Teengirl Fantasy - Portofino

Fantastic ambient textural electronic cut and paste music from Teengirl Fantasy
On Monday they release a 7 inch on Merok Records (Klaxons and Crystal Castles) on white vinyl with two tracks called Portofino and New image Every Day. The key track for me though is Azz Klapz Customize It which can be found on their myspace site. I would describe this one as Miami Bass Electronic madness. Could not find any videos yet for this outfit. Go check their music out at their myspace

http://www.myspace.com/teengirlfantasy

Teengirl Fantasy are supposedly hitting Toronto On March 6, 2008 as part of some night called Primary Colours.

Electricity In Our Homes - Gymnastics/Motorbike

Unfortunately no video for this single. Released this week on 4AD on a 7 Inch. Its very hard to find much info on this band on the web other than they have released the single on 4AD and do have a myspace page. The single is in its live version there. I've always been partial to 4AD records. Usually you can't go wrong. That brings us to Electricity in Our Homes who seem to be, at least at this point, a 2 men/1 woman trio. Very noisy low-fi punk music. Not sure i got this off first listen but it is interesting. Although their myspace page isn't even up to date. Bonnie Carr's vocals remind me of the band That Dog.

Check their noise out at http://www.myspace.com/electricityinourhomes

Little Dragon Fortune

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoNkQCZCQ7Q

Downtempo indie track by Little Dragon. The band is based in Gothenburg Sweden and features a Japanese Swedish singer Yukimi Nagano. This is their latest single released this week in the UK and is new material which follows up their first album Little Dragon from 2007. Everything good seems to be coming from Sweden these days. A very cool animated video for the song is found below.

Lily Allen - The Fear

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-wGMlSuX_c

Always liked Lily Allen's voice. This is her brand new single out this week in the UK. Average catchy single which will probably grow on me. This is the lead single taken from her 2nd album to be released very soon called It's Not Me, It's You. Good life attitude to have I guess.

The BPA - H'e Frank (Slight Return)

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2h68VyvH64

What can I say....Norman Cook can do no wrong.....this is the third track to be floated around off the Brighton Port Authority full length album called He's Frank. Vocals are done by punk god Iggy Pop who seems to disappear and reappear at the most promising of times. The video is worth watching as its a fairly entertaining three minutes of Frank Swirling around with glass eyes fighting ninjas. Once released, BPA could easily be up for top ten album of the year if not top five. Watch out for the standard Fatboy Slim cameo also.

The Rifles - Fall to Sorrow

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8BUMirc7ow

No official video for this one up on Youtube as of yet but someone has been nice to put the song up as a youtube clip. This track, out in the UK this week, is the second single from their second album called The Great Escape The first single called The Great Escape was a nice catchy track but I don't know if it actually made it to physical format. I missed its release. But this second one is really the catchy track from this UK band signed to 679 records. Wow. Interesting fact. The bands first album was produced by Ian Broudie. That basically says it deserves a listen. Poutine or no poutine (see Panic Manual for a full LP review).

Attic Lights - Late Night Sunshine

New single by the Attic Lights taken from their debut release Friday Night Lights. Very Beach Boys sounding harmonies. Nice track. Unfortunately I can't embed the video so you will need to click here to get the video on Youtube.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zApUACKY1ZU

I was told this single would be out in the shops on December 8th but it seems if it got pushed back to early 2009 and will be part of a Double A-Side package which will also include the track I Could Be So Good To You. The track is a re-recording of a theme song for an eighties tv show called Minder. The show has been remade and is coming out in the UK (if not already out) and the Attic Lights version is the new theme song. For this I can provide you a video (see below)

But before you check this one out I have to mention the Digital Download of Santa's Girlfriend which is a track featuring Cerys Matthews of Catatonia fame and the Attic Lights. The single was for the Scottish Children's charity Cash For Kids and can be downloaded for about a dollar at this website. Not sure what it sounds like, but I should be downloading a copy for myself very soon.

Here is the video for the Minder theme:

Kid Cudi Vs Crookers - Day N Nite

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVb_t_ao9gw

Very catchy club track currently number 2 in the UK Charts in sales. Definately a Feddi Legrand Welcome to Detroit beat going on here.

Timmy Vegas & Bad Lay-Dee - Another Dimension

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIg2nm6f37o

January starts out slow for releases. Major Labels seem to be dropping sure hit singles by big artists such as Girls Aloud, Lady Gaga, The Game, Pink. But the dance labels take the opportunity to sneak in their cuts.

First up is a fantastic track that samples Crystal Waters Gypsy Woman, borrows a lyric from an old Prodigy song, and throws Bad Lay-Dee's old skool hip-house rap over top. Brilliant. The track is put together by Timmy Vegas and is out on Eye Industries, a UK dance label which has been around for about 7 years now. Tomorrow I'll look at the number 2 selling record in the UK off the Data Records UK Dance label.

DeVotchka-How it Ends

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOnjvj5OhKA

The song has been out for awhile but gets put into a videogame commercial 2 years later and suddenly its in demand. Featured in the Gears Of War 2 trailors. Not sure if the song is actually in the actual video game. I can't play these types of video games without getting dizzy spells and nausea. Quite a gothic melodic anthem like piece of music.

Keane - Perfect Symmetry

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf1RDO9SkiY


2009, A brand new year. Artists are typically slow to release physical format releases at this time of the year. Well. lets get to it. A new video from Keane. A throwback band to the Eighties. Lots of keyboard and emotional melodies. The song is called Perfect Symmetry and is the third single taken from the album of the same name. Some fine adult rotation rock here. I think I can like this secretly.