I must say it’s been quite some time since we’ve heard almost anything from the Ed Banger crew. I have this strange inkling that Justice might well have been struck with the misfortune of sailing off the edge of the earth in their gallant search for a proverbial new world, and even the immovable, longtime members seem to be shying the news as of late. But hush children, I assure you, there’s no need to worry; Though it may seem as though our beloved team of groundbreaking artists have hidden themselves away in their laboratories, you’ve simply found yourself at the mercy of a well kept secret. See, our good friends over at Dim Mak have (incase you failed to notice the exclusive appearance of Mr. Pedro Winter himself only a month ago) all the while been supplying LA’s truest disco fans with a constant stream of awe inspiring dj sets and sweaty, sweaty parties (think underground railroad), and, though it saddens me to say it, you’ve been missing out!

Fortunately, you shan’t be left in the dark yet again, seeing as Dim Mak has officially gone all out on their upcoming Avalon-strocity of a dance party and has managed (by means of some ridiculous supernatural power) to summon the dj Feadz to make Los Angeles sparkle upon the night of the 12th of September. (That means you’ve got a little over a week to go ahead and cancel all your appointments and such. Don’t worry, you didn’t really need to go to them anyway) Considering a live Feadz headliner has become somewhat of a rarity since the inception of Uffie, it goes without saying that this isn’t something you’re going to want to miss. And as if that’s not enough for your metaphorically Irish electro tolerance, I suggest you take a look at the rest of the lineup. We’ve got Kid Cudi (I’m sure you’ve heard Crookers‘ Embrace the Martian?), Paparazzi, Them Jeans (If you’re unfamiliar, you must live in a cave), and the notorious Hyphy Crunk, all waiting to help you lace up your dancing shoes. Sure, a couple of those names do indeed frequent LA, however, having them all to yourself together in one night is pushing insanity.

For those of you who’re finding yourselves a tad confused, here’s a couple tasters to get your blood running hot. I trust the next couple minutes shall ensure that I’ll be seeing you there.

Feadz - Go On Beef (Mr. Oizo Remix)

Feadz feat. Spank Rock - Back It Up

Kill the Noise - Hey You (Paparazzi Remix)

It really is incredible how rapidly the music scene’s been changing these days. Think about it: About a year ago, under the reign of Ed Banger, it was nearly impossible to go ten minutes without having some sort of distorted, fuzzy, static-y, Waters of Nazareth-derived synth rammed into your eardrum, and (needless to say) most of us were loving it. If it wasn’t heavy, it wasn’t fit for the iPod (In fact I’m convinced Mr. Pedro Winter actually just made a typo on his record label’s name. I’m pretty sure it was supposed to be “Head Banger”. But actually, maybe he did it on purpose so as not to draw the metal heads into his own personal genre? I suppose that deserves some pondering…). You know, no one expects any one kind of music to last forever, but even I’m amazed at how fast that blew over. It’s like we all just all of a sudden realized that the guy who invented electro was actually some dead science fiction writer who was promising to build us a space ship. Artists like Circuit Freq and The Proxy almost never make a blog appearance anymore without the blogger commenting on how s/he “Didn’t think people were digesting this kind of music anymore.”

And it’s true; From there, the disco kids decided to get in touch with their roots, hence the massive 80’s revival. Artists like Chromeo, Danger, and Calvin Harris decided they didn’t like all that distortion on their synthesizers, so they started their own revolution, and for a while there, we were all considering buying Delorians, weren’t we? (It’s okay. You don’t have to answer out loud. You were.)

Crookers

The reason I’m commenting is because it seems as though we’ve undergone yet another musical revolution. A couple guys from Italy, working under the name Crookers, decided that they just didn’t like all that noise very much at all, and they decided to do away with it all together. Their tracks are little more than a punchy house beat with a few microsamples, a few vocals, and minimal synth usage, almost like a more progressive, electro-fused minimal, and somehow they’re simply incredible. There’s no doubt the boys have started a revolution: More than just a few producers have recently adopted nearly identical styles, and the news just keeps coming. I’m clueless as to why we’ve gone crazy for merely the skeleton of the music that was so recently such an important part of disco, but that’s not to say I’m not loving it!

Also, if you’ve already hopped on the Crookers bandwagon and are just dying to see those Italian heads bob, you might be happy to hear that they’ve finally make their way out to California. They’ll be throwing down the goods tonight at Cinespace’s Dim Mak Tuesday, as well as at tomorrow in San Francisco.

While you wait, check out their latest body-mover:

Crookers - Mad Kidz

And you’re just dying to hear more of those delicious housy beats (which I know you are) you might want to look into Aston Shuffle. The (I almost feel ridiculous at this point even having to mention this) Australian artist has a similarly infectious beat, but with a bit of a more traditional electro touch. There’s no doubt the vocoded hook toward the middle of the track will have you clicking the repeat button.

The Aston Shuffle - For Everyone

A-Trak

Moving in a different direction, there’s been a rather unusual release from the likes of A-Trak today. The hip-hop gone electro dj/producer has recently finished a 45 minute long original piece for Nike that’s intended to be the perfect soundtrack to your workout. According to A-Trak himself, his mix is a cross between his newer Disco style and his hip hop roots, so you can expect to hear a bit of the electro rap we’ve been encountering more and more frequently. If you’re already busting out the short shorts and the ear buds, you might want to grab the mix on iTunes before you leave. It’s under the Nike sports section.

And as a final touch, I simply must include this rather frustrating little video I stumbled across. It’s one thing to have an opinion but oh is Mr. Henry Rollins the ignorant one… If you don’t feel like spending quite a lot of time fuming over the controversial comments on the video, I suggest you don’t read them, lest steam start to leak from your ears.

The Bloody Beetroots

If you haven’t heard The Bloody Beetroots by now, don’t worry, I’ve already taken the liberty of devising a rather simple solution for you. It goes like this: Cancel your World of Warcraft account for just one month (If this proves too difficult to handle, you might want to look into Craftorette. It’s this really neat gum that supplies you with WarCraft replacement hormones and makes quitting easier.), and use that money to either buy their EP entitled “Let Your Washing Machine Speak”, or if you’d rather not be seen buying a somewhat old album, you can put that money in a jar and save it for the release of their full length, which I’ve heard is no longer too far off. In the mean time, you can check out their latest 2008 mixtape. The mix isn’t spectacular, but the sneak preview of their remix of MSTRKRFT’s “Bounce” will leave you anxious and frustrated at the fact that the next Cinespace Dim Mak Tuesday isn’t for 48 hours! If, on the other hand, you have heard of these guys, you might be excited to hear that their remix of Audioporno’s “Choo Choo” is no longer an artifact that you have to go to a MSTRKRFT show to listen to. As of mid July the track, which was originally not intended to be released at all, will be available in 12″ format through the German record label, Exploited Records. Why’d it take so long? Basically, the band that produced the original track had not planned on ever letting that song out of their hands, which naturally led to difficulties getting the remix published. Needless to say, they’ve found a way around it. If you’d like to pick up a copy, you can grab it here. You’ll have to have it shipped from Germany, but hey, that’s a small price to pay to get your hands on a track that people have been after for more than a year, right?
If you’re still not convinced, you might have to listen to this little teaser:
Audioporno - Choo Choo (The Bloody Beetroots remix)
And here’s their mixtape:
minimixxxx-june-2008

And just for the sake of completeness, here’s one of their newer remixes. (You have to remember that the word “new” means almost nothing when it comes to these guys. By the time you finish reading this post, they’ll probably have put out another one)
Shit Disco - Virgins (Bloody Beetroots remix)

In other exciting news, the 80’s are back.

What!?

Yeah, they’re back. If Chromeo and Calvin Harris aren’t proof enough, you might want to check out the most recent remixes from the often overlooked French producer, Danger.

The guy’s a beast. I mean god’s sake, he’s managed to squeeze incredibly cliche 80’s pad synths into “American Boy” and it actually sounds damn good. Better than damn good. It’s most definitely worth the download, so don’t be shy. Use up my bandwidth and download that shit.

American Boy feat. Kanye West (Danger Remix)

And since we’ve briefly mentioned Kanye West, I figured this video is relevant and good for a laugh.

Kanye West gets way more respect than he deserves. His ego is disgusting.

One final note:
My roommate invented two new words recently. Normally this wouldn’t be anything to post about, but after hearing these words, I was almost angry that they weren’t already in the dictionary. If you have nothing to say about the rest of this post, at least tell me how awesome these words are, and how happy you are that they’ve been invented:

• swervature - A unit measure of an object’s ability to swerve, usually a skateboard.
• bomblet - A damn good omelet. The kind that leaves you feeling like the rest of the day doesn’t even matter, because your breakfast was enough to be able to tell people that you did something today.