Jimmy Edgar, Oxia & Miss Kittin

Slackness afoot on Blouse! Apologies (once again) for that.. I haven't just been sitting on my hands though - I have taken a tiny bit of time to peruse some music that was close at hand..

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Double Hill, Sleep D & BB & Q Band

"Balmy" Helsinki seems to have gotten me comfortably settled in this deep thing for the past week or so. Great stuff. Organic, warm, instrument filled electronica gets the girls these days. That's what they say anyway.

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Telonius & Chemise

We seem to have pitched a tent in some pretty dark areas of late. Hope you don't mind if we get a bit happier for a sec? It is Monday after all.

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Justice: Audio, Video, Disco

That wasn't so bad, was it?

I was dreading Justice's sophomore album release. All those remixes, all that hype. A Grammy.

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New SebastiAn: Embody EP

Since we last eavesdropped on SebastiAn he has released another track to help us remember the blog house era and cry.

The Embody EP was released a few days ago and sounds like Justice did in 2007.

But don't hold that against him, because they have always sounded similar. You could ask whether Justice influenced him, or if it was the other way around.

Here's the answer: Go fuck yourself.

SebastiAn - Embody

This track has hallmark SebastiAn hip-hop blips with the addition of distorted R&B vocal samples.

They are steady throughout the track, with a keyboard climax ensuing just before the 2m30s mark.

No joke, today I asked someone: "If you could rate 'Embody' between one and 10 with only the number 10, what would you rate it?"

"I'll kick you in the nuts is what I'd rate it," they said.

The EP comes with remixes from DJ Premier and Kavinsky.

Order you copy here.

UPDATED - New Justice album: Civilization

French electronic duo Justice will release their second album after a four-year hiatus since †, or Cross, was released in 2007 and signalled the zenith of the electro era.

Here's a teaser to get you excited about their forthcoming album Civilization.  

Note: This teaser is kind of boring and doesn't really hint at what the album, or any album, would sound like. Unless Justice have made an album which sounds like Pac Man taking a dump on a dozen Pac Women in a kiddies' pool.

We'll keep you posted as the band releases details.

Here are the lyrics to Civilization, performed by Ali Love. This was posted on Facebook a few hours ago:

Digitalism Blitz EP

Digitalism, oh how I miss the melancholy of your music.

Do you remember when we shook hands at the Metro in 2009? We took happy snaps and watched Simian Mobile Disco together.

Then after you stole my lunch with 'Pogo', 'Zdarlight' and 'Taken Away', I thought you'd disappeared off the fucking awesome metre forever.

But you're back:

Digitalism - Blitz

This electro house offering is marinated in plunging basslines and sprinkled with distortion.

As a whole, the Blitz EP rolls tech, punk and house into a disparate but complimentary package.

Oh look, you made a video too!

interview: (pretty) girls & lasers

Most band names are a play on words, an onomatopoeic orge of vowels and syllables. They can also be something boring, like a singer’s `real name'. But there are very few stage names that can excite the kid in all of us. An electro outfit from New York has a name that does though, harking back to our first disco, first romance, or first laser tag game. (Pretty) Girls & Lasers is comprised of Jack and Levi, two guys that see the NY club scene as a social aphrodisiac - and electro its oyster.

This year they’ve released top-shelf mixes dripping in something between mango juice and Megan Fox’s cleavage sweat – a delicious combination of hot electro and a mixture of older and obscure tracks. Coupled with a residency at the NY club Arlo & Esme, Jack and Levi are flying the electro banner high.

We recently chatted about when their careers started up, the nuances of the NY club scene and what they’ll be excited about in 2010.

So it’s Jack and Levi? Which one of you guys is which?

Jack: I’m Jack
Levi: And I’m Levi.
J: Seriously though. I’m the tall one and Levi is the somewhat taller one.

What part of NY are you from?

J: I’m originally from Long Island (I know, I’m embarrassed by it too) and Levi’s kind of from all over, but was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
L: Space.
J: Yeah. And we do all of our production work in Manhattan.

What’s with your stage name? Tongue in cheek eroto-sci-fi?

L: I don’t know. We just wanted to make up a cool band name, and (Pretty) Girls & Lasers is what we came up with.
J: We wanted to pick something that sounded fun, a little bit indie, and different from most of the dance music acts out there.

When and how did you get into DJing?

L: Well I got into producing trance music with a friend of mine in college, and Jack’s dad was a pretty big DJ during the disco era, so he’s been around dance music his whole life.
J: Yeah, we’ve both been pretty into music – dance music, indie-rock, classic rock, all kinds of stuff – pretty much since birth.

What artists have you been spinning lately?

J: All kinds of stuff – we’re both constantly listening to new music and finding stuff to play. Between the two of us we probably listen to almost a thousand new tracks a week. Obviously most of it’s crap, but you have to go through a lot of stuff to find what’s good.
L: Yeah. As for artists, Justin Faust out of Germany has had some great stuff lately. Will Eastman out of DC, The Twelves, Treasure Fingers, Death to the Throne, Yuksek, A-Trak, 80kidz are some other artists that are pretty consistently good.

So you guys produce as well as mix? What software/hardware do you use?

L: Yeah. We’re actually in the process of working on a bunch of remixes and original tracks right now – they should be coming out soon, although we haven’t set a date yet.
J: We’ve experimented with a bunch of different software, but are mostly using Ableton with a handful of different synths right now.

What’s the club scene like in NY at the moment?

J: Depends on the night and it depends on the place. NYC is big enough that there are always decent places to go if you know where. On the weekends it can be hard to find them because so many people commute to the city for the nightlife, and they’re there for the scene so much more than for the music. They make a lot of the clubs –especially the bigger rooms – pretty intolerable.
L: Yeah, but if you’re plugged into the scene you’re always able to find good parties.

You've said you’re trying to spread the indie-electro sound in NY in response to the dominant hard house and prog trance scene there. What’s the inspiration behind that?

L: I don’t really have the energy for that kind of music.
J: I’ve actually got nothing against hard house or progressive trance music. A lot of it is really good, and when I’m in Europe or even Canada I like going to see a lot of that stuff. But the scene around that music here in NYC is kind of becoming a parody of itself – everyone’s there for the bottle service or for the drugs, and that’s fine, but it just seems like no one’s really there for the music.

How’d the Arlo & Esme residency crop up?

L: We were looking for a place to get our music out, and Arlo & Esme is a really cool room we found ourselves going to anyway. The owner Gage dug our music so we started putting something together there.
J: Yeah it was all pretty organic.

Your latest mix is mostly soft electro-pop in comparison to your previous mix. Is there a reason? Do you think bangers have had their day?

J: Not really. We put out our previous mix at the end of the summer here, so it kind of made sense for it to be a little more up. The most recent mix just seemed to fit with how we were feeling at the time we made it.
L: Yeah, it kind of just worked out that way - we don’t really spend too much time thinking about that kind of stuff.

Which producers/bands are on your radar for 2010?

J: We’re both kind of into all different stuff. When I’m not working on music or trying to find new stuff to spin I’ll spend a lot of time listening to indie-rock stuff – bands like The Rural Alberta Advantage, Liam Finn, The Dutchess & the Duke, The Tellers, Marina & the Diamonds, The Xx and The Pixies. I’m also really digging a lot of Kid Cudi’s stuff.
L: Cavaliers of Fun, Discovery, Russ Chimes, Chiddy Bang, Coconut Records, Wolfgang Gartner, Miike Snow, Sebastian Tellier, People Under the Stairs. Too much good stuff to name.

If you had to incorporate lyrics from your fave song/s into a pick-up line, what would you say?

L: “That’s the first thing I say to you – how’s it goin’? Are you flowin’? Listen honey, thinkin’ ‘bout a couple things to say to you. Showin’, growin’. And I’d like to place my hands upon your fuckin’ sexy ass and squeeze, and squeeze.”
J: I can’t wait to see you use that one this weekend.

(Pretty) Girls & Lasers Late 2009 Mix Part 1

(Pretty) Girls & Lasers Late 2009 Mix Part 2

tracklist in the comments for all you curious souls..