BlackPlastic has spent much of the last week digging on this slice of melancholic pop from Pollyn. 'Lost It All' sounds like the by-product of Annie and Robyn trying to out-do each other in the 'sad song' stakes whilst hanging out in a smokey little karaoke bar and in BlackPlastic's book that can only be a good thing. The slightly jangly backing track is just the right side of La Roux and the track drips with just enough sassy desperation that you can't figure out whether whether the singer is a basket case or not.
Check out the live studio performance:
Things get even better on Peter Visti's mix, which sees the whole tracked turned into a cosmic disco stormer... Sharp percussion and a muted guitar giving the whole track a moody, lost-on-the-dancefloor vibe and the break five minutes in, complete with discordant synths, really makes the whole thing a little epic.
In Flagranti are hitting FabricLive this Friday (4 September) alongside Popof, Aeroplane (oh how we love thee) and Filthy Dukes. In Flagranti will actually be in room two which is being hosted by Erol Alkan's Durrr.
To get you in the mood check out this never released track from In Flagranti called 'Brash & Vulgar' for download. It's a nice cheeky track with a rough little bassline on it and a little toungue in cheek vocal in the bridge - label this is a nice little DJ tool.
Desktop are Electric Six's Keith Thompson and The Pop Project's Zach Curd but unlike the output from their day jobs, based on their debut self-titled EP anyhow, Desktop produce slinky eighties influenced wunder-pop. We dig it.
Their three-track EP is available to download for free on their website and is well worth listening too. As increasingly seems to be the case, this project was developed in remote-collaboration (a la the Postal Service) with both Thompson and Curd revising each other's contributions. Based on what BlackPlastic has heard it works and we are certainly feeling these lazy summertime tunes, sounding like something created somewhere between New Order's ode to the Balearics, Technique, and Chicago house.
All we're saying though is it's still nice to, you know, see people in the flesh and all.
In addition to the free download Desktop will be releasing a very limited run of 200 12" inches with letterpressed jackets via Suburban Sprawl Music/Quack Media on September 29th, 2009.
Danger Mouse's work continues to get more diverse and interesting... In a year that has already seen him sneak out his Dark Night of the Soul project in collaboration with Sparklehorse and David Lynch(quite literally, it not being available to buy officially) Danger Mouse has also released an entire album, The Last Laugh, in collaboration with folk singer / multi-instrumentalist Helena Costas.
Listening to the fruits of their effort it's clear why they partnered - Costas' wonderfully sultry vocals go perfectly with Danger Mouse's production here but what is surprising is just how much Danger Mouse is able to change his approach to suit the artist.
On the track 'Under The Influence Of Jaffa Cakes' there are hints of left-field - the horns for example - but on the whole this is a simply executed, yet enjoyable, folk pop track. It reminiscent of Metric and even the Cardigans, but with just a hint of psychedelia in those swirling guitars.
Joker's Daughter's next single, 'Lucid', is out on 7 September and is also worth checking out - watch the video (directed by award winning animation artist Hayley Morris):
The debut album by Joker's Daughter, The Last Laugh, is out on Double Six now.
Over the past week BlackPlastic has mostly been loving Evil Nine's free downloadable mix, Root Of All Evil, which supposedly celebrates duo Pat and Tom first meeting 20 years ago to make the cover of a Soviet-era workout record.
Regardless of the reason for the mix the tracklisting speaks for itself:
Units - High Pressure Days
Gary Numan - Films
Payback Interlude
The Splash Band - Halloween II
November Group - Shake It Off
ANNA - Systems Breaking Down (Dub)
Dark Star Interlude
Hypnosis - Oxygene
A. Rodionov - Modern Pentathlon (Suite 5)
Art Of Noise - Moments In Love
Doctors Cat - Feel The Drive (Instrumental)
Tasmanian Fahrenheit Interlude
Mark Lindsay - Shogun Assassin
Units - Digital Stimulation
The result is dark, eighties drenched synth sounds for a gloomy Tuesday (or whatever day you read this).
Head over to Marine Parade's artist page for Evil Nine to download the mix - sorry, for some reason they have no permalinks so you may have to browse a bit if you have found this some time down the line future kids.
