+++ Kool Thing – “Light Games” ++++
By Claire Kurylowski. From their free “Light Games EP”.
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Kool Thing
Music Ticker: Kool Thing, Magnetic Fields, Austra, Trust, Pictureplane
+++ Berlin based Kool Thing (picture on top by Emma Haugh) has just released a beautiful free 3-track EP entitled “Light Games”. You can stream and download it here (new video to “Light Games” soon): +++ The Magnetic Fields will release their new album “Bottom of the Sea” on March 6 via Merge Records. Here’s the stream of the album track and cute queer hymn “Andrew in Drag”: +++ Check out new videos by Austra (“Spellwork“) and Trust (“Bulbform“), a side project of Austra drummer Maya Postepski +++ +++ Travis Egedy aka Pictureplane has just released a free remix album of his debut ”Thee Physical” from last year. The album entitled “Dimensional Rip 7″ can be streamed and downloaded via DIS magazine. Here’s the video to the Extreme Animals remix of “Body Mods”. It may sound familiar to you.
SSION: Nothing Happens at Nite (Joey Hansom Remix)
If I would actually believe in the relevance of the album format and acquiesce to the Gregorian calendar, then SSION‘s Bent would certainly make it onto my 2011 list. Here’s my reworking of the bittersweet “Nothing Happens at Nite”, using Cody Critcheloe’s a cappella over a new arrangement that shifts from French filter house and dance-pop into some kind of tropical interlude before unfolding into the cut-up disco closing. Thanks to Electrosexual for mastering my remix, and if you haven’t already heard Bent, you can download the whole album for free at SSION’s official site.
Planningtorock, Kool Thing And Hercules & Love Affair’s Mark Pistel Remix Austra
Toronto-based, minor-key-addicted Austra have blown up in such a short amount of time since the May release of their debut album Feel It Break, so it would be easily to dismiss them as hype — a video censored for nudity and a mention on Jay-Z’s blog couldn’t have hurt — but thankfully the quality of the music indicates otherwise. Their cold synth patterns and Katie Stelmanis‘s rich voice are a soft sell on melancholic ears, and their sound perfectly defines the Blacksmith Synth-Bop trend of 2011 (a micro-genre I coined just now).
Massimiliano Pagliara: Italo-Berliner
DJ/producer Massimiliano Pagliara, last seen remixing Hard Ton, has just released his debut album Focus for Infinity on Frankfurt club/imprint Live at Robert Johnson, distributed via Kompakt. It’s an unabashedly retro affair, echoing 80s synth-pop and house sounds with guest vocalists on a few tracks, including “Fade the Light” featuring Mavin from Manhooker, which I featured last month on both Expatriarch Radio and Top Secret. Read on to stream clips from each of the album’s tracks, followed by my last radio show (which also includes Ssion, Crazy Bitch in a Cave and my very own remix for Catch Fire favorite Kool Thing). Earlier this week Massi nerded out about his influences, gear and collaborators with What People Say. Berliners can catch him DJing this Saturday, June 11th, at About Blank with NYC’s Morgan Geist, Daniel Wang and Trust.
Music Ticker: Dntel/Enya, YACHT, Kool Thing, Barbara Panther, Xiu Xiu/Deerhoof, Grant Worth, Logan Lynn
+++ Jimmy Tamborello aka Figurin aka Strictly Ballroom aka The Postal Service aka Dntel has just outed himself as a huge Enya fan by releasing a free 9-track mini-album of Enya remixes online. You can stream the album on self-titled and download it on dublab +++ +++ On June 27th YACHT (see above) will release their new record “Shangri-La” on DFA. Here’s a new song called “Dystopia” to stream + download (via Fader): +++ Kool Thing have send me a really nice danceable remix of their song “The Sign” from their self-titled debut EP (available via Bandcamp). You can stream and download it here: The Sign (Chance In The Dark Mix) +++ Barbara Panther is going to release a new album called “Moonlight People” on June 3rd via City Slang / Universal. The record will include three tracks of her awesome “Empire EP” released last year + seven new tracks and will like the EP be produced by Matthew Herbert. You can watch the video to her new single “Moonlight People” here (via Expatriach) +++
PICK 5: Nuclear Family
Berlin based queer electro punk / performance duo Nuclear Family has released its new album “Fuck My He Art” in December last year, and since then constantly release remixes of the album songs by acts such Kool Thing and Mr.Kitty as well as wild videos that are regularly banned by YouTube. For CF Nuclear Family songwriter and mastermind Nikolaj has put together a list of his five favourite web clips and gives an insight on his influences, be it queer core or the Pet Shop Boys. You can check out + buy “Fuck My He Art” on Bandcamp (I love the cover) and the duo’s other stuff such as their videos, concert photos and their latest coups on their blog/website. Click here for more PICK 5s by Kool Thing, Hard Ton and Discodromo! 1. Huggy Bear – Pansy Twist “I have to start with Huggy Bear. To me they are the essential Riot Grrrl band, and this is the ultimate punk rock faggot anthem. To me working consciously as a queer artist in music is very much about creating a space for identification which stands both as a queer opposition to a dominantly straight subculture as well as a subcultural opposition to a mainstream gay culture. And this song and video do both so beautifully I wanna scream and jump with joy. And then I always thought guys wearing animal heads was the sweetest mix of childlike innocence and total kink.” 2. Screamers – 122 Hours of Fear “You cannot say ‘queer’, ‘punk’ and ‘synth’ without mentioning The Screamers. It’s primitive, raw, and punk in every sense of the word, and still highly intelligent and defying the restrictions of any possible label. And the stage performance of singer Tomaty Du Plenty is totally awe-inspiring.” 3. Pet Shop Boys – Domino Dancing “Bringing queer art into the mainstream with some of the best and coolest pop songs ever. I was gonna pick ‘Being Boring’ but we’ve all seen it a million times. And here you have eight minutes of squeaky clean baby-faced construction workers showing off smooth tanned torsos while dancing around the same girl which the camera mysteriously seems to not care about. Fantastic! And again, the music is brilliant too! Let’s admit it, we all wish we could make a song like this.”
Top Secret Berlin + Expatriarch Radio
As a new contributor to Catch Fire, I’ll never miss the chance to plug myself. First off, let me tell you about a new party series I’m starting along with DJ Dickey Doo, the first edition of which happens this Friday in Berlin. We’ve also launched the Top Secret blog with YouClouds and SoundTubes to give you an idea of our style. Second, all episodes of Expatriarch Radio have been uploaded to Mixcloud for easy streaming, including the latest episode, below, which features new tracks from Berliner acts Kool Thing (playing at Kaffee Burger on February 23) and Aerea Negrot (performing both solo and as part of Hercules & Love Affair at Berghain on March 3rd). Enjoy!
TOP SECRET
Social networking in the flesh
w/ DJs Dickey Doo & Joey Hansom
Friday, 18th of February, 23:00
Miss Tipsy Champagneria
Falckensteinstr. 16, Kreuzberg
2€ entry
Music Ticker: Hercules & Love Affair, Jai Paul, Kool Thing, Scab/Michael Magnan, Wolfram
+++ Hercules And Love Affair‘s new album “Blue Songs” will be released in a couple of days. The band’s label Moshi Moshi has already made the full album available to stream on Soundcloud. More about the record in the interview with Andy Butler I published a couple of days ago +++ +++ I’m completely in love with “BTSTU”, a song by a British songwriter and record producer called Jai Paul (see picture). The song is a demo from 2007 and has gained a lot of attention after being played several times on the UK national radio in December. Someone even dedicated an animated video to the song a couple of weeks ago. Download it here (via aHeadwork): +++ The Berlin based hypnotic psychedelic electronic showgaze band Kool Thing has recently released its first self-titled E.P. via Bandcamp and ITunes and I can assure you that it’s worth every single penny. Check out the site for their tour dates as well. Here’s the “The Sign”, the opener of the E.P.: +++ Download a mixtape by SCAB and NYC based artist Michael Magnan right here +++ +++ “Fireworks” is a track of the upcoming self-titled album by Vianna based artist Wolfram and has been produced in collaboration with Hercules & Love Affair (whatever this means exactly). More about the album and the artist here. Here’s the song:
