Daft Punk have some sweet gear in their pyramid! Most of it is matching too. This is where Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo create their electronic magic and make humans dance on command! Here is an enlarged robot eye view of a Daft Punk concert: ([More →])

From the Harder Better Faster Stronger 2008 (Alive Club Mixes) comes this wicked little Daft Punk mashup:

Daft Punk - Touch It Technologic (Alive Club Mix)

Dutty Artz is just about to drop their premiere release, featuring the bangin ragga stylings of Jahdan Blakkamore. I got hold of this tune “Go Round Payola” and can’t stop playing it since:

Flip side with tracklist after the jump… ([More →])

See if you can find these geezas:

and this guy:

in this new Toddla T video - “Sound Tape Killin”:

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Electro empress Ellen Allien will release a new album via her own BPitch Control label on May 27th. She also takes the controls on Vol. 4 of the BoogyBytes series and whips up another fabulous compilation, out now. Plus, Ellen is on tour in Europe right now, with a few stops in North America in May. ([More →])

A-Trak and Sinden are nearing the end of their North American tour with Steve Aoki. I can’t wait til they hit San Fran next week, especially after hearing A-Trak and Sinden gang up on Kid Sister with with this acid-funk-adelic remix of “Beeper”:

Count & Sinden never sounded so English-electronica before! ([More →])

A blast from the past to brighten your day: Basement Jaxx with “Where’s Your Head At?” This should put a spring in your step!

Bay Area producer Mochipet is set to release his genre-jumpin new album, Microphonepet, everywhere on April 1st. Until then, you can listen to 3 tracks right here - “Get Your Whistle Wet” featuring the Hustle Heads; “Mr. Malase” ft. Dopestyle, Human Beings and Casual; and “Hope Again” ft. Mykah9 & Taiwankid:

([ Click To Add "Get Your Whistle Wet" To The Player ])

([ Click To Add "Mr. Malase" To The Player ])

([ Click To Add "Hope Again" To The Player ])

-Click the album cover to hear more song samples on Amazon.com-
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I LOVE the new Benga record! I especially love Benga’s particular twist on dubstep and the acid house influences that weave throughout this album. Listening to Diary of an Afro Warrior, I feel transported to a renegade soundsystem party, under the stars, listening to Benga create synasthaethetic stories on the fly! ([More →])

I originally wrote this album review of the new Autechre record - Quaristice - for my “day job” at MOG.com. This is a slightly different version here because you are a different audience!

Longtime fans of Autechre will probably be ecstatic about Quaristice. It hearkens to early Autechre music - more experimental, more chaotic, and less dance friendly than the last 4 albums or so. I’ve been a fan for ages and bought nearly every album they ever released. But I started to pine for their earlier sounds, when they were trailblazing the experimental electronic scene that later became known as IDM. This is the Autechre album I was longing for! If this sounds like you, you need to listen to Quaristice!

Autechre will gain many new fans with this album at the same time they renew most of their existing fan base.

Overall, the album sounds less clinical than many of Autechre’s more recent releases. The sounds evolve more organically and the sequences have more random elements to them. I LOVE it! The synths on Quaristice sound like an Evolver (Dave Smith Instruments) with its quirky sounds and step sequencers. If it isn’t an Evolver, I would still hazard a guess that this music was inspired by some new piece of hardware. It’s just a guess, but this album sounds so much like a return to hardware for the band. Either that or some serious cut-ups and processing like the Matmos albums based on surgery instruments.

Autechre explore new ground with the use of human vocal elements on “IO” (something they rarely incorporate). The human vocal is nicely balanced by one of the most recognizable machine voices ever: a Speak-n-Spell (or Speak-n-Math). The main vocal in “IO” isn’t very comprehensible since it’s filtered through what sounds a bit like a megaphone and a distortion petal. It’s graininess is perfectly complemented by the digital voice of the T.I. toy.

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A few songs into the album, it begins to remind me of certain songs by Coil: experimental synth stuff like Elph vs. Glitch or Music To Play In The Dark or similar… My impression keeps changing with each song, because they all sound so different. The tempo varies widely from one song to the next, from ambient washes to triplets at 120 bpm. However, the closest thing to a dance track in the collection is the schizophrenic hip hop beats of “90101″ that sound like a Timbaland production on 45 rpm.

It wasn’t until Track 17 “WNSN” that I started to hear the Autechre that we have come to know in more recent years. A few tracks later, “Notwo” (track 19) gets so minimal it’s downright zen. “Notwo” and “Outh9X” (the last two tracks of the album) are pure atmospheric bliss, very similar to the planetary music of murcof, and a beautiful way to fade out the album. This is an unexpected pleasure of Quaristice - the music varies so much. No two songs are alike and they convey a range of influences and skills.

Autechre will gain many new fans with this album at the same time they renew most of their existing fan base.

Another summer, another amazing music festival lineup. The 15th Annual Sonar Music and Art festival in Barcelona takes place 19-21 June this year and they just announced another amazing lineup. There is a strong female presence from M.I.A., Goldfrapp, Roisin Murphy, Kid Sister, Miss Kittin and an assault of amazing electro, techno, noise and pop from Shackleton, Diplo, SebastiAn, Justice, DJ Scotch Egg, Ove-Naxx, Neon Neon, Spank Rock and more! ([More →])

The dance craze of the 90’s is aimed to be the dance craze of the new millennium with the return of Utah Saints to the scene! The original UK dance-trance team is kickin it old school in the new video for “Something Good ‘08″:

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A Heatwave mash-up of General Levy and Lily Allen titled “Mad LDN”:

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The continued popularity of Drum N Bass is greatly due to the tireless efforts of UK’s DJ Grooverider. He’s one half of the BBC Radio show “Fabio and Grooverider” and has promoted UK dance music for as long as I can remember (since the ’90s at least). Unfortunately, he has been sitting in a Dubai airport jail for three months for pot possession and was sentenced this week to a full 4 years in jail! ([More →])

You’ve probably heard T2 and Addictive’s sugary sweet tune “Gonna Be Mine” plenty by now, but have you seen the new video? T2 also has a new song out called “Butterflies”.

T2 feat Addictive “Gonna Be Mine” Official Video:

Super shiny and low-budget like a video produced by MC Pressure and crew… ([More →])