BI(F)TEK [AUSTRALIA]
unisex mp3
played a track today from the experts, a collaboration between australian artists byron scullin and nicole skeltys from female duo bi(f)tek. the album ‘electro city breaks’ seems to be a tie-in with the ‘lonely planet’ tv series, but there’s very little info online about the album (with the exception of this page). you can get an idea of what to expect by downloading this track from bi(f)tek‘s 2003 album ‘frequencies will move together’ – australian electro pop at its finest. [site]
BJORK [ICELAND]
verandi mp3
get on google and try and find the track i played today – a preview remix (premix?) of ‘triumph of a heart’ from bjork‘s new album ‘medulla’. to whet your appetite, this mp3 is an out-take from the ‘vespertine’ recording sessions, written with with the help of bollywood composer jolly mukherjee.
CORNERSHOP [ENGLAND]
lessons learned from rocky I to rocky III mp3
so maybe cornershop are back, maybe they’re not. the new single (from which i played both tracks today) is titled as ‘cornershop presents bubbley kaur’ and is two slices of wonderfully lo-fi pop layered with a gorgeous hindi vocal. track it down if you can. the above track is completely different in flavour, pop rock from their 2002 album ‘handcream for a generation’.
BEBEL GILBERTO [BRAZIL]
simplesmente mp3
as the daughter of ‘the man who invented bossa’, the weight of expectation lay heavy on bebel gilberto‘s shoulder for many years. her album ‘tanto tempo’ surpassed most of those expectation, fusing traditional bossa groove with contemporary electronic production. a remix collection featuring the likes of king britt and rae and christian didn’t do any harm to her reputation either. her new self-titled album strips away most of the electronica in favour of more acoustic sound, and whilst that might disappoint some die-hards, it allows her voice to come shining through in a collection that’ll no doubt have wide appeal. tune into FAT PLANET on FBi on sunday 15th august for my interview with bebel (and hopefully if i find the time, i’ll post a transcript too). [site]
THE GO! TEAM [ENGLAND]
junior kickstart mp3
played the track ‘the power is on’ from this uk group, released through memphis industries. there’s a quote on the label site which says the go! team sound like “the yeah yeah yeahs doing double dutch”. there’s a lot of seemingly contradictary info about the band online, but as far as i can see it’s centered around the brighton musician ian parton, who – in a scandanavian interview – namechecks mantronix and le tigre as influences, so now you get the gist, right?
POLYSICS [JAPAN]
married to a frenchman mp3
i first came across polysics on the sony compilation ‘japan for sale volume one’ a couple of years ago (the same album that introduced me to the glorious puffy amiyumi). polysics are that wonderful blend of psych-out rock with sharp pop sensibilities, something japan does very well and very often. asianmanrecords.com describes polysics as “a less poppy devo, mixed in with the aggressive sounds of the bordeoms, trickle in the energy of the dead kennedys, and topped off with the moods of man or astroman“. which is quite something to live up to, but i think they’ve nailed it.