Five Old-Ass Songs

actual GIS result for "still not dead"

(Editor's Note: Look, I'm knee-deep in a motherfucking banger of a post, but it's nowhere near completion; consequently I figured I might want to look into just posting handfuls of relatively random songs which have had me by the ears lo these many months. Of course, the epic New Apartment Project has pretty much precluded me from finding anything new or undiscovered; consequently, you can expect to see a squillion songs you've seen on countless other blogs roundabout these parts until I get back on my grizzy. Basically, look, it's either this or more multi-month hiatuses [hiati?] for the time being; suck it up.)

Das Pop, "Fool For Love" (original mix) - The internets have been pushing all the remixes harder than the original - and not too surprisingly either, considering the insanely gifted lineup of remixers assembled for the single - but it's like my parents always told me: the internet should only be considered a trusted authority with regard to matters of grotesque pornography. As it turns out, the original absolutely annihilates any of the remixes, all of whom push the track to some downright compelling places by ditching the original's straightforward guitar-pop framework altogether. Unfortunately, in doing so, you fuck up a song which could easily be mistaken for one of those classic continental indie-pop jams; to my ears, "Fool For Love" stands shoulder to shoulder with "Young Folks" or "Too Young" or "Much Against Everyone's Advice" - that last one being a particularly significant match due to Soulwax manning the boards for "Fool For Love"'s original mix. I'm convinced that the only reason that fact isn't more widely known is because the Dewaeles modestly played down their contributions to give the remixers more of a chance to shine; SebastiAn and Yuksek et al. may have some cache at the moment, but their names would still be laughably overshadowed by Soulwax' on any label which happens to see them bumping elbows. As this track ably demonstrates, that's not an accident. (Click here to buy the "Fool For Love" single from Rough Trade)

Chromeo, "Bonafied Lovin'" (Yuksek remix) - Speaking of Yuksek, I honestly can't imagine anyone undergoing a more dramatic reevaluation in my eyes last year than he pulled off in going from One Of Those Dudes Whose Name I See Every So Often As I Make A Brave Attempt At Deciphering French MP3 Blogs (Note: I Don't Speak French) to a guy whose name whose name I could probably type into the Hype Machine simply thanks to my fingers' muscle memory. I am flat-out obsessed with Yuksek these days; it's like he's managed to figure out how to marry the ruthlessly cut-up approach of latter-day French house to the bafflingly all-encompassing pleasures of big-ass, stupid-ass, epic-ass handbag house music, and I'm just not left with a lot of options when confronted with a musical opportunity like that.

Still, I feel compelled to admit that, if forced, I wouldn't really have a problem throwing out every other track Yuksek's ever touched if it meant I could keep this one. I'm not kidding when I say that the first, like, two minutes of this song may well have been my favorite stretch of pop-music from all last year; the way he balances the vocals against all those giddily cheesy syncopated synths is just preposterous good fun, the kind of neofuturistic pop music we used to get out of Richard X back before he fell off the map and out of the solar system. (Yes, that's right, I'm calling someone out on their perceived lack of productivity. Don't get me wrong - I abhor hypocrisy, but it's a card I reserve the right to play when there's been new, beloved, as-yet-unheard by me Annie about since Moses played kick-the-can on the table.) It's also worth noting just how much better Yuksek's accompanying track is than Chromeo's original; I doubt if I made it two minutes into the original when I finally decided to give it a shot.

Of course, I rarely get much farther than that into Yuksek's remix, either; the track's peak comes in the form of a stupefyingly forceful banger, but ARGH if that first bit doesn't make it feel like dating a girl who only ever lets you see one boob. If he'd taken the time to do whatever he did to the first bit to the whole song, it might well have been my favorite thing I heard last year full-stop; as such, it was "just" enough to win my rapturous attention for the forseeable future. Sigh. Oh well. Maybe next time. (Click here to buy the "Bonafied Lovin'" remix from Rough Trade)

Ali Love, "Late Night Session" (Phones Filter Fromage Dub) - Speaking of dudes who fell off the edge of the earth, Paul Epworth certainly isn't one of them - he was arguably as consistent in 2007 as he's ever been, if not as mindblowingly productive as he's been in the past. Unfortunately for Mr. Epworth, he spent most of last year doing stuff other than what I like him doing best, namely finding ways to make indie rock sound way more provocative than it would otherwise; instead he spent a lot of time playing around with dance-music idioms, which would have probably gone over a lot better with my ears if the idiom of au courant French house hadn't been having a banner year in real time. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't justifiably more interesting than checking up on any of five thousand other things going on, and in dance music, that's just death. Frankly, I was getting a little worried.

And then out of nowhere comes this song, wherein he takes aim at the classic Alan Braxe/Fred Falke symbology and puts a hot one where it thinks. Formally, it's simply textbook French Touch; the only possible reason I can imagine some hoary old Homework-waving house-music Luddite rejecting it is simple prejudice towards anything contemporary. This is not a song that's about cutting a sample up; it's about teasing a sample, coaxing it, kneading it, lovingly warming it, and then beating your brains in with it once it reveals its raw bludgeoning force. Needless to say, I'm a pretty big fan; now please, for the love of God, let him go do something with Fury of the Headteachers. (Click here to buy the "Late Night Session" single from Rough Trade)

Hercules & Love Affair, "Blind" (Frankie Knuckles remix) - Speaking of...man, I'm out of practice at this shit. At any rate, speaking of this dumbfoundingly great remix: hey, this is some pretty great shit right here. It's not for everyone, of course, but then again I'm starting to get the impression that this whole Hercules & Love Affair project may well be the same kind of kickass "not for everyone"-y record at which the DFA excels at releasing - I mean, I'm starting to think their album's going to be a consolation prize since we apparently won't be getting that Black Leotard Front record anytime soon NOT THAT I PLAN ON SHUTTING UP ABOUT IT IN THIS LIFETIME OR ANY THAT MAY FOLLOW NO SIR. Of course, I'd have a better idea of that if I could actually pull off listening to the original track when Frankie Knuckles' mix is such a world-eraser; it doesn't sound particularly intricate, but there's just something inescapably pleasurable about how big and holistic and graceful the overall effect is in action. To say that this song bodes well for H&LA's forthcoming album is an understatement of Austenian restraint; I'm starting to nurture hopes that it'll be as much of a pastiche of 2004-era DFA - an era I adore without restraint. I never thought I'd hear myself say it, but I couldn't be more excited to put money in Antony's pockets. (Click here to visit Hercules and Love Affair's MySpace)

Those Dancing Days, "Those Dancing Days"
Looker, "Master's Gone Away"

And lest ye think I only listen to stupid dance music and stupid ambient music and stupid Steely Dan, allow me to say hey! fucker, you are... sadly pretty close to right these days. Let's be clear: a lot of it has to do with distribution (which goes hand in glove with dance music these days) and level of involvement (what, you think Gavin Bryars' The Sinking Of The Titanic picked itself out?) and the fact that Steely Dan is fucking awesome. But that doesn't mean stuff doesn't slip through the cracks, and lord knows I'll always keep a fissure in my heart wedged open for that odd immaculate gem which comes along every so often. Well, since I've been gone, there have been two.

The first one I regrettably have to present to you in hysterically po-faced fashion; I'm so far behind the curve on Those Dancing Days that I literally got beat by SPIN. SPIN. Nate Patrin is my boy and all, but SPIN. SPIN openly endorses the existence of My Chemical Romance and actively encourages the existence of The Cobrasnake. SPIN named "Your Hard Drive" as its album of the year back in 2000. SPIN still likes U2. And yet somehow, SPIN inexplicably manages to pluck Those Dancing Days out of the pure Swedish air (well, okay, eleven years after the blogs had already justifiably freaked out over them) while I sit around with my thumb up my ass howling at Time Warner; let us simply say that there are times when this world can suck it and move along to the fact that I'm idiotically glad I heard them in any event, because band, song, fuck it, after hearing this track I was preordering five copies of anything with the words "Those Dancing Days" printed anywhere on it (y'know, in case four get lost in the mail). This was one of those songs where I was, like, pumping my fist in the air with sheer exhilaration at the sound of hearing every chord change I hoped I'd hear come true, and for someone like myself who derives an almost spiritual peace from the familiarity of the verse-chorus-verse three-minute pop song, that's just not something you pass up. I am stupidly in love with this song, even two months after the fact, and have the wildest expectations for the album they're supposed to put out later this year. Maybe I should stay tuned to SPIN for the latest on that. Ugh. God. (Click here to buy the "These Dancing Days" EP from Amazon.co.uk)

Looker, on the other hand appears to be all mine for the moment; I cannot, however, expect that to stay the same if they've got other songs in 'em as good as "Master's Gone Away", the friggin' b-side to their debut single. Needless to say, it is a cataclysmically enjoyable little song, diminished only slightly by its cheeky 60s-quoting, and only then since the song's beyond strong enough to necessitate any fancying up (up-fancying?). Plus it may well be the first song technology ever picked out for me; it showed up on my random playlists so regularly I thought my mp3 player was taking money from someone. I actually had to pick the a-side out manually to play it, only to discover that nope, my Zune had the right idea all along. Thanks, technology! (Click here to buy the "After My Divorce/Master's Gone Away" 7" from Serious Business records)