Twenty Marauding Songs
Twenty Songs, 6 May 2007
We'll be honest, this last week has been absolutely barnstormed by massive dance tracks. It's like, dance is back or something. Who saw it coming. We were reading back over previous musing on this very journal and just last April we were jabbering on about how we thought it was unfair that dance has been maligned and yet, suddenly, here it is, back. There's a surprise in this month's chart too, for those who skim but don't read, heh.
20 Idlewild, Last Night I Missed All The Fireworks (Live)
19 The Presets, Down Down Down (Digitalism Remix)
18 Krazy Baldhead, Bill's Break (Feadz Remix)
17 Elbow, Snowball
16 Half Cousin, Police Torch
From way way back in the day, possibly the first single I got of the Scot tearaways before they lived their dream of being watered down REM, this was how we wanted them to stay. Alas, they didn't but hey, it was fun while they were. In ode to them playing live while we were too drunk to realise and, here is the first Digitalism appearance of the week, a remix of Down Down Down by The Presets which, itself, is a fine fine tune. Proving he's actually damn talented and nobody's wing man, Feadz's remix of this old Krazy Baldhead track is glitchy and Warp-esque electro goodness, we like. From even wayer back in the dayer, Elbow provide this week's throwback moment in the shape of one of their finest moments, Snowball while, at the other end of the scale, bang up to date release Iodine, the second album from Half Cousin, gives us the lovely, downtempo electro-chunk acoustic of Police Torch.
15 Clone Quartet, Carousel
14 Infants, Foam Party
13 Cristine, I Freak
12 Spudboy, Get Loose
11 Late Of The Pier, Heartbeat, Flicker, Line
We move up a notch to the latest offerings from Tigertrap, Irish pop mongrels Clone Quartet, who fuse quirky electronic blips with sweet indie songwriting bless them. Let's just hope they don't get big and bland eh. Also on Tigertrap and in no danger of getting bland, Infants, they follow up their wickedly Pre-esque slut punk fuck debut with this little teaser, sent to us by one of their number. Sandwiched betwen Infants and their offspring, Cristine's I Freak - the other side to a Simian Mobile Disco release - is, like the SMD track, a bit of a nice but not amazing electro pop pre-bleepbeat affair. Cute and catchy in its way, it won't live that long in the memory. Unlike Spudboy, who is the Infants offshoot, and his Get Loose offering which reminds us of the absolute genius of Disastronauts Kick My Teeth Out for its mute bass warblings. Very slick. Finally outside the ten, Late Of The Pier show us what everyone else sees in them with the better-than-its-a-side b-side, Heartbeat, Flicker, Line. Not as slutty as we'd like but with definite potential.
10 Daft Punk, Technologic (Digitalism's Highway To Paris Remix)
09 Maps, It Will Find You
08 The Horrors, Count In Fives
07 Acid Jacks, Awake Since 78 (MSTRKRFT Remix)
06 goFASTER>>, She Starts Monday
The second Digitalism offering, this is their superb remix of an already exceptional Daft Punk song and mixes their less sleazy disco house with that of the genre's prototype. Longtime Unlixes favourites Maps precedes his debut album (which we ordered ages ago but seems to have been lost in the post) with the sumptuous It Will Find You, which appeared last week in even better remixed form but we thought we'd give an outing to the stil super original mix. From earlier in the year, we overlooked it at the time but this really is gothic new rave, like, actually. We're sure Count In Fives has the same intro as, like, a 2Unlimited song. Excellent. More excellent by miles though are the mixes of Awake Since 78, of which MSTRKRFT provide the meaty second best. Finally our new buddies goFASTER>> provide the super cute indie pop of She Starts Monday which is actually about drugs or something but, oh well, it reminded us of this time this really hot chick started on our team and, more to the point, how we always seem to get the fat, dull ones from training these days. Bah.
05 Bleach Eatin Pimps, The Mistake (Kissy Sell Out Remix)
The only fully instrumental track of Twenty and pretty rare for us and electro house in general, this is Kissy Sell Out once again making his own of a track that already alright we guess. The Mistke is very retro rave and a bit trite for us. Luckily, Kissy ignores this and sends the track in all sorts of exciting electro skyscraper directions, as the boy does best.
04 Charlie Fanclub, Chunka
The other artist we found at the same time as Kissy, Charlie Fanclub throws up here a wide as all hell breaks loose electro track, full of bleepbeat sleaze and rave warning giganticism. We've only really been playing it through our earphones, heaven knows how floor quaking it sounds full size.
03 Siobhan Donaghy, Don't Give Up (Medicine 8 Vox Remix)
That's right, folks, it's the ginger one wot used to be in Sugababes, in a Twenty chart. Like that time Robbie Williams popped up, (albeit credited at the time as Mystery Artist), people will laugh at us for the inclusion but what they don't realise is that Medicine 8 probably haven't used any of the original (we wouldn't know to be fair, we've never heard the original, they could be identical) except the odd vocal stab and instead, like Soulwax vs Williams, created a dance track so fucking amazing it should be kept behind bars for fear of hurting people. Sirens of all shapes and sized are thrown off the side of building only to explode on contact with the ground and shatter eardrums in the best possible way for miles around.
02 Klanguage, All This Time (Yuksek Vs Invaders Remix)
In fairness, this week we had a three way tie for top place. The Medicine 8 remix was probably better than this but the original to this was already a good track and we had three other Klanguage songs that could easily have been in the chart. Apparently Yuksek is in Klanguage so maybe that's why his mostly vocal-free remix is so bloody amazing. It's an intricate electro runthrough of sideswipes and builds and just keeps you hanging on. You think the vocal will drop but it never does and the anticipation alone is enough to make a grown man wet.
01 Acid Jacks, Awake Since 78 (Boy 8-Bit Remix)
Holy shit folks, that's right. It turns out Acid Jacks are our new favourite Australians. No idea who they're replacing, like, but that might just be because this single package has negated our need for knowledge of any other music. Boy 8-Bit didn't do such a great job on other remixes this week (he also had a go at The Loose Cannons to 'pretty good' but not 'world stopping' effect) but pulled it all back to leapfrog even MSTRKRFT to this week's top spot. The thing about this version of Awake is that it's bloody terrific. It just keeps applying new twists to the song until, at the end, you've pretty much heard the best four or five remixes of it all mashed into one epic journey. Subtle without ever losing it's ability to drop the entire bomb all over the crowd, this is special. Excellent.
We'll be honest, this last week has been absolutely barnstormed by massive dance tracks. It's like, dance is back or something. Who saw it coming. We were reading back over previous musing on this very journal and just last April we were jabbering on about how we thought it was unfair that dance has been maligned and yet, suddenly, here it is, back. There's a surprise in this month's chart too, for those who skim but don't read, heh.
20 Idlewild, Last Night I Missed All The Fireworks (Live)
19 The Presets, Down Down Down (Digitalism Remix)
18 Krazy Baldhead, Bill's Break (Feadz Remix)
17 Elbow, Snowball
16 Half Cousin, Police Torch
From way way back in the day, possibly the first single I got of the Scot tearaways before they lived their dream of being watered down REM, this was how we wanted them to stay. Alas, they didn't but hey, it was fun while they were. In ode to them playing live while we were too drunk to realise and, here is the first Digitalism appearance of the week, a remix of Down Down Down by The Presets which, itself, is a fine fine tune. Proving he's actually damn talented and nobody's wing man, Feadz's remix of this old Krazy Baldhead track is glitchy and Warp-esque electro goodness, we like. From even wayer back in the dayer, Elbow provide this week's throwback moment in the shape of one of their finest moments, Snowball while, at the other end of the scale, bang up to date release Iodine, the second album from Half Cousin, gives us the lovely, downtempo electro-chunk acoustic of Police Torch.
15 Clone Quartet, Carousel
14 Infants, Foam Party
13 Cristine, I Freak
12 Spudboy, Get Loose
11 Late Of The Pier, Heartbeat, Flicker, Line
We move up a notch to the latest offerings from Tigertrap, Irish pop mongrels Clone Quartet, who fuse quirky electronic blips with sweet indie songwriting bless them. Let's just hope they don't get big and bland eh. Also on Tigertrap and in no danger of getting bland, Infants, they follow up their wickedly Pre-esque slut punk fuck debut with this little teaser, sent to us by one of their number. Sandwiched betwen Infants and their offspring, Cristine's I Freak - the other side to a Simian Mobile Disco release - is, like the SMD track, a bit of a nice but not amazing electro pop pre-bleepbeat affair. Cute and catchy in its way, it won't live that long in the memory. Unlike Spudboy, who is the Infants offshoot, and his Get Loose offering which reminds us of the absolute genius of Disastronauts Kick My Teeth Out for its mute bass warblings. Very slick. Finally outside the ten, Late Of The Pier show us what everyone else sees in them with the better-than-its-a-side b-side, Heartbeat, Flicker, Line. Not as slutty as we'd like but with definite potential.
10 Daft Punk, Technologic (Digitalism's Highway To Paris Remix)
09 Maps, It Will Find You
08 The Horrors, Count In Fives
07 Acid Jacks, Awake Since 78 (MSTRKRFT Remix)
06 goFASTER>>, She Starts Monday
The second Digitalism offering, this is their superb remix of an already exceptional Daft Punk song and mixes their less sleazy disco house with that of the genre's prototype. Longtime Unlixes favourites Maps precedes his debut album (which we ordered ages ago but seems to have been lost in the post) with the sumptuous It Will Find You, which appeared last week in even better remixed form but we thought we'd give an outing to the stil super original mix. From earlier in the year, we overlooked it at the time but this really is gothic new rave, like, actually. We're sure Count In Fives has the same intro as, like, a 2Unlimited song. Excellent. More excellent by miles though are the mixes of Awake Since 78, of which MSTRKRFT provide the meaty second best. Finally our new buddies goFASTER>> provide the super cute indie pop of She Starts Monday which is actually about drugs or something but, oh well, it reminded us of this time this really hot chick started on our team and, more to the point, how we always seem to get the fat, dull ones from training these days. Bah.
05 Bleach Eatin Pimps, The Mistake (Kissy Sell Out Remix)
The only fully instrumental track of Twenty and pretty rare for us and electro house in general, this is Kissy Sell Out once again making his own of a track that already alright we guess. The Mistke is very retro rave and a bit trite for us. Luckily, Kissy ignores this and sends the track in all sorts of exciting electro skyscraper directions, as the boy does best.
04 Charlie Fanclub, Chunka
The other artist we found at the same time as Kissy, Charlie Fanclub throws up here a wide as all hell breaks loose electro track, full of bleepbeat sleaze and rave warning giganticism. We've only really been playing it through our earphones, heaven knows how floor quaking it sounds full size.
03 Siobhan Donaghy, Don't Give Up (Medicine 8 Vox Remix)
That's right, folks, it's the ginger one wot used to be in Sugababes, in a Twenty chart. Like that time Robbie Williams popped up, (albeit credited at the time as Mystery Artist), people will laugh at us for the inclusion but what they don't realise is that Medicine 8 probably haven't used any of the original (we wouldn't know to be fair, we've never heard the original, they could be identical) except the odd vocal stab and instead, like Soulwax vs Williams, created a dance track so fucking amazing it should be kept behind bars for fear of hurting people. Sirens of all shapes and sized are thrown off the side of building only to explode on contact with the ground and shatter eardrums in the best possible way for miles around.
02 Klanguage, All This Time (Yuksek Vs Invaders Remix)
In fairness, this week we had a three way tie for top place. The Medicine 8 remix was probably better than this but the original to this was already a good track and we had three other Klanguage songs that could easily have been in the chart. Apparently Yuksek is in Klanguage so maybe that's why his mostly vocal-free remix is so bloody amazing. It's an intricate electro runthrough of sideswipes and builds and just keeps you hanging on. You think the vocal will drop but it never does and the anticipation alone is enough to make a grown man wet.
01 Acid Jacks, Awake Since 78 (Boy 8-Bit Remix)
Holy shit folks, that's right. It turns out Acid Jacks are our new favourite Australians. No idea who they're replacing, like, but that might just be because this single package has negated our need for knowledge of any other music. Boy 8-Bit didn't do such a great job on other remixes this week (he also had a go at The Loose Cannons to 'pretty good' but not 'world stopping' effect) but pulled it all back to leapfrog even MSTRKRFT to this week's top spot. The thing about this version of Awake is that it's bloody terrific. It just keeps applying new twists to the song until, at the end, you've pretty much heard the best four or five remixes of it all mashed into one epic journey. Subtle without ever losing it's ability to drop the entire bomb all over the crowd, this is special. Excellent.