very best elements of the other song (the staccato piano) to about one minute of playtime. Seriously, as if we haven't heard enough of this shit already. Bring back classic house! Bring back big house! Bring on electroswing! Dance music should not drop crap right into the middle of a kickass song. This is the problem that David Guetta has suffered from for far too long. Not only that, but there's a handful of other artists who do the same thing. I will grant Swedish House Mafia clearance, but only because they keep epic songs epic and actually add substance to their music. If they start making music with the same template that is displayed here (classic housey tune, drop in the fucking bullshit bass, back to classic housey tune, back to the fucking bullshit bass, et cetera ad nauseum) I am divorcing them and taking 80% of what they own. It's bad enough that genuinely shit artists are making this music... but it annoys me when genuinely good artists like Rob Pix come along and churn out this garbage. Even worse, it sounds like it's going to be an excellent song, then the grindy bassy shit comes in. You get the picture - I'm annoyed. Please, Mr. Pix, make me a version - five minutes long, at least! - which has none of the bassy stuff and all of the piano awesomeness. Also, I'm sorry, but I can only give this song a maximum of three stars. If you're lucky. I'll bump it up to five if I ever hear a remix with just the piano bit. (And obviously some beats and styles attached, obvs... otherwise it's just a looped piano.) Alright, I'm done here.

#39: CJ's Addictions 7

Alright, let's get this shit going. I've got a lot to catch you up on.

I really want to play the song "Runaway (Yelle DJs rmx)" by Mr. Little Jeans, but there is no YouTube Link. I'll just say that it is markedly bouncier than the original and leave it at that. Instead, have these three:

We'll start with building a pyramid. This song fits in perfectly with the CJ Song Pattern - which means obviously that I love it without question. Having said that, there's a lot about it that works quite nicely. Key changes - perfect. Dancy rock - perfect. The only gripe I have is that the lyrics can get a bit incoherent at times, but I suppose that's half the point. And it's an interesting song too: "I'm counting crystals in my sleep while you're sitting there on that broken chair. I don't even know what colour it was. While we're still young, let's echo, echo..." gets a Gem Line award. Well played Nightbox, well played. Nothing wrong with this addiction. Now bring on the next one. Something even more incoherent.

Older. But Australian, and quite brilliant. Sampled from a bunch of different places, including an orchestra; fun music, including the word "rannygazoo"; visually funny, including a fucking coconut. CRAZY IN THE COCONUT. You can tell I love this song. A lot. I want that coconut. Who knew such an old(ish) song was so awesome. First came across it via a flash video which turned into an obsession to find the song which was actually satisfied rather quickly. And now I want to know how they made everyone look black and white with those spotlights. Suppose I'll find out one day. This is a lot of fun to listen to, despite being terrible to dance to. Triple J have gotten something right yet again. Winning!

Last one for now. Bit of cognitive dissonance (again).

"She mixed paint at Menard's". A freebie with WinAmp, and probably the best freebie I've come across, short of Evaporate by Rocket Empire (which was with my HTC). Despite the fact it's rap, it's also electronic and minimalistic. And it tells a lovely story about becoming friends - possibly even more than friends - with someone met in a hardware store. Ordinary, average love. Not fairytale stuff or mopey melodrama, just pure, unadulterated love. (Also I give props for "(mixing) the perfect black" because I love the colour black, but that's a different story y'know.) And I love the fact that the girls in the background are laughing. They're not laughing at him, they are genuinely laughing with him as he enjoys his new-found awesomeness with the girl who mixed paint. Your face when this song weaved its way into my collection, heavily laden with house and trance, but I love this song to bits. And that's pure, unadulterated love too.

#36: Microhouse

I can't believe I haven't written this one up yet.

I went through a microhouse phase a month ago. First, we have an experimental minimalistic track called Heaven Can Wait, made up almost entirely of radio samples. In fact, to the point where there are over 2,000 on the one album. How the hell does one get that many radio samples? Either way, this guy's well worth his salt. Hell, it takes skill to take fraction-of-a-second bits and pieces from the radio and turn them into something resembling music, let alone a track that makes you think of the city late at night and your old college room that rocked your socks off and GODDAMN FRESHLY SQUEEZED ORANGE JUICE and those nights where things just seemed to go right. Soundscapey stuff. And oh man do I love soundscapes. And hell, the title of "Heaven Can Wait" is a bold enough statement - I ain't dying yet. In fact, if heaven won't have me, then you and the rest of the world better hope that hell is damn well ready for me. Best bit IMO is at ~4'19" where the end bit starts, and suddenly it's a 6/8 beat instead of a 4/4 beat and suddenly life has changed to relax, and get some sleep. Oh man, this song is amazing. And speaking of amazing, have this:

I don't know who the hell Julian Jeweil is, and I don't know much about Markus Lange. This song came to me purely by accident, as when I thought I was getting In Search Of Sunrise 9 I instead snaffled a copy of Rave On Snow 16. Man that album has changed the way I see life. But let's get onto this song. The only reason I clicked on this song in the first place was for its title¹. So, does it sound like a perihelion? I don't know, but it sure as hell sounds like a summer song. I wanna listen to this, fully, out on the Hill one day in the middle of a summer mix. It belongs there. Bizarrely enough for microhouse, it really doesn't belong at 3am when you're chill-banging (apologies to Min) and there's very little light and you're just reflecting on life, the universe and everything. Save that for Akufen and Felix Laband. And on that note:

Something a tad different. I listened to this last night, as opposed to throughout most of Jan and early Feb. Man did it bring back a flood of memories, because this chirpy piece was released in 2005. Taran first played it for me in 2007. I was instantly hooked and instantly associated it, quite rightly so, with the house we were in at the time. Good times. Light, chirpy, minimalistic soundscape² that brings back memories and makes you think of fairies. Anything that makes you think of fairies that isn't absinthe has gotta be pretty cool. The whole song is pretty much the same thing, but it's a good "same thing" and it evolves quite nicely in the 3'26" it's been given. Now, one more, and then I'm gonna go comatose from a minimalism overload.

In lieu of "Lick Drop" by the same artist, I present Escape From New York. I would almost classify this as electro house, were it not for the slightly slower, more hypnotic beat, and the fact that it came directly from Rave On Snow 16. Man did that compilation win hard. Harder than I can ever mix. But we'll discuss my compilation later, because Escape From New York is smooth enough that it would belong in Rave On Snow, Discotek, or even Destroy if it wanted to. As is, it's only been on one of those. I'm sure its liquidy³ goodness will come to me, wrapped up in a nice neat little package of awesomeness within a year or two. So cool, and so smooth. And it's a Melbourne song, which fits well with the "Escape From New York" thing. And speaking of Melbourne, here's my own microhouse/minimalistic techno playlist.

1. Abi 99 - Joachim Spieth
2. Droplets (Early Night mix) - Dubshape
3. In Aller Freundschaft - Reinhard Voigt
4. Perihelion (Julian Jeweil rmx) - Markus Lange
5. In White Rooms (Dubfraction rmx) - Booka Shade
6. Heaven Can Wait - Akufen
7. Alcoolic (Matt Tolfrey & Inxec's "Priorities" rmx) - Popof
8. An Index Of Corporate Art - Bronnt Industries Kapital
9. Come Into My Life - Jürgen Paape ft. Alison Degbe
10. Polar Shift - Trentemøller
11. Cucuma - Stephan Bodzin
12. Lemon - Dettinger
13. Trauermusik - Partial Arts
14. Palestine Child - Remote
15. Tonite - Superpitcher

Clocks in at 79'37" when it's done right. I consider it a win.

¹For boffins who aren't so boffiny and don't know what "perihelion" means, it means "when an object is at its closest point in its normal orbit to Sol" - that is to say our sun. And we get about 91 million miles away from it at the closest point (compared to roughly 94 million miles at the opposite, or "aphelion").
²I find it ridiculous that the spellcheck doesn't accept "minimalistic" or "soundscape". Or "spellcheck". Or "microhouse". How dare it.
³Liquid music is the best music ever. Full stop.

#33: An Index Of Corporate Art - Bronnt Industries Kapital

Are you reading this, Fenella?

Right. This is the most brilliant index of corporate art I have ever seen. Not that I've seen many. It's a piece of music essentially in three parts: one that reminds me quite thoroughly of a music box that is normally associated with kids. It's got that certain, uh, something to it that brings you back to childhood. Not quite ambient, because it's a bit fast-paced, but I like it anyway. Memories of when I was three years old and not quite grown out of the eating-sheep-shit stage. Though it also brings to mind a sunset over Melbourne. That part ends at ~2'48" and brings us into the most mellow piece of music I've heard outside the soundlab in 2011, which immediately brings to mind Melbourne's skyline at night. Loving it, and loving it hugely. To be honest, though, I'd prefer it without the electric guitar whine in the left speaker. In fact, I routinely listen to it with just one speaker for this reason. Then at ~4'16" we jump into the grittier bit, that feels more like a person's mindset while walking through Melbourne's streets at night. Spot the pattern, anyone? Yes, the pattern is that the parts of the tune are proportional to phases of night.

In all seriousness, this song is perfect for a warm - say, 22 degrees - night, taking a stroll through Melbourne. There are those who disagree and say it's a winter song. I say, this song is way too cool for them (seewhatIdidthere?) and brush them off so I can listen to this song with awesomeness. Seriously. Much the fun.

#31: CJ's Addictions 6

With the release of a new chillout album comes some awesome kickass music. And I am obviously going to pour nothing but sweeping, inappropriate love and praise over the following songs, which are way beautiful and only lead to amazingness and... *sigh* I'm not making sense. I blame this, liquid music.

So we'll start with a song that, as soon as I heard it, went straight into two playlists: Melbourne and Utopia. It's a Melbourne song. (See the end of this post for a list of other Melbourne songs and you'll see a pattern emerge.) Regardless of the fact that they're Swedish, it's a Melbourne song. Much love, respect and ♥ for this song. I fell in love thanks to the chords they use, and the fact that the background synths are nice and sweeping. Minor key? Maybe. Delicious key? Definitely. As I say, it's not the first time I've fallen in love with such a song, and it won't be the last. But music is like that. I picture a sunset over the city and that glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice that I keep mentioning in my hands as I overlook the city from goodness-knows-where (because one can't get up that high without at least an aeroplane). I'M MELTING. THIS SONG IS AWESOMENESS IN A NUTSHELL AND IT IS MAKING ME MELT.

...ahem. My bizarre thought process aside, on to the next two. Here is a song by Bibio:

And here is le video of Le Bump:

What connects these two, other than the fact that they both are awesome? They're both ridiculously catchy in exactly the same way. And that way is the right way. Granted, Anything New is a bit slower and hellish to dance to (beyond a bizarre tribal dance), but it's really nice to just sit there, listen to and maybe click your fingers in time to (fuck grammar up the arsehole. Seriously). Bibio will go far in my playlist. In contrast, Le Bump is unfortunately predicted to go the same way as We No Speak Americano (ridiculously overplayed in and out of clubs and radio stations and hence annoying as HELL to listen to after a few months), but for the moment I'm not complaining. Le Bump starts by sounding like grungy house but it pleasantly surprised me when I first heard it, because it's anything but grungy. Good to see Yolanda Be Cool fucking the trend that Afrojack, Angger Dimas and LMFAO are perpetuating. Fuck them. I have Yolanda Be Cool. As for what the songs individually sound like: Anything New sounds like it comes straight out of The Sims (the original one, when it still had the isometric views and Sims didn't age) and Le Bump sounds like it comes straight out of Yolanda Be Cool. Wait...

Last: I really love this song.

Allow me to flash back for a bit. If you're allergic to flashbacks, please turn off for the next half a dozen lines or so. Last summer, I had my first ever summer Nando's experience. The chicken was pretty sweet (well, it was spicy actually) and the atmosphere was deliciously summery. But it wasn't those that sold me on summer peri-peri chicken, it was the music. Apparently they play deep house in certain Nando's restaurants during summer, because they did it again not two weeks ago. I learned to love a song by 4Hero (which I will feature next time I do deep house) and I found three more kickass ones two weeks ago. So I guess you can say summer is my time for deep house phases. And I'm going through one right now and I really love this song as a result. In fact, I love it so much I'm going to repeat myself over and over for a little while until either the message sinks in, I get bored, or you get so annoyed that you track me down based on my IP address and beat the living shit out of me. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. I really love this song. That's all I can really say, because it is - like Feathers and Anything New from before - absolutely delicious and meltworthy. Someone get a mop. I'm now a puddle on the floor.

#30: The Call - Raized By Wolves ft. Tom Smith

You want to hear good house? This is it:

These guys are relative newcomers to the house music scene, having just sprung up out of Manchester. In fact, they're so new that they don't have a Wikipedia page yet. Somebody should really get on to it (SHOTGUN NOT). They've jumped on to mau5trap Records, along with the little wizard of progressive house, deadmau5. Which immediately says to me "awh yeah progressive house". It's not quite correct, because this is halfway between progressive and straight-up electro house, but hell if I'm complaining. It's a beautiful song in its own right, but borrowing the talents of Editors singer Tom Smith sure as hell didn't hurt it. I loved it from the initial synth line at the start, because of its minimalistic nature that couples brilliantly with Smith's voice; when it gets into the sound saturation stage (~1'22") it's gone through fifty different kinds of transformations and it has evolved nice and early. So there's one big huge tick from me. I'm also in love with the fact that it's not grungy, despite the huge potential (and, I'm sure, temptation) to do so. It brings them into line with acts like the Swedish House Mafia, who are exceedingly good at that kind of music (for those wondering, yes, the Swedish House Mafia - Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello - are all Swedes and amazing producers of house music. They could give The Bloody Beetroots and The Aston Shuffle a run for their money). So, everyone got that? Comparison with David Guetta, Skrillex or LMFAO = bad. Comparison with The Bloody Beetroots, Swedish House Mafia or The Aston Shuffle = good. Comparison with The Bloody Beetroots, Swedish House Mafia and The Aston Shuffle = very good. I should feature all three one day. Or something like that. Anyway, this song is delicious. Liquid music. Hear it, love it, give me money.

#28: Best Party Ever (Flight Facilities rmx) - Toecutter

First, let's clear up any and all preconceptions about the original version of this song. I reckon Corey Worthington is the kind of guy who gets wasted on Heinekens and Jäger Bombs, with his collar popped after getting a new haircut. In other words, a total douche. So, when I heard the Shazam version of this song - first, before the original - I had no idea that Toecutter had sampled the most infamous interview I've heard in a long time.

So. I'm posting this version because I like the Shazam version, was going to play it briefly on YouTube, and didn't find it but found the Flight Facilities version instead. I think I like Flight Facilities' style. It's a nice contemporary disco style, and as I've mentioned before I think it's what's going to bring disco into the 2010s. Hopefully. So what if it's sampling another ridiculously old song? It's a pretty sweet song and one that has been ridiculously underrated. But in any case. The original is pretty cool too, short of the samples of Corey and what's-her-name off of Channel 9 giving each other hell. I enjoy the song itself. Even better, the Shazam remix - which I can't find easily on the YouTubes - doesn't mention either of them. Which I appreciate. A lot. It's like both Shazam and Flight Facilities both killed the worst elements of the original and made something... awesome. Win.

#20: The Phoenix Alive - Monarchy

I came in my pants when I heard this song. It's a couple years late but seriously, this shit is fucking amazing. Apart from having the name of a bird in the title (second only to owls) the song is quite possibly the best combination of bouncy electronica, soothing lyrics and no fucking grunge that I've heard in a long time. Not to mention the video. The science fiction element is brilliant and at the end of this incarnation, the code at the end is delightfully deceptively simple and beautifully relevant. And the song evolves! ♥ Even though it evolves right at the end and doesn't last long afterwards, it changes just enough to keep me interested. On the other end of the track, though, it starts out quite suddenly. Not a bad thing, because it instantly hooked me. And I loved it. It fits right in there with freshly-cut grass and petrichor that characterise summer for me. Actually, scratch the petrichor. But it's amazing and it's a summer song and... and... I think I want to marry this song.

Ahem. Fair review: it's house, it's bouncy. It's not party, and it's not grungy. It evolves, and it involves acoustic instruments. It's not too obvious but it's not too subtle. It's a very nice background track but would also find a good place in a set. Progressive house, basically. And its video is pretty cool too, it's not just the band dicking around lip-syncing to their shitty little songs that they try and make better by appearing on-screen and showing off their pretty-boy bodies just to sell said shitty little song. Ahem. Astronauts for the win.

#18: Jona Vark - Gypsy & The Cat

Yes, I know I'm jumping on the Gypsy & The Cat bandwagon a few months late, and I know that this isn't exactly a new song. I also accept that this isn't EDM *shock horror*. But I've been hearing it on my iPod and the radio a bit lately so I'm reviewing it.

What is it? Dancy rock. I like dancy rock.

OK, but what is it really? Picture the following scenario: Empire Of The Sun meets MGMT meets some other artist who belongs firmly on the Kitsuné label - probably Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - and all three of them bugger off and have a weird musician threesome and produce Gypsy And The Cat.

OK, but what is it *really*? It's an epic song. I'm not talking "epic" as in "awesome" (though it is awesome). I'm talking "epic" as in Titanic or Star Wars. Big, heroic, and awe-inspiring. But less so on the heroic scale. I define epic music to be music with sound saturation - in other words, bucket loads of instruments, all playing at once; or bucketloads of people, all singing at once. No wonder I like choirs. Basically, epic music is the opposite of grungy house. But enough about that.

OK, but what is it really? It's a song about enlightenment. What kind of enlightenment? I don't know and that's completely irrelevant. It could be about Thomas Edison's big enlightenment (oh shut up you would have made the same bad joke too, if you were me, and I was you, and things were different). Except that it's not about Thomas Edison's enlightenment, it's about Jona's. Who's Jona? Obviously not the one with the whale. Some girl, whose name happens to sound like a young French leader. Or maybe that's what it's about? The real Joan Of Arc was guided by visions, who's to say that Jona isn't Joan in disguise? (Except that Joan was killed six hundred years ago.) It's also a damn fine piece of electronic rock. I was impressed by Time To Wander - in fact, that's the song I want playing in my car as I drive out of college for the last time¹. And I love Jona Vark.

OK, but what is it REALLY? It's Gypsy & The Cat. That's all you need to know.

1. This is actually going to happen. I swore for months that I'd play the Lifelike remix of This Boy's In Love, by the Presets, as I left the town of my birth, as I was moving onward and upward to better things and better times. I played it and I was amazed at myself for picking such an epic song.

#15: Amanæmonesia - Chairlift

This song is dangerous.

It's dangerous because it's only been in my playlist for a week and I've played it like 20 times. It's a song I can't even begin to classify except as "addictive" - it's synth, but not synthpop; it's catchy, but it's not offbeat-alternative; some of its lyrics are indecipherable, but it's not by The Presets; it's fun and boppy, therefore it's not Justin Bieber. (Yeah, that's right! I've moved from David Guetta to "teen" "pop" "idols" now! BRING IT ON!) Oh, and one of the lyrics I can decipher earns a Gem Line award: "mistaken for magic". Occasionally I can use that one line to describe myself, but that's another story. This is another Zan Rowe-alarm-half asleep find (I've had about half a dozen in the last few months alone - that might be a topic for another day). The thing that anchors the song for me is the key it's in just after the backing vocalist says "chasing the rabbit". (On a related note, remind me to share some Melbourne songs and some "utopia" songs next post. Maybe also my Back To Mine playlist.) That said, the song as a whole is amazing and distorts my sense of time (on another related note, I'm going to share Catcall with you one day) by making five minutes seem like three and a half. And yes, the song EVOLVES! Check it out at ~3'10", it turns into something somewhat somehow strange but seriously awesome. Keychange, synth change, and that haunting chorus of voices or synthesised voices or whatever and that deep-voiced bridge and WOW. Now this, my friends, is orange juice served freshly squeezed and chilled on a Hawaii beach. Liquid music. Deeeeeeeelicious. Got any more of those oranges?

Oh, and if you're masochistic enough to read this, here's a challenge. Feed me the name (and YouTube or SoundCloud link, too, if you please) of a song via comment, Facebook, email, whatever. I will accept the challenge and review it. I'll either rip it to shreds or love it to bits; either way, it's going to end up as tiny little pieces after I've picked it apart. But hey, don't let that bother you. I'm fair and reasonable. Go on. Try me.

#13: Dance Rock

Let's start with the catchy shit first, yeah? Then we can move on to the older stuff.

Number one is a reasonably new track, described to me as "reggae rock". Couldn't agree more. What I also agree with is the fact that Triple J played it the other day as my alarm and I recognised it immediately when Rach' played it in the car a few hours ago as a song that had been stuck in my head earlier that day. It's fucking catchy and I love it. And to think, I was going to hunt through my entire music collection (of nearly 9K songs) to hunt the thing down, and have it be a fruitless search. Contrary to Up Up Up, however, this song does belong in my collection. I'd say this is more dancy than reggae rock so I'd call it a hybrid. And I'd call it amazing. No, I don't suddenly like rock. No, I'm not suddenly about to move over to Mick Jagger. I just think that we should start respecting dancy and catchy tracks that are just totally awesome. I would go so far as to say that it deserves its own genre name. The next song fits right in, too:

This one is older. But not by much. I remember hunting this track down after December last year. Can't remember exactly when. But hey, they're from Ballarat and that's proof that Ballarat is so much better than my home town because this song is just as good. It ticks all my boxes. No mentioning the song title in the lyrics: tick. Upbeat, dancy beat combined with upbeat, dancy melody: tick. Two verses, two choruses: tick. Song evolves: tick. 3'16" length: OK, it's not perfect. But hell, a club remix wouldn't be too hard to sort out. I like it. And I also reckon it deserves a little more than "obscurity" from Australia, especially since they're a band called Gold Fields who come from the gold fields... wait, I SEE WHUT THEY DID THAR. Still, it's halfway rock and halfway dance and for some reason the two genres mesh really really well. And yes, I almost spelt "mesh" with an 'x'. "Mexh". Holy crap, I've invented a new word. And I wish I could invent songs like this, very similar example band:

Wait, it's wrong to call them an "example". These guys are the epitome of dancy rock. In fact, I'd say they almost pioneered it if I didn't know better. Alright, this wasn't exactly the best song to work with because it's more synth than guitar but my gods these guys are geniuses. (genii?) Apparently they're influenced by 80s disco. I can see that. Around 2'42" and onwards there's a few sounds and styles reminiscent of Vangelis (amazing pioneer) and that's probably one of the reasons I fell in love with this particular song. Also because the video features sports. And various sports. Not cricket though. I like cricket. And I like Cut Copy. Buy their albums. And enjoy your guide to dance rock, supplemented by this slightly more synthy but equally kickass band:

If you think that video is weird, you should see their stage show. If you think that video is cool, you should see their stage show. If you think that video is psychedelic, you should see their stage show. If you didn't like the video but still loved the song. you should see their stage show. If you hate this song, I challenge you to listen to Shempi and still claim you don't like them.

#11: A Thing For Me - Metronomy

Before I begin, I'm going to put it out there: this song is average. It's not rap, it's not hiphop, it's not metal, it's not music that makes you deaf. It's freaky, bleepy electronica, and I find it an average song. So there.

The song is still well and truly worth a mention purely because of the video. OK, at first it looks like a really crappy karaoke song - even worse, if the band are there playing/singing, because I absolutely detest music videos that do all that boring crap - but hell, at ~0'15" things start taking an interesting turn, and ten seconds later comes the SHAZAM moment when you realise that this could be kinda cool. Even better is at ~0'40" when the puns start and ~1'30" when they get even better. This almost matches the Treadmill Video in terms of sheer brilliance. Almost. Except it doesn't. Because the Treadmill Video has a better song accompanying it. But not by much. It's like comparing a cocktail to an identical cocktail, except with an umbrella.

If you're looking for a better version of the song, try the Breakbot remix. If you're looking for a better video, try the original. Hell, I want to see the original video chopped and changed to fit in with the Breakbot remix. Somebody do it. I don't have the software, expertise, schedule, or motivation. I'm lazy. And I'll lazily move on to my next glow(er)ing review. (I'm currently aiming my gunsights at the Black Eyed Peas.)

#3: Up Up Up - Givers

Something a little bit different.

First, this is good proof that I'm not solely electronica and experimental (though this is somewhat experimental). So, ignoring for the moment that Tiffany is CUTE AS ANYTHING (because I'd like this review to be as unbiased as possible... as if that'll happen) this is probably the quirkiest song I've heard in the last few months. Aside from the fact that it combines elements of a miniature symphony orchestra (sans strings and brass and most of the woodwind section and... most of the symphony orchestra, actually, but it does sound somewhat symphonic) with an electric guitar, and the percussion isn't completely overbearing, and there's a complete absence of an electric guitar BRWANGGG sound that makes my ears bleed whenever I hear it, it's also a song that isn't trying to be pretentious. It's the kind of song that's quite content to sit tucked away in its little vein of obscurity, but of course it's done everything but since it came to SXSW.

I praise it for its instrumental break, reggae-style music (at times, particularly from the electric guitar) and radical change of tempo for the second half that emphasises the lyrics - a simple message: "You’re gonna find your way". I also praise it for being a song, and not a "my song is greater than yours because it's <insert lame and irrelevant song characteristic here>" song. It's not a song that would be in my personal collection (well... maybe) but hell if it didn't get stuck in my head all of yesterday for pretty much no reason whatsoever, and that makes it kinda... cool.

It's a good song. Below I've also included a live version of the song (mostly for showing just how diverse the instruments are, just how much fun one can have with a few rattles and tambourines, and just how cute Tiffany is).

The song works as a cool alarm, too.

#2: Stella - Kashiwa Daisuke

Sean graciously sent me this 35-minute track:

Let's jump back to 2007 for a few minutes. Where were you when... actually, wait. 2007 was a pretty piss-poor year for world events. Hell, jump back to 2001 for me, just for kicks. Then return to 2007 and remember when electronic music was just starting to hit its peak (before artists like Afrojack and Angger Dimas came along) and listen to this thing. Slog through the first four or so minutes of dischord and you'll come across some pretty beautiful electronica.

Sean (an otaku) was probably looking up anime music when he found this, but hell if I don't appreciate it. I've always loved pieces with sweeping strings, mopping strings, or even just string in general (I have a soft spot for Latin and Spanish guitars); the next best example I can think of is the depressingly amazing (yes, that IS a compliment) Adagio For Strings (which has been ripped to shreds by so many trance artists in the last ten-fifteen years...). It gets a bit samey near the end but it at least evolves, which the Darwinian in me loves and everyone else around me hates, especially if they're drunk at 12:55am on a Friday morning - AKA bar night - and want nothing more than to hear this, week in, week out. I'm not giving a review of that song, because it would be one word: starts with "s" and ends with "t" and rhymes with "grit".

But I reckon Stella is brilliant, if you have the patience to slog through the 10% that will hurt most people's ears, the time to punch through over half an hour of sweeping strings, and the open-mindedness that a lot of my high school chumps didn't have. (Yes, I said "chumps".)