The Whitest Boy Alive "Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)"

When I saw the title of this song in a club playlist, the first thing I thought was "hooray!!" Shoegazing emo + dance music = emotional dance music, i.e. one of my favorite genres, thanks to New Order. One of the many fantastic projects from prolific Scandinavian Erlend Øye, The Whitest Boy Alive's album "Dreams" never ceases to please me. Its quiet, mellow tones and Øye's unmistakeable soothing voice, always make me wonder why I don't listen to as much indie rock as I used to. Until I remember that I traded in my indie rock and it's associated angst for dance music and the resulting endorphins.

Fortunately for me, producers like Fred Falk exist; the Frenchman knows the ins and outs of that genre that lives somewhere between indie rock and dance music, having remixed the likes of Royksopp and Goldfrapp. Now, two years after the release of "Dreams", he's putting his respectful but recognizable stamp on "Golden Cage," handling the original the way a skilled jeweler would placing a vintage stone into a new setting. This single was unsurprisingly released on Modular, a label which, in my humble opinion, is the heartbeat of 2008, the same way that Because was the pulse of 2007.

In the same vein as Cut Copy, Fred Falke's remix is completely in line with the nostalgic, shimmery, sentimental dance sound that signifies a Modular release. A little bit of disco ball pizzazz, as well as 80's synths give "Golden Cage" a sprinkling of fairy dust to make it shiny and new all over again. And thank God.

Because Music did a beautiful thing - they crafted a sound to reach out to the indie rock kids and remind them that dancing was for everyone, not just the tools with glowsticks (sorry ravers). But after a year of screams, found sounds and distorted vocals, I found that I was missing something from my dance music, and that was a bit of heart. And I don't think I was the only one, which is why there is a sudden demand for this sort of music that hearkens back to the 80s, when everyone's favorite indie rock band became their favorite dance band.

You can stare at a golden cage and hear the tune, or just buy the mp3 off of Beatport.

The Duke Spirit's "The Step and the Walk"

This band is so quintessentially cool it's painful. 1) They are from London. 2) Their frontwoman Liela Moss is a)hot and b) sings with an audible British accent. 3) The band met at ART school and 4) they've been extolled in flavor of the month NME magazine.
Of course none of this is a guarantee that their music is any good, but like the nice popular girl you want to hate but just can't, The Duke Spirit is both pretty AND nice, figuratively speaking. All these cool factors really do contribute good things to their music. The accent is a welcome change from the gentrified American tone that so many Brit bands adopt, art + music = good (think how cool Beck is), and despite being a hype machine, NME has a good nose for sniffing out decent indie bands.
Aside from all the cool factors, their music hits the ear in just the right places. Smoky voiced Moss has that Nancy Sinatra coolness and sass, but distortion and dirt brings a bedhead sexiness with a fantastic 70's flair. Mmmm.

Lykke Li - "Little Bit"

I haven't heard this much sweetness in a song in a long time. Normally, I don't go for music with such girlish emotion, but it has a sweet breathiness that I was instantly charmed by. Maybe because she's Swedish, she can get away with almost embarrassingly romantic music that was created for teens everywhere to lose their virginity to.
The song exposes that oh so relatable new relationship hesitancy and you can't help but be a little touched when she tries to not bare all with the refrain of "I'm only a little bit in love with you."

If you want to fall a lot in love with this song, you can check out MySpace, or buy her EP on iTunes.

Feist's "My Moon My Man (Boys Noize Classic Mix)"

You know the song test. Hear a song. Buy / illegally download the song. Play a song. Listen intently. Repeat. If it starts to get stale and flavorless (much like gum after about an hour), then you appreciate it for what it is and move on.
But what if it doesn't? Those are the ones that you listen to, pick apart, digest, and potentially never listen to again, or don't listen to again until they come up on a playlist, or on the radio, but when you do hear it, it's like being reunited with an old friend where it's never awkward.
That's how I feel every time I hear this remix. I love the original. Feist's breathy voice curling delicately with electric guitar is damn near perfect.
But there's something about the Boys Noize remix that resonates one level beyond where a pop song can, and perhaps it's because of the dance undertones. A German producer best known for his deconstructed sound in the Kitsune / Because music vein, Alexander Rhida he could easily had torn this tune apart. But the gentle way in which he handles the original shows a well deserved respect, and makes for a remix that is refreshingly more about subtlety than an ego stamp.
Rhida smartly decides to leave Leslie Feist's vocals untouched, supplementing them instead with a deep digitized voice that provides a stark contrast to her plaintive whispers. The effect is definitely surreal, bordering on eerie but floats somewhere between pop, dance, chillout and ballad.
Rhida never loses sight of vocals, and will even pull away insrumentals to the point of acapella. What really gets me is when he drops out the electric guitar and adds analog blips which have a talking musicality to them that gives me faith in the idea of a soul in electronic music. The resulting version plays cool and calm at 6:42, unhurriedly, and punctuated with the right amount of electronica, as well as delicious airy bits of violin for a soundscape that is truly ethereal.

To listen to the remix you can watch the YouTube "video" here.

You can check out the original and video here.

Or just buy them. Seriously, it'll cost you less than two bucks.

The Verve's "Love Is Noise"

So despite its already enormous popularity (or at least radio exposure), I can't help extolling just a bit more praise on this song for a couple reasons.
There's the fact that they hail from my old Northern English stomping grounds, and I was gently convinced with subliminal alcoholic messages that any Manchester or neighboring region musician was a god. There's the fact that "Love Is Noise" was one of the most memorable performances at Coachella with a barefoot Richard Ashcroft holding the mike to his heart in an earnest, meditative state. But what really sold me on this song is that in a musical time period where the dance rock wave has inspired trends towards that digitized, 8os, and (dare I say it) soulless sound, the Verve has cheerfully ignored that and come out with a tune so emotional it would border on embarrassing if it wasn't so damn good. It sounds like the band you love, despite the lack of a string ensemble and takes you on a comfortable ride back about a decade. The musical equivalent of putting on a plaid shirt and actually rocking it, the Verve reminds you that it's always in style to be yourself.
And then there are the actual musical elements of the song. That wonderful reverb / echo motif that frames lead singer Richard Ashcroft's brooding vocals oh so nicely. And the matter of Ashcroft singing the song like he truly means it; the chorus, which could be meaningless (and even a bit cliched) but goes so much further than that because the refrain "Love is noise" becomes a sort of mantra, a loving noise in itself. Is it self indulgent? Maybe. Do I care? Not in the slightest.

You can check out their video filled with pretty pictures here.

Spread Butter Music

Welcome to Butter Music, a blog dedicated to finding everything rich and delicious about music and spreading around the goodness.