this week's post ...

Basshunter
Walk On Water Remixes new single 30 march
Taken from Basshunter's debut album 'Now You're Gone' comes a fifth single ... with remixes by Ultra - 145bpm, Bass Slammers - 150bpm and a surprisingly tasteful slowed down 130bpm mix by 7th Heaven ... " la la la la la la la .." Right now the young model man we know as Basshunter will be chopping up his latest 140bpm opus 'Walk On Water' for inclusion in a new hit megamix and it will be seamless and sound like the same song which probably means another largin it hit!

Bombay Bicycle Club
Always Like This new single
BBC ... nice! Well BBC on the BBC possibly .. the 121bpm 'Always Like This' is an unusual piece, kind of alternative and using an slowed down R & B / Beyonce type rhythmic track. It stands out no doubt, but I'm not sure the song is as strong as it needs to be

Detroit Social Club
Sunshine People new single
This is a hard pounding groove at 86bpm. Detroit Social Club's 'Sunshine People' comes with the 83bpm 'Cause & Consequence'. A couple of stand-out tracks that should gain some new friends for the band, but as for a sales breakthrough - not sure

Dinosaur Pile-Up
Traynor new single 30 March
Dinosaur Pile-Up have a fine tune here, 144bpm and at 2 mins 55 seconds it's full of enormous riffage. You may have seen this band supporting The Kills, The Automatic or Pulled Apart By Horses - they play their own headline show at Hoxton B&G on 16 March. Good tune

Franz Ferdinand
No You Girls new single 13 April
My FF album listening first impression favourite here.. 'No You Girls' what are they? A title with a twist "No, you girls don't know what you do .. ". Ha ha I see, a good sturdy 104bpm, in a similar style to last single 'Ulyses'. Look out for remixes by Noze, John Disco and the one included here by Vince Clarke .. a very Erasure-ish fives minutes at 122bpm. Hit

frYars
Visitors from new album 'Dark Young Hearts' due March
frYars is 19 year old Londoner Ben Garrett who sounds a lot older than nineteen on this first taste of his debut album. This could be a deep voiced Bowie or a dour Nick Cave. In fact this could be Depeche Mode so much so that upon hearing the track while in New York Producer Luke Smith's studio, Dave Gahan offered up his vocals which were duly accepted by young Ben and the result is a fine track.

Hockey
Too Fake new single
Hey here's a good track, starts off with a pretty standard 136bpm electro chugg then with some frenetic vocalising in come some crashing guitars. A fine lyric "I'm just too fake ..." Ben and Jerm, Anthony and Brian, aka Hockey. They're from Portland, Oregon, USA they've taken an unusual angle and this is a great record.

Ladytron
Tomorrow - Remixes new single 2 March
Whatever happened to Ladytron? Well they've gone a bit quiet eh? Must be all this visiting Ms Christina Aquilera in Los Angeles to help write tunes for her next album. Must be the touring with Depeche Mode in May 09, not too mention co-headlining a South American tour with the Feint. And then there's the planning and release of a new single and it's remixes. Not much on then. 'Tomorrow' the choice track from 'Velocifero'. comes in seven mixes here including a very chunky nine minute Dirty Vegas mix, the spooky whispers of the 127bpm Vectors Lovers Lucky Remix and my favourite the 132bpm Great Northern Remix. Very nice, should be a Top 40 hit

Operahouse
Escape From The Sun new album 6 April
Genius Child new single 30 March
Five tracks to trail London five piece Operahouse's debut LP. Starting with the extra fine new single the 89bpm 'Genius Child'. The sound is helped in no small way by the addition of input by Dave Bascombe who's production credits run through near thirty years to Tears For Fears and Embrace's guitar man Richard McNamara along with John Davis who has been known to twiddle knobs for U2 (and on their new album too). There's lyrics and variety in abundance here with the 74bpm 'Overkill', the 101bpm 'Change In Nature', the up-tempo 174bpm 'Mankind' and the sombre 93bpm 'Down In Electric'. On times they kind of remind me of Blur, and their label owner Dominic Hardisty discovered The Killers so look out for them ... Operahouse

Robin S with Steve Angello & Laidback Luke
Show Me Love new single 23 March
Los Angeles, February 1993, what is that song? It's 'Show Me Love' and it's sun roof down, California freeway listening paradise ... Robin S dominates the 102.7 KIISFM hot forty airwaves with the superb 'Show Me Love'. Here we are fifteen years later and the tune is about to become a hit a third time. It's such a great song, a timeless lyric, a mesmerizing keyboard line that now comes with a dance-halled jerky rhythm track.. This version was inspired by Dutch DJ Hardwell, who smashed up Ibiza (not literally) with last Summer. It's a fusion with Angello & Luke's 'Be', good friends .. and next thing here's the re-mix. Actually it's a re-creation with robin S re-recorded. Superb - Top ten? Hope so!

Tommy Sparks
She's Got Me Dancing new single 4 May
This guy's winning some important fans in Lowe, Lamcq and Wiley .. Cox and Mac and DaBank ... it's looking good for him. The 112bpm 'She's Got Me Dancing' enters with a bright keyboard and some shouts "crammed with hooks and fizzy energy". Chart chance

The View
Temptation Dice new single 13 April
From The View's ambitious second album 'Which Bitch?' comes an edited version of the 152bpm 'Temptation Dice' for their latest single. Shorter and sharper than it's album father, it somehow sounds better .. ah the importance of editing. I love the effect on the guitars, it's very unusual and the intro stands out superbly, however I'm not convinced the lyrics don't descend into a muddle. However a top four album is no mean feat and there's plenty of View publicity on the way with the 'Wasteland' song from their first album soundtracking Nike's new football ad starring Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole and Fernando Torres. Hit maybe

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Zero new single 6 April
Karen O and buddies are back with a new album 'It's Blitz' due 13 april. From it, their first single in a while 'Zero'. Like a slow burner, a quiet intro leads into a real hectic finale. Apparently inspired by Donna Summer's 70's disco hits with Georgio Moroder ... yeah I can hear that a little. The Yeah's will be touring here later this year so this has an excellent chance of big hit status