117. KNUCKLES + PAUL BRYAN

KNUCKLES | BLAKE - WHAT I LIKE (Vimeo)

Slow motion relay race through the subways of Paris? Yes please! I can't really find much on this Knuckles guy besides the fact that he is now going by the name Sovnger. And apparently (according to his myspace...) DJs such as Diplo, Breakbot, Etienne de Crecy, and Alex Gopher play his stuff in their sets. He also has a mixtape on soundcloud and posts a new one each month.

And definitely check out the director, Paul Bryan. He has a solid collection of work including same great photographs of people.

117. KNUCKLES + PAUL BRYAN

116. THE NAKED AND FAMOUS

oh man oh man oh man. i barely need to say anything at all.

just listen to "young blood" by the new zealand band, the naked and famous, and then buy it for a dollar. it's incredibly worth it.

this track is summer at it's best (even though it's cold in new zealand right now). it's fucking perfect. i loooovvvee it.

also: check out the music video for the song at the bottom of this post.

The Naked And Famous - Young Blood (on Vimeo)

become a fan on facebook please.

116. THE NAKED AND FAMOUS

115. SPACE LIFE

i love when i hear good music from bands that started in boston - passion pit, hooray for earth, yes giantess to name a few.

yesterday a friend of mine sent me an email about the boston based duo dubbed space life. they are chris and jeff, they've been friends since high school, and only started their collaboration four months ago. they work well together because they share a lot of interests and take their influences from the same genres (70s funk + disco).

their music grabbed and is still holding my attention. it makes sense because they are one of the freshest electronic groups around - as in they're rolling out AND yo that's fresh. the trouble with electronic music is that it's very easy for artists to pigeon hole themselves into a single style that they can't get out of it. like surkin or dj mehdi, space life doesn't make predictable choices with their music. it's all over the place.

Voyager III (on SoundCloud) you can download it! AND they're working on a music video for this track.

if you head over to look at the rest of their soundcloud and do a quick browse through all of their tracks, you'll learn that they have a real tight musical aesthetic and that they're very versatile. a lot of rick james + prince synth and guitar, but also a lot of french touch similarities. they use EQ'd out samples like classic french house: think alan braxe & fred falke, knightlife, or louis la roche. they also like to key the low-end and high-end and slowly bring it in (or out), it's one of the simplest things that happens in electronica - but they have it down perfectly and are creative about when (and how) they use it. check their remix of empire of the sun's "walking on a dream." out of what feels like hundreds of remixes of that track out there, space life's is one of the more original. in terms of the bass line, space life generally uses that funk-electro sound that you'd find with artists on ed banger - think a hybrid between justice and breakbot. sometimes you'll also hear that metal / electro style guitar that MSTRKRFT really popularized. if you listen to their remix of mj's "rock with you," you'll remember that jt really, really, wants to be the next michael. i like both of those guys, but yeah the correlation is a little crazy. the remix sounds like if pedro winter and jt's producers worked together on "off the wall." this is a very good thing.

what stands out most about space life is that if you listen to the first 30 seconds of a track, it doesn't mean that you can assume what the rest of it sounds like; you won't expect the obvious.

SPACE LIFE - Anatomy (Feat. MSF) (on SoundCloud) no download available. sorry!

become a fan on facebook.

115. SPACE LIFE

114. NEON INDIAN

obvi.

if you haven't heard of neon indian yet, you're really missing out. we first heard of alan paloma (neon indian is one of his projects) when he was a part of ghosthustler (remember "someone else's ride?) that song is fuckin' amazing. we blasted that at parties all the time in 2008. grab it for free off of missingtoof right here.

we were all waiting for ghosthustler to EXPLODE, but the band broke up and alan went on to produce music as VEGA, which is in much of the similar vein as ghosthustler. where he's been most successful is with his work as neon indian - which definitely carries some of the same electro sounds, but it's engineered in a sleep lab with hallucinogens and a dreamy-psychedelic induced future dropped right on top. since his appropriately titled psychic chasms ep release last april (and the lp in the fall), we've been stoked about what's to come next.

this isn't a new track, but it's being offerred for free right now and is a great introduction if you haven't listened to him yet. download Neon Indian - Sleep Paralysist on green label sound (mountain dew). look on the right side of the page and then drink some yellow / green soda. also: check out the video for the same song below - it's prettttttty dope.

Neon Indian - "Sleep Paralysist" Video Directed by Focus Creeps (Vimeo)

very happy it's friday.

114. NEON INDIAN

113. HEY CHAMP MIXTAPE

i love being subscribed to mailing lists. it's a huge part of bands marketing to have these lists and facebook groups and twitter and so on and so forth. up until a few years ago i was hesitant to join these lists because i believed that they'd be primarily junk mail, or that they'd sell my email address or whatever. some companies still do that - but i would say that musician's mailing lists are safe and really only reward the fanbase for joining. they grab your email or you become a fan on facebook and you get stuff like free tracks, mixtapes and discounted tickets. point being: signing up is the best choice.

hey champ is one of the better bands to subscribe to or follow on facebook because they give away free tracks and great house mix tapes. their jet set tape is one of the better house mixes i've heard in a while and the tracklist is great. it's also a legit dj set, all the tracks are remixes by hey champ. you're going to hear samples of the beastie boys and the gap band and that'll take you into yeasayer and t-pain... mmmmm it's 56 minutes of delicatessen. one of the best perks is that the tracks are split up! just make sure to think before you listen and set that shit up for gapless playback. i'm serious.

Hey Champ - Jet Set Mixtape (click the link, after you become a fan on facebook you get a .zip)

Tracklist:

1. Hey Champ DJs - In The White City

2. Prairie Cartel - Cracktown (Hey Champ RMX)

3. Hey Champ DJs - Strobe

4. Ying Yang Twins - Drop (Hey Champ RMX featuring DJ White Shadow)

5. Hey Champ DJs - The Way You Feel

6. The Empires - Howl (Hey Champ RMX featuring DJ White Shadow)

7. Hey Champ DJs - Metropolis

8. Hey Champ DJs - Early Sensation

9. Yeasayer - Sunrise (Hey Champ Remix)

10. T-Pain (ft. Lil Wayne) - I Can't Believe It (Hey Champ RMX feat. DJ White Shadow)

11. Hey Champ DJs - Shibuya

12. Hey Champ DJs - Fallujah

13. Hey Champ - Cold Dust Girl (80Kidz Remix)

yoyoyo:

those of you in NYC + BK are lucky because hey champ will be doing a set tonight, june 3rd, with shy child (!!!!!) in the studio at webster hall (tickets) and tomorrow, june 4th, at the bell house (tickets). do it to it!

113. HEY CHAMP MIXTAPE

112. BIRDY NAM NAM

Birdy Nam Nam - Abbesses (Youtube)

If you like The Avalanches or Kid Koala or DJ Shadow - you will like Birdy Nam Nam. They are four DJs from France and MASTER turntablists. If you can get your hands on their self-titled album - do it!

112. BIRDY NAM NAM

111. CEO

from our favorite australian label (duh) comes ceo, the new project of the tough alliance's eric burgland. i love the new name.

coming out on june 29 in the US is ceo's debut release "white magic." i am stoked for it!

if you like bands like air france, the similou / plej or delorean you'll love ceo.

ceo - come with me (Download)

preorder the album right here.

also make sure you check out the music video, directed by marcus soderlund:

ceo - come with me on Vimeo.

111. CEO