Todd Terje - Inspector Norse (video)

Time to check out Todd Terje's magnificent new clip for Inspector Norse, the latest single off his new It's Album Time. Terje constructs effortlessly pulsing, Disco Nouveau-House music. Inspector Norse is something that sounds equal parts DFA and Binary, like the glorious love child of Juan Maclean and Fabian. Snappy dance numbers deserve snappy videos and this one does not disappoint. On display are the chronicles of the affable Inspector Norse himself, a true connoisseur modern dance, modern drugs, and modern living in the Suburban Norway. Its time to start selecting tunes for your summertime beach ready cassette and this will have to be track numero Uno.

Arcade Fire - Reflektor ft. David Bowie

Here it is. The latest from Montreal's finest, accompanied by two mind warping videos. One of them directed by the post-punk visual master himself, Anoton Corbijn. Upon first hearing this new single my ears were quickly reminded of David Byrne and epic Talking Heads dance tracks, but after 4mins into this fantastically dark, black & white clip I had a brief flashback to My Chemical Romance. Win Butler's painted eyes and the rest of the band dressed in black, marching through a bleak landscape seems oddly enough, very MCR-esque. Don't get me wrong Arcade Fire are no My Chemical Romance (ROFL!) , but seriously am I the only one seeing a connection here? I think this sort of relation to bands of the past, whether highbrow or lowbrow, always seems to erupt when a familiar act gears up to release a 'concept album.' You could say all of Arcade Fire's records have been concept albums of some sort, but this one has been marketed as more dance oriented. Employing James Murphy to man the production helm is always a great sign when someone tells you they're getting into dance music, but for Arcade Fire, a band that has singularly risen above all of their Indie compatriots and subsequently contributed to defining the last decade of music, it means its gone be some next level shit. Point being? This record could be super dope and is def worth a listen. Also DUHHH did you not read this post title??! This jam features BOWIE, BRO!

Glass Candy

As everyone is fully aware we are in the thick of a major disco revival in popular music, see: Hercules and Love Affair, Sebastien Tellier, Justice, Justin, new Madonna, etc...

Anyhow one of my favorites of the group is Glass Candy from Portland, Oregon. On their 2007 (better late than never) dance masterpiece B/E/A/T/B/O/X, off of Italians Do it better, come some stellar tracks for dancing, looking good and doing mountains of coke off of a glass table - all at the same time. Think Blondie a shade darker. Begin your studio 54 fantasy...now:

Glass Candy - "Beatific" (featured in last year's Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel runway show along with the disco revival's staple Hercules and Love Affair's "Blind")



Class Candy - "Candy Castles"



SUMMER 2009 IS FOR DANCING

Electro-Synth-Pulse-Pop Means The Death Of Hip Hop!?

Well slow down now, that is a large title, I know, but for the first post of 09 I had to go all out. So here's the lowdown: Common released his latest LP Universal Mind Control this November and the Pharrell produced, title track is the latest single. The beat kicks in hard with this jam, and you want to nod your head immediately, sounding like it was co-produced by Kanye and Gorgio Moroder(the dude in the picture up top). There are pulsating, icy synths that dance back and forth, along a bass-heavy disco beat reminiscent of 808s, yet not as reverby. Yes, that is a lot of adjectives for one song, but when you press play you'll be asking where the robot voice-over is too. Anyway, the song unfortunately falls flat. I wanted so badly to like this song, but Common just does not pull through. He doesn't have that Kanye growl, or that JT falsetto to compliment the super synths on this song. Instead his voice is practically drowned out by the beat and comes off as somewhat obnoxious. Common's delivery here is reminiscent of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious 5 on "The Message," yet far less funky. He attempts to catch up with the club ready dance beat, but sadly stumbles along in its wake. I think Common should stick to silky Chicago style production where he seems to have flourished in the past, with his 'for da ladies' style of rapping (RIP J DIlla). So what does this all mean? Kanye's and Lil Wayne are singin, and Common's become a robot? Well it could signal a 'back to basics' route for mainstream hip-hop, where DJs of the early 80s were heavily influenced by late 70s disco pop. Yet, more likely this is the end of mainstream hip-hop. Yes, I said it and mean it...music is changing and synth-pop is close to reaching world domination. Common is no traitor to his genre, but merely progressing with the times. American pop music has long been dominated by Hip-Hop, but we can see it is now shifting back towards synth based dance music...much like the transition that occurred in the early 80s. Well I reckon that's enough talking down to you, just check out Common's new track and Hype Williams directed video here. The clip isn't much to write home about either, Common (who looks more like Isaac Hayes than ever before) and a robot are lost in some vortex on the itunes Visualizer and so Common decides to rap about it...I think.:

Common - Universal Mind Control [DVDRIP] from Taz on Vimeo.

Parisian Goldfish

I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with Mikey on this one..new Kanye is maybe his best material to date, with innovative production and interesting pop songs that i feel are taking a lot of heat for not being typical dance songs, or hip hop anthems. Anywho with that self righteous garbage out of the way, I'm going to have to go ahead and uh-gree with Mike on a previous song he turned me onto. This video has made pitchfork's top 40 vids of 08 and to be honest I'd put it at number one. Hynotic dance floors and sum bodacious dancin make this joint a top notch burnah. Not to mention the 2 superstar dancers(surprisingly unknowns) bust some moves that I don't think even Beyonce could top in her new vid (scroll down if you have yet to see this cinematic gem as well). Yup, this video did come out earlier in the year but its the time for recappin and I hope my colleagues will join in the festivities over the next few weeks of bringin back some oldies but goodies of the past year. Well heres the video,the songs by Flying Lotus, the tune is Parisian Goldfish, check it: