Trying to review Daft Punk’s new album was never going to be easy, hell, an album that weighs in at 75 minutes long, with a list of collaborators that sounds like the future rock’n'roll hall of fame, was always going to be difficult to tie down in under 500 words. Then there’s the hype; rumours of upwards of 30 million dollars has been spent on promoting the 4th studio album, ‘Random Access Memories’, from French duo Daft Punk.
For Justice to try and top their last live album, the Grammy award-winning ‘Across The Universe’, it was always going to be a tall order. For one: their new live album ‘Access All Arenas’ doesn’t have an eye-opening Romain Gavras documentary to seduce you into the world of a touring electronic act. And secondly: ‘Access All Arenas’ is very much still anchored by material from their first album, ‘Cross’.
On their 10th anniversary last year the Kitsuné opened a new US Boutique and to celebrate they released the Kitsuné America compilation. By doing this they successfully proved that Europe does not hold the exclusive on quality electronic dance music. Now almost a year later they are releasing Part 2 to promote all the interesting artists they have encountered over that period.
With disco domination set firmly in the sights of MofoHifi’s sister label Heavy Disco, their most recent release Heavy Disco Vol.2 is here to stamp its authority on the genre once again.
James Blake has reached the point where he’s transcended genre definition, which is no mean feat. Arguably one of the most influential figures in the electronic music scene recently, his first self-titled album reached critical acclaim, gaining a stunningly broad audience despite not being overtly accessible to most ears. Now is the time for the challenging ‘follow up album’. Undoubtedly one of the most hotly anticipated releases of 2013, ‘Overgrown’ has a lot to live up to.
This week the enigmatic Mighty Mouse released the fourth installment of his increasingly inclusive compilation: Disco Circus.
Alex Metric’s current purple patch looks set to continue with the third reload of his prolific ‘Ammunition’ series, with the latest edition seeing the producer touch as many genre-shaped bases as possible in just under 21 minutes, across four originals.
L’Equipe Du Son is the alias of Dutch disco producer Rutger Van Der Kraats, and to be honest it wouldn’t be an understatement to say that his L’Equipe Du Son alias isn’t exactly on many people’s radars, he certainly wasn’t on ours until we posted the Dubka remix of his last single, and we can’t for life of us work out why.
Canadian new wave duo Footprintz, Adam Hunter and Clarian North, have just released their debut album ‘Escape Yourself’ via Seth Troxler’s label Visionquest. The duo were actually the first act to get a spot on Troxler’s label which speaks volumes about their hazy blend of lo-fi synths and shimmering vocals.
Two of France’s brightest electronic lights Crayon & Pyramid join forces for a new EP which is out today via Kitsune. You’ll probably all be aware of Pyramid, but Crayon may need an introduction; he’s a 21-year-old producer from Paris, who is also signed to Kitsune, but dabbles in more off-beat electro pop, quite different to Pyramid’s neon-clad electronic vision of the future.
Kavinsky released his first single, ‘Teddy Boy’, in 2006, since then he’s been gathering pace like a classic car, with only fleeting appearances to continue the mysterious narrative of a man possessed after crashing his prized Ferrari on the way to see his girlfriend.
Delphic’s second album, ‘Collections’, will be out this time next week, and they have just unveiled a new track ‘Memeo’, which is the third track to be unveiled from the follow-up to 2009′s ‘Acolyte’.
Theo Keating is a man of many guises; those of you who were around in the 90′s will probably know him as Touché, others might know him for his avant-garde work in The Black Ghosts and others, who are really really nerdy, might know him for his part in The Wiseguys. But for today’s exercise we’re concentrating on his Fake Blood moniker and his debut album ‘Cells’.
Hans-Peter Lindstrøm has been making electronic music for just under 10 years; during this time he’s released 2 albums, made countless remixes and formed memorable partnerships with Christabelle and Prins Thomas. His latest album ‘Smalhans’ sees the unassuming Norwegian producer return to his analogue roots and away from his more experimental second album ‘Six Cups Of Rebel ’.
Ulas Koca, better known by his stage name Surrender!, has just released his debut self-titled album via fledgling label La Bombe. We recently interviewed the Turkish producer and he admitted to us that he made his album without any proper speakers. “I don’t have any hardware synths, I don’t even have any monitors”.
When you’re listening to Boys Noize’s new album ‘Out of The Black’ you get a real sense that you’re listening to an artist who was always been torn between the industrial sounds of his native Germany and the unpredictability and flamboyancy of French electronic music.
As you may well know Boys Noize is about to release his third studio album ‘Out Of The Black’ on October 8 via his own imprint Boys Noize Records.
After what seems like years Breakbot has finally released his debut album ‘By Your Side’ via Ed Banger Records. But have the 13 tracks of funk, disco and soul been worth the wait? We’re not sure.
Blende has been on our radar for a few months after he started giving away a slew of expertly crafted re-edits of some of our favourite 80′s guilty pleasures. Since then his star has been rising like a rocket with countless well-received remixes and now he is making his debut on Belgium disco label Eskimo Recordings.
The good folks at Jack Daniels and Vice.com offered us the opportunity to go to Arenal festival in Spain, for free. All we would have to do is use their rather nifty reporter Facebook app, which automagically would take our gushing tweets and paste them across the app – surely the deal of a lifetime. Obviously we said yes straight away – let’s face it we could do with some sunshine and a free holiday. Well, that what we thought we were getting.
