These guys Dope Fiend have a song called Dope Fiend. It’s like if the cute witty casio rockers Hedluv met Whitey in a back alley somewhere, and they consumed each other yet both still lived somehow. The resulting undead creature invaded unsuspecting house parties/bars/places of worship and let loose on Ketamine-induced rampages — allthewhile spouting their internal dialogues externally.

Thx to GWTP on this funky find. Dope Fiend seem to be myspace-less thus far — which seems to be the release method du jour when it comes to hype building.

Dope Fiend - Dope Fiend [zshare] // [ysi]

Castanets are actually an ‘is’: Raymond Raposa from San Diego. I’ve been following him from the first record on Asthmatic Kitty records (label of Sufjan Stevens): 2004’s Cathedral. The music is folk in its essence but it has a few twists and turns. Like some added psychedelia that goes towards the direction of early Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett, right) and electronica. Experimental, we could say. Like add some drugs to No Country for Old Men and that’s the feel. Dust everywhere, dead towns in the wild west with electric stroms howling over them…and a man in an old, rusty car with the devil on the backseat. The driver is him, the songwriter. A haunting voice and melodies that earn the label ‘freak folk’ or ‘gothic country’. The new album City of Refuge has a great title, it describes the concept perfectly. Coming out on the 7th of October, it’s a product of weeks alone in a desert motel, somewhere in Nevada. Refuge and peace, still life and still death characterize this new piece. The last song After the Fall might be the most traditionally folk-singer/songwriter thing but it’s beautiful (is that Sufjan on the backing vocals?) and sums it up: “and if I’d known were we were goin I would not have gone at all there was no way of knowing that much after the fall”

Castanets - After the Fall [zshare] // [ysi]

Empire of the Sun is a relatively new project of PNAU guy Nick Littlemore. Yes, Australia, again. The other guy in EOTS is from The Sleepy Jackson. I known this latter for quite a while now: 2006, Personality was an awesome indie-pop record back then. I think the glam-esque aesthetics come from this side. For EOTS, this means like future-glam or sci-fi glam like…umm…certain parts from The Fifth Element can come to mind, you know, when guys with weird make-up travel on spaceships. Even better, Velvet Goldmine, it’s the story before the movie takes place how Brian Slade was born on a star!

The music is just great. Australian MGMT? Oh, yeah. Everyone loved Walking on a Dream (video). Van She and Sam La More remixed it. I suppose the album’s going to come out this month, titled the same as the single. It’s a bit more psychedelic pop and less electro and stuff. It’s elegant, has an awesome concept, has unity… Actually, it’s a dream-pop/indie-pop record. Seems like this is the other-than-disco line of Australian music that really is on the cutting edge now. I’m thinking of the Van She album. So, to conclude, I really love this record. I don’t like the MGMT, if I have to compare, but I like this. More soulful, better concept and diverse music with unity, very nice stuff. Definetly a must-buy!

Empire of the Sun - Standing on the Shore [zshare] // [ysi]

So we were totally beaten to the punch by the stereo that is big, but we’ll pay no mind in this case as Stacey Q is a 4.30am staple at Kunk gigs. When I saw the Norwegian silver fox and Manhattan LES darling Annie covered the classic, Two of Hearts, I hesitated a bit before pressing play. No need for worry, however — love it. Still gay sounding but with more grit and jangle than the original, I think we can safely tuck Stacey’s version to the back burner and let a new staple get some love for a while.

No word yet if Hot Rod 2 will feature Annie’s rather than Stacey’s version. (Okay i have no idea if there will be a Hot Rod 2, and if you never saw Hot Rod, this comment won’t make sense anyhow.)

Annie’s sophomore album, Don’t Stop, will be hitting a blog near you in no time.

Annie - Two of Hearts [zshare] // [ysi]

Stacey Q - Two of Hearts [zshare] // [ysi]

It’s been too long since we did a Valerie-themed post (yeah, a week or whatever right?)… so let’s throw some Futurecop! your way. Actually what merits this post is not so much the Valerie aspect, but rather the recent stellar edit by our Swiss brethren Cryptonites laid down on NASA. Smooth, and a bit glamorous somehow, i see this song as fitting into a Frank Sinatra-attended, cigar and cocktail party from the year 2097. In that era, they won’t be able to blame it on the bossa nova anymore, nope. You can’t dance the the bossa nova while wearing a bulky oxygen helmet with thick radiation proofing. It’s just not elegant.

Chex out our previous Cryptonites love HERE. And enjoy the original track as well, which is smooth as hell.

Futurecop! - NASA [zshare]  // [ysi]

Futurecop! - NASA (Cryptonites Remix) [zshare]  // [ysi]

The Buffet Libre boys are at it again — they gave us a shout about their new mix and we couldn’t be more pleased to receive it, as color us fanboys. This one features as of yet unreleased shizz by no less than Miami Horror, the Outrunners/Russ Chimes, Heads We Dance, Xinobi, and a slew of other awesomeness.

Budapest will have a chance to hear from them up close on October 11 as the boys are in town along with Sidechains, at Kollektiva’s gig in Merlin. So local readers please come on by, the Kunk boys certainly will be.

For those of you with the luxury of living in Hungary, in this case, the latest project from the Barcelona-based duo will see remixes of modern bloggy-type artists, as opposed to the previous which saw the ramping up of a whole bunch of 1980s classics. Clearly these modern bloggy-type originals are gonna be mixed up by other modern-bloggy type editors… but, as a thought experiment, how awesome would it be if the previous project was reversed? That is, the Romantics would turn around and remix Anoraak, or Madonna remixing Sidechains (come to think of it, that would mean in reality William Orbit or smbody similar remixing Sidechains… another interesting prospect).

But I digress… tracklist below, have a listen!

1. Sintonia Buffetlibre
2. Heads We Dance – The Human Touch
3. Louis La Roche – Peach (Sidechains Remix)
4. Alex Metric – Deadly On A Mission (Autokratz Remix)
5. Professor Groove & The Booty Affair – Lose Control (Diamond Cut ReLoss)
6. The Requesters – Strong Love
7. Miami Horror – Don’t Be On With Her
8. Xinobi – Valsa In Nova Jersey
9. Super Mal – Bigger Than Big (Bag Raiders Remix)
10. N.O.S. – Please (The Phantom’s Revenge Remix)
11. Baby Diamonds – Shooting The Stars
12. Overthrill – Your Life
13. Mission Control – Innerspace (Designer Drugs Remix)
14. Giorgio Moroder – E=mc2 (Culture Prophet Remix)
15. The Outrunners – These Girls Are Dressed To Kill (Russ Chimes Remix)
16. Radiohead – Reckoner (Frankmusik Remix)
17. Inner Party System – Die Tonight (LA Riots Remix)
18. Electric Youth – Replay (Justin Faust Remix)

Buffet Libre DJs - Verbena no. 5 // [ysi]

Giving a shout out here to one of the bloggas at the fantastic 2ManyBloggas2 party from a few weeks back (the picks of which are here). The hello republic crew are behind Hello Cabaret 2, which will feature dj sets by virtually every laptop owner in Budapest. And, asses! Specifically, the asses of the Ping Pong Allstars — who comprise a group of ladies who, well, you’ll have to imagine — or even better, attend! (My Google search came up empty, which adds to the mystery…)

Given the heavy variety of sonic action coming at ya with this party, we had a lot to chose from for sharing…. For those of you who’ve made it to a Kunk-land party, you know our weakness for early 90s bad dance, i.e. 2Unlimited, DJ Bobo, Haddaway, etc. No list like that would be complete without the irrepressable Dr. Alban, naturally. It’s his life, you know. The ‘rock hard abs’ member of the Kollektiva clan, TMX, twisted this mix up special a little while back. There’s a little ravey Swede in all of us, right?

Dr. Alban - Sing Hallelujah (TMX Remix) [zshare] // [ysi]

Oh man, The Kills are just the perfect band for nearly anything. Like from garage-rock to dance and disco… Insane stuff (posts). Everyone in blog-world seems to know this so I’m gonna move on. This time James Rutledge from the UK was nice enough to send us his remix for Last Day of Magic. You might remember him cause he did some pretty cool edits a while ago. Like the over remixed MGMT and Electric Feel. Ok, this song had a Justice re-work but I would go with the Rutledge one, it’s more alive. And he also remixed The Whip and Dntel. In addition the weirdest thing ever: he made a 240 (!!!) minute remix for Radiohead’s Videotape which was issued on super-limited VHS (!!!). WTF? I adore these kind of ideas. I mean I’m not sure if it’s a great listen or whatever but it’s like pushing the boundaries of electronic music, industry, etc… But back to The Kills remix. This one does justice (no, not like that haha but like normally) to the original and to the title. Twisted and sterile, it sounds like a duet from a psychiatry institute and a crazy white-lighted room with four threathening walls. Monotonous but has gentle variations and it’s not too long. The tension just rises but never resolved. Awesome freaky disco track with even a Sonic Youth-feel to it. Download NOW!

The Kills - Last Day of Magic (James Rutledge remix) [zshare] // [ysi]

Maybe not so new because it’s officially from the Kitsuné Maison 6 compilation. Seems like one of the coolest Parisian labels realized the post-banger era and the importance of smooth synths. Lo-Fi-Fnk is amazing since their debut LP Boylife and the City single. They are actually from Sweden. They were disappeared until now but I guess we can expect plenty of remixes and hype soon. This new song Want U is a great atmospheric disco song kinda reminds me of the new Cut Copy. I feel like it makes the air lighter around you, your heart beats less fast, you can close your eyes and fast forward the time to a nice Sunday afternoon where every difficulty that makes your soul heavy just floats up to the clouds and rains down to get lost in the city.

Lo-Fi-Fnk - Want U [zshare] // [ysi]

This track is super old in blog terms, but care we not, we love the straight-outta-London hooded pair and Aeon is on the mark. Normally super hard and super heavy (for example on their remixes of Trash, and Space and the Woods), South Central have lightened the mood and come out soaring this one… a bit akin to the track by We Plants Are Happy Plants, which we blawgged about last week. Don’t get me wrong — homeboys are still spooky — but based on this track i expect we’ll see a good variety of styles on their upcoming album/collection of tracks, The Owl of Minerva.

SC will rip up the UK alongside Does It Offend You, Yeah? during the month of October. It pains me a bit to miss those shows — being located here on the continent and all that. But, usual drill, I haven’t a doubt that will change before long.

South Central - Aeon [zshare] // [ysi]