GiveUpNow! - the Electrosexual MP3 Blog

Kissy Sell Out

2009-11-15T03:00:00.007Z

Kissy Sell Out is a one-man DJ/Producer team with an album just out (Yes, this was yet another of my famed trips to Vinyl Exchange, paying about £3 from a random promo in the Electro section). He hails from Essex here in the UK, and has remixed everyone from Gwen Stefani to the Human League to Datarock to The Noisettes. In 2009, Mixmag described him as "one of the most exciting, charismatic and entertaining DJs of the decade" - gret praise indeed!

The album Youth took over a year to make and is inspired by his childhood memories of growing up in Essex, UK. It contains 11 tracks, 3 of which are instrumental and includes a long-awaited full length version of "Harriet" - a track Kissy wrote about missing his younger cousin while she was at university. To my ears, Kissy Sell Out's music has that distorted electro-rock sound of Justice, but with far better tunes and a lot more vocals. The album is a pleasure to listen to from start to finish, and really has hardly any filler in there.

Download: Kissy Sell Out - Garden Friends
Hervé ft Kissy Sell Out - Everybody

La Roux

2009-02-16T07:33:00.005Z

Flame-haired songstress La Roux seems to be getting a lot of hype in all the right places - she's been named in the BBC's annual ones to watch list, along with Frankmusic and already-got-a-number-one Lady Gaga, among others. Signed to the cooler-than-thou Kitsuné record label, she's already featured on their Maison 6 compilation, to great acclaim.

La Roux's music seems to be one of those hipster-girls-doing-electro affairs that goes down well amongst all those indieish circles that I used to frequent all the time. 'Quicksand' has a distinct whiff of Prince's 'When Doves Cry' about it, and next single 'In for the Kill' is a jolly synthpop ditty, whereas 'Bulletproof' sounds like it could've been produced by The Knife in one of their more listeneable moments. All her iconography is heavily 80s-influenced, which goes very well with the music in question.

Download: La Roux - Quicksand

La Roux - Bulletproof

Visit: La Roux's Myspace

La Roux's Official Website

Annie - Norwegian Pop Goddess!

2008-10-11T23:48:00.005+01:00

Norwegian popstrel Annie has recently allowed a track to be leaked (legally!) - the eagerly-anticipated Two of Hearts, a cover of the song by Stacy Q. Annie's version is produced by her partner-in-crime, Richard X, and though it's still pretty good, the song seems to lose something in translation.

Obviously, Annie's record company are hoping that she'll follow her fellow Scandinavian and 'do a Robyn'. With the help of hitmakers Xenomania (Girls Aloud, Sugababes) and Richard X, she looks set to continue this trend.

In case you can't remember who Annie is, here's a Youtube clip to refresh your memory:

That was one of Annie's previous 'hits', Heartbeat.
Download: Danny Danny (Bonus Track)
The Crush(Richard X mix)
I Can't Let Go
Two Of Hearts (Stacy Q Cover - Richard X Production)

Buy: The album Don't Stop at Amazon.co.uk

Spektrum

2008-09-21T20:55:00.008+01:00

The band Spektrum might not technically fit into the Electro category, personally I consider them to be more Punk-funk or Disco-not-Disco. One thing is for sure though, the band really do churn out some great tracks.

If you recognise the name already, it might be because of their club smash Kinda New (We all Live and Die) as remixed by Tiefschwarz and Dirty South, the Tiefscwarz mix of which is below, just to jog your memory.

(Apologies that it's got other music around the edges, this was the best YouTube could offer).

All that was back in 2006, and of course we don't expect the band themselves to produce more tracks sonically similar to a remix they weren't responsible for in the first place!

Fast-forward to 2008, and Spektrum have a follow-up album entitled Fun at the Gymkhana Club, showcasing their own musical style, which bears more than a passing resemblance to that of New Young Pony Club, but somehow with much more energy then the aforementioned band. Indeed, Spektrum's album cover features the band in horse-riding gear, and the album itself contains a track named Horny Pony(!) possibly in a sage nod towards NYPC.

Download: Spektrum - The Mirror Man

Download: Spektrum - Build An Army (Snax mix)

Visit: Spektrum on MySpace

Mantronix

2008-07-30T18:38:00.009+01:00

OK, so who said this blog had to only be about new music?

Many of you will have heard of Mantronix before, even if it's just for their biggest hit Got To Have Your Love (later covered by Liberty X). Mantronix are an Electro band who survived with a few lineup changes from 1984-91 and are Electro in the original sense of the word meaning rap music with an electronic backing. This was breaking the mould at the time when rappers seemed to be doing nothing but chopping up James Brown songs to rap over.

Based around the production of Kurtis Mantronik, the band successfully carved their own niche back in the day as a nice link between Afrika Bambaataa and the New Jack music of the day. Since then, they've been sampled by such luminaries as the Beastie Boys, Beck and many others.

Around 1985, Mantronik himself begann working on A&R at Sleeping Bag, where he signed EPMD and produced for Tricky Tee and T La Rock. Simultaneously releasing his own second album - this was a hard-working man in demand!

Early track 'Ladies' here shows the blueprint for which their biggest hit would soon follow.

Download: Mantronix - Ladies

Visit: Mantronix on Myspace

And remember kids - if you'd like to support the artists please...
Buy: Mantronix at Blah.com
You have no excuse now that most of their albums are only a fiver each!

Vivek Shraya

2008-07-20T17:21:00.002+01:00

OK this man contacted me via his MySpace, basically in a bid to be included in this very blog and it's the best offer of it's kind that I've had! A few days after being contacted, I had a shiny new CD in the post! (This blogging malarkey is turning out better than I thought eh?)

In my opinion, he's the best electro artist to come out of Canada since Tiga (bear in mind, I'm not actually aware of very many other electro artists hailing from Canada).

The man seems to be positioned as an even-cooler Calvin Harris, or as a Sam Sparro without all the pointing towards his penis (what is that all about?) And lets, be honest, Vivek is actually quite fit, which is very important in the grand scheme of things. His musical style is electropop with big squelchy synths, immaculate vocals and the occasional glam-rock guitar stab. The resulting sound is left-field without losing its pop sensibilities. And no, he does not sound like Goldfrapp.

Vivek seems to be getting some publicity out of the fact that he's covered Seven Nation Army (who hasn't?) but in this case, he's actually made the song sound even better than the original.

So here I present for your delectation, a pair of tracks from the lovely Vivek.

Download: Vivek Shraya - Scratch
Download: Vivek Shraya ft Sara Quin - Your Name

Visit: His myspace
Vivek Shraya Official Website - You can also buy his CDs here.

Digital Dog: Remixers/Producers of Glitchy Electro

2007-05-20T09:20:00.000+01:00

A Remixer/Producer type, Digital Dog's first original production on commercial release is the single from Therese. You might recognise her name as that of the guest singer from those Stonebridge songs. No? Well it's her anyway. Her of 'Put Em High' fame.

Therese's debut single is actually nothing like the music that she's guested on, and it's all the better for it - Feelin Me is a great slice of glitchy Electro-Pop.

There's an album coming out for this young lady fairly soon, with more work produced by Digital Dog, along with a few collaborations with the aforementioned Stonebridge, and with Thomas Gold. Looks like Positiva are looking after her pretty well for a Dance Act, and if they play their cards right, she could become pretty damn successful in a Dannii Minogue-circa-2005 way. Neon Lights See My... Obviously sounds Dannii-esque as a title, and to be fair I'm not sure who this is produced by, but it does have a similar sound to Feelin' Me so is most probably another Digital Dog one. Interestingly, she uses the line 'hooked on you' in both tracks. Maybe she's trying to make this her 'signature line', much like Mary J Blige did with 'No More Drama'?
Download: Therese - Feelin Me
Download: Therese - Neon Lights See My...
View: The video for Feelin' Me

Another person to benefit from the Digital Dog treatment is Sophie Ellis-Bextor, with her last single 'Catch You', which was the Comeback one, allegedly, but didn't seem to do much damage to the public conscious, as far as I could tell(?) Anyway, the Dog's rework of the song has slower vocals than the original radio edit, and is in the same Glitchy-Electro vein.
Download: Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Catch You (Digital Dogs Club Mix)

Sophie's new album Trip The Light Fantastic is in the shops now - and in my opinion, the album constitutes the best work she's ever done, and thoroughly deserves to be a huge hit. If you've heard the two singles Catch You and Me And My Imagination, they only tell half the story, as the most interesting tracks are still the album tracks. So as a special gift, I'm offering a track from said album. New York City Lights is probably closer to Catch You than the sebsequent single, but has an electronic feel to it as well (why would it be in this blog otherwise?) whilst still being a great Pop Song through and through.
Download: Sophie Ellis-Bextor - New York City Lights
Buy: Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Trip the Light Fantastic from HMV.co.uk (£8.99 inc P&P)

And Finally, we have Pink. Yes, Pink does often annoy me with all her claiming to be 'Not Here for Your Entertainment' (You're a pop singer for a living you stupid girl, of course you're here for our entertainment), and professing to not be one of those awful slutty megastars in 'Stupid Girls' (then what were you doing dressed like that in the Lady Marmalade video you hypochrite), but I digress...
The Digital Dog mix of Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely) is as commercial as everything else she's done, except it's good. Enough said really.
Download: Pink - Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely) (Digital Dog Radio Edit)

Pay TV: Eurovision goes Electro - Part II

2007-05-15T19:51:00.000+01:00

All that talk of Serebro reminded me of another excellent band that auditioned for Eurovision.

The year was 2004, the country was Sweden (often purveyors of fine pop music!) and the band was named Pay-TV. They entered with a song named Trendy Discothéque, which although it didn't win the Song Contest, became a major hit in Sweden and the surrounding countries.

The song also annoyed a lot of hardcore Electroclash fans, because their music was being 'sold-out', apparently, to a mass-market audience. - At least it's listenable though!

Download: Pay TV - Refrain Refrain
Visit: Pay TV MySpace and their Official Website
View: The video for Trendy Discothéque

Serebro: Eurovision Goes Electro - Part I

2007-05-14T10:22:00.000+01:00

Hey all, sorry about the lack of posts and all, but this is about to change soon, because basically I've found a new love of blogging!

Anyway, I stayed in and watched Eurovision on Saturday night like the good little gay that I am. It was all a bit shit to be honest, a couple of exceptions being the Swedish glam-rock entry and the one I am bringing you today - Russia's entry.
The band is called Serebro (pronounced Serr-er-bro, not ser-ee-bro like the character from X-Men, as I'd been calling them). They're three feisty girls dressed in possibly non-standard-issue convent school outfits singing about their bitches. Needless to say, it's amazing.

I'm also not 100% sure if I'm still gay after seeing their performance - I got a funny feeling inside myself, which I think was a good one - but I can't tell...

Oh and Eurovision? In case you're wondering, the girls came 3rd in the competition after an unattractive Serbian lesbian with a nevertheless quite-good voice at first, and a transvestite glitterball-waving, happy-hardcore-lite-loving, Ukranian tinman in second place. The Dance Breakdown in the video below was not featured in Eurovision. I'm sure that if they had included this, Serebro would have won the competition.

Download: Serebro - Song Number One

Info: Serebro on Wikipedia
Visit: Their Unofficial MySpace
Lots of content on that MySpace though. Pictures and stuff mind, they only have one song to date.

Drool at: The video for Song #1:

Princess Superstar

2007-02-21T21:39:00.000Z

Apologies everyone, this one was waiting to be 'published' for a while so isn't quite as current as it once was, I'm going to publish it for posterity though.

Princess Superstar's last claim to fame was one big hit named Bad Babysitter from way back in 2002 (hey, it feels like a long time ago to me). Her rapping style earnt her the hype-tag 'The Female Eminem' and for about fourteen seconds it looked as though Princess Superstar was to become an actual superstar. As we all know, she didn't. My further research indicates that the girl was also on her third album by the time she hit paydirt with Bad Babysitter- she'd been going since 1996... just goes to show, doesn't it! Only in 2002 when Superstar signed to the Studio !K7 record label did she actually get anything released over here in the UK though.

Superstar is back in the public consiousness at the moment thanks to a featuring on a (rather good) electro-house song by Mason called Perfect Exceeder. Not everyone realises that the vocals to the track were actually an original song by the Superstar which have been 'bootlegged' into the song - Perfect was taken from Princess Superstar's My Machine album, which I shall kindly say here, was given 'mixed reviews' by the press, ie they thought it was a bit shit. I didn't - I love it! The album has a mix of styles including twee hip-hop (much like Bad Babysitter) and has lots of very lo-fi electronic elements in there, much like some tracks by Peaches or Gonzales.

My Machine was actually released back at the end of 2005, but I thought I'd share a couple of tracks here for your listening pleasure anyway.
Download: Princess Superstar - Coochie Coo
I think this one is about her rude bits.

Download: Princess Superstar - Sex, Drugs & Drugs. Short-but-excellent song singing the praises of the three best things in life.

View the video for Mason vs Princess Superstar - Perfect Exceeder:

(This is the unofficial version that actually features Princess Superstar - it's a lot better than those three munters pretending to be gymnasts you may have seen on the music channels)

Weblink: The Official Princess Superstar Website. It's very pretty.
BUY: My Machine from 101cd.com

The Killers Remixes

2007-02-21T20:29:00.000Z

Unless you've been living under a rock-music-proof rock for the last three years, you will already have heard of The Killers. Unless, that is, you are reading this from one of those countries where the band haven't taken off (you never know who could be reading this!) Anyway, the point is, there really isn't very much I can say about this band that hasn't been said already - The Killers are from Las Vegas, released their debut album Hot Fuss in summer 2004 to critical acclaim, and the album went 4x Platinum, released the disappointing follow-up, Sam's Town in 2006. etc etc.

What you may or may not know is that the band have actually amassed a few decent remixes from the single releases of these two albums, by names such as Jacques Lu Cont (aka Stuart Price), Tiga and Mylo. Fair to say quite a bit of money must have been thrown at the band! I won't be bringing you the Mylo mix of Somebody Told Me today, because it's more-or-less an extended version of the original, and I'm sure you have other means of finding it if you so wish. However, here are a few of their other remixes.

The Tiga remix of 'Bones' is nice and concise at under four minutes long and sounds exactly as you'd expect a Tiga remix of The Killers to sound - like a Tiga song with Brandon Flowers singing over it. This is a good thing.
Download: Bones (Tiga remix) (3:55, 5.39MB)

The Gabriel Dresden remix of new single Read My Mind sounds much like you'd expect a Jacques Lu Cont mix to sound, in fact - It's a 'dance song' obviously intended for clubs and as such is almost 8 minutes long, but still has 'guitarey' elements in as well. Like all the best remixes, it has lots of vocal action going on as well.
Download: Read My Mind (Gabriel Dresden remix) (7:55, 10.87MB)

Simian Mobile Disco

2007-02-15T20:08:00.000Z

Simian Mobile Disco have an album coming out soon, which I'm sure will be excellent. A lot of you will most probably have heard of Simian Mobile Disco, for two reason ie.
1. Yes they're more-or-less the Simian half of the people involved in last year's big dance-pop hit 'We Are Your Friends' (Justice vs Simian), and
2. SMD are, of late, very prolific remixers themselves (not least The Presets and Peaches, who have both been featured here) - In fact, they'va also remixed some of their own songs! Oh what a wheeze!

They also produce a number of excellent songs under the guise of Simian Mobile Disco, which they like to keep as a separate identity from just Simian, which was more of a rock band with electronic bits-and-pieces, compared to the Dance Act of SMD. The best production I've managed to hear from them is entitled I Believe, which is quite the mid-tempo electronic crooning orgy with multilayered harmonizing vocals. In short, this isn't 'House Music'. Most of their other tracks do lean towards House Music, including Hustler, It's The Beat and Tits & Acid. Don't worry, those songs still sound good though!

And sorry it's taken me a while to update.
Download: Simian Mobile Disco - I Believe
Download: Simian Mobile Disco - It's The Beat
Download: Air - Cherry Blossom Girl (SMD mix)

View: SMD MySpace

Buy: SMD Songs on Vinyl
Buy: Tickets for their appearance at Fabric, London

Tiefschwarz

2006-12-19T17:22:00.000Z

I was reading one of those NME magazines recently, and it had some interview with a guy called Mattie Safer. (I might flesh this part out later). Apparently, he's the lead vocalist (from what i can gather) of indie-punk-funk band The Rapture. I wondered where I'd heard that name before until I realised that one of my many 'favourite tracks' in the last few months was Warning Siren by Tiefschwarz ft Matty Safer (which I'm sure is where there must be must be the spelling mistake, rather than on The Rapure's stuff and also in NME, poor source though it is.) His voice is so recognisable from The Rapture, I'm surprised I hadn't noticed, or at least suspected. And with The Rapture having released an album recently, it seemed appropriate to put the aforementioned track up.

On their album, Tiefschwarz have also done a couple of great collaborations with an indie-electro maestro from a couple of years back named Chikinki, one of which (Artificial Chemicals), can be heard here at the blog.

For a few years now, Tiefscwarz have also been make a lucrative sideline in remixing other people's songs like so many of these faceless Dance Music types. So presented for your delectation is also their rework of Kinda New by Spektrum.

Tiefschwarz ft Matty Safer - Warning Siren
Tiefschwarz ft Chikinki - Artificial Chemicals
Spektrum - Kinda New (Tiefschwarz vocal edit)

Ping Pong Bitches

2006-11-15T23:26:00.000Z

I first heard about Ping Pong Bitches upon getting The Prodigy's 'Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned' album back in 2004, which included a song called Girls (Feat. Ping Pong Bitches), and basically I was suckered in by their cool name. I Searched Out (ie downloaded illegally) everything I could find - this didn't amount to much, in fact, two songs named Rock Action and Beat You Up which I already had anyway on a This is Electroclash compilation CD. Beat You Up did contain an ace recreation ('interpolation', in fact,) of the backing to I Feel Love by Donna Summer. They had turned the sweat-drenched disco classic into a hard, threatening, sleazy Riot Grrlekktro-fest. I loved it.

Anyway, now we're almost into 2007 and what have been the developments on the Ping Pong Bitches front?
Well, for a start, they have a MySpace, much like me, and I am on their 'Friends list', which amounts to getting the odd advert bulletin-ed to me every now and again. I don't mind this - in fact it's probably what I became their friend for.

One such bulletin came through to me proclaiming that there was a new single entitled Roc Ya Body, released on 20th October, which was nice (I don't check my MySpace messages that often). For some reason, I already had this on promo in exactly the format boasted on the CD press release, which was a bit cool of me, but at the same time it meant there was no excuse to buy it again! The vinyl includes a remix by the excellent McSleazy - but let's face it, I will never play vinyl in a long time yet, so I probably don't have a cat's chance of ever hearing that one. Shame really. According to their official site, 'Roc Ya Body' was inspired by blonde vocalist Louise Prey's illicit lustings for a teenage boy she met on a coach to Manchester. This is good to know and makes me like the song more for two reasons:
1. Any mention of Manchester as song inspiration is clearly a good thing.
2. Illicit lust over a teenage boy is, I'm sure, something we can all relate to.

Another trip to vinyl exchange ensued, wondering if anything nice and electro was being stocked there. What should I behold, but a CDR promo copy of the Ping Pong Bitches' forthcoming album Alphadog?! Now, this really is quite the exclusive I'll be sharing with you, as the album isn't actually scheduled for release until February 2007. You should be grateful, kids!

Ping Pong Bitches are best described as 'electro rock' I think, and though the album contains both of the songs I originally had by the 'Bitches, both Beat You Up and Rock Action are completely different versions from the ones I already owned (No Donna Summer sample or anything!) Despite this, I implore you to buy this album when it is actually released, as there is literally not a single duff track on there - everyone's a winner!

The 'Bitches list among their influences Joan Jett, Daft Punk, New Order, Neptunes, Black Strobe, The Ramones and of course The Prodigy, if that gives you any clue as to what they sound like.

Download: Ping Pong Bitches - Superfine
Download: Ping Pong Bitches - The Beast (<- Apparently the next single after Roc Ya Body) Download: Roc Ya Body (Punx Soundcheck mix)
Download: Prodigy ft Ping Pong Bitches - Girls

Visit: Ping Pong Bitches Official Site aka their MySpace
Umami Records (their record label)

View: Roc Ya Body Video on YouTube

CSS / Cansei de Ser Sexy

2006-11-05T13:00:00.000Z

Cansei de Ser Sexy, better known as CSS, have already been making waves thanks to their song "Let's Make Love and listen to Death From Above". Let's face it, this tactic worked very well, because fans of LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, Black Dice et al will all have something they can identify with "ooh, they like the same music as me - and influences that are current, rather than pretending they have influences from 20 years ago!" James Murphy's DFA record label is infinitely popular amongst a certain section of the community.

However, the title of aforementioned song does not, in fact, allude to DFA Records, rather to the band Death From Above 1979. CSS's lead singer Lovefoxxx revealed that when she heard that aforementioned Electro-rockers had split up, she spent 24 hours solidly crying.
:(

CSS named themselves, in Portuguese, after a phrase allegedly uttered by Beyoncé once, which was 'I'm Tired of being Sexy'. It is a direct translation, and is much better than one of those boring names with 'The' at the beginning, isn't it?

NME have also described CSS as 'the coolest, raunchiest disco-pop', which can't be bad.
It also shows that, on very rare occasion, NME gets something right. That quote doesn't really tell the whole story though, because just as I'd describe a few of their songs as Punk-funk/disco-pop, most notably Let's Make Love, This Month and Music is my Hot Hot Sex; there are much harder moments on the album. Such moments include Patins and Art Bitch, which give a good nod to Riot Grrl roots lurking somewhere in there.
All this from a hugely-inventive synth band from Sao Paolo!

Anyway, here are the goodies.

Download: Let's Make Love and listen to Death From Above
Download: Meeting Paris Hilton
The B Side to recent single Alala: ódio, ódio, ódio, Sorry C

Read: Stylus Review of the CSS Album
Visit: CSS's gloriously ramshackle Official Site
and The CSS MySpace

Buy! The Album Cansei de Ser Sexy at Play.com <- and what a bargainous price too!

The Presets

2006-11-01T21:12:00.000Z

Upon entering HMV for a random browse, I noticed The Presets' album Beams, which had a sticker on proudly declaring:

"simply the finest electro album since Depeche Mode's 'Violator' ***** The Fly"

Being a fan of aforementioned Depeche Mode album, my immediate thought was "I'm, like, SO buying this."

I'd already heard one of their songs, called 'Are You The One', which was on a Digital Penetration compilation I'd bought earlier from Fopp Records in Manchester for about £5, which was nice. It was brand new at the time as well, that compilation, and I'd only bought it for the New Young Pony Club and Shit Disco songs on there - but it turned out to be a good buy all round.
Are You The One is very good - the beat is a bit angry and 'stompy'. 'Stompy' is a good thing, as you can see from my history of liking this sort of song.

The Presets are also signed to the Modular label, which is home to Whitey, Van She and the recently-signed-but-ace New Young Pony Club, along with the ace Cut Copy, the ace MSTRKRFT, the ace Chromeo and not-so-ace Wolfmother (they're good remixed though).
In short, their record label is pretty ace. So points for Coolness By Association!

So in summary, I can say that I'm loving their album, pretty much all very good, fairly harsh electro numbers - in the 'electric guitar and a real band' strain of electro, rather than this House Music nonsense which seems to be doing the rounds at the moment.

One of the tracks, Girls and the Sea, though on this album, was also previously available on an EP of the same name, described by the record label as 'An incredibly special and beautiful EP. Every song on this is crafted indie electro perfection'. So there you go.
Download: The Presets - Girl and the Sea
Download: The Presets - Are You The One (Simian Mobile Disco mix)
This Simian mix doesn't actually have much in the way of Vocals of the original song, which is a bit of a bitch really.
I already had it on my PC for some reason, Dunno why.

Visit: The Presets site on Modular Records, which includes videos and a few streaming songs etc
Whore: The Presets on MySpace

Buy: The Presets - Beams at Amazon.co.uk

Tommie Sunshine Remixes (Panic! / Fall Out Boy)

2006-09-17T23:12:00.000+01:00

Now, normally I think Panic! at the Disco are a bit rubbish, but this remix is very good.
Panic at the Disco - Martyrdom and Suicide (Tommie Sunshine mix)

Ditto with his mix of Fall Out Boy.

Fall Out Boy - Dance Dance (Tommie Sunshine mix)

Not much more to say really - Tommie Sunshine has done loads of remixes as well for bands like Shiny Toy Guns, Fischerspooner and Peaches. He nearly always comes up with the goods.

Nice hair too.

Tommie Sunshine Official Website
and his MySpace

Peaches - Hanky Code

2006-08-28T09:21:00.000+01:00

OK so everyone's been going on about the new Peaches album, Impeach My Bush, which I have bought and which is, indeed, ace. However, a search for information on Peaches on thegood ol' interpipe reveals to me that some of the best tracks considered for this album didn't actually make it! Three of these, Make Me, Damage and Fan Etiquette made it onto a special edition that I believe was US-release only, which is a bit of a bummer. They are available at another blog, but I really can't remember which one. I obtained those tracks on MP3 from somewhere, and they're quite good.

Another track even more worth hearing is the B-side to 'Downtown', named Hanky Code. If you're gay, or know some gay things, you maye have heard of the actualy Hanky Code from way back, when gay men (allegedly) used to wear different coloured hankies in their bum pockets to signify what they liked sexually. Google it to find out more. Anyway, this is what the Peaches song is based on.

Musically, Hanky Code reminds the listener initially of Soulwax's NY Excuse, especially the bassline, and the opening line "Excuse me?" It bulds up to a tuneful, jagged-electro fun stormer which is Peaches' true speciality. Enjoy this track - it could have made a much better single than Downtown. Oh and thanks for the initial tip-off, Popjustice.com.

Hear & download Hanky Code

Editors - Blood (Freelance Hellraiser Editorial)

2006-08-16T12:45:00.000+01:00

Well this morning i was listening to XFM (Oh that's right, here in Manchester we're mega-trendy with our XFM, just like London... But with more rain), and I heard a song I haven't listened to in a while, Blood by Editors. Top song, I thought, and not that overplayed (Not at least in my 'sphere' of music-listening).

As is often the way with these new danceable-indie songs, there is a remix by some trendy producer type which is much much better. In this case, the remix is by The Freelance Hellraiser. It's not overlong either, clocking in at 5:17, which is always nice. In the tradition of Phones mixes perhaps, this remix simply extends the songs, adds some nice bleeps and a better beat and, in my opinion, hugely improves the song -I always prefer a remix where you can actually recognise what the original song was!

You may have heard of Freelance Hellraiser before, you may not have. He's most famous for making that bootleg of Christina's Genie in a Bottle vs The Strokes' Hard To Explain (A Stroke of Genius) way back in 2001, a bootleg that was then, rather pointlessly, covered by a band called Speedway. He now has his own album out, Waiting for Clearance, which is OK, I had it on promo ages ago.

Download Editors - Blood (Freelance Hellraiser Editorial) <- link works again
Editors Official Site
The Freelance Hellraiser Official Site

In a moment of genius, I used both Froogle and Kelkoo, to find the cheapest deals on each CD below:
Buy The Editors - The Back Room CD album online
Buy The Freelance Hellraiser - Waiting for Clearance CD Album online

Client & Carl Barat - Pornography

2006-08-12T18:06:00.000+01:00

OK,
So everyone seems to be all very excited about the newish Client song, Xerox Machine, but I for one feel that this is far from their best work. In my opinion, their best song to date is Pornography ft Carl Barat, ie that bloke from the Libertines who went onto found Dirty Pretty Things.
But don't let that put you off.

Pornography is another song which has that electronic, sleazy sound and skippy rhythm found in the SohoDolls song in my last post. In fact, they would probably mix from one to the other quite well in a DJ set. I might try that one.

Client comprose two female members, who name themselves Client A and Client B in a quest for anonymity.

Client's real names are musical brains Kate Holmes (not that one), and vocalist Sarah Blackwood. Incidentally, Sarah used to be in a band called Dubstar during the 90s. Remember them? 'Not So Manic Now', 'Stars' et al? Her vocals sounded sweet and girly at the time, in fluffy-indie, Alisha's Attic-type way, but not so much now. Maybe she's feeling Manic again.

Download Client & Carl Barat - Pornography
View the video on YouTube

Buy Client CDs at Amazon.co.uk

Soho Dolls - Stripper

2006-08-09T21:18:00.000+01:00

Hey Kids...
Welcome to the first post ever for Give Up Now - the music blog.
Here, I'm hoping to provide a well-written portal where readers can learn about new music, in particular, that of the electro/synthpop variety. Because that's the kind of music I personally like.

Now I'm not 100% sure as to how to upload an MP3 file onto Blogger, or whether I can actually do it to this particular site rather than just link from here, but any help would be appreciated - please let me know. Thanks.

Anyway, onto the first song in question.

Soho Dolls - Stripper
The song 'Stripper' is apparently one of the most famous by the fantastic Soho Dolls- I've liked what I've heard of their stuff for a while now, and subsequently received a MySpace message informing me that the single Stripper was releasd at the end of June - the 19th to be exact. But did anywhere in Manchester stock the single? Did it fuck.

I'd all but given up hope until I stumbled into Vinyl Exchange a week or so ago and saw it glistening there behind the counter, costing £1. Yes, a single pound - one golden coin of the realm! And it wasn't some rubbish one-track promo either, it had three whole mixes of Stripper on there as well - Oh Dolls, you really are spoiling us!

The single had some bumf with it, as these promos often do, which informed me, among other things, that The 'Punksoundchex mix' has actually been at number 1 in the UK dance charts for over 2 weeks now - gosh, that shows how 'up' I am on all this Dance Music malarkey! (ie Not Very). The proper version of the song has also been garnering a lot of radio airplay over in Los Angeles, USA, on their very influential, flagship alternative music station, KROQ. Whish isn't too shabby now, is it?

I also went to my friends' house soon afterwards, (Emma and Gareth), along with another friend, 'Brownie'. What should I see on the table, but the exact same single, which Brownie had bought, for a pound, at Vinyl Exchange?! ...As time has gone on, his and my tastes seem to sync more and more, y'know.

...Oh, do you want to know what the song sounds like?
Well, there are some nice, sleazy female vocals on there, and if I were pushed to give you some Influences, or Musical Signposts, I'd say there's some Depeche Mode, a little Marilyn Manson and some additional big, fat synths in there. All with a beguiling melodic edge that so many female songwriters seem to posess. This song has a 'skippy' rhythm to it, which I believe is a symptom of being written in 6/8(?) time.

Download 'Stripper' (you can't right-click and save, until the last step where it says 'Download The File Now'.)
Soho Dolls obligatory MySpace
Soho Dolls Proper Website (in Flash.)

View the 'Stripper' video on YouTube <- for some reason, this won't embed.

Disclaimer and legal stuff

2006-02-21T23:40:00.000Z

All media on this website is merely here for sampling and promotional reasons. We highly encourage our visitors to purchase the album of any song they hear and enjoy. We are trying to promote some unheard-of music, not rip off the artists and their record labels. If you feel that we have not used your media in the way it was intended, please contact us and we will remove it as soon as we can.

E-mail address for contact is