Emperor Steele

Empire of the Sun have released a video directed by Nash Edgerton for 'Half Mast (Slight Return)' and this time round, we see Emperor (Luke) Steele hit the sandy banks of New York City in the dark, only lit by those trash can fires that homeless people in any film set in New York are rarely seen without. Working the usual variant of fabulous costume, we see Emperor Luke stumbling around in a rather inebriated fashion, pleading after a blond in a costume that is as equally fabulous as his own. It's quite an MJ-the-way-you-make-me-feel kind of moment...a four minute long moment in fact.

Check it:

We love Metronomy, we love Empire of the Sun and we love covers. Having said that, we fucking hated the Metronomy cover of Empire of the Sun's ‘We Are the People'. Well, most of it. I get the arty approach that Joseph used on this song by adding that sad, wilting robot voice - the same one he used in ‘What Do I Do Now', from the latest EP ‘Not Made For Love' - but in this case, it just doesn't work. And worse, when he sings with his falsetto voice, the song comes really close to a good interpretation. Unfortunately, you can't win all the time.

The cover was recorded during their Australian tour at the end of 2009 during Like a Version, a radio show for Triple J, so, yeah, no big deal. Download the artsy cover below and be sad.

Ziggy Steele

If in the eighties David Bowie did synthpop music without shoulder pads, the boys from Empire of the Sun wouldn't need any other names to justify the sound of 'Without You', their latest single. The song is so Bowie that coincidentally, Luke is dolled up like a blond version of Ziggy Stardust as seen in the 'Life on Mars?'  video. And just to be clear, (if you are not Lady Gaga) being inspired by David Bowie is an amazing thing.

'Without You' is a beautiful ballad built around whispering vocals and a shy instrumental. I especially like the moment when the instrumental wakes up and you can almost hear the word "epic" in the lines. In the video, there's only Luke Steele fully dressed and made up, singing about how bad it is to be without Nick Littlemore whilst holding a white horse and patting a bull statue. We feel you, brother.

And before we forget, 'Standing On The Shore', the single prior to 'Without You', was remixed by the amazing Lifelike. He basically extended the track to an eight minute travel around the best of intimate synthpop in the world. A remix to make love to (and hopefully you'll need to repeat the song a few times before finishing).

Modernaire

I've been a huge fan Modernaire since mid 2007, when I first heard them play in a dingy pub in Manchester with Dolby Anol and this awful awful act called Bitterly Ironic (of all things). They stood out a mile, with their eerie girl vocals in perfect harmony and their dirty dark, swashbuckling pop electronica. I've said before that the band on first glance might seem a little pretentious; but their razor sharp wit and a tidy vocabulary belie a sense of humor that's rarely seen in the current musical climate.

They've been fairly quiet since they released their EP 'Velvet Never Dries' in 2007, only hitting out occasionally with wiiiicked remixes for the likes of Metronomy, MGMT and Empire of the Sun (cop them all below). All of them are brilliant, seriously, keeping the soul of the original tracks but injecting some of their very own deliciously noir, eerie pop chic into their remixes.

Now on releasing 'Faites Vos Jeux' they've also remixed WhoMadeWho, continuing the build their stellar portfolio of excellent remixes for great bands. Modernaire's treatment of 'Keep Me In My Plane' is an echoey disco number, playing around with percussion, putting the bouncing guitar into the background and filling the space with dirty mid-range synths, that have a vague Metronomy feel. It's a super clever remix as all of their remixes are; taking into account the whole personality of the original track and restyling it a la Modernaire without obscuring WhoMadeWho in the slightest.

The single Faites Vos Jeux drops next week on roXour Records (alongside our friend TEPR) in the UK, but we've got it here for youuu:

Empire of the Sun were one of the best surprises of '08 and after some months of quiet, the band is finally back with a new single. 'Standing on the Shore', the opening song from Walking on a Dream, is a synthpop piece as good as the other two singles: dreamy backing vocals, refreshing synths, 4x4 drums and the idiosyncaratic vocals of Luke Steele.

After only 5 days of it's release on Youtube, the video directed by Josh Logue of Mathematics has already had more than 100,000 views, but the song can't take all the credit for this. As usual, the band explores their irreverent and folkloric side and give us another piece of the Empire of the Sun world. Dancing swordfish women, '80s Japanese series type of clothing/armor, colorful smoke and lasers, a choreographed battle, a cave and much more - all shot at the "the northern parts of the most isolated city in the world, Perth, Western Australia".

As a b-side the band is offering their cover of Black Box Recorder, 'The Art of Driving', originally recorded for a BMW ad. The track features Luke Steele and his wife Jodi Steele on vocals and it's quite good (check it below). On the band's Myspace, Luke reveals his wish to do a project with her. "It was great working with Jodi and now we are talking about doing other projects. I think people will like the track's lush melodies and fantasy laden lyrics, make of them what you will!"

The Golden Filter

I'm actually a bit saddened by writing this post. No, it's not because the Golden Filter remix of Empire of the Sun's 'We Are the People' is bad. Its exactly for the opposite reason: because it's too good. Coordinating claps, spooky vocals, wise sampling of the original, '80s drum sound and that spectacular synthesizer that they used in their first single 'Solid Gold'. It's another hit remix from this duo from New York - check some more examples here and here.

But now that they are slowly building their way as one of the best new remixers in town, The Golden Filter announced that this will be their last remix for some time. What consoles me is that they are taking some time to produce new songs... In a perfect world they would manage to keep doing both - bummer!

Canyons

DJ/producer duo Leo Holiday and Ryan Seamist, together known as Canyons, threw their lot in with the Modular crew and signed to the record label last week, joining ranks with the Presets, Cutters and Tame Impala (also originally from Perth, who Canyons have released a split 12" with). And besides this, they already had their own record label, Hole in the Sky, to release whatever kind of shit they want to, as well as a 12" being released via DFA called 'Fire Eyes' due out on the 21^st of July. Impressive.

Canyons is an intriguing project - though I actually pretty much ignored them when they first cropped up last year - having remixed Ladyhawke's 'Dusk til Dawn'. As the title of their take suggested ('Canyons Garage Disco Remix'), with distorted guitar - solos included, muzzy bass, and oddly enough some disco handclaps thrown into the mix next to a 70s rock vibe, it's more of a raw and messy affair than the original.

Besides Ladyhawke, they've remixed tracks from others on the Aussie scene, including a couple of Tame Impala tracks, Lost Valentinos' 'Bismarck' and the (international) remix village bicycle that has been Empire of the Sun's 'We Are the People' (cop 'em all below).

Canyons stuff isn't necessarily intended to be dancefloor shaking, and frankly, they're not - though they are definitely groove-worthy. Canyons strip away a sample or song to its bones before re-fitting it with completely different flesh; comprised of their dirty, lazily cruising, twisted, garage-infused-hippie disco. I suspect that this may or may not have something to do with coming from Perth. They're like a cup of weird herbal tea - not automatically the kinda brew I'd go back to drink time and time again, but most definitely an interesting variation to my regular cuppa. I'll be watching to see where these kids go.

The crazy invitation that Michell Zappa did for his bday 

I'm going to DJ tonight at Funhell - a weekly, cozily intimate party that happens at Funhouse (SP/Brazil). Tonight, Boss in Drama is going to play live to celebrate the birthday of one of the owners of the party: Fubah (Funhell 's producer) and Michell Zappa (the owner of the wicked Radiohead pics in our webby. He's agreed to be our official photographer at IM // A \\PARTY #2).

So in order to celebrate, I'm posting 5 tracks that I'm most definitely gonna drop tonight, so if you like them you better show up!

Vamos?