Liverpudlian synthpopers Ladytron have a glorious return to form with their brand new track, ‘Black Cat’, the opener of the yet-to-be released fourth studio album, ‘Velocifero’ (full tracklisting on Wikipedia). The new record is produced by Ladytron with assistance from Ed Banger’s Vicaraous Bliss, Jim Abbiss of Arctic Monkeys production fame, and Alessandro Cortini (currently of seminal Industrial band Nine Inch Nails). The single ‘Black Cat’ carries a gothic synthpop sweetness with morose-toned Bulgarian verses from ‘tron’s Mira Aroyo.
The full-length ‘Velocifero’ has a street date of June 3rd and will be released on Nettwerk, the groups’ first for the label (Nettwerk was one of the first labels to abolish DRM and incredibly, paid legal defense for a teen downloader sued by the RIAA).
Ladytron always sounds better in bunches, so enjoy these—some we’ve posted before, some you’re likely to have heard before—all should be heard again. …These are remix collaborations with London new wavers Playgroup & Chicaco house heavyweight Felix Da Housecat, as well as Nine Inch Nails and Vicarious Bliss:
The Under The Covers column returns! We’ve slowly been collecting more cover songs that run the gamut from awesome to odd to awful. All varieties are worth hearing! Listen in awe or disdainful laughter.
30 Seconds to Mars covers Kanye West’s ‘Stronger’ live on BBC Radio 1. This falls into the laughable category even though frontman Jared Leto delivers the vocals so earnestly. They saved the Daft Punk vocals, so don’t expect any. I’d be rolling if they tried.
File this under fantastic, I first heard do this Pink Floyd cover at last month’s Vegoose festival and was very impressed. Not many groups can come close to a classic, but the The Shinsdo.
And in that same vein, this Zwan (Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame’s 2001-2003 project) cover of Metal gods Iron Maiden on ‘Mark of the Beast’. Probably one of my favorite covers comes at you from the Spun soundtrack.
Next up, Lightspeed Champion covering The Beatles immortal John Lennon. Lightspeed Champion is Devonte Hynes or just “Dev”, formerly of thrash-rap-punk group Test Icicles. Test Icicles remains one of my favorite things ever. I seriously moaned and writhed while morning the death of the Test Icicles last year. But the musicians live on! Dev maintains a blog at TheWorldForgot.com, there he puts up a great many home recordings—quite different from Test Icicles, but great in a whole new way:
Ladytron getting sexy R’n'B’d out covering Tweet’s slut-anthem ‘Oops (Oh My)’. Y’all remember this original? With the Timbaland beat and Missy Elliot doin’ backup vocals? This cover appeared as a b-side on their ‘Evil’ single:
Ursula 1000 returns! ‘Kaboom’ is the new track and it’s completely as advertised. Duck and cover, motherfucker. The bomb drops on ESL Music, but not for minute, so get prepared. Ursula 1000 sent these with the note that they are “especially early” and exclusive to URL’s truly. <3
Savor these b-sides by Frencie club crusher Easy D and Boston beathead Red Foxxworth a.k.a. SLUTTT (who’s also known to put his B-log sig. down on Palms Out Sounds from time to time).
And just ’cause, here’s a hot lick from last year’s Ursula 1000 single, ‘Urgent/Anxious’ that rides on the coattails of the previous post all about Ladytron (and how to party with them, and us).
If you plan on seeing Ladytron at Hollywood & Highland, you need know know that although the party is free, you need an incoming Metro (MTA) ticket stub. So take some public transportation and you can get utterly aresholed on booze without worry! It’s a win/win!
If you want get down with the intimate after party at Teddy’s, know that you need to be over 21, and have to be one of the lucky chosen few. We have a couple handful of invites to give out to this swank little free party, with free drinks and Ladytron on the decks. You’re down? Send an email to us before 3pm tomorrow, and, if you’re lucky, we’ll put you on the list that night—you even bring a date or heterosexual life-partner. To enter:
Curtis Vodka, hails from Anchorage Alaska but gets down official with the Baltimore Club / Bmore scene. Turntable Lab’s sellin’ the goods like his brand new mix CD, ‘I Just Fucked Your Girlfriend‘. They also got his prior, ‘Heavy Hittaz (Baltimore) EP‘ (split with Al Ripken Jr.). Here’s a sample:
Also, he had a Bmore club smasher last year with his debut release, ‘The Yeti Bounce EP‘ on Hollertronix label, Flamin Hotz. Get a whif of the product, but know that this product is sold out:
Dude also does grips of unofficial remixes too, some you can find in our Curtis Vodka archive. Here’s another for the pile—a newer Ladytron remix of a not-so-new favorite:
Flufftronix, reps Bloomington, Indiana where he throws the hella cool Electrocute Parties. Instead of tacking on the brand new mix he gave us, there will be a “sister post” immediately after this one to showcase his new ‘Summer Transit Insanity Mix’ (go to the post now). Also, go back and give another listen to his ‘Upbeat Remix’ of Uffie’s ‘First Love’ in the Flufftronix archive.
Grauzone (grey zone) was a music/art project started by brothers Martin Eicher, Stephan Eicher in Switzerland circa 1978. The duo used synthesizers, light effects and super-8 film projections in their act. Publisher of punk magazine “No Fun” Urs Staiger helped Grauzone in the studio and they began recording numerous singles & in 1981 they released their first & only full length title ‘Grauzone’.
Undoubtedly, the groups most known track has to be Eisbaer, which literally means Ice Bear. It reached the top ten on the German charts shortly after it’s release. Over the years the song has been sampled & covered by numerous artists.
In 1997 trance producer Frédéric De Backer released a tranced up version of Eisbaer under the moniker ‘Groovezone’ which quickly became a rave classic.
Grauzone only released their one album but they released a series of 7 inch singles over the years & in 1998 a collective called ‘Die Sunrise Tapes’ was released on Play It Again Sam records which you can get here. If you want prefer vinyl gemm has the original 12 inch & various 7 inches for sale, some going for 150 plus!
EDIT: Thanks to everyone who wrote in letting me know that Grauzone was from Switzerland not Germany. My bust!
I Simian Mobile Disco, but I am forever in love with the late Simian. Now broken up, U.K.’s Simian is the primary focus here (yet, all bases are covered).
Songs and albums which you remember when and where you first heard them are important. This part will be like De La Soul’s Stakes is High intro where everybody talks about where they were the first time they heard BDP’s Criminal Minded. Well, I was a little kid when that one happened, but I sure remember the first time I heard Simian’s ‘Chemistry is What We Are’.
The year was 2001, I was shopping in Union/Stüssy in Los Angeles and the clerk had it resounding through the space on the P.A. and I was floored at how good it was. With a query, I learned it was ‘Chemistry is What We Are’, Simian’s first LP on Source/Astralwerks. I don’t feel like I’m pushing it when I say that I think that this album is the Pet Sounds of Electronic Music.
Here are a few selections from ‘Chemistry is What We Are’:
I can’t claim early adopter status on this group, as they had released an EP in 2000 titled, ‘Watch it Glow’ that included a few tunes which made it onto the LP and are shared above. However here’s another that didn’t, a dark and experimental track that was later re-worked into ‘One Dimension’ for the LP:
Simian released a second LP record in 2002 titled, ‘We Are Your Friends’. I didn’t find it as instantly infections as their prior record (like many other early simian fans), but it did include a enough gems for it to still be considered a great record—namely their first single and video (or more accurately, videos, as there were two alternative videos), ‘LA Breeze’. You can find both videos on Simian’s official site. This song gained much exposure, due to an advert for French automaker Peugot and spawned several great remixes, including mixes by Ladytron and even (OMG) Brian Eno. For more info on how the Eno colab. came to be, see this Vice interview with Simian Mobile Disco who also remixed the track as their first commercial project.
‘LA Breeze’ seemed to be the standout track on the album, and their second single, ‘Never Be Alone’ never eclipsed it. ‘Never Be Alone’ got a multi-format release and a video (see it on YouTube), but it didn’t gain the exposure that ‘LA Breeze’ did—at least not initially. Enter Justice, who’s remix of ‘Never Be Alone’ has been the (extended) now sound of Electronic Dance Music for 4 years now. Compare:
The Justice Vs Simian story is usually a bit fuzzy, so I’ll try and set it straight once and for all: Source Records and French college radio station Radio Campus Orléans held a contest in late 2002/early 2003 where their listeners and online readership were asked to remix Simian’s ‘Never Be Alone’ (probably sparked by the popularity of ‘LA Breeze’ in Peugot commercials). Graphic Designers turned producers, Justice, decided to take a crack at the contest and their remix was born. At that time, their popularity was nil, because their only prior credentials were playing drums and bass in a Weezer-like Indie Rock band called (also)starring and two production credits on a small French compilation album titled, ‘Hits Up to You’, released by Musclorecords. All things must start small! So Justice wasn’t commissioned to do the Simian remix, they did on their own and on a whim. We all know how the story ultimately ends, with Justice conquering all, but here’s an interesting fact, the winner of the contest for which the remix was created is, drumroll please, not Justice! Justice “lost the battle, but won the war” with a little help from Mogul/DJ/Daft Punk’s manager Busy P, who got ahold of Justice’s remix and imprinted it on his brand-new Ed Banger Records label (release ED002. The song reached new heights when remixes of the remix were served up and re-releases were imprinted on International Deejay Gigolo Records in 2004, (with a title change to, ‘We Are Your Friends’) and the song reached full boil when it was released in 2006 yet again on major label 10 Records (part of Virgin Records UK). Not to mention the video for the ‘We Are Your Friends’ took home the 2006 ‘Best Video’ award at the MTV Europe Music Awards, and acceptance of the award by video director and Ed Banger artist, So Me (with Justice not present) turned into a viral video on the ‘net, because of Kanye West infamously throwing a temper tantrum over not winning the award (watch it). All this just added up to incredible amounts of press for Justice, as the other half, Simian, was broken up by that point and off the radar.
In late 2006, Time Out magazine asked Gaspard Augé (half of Justice, with Xavier de Rosnay) about their ‘accidental’ dance music celebrity and he had this to say:
I think it’s really by chance. [...] Neither of us was into electronic music at the beginning; we just had the opportunity to do this remix of ‘Never Be Alone,’ and then it was played a lot, so we had to follow it up.”
It’s nice when artists can try on different hats. Popular opinion told Justice that ‘Dance Music extraordinaries’ looked so incredibly fashionable on them. We like Justice just fine how they turned out! Of course, this post comes in good time to correspond with the release of their debut LP, †, which was just released in their native France and is available for pre-order in the US through Amazon (in both limited edition digi-pack and regular editions).
But wait, back to the contest! if Justice’s remix didn’t win the Source Records /Radio Campus Orléans sponsored contest, then who did? That accolade goes to low-key French Electronic Pop artist Toma. From the these semi-finalist candidates of aspiring producers: #, Farmacid, Folamour Sound System, Frey, Justice, Minious, DJ Roubignole, Tomaclub, Tony Wiek, and Zebra on the Rock, the powers that be chose the ‘Never Be Alone (Tomaclub Remix)’ to be the very best. However, all of these songs were pressed on a 2000-copy promo vinyl called ‘Simian - We Contest!’ (one of these is undoubtedly in Busy P’s crate and the rest is history). Give the winning remix a listen—it’s no club banger, but it’s still a hella good remix:
Simian broke up in 2005 and former members Jas Shaw and James Ford went official with their Simian Mobile Disco outfit (of which former Simian members Simon Lord, Alex MacNaghten did not participate). Do we absolutely love SMD, YES! But it’s very different from Simian. From their humble beginnings of the ‘LA Breeze’ remix, and Simian’s promo only ‘Mobile Disco’ mix CD (which you can stream here). SMD have joined the ranks of hottest dance music producers and keep very busy as jet-setting superstar DJs. Not to mention killer original songs, with a debut album, ‘Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release’ which will be released as soon as June 19th. And, just like Justice, available for pre-order through Amazon in both limited edition and regular editions.
Now watch the video for ‘Hustler’ on YouTube and try to tell me that being gay is wrong! Those girls feigning to be lesbians makes hetero males (like myself) a lot more understanding. SMD is love.
Also highly recommended is SMD’s recent mix album, ‘Suck My Deck’, which has been getting megatons of rotation at my house: Get it from Amazon.
Ahem, noticeably absent from Simian Mobile Disco is the Simian’s most important voice, Simon Lord! The former Simian frontman took a different direction and is heading the group Garden (of which you can stream their whole debut album, ‘Round & Round’ from Garden’s official site (great!), and buy it from Boomkat). Although not a part the Mobile Disco, every clubber in the world knows Simon Lord’s voice because of the little ditty he sang called ‘Never be Alone’ that Justice make palatable to dance-crazy party people all over the world. Simon Lord turned the club into drunk karaoke night, but I don’t hate him for it, I love him all the more. His recent project that retains the brooding folk element of Simian but still sounds new and different. ‘Round & Round’ didn’t receive anywhere near enough press, so I’m putting up several tracks for the hard sell:
Lastly, Simon Lord has another yet undisclosed secret project with the quietest Simian-alumni, Alex MacNaghten. The project is mentioned on Simian’s official web site, but no tracks or solid information have surfaced yet.
While Simian is dead, long live their fan created MySpace tribute profile and official website, and discography on Discogs. Oh, there’s some great live material over here too. You can still buy Simian albums through Amazon, but their full catalog is harder to come by, as per usual, eBay and Gemm are first places worth checking.
Zune and Filter present: Ladytron DJ tour by Mira Aroyo and Reuben Wu
Just back from a European tour opening for Nine Inch Nails, Ladytron’s Reuben Wu and Mira Aroyo pick up their headphones and vinyl for a May DJ tour of North America. Clubbers can expect an eclectic dancefloor mix of seduction and destruction, electronic-rock, personal influences and undiscovered gems both old and new.
MAY
16 wed Atlanta, GA – MJQ Concourse [21+]
17 thu Washington, DC – Rock N Roll Hotel [AA]
18 fri Chicago, IL – Darkroom
19 sat Toronto, ON – Spin Gallery
20 sun Clevland, OH – B-Side Liquor Lounge [18+]
21 mon Louisville, KY – Exile [21+]
24 thu New york, NY – Hiro Ballroom [AA]
25 fri Vancouver, BC – Exchange Building
26 sat Los Angeles, CA – Memorial Coliseum [AA]
26 sat Los Angeles, CA – Avalon Hollywood [21+]
27 sun San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Shop [21+]
28 mon Dallas, TX – House Of Blues [21+]
30 wed Houston, TX – The Meridian [AA]
Ladytron - Soft Power (Vicarious Bliss Gutter mix) (Download)
. If you want prefer vinyl gemm has the original 12 inch & various 7 inches for sale, some going for 150 plus!
