You'll find a cornucopia of tasty tunes to bounce off your eardrums. I update with new tunes, art and photography every week, depending on what I'm doing and listening to at the time, old and new. I'm based in London UK but I love to travel and discover new music along the way and share my musical journey on neoloop.
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Happy listening!
Neo
Email: neo@neoloop.com
You fucked with the sunshine, left it in the water… Where is the sunshine then, fed up with all this rain. Brighten up your rainy days until the sunshine comes with this bright and breezy snippet of dreamy-pop. Chicago's Skybox rattle through this little feel-good tune with wonky synths and jangle guitars, a right catchy number that will have you humming it well into summer. They have a new album out, released last month Morning After Cuts. The video for this is well nuts, love it.
Like This? Try: MGMT, Animal Collective, Real Estate
Get your groove on for some Nu-Disco extravaganza now! New from the vanguard of NU-Disco, Norwegian producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm together again with Christabelle Solale. Baby Can't Stop comes on like a lost Quincy Jones backing track from the Thriller sessions, but while you half expect Michael Jackson to enter with a Hee Hee, instead we get Christabelle Solale dead-pan vocal style mixing an arty chanteuse and disco diva. It all sounds 1980s funk-pop but still keeps a foot in 2010 and it never completely slips into retro pastiche. The whole album Real Life Is No Cool is quite possibly a major contender for all the album of the year top tens. Lindstrøm & Christabelle works like Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer bringing a fresh and very catchy, danceable sound for the dancefloors of today. Nu-Disco has now firmly arrived and Real Life Is No Cool is the staple of which all future-nu-disco will be measured. Get your dancing' shoes on we're going for a ride! Released last month - Highly Recommended.
Like This? Try: Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas, Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Chic
Buy it on iTunes, Lindstrøm's place in MySpace, Official site
The last post in my trilogy of Lost In Music comes the original Sister sledge Disco Classic, this is actually a later extended remix that was re-released in 1984, I think slightly edges it over the original 1979 We are Family album track. We Are Family is one of two albums produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers in 1979, the other being Chic's second album C'est Chic including hit singles Le Freak and I Want Your Love. True pioneers of the 70's disco sound Edwards and Rodgers' Chic are for me the ultimate disco band. Their track Good Times is one of the most influential songs of the era and formed the backbone of Grandmaster Flash's Adventures on the Wheels of Steel and The Sugarhill Gang's breakthrough hip-hop single, Rapper's Delight. The production skills of Rodgers and Edwards raised Sister Sledge into the mainstream with their We Are Family album, it has that unmistakable Chic production sound and includes disco anthems We Are Family and He's the Greatest Dancer. Classic. Nile Rodgers went on to produce classic album's Let's Dance by David Bowie (1983), Like a Virgin by Madonna (1984), Inside Story by Grace Jones (1986).
Like This? Try: Chic, Grace Jones, Mary Jane Girls
Following Danton Eeprom's cover of Lost In Music below, here's The Fall's version of the same track. Taken from their 1993 covers album The Infotainment Scan, considered to be one of bands more accessible albums. The Fall have made some very challenging albums throughout an illustrious Discography of some 28 studio albums and numerous live albums. The John Peel favourites have had a major influence on many bands over the years such as LCD Soundsystem, Nirvana and Pavement to name a few. My mate Coolio introduced me to some of the bands brighter moments, some of The Fall's album's are pretty experimental to say the least. But, the fact that Mark E. Smith's band have turned this into a perfect indie alternative is testament to the quality song writing of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards original masterpiece.
We love a big disco stomper at neoloop, Lost In Music - originally recorded in 1979 by Sister Sledge, written and produced by the legendary disco mavericks Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the band Chic. Danton Eeprom's cover features a lead vocal performance by Au Revoir Simone's Erika Forster sounding like The Human League doing a disco-pop-techno hybrid, looping the classic riff into a hypnotic groove. Taken from Danton's new album - Yes Is More - out Now.
Like This? Try: Au Revoir Simone, Christabelle & Lindstrøm, Joakim
Danton's place in MySpace, Official Site, Buy the album on iTunes
Forthcoming tune from Snoop's next album More Malice out March 23rd. A song about remembering where you come from and your family tree, produced by the main man Diplo and features Kid Cudi singing a chorus that hooks right into the inner sanctum of head, The Kid even adds in a few raps for good measure. Snoop always stays relevant, mixing with the right collaborators at the right time. All good.
I posted up a track from Sun Airway's Oh Naoko EP last December to much appreciation. Although just a 4 track EP it's one that I keep coming back to as all four tracks are superb blissed out dream-pop loveliness. Swallowed By The Night is another song of beautifully layered lush melodies and dreamy harmonies. Philadelphia's Sun Airway have an album on the way soon, hopefully just in time to soundtrack the summer, like the Beach Boy's Pet Sounds for 2010!
After listening to the RJD2's new album (see post below) I thought you might like some of his older stuff, for the uninitiated. 1976 is a short classic track that I often drop in to DJ sets, a real feel good funk-a-thon! Always a big crowd pleaser and guaranteed to get the toes tapping and head nodding. If only it was longer. RJD2 is one of the most poignant underground hip-hop instrumentals of the modern era, this tune is taken from his 2nd album Since We Last Spoke (2004).
Like This? Try: DJ Shadow, Nickodemus, Jazzanova
RJD2 is back with his highly anticipated 4th solo album The Colossus this week. Mixing up his more recent vocal style offerings with his earlier sample based tunes, it's much more eclectic affair with various guest vocalists that include Aaron Livingston (The Roots), Phonte Coleman (Little Brother, The Foreign Exchange) and The Catalist. This track opens the album with some old skool funky guitar and plenty of brass horns rock along to the signature RJD2 drum sound, reminiscent of an old blaxploitation soundtrack. RJD2 AKA Ramble John "RJ" Krohn is from Eugene, Oregon, raised in Columbus, Ohio. He currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Like This? Try: DJ Shadow, Nickodemus, Jazzanova
Bands place in MySpace, RJD2's own record label, Buy RJD2 on iTunes
In the mood for some Dark dancehall? Look no further than Diplo and Jayou's remix of The Partysquad's Murderer, and it's murder on the dance floor! After a few listen's this really sucks into your head, the skanking guitars and booming dub beat pound on relentlessly before an light skanking interlude interrupts and sends the whole track into space via a badass an echo chamber. The Partysquad are positively massive in their home country of the Netherlands. Murderer freaks out the Barrington Levy track of the same name. I'm loving' it!
Find out more at Mad Decent, Buy the full EP on iTunes, Bands place in MySpace
Starting off like a dark nursery rhyme with a plinky plonky vibraphone going up and down scales this little Lo-Fi song then jumps into life with a marching drum beat. This is the opening track from Josiah Wolf's debut solo album Jet Lag (Release date 2nd March 2010) Josiah Wolf is the drummer from Cincinnati-born band WHY?. Understandably this track is lead by a savvy percussion, Josiah records everything himself in solitude. On the surface it's a dreamy weightless sensation, but the dark undertow is ever present threatening to flip over to a nightmare at any moment, but it never quite achieves it and the anticipation is captivating.
Anticon will release Jet Lag on 2nd March find out more here. Bands place in MySpace
I'm loving Spirit Spine's new release Jungle Bridges, This track Flashes is another dreamy pop Animal Collective pastiche and a very good it is too. Mashed up loud synth's bash around in an echo chamber of booming beats and muted vocals peppered with chop stick tinkering, a uplifting feel good delight.
Spirit Spine is 19 year old Joseph Denney from Bloomington, Indiana. Apparently Spirit Spine's name comes from a 70s documentary about people who had their spinal cords severed in various ways, but they still thought they could feel their legs.
Like This Try: Neon Aztec, Starfucker, Of Montreal, Animal Collective
Leftfield sunshine-pop with slice of cheese, sprinkle in Hawaiian coconut and stir in sugar-sweet harmonies and a soaring orchestra and add a hint of psychedelic-era Beatles to make Auckland CBD.
Chant Darling is the 2nd album from Lawrence Arabia, the alter-ego of New Zealand's James Milne, but his first released in the UK. He's currently touring the UK with Beach House, see his MySpace page for details.
Bands place in MySpace, Buy it on iTunes
Like This Try: Beck, Bertrand Bergalat, Don Air, Divine Comedy
Hendrik 'Pantha Du Prince' weber's new third album Black Noise is released this week. An album of beautiful minimal techno soundscapes that take you on a long utopian journey. Stick to my side, a postmodern hymn, inimitably sung by Noah Lennox a.k.a. Animal Collective’s Panda Bear is the only track that would qualify as a full song with a start middle and end. The German DJ and producer has made an absolute masterpiece which enlightens and enthrals and is totally captivating. Techno never sounded so eclectic in one set of compositions. Tingling chimes, shimmering beats and subtle cord changes create the ultimate ambient vibe.
Official Site, Bands place in MySpace, Buy this album on iTunes
To follow the last post below of Millionyoung's dreamy remix of Memoryhouse's To The Light House here is a track from Florida's Millionyoung's own E.P. called Sunndreamm. Cascading guitars pouring out psychedelic pop from the heart of the sun, a warming delight in the cold hard winter we are currently experiencing. Made to soundtrack your next trip to the beach, sit back relax in your hammock while sipping on a Pina Colada as you peer over your shades at a cloudless sky. Hammock is a happy mesmerising feel-good tune to get you in the mood for the sunshine.
You can download the whole EP here. Millionyoung's brand New EP is on iTunes now
Like This Try: Air France, Memoryhouse, Neon Indian
Some excellent electropop now from Canadian duo Memoryhouse, chilled synths and phased guitars serve up lush textures and kaleidoscopic colours from another time and place. Millionyoung's remix give it a danceable pop beat and speeds it's up with looping bleeps and highnotes but loses nothing from the enchanting original (from The Years EP, which is available here). Totally dreamy.
By now you've read enough reviews of the excellent new album from Hot Chip so you know how good it is. Right from when I heard the first leeked track Take it in last year I was looking forward to this album. While there are no real big dancefloor bangers such as over and over or ready for the floor from their last album, this album concentrates on their quirky little eccentricities and the romance of sophistication. The whole album feels very complete and hangs together with an even flow. This is the superb title track with it's subtle steel drums rippling through it's core, it's unmistakably Hot Chip, and it's wonderful! You need this album so you can sing along to all the tunes of the summer! Highly Recommended
Turn up the sun, are you ready to start again?
Primary1 doesn't so much remix this, it's a complete remake - a lot more chilled out than Alex Metric's frantic original. Delicate UFO bleeps and warped synths wash over a warm and relaxing sound to create a gentle background for the lazy sing-a-long, then it starts again, it starts again, finishing with big build up into a flourish of colour and euphoria. Beautiful!
Primary 1's debut album will be released on Atlantic Records later this year, one to look out for!
Primay1's place in MySpace, Alex Metric place in MySpace, Check out Alex Metric's original on iTunes
Some Phenomenal Psychedelic funk for you right now, The Phenomenal Handclap Band from New York City that includes members of TV ON THE RADIO, Jon Spencer (from the Blues Explosion!), the Amy Winehouse band, and a few hot Lower East Side and Brooklyn kids. Big up the Latin Soulful vibes add a bit of Psychedelic AfroSoul and Funk, hell yeah! Add in Disco legend Anthony Mansfield to remix it up and your done!
This lot are playing at Cargo in London next month!
Funky balkan beat to move your feet, I'm chilling in my crib digging in the crates for some rare classics. This tune just makes you wanna dance. This kind of Balkan electronica can sound shit in the wrong hands, Al Lindrum knows his shit though and produces quality authentic balkan music, he's Just moved from Barcelona to Sarajevo in the balkans running weekly residents at The Balkan Café - www.Facebook.com/balkancafe.
NYC Brooklyn's own Theophilus London is a pioneer in today's electro-fueled urban pop movement. Theophilus (Not from London thats his name) supported Miike Snow at the London Scala this week. And he smashed it! He has this crazy mix of soulful singing, rap and punk yells over old electronic beats and mashed up synths. Sounds mad and it is but in a good way, he won the crowned over by the end of his short set and left with a whole new bunch of fans. Hum Drum town is his first single release. Definitely one to watch, he's gonna be a star!
It's been a busy week! This week I went to the Miike Snow gig at London Scala, great venue - the perfect place for an intimate gig. I was pleasantly surprised how good they can cut it live. Every track was an extended version of the record, teasing in the intros before exploding into the full track and whipping up the crowd to proper rave up. Black and Blue rocked the house and Silva sparked the nights first hands-in-the-air united sing-a-long. Finishing their set with the ever popular and biggest hit Animal, Miike Snow put on a cracking gig. One track that stood out was this - Burial with it's cheeky little piano riff, marching beat and soaring chorus! I hope they came back soon.