Namely, this location:

http://desirevo.tumblr.com

It’s just easier to post stuff to Tumblr than to here.

This interpretation transforms the original song, and defining it as a “remix” is not emphatic enough. I think El-P is an incredible producer, and his tunes carry a colossal, punishing effect, but this remix proves that even if a track is well-produced and the lyrics well-written, there can still be a spiritual disconnect. RJD2 found that love connection on this one.

I’d avoided listening to Kasabian’s latest album, as it feels like every time I become fond of a new British rock band their music gets progressively less interesting and generally more shit the more records they release. Well, I got around to listening to West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum today, and despite not being able to remember the album title even after having seen it around 20-30 times, the music is pretty fuckin’ rockin’. It immediately sounds far more consistent a record than Empire, which had scattershot moments of greatness crowded and drowned by mediocre, faux-psychedelic bullshit. W.R.P.L.A. (that’s right, I’m resorting to acronym’s – it’s that hard to fucking remember!) retains very strong elements of psychedelia, but they feel so much less forced. It’s natural to listen to this record, where last time around it just felt like a band trying to recreate something; it sounded bitterly false and overproduced.

Anyway, have some music. I loved this song within 6 seconds of hearing it. It’s utterly badass…

So, I’ve been running this blog for a while, and haven’t actually posted any of my own work. This is some what odd, as the very purpose for me starting this blog was to do so. Well, here we go. A wallpaper I made for my Blackberry 8900, that I wanna share with the world. It’s shameless self-promotion, but it looks pretty, which makes everything okay.

So there’s this band from Canada. They’re called Japandroids. Their music will bust a musical nut in your ear’s mouth. It’s borderline criminal that a band like this doesn’t have more exposure as they’re a revelation, plain and simple. I’m gonna inform your audio glands something glorious with the track below. Enjoy.

http://www.myspace.com/japandroids

These guys are well on their way to being the next big thing. Which is both good and bad, I guess. Good in the sense that it gives their simple yet deceptively-rich sound some exposure, and it’s bad in the sense that it puts an expiry date on their popularity. Like every other band of the moment they’ll see a nice stint in the spotlight before it’s jerked across to the next jangly, upbeat, hipster-friendly ensemble. Make the most of these foggy, melodic tunes while you can.

So I just discovered The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, who, apparently, will rock your face square the fuck off without a moment’s hesitation. It’s a relatively old song I’ve chosen to share with you guys, but one that I believe personifies their sound. Music like this feels very British to me. It’s authentically punk-ish, but the vocals (both main and backup) and supplementary guitar riffs sound mischievous. Almost like a band who know they look too pretty to be fully punk, but will piss along the boundaries and run away giggling.

Rise of the Eagle – The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster

This is a mix of some of the finest reggae and dancehall music Diplo and his mental, imaginary friend Major Lazer have come across in recent times. I’m guessing the excursion to the carribean gave Diplo an intuitive understanding of this shit, because this is a pretty finely tuned convergence of tunes, and if you like this kinda thing then you’re sailing. I can’t claim to be an enthusiastic purveyor of these genres, but even I thought it was a (mad) decent mix.

Direct link to the MP3 Podcast // Subscribe to the Mad Decent podcast

I’m posting the video to this, rather than the song, because it’s a beautiful thing to watch. It’s a visually arresting look at the Indian city of Varanasi and its people. The video was directed by Daniel Wirtberg & Jonas Rudström. The song itself is by Miike Snow who, when not busily remixing everyone elses songs, are getting their heads down and making sweet little tunes like this… And I mean sweet in the actual way, not the surfer-douche way!

Okay, firstly, this is a retarded name for a genre. I fucking despise the idea of prefixing anything with “nu” – it was never cool. Not when Limp Bizkit arrived, and not since then. Whoever’s pulling this shit and playing the name game needs to take some of their beer money, buy a thesaurus, and do us all a fucking favour.

Now, I’m not going to pretend to know the first thing about the history and context behind nu-gaze music. I didn’t write a stupid-long book about how much it changed my life or where the leader singer from the band that pioneered the genre dropped a dookie for the very first time, that shit ain’t me. If you want that then Amazon probably have your back. I’m just here to give you some of my favourite acts, the whats and whys, and a nice download or two.

Nu-Gaze is, fundamentally, a continuation of shoegaze. Shoegaze is great, but there’s only one band I consider truly shoegaze, and that’s My Bloody Valentine. To me, MBV are shoegaze in its purest form. Anything before them, and anything beyond them, just don’t match-up. Their album Loveless basically defines the shoegaze sound as it should be heard; wailing, distorted, and lucid. But not so overdriven and noisy that it becomes derivative. It evokes the feeling of crashing to Earth whilst sleeping, and it’s fucking marvelous.

Now, in much the same vein, shoegaze’s bastard step-son, nu-gaze, is looking to inherit a few of daddy’s attributes: overdrive kicked up to 11, and lots of melodic, jangly lead guitars. Only this time it’s bringing other elements to the mix, for instance, electronica has fucked one of shoegaze’s teenage daughters behind the town hall and refused to raise its child, creating bands such as The Radio Dept. and M83 as a result. Of course, there are then bands such as Deerhunter and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart who embody a far less overdriven sound; far more poppy, but still suitably dream-like and droning. These could be described as the distant, youngest cousins of shoe-gaze. The ones that grew up in boarding school and never quite “got it” but still ended up making pretty special fucking tunes in their own right.

Other notable siblings and or hangers-on are…

• Autolux (Future Perfect is an incredible fucking album, and if you don’t own it you should probably reconsider your direction in life)
• The Silversun Pickups (Carnavas was good… Let’s pretend that’s the only album they’ve released… !)
• Asobi Seksu (quirky Japanese lead singers are always nice – ask Deerhoof).
• The Horrors (Not exclusively nu-gaze, their first album was a goth-punk mess. However, Primary Colours, whether by accident or not, is an incredible example of nu-gaze music)

The Horrors – I Can’t Control Myself

Atlas Sound – Recent Bedroom

Autolux – Plantlife