GLOVES
"PYX"
A1: PYX
A2: Too Much To Dream
A3: PYX (Ben Browning Remix)
B1: PYX (Golden Bug Remix)
B2: PYX (Strip Steve Paradise Dub)
From the deep dark cold depths of Melbourne down and out disco suburbia comes the long-long-please-send-me-the-masters-already-long-long awaited debut release from serial hit maker, synth wiz, coffee addict and all round dudebabe, Gloves. Fresh, from the titanic sinking of his former musical yacht, Damn Arms, and off the back of remixes for the likes of Cut Copy, Vanshe, Sneaky Sound System, The Deathset, The Scare and Ted & Francis, Gloves sails bright into the dance horizon with his first 2 track original release on BangGang12s.
The lead track, P.Y.X is a cut up party Prince-esque monster full of electric guitar solos, live bass guitar slaps, silky smooth pianos, Jarre-esque laser harp and movie vocal chops... "are we having fun yet". First appearing in demo mode on BangGang's "D Is for Disco, E is For Dancing" mix CD late last year, PYX has been newly check-out-the-engine-on-this-hotted-up for the release. Then "Too Much To Dream" is a dreamy slow dance disco house joint showcasing why Gloves is as popular with the ladies as is with the bloggers...
And then for the remixes... Golden Bug, our favourite French-Barcelona-Gommazonian turns PYX into an epic summer disco affair, Cut Copy's bass playing wizard Ben Browning converts it into a guitar heavy early night foot tapper and Strip Steve offers up two retakes - the "Paradise Dub" - reworking it into an extra length late night disco number and the "remix" adding Strip Steve's signature erratic boy-noize-rekids cut up 90's house touch.
Link: GLOVES
Artwork: Lachlan Dickie at KROZM
Hey Today!
"Wonderman E.p."
A1: Kicktro
A2: If I Was Wonderman
B1: Wonderman
B2: If I Was Wonderman (Bobmo Remix)
Hey Today!, the Hamburgian duo of Raik Fargo and Dy! emerge from long months spent twiddling knobs, eating icecream on mars and listening to themselves twiddle deeeeep inside their tekhno bunker to offer up their latest and greatest 3 track (plus Kicktro), 'Wonderman E.P', on BangGang12s.
Following on from their debut release on Kitsune last year, remixes for Digitalism (Kitsune), Shazam (Bang Gang) and Zombie Nation (Turbo) and time spent appreciating the wonders of German sausage, Wonderman combines the duo's epic production talents with robotic vocoding, synth solos and female (not diva) vocals to produce a very German-non-German-sounding-superhero-house stormer.
"Wish I Was a Wonderman" is a slow chugging euphoric noisy-but-not-too-noisy jammer that works just as well for foot tapping, head nodding, chin stroking and body moving alike. As big on the breakdowns as it is on the synth stabs, this one will tear holes in the dancefloors from Beirut to Berlin.
Wonderman reworks the title track into a faster and even noisier affair that is straight up peak-time hands in the air "have you got any more Es woah here comes the breakdown im peaking" fun.
And Parisian Instituber Bobmo takes the original and jams it through his trademark 90's cut-ghetto-dance-maniac hit machine to produce a rave-but-not-nu-rave missile to finish off this release.
Sick. More coming from these two real soon.
Link: Hey Today!
Artwork: Mitch Beige Brown
Damn Arms
"Destination Remixes"
A1: Destination (DerDieDas Remix)
A2: Destination (Banggang12s Happy Acid Reshuffle)
B1: Destination (Jaunt Remix)
B2: Destination (Munk Remix)
After the release of Damn Arms' two part not-quite-smash-hit-but-should-have-been-"Destination" release early this year, BangGang 12s has roped in a bunch of their favourite artists for remix duties to set the good ship Destination a sail once more. And wow did we get a lot of remixes. Woah. One million and counting.
DerDieDas... The two men with the most German sounding name in dance produced the least sounding German remix possible, turning out a super feel-good melodious synth-heavy retake; Jaunt reworked it into a French-House-Slash-Dark-Trance-affair (is that a new genre?); BangGang (that's us!) don't stray too far from original, injecting a tad more acidy balls into it; and Munk lend their signature Gomma-fied blissed out Summer disco vibes to it. Then Cassian (latest stupidly young musical man on BG12s) makes that shit FUNK-Y (yes I did just use the word funky). Mitzi (winner of Spank Records/BangGang12s Destination remix compeition) offer up a slow chugging percussive kinda disco version; Ted & Francis keep things all 80s soundtrack, and Riggarutz turns it into a piece of beautiful eleontronica so nice you feel like crying.
Told you there are LOTS of remixes on this one. Phew.
Link: Damn Arms
Artwork: Mitch Beige Brown
The Lowbrows
"Dream In The Desert"
A1: Dream In The Desert
A2: Dream In The Desert (Hystereo Rebrand)
B1: Melody & Shudder
B2: Melody & Shudder (Daniel Haaksman Remix)
Japanese boyfriend/girlfriend super dance duo, The Lowbrows, roll up and serve out their, "Dream and the Desert" and "Melody & Shudder" double-headed sumo debut on BangGang 12inches this June.
Dream in the Desert is an epic and dramatic, sci-fi-esque mover with strings, karate movie vocal chops, slap-happy bassline and dreamtime synths. Underwater lullaby electro to watch manga and eat shabu-shabu to.
"Melody and Shudder" couldn't be more different... A melodic, euphoric, baltimor-ish stomper. Nursery ryhme club music, carousel-carni-beat, Hoe-Down-Dodgem-Car baltimore at it's best.
And then for the remixes: Hystereo bang out two versions of "Dream In The Desert" with the "Rebrand" keeping things extra cut-up and arpeggiated and the "Revision" taking things a few leagues deeper with it's growling rolling bassline.
Man Recordings head-honcho and all round nice guy, Daniel Haaksman adds his trademark beauty touch and hooverfart bassline and Flight Facilties camp shit up with an epic 8 minute piano disco retake.
Link: The Lowbrows
Artwork: Kyle Bush
Bag Raiders
"Turbo Love Remixes"
A1: Turbo Love (Shinichi Osawa Remix)
A2: Turbo Love (K.I.M. Remix)
B1: Turbo Love (Light Year Remix)
B2: Turbo Love (Flight Facilities feat. Louie Austen Business Class Lounge Version)
Bag Raiders return from their middle american bowling alley dj tour to release the turbo love remixes on banggang12s. Ditching the b-side, (to be re-released as it's own a-side real soon... Watch this space) this package turbos up, straps on some nitrodepth chargers and shoots the tune off into the noisy dance floor hit-o-sphere.
Shinichi Osawa. Wow. His remix can only be described as power-dance. He takes the original, whacks even more turbo-ness on it and re-sings the vocal himself to make an abrasive almost-but-not-quite-trance hands-in-the-air blisterer. The perfect soundtrack to your late night steroid and powerade party.
Kim took a short break from his role as presets party machini to reverse a monster truck and a half full of donks onto the original that hots-it-up into a turbospeed booty monster.
Flight facilities enlist the help of cruise ship crooner and all round excellent dude Louis Austen along with a double bass, a flute and horns section to transform turbo love into a oh-so-smooth-how-you-ladies-doing-out-there business class lounge serenader. This one would gets hearts fluttering at club meds and bingo halls worldwide.
Then Light Year injects some cut up italo party vibes into it, Whitenoise adds a tonne of noise and Spruce lee invokes the spirit of sweaty Chicago sauna hustlers in his retake of the track to finish this monster 6 re-take release off. yeeew.
Link: Bag Raiders
Artwork: Adam Paquette
Lost Valentinos
"The Bismarck"
A1: The Bismarck (Goldenbug Remix)
A2: The Bismarck (Canyons Remix)
A3: The Bismarck
B1: The Bismarck (Dexpistols Remix)
B2: The Bismarck (Knife Machine Remix)
The valentino's... Or as I should say now The Lost Valentinos. Or the band "formerly known as" the Valentinos before their legendary name change? Anyway. Poor little conquistadors just want to make music, not stress over clause 23 in the trademark agreement over who has the rights to a name.
Fuck those people, if they only knew about music, if they had a soul, they would pay these kids to share their name! Man there is some whackheads out there without a vision. But thank god we do. And thank god the Lost Valentinos do. Together we are like the aussie version of Obama. "We don't need to change the players, we need to change the game." Amazing.
Anyway. These kids have a vision and a good vision it is. Last time Kim 'party machine' Moyes of Presets and 6 million ARIA fame produced their album. Moyesamazing choice. This time with the addition of the human metronome, Simon Parker (formerly of Damn Arms) they sacrificed their cushy sydney digs and suntans and koala bongs and to moved to a shithole some thought was a good place called east london or "Shoreditch" to the people that read dazed and confused. Now that's a sacrifice. You might think oh god! Poor kids! How could they do that? But the trade was well worth it. Ewan Pearson traded his shoreditch based producton talent for their Conquistadisco souls and it was a good trade. Worked for the Rapture and Goldfrapp and it's definately worked for the Lost Valentinos.
We signed the first single, "The Bismarck", and it is sweet. It's kinda aussie with a touch of INXS vocal style, kinda dark but not too dark, a bit dance, a touch sad, a bit heavy and with a whole lot of groove. It has building, gnarly synth lines balanced with soft melodies, gothic choir like vocals, a driving bassline and more sonic layers than the band has moustaches. Woah! The remix package is big. Real big.
First up is the Goldenbug mix - proper nuevo dancefloor cool from the the Parisian slash Barcelonian cut up disco doctor on Berlin punkfunk label, Gomma. Next the local sydney via perth nu disco (yeah even more disco!) heroes the Canyons have come through with a slow drugged out version that you could imagine Bez loosing his nut too at the Hacienda before he was on celebrity big brother, Knife Machine take things even darker and more wonky with their mix and the Japanese duo the Dexpistols have come up with a remix so noisy you wish your ears had gone on a holiday.
That's me, this is tonight. That's what I got to say. Have a listen and hear what the lost valentino have to say.
Link: Lost Valentinos
Artwork: Adam Paquette
Shazam
"Pool Party"
A1: Pool Party 2009
A2: Pool Party 2009 (Headman's Revlover Mix)
A3: Pool Party 2008
B1: Luckier
B2: Luckier (Hey Today! Remix)
Learning to play keys at age 3, having only a harmonica for a friend in kindergarten, starting out making tracks on a Casio at age 10, acquiring a Moog from his high school science room at 14, getting his name on 12"s under a former guise at age 16 and then spending the last 12 months remixing pretty much everyone (Dizee Rascal, Munk, Bag Raiders, Muscles, Empire of the Sun, Tough Alliance, Pase Rock and lesser known blog-types included) - Shazam (now 19 - old hey!) has (da na na na) arrived with his own debut release, "Pool Party", on BangGang12s.
Few things about Shazam - he is very young (see above), he comes from Perth (world's flattest place), he likes talking about Australian animals (a lot), he "doesn't really like people" (artist quote), he only listens to Jackson Browne and he makes some serious mood-transcending numbers on his Steinway Grand.
Pool Party is his first by-the-pool musical excursion. A dedication to Shazam's days spent sipping goon cocktails in his parent's lip-shaped spa, tanning himself in his latest euro-trunks while listening to Jan Hammer's Miami Vice soundtrack. It's a melodic-filtered solarium-house affair, a jacuzzi disco serenade, the soundtrack to pool pony races Australia wide. Featuring 3 original tracks: Pool Party 2009 is electro-breakdance-koala-boogie-haus, Luckier slows things with with some 90210-funk and Pool Party 2008 is more epic than the Apollo 11 mission.
On the remix side of things German uber-super-bratwurst duo Hey Today! keep the bangalter-spinal-cryda good times flowing with their smooth old-nu-french-german house mix, Headman adds (in his own words) his 90's "Richie Rich salsa house, tricky disco" touch and Rogerseventytwo delivers a slow treble-noise ear burner to finish this six track release off. Lots more from next-big-thing, Shazam, coming soon.
Link: Shazam
Artwork: Mitch Beige Brown
Damn Arms
"Destination"
A1: Destination Pt. I
B1: Destination Pt. II
Damn Arms return from their cosmic hiatus on the shores of Babylon sucking down pina coladas, hanging out with Carribean queens, listening to Billy Ocean, eating tropical hotdogs, smelling the scents of sparkle-dust and riding the light fantastic to release their new 'man-I-feel-real-good' holiday anthem, "Destination", on BangGang 12inches.
"Destination" marks the band's shedding of their former twisted-new-rave-crunch exterior for a more refined, filtered ozzie-yacht-house sound. A two-part summer odyssey, Destination Pt. 1 is a blissed out digital-love serenade, a nautical dance ballad, the ultimate wacked out cruise ship club music... Loaded with claps clap claps, vocoders, soaring synths and flute solos (yes really!). Part 2 is a revision of the first chapter, with bigger breakdowns and even more epic synth solos: the bolder more chugging sequel.
After touring with Klaxons, Cut Copy and Midnight Juggernauts this year the band managed to lose two members in their travels, so "Destination" also sees the band slimline down the current two-person format.
Link: Damn Arms
Artwork: Elizabeth De La Piedra (Photography) / Matthew Bassett (Layout)
Bag Raiders
"Turbo Love"
A1: Turbo Love
A2: Turbo Love (Tough Love Edition)
B1: Shooting Stars
B2: Shooting Stars (Instrumental)
Well... The Bag Raider's 3rd release on BG12"s... What a milestone. Wow. Seeing as we have only had 9 releases all up. It must mean we really like their music or we're a really small label with not a huge amount of artists on our roster. I mean for fucks sake. We are from Australia. It's very far away; very very far is our country. They call it the land down under. Anyway... The new Turbo Love E.P. Woo Hoo.
Its still got the filtered, old school French touch inspired sound, but its got something else... maybe it's got a bit more drama, even more adventure, some Vangelis soundtrack vibes... Whatever it is, it's hard to describe, it's like truffles... You know that weird taste, you're full of food, you don't want to eat more but you just have to so you can put your finger on the truffle taste? You know the feeling.
That's what the bag raiders sound is, it sounds so good, a bit familiar but you can't pick it so you just keep dancing. Yep that's it. Truffle House! That's what it is. I think I just invented a genre. Or the bag raiders did anyway. If the bag raiders were quicker in the studio they could rival danny tenaglia for the 24 hour set. People would not be able to stop dancing! But for now you just have to be content with this e.p.
Track one, Turbo Love, is a straight up bag raiders can't-get-off-the-dance-floor-party-action blah blah blah full of some balls-chopped-off high pitched super vocoding and a lead to make you play air keytar to. Track two is thicker and faster version of the first track, that makes you feel as though you were at a slamball convention without your knee pads and mouthguard... "Shooting stars" features the first real life vocal (meaning not a robot voice) for the bag raiders, and who else to feature than our very own rhys from like woah! The kid has soul, not marvin gaye soul, but enough soul (to get your not so brand new Olympic edition air max ones resoled while he hits the highs) to get some plays on by Pete Tong if he is feeling moody.
Track 4 is the dub of Shooting Stars and it is awesome, I love the vocal, but I really love a dub, i even just love the word dub.. hey dude what's up? Nuttin much just listening to dub. Yep, dub is where it is at. And this is where its at; it has thump, it has drama, it has everything you want for the club, for the car. Not for the dinner table but for me that's enough, I mean who wants to listen to the dub version at a dinner table, unless your listening to dub as in ragga, as in bob motherfuckin marley. (sorry couldn't help it)
Anyway bag raiders are ruling. Trust me, these guys will be one of Australia's biggest music export since singing Koalas. With their new live show coming soon, these guys will be unstoppable. Go bag raider go!
Link: Bag Raiders
Artwork: Gus Da Hoodrat
ZZZ
"Lion"
A1: Lion
A2: Leonine
B1: Lion (Bag Raiders Remix)
B2: Lion (Breakbot Remix)
B3: Lion (Lowbrows Remix)
18 months, 700 emails, 500 phone calls, 400 text messages, 30 artwork changes, 7 tracklist alterations, 10 software meltdowns, 5 mastering attempts, 16 arguments, 10 tantrums and 6 breakups and now finally it is here, the debut release from ZZZ. "Lion". Roar.
ZZZ are Melbournian boyfriend and girlfriend production duo, Anees and Nana. The Posh and Becks of modern dance, the Peter and Jordan of noise, the Tom & Katie of fruity loops, the ultimate techno power-couple. They met on a singles techno forum, fell in love on facebook and have spent the last 18 months making their own brand of romantic powerdance. Lion is their first born.
"Lion" is all about pianos. Pianos piano pianos pianos and more pianos. So much piano. Pianos everywhere. Overload of pianos. Surplus pianos. 2manypianos. Wow. It starts with a piano solo that goes da daa daa ding ding ding daa daa daa then builds with epic stadium-rock synth solos, dramatic powerchords and maximum noise. It's a distorted Helfgot-house monster, heavy on the Vangelism, the "Chariots of Fire" of dimensioneer dance music.
"Leonine" is a reprise of the original that's even more abrasive, more epic, more dramatic, has even bigger synth solos and even more pianos than the original. Lion on overdrive.
And then there are the remixes... Bag Raiders suck out some of the pianos and replace them with some cut up disco action, rave breaks and odd lion roar, Breakbot keeps close to home with his mix but pretties it up with his typical classy french electro vibe complete with harpsicord solos and the lowbrows turn it into a Japanese kamikaze sidechain house missile.
Out now. More more more techno babies from ZZZ soon.
Link: ZZZ
Artwork: Vidad Narayan
