Canada's My Favorite Robot seem to be having a bit of a run at the moment with a series of strong releases over recent months. This one just might be my favourite.

The hot humid summer sun seems to have finally descended on London as I write this and perversely the dubby electro of 'Holiday's Over' feels very appropriate. This release sees producer Tom Demac team up with Manchester band Silverclub to create something loose feeling electronic record.

And you can tell this is a band rather than just a producer, the two original tracks here sounding much more like songs than you get from the usual dance releases on twelves. 'Holiday's Over' has layers of bass and synth that create a heavy, tangible feel whilst Silverclub vocalist Duncan Edward Jones' vocal croons his way to a broken heart. 'Throat Trip' takes things up a notch, a melange of massive Prince-style drums and the vocals of a sexual-aggressor.

Both tracks have a slightly oppressive muggy feel to them that isn't entirely inappropriate given the weather. The synth heavy funk feel combines with the dark lyrical tone to great effect too - like early Nine Inch Nails but without the obviousness of the guitars and the screaming angst.

Two remixes are on offer alongside the originals. Buzzin Fly's Flowers & Sea take 'Holiday's Over' to an even more dubby place that retains the vocals but focuses more on the spooky ambient atmospherics and drums. The Tiger Stripes mix of 'Throat Trip' shuffles to a slightly tighter, more minimal groove that makes it the most dance floor friendly track here - it isn't quite as catchy as the original but it creates a nice tight twist on it all the same.

Holiday's Over is released on My Favourite Robot Records on 28 May on 12" and 4 June digitally.

Jon Porras is one half of Barn Owl but this video is taken from his recent solo side project, the album Black Mesa. I'd strongly urge you to check out the video above and give the album a listen - it's a spellbinding 45-minute journey.

Black Mesa was inspired by searching for hope in a barren land and it hits the nail firmly on the head. The combination of guitar and feedback perfectly distills disconcerting wandering through a desert wasteland. I've mentioned Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption before and this sounds like it is purpose built for that games rainy storms and desert rides. The soundtrack was one of the best things about that game for the way it built atmosphere. Here Porras creates music that almost hurts to listen to it's so atmospheric and emotive. Brilliant.

This video staring Porras himself fits the song perfectly too - all grainy and weirdly horrific.

I'm a little bit in love with Iceland. The geography, the culture and definitely the music. For an island with a population of approximately 300,000 it really has far more interesting music than it ought to. Björk, Sigur Ros, Mum, Jóhann Jóhannson. The best thing about Icelandic music is nothing ever feels phoned-in. No-one is ever just riding the latest bandwagon. Every single Icelandic artist I ever heard did something they clearly cared about and usually it'll end up pretty unique.

One of the most under-exposed Icelandic bands in recent years was Trabant. Making a noisy hyper-sexualised racket that sounded like Prince singing a Freddy Mercury number backed up by the Clash, yet they somehow never really caught on, even when Norman Cook picked up their debut album for Southern Fried. And this despite playing for the Icelandic president, as seen in this bizarre sequence from the fantastic Icelandic music documentary Screaming Masterpiece.

Human Woman is the new project from Trabant's Gisli Galdur Thorgeirsson, together with producer Jón Atli Helgason, and whilst it isn't quite as downright messy as Trabant it is still pretty fabulous. There is a lot melodic bass work and tight percussion here that calls to mind the baggy trousers of Madchester and the Stone Roses via Fujiya & Miyagi. As an album Human Woman blends this with some heavy electronics to make something that has moments of dubby, detailed introspection next to choruses and lyrics from a pop song, as demonstrated by the twisted mid-section of 'White Night'. That kind of combination could feelawkward but there are no such problems here.

There are moments that veer a little more in either direction but the overall album is well balanced. 'Einn Eftir', complete with strings and a jumble of drums, may be less dance floor focused but the production is still fantastically layered to make a complex sounding whole. 'Lazer & Magic' is stretched out and disorientating whilst 'DDDI' throbs and bristles with steely guitar strums and waves of distorted melodies.

Human Woman closes with 'Sleepy', a swirling cacophony of melody, before a neo-classical ghost track. It is a conclusion that highlights both similarities with Thorgeirsson's earlier work (ambition and an 'anything goes' attitude) and yet also contrasts greatly. You cannot help but miss some of the flamboyance and the scuffed edges of Trabant even though this is perhaps the more completely realised album.

Human Woman is out now on HFN, you can order it on Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP (out of stock at time of writing) [affiliate link].

Image source: Adressa.no

It feels like some time since we heard a left field record quite like this - a record that is so packed full of joy, with kitchen-sink eclecticism and a happy-melodies-a-plenty. Think Röyksopp and Mr Scruff rummaging through a set of old Blue Note records whilst DJ Shadow focuses on making a few beats in the back room. And beats there are, for while this isn't a dark record it can still rock hard, as on psychedelic, bass-heavy 'Fly With Me'.

This is an album arranged into two halves. Part one is entitled High Frequency Feelings and is a bit grittier with hard beats and heavier bass. Part two, Soul Touch, is where more of the soul and jazz influences break out, as on the snappy freeform drums, stuttering piano and vocal snatches of 'Oss To'.

Whilst this is clearly an album of moments and ideas rather than songs there are still some stand out moments. The big spaces and fuller vocal of 'Soon a Brighter Day' have already seen it confirmed as a single and it obvious why. The penultimate 'Knock On My Door' also leaves a lasting impact, a hopeful prayer of a song with glimmering melodies.

Mathias comes across most comfortable when the jazz flows forward though, as on 'Don't Look Down'. The bass may be large and loud but it is the trumpet work that steals the show, creating a timeless beauty within this record.

Mathias Stubø is released soon on BBE, you can pre-order it on CD from Amazon.co.uk now [affiliate link].

Listen to 'Soon a Brighter Day' on Spotify:

Image source: The Mahogany Blog

Trying to replicate the soundtrack for a movie you haven't seen seems like a bizarre concept, but I was seduced by the soft, melancholic electronic new wave and post-punk the movie (apparently) contains.

Two tracks featuring the production work Chromatic's Johnny Jewel featured on Drive - one with fellow Chromatic Nat Walker as their side project Desire and one Chromatics track, 'Tick of the Clock'. There were rumours that another side-project from Jewel and Walker, the appropriately named Symmetry - Themes for an Imaginary Film, was originally to be the main soundtrack for the movie. Whilst the rumours have been denied one thing is clear - the dark, eighties post-punk influenced Italo sound of Jewel is what people take away from that movie and the idea of driving at night crops up frequently in their music, titles and artwork as much as it features there.

The Chromatics have cultivated something of a micro-scene since their rebirth from punk band to soft electronic dream-makers and Kill For Love is the ultimate product of their effort. It is long at 92-minutes across 17 songs and much like Symmetry and fellow eighties influenced electronic producer M83's latest double-album, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, this feels like a soundtrack for a movie that doesn't quite exist.

But the length is justified - this is an album that shifts through ballads, mood pieces and the dark frisson of guitar heavy melancholy. The result is such that the music swings from beautiful to dark to heartbreaking and back, but the combinations and phases of this album feel as much like a cohesive story as many movies manage.

Starting with the inky black piano ballad of 'Into the Black', a cover of Neil Young's 'Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)' is a master stroke. Singer Ruth Radelet's vocals form a tribute to musical heroes set against a repeated bass line that sounds like pure Joy Division, the result sounding like Fleetwood Mac covering Neil Young with Hooky on bass.

The heavily auto-tuned vocals of 'These Streets Will Never Look the Same' almost distract from the tense strut of the guitar work but they totally justify their place later on 'Running from the Sun', another piano lead track slowly collapses under it's own emotional gravity, effortlessly showing up The Weeknd in the process.

Things get better they goes on. 'Birds of Paradise', positioned two-thirds of the way through the album (the yet-to-be-mentioned long closer aside for the moment), is a strikingly fragile piece that jumps from smokey vocals and vinyl clicks and pops to a cold, haunting melody. The vocal ends with "You are the black sky, always running for the sun... You're always running from the sun" before a long instrumental close and it is seemingly directed at the protagonist on 'Running from the Sun' (positioned with just one instrumental between it and 'Birds of Paradise').

It is exactly this kind of structure and pacing that means Kill For Love never outstays its welcome, benefiting from the director's cut treatment. Closing with a fourteen-minute instrumental in 'No Escape' feels totally natural... The entire album feels like a movie soundtrack with more to say than most actual movies. It is a conclusion that feels like the fade-to-black end credits to a weird, strung-out road trip.

Kill For Love is released on 21 May, pre-order on CD from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

Listen to the aforementioned Drive inspired playlist:

I'd heard about this video from a friend some time ago but hadn't got around to watching it. This morning I did, and I'm very glad... Take a look, it's a 25-minute video of Bon Iver performing, basically stripped back to just piano and vocals.

The songs themselves, taken from the last album and the Blood Bank EP together with a cover of Bonnie Raitts' 'I Can't Make You Love Me', are a step back from their originals - the video description describing them as 'abstracted'. To me they sound as though they have been consumed through a lens that puts some more space into them - they feel deconstructed with a post-rock feel that throws of some of the shackles of song-writing convention.

Very good stuff anyway. Thanks to @PaulCarvill for the tip.

The Units are the kind of band whose greatness seems to have been obscured by the passing of time. The endless retrospectives of post-punk all too often skip over their role in the rise of the synth. Instead we heave buckets of sloppy sycophantic love onto Throbbing Gristle, Devo and Gary Numan, passing straight by the San Francisco synthpunk scene's heroes without stopping.

Don't get me wrong - Devo and Numan were undeniably innovative and great. If you are prepared to wade through it some of Throbbing Gristle's output is also fantastic. The strange thing is that the Units are just as great as any of these and anyone else from the synth heavy post-punk new wave movement, yet almost no-one has heard of them. Much like Devo and TG, the Units' records felt like an art experiment, veering from one idea to the next, each track like a self-contained canvas: warm and abstract here, falling up the stairs against an electric rock and roll rhythm there.

There have been attempts to re-surface the band - single re-releases, remixes and a well-worth-seeking-out reissue (History of the Units - the Early Years: 1977-1983) - but none of these has really caught on. Maybe that's for the best and they can remain the slightly obscure source of much affection from those that know. Or maybe this latest set of remixes, part of a collection that came as a result of founding member Scott Ryser meeting up with Italian DJ and producer Gianluca Pandullo, will make a difference.

The Connections EP features three tracks from two remixers. Todd Terje (Norway's hottest export since the, erm, Lefse) turns in a remix of 'High Pressure Days' and Pandullo, (here I-Robots) does versions of 'Warm Moving Bodies' and 'Zombo'.

Terje's joyful It's The Arps EP has been making waves over the past few months and it's interesting to hear him apply his style to a much rougher sound on what is probably the Units' best known track. In the bouncing electronics and tight, slightly dampened percussion there is a similarity to Terje's own work, but here it is backing up a slightly noisy punk record. 'High Pressure Days' is already a fantastic record with its smatterings of arpeggiator and broad splashes across the cymbals making a noisy mess of treble and warm mid-range melodies. Terje does well and leaves much of it alone, simply making a version that hangs around a little longer and sounds ever so slightly more contemporary - it doesn't add a huge amount to the original but it doesn't kill any of it either.

The first of I-Robots' remixes, 'Warm Moving Bodies', is the most different to the original of the three tracks here, and probably therefore the most worthwhile if you know the material. The original's three-minute are stretched out to almost eight and the result is a taught nervous affair, dubby drums and bass creating a darker piece that maintains the experimentalism that made the Units what they were in the first place.

The even longer mix of 'Zombo' is arguably little more than a fan's love letter, taking the original's combination of psych-out ambience meets celebratory synth and almost doubling it in length, adding some more space and a bit of noodling and not much else. Imagine the more electronic moments of the Flash Gordon soundtrack via Brian Eno and Aphex Twin's garden shed and you will have a good idea of what to expect. It sounds like floating in space with the cast of Playschool and in my mind that's a pretty glorious thing.

None of these remixes are essential but none of them are bad either and they are at least made by producers who are clearly fans. If this release wins the Units a few more of those then it will be a worthwhile endeavour.

Connections EP is out now on Opilec Music, available on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

Image source: The Quietus

I've been a member of eMusic for longer than I care to remember and they recently invited me to submit a top five list to their site from their catalogue. Rather than focusing on new bands and artists I thought I would do something a bit different and select some of the best tracks from one of the many labels on the site. One of the best things about eMusic is how easy it is to browse by label and I regularly find myself checking through the latest releases from my favourites. So which label to pick? There could only really be one choice...

DFA are obviously known for the involvement of James Murphy and their big ticket album releases for the Juan Maclean and The Rapture but there is much more to the label, including a number of fantastic 12" releases that often slip out with little fanfare. DFA and James Murphy have been a massive influence on me and my blog since 'Losing My Edge' first came out in 2002 - here I select five of the best songs from the various 12" releases DFA have put out over the years, with links to check them out on eMusic:

5. 'Two Different Ways (Original)' - Factory Floor

It seems like some time since we last heard from Robi Insinna. Better known as Headman he has had a number of well regarded singles and remixes over the years. Whilst his last album, the Dieter Meier (of Yello fame) featuring 1923, was only released two years ago it feels like the limelight has shifted off of Headman a little.

And that is a shame because Headman makes just the kind of slightly scratchy post-punk electro that I happily lap up - place him somewhere between the discordant party noise of Soulwax and the punk funk of !!!. 'Turning', featuring long term collaborator Tara on vocals feels like classic eighties experimental electro breeding discontent. Tara's vocals successfully replicate early Human League's clinical approach with a "Head is turning / machine is burning" couplet whilst clattering drums and itchy guitar work attempt to strangle a warm, bouncing melody.

Aside from the original this EP also features three additional versions of 'Turning'. Insinna's own dub reworks things to give it a more stripped back and percussive latter third, out-shining the original in the process. Emperor Machine's mix is even better though, adding some space for a bigger bass line and some disco flourishes that make this into a real dance floor filler. The definitive version of Headman's biggest hit to date, 'It Rough', was Chicken Lip's mechanical, bass heavy synth version and so there is an element of history repeating itself here - Emperor Machine's Andy Meecham being one half of Chicken Lips. Scott Fraser's dub also takes things down a disco route but whilst the wandering bass is reminiscent of Moroder it lacks the impact of Meecham's version.

Also included are two remixes of previous single 'Be Loved'. The first, from Richard Fearless of Death in Vegas, is a typically sprawling acid psychotic meltdown - the aural equivalent of a boy playing in a toy shop. It has moments where the squelching acid work is a joy, albeit a somewhat unfocused one. I haven't heard the original but I'd wager it doesn't sound much like this. Murphy Jax turns it into a warm, laid back house record that unfortunately does nothing whatsoever for me.

Whilst the latter mixes are slightly hit and miss this is an overly generous EP in the first place - buy it for the first half and the exciting acid straight jacket that is Richard Fearless' input.

Turning is released on 11 May on Relish Records, available for pre-order on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].