Competition – Passion Pit T-Shirt

Look! It’s my first competition!

I wear far too much topman than I care to admit and I was delighted when their CTRL team contacted me. Topman CTRL is an awesome feature, where bands are selected to edit the CTRL blog and curate a live show. They’ve had Lightspeed Champion and Gallows (off the top my head), so they already have a pretty good list of some of my favourite bands. To get to the point, it’s Passion Pit (who I saw recently) this month and they offered me to give away one of the awesome T-Shirts pictured below. And if you have time you can catch their choices for a live show (Little Comets, Airship and Biycle Thieves) in Liverpool, for only five pounds.

To win, leave a coment telling me why you are most deserving of this t-shirt. Whether it’s funny, emotional or stupid, I will decide the best one.

Passion Pit Live

Want to win a Passion Pit t-shirt? Go here!

Passion Pit opened with a bang (or to be more accurate, a high pitched sound which had quite an after effect on my ears) and launched into Eyes As Candles. The first thing I noticed was how much more dynamic and louder their live sound was, and this wasn’t just because they were playing in a venue, not a studio. They had obviously taken some time to create a solid set, one which would be more interesting than just playing through the album. The drums were heavier, the synths harder, everything was harsher, but the pop hooks remained, with the crowd joining in when needed. A lot of the time, with five people playing instruments at once, the sound was muddied. This really sucked, because as soon as parts of the songs were stripped down to just drums and bass, or two synths playing off each other, the experience was magical.

Unfortunately my favourite track, Better Things, suffered this problem the most. It made it no fun at all, but they redeemed themselves with a great rendition of Sleepyhead. The highlight of the evening was definitely their encore, Moth’s Wings and The Reeling. Though I liked those tracks on the album, live they took on a whole new level, created by the amount of raw energy given by the band.

More pictures can be found here.

And here’s a little bonus, an awesome cover of Sleepyhead by Run Toto Run.

Lies – Fenech-Soler

I was hesitant to post this one, because more than four of my feeds (Funkism, Music Liberation, Too Many Sebastians and Party Aids) are posting a track and crying that they are the next thing. And really, we’ll have to put that into the persepctive of on an album or a live show. Fortunately, their live show is actually coming to Munich. This never happens for bands without a debut, so for this reason I’m also going to join the blog masses and nominate them as the best band to have existed so far (and that ever will).

You can’t help but think of Friendly Fires, when listening to their single Lies, but there is definately more electro and all those bongs and South American influences have been stripped out. It’s a basic cross of electronica and indie, and it’s really good.

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Romantic Rights (Erol Akan’s Love From Below Re-Edit) – Death From Above 1979

My knowledge of this particular remixer consisted of his amazing remix of Franz Ferdinand’s Do You Want To and that he did that thing with Boys Noize (which was also pretty damn amazing). After researching (scourged for all his remixes and wikipedia’d the man), I discovered a couple of interesting things about this guy; he makes some crazy good, headbanging electronic remixes of indie artists (Bloc Party, Klaxons, Interpol and more) and produced the Late of the Pier record. For the second feat alone, I applaud him, it is quite a marvelous record. But that’s not why we are here, his remix of Death From Above is fantastic. Their aren’t words which can give this remix justice, but it’s basically just chopped up heavy, funky bass lines with some great build-ups.

Romantic Rights (Erol Akan’s Love From Below Re-Edit) – Death From Above 1979

Bonus: Waves – Erol Alkan & Boys Noize

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I Heart Sharks Live

Packed (but not uncomfortably) with The Streets blasting through the speakers, it seemed there were good signs the gig was going to be interesting. I Heart Sharks then stepped through the crowd and got their instruments ready, while the singer nervously slipped in and out of German and English. Since they were previously unknown to me, I’ll just throw some random observations out there.

1. The drummer was the most enthusiastic percussionist I’ve had witness to see. He seemed to be having more fun than the entire crowd combined, he was constantly getting up and his face was always changing from one expression to the next.
2. The sound in this venue seemed perfect (so I guess props to the sound technicians), not too loud, not too quiet, with everything the band playing easily slipping into the ear, quite hard for a band with a harsh electronic sound (think Does it Offend You, Yeah? or Friendly Fires).
3. My statement of hipsters not dancing, was once again proved, but fortunately this time it did not make the gig any less fun.

I can’t say their studio sound, which was given to me fresh ripped the night of the gig, is too special, but if you get the chance, catch them live, because they have enough songs to really get a party started. Here are my favourites from the evening; Dots Dots Dots and The World is Yours.

See more pictures here. And you can watch a montage of all the photos with Aerobics playing in the background here.

The XX and Holly Miranda Live

Holly Miranda was the best opener I have ever seen at a gig. She was completely unknown to me, but proved herself as an artist to look out for and she managed to impress everyone in the room, not just me, which is a rare thing to happen. It was simply made up of Holly, her guitarist, bells and a really old mic. She would switch between the normal mic, to the older one, in and out through the songs and occasionally loop her vocals (with the old mic’s sound reminding me of the one from Yellow Submarine by The Beatles). But what really made their concert so interesting was the use of effects. Holly would keep the basic riffs and the rhythm, and her backup guitarist would come in with every effect you can think of (harsh blues distortion, dreamy swirls and ultra clean sounds), and always playing with the style that best fit his effect. The mp3s I found online give her live sound no justice at all, so here is a youtube link instead. I hope she goes into this direction more with her studio sound, because it is breathtaking to listen to.

The XX opened by illuminating the crowd with their giant glowing “x”s and bombarding them with the engulfing bass drone of Intro. With a few wonky notes, they took a while to warm up. It was a shame, because they played my favourite track Crystalized second, and it felt very sloppy. However, they really hit their stride towards the middle of the concert; with the songs far out passing their debut. Towards the end, Infinty and Night Time recieved elongated instrumental outros which were wonderful to bear witness to. Though I can’t say they were spectacular, they created a great atmosphere and really helped me appreciate their debut album so much more, with the best example being Stars, the highlight of my evening.

More pictures can be found here.

Dresden

I guess this is a sort of excuse post, but maybe we’ll put a positive spin on it and say this is a personal post? I’ve been visiting contributer Philip in the wonderful city of Dresden, where we watched I Heart Sharks (their enthusiastic drummer is pictured above) and did numerous other non-music related things. I’ve been waiting to post a review of their gig and The XX (who I caught a week ago), but if you haven’t noticed yet, dropbox cut me off there service. They have been my best hosting provider so far, with 8 months of fantastic service and so I highly recommend them. As with last time this happened, if anyone has any suggestions for other services with which to share my music, just leave a comment, email me, message me on twitter or get in contact with the numerous ways that you can in this day and age.

I leave you with a beautiful track from Four Tet, called As Serious As Your Life, which is from Rounds, the only album I’ve found the time to listen to over the last week.

Studying, Revising and Reaching a Higher Level – Part 2

This is another edition of Studying, Revising and Reaching a Higher Level (the first can be found here). The title explains exactly what kind of music this post is all about.

Modular Mix – Air
You’ve Got The Love (The XX Remix) – Florence and the Machine
Ribbons – Four Tet
Feeling Kind of Anxious – Franz Ferdinand
Kiss Of Life (Spiral Into The Storm remix) – Friendly Fires
Kids With Guns (Hot Chip remix) – Gorillaz
This Could Be Beautiful (It Is) – Metronomy
Love Like A Sunset Part I – Phoenix
メトロノーム – toe
Divebomb – The Whip

The playlist zipped.

Thanks to the picture Andrew Eglinton.

Epic Dance

Tomorrow is the first time I’m helping organize music for a party (a friend’s 18th birthday), which will probably involve some alcohol, and hopefully (if all goes well), a lot of dancing. I have a couple of different playlists for different styles; pop, indie, my favourite stuff and my “pure” dance music (house, techno etc.). I blended these to form this gigantic mix which, as earlier stated, is an attempt to get those kids dancing. Comments, and more importantly; any recommendations? Thanks. Oh and enjoy the mp3s attached.

The Rockafeller Skank    Fatboy Slim
Put Your Hands Up For Detroit    Fedde Le Grand
Everytime We Touch (Radio Mix)    Cascada
Dance Wiv Me (Calvin Harris Extended Mix)    Dizzee Rascal
I See You Baby (Fatboy Slim Mix)    Groove Armada
1234 (Vanshe Technologic Remix)    Feist
We Are Your Friends Who Kissed A Girl (Funky Motherfuckerz Mash)    Justice vs. Katy Perry
Bonkers    Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden
Bittersweet Electric Sky Touch (GlowTape!’s String Cheese Mash Up)    The Verve VS MGMT & Justice VS Kanye West & Lupe Fiasco
Day ‘N’ Nite (Crookers Remix)    Kid Cudi
Beat Connection    LCD Soundsystem
Music Sounds Better With You    Stardust
One More Time to Pretend (Immuzikation Remix)    MGMT vs Daft Punk
D.G.A.F.L.Y.F -  Super Mash Bros.
Testarossas For Everyone!    Super Mash Bros.
Still Fond    Cut Off Your Hands
Photobooth    Friendly Fires
Little Bit (AutoErotique Bootleg Remix)    Lykke Li
Watch The Tapes    LCD Soundsystem
human after all    Daft Punk
Electric Feel    MGMT
Never Miss A Beat (cut copy remix)    Kaiser Chiefs
Lights And Music (Boys Noize Happy Birthday Remix)    Cut Copy
I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (The Twelves Remix)    Black Kids
The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance    Vampire Weekend VS Miike Snow
Hearts On Fire    Cut Copy
As Above, So Below (Justice Remix)    Klaxons
The Geeks Were Right (The Disco Villains Remix)    The Faint
We Are Technologic (LightsoverLA Re-Mash)    Daft Punk vs. Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Cheap and Cheerful (SebastiAn Remix)    The Kills
Banquet (Boys Noize Remix)    Bloc Party
Woman (MSTRKRFT Remix)    Wolfmother
Do You Want To (Erol Alkan Remix)    Franz Ferdinand
Daft Punk Is Playing In My House (Soulwax Shibuya Re-Remix)    LCD Soundsystem
Bigmouth Strikes Again (David Starfire Remix)    The Smiths
Let There Be Lite    Justice
Sleepyhead (Neo Tokyo Remix)    Passion Pit
Kids (Soulwax Nite Version)    MGMT
Monster (Original Version)    Parov Stelar
Get Innocuous (Soulwax Remix)    LCD Soundsystem
Mercury (CSS Remix)    Bloc Party
Ulysses Mr Vega Extended Remix    Franz Ferdinand
Drop The Pressure    Mylo
Waters Of Nazareth    Justice
Focker (Boys Noize Terror Remix)    Late Of The Pier
seven RAVE nation army     Alphabeat vs. The Futureheads
Bounce (The Disco Villains Remix)    MSTRKRFT
All That She Wants (The Disco Villains Remix)    Ace Of Base
Sex Machine (Original Mix)    ReSeT!
Krack    Soulwax
Move My Body (Original Version)    Tiga
D.A.N.C.E. (Live Version)    Justice
Standing On The Shore (Dirty Disco Youth Remix)    Empire Of The Sun
Dirty Harry (The Disco Villains Remix)    Gorillaz
Washing Up (Tiga Mix)    Tomas Andersson
Hustler    Simian Mobile Disco
Dolami    Sebastian
Rave Is King (Le Castle Vania Remix)    Fukkk Offf
Jokin’ Jay z (Remixed by Don Rimini)    Jay z Feat. Don Rimini
We Just Came to Get the Party Started (Night Drugs Remix)    The Disco Villains
Death Suite (Bobermann Remix)    Erol Alkan & Boys Noize
Phantom II (Boys Noize Unreleased Turbine)    Justice
Love Me Hate Me Kiss Me Kill Me    Fukkk Offf
Right Here Right Now (Trumpdisco Remix)    Fatboy Slim
Xtatic Truth (Xtra loud Mix)    Crystal Fighters
We Are Your Friends (The Disco Villains Remix)    Justice

Thanks for the great picture Andor.

Man On The Moon: The End Of Day – Kid Cudi

So the slick looking guy above really hasn’t been on my radar at all. Sure, I know that he had that big thing with Crookers, which all the awful club rats at my school enjoy, but as you can probably tell, that is not the best way to get in my good books. So I sort of downloaded this album on a limb, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Initially, I only enjoyed a couple of tracks which felt like they might as well be sold as singles. The rest felt awful. But after going through the album, as a whole, a couple of times, I’m really enjoying it.

Apart from the intro (which I just hate the sound of), every track fits well and is enjoyable within the context of the album; which consists of Kid Cudi sleeping, falling into a nightmare, finding a better place (“his sanctuary”) and finally, waking up. With help from narrator Common, the album flows and fits together really well. Of course, the lyrics are just as tight; it’s deep during his emotional nightmares and fun when Cudi is in the club. They are always strikingly appropriate, and once again add to that sense of togetherness. The music follows a similar course; slow and in minor keys at first, and then reaches high tempos with MGMT collaborations and Lady GaGa samples.

Piece by piece, there is not enough depth in the individual tracks for this album to be considered great. But, with everything fitting together so well, it is a real joy to listen to. I’ve attached the turn from Kid Cudi’s reality to his nightmare (Simple As and Solo Dolo) and my favourite track; Make Her Say.

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