All In The Name Of What We're Not Sure

Hot Chip - "Just Like We (Breakdown)" (DFA remix) - As I'm writing this, the internet seems to be waiting on pins and needles for the DFA remix of Goldfrapp's "Slide In" to surface; I haven't heard it yet, but the general buzz seems to be saying that it's going to wipe everyone's memory of every other DFA '05 remix right out the box. I'm personally having sort of a hard time seeing that happen on account of three things:

1. The original "Slide In", although perfectly fine, is not exactly king of all songs.

2. Wiping the slate clean of DFA's entire 2005 remix catalogue is going to take some doing. I've been saying that DFA's 2005 has been one of the great years by a label on record, in that they've somehow managed to metamorphose from roleplaying punkfunkers into the most openly accessible dance-music experimenters on the planet, and with the newfound pressure of major-label expectations on top of that to boot.

3. Most importantly, the world doesn't quite seem to have processed this mix of Hot Chip's "Just Like We". I mean, this is it, folks - this is about as close as I've ever heard a DFA track get to "proper" dance music, and I say that as someone with "Yeah" clocked at five stars on his iPod. My favorite DFA remixes (or at least the ones I most enjoy listening to around other people) tend to be the ones where they consciously reveal themselves to be closet classicists; it's just such a kick hearing them go through every trick they know a genre can handle. Well, "Just Like We" is that, only done for Cybotron rather than Cymande - all those deep vamps and that merciless pounding thump could only come from house music, only without all that infuriatingly tedious technological reverence. This is, in other words, house music made by people completely aware that machines can be responsible for getting people to dance like idiots; it's not a celebration of the technology, since that dog's pretty much hunted itself to death (the bass swoops here aren't any deeper than, say, yr average Sven Vath song), but rather a celebration of the music itself, a kind of love letter to jumping around like a pilled-up kid in a dark warehouse, and it's fucking phenomenal. It helps that I probably like the Hot Chip song being reworked more than anything else they've ever done; I always found Coming On Strong to be a chore (kinda like the Juan Maclean album), mostly because I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be enjoying about any of their songs, but as soon as this remix made it crystal-clear that you can have a lot of fun with Hot Chip just by launching yourself around a room and howling along with the choruses rather than parsing them, I realized that I may have made yet another huge mistake. It's just a really, really fun track, for every reason you could possibly expect at any point in the listening experience.

Okay, NOW you can bring on the Goldfrapp. (Click here to order the super-limited single for "Over and Over" from Insound)

Vincent Vincent & the Villains, "Blue Boy" - Speaking of self-consciousness, the Young And Lost Club label seems to be cultivating one hell of a roster full of artists fit to exploit stupid consumers like me who love it when artists do stuff on purpose. It's possible that Vincent Vincent & the Villains may be the most promising stars out of everyone on the label; as someone who got completely suckered in by (oh Jesus) swing music in high school, I can't say that they aren't going a little overboard with the retro schtick, but then again as someone who got completely suckered in by (oh Jesus, not again) swing music in high school, I sure do remember how easy it is for Thee Kidz to sign on to someone so fruitfully shameless, as this is jaunty enough to make a case for being the "Our House"/"Godhopping"/"Clint Eastwood" of whatever year it happens to break out into. And, I mean, worst comes to worst, they're the new Squirrel Nut Zippers, and it's not like we didn't get a perfectly decent Andrew Bird album out of that whole mess. (Click here to buy the "Blue Boy/The Boy Who Killed Time" double A-side used from Gemm Records)