Now I loved the clip to Justice’s “Stress” as that was somewhat believable and you could feel the genuine fear and terror those randoms on the street would’ve been experiencing. There was this sense of tension and grit to the way it film and the music was brilliant. This clip on the other hand, I can sorta see the irony of M.I.A.’s lyrics/subject themes when put against the visuals but it kinda feels a bit over the top and contrived. Are they taking the piss out of red-haired individuals? Genocide? I dunno about this one, maybe I’m just taking it all too seriously…

And so the end of summer has arrived and as expected the weather has gotten, well let’s say a little different. Truth be told, the post pic above isn’t that far from the actual conditions that have lashed out over the weekend – epic rain, flash floods, thunder, lighting, golf ball-sized hail…

Anyway, this week’s tracks are after the jump… (Well, technically they’re last week’s tunes but it was my last week at my old job = flat out transition/wrap-up, and I was sick so boooo!)

Wolfgang Gartner – Undertaker (Original Mix)

This is what happens when you combine that Deadmau5 electro progressive-ish house sound with equal parts of 8-bit glitch, a solid, driving kick drum and A-Trak-esque sirens… Big fan of this one.

Classixx – Cold Act Ill (Extended Mix)

Rad video clip with heaps of old school skating. Love it! One of Classixx’s earlier tracks here giving the Roxanne Shante/Biz Markie track ‘Def Fresh Crew’ a spacey nu-disco polish over.

Defeat – D.I.Y.

Kavinsky reincarnate? Well the man is back with a new EP this month, but no, Defeat is a local producer from Western Australia and after you give this track a listen you’ll definitely see that the Dead Crusier was obviously an influence. Not that that’s a bad thing at all!

Jump Jump Dance Dance – Show Me The Night (GRUM Remix)

Some lovely synth pop remix goodness from GRUM of all people. Saw a bit of Jump Jump Dance Dance at Future yesterday but unfortunately the shoddy weather started right when their set was on so a fair few punters would’ve missed out on a nice indie pop set.

Aloe Blacc – I Need A Dollar

How To Make It In America is my new favourite TV show, well until Entourage comes back on… Anyway, this is the music that is used in the open sequence of the show. Did I tell you that Kid Cudi is a part of the cast?

Tiga – What You Need (Chromeo Remix)

It’s Tiga and Chromeo together. Another Canandian win in my books.

DJ Falcon – Honeymoon

This is up there as one of my all time favourite French Touch track and the relevance of it getting posted isn’t just just self indulgence… It is in honour of the great man touring Melbourne in late April! Gonna be another good long weekend! So who is DJ Falcon you may be asking? Cousin to Alan Braxe and co-collaborator with Thomas Bangalter in the group Together (‘So Much Love To Give’ and ‘Together’).  He is without doubt, a part of French House royalty.

I sometimes wish I had a clone. Then I would’ve been able to have seen both Jack Beats and attend my mate’s epic poker/Arnie movie marathon the same night earlier on this year… *Sigh*… Anyway, apologies for letting this one to sneak up all stealth-like. After you give this Essential Mix a listen you’ll agree it’s anything but stealth…

Essential Mix – Jack Beats (20-02-2010)

Tracklist is after the jump and it’s mutherfuckin’ epic! And for you jza, even that god-awful Doctor P track, ‘Sweet Shop’ gets dropped haha! Not to forget 16-Bit and a few other dubstep tracks…

01. Dead Can Dance – Dawn Of The Iconclast (Jack Beats Intro Edit)
02. Passion Pit – Little Secrets (Jack Beats Remix)
03. Lee Mortimer & Laidback Luke – Blau! (LA Riots Remix)
04. Jack Beats – Labyrinth
05. Pase Rock – Nights (Nadastrom Remix)
06. L-Vis 1990 – United Groove (MJ Cole Remix)
07. D1 – Pitcher (128 Mix)
08. Kissy Sell Out – This Kiss (Jack Beats Remix)
09. Black Box – Ride On Time (Zombie Disco Squad Remix – Jack Beats Edit)
10. Sound of Stereo – Button (Beataucue Remix)
11. Does It Offend You, Yeah? – Epic Last Song (Jack Beats Remix)
12. Foamo – Jookie
13. Tiga – What You Need (A-Trak Remix)
14. Zombie Nation – Seas Of Grease (Harvard Bass Remix)
15. Diplo & Blaqstarr – Get Off (Jack Beats Remix)
16. Noob & Brodinski – Peanuts Club (BeatauCue Remix)
17. M.A.N.D.Y & Booka Shade – Donut (Boy 8-Bit Remix)
18. Mvsvem – French Jeans (Style Of Eye Remix)
19. Boys Noize & Erol Alkan – Waves (Chilly Gonzales Mash-Up Edit ‘Thing’ With A Vocal…)
20. Felix Da Housecat – Kickdrum
21. SonicC – Unicorns On Acid
22. La Roux – I’m Not Your Toy (Jack Beats Remix)
23. Jack Beats & MC Dynamite – What (Boy 8-Bit Remix)
24. Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars (Siriusmo Remix)
25. Claude VonStroke – Vocal Chords
26. Popof – Serenity w/ Fingers Inc – My House Acapella (Jack Had A Groove)
27. Breakage – Justified feat. Erin
28. 16-Bit – Jump
29. Joker – Tron
30. Calvin Harris – You Used To Hold Me (Nero Remix)
31. Subscape – Hardcore Members
32. Doctor P – Sweet Shop
33. Benga – Little Bits
34. Donaeo – Riot Music (Skreamix)
35. Jack Beats – U.F.O (K-Hole Bass Riddim)
36. Lady Sovereign – Got You Dancing (Jack Beats Remix)
37. Unknown Artist – BG (Crookers DJ Tool Mix)
38. Florence + The Machine – Drumming Song (Jack Beats Remix)
39. AC Slater – Jack Got Jacked (Jack Beats Remix)
40. DJ Zinc – Gimme A Camera feat. Angela Hunter
41. Hockey – Song Away (Jack Beats ‘Anger Management’ Unreleased Dub)
42. DJ Zinc – Super Sharp Shooter (Jack Beats Remix)
43. The Count & Sinden – Panther
44. TC – Deep (Jack Beats ‘2008 Unreleased’ Remix)
45. L-Vis 1990 – The Bird
46. Project Bassline – Drop The Pressure (Jack Beats Remix)
47. Diplo & Laidback Luke vs. Proxy – Hey vs. Raven (Will Bailey Bootleg)
48. Faithless – Never Going Home (Herve Remix)
49. Fake Blood – Mars (Jack Beats Remix)
50. Jack Beats – Get Down VIP

Jump for joy because it’s the end of week and you’ve earned the right cut loose. This week see’s a me indulging a bit on my love of emotional shoegazing psychedelic tribal synth pop house music. yes, as you may have gathered, that isn’t really genre… Anyway, this week’s faves and download links are after the jump.

Gypsy & The Cat – Jona Vark

“Her name is Jona. Jona Vark…”

Ah, some more indie synth pop goodness! After listening to this track I can definitely feel a bit of Empire Of The Sun (the guitar riff = a little bit of ‘We Are The People’), M83, anything from a John Hughes movie, but a lot more Fleetwood Mac. Yes, I like Fleetwood Mac. Not just like, probably love. There I said it… There are definitely elements of ‘Little Lies’ and ‘Dreams’ in this track, especially in the chorus.

While most of the major blogs, Mark Ronson on his East Village radio show and even the late DJ AM were all over the local duo from the middle of last year, they’ve only now started to get a little more radio airplay and more importantly, gotten themselves ingrained into me! Head over to their MySpace and give the rest of their stuff a listen. Hanging out big time for this LP release…

Caribou – Odessa

Now this is an interesting bit of music, quirky and haunting at the same time. It’s fairly heavily layered, so you’re ears will have fun deciphering all the sounds here.  I swear when I first heard the vocals in this track I thought that perhaps Erlend Øye of Kings of Convenience and the Whitest Boy Alive fame had contributed. So if you like that kind of minimal-esque type of chill-house you’ll probably like this latest offering from Caribou.

Breakbot – Baby I’m Yours (Featuring IRFANE)

Unadulterated disco pop funk fun! When you hear this track you can’t help but bounce and boogey. If you’re a fan of the works of Shazam, Cassian, The Twelves etc., I think you’ll did this track.

The Jezabels – Hurt Me

“C’mon evil hurt me, hurt me, hurt me…”

Wow. What a track. Powerful and achingly beautiful at the same time. The track sucks you in with Hayley’s haunting vocals/lyrics, complemented by the frenetic drumming and strumming from band members Sam and Nik respectively, intertwined with Heather’s graceful piano work. Don’t forget to add a bit of reverb and swooping strings for effect during the bridge and chorus.

Throw all of this together and you get a rolling wall of big sound that builds and builds till it smacks you right in the face and just like that, disappears as quickly as it arrives. I’m not surprised to see that the Arcade Fire are listed as an influence to the Jezabels on their MySpace page.

Might as well add the music video here since it was just released last month:

Unfortunately there appears to be no Victorian shows lined up in the near future but if you are in Queensland or NSW you can catch them this month at the Playground Weekend festival February 21st or at the Enmore Theatre on the 24th supporting Placebo.

Yeasayer – Ambling Alp

A nice pysch-alt-electro-pop ditty here from NY group Yeasayer. Like any good song (or at least the ones that I like anyway…), it’s instantly catchy and just downright fun. The little synth solo breakdown at the end is just freakin’ awesome!

Douster – King Of Africa

Yes, this track has been floating around the interwebz for a while now, and yes, Douster is no n00b to the scene. These “weekly” posts however are purely an avenue for me to write about the songs that I like at a moment in time and why they got me hooked that first time.

So pretentious rant aside (hehe!), this track features some great sampling from the Lion King’s opening, the powerful ‘Circle of Life’. What you’re left in store for is five minutes of catchy, fun afro-funk-house. I could see this being a nifty opener to a set or bridge/tone shift for all you wheels of steel traders… Speaking of which, Douster is playing at the Espy on February 20th for us local kids wanting to catch him in the act.

So that’s it! Another week done and only one more away till Classixx are in town… Did I mention that I CAN’T FUCKIN’ WAIT TO SEE CLASSIXX?!?!

Have a good weekend folks and we’ll see ya next week where I guess I could try and make it a lovers themed tunage… Or a happy new year to all the chinky readers out there haha! Peace out!

So yes it seems that I may have missed a posting last week. Sorry folks, I was running around errands post-parents return from holidays. Anyway, while I may have missed a post it didn’t mean I missed out on listening to the odd track here and there…

Cassian – Friday Night
Lovely bit of disco house/synth pop fun from this Sydneysider. Definitely one to get you in the mood for a party – on Friday of course… Cassian is on the road at the moment promoting the ‘Friday Night EP’ and for us Melburnians he’ll be doing an EP launch at Sorry Grandma of January 22nd.

Renegade – Pilot
While I really wanted to post the track ‘Threshold‘ instead, it seems there isn’t a copy floating out there in the digital world just yet. This track is just as bangin’ though. Think of the Renegade sound as a bit of Justice + Danger + Kavinsky + Le Castle Vania + Revolte + GRUM etc… Could 2010 be the return of the electrobanger sound?

SebastiAn – Threnody (Capt & Cooked Edit)
When the original floated on the net last week there was definitely a whole lot of “WTF?!” thrown around with about the same amount of praise bantered around also. Anyway, it hasn’t taken long for someone to tap into the 2 minutes of gold and turn it into something the masses could enjoy. Most importantly it’s come from another local talent in the form of Capt And Cooked. Take a bit of the intro, mix it into the drops of gold and you have a yourself banger. Expect this to be one of the better remixes/edits of this track.

The Phantom’s Revenge – When Mr Hyde Killed Dr Jekyll (Original Mix)
This track has come as a bit of a surprise for me as I’ve always known The Phantom’s Revenge for his French Touch goodness. This on the other hand takes a leaf from Ed Banger book of bang with a bit of fidget in for good measure. My prediction for 2010 looks but more importantly sounds better each day…

Dadahack – Hello Dust (Featuring Hannah Robinson)
A bit of melodic prog house has never hurt anyone (plus it’s a bit of a break from all of the bangers above…). Anyway, Dadahack is a new production duo consisting of James Banbury and Pete Davis who have previously produced for the likes of Gwen Stefani, Wiley and Bloc Party.

Palermo Disko Machine – Theme Of Palermo Disko Machine
So who is Palermo Disko Machine you may be asking? Well it is Jens Moelle of Digitalism fame and he’s been working under this alias for some time now. Try looking at Kitsuné Maison circa 2006… Anyway, I thought I’d wrap this post up with a tune that’d be right at home at your local space disco.

Umm… Yeah… If you can survive the 11 odd minutes of conceptual/experimental sampled glitch/noise at the start, you’ll eventually get the sweet, sweet musical bliss that is SebastiAn. It’s heavy, it’s rough, it’s fan-fuckin’-tastic.

SebastiAn – Threnody

This track has leaked off the Ed Banger Records xmas compilation which was limited to just 100 copies. Busy P mentioned on his blog that the compilation featured stuff from Uffie, Krazy Baldhead, Mr Flash and Breakbot. Read more here.