Hot Chip Side Dish

This one comes straight out of the Myspace presses: DFA Records has a new release from a side project of two guys from Hot Chip called Booji Boy High. I almost passed this one up, but luckily you can hear both songs from the Doubleshaw 7" on DFA's Myspace page. Here's the dirt on Booji Boy High taken from DFA's description:

Booji Boy High is a new project from elusive musical tag-team duo, Georgios Panayiotou and Mother Markzbow. Coming On Strong with the bounciest bounce of the next year, New Rave left dead in its grave, replaced by the rainbow rhythms of the New Age.

And that's about all there is so far. But, alas, the sound and vocals are succinctly the Hot Chip flare. This side project is definitely more about the electronic/synth/drum machine aspect of Hot Chip, but with the same quirkiness and frenetic syncopations of the band most of us have come to love so much. I'm excited about the project and I hope we'll see more material come out this year. The 7" is ready for your sale at the DFA webstore. For the time being, I've posted the b-side to Doubleshaw, "Twist Myself ," ripped from DFA's Myspace page:


Booji Boy High - "Twist Myself Again"

Packing Things Up On The Remix

Radio 4, this motherfuckin' band. Their second album, Gotham!, introduced me to the world of dance-rock/disco-punk back in high school, and things were never the same since (oh yeah, and can I mention Gang of Four?! If I didn't get into Radio 4, I wouldn't have discovered Gang of Four).

When I tried to find a copy of this album, I had to special order it at a really obscure independent record store at the outskirts of Pasadena/Arcadia. This was about four years ago, and I didn't even know who the DFA (who produced the album) were at this time (although I had an mp3 of LCD Soundsystem's "Beat Connection" hiding around). All I know is that I was blown away by the first two songs on Gotham!, and that I had to get the rest of the album. It was a political, dub-influenced, dance/punk fest and I liked it.

They've come some way since that second album. The DFA also cooked up a remix for the non-album single "Dance To The Underground" but weren't involved in the follow-up record, Stealing Of A Nation, which went 180 degrees, Primal Scream style. I wasn't as blown away, but the most recent release from this year, Enemies Like This, returns to a more straight-forward rock tip. I'm still trying to decide whether I like it or not, but the singles off the album have had a grip of decent remixers.

The Loving Hand (one more time, from DFA) has remixed the latest single for "Packing Things Up On The Scene" and I've provided the track below. If it doesn't tickle your fancy, seriously, check out Gotham!, it'll be a dance party...


Radio 4 - "Packing Things Up On The Scene (The Loving Hand Remix)"

Be Kind, Please Rewind

Home Video is one of those bands that on first listen, you think had come out of the UK, and then it turns out that they're really from New York. And then you try to Google the band name, but of course "home video" is a very broad and common term, so you don't get what you're looking for at first. When it comes to band comparisons, I should be the last person to ask, but if I had to describe the sound, it's like somnambulist electronic-tinged minimalistic rock.

I don't remember how I first heard about them, but I got a copy of their Citizen EP two years back and it being released on Warp was enough to grab my attention. Flash-forward two years later and their first full-length, No Certain Night Or Morning, almost escaped my radar. Now they're on Defend Music (which I am familiar with mostly for James Fucking Friedman's Go Commando compilation) and have a remix from 1/2 of the DFA guys (The Loving Hand aka Tim Goldsworthy), and I think they're worth the checking out, if you're in a dark and sinister mood.

"In A Submarine" is taken from the Citizen EP, not too representative of the Home Video sound as a whole, but still a fresh track.


Home Video - "In A Submarine"