The Upsides

What do you get when you mix Your Twenties with Metronomy? Well, not much seeing as they’re both now separate entities. But, 25% of Metronomy and 50% of Your Twenties came from the seeds of The Upsides.

I am not sure if they’ve just uploaded some of their old demo’s from back when they were BMXing about in Totnes or whether they’ve met up again and had a ‘jam’. Either way, the songs are quite interesting and certainly sound cleaner than an old teenage demo would be. With the calibre of song writing in the band they’re well worth keeping an eye on.

We Have Band were pretty great when I saw them last year and they’ve just released their best song to date along with the best video I’ve seen all year.

This effortlessly cool trio tick all the right boxes.
‘Man playing his bass slung low?’ check.
‘Whistled chorus?’ check.
‘Sufficiently lovely female member of band?’ check.
‘Synth sample which you love but can’t quite place?’ check.*
‘Cover of Pet Shop Boys on b-side?’ check.
‘Appearance on Kitsune Maison compilation?’ check.

They won the Emerging Talent competition for Glasto this year, and are now playing every day of the festival. Busy.

Buy it here.
Listen more here.

* Just realised the synth sample is taken from The Mae Shi.

Hello to gypsystep

BANG

The hype surrounding Florence and the Machine’s debut album looks set to butt in on the terribly dull synth-pop wars taking place between La Roux and Little Boots and An.Other boys and girls with Korg mini’s and geometric haircuts. Whilst In For The Kill and Stuck On Repeat are both straight up belters there’s not much else there, and live both synth-pop ladies are a bit lacking.
This definitely can’t be said of one Florence Welch. Her previous few singles have been excellent and showed evidence of her undoubtable talent, but it’s the new single, Rabbit Heart, in which things really get going. Her range is stunning and married to the nothing short of epic production of one Paul Epworth, this is Florence’s best single yet.

Here’s a little bonus – a lovely cover of Mystery Jets’ Flakes.
Florence & The Machine – Flakes (Zshare)

I’m so terribly lazy and for some reason keep putting off attempting to make a return to this, even though I keep writing posts in my head and do quite want to try and start this up again.

Here, I’ll just dip my toe into the water to test the temperature:

Turn on the real drums.

Well, it seems all the English at Benicassim somehow managed to bring the weather back with them, for at least a week.  Perfect then for me to discover Ed Banger’s new signing Mickey Moonlight.

Featuring guest turns by the likes of Zongamin, Bishi and Suzi Silver, Mickey Moonlight’s (Londoner Midnight Mike) first single is a cover of Sun Ra’s Interplanetary Music.  It’s a step away from Ed Banger’s comfort zone, being far more of a slow burning disco track than an out and out electro-kicking banger.  And it’s pretty special.

On first listen, it’s just nice. The second time through though, the simple repetition of the two bass notes will stick with you; laid atop the simple bongo backdrop, it builds and peaks halfway at the preposterous saxophone solo.  It definitely needs an extended edit, but it’s streaks ahead of any other pop song of this summer, and easily one of the best records of the year.  Go buy it (when it’s out), stick it on your record player, and crank up loud.

Mickey Moonlight – Interplanetary Music (Zshare)

The XX are cool.  In fact, I’m not even going to bother trying to beat this quote.  “Bafflingly ace moody hip-pop with bass so thick you could cut it with a carving knife.” The Guardian .  There’s no more fitting way of describing them.

I caught them some time ago on Stag & Dagger where, despite terrible sound, they impressed me and the audience of A&R bods with their effortlessly epic half-sung/half-spoken songs.  Footsteps is a Womack & Womack cover given an achingly cool makeover by The XX.  It’s just begging to be included on some ridiculously hip TV show whilst the main protagonists stare at each other over a packed dance floor.  But, there seems to be a lack of those shows around these days.  The XX will just have to settle for being XL’s next big signing.  Probably.

The XX – Footsteps (Zshare)

Bloc Party have decided to get some trip hop up in this bitch.  No guitars in sight.  Here’s the video.

Now, I like it.  A whole lot.  Great potential for some remixes here, and apparently it’s the album that Kele’s “always wanted to make.”

Not sure about the video though.  It’s either a shit political allegory, with bananas instead of oil, and a horse monster (creeps me out as I HATE horses) with a lobster hand instead of Bush.  Or, it’s just a bit Mighty Boosh – Mutants.

Alright, University has ended so I’ve now got no excuses to neglect this.

A summer mixtape will be coming soon, as will a late-night-barbeque-chill-out type compilation as well.

For now, enjoy some Toe Jam.