parklife

This coming Sunday Parklife will hit Sydney, a long weekend and celestial Spring weather. There really is no better combination to usher in the festival season. The only thing that could compare is if the moon became a strobe light on NYE. Or spun around and said something dopey.

Fellow Parklifers, there are things you should and shouldn't do this weekend. I'll illustrate.

*Cue dark synths and smoke machines* It was way back (last week), one sunny summer afternoon in a Potts Point apartment. A raving buddy and I hung our arms from the breezy window, above a fucking hipster's balcony. We smoked cigarettes like air, drank Vodka like water and debated the "way of the rave" for hours.

We discussed 'rules' for Field Day 2010, but the ideas applied to any festival. Like Confucius, my buddy's words echoed through time like planets colliding. Her name is Lauren Murada. She is also a hipster, loves Top Shop, indie-electro, will trip in heels of any height and reckons chicks go to dubstep nights to experience vibrating toilet seats. This is what she said:

"My advice would be to definitely leave your shirt on. Don't wear thongs. Invest in a pairs of Cons or High Tops. Wear sunscreen. Don't pass out before 1pm and don't wet yourself. Oh, and see the Juan Maclean."

Empire of the Sun - Standing on the Shore (Cassian Remix)

Miike Snow - Black & Blue (Tiga Remix)

La Roux - I'm Not Your Toy (datA Remix)

La Roux - In for the Kill (Diplo and Bot Edit)

Services - Element of Danger (MSTRKRFT Remix)

Late of the Pier - The Bears are Coming (Joakim Remix)

Bloc Party - Hunting for Witches (Crystal Castles Remix)

Claude Von Stroke - Who's Afraid of Detroit? (Audion Remix)

Metronomy - Not Made for Love (Joakim Remix)

The Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers (Morgan Geist Remix)

Sydney Parklife 2009 set list.

suck my fist

Writing about MSTRKRFT's new album Fist of God is putting me in a very tentative position. In light of all the criticism that's been dumped on it across the blogosphere it feels like i'm playing hot potato using Mr. Hankey - and the music has just stopped.

Word on the interweb is the album is a sack of shit. The KRFT set the bar so high with The Looks and a clutch of uber-banging remixes that fans, some critics and a fistful of self-indulgent bloggers expected the MDSTCH (i mean Midas Touch. My apologies, i'm trying to wow you with my anti-vowel motif).

MSTRKRFT - Bounce (A-trak remix)

It's like how 808s & Heartbreak was considered a used tampon by legions of Kanye fans when it was released. I'll concede that Yeezy's head is rammed quite the way up his own arse, but from an artistic angle the album is innovative and daring. The masses found it hard to digest something that required aural effort, like the first night in a new pair of nut-pinching drainpipes. C'mon people, let's dig a little deeper into that aesthetics bag for this album.

Looking at Fist of God as objectively as my ego, a cognitive hard-on watching Swedish porn, will let me it's a step up from The Looks. It still has the dirty riffs and grinding distortion which made their debut a classic. You could party to it, gym to it or sex to it. But this time around we're bombarded by rappers like E-40 and Ghostface Killah, which is a love/hate combination to me. Merging raps with electro isn't a new thing though - it's been around since the days of Miami Bass - but it works well on this album.

MSTRKRFT - Bounce (Teh Interweb Kidz Remix)

On the flipside it does get a little rep-rep-repetitive and the track 'Heartbreaker' is a real low-point. But 'Vuvuvu' is genius, 'Bounce' is a banger's banger and 'It Ain't Love' is a one-night-stand anthem proper.

The Canadian lads are currently touring the US, with the official Fist of God release set for late March.