Bag Raiders - ‘Shooting Stars’

It seems like our upcoming festive season is shaping up to be one of sublime summer jams; the kind of tunes that sound just as good on your car stereo as you cram in on your way to the beach or a festival as they do in a dark dirty nightspot after 3am.  A slew of these gems are emerging from some of our favourite home-grown beatmakers i.e Empire Of The Sun, Miami Horror, and Damn Arms – but I think my favourite so far is the new Bag Raiders production Shooting Stars. The Sydney duo have been kicking parties into high gear for a while now - see last year’s ubiquitous stomper Fun Punch – but this release transcends the club and manages to be that rare thing – a truly brilliant pop song.  The electrified power cheese of their earlier work is abandoned in favour of a more mellow approach, with swirling melodies slowly building to one of the most joyously bouncy choruses you’ll hear all year.  Rhys of Like Whoah/Ted & Francis lends his vocal talents to this track and wouldn’t sound out of place on a Backstreet Boys record, but underpinned by that kickin’ disco bass it’s a deliciously pop combination that you can’t help but grin and nod your head to.  Get this now or miss out!

Turbo Love is the other single that’s been thrown onto the web, and it’s more typical munter fuel.  All thick, juicy synths, robot voices and a whole lot of Bang, it sounds a bit too much like a disposable Van She Tech remix from last year to get too excited about, but the ’Raiders typically slick production talents make it well worth a listen.

The Turbo Love single with both of these tracks is out now on Bang Gang 12 inches and the boys are heading to Japan in December, so make sure to catch them before the year is out.

http://www.myspace.com/bagraiders

Beni – ‘My Love Sees You’

Sydney producer Beni is best known as one half of Riot In Belgium, the club destroying duo who gave us 2007’s lip – contorting party jam La Musique. You know the one – with the excitable french girl moaning over lots of ridiculous buildups and bleepy fuzz?  It was just about inescapable if you spent any time in the clubs or even turned on your radio last year.  Anyway, it’s been many blog decades since then and with the Belgium bangers on the wane, he has turned his talents to this self-titled solo project.  My love sees you is Beni’s first official cut, and it combines the charged peaktime vibes of his earlier work with punchy bass guitars, highly strung synths and plenty of euphoric vocal samples.  The funked-up bass and disco influences sit nicely with Beni’s intense production – and will ensure a whole lot of slamming silliness on the floor.

Beni has just been picked up by international tastemakers Kitsune and appears on their new compilation (along with fellow Sydneysiders Ted & Francis), so this looks like another Aussie track to dominate overseas.  Hear this one now so you can throw your hands up and dance when you hear it out this weekend!
www.myspace.com/listentobeni

Click here to view the embedded video.

The E.L.F. – a.k.a Darren Cross – has been evoking the DIY spectre of the electro-indie zeitgeist ever since he dropped his lo-fi debut release Stevie Nicks Hearts last year. The filmclip for the disc’s first single, ‘Cockroaches’, was made for a measly throwaway ten bucks.

Now The E.L.F. is set to launch the follow-up to Stevie Nicks Hearts, and ‘Bounce Bounce Bounce’ is the first taste of the new material. And this filmclip was made for nothing. Nada. Zilch. Intimating rave nights with the help of garish sirens, cowbell, a skull-thumping beat and synths galore, ‘Bounce Bounce Bounce’ is pure hedonistic dance floor fodder. Cross overtly announces his intentions: “If you’re not gonna dance I’m gonna go home.”

“More DIY spirit than Thurston Moore on a shopping spree in Kmart,” is how The E.L.F. describes this one.

Indeed.

http://www.myspace.com/theelff