FAUVE NUITS FAUVES

This might not exactly be the newest thing on the block at the moment, but it's certainly new for me. Well, new-ish. I've been meaning to post this song for ages - you know how it is: stuff gets in the way. Normal.

Anyway, this is FAUVE, self-confessedly more of a 'project' than a band. Although, according to the information on their website, they started out as just three musicians (friends with a desire to express the pathos in their lives), FAUVE now - after many people have joined the project in some capacity or another - count themselves as five musicians plus one videographer.

As for expressing themselves, emptying the overflowing mind, FAUVE seem to have no trouble with that at all. Of course, it's why they got together in the first place. This song, 'Nuits Fauves' (or 'Wild Nights' in English), illustrates perfectly what the band are all about: creating empathy within their listeners. The lyrics this particular song expound on the fear and desire that come hand in hand with the slightly vacuous nights out 'on the prowl' that certain generations of many countries and cultures experience. Luckily FAUVE display lyrics to all of their songs, so you can sing along.

But it's not singing. It's speaking - kind of. It's almost equivalent to the kind of rapping that Mike Skinner does in The Streets. But with this style it's much easier to get emotion across, in the way you speak, rather than with singing which of course always has to stick to a melody. The music fits the mood of the song perfectly, or makes the mood, with a cyclical guitar riff that meekly stretches like a cat in the background as a hip-hop rhythm beats along, in a kind of bleak pastiche of gangster rap. Wonderful atmosphere and dynamic here.

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XXYYXX ABOUT YOU

Ok, so somehow I missed this amazing song. I've seen people mention the 17-year-old, Orlando-(FL)-based XXYYXX on Twitter so many times, but never thought that I would ever check it out - why? I'm not sure. Probably I was confused: is it a mash-up between The xx and xxxy? Huh? But anyway, I've finally had a listen to this one particular song and I'm amazed - hypnotised is probably a better word. 'About You' has been watched over five million times on YouTube, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this were because of the same thousand or something people just replaying the song over and over again. It's utterly addictive.

But of course, haters gon' hate. Some comments on the song have given it stick because of its blatant simplicity and have implied the old classic: "anyone can do this" - to which I would reply with a new classic: "yeah, but anyone didn't do it, this person did." But anyway, leaving behind the sourpusses of this world, I can safely say that I supremely dig this song.

It is the ultimate chillwave, the most minimalist beat I have heard all year - just an audaciously minimalistic kick and a snare through the whole song - as well as the most minimalist melody, consisting of modulating synth chords switching between two sets of notes. Although on paper it does sound a little sparse, it's actually anything but that. It's entirely gripping, keeping you in its clutches as new parts are gradually introduced, such as this freaky vocal sample that is slowed down to a crazy degree in some parts, and also a random part of some dub-style singing tinged with rattling hi-hats. It all bubbles up, tension rising, until the synth explodes and a wobbling bass kicks in towards the end of the song - it's such a change in dynamic that you can't not be blown away by it the first, second, third, and so on, time(s) that you listen to it. Pure heaven. Love it.

"Is there more?" I hear you cry. Yes, there's a whole album, called XXYYXX, go and listen to it.

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BRODINKSI DANCE LIKE MACHINES

No, I haven't taken up drawing in my spare time, this is actually the bizarrely titillating, comic-style cover for Brodinski's first ever EP released on his own label - Bromance Records - called Bromance #7 (released 10th December). This is one of the songs from the EP, of course, and the title 'Dance Like Machines' is something that is, well, let's say explored in the video: there are a lot of strippers and there is a lot of dancing. Besides dancing being their jobs, it's no wonder that they're dancing to this latest tasty morsel from Louis Brodinski - I'm almost throwing my clothes off as I type and listen, which as you can imagine is a tricky feat, so I'll stick to the point.

The stabbing synth of this song is addictive, a kind of electronic honky tonk / harpsichord trance style - the kind of sound that you wouldn't mind having in your ears for more than the duration of the song. It's all set to a relentless techno beat that is characterised in its severity by the huge sub bass globulating under everything; it's as if a beautiful table has been set, all the silverware and candlesticks are in place, the wine is just about to be poured, but from out of nowhere the table itself starts expanding and contracting, and the tablecloth is undulating like so many storm-tossed waves. Yes, there's beauty in the brutality of this song - exactly the same as the unlikely beauty that is found in the strip joints in the video. Do I get extra points for that comparison? I hope so.

It's a great song, one that will get you pumped for going out dancing, or one that will aid further in your dancing when you're already out dancing. I love how Brodinski manages to marry the dubstep rhythm of the first part of the song, and throughout, with the thumping, technolicious 4/4 beat that is its mainstay. Enjoy. Some say the video is NSFW, and indeed YouTube removed it on those grounds, but who cares. Watch it wherever. Watch it on the train in front of people or something.

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FLEETWOOD MAC OH WELL HAIM COVER

Not only is the original of 'Oh Well' by the immortal Fleetwood Mac - whilst Peter Green still fronted - an absolute belter and indeed one of my favourite Fleetwood Mac songs (though it's strange to say because it's such a different style to, let's say, 'Second Hand News'), it's also been done fantastically well by the quickly rising sister-act Haim as you will see in the video below.

In fact, you might have already heard them cover this song if you listened Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio 1 earlier this week (they did a very nice 3-track session over at Maida Vale studios). You might want to have a look at and a listen to the BBC version because it's obviously better quality than this one, which has just been filmed from the crowd at a random festival. Hmm. On second thought, it's a little dismissive to say 'random festival', so let's get specific: it's at the Twilight Series 2012 on Santa Monica Pier. Imagine that!

So anyway, without further ado, I present to you Haim live with their cover of Fleetwood Mac's brilliant 'Oh Well'.

They do this song to virtual perfection, note for note and beat for beat, it's nearly exactly the same as listening to the original - complete with the quirky rolls on woodblocks. The song steams ahead, the trio of girls rocking out onstage and for the most part it reveals a side of Haim that certainly I didn't know existed: full-throttle rock and roll. I've yet to hear an original song that ploughs waters as turbulent as those of 'Oh Well', but I do hope they write something similar to this because it's pure brilliance. Of course, they give a song an extra dimension, mainly in the vocals department, obviously swapping male for female vocals that lend the song a... sensual swagger? Is that ok to say? If it is, then I'm going with that. If it's not, then it's just different in a 'female way'.

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FOALS MY NUMBER

You may already know what I've written about this one. That was live. This is recorded. If you don't like listening to live stuff, and shunned my last post for that very reason, then you can not-shun this post. Let's recap anyway.

'My Number' is totally groovesome, like a loveable though uncoordinated janitor injected with PURE funk who then discards his drab uniform revealing a huge tattoo of a palm-tree-lounger-cocktail-complete-with-paper-umbrella combo on his chest and then body pops down the corridors of the school he works at whilst the children rush out of classrooms to cheer him on and clap and the teachers are stuttering and flustered and the head teacher is raging as the janitor clicks his heels and makes his final tango out of the main doors of the school - nice, eh?

PRE-ORDER your very own copy of the upcoming Holy Fire - scheduled for release on 11th February 2013 (UK) - by clicking any word of this sentence.

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TORO Y MOI SO MANY DETAILS

I'm not sure whether Toro y Moi chose the song title 'So Many Details' because this lovely song of his is positively swimming in lashings of details, or if it's just coincidence, but either way, like I said, it's lovely.

Musically active for around three years now, Toro y Moi (real name Chazwick Bundick - really) is a mainstay of the laid-back chillwave genre and has already released two albums; this song comes as the first single from his upcoming album, Anything in Return - set for release on 22nd January 2013 - and whilst it remains chilled, there are many textures that make it a delightfully rich medley of sounds.

The song begins with a looped, dreamy effect that sounds like the equivalent of a troop of clouds travelling across a clear sky, followed quickly by some clipped and muffled brass-type sounds all bubbling together. Then the beat proper comes in, playing host, for the main part, to a dusty kick drum that underpins the whole, lazy, head-swaying hip-hop mass that cruises along with the the thin falsetto vocals and a soulful yet cartoony and crumbling bassline that warms the soul. There's a hollow, modulating synth breakdown with atonal, glitchy chords before introducing a female vocal sample that floats in like a guest-appearance ghost - lovely touch.

But before the end of the song, over halfway through, around the same time as the once intermittent pinging smacks of delayed guitar chords become more frequent, the song descends into an electro trance, the vocals become more echoing, high-pitched bleeps cascade around and - happily - frantic tribal drum sounds circulate underneath all the mayhem. Wow. If you listen to that song properly (and NO, I don't mean stoned, like 80% of YouTube comments on 'good' songs suggest) it takes you away to some faraway electro playground that isn't cold, dark or damp, but warm, colourful and made expressly for you.

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PALMA VIOLETS BEST OF FRIENDS

If you haven't already heard it, I heartily entreat you to listen to this song. It's a real doozie and it's from London boys - Lambeth, to be precise - Palma Violets, who take their name from the iconic British sweets: Parma Violets. The song is called 'Best Of Friends' and it's got a completely throwback sound that smells very much like punk: brazen, energetic, frustrated. In fact, it sounds very much like what The Jam were doing in the late 1970s/early 80s, with regards to maintaining that "angry young man" mentality of their punk contemporaries whilst dressing in suits and incorporating a whole lot of mod-adored rock into their sound. I'm saying it sounds like that, not that it is that, just so you know.

I've chosen to share their performance of this song on Later... with Jools Holland because it is not only the first place I heard it, but - having now listened to the recording - I think it's actually a better quality version, going more hand-in-hand with their slapdash punk/rock sensibilities. Being live, the energy that the band put into their music becomes a lot more evident than merely hearing it on a record - they throw themselves about, embellish instrumentals with shouts and yelps, and generally put every fibre of their being into playing every note, shouting down the microphone, or smashing the hell out of the drums.

Indeed, guitarist Sam Fryer has said:

We want people to really feel it - we want the bass to rip through people's bodies, the bass drum to go straight inside your head.

Here we have distorted chords thrashed out and left hanging in the air whilst the vocals for the verse come out in a slur, before the booming chorus with all the oi-type yelling and shouting as a vessel for the simple, yet heartrending refrain "I wanna be your best friend, I don't want you to be my girl". It's a quintessentially British 'thing' - from their name, to the style of music they play (and how they play it), along with other British nuances like another, slightly strange song of theirs called 'Last Of The Summer Wine', named after a comedy series about a bunch of mishap-making old people in the countryside. These guys are already on the rise (they won NME's Track Of The Year award with this song), which is a fabulous thing; whoever said guitar music is dead? Because, judging from what I can hear, it isn't. And if it is dead, then Palma Violets are carrying it on their shoulders.

And of course, if you haven't, listen to the official, album-quality version of 'Best Of Friends'. Their debut album will be released on 25th February 2013.

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CORY JREAMZ VAGUE CURRENT VIVID FATED

Whenever a new rapper comes on the scene, the event is usually met with cheers and frantic attempts to compare the new, up-and-coming star to something that's come before - not something that everybody really wants to hear at the best of times, least of all rappers in particular. Thankfully, I won't be comparing Cory Jreamz to anybody.

A Houston-native, he's entirely unique to himself, combining a mix of personal, diary-entry-esque revelations about himself with a nearly confrontational, swaggering delivery, making full use of his voice to blend the words together in a flow that seems at once natural and raw. It's impressive, and it's what you'd hear if you took a listen to Vague Current Vivid Fated (or VCVF for short), his second EP (after Polysemy earlier this year) that was released just over a week ago. With all songs being written at age 18, this for Cory Jreamz himself is a way to get his feelings out in the open whilst doing what he loves most, which is creating music - of course.

In just four tracks, we're taken through all the feelings that go with being 18 - starting with the wild ambition driven by an intense aversion to anything related to failure in first song '18', mixing lyrics imbued with eyes-on-the-prize attitude as well as nerdy, suburban culture like watching Family Guy and going to TGI Fridays. From this, we naturally move to love, with second track 'Bonney', expounding Cory's surprise at his actions and feelings upon finding a girl's conversation better than her body, which was "amazing - mazin'mazin'mazin'mazin'mazin'mazin'mazin". Next, we come back to reality with 'No Castles In The Air', in which he tackles thoughts of the road ahead: "Seriously, I think I'm dead if I don't make this music right"; at which point we come to the despair of 'When The Youth Cut Their Wrist'. It's a whirlwind tour of mixed emotions of a talented rapper determined to make something of himself - have a listen.

But it's not just the lyrics with Cory Jreamz - the music is just as important. This is provided by BeatKnox, ATIRA, LyteSho!, DJ Rhino, his engineer Vince Campos, and of course Cory himself. He has said that each one of these songs has a "deep meaning" to him, so why would he want to leave them as 2-minute-long rap fade-outs? Instead each one is turned into an odyssey - '18' relies on a thunderingly low bass to carry on the attitude long after his voice leaves the track. We get bombarded with distortion and saw-wave bass towards the end of 'No Castles In The Air' before a Middle Eastern-style drumming and chanting takes its place with an epic, kneeling-on-a-clifftop guitar solo squealing over the top. Similarly, 'When The Youth Cut Their Wrist' is actually mostly instrumental, being awash with wavering bass and touching piano melodies that are interspersed with gravelly distortion. Tasty stuff.

To summarise: Cory Jreamz will only get bigger, his lyrics more polished, his music even more suited to the subject matter - he's on the up and you should be following his every move.

You can download the EP Vague Current Vivid Fated FOR FREE from MediaFire.

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BOT'OX BASEMENT LOVE

As much as I love hearing music in general that I like, I love more to hear music that is not only fresh but wholly loveable at the same time. Often, and this is something I wrote about today in fact, music is reminiscent of something else or is directly derivative, but there is a uniqueness lacking that - for me personally - is something that I crave when it comes to all things in life (not just music). Call that 'hipster' and I'll blow your fucking brains out - I'm sick of that word.

You can imagine my relative joy, then, when I came across this tasty morsel from Paris-based band Bot'Ox called 'Basement Love'; released yesterday (10th Dec) as an EP, the entirety of which you can listen to on SoundCloud or download here, the song comes out as the first of a series of EPs or 'chapters' (released every two months apparently) leading up to an album, expected later in 2013: Sans Dormir, which itself comes two years after debut album Babylon by Car.

'Basement Love' starts as a flies-buzzing-round-a-window build up from a barely heard saw-wave synth into something surprising, a bassline almost like dub and a drumstep rhythm that captivates you from the very first beat. With popping synth arpeggios, a disconcerting voice comes in - the voice of Foremost Poets (or jOHNNYDANGEROUs, who also featured in Bot’Ox’s Perfect Pair EP in 2011) - a voice that is twisted with effects and comes ghostly from the centre of this dirge-paced basement anthem. Playing with dynamics, the distorted synth comes back and rises, flooding your ears with inescapable, raucous sound, scraping and noisy, near-unbearable - then it breaks off, revealing that calm dub and clear-toned guitar chords, small and different after all that loudness.

Reminding me of a cross between alt-J and TOYS (who we wrote about the other day), these guys cover a new, dark ground that still sounds like it has a lot to give. Listen below.

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PARLEZ-VOUS ANGLAIS? SUNGLASSES & SHIRTS

It's strange, but even the sound of LCD Soundsystem's first album, to take an example, sounds oddly retro now - the reason for this being, perhaps, that James Murphy was himself looking to the past. The reason I mention this is because this song from Parlez-vous Anglais? itself sounds like an act that could've existed alongside LCD back in the electro disco heyday (Oh! those Halcyon, plastic-rainbow days) but no - it's new. It's new music that sounds retro because it was influenced by a guy a few years ago who himself was entrenched in the New York disco sound. And a bit like Calvin Harris (first album, thank Allah). All this history is boring, isn't it? War of the Roses? Only at Christmas time.

Anyway. I am very happy about this song. Despite sounding quite similar to some other stuff, it is - of course - its own creation. The name, by the way, is 'Sunglasses & Shirts' by French band Parlez-vous Anglais?. I love this kind of sound. It reminds me of being at University, reminds me of all the silly nu-raveness back then, the Dulux colour wheels of people who rolled humming snippets of the Klaxons. But, memories of a not-very-old-person-anyway aside, the song is great. It's a brash representation of sheer fun, complete with all the things you like to hear, and all the things that get you up and shimmying around like nobody's business: slapdash guitar, bleepy, whack-a-mole electro sounds, and sung-spoken vocals that ooze attitude.

Laid-back yet ready to spring into a Windmill and impress all the girls at any time, the only thing I'd say thing song is missing is being released in the right season - this is a Summer song. Maybe it's acting as a cure for the season instead of a reflection of it. Deep.

This song comes straight from the boys' new EP, also called Sunglasses & Shirts, which is a foray into the electro indie disco delights of yesteryear. You can listen to that on Spotify, or you could buy the whole thing from iTunes. Lovely stuff.

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JESSIE WARE SWEET TALK CYRIL HAHN REMIX

Cyril Hahn does it again. We've been following this man since we first heard about his remix of Destiny's Child 'Say My Name' - now almost legend amongst those who have been following the short and sharp rise to international fame of Cyril Hahn himself. More than once now he has been featured on Annie Mac's show on BBC Radio 1 - you can listen by navigating her programme's page here. Boy does Annie Mac have good taste.

In any case, we're here to talk about Cyril Hahn's house treatment of Jessie Ware's 'Sweet Talk' - the prolific remixer has taken yet another strong female vocal, and instead of chopping it up into many small parts, allows large sections of Jessie Ware's vocal to have a large amount of breathing space. Cyril adds touches of reverb to the vocal, giving it an unearthly, even magical quality, whilst wrapping the whole thing up in his trademark warmth - a musical hot water bottle for this chilly season.

It starts off with a whole lot of attitude, a truncated bassline swaggers as the kick comes in, rumbling beneath everything before the first lot of echoing vocal samples floats in. The temperature heats up, the thickness of Cyril's sounds begin to blanket your ears in the heat of the energy he creates with his various drops, almost always followed by protracted, synth bass notes that clamber for your attention. He builds it up towards the end till the energy is near bursting; a creeping sensation of deep fulfilment with what you're listening to only becoming apparent when the song finishes and you immediately replay it because, yep, that's exactly what a Cyril Hahn remix does to a person: turns them into a serial song repeater. That's the sign of an addictive producer and talented artist who has big things ahead of him.

Yet again, bravo. And Jessie Ware, bravo to her too. She has an amazing voice, which has clearly been shown by Cyril's choice to remix her song, and which he has framed very nicely, very flatteringly, in his own, unique way.

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KAVINSKY PROTOVISION [VIDEO]

Kavinsky - otherwise known as the real world person Vincent Belorgey - is back with a new album due out early 2013: Outrun. This, 'Protovision', is the first official single from that album - 'Odd Look', a snippet of which we covered a few weeks ago, has actually not been released yet. But, all these technicalities and names aside, I'm just glad to hear that he's back. It seems that a lot of people are giving him a pretty hard time for "pulling a DRIVE" in the video below, but if you've followed Kavinsky for a while, you will see that Kavinsky is itself a creation by Vincent: both the music and the eponymous character form part of the atmosphere that goes with the whole package that is Kavinsky.

Whether or not you like or can even get on board with a conceptual idea like that is besides the point (no matter how cool or not cool you think it is): the point is the music. And as far as the music that comes from the mind of this guy goes, it remains an exciting, dynamic sound that doesn't pull any punches and that remains almost as it has been since the release of his first EP Teddy Boy in 2006.

So in 'Protovision' we are treated to an epically wailing guitar, which is the main star of the 3-minute-long thumper of a track. In typical Kavinsky style we hear a super strong beat that thuds along beneath a grim, fuzzy wave of synth bassline - a showcase of 80s-car-chase-inspired sounds that display and illustrate as much excitement as inspires them in the first place. The only change that has been made to the sound since previous tracks is perhaps a larger dash of wide and epic, cinematic atmosphere that has managed to have been captured within the glowering synth of 'Protovision', yet still it is the small touches that make the most differences sometimes.

Detractors might say that Kavinsky is always the same - if you don't like that sound, then lack of change is bound to annoy you. Personally, I think this sound is one that Vincent Belorgey should tenaciously cling onto and hold close because it's one that, like a loveable or memorable character, people will not tire of hearing.

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FOALS LIVE @ WEST END CENTRE ALDERSHOT

I never thought I'd be writing a post that even mentioned Aldershot, let alone one that actually featured this fair town's name in its title - yet, here we are. And there we were, in Aldershot, in a spookily empty pub at an acceptable drinking hour waiting to see Foals live at the West End Centre. Measuring the minutes with alcohol (what else?) the time quickly whizzed by and, before we knew it, we were en route to the gig itself; 'exciting' didn't cover it.

This rather intimate gig - the venue is officially 175 capacity, although Wikipedia cites it as something more like like 200 (what's 25 more people, eh?) - is just one in a series of rather intimate gigs, that started in Sheffield and will end in Tunbridge Wells in two days' time, stopping off at Derby, Stoke, Southampton, Bournemouth and Brighton on the way. It's a kind of teaser tour, according to the band themselves:

Thanks to everyone who bought tickets for our mini tour this winter. like we said elsewhere it is only a tease, and for us to get back "into it", so don't stress if you missed out, or if we weren't coming near to your home... because there will be many, many more shows coming up.

So there you have it. A mini-tour. Getting back "into it". Of course. That's what it was.

But it really didn't sound anything like that. It sounded like a polished gig. An actual gig. After the danceable grooves of support Trophy Wife, the main event came down on the crowd like a veritable ton of bricks. With Yannis Philippakis, Foals' frontman, typically animated and fully imbued with the feeling of the very music he's playing, a kind of perpetual motion machine in which he is driven by the music in order to drive the music and so on - a cyclical relationship where energy swaps hands between the band, usually culminating in Yannis getting very excited and jumping from whatever pinnacle the stage happens to offer into a sea of outstretched hands and, seemingly refreshed by crowdsurfing in pure adoration, onto the stage again - the gig was suitably frenzied.

They hopped between big tunes from their back and current catalogue, fever-pitch anthems and let's-have-a-breather tunes that nevertheless had everyone screaming. Starting with muscle-beach-evocative 'Miami' they moved onto 'Blue Blood' and new tune 'My Number', whose unquenchable funk had the whole crowd displaying whatever fancy footwork they could muster. Other songs included the now old-school, sweaty indie disco anthem that is 'Balloons' and the epic builder-upper 'Spanish Sahara', which cooled, calmed, and subsequently set ablaze the room with the band's sheer mastery of dynamics.

After a premature departure from the stage, the band returned to the wild shouts of the crowd to launch into the heaviest-ever-Foals-song 'Inhaler', blowing everybody away, bursting many an eardrum, and getting the whole crowd bouncing around and headbanging - not something you expect from Foals, but something that gives a teaser to their own diverse tastes in music (for instance, I noticed that the drummer, Jack Bevan, was wearing a HEALTH vest - +1 point). Then came the ending: 'Two Steps Twice'. This is Foals' usual gig-closer and, with its addictive beat and that chanting-in-the-stands breakdown and Yannis's brave walk from the stage into the crowd itself, bringing everyone together in shouting out this wordless anthem - a beautiful moment.

Foals are certainly a band that needs to be seen live - not only does their energy onstage lend itself to a better quality of sound (because they really do play for all their worth when onstage), but it leads to an exciting show: they are animated and totally gripped by the energy of their own music, lost in a trance like a whirling Dirvish, none more than Yannis, who steals the show with his daredevil jumps from the speakers and his fearless forays into the crowd itself. Phew. Get tickets to the tour proper next year if you know what's good for you.

The night ended with a maniac running out of his car with a golf club and all the pent up aggression of a 17-year-old with a frigid girlfriend. Not typical Aldershot behaviour, I'm sure.

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POLIÇA WANDERING STAR TROPICS REMIX

Ahh, Tropics - his music is so tasty, like a well-deserved Nando's or forgotten-about Magnum Caramel that you re-find crouching in your freezer. Yes, we can confirm that Tropics is just as fantastic as everybody is making out. Just a smigden over a month ago Chris Ward, the man - the brain - behind Tropics, released his first EP, Popup Cinema, to much acclaim; I mean, we liked it (and you can read that right here), so what more do you need to know? It was a delightful jig into a calming sea of soulful vocals and ambient synth sounds that gave you sunny pop with one hand and presented experimental twists and turns with the other. Beautiful.

But that aside, what has Mr. Ward gone and done now but remixed a song? He's actually shadowed the original, his remix standing tall like a majestic palm tree under a full moon and a pebble beach of stars. Where were we...

Oh yes. He's remixed a lovely song by Poliça called 'Wandering Star'. The original is a sparse mix of doleful bass, slapdash drums and vocals that seem to stretch forwards and backwards in time, dripping with lashings of reverb. Listen to this below:

But now, below, we have the remix with the Tropics Touch - a chillwave kind of magic wand, I guess. It takes the heart of the original and puts it into a new body, and a very nice body at that, one that vibrates non-stop with a wavy bass, one that offers up synthy organ tones, one that participates in an orgy of sound, a dazzling, near-jazzy confetti that leads us towards the end of the song over a supremely laid-back beat. A fantastic use of vocal samples at the beginning and end of the song shows Tropics' talent for chopping the right bits and repeating them the right amount of times, like a skillful sound-butcher - and actually, on the subject of vocals, the singing on the track seems to fit Tropics' remix more than the original. Is that a bad thing to say? Not sure, but it's the true thing to say. Feast your ears on this.

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KRYONE WITHOUT YOU

I'd never heard of this guy before, but now I'm rather glad that I've discovered Kryone. He's a Mexico-based producer and DJ currently signed to forward-thinking Mexican label PIR▲.MD, established just last year and determined to release to the world a new sound of electronic hip hop music from its various artists. Kryone is one such artist and, boy oh boy: what a sound he's developed.

His song 'Without You' - released just a few days ago - is a great example of the new sound that has been in a state of emergence over the past couple of years: electronic music with the swagger and attitude of hip hop, mixed with a dark and moody sensibilities inherent in, well, I don't know what, gothic music or something? Not sure. Either way, I like it.

It's made up of slow attack synth that buzzes like some nocturnal flying thing, competing in their soft chords above a killer, solid bass that bores straight through you, vibrating every bone. Before you know it, a snare begins to roll faster and faster, so fast that it sounds like a door hinge squeaking in agony, as a prelude to the end of the moody, ambient bass of the song - it gives way to swirling, modulating sawwave synth, an incredible change in sound and dynamic. Some people call this kind of music 'Trap' (I've labelled it as such, too) but I have no comprehension at all of this bizarre term, so let's just go with it for an easy life. It reminds me a little of White Ring and Rritualzz - who is, in fact, another Mexican artist. Perhaps there is something of a scene in Mexico surrounding the artists, and their consumers, of this deep, dark music.

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Kryone's page @ PIR▲.MD Records