The Rapture - How Deep is Your Love?

This track is astounding! Seriously, I really hope an MP3 version of this becomes available in the next few weeks. I have a support slot for Doc Daneeka thanks to bassey house and beat juggernaut that is Don't Sleep and I reckon this would go down a storm if dropped at the right time. I'm a big advocate of mixing DFA style stuff with the bassey house of the UK and the more vocal the better.

The bands been working with Phillipe Zdar, one half of French house duo Cassius and production genius. And if he can create even half the magic he did with Phoenix's last effort, this new Rapture album is sure to be something special.

Anyways, Modular have been kind enough to post a CDQ stream, which while lacking the hilarious vibe of the that disco ball video, makes up for it in terms of being able to clearly hear the track. Check it out HERE!

Sleepyhead - History's Greatest Monster

History's Greatest Monster (Tape for TTN) by Sleepyhead__ on Mixcloud

This is a mix a did a lil while back for a local Perth thing. My mixing wasnt the best, but I think its cool in terms of track selection. Trying to go for a more dancey, party thing, it's a blend of bass music, DFA cowbell rock and weird pop. Got tracks from Odd Future, Fergie (yeah, you heard me), Pearson Sound, Maximum Balloon, Tempa T (TEMMMMMPPPZZZZ), French Fries and The Rapture. Check it out, and enjoy!

LCD Soundsystem - Live at MSG

So one more band from my time calls it quits. Its sad to see them go, but like the White Stripes its comforting to know they managed to do it on their own terms. These guys however have the luxury of creating their own funeral party on one of the worlds biggest stages rather than enduring a prolonged breakdown that started in the Canadian badlands.

It leaves someone like me, a 22 year old music nerd in Australia with a music landscape that's becoming short on heroes that I can call my own. Like of course there are still great bands that are coming out with new awesome music that I really like. But there's always a sense that they're belonging to the kids (who are coming up from behind :P) that are younger than me. Maybe that's a misconception on my part, but its how I feel anyways. I mean lingering from my high school days there were a collection of bands that both became the the soundtrack to my life around that time and blew up big time in the indie sense.

So The White Stripes and LCD have called it a day. Kings of Leon I don't wanna talk about (suffice to say that the band who made Aha Shake Heartbreak, an album which more or less soundtracked the summer of my graduation is no longer there). The Strokes have pretty much fell off (still need to give the new album a propper listen, but needless to say we're never getting something of Is This It? quality ever again). Arctic Monkeys are still great, but they're more interested in being just another band these days rather than the creating of youthful anthems that were on "Whatever.....". Franz Ferdinand are still quality but seem to have vanished. Thank god TV On the Radio are still bringing the awesome (more thoughts on that soon.)*

But this is the rockist side of me talking. Indie music is always going to have lower benchmarks for success, and that's fine. It allows for different ideas to be experimented and run with without the pressure for commercial appeal and success. And that's fucking sweet. But at the end of the day, these were the successful bands that could be claimed as our own and we could turn to the baby boomer elitists and mainstream rock fans and say, "fuck you, this is how we do rock and roll and its just as good, if not better than yours, and its fucking cooler too."

As such its a disappointment to see them go. No doubt there will be a band as awesome to take its place soon enough. The only question is, are they gonna have a resonance with me like my high school bands did? Man, growing up is kinda shitty haha.

LCD Soundsystem - All I Want

*I only remembered Arcade Fire after, they're kinda on top of the world atm, would have put it in, but it'd have fucked up my rhythm haha

This Is Happening.

Wow. Just wow. This isn't just happening, this is fucking amazing.

I'm a big LCD Soundsystem fan for a number of reasons. Firstly, I worship DFA for both its dance-punk and disco (and now its classic rock, true story), I even have a t-shirt. I think i loved them from the first time Murphy claimed that Daft Punk were playing at his house, transposing a childhood dream of mine to song. I delved into their stuff, from the epic Yeah (crass version) to Losing My Edge. The monsters of Tribulations and Disco Infiltrator became songs that went onto every playlist back in the day.

What was different about these tracks was that they weren't really dance tracks. They were songs. This is something that I've really been trying to highlight on this blog. So much material that's out these days, the endless barrage of remixes, everything becomes just another track, some halfway cool idea that's never really fleshed out beyond the flashy and oh-so-now production into a SONG. Something that's going to last. And that's what James Murphy really brought to the table. His awesome song writing ability always gives these songs their own life and soul.

And to make it all the more sweeter, he got better! Sound of Silver to me represents the first time i really put effort into listening to an album and got more out of it. When i first copped the album, I used to listen to Time to Get Away and All My Friends and that was it. But friends made me sit down and properly listen and appreciate it. And jesus fucking christ I'm glad I did. Every song on that album is brilliant from the epic disco build of Get Innocuous, to the heartbreaking Someone Great, the joyous choruses of Us vs Them and the loveletter to a city that I'm finally going to see in two weeks, New York, I Love You, which me and my friends still drunkenly howl along to or make up stupid lyrics for. (EASY MAC I LOVE YOU, BUT YOU'RE BRINGING ME DOWWWWWWWWNNN.)

With that, we come to the new album. This is one of those glorious times when all your expectations are met. Every song on this album is killer. To those of you who hate the song Drunk Girls, you are obviously not having enough fun in your life right now, you should work on that. Dance Yrself Clean is an absolute monster with that epic drop around the 3 minute mark that makes you lose your shit. There isn't a bad song on here seriously, this is a fucking fantastic album. Highlight has to go to All I Want however. This song just gets me every time, its sounds like what The Strokes should have been making all this time instead of fucking around with sub par albums and side projects (Little Joy not included, I love that album). An understated spiritual successor to All My Friends, its the sort of song that not only makes everything okay, it also makes me prone to exaggerated hyperbole.

Alot of good music has come out this year. 2010 has been an amazing year and we're only 4 months in. Whats been good about it is the abundance of new bands, new sounds that makes music exciting for the fans. While they may not be fully formed yet as artist, theyre doing great stuff, putting out good albums and songs.

LCD Soundsystem is on another level entirely. While others are putting out awesome debuts, they have honed their skills in both production and songwriting. This might just be their masterwork. Well done gents and ladies, this is amazing.

Stream the album HERE - http://www.lcdsoundsystem.com/thisishappening/

BONUS
LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 (Prince Language Remix)
Franz Ferdinand - All My Friends (LCD Soundsystem Cover)

Hold Tight

While I love disco music, especially some of the new stuff thats coming out, often i find it kinda inaccessible. While i revel in weirdness, when its not combined with fun or a decent song, its a case of 'what's the point'. And with disco rapidly gaining tract with the indie crowds, it runs the risk of alienating alot of people.

This is not the case however for Holy Ghost's Hold On. While its a few years old now, I kinda slept on it. This is something I regret cause the song is an absolute jam. Straight outta the DFA dungeon, produced by James Murphy himself, this is something that combines an awesome SONG, with the quality disco that we're used to from DFA and those pianos and chorus that'll stay in your head for hours. It cant come highly recommended enough.