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!

After catching the end of Ian Carey the first artist on the list of “to sees” was Grandmaster Flash which I have to say was a bit of a downer. BLASPHEMY! I know you’re probably thinking, “OMGWTFBBQ?! He’s trippin’!”, but I’m dead set on that opinion. Grandmaster’s set was so scattered/start-stop and forever filled with hip-hop preaching… Play the tunes and Melbourne will put it hands up and bounce!

Next up was Lifelike and now that was freekin’ awesome. Ok, I confess I have a soft spot for the French especially when they’re running through the Modular/Oz indie/electro playlist. Cutters, Presets, Ladyhawke… They all made a cameo. Oh and Whitest Boy Alive! I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of Fred Falke’s remix of ‘Golden Cage’ that and Stardust… To be honest though, it didn’t look like Lifelike was enjoying himself. A stark comparison to Grandmaster who loved his own show and banter. So while my original plan was to see Mr Oizo set straight after Lifelike’s, I decided to play the good friend card and agreed to head over to see the Swedish House Mafia in preparation for Pharrell Will.. I mean N.E.R.D… Besides, Oizo was playing at Roxanne’s later that night…

So how was the Mafia you may ask? Pretty good actually. A bit “commercial” for my liking but hey, it got the crowd moving and I was pretty sure Pryda and the ‘mau5 got dropped. Oh, and I heard ‘Show Me Love’ for probably the 3rd time that day…  Little did I know that tiny gripe would pale in comparision to the aural onslaught I’d get when N.E.R.D got on stage… Crackin’ sound you say? Not likely… The wind did a good job of shifting the sound away from the grandstands. No, my ears were deafened by the sheer number of female punters shrieking like 12 year olds when Pharrell was on stage. It was a scene out of those archival Beatles concert news reels except with less skirt and more skin…

So after N.E.R.D our next stop was Joachim Garraud but that meant a walk through Punch-ONz alley… Apparently some poor gal got push down three flights on the grandstand by some dick and then all hell broke loose. Seriously?! WTF?! People!!! Our crew also discovered that the audio sweet spot was just past the inthemix tent when we heard Oakenfold set crystal clear… Oh well… But enough of that, Joachim was awesome. Well, he did rock out with a keytar and I’m biased to that haha! Oh and he also dropped a bit of ‘One More Time’ which is always = WINNER in my book. Bit of bias to French Touch? I sure do! Haha!

I feel bad now saying it, but the next hour really was just filler till Etienne involving CSS and Richie Hawtin considering how great they both are. Oh and Lovefoxxx, Lovefoxxx! That feisty Lovefoxxx! Yep, huge crush on that halfie haha! Damn it! Anyway… Finally, the highlight and pretty much what I was anticipating all night… Etienne de Crécy’s cube! So freekin’ awesome! The tent was packed, the crowd was sweating and dancing away. It was like a BDO Boiler Room! Ah the memories…

Roxanne’s was pretty sweet with Nick Foley and Generik doing a great job of revving up the crowd before Mr Oizo got on. Chardy I’m told was alright too. So yeah Oizo rocked and by near the end of that I was pretty much dunzos for the day/night. Hometime!

So kids, that’s it really… Go Future! Go Etienne! I guess now’s a better time than ever for all of the shout outs:

• Mindos – You hooking me up with a Future tix was so much better than me getting you a tix to St Jerome’s…
• A-to-the-N-to-the-YO! – Great assistant paparazzo work. Hurry up and get that damn SLR already!
• Lee – Onstage/backstage to snap Etienne was a real buzz
• Anth and Farz – Cheers for letting me recoup at your place before Roxanne’s
• Crevs & Lukey – Dedication to kick on at Roxanne’s and for the schmick ride home