Friday, January 4, 2008  6:42 am 

2008 Addendum

More 2008 fun! There are a few albums coming out in the next couple of months that are long awaited and so exciting a prospect that all we can do is sit in our dusty basements rocking back and forth with anticipation at finally getting them and seeing exactly what they are all about. Without further ado:

Crystal Castles! They have not graced these lowly pages for a while now (mainly due to the fact that they are getting heavy play on virtually every other blog) but now that the album, self-titled, is due March on Last Gang records, we can once again immerse ourselves in that familiar Gameboy-raping blitzkrieg refrain of looped bleeps and nasty little sinewy synth snaps.

Crystal Castles - Untrust Us (Album Version)

Now ‘Untrust Us’ opens the album, and yeah its been kicking around for a while, but with CC it doesn’t matter cos they slay you like V lizard men - the baby with the long snake tongue, thats what this track is, if it leaped out of its horrified mother’s arms and straight through the TV in the hospital recreation room where little Jimmy (now scarred for life) is playing Mario. Lizard baby eats Mario and spits out beats amongst the chewed up 8-bit bones. Love!

Channels 3×4! The album is named “Christianity” and is coming out, er, soon on the ever-excellent Summer Lovers Unlimited. But before all that fun there will be a CDR with a deluge of Johnny Jewel productions on it, not released on the ‘Christian Girls Like To Get Cut’ 12″ or anywhere else, limited and sought after. But until the full album hits allow yourself to be punched in the face by this LP demo:

Channels 3×4 - Meeting (Album Demo)

What manner of sex crimes must they perform on that keyboard to get it to make that horrid growling sound? Channels come on like a taut Marvel Comics panther, flexing its black-furred muscles before spreading its claws and springing forward at stroppy bored teenagers who just don’t know how lucky they have it. We like that Ch.3×4 keep it simple and direct; statement lyrics repeated for full effect barked over shimmering walls of hi-hat and robust synth booms.

SUPER BONUS!

Agh! The disco odyssey continues! The Hercules & Love Affair album is bound for 2008, complete with the most amazing discopic cut of fragile diamond beat n’ bass funk with new single ‘Blind’, coming February. You can check that on Beats In Space, but here we turn our attention to Hercules’ remixing skills:

Goldfrapp - A&E (Hercules & Love Affair Remix)

I cannot say enough good things about this, its too perfect IMO. Andy Butler whisks Goldfrapp away from their sunny springtime country garden lifestyle and throw them slap bang into the middle of a warehouse rave inexplicably sited in the middle of the African desert. Technotronic Zulu warriors from 1989 stab at them with spears in time to the stuttering beat and a giant gold cube suspended over the dancefloor emits liquid effects. But then at 3:30, nitetime falls and the rain washes over dark skinned shamen as they throw skulls into the sky that then transform into green ghost huskies, coiling Goldfrapp upto the Moon and beyond.

labels >> Channels 3×4, Hercules & Love Affair, crystal castles, synth punk, xxjfg