Feeling Feisty - Van She remix 'out there'

Every now and again you hear a track and you like it. You like it so much you have to cheekily skip back to the beginning once it ends. This happens to BlackPlastic 2.23 times a week.

Every now and again a track fulfills the above requirement but you also find whenever you get in your car you just have to stick this tune on before playing anything else. This happens to BlackPlastic 1.45 times a month.

Every now and again you find a track so utterly delicious you can't help but play it again and again. You want to subject everyone you know to it. You want to hear it as soon as you get up, you want it to be the last thing you hear at night. You want to make it your mobile ringtone but you'd never be able to answer your phone again because you wouldn't want to stop the sound. This hardly ever happens.

Ladies and Gentlemen, go forth and listen to the Van She remix of Feist's 1234.

Brilliant, no? This sounds like about four of your favourite songs playing at once and yet it still sounding right. It is dripping in summer. It makes BlackPlastic's heart flutter.

Enjoy.

P.S. If you like this check out the Postal Service remix of 'Mushaboom' (covered by BlackPlastic here). Also shell out some cash on Van She's gorgeous 'Kelly', it's on eMusic and probably iTunes.

Queen + Acid = QUUEEEEEEN!

Whilst trawling the archives of the rather sexy Missing Toof BlackPlastic happened across this freaking awesome acid workout of a mix of Queen's 'Radio Gaga'. There is no doubt more people should be playing Queen - just check out The Glimmer's use of Body Language on their eponymous Eskimo Recordings release if you need further evidence.

Anyway, what you have here is six point five minutes of acid and Mercury in a fashion that might make you want to get lost... Imagine this on the Terrace at Space. The remixers are Zhiguli. BlackPlastic knows nothing about them but they must be geniuses. They have a website with downloads and stuff here.

Album Review: DJ Kicks - Hot Chip

All the cool kids know Hot Chip drop it like it's hot, to the extent that it's almost a bit of a cliche for non-cool accountant types to cite them as there favourite bands. BlackPlastic dislikes cliches and likes accountant types even less, yet it is with some anticipation that it approached the latest, rather orange, installment in the revered DJ Kicks series.

From the outset, as with many of the DJ Kicks albums, this is an eclectic set. Grovesnor's 'Nite Moves' kicks things off and sound exactly like the sort of thing Hot Chip would listen to, with melancholy lyrics mix wih polished electronics and stuttering rhythms.

This mix seems somewhat schizophrenic, cutting from introverted and considered electronics to summery party vibes with little notice - just take the transition from Gramme's noisy 'Like You' into the much subtler 'Persuasion' by Subway as an example. Interestingly despite the apparent juxtaposition of moods the mix works tremendously as a whole, virtually all the cuts are relatively smooth and there is a continuous laid back sunshine feel that would be absolutely perfect for a few beers in the sun if we weren't in the initial stages of a second ice age.

DJ Kicks albums always come with an exclusive from the artists themselves and Hot Chip's is no different, offering up 'My Piano', a happy little ditty about their piano. It is encouraging to know that Hot Chip are already putting the finishing touches on album number three, due later this year.

Other highlights include the always awesome 'Bizarre Love Triangle' by New Order and the frankly scary 'Doppelwhipper' by Gabriel Ananda, whose incessant bleeps and rhythms create a very modern sound scape that makes BlackPlastic wonder if epilepsy can be triggered by noise alone. Far less modern by just as much fun is Etta James and Sugar Pie DeSanto's 'In The Basement, Part One' - a freaky soulful wig out that sounds like the best party your folks never attended.

Lanark's 'The Stone That The Builder Rejected' is mournful and emotional, sounding like The Beach Boys reinterpreted by a machine whilst the unsettling 'Love Affair' by Nôze sounds like the inside of Patrick Bateman's head as he prepares for a date. Weird and slightly compulsive.

Hot Chip's DJ Kicks album is undeniably good fun and it feels that it only gets better as things progress. The final three tracks take the listener through a Roman Flügel mix of Audion's 'Just F******' straight (and somehow virtually seamlessly) into pop perfection in the form Joe Jackson's 'Steppin' Out' before a final, less seamless, left turn into 'Mess Around' by Ray Charles. Get freaky.

Now all we need is some sun, some beers and some partially cooked meat and we'll have a party on our hands.

Album Review: Noise Won't Stop - Shy Child

When Shy Child released their debut album, One With The Sun, back in 2004 there was a fair amount of critical praise from the specialist press - particularly for single 'The Noise Won't Stop'. Sadly it seemed like the band lacked both the production values and the sheer volume to have any real mainstream cross-over potential.

Thankfully Shy Child are back and on their new album Noise Won't Stop they have rectified both of these concerns. The drums are considerably beefier and the is definitely more a new layer of volume and distortion. The observant will already have figured that the new LP's title is a reference to the sleeper hit 'The Noise Won't Stop' and both this and one other track ('Summer' since you ask) make a reappearance in a more polished form.

It really now sounds like Shy Child actually have the sound they probably always thought they had. Opening track and lead single 'Drop The Phone' sounds like a frantic rant carried out by Stressed Eric or possibly Fry in the episode of Futurama when he drinks one hundred coffees. It's a modern anthem about the absolute terror that ensues when one drops their phone and there is so much going on that half the time BlackPlastic is too strung out to even notice the complete wig-out of a sax solo in the background. Who the hell doesn't need that in their lives?

The highly enjoyable Spank Rock (Spank Rock MySpace) feature on Kick Drum, lending some vocals and some stupid bass. The re-tooled 'Noise Won't Stop' suggests that Spank Rock didn't ensure they had all their valuables when they left Shy Child's place as it seems to feature the same completely over the top bass that graces Spank Rock's own 'Backyard Betty'.

'The Volume' and 'Summer' manage to sound like pop music made by kids too cool for pop music, resembling 80s pop and Brit Pop respectively but with edge and added electronics. 'Generation Y (We Got It)' even has a wicked female vocal join-in bit and the album's probably highlight comes in the form of 'Astronaut', which descends into a lush electronic freakout.

BlackPlastic has already noted that the album's unrelenting nature is reminiscent of Test Icicles' frankly fantastic For Screening Purposes Only but it all also feels somewhat like The Rapture's recent Pieces of the People We Love in that it's essentially a bit of a party album with issues. It will be interesting to see where the hell Shy Child can go from here but following a stint supporting The Klaxon's you can be fairly confident that with hooks as enjoyable as the ones found here and a sound so indisputably 'now' this will not be the last we hear from our stressed friends from NYC.

Shy Child - MySpace / Official Site.

Check this out: Dope mix at MissingToof

BlackPlastic has recently discovered the rather ace MissingToof.com and if you find the stuff discussed here enjoyable you'll likely enjoy MissingToof too.

Head over there right now to enjoy the frankly awesome Is This Thing Loaded??? mix by PARIS. Expect some nasty, nasty acid. There's no published track listing but there is definitely some Justice in there and there is also Soulwax's frankly demoralising good near complete destruction of Robbie William's Love Light which is always one to get BlackPlastic a little over excited.

Go forth and enjoy.