actually, my name's marina

marina and the diamonds has been on my blog to-do list for quite some time now. of all of the female blog-pop acts to emerge over the past year or so (florence and the machine, ellie goulding, etc.), she is actually the one i have highest hopes for in terms of commercial success. could be her voice. could be her looks. i don't know. call it a feeling.

her debut album the family jewels comes out feb. 15 and is preceded by single "hollywood" on february 1. the single is already racking up the club remixes and i figured it was time to have another "clash of the remixes" feature on some of the best. let's dig in...


first up, we have the video for the original for reference:



jaunty and uplifting in spite of the slightly cynical lyrics. a swell starter for the album.

but like marina's past work (see also the wonderful "mowgli's road"), it sparkles even brighter in club-ready form. i don't know what it is about artists and producers that are able to transform her songs into such bangers but i'm not about to start complaining now.

first up is a remix by UK electro-poppers fenech-soler. inverting the verse and chorus over bombastic dance beat, they completely reinvent the track as a fiery floor-filling rager that demands to be blasted at eleven.

oh. my. god. doesn't quite cover it.

you can hear that over at neon gold records.

up next is the juan maclean's version of the track. it's competent but feels rather pedestrian and predictable marina's voice feels too big for the dfa-by-numbers backing track and begs to bust out into something a lot more propulsive and energetic.

this one can be found here courtesy of electronic rumors.

and finally, we've got the most recent take on the song by marina's fellow neon gold upstarts, the mysterious monarchy. it doesn't announce itself as strongly as the fenech-soler version but it has a perfectly lovely disco glide that evokes memories of some of fred falke's better work from the past year. i can't say it yet, but i'm fairly positive that this one will emerge as my favorite of the bunch with more time.

but what do i know? grab this one over at discodust and decide for yourself which of the three is your personal favorite. feel free to let me know in the comments.

and for the sake of symmetry, here's a video for marina's acoustic version of the regional. quite nice, it is:

first impressions: four tet - there is love in you

* this first impression comes courtesy of mr. keiran hebeden himself, who is streaming his gorgeous new album in full at his own website.

we're roughly five years removed from the release of hebeden's last album of new four tet material. such a long hibernation may have been wise if not necessary to distance himself from those pesky "folktronica" labels that kept following him around no matter which musical direction he opted to take after 2001's pause. fortunately, the moment of pause is long over and the future of four tet is here. there is love in you is a sublime slice of ethereal dance-floor bliss...



notes upon first listen:

• "angel echoes" is probably one of the most beautiful things i've heard in recent memory. deceptively repetitive, its looping vocal clips and synth shards keep layering over each other little by little as the song progresses to a positively hypnotic crescendo.
  
• i still think i slightly prefer joy orbison's take* on "love cry." won't hold that against the original though.
• i swear "circling" is a dead ringer for "one for you" by the knife, only with harps in place of xylophones
• speaking of the knife, the vocals that crop up in "sing" sound a lot like karin's
• "plastic people" is a nice reminder that kieran pre-dates axel "the field" wilner by a good few years.
• "she just likes to fight" is the obligatory throwback song, and it's still one of his best.

well played, mr. hebeden, well played. there is love in you comes out this tuesday via domino. there are also a few four tet live dates on the horizon, but alas, none in philly.

*and here, so you can hear what i mean:

cool find of the day: any decent music

i found this cool website called any decent music while pretending to work this afternoon. basically, it's metacritic without all the fluff about film and tv and books and video games.

it compiles reviews of an album from all over the web and calculates the average rating of each. what makes it better is that it allows you to customize your charts based on genre of music, including subgenres like dubstep and synthpop (what? no chillwave yet?). you can also filter by how recentness of release and publication. bonus points to tallying scores from quality, non meta-assimilated websites like the quietus.

even better, it features daily recommendations and rotating playlists courtesy of mixpod, an idea i plan on incorporating into my own site very soon (thanks guys!)

check it out. the site's still fairly newish, having only been active for around 14 months. how else could you explain their top rated albums ever being basseyou kouyate and the new these new puritans. they can't possibly be that good. can they???

memory tapes' first ever live show

dayve hawk made his live debut as memory tapes over the weekend in manchester. yeah i talk about this guy a lot but it's not hard to understand why after checking out this video.

why he wouldn't make make his live debut locally is beyond my comprehension but he's promised a philly date next month so all is right with the world.

thanks to my friend john for pointing to this video over at philebrity.

a few random notes regarding coachella 2010

• the organizers seem like they were really concerned with opening and closing the weekend with a bang, not so much with day two.
• speaking of day two, girls and beach house feel awfully low on the roster for the buzz they've been generating lately.
• john waters hitting the festival circuit? nice.
• karin, what are you doing to me? i had finally made peace with missing my chance to see you in new york and now you're coming out of retirement as fever ray already?
• why does thom yorke now have question marks as part of his solo moniker? is it some kind of built-in disclaimer that he may cancel at the last minute?
• jay-z and lcd may be the best one-two punch in recent festival memory
• they better have something at least as impressive as this line-up for all points west later in the year. seriously, they owe us BAD.
  

feeling without touching

good news and great news from the italians do it better camp this week.

good news: their first release of 2010 is on the way with the 12" for "feeling without touching" by glass candy, featuring 26 minutes of new material. so sweet.

great news: it is confirmed via the italians blog that after two years off, chromatics are back to work on a new record! it's being called "their darkest work yet" and may be ready in time for an autumn release. AWESOME.



as a bonus, chromatics are finally releasing their amazing 2007 lp night drive on vinyl this summer. 'bout damn time.

the next italians do it better label sampler (aka the sequel to after dark) is also nearing completion. it will feature exclusive new tracks from the aforementioned chromatics and glass candy as well mirage, farah, and current PTR fave desire. am i dreaming here?

much to look forward to in the new year already. here's something to whet everyone's italo appetites for now...

new jj jams

sincerely yours was kind enough to offer two fresh new gems from the increasingly prolific (and no less amazing for it) jj, at least one of which, the haunting "let go," will be featured on the forthcoming follow-up to my fifth favorite album of 2009, jj n° 2. the logically titled jj n° 3 will be out march 9 on yours and secretly canadian.



from yours:

"OK, jj went to malaga to have some fun, get some sun and 2 albums done. it was back in the fall of 2008 when they had both lost their virginity to insanity and were looking for moments of clarity. a plane to spain felt like a reasonable opportunity.
so with money in the bank, nobody to thank, it started with a drank.
and a couple of hours later the on the 29th of september they had felt the first breeze coming in from africa, sweet winds of melodies pure and true."

what they said. get the tracks here.

also here's the artwork for n° 3. i kind of miss the blood-splattered pot leaf already.



jj are also making their US live debut soon, with appearances at sxsw and a tour with the xx. sweetness.

nitetime rainbows

a sunny day in glasgow are still riding pretty on the wave of their beautiful 2009 release ashes grammar, which remains one of my favorite records in recent months.

the next single from the album will be "nitetime rainbows." i personally would have gone for "passionate introverts" but i like the former's blissful ambience just fine.



the EP will be out on march 2 via mis ojos discos and feature three new songs left off of grammar, as well as remixes from various label mates. should be fun.

another thing to note is that the band is really good live. for proof, catch them at one of the tour dates listed on their myspace, where you can also preview "rainbows" for yourself.

theres space for ol dat i see

the paper planes have ascended to the cosmos from the looks of things.

courtesy of ms. arulpragasam's twitter.

UPDATE: turns out my description wasn't so far off. the new track is called "space odyssey" and will be included on M.I.A.'s new album later this year. it's supposedly a protest song meant to serve as a continuation of her big "fuck you" to the new york times. awes.

pop that y-rocks 1.12.2010

though my blogging may have grown sporadic, one thing that has remained constant has been my weekly radio show, the circuit, on y-rock on xpn. after spending the final weeks of 2009 recapping the best of the decade in alternative and electronica, i'm back in full swing with new music from the knife, memory tapes, tanlines, surfer blood and much, much more!

read on for this week's playlist can tune-in online tonight from ten to midnight, or saturday from nine to eleven pm for the replay.



the very best - julia (joe goddard of hot chip remix)
active child - voice of an old friend (summer camp bedford falls remix)
washed out - belong
small black - despicable dogs (washed out remix)
cut copy - nobody lost, nobody found
memoryhouse - to the lighthouse
toro y moi - blessa
lindstrøm and christabelle - lovesick
the silent league - yours truly, 2095 (memory tapes version)
solid gold - matter of time (tanlines remix)
le tigre - deceptacon (dfa remix)
nite jewel - want you back
four tet - love cry (joy orbison remix)
animal collective - summertime clothes (dam-funk remix)
the avalanches - live at dominoes
miracles club - a new love
desire - dans mes reves
nosaj thing - light#2
OoOOo - nosummr4u
surfer blood - swim (alpaca remix by allen blickle of baroness)
white hinterland - icarus
the knife - colouring of pigeons
bullion - say goodbye to what
vampire weekend - diplomat's son

and because last week's playlist came out pretty awesome, here's that too:

lindstrøm and christabelle - looking for what (sally shapiro remix)
memory tapes - bicycle (what kind of breeze do you blow? e-mix)
la roux - fascination
monarchy - the phoenix alive
joanna newsom - bridges & balloons (pocket mix)
the longcut - repeated (toro y moi remix)
fleet foxes - white winter hymnal (the twelves remix)
jessica 6 - fun girl
hot chip - one life stand
the golden filter - the hardest button to button
lemonade - big weekend (delorean remix)
the xx - space bass (jamie xx's remix of the xx)
avner - bed for mig (kjj edit)
charlotte gainsbourg - heaven can wait (nosaj thing remix)
neon indian - mind, drips (mirror image remix)
bear in heaven - lovesick teenager
pixies - where is my mind? (bassnectar remix)
these new puritans - we want war (ghost hunter remix)
cfcf - half-dreaming
desire - if i can't hold you
kate bush - running up that hill (datassette remix)
joy orbison - hyph mngo