BEACHBEACHBEACHBEACHBEACH

The beach needs a DJ for the summer, and that DJ is Edwin van Cleef!

Edwin Van Cleef - June Mix 2011 by Edwin van Cleef

Hipster music video competition

THE HELENATOR and I were arguing last night over which of the following two hipster music videos (hereafter HMVs) was better. We need your help to resolve this argument. Please vote for your favorite HMV in the comments.

Filtered tunes for your Monday enjoyment

Original Tracks by Moonchild

I don't know about you folks, but nothing gets my otherwise stagnant Monday blood flowing like some French house. Surprisingly, my two favorite purveyors of contemporary french house are both not Daft Punk or Justice and not even French at that. Go Go Bizkitt! hails from Scotland, and Moonchild lives down under. But what unites them is a taste for sweet bass grooves with gorgeous filters laid over everything to give it that Fresh and Funky feeling. It is a well known science fact that such beats, when pulled though lowpass filters on a low frequency oscillation pattern, make people want to screw each others brains out. So be careful playing this stuff at work.

[Moonchild Mixtapes] by Moonchild

While these tunes may not fit as perfectly into the narrative of a Leiji Matsumoto anime feature, they are indeed awesome and quite reminiscent of the things that we liked about Homework and Discovery (but weren't really there in Human After All and such). And they're fun. I like 'em.

WHERE WAS THIS DEVICE DURING *MY* CHILDHOOD???

You certainly wouldn't have found it around my house. Thus the ineptitude. But maybe, JUST MAYBE, if I'd had a Red Rider BB Gun, I meeaaaaan a TYCO HOT KEYZ, my life would have been changed forever and I'd be the coolest kid on the block and have half a concept of what attack, decay, sustain, or release mean. But in another, more accurate way, I probably would have just broken it or forgotten about it once its D-sized batteries ran out and my parents refused to buy me any more because of the GAWDAWFUL RACKET.

Either way, Wahlström and Valiant (the first of which sounds vaguely scandinavian, to their credit) made a mix that uses this for everything but the drums. And it's amazing. Just think about it: little DJ PRETENTIOUS, age 9, playing this song. I know, it wouldn't have actually happened, BUT I CAN DREAM.

HOT KEYZ

KEYBOARD SYNTHS ARE SO DREAMY

Rejoice! I am actually posting a very listenable and objectively good song. While I'm remiss to stray from my usual hardcore dubstep, PO-PO are very much worth it.

Synthy keyboard + epic drums = awesome 80s throwback. This is NOT dancey. This is what they played at the end of 80s movies right before the credits. This is how you know the story is finally resolved. Trouble in your life? Drama? Disappointment? Don't worry. Play this song and everything is fixed!

I actually saw PO-PO live when they opened for Sleigh Bells back in June (interesting combo, yeah?). The image they projected was FAR different than the music they produced. I think one of them wore a giant vest emblazoned with teddy bears; the kind of thing overweight midwestern moms wear around Christmas. After the show and after a few beers on both our parts I talked to them at the merch table. Of the bands I've met they were BY FAR the most entertaining to hang out with. By the end of our conversation they were squirting beer directly into my mouth (and theirs) via tiny squirt guns in the shape of dolphins. I don't know. It was kind of awesome.

I think these guys will be big when their album, Big Tings, drops in early 2011. Keep your ears open! And before I entirely forget, here's the song:
POPO-Let's Get Away by maddecent