From the 1989 book Pet Shop Boys, annually. here’s a look at vocalist Neil Tennant’s career at Marvel Comics’ UK offices in the 1970s. I’d normally post this sort of thing over at Disco Potential, but this features confluence and synergy with my medium of choice, so here we are.
Click to visit the site, listen, and download.
I made a mix. It’s electronic music, primarily tech and progressive house. Right click or option-click to download here, if you’d like.
Here are the songs featured in this 76-minute, 145mb MP3:
No Memory — Roland Appel
Purple Soul — Carlo Lio
Compass Rose — Adultnapper
Touch My Horn — Jesse Rose
West End Girls 2009 (Club Mix) — James Talk + Ridney
Am Alive (Martin Roth Home Is Where We Belong Remix) — Shiha + Dr. K + Nii (featuring Sarah Blacker)
The Call — John Gurd
Asteroidz (Sultan and Ned Shepard Remix) — DBN (featuring Madita)
Magenta Sunset — Michael Cassette
Time After Time (Chris Reece Progressive Mix) — Feel + Alexander Popov (featuring Tiff Lacey)
Praise You 2009 — Fatboy Slim vs Fedde Le Grand
I featured this on Disco Potential a couple of days ago, but the video is just as enjoyable as the song. You’ll want to watch it in full screen mood for maximum pop-culture saturation.
Two notes: Everything here’s in the very hands-in-the-air end of progressive house because this is the first nice spring weekend we’re seeing in New England and I wanted people to have some happy, upbeat dance records. This is also the first mix made with my new (lower-end, admittedly) Numark mixer and I think it came out really well except for two minor glitches that probably bug me more than they will you. Just right click or command-click to download.
“Free Fall” (Dynamic Illusion’s Cloud West Paradise Mix) – Michael & Levan
“She Knows” (Juan Carlos Herrera Remix) – Lee Daines
“Dawn Patrol” – Sentrafuge
“Melo” – Pryda
“Reeperbahn”- Pryda
“Just Another Sleepless Night” (Egostereo Mix) – Mad8 & Shawn Christopher
“Professional Killers” (Jerome Isma-Ae & Daniel Portman Remix) – Komytea
“Lilith” (Remix) – Gai Barone
“Hey Dee Jay” – Marini & Noferini
David Press made some smarmy-ass comment about how I don’t play records anymore and I decided to rectify that decision with this hour-and-change long mix that’s tech house, progressive house, and then in the end some house house. Just right-click or command-click or whatever to download it.
Here’s a track listing:
01. “Aquatonic” – Nick Muir, John Digweed
02. “Murder Weapon” – 16 Bit Lolitas
03. “LaLaLaLaLaLa” (James Harcourt Mix) – Tyrrell
04. “Objects and Purpose” (M.A.N.D.Y Mix) – Bronnt Industries Kapital
05. “Butter Mik” – Thomas Langner
06. “The People” (Eric Prydz Remix) – Sebastien Leger
07. “Temptation” – Dinka
08. “Keep Control Plus” (Fedde Le Grande Remix) – Sono
09. “Fuckin Use The Crystal” – Parrket
10. “Left My Heart In Tokyo” (Treasure Fingers Mix) – Mini Viva
So, yeah, I was lazy when I reposted my 2008 mix and I felt guilty about it, so here’s a quick and dirty Valentine’s Day Minimix for you. There’s a lot of boshing drums and hands in the air bits, but there’s also a song with loud guitars and people screaming about making out for people who like that sort of thing. You can download it here.
Here’s a tracklist:
Yeah, so I heard about you and Matt and I just wanted to say how sorry I was about that because he’s totally being a dick and you deserve better and anyway I made you this tape. The first side’s just some stuff I thought you’d like but the second side I made because I want to tell you something.
It’s just…just listen, OK?
Am I gonna see you in the quad after Mr. Hembree’s class?
Cool. Let me know if you need a ride home – Brian just got his license and I’m going with him!
Victoria Hesketh has an unabashed love of pop music. her YouTube channel is filled with covers of verse-chorus-verse groups as diverse as Hot Chip, Alphabeat, Haddaway, and will.i.am. As leader of the short-lived Dead Disco, she did a more-than-passable Deborah Harry fronting the Killers and made a few records that were the basis for some fine remixes, but it’s the four tracks on her Arecibo EP that grabbed my attention. I’m not normally one to fete someone with such a thin discography, but there’s something simultaneously celebratory and revelatory about the four tracks (“Meddle” and “Stuck On Repeat,” appear in their original and remixed forms) on her debut.
Throughout the too-short record, snatches of the purest Eurocheese from the deepest caves meet the no-wave sound of New York 1979 while the analog synths and cheap handclaps of Italodisco provide the backing and on top of it is one of the most perfectly pop voices I’ve heard – upbeat, maybe a little Kate Bush in parts, but with just enough oomph to sell the chorus. I really do get the feeling that she’s onto something, particularly if she continues to work with Joe Goddard from Hot Chip (them again – I have a whole theory about their parts being greater than the sum) and Greg Kurstin, who’s produced Lily Allen and Kylie (as well as Dead Disco.)
1.
You know how everybody loves The Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible and gush about how their best songs have this sweep and are really huge and then the band manages to come up with these tiny intimate moments that are really rewarding? That’s how I felt about the Friendly Fires album.
2.
The live version here is pretty much missing the female backup vocal, which I very much like. There’s a remix (I’d more properly call it a ground-up revision) that features Au Revoir Simone that I enjoy almost as much as the original, for completely different reasons. I bet you could find that pretty easily on Elbo.ws.
3.
I like songs about Paris, obviously.
4.
I really, really miss New Order sometimes.
I trust I don’t have to say why this is an absolutely stunning bit of pop, right? Right.
Also, Giant Pineapple.
A lot of what I’m calling “The New Pop” shares some similar DNA: the good bits of 80s acts like Wham! and the innumerable hordes that were unleashed from the Stock Aiken Waterman stockade. New Zealand’s Pip Brown started out playing in grunge bands before moving closer to punk with Two Lane Blacktop and into electronic pop with Teenager before embracing the pop she’d grown up with and recording under an alias shared by Rutger Hauer’s best collaboration with Matthew Broderick. “I wanted to make music that could put a smile on people’s faces and give them a feeling of nostalgia even though they may be hearing my songs for the first time,” Brown wrote in her biography on the Ladyhawke website.
That’s what “Paris Is Burning” is – instantly familiar, catchy, harkening back to a dozen other songs while aping none of them. Is it wildly experimental or blazing new territory? No, but it is utterly listenable, something I rank higher and higher as I get settled into my twilight years.
It only took four years working under the Rex The Dog alias (and a decade before that under a series of guises) for British producer Jake Williams to produce an album. If you’re familiar with his remixes for artists like Robyn, The Knife, Depeche Mode, and Goldfrapp, then you know what to expect from The Rex The Dog Show. “I Can See You Can You See Me” was the album’s lead-in single, a pop-flecked piece of techno with a bit of a wink. The album also features new versions of early tracks “Prototype” and “Circulate” along with the aforementioned remix of The Knife and a rerub of “Tony The Beat” by The Sounds.
If you’d like, you can read Rex The Dog’s comic about the single and its remixes. It makes me want a whole graphic novel featuring these guys.
